Greg Abbott is taking a brief pause from using immigrants as political pawns to attack trans kids in yet another Republican-led effort to harm LGBTQ+ people in America.
The gay-hating Texas governor announced yesterday that he plans to sign Senate Bill 14 into law ASAP. The bill, which is currently en route to Abbott’s desk, blocks trans kids from receiving gender-affirming care and effectively forces those already in the process of transitioning to de-transition and start over after they turn 18.
“I’m not going to make any secret about it. I’ll be signing it. This is about protecting children,” he misled reporters on Thursday. “A person under 18, they don’t have the mental capacity to make a life-changing decision.”
Authored by New Braunfels Republican Sen. Donna Campbell, SB 14 would prohibit trans Texans under the age of 18 from accessing transition-related medical treatments including puberty blockers, hormone therapies and surgeries — though surgeries are rarely performed on kids.
The bill would also require trans youth who are already getting this care to be “weaned off” in a “medically appropriate” manner. This is slightly out of step with the abrupt cutoff mandated by the version the Senate approved last month, but the upper chamber has chosen not to ask for a conference committee to iron out the difference.
Other states have passed similar legislation but the laws have been stalled in the courts. The same will likely happen in Texas as the ACLU, Transgender Law Center, and Lambda Legal have already announced plans to sue, citing the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“These laws are patently unconstitutional,” Paul Castillo, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, told reporters this week. “They interfere with the decisions of families in consultation with their doctors, and certainly no care should be stopped.”
Given the number of these laws being passed, as well as the number of lawsuits challenging them, it’s likely the matter will eventually end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, where things have gotten so chaotic that it’s hard to say which way the high court might rule on it.
Pollsters say the wave of bills targeting transgender healthcare in red states could backfire on Republicans in 2024 the same way the Roe v. Wade debacle backfired on them in 2022.
Things are certainly backfiring on Abbott and his colleagues on Twitter right now. Here’s what folx are saying…
Republicans are against big government unless when they want to make the lives of the LGBTQ community miserable
This is an important article and I hope everyone takes a minute to read it. Then think about what happened. A teacher had permission slips to show Disney catalog of movies to her students, and every parent said yes they were OK with their children seeing the Disney movies. Then this movie Strange World was show and one parent freaked out and filed a complaint against the teacher. Think of it, again one maga right winger maybe highly religious parent gets to derail the public education of all students to push their rabid right wing agenda.
So what was in the movie that could be that offensive, you ask? I did ask that, so Ron and I bought the movie for 20 dollars off Amazon Prime. Almost from the start, I saw what these MAGA right-winger republican types would hate. The parents were a loving couple who loved to smooch and kiss as they made breakfast, all very clean and not sexual / porn, just mom and dad quick cute kisses. So what is offensive about that to the maga? Well if you have seen the trailer you know that the mom is black and the dad is white. Which leads to the next maga issue.
The son, Ethan Clade, is a mixed race drawn with darker skin tone openly gay boy who is accepted by his family and his friends. In the opening get to meet the characters part of the movie, Ethan’s friends show up with some kind of game cards. With them is a boy Ethan has a crush on and the movie plays out letting us know in a funny sweet way of Ethan being shy around the boy. But the movie also makes it clear that the boy Ethan has a crush on likes Ethan as well along with all the friends being OK / happy with the boys being gay and liking each other. That is when the dad interrupts them and does the dad meeting his son’s boyfriend stating to Ethan how he likes the boy, saying something like he can see why Ethan likes him. I thought the movie was cute at this part, as most teenagers are embarrassed of their parents around their friends and to meet the one they have a crush on.
Which leads us to the the last part I think the maga people get angry at. Remember I have only gotten about a 1/4 of the way into the movie but in the movie the mother, who is black remember, is the outgoing adventurous one who manages to swoop in and save the flying ship. Imagine the maga people going crazy that a black woman acts to save everyone while the white people cling to the ship trying to hang on. Oh and also the women in the movie so far are more the adventurers and seeming more capable than the main white man character so far. Another thing I guess makes maga right-winger upset, the movie destroys their gender role stereotypes.
In all I like the movie so far. It is inclusive in a way that real life is. It is drawn and colored in bright vivid colors. The dialog and action is fun to watch. I have not watched a lot of movies in the last few years and I have not watched any animated ones. But I am really enjoying this one. But I can see why the republican right winger maga want to destroy Disney and take over what kinds of shows / movies they produce. This movie is a very far place from the stereotypical gender role models and public social standards of the 1950s that the maga are desperate to return the country to. Hugs
Purported investigation after screening of Disney animated movie comes amid governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on educators
DeSantis has claimed, without evidence, that there is ‘indoctrination in our schools’. Photograph: Daniel A Varela/AP
Florida education officials allegedly told a school teacher that she was under a misconduct investigation after, her friend claimed, she showed students the Disney animated film Strange World.
The purported investigation following this alleged showing of Strange World comes amid rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on educators that include book censorship and limitations on discussions of race and sex as he jockeys for his party’s presidential nomination with “anti-woke” talking points.
———————————————————————————
‘The point is intimidation’: Florida teachers besieged by draconian laws
“My friend showed Disney’s Strange World in a Florida classroom and one student reported it to their parents. Now she’s under investigation by the state,” Carl Zee tweeted on 11 May. “Florida is not safe for teachers, DO NOT MOVE HERE.”
The film involves a group of explorers who try saving a “mysterious land from losing its vital energy source”, per Variety. It also has a prominent gay character – a rarity in children’s animation.
Zee included a photo of a letter from the Florida department of education, stating that “following receipt of a receipt of a complaint, this office has determined an investigation is warranted into allegations that you engaged in inappropriate conduct”.
“If you have evidentiary witnesses or documents pertinent to the case, send them to this office no later than two weeks from receipt of this letter,” the alleged missive continues. CBR.com first reported on Zee’s Tweet.
The alleged letter does not state specific allegations against this teacher. The Florida department of education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In response to a Twitter user who said that teachers who break the law find themselves under investigation, Zee wrote: “She has signed permission from every parent in the classroom to show Disney & Dreamworks movies in class, even offering lines to specify specific movies parents didn’t want shown. Not one exception was written down, so no she didn’t break the law. Try again, doofus.”
News of the alleged investigation is in keeping with Florida teachers’ concerns that they are being stymied and intimidated by new legislation championed by DeSantis. He has claimed, without evidence, that there is “indoctrination in our schools” and allowed his press secretary to claim that teachers are “grooming” pupils.
A new Florida law has effectively resulted in book bans, with classrooms and libraries removing books over concerns they contain “inappropriate” content.
One high school English teacher in Palm Bay, Florida, told the Guardian that a librarian took away a third of the books in his classroom – among them a collection of Emily Dickinson’s poems, which was not on her list of green-lighted books.
DeSantis has also assailed Disney as a company after the entertainment titan pushed back against his “don’t say gay” legislation. He hit back at Disney by signing a bill that took away Disney’s status as a self-governing special district near Orlando.
Disney fought back against DeSantis, filing a federal lawsuit contending that he retaliated against the company for expressing its first amendment right to free speech. In the suit, Disney is asking to stop the governor’s attempted takeover of the special district.
My friend showed Disney’s Strange World in a Florida classroom and one student reported it to their parents. Now she’s under investigation by the state.
Tell the teacher to show the kids Song Of The South and all will be forgiven. It’s hard to find since Disney threw it in the vault and ate the key, but the DeSantis crowd will love him/her for it.
I’ll bet that teachers and medical professionals will also be leaving, as well as high school graduates who want a real college education. It’s a crime what republicans are doing.
Yep, my daughter’s teacher friend from Florida already packed it in and moved away to a blue state where she gets paid a LOT more and has more freedom to teach. She is urging her fellow teachers stuck in that hell hole to get the fuck out now.
They’ve already got a plan in place to hire less-than-honorably-discharged ex-military and rogue cops to teach the kids. They will be armed at all times so the kids will be totally safe.
So, there literally is a war against one of the most popular companies in the world right there in Florida. Evangelicals can literally destroy anything.
Investigating a teacher for showing a Disney film? Migrant workers are leaving your state in droves, which will affect construction projects, the gathering of crops, the hotel and hospitality sector of tourism, and God knows what else, and you’re still trying to stomp on Disney by going after a teacher for showing a film? Lord love a duck, just how stupid are you, Ron?
Don’t forget that the SEAWEED MONSTER has come to destroy their beaches and recreational tourism, but let’s focus on a fricken kids animated movie that might have a gay cartoon character in it.
One parent complained. ONE. So nobody gets to watch it. That sure sounds like cancel culture to me. I’ll bet the parent who complained didn’t even have any children in the school.
This is another attempt at a Christian take over of the US. As is pointed out, the idea that the US was founded as a Christian nation is a complete fabrication fantasy by religious zealots. But these Christian warriors won’t stop, won’t be deterred by facts, and will keep pushing until they manage to take over the US and create the Christian Taliban to force the public to live by their religious doctrines. Think of it, everyone forced to live by the dictates of the worst of the fundamentalist of the Christian religion. We have seen this in other countries where religion has taken over the government. Think of Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia. Women lose all rights, no other religions tolerated, schools do not teach facts or science but instead push religious text as the truth no matter how impossible or debunked they are. You think the bans on abortion, trans people including adults allowed medical treatment to transition, and bans on drag shows are the end of what these religious zealots want? No, they want complete control to force their religion, their religious way of life on all the public. First they took over the Republican Party and then the courts. Now they are taking over state governments and school boards. Back in the 1980s Christian leaders pushed their most harden followers to go to homeschooling. Because it is clear that education shows the flaws of fundamentalist religious beliefs. The more liberal a church tries to force people to believe in the bible / holy texts the more good education based in science and historical fact disproves it. So the solution was to ruin public education. And that is what has been happening by the Republican Party driven by corporate greed and religious zealotry. I just read some more actions of Florida to force government to pay for private / religious education. Interesting fact, countries that do not have private schools have the greatest quality public education. Because if the wealthy have to use the same schools as the public or the poor, they make damn sure those schools are well funded and have the best teachers possible producing the best outcomes for all students. In the US you have expensive private schools that have the best education for the smallest amount of students, public education system for the majority of students that struggle to provide an education, and the worst possible homeschooling or charter schools which can mean anything from a single focused education on one subject to simply pushing religious dogma as truthful accepted education. The children are the future as everyone knows, so the ideology and religious zealots are trying to change the future by keeping the children from learning true science, true history, true biology, and true understanding of reality. Hugs
Senate Bill 1515 would require a poster of the Ten Commandments to be in every public school classroom in the state. Under Senate Bill 1396, public school districts would be able to adopt policies allowing for a moment of prayer and a reading from the Bible or other religious text during the school day. Senate Bill 763 is a measure that would allow school districts to employ chaplains to serve as school counselors.
Republican state Senator Mayes Middleton of Galveston authored both SB 1396 and SB 763. During the layout of SB 1396 on the Senate floor, he told his fellow lawmakers that the bill is needed to expand religious liberties in public schools. “The reality is that our school children and faculty spend much of their lives in the school building and classroom…and our schools are not God-free zones,” said Middleton.
Waving a copy of the Ten Commandments and a 17th-century textbook, amateur historian David Barton recently argued that Christianity has always formed the basis of American morality and thus is essential to Texas classrooms.
“This is traditional, historical stuff,” he told a Texas Senate Education Committee last month. “It’s hard to say that anything is more traditional in American education than was the Ten Commandments.”
For nearly four decades, Barton has preached that message to politicians and pews across the country, arguing that church-state separation is a “myth” that is disproven by centuries-old texts, like the school book he showed senators, that reference the Ten Commandments and other religious texts.
As Right Wing Watch has doggedly reported for years, Barton’s claims that foundational US documents directly quote the bible are completely false.
Mayes Middleton is a former board member of the anti-LGBTQ Texas Public Policy Foundation, which is behind the state’s ongoing pogrom against trans people.
Republican lawmakers in the Lone Star State are backing three bills that would embed Christian teaching and practices in public schools and allow school districts to hire faith leaders as employees. @KirkReportsNewshttps://t.co/jUqX6F3KQl
Certain bills navigating the Texas Legislature this year represent the latest battles in what Christian leaders have framed as a long-running and existential war with the secular world—rhetoric that has helped fuel Republican priorities. https://t.co/UdY1KK4Udw
Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton keeps falsely claiming that the Constitution is full of "verbatim quotes" from the Bible. We are starting to think that he doesn't know what the word "verbatim" means. pic.twitter.com/GZu84BETqe
Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton claims that Patrick Henry and George Washington quoted numerous Bible verses in their speeches and writings. We decided to take a look at Barton's "evidence" and—surprise, surprise—he was lying. https://t.co/6U0sfA5eHdpic.twitter.com/fetyq3BxqF
Nobody who has actually read the Bible would conclude, as religious-right pseudo-historian David Barton does, that the message of 1 Samuel where Saul is anointed king of Israel is that spiritual leaders should be choosing our elected officials. pic.twitter.com/dl8Het9tw0
Religious-right pseudo-historian David Barton claims that the Second Amendment guarantees your right to own any weapon the government possess, including nuclear bombs. https://t.co/u3xwrXND1Zpic.twitter.com/drc7SzuBEC
Pseudo-historian David Barton is constantly finding new "proof" the US was founded as a Christian nation. Lately, he's been claiming that 1st & 2nd grade public schools students in 1816 were required to memorize large portions of the Bible. They weren't. https://t.co/4fWoDnQL0mpic.twitter.com/iam7YY4h7x
When I was in public school I was very religious. I prayed often. Of course my intent was to pray not to make a big show of praying. I did it as often and in the way I wanted. I didn’t need anyone to tell me when or how to do it. This is still true. To quote George Will (yes, I know but it’s a good quote): “As long as there are math tests, there will be prayer in the public schools.”
This isn’t about God being in schools. This is about staking out territory and making those who aren’t their specific brand of Christianity feel marginalized. That’s the point. A good many Christians are uncomfortable with these measures, not because they don’t think children should learn about religion or pray, but because the teachings are not in line with what they teach at home and at their churches. Evangelicals love to talk as if they speak for all Christians. The rest of American Christianity really needs to stand up against their tyranny.
Yes, your schools are technically, God Free Zones. If you want God in your school, that’s what Catholic and Christians and other religious schools are there for. Please don’t try to push your “Christian Morals” on everyone in Public Schools. Because not everyone follows what you believe in.
Please remember that what the republicans say this is about and what is really happening it two different things. The republicans claim she violated decorum by claiming that she accused them of killing kids. That is not at all what she said. She said if the republicans pasted the bill denying trans kids medical assistance would cause kids to try to commit suicide, which is true, so the people passing the bill would have blood on their hands. No one doubts the validity of that statement. But this was the opening they used with republicans claimed victimhood and talked of how badly they were being abused by being accused of having kids blood on their hands. Yes the big bad in charge republicans were the victims here.
What this really is about is the fact Rep. Zooey Zephyr is trans! And the republicans want her gone! That is what this is about. They don’t care her constitutes not only voted her in to office to represent them, they have increased their support for her after this happened. So they are trying to make her life so miserable, hoping she will just go away. That is what the anti-trans and anti-drag people bills are about, trying to make those people so miserable they will just go away. It is what red states with the don’t say gay laws are doing in schools, just trying to make gay / trans kids just hide and go away. How proud the republicans must be to make people hide who they really are just so republicans can feel good in their lives.
Please note every act the republicans took was to make her life miserable which included locking her out of the work areas and bathrooms. She is forced to work and vote representing her voters from a public hallway, so this week some hateful people made sure to show up and occupy the only seating available, causing an elected official to be forced to stand all day and work from a food counter. This is not democracy people! This is one party trying to make those they don’t like to disappear from the public. Hugs
Republicans moved to sideline Zephyr further by canceling some meetings of the two committees on which she serves and moving the bills they were to hear to other committees, Democrats said.
She spent the first day of her exile last week battling to use a bench in a statehouse hallway. Her key card to access Capitol entrances, bathrooms and party workspaces was deactivated, according to the lawsuit.
Zephyr spoke briefly during a House Judiciary Committee meeting Monday morning. The full House — minus Zephyr — reconvened in the afternoon. Zephyr cast votes from a statehouse snack bar because several people occupied the bench.
Read the full article. As you can see in the photo below, the bench seats three people and the evil bitches have a fourth woman on standby as a seat-filler for bathroom breaks.
@ZoAndBehold works from the lunch counter outside the House of Representatives chamber today because a group of women have been occupying the bench she used last week. #mtlegpic.twitter.com/ImMaYdaioS
I agree. What the slave state legislatures like Montana’s are doing is trampling on any and all minorities’ civil rights. She didn’t break decorum. She was very measured and impeccable with her word. She never raised her voice. Her crime was that she told them the TRUTH. People will die. There IS blood on their hands.
I’ve tweeted to Montana Dems, the Montana ACLU, and Montana Pride with a plea for allies to come tomorrow and hold the bench for Zooey. I added that a couple of drag queens would be a nice touch.
Joe, I’d like to see someone bring in a comfy folding chair for her, even though both state houses would vote, and the governor would sign, a bill banning them on capitol grounds the next day.
I was just looking for that photo, that is EXACTLY what I was reminded me of. I hope they know they are on the WRONG side of history on this issue, and will be shamed for many years.
The authoritative right wing governor who is against woke and pushed through the don’t say gay bills in schools including up to 12th grade (yes no child has internet and heard about gay people by the time they are legal able to vote) has appointed a board to judge each teacher / professor by their ideology. If they are not republican enough, then they get fired or denied tenure. Remember the point of tenure was to ensure that political influence was removed from higher education teaching. That has not worked well for Republicans that are now a dying minority desperate to hold on to power. This is scary as everything DeathSantis has managed to do in Florida has been copied in other red states. Hugs
During a contentious Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, five professors at the New College of Florida were denied tenure—even though they had already received approvals at every other point in the process.
Those professors are the latest casualties of the culture-war politics that led conservative trustees appointed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis to spearhead a self-declared “hostile takeover” of the college.
The tenure denial prompted the abrupt resignation of Matthew Lepinski, the faculty trustee on the board, who accused fellow members of destabilizing NCF. Lepinski walked out after the vote, announcing suddenly that he was “quitting the college.”
The school’s interim president, DeSantis ally and former state House Speaker Richard Corcoran, said in a memo to the trustees that he wanted the professors’ tenure denied or delayed in part because of the administrative changes and because of “a renewed focus on ensuring the college is moving towards a more traditional liberal arts institution.”
The trustees denied tenure for all five professors on identical 6-4 votes, with the new conservative board members in the majority. Shouts of “shame on you!” came from the audience afterward.
The five professors denied tenure are Rebecca Black and Lin Jiang, who both teach organic chemistry; Nassima Neggaz, history and religion with a focus on Islam; coastal and marine science professor Gerardo Toro-Farmer; and Hugo Viera-Vargas, whose specialty is Caribbean/Latin American studies and music.
— The Chronicle of Higher Education (@chronicle) April 28, 2023
In my 13 years in the Florida State University System I have NEVER seen a Board of Trustees overturn a tenure decision. The justification here were vague "extraordinary circumstances," with one board member citing "questionable publication histories." A 🧵on why that's bunk:
All 5 New College professors going up for tenure were denied today, despite approval from the college's faculty and previous administration. Every academic should be paying attention to what's happening there, now. Florida is very likely your future. https://t.co/9ZyvU7meyP
Tenure isn't just a rubber stamp. It's a years long process involving all levels of university governance, and it's incredibly thorough. These are the steps those candidates would have gone through before the Board decided to overturn it on a whim:
When you're hired to a tenure-track position, you receive both annual performance evaluations and annual tenure appraisals from your department chair. These monitor your progress towards tenure, and provide guidance for hitting the relevant marks.
At the midpoint between hiring and tenure, you undergo mid-tenure review. This involves compiling an exhaustive dossier of your accomplishments, which is appraised by a committee of your colleagues, your chair, and the dean.
All candidates must go up for tenure by their 6th year in a tenure-track position. If you go up early, as all of these New College professors did, it's because your case is a slam-dunk. You also tend to get extra scrutiny from your colleagues for going up early.
The tenure dossier is literally hundreds of pages, and it's a colossal amount of work to assemble. I've been through this process twice, once for tenure, and again for promotion to full professor. It's not fun.
Once your dossier is complied, it goes through multiple levels of review pursuant to established departmental, university, and CBA criteria. Most cases are approved (self-selection), but even then it's not 100%. Rejections happen, and it sucks for everyone involved.
By self-selection, I mean that weaker candidates tend to be weeded out earlier. Their appraisals and mid-tenure reviews make it clear that they are not progressing adequately, and they look for other positions rather than face rejection. Denial of tenure is a really bad look.
Tenure cases are reviewed by external referees, a committee of departmental faculty, the department chair, the dean, the university promotion & tenure committee, the provost, and the university president before ever getting to the Board of Trustees.
The university promotion and tenure committee is where most rejections happen. It consists of faculty from all over the university, and they take their job very seriously. The time commitment is immense, and I have the utmost respect for my colleagues who take this service on.
This basic process is used at every Florida SUS institution, including New College. There are some variations. New College, for instance, has divisions instead of departments, and a provost's advisory committee rather than a tenure and promotion committee, but you get the idea.
So by the time these cases arrived on the desks of Chris Rufo and his fellow partisan hacks, they had already gone through an exhaustive internal and external review process at the university level, and been found to have satisfied all of the relevant tenure criteria.
A note about the Boards of Trustees in the Florida State University System. They consist of 13 members: 6 appointed by the governor, 5 appointed by the SUS Board of Governors, as well as the student body president and the faculty association president.
DeSantis made 6 appointments to the Board back in January. They voted unanimously to deny tenure, and they were the only Trustees to do so. The vote was 6-4 in all five cases. I haven't seen any reporting yet on why three Trustees did not participate in the vote.
So there you have it. Five exceptional academics were voted down by a board of partisans appointed by a governor who's using the nation's highest ranked system of public universities as a political football in his quest for higher office.
Since these professors went up early, they can still apply for tenure again next year. But the more likely outcome is that they'll look for jobs elsewhere, as talented university faculty across Florida are now doing in ever-increasing numbers.
i just got a text from a friend in Florida this morning. Her husband has accepted a teaching position here in Connecticut. She’ll miss the climate, but not the crazy as she so nicely put it.
We had a job opening in our department over the summer. When Dodds was announced multiple people withdrew their applications. It was a nightmare filling the job because multiple people offered the job declined the offer. This after multiple interviews and all that. We wound up with a good hire in the end (which just shows how many qualified people there are for many of these jobs) but his wife did not come here with him so I doubt he’ll stay more than a couple of years.
They want to create Florida’s answer to Wheaton College. There are a few of these schools around the country that are known for indoctrinating students already right-leaning. They want a Florida version of that and creating it. There’s really not much anyone can do to stop them either. I have no idea what the result will be. Will they succeed or (more likely) just make a big mess of things. There are very few of these schools where you can get the liberal arts college experience/education at public school prices, so this and another school in Georgia (I forget the name) and I don’t know of many others. But be clear about this, control it or destroy it…either is fine with the far right.
The real reason faculty need tenure is so they won’t be fired at 50 and replaced with someone right out of school who will ask for less money. That’s the main reason workers fought so hard for things like seniority. I hear people sneer at that, but never anyone who was looking for a job after about 45. Yes, academic freedom is important. Your work should be judged by peers not business people who bought their way onto the board.
And the religious right gets their way using vague language in laws and wording in the laws that provides the public can sue with no costs and even if they lose the party sued still has to pay all the costs. “The bill DOES NOT ban drag or pride. But it relies on vague language and harsh penalties to instill fear that inevitably leads to self-censorship– that was their goal.” It is the bounty hunter scheme first started by Texas and used in Florida against schools to get the teachers ordered to remove books just in case a maga parent sued. The goal of these laws are not to ban sex shows, not to police nudity or exaggerated genitalia but to remove any sign of men dressed as women from society and the public view. What will the right manage to ban from public view next? Jewish symbols? Non-Christian religious symbols? Women in pants? Men with long hair such as mine? Hugs
As all of you know, the political climate that we are currently in has us all very concerned for our community. After multiple meetings with city officials, it is with a heavy heart that Pride Alliance of the Treasure Coast has to announce that this weekend’s Pridefest will now be a 21 and older event.
The city has decided that with the likelihood that the Governor will sign the latest bill into effect this evening, that we will need to be on the side of caution and has required us to make this necessary change.
We are obviously upset and dishearten that it has come to this. We also regret to announce that we will have to cancel our plans to bring back our beloved parade.
We hope that everyone understands that this is definitely not what we wanted at all and are working with the city to assure our safety as well as produce a positive event.
We have held off as long as we could in making this announcement as we were hoping it would not have to be made. We hope that everyone still supports out community and attends this event!
We will be making an announcement in the near future about a family friendly Party in the Park where our youth can celebrate who they are as well in conjunction with the Sanctuary of the Treasure Coast.
Port St. Lucie, population 200,000, is on the east coast about 90 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale.
SB 1438 hasn't even been signed into law, yet city officials are CANCELING pride parades + drag performances.
The bill DOES NOT ban drag or pride. But it relies on vague language and harsh penalties to instill fear that inevitably leads to self-censorship– that was their goal. pic.twitter.com/6V1beIeXlV
“[T]he political climate that we are currently in has us all very concerned for our community … [I]t is with a heavy heart that Pride Alliance of the Treasure Coast has to announce that this weekend’s Pridefest will now be a 21 and older event.” https://t.co/W0KzqVy7wJ
AND they have the right to shoot and kill if they feel “threatened”. Which could mean just seeing anything they don’t like – gays, blacks, women, “non-Christians”, Catholics, …
In this case they should have simply canceled it wholly and completely. The community would suffer but so would the area as a whole as well. It should be made clear that their loss comes from acceptance of deathsantis and his supporters. No matter what, this fucking sucks and is total bullshit. But it will take not just the community suffering but the cities and towns that benefit from these parades and gatherings suffering and feeling it in their bottom lines before people stand up and fight against hate.
I suppose the big test will come with Wilton Manors Pride. The town is entirely gay run: mayor, city council, police, fire, etc. Just last month Wilton Manors had a huge turnout for their pro-drag protest march. Their parade is scheduled for June 17th and draws tens of thousands.
Wilton Manors is about to go thru some things. I believe the gays there aren’t really fully aware of what’s about to happen to them. I’m literally on a cruise with a large number of Wilton Manors residents and they don’t seem to be aware of the depth of depravity that is DeSantis and the evangelicals who are backing him.
I think it was a few days ago, a pride event that had always been given a permit unanimously by the city suddenly became newsworthy on account of “Is drag still legal?”.
All those who normally say they’re fine with it being are cowed by both the threat of legal action against them by the state, as well as the relentless beating of the “groomers” war drum.
Standard-issue hypocrisy. At 18 you’re considered old enough to fight and die for this country, old enough to be held legally and criminally responsible as an adult for just about everything… yet not old enough to handle a beer, and not old enough to handle certain “sexual” stuff…
I don’t have a good “why”, except that the bigots and haters want to make young adults fearful and self-censoring.
Republicans are frantically working to make it harder for young people to vote as Gen Z has turned out for Democrats in record numbers. Idaho Republicans are banning student IDs to vote while Texas Republicans proposed banning voting centers on campuses. https://t.co/SZ9piZkDPV
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 15, 2023
community values** are reflected in each school library catalog in the district
**Some exclusions apply
Gay, trans, Black, Muslim, non-Christian community member’s values will not be reflected – or even acknowledged.
Also, Missouri has out-uglied Texas.
In Missouri, the Republican-controlled House on Tuesday approved a budget that completely defunds public libraries. The move came in response to an ACLU lawsuit filed by the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association, challenging a recent law that bans certain books. The measure has led to the removal of over 300 books from school libraries — many with LGBTQ characters and social justice topics. Missouri Democrats have denounced GOP censorship
For adults. This is not about protecting children, it is about wiping out a group of people that the religious right doesn’t like. It doesn’t fit their view of the world created by their god. So the right doesn’t just live and let live, these religious right groups force everyone to live by their church doctrines. Hugs
Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced plans to restrict health care for transgender people weeks ago, when protesters rallied at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass a law banning puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for children. But the discussion was focused on minors, not adults.
Oh my god.
Missouri AG just essentially banned gender affirming care for most trans adults via emergency rule.
Requires 3 years of dysphoria, 18 months of therapy sessions, doesn't allow people with autism/depression.
Note how effortlessly the goalpost has shifted from saving harming minors to harming adults? Of course, as we here have always known, it was never about “protecting children.”
They’re testing the waters. Trans people are easy targets for the theofascists. I guarantee you that 80-90% of Americans know absolutely nothing about trans people, their lives and their challenges.
The theofascists’ ultimate target is the LGB community.
They see what other nations like Russia and Hungary are doing, and are envious.
This is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Creeping restrictions on civil rights and criminalizing the existence of ‘suspect’ groups of people. We have to fight back and beat this before it spreads to other states.
The federal government is going to have to intervene. They did it in the civil rights movement for black people and they are going to have to find their will and courage to do it again. These people mean us harm and will not stop
This has always been the goal – not “protecting children,” but eliminating trans people from society, with an eye toward eliminating gays, lesbians and bisexuals too. Trans people are just the easiest target, and going after them makes for an effective divide and conquer strategy if you can get homocons and TERFs on board.
Anyone with a working brain knew this was going to happen. Like other people have said, this whole “think of the children” BS was just a cover! Now they are coming after trans adults. After that they will come after gay rights! I guarantee it! I’m sure interracial marriage will be on the chopping block too. These fascists will stop at nothing to get the right wing theocracy they crave. We must fight these asshats tooth and nail!
DeathSantis has made the state of Florida racist bigoted white supremacist religious right conservative maga paradise. He has made minority rule of pushing hate and intolerance against anyone not following the maga Christian talking points. It is not enough for these people to publicly live their maga Christian right hateful lives they demand they get to use those Christian maga conservative views against others, they feel entitled to attack those they feel are not following their church doctrines and they attack those that allow or are tolerant of others. They feel that every one around them must act according to their regressive, backwards beliefs. Hugs
Many elected leaders like U.S. Sen. Rick Scott denounced the Nazi salutes, anti-Jewish slurs and Nazi regalia. On Monday, the governor did not condemn the demonstrators. Instead, he criticized Democrats.
Meanwhile, bomb threats forced the temporary closure of historically Black colleges and universities. Also, on the first day of Black History Month, DeSantis asked the Florida Supreme Court whether Black congressman Al Lawson’s district was unconstitutional. Lawson responded that the governor is race-baiting to build political points with his base.
Wow. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) is now requiring state board applicants to write 500 words about what they “admire” about her before they can be considered for a job. The same application only requires 250 words for other questions. https://t.co/uJpJLLRD2U
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 12, 2023
Again people are not forced to go to or watch a pride parade. Yet these Christian Taliban don’t care that participation is voluntary but instead wants to keep everyone from viewing the pride parades and banning them from being presented at all. Please note that one of the people against it was angry that the parade organizers won’t provide a booth for a Christian group to berate the parade participants / viewers and also to demand that gays never have sex with others but instead stay celibate. Also notice that in all prior years there was no issue with the parade, but now the Christian fundamentalists feel free to demand the entire community live by their views like a ruling religion. Hugs
The City of Franklin voted to allow the annual Pride festival to occur in town this year. This comes right after the city decided to wait to vote on the “community decency” policy for another few weeks.
The result came after the aldermen tied 4-4 in their votes, making it so Mayor Ken Moore of Franklin had to break the tie. He said while he approved the permit, he warned those putting on the festival will be under a microscope, but ultimately Moore said he wants to unite the community.
The Tuesday night vote comes just weeks after Governor Bill Lee signed the drag bill into law in March, which bans “adult-oriented performances” in places where children would be able to view them.
Some aldermen said they received threatening emails from people over this vote and repeated that figuring out which way to vote was not as easy of a decision in particular because of a potential lawsuit if they deny Franklin Pride the permit.
According to city leaders, last year, the event’s permit was approved 8-0 and the city has never denied a permit. “I don’t want to see a guy twerking in front of me. I am 60 years old,” said one speaker. “God’s word is clear that homosexuality is a sin,” said another.
While they were in the minority Tuesday night, those who wanted the event to take place believed denying the permit would infringe on their free speech, and send a harmful message to the LGBT community, and people who don’t want to attend are not forced to do so.
Give the tweets below a minute to fully load.
More than 100 people signed up to speak for and against Franklin Pride getting a permit this year. Here is a quick compilation of some of the people who oppose Pride with reasons ranging from homosexuality being a sin to not wanting to see grown men twerk. @WKRNpic.twitter.com/QSbqCa1LRr
The city of Franklin, Tennessee is voting whether to allow a Pride festival. Someone during public comment says it will result in “a rainbow room where 8-12 year-old kids are given butt plugs & dildos.”
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 12, 2023
This same Franklin aldermen is scolding pride festival organizers for refusing to offer a booth to this religious group, which believes that homosexual attraction is the result of Original Sin and teachers gay youth to embrace a lifetime of celibacy: https://t.co/6NrSBL7Bm5
HAPPENING NOW: Packed house at Franklin City Hall— hundreds are here waiting to see if the board will approve or deny a permit for the annual Pride festival. @NC5pic.twitter.com/M2BFkjApJ9
We are pleased to announce that the Franklin BOMA has approved our Special Event Permit. Franklin Pride will be on June 3rd at Harlinsdale Farm. pic.twitter.com/VYEuAWM6BE
This woman wearing a “Stop abusing kids” shirt said the Franklin Pride festival permit should not be allowed because the organizers didn’t allow gay conversation therapy groups to set up a booth. pic.twitter.com/FPigQ8PWkV
“I have cash in my pocket. Says ‘In God We Trust.’ … We shouldn’t be subjecting our kids to this whatsoever. … That’s not the way the country was founded.” pic.twitter.com/XARneVK0zj
One mother claimed that the festival was part of a coordinated national movement to groom children. A man read a passage from the Bible about resisting “sexual immorality.” “You think you are doing things based on laws,” a crying woman said, “but you are letting Satan in.”
Read the full article. Festival organizers have already agreed that there won’t be any drag performances.
Please notice that even when the organizers gave into these Christian Taliban by limiting what is and has been accepted free speech in public society for a long time by agreeing that they wouldn’t have drag at the event. Not risky sexual drag from an adult venue but not drag at all. I guess dressing up like Dolly Parton which is a favorite of drag queens is now to sexual for people to see. But it is not enough, these religious haters that want to force their religion church doctrine on everyone, they want the full Russian model of removing pride and the LGBTQ+ removed from society along with removed from the public in all cases. These are the same people that freak out when people want to restrict them from plastering their religious symbols everywhere and who try to pass laws to protect the display of confederate statues / symbols. But they do not give that courtesy to the rest of us, instead they try to demand their church doctrines rule us all. Hugs
If you don’t like Pride Fest then don’t go. Don’t think it’s appropriate for kids, then don’t take any. Problem solved. I steer clear of plenty of things myself. Most of us do.
Also, I have ancestors who were here in the 1600s so I guess that guy would think I have even more say than he does? What bullshit. You’re either a citizen or you aren’t no matter when you or your ancestors got here.
I wonder how he would react if a Native American countered his argument with the fact that their ancestors lived in the area before the white man arrived.
“I don’t want to see a guy twerking in front of me. I am 60 years old,” said one speaker. “God’s word is clear that homosexuality is a sin,” said another.
You can turn around, walk away, close your eyes, etc. But then it’s not about that, is it? It’s about Other People Having Fun.
““God’s word is clear that homosexuality is a sin,” said another.”
A) It’s not all that clear to me that the Christian bible is the word of any god B) The Christian bible isn’t all that clear that homosexuality is a sin, especially when compared with other rules C) Even assuming A and B, the Christian bible has a lot more to say about sins like divorce and eating pork or shellfish, yet I don’t see these folks out in near riot mode against those
Adultery makes God’s Top Ten. I’ve read somewhere that the Christians feel comfortable going after gays because, as opposed to adulterers, they can convince themselves that they don’t know any homos.
Scottie's Playtime 