"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Friday, June 30, 2017

Yeah, Right

I'll believe this when I see it happening:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has countered concerns from civil rights groups and fellow lawmakers, vowing to aggressively pursue hate crimes against transgender victims.

In 2010, Sessions voted against a law that expanded federal hate crimes protections to sexual orientation, arguing that there was insufficient evidence that local prosecutors were failing to pursue such cases.

Speaking at a Justice Department hate crimes summit in Washington yesterday, Sessions said “we have a responsibility to protect people’s freedom, their religious rights, their integrity, their ability to express themselves, to push back against violence and hate crimes that occur in our country.”

He note specifically the duty to “enforce hate crime laws aggressively and appropriately where transgendered individuals are victims.”

Most of what we're getting from this regime is mixed signals. I'm taking Sessions' statement with a large helping of salt, particularly since Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, has rolled back LGBT, and specifically transgender, protections -- although there was apparently some pressure on that from -- Jeff Sessions.

Like I say, we'll see what actually happens.

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