Texas Paul EXPOSES MAGA Demand for FASCIST Takeover

OMG: Texas Paul GOES OFF on Fox for DESPICABLE attack on Women

‘Former detransitioner’ Ky Schevers on rebuilding her life after falling for ‘cult-like’ TERFs

Three silhouettes in the colours of the trans flag

‘Detransition’ refers to when a trans person returns to living as the gender they were assigned at birth. (PinkNews)

Ky Schevers was confused about her gender, and detransitioned after being “sucked in” by “gender-critical feminism”. Now, she’s rebuilding her life.

Schevers, who is transmasculine, genderqueer and uses she/ her pronouns, began medical transition by taking testosterone when she was 20, after coming out as a trans man.

But Schevers soon realized that her gender wasn’t binary.

 

“I had tried living as a more binary trans guy but that didn’t really work out, and I felt more genderqueer,” she tells PinkNews. “Then I thought I felt more like a butch dyke, and I kind of wanted to explore that part of myself.”

Looking for support, she turned to online forums.

“I was expressing these doubts and in a psychologically vulnerable place.”

She was approached by a woman who Schevers describes as “fairly TERFy” (TERF stands for trans exclusionary radical feminist) and had, like her, been reading some content online about detransition.

“I feel like we both got sucked in towards transphobic or gender-critical feminism because, firstly, those are the people who were trying to latch on to stories [like ours],” Schevers explains.

“It kind of made sense to me, like I wasn’t sure how to reclaim the female or butch parts of myself without drawing on some of the stories I’d already heard – that there’s pressure on butch lesbians to transition, or they’re transitioning because of internalized misogyny.”

Over the next few years, Schevers descended down an anti-trans rabbit hole. She found a community in circles of detransitioned radical “feminists”, and was held up as an example of transness being a result of internalized misogyny, homophobia and trauma.

She recalls holding a workshop at the trans-exclusionary Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, known as Michfest.

“It was very well-attended a whole lot of TERFy lesbians who showed up to hear about the poor lesbians who got sucked in… they just ate that up. Now looking back, I can see I got love-bombed, there was lots of positive attention.”

Schevers describes this sense of community and support as “intoxicating”, and adds: “It felt like we were doing this important work, and helping people. A lot of us had gone through this sort of intense conversion experience, converting to this particular interpretation of radical feminism, lesbian feminism.

 

“But I feel like most of us were in some kind of real distress and believing in this stuff felt good. We did find connection with each other, we were just connecting over transphobic beliefs and also, I would say, self-harm.”

It was very cult-like, it was very controlling.

 

Schevers is clear that there is nothing wrong with detransition, and that everyone’s journey of gender discovery is different. The problem is that when those people search for support, they are more often than not finding radicalised, anti-trans communities to lean on.

“This is one of the reasons I feel like there needs to be more talk about these issues outside of transphobic groups, if they’re the only people talking about it, it’s easier for people to get sucked in and radicalized and end up believing a bunch of transphobic crap.”

The process of extricating herself from the group she found herself embedded in was gradual, Schevers says: “It was very cult-like, it was very controlling. It’s one of those things where it’s easy to join the group, harder to leave.”

Once, before she even admitted to herself that she wanted to get out, she happened to attend a book reading by a gay man who had been through conversion therapy.

“The way he described his experiences resonated with me,” she says.

“A light bulb went off, but I was also like, ‘Oh, s**t.’ You don’t necessarily want to believe you accidentally created an ex-trans community, that you’ve been doing conversion therapy on yourself.”

Ky Schevers realized links between TERFs and the far-right

Later, in 2018, some of Schevers’ writing would be featured without consent in the anti-trans book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, written by conservative, religious scholar Ryan T Anderson.

It wasn’t the first time right-wing Christians has “misused” her writing, she says.

“But at the time has book came out, I was already saying: ‘My transition didn’t really hurt me.’ I was trying to make peace with being genderqueer and trans. I couldn’t say that yet, because I would have gotten too much backlash from other detransitioned women.”

The book helped her to realize the ties between trans-exclusionary radical feminism and the far-right, as she saw that Anderson was parroting “a lot of the same arguments that these supposed feminists were making”.

“I was horrified because I thought the point of radical feminism was to fight the patriarchy and dismantle it, not like ally [with the right] to go after trans people.

“But when you’re siding with the Christian right just to go after trans people, you’re just a transphobe. You do not care about fighting the patriarchy, sexism, or homophobia, you just want to go after trans people.”

Anderson’s use of her writing made Schevers think.

“If telling my story is supposed to help uproot the patriarchy, and the patriarchy is using it, well there’s a problem here.”

As time went on, Schevers began to feel more at peace with herself and her transition, and consequently began feeling much happier.

I kind of realized that a lot of these like supposed feminists are just using me.

But what surprised her was that the anti-trans radical feminists around her were “threatened” by her happiness.

“It was actually a disturbing experience, because I’m feeling happier, but they didn’t really care. Obviously, I knew conservative Christians never had my best interests at heart, and I kind of realised that a lot of these like supposed feminists are just using me, and then I realised these other detransitioned women in my own community just want to use me.”

Getting out meant cutting off most of the people around her, Schevers says, and it took her a long time to speak out publicly about her experience.

“I felt comfortable actually sharing my story and speaking out and talking about this stuff because I don’t want people to suffer like I did,” Schevers says.

“I don’t want people to fall prey to toxic communities.”

And to those people who may be thinking about going through detransition, Schevers remarks: “People should be asking, ‘What do you need? What do you need to be well?’ We need to help people figure out if it’s transition that’s the problem, or if it’s living in a society wants everyone to see transitioning as harmful.”

4 Supreme Court justices attended celebration of powerful anti-LGBTQ legal group

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/4-supreme-court-justices-attended-celebration-powerful-anti-lgbtq-legal-group/

How can the LGBTQ+ get a fair hearing in the courts now.   I feel like we are suddenly back 70 or 80 years, and all the growth and gains of society are thrown out by these justices / judges pushed on to the courts at all levels by a powerful Christian hate group.  Also I noticed at the end of the article the Federalist are really worried that homosexual rights will interfere with the Christian’s right to discriminate or will marginalize those who think homosexuality is immoral, but they don’t give a care at all about how the gay person feels.   We are born this way, we don’t deserve to be discriminated against because a person chooses to follow the rules of people 2,500 years ago.   Why should their right to cut us out of society take priority to our living equally in society?    Hugs

 
The Supreme Court justices
The Supreme Court justices Photo: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
 

Four Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices reportedly attended a 40th-anniversary celebration for the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that has helped pack U.S. courts with anti-LGBTQ judges who will serve for decades to come.

Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, according to Associated Press reporter Mark Sherman, attended the event.

Justices have traditionally been expected to at least appear to be politically neutral. But their attendance at the political event illustrates the court’s continued rightward swing since overturning the right to legal abortion in June.

The four justices in attendance all voted in favor of overturning abortion rights (the fifth was fellow right-leaning Justice Clarence Thomas). Three of the justices — Barrett, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh — were appointed by former President Donald Trump, considered by many to be the most anti-LGBTQ president of all time.

Sherman noted that the Federalist Society’s co-chair Leonard Leo helped Trump vet his judicial nominees. Though the group claims to be “independent of partisan politics,” it’s still closely aligned with Republican priorities.

A full 85 percent of Trump judges are members of the society, an ideological clearing house of conservative lawyers. Approval by the group practically guarantees that a judicial nominee it approves of will rule against LGBTQ rights on the bench. The Society has also had a stated goal of undoing what it calls the “Judicial Legacy of Barack Obama.”

The society has published articles criticizing California’s ban on conversion therapy and often writes defenses in favor of religious liberty exceptions to LGBTQ-inclusive civil rights legislation. Such exceptions would allow people to discriminate against LGBTQ people on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs.

The Federalist Society’s website contains a discussion against same-sex marriage that accuses same-sex couples of being more promiscuous, calls gay adoption a “social experiment,” and worries that legalized same-sex marriage will harm religious people by “marginalizing those who believe homosexuality is immoral.”

Justice Thomas’s dissenting opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – the ruling that ended the federal right to an abortion in June – suggested that the right to same-sex marriage should be overturned. If the Court makes that move, it will have the Federalist Society’s full approval.

 

80-year-old elected to school board wants LGBTQ kids to stay “within their bounds”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/80-year-old-elected-school-board-wants-lgbtq-kids-stay-within-bounds/

The last post I did on over the top maga right wing haters who won seats on school boards was in Florida.   This time it is in Lafayette, Indiana.   He is another that thinks there is a gay ideology, an indoctrination of gayness and trans quotas.    Look that is just a rehash of the gay agenda we all heard so much about, but no one could tell us what it was or who had the authority to create it.  It was just a mysterious thing claimed by conservative right winger to hint that gays were trying to recruit your kids and molest your little boys /girls.  Well I guess it is the boys the gays molest and the trans go after the girls, right?   You know the gay agenda right wingers would seriously say to each other.  After all every right winger knew gays couldn’t breed so the only way new gays happened was recruitment / molestation of the young.  They just couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that kids are born gay or straight and everywhere on the spectrum of sexuality / orientation.  He says it is ok for gay teachers to exist but not to really be out.  They cannot talk about how they feel like straight people can or that is pushing the gayness on others.  It is back to the 1970s /1980s gay teachers are just looking to sex your kid from kindergarten to the senior prom.  Don’t these people ever grow up?  Did they not understand society moved on from their 1950s homosexual pervert threat thoughts.  Anita Bryant flamed out people, stop holding on to her ideas.    WTF, I am so tired of this shit.   He admits up front he is totally against that way of life.  So what, there are gay people, gay people exist.  We are legally able to get married and have families, and to say just the idea of promoting tolerance and ending bullying is pushing gay lifestyle on others is wrong and stupid.   Because every heterosexual act then is pushing sexuality and sex on to students and other adults.   You cannot have it both ways, if a straight couple can talk about their spouse and it be OK then so can a same sex couple.   If a boy and girl can hold hands, then so can two girls or two boys.   What these people want is to erase gays / trans / and civil rights from society and they will start in the schools.  In Florida attacks and assaults against LGBTQ+ students have gone up at an alarming rate and teachers are not able to use the programs / instructions in stopping discrimination and promoting tolerance / acceptance they used to do.   This new school board member doesn’t want any posters put up in schools trying to stop bullying or promoting tolerance / acceptance.   That is pushing the gayness I guess.

  Plus he is sure they are teaching CRT and he won’t have it.   These people think teaching the truth about the horrors of slavery and how the economy of the south was built on the backs of black people because the whites did not want to work is CRT.   That is bullshit.   CRT is a legal theory of the interconnectedness of institutional racism in business / society. 

Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.

The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.

A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.  https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05

CRT is not being taught in grade schools, middle schools, nor even in high schools but it damn well should be.   It should be part of every history class tailored for the class level and age of the students.   It is our history in this country.  The people who keep claiming US exceptionalism need to be made to defend slavery and the discrimination of black people from the end of slavery to that it is still going on today.   But that is just what the conservatives don’t want, they don’t want kids knowing that the “nation founded to be a Christian nation” was up to its neck in horrifying harm to different segments of the population, genocide and slavery in all its ugliness.  Teach it so discrimination stops and doesn’t ever come back.  

This guy ran against teaching peer to peer sexual education.  I think he thought comprehensive sexual education is in class orgies?   He wants teachings on emotions gone.  Again understandings have increased and kids need to learn positive emotions and how to handle negative emotions.  Hell we are making these same kids do active shooter drills, yes they need emotional reassurance.  He goes on to list a bunch of other woke stuff he is against.   Then he gets back to the in my day we did this but did not have that and we were great, look how great we are that we think the best thing to do is hit kids.   Like all these type of people they have a romantic attachment to the “Leave It To Beaver” TV show and think the 1950s was the peak of human civilization.  They have no understanding that society and human understanding has improved and moved forward.   They long for the past that was more how they liked life.    Damn.   He talks about things he doesn’t even understand and talks like he is an expert.   He has the strange idea that because these things were not talked about when he was a kid (he is 80 years old, so he started school in 1947) and his five kids he says went through school without any of these modern ideas, and things were all great being normal.  But again is 80 years old, if he had his children in his 20s, his kids would have been in school during the 1960s or early 1970s.   Things have changed a lot since then.    Hey let’s return to teaching only what was known in the 1600s while we are being regressive.  Wouldn’t that be better?   The last thing he talks about is how bad it is that a minority is telling the majority what to do, he is not going to allow it.   Yet he and the republicans are the minority that are trying to rule the majority and he is too blinded by hate or old age to see it.    Hugs

 

 
transgender, teacher, Jennifer Eller, lawsuit, settlement, Maryland, teacher, abuse, bullying, transphobia
Photo: Shutterstock
 

There’s a new school board member in town, and he’s taking names.

Eighty-year-old Chuck Hockema, elected Tuesday to the Lafayette Community School Board in Lafayette, Indiana won’t brook openly gay teachers, Critical Race Theory for kids, or a “woke” agenda.

“My reason for running for school board is because when I talked to the school board members, they would not give me an answer to the questions,” Hockema told the Lafayette Journal & Courier. “And I thought, ‘Now this is some crap.’ If you can’t tell me whether you’re going to vote for CRT or you are not, you’re on my list and I’m going to find out why.”

Hockema is also coming for anyone advocating a gay “ideology.”

“If there’s a teacher that wants to be gay, that’s OK,” Hockema said. “That’s their prerogative. I’ve hired gay people. I’ve had them work for me, but I would not allow a gay person to push his feelings and his ideology off on other employees.

“If they did that, they’d be gone.”

“I’m totally against that as a way of life,” said Hockema.

“I don’t want to see any banners, I don’t want to see any posters,” he said. “The teachers are there to educate, not to try a form people’s opinions about anything other than reading, writing, arithmetic, civics, and science.”

Hockema ran on a platform supporting the three R’s, and against “undermining of traditional values and beliefs, promoting gender confusion, encouraging peer-to-peer sex education, violating or undermining parental rights, supporting critical race theory (CRT) or social-emotional learning (SEL) when used as a cover for divisive instruction, and promoting ‘woke’ ideology.”

“I’ve got five children that went through school, and we did well with that,” Hockema said of teaching the basics. “We never had any issues to worry about when it came down to CRT or woke or SEL or transgender or none of that stuff. They didn’t teach this. We helped them with their assignments, and it was a different world then.”

Hockema says he isn’t going to “monkey around” with school board members, either.

“If they want to support these things, I feel like they should be removed from office. That’s my strong opinion.”

Hockema said he’s got no quarrel with LGBTQ kids, “as long as they stayed within their bounds.”

“A little boy might be like, ‘I feel more like a little girl.’ And if you got a teacher that encourages that, that’s the impression they’re probably going to go. And if they just left them alone because it’s a normal thing to have that thing happen to children at different ages, they’ll grow out of it,” Hockema said. That is not how being transgender works; transgender children’s identities have been shown to be stable into adulthood.

His goal, Hockema says, is to “save the children.”

“I don’t want them being indoctrinated by someone’s opinion, who’s 100 percent different than mine. What my wife and I teach our children, I don’t want them to erode that with their ideology. They can make it sound so sweet and so pleasant and so wonderful, and kids are impressionable.”

“When the minority starts ruling the majority like these whole issues, you got one percent of the population dictating what the rest of us, what we can and can’t do, that’s ridiculous.”

Collier school board’s Jerry Rutherford says he wants to bring back corporal punishment

https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/education/2022/11/10/collier-school-boards-rutherford-says-hes-pro-corporal-punishment/8315178001/

As you read this story I want you to keep in mind several points.    He lied about why he was running for the board and what he wanted to focus on.   He tried to sound normal by saying he wanted to focus on generic sounds good school policy stuff.    His priorities were to ensure proper education that helps everyone succeed, improve safety and mental health for students and teachers, and address budgetary concerns.    As soon as he got elected the rabid Christian pushing his god and his hate for other came rushing out.  I thought good Christians did not lie.  

Also notice that he wants to beat kids (spank, paddle, strap, you know corporal punishment.   Seems he got it as a kid and liked it) even without their parents’ permission.   He or anyone else ever used corporate punishment on my kids (hit my kids) they better start gathering up guns fast, because I am coming to see them, and I will be angry!   

He thinks disabled kids get away with too much and have it too good.  He really means mentally / emotionally disabled kids get away with too much and have it too easy, so keep them home or even though he doesn’t say it we are back to the hit them hard and often, tie them to the desk shit.  I suspect he hates the accommodations for kids with physical disabilities who need accommodations like ramps and other changes.    

He also thinks gay kids get away with too much and because there is not a policy of blocking out time that the straight kids get to beat up the gay kids, he wants Christian stickers with saved zone on them for places where the Christian kids can gather and force religion on everyone else.  He seems to think that is what a rainbow safe place sticker does, provide classrooms where the gay can be forced on all the kids, and maybe that trans stuff being pushed also.   Time to get the Christian symbols up in the schools because the gays have special rights not to be assaulted, can’t have that.  God first with mandatory prayer.  (Maybe he doesn’t think kids will be praying just before they get hit with a heavy paddle for being kids not robots) He intends to go through all the history books because he claims they have revisionist history in them like that this was not a Christian nation and slavery was a bad thing.   Going to make sure the kids are taught the truth, god himself set up the US as a Christian nation for Christians only, slavery was not that bad and good for those people, and that kids are taught good republican civics so they can go out and vote republican like god and the founding fathers intended.  See he is going to fix that woke liberal indoctrination.  Notice he wants / demands respect for authority.  Sounds like he is saying you will do as your told and like it, think only republican thoughts, do only straight heterosexual stuff.  

The last point I want to make is this asshole wants to block any public health measures including / especially vaccines.   He was in the Air Force and that vaccine shit is against freedom.    Seems his mind is going on him because in the military you have to take a lot of vaccines and you don’t get a choice, because it is so you can be deployed to places that have really bad shit to make you sick.   So he wants to allow every anti-vaccine person to be allowed to send their sick kids to school to make everyone else sick, and that is called freedom in his mind.    

Get the point on what is happening here in Florida.   Three of these people that believe as he does got elected, this guy pushed out a person who was a teacher for 30 years.   They were all backed by the same big money Christian group / network for the express purpose to drive the country regressively back to the 1950s and worse.  Total hard right wing Christian propaganda in the schools with zero tolerance for LGBTQ+ or disabled students.  We need a lot of people to get upset with what is happening here as the intent is to spread it from Florida and Texas, pushing it all over the country.   DeathSantis is going to try to use this type of stuff to become president which means every other republican with ambition is going to go ever more hard core on these issues.   Oh and the Qanon darling Gen. Flynn who was working behind the scenes for Russia as trumps National security advisor addressed the candidate’s supporters.   Dogs that love gravy, our kids in schools are in a world of hurt and so are we.    Hugs

Newly elected Collier County school board member Jerry Rutherford wants to bring corporal punishment back to district classrooms, he said the morning after Tuesday’s election. 

He added that disabled students’ behavior in particular is “out of control.”

Additionally, he said he’d like to see fewer “rights” for LGBTQ students — or the same extended to religious students who want to practice religion in school.

Jory Westberry, who lost her school board seat to Rutherford, said his views on corporal punishment, LGBTQ students and religion in schools would “put something so pervasively wrong in schools.”

Florida allows corporal punishment in public schools as long as the district allows it.

“First of all,” she said, “if (Florida) allows corporal punishment, Collier County does not.” 

“Second, students with handicaps are entitled to a free public education without retribution because of their behavior. That’s why we have behavior specialists who work with students, parents and teachers to enable them to have a more effective, productive experience in school,” Westberry said. 

Westberry was one of several who spoke out against Rutherford’s priorities.

Rutherford won the District 1 seat away from longtime teacher, administrator and school board member Westberry in the 2022 election with a strong 65.4% of the vote to Westberry’s 34.6%. 

Election results:Who won seats on the Collier County School Board? Not the incumbents

Election 2022 Q&A:Collier School Board candidates talk CRT, parents rights law and more

In this file photo, Jerry Rutherford of Naples reacts before a Naples City Council workshop session, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022, at Naples City Hall in Naples, Fla. Supporters and opposers of the drag show at the Naples Pride Festival in July spoke during public comments.
 

After speaking on myriad issues at school board meetings countless times for more than 35 years, Rutherford told the Naples Daily News in July he decided he didn’t want to be on the outside looking in anymore, so he joined the school board race.

This was his first time running for any elected position, he said.

Rutherford was endorsed by the Collier County Republican Executive Committee, which endorsed all three challengers to the school board. All of them won their races.

As a devout Christian, he’s fought to distribute Bibles in schools and to institute prayer at school board meetings. He has also protested Naples’s LGBTQ Pride festival, specifically speaking out against drag shows.

‘A step backward’:Parents, teachers protest ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill in downtown Naples

‘Warning sign for all people’: Collier School Board candidate faces backlash over campaign’s antisemitic worker

A veteran of the Air Force, Rutherford has worked in sales and construction and owned a painting business in the Naples area for more than 20 years. He also served as a substitute teacher in the district for three years.

Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative education nonprofit headquartered on Marco Island, congratulated Rutherford, as well as the two other challengers Wednesday via email. 

“This win of all three seats is a tremendous victory for the 48,000 kids in Collier schools, their parents, and grandparents, as it now gives a clear conservative majority over a previous left-leaning school board,” Florida Citizens Alliance marketing manager Moise Stael Dantes wrote. “The delivery of quality academics while maintaining the principle of liberty can now become real.”

The ‘board of education’

Jerry Rutherford
 

Rutherford’s stated positions changed dramatically before and after his election.

In July, he told the Naples Daily News his priorities were to ensure proper education that helps everyone succeed, improve safety and mental health for students and teachers, and address budgetary concerns. 

But Wednesday morning, reached by phone, Rutherford said he has a five-point agenda he’d like to implement, including “mental and physical discipline,” or physical punishment of children in Collier’s public schools. 

“I only went to the principal’s office one time when I was in school and that was when they used the ‘board of education,’ if you get what I’m saying,” Rutherford said. 

Rutherford added that disabled students are not in control and get away with too much. He read an article by a California teacher that said he left teaching because his disabled students were swearing and otherwise misbehaving, and he couldn’t hold them accountable. 

According to a 2021 analysis by the Education Commission of the States, which tracks education policies, Florida is one of at least 18 states that allows corporal punishment in public schools as long as the district allows it. According to the National Association of State Boards of Education, Florida does not require parental permission, only written parental notification after the fact. 

Currently, Collier County prohibits corporal punishment. According to school board policy 5630, “the use of corporal punishment, defined in Florida statute as the use of physical force or physical contact for disciplinary purposes, is prohibited.” 

Furthermore, Florida Statute 1003.573 states that disabled students can only be physically restrained if there is an imminent risk of serious injury or death to the student or others and only once all positive behavioral strategies have been exhausted.

Jackie Stephens, CEO of the Children’s Advocacy Center in Collier County, said she is “alarmed” to hear a school board member wants to bring back corporal punishment to the classroom.  

“It can be detrimental to the children,” Stephens said. “There’s no studies that really indicate that spanking is beneficial. It can actually lead to worse behavior and aggression.”

Stephens said many countries have outlawed the spanking of children, even by their own parents. In the United States, many organizations have registered as a “No Hit Zone,” which means they do not condone hitting of any kind. 

“There’s a lot of places that are becoming no hit zones, like the Children’s Advocacy Center and hospitals. I think at school would be a good place not to hit children.”

LGBTQ rights 

In this file photo, Aletha Shapiro, 43, of Naples, left, and Jerry Rutherford of Naples, right, have a discussion after a Naples City Council workshop session, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022, at Naples City Hall in Naples, Fla. Supporters and opposers of the drag show at the Naples Pride Festival in July spoke during public comments.
 

Other news:‘Dirty pool’: Collier school board candidate says she’s the victim of a smear campaign

Rutherford’s agenda also focuses on “respect,” he said. “There needs to be respect for ourselves, for others, and for authority.”

In that vein, he said he believed people are being indoctrinated into supporting LGBTQ rights, and “when it comes to indoctrination, I will not put up with that,” he said.

Rutherford added that some legislators had passed bills he believes extends the rights of LGBTQ people beyond normal rights.

“I’m all for equal rights, but I’m not for special rights,” he said. 

For example, he said, an LGBTQ student group in Collier County gave teachers a sticker to put on their doors with a rainbow that says “safe zone.” One teacher, he said, refused to put it up. 

He did not elaborate further on what rights LGBTQ people have that others do not.

In this file photo, rain falls during the 4th Annual Naples Pride Fest, Saturday, July 9, 2022, at Cambier Park in Naples, Fla. The festival was postponed from June to July because of inclement weather.
 

According to The Safe Zone Project, which gives trainings that allow people to learn about LGBTQ identities as well as examine prejudices and biases, the words “safe zone” typically communicate that the person is an ally of the LGBTQ community, has gone through a Safe Zone training, or is trying to communicate support.

“I don’t have a problem with that, but it should extend to sectarians,” Rutherford said.

“If you’re going to have a secular symbol, you have to give a religious one,” he said. “What if we gave teachers a sticker with a cross that said ‘saved zone?’ We have religious rights, and we have personal rights.” 

GLSEN, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting LGBTQ students through policy writing and advocacy, said elected leaders and elected school leaders have a responsibility to protect all young people, including LGBTQ youth.  

“Queer students in Florida, especially those of color and those who are trans and nonbinary, are being cruelly targeted by extremists,” said GLSEN executive director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers. “They are facing a hostile climate amid curriculum censorship laws and have been repeatedly subject to political attacks. Florida’s students deserve so much better from the adult politicians who are supposed to support them. This kind of anti-LGBTQ+ fear mongering and misinformation from any school leader is unacceptable.”  

“We are absolutely saddened by his agenda,” said Naples Pride president Cori Craciun. “LGBT kids’ rights have been taken away by the Parental Rights Bill, and the Florida Medical Board, which banned (gender-affirming) care for transgender minors. … The ‘safe zones’ are there to protect these children. They are often the only place these children know there is a supportive adult they can reach out to.” 

Religion in public schools

In this file photo, Jerry Rutherford of Naples, center, leads a group in prayer before a Naples City Council workshop session, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022, at Naples City Hall in Naples, Fla. Supporters and opposers of the drag show at the Naples Pride Festival in July spoke during public comments.
 

Federal law on Bibles in public schools is derived from 1963 Supreme Court case Abingdon v. Schempp, which draws a distinction between devotional reading and the objective study of religion.

In short, while religious texts like the Bible are allowed in public schools for the purpose of studying, what is not allowed is devotion or reading from the Bible as religious practice.

Rutherford added he wants to see “textbooks that are free from bias, censorship and rewritten history,” as well as “morals and ethics in school.”

He said he planned to review all new textbooks and would flag anything he saw as dubious or biased. He did not specify what he considered to qualify as biased or rewritten history.

Rutherford was also eager to see a civics class reinstated in the curriculum, where students would study the Constitution and the Bill of Rights per Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent policy.

In this file photo, Pearline Foster, center, stands with her children, Othniel, 9, left, and Rebekah, 12, right, both students at Mason Classical Academy, as she speaks in support of the school during a special School Board meeting at the Collier County School District office in Naples on Thursday, July 11, 2019.
 

But Rutherford said he felt the government has gone too far in other ways, such as by forcing students and teachers to wear a mask in 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and by requiring military personnel to get vaccinated against the virus that has killed more than 1 million people across the U.S. 

As a former airman, he expressed frustration by that. 

“They’re saying no (to the vaccine), and they’re getting thrown out for that,” he said. 

He noted that while Collier Public Schools required masking early in the pandemic, Mason Classical Academy, a local charter school, did not, which he believes better exemplified respect for students’ rights. Collier should follow Mason’s example, he said. 

Education reporter Nikki Ross contributed to this article. Kate Cimini is an investigative journalist covering Florida. Share your story at (239) 207-9369 or kcimini@gannett.com.

Elon Musks BIG mistake!

Walker: “We’re The Greatest Country In The US”

 

Newsweek reports:

A video showing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker referring to America as “the greatest country in the United States” has gone viral following an election rally on Thursday. Walker, who is running in Georgia’s Senate runoff election on December 6, spoke at an event, along with Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as the state prepares for another round of campaigning. Walker, who has been endorsed by Trump, spoke to supporters on Thursday in Canton, Georgia.

Read the full article.

William BJORN’S ALTERNATE REALITY • 3 hours ago

He’s a very stable genius!

Octoberfurst BJORN’S ALTERNATE REALITY • an hour ago

I find it truly appalling that people can look at Walker and say “I want that man to represent me in the Senate!” Ya got some real low standards there Georgia!

William • 3 hours ago

Walker couldn’t locate the United States on a map of the United States.

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