This afternoon is grand and I am so happy. Last night I couldn’t sleep because of pain and muscle spasms. I got up at 4 AM after not sleeping. But after everyone was up I went back to bed and got some sleep while Ron and James went to a warehouse store to shop.
Why is this afternoon so grand? Because I am sitting here at my desk while the guys work in the kitchen and we are together because it is the open concept I love. The guys got huge blocks of cheese and meats at good prices and are using the slicer to slice it and put it in the vacuum freezer bags. As they are working and I am on the computer everyone is talking and joking, sometimes teasing each other, making jokes, having fun. Such a difference from my childhood. There is no anger in the room, no fear of saying the wrong thing, no stress or anxiety. No violence or even harsh orders given. Just three people in a room with two working on their thing, me working on mine, everyone talking, joking, laughing, making mistakes and helping each other, James cutting me slices of things and bringing me them. I wish as a kid I had known such kinds of families could exist. It is so uplifting and makes me so happy. In a few months I will be 60 years old, I am still grappling with my abusive childhood. I am still just in love with how it can be, enjoying these times, enjoying the daily love, the concern from each of us towards each other. I still cry for the abused boy in my memories, and I wish I could tell him how good it will be a lifetime from then. How withstanding, taking all the hurt and harm will one day lead to a home where he is safe, loved, protected, and happy. Hugs
As the article says, this building hate is not happening in a vacuum. It is also not a natural happening phenomenon. It is being drive, the outrage stoked, the anger directed at trans, gays, drag queens by the republicans in office and the right wing media. Social media right wing influencers have found it is their way to fame. Matt Walsh has made a career out trans bashing and trans misinformation. Before he did that he was an unknown but shot to fame once he targeted the trans people. Libs of TT wouldn’t have any fame if they were not the darlings of the right by increasing the hate and outrage with lies against the LGBTQI+ especially the trans people. These people are not the real funders of this hate. That is the dark money republican / extremely far right think tanks funded by dark money. The same people trying to create a Theocracy, the same people trying to get rid of democracy, the same people trying to make the US another Russian style government. There is billionaire money behind this to drive the country into a regressive point in time and into a morality these people think really existed but never was true. Plus foreign countries also try to increase the hate and outrage to drive chaos in the US to weaken us as their competitors. We need every online person to do their best to fight this or there will be much more deaths. Hugs
Henry Berg-Brosseau, a prominent transgender rights advocate and the son of Kentucky Sen. Karen Berg has died at the age of 24. His death was confirmed by the Democratic lawmaker in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
“Last Friday morning my son Henry died by suicide. He was a beloved son, brother, nephew, dog parent and friend,” she wrote. “The depth of his loss is yet to be absorbed.”
Berg-Brosseau, who was trans, served as the deputy press secretary for politics at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. Part of his job was to deal with the “hateful and vile anti-trans messaging being circulated around this country on a daily basis,” according to his mother.
“This hate building across the country weighed on him. In one of our last conversations, he wondered if he was safe walking down the street,” she wrote.
“The vitriol against trans people is not happening in a vacuum,” she added. “It has real-world implications for how transgender people view their place in the world and how they are treated as they just try to live their lives.”
Born in Louisville, Ky., the young activist began his short, yet impactful advocacy career as a student at Louisville Collegiate School, where he organized a protest against so-called LGBTQ “conversion therapy,” spoke to the Kentucky Senate Education Committee, and participated in other “local and national causes,” according to an online obit.
Henry Berg-Brousseau
“Henry was first and foremost a fighter and an advocate. He was fighting for transgender rights as a teenager in Kentucky, far earlier than he should have had to,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.
“Losing Henry is an unfathomable loss to the Human Rights Campaign family,” Robinson said, describing Berg-Brosseau as “a light” and a “deeply passionate, deeply engaged, and deeply caring” co-worker who will always be remembered for “his hunger for justice.”
The funeral is scheduled for Wednesday, 1 p.m., local time, in Louisville, Ky.
Thank you Ten Bears for posting this. This short video makes clear what is happening to cause some places to have much higher temperatures and other places to have much lower temperatures. It is easy to understand and shows that the issues we are having with and due to weather are directly related to the warming planet. Hugs
Play the video, funny, cute, and throws huge shade at someone. Hugs
Last night at the White House, a little girl interrupted the closing music for the Biden's Hanukkah party speech to ask him "How do I become president?" He took back the mic and answered: "Know who you want to help, and know what you'd rather lose the election than do." pic.twitter.com/70jqn9GL7E
And they are going after schools with bombs to protect the children. They shut down hospitals denying children with cancer treatment to protect the children. They scream vile threats with disgusting accusations using words most parents try to keep from their children in front of kids leaving them in tears and afraid because their parents took them to read a story read by a man in costume, all to protect the children. Do you see their real goal? They don’t care about the children. They want the morality of a distant past enforced just like the US Christian Taliban. They want the gays, lesbians (they might get a pass with the straight men), trans people, and all the rest of the LGBTQI+ gone. Totally gone. Think of it. Out of sight, not talked about, not accepted, targeted when discovered, mob rule. Oh yes the enforcers of the right the Proud Boys also got involved. People need to see what is happening openly in the US where now in some states some people’s rights are curtailed and fear is spread by force from a regressive right. Hugs
Far-right group Project Veritas published an edited, undercover video implying students were being indoctrinated into queer sex.
The Francis W. Parker School in Chicago was evacuated last week after a bomb threat was emailed to administrators.
The threat came after far-right activist group Project Veritas published a highly edited, undercover video implying students at the elite K-12 school in Lincoln Park were being indoctrinated into queer sex.
Chicago police said the emailed threat warned that a bomb would be placed on school grounds. The school’s security team determined the message “originated from out of the country,” officials said.
Administrators emailed parents on Monday afternoon: “After an extensive search by the authorities, we write to let you know that the campus has been cleared by the Chicago Police Department. Our campus is safe.”
Project Veritas posted the video on December 7, five days before the threat was emailed. The video “report” was picked up by right-wing media, including Fox News and Chaya Raichik’s Libs of TikTok.
Sean Hannity opened his show the next evening with a Fox News Alert and the ominous warning: “The woke indoctrination of your children continues.”
In the video, the Parker School’s Dean of Students, Joseph Bruno, speaks candidly with an undercover Project Veritas operative about a lesson presented by a local LGBTQ+ health center during Pride month about queer sexual health, including the use of sex toys. The lesson was optional and attended by students who expressed interest in the subject, a fact not mentioned in the video.
Bruno also talks about a visit to the school by a drag queen.
The group promoted the video with a series of hashtags including #ButtPlugDean and #ExposeGroomers.
The same day Project Veritas published the highly edited conversation, Libs Of TikTok reposted it with an equally misleading headline: “Dean in Chicago, IL school brags about handing out dildos, butt plugs, and lube to students while teaching them about queer sex. He also brought in a drag queen to perform for students.”
On December 8, Project Veritas leader James O’Keefe stalked Bruno at the school’s entrance and dragged parents and staff.
Soon after, the local Proud Boys chapter and far right-wing advocacy group Awake Illinois began promoting the story. Awake Illinois first came to prominence protesting school mask mandates and the unfounded issue of teaching Critical Race Theory to children. The Proud Boys Northern Illinois chapter doxxed Bruno on Telegram, posting his phone number and email address.
The Parker School was forced to take down its Twitter account after being deluged with online attacks.
Both Project Veritas and O’Keefe were banned from Twitter last year for posting misleading content. The platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, recently reinstated both.
Parker School student @leilaclaire summed up the chain of events in a Twitter post over the weekend:
“On Thurs Project Veritas (amplified by Libs of TT) snuck into my high school and recorded a teacher, edited the hell out of it, and chased him/released his info.”
“On Mon, the school received a bomb threat. Yesterday, the PV founder was unbanned.
“So, yes Elon, tell us of your jet.”
On Thurs Project Veritas (amplified by Libs of TT) snuck into my high school and recorded a teacher, edited the hell out of it, and chased him/released his info.
On Mon, the school received a bomb threat. Yesterday, the PV founder was unbanned. So, yes Elon, tell us of your jet. pic.twitter.com/veeKirs6HO
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to continue wielding his political influence in school board races across the state after his campaign helped two dozen conservative candidates win during this year’s midterm elections.
The Republican governor this week said he intends to flip more local seats from liberal to conservative-leaning education officials, taking aim at boards in areas such as Broward and Hillsborough counties that have pushed back against Republican policies.
Speaking at a school board training event he hosted in Orlando on Monday, DeSantis criticized “obnoxious” board members who went against the state and some parents by passing mask mandates for students amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read the full article. Speakers at the event included Betsy DeVos and the founders of the far-right anti-LGBTQ group, Moms For Liberty.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to flip more local school board seats from liberal to conservative-leaning education officials after his campaign helped two dozen conservative candidates win in this year’s midterms. https://t.co/7NMVtw5vhI
They clearly intend to. DeSantis will most def be the GQP POTUS candidate. He’s the only one who has made it clear that he wants to end the public school system.
This doesn’t surprise me and shouldn’t surprise anyone. Most groups against freedom, sexual expression, freedom to watch porn, freedom to marry consenting adults as people wish, all these types of groups trying to restrict what people can do by regressing societal acceptance back to the 1950s are funded either openly or secretly by wealthy right wing organizations / wealthy people. It is old school politics to start and fund a group that seems unconnected to your party that supports the positions that your party pushes. It is also an old scam to claim to be part of the targeted group to try to split those targeted groups apart or make the public think that a large membership in those groups dislike the inclusion of the others. Hugs
Charity Commission urged to investigate organization over shared address with right-wing lobby groups
The LGB Alliance is renting an office in 55 Tufton Street, home of several right-wing think tanks
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PA Images
Controversial trans-exclusionary charity the LGB Alliance is renting an office in the Tufton Street nerve centre of Britain’s most influential right-wing think tanks, previously unseen documents have revealed.
It is the first time a clear link has been drawn between the so-called ‘gender critical’ movement, which opposes equal rights for trans people, and the movement of conservative lobby groups at 55 Tufton Street whose libertarian economic policies have influenced a succession of governments.
The LGB Alliance says it chose the address – revealed in an FOI request to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom – simply because it was “handy” and “flexible”, and tried to warn against drawing “conspiratorial conclusions”.
The Georgian building at 55 Tufton Street hit headlines earlier this year during Liz Truss’s disastrous stint as British prime minister. It is owned by Tory donor Richard Smith and currently acts as a base for the Institute for Economic Affairs, Centre for Policy Studies, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, Global Warming Policy Foundation, New Culture Forum, and BrexitCentral, among others.
“Given that the LGB Alliance insists it is a charity, it’s surprising that it has office space in a building known for hosting some of the most prominent right-wing libertarian lobbying groups in the country,” said a spokesperson for the Trans Safety Network.
“The fact that the other organisations working from this building are highly networked raises questions about the relationship of this supposedly neutral charity to these politically motivated actors – questions that ought to be thoroughly investigated by the Charity Commission to determine whether or not the LGBA is itself a lobby group.”
openDemocracy has approached the Charity Commission for comment.
It is not yet clear when the LGB Alliance moved to 55 Tufton Street. It registered a move from a virtual office in City Road to another a few doors up in May 2022, a few months before receiving the letter from Ofcom. The City Road address is still listed on its website and with the Charity Commission.
The group’s charity status was challenged by trans youth charity Mermaids at a tribunal earlier this year, with a decision due in early 2023.
LGB Alliance managing director Kate Barker wrote to supporters in an email seen by openDemocracy: “You may have seen that the address of our London office was shared on Twitter this weekend.
“We have preferred that it not be public to ensure the safety of volunteers who come along to help us prepare for events, take part in training or want the chance to meet with us in person.
“I hope you will understand that’s why I won’t be repeating the address in this note.
“I can tell you we’ve rented a single large room that is ideal for our purposes. The office is fantastically well-served In terms of transport links. In addition, we spend a lot of time trying to make our case to politicians and the office is just a few minutes’ walk from the Houses of Parliament.
“You will be unsurprised to learn that our detractors will seek to draw conspiratorial conclusions from our address. I can tell you that the office was chosen because it, handy, flexible and that it became available at the right time.
“We’re really pleased to have a base to be able to build on our work and hope we may have a chance to meet you there soon.”
The LGB Alliance has not responded to openDemocracy’s requests for comment.
As equalities secretary, Liz Truss is reported to have had regular meetings at 55 Tufton Street with groups such as the IEA. The UK government staged a significant U-turn on its attitude towards progressing LGBTQIA+ rights during the same period, culminating in a backpedal on Gender Recognition Act reform and the collapse of the #SafeToBeMe2022 event earlier this year.
Truss’s second-in-command at the time, Kemi Badenoch, has now taken on the post. She too has links to Tufton Street via the Cato Institute and her former adviser Alex Morton, who went on to become head of policy at the Centre for Policy Studies and subsequently the IEA’s director of strategy.
A Texas superintendent ordered school librarians to remove LGBTQ books. Now the federal government is investigating.
The Education Department has opened what appears to be the first-of-its-kind investigation into Granbury Independent School District after it pulled library books dealing with sexuality and gender.
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Photo: Screenshot/Project Veritas
Scottie's Playtime 