LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — Fear is a powerful force and if abused, one finds itself on Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate group watch list. But that didn’t stop a religious extremist group, Liberty Counsel, from scaring the wits out of a Wisconsin school district.
After planning what ThinkProgress described as reading assignment to promote understanding of and compassion for transgender experiences, Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit against the school, Mount Horeb Primary Center, to prevent the school from using the book “I Am Jazz” written by trans kid Jazz Jennings. The school then turned around and cancelled the assignment.
While I’m not a lawyer, the strength of Liberty Counsel’s case appears weak based on their previous behavior. But certainly strong enough to cause the school administrators to retreat back into the previous century. It is not known at this writing what happens next. For sure, the trans community cannot let this go by without a major response.
Who is Liberty Counsel? The same folks that brought Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis to national attention re: gay marriage. If they’re willing to go to jail for their causes, then they’re willing to use the weapon of fear to the extreme.
Jazz Jennings, of course, is a now 14-year-old brave trans kid who’ve I’ve written about a number of times. In addition to being a stellar role model for trans kids, she wrote the aforementioned book and has a TV series called All That Jazz.
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The anti-trans activities by hate groups are of far more importance than movie trailers in the pecking order. To stop legal attempts at stifling trans voices from becoming common place requires an immediate response from the trans community. We must speak out with same fervor we show for transphobic movie trailers to keep these hate groups at bay.
I previously wrote about Liberty Counsel: https://lexiecannes.com/2013/07/21/anti-transgender-family-values-group-continues-rant-against-trans-kids/
The latest on Jazz Jennings: https://lexiecannes.com/2015/03/16/transgender-teen-jazz-lands-modeling-gig-reality-show-all-that-jazzon-track-to-air-this-summer/
The book “I Am Jazz”: https://lexiecannes.com/2014/10/16/trans-role-model-jazz-jennings-racks-up-accolades/
Southern Poverty Law Center: http://www.splcenter.org/
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/11/28/3726192/liberty-counsel-wisconsin-trans-school/
Watch LEXIE CANNES right now: http://www.amazon.com/Lexie-Cannes-CourtneyODonnell/dp/B00KEYH3LQ Or get the DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332
Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/
Categories: Judicial, Courts, Transphobia, exploitation, dehumanizing, violence, hate
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS 
School districts are strapped for money. By suing the Liberty Council knew the school would fold. This was not a victory for Liberty. This was intimidation. bullying at its worst.
While I agree that this is beyond wrong and needs to be corrected, it would be nice to see some sort of plan of action to take. Your article is great and you state at least a couple of times that the trans community needs to stand up against this, I missed seeing a solution to the problem. Bringing up a point of injustice is great, having a plan to correct it is fantastic.
Reporters report. If we come up with a good, solid plan, I know she will report on it….
Finding a funding for lawsuits like this would be a plan of action. As the previous poster noted, the school is strapped by budget funding and legal costs prevent it from defense against action groups. To fight fire with fire by funding the law group on our side.
Thanks for your comments Amy, As someone else pointed out, I primarily report/comment on trans related news and urge the community to get involved. It cannot be the burden of reporters to resolve matters that they’re reporting on — that has to come from the community itself. As for solutions — If one isn’t able to call or contact the school themselves, it’s engagement and support with people that CAN do something about it — your local trans community leaders and organizations, for instance. Quickly coming to mind is the Transgender Law Center and the ALCU. Contact them, or better yet, send a few bucks their way. Thank you.
Do you have the school district and administrator’s addresses and would you be willing to initiate a letter writing campaign to get them to reinstate the assignment?
Right now I have very limited access and don’t have the capacity for managing email. It’s just not practical on just a smart phone.
These people were suppose to be about protecting the children,yet they close a school.The children suffer for their stupidity.Again they have been proved to be liars in the protection of children.This bigoted stupidity must end!
How would they like their churches shut down ? If it isn’t LGBT, then it’s nudism/nudist beaches,etc.
They need to know about “The Treaty of Tripoli”. At the bottom does sate that “…the United States was not founded on christian beliefs or values”. And they want to believe the U.S. is a “christian nation” .
What about the kids sex book, “Show Me”………All of this is about censorship, instead of free thinking, and being open and informed. I am a nudist. I believe in open nudist families. Not for some bigoted jackasses to run my life. They can’t even run theirs. Many are hypocrits.
another WTF moment out of the fundies, I see. jazz isn’t the really brave one here either. that would be her parents and siblings raising her as what she is that makes her so strong. now as a young teen.
us old t-girls definitely have the backs of families like hers, chase culpepper, Josie romero and cory maison’s on this kind of trash. some drunken giant redneck almost got himself tossed through a plate glass window when he attacked the rear end of Tucson’s TDOR silent procession as it came down 4th avenue. he’s lucky he was a hell’s angel and his brothers pulled him away before it got out of hand. they were in street clothes and that fool will probably never wear the colors again. most HA guys are allies
[Comment deleted due to ad hominem comments and misgendering.]
suing the Liberty Council would be the best way to shut these people up,i hope that the aclu takes them on in court
this advertises jazzes book they are getting word of her book out to millions
Fear of reading a Book requires a scare tactic such as this, shades of Hitler Germany. I also would like the ACLU to bring them to court.
Thanks for the comments everyone!
U you Are All Sick With Mental Illness. HATE DID NOT do anything, it’s called morality. Either you have morals or you have a mental illness. God created man and woman. No where in nature do u find anamials volenteering to change there sexual orentation. They accept what they are in order to survive.
Tadpole, when you say that “HATE DID NOT do anything”, are you referring to the shooting in the Planned Parenthood clinic? If so, it certainly wasn’t moral to murder people in a clinic! I don’t remember reading about Jesus striking anyone. Ask any mental health professional, and they will tell you that many mental illnesses are not caused by a lack of morals. Transgenderism is not a mental illness and is not connected to sexuality. Humans do not choose their sexuality. There are many examples in nature of homosexual animals, but again, this has nothing to do with transgenderism. Science has proven that you are mistaken in each one of your assertions. If God made each of us in His image, that must include transgender people, because He is omnipotent and does not make mistakes; we are just born that way. Animals do not accept or reject what they are, because they are not self-aware.
tadpole, any particular reason for coming in here and make ad hominem comments? The other thing, nobody wants to hear what you have to say about God, NOBODY! ps:google sex change re: animals. They change sex all the time.
And just how do you know that with all the crap that we dump into the water that we drink. and all the junk that we put into the animals that we eat. that it did create some kind of birth defect. Where some babies are born with a girl brain and boy body? there have been people born with both sex orgains such as girls being born with testis that are located up inside her vagina and yet these people are perfectly normal and healthy. You don’t have to be born with three arms two heads and a twisted up face to have a birth defect…. You Mook