This nonstop transanity doesn’t sell, and it’s damaging our state’s efforts to safeguard young Hoosiers. My office will continue working daily to protect our children and uphold parental rights. https://t.co/kzTNpgOdDv
Indiana's attorney general is leading seven states expressing legal concern that Target’s ‘LGBTQIA+ Pride’ campaign is damaging efforts to safeguard citizens. https://t.co/ED1UvcZTbo
A lawsuit seeking to invalidate a Wisconsin statute from 1849 outlawing abortion will proceed, after the presiding judge on Friday denied a motion to dismiss the closely watched legal action. @cnsjkellyhttps://t.co/LKqYBXBoJc
Patrick Henry: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity,…
You will be unsurprised to hear that Patrick Henry never said this. It comes from a 1956 article in a magazine called The Virginian. But what's a fake quote between friends? https://t.co/PZCEhfNlqW
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) July 5, 2023
15 hours and this fake quote is still up. Christian Nationalists' identity depends on deliberately spreading disinformation about American history, especially the founders and the founding. https://t.co/z6bRSUYnQW
Christian theocrat uses a fake quote to make his case. Many of the founding fathers were deists and the constitution establishes a secular government. Your version of christian Saudi Arabia is authoritarian and unpopular. Give it up https://t.co/SCu5MFAWjg
Next time, instead of arguing whether America was founded on ‘christianity”, ask them why it is so important for them to make their (incorrect) point. Okay, we were founded on Christian principles of slavery, and women as chattel with no vote, natives were stripped of their land and other rights, and only white male property owners could vote. Not to mention child labor was rampant, the majority of the country were small farmers, divorce was nearly impossible and so on. Hurray! What is you want NOW? You want to reinstitute all of that? No, they will likely say, they just want “Christian principles” reinstitute. Like what? Name them, specifically. They will be likely more in line with Christian nationalism — no LBGT rights, minorities voting is restricted, reduction in social safety net, more deregulation and so on. So now you can drill down — what does Christianity have to say about laws that control pollution, radioactive waste, plastics in our food, chemicals in the water you drink? They will give you mumbo jumbo about freedom, and all that. “”So why do we have to be a Christian nation” to achieve your goals of less regulation? What it will likely come down to is morals and values. Again, we can hit hard back — you mean no divorce? Because Jesus had a lot to say about it. Premarital sex? Birth control? IF you want to talk about morals, let’s talk about children going to bed or to school hungry, of which millions do. What about the homeless? Again, we don’t need Christian nationalism to tackle those issues. It wil come down to nothing at all — just a vague desire to make people go to church more, pray more, and be more aligned with god or something. “So you want to force people to pray?” I could go on, but you just have to nail them down on specifics. Hawley is just about control — they don’t want drag queens, people having wanton sex, abortion, and all that. Force them to admit that.
I remember in 2020 when they used the flag of the Russian Federation to decorate the Republican National Convention, which inspired me to make this meme.
GQP ads constantly have Russian troops, ships and MiGs because they use creative agencies in Russia, because few US agencies often full of GQP intended victims will do work for them.
Creative houses use the stock images they have on hand. That’s why so much Russian stuff shows up in their ads.
Early data shows globe just had its warmest June on record by far, and July 3 and 4 set a record for the hottest days yet recorded (since 1979). I suspect July 5 will be added to that list… https://t.co/EkJtXJhBO9
When children first are taught the letters of the alphabet, the letters are capitalized. Maybe the MAGAs never got farther than that.
Snow White is a 19th century German fairy tale. The name literally refers to the character’s skin color. This is what actual cultural appropriation looks like. Probably the most blatant case we’ve seen yet. https://t.co/erALE33kj0
Meet the cast of Disney’s new woke Snow White film. Snow White is Columbian now and the 7 dwarves look more like the 6 normal sized hipster pedos and 1 dwarf from Portland. Snow White no longer has "skin white as snow". Absolutely ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/DKZInYty89
So they have one little person playing a dwarf to be more “politically correct?” So 6 other little people didn’t get the job or the check and somehow this is more “sensitive?”
Elagabalus2 days ago Reminds me of the time Megyn Kelly got so flummoxed that Santa Claus was presented as black because in her worldview, Santa Claus was clearly white. What is it with conservatives and fictional characters?
If you read the articles on this it says that trump did not argue that the evidence was not there to show he committed a crime but that it was improperly gained. His lawyers are admitting to the crime basically. Hugs
Federal judge also orders far-right also-ran Mark Finchem and their famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz to split some costs — though Dersh has a lighter share.
A DeSantis staffer has reportedly been caught on camera saying he is telling voters “eat my balls” if they are upset by being asked to support DeSantis. “I’m a little stoned, so I don’t even care.”
ICYMI: "Broward County has lost more than a half-dozen conventions as their organizers cite the divisive political climate as their reason to stay out of Florida."https://t.co/V6sDOmAX6I.
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) July 8, 2023
According to @alltherooms, the Orlando DMA for Air BnB is down 35% from May 2022 to May 2023. Per @VisitOrlando: rentals in Orange County, occupancy year-to-date so far 60.9%, down 10% from 2022. The average daily rate through May 2023 is $175, a 7% increase from 2022. @MyNews13
— Spectrum News Asher Wildman (@AsherWildman13) June 29, 2023
— The Florida Phoenix (@FLPhoenixNews) July 5, 2023
"Black engineers and “Game of Thrones” fans are the latest groups canceling Orlando events and attributing their decisions to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s political climate."
Kirk Cameron demands investigation of American Library Association for religious discrimination https://t.co/ls3wyqeBP6
— The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) July 9, 2023
“Library staffers were deluged with harassment and a bomb threat.”
Oregon Public Broadcasting's @_jlevinson revealed that the mayor of Newport, Ore., had for years been posting hateful memes on a private FB group for law enforcement officers.
“But when you’re asked to take the word of a fugitive making videos for the New York Post over career prosecutors making sworn statements with their entire careers & livelihoods on the line…I gotta be honest. I’m leaning toward trusting the government.” https://t.co/Axhv3CyOnO
In May, one of the informants in the Republican-led investigation into the Biden family went missing. That informant was later revealed to be Gal Luft, who is now charged with acting as a foreign agent for China. https://t.co/ErabfF07tq
Another Hunter Biden whistleblower bites the dust. James Comer's whistleblower, Gal Luft, has just been indicted by the DOJ for arms trafficking, violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, making false statements to federal agents, and being a Chinese spy.pic.twitter.com/yQK2pNkNCs
“Several lawyers who have had business before the supreme court…paid money to a top aide to Justice Clarence Thomas, according to the aide’s Venmo transactions. The payments appear to have been made in connection to Thomas’s 2019 Christmas party.” https://t.co/NIpf6mHBgN
Abortion should be freely available at any stage of pregnancy, on demand, without apology.
Reposting:
“The very concept of sin comes from the Bible. Christianity offers to solve a problem of its own making! Would you be thankful to a person who cut you with a knife in order to sell you a bandage?”
― Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
Farmers Insurance announced today they're pulling out of Florida, the 4th major insurance co to leave Florida since @rondesantis took over
THAT's the economy of DeSantis, too busy screaming hysterically about some made up "woke" boogeyman to give a shit about actual people
While Florida’s property insurance market was BURNING 🔥, Ron DeSantis used GOP supermajorities to obsess over wokeness, drag queens, and pronouns.
Now 100,000 Floridians will lose coverage, but at least no one is talking about gay in school. pic.twitter.com/8kgBrSIdYJ
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) July 11, 2023
Gov. DeSantis and his allies in the Florida Legislature chose to focus on culture wars, instead of addressing the issues facing everyday Floridians, during the 2023 session.
How many of our congress is on the payroll of Russia. Hugs
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Tuesday introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require transgender men to register for the draft:
Indeed trans men should sign up for selective service when they turn 18, just like all cis men. But then trans men should be able to use the men’s room, just like all cis men do.
The current law states that all persons either born in the US or (with few exceptions) legally resident when they turn 18, and identified as male at birth are required to register for the Selective Service when they turn 18, no exceptions. If you are an American citizen living abroad, you must still register. If you are a legal resident alien, you must still register. If you are in a prison or mental asylum, you must still register. If you are here under a diplomatic passport (say, a parent works at an embassy or consulate) or have a tourist or student visa, you do not need to register. People who were identified as female at birth are NOT required to register for the Selective Service, and in fact trying to register can get you in legal trouble for filing a “frivolous” legal document (not sure if it has ever been prosecuted, but it is in the regulations.)
If they are going to make transmen register, then they must also make transwomen exempt. They will also need to clarify at what point relative to the age of 18 this will kick in: is it enough to identify as trans, or will they need to have passed some benchmark in transitioning? What if a person comes out as trans after they are 18, but before they turn 25 (the age that your registration remains in effect)? And if transwomen are not exempt, they they should make registration mandatory for ALL 18 year olds regardless of gender identity: there is no longer any restriction from women serving in combat, after all. Maybe if their precious daughters are required to register, and fact the very serious penalties for not registering, we can finally get rid of this whole Selective Service idiocy once and for all.
BREAKING: ARIZONA AG Kris Mayes has APPOINTED a team of PROSECUTORS to investigate republican attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state. MI and NM referred their findings to the DoJ, and GA will make charging decisions in August. https://t.co/lEijrZczDF
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) July 13, 2023
I guess it was done the same way the former idiot allowed a bunch of Russian spies into the building.
#Hungarian authorities issued a 12 million (EUR 32 000) fine on a book publisher, based on the homophobic „child protection" law.
Reason: stores displayed Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper in the youth section, and the books – that "depict homosexuality+ were not in closed packaging. pic.twitter.com/S0N6Q8JV8r
This is the country and leader the republicans love almost as much as Putin.
Because if you don’t acknowledge LBGTs exist, kids will stop being gay
Clay’s policy is to place a temporary ban on all challenged books until they complete the challenge process (which can include an appeal to remove to the Board).
With 350+ challenges and growing, this temporary ban could last years. https://t.co/Sjcbx5Si8f
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) March 29, 2023
This year in the U.S. the majority of books most often banned are by LGBT writers and writers of color.
Here’s a good report from the writers’ organization PEN on the state of censorship in the U.S. https://pen.org/report/bann…
New: The Texas Department of Agriculture renounced a mandatory workplace training on Wednesday that mentioned gender identity definitions.
The same state agency in April ordered employees to dress “in a manner consistent with their biological gender.” https://t.co/6sUlMTHF0n
Oh my God, I'm so sick of this christian bigotry. This is the exact reason the EEOC laws exist. And it's training.. good grief. For a bunch of tough men you'd think they could handle some words about gender.
How did people get it in their heads that they have a “right” to never be offended? That is not a right and never has been. Freedom of speech, remember?Astonishing how the “fuck your feelings” crowd so quickly turn around to demand safe spaces where their precious feelings are prioritized so much.
Didn’t a black woman in Texas get five years for voting just once? I think they claimed she was ineligible for some reason.And it was a provisional ballot and was not counted. Further it was a poll worker that told her to fill out a provisional ballot.
Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina argues against humanitarian aid for women and children in Afghanistan because it is not mentioned in the Constitution.
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 14, 2023
Jesus isn’t in the Constitution either. Let’s start there.
Gov. Newsom slams "cancel culture" and "radicalized zealots" at Temecula school board, vows state action over Harvey Milk issue https://t.co/3y6aekUGDY
They’ve already grabbed lots of the courts, then they want to control education (‘member how so many righties loves to quote hitler on this…) & inject religion into the schools – while wiping out all dissenting ideas & critical thinking – fast forward 10 years and VOILA – you have a whole generation of little christo-fascists that taxpayers are footing the bill to educate with xtian nationalist dogma. These wack job conservatives (an extreme minority) are proving too damn good at a multi-decade slow play here. People have to wake up.
GOP attorneys general tee off on large corporations over diversity policies https://t.co/A3QkBLHhWD
🚨BREAKING: After Randy Fine didn’t make the cut, the state has stepped in and halted the hiring process for the next FAU President https://t.co/HvOW1pdQor
— The Space Coast Rocket (@CoastRocket) July 8, 2023
The DeSantis state regime is launching a full-scale investigation into why their bigoted GOP ally Randy Fine wasn’t selected as a finalist to be FAU’s president…and why an applicant may have been asked their preferred pronouns.
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) July 14, 2023
Philanthropist Dick Schmidt, whose family has donated more than $47 million to FAU, served on the search committee. “I feel personally outraged and slandered by the implications of the chancellor’s letter on me and my colleagues…”https://t.co/xkJXqXgu0f
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) July 14, 2023
Rep. Jill Tokuda, Democrat of Hawaii, “admonished her Republican colleagues for the tenor of the debate. ‘From the backwards, racially insensitive comments spoken on this floor, it seems D.E.I. training would be good right here in the halls of Congress’” https://t.co/0kTcKpUNsh
219-210: The House passes the National Defense Authorization Act.
The House GOP added a raft of conservative policy to the traditionally bipartisan legislation, including limiting abortion access and transgender health care for service members and banning Pentagon DEI trainings. pic.twitter.com/Tdge06jwyB
This is what the right / republicans / Christian Nationalists desperately want for the US. Notice how the Russian laws went, first they claimed they needed to protect the kids so the laws started out chipping away at LGBTQ+ rights until they finally outlawed any public / social LGBTQ+ representation. They outlawed LGBTQ+ people. Now they are removing trans people, denying them treatments needed to be who they know they are. Simply erasing them in society, as they did the gays and pride rainbows. Notice this time they used the excuse of saving the families, the traditional nuclear family of one man, a subservient wife, and how many ever kids. Again this is the goal of the right here in the US, reverting the US society to the 1950s / the Leave It To Beaver fiction. Hugs
Russia set to ban all gender-affirming healthcare. (Getty Images)
Russia has given initial approval to a bill that would outlaw gender-affirming healthcare for trans people of all ages.
The proposed bill reportedly bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person”, as well as changing gender markers on official documents like passports.
Senior politician Pyotr Tolstoy, who sponsored the bill, claimed on Wednesday (14 June) it would “protect Russia with its cultural and family values and traditions and stop the infiltration of the Western anti-family ideology,” the Associated Press reported.
Lawmakers also reportedly claimed the proposed law would prevent anybody registered as male from changing their gender in official documents to avoid the military draft.
It will now go to Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, where it must receive three readings to be signed into law. The bill was approved unanimously in its first reading, The Times reported.
According to Equaldex, Russian trans people can currently receive a certificate recognising their gender from a medical commission.
Trans rights activist Maxim, who spoke to AP about the potential law, explained that the current situation in Russia with regards to gender-affirming care is “unique in a good way”. Unlike some other countries, gender-affirming care or surgeries are currently not required to change the gender on legal documents.
Under the new law, trans people who have already changed their gender marker on their official documents will reportedly be able to continue receiving gender-affirming care, however those who have not yet changed their official gender marker will be banned from doing so.
The law, which previously only applied to under-18s, prevents any promotion of LGBTQ+ identities or same-sex relationships in Russian media.
Igor Kochetkov of the Russian LGBT Network explained the expansion of the bill represented “part of a broader attack on anything the government deems ‘western and progressive’.”
The administration of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) quietly took down LGBTQ+ youth resources from a state website after a conservative media outlet questioned the links, records show, building on a pattern of removals derided by public health employees who say their work is being politicized.
Within hours of an inquiry from the Daily Wire, a dozen resources, including a live-chat online support group for teens, were removed from the state health department website at the direction of a Cabinet-level agency, according to emails obtained under the state’s open records law.
The presence of the materials — and their subsequent disappearance on May 31 — generated two headlines and a flurry of online reaction from conservative readers of the outlet, co-founded by right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro.
Youngkin officials quietly pulled LGBTQ+ youth resources off a VA Dept. of Health website.
LGBTQ+ youth do better socially, emotionally and academically when they have access to resources and feel connected to a supportive community.https://t.co/x24eGKY6dg
The Youngkin administration has three times stripped the state health department website of information: on abortion, sexual health and now LGBTQ+ youth resources.https://t.co/swRgQWbyDo
They WANT dead kids. From mass shootings to removing suicide prevention to allowing pedophile clergy to outlawing loving same-sex family adoption. How much more obvious can it be????
Don’t say gay bills started out to protect little kids from gender identification or sexual orientation that might confuse them, you know little kids up to grade three or around 8 years old. Then they raised the age to grade 8 or 14 because again they wanted to protect the children from something that would confuse them, but by that age I doubt that may kids were confused by those topics. Then to protect the children they expand the entire ban on those topics in all public schools in all grades, I guess because young adults would be confused about gender identity and sexual orientation? Now they have banned what can be taught in higher education and they are demanding to know the sexual orientation of potential hire. The real goal is now and always has been to remove any representation of LGBTQ+ especially gay and trans people. They want to wipe gay and trans people out of society. These are real Christian nationalist racist bigots, true believers, and they will keep going until they are removed from any position of authority. Hugs
Just days before the three finalists for Florida Atlantic University’s next president were set to speak at public forums, the search has been stopped in its tracks.
State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues sent a letter to Brad Levine, chairman of both the FAU Board of Trustees and the Presidential Search Committee, citing “anomalies that have been alleged in the Florida Atlantic University presidential search.” The letter, dated Friday, was posted on social media Friday evening.
The letter said Rodrigues’ office “received concerning information,” including that search committee members conducted a straw poll to rank their six preferred candidates out of a list of nearly 60 and that one candidate said a questionnaire asked if his sexual orientation is “queer” and that another survey asked whether his gender is “male, female or other” and what pronouns he uses.
Rodrigues said such questions appear to violate U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations forbidding questions about job applicants’ sex, sexual orientation or gender.
According to the letter, consulting firm AGB Search did not inform members of the FAU search committee that such questions would appear on the questionnaire. Rodrigues said that raises further questions about whether information was being withheld from university officials.
“Those rankings were submitted confidentially and directly to the search firm,” Rodrigues wrote. A new Florida law keeps finalists for college and university president searches confidential until a list of finalists is publicly announced.
Desantis had recommended viciously anti-LGBTQ state Sen. Randy Fine for the job, but Fine did not make the list of finalists. That, you can be sure, will play into this story as it unfolds. As you can see below, some apparently believe that the questionnaire issue is being used as excuse to ultimately give the job to Fine. FAU, based in Boca Raton with multiple satellite campuses on the southeast coast, has an enrollment of 30,000.
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) July 8, 2023
🚨BREAKING: After Randy Fine didn’t make the cut, the state has stepped in and halted the hiring process for the next FAU President https://t.co/HvOW1pdQor
— The Space Coast Rocket (@CoastRocket) July 8, 2023
DeSantis ally Randy Fine did not make the final selection for FAU President so now DeSantis appointed Board of Governors (BOG) who oversee the State University System are freezing the entire search process. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/2dCC9SmJMO
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) July 7, 2023
There are two separate issues here. 1-Baby DeSantis is having the vapors because his homophobic pick didn’t make the Final Cut. Tough. 2-Whatever we feel about the term “queer” is a separate debate. No job application should ask about sexual orientation or sexual identity. Doing potentially leads to discrimination.
Twin brothers Blake Krenzer, 19, and Brandon Krenzer, 19, of Gambrills have been charged for alleged involvement in the vandalism of the Black Lives Matter and Pride signs at the Ark & Dove Presbyterian Church. Officers responded to the Odenton church on the morning of June 14, where they found the vandalized signs. An investigation revealed the vandalism had happened around 10 p.m. the previous evening. Police said the Krenzers were identified with the help of the public.
While the Court’s decision only addresses expressive original designs, I’m deeply concerned that the decision could invite more discrimination against LGBTQI+ Americans. More broadly, today’s decision weakens long-standing laws that protect all Americans against discrimination in public accommodations – including people of color, people with disabilities, people of faith, and women.
American Christianity isn’t “merely” anything. It’s a foul pestilence that should be righteously and vociferously mocked and shunned as the anti science, anti logic and reasoning millstone dragging society down to stupidity that it is.
If you want context that this is a made up political issue watch this
If Republicans are truly worried about members of the first family improperly benefitting from their name, Mehdi says there are two people besides Hunter Biden that they should be looking at: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Because that was the price for the top-secret intelligence documents Kushy obtained from his FIL’s top-secret stash at Mar-A-Shitto and passed on to Saudi intelligence….
At least that’s what I believe. I fear that someday, we will discover that Kushy did more damage to the US than every other convicted spy combined. No wonder Skanky is trying to distance herself from Daddy…..
I wonder if any of her GOP opponents in the upcoming debates are going to have the guts to call her “Nimrata” and ask her why she insists on trying to pass as White…and oh by the way, why hasn’t she released her “long form birth certificate” to prove that she was really born in the USA and not India?
It goes back to Aristotle and Aquinas plus back to Old Testament where a man “plants his seed.” The DNA for the complete human being is in the man’s seed, just like a plant. The woman is just the furrow where the seed is planted.
I’m reminded of the Comstock Act, especially as it pertained to mailing birth control or abortifacients in the 1870s. It was expressed that one of the underlying reasons for this was In reaction to the influx of the Irish Catholics (especially in NYC), and the need to insure that English Protestants didn’t become a minority.
if students wanted their loans forgiven, why the fuck didn't they just take Sam Alito on a luxury fishing vacation and tell him how to vote? I mean, show some initiative, people
Sam_Handwich5 days ago edited In my very blue neck of the woods a “controversy” has arisen after the local zoo posted pictures on FB of Pride decorations in some of the animal enclosures. Not sure this would even be an issue were it not for the right’s renewed tantrum that gay people exist. I have mixed feelings about zoos as a thing, haven’t been there in years, but might visit today or tomorrow.
DeSanctimonious is a dangerous religious maniac, craven for power, and there is nothing he won’t say or do to achieve his goals. It is a relief to see the Orlando Sentinel has stood up to this fascist bigoted governor. More leaders need to stand up and do the same thing.
Floridians are not ready for a new fight to begin. They overwhelmingly reelected a fascist governor who hates us. Down here in SWFL, there is a practical news blackout on the the horrible new laws taking effect in a couple of days. Nobody seems to care. It feels like what 1930’s Germany must have felt like to live there.
Dennis5 days ago They spent billions to indoctrinate Republican voters to become far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists and now they are trying to stop someone who is representing such views..
They never liked trump, they thought they could control him. That went badly. Now they see a nazi that they don’t need to babysit and they are rightly afraid the orange shit stain is gonna rain on their parade.
The only reason they want to stop Trump is because they can read the polls which say he will lose to Biden in 2024.
In other news, the New Hampshire House passes legislation to ban gay and trans panic defenses 271-98 with the Senate concurring. I am so pleased to see this LGBTQ civil rights measure head to Gov. Sununu's desk and am happy to have played a part in drafting the bill's language. pic.twitter.com/lzGDB7HX5x
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) June 29, 2023
Yves R. Mektin5 days ago So they plan on doing absolute zilch nada zip for the American people or their constituents. Nothing but performative obstruction.
I’d ask on what grounds, but it’s just petty political vindictiveness that will only serve to waste time and taxpayer money; in other words, business as usual for the GQP
Conversion therapy is complete and utter quackery, and it’s a crime that it’s not outlawed federally. This practice should be outlawed regardless of age, not just for minors.
At least a large chunk of states are picking up the slack.
We’ve been far too tolerant for all manner of quackery (Dr Oz for example) for far too long. Frauds and scammers should be put out of business. This isn’t a first amendment issue. This is an issue of lying to people (or their parents) and inflicting harm on them.
It is psychological terrorism. The pray away “movement” coincided with APA’s declassification of same sex orientation as illness. Evangelicals were pissed not to have a “sick” scapegoat.
Great news. Once again, if it weren’t already obvious, LGBT rights expand under Democrats and contract under Republicans. The folks who are always saying the Dem’s do nothing aren’t paying attention.
They know their voters are captured assets. They only listen to propaganda and have inoculations in place to keep any outside information of getting in.
Message of the year: How do you spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel. The kindest person in the room is often the smartest. 🏆 @GovPritzkerpic.twitter.com/X8BvFq5215
Read the full article. There’s much more. Gift link here. This same developer has given DeSantis and wife rides on his private jet and was in the news just last week for an unreported $27,000 golf simulator he had installed at Florida’s governor’s mansion.
Read the full article. Hunt last appeared on JMG in February 2023 when she responded to an anti-drag bill with a troll amendment that would bar parents from enrolling their children in “religious indoctrination camps.” The final April 1st tweet below is pinned to the top of the hate group’s feed.
A Nebraska lawmaker filed a defamation lawsuit against a local far-right political action committee after members claimed she was grooming her transgender son.
DmR4 days ago I live near her district, which is in a blue pocket in an otherwise bright crimson state. She is making quite the name for herself and the Wingers do not like the attention and support she is getting.
I’m not as disturbed by the picture at the Governor’s mansion as I am concerned for her children. The height of their creativity is a brainwashed image of a picture of torture? Where are the flowers, magic fairies, animals?
This deliberate violation of church/state can’t be prosecuted either.
Evangelicals now have their required threshold majority in key places. Once they are the solid majority wherever they are they are the de facto standard and NOTHING can remove them. That’s why we’re becoming a failed nation. Once a nation is ruled by Bronze Age religious mythology it collapses.
Something tells me in coming years the entire LGBTQ community will be required to march and fight for our rights all across this country…. Even us quiet, middle aged suburban gays are needed to get more involved.
The DeSantis message is kind of amazing: "You might have thought Trump is a bigot, but occasionally he seems to say non-bigoted things. I'll be all bigotry all the time!" https://t.co/CYZblJAwgY
Team DeSantis boasting, like all normal socially adjusted people would, that his laws "literally threaten trans existence" https://t.co/8GbdWauFgg
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) July 1, 2023
GayOldLady3 days ago Peanuts 🥜 DeSantis trying to prove his manhood by leaning into the Pulse massacre! This bastard is a danger to our community and we ignore him at our own peril. We must proactively stand against him. 🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🌈
We will fight him in the orchards, we will fight him in the mangroves, we will fight him on the beaches, we wll fight him in the cornfields, we will fight him any fuckin place he challenges our Civil and Human rights
Well, at least DeSantis has finally shown his true colors. His ridiculaous campaign has NOTHING to do with “Protect the Children” and everything to do with “Hate the Gays.” Which we knew all along.
This is not only deranged and idiotic, it’s a not so subtle call for violence against LGBT people. The subtext is that DeFascist will get rid of these people once and for all. And of course the Log Cabin quislings are surprised the leopards are eating their faces.
Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️4 days ago With Supreme Court LGBTQ decision, marriage equality is at risk The court’s decision demeans our nation’s aspirations to equality and inclusion and thereby diminishes us all. By Laurence H. Tribe and Jeffrey B. Abramson Until this week, under long-standing state public accommodations laws, if a business wanted all the benefits that came from being generally open to the public, then it had to serve all customers equally. Since 1964, this principle has applied to a motel in the heart of Atlanta, Ollie’s barbeque joint in Birmingham, Ala., and social clubs and private schools that advertised to the general public. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted about the historic case involving Ollie’s, it would not do for the owner to have said, “I’ll serve Blacks but only on a takeout window, not inside my restaurant because that sends a message that I endorse integration.”
By twisting free speech into a license to discriminate, the court has now carved out an exception from public accommodations law for businesses that recast their services in ways that highlight their expressive features. But the court offers no workable principle to cabin that exception in any meaningful way.
Todd20036 Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️4 days ago Sodomy laws are next Hiv meds could be no longer covered by insurance We could be arrested for holding hands in public or kissing in public Don’t think that’s impossible
One would think that the court would find for the nation’s best interests to encourage a fair, equitable, and cohesive society, not to promote the very toxicity that tears society apart, no matter whether it’s disguised in “free speech” or “religion.”
I knew the night RBG died that we were fucked and would be fucked for longer than I’ll likely be alive. Right wingers have made no secret that they hated anything that gave rights to minorities. They like to frame it in a libertarian argument so it sounds like freedom, but the freedom they want is the freedom to be bigots. Everything is going to be ruled unconstitutional and that’s going to affect the blue states, not just the red. And especially the blue islands in red states! So very fucked and not in the good way.
Tie up the courts, the judges, and waste lawyers time along with the time of Congress…. …for not wanting to put on a CDC recommended mask when in the company of others.
It’s all very interesting that after years of these fascists whining that they couldn’t breathe when wearing a mask, so many of them now show up at protests…WEARING MASKS!
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.)
The other names weren’t a surprise, but I have to admit, Ralphie didn’t ring a bell for me. Had to look him up, and wow, shocker, real estate mogul old white guy. Jokes about sexual assault. Negligent with firearms. Used the supposedly MAGA hated remote voting to skip town to get to CPAC. Hates student loan forgiveness, but got some $300k+ of PPP loans forgiven. Wanted Steve King back after his boot for white nationalist comments. Wants to impeach Biden.
Weird, he hits all the same marks as the MTGs and Boeberts and such, but I had absolutely no recollection of him. Wonder if he’ll join the GOP presidential clown car next…
northalabama Gene Perry4 days ago standing, schmanding! it’s 2023, you just have to invent a plaintiff out of thin air, then have enough billionaires lined up to pay your expenses for years until you win, easy peasy.
It amazes me that these decisions so blatantly favour the rich and privileged. Striking down Affirmative Action can only harm the less privileged. Student loans are used by those who need them and don’t have their own resources. and the LGBT community can now be refused services by public commercial operations. Nothing here for the poor or the minorities can take any comfort in. It looks like the Supreme Court has found their own ‘protected class’ of wealthy privileged bourgeoisie.
What Paxton and his office did not say: The law firm that produced the report, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, has been paid more than $500,000 in public money to defend him against whistleblowers who sued the agency for wrongful termination because they went to the FBI with allegations of corruption.
In public facilities, including prisons and schools, a new requirement will go into place requiring designated bathrooms for men and women, and individuals will be required to utilize facilities based on their gender as assigned at birth. It has no exceptions even for those who have fully transitioned through gender-reassignment surgery.
The Board of Education has already effectively expanded through high school a prohibition of instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. A new law (SB 1069) codifies that at least through 8th grade. The legislation also prohibits any requirement that school officials use preferred pronouns that don’t match gender assigned at birth.
Health care providers can now turn patients away and refuse treatment based on “conscience-based objections.” DeSantis signed the new law (SB 1580) in front of a “Prescribe Freedom” sign and said it empowers physicians to act within their own morals. LGBTQ advocates label it a right to discriminate bill against gay and transgender Floridians, and the latter group has already seen restrictions on health care put into place this year by statute and the Board of Medicine.
Also going into effect today is the right to carry a concealed weapon without any permit or training, the right of hospitals to refuse care to undocumented patients, and a law allowing the state to use radioactive fertilizer byproducts in the creation of roads. That last one came about due to lobbying by the phosphate industry, which in 2021 saw a leakage of their toxic byproducts into Tampa Bay.
The SCOTUS ruled for the bigots! The religiously driven seriously old haters of the newer culture ruled it is OK to discriminate against the gays, if you have a sincerely held belief. I am hurting so bad seeing the US revert to a religiously driven theocracy that denies any progress in society since the 1950s. We fought these battles, we in the US are now going so far backward from the rest of the world. Hell even Nepal just approved same-sex marriage. The fundamentalist won’t stop even as they age out and become more of a minority until they rule us all with their hateful church doctrines based on words of people who did not even understand germ theory written 2,500 years ago. I am so upset at a country that claims all people are created equal that says because I am gay I have less or no rights if someone has a belief against my existence. On a prior case one of the Justices wrote that discrimination against religion is the worst kind of discrimination. Well you can choose your religion, you can change it or stop believing in any of them. I was born gay. I don’t have a choice in that. I am gay. But someone who can choose what myths they believe in that day can deny me services or rights due to that belief. Sad hugs.
The suit centers on Lorie Smith, a website designer who does not want to provide her services for gay weddings because of her religious objections. In 2016, she says, a gay man named Stewart requested her services for help with his upcoming wedding. “We are getting married early next year and would love some design work done for our invites, place, names etc. We might also stretch to a website,” reads a message he apparently sent her through a message on her website.
In court filings, her lawyers produced a copy of the inquiry. But Stewart, who requested his last name be withheld for privacy, said in an interview with the Guardian that he never sent the message, even though it correctly lists his email address and telephone number. He has also been happily married to a woman for the last 15 years, he said. In fact, until he received a call this week from a reporter from the magazine, Stewart says had no idea he was somehow tied up in a case that had made it to the Supreme Court.
“I’m not really sure where that came from,” he told me of the mysterious 2016 inquiry that used his name, email address, and cell phone number to request a wedding website for a same-sex marriage nearly a decade after he married a woman. He is a designer himself, something of a known quantity in design circles—he’s spoken at conferences and on podcasts, and has a “decent Twitter following,” he said.
The design world is small. But not small enough, he said, that he had heard of Lorie Smith—not until her case was already before the Supreme Court, and the design community began discussing its potential fallout. It didn’t make sense to him. Why would a web designer—as the website the inquiry referenced as his own made clear that he was—living in San Francisco, seek to hire someone in another state who has never built a wedding website, let alone a website for a same-sex wedding, to build his wedding website?
Photo: Alliance Defending Freedom president Michael Farris.
Hit the New Republic link for a very in-depth accounting of this story. As I’ve said many times, the ADF invents these businesses with sole intention of challenging local LGBTQ rights ordinances. The ruling in the case is expected tomorrow morning.
Truly insane story in which @melissagira called up the man named in the court filing as someone who requested a same-sex wedding website only to find out..he says he never sent such a request and is not gay.
They will have written their opinion based on the assumption that the plaintiff’s filing was true and correct. They won’t abandon it because the filing is being challenged now. Unlike in the case involving the athletic coach proselytizing on the field on school time, where the conservative justices MADE UP “facts,” or at best completely mischaracterized them, here no one could ask if the plaintiff’s “facts” were correct. There just was not enough information to argue with them. The real argument should have been over the plaintiff’s standing to pursue a case that had no real-world consequences since she was only contemplating entering the wedding web-design business.
Well, you know how the saying goes: Love the sinner. Hate the phony-sin-I-had-to-fabricate-because-I-have-never-really-experienced-discomfort-by-being-asked-to-do-anything-and-I’m-a-big-fat-liar.
I defend their right to live their lives according to a 2,000 year old book of myths and fairy tales (even though they fail to live according to it), but I object to them legislating my civil rights according to their 2,000 year old book of myths and fairy tales.
(Written, incidentally, by misogynistic men who owned other humans, and were puzzled by where the sun went at night.)
Tomorrow is the last day of the term; the Court convenes at 10 am, and this is one of only two argued cases remaining. This case was pretextual and flouted anything I was taught about standing and before-the-fact irreparable harm. Nonetheless, it got through the appellate process without being thrown out, and here it is.
Journalism is now officially dead if a case made it all the way to the Supreme Court and will have a the ruling tomorrow and this is just now being uncovered, how much other shit has gone to SCOTUS and nobody checked.
I also blame the Defense Attorneys for not doing their due diligence
So this morons only shtick is to push hate and fear. Yes that is the standard operating mode of the right now. But this guy is riding high with his almost non-stop attacks on the LGBTQ+. Just like Matt Walsh it is all he has to have someone notice him. It is always the other that is the fault or reason things are bad with these people. But the guy is a flat out liar but it won’t matter as all his followers want to hear is the hate. He claims that it is illegal to fly Nazi flags, “We ban all sorts of flags from public spaces – Nazi flags … “ Hugs
Yes, I don’t know where any flags are banned in public spaces. He must be living in an alternate reality,
Also, Christians have a flag. So if he is saying that no one is a real American unless they only fly the American flag, he forgets those people, and all the people who fly the ‘don’t tread on me’ flag, university flags, etc
I drive by countless frontyard flag poles where they are flying a Trump flag instead of the American one. It’s their property and they can fly whatever they want, but it’s definitely not the American flag. Of course when Republicans do it it’s okay.
our planet is literally on fire in so many ways, and morons like this are worried about flags? air-quality high alert (dangerous levels) for us here today. visibility is wayyy down….looks like a ground fog. my nose has been dripping all morning, GAH! first time i have seen noaa use ‘smoke’ in our forecast. looks like afternoon garden projects are on hold. again.
“But is it more extreme than turning Christmas day into Christmas week into Christmas month into Christmas season into — left unchecked, I promise you — Christmas always.”
Only difference between my quote and his is that the ever-expanding Christmas season really seems to be a thing… yet folks like him always talk up a “War on Christmas” as if it’s the thing under assault and bringing death threats to employees and such.
A federal court blocked Florida’s new drag show law, ruling the state’s effort to bar children from attending “adult live performances,” is overly vague and likely unconstitutional. The decision Friday by U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell comes only a day after another federal court overturned another Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed law prohibiting gender-affirming care treatment in Florida from being covered by Medicaid. “This concern rings hollow, however, when accompanied by the knowledge that Florida state law presently and independently… permits any minor to attend an R-rated film at a movie theater if accompanied by a parent or guardian,” Presnell ruled. “This statute is specifically designed to suppress the speech of drag queen performers,” Presnell wrote in his 24-page decision. “In the words of the bill’s sponsor in the House, State Representative Randy Fine: (the legislation) will protect our children by ending the gateway propaganda to this evil – ‘Drag Queen Story Time.’”
Courts are putting a stop on the anti-#LGBTQ laws pushed by @GovRonDeSantis and @TheFLGOP. This is what happens when fascist authoritarians believe they can ignore the U.S. Constitution. Thankfully, some checks and balances still exist. https://t.co/Eaf9yBzapy
“This concern rings hollow, however, when accompanied by the knowledge that Florida state law presently and independently… permits any minor to attend an R-rated film at a movie theater if accompanied by a parent or guardian,” Presnell ruled.
From the opening paragraph, US District Judge Gregory Presnell, an 80-year-old Clinton appointee, calls out the state of Florida's action for what they are: an attempt "to suppress the speech of drag queen performers." pic.twitter.com/BhxHUqZGg6
Paddycakes2001 Melissiaan hour ago From the transcript of the court hearing: THE COURT: The plaintiffs accuse you of invidious discrimination in violation of the 14th Amendment. How do you answer? STATE’S LAWYER: That’s the point, Your Honor.
mkbear684 hours ago Well, this was expected and they knew it, but it plays to the base and gets donations, but it puts real people at risk.
Moms for Liberty is an American conservative organization that advocates against school curriculums that mention LGBT rights, race, critical race theory, and discrimination, while multiple chapters have also campaigned to ban from school libraries books that address gender and sexuality issues. The group began by protesting COVID-19 protections in schools, including mask and vaccine mandates.
Moms for Liberty has been criticized for harassment, for deepening divisions among parents, for making students’ education more difficult, and for having close ties to the Republican Party rather than being a genuine grassroots effort.
The group was labeled an “anti-government extremist” organization in 2023 by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Formation January 1, 2021 Founders Tina Descovich, Tiffany Justice, Bridget Ziegler Headquarters Melbourne, Florida, U.S. Area served United States Membership 70,000
It was very obviously discrimination, and it’s obvious from the arguments they put before the court that this has nothing to do with any form of concern for anything other than brazen politics and just flat out hatred of a minority group.
Bingo. This is performative art for their target voting bloc (evangelicals) who vote solid Red in every election like clockwork. Dems don’t have the equivalent. There’s literally nothing on the Left that’s anything like the consistency of the Right when it comes to voter outreach.
Good. I hope that all these hateful and cruel laws are struck down. The slave states want to make laws that health care workers don’t have to give LGBT people medical assistance at ALL if they have “deeply held” religious beliefs against us. It’s time we are considered to be human beings, not just another theocratic political football. If you prick us, do we not bleed?
Historically, (like 2 years ago, not 20), law in the US doesn’t let you single out a group, especially a disfavored group, and pass laws against them. Nice to see some vestiges of that core idea are still here.
And note that THOMAS is the #1 cheerleader for getting rid of ‘equal protection’.
So you encourage book banning, demonize LGBTQ people and your tactics are compared to the historical actions of Nazis all while being designated as a hate group by the SPLC and then you try and refute that by quoting Hitler?! M4L keeps showing us who they are. Believe them. https://t.co/0WABae4f3A
— Jim Stewartson, Anti-disinfo activist 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙 (@jimstewartson) June 22, 2023
this Hitler quote that Moms For Liberty used is the same Hitler quote that Republican Rep. Mary Miller recited at a Moms For America event two years ago!
And yet republicans never debate about the cost, while claiming $300 for the poorest people with children a month is obscene and we can not afford it. The Pentagon fails every audit, and I just watched where they are overcharging thousands of dollars a piece for a trash can that they use to charge $300 for. Yet Manchin says we need to cut social security. Hugs
Tucker Carlson's former head writer has resurfaced as Charlie Kirk’s radio producer; he had resigned after @oliverdarcy reported that he had posted racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and other awful content on an online forum. https://t.co/K9GLB0wjlSpic.twitter.com/tqAJsBkzs4
Brooklyn Albert18 hours ago I see the handiwork of the likes of Scott Lively and his ilk, spreading the gospel of hate and their twisted comprehension of history to African, Caribbean, and Latin American countries.
Authoritarian advocates, whatever their form, need some “other” to be dehumanized and oppressed. When everybody more or less has the same race and culture in a country, they then cast about for some other way of differentiating for the purposes of fomenting hate. Sometimes it’s by religion, sometimes by ethnicity, but if those are relatively homogeneous, they’ll go for LGBTQ status or political identity.
For example, in America in the 1950s, they did both of those latter, along with racist bigotry: People perceived to be not-straight and those who were accused of being socialist or communist. All three were targeted for systematic oppression.
It stuns me that these leaders are so focused on sexuality and making gay people pay for their sexuality with severe punishments and even death. Why is this even on their minds? Is being gay causing some sort of great turmoil in their countries? Are they trying to undermine their governments? Are they just living their lives like everyone else? So much angst over gay people. He contradicts his own statements in just one paragraph. “Gay Africans don’t exist.” – “kick LGBT people out of Kenya completely,” Well, which is it? Who gets kicked out if they don’t exist in the first place? Screwy like the radical Christians that foment this hatred.
Some of them genuinely seem to think that the existence of LGBTQ people threatens the continued existence of the human race, because not enough people are breeding.
Kenya has 53 million people in an area the size of Texas. Underpopulation is not a serious issue there.
JoeMyGodMod3 days ago You may recall Eric Metaxas for the time he sucker-punched a passing kid on a bicycle on his way into the White House for a Trump event and then lied about it even after video surfaced. It’s what Jesus would want.
Read the full article. Andersen, who lost a lawsuit to get on the ballot, has not so far been accused of wrongdoing. As you can see in his campaign clip below, he ran on a promise to end pandemic mandates.
Earlier this week Kennedy claimed that chemicals in drinking water are turning children transgender and that WiFi radiation causes brain cancer.
Unearthed: RFK Jr. pushed HIV/AIDS denialism, attributing AIDS not to HIV, but to a “gay lifestyle” and recreational drugs:
“There were people that were part of a gay lifestyle, they were burning the candle at both ends, …there were poppers on sale everywhere at the gay bars.” pic.twitter.com/BK2WXxjyg8
Hank: NO MORE WoW!!!4 days ago “The magnitude of the value of the Bible as a literary work outweighs any violence or profanity which may be contained in the book,” So, will they do the same for ALL books??? or just the ones, they deem fit???
“Public spaces are public spaces,” U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer wrote. “Public spaces are not private spaces. Public spaces are not majority spaces. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution ensures that all citizens, popular or not, majority or minority, conventional or unconventional, have access to public spaces for public expression.”
In his 80-page ruling, Judge James M. Moody Jr. of Federal District Court in Little Rock said the law both discriminated against transgender people and violated constitutional rights for doctors. He also said that the state of Arkansas had failed to substantially prove a number of its claims, including that the care was experimental or carelessly prescribed to teenagers.
“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics…the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing.” https://t.co/Y8yImyNZoq
Republicans know these hateful laws will never survive court scrutiny. The point was to drum up paranoia and grievance among voters. And with the help of the media, it was working. But there are hopeful signs that a backlash is forming.
— Matthew, June Goomba (@TeachAllAmerica) June 20, 2023
The law is extremely broad, which actually creates a host of other complications. A group of lawyers previously told The Dallas Morning News that the measure could restrict performances by artists such as Madonna and Miley Cyrus, which often feature sexual dancing. The text could even affect bachelorette parties, if they involved sex toys or other paraphernalia. The new changes could even impact cheerleading and criminalize sexual conduct between consenting 17-year-olds (17 is the age of consent in Texas). Movie screenings and art history classes could similarly come under fire. And of course, the law will affect its original target: drag performers, Pride parades, and transgender people just trying to live their lives. Lawsuits against similar bans are planned or already underway in other states. In Florida, the Orlando outpost of Hamburger Mary’s sued the DeSantis administration last month.
Rep. Lauren Boebert claims that she is forcing a House vote on impeaching President Biden because she is "directed and led" by "the spirit of God" in everything she does: "We are doing what is right, what is righteous. History will prove that." pic.twitter.com/EBoKqYEFif
In the fall of 2022, the FBI got a report that Marian Hudak had used his Dodge 1500 truck to try to run off the road two black people who were also driving. He allegedly yelled racial epithets at them. pic.twitter.com/ZZ9jIRGXbM
Hudak eventually followed them home, where a confrontation happened. Here’s hudak’s truck, which was well known in the area because it was decked out in American, Confederate, and Trump flags. pic.twitter.com/I5x3HG3lgJ
“Kentucky law prohibits the Attorney General from using or attempting to use ‘his official position to secure or create privileges, exemptions, advantages, or treatment for himself or others in derogation of the public interest at large,’” the letter, which was sent out Friday afternoon and obtained by The Daily Beast, said.
Woah. Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky Attorney General and GOP candidate for Governor, was being bankrolled by an addiction recovery company that his office was supposed to be investigating. He only recused himself after people started looking into it. https://t.co/2FlYsqgdzj
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) June 23, 2023
Yikes. 😬
Daniel Cameron tried — and failed — to force TV stations to hide the truth about him hiring the Bevin cronies who helped pardon politically-connected killers and rapists.
Walters, who was appointed state secretary of education by Christianist Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2020, faced calls to resign in 2022 after it was revealed that a Koch-funded group that advocates for privatizing public schools was paying him $120,000/year. Stitt rejected calls for Walters’ resignation and attempted to reappoint him again earlier this year, but the state Senate refused to allow him to hold the elected superintendent and appointed secretary of education posts at the same time.
Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters says separation of church and state is a "false narrative" and that the 1962 school prayer case was one of the Warren court's "unAmerican and hateful court decisions." In a jaw-dropping speech, he says he'll enforce a minute of daily silence. pic.twitter.com/tQvOYVCe1m
Walters is also considering ordering each school to post a copy of the 10 Commandments and to teach a "Western civilization course" as a way "to foster gratitude and informed citizenship." These recommendations came from a panel he picked to return religion to schools.
Yves R. Mektin3 days ago edited Well, Oklahoma does have the second lowest high school SAT scores in the whole country*, so maybe tots and pears will help. * West Virginia is the only state that did worse
All those states compete to see who can lead the fastest race to the bottom. Apparently, Louisiana has the lowest life expectancy in the country (Hawaii has the highest).
So he doesn’t like the 1961 decision…toots, the SC ruled on this a bunch of times. And don’t throw that ‘found fathers’ shit around, they did NOT. Under gawd my ass. ;(
Thomas Jefferson penned the wall metaphor in a letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802. He celebrated the First Amendment for “building a wall of separation between Church & State.” The Supreme Court has endorsed this view many times. First in 1878. And then again “in 1947, 1948, 1961 (three times), 1962, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1977, 1982, and again and again in countless concurrences, dissents, and lower court opinions,” according to a recent law review article. The wall metaphor nicely sums up the relationship.
I thought Article 11 of the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli did a handy job of summarizing what The Founding Fathers™ thought of Christianity in America, since it passed in the US Senate unanimously while being signed by many of the actual founders –
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
Not to forget the Treaty of Tripoli – the first treaty entered into by the United States – and having constitutional power — which states that the United States has no national religion.
After Roe was overturned, the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Institute, which has filed numerous briefs before the court, paid for a trip to Rome for Alito. https://t.co/Kvun6nQidG
Per Florida Politics, the “groomers” slur was first popularized by viciously anti-LGBTQ former DeSantis administration spox Christina Pushaw, a registered foreign agent for the nation of Georgia and his current “rapid response” campaign director. Pushaw began pushing the term early last year during the start of the “Don’t Say Gay” campaign.
sfbob Jack3 days ago “Groomer.” Noun. Definition (per DeSantis): 1. A person who does something you disapprove of or who says something you disagree with. 2. A person who believes in providing factual, age-appropriate information to children on topics pertaining to sexuality, sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity.
What amazes me is, while they’re howling about grooming, they manage to completely ignore the ones actively doing it and getting busted for it weekly, the churches.
The GOP friction stems from a push by Rep Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) who publicly revived the discussion by trying to prevent funding in an energy and water development bill from being used to rename Army Corps civil works projects that are named after the Confederacy or an individual who served in the Confederate military.
“One of the things that is irritating a few of us: a certain member from Georgia is wanting to re-bring up the Confederate base names,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told POLITICO.
Bacon said he told the Georgia Republican that he would “would fight him” on trying to prevent funding from going toward renaming. (Clyde’s amendment doesn’t mention military bases.)
Bacon led that effort in the House to create the process for renaming the military assets.
He noted on Friday that he recounted to Clyde about how African-Americans have thanked him for his work on renaming the Confederate assets. In a separate statement, Bacon added that the issue was settled in 2020 and that he didn’t think it was “wise to re-litigate” it.
“Confederate generals fought for a cause that we know was wrong and violated their oaths to Constitution. Most of the 10 that bases were named for were also terrible generals. … Finally, some were affiliated with racist actions after the war. Most of these bases were named around WW1 and done to placate the Jim Crow elected leaders at the time,” he added in the statement.
Didn't know a Confederate flag presentation in the Capitol riot on January 6th, was a part of a "normal tourist visit," as Congressman Andrew Clyde claimed. pic.twitter.com/UNYqswCV0g
— Rick Ocean 🇺🇲🇳🇴 Support Ukraine, Save Europe (@RickOceanMusic) November 8, 2022
Pollos Hermanos ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈa day ago GOP: “Democrats were the party of The Confederacy.” Also GOP: “Don’t you dare take away honors to The Confederacy!”
I don’t know the “official thinking” of American historians on point, but I believe much of what we’re seeing today with respect to the Republican Party is 160 years of simmering resentment by the South regarding its loss in the 1860s Civil War now coming to the surface.
Trump “tapped” into it. “Build the wall” was metaphor for “keep the coloreds out.” His embrace of rabid racists, including neo-Nazis, is a “message received” by the Republican base.
They miss the old plantation days, the good old days. When the coloreds and the women knew their place and there was no “deviance” like drag queens and trans people.
In Germany, Nazi paraphernalia like swastika flags, et all, as well as neo-Nazi political parties are officially banned by law. (Germany doesn’t have a First Amendment).This is the reason that German Nazis fly Confederate flags. You are known by the company you keep.
RealityBass2 days ago Remember when we were expected to believe that Trump was so rich that he would use his own funds to campaign, didn’t need to raise money, therefore he was incorruptible? Good times.
What a liar. He said he would use his own money. Just like everything else about him, – a lie, a scam, a con, a fraud …..from getting someone to sit his exams to his 2016 campaign to his subversion of a democratic election.
His whole life has been devoted to scamming. He has never earned an honest buck. It’s all been about the underhand deal, the stiffing people and companies what they are owed. Now there is no way around not paying his lawyers. they won’t act for him without being paid up-front. But Giuliani can fuck off, he’s gonna be hung out to flap in the wind.
This is why the right has lost the war on gays and the rest of the LGBTQ+. The younger demographics are OK and support the LGBTQ+. This is a “sport”, an event that has an openly gay performer and the crowd is yelling in support of him. Hugs
If ya told me years ago, I’d have an arena chanting HE’S GAY at me in the most POSITIVE of ways, I’d say you’re crazy.
Back in my younger days in the mid 1980s one of my regular play buddies was a pro wrestler. Big muscles, handsome face, beautiful blonde hair, blue eyes, nice bushy porn ‘stache…what wasn’t to like? He was in the closet as far as the sport went but was pretty out in our gay community. He was a lot of fun in bed. He claimed there were a number of other gay wrestlers as well. When I had asked him about it he said of corse there were others, adding “we are just actors after all”.
For those who haven’t been following AEW/pro-wrestling in general a few FYIs:
-Despite being openly gay AND Black (technically Mixed,) he hasn’t been stereotyped as either/both as a gimmick, so he hasn’t minced around or creeped on straight guys or the like, nor has there been a “Very Special Episode”-type storyline about being gay and/or Black overcoming the odds. The closest it’s ever come was having Billy Gunn as a manager/teammate who’s infamous for the whole “Billy & Chuck” tag-team whose gimmick WAS being The Ambiguously Gay Duo almost 20 years ago, but none of that’s returned or mentioned.
-Pink has been The Acclaimed’s color (w/o white or black) from the get-go and treated no different than than other tag-team’s colors.
-His (ostensibly) straight tag-partner, “Platinum” Max Caster’s usually the hammier one though as he usually diss raps his way to the ring followed by Bowens yelling, “[Insert City Name]! The Acclaimed! Have Arrived!” followed by their hand gesture of forming “A”s with their fingers then joining them together to “scissor”. After Gunn joined them, Bowens added, “SCISSOR ME, DADDY ASS!” as Gunn’s nickname (not ring name) since his sons are also a tag-team yet Gunn ultimately favors “The Acclaimed” more and said they’re more like his sons than his actual children.
-They literally had a “Scissoring Day” celebration, saying the gesture is one of friendship that can be done with anybody. And the crowd ate. it. up. to the point that besides wearing the shirts, crowd signs/giant fake scissors and the like, the crowd literally chants/sings, “OHHH SCISSOR ME, DADDY!”
-They had a respectably long run as tag-champs though it still felt like it ended too soon.
-AEW has other openly queer wrestlers on its roster such as Nyla Rose (Black-Native bisexual transwoman and former AEW women’s champ,) Sonny Kiss (gay, genderqueer/non-binary, also Black and Native,) Toni Storm (bisexual current women’s champ,) Kiera Hogan (Black queer woman) and Diamante (Latin queer woman) who’re a real-life couple, Abadon (non-binary though once competed for the women’s title) and referee Aubrey Edwards (bisexual woman) who even low-key wore the bisexual colors for Sonny Kiss’s match against Cody Rhodes for the TNT championship (secondary title below AEW World championship) to reflect the historic importance.
Quite a few wrestlers have posed nude for gay porn publications or websites over the years, and many more (like John Cena, CM Punk, Finn Balor, etc.) have been individually very gay-supportive or have come out as LGBT themselves (especially true among the women wrestlers, most of whom seem very LGBT-supportive).
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