Category: BlueSky / Social Media

9-Year-Old Boy Dies By Suicide After He Was Bullied For Being Gay | NBC Nightly News

This is what the Mom’s of Liberty, Libs of TikTok, fundamentalist Christian republican groups pushing don’t say gay bills along with anti-trans bills, right wing media that call anyone supportive of the LGBTQIA kids groomers, and those groups constantly claiming falsely that drag queen story hours sexualize kids all want.  More gay kids gone, tormented either into hiding or removing themselves from society.  This is what happens when you take away the rainbow stick safe rooms for LGBTQIA kids.  This is what happens when you take away anti-bullying programs and prevent teachers from stopping the harassment of gay / trans kids because they can not tell the bullies that they are wrong because if they sound like they are supporting the LGBTQIA then they could be punished or fired.   This is the result of pushing for a regressive hard return to the ideas of the past, such as the society of the 1950s.  We outgrew this bullshit once, now we must fight it all again.  If you go to YouTube to play the video on the right-hand side will be a seemingly never ending list of gay kids bullied into suicide.  I did not want to post them all, it was hard enough to watch a few.  Kids dying because some adults are back to pushing hate and intolerance for their god and political reasons, at the cost of kids lives.  These people don’t want to accept that non-straight non-cis people exist, so they want them gone, removed.  The religious claim that god doesn’t like them or make them.  The bigots just claim they shouldn’t be, so make them go away.  

Thankfully enough people are starting to push back that the tide of hateful regression and change is slowing.   But the right is desperately pushing more legislation, hoping to cement their feelings of hate and disgust at those different from them into law before lowing the power to do so.  They are understanding they are not popular, they are a minority.  But they are a very dangerous minority in charge in a lot of places.  For the sake of the children they must be stopped.  There is nothing wrong or shameful in being gay, being trans, or any other member of the LGBTQIA.  Being born straight and cis is not the only normal way to be.  Being born LGBTQIA is not some medical mistake or disease needing to be hidden or cured.  It also is normal.  It is documented in almost all animal species in nature.   

I was feeling so rested, awake, and ready to go this morning.   I was charging through stuff.  Until I hit this in my few saved videos on the video computer.  It had not lost its open tabs, I caught the problem first.  A few of the videos on this subject and I am tired, worn, old, and just want to go back to bed.   The people behind the hate put me back to my childhood with all its pain and fears.  What happened to the modern age that the majority let the minority haters / bigots / racists get control of so many levelers of power to hurt those who are not like them?   

Any way, find your safe space before watching the short video and maybe a few more of them, of kids from 9 to adults ending their own lives because the people around them won’t let them be who they are or are forcing them to change, or just demanding they die because their parents tell them god hates those who are different.  Because they are hurting too much and too scared to live.   Saddest hugs.  Scottie

 

Jamel Myles’ mother, Leia Pierce, didn’t learn the bullying he endured was getting worse until after his death. He told his sister students at the school were telling him to “kill himself.”

It’s geek to me

It’s geek to me

These social media cartoons are spot on.  I wish the most extreme, the QAnon, the conspiracy people, could read and just understand them.   Hugs.  Scottie

After Libs of TikTok posted, at least 21 bomb threats followed

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/libs-tiktok-x-chaya-raichik-bomb-threat-twitter-of-libsoftiktok-rcna102784

Last time it was mentioned to her that her followers attack the people / places she goes after, she was very proud of that fact.  She likes it.  That is the point.  She is a female thug, a Christian fundamentalist thug, who feels entitled to force everyone to live as she demands they do.  She feels it is her god given right to take rights away from others.   Hugs.  Scottie

The FBI and local law enforcement said bomb threats across the country have tied up government resources even when they turn out to be hoaxes.
 
Image: Chaya Raichik
Chaya Raichik, creator of LibsofTikTok, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last March.Michael Brochstein / Sipa USA via AP file
 
 
By David Ingram

Last March, police in Coralville, Iowa, investigated a bomb threat targeting a junior high school. Authorities brought in specially trained dogs to sniff for explosives and started looking into why someone might try to target the community’s teachers and students.

Law enforcement quickly determined that the threat was a hoax. Detective Hanna Dvorak from the Coralville Police Department arrived at a theory.

 

“It appears this all stems from a post made earlier this week by Chaya Raichik and her ‘Libs of TikTok’ account,” Dvorak wrote in a report to her superiors.

Raichik, 29, is not accused of making any bomb threats in Iowa or anywhere else. But about a day and a half before authorities responded to the threat at Coralville’s Northwest Junior High, Raichik posted that the school offers a “pornographic” book in its library that “teaches kids about gay sex.”

“These are the books they’re giving your kids to read in school,” she wrote on the social media platform X. People have frequently targeted the book in question, “This Book Is Gay,” a coming-out guide for LGBTQ teens, with book bans going back years.

The Coralville detective wrote in her report that one of Raichik’s supporters could have had a role in the bomb threat.

Coralville was not alone. Officers and government officials in four other jurisdictions — Burbank, California; Minnetonka, Minnesota; Oklahoma City; and Tualatin, Oregon — told NBC News they believe Raichik sparked threats in their localities with her posts on social media that digitally heckle people such as drag performers, LGBTQ teachers and doctors who treat transgender patients. The name “Libs of TikTok” is a reference to the people Raichik mocks on social media — “Libs” being short for “liberal.”

While the direct inspirations for the threats are not known, the timing suggests that Libs of TikTok posts have been used to pick targets.

NBC News identified 33 instances, starting in November 2020, when people or institutions singled out by Libs of TikTok later reported bomb threats or other violent intimidation. The threats, which on average came several days after tweets from Libs of TikTok, targeted schools, libraries, hospitals, small businesses and elected officials in 16 states, Washington, D.C., and the Canadian province of Ontario. Twenty-one of the 33 threats were bomb threats, which most commonly targeted schools and were made via email.

NBC News emailed Raichik on Monday seeking comment on the threats. She did not respond directly, but said in a post on X that NBC News was working on a “hit piece.”

“They do it to try to paint me as an extremist to discredit me. This ‘b*mb threat’ narrative is really getting old,” she wrote, adding a yawning-face emoji.

NBC News identified the threats in a review of local news sources, social media posts and interviews with experts and victims.

The 33 threats drew both local and national resources. Law enforcement agencies in at least 13 jurisdictions reported receiving FBI assistance to find the responsible person or people. A police spokesperson in Burbank said he believed the FBI still has an open investigation into an incident there.

In an emailed statement, the bureau said it has, in general, observed an increase in threats of violence targeting institutions like hospitals and schools.

“As a country and organization, we have seen an increase in threats of violence targeting government officials and institutions, houses of worship, schools, and medical facilities, just to name a few. The FBI and our partners take all threats of violence seriously and responding to these threats ties up law enforcement resources,” the FBI press office said.

“When the threats are made as a hoax, it puts innocent people at risk, is a waste of law enforcement’s limited resources, and costs taxpayers. The FBI and our state and local partners will continue to aggressively pursue perpetrators of these threats — real or false — and hold them accountable,” the bureau said.

The FBI did not respond directly to questions about Raichik or the status of cases related to the 33 threats.

Prosecutors have pursued charges in only three of the 33 instances NBC News reviewed: At least three people have been charged with threatening Boston Children’s Hospital or Boston doctors, a juvenile was arrested after being accused of making a threat at an Oregon middle school, and five members of the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front were convicted of conspiring to riot at an Idaho Pride event.

The charging documents associated with those prosecutions did not mention either Libs of TikTok or Raichik.

 
 
A member of the white nationalist group Patriot Front is searched by police after being arrested outside of Mceuen Park in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
A member of Patriot Front is searched after being arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on June 11, 2022.John Rudoff / Reuters file
 
 

Of the 33 instances, law enforcement or school officials in four jurisdictions said, there were indications — such as email addresses with a non-U.S. domain — that the threats could have come from people in foreign countries.

Raichik, the founder of the Libs of TikTok social media brand, has become an internet celebrity among some conservatives for her willingness to criticize teachers, doctors and other professionals who are LGBTQ or who are accepting of LGBTQ people. Raichik often posts their names and photographs alongside accusations of wrongdoing to X, where she has 2.8 million followers.

Konstantine Anthony, a City Council member in Burbank, said he received violent threats by email less than an hour after Libs of TikTok posted a video of him. The video showed Anthony, who at the time was Burbank’s mayor, getting spanked by a drag queen at a political fundraiser, and Libs of TikTok’s post said it happened “in front of children.” Anthony said no children were present. He was clothed and laughing in the video.

Anthony told NBC News that based on the timing, he believes he and his City Hall staff received at least two bomb threats “as a direct result of Libs of TikTok.”

A spokesperson for the Burbank Police Department said the police had referred the threats to the FBI, which was investigating them.

 
 
Konstantine Anthony in Burbank, Calif.
Konstantine Anthony in Burbank, Calif., on March 15. Tommaso Boddi / Getty Images file
 
 

Anthony, a Democrat running for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, blamed Raichik for turning him and others into targets. He said he received harassing messages and threats by email, voicemail, social media and even handwritten letters.

He said he saw increases in the number of threats after subsequent tweets by Raichik.

Libs of TikTok has now taken on a large and growing role in the nation’s culture wars. It provides ammunition to conservatives by collecting and posting examples of what it considers far-left ideology, such as TikTok videos of teachers discussing race or screenshots from gender clinic websites. Elon Musk, who restored Libs of TikTok on X after it was suspended under previous ownership, frequently shares the account’s posts on his own X profile, and the account’s followers on X include a number of politicians such as Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Former President Donald Trump hosted Raichik for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate in January 2023. Tucker Carlson, then a Fox News host, featured her on his show in December 2022. Raichik claimed to be at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot outside the U.S. Capitol, though not in the building, according to The Washington Post.

On Jan. 23, Raichik was appointed to the Oklahoma Department of Education’s Library Media Advisory Committee by Superintendent Ryan Walters. At least one lawmaker has referred to the bomb threats when contesting Raichik’s appointment to the committee.

 
 
Ryan Walters
Oklahoma Public Instruction Superintendent Ryan Walters during inauguration ceremonies in Oklahoma City on Jan. 9, 2023.Sue Ogrocki / AP file
 
 

The threats have been taking up government resources and been highly distracting.

In response to the threats, some schools canceled classes for days, while others stayed open following quick sweeps from law enforcement.

Superintendent Sue Rieke-Smith dealt with two separate bomb threats in October after Libs of TikTok tagged Oregon’s Tigard-Tualatin School District. The account shared a video showing a school fight involving a person who some people said appeared to be a trans student.

The school district determined, with assistance from the FBI, that the threat was not credible, said district spokesperson Traci Rose.

Rieke-Smith said that social media accounts cross a line when they criticize kids or inspire threats.

“I think there should be consequences when social media is used inappropriately and a community is harmed,” she added. She said she had even raised her concerns with Oregon’s governor in a recent conversation.

Chief Greg Pickering of the Tualatin Police Department said he assigned a small team to investigate the threats.

“It takes time to vet those threats,” he said in a phone interview. “There’s a ton of due diligence.”

His department arrested a juvenile for making one of the threats on Snapchat. No one has been charged with the other bomb threat, made via email. Pickering said he believed that Libs of TikTok inspired the threat.

Raichik has said that she doesn’t support threatening the subjects of her posts, and that she is not responsible for how people respond to her content. She’s said that she has faced threats herself. When USA Today wrote about the threats, she posed with a copy of the article, smiling, and made it her profile photo on X.

 
 
Chaya Raichik at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
Chaya Raichik at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on March 2. Zach Roberts / NurPhoto via AP
 
 

She continues to post the identifying details and images of her subjects. She has rarely criticized the threat-makers or urged them to stop. She told The Washington Post in September 2022, when the newspaper was reporting on threats against children’s hospitals: “We 100 % condemn any acts/threats of violence.”

Raichik has at times mocked the idea that she could influence people making threats, once joking that maybe she was also responsible for natural disasters.

But some of her followers take her posts as an invitation. People have replied with the phone numbers of schools, the names of teachers and school board members and requests for Raichik to provide more details so that users can take action.

“Need to post the school name so calls can be made,” one user replied to a recent Libs of TikTok post on X. Raichik did not respond.

Vice News reported Oct. 4 that at least 11 schools or school districts that were targeted by Libs of TikTok in the prior month received bomb threats days later.

Libs of TikTok is part of a right-wing ecosystem on social media that has targeted transgender people, drag performers, LGBTQ advocates and others in recent years.

“There are forces at work in our country that have fostered this sort of behavior, and that just needs to stop,” said John Sasaki, a spokesperson for the Oakland Unified School District in California.

One of the district’s elementary schools was targeted by Libs of TikTok for hosting an event to bring together Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, and other families of color. In August, Libs of TikTok called the event racist against white people.

The next day, Aug. 29, someone emailed a bomb threat to the school’s principal, Sasaki said. The school canceled classes for the day and sent home its 570 students as police responded.

Sasaki said the district deployed counselors and other school staff to the elementary school the next day.

For other school districts, the threats that followed a Libs of TikTok post have meant more than a one-day evacuation. Oklahoma’s Union Public Schools was the target of bomb threats for six days in August — a series that began one day after an Aug. 21 Libs of TikTok post criticizing an elementary school librarian. The librarian had said online that she emphasized social justice in her teaching.

Chris Payne, a spokesperson for the district, said the local police, with assistance from the FBI, investigated, but he wasn’t aware of any charges. He said he was told by law enforcement that many of the messages appeared to have come from outside the country.

In September, police in Salem, Massachusetts, said they responded to three hoax bomb threats in seven days against the city’s elementary school. Three days before the first threat, Libs of TikTok posted about the school.

“The frequency of school threats which turn out to be hoaxes has dramatically increased in the last two years and presents a quandary for school personnel and public safety alike,” Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller said in a statement.

He added that his department had to balance competing factors: taking all threats seriously while also considering the “mental trauma inflicted upon school children who are exposed to repeated police emergencies.”

Tennessee Town To Pay $500K For Banning Pride Event

Tennessee Town To Pay $500K For Banning Pride Event
TN City Sued Over Ordinance Blocking Pride Festival
Federal Judge Blocks Tennessee Town’s Drag Ban

Hate costs.  These people wanted to limit other people, the LGBTQIA and their supporters, from public participation.  But they tried to do it based on a lie they created.  They tried to claim that drag was obscene and sexualized kids. I find it strange it only does it to kids in their minds, yet they want to ban porn from adults also?  But there are already laws on obscenity if they think someone was showing a body part that should always be hidden to save the world.  They did not want that, because it would still let the parade happen.  So they passed a law outlawing one group … for public good.   Just like in Russia, and just like that they were able to deny the pride parade permits, stopping “those people” from a public event.   The law is illegal.  Just because you don’t like a group, don’t like someone’s views or that they are different doesn’t give you the right to deny their human rights, their civil rights, and full equal participation in society publically.  I wonder if it will pause some of the other laws pushed by fundamentalist religious right-wingers. Hugs.  Scottie   

February 7, 2024 Civil Rights, LGBT News

 

The Washington Post reports:

A Tennessee city must pay $500,000 as part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups over an ordinance designed to ban drag performances from taking place on public property, attorneys announced Wednesday.

Last year, the Tennessee Equality Project — a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights — filed a federal lawsuit after Murfreesboro leaders announced they would no longer be approving any event permit requests submitted by the organization.

At the time, the city alleged that the drag performances that took place during TEP’s 2022 Pride event resulted in the “illegal sexualization of kids.”

Read the full article. My October 2023 posts on the Murfreesboro ban are here and here.

 

 

GayOldLady6 minutes ago

The thing about Murfreesboro is it’s a small town with a large university and campus population exceeding 20k. A lot of partying happens there and the student body is very diverse. The fact that the city council was trying to tamp down Pride activities tells me their Pride must really be a popular event. Murfreesboro, TN, Rutherford Co, is adjacent to Franklin, TN, Williamson Co. It also tried to ban Pride only to lose that effort when the LGBTQ community fought back. My friends in Franklin ( the home of Marsha Blackburn) tell me it’s Pride event was well attended with many Het families bringing their children to the festivities. FYI: In my childhood Murfreesboro TN was a sundown town. That might give you an idea about it’s deep and obviously still politically active Confederate roots.

BensNewLogin 11 hours ago

Illegal sexualization of kids? Drag queens are only sexual if you find drag queen sexual. but if you really want to talk about the LEGAL sexualization of children, Let’s talk about this:

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CloG  BensNewLogin10 hours ago

Heterosexual groomers? And still not a drag queen in sight!

JackFknTwist – ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ  BensNewLogin11 hours ago

Remember Jon-Bonnet, the little kid that was killed? Was she not pagentised ?

kareemachan  JackFknTwist – ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ 10 hours ago

The whole kidlet pageant thing is creepier than f***. The parents are beyond pathetic.

JCF  BensNewLogin6 hours ago edited

When I lived in PA in the 90s (“Pennsyltucky”), there was a country station which the entire frickin’ region listened to (“Froggy 98”).

They had a TV commercial w/ two little girls dancing to a country song. The younger of the two girls had obviously been (though I didn’t know this term then) GROOMED to “dance sexy”. It was beyond disturbing even then, but I regret not being aware enough to protest it.

Friday10 hours ago

Christianists made up their own definition for the word ‘sexualize’ and then accused LGBT people of it like it was always that way.

NPSTL 10 hours ago

These small towns and medium sized cities seem to be unable to consult with their attorneys, or they decide that they don’t like the answer and forge ahead. Inevitably they lose at least some of the lawsuits, and their taxpayers get stuck with the bill. Maybe the city fathers have swallowed the ALEC-like model legislation without considering that the model legislation is not viable when challenged.

eddiebeskeddie  NPSTL4 hours ago

That’s good that they get stuck with the bill. Maybe they’ll think twice before they vote for the next asshole.

evanedwards11 hours ago
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Dark Qiviut  Paula11 hours ago edited

Fiscally, won’t dent their budget much. According to their 2022-’23 budget docs, their budget was $573 million.

$500K is nothing for them. But the humiliation of spending taxpayer money to try to keep their homophobic and transphobic ordinance active, only to publicly retract it, will deservedly embarrass the local government there.

 

Democrat Hits Back Hard At Marjorie Taylor Greene After Odd Bathroom Insult

Democrat Hits Back Hard At Marjorie Taylor Greene After Odd Bathroom Insult

This is what passes for elected leader of the people status on the right.  Can not be bothered to have staff look up stuff to see if it is true before rushing off to attack others she doesn’t like.   She is rude, crude, socially unacceptable, and stupid.  So yes, she fits right in with the people who vote for her.   Hugs.  Scottie

 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)

Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images.

Controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) received a brutal reply on Monday night after she posted a childish and off-color attack on one of her Democratic colleagues.

“Wow this is coming from the same guy who is well known to lay his suit jacket on the actual bathroom floor while spending a lot of time in the stall of the first floor bathroom of the Capitol,” Greene wrote on X in response to a viral clip of Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA).

“Eww. That’s probably when he comes up with all this,” Greene added with a poop emoji.

Greene’s middle school jab came in response to a clip of McGovern saying in a committee meeting, “The clowns are running the circus. We’re wasting time on Marjorie Taylor Greene because she wants to impeach someone. Don’t get me started on her absurd censure resolution of Congresswoman Omar that she introduced because she doesn’t know how to use google translate.” The clip was shared online by the account Acyn, which regularly shares key moments from C-SPAN and cable news.

McGovern hit back at Greene, writing, “No idea what you’re talking about… what are you doing in the men’s bathroom aren’t you late for a klan meeting?”

Greene has long been known for controversial rhetoric, which has included dropping expletives on fellow Republicans like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and spreading baseless conspiracy theories like that the Las Vegas mass shooting was a false flag operation.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com

Dem Rep To MTG: Aren’t You Late For A Klan Meeting?
Read the full article. McGovern was mocking Republicans for attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar over a comment about Somalia that was later shown to have been mistranslated by the cult, probably on purpose.

Swamp Yankee13 hours ago

So this is what we’ve come to. Great. Well, it was a lovely experiment.

Todd20036  Swamp Yankee13 hours ago

All her constituents care about is “owning the libs”

No matter how much worse their own lives become

Chris  Todd200368 hours ago

Nazism runs deep in some. Just wished they were other countries, not ours 😞

NorthBayBrian  Swamp Yankee13 hours ago

Totally agree. While his reply is scathing and scratches an itch, our politics have become beyond dabased. And I’m not buying any juvenile “well, she stared it” nonsense. It’s all just awful and sad.

Swamp Yankee  NorthBayBrian13 hours ago

And we love it! We love the sideshow / freak show element of it. I don’t believe, in my heart of hearts, we want a functioning society anymore. We just want spin-art, cotton candy, tractor pulls and fireworks. That’s why we can’t get enough news about a puke like Donald Trump. We used to be a nation. Now we’re a dunk tank.

LeeGP12 hours ago
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Vince  Kruhn8 hours ago

It’s what we’ve been asking a waiting for. The dems to hit back. Sure it’s childish the alternatives hasn’t worked. We go high when they go low.

Tim 🇺🇦12 hours ago

McGovern hit back at Greene, writing, “No idea what you’re talking about… what are you doing in the men’s bathroom aren’t you late for a klan meeting?”

I’m here for this. Go McGovern!

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

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

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

February 6, 2024 Christianists, Republicans

 

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.

 

 

Tim 🇺🇦11 hours ago

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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perversatile  Tim 🇺🇦11 hours ago

Gloria Richardson- learn/teach her story

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Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️  perversatile11 hours ago

Gloria Richardson
1922-2021

https://msa.maryland.gov/ms…

Harveyrabbit 🐱11 hours ago
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DaddyRay11 hours ago

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.

Dazzer 11 hours ago

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

Flora DeMann  Dazzer11 hours ago

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

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JCF 11 hours ago
“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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Brian Curtis 11 hours ago

Florida, where education is a four-letter word.

John Conley  Brian Curtis9 hours ago

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

vap 11 hours ago

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

moisturize me11 hours ago

Is there a permission slip for algebra too?

John Conley  moisturize me9 hours ago edited

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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Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️11 hours ago

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.

BeccaM11 hours ago

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?

(((GC))) – End the filibuster!  BeccaM10 hours ago

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

San_Ban  (((GC))) – End the filibuster!3 hours ago

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.

Prost-😈XXX😈11 hours ago

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

Florida House Approves Social Media Ban For Minors

Florida House Approves Social Media Ban For Minors

Understand this is about indoctrination and preventing social acceptance.  Where do kids encounter their most diverse and accepting environment, yes watching social media influencers who are openly different, LGBTQIA / or supporting of, and display rainbow flags and talk about how grand diversity and inclusion is?   That leads kids to understand the truth, it is OK to be different.  Young people’s programming on media starts with cartoons, and animated shows, and moves online.   Why do you think the right / DeathSantis went after Disney so hard also why the hard rabid right Daily Wire started all their own kids programming with hard right indoctrination?  It is why states like Florida approved using Prager U YouTube videos in public schools.  It is all about getting to the kids when they are young and developing so they can be indoctrinated in a regressive fundamentalist Christian right wing philosophy.  Also to prevent the Taylor Swift phenomenon from happening.   Hugs.  Scottie.

Ever wonder why left leaning stars are so popular they can sway large majorities of the public, but the right wing stars are so much less able to do it, especially individually?   Because the idea, policies, and goals of the repressive right are unpopular with the majority.   They want minority rule.   

 

“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.”

― Aristotle, The Philosophy of Aristotle

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-rest/201303/give-us-kid-till-shes-7-and-well-have-her-life

January 25, 2024 Politics, Republicans

 

The Messenger reports:

The Florida House of Representatives has passed two bills banning social media for minors under age 16 and requiring age verification for pornographic sites, just two weeks into their 2024 legislative session.

With House approval, the bills will now head to the state Senate before making its way to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk. If the governor signs both bills, they will likely go into effect in July, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

The measure does not include which social media platforms will be banned for users under 16. State House Speaker Paul Renner, R, said the bill doesn’t focus on content, but on “addictive technologies” and “the courts will decide” what those are.

Read the full article. As I reported earlier this month, the social media ban is authored by freshman Rep. Fiona McFarland. Republicans hold supermajorities in both Florida chambers and can therefore force pretty much anything they want into law.

RELATED: McFarland’s mother, K.T. McFarland, served as Trump’s Deputy National Security Advisor under Michael Flynn and she was accused by Robert Mueller of complicity in Flynn’s lies to the FBI. The accusations scuttled the elder McFarland’s nomination by Trump to be US ambassador to Singapore.

 

ECarpenter 9 days ago

They’re so fortunate that Florida has no economic or environmental problems, so they have all this time to regulate how their citizens think and act.

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️  ECarpenter9 days ago

It is the ultimate command of the Party:
Ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears.
One simply can’t think if one can ignore the evidence.

Todd20036 9 days ago

This is because kids used Tik Tok to pull the ultimate troll against Trump in 2020 in Tulsa

Call Me Ray  Todd200369 days ago

It also seems that giving folks the ability to see there are different was of escaping oppression is dangerous to the ruling class.

Darreth  Todd200369 days ago

BINGO. That’s the sole reason.

carswell9 days ago

Enforcement is going to be a bitch. Good thing they have taxpayers’ money to burn.

Flora DeMann  carswell9 days ago
The measure does not include which social media platforms will be banned for users under 16. State House Speaker Paul Renner, R, said the bill doesn’t focus on content, but on “addictive technologies” and “the courts will decide” what those are.

 

Like that’s going anywhere.

Gregory In Seattle  Flora DeMann 9 days ago

And when the courts do not include the ones the fascists want, they will start screaming about activist courts pushing a liberal agenda.

carswell  Flora DeMann9 days ago

Throw the pasta pot against the wall and see what sticks.

Darreth  Flora DeMann9 days ago

The courts will decide? That’s not their job regarding this.

Jeff D  carswell9 days ago

This ban will clearly fix the mass exodus of insurance companies from Florida.

ASFT  carswell9 days ago

I thought the exact same thing. Then I was going to say it sounds like they’d probably put the onus on Social Media sites to follow the law, but the point would remain the same: Enforcement is going to be a bitch.

I hope social media co.s do what pornhub did and just make their sites unavailable in that state (although I could see how that could have a negative impact on the kids who count on it for social support and stuff).

 

Seattle Police And Fire Departments Raid Two Gay Bars

Seattle Police And Fire Departments Raid Two Gay Bars

What the fuck!!!  This culture war against the LGBTQIA and the attempt to drive the country hard back to the 1950s has got to stop.  We have had these fights, these arguments, and society has progressed into acceptance.  They found one exposed nipple?  Have any of you been to a redneck bar in the deep south?  I went to a bar in Georgia when I was 19 and in the US Army.  Man what I saw there made what I saw working in a gay bar in the 1990s look like a church picnic.  One booth was reserved for giving blow jobs by the local bar sluts.  I had to be very worried because they loved to get them some young army boys fresh from boot camp in training schools.  They about do you on the bar stool.  But that is OK to the haters because it is cis straight sex in the open, not an exposed nipple in a gay bar.  Wait, I am confused, I thought only female boobs were sexy and to be hidden.  Men boobs are fine to see everywhere.  There are different kinds of bars for different likes.  I bet you some of the high-end places are offering sex also, but those are upper society, so the police won’t bother them.  The republican Christian Taliban won’t be happy until everyone is as repressed and unhappy as they are.  Hugs.  Scottie

January 30, 2024

Seattle’s The Stranger reports:

Marching into a gay bar to issue citations feels a bit vintage in 2024. Nevertheless, over the weekend, the Joint Enforcement Team (JET), which is a coalition of Seattle Police, Fire, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB), and others, entered two gay bars, The Cuff Complex and The Seattle Eagle, and started looking around.

And what did they find? A bartender’s exposed nipple and a few people wearing jockstraps, offenses that law enforcement can cite you for in Washington if you’re also selling alcohol.

At 12:30 on Saturday morning, a 10-member JET crew filed into Cuff, according to owner Joey Burgess. They came in with flashlights, scaring some patrons who left in a hurry. Inside, they saw the offending nipple, a violation of state law the JET may penalize in some way.

Capitol Hill Seattle reports:

 



A group of Capitol Hill gay bars and clubs are teaming up with neighborhood queer community leaders Dan Savage and Terry Miller in calling for the state’s liquor control board and Seattle Police officials to explain what they say was a weekend crackdown reminiscent of historical harassment of Seattle’s LGBTQ friendly venues.

Ownership at the bars including The Cuff, Queer/Bar, Massive, and The Eagle along with Savage and Miller say that citations issued over weekend over clothing and decency violations at a handful of clubs recorded by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board and so-called Joint Enforcement Team inspectors were targeted.

The group is asking for the community to demand the liquor control board explain its actions.

 

Porkie 21 hours ago

All this for a nipple ….If they had gone to the Manhattan federal court they could have seen an asshole.

The Sentinel  Porkie21 hours ago
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You Again?  Porkie19 hours ago

And, not just a regular one – a flaming asshole spewing noxious gases!

Paula 21 hours ago edited

I used to have a lot of respect for the police. In the past 12-15 years, that has really eroded away. When I see the times they have shot people because they felt threatened by somebody sitting in a car or reading that the person was shot 56 times, I question them. It’s become worse when they show up dressed like tactical assault troops for simple things. They are getting away with murder. I am not sure how much that I trust them anymore.

Ščŏŧŧ Ċ – 🇺🇦 🕊  Paula21 hours ago

They may turn off their own cameras when they cross the line, but they can’t turn off everyone else’s.

Man_in_the_mists  Ščŏŧŧ Ċ – 🇺🇦 🕊 20 hours ago

They’ve also developed the habit of raising their car hoods so their dash cams are unable to capture any footage.

Man_in_the_mists  San_Ban 20 hours ago

Or just start playing copyrighted music at high volumes in the hopes that the posted video will be auto-blocked.

🇺🇦 Bayside Lucas  Paula21 hours ago

And if Trump assumes his dictatorship, cops will have his blessing to be non-compliant with laws and free of any accountability. That’s exactly what he said.

Karma Chases Dogma  🇺🇦 Bayside Lucas 19 hours ago

How soon will the “a few bad apples” explanation be disproven? It’s beginning to look a lot like expatriation.

Call Me Ray  Paula20 hours ago

For me, watching the old man get shoved down nonchalantly in Buffalo was the tipping point. First time I used a porcine term to describe them, just after an expletive.

You Again?  Paula19 hours ago

I’ve distrusted cops ever since I shared a house for a while with, among others, a police cadet. The stories I heard about what cops allow other cops to get away with!

And this was just run-of-the-mill police dishonesty and corruption. At the time, I wasn’t aware of how aggressively violent many of them are, as well.

This was around 1979-80.

HZ81a day ago

Then the cops went to Hooters for a post-fag-harassing wholesome meal. JFC.

mikeiver  HZ8121 hours ago

Dude, you and I have a very similar take on this shit and I applaud you for the spot on comment. Being SWM I sometimes have to edit what I say but can always count on you to “send it”.

Ron Robertson a day ago

What kind of bullshit is this? Probably some fucked up religious psycho behind it.

Guido Miller  Ron Robertson21 hours ago edited

Some fool thinking they’re doing “god’s work.” 🤦‍♂️ Never mind that it’s all myth.

thatotherjean  Guido Miller 20 hours ago edited

Even if there is a god/gods (I’m agnostic), I doubt that He/She/It/They would care about people seeing each other’s nipples and various body parts. He/She/It/They made them that way, after all, even if through evolution.

Jay P a day ago edited

Being that this was open knowledge for many years. I mean, it’s the cuff and the Eagle and all they found was an open nipple and jock strap. Lol
I too am wondering who’s behind this. At the liquor board. You know damn well that there’s some religious nut or right-wing POS behind it.

cheakamus  Jay Pa day ago

This follows closely upon the attempt to shut down one of the city’s two traditionally gay nude beaches (by building a children’s playground next door). Thankfully, that was nipped in the bud by an overwhelmingly oppositional public protest. Hopefully this will be too.

Trident1000 🏳️‍🌈  cheakamusa day ago

Brattleboro, Vermont built West River Park next to the traditionally nude (optional) beach on West River for that exact reason. No nudity within 500 feet of a park.

Blake Paine  Jay Pa day ago

Remember when some liquor control guy took a snap shot of the Eagle balcony and caught some penises in the picture? They said they were going to close it until Dan Savage went around town taking pictures of himself in City Hall, etc with his dick out (public nudity is NOT illegal in Seattle) asking if they were going to close them down too and they backed off.

I know that they can only show ‘beefcake’ pictures on the monitors in bars, a bit amazing down in CA where they have full on porn movies going in some of the bars…

IamSmartypants  Jay Pa day ago

It’s been a few years, but I saw and showed off a hell of a lot more than a nipple at the Eagle. This is complete BS.

Sooverthisshit  IamSmartypants a day ago

Ya, the last time I was in an Eagle there was someone locked in a cage in the center of the room performing oral sex and being urinated on by strangers. A nipple and jockstrap seem almost wholesome in comparison.

Gregory In Seattle a day ago

Seattle has a reputation for being a liberal haven, but in fact the SPD is virulently bigoted. Remember that they were under a consent decree for 11 years, effectively under federal supervision until they changed a racist culture that had led to the murder of a First Nations man. Parts of that decree are STILL in effect.

Details: https://www.justice.gov/opa…

DaveInSFa day ago

Nipples and jockstraps kill. Oh, wait, no. They’re harmless.

jugomono a day ago

We haven’t quite returned to the 1950s yet, but welcome back 1980s!

jugomono  jugomonoa day ago

The bath raids in Toronto 1981(?) were a huge catalyst for solidifying the community and a lot of progress was made after.

thatotherjean a day ago edited

Nipples, jockstraps and alcohol? You can see more flesh, alcohol, and lewd conduct on a public beach in any Summer. Yeah, the originators of that raid on gay bars has some ‘splainin’ to do, and an apology to make. Seattle, you’re better than this!

JackFknTwist – ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ a day ago

2016, Americans elected a rapist to the White House.
2024 that rapist is running for the Republican nomination.
Rapists gonna rape.

If you think that your liberties are protected by case law, – the Supreme Court, let me introduce you to the strict constructionists, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Any Barrett, Kavanaugh.
Raids on gay bars, – you ain’t seen nuttin yet

JackFknTwist – ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ a day ago

Raids on gay bars by Cops !

Are we worried yet about marriage equality, about gay health clinics, about PDAs, about flags or drags, about our freedoms of association in or out of gay bars………..
Are we worried yet about camps, about quarantines, about being ostracised ?
Are we worried yet about what the Evangelicals want to do to us?

 

Ron DeSantis Crew Stomps Out Sociology Core Class in Florida Public Universities

https://themessenger.com/politics/ron-desantis-crew-stomps-out-sociology-core-class-in-florida-public-universities

Wow, the rush to the past is not slowing down even as Florida reaches the edge of the cliff.   Anything that threatens right wing fundamentalist Christian world view must be banned, removed, buried along with the regressive indoctrination taught.  What is the republican idea of real history?  That slaves benefited by being slaves?  Rapes and beatings were free for them, I guess?  How did we get here, to this point? 

The US was not always a backwards country.  We started out with a radical idea, a representative democracy.  Let the people have a say in how things are run.  Other countries took this idea and made it great for the public.  The future US kind of tried to pull it together, had a major set back with entrenched racism, which we are still dealing with today.  Then a period of growth for some, oppression for others.  Then the Enlightenment of the New Deal where again the people, the public welfare mattered.   Yes we struggled as each generation challenged the generation before them to expand and grow, open up society so more people could share in it equally.   Then we had a pivotal moment.  A black man was voted in to the highest office in our country, the Presidency.  The right / those that couldn’t accept equality lost their collective minds.  And overnight racism became vogue again, became acceptable to be publicly voiced by some people.  Leaders of political groups on the right, and religious leaders also on the right rallied their followers to push the idea that racism is not wrong as was held true for 40+ years and these people pushed back on the gains in equality of the blacks.   

Well that worked so well for them that racism was extended back to mean anyone not white.  Yes all brown people were deficient and inferior along with basically born bad, especially brown people at the southern border who wanted only to come to the US to work and share the “American dream”.    Well that got a mob boss thug wannabe elected president who gave his followers permission to throw all decency away and revert back to the lowest common denominator they could be.  Racism was joined by bigotry against anyone different, openly being crude, rude, and thuggish became OK for them.  As long as it was towards others, not them.  They demanded they and only them be given back the celebrated highest position in society / the country with everyone else being made lessor with many fewer rights.  They want a return to a distant past before enlightenment, and with the added boost of recreating a fictitious history that never was, which is that the US was founded as a Christian country.  With a racist bigoted moron leading the way, the right surged into office propelled by the idea of taking back the country to something worse for most people but great for a minority.  The minority that was to be given a higher station loved it, and with the majority not paying much attention, managed to get into positions of authority over schools.

 Now they used that authority to attack all areas with the full force of racism, bigotry, and forced religious indoctrination.  Christianity only though, no other religion was acceptable.  They removed books or media that had any member of society they disliked, they did the same for any ideas expressed they disagreed with.  Freedom became only for them, white cis straight Christians, all others had no freedom.  Parent’s rights were twisted to mean only the rights of white cis straight Christian racist bigots, and those rights included forcing every child to be indoctrinated with the right wing racist bigoted Christian teachings regardless of the child’s parents wishes.  A complete authoritarian take over was what they tried.

It was noticed because like all bigots they were not quiet about the damage they were doing once they got the authority to do it.   They aggressively rammed their backwards oppression on everyone.   History has shown when they tried this same shit in the past, it was quickly stopped so they tried to create laws cementing their ideas in place.  But the public which was still a progressive majority woke up, and started fighting back.  They took back a lot of the school boards, they took back as many positions as came up for vote.   The only ones they couldn’t fix were the ones not yet up for vote, like Governor and state officials.  Which brings us to now, today in Florida where educational classes on subjects long thought important for the growth of students is being removed to further the forced indoctrination of right wing political racism, bigotry, and Christianity along with a made up fictional history.   Hugs.  Scottie

Two quotes from the article.

“Sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers,” the association said in a statement to the New York Times.

“Failure to prioritize the scientific study of the causes and consequences of human behavior is a failure of Florida’s commitment to providing high-quality civics education and workforce readiness,” it added.

 

Students should be focused on learning the ‘truth,’ rather than be ‘radicalized by woke ideologies in the college classrooms,’ said education commissioner

Published 01/26/24 10:05 PM ET|Updated 01/26/24 10:05 PM ET

Mary Papenfuss

Ron DeSantis: On a mission to reshape education.Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called “anti-woke” crusade has now removed sociology as a core class from all 12 of the state’s public universities.

The Board of Governors voted to make the change on Wednesday. A core sociology course was also removed earlier this month from all 28 Florida public colleges, meaning that Florida students will no longer be able to chose sociology to fulfill their core class requirements.

What the board refers to as a “factual history course” is replacing Principles of Sociology in the universities in what is widely seen as the start of a general rout of sociology classes.

When discussing sociology late last year, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. said that “students should be focused on learning the truth about our country instead of being radicalized by woke ideologies in the college classrooms.” He also said the subject had been “hijacked by left-wing activists.”

The Board of Education has promised the history curriculum will include an examination of the “horrors” of slavery, even though the same board pressed lower schools to teach that slaves — who lost their freedom, were beaten, raped and forced to labor for their masters — benefited from slavery because they learned work “skills”

Educators warned that students will flee Florida’s universities to obtain legitimate educations required for careers and by employers elsewhere.

Florida has one of the country’s largest public university systems, with more than 430,000 students.

The latest change is part of a sweeping reorganization of education in Florida from top to bottom. Under DeSantis’ sweeping book censorship, at least one district has banned dictionaries from their schools’ libraries because they contain the word “sex.”

The American Sociological Association called the decision to dump the core sociology class “outrageous,” and one informed by a “gross misunderstanding” of sociology as somehow “radical.”

“Sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers,” the association said in a statement to the New York Times.

 

“Failure to prioritize the scientific study of the causes and consequences of human behavior is a failure of Florida’s commitment to providing high-quality civics education and workforce readiness,” it added.

Florida Universities Cancel “Woke” Sociology Course

 

Skeptical_Inquirer 21 hours ago

If I was an employer outside Florida, I’d be side eyeing the diplomas from there.

CJ 21 hours ago

But it’s not “cancel culture” by the party of “small government”…

Tomcat21 hours ago

Factual history of Florida will show blacks were hung from telephone poles for being found by white folk that hated them.

CJ  Tomcat21 hours ago

And much much worse – yet we can’t talk about those things, it’s “woke”…

Paula  Tomcat18 hours ago

But….. but…. those white people just found them hanging like that. /s

Uncle Mark – fermented for ‘24 21 hours ago

FOOLS…my sociology course in school required us to float theories in class, while using statistical databases to prove them. It was like two courses in one, and highly illuminating for dispelling old assumptions.

Beagle🌻  Uncle Mark – fermented for ‘2421 hours ago

Dispelling old assumptions — exactly what DeSadist and co. DON’T want.

Harveyrabbit 🐱21 hours ago

I don’t know why universities or any school for that matter needs any kind of curriculum other than bible studies anyway.

Dan M  Harveyrabbit 🐱21 hours ago

Think how expensive it will be to change all the road signs from Miles to cubits

Cattleya1  Dan M16 hours ago

They will start listing them furlongs per fortnight.

MirrorMan  Harveyrabbit 🐱18 hours ago

I refuse to believe in a book that SUPPOSEDLY has all the answers to life that was written by a bunch of people who didn’t know where the sun went at nigh…

Sam_Handwich 21 hours ago edited

I like the chapter in the “factual history” textbook where Jesus and George Washington free all the babies in the basement of Comet Ping Pong, lock up Hillary Clinton and then travel to Kentucky to comfort the citizens of Bowling Green in the wake of Al Sharpton’s horrific massacre.

JackFknTwist – ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ  Sam_Handwich21 hours ago

That was before they flew into the airport and took over the landing strip.

Paula  JackFknTwist – ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ18 hours ago

I heard that the Colonials sank a British airport with a submarine.

freehit  JackFknTwist – ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ20 hours ago

The helicopter was in the shop so they needed an airstrip. There were some wooden teeth smashed into the air intake valve and the repair parts were still on order at the time of the attack. Everyone knows this is the reason helicopters didn’t get used again until after WW2.

 

Florida students protest imminent closing of university LGBTQ center

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-unf-students-protest-closing-lgbtq-center-rcna135758

Welcome to the white fundamentalist maga paradise, Florida.  The purge is well on the way.  Again the goal is to remove / wipe out all representation of LGBTQIA from public society.  Also part of the goal is to return black / brown people to a lower stature and keep them there.   To stop any integration or upward movement of the minority groups.   These people demand a return to the time when white males were automatically in charge, Christianity was the assumed only real religion and all things Christian were good, women were subservient to males and functioned to do for men in the home / public / bedroom, blacks knew their place and stayed there, and the LGBTQIA were not seen or heard of terrified of being found out.   That is the world these people are fighting to have.  Florida is well on the way.  They have basically outlawed the teaching of acceptance or inclusion of any group not dedicated to white people or Christianity.  They have removed any representation of LGBTQIA or racism from schools.  They have rewritten history, legislated being cis, being straight until adult, legislated having a small groups of bigoted racist parents over ruling all other parents on what school age kids can do, read, see, say, and do medically.  They call anything not right wing fundamentalist maga is indoctrination.   Welcome to Florida, a state run by Christian Taliban with help from the moral police.   Hugs.  Scottie

 

The Florida Board of Governors voted to prohibit using state funding for public university programs or activities that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
 
 
TAP TO UNMUTE
 
 
 
By Matt Lavietes

Students at the University of North Florida protested the imminent closing of the school’s four diversity centers, including the campus LGBTQ center, on Wednesday.

The protest took place the day the Florida Board of Governors, the governing body of the State University System of Florida, voted to prohibit funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and activities at the state’s public universities. The vote comes several months after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure into law banning all of the state’s public higher education institutions from using state or federal funding for diversity programs.

 

UNF, in Jacksonville, will close its Office of Diversity and Inclusion — and, with it, its interfaith, intercultural, women’s and LGBTQ centers — to comply with the new law, President Moaz Limayem said in a letter to the university community Wednesday night. 

Limayem said the four university centers will be “phased out” immediately but added that registered student organizations that aim to promote diversity will remain active on the university’s campus and that no staffers will lose their jobs. He did not weigh in on student protests or on his views about the state policy.

“We want UNF to be a place where all people feel safe and welcome, and where there is no place for hate,” Limayem said. “This semester, we will begin seeking ways to reinforce UNF’s values in everything we do, and we will review and expand resources as necessary to ensure success for all members of our campus community.”

Cassandra Edwards, a spokesperson for the university system, said in an email Thursday that Florida “will remain focused on high-quality education for our students and not allow indoctrination.”

UNF student Lissie Morales was among the protesters, many of whom were waving rainbow Pride flags and shouting: “What do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

“The center provided me friends; it provided me education to learn more about my gender and sexual orientation,” Morales told NBC affiliate WTLV of Jacksonville. “In regard to the turnout, it warms my heart to see people care about something as much as I do, especially when it comes to the LGBT center, because it was one of the reasons why I came to UNF in the first place.”

Related stories

In 2022, UNF was among 40 institutions on Campus Pride’s list of best universities for LGBTQ students. 

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former Florida House Democrat who is a policy adviser at the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida, called the new state law “a rubber stamp for Ron DeSantis’s agenda of censorship and surveillance.”

“The Board of Governors had the opportunity to hit the brakes, but instead, shamefully followed their censorship agenda off a cliff in service to DeSantis’s failed political ambitions,” Smith said in a statement Wednesday. 

A representative for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The regulation comes as Florida continues to build on its reputation for enacting anti-LGBTQ laws and legislation aimed at limiting diversity initiatives. 

Dozens of UNF students attend a rally in support of the school's LGBTQ center.
Dozens of UNF students attend a rally in support of the school’s LGBTQ center. WTLV

Florida made national headlines when it enacted what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law in 2022, which limited the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools in kindergarten through third grade. DeSantis signed a bill last year that expanded the law to apply to students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Last year, Florida lawmakers prompted outcry for blocking an Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools.

Since the start of the year, Florida lawmakers have introduced roughly a dozen anti-LGBTQ bills. They include a sweeping measure that would force Floridians to sign an affidavit when they apply for new driver’s licenses and state IDs to certify that the gender markers on their birth certificates will match their new IDs. Another bill would allow some published accusations of homophobia and transphobia to be considered “defamation per se.”

Student protests over Florida’s policies about LGBTQ issues have also become common. In November, students at a high school in Coconut Creek, about 15 miles north of Fort Lauderdale, staged a walkout after their principal and other school staffers were reprimanded for letting a transgender girl compete on the school’s girls volleyball team.

 

For more from NBC Out, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Matt Lavietes

Reporter, NBC OUT

 

FL University To Close “Indoctrinating” LGBTQ Center

 

Nick in Pasadena 13 hours ago

I suffered through eighteen years of indoctrination to become straight. Didn’t work

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️  Nick in Pasadena13 hours ago

I read books about Dick and Jane…
I’m not out chasing Jane.

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️12 hours ago
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Guestfornow  Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️12 hours ago

Gloria is out chasing Jane.
I’m out chasing Dick, pun intended.
😉

Todd20036  Nick in Pasadena11 hours ago

Yup. I didn’t kiss a boy until I was in my 20s

LovesIrony  Nick in Pasadena12 hours ago edited

I found my Dad’s playboys including the one with the Jimmy Carter interview and Jimmy Connors future wife as the centerfold.
Still digging men

Cel  Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️12 hours ago

Exactly! My whole youth was steeped in the straight world, I knew not one gay person and had zero history of the gay movement, yet I still turned out gay.

Darreth  Cel11 hours ago

Same for the rest of us. This is how we can tell that the evangelicals are completely, utterly delusional; and why they’re a minority now in the US. Dems need to vote them out. If they refuse the evangelicals will begin their new Spanish Inquisition.

ChrisInKansas 13 hours ago

Next step: jailing and killing us. I am NOT overreacting. It’s going to happen unless we stop this shit immediately.

Jean-Marc Canada – ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ  ChrisInKansas13 hours ago

They’ve been openly musing about a final solution to the LGBTQ+ “problem”.

 

Tim 🇺🇦12 hours ago

The War on Women’s Rights
The War on LGBT Rights
The War on Voting Rights
The War on Oversight
The War on Accountability
The War on the Elderly
The War on The Arts

Join the Resistance. Vote in 2024.

TampaZeke  Tim 🇺🇦11 hours ago

The War on Science
The War on Civility

The War on Reality…

Steve Morrison12 hours ago

Religion is indoctrination.

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️  Steve Morrison12 hours ago

And, if carefully taught, can have you hating yourself, too…

Tazzari1  Steve Morrison12 hours ago

George Orwell, The Prevention of Literature:

From the totalitarian point of view history is something to be created rather than learned. A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling cast, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible.

ConnieHinesDorothyProvine  Tazzari1 6 hours ago

I’m currently reading 1984 (incidentally, the year in which I was born). I’m up to the appendix, where Orwell describes Newspeak.

CJ  Steve Morrison13 hours ago edited

They forget about that whole pesky “separation of church and state”. If the Roberts court is a “traditionalist” court, more states should be challenging the unconstitutional legislation passed in many States (esp the Federal Gov as this is setting up a State vs Federal legal battle), otherwise the Supreme Court will have to justify their reason for overturning Roe and much more. Not that it matters but it’s important for the public to understand.

Doug105 13 hours ago
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DaddyRay12 hours ago

I expect DeSantis to become especially cruel now that he is no longer a candidate

Doug105 13 hours ago
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