Category: Animals / Insects / Water Life / Plants / Nature
Armed Proud Boy Menaces NV Drag Queen Story Hour
As happens when the Republican elected officials claim that people dressing up in costumes reading to kids in public places with other adults present is child abuse. The thugs (brownshirts) are out to enforce the Republican party line. Again the SCOTUS says we need less gun control. Hugs
Reno’s NBC News affiliate reports:
A man with a gun turned a children’s reading book event into chaos at the Sparks Library Sunday afternoon. During a Drag Queen Storytime event, a group of Proud Boys protested against LGBTQ+ rights outside of the library.
Our News 4 and Fox 11 crew covering the reading event said when the protest came to an end, a man wearing Proud Boys clothing approached the library while carrying a gun, causing everyone, including children, to run into the library for safety.
The Sparks Police Department monitored the protest from a distance, but left soon after. There were no police presence when the man approached the building.
Read the full article. Watch the clip.
I truly wish the media would stop calling these assholes protesters. They’re not protesting. Protesters don’t show up armed and in combat gear. This is terrorism. FUCK.
Bambino🇺🇦🌻 Tread • 3 hours ago
Terrorists showing up to terrorize children story time.
They didn’t want to wear masks to protect their fellow citizens but they will wear them to hide like the cowards they are
Make gun menacing a federal felony.
So the police didn’t question the gunman? Just observed from a distance? Gotcha.
There were no police on the scene when the person with the gun showed up or afterwards. Somebody called the to leave. Sounds prearranged to me.
Boreal • 3 hours ago • edited
Wrong drag queen story hour, incels. The one you want is in a building with a cross on it.
Ščŏŧŧ Ċ – 🇺🇦 🕊 Sister_Bertrille • 3 hours ago
Well, they have no obligation to protect or serve, according to SCOTUS rulings, so I’ll have to go with Protection Theater.
Like TSA, but everywhere.
Seeing a guy wearing a dress is WAY worse than having a gun pointed at you. Got it.
But if some drag queens show up at Thomas’ house to protest with a book reading, you better believe police won’t be watching from a distance.
What, me worry? • 3 hours ago • edited
Just fuck these assholes. THEY are the ones who are endangering the children. Looks like the Sparks police force needs a good weeding out, too.
white nationalists don’t target the LGBTQ community because they see it as “weak or powerless.”
“It is targeted because that community has brought inclusion into America, It has opened the space around equity and what it means to be an America that moves forward together across lines of difference. That is what frightens the Patriot Front, Proud Boys and other racist bigoted alt-right organizations.
SCOTUS Rules For Ex-Coach Who Led School Prayers
ABC News reports:
The Supreme Court’s conservatives ruled on Monday for a high school football coach who was reprimanded for leading postgame prayers on the football field’s 50-yard line.
The 6-3 decision marked a win for coach Joseph Kennedy in his dispute with the Seattle-area school district that placed him on paid leave for violating a policy that bars staff from encouraging students to engage in prayer.
Starting in 2008, Kennedy began kneeling on the school football field after games where he would engage in brief prayer. Eventually, many of his players joined him, as did members of opposing teams.
Sports Illustrated reports:
Kennedy had spent those previous six weeks conducting multiple interviews that exacerbated his conflict with the school. Two weeks before the game, he had retained First Liberty, the powerful Christian conservative law firm, in his burgeoning legal battle against the district.
And he intensified the spotlight’s glare before kickoff with a pregame Facebook post, announcing a big night upcoming. In signing off, he asked for prayers.
It’s hard to read that sequence as anything other than performative, a plea for the exact kind of attention likely to add sympathetic supporters to his side. His opponents argue he got exactly what he wanted.
CBS News reports:
While Kennedy and the district both acknowledge he never required Knights players to join him in his prayers at midfield, some parents said their children felt pressured to participate out of fear they would lose out on playing time.
Kennedy’s practice of praying on the field continued for seven years without incident. But that changed in September 2015, when an opposing team’s coach told Bremerton High School’s principal that Kennedy asked his players to join him for the post-game prayer and “thought it was pretty cool” the district would allow such activity.
The district then launched an investigation into whether Kennedy was complying with the school board’s policy on religious-related activities and practices, and later issued a directive prohibiting on-duty school employees from engaging in “demonstrative religious activity” that is “readily observable to” students and the attending public.
That picture of him kneeling in front of the SCOTUS building makes me want to vomit. He even has a fucking football. Extra vomitrocious.
clay Paula • 8 hours ago • edited
Wait ’til you hear how he didn’t re-apply for the position when his contract ran out, just so he could claim that they fired him.
Ščŏŧŧ Ċ – 🇺🇦 🕊 clay • 8 hours ago
The grift is strong with this one.
Jesus taught, “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”
But don’t let Jesus get in the way of your theocracy.
Chris Baker Andy • 7 hours ago
But how will people know that someone is a Christian, if they don’t have a fish sticker on their car, a cross tattooed on their forearm, praying on the field….
Bilderbeck • 8 hours ago • edited
This is the same crowd that thinks 13 year olds can consent to sex. Of course they can be coerced to pray.
BREAKING: Trump rally speaker SHOCKS by calling end of Roe victory for WHITE LIFE
What I do not understand is why the white racist think this is going to help them? Really wealthy or reasonably OK white women are going to be able to go out of the state to another state and get an abortion. Poor white women and black women will be the ones forced to have unwanted babies. Based on demographics that show that black people because of the history of the US tend to be lower income, there will be more black babies born. So how does this help the white race? Unless the next goal will be to remove citizenship from people of color. Sorry actually before they can do that, they need to get rid of Loving vs Virginia. Can’t allow the mixing of the races. Hugs
Furious Texas Paul REACTS to Horrific Roe v. Wade Decision
Life Is Precious . . . Unless It’s Not
FINALLY: “Pro-life” Republican confronted with red states’ dismal health outcomes ON AIR
Senator in 2010 deposition: 13-year-olds can consent to sex
FILE – Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaks during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing May 19, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Before Lankford became a leading voice for conservative causes on Capitol Hill, he spent more than a decade as the director of youth programming at the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a sprawling campground about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City that attracts more than 50,000 campers in grades six through 12 each year. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
Before he became a leading voice for conservative causes on Capitol Hill, U.S. Senator James Lankford spent more than a decade as the director of youth programming at the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a sprawling campground about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City that attracts more than 50,000 campers in grades six through 12 each year.
The Republican lawmaker’s tenure at the camp is a prominent feature of his political profile, noted in the first paragraph of his official Senate biography. That experience is also coming under renewed scrutiny as the Southern Baptist Convention, which is affiliated with the group that owns the camp, faces a reckoning over its handling of sexual abuse cases.
In 2009, while Lankford worked at the camp, the family of a 13-year-old girl sued a 15-year-old boy who was alleged to have had sex with her at the camp. Lankford, who was not in Congress at the time, is not alleged to have had any direct knowledge of the alleged assault, has not been accused of any wrongdoing and was not a defendant in the lawsuit, which was settled for an undisclosed amount before it was scheduled to go to trial.
But in a 2010 deposition in the case, given a week after he was elected to his first term in the U.S. House, Lankford testified that he believed a 13-year-old could consent to sex.
“Yes, I think they can,” Lankford told Kenyatta Bethea, a lawyer for the girl’s family, according a 155-page transcript of the deposition obtained by The Associated Press.
The age of consent in Oklahoma is 16, and although there is an exception in the law for minors between the ages of 14 and 17 who have sexual contact, there is no provision under which a 13-year-old could consent to sex. When Bethea pressed if his answer was still the same “if I ask you that question in terms of your position as a father,” Lankford maintained his stance.
“Yes, they can,” he said.
Under additional questioning about whether he would allow his two daughters to consent to sex at the age of 13, Lankford gave a more expansive answer.
“No, I would not encourage that at all,” he said. “Could she make that choice? I hope she would not, but I would not encourage that in any way with my own daughter.”
It’s unclear whether Lankford, who has no formal legal training, was aware of the legal age of consent at the time of his deposition. It’s also uncertain whether any criminal charges were filed against the 15-year-old boy. Telephone messages left with Murray County District Attorney Craig Ladd were not returned.
The testimony is surfacing before Tuesday’s primary for the GOP Senate nomination that would allow Lankford to seek another term. After early concerns that he could be vulnerable to a challenge from the right, he enters the election in a strong position. The primary winner will head into the fall general election as the overwhelming favorite in this deeply Republican state.
Aly Beley, a spokeswoman for Lankford’s reelection campaign, declined to comment for this story.
The revelation of Lankford’s testimony comes at a difficult moment for the Southern Baptist Convention.
A scathing investigative report, conducted by an independent firm, found that top SBC leaders stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse while seeking to protect their own reputations. In response, the SBC voted overwhelmingly earlier this month to create a way to track pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse and launch a task force to oversee further reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
This is not the first case of alleged sexual assault at Falls Creek, a 400-acre campground nestled in the Arbuckle Mountains. The camp is owned by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, which is now called Oklahoma Baptists and is part of the SBC.
Benjamin Lawrence Petty pleaded guilty in 2018 to raping a 13-year-old Texas girl at the camp. Petty, who was a cook at the camp, tied a rope around the girl’s wrists, raped her and threatened to hurt her if she told anyone, according to investigators. Petty was ultimately sentenced to probation in the case, and a civil case filed by the girl’s family against the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma was settled. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Lankford no longer worked at the camp when the attack occurred.
Court records show that Rev. Lori Walke, an attorney and senior minister at Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, served as a guardian ad litem for the Texas girl during the civil case. Walke declined to talk about details of the case, but said she attended Falls Creek as a young girl and has serious concerns about how the camp operates.
“Even as a kid, you recognize some things that feel off,” Walke said. “This real obsession with the purity culture is overwhelming. The rules around clothing, particularly for girls, were just obsessed over.”
“And then, the real lack of oversight, generally speaking, in all other matters,” she added. “It was absolutely due to the fact that there’s just not enough adults around.”
Oklahoma Baptists did not respond to questions about how many cases involving sexual misconduct at Falls Creek have been settled. In a statement, Executive Director-Treasurer Todd Fisher said the recent vote to approve recommendations from the SBC’s task force will bring about needed national reforms.
“I am thankful Oklahoma Baptists already made significant steps toward preventing abuse in Oklahoma, implementing a number of best practices in all areas of our ministries, including at our encampments,” Fisher said.
Oklahoma Baptists spokesman Brian Hobbs said some of those best practices for Falls Creek include mandatory background checks for anyone 18 and older, increased security, professionally developed safety training for all camp staff and church leaders bringing groups to the camp and protocols for reporting abuse or suspected abuse.
During his deposition, Lankford said he had no problem sending his daughters to the camp, including in instances when he was not present, though he acknowledged that supervision wasn’t perfect.
“I know that our adults are watching out for our kids, but the process of that, obviously I can’t guess for every adult how they’re going to handle it,” Lankford said.
Citing anti-gay discrimination, 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year leaving classroom
https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article262785383.html
2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Willie Carver Provided by Willie Carver Jr.
Kentucky’s 2022 Teacher of the Year, who is gay, says he is leaving the K-12 classroom “to make the most difference, and the discrimination and lack of support prevent me from making that difference.”
After 17 years being a public school teacher, Willie Carver Jr. said he decided to leave the classroom and take a position at the University of Kentucky in student support services.
Carver told the Herald-Leader – and UK officials confirmed – that he will be an academic advisor at the Gatton College for Business and Economics.
“I am very excited about this opportunity to continue helping young people in their quest for education, Carver said in a Facebook post. “This was not an easy decision; I have cried quite a few times trying to make it over the past few months. But, ultimately, I have always wanted to be in the place where I can most make a difference in the lives of the next generation. I believe that UK is where I can do this.”
“I also increasingly find that, as a queer person in K-12 education, I have been unable to do that work without facing discrimination, heartache, and being a part of systems that cause harm, though I am immensely proud of my brilliant, hardworking, and fierce colleagues who have and continue to change that system in defense of students.”
In May, Carver told a Congressional subcommittee that he faced discrimination as a gay teacher and that hatred was the norm in schools. The panel was examining the wave of race and LGBTQ censorship engulfing America’s K-12 classrooms.
Carver, who had been teaching high school in Montgomery County, told the Herald-Leader that “vocal anti-LGBTQ extremists at school board meetings (and on social media) have been personally attacking me and my former students.”
“The national rhetoric is turned up, and LGBTQ teachers bear the weight of a lot of hatred that catalyzes the vitriol. It’s tiring,” he said.
Carver said he had been unable to find support from his school administration. “Mr. Carver is a wonderful English and French teacher. We wish him well in his new endeavor,” Montgomery County Superintendent Matthew Thompson said.
Carter said he had been proud to be a teacher and had worked tirelessly for students and their families.
He said he found the resources they needed. He said his goal had always been to strengthen his community and teach young people to believe in themselves.
“I also know that I symbolize potential for some students. I symbolize potential for students who come from poverty, for Appalachian students, and for LGBTQ students,” said Carver. “Of late, I feel beaten down. I’ve withstood it, but it’s hard to find peace or happiness when you’re under attack. This is all the more problematic when a person is a symbol. I can’t risk breaking.”
Some schools are doing incredible work for their students and teachers who are racial or ethnic minorities, or are LGBTQ, he said. Some are not, he said.
“Some are doing harm, are rendering people invisible, are illegalizing discussions about queerness or blackness, are afraid to be allies for fear of political retribution,” Carver said.
“A question that anyone in a system has to ask is whether they are capable of changing that system or whether they are perpetuating it. I believe that I am able best to work with a system that helps students by moving forward.”
Carver mentioned Tyler Clay Morgan, a former music teacher at Kentucky’s West Irvine Intermediate School who resigned after he wrote a message to students on his classroom board that later became controversial.
Morgan in April confirmed to the Herald-Leader that he wrote a message on his classroom board that said, “You Are Free to Be Yourself With Me. You Matter.” The message included a rainbow flag and rainbow colors.
“This is a message I always tried to teach every student too,” said Carver. “I know Tyler and I aren’t alone in this. Thank you to each and every person who has made me, their own colleagues, and their students feel that they mattered.”
Kentucky Teacher Of Year Resigns Over Homophobia
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports:
Kentucky’s 2022 Teacher of the Year, who is gay, says he is leaving the K-12 classroom “to make the most difference, and the discrimination and lack of support prevent me from making that difference.”
After 17 years being a public school teacher, Willie Carver Jr. said he decided to leave the classroom and take a position at the University of Kentucky in student support services.
Carver, who had been teaching high school in Montgomery County, told the Herald-Leader that “vocal anti-LGBTQ extremists at school board meetings (and on social media) have been personally attacking me and my former students.” Carver said he had been unable to find support from his school administration.
Read the full article.
Last month Carver testified before a House subcommittee about accusations that he was “grooming students.” Watch the clip.
its no wonder there is a teacher shortage. low pay + high abuse + no respect.
Zorba PickyPecker • 18 hours ago
If I was 50 years younger, I would not go into teaching again.
I left in 1999. The issue was no pay. None at all for months. The other issue was the university’s extremely poor organization.
wmforr PickyPecker • 12 hours ago
I am thinking it might also become dangerous to be a librarian. }}}shudder {{{
This story makes me sad. Willie Carver could be any of us here – ordinary people who happen to be gay and are just trying to do their jobs and get through life as best we can with some shred of integrity. His story is our story.
Chunk Elagabalus • 18 hours ago
When I was perceived as a straight white male I was on the fast track at the company I worked for, when I transitioned I became unpromotable and was stuck in a corner and told to shut the fuck up. I created my own path after that, I’m much happier now. Good luck to those that face adversity because of who they are, keep your chin up and don’t be afraid to bushwhack your way to a better future.
So the bigots won, basically.
kaydenpat Bruno • 18 hours ago
It’s hard to teach when you’re being bombarded with bigotry and censorship about who you are.
Todd20036 kaydenpat • 18 hours ago • edited
And then they tell their kids their teacher is “sick” and a “pedophile”
Sister_Bertrille Bruno • 18 hours ago
They did, but I can’t blame him for the career switch. There’s only so much hate a person can take.
ECarpenter Bruno • 16 hours ago • edited
Anyone who thinks that the bigots are not currently winning is not paying attention.
Where are the calls to give Biden a House and Senate that will pass his agenda? Where is the national drive explicitly laying out what the Democrats will pass if they’re given a sufficient majority? Where is the PR campaign pointing out the bills that Republicans have stopped, and their record of obstruction? I don’t get it – where are the Democrats?
Goodbye to a sort-of functioning, somewhat democratic country – we’re pretty much doomed.
wmforr ECarpenter • 13 hours ago
While the real-world channels were covering the attack on Democracy today, the BREAKING NEWS on Fux was Nancy Pelosi ‘s father-in-law ‘s traffic accident.
This is the red state plan in order to stamp out the “queering” of America.
Make the lives of LGBTs so unpleasant and dangerous that they’re forced back into the closet or leave the state.
A secondary goal is to make public school teaching even more aversive than it is now so that the system collapses.
And now they have the courts to help them accomplish their goal.
Good teachers are being forced out every year. Dealing with inept superiors, parents who are overwhelmed or just don’t give a fuck about their children and their education and being the political football for dipshits like DeSantis and right-wingers brings teachers to their breaking points. Kudos to Mr. Carver and I wish him luck with his new job.
The far-right fascists were trying to prevent gay people from teaching at least as far back as the 1970’s. See the “Briggs Initiative.”
One Million Moms Vs “Brainwashing” Trans Barbie Doll
Via email from hate group leader Monica Cole:
Mattel recently announced its launch of the first transgender Barbie doll as part of its #TRANSISBEAUTIFUL Tribute Collection, modeled after the Orange Is the New Black actor and LGBTQ activist Laverne Cox.
Mattel created a Barbie in his likeness, wearing a red, sheer evening gown with a faux leather strapless top, a tulle skirt, and a sparkly silver bodysuit underneath.
The Laverne Cox doll promotes cross-dressing and glorifies the transgender lifestyle. Mattel has created a toy glorifying gender inclusivity while ignoring one’s biological sex.
Barbie is also donating in Cox’s name to TransFamilySOS, an organization that describes its mission as a service “that saves lives by shaping a gender affirming and accepting community.”
It is outrageous that a toy company is marketing and normalizing gender dysphoria to young children.
Parents who are not already aware of the company’s agenda, please be forewarned: Children are being “groomed” by Mattel trans Barbie dolls under the disguise of playtime.
Now, parents will have to deal with the confusion experienced by their children when these inappropriate dolls are seen on store shelves such as Walmart, Target, and other stores that sell Barbie dolls.
This new product makes it clear that Mattel has an LGBTQ agenda that it is forcing on extremely young audiences.
Obviously, Mattel is attempting to “groom” the next generation. This company should be enhancing learning during play, but instead, Mattel is brainwashing our preschoolers and elementary-age children.
Mattel is hoping to have this doll placed in playrooms solely to indoctrinate children into transgenderism and homosexuality.
The company’s goal is to have everyone, even toddlers, accept the LGBTQ lifestyle, but a toy company should never even consider taking part in this abomination.
Mattel is purposely confusing our innocent children by attempting to destroy very definitive gender lines. Why can’t the toy manufacturer let kids be who God created them to be instead of glamorizing a sinful lifestyle?
Mattel is choosing to push an agenda of sexual confusion instead of promoting its actual product.
This PC-inclusive toy blurs the biological distinctions between males and females. Introducing children to this lifestyle choice is contrary to what conservative, Christian parents are teaching their children about God’s design.
Take Action now and demand that Mattel remove the controversial doll from shelves immediately!
TAKE ACTION: Sign our petition urging Mattel to discontinue production and sales of its trans Barbie doll immediately. Be sure to share this campaign with your friends and family!
Get your Laverne Cox Barbie here!
Dolls can’t “brainwash” kids. If they could I’d be a beefy heterosexual guy who loves camping and fishing. (I’m not.)
#BigJimsCamper
PickyPecker Gigi • 17 hours ago
and i’d be a butch mechanic
Scottie's Playtime 