Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)Photo: ShutterstockOn Monday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his Democratic opponent Charlie Crist went head to head in a debate, where Crist called DeSantis “the most anti-business governor I’ve ever seen” as a result of his battle to ban teachers from talking about LGBTQ issues.
“I’m pro-business I want to make sure we keep our businesses open. I’m not the governor who attacked Walt Disney World because they deigned to express their point of view.”
“I’m not the governor who attacked the cruise industry because they just wanted to make sure that their customers weren’t sick before they got on the boat. That’s you. You’re the most anti-business governor I’ve ever seen.”
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The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.Crist: I’m pro-business. I want to make sure we keep our businesses open. I’m not the Governor who attacked Walt Disney World.. I’m not the Governor who attacked the cruise industry.. that’s you. You’re the most anti-business Governor I’ve ever seen. pic.twitter.com/2WY1uqmEFh
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 25, 2022
After Crist’s dig about Disney, the audience laughed. He was referring to DeSantis’s war on the company after it spoke out against Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill that prohibits K-3 teachers from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom.
DeSantis not only continuously criticized the company in public, but he also oversaw the Florida legislature’s revocation of Disney’s decades-old special zoning agreement to punish them for speaking out for LGBTQ people by issuing a statement opposing the Don’t Say Gay law.
And last summer he battled with the cruise industry, banning them from requiring proof of vaccination from passengers. A federal court sided with a cruise line against DeSantis, saying that the state’s ban on vaccine passports violated the cruise line’s rights.
In July, he ordered his administration not to invest funds in “woke” corporations, prohibiting pension fund managers from using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings when deciding which companies to invest government funds into.
Crist’s dig at DeSantis accuses him of doing the exact opposite of what the Republican party – the alleged pro-business party – claims to support.
During the debate, DeSantis also would not commit to serving another full four-year term as governor, presumably because he is planning a 2024 presidential run.
DeSantis avoided Crist’s questions about 2024 and declared, “I know that Charlie is interested in talking about 2024 and Joe Biden, but I just want to make things very, very clear: The only worn-out old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist.”
Crist served one term as Florida’s Republican governor from 2007 to 2011. In 2010, he ran for Senate as an independent, and in 2012, he registered as a Democrat. In addition to being governor of Florida, he has been a state senator, attorney general, and the state’s education commissioner (all as a Republican). Until a few months ago, he was serving in Congress but resigned to focus on the gubernatorial race.
In the debate, he also took aim at DeSantis’s anti-trans and anti-abortion views.
DeSantis signed a 15-week abortion ban that has no exceptions for rape and incest, and he has repeatedly spoken out against trans youth. During the debate, he called gender-affirming care the practice of “mutilating” children.
“You think you know better than any physician or any doctor or any woman,” Crist said. “You need to lead by uniting people, not dividing them.”
Lets be honest what the furries thing is about. It is about attacking trans kids without using the word trans. It is adults mocking the idea of identifying with a different gender than your born identified sex. It is stupid and another example of the right making up something that is not happen and not real simply to create outrage to be offended over. Hugs
April 14, 2018, European furry walk at Volkspark Friedrichshain in Berlin Photo: ShutterstockA school board in North Carolina considered a proposal to ban furry costumes in schools after they say they received numerous complaints about students dressing up as animals and using litter boxes in school restrooms.
Jeff James, superintendent of Iredell-Statesville Schools, said that he’s spent hours responding to emails and messages on social media about the rumor. He said that the rumors are false and that there is no evidence that students are bringing litter boxes into school restrooms.
But that didn’t stop school board member Bryan Shomaker from supporting the proposal to ban ears, tails, gloves, collars, or full furry costumes from being worn in schools. The proposal has exceptions for school spirit days and theater.
“We’re trying to address it before it becomes a major problem,” he said at a school board meeting.
But some parents were angry that it was even being discussed.
“We have classrooms without teachers, and you’re wasting your time focusing on a kid at a Scotts Elementary Panthers basketball game who wants to wear a cat ear headband,” said parent Jean Foster.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on masks over the past few years,” a frustrated Foster told Queen City News after the meeting. “We’ve spent a lot of time talking about which books we are wanting to ban. All of that is a distraction from what’s important. This was just something else – something ludicrous.”
“You may not want it to be a distraction, but it was a distraction. A large distraction,” school board member Martin Page said.
Lincoln County Schools in North Carolina was also the subject of furry rumors.
“There is nobody identifying as a cat at North Lincoln High School and we have no litter boxes!!!” an employee wrote in a Facebook group. “Quit spreading this stupidity!”
A spokesperson for Lincoln County Schools told The Charlotte Observer that there have never been litter boxes in any of its schools.
An early example of the stories about students identifying as house pets and demanding litter boxes was Michigan activist Lisa Hansen. Because Hansen opposed federal regulations allowing trans students to use school restrooms matching their gender identities, she claimed that students who identify as cats were allowed to use litter boxes in one school’s unisex restroom.
A Michigan school superintendent was forced to write an email to parents debunking such a lie. An Oregon public school district superintendent was also forced to send a similar email after one social media user claimed that furries were wearing leashes and being petted by other students at local schools.
Nevertheless, the lie has been repeated by right-wingers, including by Nebraska Sen. Bruce Bostelman (R).
During a televised debate, Bostelman claimed that student “furries” were allowed to interact with teachers by meowing and barking. He also said that one student who was denied a litter box later defecated on a classroom floor. Bostelman later admitted that the story wasn’t true.
It has been spread online by anti-LGBTQ activists like Chaya Raichik of LibsofTikTok, when she pushed a lie that a second grade Texas schoolteacher encouraged students to become furries. The Austin school district disavowed the claim as misinformation.
Similarly, Christian hate pastor Aaron Thompson and anti-LGBTQ televangelist Andrew Wommack both said that schools allow students to identify as animals and demand litter boxes in classrooms. Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock also repeated the lie, as did Heidi Ganahl, the Republican candidate for governor of Colorado. She claimed that student “furries” are identifying as cats in over 30 different schools in the state.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has claimed that a father in Michigan told her that his son got into trouble when he stepped on the tail of a student who identified as a furry.
Reuters published a fact check in July that said there is “no evidence of them disrupting classrooms or schools developing a policy of including them as a formal identity.”
Earlier this month, conservative radio host Joe Rogan told former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) that he knows someone who knows someone who said that “there’s a girl who’s a furry, who identifies as an animal and her mother badgered the school until they agreed to put a litter box in one of the stalls.”
“So this girl goes into the litter room or to the girl’s room and urinates or whatever — I don’t know if she poops in it, that’s pretty gross.”
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/10/county-bans-volleyball-games-school-trans-student-team/
I want to point that the coaches said that the cis girls had hit the ball harder than the trans gender girl did. The anti-trans hate came through loud and clear, with one guy says no one should play against the team “based on their morals, ethics, and Christian upbringing.” These people were just waiting for an excuse to attack the trans girl. Despite the other teams wanting to play against the team with the trans girl, the coaches wanted to play against the team, despite the fact that the trans girl has been on the team for four years without any issues, the bigots claim this must be done to protect the girls. What a crock. They did not listen to any thing they were told instead wanting to show how bad the trans people are. They couldn’t stop the trans girl from playing so what they did was make sure her teammates couldn’t play, her entire team was not banned from anyone playing against them so that the team will turn on the trans girl and force her off the team. That is their out. Make the team do what they legally can not do. Hugs
Photo: ShutterstockNearly two months after a North Carolina girls’ high school volleyball game resulted in a one team’s player being “forcefully struck” by a spiked ball, and later a ban on playing any more games with the opposing team, a school board’s meeting notes reveal the opposing team’s high school is being barred from competing against county schools for allowing a transgender girl to play on their team.
On September 2, the two girls’ volleyball teams, from Hiwassee Dam High School in Cherokee County and Highlands School in Macon County, faced off at Highlands in an early evening match. A recording posted to high school sports site Maxpreps, published on September 9, reveals during one game, a player from Highlands spikes the ball from the near side of the court to Hiwassee, striking a player, who drops to the floor.
The video shows coaching staff attending to the Hiwassee player, while the Highlands players huddle, waiting for the outcome. Moments later, the injured player rises to her feet with the help of staff and walks off the court, cheered on by players and fans from both sides.
Two weeks later, the Cherokee County Board of Education met in regular session, where concerns over the incident were aired by attendees and principals from the district’s three high schools, including Hiwassee.
A statement issued by the board summed up the result: “On Wednesday (September 21, 2022) the Cherokee County Board of Education determined the varsity and junior varsity volleyball teams within Cherokee County’s high schools will not play the Highlands School volleyball teams due to safety concerns for Cherokee County Schools’ athletes.”
Those “safety concerns” centered on the player who spiked the ball, who is transgender.
It’s unclear from meeting notes how or when the player’s transgender status became known to the board.
“The competitive advantage issue certainly has to come up in any scenario with that type of transgender conversion, per se,” said school board vice-chair Jeff Martin, according to Christian Education First Alliance North Carolina. “I can tell you that the board wasn’t searching out this kind of thing. It was brought to our attention based on safety concerns.”
Board chair Arnold Mathews described the injured player as “forcefully struck” for Channel 9 News. Board member Jeff Tatham claimed the video of the injury was conclusive.
“The biggest thing for us, especially after seeing the video of the injury, we felt very strongly that it was a safety concern,” Tatham said. “I think most of the board members also felt like there’s a competitive advantage issue.”
Sentiment in the meeting was not universal. Joseph Watson, Athletic Director of Murphy High, advised the Board that feedback from his players and parents revealed the majority wanted to play Highlands and none of his parents expressed concerns. Jordan Lovingood, the school’s volleyball coach, said their school’s team had played against Highlands, including the player in question, for four years running, and that none of her players wanted to forfeit games against the school.
Another Murphy High volleyball coach, Amanda Johnson, said there was always risk of injury, no matter the player, and she’s seen other girls hit the ball harder than the one on the video. She added that a Murphy football player was recently injured playing on turf-field, and “because we aren’t used to playing on turf-fields, should we not play that game because it’s unsafe and our players aren’t used to that type field?” she asked, according to the board meeting notes.
Attendee Dean Shatley said that based on his conversation with the president of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, the president of the group was unaware of any other injuries resulting from athletic play with a transgender athlete.
But sentiment against the trans player and Highlands School was high. Andrews High School principal Lance Bristol said he would decline to play Highlands based on feedback about safety and fairness, and said, “AHS is willing to take that on and they will embrace it.”
Jason Murphy, a Republican running for a seat on the board in November’s election, said the board should vote on forfeiting all games against Highlands “based on their morals, ethics, and Christian upbringing.”
After additional discussion and comment, according to meeting notes, the board considered the question of allowing continued competition with the Highlands volleyball team. Jeff Tatham made a motion that “we as a county not participate in any upcoming games with varsity and junior varsity against Highlands due to safety concerns.” The motion was carried, 5-1.
When reached for comment, Murphy High volleyball coach Amanda Johnson, also a counselor at the school, told LGBTQ Nation, “I’m sorry. I cannot comment about that.” Highlands School principal Brian Jetter also declined to speak about the issue: “I don’t have any comment on that, but thanks for calling.” A message to Keesha Curtis, the lone dissenting vote on the Cherokee School Board to forfeit all games with Highlands School, went unanswered.
Damn it! Dogs that love gravy, thank you for the peace you gave. I am not sure how many hours I got without the screams, without the feelings, but it must have been 5 or more hours. I did so many things, I researched our voting ballot for tomorrow, I helped make supper, cleaned it all up and put the dishes in the dishwasher, helped James with his washing, folded and put away my left-over laundry, basically I kept busy. But the background sound of the abuse is starting to build up in the back of my mind. The muffled screams I wanted to make. I am starting to get concerned and wanting to shut it down before it rises to a level I have to deal with it. Again
People don’t understand what my life is like, why I insist on constant media input. This is why. I don’t want to hear my own cries of pain in my memories. I want to drive the memories back, to keep them at bay, hidden and the worst of them locked in a chest wrapped in chains then thrown into the deepest part of the ocean. Most of the time I succeed in that. Most of the time I am so busy with other issues, other demands that it is only a distant cry at the edge of my hearing. I can live with it like that.
But sometimes like recently and happening far more often, those cries get louder and activated by what I read or hear they burst the chains and come raging at me, threatening me, trying to take me over and then dragging me down into the abyss that is the memories of the past.
While writing this my apple watch went off with a high heart rate alert, when I looked at it was 133 beats a minute. That is well down from what it was earlier, but still spiking too high. James set up our phones for him to be notified when our health readings get too high / low so he keeps asking me if I am OK. What do I tell him. Ya sure I say, it must be an error of the watch I tell him. I took my watch off. How can I tell him the memories playing on a loop in my head? He doesn’t need that in his head, and even though he knows I was abused in my childhood what would he think hearing all this? Then I remember a decade ago when we were watching TV and something in a movie we were watching and a part came up about child sexual abuse came on the screen and he leaped off the couch and slammed the TV off later telling me he forgot that was in there. So he knows, but I don’t want him to know the details. I mean really who would right?
I have to go to bed, everything is done except replying to more comments, there is no more news I want to read. Yet I don’t want to go, and don’t feel tired. I know why. I am scared of what will happen if I sleep. The same thing that happened last night when I started thrashing around and first murmuring then letting out loud cries, Ron then woke me up. It is not worth going to bed to live that anymore. The doctors tell me they can give me medications but those don’t stop the memories, they simply stop me reacting to them. Anyway, good night, until I go to bed I am going to answer comments. Many warm hugs for all. I hope I can sleep
Scary, more and more Christian nationalists that have no idea of the true history of the US are forcing their way into schools, trying to force even more kids to think the US was founded as a Christain nation. The question is do they really believe this or were they taught this incorrectly in-home school or a Christian school or is this a plot by one of the Christian nationalist organizations to force more kids to be incorrectly taught. But does it matter? We are almost at a tipping point. The religionist have managed to get very close to taking over enough to change how history is taught in enough schools to make what they want become true. This is now become a crisis in the US, religion, specifically the Christian religion has tried for almost as long as the nation has existed to take over, and they are very much on the cusp of doing so. it terrifies me because I know how these people deal with those that they dislike or don’t agree with their god. Hugs
Oklahoma City’s ABC affiliate reports:
A new controversy has arisen surrounding the race for state superintendent. If elected, Republican Ryan Walters would have teachers undergo patriotic education offered by a conservative Christian college in Michigan.
Walters has said in the past students are not being taught U.S. history accurately and argued this could be a way to reverse the trend. His opponent, Jena Nelson, called the plan bizarre.
“They are now advocating that our students are not taught history but instead are taught indoctrination, instead taught this country is an evil place full of bigoted racists,” said Ryan Walters (R), candidate for state superintendent.
Read the full article. Watch the clip.
Misutaa Roboto • 4 hours ago • edited
If your history is full of idealized heroes, it’s not history, it’s mythology.
What he calls “true history” is nationalist mythology. He’s too fucking stupid to know the difference, and in Oklahoma, he’s likely to win simply by virtue of being a Republican.
Sarah Misutaa Roboto • 4 hours ago
It sounds like, I dunno…indoctrination. But that can’t be right, ’cause he’s against that!
Octoberfurst Misutaa Roboto • 4 hours ago
That’s what I can’t stand! These white nationalists want a sanitized view of America where everything was sunshine and lollipops. It’s a land where everybody loved Jesus and the Native Americsns are only mentioned when talking about the first Thanksgiving and, sure we had slavery, but it wasn’t so bad and everything was great for Black people after the Civil War. Ugh.
Gianni Octoberfurst • 3 hours ago
But it absolutely has to begin with how America was founded as a Christian nation. THAT”S the history they’ll use to start. From there, it’ll be whatever Christian bullshit and nuttiness they can toss in to THE history.
(((GC))) – End the filibuster! Gianni • 2 hours ago
As James Huber points out:
…The Founding Fathers had no reason to be vague. There was no ACLU, no “Activist judges.” If they had wanted a Christian Nation they could have written:
God Almighty, in Order to form a true Christian Nation, establish Divine Justice, insure adherence to His Laws, provide for the defense of His Church, promote His Word, and secure His Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, has led us to ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Instead they wrote:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
…
While not the point this gets graphic at some points. This is what I am going through today and my feelings. Right now after I wrote this and sat here before I posted it, I realized this could really trigger some people. I am also suddenly aware that there are people who could read this with my experiences and it would hurt them to read it. This started as a way to express my losing my mind and going crazy with my memories and thoughts. I ended up writing more of the abuse. I helped me calm down and adjust. Hugs and love to all, but some may want to skip this post.
________________________________________________________________________________________
I am struggling not to lose my mind. I can hardly function. In my mind the abuse event I wrote about where one of the boys in the home I grew up in who I think was at least 6 years older than me violently hurt raped me. It replays like a porn show in my head, a child rape movie only the star was me. I am reliving the feelings, the pleading I did, the promises I tried to make, I am replaying every moment in my mind on a loop, the pain, what he said, and that it was not the first or last time he used me … and I may soon go crazy. Most times I can push it back, push it away.
I tried to push it away by diving into the news. I couldn’t get out of bed this morning, Ron was stunned I was still laying there awake at nearly 8 AM. I have tried leaving the computer to do housework, but … It is still there playing over and over and over. My feelings of helplessness. Not being able to change what I knew was coming. How suddenly it happened that night, how angry he was. I turned on the Majority Report to get progressive news to try to clear my mind and they had a segment on the republicans trying to introduce a federal don’t say gay bill based on the Florida bill. It wouldn’t have protected me in anyway as a kid, but it would basically make me a gay man illegal in public.
I have to look up the Florida ballot information because we are going to vote tomorrow. I cannot think, I can’t process. The feelings are surging and cascading over me. Normally I could get him to let me use a lubricant like hand lotion or anything because he did not care as long as he got to fuck me and cum. I don’t know what happened that day or night to him, but whatever it was he wanted me to pay for it. Lucky for me it was not my first time with a hurt rape. Hell not my first time with being raped, it happened a lot to me back then. Shit what a statement to have to write. And to tell the truth most of the time being raped with a chance to put something on it was better than being hit, better than having a belt used on me until I shrank as much into a corner or wall as best I could.
One summer in Canada almost every afternoon I was locked in a barn and chased around by a couple with canes until they cornered me and hit me until I was curled up on the ground, then forced to give the man a blowjob. I tried to cut out the beating but they wanted that part. Every inch of me seemed to hurt that summer.
Once I couldn’t stop it and knew that pleas and promises wouldn’t change things … once I felt it start, I knew how to relax my anus, to try to keep it from ripping or tearing me. It hurt and he wanted that, he wanted to see me try to hold in my pain and any scream. For me to scream or yell would be worse for me, anyone who came to see wouldn’t help me and might join in. In my mind I hear and feel every anguished cry that I struggled to contain. My apple watch has gone off repeatedly today with alerts with high heart rates.
I am calmer right now. I am struggling to remember my age then, it was either 8 or 9 I think. I want to sleep, I want my mind to stop. Writing this post seems to have calmed me down some. I am going to go empty the dryer that just went off and fold the clothing. I am hoping desperately the memories will stop or change to something better. I am not sure I can stand to keep living this. I use to have a cat that would seem to know when I was having these memory loops and come be all over me. I need him now. Hugs
**edit note, before I posted this I went back and added a note at the beginning. I don’t want to hurt anyone else who may also be suffering. Hugs**
Scottie's Playtime 