Activists push LGBT "pride" culture in medicine, education
Also: Oregon denies adoption to Christian mother
👋 Good morning, and welcome back. Today’s two stories go hand in hand. One story shows how critical institutions can be captured and pressured by progressive ideologies. The other shows what happens when those institutions are captured.
Today, the team is covering:
✝️ Oregon denies adoption application from a Christian woman,
🏥 The latest scoring system pushing LGBT ideology onto hospitals,
🎤 Ron DeSantis to announce his 2024 bid today,
➕ And everything else you need to know.
Also, today will mark the beginning of an interesting, though temporary phase in American politics. DeSantis is about to officially announce his campaign (more details later in the email). Until primaries are over, the conservative media ecosystem will be at war with itself over preferred candidates. It won’t be pretty.
—Ari
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Woman denied adoption application in Oregon due to her Christian beliefs, lawsuit says
In a nutshell: Jessica Bates, a Christian mother of five, is suing Oregon state officials for allegedly barring her from adopting children due to her traditional beliefs about gender and sexuality, violating her First and 14th Amendment rights. At the center of the case is an Oregon state law that requires a person to “Respect, accept and support the … sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression” of a child to receive approval for adoption.
The alleged discrimination: Officials told Bates that she would have to accept any form of “self-expression” a child chooses regarding their gender or sexuality, even allowing them to receive cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers if they identify as transgender, she alleges. Some of the state’s suggestions for LGBT-friendly parenting include taking a child to a Pride parade and not “forcing youth to attend” certain “religious activities” that are “unsupportive” of LGBT lifestyles, according to the lawsuit. The state allegedly denied Bates’s application for adoption specifically because she stated that she would instead raise her child according to her religious values.
Why it matters: As America has shifted left on LGBT issues in recent years, it is becoming a mainstream view that anyone who won’t affirm a child’s LGBT identity is unworthy to be a parent. In fact, officials across the country are increasingly stripping custody from parents who refuse to allow doctors to chemically or surgically alter their child’s body as a treatment for gender dysphoria. These trends were once unthinkable in a country that, for decades, hotly debated whether it is even appropriate for same-sex couples to adopt.
Diving deeper: This is part of a new progressive effort to champion children’s rights—the opposite of the conservative-led movement to protect parents’ rights. The Associated Press has framed this movement as protection of trans minors “from parents”.
But there is pushback: Backed by a powerful conservative legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, Bates has now brought this key parental rights issue to federal court. Officials in some states have also declared it child abuse for a parent to have their child transitioned.
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BEHIND THE SCENES
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
🚨 DeSantis will announce his presidential campaign at 6 p.m. today. The Florida governor will kick off his highly anticipated campaign with a Twitter Spaces event this evening with Elon Musk, according to multiple insider leaks to the media. He will also file his official paperwork with the Federal Election Commission today and release a campaign video. This comes as Musk was rated the most popular political figure in the U.S. in a recent poll.
📉 Disney’s approval rating takes a dive amid its political feud with DeSantis. The company earned a 70.9 score in this year’s reputational poll by Axios, down from 73.4 in 2022. It is now the fifth most polarizing company in the U.S., gaining support from Democrats while losing a ton from Republicans, according to the data.
👀 Target is reportedly moving some of its LGBT merchandise to avoid a “Bud Light situation.” As the retail giant faces backlash for its Pride Month-themed clothing, including “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits and infant onesies with LGBT messaging, some of its southern stores have moved such items away from storefronts to less conspicuous areas. An inside source told Fox News that they think “the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation.”
🩺 New York Democrats and activists want to give illegal immigrants easier access to organ transplants. A bill in the state Legislature would add kidney transplants to a list of emergency medical services available to illegal aliens without insurance. Another in Albany would expand a government-funded health insurance plan to all illegals who are adults. Activists say it’s “unjust” that illegals can donate organs in the U.S. but have more hurdles toward obtaining a transplant than a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant.
PROGRESSIVISM
Activists and Big Pharma pressure health care providers with LGBT “inclusion” score
The Human Rights Campaign flag alongside the transgender flag during a Supreme Court protest, 2019
The scoop: The Human Rights Campaign, the world’s largest LGBT advocacy group, has a scoring system that evaluates health care facilities based on LGBT “inclusion.” The “Healthcare Equality Index” (HEI) requires facilities to ensure easy access to sex change treatments for children and adults, implement preferred pronoun policies for staff and patients, conduct trainings on LGBT issues, and more in order to create the most “inclusive” environment possible. It is funded by Pfizer and a pharmaceutical lobbying group.
The influence: An analysis from the Human Rights Campaign boasts that hospitals participating in the scoring system adopt more pro-LGBT policies and values than nonparticipating ones. The group found that 82 percent of participating hospitals achieved top-ranking HEI scores in 2022. Numerous health facilities advertise their high HEI scores on their websites.
How does this happen? While the HEI score has no formal power, there are powerful incentives behind it. Activists present it as a way for health providers to safely comply with accreditation requirements and anti-discrimination laws, cater to a “highly loyal market segment” (LGBT patients), and avoid “negative publicity” by conforming to ideological and social pressures. Doctors can also use the training material as a cost-free way to complete Continuing Medical Education credit, which is mandatory in several U.S. states.
Why it matters: Together with “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG), and others, the HEI is one of many initiatives that is helping to advance progressive values in corporate America, education, and medicine. In this case, activists are successfully pressuring doctors to embrace transgenderism and controversial “gender-affirming care” for minors.
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FROM UPWARD+
China can’t escape low birth rates through immigration, unlike the West
China will initiate pilot projects in over 20 cities to cultivate a "new-era" culture of marriage and childbearing in an attempt to counter the nation's declining birth rate, according to Chinese state media. The projects will focus on promoting marriage and childbearing at suitable ages, shared child-rearing responsibilities between parents, and combatting outdated customs such as "bride prices."
Immigration isn’t a solution: While immigration and population replacement has been used to offset worker shortages in wealthier Western countries, China finds this option to be impossible because…
Note: This is a small excerpt from our most recent Upward+ coverage.
🔗 Paid readers can read it here.
📖 Free readers can read it with a 7-day free preview here.
IN THE LOOP
📱 The Daily Wire will put all of its podcasts on Twitter soon, calling on Elon Musk to keep his “free speech” promises for the platform.
💧 California, Nevada, and Arizona have agreed to reduce their usage of the Colorado River to prevent a possible drought.
🏛️ The U.S. surgeon general issued a major warning regarding the "profound risk" that social media poses to children and teens.
🎤 California Gov. Gavin Newsom says Target “is selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists” by removing children's Pride clothing from its stores.
POLL
What is a more important issue to fight for?Poll results will be in tomorrow’s newsletter. |
POLL RESULTS FROM YESTERDAY
Do you trust Fox News?
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👍 Yes (6.2%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👎 No (79%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Unsure (14.8%)
“Yes, as much as any other cable news outlet. Cable news isn't designed to inform. It's an entertainment product.”
“No. At this point, I don't trust any mainstream news media outlet.”
“I trust some of the news people but corporate, no.”
✍️ Today’s newsletter was written by Ari, Hudson, and Joanna and edited by Alyssa.
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