Notice this is in the news section, not in the opinion writer section. I went to the link. It is the supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics. I read the report, looked at how the study was done. The findings seem solid. This is the short version, easy to read version. That the totally discredited / debunked ROGD (rapid onset gender dysphoria) is used and pushed even though proven wrong is true. It has been pushed on my own Play Time by Tildeb and Nan. It just makes sense they said. Nope, only does if you are anti-trans looking for a reason not to agree with gender affirming care. The same thing happened when kids and adults felt safe coming out as gay, the number of people reporting to be gay increased dramatically, then remained steady. It is called the left handed syndrome, the idea that when people stopped being punished for being left handed, when the stigma was gone, the numbers of left handed people increased. Below are a couple quotes. Hugs. Scottie
The ROGD theory posits that trans identification is exploding specifically among AFAB youth, who are being preyed upon by “gender ideology” — but this analysis of nearly 200,000 adolescents disproves that hypothesis.
Of course, these findings are not the first to indicate that ROGD is junk science. The theory was first floated in 2018, and problems with the study that justified it were obvious from the start. Dr. Lisa Littman, a board member of the “gender critical” group Genspect, published a survey of less than 300 parents of trans youth recruited from openly anti-trans communities like the UK-based TERF-y site Mumsnet who provided testimonials supporting Littman’s hypothesis. That the paper was immediately retracted or that Littman herself has misrepresented her own data haven’t prevented these “findings” from becoming enmeshed on the right, though, in part because anti-trans dogma isn’t just about gender.
Scientists said any claims that people are becoming trans just to fit in “does not hold up to scrutiny.”
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 2021/08/06: Protesters wrapped in pride and trans pride flags sit on a wall during the trans rights demonstration.Protesters gathered outside Downing Street demanding an end to discrimination against the trans community, better support from the government against hate, and improvements to trans healthcare waiting times. (Photo by Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)SOPA Images/Getty Images
Over the past four years, opponents of transgender rights and protections have pushed a theory called “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” or ROGD, asserting that more young people are publicly identifiying as trans due to “social contagion.” “Trans people have long known this theory to be completely false, but now, a new study has finally proven it for good.”
A study published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics is the latest to demonstrate how the numbers just don’t line up in ROGD’s favor. Scientists analyzed data from the CDC’s 2017 and 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 16 states, looking particularly at the ratio of trans and gender-diverse youth who were assigned female at birth as opposed to those assigned male. The ROGD theory posits that trans identification is exploding specifically among AFAB youth, who are being preyed upon by “gender ideology” — but this analysis of nearly 200,000 adolescents disproves that hypothesis.
Far from rising, the number of trans and gender diverse youth identified in the survey actually dropped significantly between 2017 and 2019, falling from 2.4% to 1.6%. And while the ratio of assigned-male to assigned-female trans youth did shrink, going from 1.5:1 to 1.2:1 over the two years analyzed, researchers found the numbers actually changed because there were fewer transfeminine youth in the latter survey, not more transmascs.
Proponents of ROGD, including J.K. Rowling and Joe Rogan, have also claimed that transness is a “social contagion” because young people are using trans identification as a way to escape homophobic bullying. There’s a lot of misconceptions to unpack in that one sentence, but the Pediatrics study addresses the most vital one: once again, it was found, bullying and suicidal ideation rates were both higher among trans youth than their cis-identified peers, making the ROGD claim nonsensical.
“The hypothesis that transgender and gender diverse youth assigned female at birth identify as transgender due to social contagion does not hold up to scrutiny and should not be used to argue against the provision of gender-affirming medical care for adolescents,” Dr. Alex S. Keuroghlian, one of the study’s senior authors, said in a statement. Lead author Dr. Jack Turban concurred, calling the idea that trans youth transition to escape social stigma “absurd.”
“The damaging effects of these unfounded hypotheses in further stigmatizing transgender and gender diverse youth cannot be understated,” Turban stressed. “We hope that clinicians, policymakers, journalists, and anyone else who contributes to health policy will review these findings.”
Researchers say it points to the growing scientific conclusion that “gender affirming care is life saving care.”
————————————————————————————
Of course, these findings are not the first to indicate that ROGD is junk science. The theory was first floated in 2018, and problems with the study that justified it were obvious from the start. Dr. Lisa Littman, a board member of the “gender critical” group Genspect, published a survey of less than 300 parents of trans youth recruited from openly anti-trans communities like the UK-based TERF-y site Mumsnet who provided testimonials supporting Littman’s hypothesis. That the paper was immediately retracted or that Littman herself has misrepresented her own data haven’t prevented these “findings” from becoming enmeshed on the right, though, in part because anti-trans dogma isn’t just about gender.
We’d like to believe that this will finally put Littman’s harmful falsehoods to rest, but sadly, truth-telling is not a hallmark of the reactionary right. Hopefully this can at least reassure some trans youth that they’re not monsters or dupes, and that their identities deserve respect — even if some insist on screaming otherwise.
As I said before, we bought / had an expensive roof put on the house. The roof company is well known and reputable, and in the time we have had their roof product they have been great in responding to any complaint. The roof comes with a lifetime warranty … excepting cat 5 hurricanes. So long story short which is hard for me, we had problems after we got the new roof.
The person they sent out was a very helpful and knowledgeable, and he helped us a lot. When he took off the kitchen bottom of the skylight water dripped out. He also found what we had not, that the bathroom skylight also had water in it. He replaced the bathroom one, but the kitchen one he said not to put back up as the material was too damaged and it might just give way. He said he wouldn’t have used the same sealant the first repair team did. So he took lots of pictures of the inside spots, and the roof. Then he went back to talk to the manager.
When he came back, he went on the roof and caulked every thing he said he could think of that might need it. We talked with him a long time after he got off the roof and came inside. We explained to him how every time we try to repair the house, something goes badly wrong. I told him how the first week we owned the house the refrigerator fell throw the floor, the third week I fell through the fool in the bedroom in front of Ron’s closet. I told him the house was cursed. We all laughed.
So at first he said after a couple rains to call the company back. I was not comfortable with that because that put it on us and to again call them and get the call service and all that. But after I talked to him, he said he would put it in his schedule to come and check in on us. Also the company will fix the damage around the skylight so it is secure again.
At this point I am not sure what more could have been expected or achieved. We got the company to address and deal with the issue. On the other hand, we have another issue problem to deal with in the kitchen. Below I will put the pictures. I will say this guy had years with the company, and he did not seem impressed with the work the repair team did. But we just need a roof that doesn’t leak, and he even said the recent mold problem we had was due to the roof leak, in his opinion. I doubt I will get much done the rest of the day. I have been awake since 2:30 am, and I got up at 4:04 am. With no naps, I am tired. Hugs. Scottie
Last time it was mentioned to her that her followers attack the people / places she goes after, she was very proud of that fact. She likes it. That is the point. She is a female thug, a Christian fundamentalist thug, who feels entitled to force everyone to live as she demands they do. She feels it is her god given right to take rights away from others. Hugs. Scottie
The FBI and local law enforcement said bomb threats across the country have tied up government resources even when they turn out to be hoaxes.
Chaya Raichik, creator of LibsofTikTok, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last March.Michael Brochstein / Sipa USA via AP file
Last March, police in Coralville, Iowa, investigated a bomb threat targeting a junior high school. Authorities brought in specially trained dogs to sniff for explosives and started looking into why someone might try to target the community’s teachers and students.
Law enforcement quickly determined that the threat was a hoax. Detective Hanna Dvorak from the Coralville Police Department arrived at a theory.
“It appears this all stems from a post made earlier this week by Chaya Raichik and her ‘Libs of TikTok’ account,” Dvorak wrote in a report to her superiors.
Raichik, 29, is not accused of making any bomb threats in Iowa or anywhere else. But about a day and a half before authorities responded to the threat at Coralville’s Northwest Junior High, Raichik posted that the school offers a “pornographic” book in its library that “teaches kids about gay sex.”
“These are the books they’re giving your kids to read in school,” she wrote on the social media platform X. People have frequently targeted the book in question, “This Book Is Gay,” a coming-out guide for LGBTQ teens, with book bans going back years.
The Coralville detective wrote in her report that one of Raichik’s supporters could have had a role in the bomb threat.
Coralville was not alone. Officers and government officials in four other jurisdictions — Burbank, California; Minnetonka, Minnesota; Oklahoma City; and Tualatin, Oregon — told NBC News they believe Raichik sparked threats in their localities with her posts on social media that digitally heckle people such as drag performers, LGBTQ teachers and doctors who treat transgender patients. The name “Libs of TikTok” is a reference to the people Raichik mocks on social media — “Libs” being short for “liberal.”
While the direct inspirations for the threats are not known, the timing suggests that Libs of TikTok posts have been used to pick targets.
NBC News identified 33 instances, starting in November 2020, when people or institutions singled out by Libs of TikTok later reported bomb threats or other violent intimidation. The threats, which on average came several days after tweets from Libs of TikTok, targeted schools, libraries, hospitals, small businesses and elected officials in 16 states, Washington, D.C., and the Canadian province of Ontario. Twenty-one of the 33 threats were bomb threats, which most commonly targeted schools and were made via email.
NBC News emailed Raichik on Monday seeking comment on the threats. She did not respond directly, but said in a post on X that NBC News was working on a “hit piece.”
“They do it to try to paint me as an extremist to discredit me. This ‘b*mb threat’ narrative is really getting old,” she wrote, adding a yawning-face emoji.
NBC News identified the threats in a review of local news sources, social media posts and interviews with experts and victims.
The 33 threats drew both local and national resources. Law enforcement agencies in at least 13 jurisdictions reported receiving FBI assistance to find the responsible person or people. A police spokesperson in Burbank said he believed the FBI still has an open investigation into an incident there.
In an emailed statement, the bureau said it has, in general, observed an increase in threats of violence targeting institutions like hospitals and schools.
“As a country and organization, we have seen an increase in threats of violence targeting government officials and institutions, houses of worship, schools, and medical facilities, just to name a few. The FBI and our partners take all threats of violence seriously and responding to these threats ties up law enforcement resources,” the FBI press office said.
“When the threats are made as a hoax, it puts innocent people at risk, is a waste of law enforcement’s limited resources, and costs taxpayers. The FBI and our state and local partners will continue to aggressively pursue perpetrators of these threats — real or false — and hold them accountable,” the bureau said.
The FBI did not respond directly to questions about Raichik or the status of cases related to the 33 threats.
Prosecutors have pursued charges in only three of the 33 instances NBC News reviewed: At least three people have been charged with threatening Boston Children’s Hospital or Boston doctors, a juvenile was arrested after being accused of making a threat at an Oregon middle school, and five members of the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front were convicted of conspiring to riot at an Idaho Pride event.
The charging documents associated with those prosecutions did not mention either Libs of TikTok or Raichik.
A member of Patriot Front is searched after being arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on June 11, 2022.John Rudoff / Reuters file
Of the 33 instances, law enforcement or school officials in four jurisdictions said, there were indications — such as email addresses with a non-U.S. domain — that the threats could have come from people in foreign countries.
Raichik, the founder of the Libs of TikTok social media brand, has become an internet celebrity among some conservatives for her willingness to criticize teachers, doctors and other professionals who are LGBTQ or who are accepting of LGBTQ people. Raichik often posts their names and photographs alongside accusations of wrongdoing to X, where she has 2.8 million followers.
Konstantine Anthony, a City Council member in Burbank, said he received violent threats by email less than an hour after Libs of TikTok posted a video of him. The video showed Anthony, who at the time was Burbank’s mayor, getting spanked by a drag queen at a political fundraiser, and Libs of TikTok’s post said it happened “in front of children.” Anthony said no children were present. He was clothed and laughing in the video.
Anthony told NBC News that based on the timing, he believes he and his City Hall staff received at least two bomb threats “as a direct result of Libs of TikTok.”
A spokesperson for the Burbank Police Department said the police had referred the threats to the FBI, which was investigating them.
Konstantine Anthony in Burbank, Calif., on March 15. Tommaso Boddi / Getty Images file
Anthony, a Democrat running for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, blamed Raichik for turning him and others into targets. He said he received harassing messages and threats by email, voicemail, social media and even handwritten letters.
He said he saw increases in the number of threats after subsequent tweets by Raichik.
Libs of TikTok has now taken on a large and growing role in the nation’s culture wars. It provides ammunition to conservatives by collecting and posting examples of what it considers far-left ideology, such as TikTok videos of teachers discussing race or screenshots from gender clinic websites. Elon Musk, who restored Libs of TikTok on X after it was suspended under previous ownership, frequently shares the account’s posts on his own X profile, and the account’s followers on X include a number of politicians such as Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Former President Donald Trump hosted Raichik for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate in January 2023. Tucker Carlson, then a Fox News host, featured her on his show in December 2022. Raichik claimed to be at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot outside the U.S. Capitol, though not in the building, according to The Washington Post.
On Jan. 23, Raichik was appointed to the Oklahoma Department of Education’s Library Media Advisory Committee by Superintendent Ryan Walters. At least one lawmaker has referred to the bomb threats when contesting Raichik’s appointment to the committee.
Oklahoma Public Instruction Superintendent Ryan Walters during inauguration ceremonies in Oklahoma City on Jan. 9, 2023.Sue Ogrocki / AP file
The threats have been taking up government resources and been highly distracting.
In response to the threats, some schools canceled classes for days, while others stayed open following quick sweeps from law enforcement.
Superintendent Sue Rieke-Smith dealt with two separate bomb threats in October after Libs of TikTok tagged Oregon’s Tigard-Tualatin School District. The account shared a video showing a school fight involving a person who some people said appeared to be a trans student.
The school district determined, with assistance from the FBI, that the threat was not credible, said district spokesperson Traci Rose.
Rieke-Smith said that social media accounts cross a line when they criticize kids or inspire threats.
“I think there should be consequences when social media is used inappropriately and a community is harmed,” she added. She said she had even raised her concerns with Oregon’s governor in a recent conversation.
Chief Greg Pickering of the Tualatin Police Department said he assigned a small team to investigate the threats.
“It takes time to vet those threats,” he said in a phone interview. “There’s a ton of due diligence.”
His department arrested a juvenile for making one of the threats on Snapchat. No one has been charged with the other bomb threat, made via email. Pickering said he believed that Libs of TikTok inspired the threat.
Raichik has said that she doesn’t support threatening the subjects of her posts, and that she is not responsible for how people respond to her content. She’s said that she has faced threats herself. When USA Today wrote about the threats, she posed with a copy of the article, smiling, and made it her profile photo on X.
Chaya Raichik at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on March 2. Zach Roberts / NurPhoto via AP
She continues to post the identifying details and images of her subjects. She has rarely criticized the threat-makers or urged them to stop. She told The Washington Post in September 2022, when the newspaper was reporting on threats against children’s hospitals: “We 100 % condemn any acts/threats of violence.”
Raichik has at times mocked the idea that she could influence people making threats, once joking that maybe she was also responsible for natural disasters.
But some of her followers take her posts as an invitation. People have replied with the phone numbers of schools, the names of teachers and school board members and requests for Raichik to provide more details so that users can take action.
“Need to post the school name so calls can be made,” one user replied to a recent Libs of TikTok post on X. Raichik did not respond.
Vice News reported Oct. 4 that at least 11 schools or school districts that were targeted by Libs of TikTok in the prior month received bomb threats days later.
Libs of TikTok is part of a right-wing ecosystem on social media that has targeted transgender people, drag performers, LGBTQ advocates and others in recent years.
“There are forces at work in our country that have fostered this sort of behavior, and that just needs to stop,” said John Sasaki, a spokesperson for the Oakland Unified School District in California.
One of the district’s elementary schools was targeted by Libs of TikTok for hosting an event to bring together Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, and other families of color. In August, Libs of TikTok called the event racist against white people.
The next day, Aug. 29, someone emailed a bomb threat to the school’s principal, Sasaki said. The school canceled classes for the day and sent home its 570 students as police responded.
Sasaki said the district deployed counselors and other school staff to the elementary school the next day.
For other school districts, the threats that followed a Libs of TikTok post have meant more than a one-day evacuation. Oklahoma’s Union Public Schools was the target of bomb threats for six days in August — a series that began one day after an Aug. 21 Libs of TikTok post criticizing an elementary school librarian. The librarian had said online that she emphasized social justice in her teaching.
Chris Payne, a spokesperson for the district, said the local police, with assistance from the FBI, investigated, but he wasn’t aware of any charges. He said he was told by law enforcement that many of the messages appeared to have come from outside the country.
In September, police in Salem, Massachusetts, said they responded to three hoax bomb threats in seven days against the city’s elementary school. Three days before the first threat, Libs of TikTok posted about the school.
“The frequency of school threats which turn out to be hoaxes has dramatically increased in the last two years and presents a quandary for school personnel and public safety alike,” Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller said in a statement.
He added that his department had to balance competing factors: taking all threats seriously while also considering the “mental trauma inflicted upon school children who are exposed to repeated police emergencies.”
So after hurricane Ian tore our home up, we had a new AMS metal roof put on. The old one lasted a long time and survived a lot of hurricanes undamaged, until the last one. But what roof is designed to withstand cat 5 hurricane strength eye wall winds for over 8 hours.
But the next rainstorm the inside ceiling tiles showed more water damage. Then a lot more. We called the company. They sent out a couple of guys, and they had to fix sometimes and seal the ridge. All fixed they said.
A couple of weeks later we had rain, and we had more leaks. Again we called the company. They said they would send someone out. Then last week it rained hard. Really long, a day and night. And water spots got worse and stayed wet. Ron called the company again.
Today they sent a nice guy out. He looked at it all, he touched the spot around the skylight. He took the skylight bottom out and water dripped out. Everything is wet. Then he went to the bathroom and took that skylight bottom out, it also was wet. He took pictures of everything. Told us he did not like the kind of sealant the first crew used. He said one problem is the inner roof has a plastic sheet over it, so that it is hard to tell where the water is coming in as it runs down the plastic. He took pictures to send to the manager and is calling him. I will let you know. But the good news is he showed Ron how to lower the skylight bottom to add length for the new ceiling tiles. Hugs. Scottie
Hate costs. These people wanted to limit other people, the LGBTQIA and their supporters, from public participation. But they tried to do it based on a lie they created. They tried to claim that drag was obscene and sexualized kids. I find it strange it only does it to kids in their minds, yet they want to ban porn from adults also? But there are already laws on obscenity if they think someone was showing a body part that should always be hidden to save the world. They did not want that, because it would still let the parade happen. So they passed a law outlawing one group … for public good. Just like in Russia, and just like that they were able to deny the pride parade permits, stopping “those people” from a public event. The law is illegal. Just because you don’t like a group, don’t like someone’s views or that they are different doesn’t give you the right to deny their human rights, their civil rights, and full equal participation in society publically. I wonder if it will pause some of the other laws pushed by fundamentalist religious right-wingers. Hugs. Scottie
A Tennessee city must pay $500,000 as part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups over an ordinance designed to ban drag performances from taking place on public property, attorneys announced Wednesday.
Last year, the Tennessee Equality Project — a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights — filed a federal lawsuit after Murfreesboro leaders announced they would no longer be approving any event permit requests submitted by the organization.
At the time, the city alleged that the drag performances that took place during TEP’s 2022 Pride event resulted in the “illegal sexualization of kids.”
Read the full article. My October 2023 posts on the Murfreesboro ban are here and here.
STATEMENT from @tnequality on winning the settlement against Murfreesboro: "We celebrate the resolution of this case… Now we can turn our attention to preparing for the 2024 BoroPride and defending rights at the state legislature.” https://t.co/JlYvTFF4mdpic.twitter.com/j2ffhXjgBu
The thing about Murfreesboro is it’s a small town with a large university and campus population exceeding 20k. A lot of partying happens there and the student body is very diverse. The fact that the city council was trying to tamp down Pride activities tells me their Pride must really be a popular event. Murfreesboro, TN, Rutherford Co, is adjacent to Franklin, TN, Williamson Co. It also tried to ban Pride only to lose that effort when the LGBTQ community fought back. My friends in Franklin ( the home of Marsha Blackburn) tell me it’s Pride event was well attended with many Het families bringing their children to the festivities. FYI: In my childhood Murfreesboro TN was a sundown town. That might give you an idea about it’s deep and obviously still politically active Confederate roots.
Illegal sexualization of kids? Drag queens are only sexual if you find drag queen sexual. but if you really want to talk about the LEGAL sexualization of children, Let’s talk about this:
When I lived in PA in the 90s (“Pennsyltucky”), there was a country station which the entire frickin’ region listened to (“Froggy 98”).
They had a TV commercial w/ two little girls dancing to a country song. The younger of the two girls had obviously been (though I didn’t know this term then) GROOMED to “dance sexy”. It was beyond disturbing even then, but I regret not being aware enough to protest it.
These small towns and medium sized cities seem to be unable to consult with their attorneys, or they decide that they don’t like the answer and forge ahead. Inevitably they lose at least some of the lawsuits, and their taxpayers get stuck with the bill. Maybe the city fathers have swallowed the ALEC-like model legislation without considering that the model legislation is not viable when challenged.
Fiscally, won’t dent their budget much. According to their 2022-’23 budget docs, their budget was $573 million.
$500K is nothing for them. But the humiliation of spending taxpayer money to try to keep their homophobic and transphobic ordinance active, only to publicly retract it, will deservedly embarrass the local government there.
This is the result and fear of the minority when they try to rule over the majority. Think of it. The majority of the voting public, the people, want this right. So republicans being a minority based on misogynistic religious ideals want to deny the majority the right to have a say. That is the republican right wing maga in its entirety. That is the mom’s of liberty, the mom’s of TikTok, it is the idea that a racist bigoted repressive regressive oppressive religious minority trying desperately to force their ideas on the rest of society. I am so sick of these anti-democracy theocratic republican minority trying to force the rest of the country to live by what their preacher says. Hugs. Scottie
Again this is about making sure only their god is seen, celebrated, and worshiped. It must be only their god in schools, seen in public, and running the government. It must be prevented that this fundamentalist minority in their own religion must be prevented from taking over the country. Hugs. Scottie
The GOP-backed bill selectively prevents one group from accessing public spaces
FEB 5, 2024
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Republicans in Arizona have introduced a bill that would ban Satanic displays in public spaces. It comes months after a Satanic display in the Iowa Capitol sent conservatives reeling, leading one man to vandalize it. (Just last week, he was charged with a hate crime.)
Titled the “Reject Escalating Satanism by Preserving Essential Core Traditions (RESPECT) Act,” SB 1279 would alter the law by adding the following line to three different parts of the state statute:
SATANIC MEMORIALS, STATUES, ALTARS OR DISPLAYS OR ANY OTHER METHOD OF REPRESENTING OR HONORING SATAN MAY NOT BE DISPLAYED ON PUBLIC PROPERTY IN THIS STATE.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Jake Hoffman, a first-term senator and former member of the State House most (in)famous for being one of Arizona’s fake electors back in 2020.
He’s joined by a dozen fellow Republican co-sponsors who don’t understand that the Establishment Clause doesn’t allow them to exclude one particular religious icon just because they disagree with whatever they think it represents.
Because if there’s one thing we know about Satanic monuments, it’s that groups like The Satanic Temple only request that they go up when there’s a Christian monument already in place. In Arkansas, for example, there’s an ongoing lawsuit involving Satanists who sued after state officials rejected their statue of Baphomet despite allowing a Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds.
By singling out one religious group’s monuments for exclusion—presumably when displays from other faiths would be allowed—this bill would almost certainly trigger a lawsuit if passed.
Even the title is a farce. What’s the danger of “escalating Satanism”? Too much compassion and empathy? What “essential core traditions” are Arizona Republicans trying to preserve? Apparently they involve religious supremacy.
Bills like this, though, aren’t introduced because there’s any chance of them passing. They’re introduced to placate conservative Christians who fantasize about living in a theocracy. They’re a reminder that Christians like Hoffman believe they’re superior to people who don’t share their faith, and they intend to use the government to codify that belief into law—or at least send that message.
The Satanic Temple’s co-founder Lucien Greaves shared a similar view in an email. saying he found the bill “frightening” for what it symbolized more than what it would actually do:
The bill is frightening. Not because I worry that it will pass and will reduce us to a lower tier of citizenship, but because it has no hope of passing, and is so flagrantly unconstitutional that it demonstrates the most horrific incompetence of its every signatory from the Arizona senate.
These are public representatives who not only disrespect the oath of office they swore to uphold, but apparently have no clear understanding of what the purpose of their office is, or what legal principles underpin their authority to begin with.
For an actual senator to write and/or sign such a hopelessly illegal, petty and futile bill is to announce utter and complete ignorance as to the function of their office, and total disregard for the services they are expected to perform as public representatives.
Presenting such a bill, as a Senator, should be a sanctionable offense, as it impossible to imagine that any signatory to a document so embarrassingly juvenile and counter-Constitutional could ever truly be effective at anything.
SB 1279 will be formally discussed during a hearing of the Committee on Government on Wednesday morning. That committee happens to include Sen. Juan Mendez, a Democrat who’s openly atheist. So there will be at least one voice of reason in the mix.
Please share this post on Reddit, Facebook, or the godawful X/Bird app.
These people are not even trying to hide their real goal. It is not about helping kids, it is not about saving money by not hiring trained professionals. Nope it is about pushing their god on to everyone and creating a theocracy instead of our democracy. I don’t know what more there is to say. Yet as it has been well shown they don’t follow the saying of the very person their religion is named for, Christ. Hugs. Scottie
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I’ve already written about how Texas has passed a law allowing trained social workers to be replaced by Christian chaplains in public schools (even though religious chaplains are begging districts not to go through with it). More recently, Iowa Republicans have filed a bill to allow chaplains in public schools. Republicans in Florida have advanced a similar bill, giving “local school districts the option to establish a volunteer chaplaincy program.”
Critics have been saying for months now that this is nothing more than a new way to shove Christianity into public schools, while defenders of these bills say it’s a way to improve students’ mental health at a time when schools are understaffed when it comes to social workers and counselors. Inviting chaplains into schools, said one advocacy group, would give kids “a solid spiritual foundation and a safe space to express their pain and frustrations.”
See, everyone? It’s not about religious indoctrination. It’s about meeting the needs of students with the help of faith-based groups.
About that.
Even one of the architects of the Texas chaplain law, Sen. Mayes Middleton, is freely admitting this has everything to do with getting God into schools.
State Senator Mayes Middleton (screenshot via YouTube)
On Monday, Middleton appeared on “The WallBuilders Show,” a podcast hosted by Christian pseudo-historians David Barton and son Tim Barton along with Rick Green (a self-described “Constitution Coach”).
During a discussion with Green, Middleton repeatedly admitted that the true goal of his bill was “putting God back in government”:
… what happened is our U.S. Supreme Court, thanks to President Trump’s appointments, made it possible for us to go win some of these fights and put God back in government so people can freely exercise their religious beliefs in government and in schools.
…
… This allows students, faculty, staff, to freely exercise their religion and have this tool available. Someone to talk to from a Godly perspective, because chaplains represent God in government. That’s what they do and that’s what we need more of in this country. And thankfully, because of the Coach Kennedy case, we’re able to do that without any legal challenges. Of course, these atheist groups out of Washington D.C. oppose chaplains in schools, but their legal arguments are now totally meritless, and they won’t win if they try.
Middleton added that part of his legislation required Texas districts to vote on whether or not they wanted to allow chaplains into their schools… but it’s not really a choice. Because if they vote against it, Middleton says litigation could be forthcoming:
… Sadly, some of the districts have listened to some of these atheist organizations, out-of-state Washington D.C. organizations. I know one district that’s very close by that actually voted to ban chaplains. Which, wow, honestly, that’s probably a larger risk for litigation because, in that case, you’re prohibiting, for example, a teacher or admin or somebody at the district from seeing someone based solely on their religious beliefs. Yeah, and that is a serious religious liberties issue.
First of all, the idea that there are a slew of atheist organizations based in Washington, D.C.—and that they all have this outsized power—is laughable. (If only!)
But more to the point, no church/state separation group would ever prevent a staffer or student from seeing a chaplain who shares their religious views. They can always go to church for that. What they can’t do—and shouldn’t be allowed to do—is use government resources to advance their religious agenda.
Middleton doesn’t give a damn about non-Christian students because he knows his bill would benefit Christians (who have the infrastructure to create and ordain chaplains) far more than any other group. In fact, his bill didn’t even require those chaplains to have any formal training, which means helping students isn’t even a priority for the Republicans who passed the bill. They just needed a way to get Jesus into the building and this could do the trick.
Elsewhere in the interview, Middleton argued that schools have been worse off ever since “prayer was taken out of our public schools in the 1960s” (which it wasn’t). This is what he does, though: He floods the zone with faith-based bullshit in order to win over gullible Christians who don’t know any better. Middleton has also filed multiple bills to bring Bible reading to public schools and do away with all kinds of church/state separation barriers.
He pushed those bills for the same reason he pushed this one: He firmly believes the church—his church specifically—should dictate all state policy. And Texas Republicans, unfortunately, don’t have the courage to say no to him.
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