This is another attempt to erase the LGBTQ+ from existing in public spaces, it is an attempt to remove protections and warnings to bullies that have protected the LGBTQ+ kids, and follow the further war to undo all the advances in equality and social acceptances that the LGBTQ+ have achieved over the last 50 years. For those I have argued with that claim the law doesn’t say don’t say gay and that all it is doing is protecting straight kids from being improperly groomed and indoctrinated in LGBTQ+ propaganda the left pushes. Sorry this is about harming and punishing the kids that are different and not straight. Why are they doing this for all grades when the law is written for K-3rd grade? Why is the districts doing this at all when there are those claiming that the law doesn’t require this? It is because it gives some bigoted right wing parent the right to sue is the district seems to be protect or advocating acceptance of LGBTQ+ kids. That hurts their god when gay kids are not bullied by their kids. This is getting serious dangerous again for kids that are different. Hugs
Duval County Public Schools removed a video teaching students how to support LGBTQ+ peers in response to Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education Law. | Claire Heddles, Jacksonville Today
Duval County Public Schools has taken down a 12-minute anti-bullying video that taught middle and high school students how to support their gay and transgender peers, the latest in a string of vanishing LGBTQ resources in the district.
Besides the video, the district is planning to dramatically reduce a LGBTQ+ support guide, and the School Board will vote Monday on a policy that could require schools to notify parents if students want to use different names or pronouns in unofficial records, like ID cards and yearbooks.
The moves are largely in response to Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law, which restricts how schools can teach about gender identification and sexual orientation. Supporters say the law give parents control of their children’s education, but critics have labeled it the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
A Duval Schools federal grant coordinator raised questions about removing the anti-bullying video, according to a Jacksonville Today review of internal district emails. “Here is what the students have access to for training,” the grant coordinator wrote to the district’s policy team on April 5, 2022. The email was marked “high importance.”
“I just wanted to make sure you both have a look before taking it down,” she wrote, attaching screenshots from the video detailing how to support LGBTQ+ peers, combat bullying in schools and respond when peers come out.
The video is now inaccessible and, in response to questions from Jacksonville Today, district spokesperson Tracy Pierce said, “The materials you referenced have been removed for legal review to ensure the content complies with recent state legislation.”
The video’s removal follows the district’s controversial takedown of a 37-page LGBTQ+ Support Guide last fall, and draft, consolidated support guidance that cuts out many of the explicit protections for transgender students. LGBTQ advocates say the disappearing resources send a dangerous message to a vulnerable student population.
“I do believe [the school system] is trying to create some kind of balance,” JASMYN CEO Cindy Watson tells Jacksonville Today. “But I don’t want to, in any way, suggest that removing all of this is the right thing because it creates a lot of uncertainty and a lack of safety for students right away.”
A training video by students, for students
The now-removed video, specifically created for students, was developed using funds from a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant. The district consulted with LGBTQ+ students in Duval Schools about how to best communicate the anti-bullying message with their peers, according to Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts science teacher, and campus Gay Straight Alliance faculty sponsor Scott Sowell.
He says he did not receive notification from the district about the plan to remove the video, even though some of his students helped to create it. It’s a training he’s used during monthly GSA meetings.
“The video was co-written by some students, and so it had very student-appropriate and student-specific language that was, you know, teenagers talking to other teenagers,” Sowell says. “It’s one critical resource that is now no longer available to teachers to help support students.”
Stills from the now-removed All In for Safe Schools student training video.
The guidance in the video includes, “Be generally respectful of things you may not understand,” and, “‘That’s so gay’ is NOT OKAY.” According to the teacher script accompanying the video, obtained by Jacksonville Today, the training was part of a program for students to obtain an “All In for Safe Schools” badge, a marker that signals the person completed the Safe Schools training.
The All In program is still in place for Duval Schools employees, according to the district’s website. It’s not clear whether the school district will continue the program for students in the upcoming school year. At the time of publishing, the student badge request form was publicly accessible, but the accompanying training video was not.
According to Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law, classroom instruction “on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3, or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
The removed video was designed for students in grades 6-12, not K-3 graders, according to the script accompanying the training materials. And state guidance issued last month says the provision of the law for older students “takes effect only after the Florida Department of Education develops rules or guidance on age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate instruction.” Those rules have not yet been released, according to state officials.
Sowell says it’s disappointing the district removed the video preemptively, without notification or detailed explanation.
“If the district or individuals in the legal team are being held to a specific law, or piece of legislation or mandate that they have to change and edit this, then hopefully, they’ll be as transparent and communicate those changes to everyone involved so things just don’t just disappear,” Sowell says.
Another LGBTQ+ resource removed
The training was not the only LGBTQ+ support resource to disappear last school year. Six months prior to the video’s removal, Superintendent Diana Greene directed her staff to remove a decade-old LGBTQ+ Support Guide from the district’s website, amid rising right-wing backlash against similar support guides across Florida following a lawsuit in Leon County.
In an October 22, 2021, email obtained by Jacksonville Today, Greene told School Board members the guide was never intended to be a public document.
“As the document was not created for external use, it has been removed. Additionally, since the support guide has not undergone a comprehensive review in several years, I have instructed staff to work with the Officer of General Counsel to conduct a comprehensive review of the guidance,” Greene wrote last fall.
Duval parent Josinda York
At least a dozen districts had similar support guides in place last year, but more than half of them have since removed them from their websites, according to an Equality Florida lawsuit. Duval Schools announced a plan last month to cut back most of the former support guide.
“Consolidating training and guidance documents for staff shouldn’t reflect on our commitment to supporting students,” Dr. Greene said in a recent press release. “The proof is in our actions, and we will continue to do all we can to help students thrive.”
But parents of trans students, like Duval mom Josinda York, fear fewer guidelines could hurt kids like hers. York’s son, now in middle school, told her he was a boy when he was 4. Josinda started transitioning him at school in the second grade.
“This would have been a direct issue for him had they not had everything in place already, because that gave the school all the tools they needed to help him with his transition,” York tells Jacksonville Today. “Specifically because the School Board had these guidelines, they had something to go by.”
York says the level of detail about trans students’ federal rights and frequently asked questions in the former support guide, stripped out in the consolidated draft guidance, were an important part of her family’s experience in Duval Schools.
Without the former support guide, York says, “I think the principal still would have supported us, but I don’t know if they would have had the education to properly support us.”
Hundreds of parents have shown up at recent Duval School Board meetings to comment on the support guide, some to push back against the proposed changes and others advocating for throwing out the support guide altogether. According to the district, the proposed changes were not required by Florida’s new laws, but were a choice by district staffers.
“We are taking these steps to streamline our training and internal communication with staff even though it is not required under the law,” a district spokesperson wrote in an email to Jacksonville Today.
Monday’s vote could bring more changes
In addition to the disappearing training materials, Duval School Board members are also set to vote on a policy change — drafted in response to Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law — requiring schools to send emails to parents if there’s a change in student services, which would include if students want to change their name or pronouns in unofficial school records, like ID cards and yearbooks, according to proposed district guidance. According to the draft policy, schools would send the email to parents, unless there’s a risk of “abuse, abandonment or neglect.”
The new policy would likely affect trans kids and their parents, like Dawn and David Clapp. The two were decked out in LGBTQ+ pride gear at the last School Board meeting, David in a pink and blue shirt that reads, “Trans rights are human rights” and Dawn with a “Love Wins” headband. They’re, by all accounts, affirming parents to their transgender daughter.
Dawn and David Clapp, and their daughter, gathered with LGBTQ+ advocates before a June school board meeting.
Even with supportive parents, their daughter was first comfortable coming out to her friends and a teacher at her Duval charter school. She told her parents she was a girl later on when she felt ready.
“We were supportive of her,” Clapp says. “It was surprising, and it’s been a lot to deal and adjust with, but she’s become this amazing, blossoming human being because she’s felt safe at home and safe at school to be who she wants to be.”
Dawn and David are among a group of parents of transgender kids, and other LGBTQ+ advocates, who oppose sending an automatic email to parents that “outs” kids without their consent, instead of letting kids like the Clapp’s daughter change their name on class rosters, but tell their parents when they want to, as the policy currently permits.
“My children’s friends that don’t have as supportive parents, it scares me for them, that they would have that taken from them,” Dawn Clapp says.
District staffers say the new policy is necessary to comply with Florida’s new law.
It’s not only LGBT students — it is anyone who doesn’t follow the norm — whether sexual or any other difference which is normal between humans. Blacks, browns, Asians, Jews, Muslims, any of several other religious sects, diet habits, dress, you name it — it is an attack against humanity itself.
“It’s hard to even see the mission right now, much less put your faith in it,” one Biden bundler said regarding the difficulty of fundraising for the president these days.
Scott Bixby
White House Reporter
Angelo Merendino/Getty
The Biden administration’s halting response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, along with an inflammatory criticism by a senior White House official over the weekend, has angered some of the very people that President Joe Biden hopes will stir up voters ahead of the midterms—and even a few of the people who are supposed to support those efforts with their wallets.
“Furious,” texted one Biden bundler for whom abortion is a key issue, when asked about the mood of like-minded financial supporters of the president. “The statement was just so unnecessarily disrespectful of people who helped elect him, truly.”
“We are experts at at what we do and what it takes to get an abortion in this country,” said Morgan Hopkins, the interim executive director of campaigns and strategies at All* Above All, an abortion-rights group, who pointed out that it was activists who pushed Biden to reverse his opposition to the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding going to abortion services. “We have a political organization, we know the importance of voting, and people across this country know the importance of voting, and we need the boldest of action from the White House.”
“I will not take being called an activist as an insult,” Hopkins said. “Activism works.”
The statement in question—in which outgoing White House communications director and longtime Biden media guru Kate Bedingfield declared that the president’s “goal” was not to “satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party”—incensed abortion rights advocates when it was first published in TheWashington Post on Saturday.
“People around the country are rightfully terrified and seeking leadership that is bold and effective,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, which recently joined 18 other civil rights groups to demand a meeting with Biden to discuss concrete steps to protect abortion access. “Advocates around the country are pushing every leader to do more, and that must include the White House.”
But while Biden and his team have long since grown accustomed to public displays of frustration from activists on issues ranging from immigration to LGBTQ rights, some told The Daily Beast that this latest slight risks discouraging those groups from coordinating with the White House going forward—with the razor-thin Democratic majorities in Congress at stake.
Biden ‘to Nominate an Anti-Abortion Judge in Kentucky’
WHAT A DEAL
“We have never depended on Biden to get abortions—when he was vice president or now,” said Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and executive director of We Testify, an organization that represents those who have had abortions. “The question is whether he’s ready to plug into the organizing that’s happening with or without his administration.”
In the weeks after the initial leak of a draft decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that found ruled that the ability to end a pregnancy was a constitutional right, the Biden administration pledged to pursue a “whole-of-government” response to any potential threat to abortion access. But once the decision was finally released on June 24, that plan has primarily focused on encouraging Democrats to vote more abortion supporters into office in order to codify Roe into law.
“The only way we can secure a woman’s right to choose and the balance that existed is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law,” Biden said hours after the Dobbs decision was released, noting that as president, he was powerless to do so himself. “Voters need to make their voices heard. This fall, we must elect more senators and representatives who will codify a woman’s right to choose into federal law once again.”
That is a tall order ahead of midterm elections in which the Democratic Party is on track to lose its majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate—and the kind of plan that requires working hand-in-hand with advocates and activists who have decades of experience mobilizing voters who support abortion access.
Abortion-rights advocates say there’s no chance that they will walk away from the work they’ve done for decades because of one pissy statement. But the Biden administration’s “vote, vote vote” message, to them, feels like an abdication of authority—to say nothing of the White House’s rejection of proposals like expanding the Supreme Court, building abortion clinics on federal lands and declaring a national public-health emergency.
“We’ll continue doing what we’ve always done for the past decade: getting people to the abortions they need and organizing our communities,” said Sherman. “But the president cannot continue to say that he’s doing everything he can to support abortion when he had to be begged to say the word and is installing a lifetime of barriers in the judicial system.”
The feeling of disengagement from Biden, if not from the midterm elections entirely, has also percolated up to the donor space, according to three high-dollar bundlers from the 2020 presidential campaign. The White House’s cautious response to Dobbs, one of the bundlers said, won’t singlehandedly push donors to ditch Democrats—but combined with Biden’s poor polling and the gloomy outlook for his domestic agenda, is not exactly making the case for doubling down on investing in Biden’s political future.
“When you’re a fundraiser and you’re reaching out to your network on a candidate’s behalf, you need to believe in that candidate and his/her mission,” one bundler said. “It’s hard to even see the mission right now, much less put your faith in it.”
Negative feelings about the administration’s handling of any issue, another noted, makes fundraising more difficult—even if the president’s biggest bundlers are still stalwart supporters.
“Nobody who stayed Team Biden during Iowa-New Hampshire-Nevada is going to ditch him over this,” they said. “But the parvenus who came onboard once he got the nomination are fickle almost by definition.”
Across the board, bundlers and activists noted that with the Senate filibuster intact and the Supreme Court’s makeup set for years, the decks are largely stacked against major executive action. Biden has also issued executive orders directing his administration to help increase access to abortion medication, as well as promising to fight state laws that could criminalize crossing state lines to obtain an abortion.
“They have taken important steps,” Goss Graves said. “The executive order was important, the materials the agencies are releasing this week have provided critical clarity, but the work is not done.”
But that work will require working together, said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who said that her organization is “committed” to working with the Biden administration on abortion protections.
“We recognize that there are limits to what the Biden administration can do to remedy the chaos caused by this decision,” said McGill Johnson. “People expect actions from elected officials at all levels of government—including the president—that not only affirm, but protect their right to abortion and freedom to make decisions about their own bodies and futures.”
In the hyper-masculine right-wing internet community known as the “manosphere,” few figures loom larger than Jesse Lee Peterson. The Los Angeles-based pastor and online radio host has become a star in conservative media in part for his demands that men and women return to his unorthodox version of traditional gender norms.
Peterson has also emerged as one of the right’s most vocal anti-gay figures. He’s claimed that people who march in gay pride parades are the children of Satan, and that “radical homosexuals are evil.”
Now several of Peterson’s one-time friends allege that the pastor’s own personal life is rife with gay sexual relationships. Two of Peter’s former male associates came out in June with on-the-record interviews saying they engaged in sexual activities with him, while other men say he propositioned them.
As longtime JMG readers will recall, I’ve reported on Peterson’s often bizarre anti-gay statements dozens of times over the last decade.
He last appeared on JMG last August when he sponsored a second annual California “Straight Pride” event which ended in violence by the Proud Boys.
PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Jesse Lee Peterson says depression is caused by sinning. Peterson says all Asians look alike to him. Peterson says “weak straight people” have allowed “radical homosexuals” to seize the terms husband and wife. Peterson says men should not marry “educated women” as women should be cooking and cleaning, not seeking degrees. Peterson calls for sending Andrew Yang back to China. Peterson says Brett Kavanaugh isn’t a real man because his kids are all girls and “real men make boys first.” Peterson says Roy Moore’s Senate loss proves that black Democrats don’t believe in God. Peterson says that women who accuse Trump of sexual assault are “literally Satan’s daughters.” Peterson declares discrimination by businesses to be a “good thing.” Peterson calls for boycotting the NFL over openly gay player Michael Sam.
More than 15,000 people have marched in Romania’s capital Bucharest for equal rights for gender and sexual minorities as the country’s lower chamber of the parliament is set to vote on a law later this year that bans discussion of homosexuality and gender identity in public spaces.
An amendment to the Romanian Child Protection Law that was proposed by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), an ethnic minority party that is part of the ruling coalition, was inspired by a similar law which was adopted by Hungary in 2021.
After being passed by the Senate in April and approved by the Romanian Human Rights Commission, the bill needs the backing of the lower chamber of parliament.
“The way it looks like at the moment, this bill is completely anti-democratic from many points of view, mainly because it hinders the freedom of expression and because it stands against all treaties, conventions, and international recommendations regarding LGBT rights,” said Ionela Baluta, who participated in Saturday’s Bucharest Pride to support the community and oppose the bill.
Baluta, a professor at the political sciences faculty of the University of Bucharest, with expertise in gender studies, political representation and gender equality policies, is concerned about the ambiguous formulation of the bill.
She thinks it could lead to consequences as far-reaching as gender studies being banned in universities and individuals being incriminated for posting information related to gender identity on their personal social media accounts.
The European Parliament’s LGBTI Intergroup expressed their concerns about the bill in a statement, urging members of the Romanian legislature to be “clear and resolute in striking it down”.
Deeming it as “another attempt to galvanise hatred in Romania”, Marc Angel, the group’s co-chair, added that “this bill has no human rights compliance and serves no societal purpose but to ostracise further those already discriminated against”.
A similar law, attempting to ban gender identity information in Romania’s schools and universities, was deemed unconstitutional by the Romanian Constitutional Court in 2020 after being passed by the Senate and the parliament’s lower chamber.
“Back then in 2020 when the law passed through the parliament, it felt like the world collapsed on me because I realised I couldn’t be myself any more,” said Gabriel Gherman, a 20-year-old transgender community activist and community facilitator with ACCEPT Romania – an NGO advocating for LGBTQ rights.
“I’m sure this time it would be the same if it would pass, but nobody with real political power asked us young transgender people in Romania how we feel about it,” Gherman said.
Although same-sex relationships have been decriminalised in Romania since 2001, Romania remains conservative towards the LGBTQ community, with same-sex couples still not being allowed to marry or enter into civil partnerships.
A banner in support of equal democratic rights was displayed during the Bucharest Pride march. ‘We continue to hope that this law will not be passed by the Romanian parliament … as this is a clearly unconstitutional initiative, which places us closer to Russia, in opposition with the European values that we adhered to by the will of the Romanian people, by being part of the EU and signing the human rights convention,’ said Teodora Ion-Rotaru Roseti from ACCEPT Romania. [Alexandra Radu/Al Jazeera]
A banner with a hate message towards same-sex marriage was displayed during a counterprotest organised by Noua Dreapta, a far-right group. In 2018, conservative and religious organisations attempted to change the constitution through a referendum to prevent same-sex marriage from ever becoming legal. The referendum failed after voter turnout fell below the threshold of 30 percent needed to validate it. [Alexandra Radu/Al Jazeera]
About 200 people displaying anti-LGBTQ rights banners and Christian Orthodox imagery participated in a counterprotest in response to the Pride march, on Saturday. The protest has been taking place on the same day as the Pride march since 2005. [Alexandra Radu/Al Jazeera]
Young people participating in a ‘Pride in the Tram’ event wave at people waiting in a tram station. ‘We want to outline the fact that LGBT people exist in all walks of life and the tram takes message for equality rights through various neighbourhoods and reclaims public spaces and services for the community. It is also a message about the need for safety in public spaces for LGBT people,’ said Vlad Levente Viski from Mozaiq, an NGO advocating for LGBT rights. [Alexandra Radu/Al Jazeera]
Two women hug each other during the Pride march. ‘Having a community feels for us like having another family, in the community we find our people, with whom we can be ourselves. When I had the opportunity to spend time in the community I felt great joy,’ said Gabriel Gherman, community facilitator from ACCEPT Romania. [Alexandra Radu/Al Jazeera]
A Ukrainian dancer waves his national flag in a message against war during Bucharest Pride. [Alexandra Radu/Al Jazeera]
People celebrated diversity marching, dancing and waving LGBTQ flags through the centre of Bucharest. [Alexandra Radu/Al Jazeera]
A huge LGBTQ flag was carried by people participating in the Pride parade. [Alexandra Radu/Al Jazeera]
The words used, the language is deliberate to dehumanize anyone LGBTQ+ and make it seem they are extreme and degenerate. The wording is to make it seem those people are not normal and are sick, and any attempt to be positive and inclusive harms society and the straight people. Hugs
The language will be as follows: parental leave instead of maternity leave, parent instead of mother or father, parenting, birthing parent instead of mother, non-birthing parent instead of father. But what if it’s a woman who is beyond birthing age? What do we call her?
Now the reason behind this, the NEA writes, is that in using this contract language members need not worry about how a board of education defines maternity leave. Mother and her father, the language is an inclusive reflection of how the LGBTQIA+ members build their families.
This rationale assumes that the way that heterosexual members build their families should be rewritten regardless of their personal preference. How about bestiality? Is that part of it? I’m just waiting. And if it’s not, why not?
Officers are sharing racist content online, with some wearing the ‘thin blue line’ avatar, associated with white nationalism among US police
The Met was placed on special measures in June, after scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer. Photograph: Cliff Hide General News/Alamy
Police forces in the UK and across Europe are suffering from a growing “culture of extremism”, according to a report that warns of an increase in officers sharing racist and far-right content online. The report, by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), says UK policing has a growing extremist problem, and highlights issues across Europe. In France, 81% of gendarmes declared they would vote for far-right politician Marine Le Pen.
In France, Belgium, Germany and Hungary former high-ranking police officers have become extreme-right mayoral and parliamentary candidates.
In the UK, a series of recent cases involving the Metropolitan police have further damaged the reputation of a force long accused of being “institutionally racist”. They include officers sharing images on WhatsApp of two murdered black sisters. Another group of officers, at a central London station, were found to have joked about rape, killing black children and beating their wives.
The Met was last month placed on special measures after scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer, the strip-searching of innocent black children, and stop-and-search controversies including that of the British Olympic sprinter Bianca Williams.
Liz Fekete, director of IRR, said: “Our conclusion that the dehumanising mindset and overall sense of impunity and entitlement displayed in police WhatsApp groups is a symptom, not a cause, of authoritarian trends in policing, will no doubt make for uncomfortable reading.”
Fekete added: “Racism has become entrenched in policing as the rank and file are resituating themselves as society’s victims and organising on an ever more extremist agenda.”
The report also warns that the “thin blue line” avatar and hashtag are still seen on the Twitter feeds of police officers, including a safer neighbourhood team in London, and they have been observed on the uniforms of officers in Manchester. In the US, the thin blue line avatar and “blue lives matter” movement are associated with white nationalism, with serving and retired officers implicated in the Capitol Hill siege.
Fekete warned that the thin blue line had become a “besieged and misunderstood minority group” with a proliferation of victim narratives that represent rank-and-file officers as the aggrieved party in debates on police racism and use of force.
The report also warns of a link between racist attitudes and operational practice, particularly in relation to predictive policing and racial profiling. Last December, concerns were raised about the Met’s Operation Pima in which 61% of individuals identified within intelligence reports as the “most prolific or violent offenders” in London were black.
Ilyas Nagdee, from Amnesty International, said the research was important particularly as discussions about “alternative approaches to public safety” gained ground.
Mark Rowley was last week unveiled as the Met’s new commissioner, a figure whose previous position as its head of counter-terrorism means he is well versed in the challenges posed by extremism, both within and outside the force.
The only thing bring abusive cops to justice, to prevent abuse of blacks by racist cops is the videos that came out. The cop that enjoyed killing George Floyd wouldn’t have been found guilty without that video that showed him smirking and knowing killing a man. So the right wing racist in office want to protect those abusive cops and let the abuse by the police continue. This has to stop. The love that the blacks are treated like an occupied people and that police harm minorities. One state tried and I think did pass a law that made it illegal to insult a cop. WTF! Are they that fragile in their military gear they can not take an insult? Hugs
Critics say the law gives police too much discretion.
The same week that a federal judge sentenced ex-cop Derek Chauvin to more prison time for killing George Floyd, Arizona passed a law making it harder to record police by limiting how close bystanders can be while recording specified law enforcement activity. Chauvin was convicted in part because a recording showing his attack on Floyd at close proximity went viral. It was filmed by a teenager named Darnella Frazier while she was standing “a few feet away.”
The new Arizona law requires any bystanders recording police activity in the state to stand at a minimum of 8 feet away from the action. If bystanders move closer after police have warned them to back off, they risk being charged with a misdemeanor and incurring fines of up to $500, jail time of up to 30 days, or probation of up to a year.
Sponsored by Republican state representative John Kavanagh, the law known as H.B. 2319 makes it illegal to record police at close range. In a USA Today op-ed, Kavanagh said it is important to leave this buffer for police to protect law enforcement from being assaulted by unruly bystanders. He said “there’s no reason” to come closer and predicted tragic outcomes for those who do, saying, “Such an approach is unreasonable, unnecessary, and unsafe, and should be made illegal.”
This week, Kavanagh has succeeded in making close-range recording illegal in Arizona, with only a few exceptions. Perhaps most critically, the person involved in the police activity—someone being questioned, arrested, or handled by police—can record, as long as it doesn’t interfere with police actions. The same exception extends to anyone recording while in a vehicle involved in a police stop.
Additionally, anyone recording activity from an enclosed structure on private property still has a right to record police within 8 feet—unless law enforcement “determines that the person is interfering” or “it is not safe” for them to be in the area. That caveat potentially gives police a lot of discretion over who can record and when.
Kavanagh said he decided to push for this change in Arizona law after some Tucson officers complained that bystanders sometimes stood a foot or two behind them while recording arrests. The state representative also told USA Today that his decision to set the minimum distance at 8 feet “is based upon 8 feet being established by the US Supreme Court as being a reasonable distance as they applied it to people entering and leaving abortion clinics when faced with protesters.”
Responding to critics who think citizens should be able to get closer to law enforcement activity, Kavanagh said, “The argument that filming from 8 feet away does not allow for a proper view of the scene is ridiculous.” He cited impactful police brutality recordings that were recorded from further distances, including Rodney King (100 feet) and Freddie Gray (“clearly 8 to 10 feet away”).
Concerns over constitutionality
Over the past decade, similar attempts to limit the recording of police activity have repeatedly been struck down as unconstitutional.
In 2011, a top US appeals court stopped police from arresting bystanders for supposedly “secretly” recording police activity, deeming the police action a violation of both free speech and guaranteed protections against unreasonable search and seizure. This established “a constitutionally protected right to videotape police.”
The next year, the US Department of Justice stated in a letter that recording police activity should only be “subject to narrowly defined restrictions,” praising the practice because it improves public confidence in law enforcement, helps ensure public safety, and holds police accountable. In 2017, a federal appeals court re-affirmed First Amendment rights to record police, saying that recordings both protect against abuse of power and exonerate wrongly accused cops.
Ahead of the law passing, Kavanagh was concerned about the constitutionality of his bill, especially after rules attorneys for the state House of Representatives told him it might be unconstitutional to apply the 8-foot buffer “to all police encounters.” To push the law through, Kavanagh amended the bill so that it “only applies to filming during police-citizen encounters where there is a potential for violence, such as arresting or summonsing people, questioning suspicious persons, and handling emotionally disturbed people.”
Kavanagh has expressed confidence that the new law will hold up against inquiries into its constitutionality. However, earlier this year, the ACLU of Arizona tweeted that “Not only is this bill a terrible idea, but it’s also unconstitutional” because it “places unnecessary burdens on folks and grants police too much discretion.”
Today, the ACLU of Arizona renewed those concerns, with staff attorney K.M. Bell saying that the law is a “chilling” use of the “public’s most effective tool against police wrongdoing in violation of our First Amendment rights.”
“By limiting our ability to record police interactions, this law will undoubtedly make it even more difficult to hold police officers accountable for misconduct,” Bell said in an emailed statement.
Kavanagh did not immediately respond to a request for comment on constitutional concerns now that the bill has passed. (Update: Kavanagh responded to add that “no sane person with good judgment walks a foot or two away from a police officer making an arrest,” unless they are “unbelievably naive or have other agendas.” He also said that videos taken from 8 feet away give “greater context” than close-range videos. He considers the ACLU argument to be “bogus” and expects the law to hold up if challenged in court.)
For now, bystanders recording Arizona police activity (as defined in the bill) will need to rely on their camera’s zoom capabilities if they want to follow in Frazier’s footsteps and capture close-up footage that holds police accountable. Her close-range video has been deemed “one of the most important civil rights documents in a generation” by journalists and documentarians.
Ah yes, the right wings favorite tool, lie, misdirect, and misinform. Accuse, slander, make false claims, and attack anyone / anything that doesn’t walk the right wing line. Again notice the wording used to describe even just being gay or supporting equality. Hugs
Facebook and Instagram both allowed anti-LGBTQ sentiment and misinformation to proliferate despite claiming to support the LGBTQ community during Pride Month, according to a pair of Media Matters reports released this week. Both social media platforms are owned by Meta, which publicly promotes its platforms as safe spaces for LGBTQ users.
Facebook enabled right-wing media to amplify anti-LGBTQ lies during Pride month, according to Media Matters. The progressive media watchdog group found that during the month of June, right-leaning pages posted about LGBTQ and Pride nearly 3,500 times and earned just under four million interactions.
“Facebook and its parent company Meta had eagerly promoted Pride Month, adding Pride features on the platform, claiming to amplify LGBTQ creators, and reiterating the company’s supposed commitment to supporting LGBTQ people and to eliminating hate speech targeting them. But Facebook has regularly failed to remove the dangerous and dehumanizing hate speech and misinformation targeting LGBTQ people coming from right-wing outlets, figures, and groups. And this Pride Month, under Facebook’s watch, posts that amplify longstanding, baseless, and dangerous rhetoric about the LGBTQ community proliferated across the platform,” the report found.
Pages run by right-wing media outlets TheBlaze, The Western Journal, and The Daily Wire, which regularly exploit Facebook’s algorithm, spread lies and fearmongering posts about Pride events and LGBTQ people “grooming children.” Similar anti-LGBTQ posts about Pride were also found all over right-wing Facebook groups both public and private.
“During Pride Month, Meta announced it was ‘celebrating pride’ by launching Pride-themed stickers and avatars, a Global LGBTQ+ Cultural Guide, and an LGBTQ+ Safety Hub,” the report on Instagram reads. “Despite Meta’s newly announced resources, Instagram has allowed its users to spread propaganda against the LGBTQ community — and even against the same individuals it’s publicly celebrating. In several cases, these are accounts dedicated to targeting LGBTQ people, while in others, these are accounts of right-wing media outlets and personalities who also push anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Many of these posts seem to violate Meta’s policies.”
Media Matters tracked a number of right-wing accounts on Instagram – including Libs of TikTok, which has become notorious on various social media platforms for posting anti-gay propaganda and encouraging followers to harass LGBTQ people – that have been allowed to post homophobic memes and disinformation to their hundreds of thousands of followers.
As Media Matters points out, the rise in anti-LGBTQ hate on social media has coincided with a wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation in state houses across the U.S. as well as Pride events being targeted by extremist groups this summer. “The false narratives right-wing figures are spinning to support these bills are being projected through online platforms and news outlets and have already led to real-world harm.”
“While some queer users are profitable for Instagram, especially during the month of June, its ongoing failure to address accounts actively spreading harmful rhetoric against the LGBTQ community make the platform’s ‘Happy Pride’ messaging hollow,” the report concludes. “Once again, Meta is showing that it will prioritize the engagement that these high-profile right-wing accounts generated through hateful, lie-filled content, even when it leads to real-world harm and the degradation of LGBTQ rights and safety.”
LGBTQ Nation reached out to Meta for comment and will update this article if they respond.
Ah the republicans are salivating over this. They dream of going this far. We all knew this was coming in Russia where they are basically making being LGBTQ+ illegal. Just existing as a gay person will be against the laws. That is the end results of the don’t say gay bills. It has been a long time goal of the religious right to return the culture to the past where only white Christian cis males have right. I can not believe in a time where around the world the smaller right wing countries are opening up and recognizing gay rights as human rights two of the largest countries are hurting backwards and establishing theocracies. Notice the wording describing just showing gay people exist as propaganda and promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships. All to make seem gay people were trying to molest, groom, teach sex to kids. The current laws states anything LGBTQ+ can not be seen by minors and that means anywhere from online, TV / movies, public spaces, cars, anywhere a minor might be able to see it. Now they want to extend that to basically anywhere anyone could see it. The entire country is off limits to display or show anything positive about LGBTQ+ yet the hate groups can still attack those people freely. They are trying to make being non heterosexual and non cis illegal and open for attack. The law maker even bragged that attempt to legalize same sex marriage is a thing of the past. That is what the right salivates to happen here. In Russia when they tried democracy LGBTQ+ acceptance was becoming very supported by the public. Laws were being changed to be more accepting. Then the religious leaders went to Putin and offered to back him, install him as the countries leader if he gave them what they wanted. He agreed and the rest is history. It is a history being repeated in the US. Why does the right wing media love Russia / Putin? Why does Fox hosts praise authoritarians worldwide especially Putin? Because these leaders / countries are hurting the same groups they hate, giving their church official status in the government / laws. Please help us defeat these people and these red state hate laws. Hugs
Gay rights activists march in Russia’s second city of St. Petersburg May 1, 2013. (OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP via Getty)
Russia lawmakers have proposed extending the country’s existing “gay propaganda” law to include people of all ages later this year.
The existing legislation was signed by Vladimir Putin in 2013 and banned any “promotion” of “non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors. Anyone found guilty under the law can be sentenced to heavy fines or imprisonment.
But Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the State Duma’s information committee, said the 2013 law for minors is now “insufficient”, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. He said lawmakers would consider pushing the legislation further to ban depictions of the LGBTQ+ community for “audiences of all ages” in the media and online.
“We propose to fully extend the ban on that sort of propaganda among audiences of all ages (offline, media outlets, the Internet, social media, as well as in cinema theaters),” Khinshtein wrote on Telegram.
Under the proposed changes, any event or act seen as an attempt to promote the LGBTQ+ community could incur a fine, Reuters reported.
Khinshtein said his committee will consider the proposed amendments and even imposing stricter punishments for any violations of the so-called “gay propaganda law” when they are back in session in the fall.
A demonstrator holds a poster depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin with make-up. (GERARD JULIEN/AFP via Getty)
Russia’s parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the country would be banning the promotion of “non-traditional value” since it broke ties with the Council of Europe, the continent’s foremost human rights watchdog.
“Demands to legalise same-sex marriages in Russia are a thing of the past,” Volodin said. “Attempts to impose alien values on our society have failed.”
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