During a congressional hearing, the Republican Party reached new lows with their excuses about why they won’t take any action after Uvalde. It was a greatest hits of the worst people, including Louie Gohmert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz and other. Texas Paul reacts!
A Florida lawmaker plans to propose legislation that would punish parents who take their children to drag shows. State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, made the announcement in response to last weekend’s Pride-themed event in West Palm Beach.
Sabatini, who is running for Congress, said he intends to draft legislation that would charge adults with a felony and “terminate the parental rights of any adult who brings a child to these perverted sex shows.” He added, “When will the sexualization of children stop?”
Earlier this week a Canadian teenager was arrested for threatening to carry out a terror attack on the above-cited Pride event.
Yesterday, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared that he supports criminalizing taking kids to drag shows, but he’s not made any comment about the terrorism threat.
As I’ve mentioned here before, Sabatini is arguably the most extreme of Florida state reps, which is saying something.
Sabatini, 33, has suggested bringing AR-15s to confront Black Lives Matter protesters, a la Kyle Rittenhouse.
He’s also filed over a dozen lawsuits against various COVID prevention protocols and filed a bill that would rename US 27 the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.”
When an Orlando Sentinel reporter was assaulted while covering a 2019 Trump rally, Sabatini retweeted a news item about the incident with the word “MAGA.”
Sabatini is running for Congress in Florida’s redrawn 7th District, which is currently represented by retiring Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy.
Eleven Republicans, including Sabatini, are vying for the seat. Three relatively unknown Democrats are running in the August 28th primary.
— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) June 8, 2022
SIGN the petition & make your voice heard if you believe it should be a Felony under Florida Law to send a child into a Drag Sex Show 👇 https://t.co/geWWNGUset
— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) June 7, 2022
Republican House candidate Anthony Sabatini with Proud Boy MAGA rapper Forgiato Blow. pic.twitter.com/HDfb6l1D1l
DeSantis mentioned using child endangerment laws against parents who take kids to drag shows. Those laws definitely should be used against parents who send kids to church.
So parents have supreme rights over what their kids learn in school or read in the library, but no rights at all if it’s something that offends the snowflakes. I assume you’ve got a state budget plan for taking care of all the kids whose parents have lost custody of them. What, you don’t? Quelle surprise!
Fellow homos, serious question: What is a Drag Sex Show? I have been living out and proud for nearly 35 years and the least sexual thing I have encountered in all of that time is a drag show. Plenty of show tunes and a good bit of comedy gold but there’s more sex on television. And then there’s Jazzercise!
Clearly, none of them remember Milton Berle, or even Trump and Rudy-in-drag. They just went straight for the stupid, which, if it’s stupid enough, gets them press and name recognition..
DENNIS PRAGER (HOST): Reflecting on the story of the five members of the major league baseball team, the Tampa Bay Rays, who — the only ones in baseball, apparently, of what I assume are 750 players — who refused to wear the LGBTQI+ patches and hats during this LGBTQIA+ month, Pride Month.
CALLER: I am gay. I’ve been married for five and a half years. And —
PRAGER: Ok. No, no. Obviously that’s relevant to what you’re saying. See, you are capable of doing what, apparently — and I say apparently — most gays are not and not a single gay activist organization, to think as a person, not just as a gay.
RELATED: Last October, Prager claimed that if the US were to split, “the Christian side would prosper.” He last appeared on JMG when he declared the Capitol riot to be a “Reichstag fire.” Prager has defended anti-vaxxers by claiming that gay men were not “pariahs” during the 80s height of the AIDS epidemic. Prager, who is anti-vax and who has contracted COVID twice, has declared that doctors “know nothing” about COVID and that everybody should stock up on horse paste. Before that, we heard from him when he declared that President Obama has “zero masculinity.” We also heard from him when he claimed that if the left really cared about black people, they’d tell them to “elevate their moral standards.” And prior to that, he appeared here when he lamented that nobody says “Negro” anymore and that he can’t use the N-word.
KKKonservatives are raring to dehumanize us in order to strip us of any rights acquired in the past few decades. Dehumanizing is the first step. Watch out for the next ones.
They have been doing this for 50 years. That WHORE, Anita Bryant, got them rolling in our direction and proved it could be a money maker as well as a convenient shield for the kid fucking that they were enabling/covering up.
You know who really can’t think for themselves? People who need bronze age teachings and an invisible and undetectable sky daddy to tell them how to live.
Notice one trans boy tried to commit suicide blaming the current hate stirred up by Governor abbot and the republicans. Notice that Gender-affirming care is endorsed by all the major medical associations as the proper treatment for gender dysphoria, which is the distress someone can feel when their assigned sex doesn’t align with their gender identity. Treatment blocked by these laws. The state is making doctor advised accepted medical treatments illegal for political purposes. These asshole republican office holders think they know more than medical providers do. They did the same thing with Covid treatments, vaccines, Ivermectin, and fish tank cleaner. Does going to medical school mean anything to these people?
The ACLU and Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of three families currently under investigation, as well as more than 600 Texas-based members of PFLAG, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ families.
Ashley (middle) chants, “God made trans kids! God loves trans kids!” with her children during a protest at the Texas Capitol on March 1, 2022. Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune
For LGBTQ mental health support, call the Trevor Project’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 866-488-7386. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 800-273-8255 or texting 741741.
A new lawsuit filed Wednesday is challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal on behalf of three families, including the Briggle family, who have long been advocates for trans rights, including hosting Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for dinner with their transgender son.
The lawsuit also seeks to block the state from investigating any families that belong to PFLAG, an advocacy group for parents and family members of LGBTQ+ people.
The state is currently blocked from investigating one family that brought a prior legal challenge. This lawsuit seeks to widen the number of people who cannot be investigated under the directive; according to the filing, PFLAG’s 17 chapters in Texas have over 600 members combined.
At least nine families are currently under investigation for potential child abuse by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services for providing gender-affirming care to their transgender children.
Gender-affirming care is endorsed by all the major medical associations as the proper treatment for gender dysphoria, which is the distress someone can feel when their assigned sex doesn’t align with their gender identity. While many young people focus on social transition — dressing differently or using different pronouns — some are prescribed puberty blockers, which are reversible, or hormone therapy.
In February, Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion equating gender-affirming medical care with child abuse. Days later, Abbott followed that opinion with a directive telling DFPS to investigate these cases. The agency said in a statement at the time that it would “follow Texas law … in accordance with Governor Abbott’s directive.”
The ACLU and Lambda Legal sued Abbott and DFPS on behalf of a family under investigation, seeking a court order stopping these investigations more broadly. The Texas Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the court could temporarily stop the investigation into the family that brought the suit, but would not shield all parents of transgender children.
Now, the ACLU and Lambda Legal have brought this new suit on behalf of three specific families and PFLAG, arguing that “every one of PFLAG’s Texas members with a transgender child, or those with children still learning who they are, is at substantial risk of harm.”
“For nearly 50 years, PFLAG parents have united against government efforts to harm their LGBTQ+ kids,” said Brian K. Bond, executive director of PFLAG National. “By going after trans kids and their families, Gov. Abbott has picked a fight with thousands of families in Texas and across the country who are united as members of PFLAG National.”
According to the lawsuit, a 16-year-old transgender boy tried to kill himself the same day that Abbott issued the child abuse directive.
“[He] said that the political environment, including Abbott’s Letter, and being misgendered at school, led him to take these actions,” the lawsuit said.
He survived the attempt and was admitted to an outpatient psychiatric facility, where staff learned that he was undergoing hormone therapy. A week after he was discharged, an investigator from DFPS visited the family’s home and, according to the lawsuit, said that the psychiatric facility had reported the family for child abuse. The family remains under investigation.
This is complete bullshit. Investigating families for child abuse because they are following proscribed medical treatment advocated for by the majority of medical organizations. It is harassment. Imagine doing this for families that allow boys to pierce their ears, or any child to get other piercings. Imagine doing this for allowing your kids to color their hair. It could be anything the republican rabid right dislikes. They no longer care about medical science or harming kids and families. This is entirely punitive by republicans in charge, do what we say and as we like people to do or we ruin you, destroy your family, smear you, maybe cost you your job. Next they will go after families that do not force their gay children to stay in the closet or go to conversion therapy. This is the Christian Taliban in the US. Hugs
You don’t get to pretend that you’re pro-life if you use your power to attack, demean, and endanger the lives of the most vulnerable among us. https://t.co/zAFRiLQSED
While the gun control debate has been at the center of political discourse for almost a month now, some right-wingers aren’t letting Pride Month pass by without sharing their bigoted views towards the LGBTQ+ community. Former child actor Ricky Schroder is convinced demons and the devil are to blame for the gay community and Texas’ Republican state Rep. Bryan Slaton is opting to shelve gun control measures to propose a bill that would outlaw children from attending drag shows. Cenk Uygur discusses on The Young Turks.
“Two weeks after a gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition massacred 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a Republican state lawmaker announced that he is taking action—against drag shows. State Rep. Bryan Slaton said Monday he intends to file legislation “protecting kids from drag shows and other inappropriate displays” when the next legislative session begins.
While Republicans in the state and in Washington, D.C. have not been driven to make AR-15s and other semiautomatic weapons inaccessible to Americans after any of the more than 300 school shootings that have taken place since the Columbine High School attack in 1999—or other high-profile mass shootings in other settings—Slaton claimed to be so disturbed by photos of a child at a drag show in Dallas over the weekend that he saw no choice but to act.
“This is disgusting and dangerous. It can’t be allowed to continue,” Slaton tweeted. “My Republican colleagues and I will protect kids from these sickos.””
Well let’s see, the Republicans have blamed mass shootings on porn, lack of praying (Really, I bet those 10 year old kids were praying harder than they ever did to a god who did not intervene) too many doors, liberals, CRT, transgender / transexuals / the entire LGBTQ+, Democrats, BLM, and now it is smartphones. Anything / everything but guns and bullets. Also can you imagine if classroom doors locked each time they were closed? How do all the kids get into the classroom, does someone have to sit at the door to let them in? What about kids that go to the bathroom how do they get back in? These assholes have no idea of what happens in school, did they not go to school, or is it they are paid to be this stupid. They want schools to become prisons. What next strip searches in entry or exit? A officer to lock kids in classrooms or walk the stray kids to the bathroom? Yes it would reduce school shootings but how will kids learn, and what will they learn? All so some people can stroke their unrestricted freedom while people die. He asks what changed in the last 50 years, well for one these guns did not exist that long ago and the idea that everyone could have unrestricted gun ownership also was not a thing back then. Hugs
The congressman made the comments following the emotional testimonies of multiple gun violence survivors and their families.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) speaks during the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing with victims’ family members and survivors of the Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas massacres on June 8, 2022 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Pool/Getty Images
U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) is rejecting calls to pass stricter gun laws and is instead blaming the use of smartphones for a rise in mass shootings. During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on gun violence Wednesday, Fallon told members of Congress that guns were around long before mass shootings became disturbingly commonplace in the U.S.
“The truth is that guns have always been readily available in this country,” Fallon said. “But mass shootings and in particular mass shootings of schools are nonexistent or at least extremely rare until they became a grisly recent phenomenon. So what’s changed in the last 50 years?”
The Republican congressman then proceeded to give his own theory. “There’s been a noticeable breakdown of the family. There’s been an erosion of faith and there’s been a seismic drop in social interactions in large measure due to the overuse of these dang smartphones, and the proliferation of social media, which is probably better described as anti-social media,” Fallon said while holding up his own phone.
Fallon claimed passing gun laws doesn’t work and listed out what he called “real solutions.”
“We must harden our schools with controlled access and single point-of-entry with a tiered entry procedure,” he said. “The main office should be located directly by the front door, which is single-access entry. Classroom doors should automatically shut and lock like hotel rooms do.”
The congressman also called for school teachers and volunteers to be trained and armed through school marshal programs, increasing the number of school resource officers on campuses, adding more cameras to schools, and training rapid response teams to address threats.
“Our goal should be to protect our children,” Fallon said. “No parent, educators, citizen legislature or nation has a higher calling. Let’s look at real and effective solutions and shelve the divisive rhetoric because American children deserve nothing less.”
Fallon’s comments followed the emotional testimony of survivors of gun violence and their families, including 11-year-old Uvalde, Texas school shooting survivor Miah Cerrillo who told Congress she covered herself in the blood of her friend to play dead as the gunman shot her classmates and teacher. Other witnesses included Kimberly and Felix Rubio, the parents of fourth grade Uvalde victim Alexandra “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio, who demanded the passage of stricter gun measures during their testimony.
My phone was a rescue, so it was gun-neutered before I even got it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve lost it or left it unattended, so it’s good to know no one was ever at risk.
Well, your right wing social media disinformation and incitement ain’t helping, Congressman, but you Republicans are the one pushing hatred, despair, and a wounded sense of entitlement over the things. Also as a matter of fact all these guns *weren’t* around like this back in the ‘days before,’ …despite them being all over entertainment media.
It was recently revealed that Dr. Mehmet Oz is not registered to vote in Pennsylvania, the state in which he is running for U.S. Senator. He is, however, registered to vote in New Jersey and the nation of Turkey. Texas Paul reacts!
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