Please notice the section on homeless LGBTQ+ kids. Yes students kicked out of their homes because they are LGBTQ+. Homeless kids for being gay or trans. How do you think they survive, what do they have to do? How the hell can they have an education when they are sleeping in orange groves, cars, and other people’s … Why are these kids kicked out of their homes? Bigotry and hate. What does the push by the Republicans to demonize the LGBTQ+ and the don’t say gay bills do, they increase that bigotry. They give hateful foster families and others the idea that these horrible LGBTQ+ have no worth and must be punished, that they don’t belong in a decent home. You know it has to be horrible for a kid in their home when it is safer to stay in a school that they are bullied in after school hours. How bad does home have to be. Read the article, I wish these Republicans that are pushing this hate would understand that they are saying to these kids is hide / don’t dare be out and seen, you shouldn’t exist. To the students with hateful parents that love these don’t say gay bills and the banning of book with LGBTQ+ content what it says is that it is OK to attack and target those kids, the ones you / your parents want to not be there. Plus you have adults attacking kids as pedophiles because they are gay or forming gay support clubs. How hateful and misinformed but that is what the right had been pushing, just being LGBTQ+ means you want to rape and little kids. Horrible what absolute power in the hands of Republicans can cause. And to the religious groups happy and proud of this effect on kids let me ask when Jesus said to let the kids come to him did he say but only the straight ones? Hugs
For queer students, school is a place that can hurt and heal.
WINTER PARK, Fla. — Nearly a dozen Winter Park High School students settled into a classroom, forming a semi-circle around 17-year-old Will Larkins, who sat cross-legged on a desk.
It was the school’s first Queer Student Union meeting since March, when the group led a school-wide walkout to protest state legislation intended to limit classroom discussion on gender and sexual orientation. Critics have dubbed the measure the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Will, the head of the club, wanted to get a sense of how everyone was feeling.
“For the most part, it was actually really positive,” said Echo Izzo, a 19-year-old senior who was near the front of the group that day.
Though the protest didn’t stop Florida’s governor from signing the bill into law, to the students who led the event, it was still a success. Hundreds of their classmates in this Orlando suburb walked out of school for nearly an hour that day, chanting “We say gay.”
But not all the students showed up in support. On the fringes of the crowd, a teenager danced across a rainbow flag that had been tossed in the dirt.
That act wasn’t surprising, a Queer Student Union member said. What shocked them was just how many students actually joined them in a show of solidarity.
“I totally felt like 50 people would show up,” Will said.
A year ago, Winter Park High’s Queer Student Union didn’t exist. Now, its members have found themselves on the front lines of Florida’s ongoing attempt to restrict what can be talked about at school. The measure the students protested, formally known as the “Parental Rights in Education” law, bans instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through third grade, as well as instruction that is not age- and developmentally appropriate at all grade levels.
Proponents say the law ensures parents are in charge of what their children learn about sensitive topics. Opponents say it will have a chilling effect. Though the measure specifically targets curriculum and discussion in K-3 classrooms, some educators and advocates worry it could also cut LGBTQ kids in higher grades off from support.
“At the high school level, I think it will create anxiety and maybe hesitancy by staff to have some of the open conversations that they may have,” said Dawn Young, who is the advisor for the Queer Student Union and a mentor for students. “I think it will affect the kids feeling that it means something is wrong with them.”
Will at Winter Park High School
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Will poses for a portrait in his bedroom
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For queer students, school is a place that can hurt and heal. It can be a safe space away from challenging home lives, but it can also be a source of pain. LGBTQ+ students reported being bullied on school grounds at nearly twice the rate of their straight peers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Winter Park High, a school of more than 3,400 students, sits in a suburb of Orlando, a city the U.S. Census reports as having among the highest concentration of same-sex households in the country.
The school is also less than 10 miles from PULSE, a gay night club where 49 people were murdered in what was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Members of the Queer Student Union were in elementary and middle school when it happened.
Since the Queer Student Union was formed in November of 2021, its members have tried to bring visibility to LGBTQ issues. They have run voter registration drives, put up posters that say “Being gay is NOT a choice,” and they’ve been meeting with administrators to find ways to prevent bullying in school bathrooms.
Will closed the meeting with ideas for next year.
“What problems in the school can Queer Student Union solve, and what should we do as a club to keep engaging and be useful?” Will asked the group.
The students agreed they wanted to see more history lessons on the gay rights movement and presentations on why jokes about LGBTQ people are hurtful.
It’s unclear if the newly enacted law will affect those plans.
Winter Park High sits in a region that is less welcoming than other parts of the country to gay, lesbian and transgender youth, according to a 2021 survey by the Trevor Project, an advocacy and support organization.
Youth in the South reported higher rates of mental health issues and less access to affirming spaces compared to their peers in other regions of the country, the survey found.
“There’s definitely been an increase in anti-LGBTQ policy and rhetoric, and we’re seeing a lot of this happening in the states in the South,” said Myeshia Price, a senior research scientist with the Trevor Project. “LGBTQ youth have had to grapple with these hostile political climates, and to have their identities being debated and discussed right in front of them is undoubtedly having some negative impact on their mental health.”
A rainbow is seen inside Winter Park High School
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Winter Park High School in Orlando
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For some students, school is the only safe place.
On most days at Winter Park High, Echo can be found waiting in the parking lot hours after the bell rings. That is where they wait to be picked up by a friend’s mom.
Echo started living on the streets of Winter Haven, Florida in 2021 because of a volatile home-life. Echo temporarily moved into a Christian homeless shelter, but when shelter employees found out they are trans, they were kicked out.
For several weeks, they slept at bus stops and in an orange grove near school.
“I was kind of desensitized,” Echo said. “I stopped letting myself hope by that point.”
Echo moved into an LGBTQ-friendly shelter about an hour away, in Winter Park, at the beginning of last school year. They met a friend at Winter Park High and moved in with his family a few months later.
Echo often hangs out in a courtyard at school for several hours, and this week in April was no different.
“I try to involve myself in as much as I can so I’m not just sitting here,” Echo said.
Even though Echo has found their niche at Winter Park High, school has always been complicated.
They have attended 15 different schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. Most of those transitions happened in elementary school after Echo entered the foster care system in second grade.
By third grade, Echo knew they were queer, but they didn’t come out until sixth grade. In 11th grade, Echo realized they are nonbinary.
But their foster family was not supportive, and neither were some students at school.
“It was a lot more safe than home, but it was definitely not safe,” Echo said.
Echo practices piano
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Echo poses for a portrait
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When Echo came out as nonbinary, they felt clearheaded for the first time. They still feel that way at Winter Park, even though it is a new place with problems of its own.
Sometimes, students make comments that alienate Echo. In April, a student in one of Echo’s classes criticized how much LGBTQ+ people have been speaking out about Florida’s new law.
“They said, in their words, ‘No one cares if you’re gay, just stop talking about it,’” Echo said. “We can’t just exist and not talk about it. We can’t just live a peaceful existence, because there’s always going to be people questioning us, making jokes, making threats.”
When Echo first heard that Florida’s new law was on its way to passing, they were distraught.
“It was the idea that something like this could pass and students like them would not be able to have a safe space that they could express themselves, because they couldn’t do that at home,” Young said.
Some students, like Will, are changing the status quo one class at a time.
In March, Will gave a presentation to his history class about the Stonewall riots — a famous 1969 protest in New York City that helped spark the gay rights movement. A video of the lesson went viral on Twitter.
Will is confident about his convictions. He speaks out against banning books at school board meetings, attends legislative hearings, and when strangers online asked why he wore a dress to school in that viral Stonewall video, his response was: “Because I wanted to.”
But being gay in high school has not been easy. When Will started speaking out about the new law, people began messaging him online telling him he is a pedophile and that he should kill himself. He’s talked candidly about struggling with mental health.
“When sixth grade rolled around, I started to realize I liked boys and not girls, and still having not been exposed to other queer people, the self-hatred only festered,” Will said at an Orange County School District board meeting in March.
His mental health worsened last fall, after students bullied him at a Halloween party, yelling at him and calling him slurs.
“I just became so depressed,” Will said.
It wasn’t until after the party he realized most of his LGBTQ+ friends were also dealing with similar issues. It was then that Young, the mentor, encouraged him and a friend to start the Queer Student Union.
Since then, school has become a safer space for Will, even though the students who bullied him are still there.
“I’ve gotten to the point now where the hateful people are such a small minority,” Will said.
He’s outgrown them. The space in his head that was once focused on bullying is now consumed by his plans for the future.
This spring, Will decided to run for student body representative.
In April, Will stood tall in his backyard. The sun would be going down soon, and he had one take to get this last scene right for his campaign video. His dad steadied the cellphone and told Will he was ready.
Will smiled for the camera.
“Even though it’s my first year at Winter Park High School, I’ve already made a splash,” Will said as he raised his arms over his head and dived into the pool.
The election took place a few weeks later. He didn’t win, but he didn’t have long to dwell on it. The same day he found out he lost, he was told he won a Webby Award — alongside two other Florida teens — for championing the “Say Gay” movement online. The awards honor “excellence on the Internet” and are presented in New York City.
“My goal was to make the school better for everyone, and I’m not going to stop trying to do that because I lost an election,” Will said.
As highly visible and politicized book bans have exploded across the country, librarians — accustomed to being seen as dedicated public servants in their communities — have found themselves on the front lines of an acrimonious culture war, with their careers and their personal reputations at risk.
They have been labeled pedophiles on social media, called out by local politicians and reported to law enforcement officials. Some librarians have quit after being harassed online. Others have been fired for refusing to remove books from circulation.
Conflicts around books have drastically escalated. Now, the Proud Boys, an extremist group, might show up at a school board meeting because books are on the agenda.
The piece goes on to recount the personal stories of several librarians who have felt menaced enough to resign. Just as the cultists are doing with elections officials.
Librarians have been labeled pedophiles on social media, called out by local politicians and reported to law enforcement officials. Some librarians have quit after being harassed online. Others have been fired for refusing to remove books from circulation. https://t.co/XLkLK10Wompic.twitter.com/KQF0L4Pkes
— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) July 7, 2022
Amid the rise in book banning efforts, the personal and professional integrity of librarians is being called into question. The effect of the accusations has been jarring. https://t.co/hsBX3U30jPpic.twitter.com/qsuBRIR0gM
— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) July 7, 2022
Beyond sickening. By failing to mention the Nazi groups behind this, the Times makes it look like this is really a grass roots phenomenon, as though regular citizens of all walks of life are the cause of this–thereby bestowing unearned legitimacy on the antagonists. When the NYT can’t possibly both-sides a story, they just passive voice the meaning right out of it. Do they not realize if these freaks do wreck the republic and get their way, NYT ‘journalists’ will be first against the wall? Wonder how they’ll report on that? NYT, providing aid and comfort for NAZIs since the 1930s!
Democracy doesn’t survive without liberal public education. Totalitarians always go after the books and the schools to eliminate opposing points of view.
It’s Round 2 (or more, depending on where you start.) Like Jim and Ginny Maziarka trying to have “gay affirming” books removed from the “young adult” section of the Library in West Bend, WI back in 2009.
A lot of it is nothing more than some religious people trying to place the burdens of their own faith on others by controlling what they can access. Some of it is a lot more sinister.
Youth and adults at OutLoud North Bay, the city’s 2SLGBTQ+ youth hub, have been subjected to harassment and death threats because of plans to host a youth drag show.
It all started Wednesday when a controversial American account called ‘Libs of TikTok’ posted screenshots promoting OutLoud’s youth drag show, scheduled to take place July 15. The people behind the account also post on other social media platforms.
The account takes TikTok videos and social media posts primarily from 2SLGBTQ+ people and reposts them to generate outrage from its followers.
It worked: OutLoud has since been inundated with hateful emails, calls and online comments, including death threats.
Seth Compton, OutLoud North Bay’s founder and executive director, said his staff and even youth who attend the space have been targeted.
“I got up at 4 a.m. to thousands of emails, tweets, messages on social media platforms that were so discriminatory and full of hate,” Compton said Friday, fighting back tears.
“The average person wouldn’t be able to bear that … Never in my 47 years have I ever experienced this.”
The messages and comments include a range of obscene accusations and comments, he said.
“People are sharing my personal photo saying I’m a pedophile and adults here should be tossed into a wood chipper,” Compton said.
“Kids have received messages that they’re groomed and parents have received messages that they’re child abusers.”
The posts, which thousands of people have interacted with, have forced OutLoud North Bay to lock its Twitter account to protect its staff.
Compton said calls and hateful messages have even reached supporting businesses. He said the allegation and hate couldn’t be more wrong.
“I’m here to save them,” Compton said tearfully, of the young people at OutLoud.
‘This space has saved my life’
“I have proof. Parents and kids will tell you that I’ve saved their lives. This space has saved my life.”
A police investigation is under way. North Pay police said they’re taking the comments and threats very seriously.
“We’re currently monitoring the situation and looking at some of the comments and if some of those comments are determined to be criminal activity and if we can investigate and prosecute, we will,” Insp. Jeff Warner told reporters Friday.
North Bay Pride CEO Jocelyn Green said the organization is working with OutLoud to support the staff and youth in the city.
“I’m absolutely abhorred and disgusted,” Green said. “I can’t believe this kind of hate still exists. It’s like we’ve gone backwards in time.”
Compton is calling on the community for its support during this troubling time.
“We need to come together as a community because this is something that not only happens worldwide,” he said. “It’s happening right here in our community.”
Police said resources are being deployed to protect OutLoud North Bay and its youth. However, they would not specify in what way.
Yet again, Libs of Tik Tok tweeted the location of a drag event with an incendiary caption and the Proud Boys showed up to crash it while police stood by and watched. She knows exactly what she’s doing. pic.twitter.com/OCBH6h9Hqs
In all of her denials and demands for retractions she’s never once mentioned the Proud Boys. Remember that she was at the Capitol riot on January 6. pic.twitter.com/y6neQlbWYe
The hate — the pure, unadulterated hate — has always been there. But something has changed in recent times.
And what is that, you ask?
Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has unleashed the dogs of hell
The Proud Boys have ramped up their attacks in service of the GOP grievance machine, and not just at MAGA rallies — they're bringing violence and intimidation to ALL civic events now. This is a crisis.
OUTLoud North Bay founder Seth Compton speaks Friday about online attacks.Stu Campaigne/BayToday
Seth Compton, the founder and executive director of OUTLoud North Bay has overcome plenty of adversity over the years but a recent attack on the safe hangout space for 2SLGBTQ+ young people he helped create has stung even more.
In a demonstration of solidarity for the kids that attend the safe space, Compton and OUTLoud’s Board of Directors decided Friday to stand up and face the vitriol and criticism they have all received since Wednesday — none more than Compton.
OUTLoud’s social media pages, email, and telephone line have been inundated with thousands of hateful messages in what appears to be a targeted attack amplified by Libs of TikTok, a conservative Twitter account featuring derogatory content created by liberals, leftists, and LGBT people on social media. The focus of the attack is a youth drag show that was advertised on OUTLoud’s social media pages. Libs of TikTok got a hold of it and shared it with its 1.3 million Twitter followers.
The messages are vile and intimidating ranging from accusing pedophilia at OUTLoud, the sexualization of children, and the “grooming” of minors. Compton bristles at the suggestion of impropriety.
“There are a lot of kids in this centre that have been abused, sexually, emotionally, mentally,” Compton advises, “and I’m not one of those [abusive] people. I’m here to save them. I have proof, the kids and their parents will tell you that. That I have saved their lives. This space has saved my life.”
“Our code of conduct says ‘What happens here, stays here,’ and that’s based on the level of confidentiality that we have,” Compton notes. “Kids come out here and they know they can do that safely. They make friends here and they know that they have lifelong friends here. We have adults present at OUTLoud, they’re not paid, they’re volunteers. We do this because we care.”
Many of those volunteers come from our hospitals, he says, Hands, Children’s Aid, Community Living. “These people are already well invested in our kids.”
Compton says some of the kids who attend OUTLoud have also received messages and he has been the subject of death threats. The North Bay Police Service confirms the messages and their senders are under investigation.
“We are aware of the hateful and offensive comments that OUTLoud is receiving via social media,” says NBPS Inspector Jeff Warner. “We have deployed some resources that are looking into the matter. They are going to monitor the comments and if they cross the line, we’ll take action.”
Compton fought back tears as he spoke about the damage “misinformed people,” have attempted to inflict on the reputation of the organization and shared the hateful messages have also been sent to sponsors and businesses in the community. So far, OUTLoud has received nothing but support from those community partners and the executive hopes the community at large will also stand behind the group in the face of this attack.
“I have a ton of support, that’s why I do what I do,” says Compton. “It’s for the kids. I’m not here changing children, I’m mentoring them, I’m nurturing them. We have a lot of support in our community. When people started commenting on those businesses’ pages, it became something more. We need to come together as a community because, although this is happening worldwide, it’s also happening in our community.”
Jocelyn Green, the CEO of North Bay Pride — also a recipient of hateful messages this week — says the organization stands with and will continue to support OUTLoud.
“I am absolutely disgusted. I can’t believe that this kind of hate still exists,” offers Green. “It’s like we’ve gone backward in time. There are a lot of people who are misinformed, they’ve got preconceived notions of what the LGBTQ community does and what we stand for, and it hurts. It hurts deeply watching our friends experience this.”
In summing up what has been a stressful and emotional week, Compton reveals the youth drag show will go on, saying that it is a form of art, no different than kids playing dress-up or cosplay.
“We have kids receiving messages that they are groomers. Parents are being told they are child abusers. We have local businesses being hit with the same kind of comments and emails and social media comment that has hit me in the last 48 hours. It’s unfair for those businesses to suffer through this when they have always been here to support the kids.”
“We have a Board of Directors here,” who will help us move forward past this. “The kids know I’m an advocate for them so I will continue to fight. Hate doesn’t win. And, we move forward with love and acceptance.”
The Sarasota County School Board.(Sarasota County School Board)
An Englewood man has filed a lawsuit against the Sarasota School Board over library books he considers lewd and obscene.
Robert Craft, in his civil suit filed in Sarasota County Circuit Court July 1, alleges the school board has ignored complaints from citizens about certain books, and charges the school board is guilty of “purchasing and propagating obscene, lewd, and lascivious materials for distribution to children.”
The suit asks the court for an emergency injunction “to stop children’s exposure” to the more than 50 listed books; for the sheriff to confiscate the books as evidence; and to ask a grand jury for a criminal indictment.
The counsel for the school board, Daniel DeLeo, told ABC7 Friday the suit was “ridiculous.”
“It’s rife with error,” he said. “It has no legal merit at all.”
DeLeo says the school district has a mechanism for citizens to register complaints without resorting to lawsuits. Craft told ABC7 the school board has routinely ignored citizens’ complaints about materials in school libraries. “Parents have been called liars; they’ve been removed from meetings by police.”
Craft, who is not listed a member of the Florida Bar, claims he has jurisdiction in the case “as declared in the Journey of Life of the Natural Person, the American Territory National, and/or the Citizen of the Constitutional Republic of these United States of America.”
Craft says the proper way to address the issue is in court. “We haven’t been exercising the system the way we’re supposed to,” he said. “We speak in a jury box.”
The suit includes a passage from Morrison’s book that describes a sexual assault, and from “Sold,” by Patricia McCormick, an award-winning fictionalized series of vignettes of tales of young girls forced into sexual slavery. “In my opinion, it’s lewd and lascivious,” Craft said.
DeLeo said libraries have special protection under law. DeLeo pointed out that several of the books on the list, including “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram Kendi, have won many prestigious literary awards. If material has artistic or scholarly merit, he says, it is protected under the First Amendment. “It’s a high bar, and rightfully so.”
Craft admitted he has not read many of the books on his list. He also told ABC7 said he did not compile the list himself, but found it on the internet. “I can’t remember where,” he said.
Books on the list include biographies of former first lady Michelle Obama and Olympic champion Wilma Rudolph. When asked about the Obama book, Craft said he did not know, specifically, why the book was on the list. “I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
Craft argues the fact that the books were on a list — somewhere — is enough. “The books have been called into question. It’s up to a jury,” to decide if they should remain on shelves.
NOTE: If you are somehow blissfully unaware of the so-called sovereign citizen movement, this Wikipedia entry provides the batshittery basics.
Robert Craft, 45, filed the petition to compel the Sheriff's Office to remove sexually explicit books from Sarasota school libraries.https://t.co/ihONU9pf5G
— Sarasota Herald-Tribune (@HeraldTribune) July 8, 2022
What is difficult to process is the intensity of the current outburst of attempted censorship, and the successful use of it by Republican politicians to win office or gain political points. We thought that was all settled in the 1960s after books like Howl, by Allen Ginsberg, and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence, were ruled to be acceptable for the reading public to read.
I don’t recall librarians buttonholing strangers in the street and demanding that they read a particular book immediately, on pain of violence. Last I heard, the reader chooses the book.
Have you ever thought about how lucky we all are? We live in a blessed time where the shelves in supermarkets are full of food and everyone, literally everyone can easily find a treat for their taste. Few people know, however, that many famous and popular products hide a lot of secrets. And no, we are not necessarily talking about their ingredients; we mean why and for whom they were originally created. For example, people still talk about the creation of Franco-American’s canned SpaghettiOs, a popular product in the 80’s. Who decided to can a portion of cooked pasta? And what about Coca-Cola’s alcohol issues, healing meat steaks or flakes that make everyone kinder?
In 2008, researchers with the University of California San Francisco embarked on a study that compared the outcomes of two similar groups of women, each at a crucial juncture in their lives: a visit to an abortion clinic. The groups differed, though, in whether or not they were able to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. It was called the Turnaway Study, named for those who were turned away by the clinic because their pregnancies were past legal gestational limits, and it provides some of the best data we have on the impacts of abortion bans. Among the study’s findings is the severe financial impact of being forced to parent a new child when someone is already living in difficult financial circumstances. People who seek abortions, especially later-term abortions, are far more likely than the general population to be living in poverty, or otherwise financially unstable. That fact makes it unsurprising that, when researchers asked women about their reasons for seeking an abortion, not being financially prepared was the most common reason. This video offers a glimpse into the financial penalty of parenting under difficult circumstances. We interviewed several women who had similar experiences to the women in the study. We didn’t seek out interviewees who exactly reflected the circumstances of the study participants (i.e., the length of gestation when they sought an abortion, or their socioeconomic background) but their stories reveal some parallels: most people want an abortion because they don’t feel financially stable or don’t have a partner they want to co-parent with. The Turnaway Study also looked at mental health outcomes, relationship outcomes, and whether or not study participants chose adoption instead of parenting. Whether or not they chose adoption is relevant to common pro-life rhetoric, which encourages people to give unwanted children up for adoption rather than choose abortion. But the Turnaway Study found that 91% of women who were denied an abortion chose to parent, which indicates that adoption is not a feasible alternative for most people. We interviewed Gretchen Sisson, a researcher who looked at adoption rates and motivations among the Turnaway Study participants. For more coverage of the Turnaway Study: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/ma… For lead Turnaway Study researcher Diana Greene Foster’s book about her study: https://bookshop.org/books/the-turnaw… For links to further research using Turnaway Study data: https://www.ansirh.org/sites/default/… For Gretchen Sisson’s work on adoption: https://www.whijournal.com/article/S1… We also interviewed Katie Woodruff, who analyzed news coverage of abortion: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30309…
OUTLoud North Bay founder Seth Compton speaks Friday about online attacks.
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Scottie's Playtime 