The right cannot help themselves. The bigotry just pours out of them. There was not any need to do this, to change the learning standards except to enshrine bigotry and promote the false idea that there was no one here in the land when the white Europeans showed up. It misleads the students into not knowing or understanding the brutality the white settlers used against the natives to take what the natives had. We were not interested in living together, we stole what we wanted by violence. They can not stand that white people are not the most important people, that white people are not given automatic authority. No diversity, no respecting other cultures or differences. It must be only and all what the white republicansdo and want. Hugs
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is overhauling former Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration’s proposal that would have set history and social science standards in Virginia schools.
Youngkin’s VDOE’s new draft proposal would determine what students learn about American history and Virginia history inside the classroom.
If adopted by the Virginia Board of Education, the new standards will be in effect for seven years starting in the 2024-2025 school year. Professional development would begin in the summer of 2023, according to a fact sheet that was sent to legislators and obtained by 7News.
The old guidelines call for lessons teaching that “Indigenous People were the first inhabitants of the land that we now call Virginia and the United States” and that “multiple tribes have always and continue to live in Virginia and the United States today.” The new guidelines do not mention Indigenous peoples, instead stating that students should learn to “describe life of Virginia’s earliest settlements.”
The old guidelines suggest students learn about a wide variety of holidays and traditions including Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Juneteenth and the Fourth of July. The new guidelines only mention learning about Presidents’ Day. Finally, the new guidelines delete a suggestion from the previous version that kindergartners be taught “respect for diversity.”
The proposed Standards by @GovernorVA removes MLK, Jr. from the elementary curriculum. This selective erasure of one of the most prominent people of color in American history calls into question this entire revision of the proposed Standards. #erasurehttps://t.co/AQaGsXt5u6pic.twitter.com/u2zigj2aZs
Governor Youngkin’s new history standards require Marc Antony in elementary school but not MLK Jr.
Never forget he kicked Virginia’s Teacher of the Year — Anthony Swann, a Black man — off the Board of Education so he could ram this through. https://t.co/CiLNsKIbpR
Youngkin is the most dangerous kind of Maga. He is soft spoken and comes off as intelligent. This masks his real hatred and fascist beliefs. He has the ability to do more harm than the Maga idiots who wear there hate on their sleeve.
Per the article – The Governor’s 53-page proposal would require:
Kindergarteners to learn patriotism which includes pledging allegiance to the American flag Forcing that would be illegal, found so by SCOTUS in the past. I’m guessing he’s hoping for a reversal on that ruling, or just isn’t aware that the pledge, even if mandatory to offer, is still optional for students to recite.
Students would learn critical thinking skills starting in the first grade Somehow I don’t think he means actual critical thinking skills, but rather to try for “both sides” arguments about stuff like evolution to sneak in ID
How pathetic. The kids will think that flying the flag is ‘jingo-normal’ Just look at Trump in Mar-a-Loco when he announced he’s running for the nomination, I counted at least 20 flags. Jingoism is not normal.
They want a Christian country forcing everyone to follow her churches dictates and morality. She is not even interested in thinking for herself, nor what the opinions or how others want to live their lives. She wants the authority over them, she feels entitled to do it. I get so sick of these people. She wants to live by her church rules great, she may go for it. But I don’t belong to her church and should be forced to live by her demands. Nor should the schools, libraries, and kids have to regress to have society fit in with her religion. Plus the usual equating positive LGBTQ+ messages with sexual grooming of kids. Do these people even understand what grooming is? Hugs
The town voted against a property tax to fund the library after conservatives claimed it was “grooming” children.
A town in western Michigan voted again to defund its local library after claims that it was “grooming” children by making LGBTQ books available.
Last Tuesday, 56% of Jamestown Township voters voted against a small property tax used to provide 80% of the funding to keep the local Patmos Library open.
“They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” said Amanda Ensing, one of the people who campaigned against the library. “It’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”
The library has been targeted by local conservatives all year for having LGBTQ books in its collection, including books like Spinning and Kiss Number 8. Both books have teen girl characters who discuss their feelings for other girls. Library officials said that the library has about 90 books with LGBTQ themes in its 67,000-book collection.
The library agreed to keep the most controversial book – asexual and nonbinary author Maia Kobabe’s memoir Gender Queer – behind the main desk so that people would have to ask a librarian to read it, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy the conservatives.
“Pray that we can make changes and make the Patmos Library a safe and neutral place for our children,” said a flyer from one of the local organizations, Jamestown Conservative, this summer.
Two library directors resigned as a result of the hateful messages they received from conservative residents.
The Patmos Library’s funding was on the ballot in the August primary elections, and voters rejected the tax used to pay for the library in that election.
“50% Millage INCREASE to GROOM our kids? Vote NO on Library!” one sign that was directly across the street from the library said, using the regional term “millage” to refer to the property tax.
The story made national headlines. The attention raised over $100,000 for the library in donations, which could cover part of its $245,000 yearly budget. But the library hoped to still get local citizens to pay for their library and put the tax question back on the ballot to ensure the library’s funding over the next decade.
“However, we know very clearly that what this library needs to remain open over the long term is to pass the 10-year levy renewal in November,” the library board wrote in a statement thanking donors for the outpouring of funding. “We cannot run the Patmos Public Library for the next decade without stable taxpayer support.”
“If the levy passes, we will remain a public library and use the donations to add to our capacities. If the levy fails, we will put these donations to work in the best way we can for as long as we can.”
Ensing, who called the issue “Biblical,” said that she didn’t even want the library to close. She just wanted the votes to be a “wake-up call” for the library’s directors.
“A wake-up call to what?” library board director Larry Walton asked. “To take LGBTQ books off the shelf and then they will give us money? What do you call that? Ransom? We stand behind the fact that our community is made up of a very diverse group of individuals, and we as a library cater to the diversity of our community.”
He added that the library provides many services to the community, including free wireless access to people who can’t afford internet access otherwise. Even the community room that was used for voting will have to be closed if the library is closed.
The tax in question is about $24 on houses with a market value of over $250,000.
They are doing the same thing with the don’t say gay bills. Linking being gay or trans with child sex abuse. And it works on the uninformed or those that don’t care about the truth. Teachers are groomers, acceptance by others and tolerance programs are pushing kids in to being gay or forcing them to transition to a different gender. And people buy into it because the truth is harder to accept, that there have always been gay and trans kids they just feel more comfortable being open and themselves now. Hugs
They’re using their favorite trick: linking LGBTQ equality to child sex abuse.
Mat Staver, chair of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Liberty Counsel, is warning his organization’s followers that the bill to codify same-sex and interracial marriage will lead to “pedophilic marriages.”
“Because this bill also forces same-sex marriage on every state, Senate Majority Leader [Chuck] Schumer is bowing to the powerful LGBTQ lobby to pass this bill by THIS WEEK—no matter the consequences, or the pedophilic marriages that will result,” Staver wrote in an email.
“Texas law protecting minor children from pedophilic ‘marriages’ will not matter if Chuck Schumer passes H.R. 8404,” he continued. Texas allows child marriage. “This bill would require every state to honor and obey the marriage laws of any other state—no matter how crazy. California, for instance, has no age limit for marriage.”
The Respect for Marriage Act (or H.R. 8404) would require every state and the federal government to recognize marriages performed in other states. Proponents of the law argue that it’s necessary in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which shared some of the same legal reasoning as the Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015. Justice Clarence Thomas also urged the Supreme Court to reconsider Obergefell now that Roe has been overturned, a sign that the Court may be coming for same-sex marriage rights as well.
Staver is referring to the many states that allow minors to marry, usually with parental consent, consent of a judge, or if the minor is pregnant or emancipated. Texas, for example, allows emancipated 16- and 17-year-olds to get married. California allows minors to get married with parental consent and if a judge rules out abuse or coercion.
Democrats in several states have tried to change these laws in recent years, but it’s usually conservative Republicans who block raising the marriage age to 18 for everyone.
Staver – who used to be the dean of the evangelical Liberty University’s law school – implied in his email that 16-year-olds being told to marry 40-year-olds doesn’t count as child marriage – even though 16-year-olds are minors – showing the lenient attitude many Christian conservatives have toward child marriage.
In Idaho in 2019, for example, Democrats tried to pass a law to ban marrying someone under the age of 16, but the bill ultimately failed to pass the state house. One Republican lawmaker said that banning child marriage would endanger the “sanctity of family.”
Conservative activists have been using this fact to point out that other states will be required to recognize child marriages performed out of state, even though many already do now. Meanwhile, the threat of states not recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states is very real; many states were refusing to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states less than a decade ago.
The point, though, is to link LGBTQ people to child sex abuse, one of the most common tactics hate groups use to turn people against LGBTQ equality.
In a tweet, Liberty Counsel Action wrote, “U.S. senators are working to pass HR 8404, which will force all states to recognize and honor horrific, abusive child ‘marriages’ with zero age limits! Radicals are ‘OK’ pushing it because some homosexuals could then wed, including child-brides!”
U.S. senators are working to pass HR 8404, which will force all states to recognize and honor horrific, abusive child “marriages” with zero age limits! Radicals are "OK" pushing it because some homosexuals could then wed, including child-brides! More@ https://t.co/iZKBAuVMyb
Despite the organization’s newfound concern with child marriage, it is not listed as one of the issues Liberty Counsel supports on their website. They do not appear to have any active lobbying campaigns to end child marriage at the state level.
Earlier this month, the anti-LGBTQ organization NOM made similar statements about the Respect for Marriage Act. Since the Respect for Marriage Act will not immediately change anything – marriage equality is currently legal in all 50 states – NOM also accused the bill of “forcing every state to accept polygamous marriages, men marrying child brides and every other perverse type of ‘marriage.’”
The bill was delayed, in part, to address Republican senators’ concerns and to give them the freedom to vote in favor of it without having to worry about upsetting their base of Republican voters before the November 8 midterm elections.
One of the things the anti-trans people like to push is the myth that many kids who identify as a different gender than the one assigned at birth simply grow out of it. Their idea is these kids are brainwashed or conned into thinking they are a different gender. That is wrong. I had that idea pushed by an anti-trans person here on my blog and it did manage to create confusion and misinform some of my viewers. I have made every effort to point out the truth of the situation, that what the right wing is pushing is a lie. Science and real research show that about 98% of kids who have a different gender identification from birth assigned gender maintain that and are happy they transitioned. That shoots down one of the biggest talking points of the TERFs and other anti-trans bigots. If you are on the fence about trans issues because you doubt that gender identification can be different than assigned at birth gender, then you are part of the ones that claim that sexual orientation / attraction is a choice and a phase kids go through. Just as time and medical studies have shown how completely wrong that is and that sexual attraction is a spectrum, the same is true with gender identification being separate from birth gender. If you think it is being over blown because you are a cis straight person who did not have an issue with your gender or sexual orientation, think about how that is like a white person saying they think racism towards black people is over blown because you never felt it directed towards you in your life. Hugs
In a large patient pool, 98% of trans youth who took puberty blockers ended up choosing hormone therapy.
The study, published October 20 in The Lancet, a prestigious and long-running medical journal, reviewed information from the Amsterdam Cohort of Gender Dysphoria about trans patients who took puberty blockers before turning 18. Researchers examined the medical records of 720 patients at Amsterdam UMC’s Center for Expertise on Gender Dysphoria who had historically received at least three months of puberty blockers as minors, and attempted to determine how many of those patients had an active prescription for hormone replacement therapy on file as of December 31, 2018.
Of the entire cohort, 704 were found to have active HRT prescriptions at the end of the data collection period — a massive 98% of the patients analyzed.
As for the remaining 2%, researchers cautioned that the absence of data doesn’t mean they necessarily returned to identifying with their gender assigned at birth; most of those 16 had undergone some form of gonadectomy as part of their transition-related care, researchers noted, and may not realize they still need hormone treatment to avoid osteoporosis or other conditions. Others could be nonbinary and not desire further hormonal treatment, or may have been pressured into halting treatment by outside stressors, such as unaccepting family members.
“I think it’s an important finding because we see that most of these people continue to use gender-affirming hormones,” said Marianne van der Loos, the paper’s lead author and a physician at Amsterdam UMC’s gender identity clinic, in an interview with NPR.
Her clinic emphasizes mental health care as a part of transitioning, van der Loos explained, so due to that support, “it’s not really surprising that so many people continue to [receive] treatment later on.” (Conversely, an American Medical Association report in February confirmed that lack of access to puberty blockers or hormone therapy was strongly correlated with poor mental health and suicidal ideation among trans youth.)
The Amsterdam study’s findings affirm previous research into the persistence of gender identity among trans youth, and illustrate some of the challenges in identifying why a small number of people halt or reverse their medical transitions. Another study of over 300 young people from the Princeton Trans Youth Project published in May indicated that around 97.5% persisted in identifying as trans and/or nonbinary at the end of a five-year study period.
These studies increasingly demonstrate that the ongoing conservative freakout over gender identity and trans “desistance” is, at best, a massive overreaction. In an interview on liberal comedian Jon Stewart’s show The Problem earlier this month, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge claimed that 98% of gender-dysphoric youth will eventually identify as cisgender — not only an “incredibly made-up” statistic, as Stewart noted, but per the Amsterdam and Princeton studies, precisely the inverse of what is true.
As trans youth around the world face opposition to their medical needs due to cisgender politicians’ ignorance and bigotry, it’s important to have as much information about our lived experiences as possible. The reality is that trans kids aren’t a “social contagion,” nor are they sad, deluded teenagers; they’re just young people who deserve care and support, like everyone else.
Do you see the new talking point at levels? Children! Protect the children, children make a marriage, indoctrinate the children with conservative dogma. Why are they focused on children when not all straight couples can produce children? Well I think in the Old Testament barren people cannot enter the temples. Plus that is how they are pushing the anti-gay / trans bills. Think of the children. It is how they get people to accept not following best medical practices is by invoking the children and the idea that kids don’t know their gender or sexual orientation until they are adults. Plus they managed to swing the abortion debate to their arguments based on the idea that it was murder of children, even though we all know a fetus is not a human child. They get people to ignore the pregnant person by claiming that it is a child, don’t you love the innocent child. Mean sexual woman wants to put her needs over the needs of a child. Boo, Boo, bad woman. That is why the right is focused and using the children. “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” philosopher Aristotle
“If you vote in favor of the idea that society has an obligation to recognize male-male or female-female dyads, in the same way that society has an obligation to recognize male, female, you should not be in the Republican party.
“You shouldn’t, okay? The reason I say this is not because I wish to shrink the size of the Republican party — because if the fundamental basis of human society is male, female child and you think that by passing a law you can change to that reality, you do not belong in government.
“It’s a very simple proposition. Men and men are not the same as a man and a woman who are capable of becoming one flesh and producing a child.
“This is not difficult stuff. Many Republicans will be tempted to vote for this simply to avoid the conflict. So that people don’t yell at them. ‘Oh my gosh, you’re not respecting! Love is love! The love is love argument was always bull crap.” – Ben Shapiro, on today’s podcast.
Ben Shapiro tells any Republican senator voting for the codification of same-sex marriage: "You should not be in the Republican Party" pic.twitter.com/qmM4JJk4rJ
Not every male/female marriage produces children. Many gay marriages do have children whether by adoption, surrogate or previous relationships. Many babies are produced with no marriage at all. This man has his head way up his a$$.
If we were going to limit marriage to couples with children it should still include ALL couples with children. But what these bigots want is to restrict it to heterosexual couples with or without children and excluding all same sex couples, again whether or not they have children. His dishonest rationalization doesn’t support his policy.
Old people marriages don’t serve the societal function of producing children.
If you believe post-menopausal women should be allowed to get married, you do not belong in the Republican Party.
It’s not that we hate post-menopausal women. We just recognize that they are no longer capable of serving their function as incubators for Young Republicans™, and are therefore not as deserving of rights as fertile women, let alone men, particularly impressive specimens of masculinity like me, Ben Shapiro.
He’s just pissed off because a major part of his and many others’ grift operation is about to go away. So he’s doing what a good little conservative does, he’s crying like a little baby.
No, but we can f**king adopt. And with the state of the foster care system, you should be applauding those gay couples that adopt these children. You have no shame.
Well, we do have the ability to invoke earthquakes, we control the weather, and we’re totally capable of defying Biblegod’s every edict merely by thinking about it. We’re that powerful.
I’m reminded of Richard Posner’s 7th Circuit marriage ruling.
The] government thinks that straight couples tend to be sexually irresponsible, producing unwanted children by the carload, and so must be pressured (in the form of government encouragement of marriage through a combination of sticks and carrots) to marry, but that gay couples, unable as they are to produce children wanted or unwanted, are model parents—model citizens really—so have no need for marriage.
…
Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children; their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children; their reward is to be denied the right to marry. Go figure.
No, Ben, despite all of your efforts for the last several thousand years to erase gay people at best, or to eradicate gay people at worse, you have continually failed because you continue to spout the nonsense you just did. Male and female making a child is not the only basis of society. But it just bothers you no end that other people are important, too. I’m sure if you were Jewish you would understand that your logic is exactly the same in Christinity that reached its culmination about 100 years ago.
The last post I did on over the top maga right wing haters who won seats on school boards was in Florida. This time it is in Lafayette, Indiana. He is another that thinks there is a gay ideology, an indoctrination of gayness and trans quotas. Look that is just a rehash of the gay agenda we all heard so much about, but no one could tell us what it was or who had the authority to create it. It was just a mysterious thing claimed by conservative right winger to hint that gays were trying to recruit your kids and molest your little boys /girls. Well I guess it is the boys the gays molest and the trans go after the girls, right? You know the gay agenda right wingers would seriously say to each other. After all every right winger knew gays couldn’t breed so the only way new gays happened was recruitment / molestation of the young. They just couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that kids are born gay or straight and everywhere on the spectrum of sexuality / orientation. He says it is ok for gay teachers to exist but not to really be out. They cannot talk about how they feel like straight people can or that is pushing the gayness on others. It is back to the 1970s /1980s gay teachers are just looking to sex your kid from kindergarten to the senior prom. Don’t these people ever grow up? Did they not understand society moved on from their 1950s homosexual pervert threat thoughts. Anita Bryant flamed out people, stop holding on to her ideas. WTF, I am so tired of this shit. He admits up front he is totally against that way of life. So what, there are gay people, gay people exist. We are legally able to get married and have families, and to say just the idea of promoting tolerance and ending bullying is pushing gay lifestyle on others is wrong and stupid. Because every heterosexual act then is pushing sexuality and sex on to students and other adults. You cannot have it both ways, if a straight couple can talk about their spouse and it be OK then so can a same sex couple. If a boy and girl can hold hands, then so can two girls or two boys. What these people want is to erase gays / trans / and civil rights from society and they will start in the schools. In Florida attacks and assaults against LGBTQ+ students have gone up at an alarming rate and teachers are not able to use the programs / instructions in stopping discrimination and promoting tolerance / acceptance they used to do. This new school board member doesn’t want any posters put up in schools trying to stop bullying or promoting tolerance / acceptance. That is pushing the gayness I guess.
Plus he is sure they are teaching CRT and he won’t have it. These people think teaching the truth about the horrors of slavery and how the economy of the south was built on the backs of black people because the whites did not want to work is CRT. That is bullshit. CRT is a legal theory of the interconnectedness of institutional racism in business / society.
Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.
The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.
CRT is not being taught in grade schools, middle schools, nor even in high schools but it damn well should be. It should be part of every history class tailored for the class level and age of the students. It is our history in this country. The people who keep claiming US exceptionalism need to be made to defend slavery and the discrimination of black people from the end of slavery to that it is still going on today. But that is just what the conservatives don’t want, they don’t want kids knowing that the “nation founded to be a Christian nation” was up to its neck in horrifying harm to different segments of the population, genocide and slavery in all its ugliness. Teach it so discrimination stops and doesn’t ever come back.
This guy ran against teaching peer to peer sexual education. I think he thought comprehensive sexual education is in class orgies? He wants teachings on emotions gone. Again understandings have increased and kids need to learn positive emotions and how to handle negative emotions. Hell we are making these same kids do active shooter drills, yes they need emotional reassurance. He goes on to list a bunch of other woke stuff he is against. Then he gets back to the in my day we did this but did not have that and we were great, look how great we are that we think the best thing to do is hit kids. Like all these type of people they have a romantic attachment to the “Leave It To Beaver” TV show and think the 1950s was the peak of human civilization. They have no understanding that society and human understanding has improved and moved forward. They long for the past that was more how they liked life. Damn. He talks about things he doesn’t even understand and talks like he is an expert. He has the strange idea that because these things were not talked about when he was a kid (he is 80 years old, so he started school in 1947) and his five kids he says went through school without any of these modern ideas, and things were all great being normal. But again is 80 years old, if he had his children in his 20s, his kids would have been in school during the 1960s or early 1970s. Things have changed a lot since then. Hey let’s return to teaching only what was known in the 1600s while we are being regressive. Wouldn’t that be better? The last thing he talks about is how bad it is that a minority is telling the majority what to do, he is not going to allow it. Yet he and the republicans are the minority that are trying to rule the majority and he is too blinded by hate or old age to see it. Hugs
Newly elected board member Chuck Hockema ran on a platform of keeping gay teachers in the closet.
There’s a new school board member in town, and he’s taking names.
Eighty-year-old Chuck Hockema, elected Tuesday to the Lafayette Community School Board in Lafayette, Indiana won’t brook openly gay teachers, Critical Race Theory for kids, or a “woke” agenda.
“My reason for running for school board is because when I talked to the school board members, they would not give me an answer to the questions,” Hockema told the Lafayette Journal & Courier. “And I thought, ‘Now this is some crap.’ If you can’t tell me whether you’re going to vote for CRT or you are not, you’re on my list and I’m going to find out why.”
Hockema is also coming for anyone advocating a gay “ideology.”
“If there’s a teacher that wants to be gay, that’s OK,” Hockema said. “That’s their prerogative. I’ve hired gay people. I’ve had them work for me, but I would not allow a gay person to push his feelings and his ideology off on other employees.
“If they did that, they’d be gone.”
“I’m totally against that as a way of life,” said Hockema.
“I don’t want to see any banners, I don’t want to see any posters,” he said. “The teachers are there to educate, not to try a form people’s opinions about anything other than reading, writing, arithmetic, civics, and science.”
Hockema ran on a platform supporting the three R’s, and against “undermining of traditional values and beliefs, promoting gender confusion, encouraging peer-to-peer sex education, violating or undermining parental rights, supporting critical race theory (CRT) or social-emotional learning (SEL) when used as a cover for divisive instruction, and promoting ‘woke’ ideology.”
“I’ve got five children that went through school, and we did well with that,” Hockema said of teaching the basics. “We never had any issues to worry about when it came down to CRT or woke or SEL or transgender or none of that stuff. They didn’t teach this. We helped them with their assignments, and it was a different world then.”
Hockema says he isn’t going to “monkey around” with school board members, either.
“If they want to support these things, I feel like they should be removed from office. That’s my strong opinion.”
Hockema said he’s got no quarrel with LGBTQ kids, “as long as they stayed within their bounds.”
“A little boy might be like, ‘I feel more like a little girl.’ And if you got a teacher that encourages that, that’s the impression they’re probably going to go. And if they just left them alone because it’s a normal thing to have that thing happen to children at different ages, they’ll grow out of it,” Hockema said. That is not how being transgender works; transgender children’s identities have been shown to be stable into adulthood.
His goal, Hockema says, is to “save the children.”
“I don’t want them being indoctrinated by someone’s opinion, who’s 100 percent different than mine. What my wife and I teach our children, I don’t want them to erode that with their ideology. They can make it sound so sweet and so pleasant and so wonderful, and kids are impressionable.”
“When the minority starts ruling the majority like these whole issues, you got one percent of the population dictating what the rest of us, what we can and can’t do, that’s ridiculous.”
As you read this story I want you to keep in mind several points. He lied about why he was running for the board and what he wanted to focus on. He tried to sound normal by saying he wanted to focus on generic sounds good school policy stuff. His priorities were to ensure proper education that helps everyone succeed, improve safety and mental health for students and teachers, and address budgetary concerns. As soon as he got elected the rabid Christian pushing his god and his hate for other came rushing out. I thought good Christians did not lie.
Also notice that he wants to beat kids (spank, paddle, strap, you know corporal punishment. Seems he got it as a kid and liked it) even without their parents’ permission. He or anyone else ever used corporate punishment on my kids (hit my kids) they better start gathering up guns fast, because I am coming to see them, and I will be angry!
He thinks disabled kids get away with too much and have it too good. He really means mentally / emotionally disabled kids get away with too much and have it too easy, so keep them home or even though he doesn’t say it we are back to the hit them hard and often, tie them to the desk shit. I suspect he hates the accommodations for kids with physical disabilities who need accommodations like ramps and other changes.
He also thinks gay kids get away with too much and because there is not a policy of blocking out time that the straight kids get to beat up the gay kids, he wants Christian stickers with saved zone on them for places where the Christian kids can gather and force religion on everyone else. He seems to think that is what a rainbow safe place sticker does, provide classrooms where the gay can be forced on all the kids, and maybe that trans stuff being pushed also. Time to get the Christian symbols up in the schools because the gays have special rights not to be assaulted, can’t have that. God first with mandatory prayer. (Maybe he doesn’t think kids will be praying just before they get hit with a heavy paddle for being kids not robots) He intends to go through all the history books because he claims they have revisionist history in them like that this was not a Christian nation and slavery was a bad thing. Going to make sure the kids are taught the truth, god himself set up the US as a Christian nation for Christians only, slavery was not that bad and good for those people, and that kids are taught good republican civics so they can go out and vote republican like god and the founding fathers intended. See he is going to fix that woke liberal indoctrination. Notice he wants / demands respect for authority. Sounds like he is saying you will do as your told and like it, think only republican thoughts, do only straight heterosexual stuff.
The last point I want to make is this asshole wants to block any public health measures including / especially vaccines. He was in the Air Force and that vaccine shit is against freedom. Seems his mind is going on him because in the military you have to take a lot of vaccines and you don’t get a choice, because it is so you can be deployed to places that have really bad shit to make you sick. So he wants to allow every anti-vaccine person to be allowed to send their sick kids to school to make everyone else sick, and that is called freedom in his mind.
Get the point on what is happening here in Florida. Three of these people that believe as he does got elected, this guy pushed out a person who was a teacher for 30 years. They were all backed by the same big money Christian group / network for the express purpose to drive the country regressively back to the 1950s and worse. Total hard right wing Christian propaganda in the schools with zero tolerance for LGBTQ+ or disabled students. We need a lot of people to get upset with what is happening here as the intent is to spread it from Florida and Texas, pushing it all over the country. DeathSantis is going to try to use this type of stuff to become president which means every other republican with ambition is going to go ever more hard core on these issues. Oh and the Qanon darling Gen. Flynn who was working behind the scenes for Russia as trumps National security advisor addressed the candidate’s supporters. Dogs that love gravy, our kids in schools are in a world of hurt and so are we. Hugs
Newly elected Collier County school board member Jerry Rutherford wants to bring corporal punishment back to district classrooms, he said the morning after Tuesday’s election.
He added that disabled students’ behavior in particular is “out of control.”
Additionally, he said he’d like to see fewer “rights” for LGBTQ students — or the same extended to religious students who want to practice religion in school.
Jory Westberry, who lost her school board seat to Rutherford, said his views on corporal punishment, LGBTQ students and religion in schools would “put something so pervasively wrong in schools.”
Florida allows corporal punishment in public schools as long as the district allows it.
“First of all,” she said, “if (Florida) allows corporal punishment, Collier County does not.”
“Second, students with handicaps are entitled to a free public education without retribution because of their behavior. That’s why we have behavior specialists who work with students, parents and teachers to enable them to have a more effective, productive experience in school,” Westberry said.
Westberry was one of several who spoke out against Rutherford’s priorities.
Rutherford won the District 1 seat away from longtime teacher, administrator and school board member Westberry in the 2022 election with a strong 65.4% of the vote to Westberry’s 34.6%.
After speaking on myriad issues at school board meetings countless times for more than 35 years, Rutherford told the Naples Daily News in July he decided he didn’t want to be on the outside looking in anymore, so he joined the school board race.
This was his first time running for any elected position, he said.
Rutherford was endorsed by the Collier County Republican Executive Committee, which endorsed all three challengers to the school board. All of them won their races.
As a devout Christian, he’s fought to distribute Bibles in schools and to institute prayer at school board meetings. He has also protested Naples’s LGBTQ Pride festival, specifically speaking out against drag shows.
A veteran of the Air Force, Rutherford has worked in sales and construction and owned a painting business in the Naples area for more than 20 years. He also served as a substitute teacher in the district for three years.
Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative education nonprofit headquartered on Marco Island, congratulated Rutherford, as well as the two other challengers Wednesday via email.
“This win of all three seats is a tremendous victory for the 48,000 kids in Collier schools, their parents, and grandparents, as it now gives a clear conservative majority over a previous left-leaning school board,” Florida Citizens Alliance marketing manager Moise Stael Dantes wrote. “The delivery of quality academics while maintaining the principle of liberty can now become real.”
The ‘board of education’
Rutherford’s stated positions changed dramatically before and after his election.
In July, he told the Naples Daily News his priorities were to ensure proper education that helps everyone succeed, improve safety and mental health for students and teachers, and address budgetary concerns.
But Wednesday morning, reached by phone, Rutherford said he has a five-point agenda he’d like to implement, including “mental and physical discipline,” or physical punishment of children in Collier’s public schools.
“I only went to the principal’s office one time when I was in school and that was when they used the ‘board of education,’ if you get what I’m saying,” Rutherford said.
Rutherford added that disabled students are not in control and get away with too much. He read an article by a California teacher that said he left teaching because his disabled students were swearing and otherwise misbehaving, and he couldn’t hold them accountable.
According to a 2021 analysis by the Education Commission of the States, which tracks education policies, Florida is one of at least 18 states that allows corporal punishment in public schools as long as the district allows it. According to the National Association of State Boards of Education, Florida does not require parental permission, only written parental notification after the fact.
Currently, Collier County prohibits corporal punishment. According to school board policy 5630, “the use of corporal punishment, defined in Florida statute as the use of physical force or physical contact for disciplinary purposes, is prohibited.”
Furthermore, Florida Statute 1003.573 states that disabled students can only be physically restrained if there is an imminent risk of serious injury or death to the student or others and only once all positive behavioral strategies have been exhausted.
Jackie Stephens, CEO of the Children’s Advocacy Center in Collier County, said she is “alarmed” to hear a school board member wants to bring back corporal punishment to the classroom.
“It can be detrimental to the children,” Stephens said. “There’s no studies that really indicate that spanking is beneficial. It can actually lead to worse behavior and aggression.”
Stephens said many countries have outlawed the spanking of children, even by their own parents. In the United States, many organizations have registered as a “No Hit Zone,” which means they do not condone hitting of any kind.
“There’s a lot of places that are becoming no hit zones, like the Children’s Advocacy Center and hospitals. I think at school would be a good place not to hit children.”
Rutherford’s agenda also focuses on “respect,” he said. “There needs to be respect for ourselves, for others, and for authority.”
In that vein, he said he believed people are being indoctrinated into supporting LGBTQ rights, and “when it comes to indoctrination, I will not put up with that,” he said.
Rutherford added that some legislators had passed bills he believes extends the rights of LGBTQ people beyond normal rights.
“I’m all for equal rights, but I’m not for special rights,” he said.
For example, he said, an LGBTQ student group in Collier County gave teachers a sticker to put on their doors with a rainbow that says “safe zone.” One teacher, he said, refused to put it up.
He did not elaborate further on what rights LGBTQ people have that others do not.
According to The Safe Zone Project, which gives trainings that allow people to learn about LGBTQ identities as well as examine prejudices and biases, the words “safe zone” typically communicate that the person is an ally of the LGBTQ community, has gone through a Safe Zone training, or is trying to communicate support.
“I don’t have a problem with that, but it should extend to sectarians,” Rutherford said.
“If you’re going to have a secular symbol, you have to give a religious one,” he said. “What if we gave teachers a sticker with a cross that said ‘saved zone?’ We have religious rights, and we have personal rights.”
GLSEN, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting LGBTQ students through policy writing and advocacy, said elected leaders and elected school leaders have a responsibility to protect all young people, including LGBTQ youth.
“Queer students in Florida, especially those of color and those who are trans and nonbinary, are being cruelly targeted by extremists,” said GLSEN executive director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers. “They are facing a hostile climate amid curriculum censorship laws and have been repeatedly subject to political attacks. Florida’s students deserve so much better from the adult politicians who are supposed to support them. This kind of anti-LGBTQ+ fear mongering and misinformation from any school leader is unacceptable.”
“We are absolutely saddened by his agenda,” said Naples Pride president Cori Craciun. “LGBT kids’ rights have been taken away by the Parental Rights Bill, and the Florida Medical Board, which banned (gender-affirming) care for transgender minors. … The ‘safe zones’ are there to protect these children. They are often the only place these children know there is a supportive adult they can reach out to.”
Religion in public schools
Federal law on Bibles in public schools is derived from 1963 Supreme Court case Abingdon v. Schempp, which draws a distinction between devotional reading and the objective study of religion.
In short, while religious texts like the Bible are allowed in public schools for the purpose of studying, what is not allowed is devotion or reading from the Bible as religious practice.
Rutherford added he wants to see “textbooks that are free from bias, censorship and rewritten history,” as well as “morals and ethics in school.”
He said he planned to review all new textbooks and would flag anything he saw as dubious or biased. He did not specify what he considered to qualify as biased or rewritten history.
Rutherford was also eager to see a civics class reinstated in the curriculum, where students would study the Constitution and the Bill of Rights per Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent policy.
But Rutherford said he felt the government has gone too far in other ways, such as by forcing students and teachers to wear a mask in 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and by requiring military personnel to get vaccinated against the virus that has killed more than 1 million people across the U.S.
As a former airman, he expressed frustration by that.
“They’re saying no (to the vaccine), and they’re getting thrown out for that,” he said.
He noted that while Collier Public Schools required masking early in the pandemic, Mason Classical Academy, a local charter school, did not, which he believes better exemplified respect for students’ rights. Collier should follow Mason’s example, he said.
Education reporter Nikki Ross contributed to this article. Kate Cimini is an investigative journalist covering Florida. Share your story at (239) 207-9369 or kcimini@gannett.com.
To be very clear if this article doesn’t make it clear to you, the right is not interested in “protecting” children, they don’t really think that talking about LGBTQ+ sexualizes children, they don’t mind sexualizing children, but they are demanding to indoctrinate the kids, all kids, into believing that only heterosexual orientation / sexuality exists and teaching hating the gays / trans. That is what this entire “don’t say gay” thing is about! About spreading hate and making kids think that only heterosexual ways exist, that only opposite sex marriage is real, only way to date is boy / girl, that all families must be mommy / daddy. it is total indoctrination to make the 1950s come alive again. Plus they want to stoke hatred against the gay and trans people including kids at school. They want the bullying and they want the gay / trans kids picked on and made to be scared and in fear for being who they are. But as this guy who is big in the anti-LGBTQ+ movement says, it is great to take kids to Hooters to see what he calls the great view, in other words to see big breasts / titties. He wants to have boys reading sex magazines showing nude women. He seems to think that people have a choice about their sexual attraction / orientation and wants to make sure all the kids choose straight which he thinks is the correct choice. WTF! Do you see how this entire protect the kids / don’t sexualize kids and let them be children, is a cover for what they really want, they hate gays and want them punished and erased from society. That is the point over don’t let teachers talk about or defend kids from same sex families and forbidding pride stickers / flags and removing all LGBTQ+ materials from libraries. It is about the idea that if kids don’t see or hear that being gay is normal and same sex families are normal then the kids will be straight or pretend to be so they can fit in and have families. Plus for some reason this guy thinks all straight people are republicans and all gay people are democrats. Hugs
“If more members of Gen Z had been brought to Hooters as children, I can GUARANTEE we would have had a red wave last night.”
MAGA author Nick Adams – who was complaining about drag queens and teachers discussing LGBTQ people earlier this year as part of the larger groomer panic – is now advocating parents take minor children to Hooters.
“If more members of Gen Z had been brought to Hooters as children, I can GUARANTEE we would have had a red wave last night,” Adams – né Nicholas Adamopoulos – tweeted earlier this week about the restaurant chain known for its young female waitresses who don’t wear much clothing.
If more members of Gen Z had been brought to Hooters as children, I can GUARANTEE we would have had a red wave last night.
Adams is the Australian author of several volumes of far-right pulp including The Most DANGEROUS President in History (about President Joe Biden), Trump and Churchill: Defenders of Western Civilization, and Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness. He claims to be Donald Trump’s favorite author.
He calls himself an “alpha male” in his Twitter handle and his account is often mistaken for a parody of the far right, but his fans know that he’s on their side.
Yesterday’s was only one of many of his tweets advocating taking minors to Hooters.
“I am sick and tired of beta males and feminists trying to guilt alpha males out of eating at Hooters,” he wrote earlier this week. “There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with eating at Hooters on a weekly basis, EVEN with the family and kids.”
I am sick and tired of beta males and feminists trying to guilt alpha males out of eating at Hooters.
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with eating at Hooters on a weekly basis, EVEN with the family and kids.
“99% of the people who pass judgment about Hooters and parents who take their children to Hooters have never actually been to a Hooters,” he wrote yesterday.
“People who demonize parents who take their kids to Hooters are pathetic,” he also tweeted yesterday. “I feel sorry for their children.”
People who demonize parents who take their kids to Hooters are pathetic.
Adams really loves Hooters and it appears to be more of a lifestyle choice for him than a restaurant with chicken wings. In a video this week, he called it a “family restaurant”
“Hooters is fantastic,” he shouted at his camera, wearing an untucked short-sleeve shirt while standing in front of a framed picture of himself. “The view is good, the food is good, the drinks are good.”
“Alpha males have a history replete with visits to Hooters,” he claimed. Hooters opened in 1983. “If you haven’t been to Hooters, it makes it all that bit more difficult for you to claim alpha male status.”
While Adams advocates taking children to the sexually-charged environment at Hooters, he doesn’t think that teachers should be mentioning LGBTQ people to students in school, lest kids learn that there are different kinds of families. In April – at the height of groomer panic where conservatives were complaining about books like And Tango Makes Three (about a penguin with two penguin-dads) being available in schools – Adams decried kindergarten teachers who he claimed wanted to “discuss sexuality” in school and called them child molesters.
“Any adult that needs to discuss sexuality with a kindergartner is a predator, not a teacher,” he wrote.
Any adult that needs to discuss sexuality with a kindergartner is a predator, not a teacher.
— Nick Adams (Alpha Male) (@NickAdamsinUSA) April 15, 2022
In July, he said that only a “bad parent” would allow their kids to see a drag queen.
If you are okay with your young child being exposed to sex toys and drag queens, you're a bad parent.
— Nick Adams (Alpha Male) (@NickAdamsinUSA) July 23, 2022
That same month, he appeared to advocate giving pornography to underage boys, even though federal law prohibits the distribution of pornography to minors.
— Nick Adams (Alpha Male) (@NickAdamsinUSA) July 14, 2022
Trans YouTuber Natalie Wynn pithily summed up Adams’ latest tweets: “Heterosexuals openly admit they have to groom children to perpetuate their lifestyle.”
Heterosexuals openly admit they have to groom children to perpetuate their lifestyle pic.twitter.com/2diIPde4Qg
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