GOP candidate said it’s “totally just” to stone gay people to death

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/gop-candidate-said-totally-just-stone-gay-people-death/

Understand these people put their religion first and they are running for elected office that will allow them to craft laws based on their religious views that the rest of us must follow. He is a republican candidate that thinks being gay is an “insidious addiction” and that homosexuals are such an affront to his god they need to be put to death. What kind of laws do you think he will champion? Do you think he could fairly judge anti-discrimination laws? How about the don’t say gay bills for schools, will he agree with science or his bible? These hyper religious people are not running for office because they have nothing else to do, they are trying to get into positions to enforce their church doctrines and make the rest of the nation follow their religion. They are trying to make a theocracy, trying to reduce the rights for women and minorities. Here in Florida they are trying to take over school boards as they did in Texas. You know the kinds of things that they tried to insist kids be taught there, things like the constitution was written by god and Moses, that slaves were unpaid workers or simply forced to relocation, that science / biology are suspect but intelligent design is possible. They snuck as much disinformation and American exceptionalism along with teaching the nation was founded on the Christian religion as possible. If we don’t stop them now, we won’t have a democracy. Hugs

“Well, does that make me a homophobe?… It simply makes me a Christian. Christians believe in biblical morality, kind of by definition, or they should.”

By Alex Bollinger Monday, August 22, 2022

Scott EskPhoto: Campaign Facebook page

A GOP candidate in Oklahoma is getting attention for comments he made several years ago when he justified the death penalty by stoning for gay people. When asked recently about it, he didn’t disavow his previous comments.

Scott Esk, 56, is running in the Republican primary runoff election tomorrow for a seat in the state house, and local media is bringing up some extreme comments he made in the past. He’s not handling them well.

In 2013, Esk was commenting in a Facebook conversation about the Pope saying that he couldn’t judge gay people. Esk posted some Bible quotations, including the part of Romans 1 where the Bible says that a long list of people who sinned is “worthy of death.”

Another person asked him: “So, just to be clear, you think we should execute homosexuals (presumably by stoning)?”

Esk responded: “I think we would be totally in the right to do it… Ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss.”

A year later, a journalist asked him about those comments. He said it was “totally just” to kill gay people.

“What I will tell you right now is that that was done in the Old Testament under a law that came directly from God,” he said at the time. “And in that time, there was, it was, totally just came directly from God.”

After those comments, he put out a long video where he claimed he “sets the record straight.” In those videos, he claimed he has “compassion on anybody in the grips of an insidious addiction, such as homosexuality.”

“Any Christian should be in the position to say that this is sin or this is good. If we don’t make that distinction, we’re not going to help people,” he said in the first video published in 2015.

In the another video, which was from earlier this year, Esk called a local TV news report on his comments a “hit piece on the fact that I had an opinion against homosexuality.”

“Well, does that make me a homophobe? Maybe some people think it does,” he said. “But as far as I and many of the people, the voters of House District A7 are concerned, it simply makes me a Christian. Christians believe in biblical morality, kind of by definition, or they should.”

He said that he is not in favor of “expanding the death penalty in Oklahoma for homosexuality,” he just wants everyone to know that gay people are so offensive to his god that his religion wants them dead.

“The fact is, that it’s much more offensive knowing what obscene things homosexuals do with each other than it is for somebody to hold the view that it is indecent,” he said in the second video.

Now that the runoff election is tomorrow, The Oklahoman asked Esk about those comments to see if his opinion has changed at all.

He refused to do an interview and pointed The Oklahoman to the two videos.

“I’ve stood up for what is right in the past, and I intend to in the future and I am right now,” he stated. “That’s got me in trouble. The media are not my friends, as far as I’m concerned.”

Earlier today, Esk posted a video to his YouTube channel entitled “Scott Esk sets the record straight for the 3rd time,” in which he calls The Oklahoman piece and a piece by News 4 “hit pieces” and says that the media is against him because they want his opponent Gloria Banister to win.

He also responded to being fired from his job as a data manager in 2011 because he was arrested after he allegedly threatened and harassed the leadership of his church. In the video, he calls those church leaders “snakes” and makes some opaque references to the divorce and custody battle he was going through at the time.

Whoever wins the primary tomorrow will run against the Democratic winner in November. The seat is currently held by state Rep. Collin Walke (D), who is retiring.

DAILY MAIL: Pastor files lawsuit after he was handcuffed for watering flowers

Pastor files lawsuit after he was handcuffed for watering flowers
Black pastor from Alabama accused police of racial profiling him in a discrimination lawsuit, after he was unlawfully handcuffed for watering his neighbors flowers while they were out of town.

Read in Daily Mail: https://apple.news/AdWDB1g4yQ1ypRKy0LT3b5Q

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Judge throws out parents’ lawsuit over school policy to not out trans kids to their parents

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/judge-throws-parents-lawsuit-school-policy-not-trans-kids-parents/

Finally a judge that uses common sense and gives a win for child safety. The only reason these parents are demanding to know if their child is not being a “traditional good cis straight kid” is so they can fix them. If the kid thinks they will be unsafe or their parents would react badly they are in the best position to know. If they tell a teacher that their parents would freak out, that they are anti-trans anti-gay, if they tell the teacher the parents are highly religious the chances are the kids will be in trouble and or forced into conversion therapy or isolated from friends and support. Why else would it be so critically important for a parent to know? It is not dangerous or harmful for a kid to be gay / lesbian or use a different pronoun than the cis ones. If the parents wanted to be supportive, they would let the child know that and would wait for the child to feel comfortable to come out to them. No this is about parents who want to stop the child from being who they are. These are parents who think that the kids are making a lifestyle choice rather than that they are born this way. So they will demand the kids not chose to be what they really are. If they must punish a kid to be straight or punish a kid to be cis, they will do so. Hard and to the extreme! That is why they are going to such lengths to know what the kids are doing / saying at school. The decision to come out or be public about one’s sexual orientation or gender identity is a very personal one that should be up to the person entirely. If they are not yet comfortable with being out / open why would anyone think it is OK to force that on them, especially kids? Hugs

The parents said they have a constitutional right to know if their kids are using other pronouns at school. The judge said no.

By Daniel Villarreal Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Photo: Shutterstock

Federal Judge Paul Grimm from the District of Maryland has thrown out a lawsuit from parents who opposed a school district’s plan to support its transgender students.

Three unidentified parents filed the lawsuit in October 2021 against Maryland’s Montgomery County Board of Education. The parents said the district’s guidelines on student gender identity violated state laws and the U.S. Constitution by encouraging school staff to keep a child’s chosen gender identity hidden from parents.

The guidelines state that students can disclose their gender identity to school staff as well as the level of support they anticipate receiving from their caretakers at home. However, the guidelines also state that school staff members aren’t required to disclose a student’s gender identity to a child’s parents unless they are legally required or authorized by the student.

The suing parents said that the guidelines violated the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a 1974 law that gives parents the right to access their children’s educational records.

The parents also said the guidelines violate the Maryland Declaration of Rights provision allowing adults to “direct the care, custody, education, welfare, safety, and control of their minor children” as well as the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment Due Process clause.

In their lawsuit, the parents said the guidelines are “expressly designed to circumvent parental involvement in a pivotal decision affecting [their children’s] care, health education, and future,” The Washington Times reported.

The parents also claimed that the policy would allow children “to transition socially to a different gender identity at school without parental notice or consent”. While the district policy allows students to use the pronouns and gendered facilities of their choosing, it doesn’t authorize the school to provide any other sorts of gender affirming medical or mental health care.

Grimm disagreed with the parents’ arguments. In his decision, the judge wrote that the guidelines are meant to be flexible and don’t necessarily instruct school staff to hide such information from parents.

In fact, in a statement hailing Grimm’s ruling, the Montgomery County Board of Education wrote, “The Court rightly found that our Guidelines for Gender Identity actively encourage familial involvement in developing and implementing a transgender or gender nonconforming student’s ‘Gender Support Plan’ whenever possible.”

The parents’ attorney Rick Claybrook said his clients are considering an appeal to Grimm’s ruling.

Mark Eckstein, chair of the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations’ LGBTQ subcommittee, said that some parents are opposed to the guidelines because there isn’t a lot of case law on the subject, Bethesda Magazine wrote.

“The ideal situation is to get the parents and child together and get everyone on the same page, but when that doesn’t happen, for whatever reason, it creates conflict,” Eckstein told the magazine. “But you do have a lot of instances where a child is out at school, but not at home. It’s not easy whatever way you cut it. Even if everyone is at their best, it’s a complicated situation.”

This isn’t the first time parents have sued over such a law.

In August, the right-leaning group Parents Defending Education (PDE) sued the Linn-Mar Community School District of Iowa over a similar policy using similar legal reasoning.

Two Walmarts allegedly refused to process a money order for a transgender man

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/two-walmarts-allegedly-refused-process-money-order-transgender-man/

Again the US is denying science and the changes in social understandings. Germany and other advanced countries have implemented the easy changing of identification documents to match the gender identity of the person. The discrimination in this story must be fought back against. This is the same discrimination faced by gay people years ago that is coming back today. I just posted about schools trying to deny that trans people exist and students must be dead named and the wrong pronoun used. What disrespect and how insulting. Think if people insisted on using the wrong name for you or calling you the wrong pronoun! Don’t want to serve a gay person or do a service for them, make them go elsewhere even if there are limited places they can get that service. What if the same was done to Christians? Substitute black for gay or trans with the same denial and see if you still accept the discrimination? The reality is that trans people exist and are not a medical problem to be fixed. They deserve to be able to live without being discriminated against. First they attack the trans people, then they go after the rest of the LGBTQ+. Hugs

Now he’s fighting back.

By John Russell Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Photo: Jared C. Benedict

A transgender man has filed a complaint with the Illinois Human Rights Department after he was denied service at two separate Walmart stores.

Skyler Hyatt says that employees at stores in Lawrenceville and Olney, Illinois would not allow him to cash a money order because his driver’s license still lists his deadname. At the time, his license did list his gender as male and had a current photo, but Hyatt says he has been unable to afford the process of legally changing his name under state law, according to The Hill.

According to the complaint, a supervisor at one store “made a face of disgust” when presented with Hyatt’s ID. An employee at another store told Hyatt that his money order had been “red flagged.”

“What should have been a simple transaction turned into an embarrassing and painful experience,” Hyatt said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. “Transgender people like me exist in every corner of Illinois. And many of us depend on services from stores like Walmart to navigate life without outing ourselves at every turn.”

“As a corporation that claims to support LGBTQ rights across the country, my hope is that Walmart can make sure that no other transgender person experiences this discrimination again,” Hyatt said.

A spokesperson for Walmart told The Hill that the company is taking Hyatt’s complaint “seriously,” adding that the retailer does not “tolerate discrimination of any kind.”

But Walmart has been hit with multiple lawsuits from former transgender employees in recent years. A former employee sued the company in December for failing to do anything about managers and co-workers who repeatedly used her deadname.

In 2017, the retail giant lost a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) case when the board ruled that they had discriminated and harassed a transgender woman at a Sam’s Club subsidiary in Florida.

That same year, another transgender woman won her case before the EEOC.

Walmart later settled with a lawsuit brought by Charlene Bost, who alleged she was harassed by coworkers at a Sam’s Club in North Carolina, treated differently, unfairly disciplined, and ultimately fired after she came out as trans.

Texas school board bans teachers from saying that trans people exist

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/texas-school-board-bans-teachers-saying-trans-people-exist/

What have I been saying. This goes against medical data and scientific evidence. Are they going to insist that teachers deny gayss / lesbians exist? Will they insist teachers teach that same sex attraction is a mental illness and must be treated as such? This denies reality. This is a hate driven attempt to wipe out the trans people first then the rest of the LGBTQ+. Yes they will come for the gays and lesbians next. Just as these people never accepted that abortion was a legal right they wont accept that the LGBTQ+ have rights. They cannot stand the tolerance, acceptance, and changing social status of the LGBTQ+ have gained. They cannot just live the way they want and let others do the same, they must force their backwards views on everyone. They will not stop and if not apposed, if we don’t push back hard they simply will keep pushing until everything the LGBTQ+ has worked for will be wiped away. They want to enforce that they must not be offended yet they feel entitled to offend everyone else. These people like to scream they are being canceled and they want to cancel the LGBTQ+ along with any difference in thought from theirs. This is why I fight back so hard and correct the misinformation. I am fighting for the existence of myself and the rest of the LGBTQ+, and really, I am fighting for the rights of everyone who doesn’t live lock step with these right-wing Christian Nationalist hater thugs. They are the Christian US Taliban. Note that the majority did not want this policy but the haters forced it on everyone. Hugs

Hundreds of residents showed up to the contentious meeting Monday night, with a majority speaking out against the proposed restrictions.

By Greg Owen Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Photo: Shutterstock

A local school board in Texas has adopted a sweeping new set of guidelines that ban discussion about the existence of transgender people – which they call “gender fluidity” – and critical race theory, prohibits the use of pronouns that aren’t aligned with the sex on a student’s birth certificate, and restricts use of restrooms and locker rooms, among other new prohibitions.

The new guidelines, approved by the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District near Dallas, are the result of a concerted campaign organized by conservative Christian group Patriot Mobile Action, which has spent millions of dollars electing conservative majorities to Texas school boards.

Hundreds of residents showed up to the contentious meeting Monday night, with a majority speaking out against the proposed restrictions.

BREAKING: the Grapevine-Colleyville school district board (GCISD), my hometown public school which recently elected a conservative majority, is proposing new guidelines for the district. This includes a ban on any discussion of what they define as "Gender Fluidity."

1/ pic.twitter.com/xFQn1f8omp
— steven ''italian elon musk'' monacelli (@stevanzetti) August 19, 2022

Among a far-right wish list of prohibitions, the new rules include guidance based on flawed definitions.

“Gender Fluidity” is defined in the text as “any theory or ideology that (1) espouses the view that biological sex is merely a social construct; (2) espouses the view that it is possible for a person to be any gender or none (i.e., non-binary); or (3) espouses the view that an individual’s biological sex should be changed to ‘match’ a self-believed gender that is different from the person’s biological sex.”

Gender fluidity is actually the idea that a person’s gender identity or expression can change over time. What the school board is calling gender fluidity is, in fact, the idea that transgender people exist at all.

Also, “nonbinary” means that a person isn’t male or female; it doesn’t necessarily mean they have no gender (that’s usually called agender).

The district also banned the use of pronouns for students and teachers “in any manner that is inconsistent with the biological sex of such person.” The district also limited the use of restrooms and other facilities to the one associated with a person’s gender on their “biological birth certificate.”

The district also banned teaching certain aspect of the history of racism in the U.S., specifically citing the 1619 Project and “critical race theory,” a catch-all term used by conservatives to describe teaching about racism in history.

Over a hundred people spoke in opposition to the proposal, including a United Methodist pastor who said the guidelines reflect a “fascist agenda” that does not represent Christian values.

A Patriot Mobile activist can be seen behind him.

Powerful speech at the GCISD school board meeting from a United Methodist pastor who describes the agenda being considered tonight as "fascist agenda" and says the conservative majority's behavior is not Christian.

31/ pic.twitter.com/rcfWrwGqQ9
— steven ''italian elon musk'' monacelli (@stevanzetti) August 23, 2022

Texas Karen calls cops over gay graphic novel

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/texas-karen-calls-cops-gay-graphic-novel/

I am other people have been saying since the start of the anti-LGBTQ+ stuff in schools this was about making the LGBTQ+ and every mention of us go away just like in Russia / China / Islamic countries. These people think that by doing this we LGBTQ+ people will disappear also. If not, they will ban us also again like in Russia / China /Islamic countries. One person feels entitled to ban everyone from reading this book. This entitlement and hate is driven by the top republican elected officials in the state. While this story is from Texas it is happening in Florida and other red states. These people will come after others not like them, the jews, Muslims, or other sects of Christianity when they get rid of the LGBTQ+. Think how much hate and privilege has been given to these haters in just a few years. I could list the reasons the republicans are pushing this hate and why the base is loving it but I have covered it many times before. Hugs

She’d already filed complaints about the book with the school district, but wasn’t satisfied with the outcome. She wanted to speak to a manager.

By Greg OwenTuesday, August 23, 2022

A police officer in Katy, Texas recently removed a copy of Mike Curato’s Flamer, a gay YA graphic novel, from a high school library shelf in the small town near Houston.

And then he put it back.

The school district kerfuffle was instigated by a local book-banning Karen, who remains anonymous.

The woman claimed the coming-of-age story, with a publisher’s recommended reading age of 14+ or with adult guidance, was “pornographic” and “harmful” to minors.

According to a Katy Independent School District police report, the one-woman dust-up started July 21 when she arrived at police headquarters (Texas school districts maintain their own police forces).

She complained that Katy ISD was violating Texas penal code 43.24, which “prohibits the sale, distribution or display of harmful material to minors,” because the book was available in high school libraries.

The woman said she’d already filed complaints about the book with the school district, but wasn’t satisfied with the outcome.

She wanted to speak to a manager.

Curato’s Flamer is a semi-autobiographical story about a boy navigating friendship and bullying at summer camp. It won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and made Texas’ own 2021 Maverick Graphic Novels Reading List of the Texas Library Association, among many other accolades.

The book had already been reviewed by a school district committee in March, and deemed appropriate for high-schoolers.

According to the police report, the woman said her complaint originated at Jordan High School in Katy, but the book was also in other high schools, so she wanted to “extend the grievance” to the entire district.

“Per Governor Abbott and the TEA, the book ‘Flamer’ should have been removed from KISD library shelves but it still remains,” the woman said in a follow-up email to police. “The KISD Police Report will be sent to the Texas Rangers office.”

According to Maria Corrales DiPetta, general manager of media relations for the district, that’s when a Katy ISD officer “checked out” the book as part of the investigation.

The school’s principal “explained that when ‘Flamer’ was initially complained on [sic], it was pulled from school library shelves, reviewed, permanently removed from junior high libraries, and then returned to high school libraries upon being deemed appropriate for high school,” the police report states.

A district deputy superintendent provided documents from the review process.

Katy ISD police deemed the Karen’s claim “unsubstantiated”.

“The book has gone through multiple review processes by the district, including one with a committee made up of librarians, parents, and teachers, and deemed appropriate for high school libraries,” the report reads. “The complainant also still has the opportunity to take her complaint before the KISD board.” Again.

A Houston Chronicle analysis found that in Katy ISD, 104 books were reviewed and 43 were removed or partially removed since 2018, making it one of the most restrictive school districts in the state.

NBC NEWS: Conservatives in Idaho target 400 library books — but the library doesn’t even own them

Conservatives in Idaho target 400 library books — but the library doesn’t even own them
After nine months on the job, the library director is quitting. “Nothing in my background could have prepared me for the political atmosphere of extremism,” she said.

Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/AWQXRopG7SHSeSG0LEzBMZA

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Rick Scott’s ill-timed Italian vacation

https://www.axios.com/2022/08/23/rick-scott-senate-republicans-vacation-italy

Photo: Anna Rose Layden/Getty Image

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is spending part of his congressional recess on a luxury yacht in Italy with his family after criticizing President Biden for vacationing in Delaware, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Scott is the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, whose job is to win back a GOP majority in the upper chamber. Republicans’ prospects for winning back the Senate have been worsening over the course of the summer, according to polling and analysis.

Scott is already under fire for his management of the committee.

Vacationing in Europe while Republicans face cash problems and rough headlines about their midterm chances could further hurt his standing with his GOP colleagues.

The big picture: Scott has been taking heat from Republican detractors who have criticized his job of recruiting strong candidates and managing the committee’s spending this cycle.

Republican candidates are underperforming across the Senate landscape. Trump-endorsed nominees are trailing in must-win states like Pennsylvania and Arizona. A top Republican super PAC was forced to spend $28 million backing author J.D. Vance’s campaign in GOP-friendly Ohio.

What they’re saying: NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline did not respond to requests for comment on Monday night after Axios spoke with three sources familiar with aspects of Scott’s itinerary.

Upon learning of Axios’ plans to publish, he said: “Sen. Scott took a couple days to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife and family – a trip that was planned more than a year ago.”

Driving the news: Scott mocked President Biden on Monday for vacationing in Delaware instead of working at the White House.

Another week of President Biden vacationing in Delaware vs. working at the White House.

If he loves to travel so much, I've got some suggestions as to where he should go next ⬇️
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) August 22, 2022

Between the lines: Scott has made unconventional decisions running the committee. The NRSC spent over $40 million early in the cycle, in part because many candidates have struggled to pay for television ads without help from outside organizations, draining the party of resources for the home stretch.

The committee canceled bookings in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Wisconsin last week, according to the Washington Post, forfeiting the cheaper rates that came from booking early.

Several of the key battlegrounds Republicans need to spend in — Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Philadelphia — are top media markets and expensive for ad buys.

The NRSC said the move was a result of the campaign seeking to stretch its money as far as possible, including by shifting funds around to do more “hybrid ads” — joint ads paid for by the candidate and the Senate GOP campaign arm.

That decision reduces the party’s advertising rates, but it also restricts the type of messages the ads can feature.

Scott has taken a hands-off approach to Republican primaries, not favoring any candidates in open contests.

Both Scott and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell were unable to recruit two popular governors — Arizona’s Doug Ducey and New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu — who would have faced better odds of flipping Democratic-held seats.

By the numbers: At the end of July, the NRSC reported just $23.2 million cash-on-hand. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reported $54.1 million in its account, more than double the GOP amount.

“We’ve spent more than $40 million on TV while the DSCC has spent $2 million dollars. If you spend money, you have less of it,” Hartline told Axios.

Zoom out: If House Republicans coast to victory while Senate Republicans fail to pick up the one seat necessary to win a majority, Scott is poised to be the GOP’s fall guy. It would be a rare setback for the Florida politician, who has beaten long odds before and boasts an undefeated record in his own campaigns.