While @LubbyNavarro was banging on about Jesus Christ from her seat on the Miami-Dade County Public School Board, she was allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from school kids to pay her personal expenses. She was arrested this morning. https://t.co/Xnl5Yfxraqhttps://t.co/rAsKy5ZBCP
Good to know: The former Miami school board member arrested for corruption today, Lubby Navarro, was also closely aligned with far-right anti-LGBTQ hate group Christian Family Coalition @cfcoalitionfl, who claimed credit for her election. pic.twitter.com/iRXSAvk7HN
I will call note to the plans of these hate groups. The statement outlines the primary mission for Alabama’s two chapters of Moms for Liberty in 2024: to apply for library board appointments, submit reconsideration forms for books they consider inappropriate, and discuss issues with local government officials who control public libraries, such as county commissions and city councils.Also note what they call pornographic material. It is simply any media that has LGBTQIA characters, plots, or even mentions them in a positive way. It is a way to mask their flat out bigotry and hate. Please understand had restricts been on when kids can come to the library or that they must be accompanied would have stopped me from one of my safe spaces to go to after school and I wouldn’t have been able to read because I couldn’t have books at home. Also as I got older the few books I did find on abuse and having gay characters or information about being gay saved my sanity which was teetering on a very thin edge over a cliff. Hugs. Scottie
Children’s section at the North Shelby Public Library in Mt. Laurel
The conservative political group Moms For Liberty sent a letter last week that asked the state legislature and the public library service to withhold funds for libraries that allow children to check out “pornographic” materials. It also wants the Alabama Public Library Service to create software that prevents a minor from checking out books outside of their age range.
The statement outlines the primary mission for Alabama’s two chapters of Moms for Liberty in 2024: to apply for library board appointments, submit reconsideration forms for books they consider inappropriate, and discuss issues with local government officials who control public libraries, such as county commissions and city councils.
“It is time for the Alabama legislature to utilize the power of state funding and directives to APLS to push towards meaningful and long-lasting changes that protect minors and empower parents to have their voice heard,” the release said.
APLS director Dr. Nancy Pack said it’s possible for local libraries to install software to limit minors from checking out adult books, but she thinks children and teens would still find a way around the system to check out the materials they want.
“The only way that you are going to keep children from checking out materials that the parent feels are inappropriate for their child is to have parental guidance and for the parents to have a sit down talk with their children saying this is what you may check out,” Pack said.
Emily Jones, of the Madison County chapter of Moms for Liberty, said the organization doesn’t want to remove books from libraries, “rather that books be placed in a manner that allows parental oversight when sexually explicit material is included.”
That goes for all books, she said, including non-children’s Bibles.
Jones said her group isn’t targeting books with themes such as racism or LGBTQ issues but is focusing on books recommended by the American Library Association to be moved out of children’s sections. They feel the ALA is “pushing for books that sexualize and groom children.”
“Any book that sexualizes children, exposes children to sexual content to include incest and rape, should raise concerns for any adult regardless of their political beliefs or organizational associations,” Jones said.
The group said a 9-year-old recently checked out George Johnson’s book “All Boys Aren’t Blue” at the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library. Moms For Liberty said this book is “pornographic” because it includes references to sexual assault and incest. The book doesn’t condone incest but depicts a character being assaulted by a relative. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is listed in the library catalog as an eBook, and a print version is in the young adult section of the downtown branch.
According to Moms for Liberty, the library copy included a sticker reading, “This book was generously donated by TVA funding grant from Sen. Sam Givhan.”
Givhan told AL.com that he realized in November that the library purchased the book with funding allocated by the Tennessee Valley Authority through the state legislature. Givhan said he wasn’t involved in picking books for purchase, and asked the library to remove the sticker.
Givhan requested the library remove the acknowledgment. He said “referencing it as an LGBT book glosses over the details of the book and the age issues involved.” He added that he supports books “being properly placed in the library in age-appropriate areas along the lines supported by Moms For Liberty.”
Givhan is the only legislator mentioned in the group’s letter, and he said he’s supportive of Moms For Liberty’s goals.
The Southern Poverty Law Center named Moms For Liberty as an anti-government group in 2023 on its “Hate Map.” Jones said the designation by the SPLC is propaganda “to try and silence a movement they disagree with.”
“I love my country and the principles on which it was founded, which includes a limited role of the government,” Jones said. “I believe our country and state are best served when local citizens are making the decisions that align with the value system of their community.”
Jones said since publishing the release, she’s received emails, calls and “in-person accolades of support for our efforts.”
Library advocacy group Read Freely Alabama countered with its own statement. They emphasized that the American Library Association doesn’t control Alabama libraries and that pornography isn’t in children’s books in Alabama’s public libraries.
The group’s recommendations include suggesting libraries create material reconsideration policies “that operate from a neutral viewpoint and do not impose partisan and ideological worldviews on a community at large.” RFA also suggests every library create a policy limiting unsupervised minors.
“Read Freely Alabama urges our state leaders to consider these reasonable alternatives to the unreasonable demands of a minority who have persecuted fellow American citizens and defamed a profession in their quest for political power,” the statement read.
Pack said the American Library Association offers guidelines, not policies. The APLS board is waiting for an opinion from the attorney general regarding the role of the APLS over local libraries and will decide in a later board meeting whether or not to leave the ALA.
“We are in an advisory role and local boards dictate what materials belong in their collection,” Pack said. She added taxpayer dollars only fund some books while foundations and non-profit organizations donate books also.
The floodgates have been opened, and because the right won’t restrain their fundamentalist wing, they are pushing their hardest to enact their most extreme religious dictates. They not only believe this is a winning issue when it has been shown it is not at voting time, but they feel now is the time to push their god on to the public by law. Think of what the fundamentalist Christians believe in and worship. Now ask yourself if they will stop at just getting rid of trans and gay people? They have already shown they will get rid of the rights of pregnant people and those that can become pregnant, to control their bodies, they have shown they will make women themselves a lower class of person in the US, returning women’s rights to where they were in the 1950s. Women will be totally subservient to their fathers or their husbands. Those who are ambivalent on the rights of the LGBTQIA need to understand those are only the first targets because they are the smallest and easiest to pick off. Then they come for the rest of societies progressive equality advancements. By the way I just read that in one state they filed a bill to outlaw transitioning and instead mandate care for trans or gay kids including adults be conversion therapy to return kids to the normal natural state of straight and cis. I will post that tomorrow. Hugs. Scottie
State Rep. Beth Lear also compared gender dysphoria to delusions of being an animal, proposing a child might want to “explore being a bird” by jumping off a five-story building.
AJ McDougall
Breaking News Reporter
Maddie McGarvey/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Ohio Republican behind a bill that would bantransgenderstudents from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity quoted scripture in justifying the legislation on Wednesday, deploying a verse suggesting that her opponents should be drowned in the sea.
State Rep. Beth Lear whipped out the reference to Luke 17:2 while answering questions on House Bill 183 at a morning committee hearing. Facing Lear, State Rep. Joseph Miller, the ranking member of the House Higher Education Committee, asked her how she could “jive” her bill with “the teachings that you proclaim.”
“In Luke 17, Jesus says that if you cause one of these little ones of mine to stumble, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and be thrown into the deepest sea,” Lear replied. “So—there are also concerns that Jesus has for children. And in Genesis, he tells us that he created the male and female.”
OH State Rep. Beth Lear (R) uses scripture to justify a discriminatory bathroom bill:
“In Luke 17, Jesus says that if you cause one of these little ones of mine to stumble, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and be thrown into the deepest sea.” pic.twitter.com/jkm6ozaBbq
Lear has previously invoked the Bible in explaining her reasons for sponsoring the proposal, which she introduced alongside State Rep. Adam Bird (R) and more than a dozen other Ohio Republicans last May. At an October hearing on the matter, according to The Buckeye Flame, Lear recited Genesis 1:27, saying, “In our country, since the Puritans and Pilgrims first arrived and until recently, we believed ‘God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’”
Nor did Wednesday mark the first time the Ohio lawmaker has used violent imagery to justify the measure. At that same October hearing, Lear shared a disturbing anecdote about a young girl who had been gang-raped by an athletic team. An adult in the child’s life, Lear claimed without further elaboration, had then “encouraged” her to transition to male. The Republican refused to answer questions about the alleged incident from Cleveland.com at the time, citing the need to protect the victim’s privacy.
The Wednesday committee hearing served as a means for Lear and Bird to unveil a new version of the bill more closely aligned with the language of another measure targeting transgender minors. That proposal, House Bill 68, prohibits transgender children from receiving gender-affirming medical care and prevents transgender girls from competing on sports teams that align with their identity. On Wednesday, it was pushed through by the Ohio House, which voted 65-28 to override a gubernatorial veto on it.
Rep Weinstein: "Recently at CPAC, a speaker said that trans people should be eradicated from the earth. What do you think?"
Sponsor: "I do not believe anyone should be wiped out. But the science is clear, there are only 2 genders. Children cannot change what they are." pic.twitter.com/ft4Ky6BbjR
Later in the hearing, Lear compared gender dysphoria to delusions of being an animal, a debunked scarecrow argument that hardline conservatives began to utilize in school policy debates several years ago. “If I had a child who thought he was a bird, am I going to take him to a doctor who tells him the best thing to do is to let him explore being a bird?” the Ohioan asked. “And oh, by the way, there’s a five-story building next door—why don’t you jump off and see if you can fly?”
Miller, a Democrat, pointed out the bill’s inherently discriminatory nature in the hearing. “This is eerily reminiscent of discussions in the ’50s about how white women feared Black people in the same restaurant, the same bathroom,” he said, according to journalist Erin Reed. “It’s eerily similar to the racist policies that were had in the south.”
House Bill 183 has not yet left committee, and it is unclear when it might be brought to the floor for a vote. House Bill 68, no longer vetoed, now goes to the Ohio Senate, which will vote on it on Jan. 24.
They do in fact believe that Jesus was always there, with his father God, and that it was Jesus who did the creating. As evidence, they will point to the language “let us make man in our image” — not realizing that it’s probably the “royal we” employed by the translators. Believe me, I’ve heard this crap my entire life, being raised in a fundamentalist family.
It’s not a royal we. Judiasm was quite polytheistic before it was forced to become monotheistic. And Judiasm didn’t have anything resembling a trinity. That was invented by Christians.
While there is considerable evidence of polytheism in early Caanan, there are multiple examples of ‘majestic plurals’ in Hebrew that have a plural noun form yet govern singular verbs. ‘Behemoth’ is one such.
Maybe Jesus was talking about hateful POS Bigots causing his children to stumble. We have plenty of actual proof of that. Maybe we should drown her sorry ass instead.
That dead skunk on her head is a sin too. Against anyone with eyes. Clearly she has no gay friend’s.
I find it incredibly ironic (not to mention hypocritical) that Phyllis Schlafly — who made herself famous by traveling to different places across the country during the 70s and 80s telling women they should stay home(!!) — actually ran for Congress unsuccessfully not just once but twice in 1952 and 1970. Also, guess which one of her parents was the primary breadwinner when she was growing up during the Great Depression? Not her dad — her mom.
Look at the lengths they have to go to justify their bigotry. Isis is not going to come here and demand a county in Connecticut fly their flag. There are ways to rule that extreme stuff out while not banning pride flags. But you have to want to allow the pride flag during pride month. As one of the commenters said, “I think the real reason is you don’t want that Pride flag up on this town hall” Again a group of republicans don’t want the modern age, this is 2024 and they reject the social progress we have made. They are desperate to remain in the oppressive past. Hugs. Scottie
Town buildings and flag poles can only display the American flag, Connecticut state flag and military flags
Published 01/10/24 09:21 PM ET|Updated 01/10/24 09:46 PM ET
A resolution to ban pride flags in a Connecticut town has led to outrage among the community, according to local reports.
Enfield, Connecticut, is home to around 42,000 people and its newly-elected Republican majority town council made a choice that is not sitting right with many of those residents.
On Monday, the town council approved a resolution banning town buildings and flag poles from flying any flags except for the American flag, Connecticut state flag and military flags, NBC Connecticut reported.
The 6-5 vote effectively banned the Town Hall from displaying Pride flags during Pride Month in June, reversing a 2022 policy that allowed the flags to be displayed.
A passionate exchange between town councilors followed the narrow vote.
“I don’t support it. I think it’s ridiculous. We have an opinion, and I think the real reason is you don’t want that Pride flag up on this town hall, which is absolutely disgusting,” Councilor At-Large Gina Cekala said, per the news station.
Rainbow flag against sky during gay pride parade.Portra/Getty Images
Those who voted in favor defended the resolution by saying it prevented “other” organizations from trying to have their flags displayed.
“ISIS could come in and want to display one, the IRA…basically anybody. You’d have to be content neutral and let everybody,” Tom Tyler, interim town attorney, said.
A local pastor and president of Enfield Pride, Greg Gray, encouraged residents and businesses to display Pride flags in the wake of the town’s decision.
“I am disturbed that the new Republican majority felt this was a decision they needed to make basically on day one of them coming into office,” Gray said.
Brandon Jewell, local advocate and activist for LGBTQ+ people and their families, spoke against the vote.
“The meaning of buildings, that you can’t be inside any town-owned property…so that’s the schools where many of the teachers have safe space stickers on their doors, they have Pride flags hanging,” he said. “I think there should have been more thought into this before it was actually put on the agenda.”
It’s been in their party platform in clear print for decades. No matter how “nice” they may speak to you, just don’t expect any change. They really want you to suffer long and painfully, and then to die so as to vindicate their deranged theology.
there are growing pockets of red here in CT. It’s very disturbing. We saw that 2 years ago in my little town and what the Rs wanted to do (book bans, etc.). This Nov, was a blue wave as a response. It’s a battle.
we live in a very red part of CT. My husband worked the polls the past 2 cycles and got more abuse from these country bumpkins (although he did mention how hot they were)
Where did the town of Enfield come up with so many brain-dead people? “Isis” is not going to want the town fathers (and mothers?) to fly their flag. These idiots just don’t like gay people. They think that’s not obvious?
It never ceases to amaze me how dumb the average Republican is. Did that clown really think that if they put up a Pride flag that ISIS is going to come into their town and say, “We want our flag flown too!” But you’re right, this is just a dumbass excuse to hide the fact that they hate acknowledging gay people exist.
I grew up a couple of towns away from there, and while driving through Enfield in the last few years, I’ve seen plenty of tRump and F**k Biden flags. Those are still OK, apparently.
Notice the chyron on Joe’s lede screen-cap; this was the very first piece of business of the new town council, banning pride flags, as well as the flags of other states and nations, from the town’s public schools.
WATCH: Kids sell food and drink on the streets of Rafah to help support families
NBC News spoke with three young Palestinians who were selling food and drink on the streets of Rafah in southern Gaza in order to raise money for their displaced families.
Scottie's Playtime 