Anonymous wrote:Perhaps this was mentioned upthread, but here is some info on Trump family guests at the speech from CNN:
The first lady will host Payton McNabb, “a former high school athlete who had her dreams of competing in college sports crushed in a September 2022 volleyball match when a biological man playing on the opposing women’s team spiked the volleyball at Payton’s face, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury,” according to the White House.
The first lady is also hosting January Littlejohn, “a mother and parents’ rights advocate who sued the School Board of Leon County after school officials at her daughter’s middle school socially transitioned her daughter to a different sexual identity without January and her husband’s knowledge or permission,” per the White House.
And, for some balance, here is some background on these two individuals used by Trump to make anti-trans political points:
1) Payton McNabb
McNabb is a paid spokesperson for a group that aggressively lobbies against transgender people, the so-called Independent Women’s Forum (IWF).
IWF has ties to Project 2025, has lobbied against access to contraception, and activates against transgender people under the guise of “protecting women” but has taken actions that do not protect women and instead tries to harm LGBTQ people, including:
Pushing bans on essential health care;
Supporting the harmful practice of outing LGBTQ students without their consent, without consideration of the risks to doing so to unsupportive parents. Up to 40% of all homeless youth are LGBTQ;
Urging the dangerous and illegal relocation of detainees to facilities that do not match their gender identity, action that has been blocked by multiple federal courts as cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
McNabb is among more than 214,000 high school and college female athletes injured while playing volleyball since 2012. The vast majority of these injuries and accidents involve cisgender competitors and teammates. No one is calling for cisgender athletes involved in injuries and accidents to be banned from sports.
There has been no legislation proposed at the federal level by anti-trans activists that addresses actual problems of safety and equity for women and girls’ sports, including how to protect athletes from abusive coaches and fans, ensure equal facilities, pay, and marketing, or ways to expand access to health care and recovery, for all players including people like McNabb.
In Trump's telling, the school was both pushing gender nonconformity on the Littlejohn's child and doing so without the parents' knowledge. But emails obtained by media outlets years ago suggest that not only did the parents know this was going on, it was they who first broached the subject with the school and suggested that staff follow their child's lead on name and pronouns.
https://glaad.org/fact-sheet-opponents-of-transgender-people-invited-as-white-house-special-guests-used-to-further-spread-disinformation/
2) January Littlejohn
In Trump's telling, the school was both pushing gender nonconformity on the Littlejohn's child and doing so without the parents' knowledge. But emails obtained by media outlets years ago suggest that not only did the parents know this was going on, it was they who first broached the subject with the school and suggested that staff follow their child's lead on name and pronouns.
The reason that some outlets discovered this years ago is because last night's Trump speech wasn't the first time the Littlejohns have been used by politicians pushing an intolerant agenda. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis "repeatedly pointed to the [Littlejohn family] to explain the need for a controversial new law, dubbed by critics the 'Don't Say Gay' bill, that bans schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity," CNN reported in April 2022.
Trump's Florida trans child story doesn't add up
https://reason.com/2025/03/05/trumps-trans-kid-story-doesnt-add-up/