Trigger Warning

The Bigot Brigade Buffoons have arrived

Another day, another dystopian hellscape. 

Nearly every woman I’ve ever known has been sexually assaulted. 

Nearly every single one.

And every woman I know has been on the receiving end of sexual harassment. 

Every single one.

As you can imagine, the daily headlines lately can be triggering for most of the women in this country. I mean, there are some women in this country who wholeheartedly embrace the patriarchy and toxic masculinity, and as far as I can tell, it’s because they were raised in some fundamentalist cult. 

I’m not talking about some Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) sect in Colorado City, Arizona where the women wear prairie dresses and very meticulously sculpted braided hairstyles. 

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Mostly, they walk amongst us in urban and suburban areas, and they may look like every other average American woman, or they may go out of their way to let you know they’re in a cult. 

Rural, urban, or suburban, they all have one thing in common: they uphold the patriarchy every chance they get. 

Even in small ways that may seem benign. Like at the last Peoria (PUSD) school board meeting. The women consistently “negged” themselves, leaning into stereotypes of women as cackling hens, as they spoke of how poor Clerk Tobey will never get a word in edgewise with “so many chatty women.” 

My ex, outwardly “woke” and progressive, was WILDLY misogynistic in his opinions about women. It wasn’t until after I left him how I realized I not only allowed, but sometimes even facilitated his misogyny. I would make the same kind of self-deprecating jokes made by some of the women on the PUSD school board at their last meeting. 

I’m not proud that I stayed with someone like that for as long as I did, but the patriarchy (and abusive narcissism) is a helluva drug.

The daily barrage of bad news is awful. And it’s on purpose. 

It was already difficult enough to stomach the who’s who of rapists, domestic abusers, and enablers 45/47 rolled out as his cabinet picks before the Inauguration. In the ONLY THREE DAYS since taking office, not only has the new administration approved ICE raids in churches and schools, he also pardoned 1500 domestic terrorists. 

Several of those pardoned have a history of domestic violence (DV) and/or sexual assault (SA) allegations. One has already been arrested since his pardon earlier this week (he had “previous convictions of domestic violence, strangulation, and resisting law enforcement with violence”). If this has you reeling and feeling anxious, I want you to know that you’re definitely not the only one. 

I made the decision to do as little as possible on Inauguration MLK Jr Day, but someone in a group chat shared the video of Elmo MusKKK’s Nazi salute. No one that I know was surprised by his actions, but the fact that so many were farting all over themselves trying to white(supremacist)wash his Nazi salute sent me into a doom spiral on Monday and Tuesday.

Everyone that I know (you know, the folks with eyes and ears) saw this coming from $277 Million miles away. And we didn’t even need to dose on Ketamine and open our Third Eye to see it. 

Earlier this week, I went to the Arizona Legislature to hear the 2478th bill (HB2062) focused on people’s genitalia. The worst part about these “transpanic” bills moving through legislatures, assemblies, and school boards is how deeply rooted they are in upholding the patriarchy and authoritarian Christian ideologies. Reminder: Authoritarian Christianity and Christian nationalism are NOT Christianity. Pass it on. 

The Bigot Brigade Buffoons showed up at the House Government Committee hearing on 1.22.2025, but the number of folks who oppose the bill is nearly triple the number of people who favor it. 

Of course, the argument used amongst the Bigot Brigade to justify this discriminatory bill is to pRoTeCt wOmEn. Given the fact that these buffoons all voted for an adjudicated rapist, support his cabinet picks - many of whom have a history of violence against women, and cheered the pardons of hundreds of violent criminals, some with DV and SA in their history, they can all respectfully, in the words of Michael Fanone, “go fuck themselves.

Supporters of the bill, one after another, justified their support of the bill while sharing their horrible stories of sexual assault. But here’s the thing, Secular Fam, they were all assaulted by straight, cisgender men. 

Not one was assaulted by a trans woman. 

The real reason this “transpanic” has taken root over the past few years - and it really has only been a few years - 

is to uphold the patriarchy. 

Think about it. Evangelical extremists rely so heavily on the gender binary because their existence depends on it. In many fundamental “christian” denominations, they use rigid gender roles to demand obedience from women and children.

When confronted with the science of sex and gender, it contradicts their church’s ability to control and subjugate half of the population, so they just deny that trans and non-binary people exist. Since many of their evangelical followers were taught to be obedient sheep, and were maybe even homeschooled or attended religious schools, well, they’re not going to question their church leaders. If you’ve watched ANY of our Friday Speaker Series speakers, you’ve heard several many exvangelicals speak about how they were treated when they questioned their churches’ leaders.

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t great.

Fundamentalist pastors don’t really want to hear how their little umbrella graphic really plays out in the real world. 

If complaining about authoritarian Christianity can get an evangelical excommunicated, but upholding the patriarchy can get them accolades and/or special privileges in their church circle, I guess I can see why so many do it. Plus, if you believe that your only two options when you die are eternal life or eternal suffering, and your pastor tells you that unless you do everything he and your husband say, you’re probably going to uphold the patriarchy.

So if you’re feeling triggered these days, you’re not alone. If you feel like you’re going crazy when people who vote for literal rapists and domestic abusers claim to want to protect women, that’s because it’s crazy-making behavior. 

Unfortunately, these people almost never recognize the hypocrisy coming from their religious and political leaders, so don’t bother trying. Instead, use your energy to engage with your local elected officials. We may not be able to change the minds of people who are anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, or anti-BIPOC, but we can get their hypocrisy on public record. 

During the House Government Committee hearing this week, that’s what happened. Representative Betty Villegas (D-LD20) introduced a “striker” amendment to HB2062, the anti-trans bill introduced by Reps Fink (R-LD27), Keshel (R-LD17), Powell (R-LD14), and Way (R-LD15). 

Essentially, a “striker” amendment strikes all the language from a bill and replaces it with the striker amendment. Rep Villegas’s amendment was a statewide Non Discrimination Ordinance (NDO). The evangelical extremists on that committee voted against even discussing the striker. This may seem like wasted time, but Rep Villegas essentially showed the voters of Arizona that there is very unequal treatment at the legislature.

Even though they wouldn’t let it be discussed or let the public weigh in on it, now it’s part of the public record that A) they almost never play nicely with their progressive colleagues, and B) from what I can gather, they’re perfectly fine with state-sanctioned discrimination. 

These next few months, weeks, and years, we’re going to wake up to one terrible headline after another, and already, our civil rights are being stripped of us through Executive Orders. Mark my words, Secular Fam, we’re going to see a lot of that type of governance happening at the local level. Remember last legislative session? When the extremists knew that their discriminatory bills would be vetoed by the governor, they pushed it through anyway.

Right now, in Peoria (PUSD), it seems their plan is to govern in the same manner. Their latest agenda includes nearly a dozen policy discussions and rewrites. They want to micromanage the district, and the only thing that will stop them is your voice. They may very well ignore all you have to say, but if you say it, the rest of the public can hear it, and it becomes part of the official meeting record.

I know that all of us are tired AF right now, but the only ones that will save us from this Handmaid’s Hellscape is, well, us. Keep up the good fight, and as always, support the work we do at Secular AZ. Become a member, upgrade to paid, or sign up to volunteer.