After a county library director in Tennessee was fired for refusing to take down a Gay Pride-themed book display, Columbia Tennessee resident Jessee Graham spoke at a Board Of Trustees meeting opposing the firing and laying out the hypocrisy of taking such action to supposedly prevent abuse. Graham told the meeting, “I’ve never been assaulted at a drag show but i have been at church…twice!”
See how this has nothing to do with children and is all a political ploy to rile up the right wing base that is unable to accept advancements in society. We have grown as a people, just as we did in every generation since the beginning of the species. We don’t do what we did in the 1600, 1700s, 1800s, because we know better now. But there are some people dreaming of a past that never really existed when they felt comfortable and in charge, they were the normal ones with the right to mock and insult the weirdos. They want that again. The other half wants their poor defenseless god to stop crying over men wearing dresses (something they basically did in Jesus’s time) and they know their god shutters in fear / loathing every time a male penis touches another male, regardless of the fact that opposite sex couples can do the same sex acts and their god loves to watch that. Strange, isn’t it? Hugs
He called for a ban on drag performances even though he performed in women’s clothes in front of thousands of spectators, including children.
WWE wrestler Kane, who performed topless in genitalia-hugging spandex tights, grappling with other oiled-up men wearing only speedos, g-string style underwear — and sometimes women’s dresses — is complaining about all-age drag shows.
The former wrestler – who goes by Mayor Glenn Jacobs (R) when he’s not performing in flashy outfits – won reelection as the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee in August and performed on multiple occasions with other wrestlers who dressed as women in front of thousands of children.
Now he says he’ll ban family-friendly drag shows anywhere “on Knox County property,” though he has no power to do so. “Currently,” says the mayor, “no law on the books gives me authority.”
The empty pro-wrestling-style boast was another attack on the LGBTQ community inspired by the current Republican obsession with quashing LGBTQ rights, particularly when it comes to gender nonconformity.
Twitter was quick to react to Jacob’s hypocrisy Tuesday, when he claimed “my office has been flooded with calls concerning all-ages drag shows,” just in time for next Tuesday’s midterm elections. Jacobs went on to decry “the sexualization of our children.”
For the uninitiated, drag is an integral part of some of WWE’s often bizarre storylines.
You main evented a show that had an Evening Gown Match between two dudes. There were literally thousands of kids in the audiences. pic.twitter.com/YCGOet6t7Y
Multiple wrestling fans called out Jacobs for a storyline in which he kidnaps another wrestler’s girlfriend, rapes, and impregnates her.
you were literally in a wrestling storyline where you raped a woman, got her pregnant, and then a man kicked a doll representing the stillborn baby across the arena. shut the fuck up 😭 https://t.co/MNrFJRYFlu
EXCUSE ME!! You took part in a WWE storyline (in front of kids) in which you RAPED a female wrestler and got her pregnant!! NO! YOU! DON'T!! 😠😠😠😠😠 https://t.co/X4H7NWebLF
A rare win for the good side. Notice the animosity and hate for gay people. This is not about sexualizing kids, stories about gay kids / people don’t make kids sexual anymore than stories of straight kids / people do. Why is it OK in the minds of straight white conservatives that kids read about straight dating, see straight couples, read about straight parents, see straight people kiss, and that doesn’t sexualize or promote sexuality to them. That is what they want the kids to see because it enforces that it is good and “normal” that they should act that way. But you change the word straight with the word gay and their heads explode with the myth that they have to protect the kids from sex? Get real, that just shows how bigoted and hateful they feel towards gay people. It is a faked concern for the children when in truth it is about forcing LGBTQ+ kids to hide and being able to hurt them. Hugs
Impassioned pleas were made from people on both sides of the debate, but LGBTQ equality won the day.
After a heated public debate, the Greenville County Council in South Carolina voted to keep LGBTQ books accessible to children at the public library.
A resolution from city Councilor Joe Dill – who recently lost the Republican primary and will not be maintaining his seat – proposed requiring the 12-location library system in the area to remove books “promoting sexuality” from all children’s sections.
The resolution claimed it was seeking to “protect the innocence of children” and also would have required libraries to submit a report to the County Council detailing “how such books ever found their way into the Children’s Sections…and what measures have been put into place to ensure such oversights do not occur in the future.”
Controversy over LGBTQ books in the county began in September when the Greenville County GOP unanimously passed a resolution in favor of banning them from the children’s section of libraries.
The State reported at the time that the Greenville County GOP chair, Jeff Davis, said it was important to prevent kids from being “indoctrinated” by the books.
“Kids can’t buy a beer until they are 21. Should they be able to access these books before a certain age without parental consent? I think not and that should be reasonable,” he said.
The GOP became especially concerned in June when the library displayed LGBTQ books in honor of Pride Month.
Among the books they reportedly worried about was a book about a girl and her dads called Daddy & Dada; Teo’s Tutu, about a boy who does ballet; Pride Puppy, about a puppy who goes to a Pride Parade; and Sex is a Funny Word, a sex education book designed for kids that also teaches about different types of families.
During the recent county council debate, the council members did not mention any specific books, and impassioned pleas were made from people on both sides during the public comment period.
“I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation. Of course we shouldn’t have any sexual material in our children’s library,” said parent Barbara Evans, as reported by The State.
Susan Ward, the parent of a gay son, emphasized how important it is for her son to be able to see himself in books.
“All of us worry about our children. I worry because my child has been subjected to hate and discrimination,” she said.
The conversation reportedly got heated, with the vice chair of the library board – who supported keeping the books away from kids – even saying “barf” when someone said they were gay.
Ashley Snelgrove, a children’s librarian against banning the books, also spoke at the meeting and explained that the library already thinks very hard about what books are available to kids. Beyond that, Snelgrove said kids under 11 are always supervised at the library.
And in a 3-9 vote, LGBTQ equality won the day and the council voted to keep the books available to kids.
Is there any wonder why the current republican party loves Putin! He is doing what they want to do. Outlaw the LGBTQ+. Florida has already outlawed the LGBTQ+ in Florida schools using the same reasoning as Russia has, protect the children from a made up boogieman. These people live to hate. These laws are designed to stop any positive portrayals of the LGBTQ+ while still allowing the negative hate mongering free reign. Hugs
Russia’s Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all “gay propaganda,” signaling an even more difficult period ahead for a stigmatized segment of society. The laws would prohibit representation of L.G.B.T.Q. relationships in any media — streaming services, social platforms, books, music, posters, billboards and films — and, activists fear, in any public space as well. That’s a daunting prospect for queer people searching for community, validation or an audience.
Kremlin critics see the proposals as an attempt to create an internal enemy to divert attention from battlefield setbacks and an unpopular draft of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. “It’s the equivalent of saying, ‘Look, we have this special operation. If we lose, your kids will have their gender changed, they’ll take your kids away, it’ll be the stuff of nightmares,’” said Dr. Nikolai Lunchenkov, a physician who focuses on L.G.B.T.Q. health.
Russia’s Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all "gay propaganda," signaling an even more difficult period ahead for a stigmatized segment of society.
"The purpose is to make LGBTQ people invisible in Russia," one lawyer said. https://t.co/iKeqcGwTh0
Without convenient scapegoats, no authoritarian would ever been able to hoodwink the masses into believing that the real source of their misery isn’t the authoritarian himself. Putin needs the gays as much as Hitler needed the Jews.
“It’s the equivalent of saying, ‘Look, we have this special operation. If we lose, your kids will have their gender changed, they’ll take your kids away, it’ll be the stuff of nightmares,’”
Russian government telling people not to ask questions about the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who just appeared in the Russian adoption system since February?
We have always known Putin is a fascist dictator beloved by Trump. It makes their bromance all the more instructive of the four years of Trump’s treachery. Trump tried the same bromance shit with Kim.
It won’t really stop a racist bigoted school board but it will give allied teachers and the LGBTQ+ students some cover and breathing room. Notice they knew they needed more sensitivity training after a teacher came to work in black face. Plus there was this from the students. Earlier this month, the Newberg Graphic discovered that at least one student at Newberg High School was involved in a Snapchat group called “Slave Trade,” where teenagers from across the country share racist, homophobic and violent messages, sometimes specifically targeting Black students.
They knew they had an issue with racism and attacks on gay, lesbian, and trans kids. But they still wanted to take away any training or discussions to promote tolerance, acceptance, and diversity. This is the republican party today. This is the maga cult trying their best to roll back all the civil rights gains. If you go to the link on the superintendent you will see that the board want only cis white Christian symbols and accepted speech. … (T)he conservative board members fired Morelock because he didn’t aggressively implement their ban on controversial symbols, … is from that link. These people can not accept the changes in society and refuse to accept the advancing better understanding of biology and psychology than was known in the 1950s. Hugs
Police are investigating after a masked person approached the home of Newberg School District employee, lit the employee’s Pride flag on fire and performed a Nazi salute on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. File photo
Just weeks after a Yamhill County judge ruled a controversial ban on the display of Pride flags in Newberg schools was unconstitutional, a masked person approached the home of school district employee, lit the employee’s Pride flag on fire and performed a Nazi salute.
A home security camera captured the flag burning on film, and a 14-second video clip posted to Twitter Monday had 123,000 views by Thursday morning.
The family filed a police report with the Newberg-Dundee Police Department, telling investigators their Pride flag had previously been stolen. Monday’s flames left black soot damage to the brick siding of the home, police said.
No arrests have yet been made, according to Newberg police.
In a statement Tuesday, the Newberg School District referred to the flag-burning as a hate crime.
“We are shocked and saddened to hear that such a horrendous act took place in our community,” the statement said. “The act of invading someone’s private property to burn a flag is abhorrent and alarming.”
The video shows a person walking up a driveway toward a house with their face fully covered, except for their eyes. After lighting the flag on fire, the person is shown facing the security camera and performing a Nazi salute before walking out of sight.
According to the Twitter account that shared the video, the flag-burning occurred at 3:15 a.m. Flames had spread onto leaves around the flag by the time the homeowner went outside, the account said.
The flag-burning arrives a little over a year after a controversial policy banning the display of Pride and Black Lives Matter flags in district schools threw Newberg into the national spotlight.
Newberg’s school board voted in September 2021 to adopt a policy barring educators from displaying symbols considered “political, quasi-political or controversial.” The 4-3 vote followed a pair of racist incidents in district schools and drew fierce criticism from state lawmakers and members of the Newberg teacher’s union. After enacting the policy, board members abruptly fired former superintendent Joe Morelock.
Dundee Elementary School teacher Chelsea Shotts sued the school district and four of its board members in December 2021 after a rainbow flag she kept in her classroom window was the subject of a complaint under the policy.
A Yamhill County judge ruled on Sept. 22 that the policy banning the display of certain symbols in schools was unconstitutional and forbade the district from enforcing it.
Vid shows a masked Nazi that walks up to the house and lights a barely visible flag on fire, which bursts into flames, then sieg heils the camera before walking off to the right of the frame. pic.twitter.com/tx7Fh21WrJ
— SchoolBoardBloc Protect Trans Kids (@SchoolBoardBloc) October 31, 2022
I am not really not feel all that well. Nothing bad but my stomach is unsettled and upset. I think I just needed a down day. But then this clip popped up in my feed. It is a story of two boys who are gay teens, they discover each other. At the point of this clip one of the gay boys has been beaten up for being gay and his teachers want to bring in a guest speaker to try to teach tolerance and acceptance of gay kids. The person in charge at the school is against it because some parents will think the school is proselytizing or pushing gay rights / gay sex on the kids. Sound familiar? The boy who got beat up is accepted by his dad who celebrates his 16th birthday by taking him to a gay club / bar where he lets the boy meet other gay people. But the main focus of this clip is on the other boy Louis and the highly negative reaction of his parents to seeing his search history, his chat logs with Nathan his boyfriend, and finding out he is gay. They don’t take it well with the dad hurting the boy and then they try to force him to change claiming both it is a choice he is making and a sickness he has. They take away his phone and computer and keep him grounded not even allowed to go to school until he comes to his sense and decides not to be gay anymore. Louis figures he has to lie to get back his life so tells them he is not gay but the dad finds out he has been using his forbidden phone to contact his boyfriend. It just makes the situation worse. His father demands the entire family shun him. He cannot eat with the family, he cannot be in the rooms with them, he is to stay in his room, and even his little brother is not allowed to talk or be with him.
I am posting this for those that don’t understand how important it is for LGBTQ+ kids to have acceptance at school, to have teachers willing to provide them with safe classrooms where they know the teacher will not let them be attacked or bullied. Especially kids with highly religious or bigoted families. If the kids don’t think it is safe for them to tell their parents how does a teacher telling the parent make it any better or safer for the kid. It is why symbols like the rainbow flag and other gay pride things in the classrooms or on the doors are so very important. This is happening in the US right now, all over the country. Kids are born gay, they know it, and some parents are accepting due to the positive teaching in society. But some parents are horrible bigoted and not only punish their own kids for how they are born but either make them do conversion therapy which has been proven to be harmful and of no benefit or worse kick them out of the home making them homeless forcing them to live on the streets somehow. Sadly that for most homeless gay / trans kids means selling their bodies for food or shelter. The very thing the parents claimed to want to protect them from. I have watched videos and read stories of Christian / Muslim families who claim that their gay child is choosing to let the devil in to them by sinning so they cannot have their young gay teen in their home. The clip is not in English, but the subtitles are very good. Please understand this is what the Don’t Say gay Bills are doing, promoting this bigotry and harm to gay kids. In Florida it has removed safe spaces for gay kids and forces teachers to tell bigoted parents that their child is gay or trans so they can be treated this way. It removes the teaching of tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. It removes the positive reinforcement about LGBTQ+ people so that the only thing kids hear / know about them is the negatives, that those people are bad and dangerous to the good normal kids so they need to be stopped, hurt, and harmed before they hurt good normal kids. Please watch and leave me a comment on your feelings. Hugs
ABOUT ‘HIDDEN KISSES’: Nathan goes to a high school party and meets Louis. The two find themselves out of sight and kissing, but someone takes a photo of them. When the photo is placed online, a storm overtakes their lives.
Why is that yellowjacket crashing your BBQ? Well, she wants what you’re having: burgers, hot dogs, fish and turkey. But she doesn’t eat them herself. Her nest’s larvae need that protein to develop. So she carves up your dinner and makes teeny-tiny meatballs for them.
Thank you Ali for sending me the link in a comment. Great article. Hugs
John Daniel Davidson
The conservative “news” outlet, The Federalist, published a screed against transgender people that echoes rhetoric that German Nazis used against Jewish people in the 1930s.
The attack came in a piece entitled “We Need To Stop Calling Ourselves Conservatives,” written by John Daniel Davidson. Davidson is also the political editor for The Federalist.
Davidson’s piece refers to “the transgender question” and says, “On the transgender question, conservatives will have to repudiate utterly the cowardly position of people like David French, in whose malformed worldview Drag Queen Story Hour at a taxpayer-funded library is a ‘blessing of liberty.’”
Davidson makes a call to arms for conservatives to oppose transgender rights: “that parents who take their kids to drag shows should be arrested and charged with child abuse; that doctors who perform so-called “gender-affirming” interventions should be thrown in prison and have their medical licenses revoked; and that teachers who expose their students to sexually explicit material should not just be fired but be criminally prosecuted.”
Nazi Display On The Jewish Question In 1930s Germany
His argument is a mirror image of the Nazi world view that Jews had to be the subject of persecution, to be regarded as non-people, and ultimately to be mass murdered in a Holocaust that killed over 6 million innocent men, women, and children.
The Holocaust Encyclopedia published by the United States Holocaust Museum notes, “Once in power, the Nazi Party began taking measures to solve the ‘Jewish Question’ in Germany. First, they initiated policies and laws that transformed German Jews into second-class citizens. Then, they expelled Jews from Germany or forced them to emigrate. During World War II, Nazi Germany and its collaborators expanded this goal. They aimed to cleanse all of Europe of Jews through their forced “resettlement” in occupied Poland, the French island of Madagascar, or later occupied Soviet territory.”
Over the last few years, the conservative movement has been involved in a heated attack on the rights of transgender people in the United States.
Most recently, congressional Republicans have introduced legislation entitled “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act of 2022” that is designed to smear transgender people and undermine their rights to a peaceful life.
The Federalist was co-founded by Ben Domenech, a conservative activist who was removed from the Washington Post for plagiarism. He is married to Meghan McCain, former co-host of The View, a columnist for the right-wing Daily Mail, and the daughter of the deceased Sen. John McCain.
The fact that every school official denies that there are litterboxes doesn’t matter to him because it is a great talking point to tarnish trans kids with. Besides a right wing media has said it is happening so that is proof it is happening right? Now I did find out that there are a few schools that do have emergency kits in classrooms that do include a bucket with kitty litter so that kids in a mass shooting lockdown stuck in the class room have a place to pee. Columbine was the first school to set these emergency kits / buckets up in the classrooms. It is not a littler box really, it is not for furries or kids playing dress up. It is a sad commentary on our country these days that something so serious as our children being in hiding from an active shooter is misconstrued to attack trans kids and ridiculed an important safety asset. Hugs
“They’re putting litter boxes,” Bolduc said in the recording. “These are the same people that are concerned about spreading germs. Yet they let children lick themselves and then touch everything. And they’re starting to lick each other.”
Bolduc claimed this was taking place in schools in Claremont and Derry and named Pinkerton Academy, which took to Twitter this week to refute the allegation.
“It has come to our attention that at a recent event in Claremont Don Bolduc named Pinkerton in false claims suggesting that unhygienic, disturbing practices are taking place in our classrooms and spaces on campus,” the school said. “We want to assure our community that Mr. Bolduc’s statements are entirely untrue.”
And below is this latest. Watch.
NEW: Don Bolduc- only to @NBCNews says the school he accused of using litter boxes for children who identify as animals needs to "prove" the claim wrong. He tells me a parent and a student told him it was happening and he is "not backing down." pic.twitter.com/s7CLx09uu2
They believe all that bullshit from Sunday School for no reason other than someone with authority told them to believe, so why wouldn’t they believe this?
Yes. Pay no attention to the erractic and devastating weather. Or Nazis. Or child molesters at the local church. Or caged children at the border. Or nuclear holocaust
Its litter boxes and drag queens that are the real problem
Well, as people here have pointed out before, schools are buying litter boxes for their classrooms. As part of an “active shooter classroom lockdown” kit, because fucking Republicans think arming the mentally unbalanced is a good idea.
These people think never backing down is a virtue. When you’re objectively wrong and your position is just plain fucking stupid, it’s time to back down.
Besides, who wants to hear this bullshit from a guy who hasn’t even proved that he doesn’t regularly rape babies and goats and baby goats? What a sicko.
They think “never apologizing” is a virtue. It’s just a sign that you didn’t grow up.
Remember when they called Obama the “apologizer-in-chief” or whatever? He was already bombing the Middle East. What did they want him to do, nuke Isis?
Photo: Shutterstock
John Daniel Davidson
Scottie's Playtime 