OK I want to note that at the time the right wing religious people are demanding it is grooming to say gay or talk about gender and that teachers who do so are pedophiles, this Christian school had an assignment of 8 year old taking nude pictures of themselves or having someone else take a nude picture of them in a bathtub with a book. This article is about a girl whose mother refused but there are boys in this class also. How many pervy kids pictures got floated around that school and on the internet? But mentioning LGBTQ+ or letting kids pick their own pronouns is the real threat to kids in schools? Hugs
“This just does not sound OK,” said the girl’s mother
When mother Misty Dunham saw the assignment from teacher Irene Castaneda, she wrote a note back to the teacher saying her 8-year-old daughter would do no such thing:
“I emailed the teacher ‘Hey, you may want to explain that. Send something out to the parents. Let them know what the intentions are.’ This just does not sound OK,” Misty Dunham said. “She did send out a message saying, ‘you should be in pajamas, be in your uniform, have fun with it.’ But, it didn’t sit right.”
Actually, what Castaneda wrote (according to a police report) was “We have been sending this homework assignment home for years, and you’re the only one complaining about it. Just cover your child in pillows or pajamas then.”
As if a picture of a clothed or covered-up child was the exception to the rule.
What the hell were people sending her in the past? (Actually, that’s a valid question for another reason. The school’s Facebook page says Castaneda was hired in August. So how does she know no one else has complained about it?)
If the goal was to have a little fun with the reading homework by having Victory Christian Academy parents take a picture of their kids reading in the bathtub with clothes on and no running water, that should’ve been specified. It wasn’t. When Dunham spoke with other parents about the situation, they were equally flippant, saying things like “Just cover your child up with something.”
Everyone was treating Dunham like she was ruining the fun rather than admitting she had a point.
That’s when Dunham and her husband reached out to the school’s administration as well as the local sheriff’s office. They just wanted to document their concerns more than anything else. (It’s not like anyone was going to be charged with wrongdoing over this.) A police officer advised them not to complete that portion of the assignment.
The story should have just ended there. It was a poorly-explained assignment that rightly upset these parents, the teacher should’ve apologized and clarified, and everyone could have moved on.
But days later, the family received a call from an administrator urging them to withdraw their child from the school. When they refused to do that, he said the school would kick her out anyway:
“(He said) ‘I think you guys should do a parental withdrawal for the child.’ I said, ‘I can’t. I can’t do that. We refuse to withdraw her,’” Misty Dunham said. “He said, ‘OK thank you for saying that,’ and continued on saying that, ‘Well, we’re going to proceed with an administration withdraw.’”
Pastor Jesse Latta later explained to Action News Jax’s Meghan Moriarty that the assignment was “innocent,” but “out of an abundance of caution and for there to be no misunderstandings, our administration has removed this particular assignment for any future use.”
That’s the right move. It actually shows the Dunhams had a legitimate complaint. So why the hell was their child kicked out of school?
No answer.
The whole incident is a microcosm of Christianity’s treatment of sexual abuse: A girl bravely said she was uncomfortable with what an adult was doing, and the church’s response was to punish the girl, not the adult.
It would have been so easy to take care of this problem, but the school’s reaction was to double down on the assignment until the media attention made that impossible, then they took their wrath out on the family, leaving them scrambling to find a new school and forcing the child to make new friends after the school year has already begun.
The family is worse off because they enrolled their kid in a Christian school. Thank goodness they’re sharing their story publicly so everyone else can understand how messed up these kinds of schools can be.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy nods to parents calling “diversity, equity, and inclusion” Marxist programs The Majority Report crew discusses how there is no pushback to conservatives openly advocating to end anti-bullying programs after the critical race theory panic and passing of legislation such as the don’t say gay bill. The crew also talks about how parents are being activated to go to the polls by hateful right-wing rhetoric.
Again the right has to lie about medical facts, make up fake “investigations”, and lie about the safeguards the charity has for their trans kid subscribers all to drive as much hate as possible against trans. Please notice that the famous well known TERF J.K Rowling is pushing the lies and myths hard as she does with anything atni-trans. Hugs
Mermaids marches at Pride in London, 2019. (Barcroft Media via Getty/ Wiktor Szymanowicz)
Trans children’s charity Mermaids has responded to an “investigation” by The Telegraph which suggested the charity was putting children at risk.
On Sunday (25 September), The Telegraph ran a story headlined: “Trans charity Mermaids giving breast binders to children behind parents’ backs”.
The story largely relied on an unidentified adult masquerading as a 14-year-old child to access services from Mermaids, including the charity’s youth forum and web chat helpline.
The newspaper reported an email exchange between the charity and the adult – pretending to be a 14-year-old trans boy named “Kai” – in which staff agreed to provide them with a free binder after they had become “a member of the charity’s online Youth Forum for a month and posted three times”.
Mermaids also reportedly provided extensive information about safe binder wearing, and risks associated with binders, which can reduce dysphoria in some trans people.
The Telegraph expressed outrage that the charity did not grill the “child” on their mental health and require that they inform an adult, even though “Kai” had already described their family as unaccepting.
Although Mermaids refused to comment for The Telegraph’s “investigation”, the charity said in its own statement addressing the issues raised: “Some trans masculine, non-binary and gender diverse people experience bodily dysphoria, as a result of their chest, and binding, for some, helps alleviate that distress.
“Mermaids takes a harm reduction position with the understanding that providing a young person with a binder and comprehensive safety guidelines from an experienced member of staff is preferable to the likely alternative of unsafe practices and/or continued or increasing dysphoria.
“The risk is considered by Mermaids staff within the context of our safeguarding framework.”
Although Mermaids’ youth forums are designed to be a safe space for young people, The Telegraph also published information about the kind of conversations being had by teenagers, including on the topic of puberty blockers.
Researchers in 2020 found that puberty blockers can be “life-saving” for trans youth, drastically decreasing their chance of suicide, depression and anxiety, and the Endocrine Society describes hormone-blocking medication as a reversible treatment option to “give adolescents more time to explore their options”.
The newspaper tried to paint Mermaids’ forums as unsafe, including quotes from anti-trans campaigners like Transgender Trend founder Stephanie Davies-Arai, and MPs Joanna Cherry and Miriam Cates, who claimed the “investigation” raised “huge safeguarding red flags”.
But the charity clarified: “We have robust security and moderation processes in place to ensure our forums are a safe space for trans, non-binary and gender diverse young people and their families.
“In August 2022, an individual – possibly a journalist – tried to gain access to the youth forums by pretending to be a 14-year-old in need of support, seemingly with the aim of discrediting Mermaids.
“This person was caught in the moderation process and has since been blocked. Security of our platforms and safeguarding of young people is of the utmost importance to us and we will continue to regularly review our processes and procedures to make sure our forums remain safe and secure.”
The article from The Telegraph has spread like wildfire across social media, stoking unfounded accusations of safeguarding concerns at Mermaids, and was shared by JK Rowling.
In response, Carrie Lyell, head of communications at Mermaids, told Rowling: “I’d be happy to have a chat about what we actually do at Mermaids. But then, real life is never quite as interesting or salacious as fiction, is it?”
As I have said this is never about protecting kids, it is about making the hated icky trans people maga dislikes go away. It is about their bigotry wrapped up in acceptable language of protect the children. This is what was done in Russia and Chechnya. Remove the mention of these people in society and the haters feel more comfortable, only two genders and the bigots are happy again, ban rights for women and minorities and the racists are happy, and when they get rid of democracy the right wing is ecstatic. Who is next on the hit list, well the don’t say gay already bans the mention or display of same sex couples and gay rights. It removes anti-discrimination laws and removes anti-bullying displays. Then when all the LGBTQ+ are wiped from society what next, Jewish people? Pentecostals? Who goes away next until there is a homogeneous white single religion population that Tucker Carlson and right wing fascist are pushing for? Notice most of the people at this meeting were against the anti-trans policy but the minority haters pushed it through anyay. I will leave you with something famous about this below. Hugs
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade
Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemöller
Hundreds of residents showed up to the contentious meeting Monday night, with a majority speaking out against the proposed restrictions.
A local school board in Texas has adopted a sweeping new set of guidelines that ban discussion about the existence of transgender people – which they call “gender fluidity” – and critical race theory, prohibits the use of pronouns that aren’t aligned with the sex on a student’s birth certificate, and restricts use of restrooms and locker rooms, among other new prohibitions.
The new guidelines, approved by the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District near Dallas, are the result of a concerted campaign organized by conservative Christian group Patriot Mobile Action, which has spent millions of dollars electing conservative majorities to Texas school boards.
Hundreds of residents showed up to the contentious meeting Monday night, with a majority speaking out against the proposed restrictions.
BREAKING: the Grapevine-Colleyville school district board (GCISD), my hometown public school which recently elected a conservative majority, is proposing new guidelines for the district. This includes a ban on any discussion of what they define as "Gender Fluidity."
— steven ''italian elon musk'' monacelli (@stevanzetti) August 19, 2022
Among a far-right wish list of prohibitions, the new rules include guidance based on flawed definitions.
“Gender Fluidity” is defined in the text as “any theory or ideology that (1) espouses the view that biological sex is merely a social construct; (2) espouses the view that it is possible for a person to be any gender or none (i.e., non-binary); or (3) espouses the view that an individual’s biological sex should be changed to ‘match’ a self-believed gender that is different from the person’s biological sex.”
Gender fluidity is actually the idea that a person’s gender identity or expression can change over time. What the school board is calling gender fluidity is, in fact, the idea that transgender people exist at all.
Also, “nonbinary” means that a person isn’t male or female; it doesn’t necessarily mean they have no gender (that’s usually called agender).
The district also banned the use of pronouns for students and teachers “in any manner that is inconsistent with the biological sex of such person.” The district also limited the use of restrooms and other facilities to the one associated with a person’s gender on their “biological birth certificate.”
The district also banned teaching certain aspect of the history of racism in the U.S., specifically citing the 1619 Project and “critical race theory,” a catch-all term used by conservatives to describe teaching about racism in history.
Over a hundred people spoke in opposition to the proposal, including a United Methodist pastor who said the guidelines reflect a “fascist agenda” that does not represent Christian values.
A Patriot Mobile activist can be seen behind him.
Powerful speech at the GCISD school board meeting from a United Methodist pastor who describes the agenda being considered tonight as "fascist agenda" and says the conservative majority's behavior is not Christian.
— steven ''italian elon musk'' monacelli (@stevanzetti) August 23, 2022
BREAKING: the Grapevine-Colleyville school district board (GCISD), my hometown public school which recently elected a conservative majority, is proposing new guidelines for the district. This includes a ban on any discussion of what they define as "Gender Fluidity."
1/
Also: "the district will not promote, require, or encourage the use of titles
or pronoun identifiers for students teachers or any other persons
in any manner that is inconsistent with the biological sex of such
person" and that employees may comply "at their discretion."
2/
Another item on the Grapevine-Colleyville school board agenda includes the banning of "equity audits" across the district, casting them as a tool of Critical Race Theory.
3/
New restrictions on books are also being proposed by the GCISD board. Some of these proposed restrictions could result in the removal of items from the library that go against "prevailing standards in the adult community." The adult community fired the first Black principal.
4/
There's even a proposal in the GCISD agendat around "bathrooms and changing facilities" which is clearly a part of an anti-trans agenda.
5/
The conservative members of the GCISD board also specifically seek to downplay the role of slavery in the founding of the United States.
6/
This is happening after the election of new conservative board members at GCISD like Tammy Nakamura, who made waves and may have violated school policy by speaking proudly about the firing of the first Black principal at a conservative activist forum.
7/
As the public comment period at the Grapevine Colleyville school board meeting came to a close, over a dozen parents began a silent protest demanding the resignation of Tammy Nakamura for proudly saying @DrJamesWhit was fired for his "activism," which happened amid the CRT panic. pic.twitter.com/Wja7Q0Hewu
— steven ''italian elon musk'' monacelli (@stevanzetti) July 26, 2022
As @Mike_Hixenbaugh noted, GCISD is one of the districts that Patriot Mobile boasted about "taking over." It is now proposing language against "Critical Race Theory" that is stricter than the state law against CRT, but that language doesn't define CRT.
8/
A source points out at the new ant-CRT policy proposed by the Patriot Mobile-backed GCISD school board is far more restrictive than state law.
Teachers can’t discuss any idea even potentially influenced by CRT or “systemic discrimination ideologies,” and neither term is defined. pic.twitter.com/1TzpHJzUN3
Meanwhile, "GCISD saw a 40% jump in retirements and resignations this year." The district has a large number of teacher vacancies. The board has considered raising pay to stop the bleeding, but hasn't seemed to consider the role of their policies.
Radical Right Republican Georgia Senate Candidate Herschel Walker made more bizarre statements at a rally the other day in a attempt to repeat the GOP propaganda that schools are teaching specific students to feel guilty or deserving of special treatment for their race. Meidas Contributor Coach D reacts to this nonsense.
At the Texas Tribune event in Austin, Texas on Saturday afternoon, California Governor Gavin Newsom took aim at far-right Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for his anti-freedom stances, which span from his treatment of asylum seekers, the banning of books, the rollback of reproductive rights and beyond. Francis Maxwell reports.
Radical MAGA Senator Mike Lee accused the Department of Justice of “overreach” after forced-birther Mark Houck was indicted. What he failed to mention was that the man had been terrorizing patients at a Planned Parenthood and physically assaulted a 72-year-old man who was escorting patients into the Planned Parenthood—twice. The Republican Party has become a lawless party of crime and never ending gaslighting. Texas Paul breaks it down.
Pen America says Central York school district banned the books but officials strongly deny it in statement
Demonstrators gather to protest against banning books in Dearborn, Michigan; Pen America reports that school districts across 32 states have banned books. Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images
A school district in Pennsylvania has banned the Girls Who Code book series for young readers, according to an index of banned books compiled by the free expression non-profit Pen America.
The books are four of more than 1,500 unique book titles that have been banned by schools across the country after conservative pushes to censor books. According to a report released by Pen America in April, 138 school districts across 32 states have banned books from their classrooms and school libraries.
A recent update to Pen America’s banned book index said the Central York school district last year banned the books The Friendship Code, Team BFF: Race to the Finish!, Lights, Music, Code! and Spotlight on Coding Club!. The school district has over 400 banned titles on the index.
A statement from officials in that district on Monday strongly denied that they had banned the book series.
“The information published in this article is categorically false,” the district’s statement said while linking to a Business Insider interview with the founder of Girls Who Code which reported the ban. “This book series not been banned, and they remain available in our libraries.”
Pen America couldn’t immediately be reached for comment about the Central York school district’s statement.
The district last year received national attention after it banned resource materials listed in 2020 by its diversity committee, including children’s books and documentaries. A coalition of students and parents successfully pushed the district to rescind its ban after public pressure.
In a statement explaining the ban of the diverse resources, the school district’s board president at the time, Jane Johnson, said: “What we are attempting to do is balance legitimate academic freedom with what could be literature/materials that are too activist in nature, and may lean more toward indoctrination rather than age-appropriate academic content.”
The Central York school district did not immediately respond to request for comment on its ban of the Girls Who Code series.
The series features a group of girls who become friends in their school’s coding club. The series is in partnership with Girls Who Code, a non-profit that runs computer coding clubs and programming in schools for girls.
How to beat a book ban: students, parents and librarians fight back
Read more
The CEO and founder of Girls Who Code, Reshma Saujani, expressed her anger over the series being banned.
“We use these stories to teach kids to code,” Saujani told Business Insider. “It felt very much like a direct attack on the movement we’ve been building to get girls coding.
“This is an opportunity to realize how big this movement is against our kids and how much we need to fight.”
Saujani said that the group Moms for Liberty, a conservative non-profit formed in 2021 that has been pushing book bans through local chapters across the country, was responsible for the Central York district’s ban on the series. The organization has advocated for banning books on race – including ones on the civil rights movement – and on LGBTQ+ themes, saying the volumes are “sexually explicit”, according to media watchdog Media Matters.
Aggressive campaigns to ban books in schools and libraries across the country have flared up over the culture wars of the last two years. While campaigns to ban books have always existed in the US, the movement gained momentum in 2021 when conservatives took aim at the academic “critical race” theory and turned it into a buzzword to stoke fears of liberal ideals being taught in classrooms.
According to Pen America’s banned books report, many of the titles being banned deal with LGBTQ+ themes or have non-white characters. The organization estimates that more than 300 groups, including local chapters of national organizations like Moms for Liberty, have been pushing for book bans. The groups have gained large traction through social media, where lists of titles have circulated.
The campaigns try to deflect accusations of racism and bigotry by claiming they are targeting material that is offensive or inappropriate for children.
Pen America estimates that 41% of banned books deal with LGBTQ+ themes while 40% have protagonists or secondary characters who are people of color.
An author of one of the Girls Who Code books, Jo Whittemore, said on Twitter: “Some people choose not to focus on how awesome and empowering and inspiring these books are but instead choose fear.”
This series was our labor of love, our commitment to our community to make sure that girls — all girls — see themselves as coders. You cannot be what you cannot see, and this was our effort to get more girls, girls of color interested in coding.@jowhittemore@GirlsWhoCodepic.twitter.com/C23VTgKyxZ
Hey @GOP book-banning asshats: I get it that you ban Handmaids Tale as it *gives a roadmap to your strategy*, but banning Girls Who Code is just embarrassing for you.
The first programmer, and the person who coined the term Software Engineering were WOMEN, a fact you can’t ban. pic.twitter.com/qLrF8NjBpv
“We are out here to push back on things that society knows is wrong”. Wrong society has said that drag dressing up is fine and has for decades. It is only recently that the rabid republican elected office holders made it a sexual thing claiming it was orgies that kids were taken to. The religious leaders have decried it as sin and against the word of god and they jumped on the republican hate language. Dressing in drag has been done forever, from early theater to the advent of TV, to Flip Wilson in the 1970s to even Rudy Giuliani. It is done on Halloween and has been done in drag shows for as long as I can remember. It was done at schools. It is only the last year that these assholes that want everyone to live, act, and be just like they demand that everyone be some kind of fictionalized 1950s. But even in the 1950s you had drag. This is a made up outrage to try to force the minority view that the LGBTQ+ must be removed from society, that anyone who doesn’t follow a traditional male / female role must be removed from society, and any religion not approved by this minority must be removed from society. These groups at the US Taliban. The Proud Boys and Patriot Front are the Nazi loving brownshirt enforcers of the curreent rabid republican party. Hugs
A Drag Bingo night at a Katy Church stirred up controversy on Saturday evening. The event, meant to raise money for the church’s clothing boutique for trans-youth, sparked heated demonstrations.
KPRC 2′s cameras were rolling as demonstrators clashed outside the First Christian Church on Morton Ranch Road. A number of groups were there supporting the LGBTQ+ community and other groups against the event said they wanted to make sure their voices were heard.
“We are out here to push back on things that society knows is wrong. They are having an event, welcoming children to drag queen bingo hour. This is unacceptable,” Founder of Urban Conservatives of America Jonathan McCullough said.
“That is nonsense, because drag in itself is just a costume,” said one person supporting the event. “It’s no different than someone dressed up like a superhero at a comic convention or someone who puts on a Halloween costume.”
Heavily armed officers formed a line in the median in an effort to keep the two sides separate. As the crowds grew bigger and bigger, more officers arrived. Despite the chaos, a pastor told KHOU 11 the event was a sold-out success.
“We know that not everyone will agree with us, so we create a place for people to feel welcomed and understand there will always be people who don’t agree with us,” the pastor said.
Under the blazing sun outside, the scene at First Christian Church in Katy felt chaotic– and angry. More than 100 people traded insults for hours with counter-protesters. Some on both sides hid their faces. Some on both sides displayed big guns. https://t.co/7Ho3djT9id
Proud Boys and Kelly Neidert’s Protect Texas Kids are in Katy, Texas, protesting a drag bingo fundraiser at First Christian Church. PB and Houston antifascists just clashed. Heavy police presence dividing the two groups now pic.twitter.com/5p4EgD88mT
The group of Nazis appear to be leaving the protest, sporting for the first time today a flag with a swastika. Proud Boys and Patriot Front have also left pic.twitter.com/hJFBhgPAC6
I’m glad no one was hurt, and I’m glad they didn’t cancel the event, or back down.
Grown-ass men getting their undies bunched because they don’t like someone else’s wardrobe, and they think that entitles them to threaten violence. If there’s a better definition of toxic masculinity, I can’t think of it.
How can they even breathe in those masks? I mean, haven’t they seen the studies that show that masks reduce oxygen in the body. I am really concerned for their health.
Must be some kind of really boring life when all one does is search the internet for drag queen events that can be harrassed. I guess since all the abortion clinics were closed, there’s nothing else to entertain the nazis
I hope someone had a sign “Americans defeated Nazis once, we can do it again.” With some American flags on it. Why can’t liberals use the American flag too? We want America to be a great place to live for everyone. (Well, except Nazis)
Didn’t some right wing nut write a book about how the Nazi were really all gay? Should make a sign promoting that book. (I was going to say to hand out copies of the book, but that would be supporting the author.)
They are just trying to make their numbers much higher than those numbers are and pretend they are not just uneducated rural militia folks. I always ask crazy “conservatives” in central Ohio where their parents and/or grandparents were born.
“Sparked heated demonstrations … other groups against the event said they wanted to make sure their voices were heard“
One of the reasons we’re hurtling toward theocratic fascism in this country is because the media keep describing what’s happening with sanitizing, normalizing language like this.
Have they tried praying? They claim that prayer can solve any problem, but when they actually care about something they show up. Dead kids in school,? Nothing but prayer. Kids at a show? Threats and intimidation. They need to actually act like they believe their own religious bullshit on occasion.
If you are going to events, probably a good idea to bring something like pepper spray to defend yourself if these knuckledraggers show up. They have been given permission to act like this by the GQP.
“That is nonsense, because drag in itself is just a costume,” said one person supporting the event. “It’s no different than someone dressed up like a superhero at a comic convention or someone who puts on a Halloween costume.”
One might also suggest proud boy and oath keepers drag as costumes.
27, 202225
Photo: Shutterstock
Scottie's Playtime 