Disappearing Americans and DeSantis' Dystopia: FL Doctors May Now Deny Treating Anyone
Couple Attacked Over Bud Light, Senator Okays White Supremacists, Censoring Racism in Kids Books, Miles Davis Plays
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The Strange Case of the Disappearing Americans
The Guardian recently reported that a teacher in Florida is allegedly being investigated for showing the Disney animated film Strange World. A letter from Florida’s Department of Education stated, “following receipt of a receipt of a complaint, this office has determined an investigation is warranted into allegations that you engaged in inappropriate conduct.” (I’m a little concerned that the Department of Education awkwardly repeated receipt. I demand an investigation!) The conduct that was inappropriate was showing a movie that had a prominent gay character.
First, context: the teacher’s friend tweeted, “She has signed permission from every parent in the classroom to show Disney & Dreamworks movies in class, even offering lines to specify specific movies parents didn’t want shown. Not one exception was written down, so no she didn’t break the law.” However, one parent did object after the showing, and so the investigation.
But this writing is not a declaration of outrage over Florida’s unconstitutional banning of books that mention gays, civil rights, and that slavery was bad, nor is it a declaration of outrage about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ eagerness to burn down America in order to rebuild it in his own smug White Christian likeness.
This is about the unholy dark magic of DeSantis and his GOP clones across the country. While they use one hand to misdirect the giddy audience—their thirsty-for-enemies base—with unsubstantiated claims of grooming, they use the other hand to do their real magic: make the already marginalized finally disappear altogether.
When you outlaw showing a kids movie because it has a gay character, you’re no longer talking about individuals grooming or “confusing” children, you’re saying that their mere existence in "your” world is a bad influence. That when a child sees a gay character—especially one who is accepted by society—that is enough to turn them gay. Or make them empathetic to LGBTQ+ people. By not allowing them to be seen or read about or discussed, you are pronouncing them as non-existent. And, as we know, that which doesn’t exist has no value.
In his classic 1952 novel, Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison addresses the struggles for Black identity through an unnamed Black narrator, unnamed because in some ways he doesn’t exist outside how the White world perceives him: “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”
In The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois expresses this same idea: “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.”
Many marginalized groups—not just Blacks and LGBTQ+—are in danger of disappearing. I say disappear rather than become invisible because they all were visible at one time—remember Women’s Rights rallies, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ Marches—but there is a concerted effort to disappear them (yes, I know I’m using it as a verb). Women, the elderly, the young, Muslims, Jews, immigrants, homeless, the poor. As more of their rights are being strangled, they become inconsequential husks, cardboard props on the set of that nostalgic black-and-white classic, Leave It to Republicans. They want to restrict voting among those groups to take away their voice and autonomy, while passing child labor laws for cheaper labor, and laws to erect religious icons like the Ten Commandments in public schools to codify their beliefs as government approved. Everything we spent the last two hundred years fighting against.
The celebration of more people carrying guns with fewer restrictions—as in Florida and Texas—isn’t really about the Second Amendment, as I stated last week, it’s about intimidation. The numbers reveal this more insidious agenda. A 2020 Gallup poll found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 25% identified as Republicans, and 41% as Independent. Among those Independents, 50% are either “Democrats or Democratic leaners” and 39% are either “Republicans or Republican leaners.” That puts the Democrats ahead in numbers. But when some volatile conservatives brag about their guns and willingness to use them (especially on threatening beer cans), there is an implication that they will use them if they don’t get their way. This was emphasized in the last election when armed people lurked around voting booths (“Masked Poll Watchers Are Showing Up at Voting Sites With Handguns and Kevlar Vests”).
All these bans and restrictions are important to address. But we can’t lose sight of the bigger plan to replace our democracy with a non-functioning lookalike dud. These right-wing conservatives are like brood parasite birds—of which there are about 100 species—that place their eggs in another bird’s nest so the others will raise their young. When those young hatch, some of them immediately kill the other young in the nest. Like those birds, they shout and bluster and cry about freedom, the flag, traditional values, all the while devouring those very things. But other birds have evolved to fight back, either by changing their appearance to look more formidable or by constructing their nests to keep parasitic birds out.
We can do no less. The best way for us to evolve to protect our democratic nest is to fight back on every front, no matter how small it may appear, no matter how few the numbers of those who are being attacked. We need to heed the motto of the Three Musketeers: “All for one and one for all.”
No one disappears on our watch. As Billie Holiday sang: “I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places.”
DeSantis’ Dystopia: Florida Sinks Even Deeper into the Moral Swamp
Some in the media are reporting that Ron DeSantis is about to officially announce his run for the presidency. We’ve been tracking how he’s already turned Florida into a dystopia of racism, misogyny, restricted free speech, and lowered educational standards. Basically, where American ideals of justice and equal opportunity go to die. But he’s not done yet savaging the state.
It’s Now Legal in Florida for Doctors to Deny Health Care to Anyone If They Feel Like It (The New Republic)
SUMMARY: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Thursday that will allow doctors and health insurance companies to deny care to anyone they want.
Under the new law, “a health care provider or health payor has the right to opt out of participation in or payment for any health care service on the basis of a conscience-based objection,” meaning based on their moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.
Providers and insurers will face no consequences under the measure and will not be required to refer patients to a place that would provide the needed care. If they are penalized for denying care or coverage, the doctor or company can sue.
The law makes no mention of protections against gender- or race-based discrimination, leading opponents to rightly worry that the sweeping nature of the text will let providers deny care or coverage to women, people of color, and LGBTQ people. A doctor could deny care, for instance, if they are “morally opposed” to gender-affirming care, or if they don’t like that a patient is having premarital sex. And it’s not just doctors—under the law, insurance companies, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, ambulances, and more could all also deny care.
MY TAKE: To me, the health care system should work like the judicial system. If you’re accused of a crime and can’t afford a lawyer, we provide you with an attorney. If you are sick or injured and can’t afford a doctor, we provide you with medical treatment. This bill is worse. It allows doctors and insurance companies to refuse service if they don’t like your medical condition, your politics, your gender identity, your race, or the cut of your jib. If someone collapses on the ground in front of you, you don’t quiz them on their voting record, you help them.
Some professions are so vital to the foundation of our society, that they are governed not just by regulatory laws, but by an ethical oath. The Hippocratic Oath of “First, do no harm” is directly violated by the harm caused by not treating someone. Doctors and insurance companies should not be the moral gatekeepers of society.
I have always appreciated that America strives to be better, more humane, and more inclusive. This is a giant step backward in the state where backwards is their main direction.