*** Trigger Warning *** The following article describes the beating of a small dog to prove his authority / superiority over the dog. He also says that a child will challenge you and needs to feel pain to be brought under control. He feels he is a super Christian who feels entitled to tell others how to live. This is not written back in a time when child abuse and hitting kids was not recognized as the horrible thing it is, this was written in 2015. This man shouldn’t ever be let near a dog or child and has no right to tell others how to live. If he will do this to a dog what would he do to a LGBTQI+ who he believes is an abomination who his god hates. He gives a detailed way to use a sensitive muscle to cause so much pain a child will collapse on the ground, and he is proud of that. *** Again Trigger Warning for violence / cruelty *** Hugs
I want to thank Ali for the link. It is important we understand this religious group that Dobson started and leads, that has spun off many other hate groups. Also I won’t be highlighting the passages as I can’t. I left in his books so if a person wants to cite them as child abuse or let the sellers know what they are pushing. Hugs
James Dobson on How to Get to Heaven – Beat Your Dog, Whip Your Kid
James Dobson then.
It was bedtime and James Dobson wanted his dog—a dachshund named Sigmund Freud—to get into his overnight enclosure in the family room.
Siggie didn’t want to go. He growled and bared his teeth at his master.
Dobson went for his belt.
“I had seen this defiant mood before,” Dobson explained in the first chapter of his 1978 book, The Strong-Willed Child.
“There was only one way to deal with it. The only way to make Siggie obey is to threaten him with destruction. Nothing else works. I turned and went to my closet and got a small belt to help me ‘reason’ with Mr. Freud.”
Dobson, an evangelical Christian and a licensed psychologist, gave Mr. Freud a firm swat across the rear end.
The dog tried to bite the belt.
“I hit him again and he tried to bite me . . . That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and growling and swinging the belt.”
Finally Siggie backed himself into a corner and snarled at the belt-wielding child psychologist. It was to be the little dog’s last stand. “I eventually got him to bed,” Dobson writes, “but only because I outweighed him 200 to 12!”
The next night when Dobson ordered the family pet into his nighttime enclosure, Mr. Freud went “in perfect submission.”
Two-hundred-pound man with belt wins. Twelve-pound dog loses.
Here’s Why You Must Beat Your Dog . . .
And that is as it should be, according to Dobson’s lights. For just as a dog will challenge authority, so too will a small child–“only more so.” Whenever a child resists authority, some physical pain–a swat or lash with a switch or a belt—is in order.
The entire human race, you see, is afflicted with a tendency toward willful behavior, Dobson says. Adam and Eve had it. You and I have it. Our children have it.
Which puts our children’s very souls at risk. The child who fails to submit to his parents “leadership” will surely fail to yield to God’s formidable will as an adult, Dobson reasons.
In “The Strong-Willed Child,” Dobson recommends you inflict pain on your kid so he can get to heaven
Make no mistake, he tells his readers, God possesses “majestic authority.” God is in charge of the universe, and as such, God, the supreme Lord, requires obedience from his children. Those who do not submit to him will learn to their eternal horror that “the wages of sin is death.”
. . . And Your Kid
And that is why parents have to spank their children, or hit them with a switch or belt. For the sake of their eternal salvation, children must be brought under parental and, later, divine authority. To that end, Dobson insists, “most of them need to be spanked now and then.”
I’ve owned two copies of The Strong-Willed Child over the years. One, a copy of the 1985 trade paperback edition, sits on my desk right now. I ordered it online the other day to make sure I remembered the dog beating incident correctly. I had.
The first copy of The Strong-Willed Child found its way into our house back in the 1980s when our children were small. As a new parent, I was eager to learn everything I could from the experts, and Dobson’s book was a big seller at the time. As I read Chapter One, however, I was stunned by the spectacle of a man—a psychologist—beating his dog into submission.
Submission to God–And You
I was just as appalled, then and now, at this popular writer’s understanding of the nature of God. The man’s overarching goal in rearing his children—and helping you to rear yours—is to make sure that as adults they submit to God. Using a switch or a belt on a child is part and parcel of Dobson’s theology.
Of course, there was no way I was going to spank, whip, or use a belt to terrify my little son or daughter into submission to an all-powerful (and purportedly loving) God who sends the disobedient off to hell.
So I stopped reading and put Dobson’s book on a shelf. I eyed it uneasily for some time, then got rid of it. It probably wound up in the garbage, which is where my second copy of The Strong-Willed Child will probably go.
Dobson began writing his childrearing books back in the 1970s. Around that same time he also founded the socially and politically powerful–and very conservative–Christian media ministry Focus on the Family.
Dobson Thirty Years Later
You’d think that, in the three-plus decades since, Dobson would have toned down his opinions on corporal punishment. He hasn’t.
At a meeting of the Religion Newswriters Association in Decatur, Georgia, last fall an unrepentant Dobson’s PR people screened a video of a child-rearing talk Dobson gave in the early days of Focus on the Family.
The video shows Dobson cheerfully describing what to do when your toddler disobeys. You hook the defiant behavior with consequences, he says. And you do that by making use of a conveniently located muscle, the trapezius.
“You squeeze that little muscle,” he tells his live audience, and “he goes down to the ground.”
The audience laughs.
I’m not kidding. The audience laughs. Hear the audio of James Dobson for yourself on the Religion Newswriters Association website.
The Dobson “Legacy”
The clip from the decades-old video was being shown at the conference as a promotion for Dobson’s latest book–Your Legacy: The Greatest Gift, which is all about passing on the Dobson values to the next generation, and the generation after that. And the one after that.
To be fair to Dobson, I want to point out that there’s a lot of wisdom in The Strong-Willed Child. Everything a parent does should be done with love, he urges. That feels right to me.
And so does this advice: “Ultimately, the key to competent parenthood is in being able to get behind the eyes of your child, seeing what he sees and feeling what he feels. When he is lonely, he needs your company. When he is defiant, he needs your help in controlling his impulses. When he is afraid, he needs the security of your embrace . . . ”
“Get behind the eyes of your child.” What a beautiful, helpful image for young parents to keep in mind.
Dobson is a smart man and an engaging storyteller. Too bad he thinks that heaven is so tough to get into that it requires him to wield a belt on his dog—and his kids.
Normally I pass along the publication information of the books I write about. But I can’t recommend books by James Dobson. They are not good for your children, nor you for that matter.
Libs Of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik posted a tweet scrutinizing an organization in Colorado that, in Raichik’s words, “teaches kids how to become drag queens and helps kids ‘safely experience the art of drag on stage.'” Raichik also tagged two specific Colorado state lawmakers who have supported the organization in the past. This tweet came the morning after the shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Matt Walsh is asked if he sees a link between pharmaceuticals and genetically modified food, and whether it’s affecting how people see gender. Walsh buys the theory and alludes tangentially to a report he saw about sperm counts among men have decreased significantly over the years. Walsh can’t confirm the correlation between genetically modified food and gender dysphoria, but does think that “…clearly there’s something in the food.”
Tucker Carlson claims to be frustrated with the media and liberals for pointing he is culpable for violence that what happened in Colorado Springs because his past calls for Fox News viewers to arm themselves against Drag Queen Story Hours.
There will be two articles in this one post. This terrorism, it is minority rule by violence. This is to drive fear and intimidation for a political goal. What the right cannot win at the ballot box because it is unpopular with the majority that has accepted the LGBTQ+ as members of society, the right will try to enforce via violent threats that incite the killing of people. The rest of society must stand up to this attempt to promote their religious morality anti-tolerance of others of this Taliban wannabes. Dogs that love gravy, if we give into these people on this we will be forever giving in to them. Hugs
A local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys plans to disrupt a Dec. 3 drag story event in Columbus, Ohio, just two weeks after the killings at a LGBTQ night club in Colorado Springs.
The Columbus Proud Boys announced their plans to disrupt the kids story time event held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus on Telegram last Tuesday.
Advance Democracy, Inc., a non-partisan, non-profit research organization, first flagged the post. The emphasis of a “wild” protest is likely a reference to Jan. 6. Trump had called on his supporters to attend a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, promising that it would “be wild!”
Earlier this year the leader of an Ohio Proud Boys faction was arrested for punching a black woman in the face after screaming the N-word. In August, a man linked to the Proud Boys was killed following his attack on Cincinnati’s FBI office. The photo above is from last month when Proud Boys menaced a drag event in North Carolina.
They’re a terrorist threat, not simply a protest, and should be viewed by law enforcement as such. No one should be intimidated—much less killed—for going about their lives.
Watched the local CBS affiliate evening news last night. They interviewed the straight owner of the new drag complex in Cleveland about safe spaces and the safety of drag brunches.
Proud Boys at Raleigh rally, November 2020 (Credit: Wikicommons)
A local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys plans to disrupt a Dec. 3 drag story event in Columbus, Ohio, just two weeks after the killings at a LGBTQ night club in Colorado Springs.
The Columbus Proud Boys announced their plans to disrupt the kids story time event held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus on Telegram last Tuesday. Advance Democracy, Inc., a non-partisan, non-profit research organization, first flagged the post. The post read:
The Columbus Proud Boys would like to announce that we will be attending the Holi-drag Storytime being held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus on December 3rd! We look forward to meeting all of the attendees and welcome Americans from all over to join us. It’s gonna be wild! Stand by for details…
The emphasis of a “wild” protest is likely a reference to Jan. 6. Former President Donald Trump had called on his supporters to attend a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, promising that it would “be wild!” Many of attendees of that rally, including members of the Proud Boys, later marched on the U.S. Capitol, attacking police officers and storming the building.
While the Proud Boys is probably best known for its role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol—for which several members face seditious conspiracy charges—the far-right, neo-fascist group is also known for its members’ presence at the 2017 white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one counterprotester was murdered. Since the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Proud Boys members have focused their efforts locally, disrupting school board meetings over mask mandates and LGBTQ-inclusive policies, and harassing attendees of drag story events, fearmongering that trans people are “grooming” children.
Already this year, the Proud Boys have disrupted drag events in Texas, Nevada, North Carolina, and California. In Idaho, the right-wing extremist group Patriot Front took it a step further; 31 people associated with the organization were arrested after they were found in a trailer full of weapons next to a Pride event.
The post by the Columbus Proud Boys announcing its plans to disrupt the Columbus event has been viewed more than 1,600 times. Just 45 minutes after posting, the post was further promoted by the Official Cape Fear Proud Boys, a North Carolina-based chapter that coordinated multiple efforts to disrupt drag events in the past six months. It was also shared by an Ohio Proud Boys channel and “the Infamous Legend Valley Proud Boys” channel, which shared an image the following day promising “Ohio Proud Boys Season Beatings.” On Monday, the Legend Valley Proud Boys shared a meme calling for violence against perceived perpetrators of pedophilia.
A meme posted on the Legend Valley Proud Boys channel. The image depicts a character in the “Walking Dead” who randomly choses a victim and kills him with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed-wire.
The Dec. 3 event is sponsored by Red Oak Community Schools, a school dedicated to fostering “students’ sense of their place and power in the natural world and in their communities.” A Facebook page promoting the event describes “Holi-drag Storytime” as “a new family-friendly, LGBTQ+ holiday tradition” in which local drag queens “will read stories for children of ALL ages and perform a few holiday numbers!”
Of course, the Proud Boys have alleged that the event amounts to “grooming”—the rhetoric at the heart of recent political attacks on LGBTQ people. A video posted the Columbus Proud Boys channel last Thursday called on members to “stand against grooming” and provided the address of the church. “All I want for Christmas is an end to child grooming. Help Saint Nicolas scold the Naughty groomers,” text in the video reads, calling on members to arrive before 10 a.m. Another image shows a picture of Santa Claus giving the middle fingers. “Its rally time boys!” a final message reads.
Right Wing Watch reached out to Red Oak Community Schools and the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus. We will update this story should either respond. The church’s website describes it as a place to “come together to grow in religious depth, valuing freedom, reason, tolerance, love.” Shortly after the Proud Boys’ announcement, Red Oak Community Schools said they meet hate with love and invited donations, posting on Facebook, “For every nasty comment, dislike, negative email, phone call, etc. we receive about our upcoming FABULOUS fundraiser, we’re collecting donation pledges for a local LGBTQ+ organization.”
The Proud Boys’ announced plan to disrupt the event came just days before a lone gunman targeted patrons of a gay night club in Colorado, killing five people and injuring 25 others. LGBTQ leaders have noted that this attack follows years of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and an increasing number of Republican politicians characterizing trans people as “groomers.” Religious-right groups have drafted anti-trans legislation, encouraged lawmakers to sponsor such legislation, and laid the groundwork for their passage through disinformation and pressure campaigns, a Right Wing Watch investigation found last year.
On the Sunday morning following the attack on Club Q, Democratic Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone said such rhetoric was to blame. “When politicians and pundits keep perpetuating tropes, insults, and misinformation about the trans and LGBTQ+ community, this is a result,” she wrote.
Notice they learned from the civil rights movement and their loss of the war on gays. They know now to attack a vulnerable group before the public fully supports them for equality , attack them before they gain equal civil rights. Also cloak their hate and attacks under the fake guise of protecting the children. Make it seem the ones they are pushing hate and harm on are the real villains trying to harm little innocent kids. We have to get the truth out there and protect the trans kids / community that is being demonized, denied healthcare that the majority of medical organizations support, all to advance a political message driven by religious hate. Hugs
LGBTQ rights supporters gather at the Texas State Capitol in 2021 to protest the previous round of Republican bills restricting transgender equality.Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images
Republicans’ midterm debacle could have led the party to conclude that centering an assault on the existence of transgender people is not a winning electoral strategy. But it didn’t. Instead, the GOP is doubling down on its crusade against LGBTQ people. The most vivid example can be seen in the Texas legislature, which saw the introduction of 10 separate bills designed to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth, criminalize drag shows, ban trans kids in sports (again), limit changes to gender markers on the birth certificates of minors, and limit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
For those who are not terminally online, the continued attacks on LGBTQ rights, especially those around drag shows, may seem baffling. Those plugged into the online right’s anti-trans extremism, however, will not be surprised. The blitz in pre-filed anti-LGBTQ bills in Texas is the logical legislative follow-up to the chaotic and threatening scenes outside of drag shows, pride events, and children’s hospitals this past summer. Several LGBTQ events throughout Texas drew protests from neo-Nazis, proud boys, and Christian nationalists—while the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, a group of LGBTQ anti-fascists clad in all-black armed with AR-15’s, were present to provide community defense.
These extraordinary events were partially the result of a moral panic pushed by far-right online influencers such as Chaya Raichik, who runs the notorious Libs of TikTok account. One of the Raichik’s targets was a drag event at the Mr. Misster bar in Dallas. Because of her posts, the drag brunch was surrounded by far-right Christian nationalist protestors, one of whom yelled that the police should go in to the venue and put to “go in there and put bullets in all their heads … that’s what the badge is for.” The following Monday, Tucker Carlson covered the protest and opened with “another weekend in Weimar Germany,” a reference to the extremist view that the “degeneracy” of Weimar Germany—particularly its LGBTQ community—necessitated the rise of the Nazi party to restore “traditional” values. This talking point is commonly repeated in radicalized far-right forums.
The right’s obsession with drag shows is producing dangerous legislation in Texas. Two nearly identical bills introduced on Nov. 14, H.B. 643 and H.B. 708, would classify venues with drag shows as “sexually oriented business” in the same vein as strip clubs. Both bills define drag as “a performance in which a performer exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers and sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience for entertainment.”
New laws would criminalize the parents of trans children and open the door to theirarrest. That definition would encompass every trans person who so much as sings or dances in any public venue and would attach criminal penalties for venue owners if a minor is present. The bill is so broad that it could theoretically apply to a trans person singing the national anthem at a Dallas Mavericks game. Even when only applying it to the intended target of drag shows, it would add onerous restrictions that could essentially eliminate drag shows in the state of Texas.
Since the bill adds the new provisions to an existing statute, additional regulations would attach. Local municipalities with restrictions around “sexually oriented businesses” such as proximity to schools, churches, homes etc. could apply making it near impossible to feasibly host drag shows. Venue owners where drag is performed could be required to pay a $5 fee per patron to the state and post anti-sex trafficking posters in restrooms. Most importantly, it would give Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has already called for the criminal prosecution of drag queens, the ability to file suit against venues who violate the law.
The obsession with drag is not isolated and much of the current moral panic was stoked online, as well. Throughout the summer, Libs of Tiktok began targeting children’s hospitals around the country for providing gender-affirming care, leading to Boston Children’s Hospital receiving death threats and bomb threats to its campus and the homes of providers.
Texas is no stranger to political attacks on health care for trans youth. In late 2021, the GENECIS clinic at the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas that provided gender-affirming care closed as a result of political pressure from Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott. The clinic began accepting new patients again only after a provider filed suit against the state alleging improper political influence as the reason for its closure.
Earlier this year, Abbott, relying on an advisory opinion from Paxton, directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the families of trans minors for child abuse. Abbott’s order resulted in families being investigated by DFPS solely for having a transgender child. Some families went so far as to flee the state of Texas as a result of the threat of state investigations merely for following the standards of care for the treatment of their child’s gender dysphoria. This resulted in a mass exodus at DFPS that has left an agency already mired in scandal on the brink of collapse.
Paxton and Abbott’s plan to punish the parents of trans kids faced road bumps in the courts because Texas law does not actually deem gender-affirming care to be child abuse. Now GOP lawmakers are trying to change that. There are currently three nearly identical pre-filed bills—H.B. 42, H.B. 672, and H.B. 436—that would define gender-affirming care for trans youth as “child abuse” in the Texas Family Code. This treatment is the standard of care endorsed by every major medical organization in the United States. The new laws would criminalize the parents of trans children and open the door to their arrest, while their children would be forcefully separated from loving homes and thrown into a state foster system in crisis.
If labeling loving parents as child abusers wasn’t enough, two nearly identical bills—H.B. 41 and H.B. 122—would make it a felony offense for healthcare providers to perform gender-affirming care. Additionally, the bills would strip liability insurance protections from providers who perform such treatments. In total, there are five bills introduced into the legislature that would criminalize gender-affirming care for both parents and healthcare providers.
The rest of the anti-LGBTQ bills seem almost tame by comparison because they do not criminalize access to healthcare and the existence of trans people in public venues. But that does not mean they wouldn’t cause immense harm. One bill, S.B. 162, would ban changes to the gender marker of a minor’s birth certificate. Another, H.B. 631, is a carbon copy of Florida’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” legislation that resulted in schools eliminating pride flags, LGBTQ teachers being told to hide pictures of their partners, and LGBTQ students being outed to their parents. Finally, H.B. 23 would implement yet another ban on trans kids playing in sports despite one being passed and signed into law in 2021.
One thing is clear from the bills pre-filed for next session: Texas is at war with its LGBTQ citizens. The urgency to pass these kinds of bills has only been exacerbated by far-right online influencers who seek to eliminate LGBTQ people from public life. It is too soon to say whether any of these bills will pass this upcoming cycle—though history suggests at least some of them stand a decent chance of enactment. If there was ever any hope that the midterm results would cause a hesitation to push anti-LGBTQ bills, that hope is gone now.
In his spiel Tucker spews lies and states they are true even when he says others tell you they are lies. He never mentions that these people are inciting terror and hate, instead he talks about their opinions as if it is something they are quietly keeping to themselves. He is deliberately misinforming and mischaracterizing the situation just as a KKK person burning a cross on a black family’s lawn might claim to just be spreading Christianity, not trying to strike raciest fear into the black community. See if you can spot the misdirection and slight of mouth he uses to compare apples to oranges as if they are the same thing. Hugs
So these horrifying murders in Colorado over the weekend quickly became a pretext for yet more censorship of your speech. You are responsible for this, they told you, because you said the wrong things. You are guilty of stochastic terrorism, inspiring violence by your beliefs.
Anderson Lee Aldrich committed mass murder because you complained about the sexualizing of children. Every time you object to drag time story hour for fifth graders or point out that genital mutilation is being committed on minors — which it is — every time you say that, you are putting people’s lives at risk.
Now that seems implausible and yet many are making this claim. Many have made it over the past 24 hours. Watch for example Brandy Zadrozny of NBC.
When you point out the truth, indisputably, and the truth is that some adults in this country, apparently a growing number, have a deeply unhealthy fixation on the sexuality of children — when you say that out loud, you get people killed.
That is what Brandy Zadrozny is saying. And by saying that, Brandy Zadrozny and the many people like her are effectively defending that same deeply unhealthy fixation on the sexuality of children.
By the way, it’s absolutely real. You’re not imagining that. It’s happening. The evidence is everywhere. And it comes to light on the internet. And Brandy Zadrozny and people like her hate that you are seeing that.
Notice that Zadrozny is not claiming that Libs of TikTok is making this up. She never even suggests that. She is threatening them, you should know, and she’s doing that because they’re pointing it out. Noticing it’s happening is their crime. And once again, it is happening.
Damn, Damn, Damn it. This is beyond cruel, this is pure gloating that she and her hateful ilk are causing people to hurt and harm, kill gay and trans people to push their ignorant views of denying the right of others to exist. She did this after a person killed and injured people in a gay establishment where drag shows happened. This is not religious liberty, this is demanding a segment of the population stop existing and that it is OK to kill them. She knows she will suffer no consequence for her actions, her incitement of violence and killing. Musk loves her hate and bigotry as he is full of it himself. The republicans won’t do anything to stop her as she is activating their base something they like. This is why I push back on her and people that say things like her. Anytime you let the misinformation, lies, and hateful rhetoric pass unchallenged you are giving ammo to the domestic terrorists and those that target the minorities for harm based on that misinformation, lies, and hate mongering. Take the teeth out of people like elected republicans, Matt Walsh, and Libs of TikTok by not letting their garbage stand uncorrected. Hugs
Colorado Shooting vigil (Getty Images)
Anti-LGBTQ+ social media account Libs of TikTok attacked a Colorado kids drag organization just hours after the Colorado Springs shooting, in which five were people killed.
Following the devastating shooting on Saturday (19 November) Libs of TikTok, run by Chaya Raichik, attacked non-profit organisation, Dragutante.
Dragutante is a Colorado-based group created to provide a safe stage for aspiring drag performers aged eight to 18.
Posting on Twitter the account wrote: “This organization in Colorado teaches kids how to become drag queens and helps kids ‘safely experience the art of drag on stage.”
It then tagged Colorado state representatives Leslie Herod and Brianna Titone to claim they have “promoted and encouraged this child drag organization and performance”.
Owner of the account, Chaya Raichik, who has branded herself a “stochastic terrorist” in her Twitter bio, has since been slammed for the role she has played in stirring up hatred against the LGBTQ+ community in the months leading up to Colorado Springs shooting.
LGBTQ+ activist Erin Reed used Twitter to accuse Raichik of allegedly “gloating” about “instigating LGBTQ+ violence in the wake of the Colorado Springs mass shooting”.
Reed wrote: “She lists herself as a ‘stochastic terrorist’ in her bio” and pointed out that, when confronted about the role she plays in anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, she responds “sarcastically”.
Raichik responded: “I put stochastic terrorist (the term they’ve been using for months to describe me) in my bio to trigger the Left. Mission finally accomplished!”
I put stochastic terrorist (the term they’ve been using for months to describe me) in my bio to trigger the Left. Mission finally accomplished! ✅ https://t.co/61TyQ27qeZ
Reed added: “In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, as many have reported, she targeted LGBTQ+ family friendly drag events (which Club Q was going to have today for TDOR [Transgender Day of Remembrance]).”
“We have entered a new phase in anti-LGBTQ violence.
“They’re openly gloating and mocking because they know they now have a permanent platform for this in Twitter.”
Another Twitter user wrote: “This is 9 hours apart. Chaya Raichik (@LibsofTikTok) is bragging about inciting the attack.
“She knows she’ll get away with it.”
This is 9 hours apart. Chaya Raichik (@LibsofTikTok) is bragging about inciting the attack. She knows she’ll get away with it. The last time she posted about Colorado was weeks ago. This is not a coincidence but open gloating that she’ll never face accountability for her actions. pic.twitter.com/okio0zoBQE
Just so everyone knows I have a doctors appointment this morning I have to leave for in about 30 minutes. Have to have trigger point injects, set up MRIs on my spine and shoulder, and arrange for shots into my spine after the MRI reports. And now to a person talking about the republicans trying to ban IVF and contraception. Hugs
This is what these bills are designed to do, create fear and keep the gay and trans kids hidden, to stop any positive reinforcement of LGBTQ+ while allowing all the negatives and slurs full volume to attack them. This is designed to reenforce white cis heterosexuality only. Make being gay or trans so hated kids and teacher live in fear of the other kids who target them with the authority of maga parents and the school administration behind them. It is indoctrination of right wing hate. It worked in Russia and other countries it has been done like China or the Islamic countries. It is about erasing the LGBTQ+ from society and returning to a time when hate and hostility towards minorities was accepted as normal. How is combating racism and bigotry controversial or political unless one party has racism and bigotry as their identity? How can it be a bad thing in 2022 to be against racism? This is a serious regression in society, the right wants to unwind the entire civil rights movement. Ask yourself why? Who wins in that situation? Hugs
Anything deemed political, with LGBTQ subject matter in the bullseye, is being torn down, boxed up and otherwise removed from campuses.
Across Florida this new school year, rainbows, safe space stickers and books with LGBTQ themes and history are being replaced in classrooms out of fear.
The Parental Rights in Education Bill – called the Don’t Say Gay bill by its opponents – was signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in March. It’s had a chilling effect on students, teachers and free speech across the state. Anything deemed political, with LGBTQ subject matter in the bullseye, is being torn down, boxed up and otherwise removed from campuses. Black Lives Matter posters are leaving along with rainbow flags.
In Sarasota, where high school senior Zander Moricz organized a headline-making student walkout in March, students and faculty report a grim environment imposed by school administrators enforcing the Don’t Say Gay law.
Gail Foreman, a longtime social studies teacher at Booker High School and a lesbian, says her principal didn’t wait for the law to take effect before conducting an inventory of inappropriate materials last March. “Anything that could even remotely be construed as gay-related came down,” Foreman told Buzzfeed News. “It wasn’t me putting this stuff up,” she said. “It was the kids. It was their classroom, too.”
Among the items removed were student-created posters reading “All Students Deserve Equal Education” and “All Minds Matter”; pride flags; a pride cape gifted by a student; safe space stickers from the Trevor Project; and a Mickey Mouse pen topped with a rainbow head. “Rainbows now symbolize politics,” Foreman said.
Senior Nora Mitchell, who founded Sarasota Students for Justice in 2020, says the Don’t Say Gay law has “allowed the Sarasota County School Board to create new policies that are, for lack of better words, extremely repressive within our school.” That school board now includes three new DeSantis-endorsed members, two of whom celebrated their victory in August with members of the neo-Nazi group, Proud Boys. One flashes a white power sign in a photo published by Vice News.
Mitchell, who came out to friends and teachers just before Don’t Say Gay was signed, says two banners she created were taken down and thrown away. One read, “Black Minds Matter,” and the other said, “We are all welcome here” and was decorated with rainbows. Officials “want school to feel unsafe,” says Mitchell, “and they want schools to be spaces where they can impress their own values of heterosexuality of whiteness. They want to reaffirm those values.”
Sarasota County Schools spokesperson Craig Maniglia denied the event Mitchell describes took place.
Mitchell and 2021 graduate Anthony Frisbee add that it’s not just school administrators tracking down violations. “Students have reported about teachers who are wearing anything rainbow-related,” says Mitchell. “It’s horrible.” In Frisbee’s view, “It’s like the Hitler Youth outing their parents.”
“You feel the sense of danger — like, school does not feel safe. It does not feel as vibrant as it was before,” Mitchell says. “Teachers can’t teach what they want, they can’t call students by their actual name, students are scared to be themselves at school. I mean, how can that possibly be conducive to learning or be a welcoming and fun place?”
Proud Boys at Raleigh rally, November 2020 (Credit: Wikicommons)
Scottie's Playtime 