It is nice to see the people turn out to support the LGBTQI+ youth. I know there are far more people that are accepting of the gay, lesbian, and trans people than there are of the haters. The haters are just louder and willing to use violence. They wanted to mark the books so it would be easy for others to identify the kids who checked them out. A big old scarlet letter. It is the same for putting them in a different section all by themselves, nice big scarlet letter to paste on any kid who checks them out. Look at the gay kid, attack him, hurt him, making her cry. It was one kids who took a book home that had some LGBTQI+ subject material and one set of parents that complained so vigorously that an entire community was made to suffer, to be denied access to not just those books but the entire library. The school stopped sending the kids to the library because of the complaint of one parents. The school punished an entire school and all the kids to deny acceptability of the LGBTQI+ as one parent demanded. Hugs
The Crook County Library Board of Trustees voted Thursday night not to label LGBTQ-friendly children’s books or segregate them into a separate section.
In an unusual sight, people packed into the Crook County Library on Thursday night for a meeting of its board.
The topic at hand had drawn the standing room crowd: namely, whether or not to segregate LGBTQ-friendly children’s books into a separate section.
The Crook County Library Board of Trustees voted Thursday night not to label LGBTQ-friendly children’s books or segregate them into a separate section.
Adrian Vamanu
By the end of the night, the crowd had spoken overwhelmingly in support of keeping the books where they are, and the board voted 4-1 to not place the books in a special section of the library.
Library Director April Witteveen said the debate started in May when a group of local elementary school children visited the library. One student took home one of the library’s LGBTQ books. Soon after, with little to no explanation, the school stopped sending children to the library during school hours. Witteveen said the school does not have a library and students haven’t returned since.
Speaking at Thursday night’s meeting, former library board member and president ZueAnne Neal said she had started falling for the rhetoric around the books, as some community members called them dangerous for children.
Neal, appearing to be on the verge of tears, apologized to the crowd for at one point recommending the books be marked with a sticker or other identifying mark as a way to compromise between the sides.
“That was a sad, sad day,” she said.
Neal noted that after she did more research on the books, she found them to be age-appropriate and that placing the books into a separate section could create stigma, as well as potentially cost the library through lost funding and First Amendment lawsuits.
Some speakers pushed back on the notion that marking the books would ostracize people who wanted to check them out, calling such descriptions “misinformation.” Supporters of the move said marking the books would make it more clear for people who wanted to view the material, as well as those who wanted to avoid it.
Crook County is just one of hundreds of libraries across the country that have been targeted for allegedly making available LGBTQ books that contain child pornography. It comes amid a broader national debate over what educational materials should be available to children, especially those discussing racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination.
Labeling queer people as pedophiles and dangers to children is a strategy used by anti-LGBTQ activists for decades.
One library in Jamestown, Michigan, found itself in a similar situation to Prineville in August, with residents there voting to block a tax levy on two separate occasions, meaning the small library lost 84% of its funding. The presence of LGBTQ books sparked the demand to cut the library’s funding, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Neal, the former library board president, said after looking into the issue, she ultimately came to see segregating books as a form of hate.
“If it roots here, it won’t end here,” she said. “It will just grow.”
The book issue in Crook County isn’t the first time Central Oregon has recently been roiled by misinformation involving LGBTQ people. In October, the Culver School District in nearby Jefferson County found itself in a controversy after pulling young students from a camp over false allegations about non-binary counselors.
Part I left out of this story was when one speaker read a Bible passage that described a man's genitals being like a donkey's, and then asked why that book was available in the library.
Shout out to that guy for doing homework for his testimony.
Just imagine being the poor kid that may have thought it was a good story, or that it applied to them. Then having your parents make such a fuss that your whole class can’t go back to the library. Religious indoctrination at it’s best.
The right-wing is dominating the discourse on trans rights and they’re doing it in the worst way possible. They are going after parents and medical professionals who try to help trans kids. But the facts and statistics are not on their side.
I keep telling people these don’t say gay and anti-trans bills do not have anything to do with “protecting kids from anything”, but are driven by hate and the desire to erase gays, lesbians, and trans people from society. Using the same laws as Russia has. This man admits it, openly. This man is an old white Christian who refuses to understand that people are born gay or gender different. They are not recruited, not bullied into it, not forced, you cannot convert them. Think of it, if that were the case that straight kids could become gay or trans just because they really wanted to be abused or targeted more for bullying, all you straight people ask yourself if you had to choose being straight with attractions to the opposite gender / sex or did it just flow naturally. These people like the guy above what to punish a group of society, a segment of the population for simply being born not straight or not identifying with the gender they were assigned at birth. That is the crime these people want hidden, want other kids protected from, simply being existing as a gay kid or a trans kid. Hugs
The Republicans are saying the quiet part out loud.
Tuesday morning, the Florida Senate passed the controversial SB1834. Formally known as the Parental Rights in Education bill, the proposed legislation is commonly called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The proposal passed with a vote of 22-17 along party lines with two Republicans, Senator Jeffrey Brandes and Senator Jennifer Bradley crossing the aisle.But in the debate, the bill’s sponsor, Senator Dennis Baxley, said the quiet part out loud and revealed his reasoning behind it all: to stop LGBTQ+ children from coming out.
The “Don’t Say Gay” bill as it stands would bar any classroom discussion around gender identity or sexual orientation in grades K-3. It would also restrict conversation around those topics to what is developmentally and age-appropriate for grades 3 – 12. To be clear: schools are already in the business of determining what is developmentally and age-appropriate discussion and almost no topics are enshrined in state-wide statute in this way in Florida. While some have said this proposal is about sex ed or sexual acts, the actual text does not refer to sexual acts. When Brandes offered an amendment to change the legislation so that it would refer to all sexual acts, Republicans shut it down.
In debate, Baxley was questioned about the legislation. He was asked on the floor multiple times to provide examples of ongoing classroom instruction that showed a need for the bill, he could provide none. Instead, he spoke about the increasing number youth coming out as LGBTQ+. He said he discussed the matter with his son, who is a psychologist.
“Why is everybody now all about coming out when you are in school?” he said on the floor, according to The Advocate. “There really is a dynamic of concern about how much of this are genuine type of experiences and how many of them are just kids trying on different kinds of things they hear about and different kinds of identities and experimenting.
“That’s what kids do, you know. Maybe they’re in this club or they’re in that club or they’re onto this. And they’re trying on these different identities of life trying to see where they fit in. I said am I crazy or what? All of a sudden we’re having all these issues come up about this topic of their sexuality and gender. I don’t understand why that’s such a big wave right now.”
Baxley had earlier said that this legislation would not impact after-school clubs and organizations, only classroom instruction.
“Some of it is I’m sure cultural shift of what’s accepted and that kind of thing,” he continued. “But I know some of it is just the confusion kids go through, particularly when you go to middle school and high school.”
The republicans know their base is violent fanatics. Yet they and right wing media keep driving a nonsense misinformation to rile up the base to whip them into rage so they will act out violently. It is the goal. They have gone back to the 1950s to 1970s rhetoric of all gays are predators and that gays must molest to recruit new gays even though that is not how it works and never was. At the same time today on this same site was reports of two church leaders who sexually abused children. Where are these right wing protect the children thugs over this. Every day two or three reports of child sexual abuse from religious leaders and none from drag shows or drag queens reading stories. Yet no protests, no violent marches, no gun carrying thugs chanting and screaming leave the kids alone through bullhorns. See that is because this has nothing to do with actually protect kids, it is about hating a vulnerable segment of society and trying to remove them from public society. Hugs
Just in via press release:
Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) released the following statement after receiving a bomb threat targeting his home and office:
“Early this morning, I was informed by the San Francisco Standard and the police that someone had issued a bomb threat against me, listing my specific home address and also threatening to shoot up my Capitol office. The email said ‘we will fucking kill you’ and called me a pedophile and groomer.
“This latest wave of death threats against me relates to my work to end discrimination against LGBTQ people in the criminal justice system and my work to ensure the safety of transgender children and their families. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and MAGA activist Charlie Kirk recently tweeted homophobic lies about me, falsely accusing me of supporting pedophiles and child ‘mutilation.’
“The extreme homophobic and transphobic rhetoric that has escalated on social media and right wing media outlets has real world impacts. It leads to harassment, stalking, threats, and violence against our community. People are dying as a result. Responsible political leaders on the right must call it out and stop tolerating it.
“I will always fight for the LGBTQ community — and for the community as a whole — and will never let these threats stop that work.”
A death threat was made against State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, on Tuesday morning. The Standard received the threat via email and reported it to the police and Wiener. San Francisco police responded to Wiener’s home at roughly 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
Sent by a person using the name Zamina Tataro, the email said that they placed bombs at Wiener’s San Francisco home and threatened to shoot up his Sacramento office “in 20 minutes, I am willing to die.”
The subject line read “Scott Wiener will die today,” and the author called him a pedophile and accused him of grooming children. SFPD searched Wiener’s home but did not locate any explosive devices.
According to the linked outlet, a person using the same name has made other LGBTQ-related bomb threats.
Just In: State Sen. Scott Wiener reveals bomb threat received which calls him a homophobic slur. Weeks ago, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted same slur at him. https://t.co/yeLE9EotEi
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and MAGA activist Charlie Kirk recently tweeted homophobic lies about me, falsely accusing me of supporting pedophiles and child ‘mutilation.’
When are the lawsuits going to start? Its outrageous that Congresspersons can slander, seemingly without consequence.
Given what happened to Paul Pelosi, Wiener is absolutely right to publicize this threat and install precautions…. The people who stir this shit up belong behind bars.
It’s beyond time that the MTG and such are charged with attempted terrorism or some thing. The stochastic types are just waiting to get the green light that those leaders happily put out.
This is really frightening. Democratic leaders need to speak out against these MAGA loons much more forcefully. It’s absolutely abhorrent that homosexuality and pedophilia are being linked once again.
Thank you. They need to speak out for us like they do others that are in their base. Ye makes statements about Jewish people and everyone speaks up. Gay people are facing these proud boy terrorist everyday and being assaulted etc and you dont hear much from leadership about that.
Dogs that love gravy this is mob rule. These thugs are proud they shouted down parents in favor of the program. These thugs scared a ten year old little girl and made her cry. This is their idea of civil discourse? This is not democracy. Young people need comprehensive sex education, and this is education also helps protect them by teaching them the boundaries of who and where others can touch them. In some of these classes they teach kids how to report and get help if they are being abused. These thugs claim anything they don’t like is grooming which is a mockery of the word. They are cheapening child abuse by claiming everyone not in their group is an abuser. It makes the words and accusations meaningless. I don’t even understand what these groups want other than spectacle and public schools shut down. They claim these subjects need to be taught at home, really? Tell me that people who think the best moral understanding was from what people understood 2,500 years ago and who think any kinds of sex that doesn’t produce a baby is capable of teaching any kind of informative sex ed to kids? This is so frustrating that this kind of violence and stupidity is celebrated by the right and allowed to continue. Hugs
Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers have made the tiny school district a focus of their national efforts protesting against the “sexualization and indoctrination of children.”
The latest round in a Wisconsin school board fight has one board member suing his fellow members to stop implementation of a controversial sex-ed curriculum while anti-LGBTQ+ organizations Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers stoke the controversy.
The suit was filed by board member Michael Meier, who claims the adoption of the new Human Growth and Development curriculum for the Wauwatosa School District in Milwaukee County should be invalidated based on technicalities that include Meier being excluded from conversations among his fellow members.
“A member was excluded from the meeting process in the weekend preceding the August 22 Human Growth and Development action, and therefore that approval of the August 22 is ordered voided and rescinded as unlawful,” the lawsuit read.
Meier was the lone dissenting vote when the new standards were adopted by a vote of 6-1.
The anti-LGBTQ+ groups Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers have made the tiny school district a focus of their national efforts protesting against the “sexualization and indoctrination of children.” Gays Against Groomers founder Jaimee Michell, who is based in Milwaukee, described the Wisconsin curriculum as “child abuse” and “grooming.”
At a board meeting on October 24, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinelreported police were called after activists from both organizations plunged the gathering into chaos by shouting accusations at board members and parents, labeling them “groomers” and “child abusers” who wanted to show kids sexually explicit pictures.
“Please remember our name, Gays Against Groomers, as you will be hearing a lot more of us, and we are just getting started,” Michell warned. A 10-year old in attendance broke into tears.
Failed school board candidate and Moms for Liberty member Scarlett Johnson tweeted thanks to opponents of the measure before the meeting. “Thank you for helping us protect kids from woke gender ideology and hyper sexualization. Comprehensive Sexuality Education is evil … we can no longer mince words,” she wrote.
Support among residents of the Wauwatosa School District for the new curriculum was measured at over 70% in strong agreement, agreement, or neutral.
“I am most upset, frustrated and sad,” Wauwatosa parent Amy White said, “that extremist groups, or even people external to the Wauwatosa School District are targeting our school board.” Some parents called for the exclusion of outside groups from school board meetings.
At that same meeting, Sunny Iwanski, the first Wauwatosa resident to speak, said she supported Human Growth and Development curriculum. She was immediately interrupted by protesters. She told them the constant disruption meant the needs of the district’s kids were being ignored.
“I think it’s important to acknowledge that we have listened to the voice of the people of Wauwatosa and that we are serving the children of Wauwatosa … I’m frustrated, and I’m ready for us to move forward as a district,” she told the meeting.
Gays Against Groomers was started by Michell, an out lesbian and professional viral media creator, and a group of gay “contributors” earlier this year. The anti-LGBTQ+ collection of gays, lesbians and detrans individuals has stalked school board meetings, anti-LGBTQ+ rallies and the airwaves since, all while being banned from multiple platforms, including Venmo, for hate speech. The group claims they are “a 100% independent, self-funded nonprofit organization.”
Myrtle Beach Police are working to determine who emailed a bomb threat on Sunday that led to the evacuation of a drag show brunch at a popular Myrtle Beach restaurant. News13 received the email, which threatened to blow up the Mr. Fish Seafood Restaurant, at 11:50 a.m. Sunday and immediately notified Myrtle Beach police.
In the email to News13, the sender said: “We have placed several bombs in the Mr Fish Restaurant, 6401 N Kings Hwy. We are not terrorists hurt children which is why you have this warning to evacuate.”
“You b——- are all child abusers and will all burn in hell,” it said. “This event is grooming children. For all “of human history its been known that the innonence of children should be preserved, you are scarring the future generations with your perverted fantasizes. You deserve to die and we will kill all you f—— for preying on children.”
Read the full article. According the outlet, the email also named six persons whose identities are not being disclosed.
In an email sent to News13, the sender said: “We have placed several bombs in the Mr Fish Restaurant, 6401 N Kings Hwy. We are not terrorists hurt children which is why you have this warning to evacuate.”https://t.co/yGNa270DUL
I still have trouble coming to terms with the fact that this “recruitment/grooming” horseshit is still with us. It’s 2022, not 1977. A vocal minority of Americans insist on remaining stupid and ignorant (to the detriment of everyone).
This was at a church for dogs that love gravy. But no dissent will be tolerated from the maga thug rule. The Christian Taliban has spoken, and head priest DeathSantis says no men wearing dresses except priests. Please note that these thugs did manage to get the event canceled as the church and the promoters were scared, worried about violence to the people coming to see it, the performers, and the kids. The harm was not the show, but what these thugs would do to the people at the show. Complete lawlessness. And all these police that can smash down black peoples doors, arrest little old ladies for a $77 dollar trash bill wouldn’t provide safe access and coverage for the event. So what do these thugs shut down next? A Muslim event? A political event from the party they don’t support? So far they have shut down school board meets and got their way on changing how things are done in schools. No masks, no LGBTQI+ acceptance programs, so what next limiting girls to only certain grades? Or shutting down Buddhist temples? Hey that is the way we do government now, attack anyone who disagrees, lash out and demean others. The republican party has shown the way with trump, Christ Christy, DeathSantis, and the entire Marge Greene congressional crew. In one of the clips a Proud Boy protester demands to know what bible are they reading at (from). Also for people claiming the moral high road they love to shout the word fuck over their bullhorns on public streets. I don’t get upset over swearing but I bet the parents driving / walking by with their children were not too happy about it. Think of this Nazi shit marching down your sidewalk in front of your home and going to attack … well you name the establishment that Nazi’s love to attack and destroy Hugs
An Ohio school says an internal dispute over security prompted a last-minute cancellation of a weekend children’s storytelling event featuring performers in drag amid a planned protest by a far-right group.
The Red Oak Community School’s “Holi-Drag Storytime” event was to have been held Saturday morning at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, where the school is based. The Ohio Chapter of the Proud Boys last month announced plans to attend and protest the event.
About 50 to 70 members of the Proud Boys and other groups had gathered on the sidewalk on roads leading to the church, shouting, chanting and holding signs.
Previously, the Columbus and Central Ohio LGBTQ+ Leadership Roundtable, a group that consists of Stonewall Columbus, Kaleidoscope Youth Center, HRC Columbus, Equitas Health and LoveBoldly, requested that the community not show up to counterprotest the Proud Boys at the Holi-Drag event.
“This situation is potentially volatile and dangerous, and the safety of the children, families, performers and our community are of paramount importance,” the Leadership Roundtable said in a statement. “Our actions must be in service to their protection.”
See the final video below for today’s message from the event’s organizers. Give the tweets below a minute to fully load.
Patriot Front has just arrived outside the cancelled drag storytime event in Columbus, Ohio pic.twitter.com/0Ew4Yn6NoX
Several armed individuals show up at the protest across from the church. They did not say any specific group affiliation, Columbus Police came over to speak with them briefly and request safe firearm handling pic.twitter.com/BEZqCutn0F
A planned Holi-Drag Storytime event has been cancelled in Ohio after the Columbus Proud Boys announced plans to protest this Saturday morning. Fencing blocking off the parking lot and cancellation notices have been put up outside the venue at First Unitarian Universalist Church pic.twitter.com/0a4uXYlyQe
Interactions between a few counter-protesters and the Proud Boys outside the church. Organizers of the drag storytime had requested people not counter-protest the Proud Boys, and only a handful of people showed up outside the church to do so throughout the morning pic.twitter.com/gNkUdFW7EL
A Texas man has been federally charged after allegedly harassing and making death threats against a Boston doctor who treats members of the transgender community, including trans youth.
Matthew Jordan Lindner, 38, of Comfort, Texas, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of transmitting interstate threats, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office. Lindner appeared in the Western District of Texas Friday afternoon and will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
Prosecutors say that in August, inaccurate information about procedures at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) for the transgender community was spreading online. According to the charging documents, on Aug. 31, Lindner called the Boston-based National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center and left a threatening voicemail targeting one of the center’s affiliated doctors.
According to its website, the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center provides “educational programs, resources and consultation to health care organizations with the goal of optimizing quality, cost-effective health care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and all sexual and gender minority (LGBTQIA+) people.” The education center is part of Fenway Health and the Fenway Institute, which are among the world’s largest health centers focused on LGBTQIA+ communities.
Investigators say the targeted doctor cares for gender-nonconforming children and transgender patients.
In Linder’s expletive-packed voicemail, officials say he allegedly threatened, “You’re all gonna burn. There’s a group of people on their way to handle [the doctor]. You signed your own warrant, [doctor].”
Prosecutors also say Linder accused the doctor of “castrating our children” and said, “You’ve woken up enough people. And upset enough of us. And you signed your own ticket.”
If convicted, Lindner faces a sentence of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
“Death threats instill fear and terror in their targeted audiences,” U.S. Attorney Rachael S. Rollins said in a news release. “The conduct alleged here is not protected free speech. The words used here do not amount to someone simply expressing their discontent or engaging in a heated debate. Mr. Lindner’s alleged conduct — a death threat — is based on falsehoods and amounts to an act of workplace violence. The victim, a doctor caring for gender nonconforming and transgendered patients, should be able to engage in this meaningful and necessary work without fear of physical harm or death.”
In August, Rollins announced the creation of the “End Hate Now” hotline (1-83-END-H8-NOW or 1-833-634-8669) for reporting hate-based incidents or potential criminal activity. Callers can report incidents of hate, hate crimes, or individuals believed to be supporting acts of hate-based violent extremism. Callers can remain anonymous.
Seriously is anyone surprised at this news. This is what the don’t say gay and the anti-trans rhetoric are all about. The guy who wrote and pushed the don’t say gay bill said the reason he wrote it was he couldn’t stand that gay kids were coming out in school and accepted by the other students. He wanted them targeted and bullied to stop other kids from coming out. He said that! It is the goal. Oh and yes he claims he is a deeply religious Christian. It is the Russia model of removing the LGBTQI+ from society / the public. These red states have now removed any anti-bullying programs or campaigns based on it would violate parents’ rights according to these laws to teach their children that being gay of trans is an abomination to their god and so they need to be beaten / removed to make god happy. Think of it, kids who get told that gays are molesting kids they are going to beat up and pick on gay kids and right now teachers cannot stop it in places in Florida. This is the end result the maga religious right thugs love, the right to force others to live as they demand, do what they demand, they are the US Christian Taliban. Hugs
There has been a marked increase in parents demanding limits to LGBTQ+ students’ rights that may have spilled over to bullying in schools.
Nearly half of the public high school principals who participated in a new nationally representative survey say they faced efforts from parents or the broader community to “challenge or limit LGBTQ+ students’ rights” during the 2021–2022 school year. The new study’s results suggest that adult efforts to limit LGBTQ+ students’ rights has led to increased bullying of LGBTQ+ students in schools.
During the summer of 2022, the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access at UCLA and the Civic Engagement Research Group at UC Riverside surveyed 682 public high school principals and found that culture war issues have their jobs increasingly difficult.
As NPR reports, policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ students’ rights were among the topics that 69 percent of those surveyed said led to “substantial political conflict” with parents or members of their communities.
Researchers found that principals in narrowly divided purple districts were almost twice as likely as those in more conservative or liberal areas to say they faced multiple efforts to limit LGBTQ students’ rights.
A similar 2018 survey found that 15 percent of principals indicated multiple attacks on LGBTQ students. That percentage rose to 24 percent across all schools in the 2022 survey, with the number more than tripling in purple districts.
The 2022 survey also indicated that adult efforts to limit LGBTQ students’ rights paralleled an increase in students harassing LGBTQ classmates.
“It’s quite disheartening to work so hard and care for all our students when so many people are being hateful and threatening,” said one California principal, who reported an incident in which a parent screamed an anti-gay slur at a school counselor over the phone.
Other issues that caused significant conflict, according to 69 percent of the principals surveyed, include teaching issues around race and racism, social-emotional learning, and student access to books in school libraries. They also reported that rampant misinformation is making it harder to teach many subjects, particularly current events and media literacy.
Despite their grim findings, John Rogers, a professor of education at UCLA who helped lead the survey, and collaborator Joseph Kahne, a professor of education at UC Riverside, said that many principals believe that a majority of parents do not support the conflicts raging in public schools.
Rogers told NPR that principals believe that most parents stay silent, however, “because they’re too busy or overwhelmed or are afraid that if they become engaged, they’re going to face danger.”
“If the vast majority of folks are quiet, then folks who have very strong opinions or who are willing to engage in very contentious politics will have an outsized influence,” Kahne said. “If all parents and community members speak up, and if they have reasoned and focused conversations, that dialogue will be good for schools.”
The schools use to be the place to combat prejudice, bigotry, and hate. But now the teachers are told they cannot support the attacked kids, they cannot affirm anything positive about gay or trans kids. Meanwhile this is what the right wing parents are hearing all day on right wing media and the kids are being told. Wonder why a right wing kid would think trans kids are trying to attack them in the bathrooms? Wonder why right wing kids think all gays are child molesters?
Scottie's Playtime 