Controversy arises as Miami-Dade school seeks parental consent for Black History Month events

From the linked article, here is what the class would teach.  “…class and school wide presentations showcasing the achievements and recognizing the rich and diverse traditions, histories, and innumerable contributions of the Black communities.”  So we are catering to the parents that don’t want kids to know that gay / trans people exist, now we are catering to the racist parents that don’t want black history and achievements taught.  Well the first one, don’t say gay increases harassment / attacks on gay and trans kids, the second does the same for black kids, it increases the racism they have to deal with.  Some more quotes from the article. 

But Gallon said he is concerned about the unintended consequences this may have on children whose parents choose not to have them attend.   “Something feels very off here, and the fact that the school needs to cover themselves against the state feels even worse,” said Peeling.   Florida International University Professor Marvin Dunn, who is an expert in African-American history, said this will create a generation of people who are miseducated when it comes Black history.

 

“When parents become involved in making that decision, keeping some kids out, some kids in, you have unequal learning,” said Dunn.  

Here is the entire goal of the right, DeathSantis, and maga. 

“The intent of the DeSantis attack on education is to make schools more cautious, to make teachers more cautious about what they teach, and it’s working,” he said. “It’s not about banning books necessarily, it’s about banning ideas.”    

Hugs.   Scottie


Miami School Asks Parents To Sign Permission Slips Allowing Children To Learn About Black History Month

 

Miami’s ABC affiliate reports:

February marks Black History Month, an important topic being taught at South Florida schools, but now parents at IPrep Academy are being asked to sign off on whether they want their children to participate in some of the educational events.

“I was shocked,” said concerned parent Jill Peeling, who said she thought she may have misunderstood the document. “I’m concerned. I’m concerned as a citizen.” Miami-Dade School Board Member Steve Gallon said it all has to do with getting parental consent when individuals come on campus.

“This is a policy that’s an extension of a new state board rule,” said Gallon. It’s a policy that was just enacted last year in November, an extension of the Parental Bill Of Rights.

Read the full article. Those of here will know the Parental Bill of Rights by its more accurate name, “Don’t Say Gay.” To which we can add, “Don’t Say Black.” Last year the Miami-Dade School Board banned any recognition of LGBTQ History Month.

 

 

Will they include this? I want them to include this.
Black history is white history. Black people didn’t enslave themselves…

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Gloria Richardson- learn/teach her story

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Gloria Richardson
1922-2021

https://msa.maryland.gov/ms…

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I am so glad I am not a parent and live in Florida.

These A-Holes are setting these kids up to fail when they get jobs in the real world because I can tell you my company won’t put up with discrimination.

Isn’t the Black History taught in Florida the one that insists slavery allowed lots of Africans unpaid internships in an exciting new country?

From the “Massive Resistance” movement 60 years ago, a page from my 7th-grade Virginia History textbook.

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“Something feels very off here, and the fact that the school needs to cover themselves against the state feels even worse,” said Peeling.

 

Ya think???

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Florida, where education is a four-letter word.

Which you are probably not legally allowed to say in any K-12 school.

Trying to convince people MLK was a Republican isn’t working. Hence, they just won’t teach anything about him going forward.

Is there a permission slip for algebra too?

A good friend sent this to me about a month ago.I think it came from a “reader poll” in his local paper, but I’m not sure. I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but I wasn’t surprised when I saw it. Friend is an MIT math grad who doesn’t traffic in conspiracy theories or create memes, so I give it some credence. He sent it with the comment “what a great country we live in”.

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History isn’t an “option”…
It’s what has already happened, good, bad or otherwise.

One can choose to ignore the Challenger Shuttle disaster, yet it doesn’t make their deaths any less great.

Fuckers. Why not turn this around and make the white supremacists sign OPT OUT slips so they can keep turning their own kids into good little klansmen, rather than trying to do it to everyone’s kids?

“Parental rights” doesn’t mean leaving your kid ignorant. (Or shouldn’t.)

These are some of the disadvantages of leaving Black history* to a particular month — it becomes a set of optional activities, rather than facts and concepts to be learned.

*The history of African descendants in America is really the history of America, inextricable from the history of white America.

Would it help if they called it colored people month?/s

For The Love Of God, Christian… Go To Your Gay Friend’s Wedding!

I disagree with the balding cue ball head.  😜😉😁🤣

OK I couldn’t resist, if you watch the video you will understand.  I do sometimes state the truth that those on the receiving end will not like being called.  I call racist, racist.  I call bigots and haters, well, what they are bigots and haters.  I do question the mental abilities of those that can not reason well or who support conspiracies over facts.  I call people who get their medical information from politicians and preachers rather than doctors and medical professional / medical scientist stupid.  Yup, and I don’t care it offends them.  Because I will start out trying to help someone, but as the lady said, “When they show you who they are, believe them the first time”.  So I do agree with the good Reverend some, maybe half way.  But sometimes you have to just lay the cards on the table, no matter what they show.    That said, if you have elderly parents or a spouse that is … highly opinionated about something, maybe then you do have to hold your tongue.  I would have to care a real lot to stay quiet though.   Hugs.  Scottie

John Fugelsang on Christianity, at Politicon

Let’s talk about border politics and publicity….

UT Lawmakers Pass Ban On College Diversity Programs

let’s be honest, what this is really about.  Racism, bigotry, and misogyny.  What do diversity programs do?  Diversity programs promote acceptance of non-white non-straight non-cis people in the workforce and work to open the work force to those people.  Yes it is so that work places become more accepting of those who are different from white straight cis men.  

Which means people against diversity and inclusion are simply trying to promote a white straight cis male only in schools, higher education, and the white collar workers in the US, which means upper level income management positions.   Notice these same people don’t seem to mind that the lower income labor positions are filled by the very people that the diversity inclusion programs are designed to lift up to better jobs and education.   Weird that.   Hugs.  Scottie

Quotes from the linked article.

Under the Utah bill, universities and government would not be allowed to have offices dedicated to promoting diversity. They also could not require employees to submit statements of commitment to DEI.

The chamber’s six Democrats voted against it. Among them was Sen. Luz Escamilla, who cited statistics showing much lower college enrollment rates for Native American, Hispanic and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students compared to white students.

The board that oversees Iowa’s public universities in November directed schools to eliminate staff positions focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. In December, the board overseeing Wisconsin’s university system agreed to shift dozens of DEI positions to instead focus on “student success” and freeze hiring for DEI staff in exchange for lawmakers releasing state funding for pay raises and campus construction projects.

Like last year, this year’s bills have a heavy focus on higher education. But Republicans also are sponsoring bills seeking to limit DEI in K-12 schools, state government, state contracting and pension investments. Some bills also would bar financial institutions from discriminating against those who refuse to participate in DEI programs.


 

NBC News reports:

Utah’s legislature became the latest in the U.S. to pass a bill Friday prohibiting diversity training, hiring and inclusion programs at universities and in state government. The bill that cleared the state House and Senate by wide margins now heads to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican who has said he is likely to sign such a bill into law.

I can assure you, after this legislative session, it will not be happening in the state of Utah, these diversity statements that you have to sign to get hired,” Cox said in a Dec. 20 news conference. Such initiatives are “awful, bordering on evil,” he added.

Under the Utah bill, universities and government would not be allowed to have offices dedicated to promoting diversity. Last year, Republican-led Florida and Texas were first to enact broad-based laws banning diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education.

Read the full article.

 

Nice job working on the important things. Now. what are you going to do about school debt, wages, healthcare costs anx so on.

Lower the wages, and increase the debts. Negative wealth is still wealth!!111/s

Of course. Our principles demand conformity, inequity and exclusion of minorities. The party of the cis, White, Xtian male.

76.7% White only per the last census.

Republican lawmakers in Utah: We need to get that number UP!

I just hate this.
Why is it “evil” to try to treat others like you would want to be treated? Why is it evil to try to open up our society to give others the same opportunities that were hoarded by white people since before the founding of this nation?
The “Golden Rule” of the Christianity they claim to follow is right in line with this, yet they call it “evil.”
I guess the only positive here is that they’ve stopped hiding their racism. Now we know just who the problem really is.

Two years ago right wing propagandists had to be crafty when pushing this agenda. They had to use terms like Critical Race Theory to make these programs seem evil. Now they don’t have to hide it anymore. They can openly challenge the ideas of diversity, equity and inclusion. They’ve convinced people that these ideas are the real racism. Their messaging has been extremely effective and now they are getting their laws passed. This is what fascism looks like.

And soon DEI will mean anything other than straight white men. Everyone else will be expendable.

Biden should sign an executive order requiring colleges and universities applying for federal research grants have a diversity program in place.

All colleges and universities receive federal FAFSA student grants. It would be reasonable

This is something Biden could do, but not even a peep out of him or any Dem for that fact.

When our party leadership doesn’t even have a comment about these things, it signals to voters they don’t even care.

More red states will do this and still nothing from our side.

 

“And I believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people!!” – then again, changed it back in 2024. – Book of Mormon, The Musical.

You know, in Germany before the camps were built, the government made it legal to discriminate against Jews

Now the red states are making it legal to discriminate against LBGTs

If they take over the government they will build camps, and guess who will be first in, but definitely not last

CisHet white conservatives are terrified of losing their position of supremacy. They’ll do whatever they can to keep everyone else down to maintain the status quo.

Now imagine republicans in total control.

terrified of losing their privilege

So, does that mean ‘diversity’ in UT will consist of white Mormons who do or don’t wear glasses?

Utah diversity: do you have one sister-wife or four?

And the foreign students, who pay the most money, will go elsewhere. I hope the Utah students who are left to make up that money enjoy their larger student loans…

The SLC Redevelopment Agency is a for profit business unit of City government. I have sat on the Advisory Panel for several years. DEI is mentioned in the charter and governing documents in mission statements and strategies. I don’t see this changing and there is very little that the legislature can do about it. The only way this city will grow and prosper is to make sure all of it grows and prospers. It means that investments in less well to do neighborhoods will create a path toward generational wealth, lift populations out of poverty and build a tax base.

I don’t understand how GOPers can’t understand that a rising tide raises all the ships in the harbor.

…a rising tide raises all the ships in the harbor.

It excludes the people who don’t have ships.

Which is why part of our strategy is to build some more boats. 😉

But they don’t WANT some of those ships to rise! They think they can figure out a way to raise their own, and leave selected others aground.

Religious monocultures enshrined in government are so attractive.

City government has been openly at odds with the LDS owned state legislature for decades. As the blue stain has grown, the faithful have become alarmed. They are losing their cherished Deseret to inbound migration and young people leaving the church. Only 42% of residents identify as LDS, the church would have you believe that number is over 70%. They lie to us but they also lie to themselves.

 

Millennials and Gen Z LDS seem to be following the same national pattern that other organized religions are facing. They are just doing it a bit later than their contemporaries. Much of this is due to family pressure and the complete isolation that happens when a young person leaves the church. Often they lose everything. That’s why we see more LDS youth breaking away in their mid 20s. Here’s a good piece from the SLC Trib. Enjoy.

https://www.sltrib.com/ampl…

They have also passed a bathroom bill for government buildings which will require trans people use the bathroom of the gender assigned at birth until “fully transitioned” and changed on ID.

How and who will police this is unknown. It sounds like a violation of people’s medical privacy on its face.

https://www.deseret.com/uta…

Yes, those diversity statements are evil. The nerve of being forced to act Christ-like. The horror of following the Golden Rule must be stomped out in the name of Murican Freedumb. Fucking Nazi trash.

 

Alabama Carries Out Nation’s First Nitrogen Execution, Witnesses Say Prisoner Writhed In Agony For Minutes

is this what a civilized nation does?  Other advanced countries have done away with the death penalty.  It is proven not to be a deterrent for others committing crime, it is often carried out on the wrong people, and it is the state sanctioning murder done in the most painful way.   It is revenge and vengeance only.  Also, with so many overdose deaths, why not give him an overdose of fentanyl or morphine?   Too humane?   Hugs.  Scottie

`


 

The Birmingham News reports:

Alabama Death Row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith on Thursday night became the first prisoner to die using a new untested method of execution in the United States—suffocation by nitrogen gas. The 58-year-old was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. In announcing the execution had been carried out, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey stated: “I pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss.”

Smith and his spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood, had issued this joint statement prior to the execution: “The eyes of the world are on this impending moral apocalypse. Our prayer is that people will not turn their heads. We simply cannot normalize the suffocation of each other.” Hood said he has witnessed five lethal injection executions over the past year or so. “Lethal injection is preferable every single day,” over nitrogen, he said. “What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for his life,” he said.

The Associated Press reports:

 


Officials said Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. at an Alabama prison after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation.

The execution took about 22 minutes from the time between the opening and closing of the curtains to the viewing room. Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes.

For at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints. That was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing, until breathing was no longer perceptible.

 

 

Exactly the news I was expecting to hear. They suffocated him. Why not just come up behind him and put a plastic bag over his head.

The death penalty is archaic, barbaric, primitive, and grotesque.

The Pro-Life crowd sure does love killing the living.

It’s the Republican way, silly boo…

The only way this could have taken 22 minutes is if they totally – deliberately? – botched it.

Too bad he wasn’t a fetus.

Because cruelty is the whole point

What’s disturbing to me is that there are people out there who are not satisfied that he is being put to death. They also anticipate and crave his suffering.

They did something wrong with the gas. It should just cause them to sleep and stop breathing.
This shouldn’t be allowed. Find a better way.

How is this not “cruel and unusual punishment”?

GQP: We’re ‘Pro-Life’, as long as you’re a ZEF.

Zygote/embryo/fetus

They were bound and determined to kill him. This was extra cruel. DOn’t tell me they couldn’t find enough Fentanyl floating around Alabama to use instead. Just make him go to sleep. Probably too peaceful for them.
It’s like they wanted him to go through all of the extra suffering.

 

Florida Advances Bill To “Legally De-Trans” Individuals

Remember it started with protecting children, first by stopping trans girls from playing on female teams so they wouldn’t take trophies from daughters that don’t earn them.  Then they moved on to protecting kids from having mutilation surgery at 9 years old, as they are convinced is happening.  Then to protect kids they had to remove any mention of trans kids from schools and libraries.  But now it is not enough hate yet.  These people never stop, give them an inch and they will take a mile while still wanting more.  So now red states are forcing trans adults to detransition, forcing younger adults to delay their needed treatment until 25 or 26 years old, forcing insurance companies to pay for conversion therapy which is well known to be a fraud and sham.   It can not work, it will not work, it causes more medical problems, and the major medical organizations are totally against it.  But fundamentalist religious politicians know far more about medical issues than the very doctors who went to medical school and study those same issues.  When the doctors say puberty blockers are safe and reversible, the right wing politicians say only for cis kids, but for trans kids they are deadly dangerous.   WTF?  I would suggest you read the linked article, the plan the republicans are pushing to remove trans people from society is more than Joe quoted.   

This is simple, wipe out trans people, remove them from society.  Then go after the rest of the LGBTQIA and wipe them out, remove them from society.   It is about returning the country to the same public society of the 1950s.  It is about rejecting the modern age, the modern society.  It is about wanting a return to a time when their prejudices were acceptable, their hates tolerated.  We must not only reject them, we must fight back against what they are doing.  We may not win in all red states, and I fear that Florida is going to remain a maga paradise for some time, the rest of the country is savable. 

These are people that refused to issue mask or vaccine mandates for public safety because it was against people’s freedom, yet these people feel free to regulate every aspect of other people sexual / gender lives even though that doesn’t affect anyone else.   Freedom for them to hate and control, freedom for you is to obey them, doing as they tell you.   Hugs.  Scottie


 

CBS News reports:

A Florida House panel has backed a measure that would require state-issued identification cards to reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth and impose requirements for insurers who cover gender-affirming care.

The Republican-controlled House Select Committee on Health Innovation approved the bill (HB 1639) along party lines, despite opposition from transgender people and their allies.

Under the bill, insurance companies and health plans that cover such treatments as hormone-replacement therapy and surgeries for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria would additionally be required to cover the cost of “de-transitioning,”

Read the full article. My first report on the bill is here.

 

Republican supermajority in Tallahassee heard their constituents wanted solutions to the insurance crisis in this state and this is what they’re proposing.

Vote these fucking idiots out already….oh wait it is Florida…so many residents are FUCKED in the head

Most of the legislation you are seeing pop up all over the country is a product of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. The create boilerplate legislation like this and push it to the ultra conservatives in various state legislatures. No lack of any of that in Floriduh or here in Utah. Those that sponsor the bills are normally looking for that unique “LOOK AT MEEEEE!” media moment so they can get some air time and remind everyone of who to hate and what to hate about them. They are admittedly devout christians and that should surprise absolutely nobody.

You got that right. Since trump was prez all the qanaon and maga followers have flooded into the state. Its a cess pool and will not be blue or purple ever for generations and generations to come.

Yup, I can tell you all the Republican rats here in NY fled to the “free” state of FL and you and others are sadly worse off for it.

They all want to live where their Messiah lives. It is their version of Mecca.

Floridians appear to be perfectly fine with Republican bs. I barely even hear about protests or pushback. It’s amazing to see a state move from semi-purple to dark red so quickly.

South of Orlando was not the South. Now it is.

Don’t think that Trump living here isn’t the Nexus of much of this current wave of Crazy

But are they? Or is the media not reporting on the public pushing back. Notice. We don’t hear a lot of people complaining about the skyrocketing insurance cost in the media either. That’s not impossible with the conservative takeover of most of the media in the United States.

I’d swear this sounds like one of those super evil “regulations” that the GOP is always complaining about… what ever happened to the “invisible hand of the free market” that they praise?

Yeah all that hand ever did was steal from the poor and middle class, and give to the rich.

Invisible hand became Citizens United.

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If you want to know what republicans are doing, listen to their accusations against liberals. Projection is a republican thing. They do it but don’t seem to know it.

OK, so we’re all agreed that this is genocide now, right?

 

Why exactly is Florida at war with a community that is probably one of the smallest minorities in the nation?

Now I know the answer…it is just performance while doing NOTHING

 

And they have to have an out-group, an enemy to rail against, and the trans community is small, and has the least support. They’re an easy target.

 

Because being cruel is what gets them off

 

Because they don’t have abortion or gay marriage to use in riling up an emotional fervor in their base.

Othering a scapegoat alway works to whip the followers into a frenzy.

When will the Southern Poverty Law Center declare the entire GOP a hate group? It’s about time.

Sad thing is it wont stop here. And it seems like we have no recourse. Our federal gubment is shocked and awed and seems to not know how to respond. Now that TX has blatantly said they will defy the FEDS and the SCOTUS red states know they are free to do what they want.

The other point is that these GOP goobers ain’t got nuttin’ else but sex, gender, and pregnancies on their minds. International diplomacy? Bah! National debt? Pfff! National infrastructure? Nah! Equality for all per the Constitution? Nuh-uh, spurshally not for women, ick! Improving First Nations people’s well-being? Fuck that!

These cruel mutherfuckers…what happened to having politicians between your and your doctor? For that matter, what happened to the liberty these fuckers are always talking about?

Assholes.

Bears repeating: for Repukes, it’s liberty for me, not for thee.

Republican Liberty means you’re free to be a reactionary asshole.

When a republican talks about liberty or freedom they refer to THEIR liberty or freedom to deny it to others they hate.

Another step towards full ban on being anything but straight and cis. GET OUT NOW!

GOP won’t OK mandates for vaccine.. but “re-de-sexualize” you against your will is Just OK with GOP ?! Whaaaaot?!? – well kids, this is it.. this IS the GOP on parade rain or shine.. FL IS the GOP End Goal “town with the parade” on parade.. sad it is that GOP patterns get set in like this, as if rehearsal.. GOP Kock Bro. plays in WI for rehearsing Dark Money influence, GOP Abbot in/with TX as rehearsal in Cruelty, GOP states follow in with Trigger Laws and stair steps to the GOP 6-3 supreme court (no, I don’t capitalize that anymore).. and GOP base so Warped and manipulated and trained to distraction the GOP base cannot see the ways this plays out against them down the road.. Gads, Work for DEM WINS Ahead !

Yeah, beat up on a group with little political power.

They know this will go down well whenever someone is stopped by law enforcement. Same goes by some employers.

We got enough problems to deal with. Now these bigots want to add cruelty.

The right and Christians scream about their want for freedom, but really want to control others

Boy, they are like a dog with a bone when it comes to harassing the “very least of us.” Jesus would be so proud…

The party of individual rights is now determining a person’s past, present and future all for Jesus.

Let’s talk about banners, paths, and 2 unrelated news stories….

Alberta joins GOP in war on LGBTQ+

So Lance is a video YouTuber I enjoy listening to.   But the thing about his well researched true science rebuttal to the new trans hate battle in Canada I wanted to respond to is he missed an important aspect of the hate drive on the right.  

During the video the political leader says that they are requiring all teens to wait until 16 before using puberty blockers, and she says this is because no harm is done.  But this is the propaganda of the anti-trans people.  First the truth is puberty blockers are safe, long time used for at least 60 years, and the only time the right has an issue is when used for trans kids. 

But more importantly these people have to ask themselves why do they want trans kids to go through the assigned gender at birth puberty?   Because after the puberty changes happen, it is so much harder to reconcile the internal gender ID with the outside look. 

Think of it, a 12 year old boy who knows they are a girl is about to have his face change, hair grow on parts that women don’t, his shoulders broaden, his bones and muscles change, his chest and hips change.   Her entire body is about to become what she is not, a male.  Her testis will grow and produce even more of the hormone they want stopped.   They will turn more into what they know they are not.  Hating their own bodies even more.  Again requiring that surgery that the right hates and calls mutilation.  

Now think about a female who knows they are a male.  They are about to develop breasts that they hate and will have to have cut off, they will develop softer face features, they will turn more into what they know they are not.  They will have smaller shoulders and wider hips.  Hating their own bodies even more.

The problem is not that these physical changes can not be changed, but that a person’s looks don’t change easy.  Plus it creates the very thing the right claims to hate, confusion over gender identity and trans kids having surgery to change their breasts.   But worse so very worse it sets them up with face, hair, and so many other body images they have to deal with that they know deep inside them are wrong for them.  The thing is it could all be avoided by listening to the child, and administering the proper medical treatment which is totally safe puberty blockers.  

In both the male and female trans kids by forcing them to go through the WRONG puberty their body develops the very things they will hate all their lives about themselves.  Those body changes they will have to have surgeries, and forever try to hide, or worse always be accused of noting being pretty enough or not being masculine enough to be who in their mind they know they are.  

This is the critical point, and why the right hates puberty blocker, desperate to force trans kids to go through the wrong puberty.  So later they can look at these adults and shout at them … You are not a woman, or you are not a man.  So they can identify them when they go to the bathroom, or in public, so they can call them out.  It is sick.  

The right is so desperate to keep the clearest division between what is recognizable as a male or female.   That is why the right hates fem gay boys and twinks.  Shit, they are too easy to be attracted too.  The very thing the right is horrified about, they might be attracted to a trans person.  If you have questions you don’t feel you can google for yourself, comment for me to explain it to you.  If you are one of the normal people / viewers here, please comment and add your voice to correct the right wings insanity.   Hugs.  Scottie

War on Women

Between Nikki Haley enthusiastically supporting a national abortion ban, to Donald Trump’s rape case, to the GOP’s entire personality, the Republican Party has declared war on women, and we just can’t be ok with it.