Hard labor and humiliating abuse alleged at Wyoming teen ranches
Two Christian programs are accused of forcing troubled teens to do heavy farm work. One man says he was branded with a cross. Three women say they were tied to a goat as a punishment.
Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/Ajon-rynQS_SLMwCvHw-b4w
Shared from Apple News
10.5 million children were orphaned or lost a primary caregiver due to COVID, study finds
A study published Tuesday estimates that 10.5 million children worldwide lost a primary caregiver or were orphaned due to COVID-19.
Read in USA TODAY: https://apple.news/AcZn1UTVwQMqa_YZP3-yiwg
Shared from Apple News
These religious nationalist won’t be happy until the LGBTQ+ are driven from society. First we must be returned to a state of no rights or protection, then made illegal all over the land. This kind of hate is weird. People need to defend the rights of the LGBTQ+ or next it will be you they come for. These people think the Handmaids Tale is a guidebook. Hugs
The Advocate reports:
A federal judge in Texas has ruled partially in favor of plaintiffs that argued that requiring insurance companies to cover medications for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, violates their rights on religious grounds.
Jonathan Mitchell, who founded a one-person law firm in 2018 intending to challenge decades-old Supreme Court rulings, brought the case Braidwood Management Inc., vs. Xavier Becerra, in the Northern District of Texas.
There, United States district judge Reed O’Conner ruled in favor of plaintiffs who argued that paying for insurance that covers PrEP violates their religious beliefs because PrEP “enable[s and encourages] homosexual behavior.”
Read the full article.
The Dallas Morning News reported in July:
Right now, a half dozen cases on everything from insurance coverage for HIV prevention to employment discrimination and same-sex marriage are wending their way through state and federal courts here. Their outcomes could radically alter rights for LGBTQ people in Texas and across the country.
The lawsuits all have one thing in common: former Texas solicitor general Jonathan Mitchell. Best known as the man behind the state law that allows Texans to file civil lawsuits against people who help pregnant people get abortions, Mitchell opened up a law firm in Austin four years ago with the goal of systematically dismantling decades of court rulings he believes depart from the U.S. Constitution.
Again, the faith and sincerely held religious beliefs of the people using these drugs is trampled and ignored. If we’re going to become a country where the only thing that matters is “religious beliefs,” then WHOSE religious beliefs will take precedence?
What, me worry? weshlovrcm • 25 minutes ago
Well here’s where we’re going. The checker at your local grocery or drug store can now refuse to sell you condoms because of their religious fantasies.
Over half the people living with HIV contracted the virus through non-homosexual activities.
Nemerah S. clay • 24 minutes ago
“Sorry sir, we can’t condone homosexual behavior.”
“But I’m straight.”
“Sorry, you’re gay by osmosis.”
Liberal Canadian • 33 minutes ago
I didn’t realize an insurance company could have religious beliefs.
Raising_Rlyeh Liberal Canadian • 2 minutes ago
In this case it’s not the insurance company. This fuckface found a bunch of backwards fucking hicks that didn’t want to pay for an insurance plan that covers PREP or birth control and found an insanely conservative judge. They’re are suing to deny people life saving medications
amy cuscuriae The_Wretched • 34 minutes ago
Legislating from the bench is all right if you are a MAGA Federalist Society judge.
Bob’s Your Uncle – BYU • 29 minutes ago
“enabling homosexual behavior”.
Why Straight People Need to Talk More About PrEP
https://www.healthline.com/…
The CDC also recommends taking PrEP if you’re heterosexual and you don’t regularly use condoms during sex with people whose HIV status is unknown. You can also talk to your doctor to find out if you should take PrEP.
Because The virus that supposedly carries god’s judgment can’t infect heterosexuals?
“United States district judge Reed O’Conner ruled in favor of plaintiffs who argued that paying for insurance that covers PrEP violates their religious beliefs because PrEP ‘enable[s and encourages] homosexual behavior.’”
I would say that this judge’s ruling violates my religious beliefs of treating others as we would want to be treated. His ruling violates my religious belief that one should not use the excuse of religious belief to impose their beliefs on everyone else.
Jonathan doesn’t seem to realize that HIV drugs are not only used by those people he hates.
What, me worry? • 29 minutes ago
For one thing, homosexual behavior is no longer illegal.
clay What, me worry? • 23 minutes ago
Those two are working on changing that, as well.
Yes, our khristian nationalists would prefer that anyone with HIV just die, because they don’t want the 1 cent of their annual insurance coverage to give you medications.
clay Tim H Patter • 29 minutes ago
Oh, it goes beyond anyone with HIV. They include anyone who might be on the receiving end of body fluids from someone with detectable HIV to die, as well. For instance, they want prison medical staff to just die (or quit).
https://apnews.com/article/oath-keepers-leaked-membership-rolls-2ca4195ed3a10e45dd189bf98f3e5a26
Do not think the police will be standing up to protect your civil rights, your rights as a woman, your rights if you are black or a person of color, or your rights as an LGBTQ+ person. Most police are on the right, and many law enforcement at all levels are trump maga cult members. Large numbers of the police are part of the gang of thugs used as enforcers by the white Christian nationalists. I posted before how many white supremacist gangs tried to join and run police forces across the country. Hugs
1 of 22 of 2The names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group that’s accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to a report released Wednesday.
The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists and identified more than 370 people it believes currently work in law enforcement agencies — including as police chiefs and sheriffs — and more than 100 people who are currently members of the military.
It also identified more than 80 people who were running for or served in public office as of early August. The membership information was compiled into a database published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets.
The data raises fresh concerns about the presence of extremists in law enforcement and the military who are tasked with enforcing laws and protecting the U.S. It’s especially problematic for public servants to be associated with extremists at a time when lies about the 2020 election are fueling threats of violence against lawmakers and institutions.
“Even for those who claimed to have left the organization when it began to employ more aggressive tactics in 2014, it is important to remember that the Oath Keepers have espoused extremism since their founding, and this fact was not enough to deter these individuals from signing up,” the report says.
Appearing in the Oath Keepers’ database doesn’t prove that a person was ever an active member of the group or shares its ideology. Some people on the list contacted by The Associated Press said they were briefly members years ago and are no longer affiliated with the group. Some said they were never dues-paying members.
“Their views are far too extreme for me,” said Shawn Mobley, sheriff of Otero County, Colorado. Mobley told the AP in an email that he distanced himself from the Oath Keepers years ago over concerns about its involvement in the standoff against the federal government at Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, among other things.
The Oath Keepers, founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, is a loosely organized conspiracy theory-fueled group that recruits current and former military, police and first responders. It asks its members to vow to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” promotes the belief that the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties and paints its followers as defenders against tyranny.
More than two dozen people associated with the Oath Keepers — including Rhodes — have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Rhodes and four other Oath Keeper members or associates are heading to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors have described as a weekslong plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power. Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers say that they are innocent and that there was no plan to attack the Capitol.
The Oath Keepers has grown quickly along with the wider anti-government movement and used the tools of the internet to spread their message during Barack Obama’s presidency, said Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim deputy director of research with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. But since Jan. 6 and Rhodes’ arrest, the group has struggled to keep members, she said.
That’s partly because Oath Keepers had been associated so strongly with Rhodes that the removal of the central figure had an outsized impact, and partly because many associated with the group were often those who wanted to be considered respectable in their communities, she said.
“The image of being associated with Jan. 6 was too much for many of those folks,” she said.
Among the elected officials whose name appears on the membership lists is South Dakota state Rep. Phil Jensen, who won a June Republican primary in his bid for reelection. Jensen told the AP he paid for a one-year membership in 2014 but never received any Oath Keepers’ literature, attended any meetings or renewed his membership.
Jensen said he felt compelled to join because he “believed in the oath that we took to support the US Constitution and to defend it against enemies foreign and domestic.” He wouldn’t say whether he now disavows the Oath Keepers, saying he doesn’t have enough information about the group today.
“Back in 2014, they appeared to be a pretty solid conservative group, I can’t speak to them now,” he said.
ADL said it found the names of at least 10 people who now work as police chiefs and 11 sheriffs. All of the police chiefs and sheriffs who responded to the AP said they no longer have any ties to the group.
“I don’t even know what they’re posting. I never get any updates,” said Mike Hollinshead, sheriff of Idaho’s Elmore County. “I’m not paying dues or membership fees or anything.”
Hollinshead, a Republican, said he was campaigning for sheriff several years ago when voters asked him if he was familiar with the Oath Keepers. Hollinshead said he wanted to learn about the group and recalls paying for access to content on the Oath Keepers’ website, but that was the extent of his involvement.
Benjamin Boeke, police chief in Oskaloosa, Iowa, recalled getting emails from the group years ago and said he believes a friend may have signed him up. But he said he never paid to become a member and doesn’t know anything about the group.
Eric Williams, police chief in Idalou, Texas, also said in an email that he hasn’t been a member or had any interaction with the Oath Keepers in over 10 years. He called the storming of the Capitol “terrible in every way.”
“I pray this country finds its way back to civility and peace in discourse with one another,” he said.
BYU students and others dressed as angels. (YouTube/Latter Gay Stories)
A group of “angel” defenders protected LGBTQ+ Brigham Young University students from protesters who targeted a Pride event.
Utah’s Brigham Young University (BYU) students were confronted by protesters on Saturday (3 September) during a scheduled “Back to School Pride Night” that included an all-ages drag show.
The hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ protesters reportedly screamed homophobic slurs and some had even brought handguns, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
But things took a turn after a group of counter-protesters appeared in white cloaks and wings made of sheets.
They formed a protective barrier around the group of rainbow-wearing students.
BYU student and “angel” Sabrina Wong told the Tribune: “I’m doing this because I want our LGBTQ community to feel like they can be themselves and know we have their backs.”
The religious university, which is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon church, disallows LGBTQ+ students from meeting on campus in organised groups.
It forbids same-sex dating on campus (despite removing the official policy in 2020), potentially violating several civil rights clauses according to Associated Press.
The group of protesters included former and current BYU students ,who described gender dysphoria as a “social contagion“. Others screamed various slurs at the group, including saying they were “going against God”.
“This shouldn’t be at a public park,” co-founder of the informal BYU conservative group Thomas Stevenson said.
The “Back to School Pride Night” was organised by the RaYnbow Collective, a local group focused on creating safe spaces for LGBTQ+ BYU students and staff.
It was a spin-off of the usual annual Pride event for new students of BYU, this time also featuring a family-friendly drag show that included BYU students as performers.
RaYnbow Collective’s founder Maddison Tenney was told by police to expect large anti-LGBTQ+ crowds ahead of the event.
“Religion has been weaponised against the queer community for a long time,” she said. “But that needs to end. I believe there’s nothing more divine than who I am as a queer child of God.”
Tenney initially thought of the angel costumes after seeing them being used by friends of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in 1999.
Shepard died six days after being beaten, tortured, and left hanging from a fence by two homophobic men, who were eventually sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.
The tactic was used to block signs by members of the Westboro Baptist Church that read “God hates f*gs” from public view using the wings as a cover. It has become a common tactic by pro-LGBTQ+ religious groups, including at the funerals for the victims of the Orlando LGBTQ+ nightclub shooting in 2016.
Notice the main antagonist against the gay man was a white supremacist. The same people who support the republicans and the many of the elected republicans also are. Hugs
Photo: ShutterstockAccording to a gay, former paramedic for Denver Health, the city’s largest health services provider has been corrupted by a “culture of discrimination, retaliation, sexism, [and] racism, and it “needs to stop.”
The paramedic, Jordan Christensen, filed a lawsuit alleging he faced serial harassment and discrimination from his superiors in Denver Health’s Paramedic Division due to his sexual orientation.
The suit follows a string of others filed by employees since 2017, including a whistleblower complaint and one alleging retaliation for calling out racial discrimination.
Christensen, who worked at Denver Health since 2012, was fired in January. His complaint details a litany of abuse.
Christensen was the object of harassment by one superior in particular. Lt. Christopher Pattinson, since fired for stealing fentanyl, would disparage the paramedic’s appearance with comments like, “Do they make those pants in a man’s size?”
Another mocked Christensen by saying, “Oh that’s right, you wouldn’t have kids.” According to Christensen, the same superior flashed a white power sign in a photo taken during an awards ceremony for a Black paramedic.
Christensen said the abuse started in earnest after he came out on social media.
“I always felt nervous for my job, and I always felt like I was doing something wrong,” he told Denver7 News. “I felt humiliated in front of my coworkers many times. It was embarrassing to be singled out.”
According to the suit, Denver Health brought in outside investigators to address growing complaints among staff in 2019. One investigator “encouraged Mr. Christensen to complain to the Defendant’s HR department and retain counsel due to the ongoing harassment.” Christensen claims his reports were ignored and the harassment only got worse. He also alleges he was singled out for disciplinary action while co-workers escaped scrutiny for the same actions.
Spencer Kontnik, Christensen’s attorney, said the hospital turned a “blind eye” to the paramedic’s complaints in violation of its own anti-discrimination policies.
“It was so egregious to the extent that Mr. Christensen started waiting in his car and hiding in his car before he went into work so he didn’t have to deal with that type of harassment,” the attorney said.
According to the suit, the abuse only ended with Christensen’s termination, when the paramedic was accused of mistreating a patient.
“I was treating a patient with superiors, including Lt. Chris Pattinson,” Christensen recounted. “I was brought up to discuss that call by myself without them, and I was terminated. We were all three actively treating the exact same patient who ultimately walked out of the hospital, gave us a hug and actually thanked us for the treatment that we provided her.”
“We want Denver Health to be held accountable for what it did,” said Christensen’s attorney. “He lost his career. He lost his profession.”
And the republican’s in office and the republican candidates for office keep stoking the anger of their rabid gang enforcer brownshirt thugs, knowing those thugs will attack the legal events of the LGBTQ+. This result is the point, this violence against the LGBTQ+ is what they want. When they did not want women to use their legal rights to abortion they tried to use violence and threats made in anger stoked by the republicans in office. Now they got their way in the Supreme Court on taking away that civil right, so they are coming after the LGBTQ+ to take away their civil rights. Notice the police released the thugs who attacked the event with the goal of shutting it down. I posted a few weeks ago where the police attacked the counter protestors who were LGBTQ+ at a white pride event when the Proud Boys started to attack the LGBTQ+ counter protestors. The police have members that are part of these militia gang thug groups. It is likely they wont protect the LGBTQ+ community no matter what. Hugs
Chris Reyes Photo: Screenshot/News to ShareProtests outside an LGBTQ Pride event in Riverside, California erupted into violence on Sunday, leading to the arrest of at least one local far-right extremist.
The Inland Empire Pride Festival, held inside the Riverside Municipal Auditorium, was organized by local group Riverside LGBTQ+ Pride and was reportedly the first local Pride event since 2009. Inside the venue, the event featured live music, entertainment, dancing, panel discussions, information on the history of the LGBTQ community, and a youth program, according to The Press-Enterprise.
Outside, however, anti-LGBTQ protesters, led by local extremist Chris Reyes, clashed with local anti-fascist counter protesters. Video posted on YouTube by News2Share shows protesters, including Reyes, brawling on the street in front of the auditorium. The anti-LGBTQ protesters can be seen holding signs and banners with messages like, “No disgusting pedos/groomers” and “Pedophilia is not a sexual orientation.”
One particularly bellicose protester even seems to identify himself as gay while hurling profanity and slurs at festival attendees.
Reyes, who was reportedly an organizer of July’s far-right “Freedom Fest” in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended the “Stop the Steal” rally leading to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, was arrested following the fight. According to News2Share’s Ford Fischer, Reyes was later released.
Opposition on social media prior to Riverside’s Inland Empire Pride Festival led local police to increase security around the event.
The Riverside festival was just the latest Pride event to attract far-right protesters in recent months. Family friendly events like drag story hours at local libraries have been a particular target for groups like the Proud Boys.
In June, dozens of members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front were arrested on their way to disrupt an Idaho Pride event. According to a study by The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), incidents of political violence targeting the LGBTQ community this year have already exceeded the total number of attacks reported in 2021.
This is what the theocratic right wing religious republicans want for the US. They have already passed laws that say this for schools, but instead of death is loss of job and large sums of money. However I have posted enough hate preachers that want gay people stoned to death and the laws of the country to match the moral precepts of their holy book written with the understandings of humans 2,500 years ago. Hugs
Zahra Sediqi HamedaniPhoto: ScreenshotIran’s Revolutionary Court of Urmia has sentenced two prominent LGBTQ activists to death.
According to the Hengaw Human Rights Organization, which reports on human rights violations in the Kurdistan region, 31-year-old Zahra Sediqi Hamedani and 24-year-old Elham Chubdar, were accused by the Urmia Public Prosecutor’s Office in January of “Corruption on Earth” through “promoting homosexuality,” “promoting Christianity,” and “communicating with the media opposing the Islamic Republic.”
Hamdani, who goes by “Sareh” and is a member of the LGBTQ community, was arrested in October 2021 by intelligence forces from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp while attempting to flee to Turkey. “I am journeying toward freedom now,” she said in a video recorded before she tried to leave Iran. “If I don’t make it, I will have given my life for this cause.”
Hamdani was held in solitary confinement for two months at the intelligence detention center of the IRGC in Urmia before being transferred to the women’s ward of the Urmia Central Prison.
Both women have been informed of their sentences. According to Gay Times, Iran’s judiciary claims Hamdani and Chubdar were charged with “human trafficking offenses.”
Following Hamdani’s arrest and imprisonment, Amnesty Iran tweeted that “The criminalization of LGBTI people perpetuates violence & discrimination against them.”
The organization also renewed its call on Iran to decriminalize same-sex sexual conduct, release all those detained on the basis of their identity or for defending LGBTQ rights, and adopt legislation to respect and protect the human rights of LGBTQ people.
This is a flat out lie that has been repeatedly debunked. In fact back in the beginning of this year a republican candidate for office used that as a campaign point and had to admit after the campaign event that it was all a lie. It was started by an anti-trans activist, surprise surprise. Marge Greene knows that it is a lie, but she wants to stoke anti-trans anger and is making a point about how dangerous the left is for kids. She knows what she is doing, that what she is doing could get a rabid right wing maga thug to go hurt / assault a trans person. Not to mention she also is stoking hate for a government civil servant, Dr. Fauci whom the right doesn’t like because he speaks the truth. Hugs
Marjorie Taylor Greene scratched up a litter box of lies on Saturday in cameo appearances at Donald Trump’s latest “Save America” rally in Pennsylvania.
The MAGA meet-up, which took place in Wilkes-Barre in the northeast part of the state near Scranton, filled the 10,000 seat arena with superfans of the former president and his picks for senate and governor in the Keystone State, Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano.
In a pre-show interview outside the Mohegan Sun Arena, Greene perpetuated at least two long-debunked myths.
In an interview with the Right Side Broadcasting Network, Greene ran with the correspondent’s story of a school in Texas, where officials purportedly added a litter box option in a restroom to accommodate children identifying as furries. While the interviewer laughed and said “I thought it was from the Onion,” he nevertheless described the thinly-veiled attempt at anti-trans rhetoric as “Absolutely true.” Greene was all-in.
“If some student wants to pretend like a cat and use a litter box after school, that’s their prerogative, but the school and school resources and the other students and teachers should not have to be put through that because it’s a lie.”
“We have to reject them,” said Greene of the children pretending to be cats. “It’s not about people’s feelings. It’s about the truth and rejecting the lies and we have to stand up.”
The litter box story was introduced in January in Michigan, not Texas, by GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock, who was in the news at the time for her role in the fake electors scandal in the state. A school superintendent swatted down the false rumor, but by that time right-wing “Libs of TikTok” scowl Chaya Raichik had launched the lie into infamy.
Outside, Greene whipped up the crowd with more anti-trans rhetoric directed at the Biden administration’s assistant secretary for health and the nation’s highest ranking trans official.
“How do you guys feel about Dr. Rachel Levine?” Greene shouted to rally-goers.
“That’s a man, not a woman,” one attendee said. “We know the difference,” another added.
Greene continued: “He supports children having sex change surgeries. This is what Fetterman supports,” Greene said of the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania governor. “I don’t think that’s mainstream, do you? It’s child abuse.”
Levine does not support gender-affirming surgeries for minors.
Inside, Greene also perpetuated the lie that Biden stole the 2020 election.
“President Trump won the 2020 election,” she shouted to gleeful screams of approval. “That’s right. We know President Trump won.”
Greene added variously: Wind turbines “will plunge us into darkness,” “Biden has “ripped open the border,” and, “You better bet we are going to fire Nancy Pelosi. I’ve never liked her anyways.”
Still obsessed with fading pandemic lockdowns and mandates, Greene also had a warning for Dr. Anthony Fauci, should Republicans retake the House: “He thinks he’s gonna retire. Let me tell you something. I think that man belongs in jail.”
The crowd roared in approval.
Scottie's Playtime 