Florida students protest imminent closing of university LGBTQ center

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-unf-students-protest-closing-lgbtq-center-rcna135758

Welcome to the white fundamentalist maga paradise, Florida.  The purge is well on the way.  Again the goal is to remove / wipe out all representation of LGBTQIA from public society.  Also part of the goal is to return black / brown people to a lower stature and keep them there.   To stop any integration or upward movement of the minority groups.   These people demand a return to the time when white males were automatically in charge, Christianity was the assumed only real religion and all things Christian were good, women were subservient to males and functioned to do for men in the home / public / bedroom, blacks knew their place and stayed there, and the LGBTQIA were not seen or heard of terrified of being found out.   That is the world these people are fighting to have.  Florida is well on the way.  They have basically outlawed the teaching of acceptance or inclusion of any group not dedicated to white people or Christianity.  They have removed any representation of LGBTQIA or racism from schools.  They have rewritten history, legislated being cis, being straight until adult, legislated having a small groups of bigoted racist parents over ruling all other parents on what school age kids can do, read, see, say, and do medically.  They call anything not right wing fundamentalist maga is indoctrination.   Welcome to Florida, a state run by Christian Taliban with help from the moral police.   Hugs.  Scottie

 

The Florida Board of Governors voted to prohibit using state funding for public university programs or activities that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
 
 
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Students at the University of North Florida protested the imminent closing of the school’s four diversity centers, including the campus LGBTQ center, on Wednesday.

The protest took place the day the Florida Board of Governors, the governing body of the State University System of Florida, voted to prohibit funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and activities at the state’s public universities. The vote comes several months after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure into law banning all of the state’s public higher education institutions from using state or federal funding for diversity programs.

 

UNF, in Jacksonville, will close its Office of Diversity and Inclusion — and, with it, its interfaith, intercultural, women’s and LGBTQ centers — to comply with the new law, President Moaz Limayem said in a letter to the university community Wednesday night. 

Limayem said the four university centers will be “phased out” immediately but added that registered student organizations that aim to promote diversity will remain active on the university’s campus and that no staffers will lose their jobs. He did not weigh in on student protests or on his views about the state policy.

“We want UNF to be a place where all people feel safe and welcome, and where there is no place for hate,” Limayem said. “This semester, we will begin seeking ways to reinforce UNF’s values in everything we do, and we will review and expand resources as necessary to ensure success for all members of our campus community.”

Cassandra Edwards, a spokesperson for the university system, said in an email Thursday that Florida “will remain focused on high-quality education for our students and not allow indoctrination.”

UNF student Lissie Morales was among the protesters, many of whom were waving rainbow Pride flags and shouting: “What do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

“The center provided me friends; it provided me education to learn more about my gender and sexual orientation,” Morales told NBC affiliate WTLV of Jacksonville. “In regard to the turnout, it warms my heart to see people care about something as much as I do, especially when it comes to the LGBT center, because it was one of the reasons why I came to UNF in the first place.”

In 2022, UNF was among 40 institutions on Campus Pride’s list of best universities for LGBTQ students. 

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former Florida House Democrat who is a policy adviser at the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida, called the new state law “a rubber stamp for Ron DeSantis’s agenda of censorship and surveillance.”

“The Board of Governors had the opportunity to hit the brakes, but instead, shamefully followed their censorship agenda off a cliff in service to DeSantis’s failed political ambitions,” Smith said in a statement Wednesday. 

A representative for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The regulation comes as Florida continues to build on its reputation for enacting anti-LGBTQ laws and legislation aimed at limiting diversity initiatives. 

Dozens of UNF students attend a rally in support of the school's LGBTQ center.
Dozens of UNF students attend a rally in support of the school’s LGBTQ center. WTLV

Florida made national headlines when it enacted what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law in 2022, which limited the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools in kindergarten through third grade. DeSantis signed a bill last year that expanded the law to apply to students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Last year, Florida lawmakers prompted outcry for blocking an Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools.

Since the start of the year, Florida lawmakers have introduced roughly a dozen anti-LGBTQ bills. They include a sweeping measure that would force Floridians to sign an affidavit when they apply for new driver’s licenses and state IDs to certify that the gender markers on their birth certificates will match their new IDs. Another bill would allow some published accusations of homophobia and transphobia to be considered “defamation per se.”

Student protests over Florida’s policies about LGBTQ issues have also become common. In November, students at a high school in Coconut Creek, about 15 miles north of Fort Lauderdale, staged a walkout after their principal and other school staffers were reprimanded for letting a transgender girl compete on the school’s girls volleyball team.

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I suffered through eighteen years of indoctrination to become straight. Didn’t work

I read books about Dick and Jane…
I’m not out chasing Jane.

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Gloria is out chasing Jane.
I’m out chasing Dick, pun intended.
😉

Yup. I didn’t kiss a boy until I was in my 20s

I found my Dad’s playboys including the one with the Jimmy Carter interview and Jimmy Connors future wife as the centerfold.
Still digging men

Exactly! My whole youth was steeped in the straight world, I knew not one gay person and had zero history of the gay movement, yet I still turned out gay.

Same for the rest of us. This is how we can tell that the evangelicals are completely, utterly delusional; and why they’re a minority now in the US. Dems need to vote them out. If they refuse the evangelicals will begin their new Spanish Inquisition.

Next step: jailing and killing us. I am NOT overreacting. It’s going to happen unless we stop this shit immediately.

They’ve been openly musing about a final solution to the LGBTQ+ “problem”.

 

The War on Women’s Rights
The War on LGBT Rights
The War on Voting Rights
The War on Oversight
The War on Accountability
The War on the Elderly
The War on The Arts

Join the Resistance. Vote in 2024.

The War on Science
The War on Civility

The War on Reality…

Religion is indoctrination.

And, if carefully taught, can have you hating yourself, too…

George Orwell, The Prevention of Literature:

From the totalitarian point of view history is something to be created rather than learned. A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling cast, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible.

 

I’m currently reading 1984 (incidentally, the year in which I was born). I’m up to the appendix, where Orwell describes Newspeak.

They forget about that whole pesky “separation of church and state”. If the Roberts court is a “traditionalist” court, more states should be challenging the unconstitutional legislation passed in many States (esp the Federal Gov as this is setting up a State vs Federal legal battle), otherwise the Supreme Court will have to justify their reason for overturning Roe and much more. Not that it matters but it’s important for the public to understand.

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I expect DeSantis to become especially cruel now that he is no longer a candidate

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New Survey: 28% Of Gen Z Adults Identify As LGBTQ

The acceptance, tolerance, and anti-bullying programs have helped LGBTQIA kids be comfortable enough to come out, be themselves, live without hiding.   This is the very thing the fundamentalist maga Christians are horrified about, what they are desperate to stop, the modern age of not having to hid being different.  That is what the maga / white supremacist nationalist are all about, a hegemony society of all white cis straight people who think alike.  That is why they love Russia so much, the people and country are basically the same, in color, ideas, religion, basically a US 1950s public / society.   Is that the country you want to live in?  It won’t work.  The genie is out of the bottle and enjoying life.   Modern young people know friends and family that are LGBTQIA, and they see they are normal people.   Modern young people are not going to be frightened or scared about the made up boogieman of fearmongering about LGBTQIA.  Some quick facts from the source article.  Hugs.  Scottie

 Gen Z — which includes those born between 1997 and 2012 — is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in U.S. history, and an estimated 40.8 million Gen Zers will be eligible to vote in 2024.

 Gen Z adults — who now make up about 1 in 6 of the Americans eligible to vote — are more politically left than older Americans, with 43% of them identifying as liberal, the survey found.

Gen Z adults appear to be accelerating Americans’ move away from Christianity and toward being unaffiliated with any religion — or religious “nones” — even as many conservative Republicans seek to inject more religion into schools and public life.

  • About 28% of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ, compared with 16% of millennials, 7% of Generation X (born 1965-1980), 4% of baby boomers (1946-1964) and 4% of the Silent Generation (1928-1945).

 

Axios reports:

Generation Z adults are less likely than older generations to join an established religion, far more likely to identify as LGBTQ and generally are less likely to be Republican, a new survey shows. Gen Z adults — who now make up about 1 in 6 of the Americans eligible to vote — are more politically left than older Americans, with 43% of them identifying as liberal, the survey found.

Gen Z adults are notably less likely to identify as white Christians (27%) compared to baby boomers (54%), and more likely to identify as religiously unaffiliated (33%) than every generation except millennials. About 28% of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ, compared with 16% of millennials, 7% of Generation X (born 1965-1980), 4% of baby boomers (1946-1964) and 4% of the Silent Generation (1928-1945).

Read the full article. There’s a lot more.

My entire adult life I’ve believed that there are far more LGBTQ people than are willing to step forward, own it and live it. Don’t underestimate our determination to live our lives freely and openly on helping younger generations to break free of the old taboos. And organized religion, particularly Christianity, is doomed. The shine is off the apple 🍎 and everyone with clarity can see it’s rotten to the core.

As Kinsey indicated.

People have always been very guarded about non-heteronormative feelings

And men even MORE so.

Most people are at least a little bit bi. A younger generation is willing to admit that to themselves and to pollsters. The only thing new here is the honesty. There aren’t MORE lgbt people. There are just more people willing to say that they are mostly straight but might mess around with another dude from time to time. Of course this will be played in the MSM as if suddenly young people are turning gay which will lead to more “grooming” accusations.

I agree. It’s something I’ve always believed and I’m old. My personal life experiences have shown me that most people’s sexuality is somewhat fluid. Not a few self identified straight women I’ve known were more than interested in my sexualty. Life teaches a lot of unexpected lessons

I have a rather long list of straight men that have happily chosen to take a walk on the wild side with me. If I was a young man today, I might dare to declare myself as bi.

Mike Johnson thinks these numbers are a sign of increased depravity, when the opposite is the case. I’m thrilled to see younger people don’t live in the same terror so many in my generation suffered through.

Closet cases are always terrified by people who are living their lives without shame. I’ve met way too many of those in my life (especially in the corporate world).

I agree, however, I’d also say gen Z are probably more open to discovering whether they’re bi or ace or gender queer than were previous generations, who may never have explored what may be hidden even to them (us).

Sometimes I get a bit confused about the variations, but I’m glad people are able to live their best lives , enjoying their sexuality and FINALLY understanding that sex isn’t just about procreation. Sling the doors wide open, they’ve been closed for far too long.

I suspect we’d be seeing fewer toxic relationships if people were more open about what they wanted or needed, and more open to listening and understanding the wants and needs of others, whether that’s in bed or at work!

Oh, I get it. When my nephew decided to put his heels on to go to Home Depot with me, I was thrilled that he felt comfortable with that. And tried to deal with my own internalized homophobia while we were there.

 

This will tell you how old I am, my great granddaughter who’s 16 declared herself as a lesbian and dated a Trans girl for 6 months. That was a bit confusing to me

 

I have a grand niece that’s declared she’s a boy, so I guess I have a grand nephew now! My granddaughter claims to be bi. In both cases, I’m glad they’re exploring their options and I talked with them about the possibility they may shift again or not. They’re 13 and 14 and both claim they haven’t had any sex yet. I also told them that at some point, they’ll know for sure and not to worry. They’re both awesome kids.

I’m so glad they have acceptance and someone they can talk to who gets it. I have a great grandson who’s also 16 who’s gay and a grandson who is 16 who is bi. I love their generations fearlessness. They’re all great kids.

 

I’ve told them several time…this is a safe place (my home) and we are your ally’s.

I don’t remember who said this several years ago, but he heard someone say, “I guess being a gay man isn’t too bad, but I wouldn’t want my brother to marry one.” To which the someone whose name I can’t remember responded, “Better your brother than your sister.”

 

I miss the comradery and concentration we had with gay bars, but I don’t miss the possibility of getting beaten in an alley when I leave one. Well, at least that possibility is reduced. 🙂

They are voting at higher rates at their age than some previous generations:

https://circle.tufts.edu/la…

Maybe someday, we’ll take steps in the US to bolster voter participation across the board. Hey, a girl can dream…

If voting were everything. Gerrymandering needs to be abolished so that everyone’s voice can be heard. Then comes term limits for the Supreme Court justices. And get rid of the Electoral College. So, there’s a few steps beyond voting. But voting blue is a good start.

Agreed that voting isn’t everything. But it’s the necessary first step to accomplishing the rest.

Yes and no. If you live in a gerrymandered district, your vote might not count. If the point of view of the Supreme Court colors their judgement, then any policy can be changed. At the same time, all the issues cannot be solved at once and so voting is a great place to start…as long as you understand it’s just the beginning of a long, may years struggle.

That means getting them to want them to vote for your candidate. Every attempt at browbeating will backfire completely, the smart play is to inspire them to vote.

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The GOP has no majority in any age group. And yet theyve gerrymandered themselves into power sine 2000. I blame Renquist & Alito setting the stage for corrupting SCOTUS

LGBTQ acceptence is higher than it ever has been, no matter how loud the evil voices have been lately.

“All social progress is made, not by convincing conservatives that they’re wrong–this is impossible–but by waiting for them to die off. Then the next generation grows up wondering what all the fuss was about.”

The urgency of the right wing to once again banish LGBTQ people from public life explained.

I think people who are 100% straight or 100% gay over their lifetimes are relatively rare. I think of it as a dial: 0 – 100% straight, and everybody’s needle points to a different location. I also think — in both directions — that there are a lot of people whose experience is wholly one or the other who really should answer the question, “Well… I haven’t been tempted, yet, anyway.”

As we frequently tell the heteros, just because you can’t understand or fathom my sexuality doesn’t mean you can dismiss it.
Saying I don’t get how someone could not experience same sex and opposite attraction is no different than a straight bro saying he doesn’t get how guys can not be turned on by women.

 

POLITICO: Reagan-appointed judge decries efforts to downplay Jan. 6 violence

Reagan-appointed judge decries efforts to downplay Jan. 6 violence
Judge Royce Lamberth, who has handled dozens of Jan. 6 cases, lamented the false rhetoric spread by Donald Trump and his allies.

Read in POLITICO: https://apple.news/Acp8xEsnoT16EkFwodqBcMg

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Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

THE WASHINGTON POST: Gaza’s desperate hunger: Palestinians struggle to fend off starvation

Gaza’s desperate hunger: Palestinians struggle to fend off starvation
Unable to find flour, some families have resorted to eating animal feed. Many people are only eating once a day. Aid agencies warn that famine is looming.

Read in The Washington Post: https://apple.news/AXPAkyL2KQcCvRUkZKWMWvQ

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Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

REUTERS: Israel braces for World Court ruling, focuses attack on south Gaza

Israel braces for World Court ruling, focuses attack on south Gaza
U.N. judges in The Hague will rule on Friday whether to order Israel to suspend its military campaign in Gaza as Israeli forces continued to pound the main southern city of Khan Younis, from where thousands of Gazans were fleeing to the south.

Read in Reuters: https://apple.news/AQdz4IWHDRN-DE8CKOCIQLg

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Let’s talk about McConnell, Trump, and deals….

Palestinian child prisoners ‘abused’

****   TRIGGER WARNING FOR CHILD ABUSE ****


In this video you will see the photos of a kid, yes a young teen who to me looks 13, just home from Israeli detention after being held and beaten for four hours, he was then charged and released for a later court date where he will be found guilty.  Once found guilty, the kid will be taken to a prison in side Israel where his family and any friends are not allowed to see him.   He will have no rights, and no one to help him.   

Picked up off the street, he was then beaten and abused.   Israeli spokes people are on every major news network claiming how brutal Hamas is, how they must be destroyed even if that means killing every Palestinian, man, women, and child.  Right now the confirmed totals are over 24,000 dead, 10,000 are children.  The estimated total is around 32,000 dead, another 64,000 injured and maimed.   This is the way Israel has long treated Palestinian children in detention, the Palestinians have long asked the international community for help in stopping it.  But no one could, because Israel treats Palestinians as bad or worse than black in apartheid South African and almost as bad as black slaves in the US.  Listen to how many Palestinian kids, minors from the West Bank where there is no Hamas in charge are taken in to custody and tried by military courts, they have no rights in these courts, nor does their families.   This is why there is no peace, why Hamas attacks Israelis.  Yet Netanyahu brags about denying the Palestinians a state and calls them animals.   Hugs.   Scottie 

Hundreds of Palestinian children are arrested by the Israeli military every year for throwing rocks at occupying forces. They are tried in Israeli Military Courts and human Rights organisations say the trials lack due process and are against international law. Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports from Abu Dis in the occupied West Bank.

Below there is another short video.   Please notice the date on this one.  It was ten years ago.  This is how they treated Palestinians ten years ago, how much worse do they treat them now!   This time of the Israeli military detaining, taking a five year old because he was throwing stones, they go collect the boy’s father.  Notice the video of the father and boy in custody, the father is bound and blindfolded.  He can not help his five year old son, and neither have rights under the military occupation.  While this is illegal internation Israel claims the child, a five year old, was a threat.   While they claim he was not arrested, think of the lifelong trauma of being taken, his father humiliated and unable to even comfort him.   Think he grew up to support Israel, or be another Hamas soldier?   Hugs.  Scottie

Jul 12, 2013

Video footage has emerged of a 5-year-old Palestinian child being detained by the Israeli army.

Below in another video only one year ago, a 7 year old boy dies from fear while being chased by Israeli soldiers.  Children so scared of soldiers they fear them to death.  Why would a 7 yr old be so scared?  This was the West bank, not even Gaza, and again no Hamas.  Think to the many stories of abuse that are and have been coming out that Israel has long denied.   Seems they were true.   What other horrors is Israel lying about.   The people there claim the main goal of the army is to cause this fear and maintain complete control.   These are an occupied people in an open air prison.  No wonder they fight back, wouldn’t you?  Hugs.  Scottie  

Thousands of Palestinians have taken part in the funeral of seven-year-old Rayyan Sulaiman in the village of Tuqu near Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank. His family says he died out of fear after Israeli soldiers chased children in the village. The Palestinian Health Ministry says efforts to resuscitate him failed. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reports from the occupied West Bank.

The mistreatment continues.  This video was only 7 months ago, at the start of last summer.   By that time Israeli soldiers had already killed 155 Palestinians in the West Bank.   Remember the US military sniper that loved to kill little brown children in Afghanistan, he murdered detained prisoners by knifing them, he was brought up on charged yet tRump as commander in chief made the military give him back his awards and pardoned him.  Well Israel has lots of soldiers like him that feel that way towards the Palestinians.  They are nothing, they are simply fun targets to hurt, kill, torture, and destroy.   Like a live action video game.  Below the Israeli solders shoot a car with a man and a toddler … because they can.  Hugs.  Scottie.  



188,662 views Jun 6, 2023

Two-year-old Mohammad Tamimi — who was injured along with his father after being shot by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank — has died. Though the Israeli army says the toddler was mistakenly shot, the child’s father has denied the narrative

Just five days ago this inexcusable horror happened, Israeli soldiers stormed a building and in front of the family members stripped, tortured and beat the men, then executed them.  Like a gang of thugs on prey.  Then they left and knowing the women and children were still in there, Israeli solders shelled the building.  Horrible.  Hugs.  Scottie

412,724 views Jan 18, 2024 #Aljazeeraenglish #News

A Palestinian family in Gaza says they witnessed the summary execution of 15 men when Israeli soldiers raided their apartment last month.

Again please look at the date.  A year ago.  Two crying terrified children, not even teenagers.  Their crime, being Palestinian.   This is why there is no peace for Israel!  This is why there is anger.  The story says the soldiers arrested the kids, that means they did not go home, but instead into detention for processing.  Reports say this can take a day to four months, and the child has no rights, no legal council, even their family is often not notified.   It is complete terrorism.  It is designed to harass and break the Palestinian people, to try to get them to self deport to where they will have a chance for a decent life.  This short clip says it all.   A 6 or 7 year old kid begging and crying out “What will happen to us” and “What are they going to do to us”.   What are they going to do to us … if that was your child would you like the people / government that did that?  Or would you want to hurt them back.   Hugs.  

An Israeli soldier appears to arrest two frightened Palestinian children in occupied East Jerusalem

There are more, it seems an unending amount of these videos.   Going back decades.  Now that I have watched a few, the grand YouTube pusher wants me to view them all.   I can not.  I have done my part.  I just beg that others who can do more not only stop Israel, but punish them for what they are doing.   Hugs.   Scottie

GOLF DIGEST: Pimp My Cart: Hot-rod culture speeds through The Villages

Pimp My Cart: Hot-rod culture speeds through The Villages
Friday night in any of The Villages’ town squares looks like Boomer spring break any time of year.

Read in Golf Digest: https://apple.news/ArqqcRDq0SB2h8dVWRETtCQ

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CNN: Huge rogue waves smash into remote US military base in Pacific

Huge rogue waves smash into remote US military base in Pacific
“Gigantic” waves swamped parts of a key US military facility in the middle of the Pacific Ocean last weekend, causing damage that will take months to repair, according to a US Army report.

Read in CNN: https://apple.news/A4_gg9P_zSC2gt-NiPCRp6g

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JESUS 2.0 | Christopher Titus | Armageddon Update