Republican Senator John Kennedy spoke at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on book bans and he also read some similar passages aloud from the books “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Genderqueer”. Kennedy then asks Illinois Secretary Of State Alexi Giannoulias whether he thinks librarians should be the only ones who have oversight of whether kids have access to these types of books.
I thought I had posted this, but I can’t find it and I hurt so badly both emotionally and physically, I am just going to do it again. This guy is a complete scammer. His whole graft before he was hired to be a shield for DeathSantis was to hock ivermectin as a cure for covid via over the internet consultation, where he charged hundreds of dollars before giving the prescription. He was part of the “Front Line Doctors” group run by the woman that claimed that diseases were caused by demon seed, meaning demon sperm, being put in people. This guy was hired by DeathSantis to back up his anti-mask anti-vaccine screed but then DeathSantis insisted a major state run university also hire him making his yearly salary almost $600,000 a year. So it is no wonder he is willing to parrot and claim any political thing DeathSantis wants. And just to be clear, Florida had more deaths from Covid by far than states that did push masking and vaccines, but DeathSantis did not care how many people died, he wanted the state to have tourist revenue.
To be clear, this jerk is one that Tildeb used to claim that gender affirming care for youth is harmful. And others believe and follow Tildeb as if he is a sincere truth telling person. In fact, he is a lying anti-trans bigot that misinforms and spreads lies about trans people and gender affirming medical care. I have no tolerance for such people because they cause harm to both kids and adults that identify as a different gender / sex than assigned at birth. Such people deny advances in medical science and want the world to return to a past when this issue was not discussed or addressed medically. Hugs
While speaking at a Thursday news conference for Gov. Ron DeSantis in Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, that state’s surgeon general, advised people to steer clear of the updated booster vaccine for COVID-19. “There’s a new vaccine that’s coming around the corner, a new mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, and there’s essentially no evidence for it,” Ladapo said during the news conference, according to local news outlets.
“There’s been no clinical trial done in human beings showing that it benefits people” he said. “There’s been no clinical trial showing that it is a safe product for people — and not only that, but then there are a lot of red flags.” Ladapo warned that the updated vaccines “actually cause cardiac injury in many people.” He l urged Floridians to make their own decisions based on their particular “resonance of truth,” rather than on “very educated people telling you what you should think.”
I hope there’s an enormous class-action lawsuit against him and DeSantis sometime in the future, brought by the relatives of people who should have gotten the booster but didn’t, because this asshole said “Don’t listen to subject matter experts.”
He urged Floridians to make their own decisions based on their particular “resonance of truth,” rather than on “very educated people telling you what you should think.”
Or you could listen to the ravings of a complete lunatic liar
Advising the public to adopt harmful behaviour based on zero scientific evidence. In other words, a charlatan. Should be arrested and jailed for public endangerment.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Prattville residents affiliated with Clean Up Alabama, which began as Clean Up Prattville, pleaded with the council that their solutions were a “common sense” approach to inappropriate materials for minors.
But the local goals are just one part of a three-prong plan that Clean Up Alabama has to push the issue across the state, according to meeting minutes included in an email to subscribers.
The minutes detailed the group’s local goals, as well as its goals with the Alabama Public Library Service, primarily to dissociate from the American Library Association. Gov. Kay Ivey has sent a letter to APLS Director Dr. Nancy Pack expressing concerns that closely follow Clean-Up Alabama’s push over LGBTQ materials in library spaces intended for minors.
But the meeting also included three state legislative goals, which go much further than simply severing any ties with the ALA or asking librarians to move books to an adult section.
Here’s what the group plans to do:
1. “Amend the Anti-Obscenity Law that exempts public libraries from criminal punishment when it comes to the distribution of material harmful to minors.”
Under Section 13A-12-200.5 of the Code of Alabama, it is a misdemeanor “for any person to knowingly or recklessly distribute to a minor, possess with intent to distribute to a minor, or offer or agree to distribute to a minor any material which is harmful to minors.” The section does not classify which level of misdemeanor that would be, but the charge would carry a fine of up to $10,000 and up to one year in county jail.
Currently, “material harmful to minors” is defined under the code to mean:
“a. The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the material, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest of minors; and
“b. Material that depicts or describes sexual conduct [this will come into play later], breast nudity or genital nudity, in a way which is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors; and
“c. A reasonable person would find that the material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.”
However, Section 13A-12-200.10 specifically exempts “libraries and their employees or agents” from the criminal provisions of the act.
On Aug. 16, Clean Up Alabama posted on X (formerly Twitter) that this rule could allow public libraries to give sex toys to children without criminal punishment.
“Did you know that Alabama library employees can legally display sex toys, and possibly give them to kids without prosecution?” The post says.
At this time, APR has not heard any reports of any public libraries displaying sex toys for adults or children.
2. “Possibly add the libraries onto current law passed pertaining to woke ideologies in schools; and increase from 5th grade to 12th grade like Florida was able to do”
This appears to be in reference to Alabama’s version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which Alabama passed in the 2022 session in a bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle. The bill originally only dealt with school bathrooms, requiring students to use the bathroom that aligned with their birth sex.
In a last-minute amendment by Sen Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, the bill suddenly became much more, barring instructors from leading “classroom discussion or classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
In the last session, Rep. Mack Butler, R-Gadsden, filed a bill to expand that to the eighth grade.
While Clean-Up Alabama suggests extending that to public libraries, it is not clear what that language would be and whether it would apply to the content of books or instructional programs held at the library,
3. “Considering HB401 that never made it out of committee and assure the language in it matches the harmful materials we have found in the libraries and that it includes public libraries.”
HB401 drew a lot of attention last session as it would have prohibited drag performances in public spaces where minors may be present—and some argued the language was so vague it could have applied to any transgender person in a public space.
The bill led to a massive pushback from the LGBTQ community with a march of hundreds on the state capitol.
Stadthagen has vowed to bring the bill back in the next session, and in the same conversation, praised Clean Up Prattville’s fight against LGBTQ books in the library.
Without an understanding of how that law was written, one might be confused exactly what Clean Up Alabama’s plan is to co-opt libraries into the law.
The way HB401 was written, it added drag performances into the definition of “sexual conduct,” which itself is a term included in the definition of “harmful to minors.” (Re-read that section earlier in this article to see how it plays into the code).
When Clean up Alabama says they want to ensure the language “matches the harmful materials we have found in the libraries,” it seems apparent that they mean adding LGBTQ+ content to the definition of “sexual conduct,” thereby changing the meaning of the definition of “harmful to minors” to include LGBTQ+ content.
If Clean Up Alabama were to succeed in these goals, the combination could result in librarians facing up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000 just for having a book like “The Pronoun Book” on the shelf.
Under the current law, the first prong of the three-prong definition of material harmful to minors would rule out books like The Pronoun Book from ever being considered “harmful to minors,” as the word “prurient” is defined as “marked by or arousing an immoderate or unwholesome interest or desire.” But HB401 as it was written last year would break apart those three prongs; instead of requiring content to meet all three elements to qualify as “harmful to minors,” the law would only require the content to meet any one of the three prongs.
Might the plan gain support?
At least four state representatives have been supportive of Clean Up Alabama publicly in some manner: Rep. Susan Dubose, R-Hoover, has begun beating the drum for the group’s goal to keep the ALA from influencing Alabama libraries in any way. Fellow first-term state representatives Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, and Bill Lamb, R-Tuscaloosa, joined Dubose in support of the group as it listed its grievances at last month’s meeting of the APLS.
Stadthagen, as aforementioned, has given his stamp of approval to the efforts of the group.
Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, worked in the last session with DJ Parten, a member of Clean Up Alabama, who wrote the failed legislation that would have allowed abortive women to be charged with homicide.
And Ivey’s letter to Pack references the Prattville books challenged by the group, although her letter shares concern about APLS policies and nothing comparable to this state legislative plan.
Finding information about homosexuality from a public library saved my life. I was eight years old and the only help a librarian gave me was to teach me how to use the main card catalog. I told her I wanted to look up dinosaurs. Librarians are so gullible when you mention dinosaurs…
This dinosaur learned (when he was going to SF State in the 60’s) that the 4th floor library men’s room was generally like a gay men’s meet and greet most evenings. But since it was in a library everyone kept it quiet.
Correct, you’d think there would be some sort of pushback from the opposition party aka the Dems on these bills coming forward. Where are they? Even AL dems are silent.
We have no clear message on this? On jailing librarians? No opposite group to the Moms for Liberty group? How about Moms for Libraries? NOTHING from our party?????
These fascists will continue to move forward when there is no opposition to their authoritarian rule.
They desperately need us to disappear. Without their power of the closet they have come to realize they don’t control the narrative any longer. I remember when I was young knowing that two men could be thrown in jail for doing stuff. (I didn’t know what stuff was, but why should a child know these things) I also knew that there was a place where some boys were sent when they couldn’t stop acting like a sissy. I knew where it was and I knew that ECT was involved. They have lost an enormous amount of power and they see their own children rejecting their hate and their religion. So they are having a temper tantrum because that’s all they know.
That’s the end result they want. But it’s a slippery slope, and on the way, they will want to jail anyone who advocates for homosexuality, which will then be interpreted as anyone who merely mentions it, and that will include any media mention of LBGTs. Eventually, they will want a complete prohibition on the certain words, such as gay, lesbian, and will prohibit anyone from stating that they are so. They want it back like the 1950s, when it was not just a taboo, but a criminal sanction.
I’ll answer it anyway: It’s a white supremacist theocratically-aligned autocracy, imposed by a small minority of citizens with power far in excess of what their numbers normally would allow in a democratic republic.
I am posting this because of the comments. At the end of the comments you will see what I and Ali have been saying, if gender can not be discussed then teachers can not be addressed as Mr. or Mrs or Miss. Also how to explain what bathrooms kids are required to use without discussing gender? Then also if sexual orientation can not be discussed and same sex couples can not be mentioned, why doesn’t that also mean that opposite sex couples shouldn’t be mentioned? Hugs
Manatee County officials have removed “Christian, the Hugging Lion” by Justin Richardson, a 32-page children’s book about two men who raise a lion named Christian in a London apartment. When Christian becomes too big, the two men release the lion into the wild in Africa. When the men go to visit Christian in Africa, they find that he remembers them. The book is based on a true story.
The district cited The Parental Rights in Education Act as the reason for removing the book from district libraries. The Parental Rights in Education Act has a line prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms. While the two men, John and Ace, lived together in London and raised Christian the lion, it is never explicitly said in the book whether the two men were in a relationship.
The documentary is about 45 minutes long, if you’ve got time it’s really sweet.
(Edit: This is just a clip of the background to the story and the happy ending. The full documentary is on YouTube if you search “A Lion called Christian”.)
You know, the one profound thing that YouTube did for me very early on was to intro me to human-animal bonding that I never knew existed. It’s not just domesticated animals we’ve had bonds with. It’s a massive variety of animals!!
I hate to remind them that there is another book where the hero was parading around his home country with his 12 male companions, sleeping and eating together. Oh yes, Jesus and his 12 apostles. living and sleeping together for years. So, lets remove the bible too. And any books about monks living in a monastery together… men living together… have to go. And even books about priests in a rectory in a parish…. The sound of music… nuns living together in the convent. Or Downton Abbey… They had male servants sleeping in the servants quarters.
Here’s a rule of thumb… If you are banning books, you’re on the wrong side of history.
Didn’t he also at one time say that if he was going to run for President, he’d run as a Republican because Republicans are so stupid they’d believe anything you told them?
Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act prohibits the discussion of gender identity in classrooms? Great. Using their corkscrew logic, teachers must be addressed by their first names only, never by their honorific like “Mr.” or “Mrs.” or “Miss.” or, god forbid, “Ms.” And of course we must remove any book that contains an honorific, or dares to mention a husband and wife, or grandma and grandpa.
Yes, you can’t really explain to Steve why he can’t used the Girls bathroom, or Sally why she can’t use the boys bathroom, or question why Mark is wearing a skirt to school. All those require discussing gender identity.
And, as was mentioned, straight is a sexual orientation so any books with a married man and woman have to be removed too. Or any book that mention boy or girl or man or woman, because everyone has a gender identity (just like everyone has a preferred pronoun).
SCOTUS has ruled that the 2nd amendment is virtually unrestricted. If so, then the 1st amendment should be as well. Banned book authors should file a class action lawsuit and make the same arguments the NRA has made.
A small group of very vocal motivated fundamentalist religious right wing bigots who want desperately to return to 1950 are filing all these book challenges. Again notice the damage one of the main complainers wrote. “Damaged souls”! They don’t care about the rights of other parents, just forcing their religious moral views on everyone. These are public schools, not private Christian schools, but in Florida the fundamental religious bigots have taken over ruling as a majority when they are really a minority. Hugs.
Here are five books removed from schools and the reasons why they were taken off the shelves.
The Florida Department of Education released a list of all the books removed from school library shelves last year, and some of the titles might be surprising.
In total, Florida saw 386 book removals from 1,218 total objections last year, according to the list. Clay County had by far the most removals with 177 books removed. Martin County removed the second most books in the state with 98 books removed, followed by Manatee County in third with 25 books removed.
Books like “And Tango Makes Three,” Toni Morisson’s “The Bluest Eye,” and “Push” by Sapphire have made headlines for their removal, as parents have objected to their content for violating the Parental Rights in Education act, also known as “Don’t Say Gay,” or for containing material that is considered “sexual content” under House Bill 1069.
But also removed from school libraries, according to the list, are a book about a mammal from Asia and one of the most famous artists of all time.
Here are five books removed from schools and the reasons why they were taken off the shelves:
Ready Player One
“Ready Player One” was removed from all Clay County School District libraries, according to a spreadsheet from the district, after it was reviewed by a committee of parents, librarians and principals.
The science fiction novel by Ernest Cline, published in 2011, was removed from K-12 shelves for mentioning prostitution, drugs and using profane language, according to the request form.
The book’s film adaptation, released in 2018 and rated PG-13, was directed by Steven Spielberg and nominated for an Academy Award.
The requester, a man affiliated with “No Left Turn in Education,” wrote his reasoning for flagging the book was to “PROTECT CHILDREN!! (sic)”
The requester said the book included “victimhood=CRT,” on page 320; prostitution references; drugs and pills on page 270; and profanity, including the F-word.
Under the question for what the requester believes will be the result of a student reading the material, the man wrote “Damaged Souls.”
Christian, the Hugging Lion
Manatee County officials also removed “Christian, the Hugging Lion” by Justin Richardson, a 32-page children’s book about two men who raise a lion named Christian in a London apartment. When Christian becomes too big, the two men release the lion into the wild in Africa. When the men go to visit Christian in Africa, they find that he remembers them. The book is based on a true story.
The district cited The Parental Rights in Education Act as the reason for removing the book from district libraries. The Parental Rights in Education Act has a line prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms.
While the two men, John and Ace, lived together in London and raised Christian the lion, it is never explicitly said in the book whether the two men were in a relationship.
The authors of “Christian, the Hugging Lion” were also the authors of “And Tango Makes Three”, a children’s book about two male penguins raising a family. The authors are already suing Florida and a county school in federal court over restrictions on the book.
Manatee County district officials removed the book from libraries citing Florida Statute 847.012, titled “Obscenity,” and involves the sale or distribution of harmful materials to minors.
Tallahassee Classical School, a charter school in the Leon County School District, was dropped from being a Hillsdale College-affiliated campus after news of the principal’s ousting went viral.
“To set the record straight: This drama around teaching Michelangelo’s ‘David’ sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become a distraction from, and a parody of, the actual aims of classical education. Of course, Hillsdale’s K-12 art curriculum includes Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and other works of art that depict the human form,” Hillsdale stated in a press release.
Manatee County removed the book from district libraries, citing Florida Statute 1006.40(3)(d). However, section (3)(d) does not appear to exist under Florida Statute 1006.40, which is titled “Purchase of instructional materials.”
When asked for clarity and for a full copy of the objection, Manatee County did not respond in time for publication.
Will we ever grow organs?
Florida Virtual School removed a National Geographic article called “Will we ever grow organs?” from a digital anatomy and physiology course, according to a FLVS spokesperson.
The request to remove the article came from a teacher who teaches the course in a school that licenses the class from FLVS.
The teacher raised concerns about the doctor profiled in the article, Paolo Macchiarini. Macchiarini was sentenced to two years and six months in prison this past June after he was found guilty of gross assault.
While the 2012 article touts Macchiarini’s work building windpipes out of stem cells, a Swedish court said the surgeon “acted with criminal intent” by transplanting trachea into three patients, who all died when the implants failed, between 2011 and 2012.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to remove the article referenced from the new version of the course,” said FLVS spokesperson Hailey Fitch.
Great to see the decent accepting people fighting back against the red state haters, the anti-LGBTQIA jerks, the ones trying to remove anyone who is not cis straight gender role conforming from public view and society. We need more of this open fighting back. Hugs
The law is a direct rebuke to national efforts to erase LGBTQ+ identities from schools.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is about to sign a law that would forbid schools from banning LGBTQ+-inclusive books. The law also requires schools to have trained staff to help queer kids and reiterates protections against forcibly outing LGBTQ+ students to their possibly unsupportive parents.
The law, known as Assembly Bill 1078, is a direct rebuke to anti-LGBTQ+ book-bans, “don’t say gay” laws, and other nationwide efforts to discriminate against queer students. Newsom has long opposed anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in education and other areas. Once signed, AB 1078 will go into immediate effect.
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California just became the first U.S. state to establish Transgender History Month
“I believe that as Californians our strongest defense against the anti-trans agenda is just to tell the truth.”
“California is the true freedom state: a place where families — not political fanatics — have the freedom to decide what’s right for them,” Newsom wrote in a Twitter post announcing his intention to sign the law, known as Assembly Bill 1078. “With the passage of legislation to ban book bans & ensure all students have textbooks, our state’s Family Agenda is now even stronger.”
The law prohibits “the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school” from “refusing to approve or prohibiting the use” of any book on the basis of an individual’s or group’s diverse racial or cultural characteristics. Any school that bans such books could lose state funding. Existing state law requires social sciences classes to include contributions of diverse groups, including, among others, LGBTQ+ Americans and members of other ethnic and cultural groups.
“Restricting access to classroom and library materials because they feature LGBTQ people or were written by LGBTQ authors discriminates against LGBTQ people and constitutes censorship in violation of California law and policy,” the law states. “Similarly, efforts to categorically exclude topics related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics, or of present or historical discrimination based on protected characteristics, from school library collections, curricula, or classroom discussions constitute censorship that violates California law and policy.”
Additionally, the law reminds state officials and agencies that they have the authority to enforce federal and state laws protecting students from unlawful discrimination and harassment that create an inequitable learning environment.
This reminder is likely connected to three California school districts — the Murrieta Valley, Orange, and Chino Valley Unified School Districts — which recently passed policies forcing educators to out trans and nonbinary students to their parents. California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) filed a lawsuit against the Chino Valley United School District, and a judge blocked its policy from going into effect.
The law also reiterates that schools may offer “peer support or affinity clubs and organizations, safe spaces for LGBTQ or other at-promise pupils, counseling services, staff who have received anti-bias or other training aimed at supporting these pupils or who serve as designated support to these pupils, health and other curriculum materials that are inclusive of, and relevant to, these pupils, [as well as] online training” and complaint procedures developed to assist LGBTQ+ students with their learning experiences.
Right-wing groups have said that anti-LGBTQ+ educational policies are needed to prevent schools from “secretly” encouraging students to change genders without their parents’ knowledge or to stop the “indoctrination” of “gender ideology” onto students. These policies are often promoted by anti-LGBTQ+ groups who also oppose the expansion of queer civil rights in other non-educational areas of public and private life.
This is in direct refutation of the anti-trans haters that keep claiming that all other countries are stopping trans treatment. It is, like everything else they claim, a lie. Hugs
Hypocrites. Another fundamentalist ideological right anti-LGBTQIA group caught harboring some members who engage in same-sex relationships while decrying them vehemently. Hugs
Religion News Service reports:
A former vice president of the American Family Association, a Mississippi-based conservative group that promotes “the biblical ethic of decency in American society,” has sued the religious-right group, accusing leaders of firing him after he reported alleged sexual harassment and financial irregularities.
In a complaint filed Tuesday (Sept. 5), Robert Chambers [photo], former vice president of policy and legislative affairs for AFA from 2015 to 2022, alleges that another staffer, Ron Cook, made repeated sexual advances toward him, beginning in January of 2022.
Those advances allegedly included grabbing hold of Chambers’ face and ear and making comments about masturbation, according to the complaint. “I see you’re really good with that wrist action,” the complaint alleges that Cook told Chambers. “You’d really like me to take you and get a hold of you.”
Read the full article. Chambers says that he was fired for reporting the harassment. The firing reportedly came after the daughter of AFA president Tim Wildmon allegedly told others that she’d had a dream in which Chambers kissed her infant child on the lips and that she was afraid to have her children around him.
As a reminder, the AFA is arguably the nation’s largest and most powerful anti-LGBTQ hate group with tens of millions in annual revenue. The AFA is the parent organization of One Million Moms. In the 2016 video below, the alleged victim blames criticism of anti-LGBTQ laws on Satan.
Chambers last appeared on JMG in 2021 when he joined the attack on RNC chair Ronna McDaniel for a proposed partnership with the Log Cabin Republicans.
A former VP at the AFA say another male staffer groped him and sexually harassed him. He alleges that leaders of the group, which promotes "biblical morality" looked the other way then fired him when he complainedhttps://t.co/YuIHVIZ0fS
Four hundred years ago she’d have had a successful career in the Jacobean witch trial industry pointing her fingers at innocent people and screeching “Witch!!!!”
I, for one, am shocked — SHOCKED!! — that one of the nation’s most virulently homophobic organizations is a seething HOTBED of repressed and handsy homothexuals!
So Wildmon’s daughter has a dream about this dude kissing her child and he gets fired. Meanwhile Josh Duggar was fingering his sisters over the course of multiple years and had a phone chock full of kid porn and he’s a superstar.
It’s like the Land that Time Forgot. He’s talking about Satan as a real entity, an actor in everyday affairs. This is pure creepy. No one talks like that. It’s juvenile, from the mouth of a simpleton. I have no idea what the hell this is all about, I just switched on that clip above and fell through the rift in the space -time continuum.
That was my impression, as well. They talk about satan as if it’s a thing everyone accepts as real and true, and not a figment of bronze age (or earlier), illiterate shepherds who had to have something to explain why bad things happen in the world. It’s inconceivable to them that anyone would not have the same view.
These people want the minority to rule over the majority. That is not democracy. They want their way and if the others don’t agree, they will just change the situation to get their way regardless of what the majority want. Just like in Florida with schools and libraries. One woman in the story claims that their representatives don’t represent them, but as the man says the representatives told him they do hear those voters but they just get outvoted. That is democracy. Are they wrong to work for what they want, no! But again, just as the LGBTQIA supporters were late getting involved to stop the right from removing all the LGBTQIA representation / information from schools and libraries, the people trying to keep Oregon the same size as it is now were late standing up to the ones demanding their own way and changing the borders to get it. I have a feeling that these people wanting to change the borders would be at home in a maga rally or in Florida, agreeing with DeathSantis on all issues. Hugs.
In a state dominated by progressive politics, some residents in rural Oregon east of the Cascade Mountains want to move the border so that their counties become part of Idaho, a more conservative state that more closely aligns with their values. Correspondent Lee Cowan returns to Oregon for an update on his story (originally broadcast Oct. 16, 2022), in which he talks with advocates of the Greater Idaho movement about why they believe the time is right for this “radical” idea.
Photo: YouTube screenshot
Scottie's Playtime 