The Bill of Rights and LGBT Rights.
Christian Conservatives and most Republicans want to revoke the rights of LGBT people. These are the constitutional rights guaranteed to ALL Persons in the United States.
First Amendment: Freedom of Religion, Speech, and the Press
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Christian Conservative Republicans want to rewrite this to mean "Congress should make no law restricting religion and outlawing criminal activities when justified by "Deep Religious Beliefs", furthermore, they want to change this to "Only Christianity shall be protected, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists.
This group also wants to decide WHO has freedom of speech and the press. They want Christians, racists, sexists, bigots, gay-bashers, tranny-bashers, and Latino-bashers to have unrestricted free speech even when it leads to the deaths of dozens or even hundreds when followers use their "Christian" faith as the basis for assault, theft, fraud, and even murder. They also want to limit freedom of speech in the form of artistic expression. A woman can wear a pretty dress or leggings, or baggy pants, but a transgender woman wearing a dress should be stoned to death?
They also seem to think that only CERTAIN people should be allowed to assemble. If the KKK and Aryan Nation Nazis want to march, brandishing deadly weapons, that should be permitted, but if Anti-Fascists (ANTIFA) wants to stage a counter-demonstration, Trump and conservatives want them arrested on the spot. If they engage in vandalism, they should be arrested and prosecuted, but only those committing the act, not the entire group, simply because they oppose the racists.
As for petitions, that has become a joke. If 90% of the people said we want the Affordable Health Care Plan, Republicans would kill it anyway, because it's "Obamacare" and anything Obama did must be evil, because why?.
Second Amendment: The Right to Bear Arms
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Conservatives seem to have completely erased the who concept of a well regulated militia. Most rural towns couldn't afford a full time law enforcement, so when crimes were comitted the county sherrif would deputize a posse that would attempt to identify, capture, and detain the man, bringing him to the jail where he would be tried if at all possible.
Justice Scalia effectively erased that notion of "Well Regulated Militia", arguing that ANYONE had the right to own ANY gun or weapon they wanted, REGARDLESS of their mental health, history of drug abuse, and even criminal record. He barely left the option of denying guns to felons, and implied that this was only while they were on parole.
Meanwhile, Christian Conservatives are demanding that the most non-lethal, non-threatening, and least intrusive defensive weapon be denied to transgender women. I'm speaking of camaflauge, the ability to blend in with their environment, their ability to be safe by not drawing the attention of predators to themselves. Many states and localities have passed, or attempted to pass "Bathroom Bills" designed to FORCE transgender women to draw as much attention to themselves as possible by walking into the men's restroom wearing a skirt, heels, and naturally grown 38D breasts. They might as well be painted with a sign that says,"I'm a guy in a dress, come and beat the life out of me as quickly as possible."
Amendment 3
- The Housing of Soldiers
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
This is not strictly LGBT but it seems that laws forbidding or blocking abortion could be construed as a violation of the Third Amendment is being forced to quarter a child. The primary purpose for expanding the population is to provide and replenish the supply of available soldiers. Women were caregivers and breeding stock for the next generation of soldiers.
Amendment 4
- Protection from Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and
This the most offensive of violations against the LGBTQ community. We are all supposed to be safe, secure in our persons. Yet many transgender bathroom bills and birth certificate laws require providing proof of the most private part of our persons of all, our genitalia. Anyone can see from across the room that I have 38D breasts, enhanced with a push-up bra to be proportional to my large chest and belly. Yet bathroom bills have resulted in women being dragged out of bathroom stalls while still peeing, so that a man who unlocked the stall with a quarter can "inspect" the genitalia to make sure that she has the correct labia, vulva, and clitoral hood. The most offensive part of all is that nearly all of the women sexually assaulted in this way, were cisgender women.
To change your birth certificate in most states, you have to have a doctor certify that he has performed vaginoplasty and labiaplasty before they will allow you to change to female. Some states even want a state doctor to INSPECT the surgery. Keep in mind, there is no court order, no search warrant, no probable cause, no justification required to demand all of the most intimate details of the procedure, even photographs. Seems like Christian Conservatives are just perverts who want to gawk at surgically created vaginas.
If that isn't bad enough, many "Bathroom Bills" also demand that a transgender woman have a copy of her birth certificate and be prepared to show it at the request of any officer who wants to inspect it. I can show him my driver's license, US Passport, and other official documents that say I'm a girl, but those aren't good enough if you are suspected of being transgender. Again, there is no court order involved, not even probable cause.
Amendment 5
- Protection of Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property
No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
This is the most obvious and frequently violated right. Transgender women and LGBT people have been routinely arrested, detained, abused, raped, and even tortured, merely for the "Crime" of existing. A transgender woman in a bathroom who menaces a woman, touching a woman in any way, makes threatening comments, or any other direct attempt to assault a woman verbally or physically, can face the most severe of sentences, often excessive compared to what a heterosexual cisgender man would get if he did the exact same thing to a woman in a bar or a church.
The big violation here is that they are making it a criminal act to use the bathroom. It really doesn't matter which bathroom is used. If a transgender woman uses the men's bathroom, she's being lewd and lascivious and could be charged with indescent exposure if she were willing and able to go standing up. On the other hand, if she uses the women's bathroom, she could be arrested for just going pee, wiping herself, and washing her hands.
Transgender women can be detained in jail, fined up to a couple thousand dollars, and even be assaulted by law enforcement officers, with no due process at all. What makes this even worse is that all of this can happen to any woman. Because she was too pretty, because she was too plain, because she wore baggy pants a sports jersey and a baseball cap, because her hair was too short, because she "looked like a drag queen", or because a pervy guard just wanted to grope and gawk. Of course, being forced to drop your drawers or produce your birth certificate could be considered forced self-incrimination as well.
Forced outing of transgender women HAS lead to murders, severe assaults, kidnapping, and rape - simply because a law enforcment office "Outed" a transgender girl who was living in stealth. Transgender people have lost jobs, homes, wives, children, visitation rights, leases, even had their homes damaged or destroyed, simply because some vigilante "thought you should know". The law is supposed to protect individuals from other individuals or organizations that violate the due process and take life, liberty, and property with no due process.
There have even been cases where a Conservative Christian parent has had their own child kidnapped, raped, tortured, and stripped of everything they own, based on "Religious Liberty". Children are not property and are protected by the same Bill of Rights.
Amendment 6
- Rights of Accused Persons in Criminal Cases
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
LGBTQ people are often forced to deal with people who act as judge, jury, and executioner. There is no impartial jury, just a homophobe who takes the law into his own hands. Preachers call for the murder of LGBT people and their followers execute those orders. Fortunately the number of actual murders is relatively low, but 30-40 transgender people are murdered every year, and their assailants often get trivial sentences because the victim was transgender and they are "Christians".
In schools all over the country, LGBT kids get bullied, physically assaulted, sexually assaulted, yet there is no trial, no impartial jury, no evidence, no sworn testimony, not even witnesses for the defendent. No, based on the RUMOR that someone is a "Sissy" or "Faggot", these religious fanatics will punch, kick, beat with sticks, bats, even cause injuries so severe that extended hospitalization is required, all based on the RUMOR. Often, the "defendent" has made no attempt to seduce a member of the same sex, has made no announcement that they are transgender, or even that they want to LOOK like a girl. They may be condemned simply by a gesture, a laugh, or being in the wrong bathroom at the wrong time. In too many cases, their ACCUSERS have issues ranging from their own homosexuality to being victims of domestic abuse or sexual abuse, but being good "Christians" they aren't allowed to talk about it.
Amendment 7
- Rights in Civil Cases
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.
This is a big one. In some courts, all a plaintiff has to do is MENTION that the defendent is gay or effeminate and they can get a much more favorable judgement from the Judge and the Jury. The judge can even instruct the jury to disregard the remark, but they can't "un-hear" it. If there are enough "Christians" or other bigots on the jury, even an overwhelming case can lead to the wrong verdict, or minimal damages. This has happened frequently in wrongful termination employment cases.
Amendment 8
- Excessive Bail, Fines, and Punishments Forbidden
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Especially in early transition, transgender women generally don't carry extra credit cards with them, because they are afraid to use them. They can get money from an ATM, but even then they normally don't carry large amounts of currency. If a transgender girl gets arrested because the officer thinks she looks like a hooker, or because she used the wrong bathroom, or because she caused a disturbance by offending some bigots who called the police, she gets carted off to jail. After removing everything that could be used as a women or for suicide (heels, belt, necklaces, pantyhose, stockings, garter belts...) she is put in a holding cell with a dozen or more men. Often, the guards simply leave for a little while, an hour or so. Long enough for every man in the cell to rape and sodomize her anally and orally. Since she looks like a pretty girl, nobody wants to miss out, and any experience shame and guilt afterwards that triggers acts of extreme violence. So they put the injured, bleeding, helpless woman into solitary confinement so she can't tell anyone what has happened to her.
Many transgender women convicted of minor drug posession charges have been put into maximum security men's prison even though they have a full set of naturally grown breasts. Even though they have been chemically or physically castrated and would willingly have themselves castrated to be moved to the women's prison (as has been done with eunuchs for thousands of years), the state insists that they have a surgery that costs $20,000 or more and the state refuses to allow anyone to perform this surgery. I would consider being raped 2-3 times a day by a dozen men for 5-10 years to be CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT! Yet the current courts and many states don't seem to think so.
Amendment 9
- Other Rights Kept by the People
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
This is often considered a loophole by conservatives who seem to think that they should have the right to everything from owning people they can whip at will, to raping their own wives, to molesting their own children, to dumping toxic waste into the drinking water.
Yet when LGBT people claim the most basic civil rights guaranteed to men, women, children, of all races and creeds, they are told that these rights don't apply to them because they don't dress right, or because they kissed the wrong person. A woman can have her job protected from sex based discrimination being fired because they want to put a man in her position, but if they find out that she kisses girls, they can fire her even if there is nobody to fill her job, and even if it would take 3 men to fill her shoes.
The latest special right being claimed by Christian Conservatives is "Religious Liberty". They believe that they have the right to use their religious beliefs to persecute gays, transsexuals, Muslims, Women, Mexicans, Asians, Indians, Native Americans, people with disabilities, and other "abominations".
Amendment 10
- Undelegated Powers Kept by the States and the People
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
A final gambit being played by the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, is to claim that these are "State's Rights". Yet the 14th Amendment forbids the state from abridging the rights guaranteed by the constitution. In other words, just because a transgender girl goes to Tennessee doesn't mean she loses her rights to safety, security, privacy, due process, and fair and reasonable punishment if convicted of an actual crime.
It seems that the "Religious Right" have decided to completely rewrite the constitution, without telling anybody.
