Do I really want to know who the fry cook is boinking or what the drag queen owner wears at weekend festivals?

No. NO, I don't. 

WOOF

Wouldn't want to see what they offered up as proof that they qualified. https://t.co/g7SZ1oEK3t pic.twitter.com/cLsNlYQDML

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) June 5, 2024

I don't want to know a thing about their sexual proclivities if they're straight and, frankly?

I don't give a damn either way. My concerns are 1) Are the prices fair and the owners honest? The help friendly? 2) If an eating establishment, is the food good? 3) Is the place clean?

Why should anyone care who's sleeping with who or what they might identify as before they walk through a business door?

But to rodential New Jersey governor Phil Murphy and his useful woke tools in the legislature there, somehow who a business owner takes sexual pleasure with - or in what guise AS - rates special merit and consideration from the State of New Jersey.

This is nothing new for the verminous Murphy. In 2018, he signed the "Babs Siperstein Bill." It allows any NJ resident to change the gender on their birth certificate. The state was officially in the business of sanctioning personal delusions and mental illness.

...“With Babs, we had an LGBTQ icon — among the likes of Harvey Milk, Sylvia Rivera, and Bayard Rustin — born and raised right here in the Garden State,” Garden State Equality Executive Director Christian Fuscarino said

Siperstein died just two days after the “Babs Siperstein Law,” signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in July, took effect on Feb. 1. The law — which had been vetoed twice by former Gov. Chris Christie — allows New Jersey residents to change their gender identification on their birth certificates without having to present proof of surgery, and adds a third “non-binary” gender category.

“With the Babs Siperstein Law now in effect, every transgender New Jerseyan who updates their birth certificate will be reminded of Babs and her courage,” Fuscarino said in a statement. “Babs’ work has touched countless lives and will continue to do so, and we will ensure her legacy is remembered for generations to come.”

Now the state is certifying businesses based on sexual orientation claims.

HOLY SMOKING ANCESTRY.COM SEARCHES

Could someone please explain to me how pronouns, ELECTIVE gender surgery (or not), living in a fantasy world of your own design, wearing women's clothes and make-up, preferring your own sex, not preferring any sex - any or all of the above - qualifies you for tax breaks, grants, and advantages other everyday businesses owners don't have access to?

Something tasty is always being served inside the kitchen at Cavany Foods on Grand Street in Jersey City. Owner and chef Alejandro Fummayor says he has a passion for cooking.

"When I'm cooking it's like another level. You forget everything. Stress is out," Fummayor said.

And now, with a new certification under his business belt, he's hoping more people will be able to enjoy his food. His restaurant is the first business in the state to become certified as an LGBTQ+-owned business. The certification enables LGBTQ+-owned businesses to have greater funding opportunities, such as state contracts and grants.

"It's more about funding. It's more about exposure and it’s more about - for me - it's more about encouraging another LGBT owners that want to be low profile. Like, why we have a nice business, we have a nice opportunity," said Fummayor.

According to state officials, New Jersey is now the first state in the nation to have a state-backed certification for LGBTQ+-owned businesses. The certification is something organization leaders with the New Jersey Pride Chamber of Commerce have been working toward for more than six years.

There was an executive order prior to it becoming law. The proposed law became a reality on May 2. Both sides of the aisle voted in favor of the legislation.

And the article is right - Phil Murphy used an executive order in May 2022 to get this ball rolling. The legislature, for God only knows what reason, wanted to codify it before Murphy left office so an incoming governor "couldn't undo" the purely sexual preference/sexual orientation-based access to handouts.

HOLY SMOKES

An Assembly panel advanced a bill Thursday that would codify a state certification process for LBGTQ business owners, which opens up opportunities for funding and contracts reserved for diverse demographics.

Such certification already exists under an executive order Gov. Phil Murphy issued in May 2022, but supporters say the bill the Assembly’s commerce committee approved Thursday would give it the power of state law and ensure the certification remains in place after Murphy leaves office.

...“People have been waiting not just to be recognized by the state in which they pay taxes and hire employees and provide services and resources. But now they want to make sure that this is not going to go away anytime soon. As we all know, executive orders can be taken away,” Penaranda said.

New Jersey’s treasury department also offers such certification for businesses owned by women, people of color, and veterans.

"Waiting to be recognized by the STATE" for who they sleep with or what pronouns they use or what make-up or, if they're pushing for gender reassignment therapy for minors, what degenerate, permanently disfiguring acts they encourage and advocate for small children to perform before they're mature enough to know what "permanent consequences" are?

Recognized? These people are sick. This is not a business classification - it's a sybaritic cult with state recognition.

Simply based on who one sleeps with, they believe they rate special economic privileges.

...Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Morris) questioned language in the bill that would permit people to challenge a business owner’s LGBTQ certification.

“How would one prove this in a court of appeal where they’re being challenged? You can prove that you’re a woman with a birth certificate. You can prove you’re a veteran with the discharge papers. You can prove you’re a small business with financial statements,” Bergen said. “I would never want somebody who’s LGBTQIA to have to withstand this type of scrutiny, just based on somebody thinking you’re not gay … that’s wrong.”

But Kathleen Waters, owner of Hillsborough-based janitorial company Facilities, Partners & Solutions, told Bergen she could prove she was gay by her military discharge papers.

Besides, she said, the opportunity to challenge is important to stop bad actors who might fraudulently seek certification for its perks. Such certification can give business owners access to capacity-building resources, business coaching, accelerator programs, and networking.

“I’ve seen men put companies in their wives’ names. And I don’t like that,” she said. “But I also don’t want to be invisible. I want to be able to have a seat at the table. I want to be able to have an opportunity, not just in the private sector but in the government sector. And having this affords me the opportunity to be visible and assist the state of New Jersey to recognize our community.”

Why shouldn't every NJ business owner - who probably sleeps with someone at some point - but who most assuredly...what was that the fellow from the Pride Chamber said again? 

Oh, yes - "pay taxes and hire employees." 

Funny thing is, those plain old whitebread working folks do that, too, Mr. Pride Chamber guy. What makes you special there?

Why do alphabet soup sex members rate more? What do they offer or have they done that makes their tax paying and hiring more worthy than Fred Linguine, the Plumber over on Third Street, who might really could use some grants or coaching?

But Fred sleeps with Martha, see. He wears stained Carhartts whilst changing out Bayonne toilets, saving his good pair for the weekend at Golden Corral or maybe a local joint where he's never asked the owner who they're sleeping with. That thought never once occurred to him.

Maybe he should start to care if it's costing him tax money and his business is being unfairly discriminated against based purely on whose head is on the pillow next to him.

What virtue-signaling BS.

...“This law will ensure opportunities for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs to connect with customers and one another,” said Assemblywoman Luanne Peterpaul. “LGBTQ+ business owners contribute over $1 trillion to the U.S. economy but still face obstacles for growth. This certification will promote economic growth with inclusivity, equity, and equality.”

“Today is a historic day for our LGBTQ+ community who will be recognized in New Jersey,” said Gus Penaranda, Executive Director of the NJ Pride Chamber of Commerce. “As the first state to codify the certification process for LGBTQ+ certifications. In times where our community is constantly silenced and attacked, this sends a clear message to all businesses looking to invest in New Jersey that we are a welcoming state. This wouldn’t have been possible with the leadership of Senators Pou and Ruiz, and Assemblymembers Wimberly, Stanley, Guardian, and Peterpaul for their leadership. Thank you as well to Governor Murphy, Treasurer Muoio, and their teams for working collaboratively with us to ensure this became law and to further protect LGBTQIA+ business owners. We thank him for signing Executive Order 295 back in 2022, laying the groundwork for a more inclusive and equitable business environment that acknowledges and values the contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

And how much "discrimination" is there really? Even in totally sympathetic articles about alphabet soup sex businesses and financing, when you read into them, it's like "Wait a minute - that's the breaks, not discrimination." For example, take this CNBC article from last year.

LGBTQ small business owners struggle to find financing

It’s not an easy time to be a small business in search of financing. For LGBTQ owners, the struggle has been even harder.

LGBTQ-owned businesses reported more rejections than non-LGBTQ businesses that applied for funding, according to a 2022 report from Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on equality and opportunity, and the Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research (CLEAR).

With the tightening of lending standards, they could be at even more risk of falling behind, said Spencer Watson, president and executive director of CLEAR.

They really sound like they're taking it in the shorts on the rejection side of the house, right? Maybe they're drawing rainbows on the applications, who knows, but whatever it is, obviously they're not getting what they ask for like everyone else is.

Then you read it again and wonder, well, with the "tightening of lending standards" - why would that make a difference if their credit was up to snuff with everyone else's businesses?

Ah, so - there's the answer. And it's got nothing to do with sex. From "being left behind" for, I guess, a sympathy ploy to actually WHY 11% more LGBwhatever businesses were rejected than non.

...Yet, data show that when it comes to financing, LGTBQ small business owners are being left behind. In 2021, 46% of LGBTQ-owned businesses said they didn’t receive any of the financing they had applied to in 2021, according to the MAP/CLEAR report. In comparison, 35% of non-LGBTQ businesses that applied for funding were rejected, the report found. Much of the funding sought was through the Covid relief programs offered, Watson said.

Oh, hello. This is not anti-LGBTQ discrimination. It's a case of simple Lending 101 - they didn't qualify because they were too new and financially shaky to begin with.

...“Those businesses were frequently smaller in size and they were also frequently younger and they had smaller revenues,” Watson explained. “They were struggling with those additional pressures because they were already in a weaker financial position to start with.”

Good grief and cry me a river.

There are stories in the article about "struggling" LG-whatever businesses and I hate to be trite, but they are stereotypical of the pie-in-the-sky ideas you'd think. Take the one fellow living off of credit cards, etc. He was in Chicago (Okay, expensive already, right?) and had started his business making products from - wait for it...Chaga mushrooms.

WHUT

Okay. I'm no financial expert - I only play one here at HotAir - but you have to wonder what the business plan was going into this, where he saw a need for it, what his projections were if he did any of that deep diving at all...before he dove. I mean, good on him taking the entrepreneur plunge, but his start-up struggles have nothing to do with him being gay and everything to do with Chaga mushrooms and the lack of a market for their products.

If he were in a tad cheaper NJ, maybe he would now be eligible for some sort of help. Who knows?

Another article on LGBwhatever finances says the community often struggles because they pay more to live. What does that mean?

Housing costs you more because you're gay, binary, or whatever?

Not exactly.

The problem is more they enjoy each other's company and like-minds, so...

...But even as they earn less, many in the queer community end up moving to areas where the cost of living is higher.

“LGBTQ people are scared to live in certain cities and certain states. And for that reason, we gravitate toward places like San Francisco, New York, Chicago, D.C. — all of these are expensive places to live,” says Schneider. “For our own personal safety and the safety of our community, we’re choosing a much more expensive lifestyle, while at the same time making less money.”

OMG WHATEVER

Well, now they can move to New Jersey!

Besides, the population identifying as an alphabet something, thanks to it being ever so trendy with the youngsters, is climbing steadily.

The percentage of U.S. adults who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual has increased to a new high of 7.1%, which is double the percentage from 2012, when Gallup first measured it.

Gallup asks Americans whether they personally identify as straight or heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender as part of the demographic information it collects on all U.S. telephone surveys. Respondents can also volunteer any other sexual orientation or gender identity they prefer. In addition to the 7.1% of U.S. adults who consider themselves to be an LGBT identity, 86.3% say they are straight or heterosexual, and 6.6% do not offer an opinion. The results are based on aggregated 2021 data, encompassing interviews with more than 12,000 U.S. adults.

The increase in LGBT identification in recent years largely reflects the higher prevalence of such identities among the youngest U.S. adults compared with the older generations they are replacing in the U.S. adult population.

Roughly 21% of Generation Z Americans who have reached adulthood -- those born between 1997 and 2003 -- identify as LGBT. That is nearly double the proportion of millennials who do so, while the gap widens even further when compared with older generations.

Eventually, maybe even Florida won't be so scary. There's a concept. Oh, gosh - I can't wait until it's safe enough and we get our first LGBwhatever residents.

Although I am pretty sure we won't be handing out official state rainbow business certifications any time soon.

The posturing is ridiculous.

As is the pandering.

What someone chooses to do as a consenting adult is no more worthy of state recognition or an economic carveout than what I choose NOT to do.

Get over yourselves already.