Florida education officials William Allen and Frances Presley Rice, members of the group that crafted the standards, released a statement in response to the backlash. “The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted. This is factual and well documented,” the pair wrote. “Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history.”
The statement includes several examples of such historic figures, including blacksmiths, shoemakers, fishing and shipping industry workers, tailors, and ironically enough, teachers. But, it appears these Florida educators didn’t do their homework.
As critics were quick to note, many of the “examples” listed in the statement were never slaves, or they launched their respective professions only after gaining their freedom. The Tampa Bay Times pointed out several examples, including Booker T. Washington, listed in the statement as a teacher. “Washington was enslaved but did not gain his skills until after being freed at age 9,” the paper notes.
Right Wing Watch had written about Rice years ago when she was chairman of the National Black Republican Association, an organization that once ran radio ads and erected billboards falsely claiming that civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. “was a Republican.”
In 2008, the NBRA produced a series of radio ads declaring that “the Democratic Party is a racist party” and attacking then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for being “an arrogant elitist who turned his back on poor blacks and his own country.”
In the wake of Obama’s election, the NBRA took it upon itself to issue a “White Guilt Emancipation Declaration” in which the organization unilaterally declared that all “white American citizens are now, henceforth and forever more free of White Guilt” because the nation had elected “a socialist who does not share the values of average Americans and will use the office of the presidency to turn America into a failed socialist nation.”
Here is Frances Rice claiming that the GOP's Southern Strategy "was designed to get the fair-minded people in the South to stop discriminating against Blacks … Those fair-minded ones who migrated to the Republican Party did so. They joined us. We did not join the racists." https://t.co/2LE1TZWaHjpic.twitter.com/K6caIWAGtz
Amateur and professional historians are shredding a list of "examples" Florida educators cited to show how some Black people benefited from skills they supposedly acquired while enslaved. https://t.co/4hsDCN79vs
Half of the examples were not slaves and others only as children. They came up with 16 examples to cover over 200 years of slavery for hundreds of thousands. — Benefited from slavery? Critics say some of the state’s examples were never even slaves. https://t.co/BTTS10toPZ
These laws are being blocked by the courts because it clearly is an attempt to stop people from dressing in a way that fundamentalist conservatives don’t like. It is a way to attack trans people without saying trans. Drag is their word for men dressing as women, or women wearing the fabric of men. Notice they outlaw reading to kids or being in public wearing flamboyant clothing. Quote below. Glamorous or exaggerated costumes. So what are they protecting kids from, color? Are we all to wear drab Amish type clothing? There goes any dress up and make beleive. It is basically the Christian Taliban enforcing the dress code conservatives hope to push back to the stereotypes of the 1950s. What it comes down to is making laws to outlaw things that displease the most uptight right wing religious aunt in a family. Hugs
The law also made Montana the first state to specifically ban drag kings and drag queens — which it defined as performers who adopt a flamboyant or parodic male or female persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup — from reading books to children in public schools or libraries, even though the performances do not have a sexual element.
The ruling will allow Montana Pride to advertise and hold some of its events in public places.
Scenes from a drag show at the Montana Capitol held in protest against a slate of bills aimed at how trans Montanans live, April 13, 2023, in Helena, Mont. | Thom Bridge/Independent Record/AP Photo
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
07/29/2023 01:08 PM EDT
HELENA, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana temporarily blocked a new law that restricts drag performances just days before thousands of people are expected to attend Montana Pride’s 30th anniversary celebration in Helena.
The way the law is written “will disproportionally harm not only drag performers, but any person who falls outside traditional gender and identity norms,” including transgender people, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said Friday.
The law seeks to ban minors from attending what it calls “sexually oriented” performances, and bans such performances in public places where minors might be present. However, it does not adequately define many of the terms used in the law, causing people to self-censor out of fear of prosecution, plaintiff’s attorney Constance Van Kley with Upper Seven Law argued Wednesday.
“Plaintiffs, along with the approximately 15,000 Montanans who wish to attend the (Montana Pride) events, cannot avoid chilled speech or exposure to potential civil or criminal liability,” without the temporary restraining order, Morris wrote.
The ruling will allow Montana Pride to advertise and hold some of its events in public places, said Kevin Hamm, president of Montana Pride. The annual LGBTQ+ celebration — which includes a parade, street dance and drag brunch — begins on Sunday and runs through Aug. 6.
“The language used in the (temporary restraining order) is both impressive and should serve as a warning to discriminatory actions by legislators in the future,” Hamm said.
A lawsuit filed on July 6 challenges its constitutionality, and seeks a preliminary injunction to block it. The complaint was later amended to add the city of Helena as a defendant and Montana Pride as a plaintiff in order to request the more urgent move for a temporary restraining order. Montana Pride worked with the city to get permits to hold its public events.
The city of Helena supported the restraining order, saying the law put the city in the position of infringing on Montana Pride’s constitutional rights of free expression by denying the permit, or subjecting city employees to civil and criminal liability included in the law if it granted the permit. The lawsuit allows a minor who attends a drag performance that violates the law to file a civil lawsuit against organizers or participants at any time over the following 10 years.
The complaint — whose initial plaintiffs include a transgender woman, two small theaters and a bookstore that holds drag queen reading events — calls the Montana law “a breathtakingly ambiguous and overbroad bill, motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ animus.”
Judge Morris found that the law did not adequately define actions that might be illegal and appears likely to “encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”
Montana’s law is flawed — like similar laws in Florida and Tennessee that have been blocked by courts — because it regulates speech based on its content and viewpoint, without taking into account its potential literary, artistic, political or scientific value, Morris found.
“Drag is definitionally political and artistic speech,” said Diana Bourgeois, president of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the State of Montana, an organization that puts on drag reading events and one of the plaintiffs. “The court’s order today protects our right to be commentators and artists and to create a safe, joyful and welcoming environment through our expression.”
Like many Republican-led states, Montana’s conservative lawmakers have passed other laws targeting transgender people. The state is among those to ban gender-affirming care for minors — which is also being challenged in court. It also passed a bill to define sex as only “male” or “female” in state law.
The law also made Montana the first state to specifically ban drag kings and drag queens — which it defined as performers who adopt a flamboyant or parodic male or female persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup — from reading books to children in public schools or libraries, even though the performances do not have a sexual element.
The judge said the law does not define “flamboyant,” “parodic” or “glamorous,” among other terms.
Morris has scheduled an Aug. 26 hearing on the lawsuit’s request for a preliminary injunction, which could continue to block the law while the case moves through the courts.
“We look forward to presenting our written response and full argument at the upcoming preliminary injunction hearing to defend the law and protect minors from sexually oriented performances,” Emily Flower, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, said in a statement.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell, has said that to him and his constituents, “keeping hyper sexualized events out of taxpayer funded schools and libraries” does not violate the First Amendment.
Wow, oh wow. This is so informative and full of information I had to go over some spots several times. The host talks rather quickly, more than I am used to and I did not check the CC as I was listening only as I was doing something else. But my dogs that love gravy she has this stuff down. Hugs
A minority of a minority with in a minority is trying to force a religious strict moral view of what is acceptable in society. These small groups of driven fundamentalist, who think any advances in society since the 1950s angers their deity they are desperate to please, use threats and violence to take the rights away from everyone else. This one man is demanding the right to decide what everyone’s children get to read and see. Removing other parents rights to bring up their children as accepting of others and themselves. Please note the harm he claims will happen because of this book, damaged souls. One line about playing spin the bottle. Tell me what five year even knows that could be sexual. Kids start playing that as preteens as they go through puberty, daring each to kiss someone. So it is an innocent line, there is no description of what it is. If a kid asks, the adult says it is a game played with the bottle to see how long you can keep it spinning or something. Even worse if they lose their attempts to get a book removed all they have to do is keep filing complaints which keeps it off the shelves or the book get removed as too much of a problem. Hugs
—————————————————————————————————–
The children’s book is under review in one school district after a local conservative activist ranted that one aspect of it could “DAMAGE SOULS.”
A lone parent filed a complaint to a Florida school district that a book in the Arthur series—yes, the same Arthur from the beloved PBS animated show—contained references to Spin the Bottle, and now it’s possibly on the district’s chopping block.
A member of the Clay County School District community, based in Green Cove Springs, filed the challenge on July 12 to Marc Brown’s Arthur’s Birthday, a children’s book geared towards students in kindergarten to sixth grade. District spokesperson Terri Dennis told The Daily Beast that it was among 45 challenged titles now “pending oversight committee review.”
On Wednesday, the district provided The Daily Beast with the stack of challenge forms the school district had received for July. At least eight book challenges filed that month were submitted by a local conservative activist named Bruce Friedman.
Arthur’s Birthday details the title character’s upcoming birthday and how it falls on the same day as another party for a classmate, who happens to be a girl. Arthur wants all of his friends to show up, and figures out a plan to combine the parties together. At the end, Arthur receives a “Spin the Bottle” present from one of the girls.
On his form, Friedman wrote, “PROTECT CHILDREN!! IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE TO DISCUSS ‘SPIN THE BOTTLE’ WITH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN. THIS BOOK IS FOUND IN ALL/ALMOST ALL [DISTRICT SCHOOLS]!”
Friedman continued to scribble across the form how “SPIN THE BOTTLE” is “NOT OKAY FOR K-5 KIDS!” and how the content could potentially “DAMAGE SOULS.” He also included images from the book that he felt were not suitable for its intended audience.
“The entire book is about being inclusive of all friends and not only inviting boys or girls (based on your gender) to your birthday party,” literary watchdog Florida Freedom to Read Project wrote on Twitter.
Reagan Miller, a member of Florida Freedom to Read Project, said she believes book banners are just trying to create “chaos in the education system” and make a boogeyman out of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“I think it’s more to keep feeding a narrative,” she told The Daily Beast, suggesting that even Barney & Friends could be the next target.
And just like that, 20 additional titles have been added to the 23/24 list in @oneclayschools.
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) July 17, 2023
Friedman wrote disapproving notes on other book challenge forms. However, he also included disparaging comments about librarians, suggested that district administrators needed to be fired, and consistently berated some authors for being “repeat offenders.”
Dennis told The Daily Beast that “95 [percent] of the book challenges in Clay County come from one individual in the community.” She didn’t specify who that individual was, but Friedman is responsible for nearly all book challenges in the county, according to independent newsletter Popular Information.
Friedman is the president of Florida’s chapter of No Left Turn in Education, a group known for fear-mongering the teachings of Critical Race Theory. According to the group’s website, its goal is to “use all forms of media to expose the radical indoctrination in K-12 education.”
At a Florida Department of Education meeting in December, Friedman bragged about creating a list of over 3,600 books that he felt contained “concerning content,” Popular Information reported. In June 2022, Friedman’s mic was cut off when he attempted to read a rape scene aloud during a school board meeting.
Friedman declined an interview request with The Daily Beast on Thursday. “No thank you,” he wrote in an email.
Clay County School District’s Library Media Services Manual states that “challenged materials should be presented to the District Curriculum Council.”
“Materials under question will be held until a decision has been made,” the manual reads. “A decision to remove materials from the library media center is based on the recommendation of the District Curriculum Council and the final decision of the Superintendent or designee.”
If a book is resubmitted as part of a complaint, the oversight committee—media and academic administrators within the district—can choose to completely chuck the book from schools’ libraries or dismiss the challenge. If the person who filed the complaint wants to appeal the group’s decision, then the school board schedules a hearing and they make the final call.
According to district records, as of Thursday, Arthur’s Birthday is still “Pending Oversight Committee Review.”
So many of the horrible things happening in America right now, like teaching our children slaves were lucky to learn skills, or allowing women to bleed out in hospital parking lots, or pushing migrants into rivers to drown, could be stopped by the women who look exactly like me.
Being gay, lesbian, trans, or any other thing non-cis straight is not a sickness that needs to be cured. There is so much evidence, medical science, peer reviewed studies that show that being LGBTQ+ is normal and that conversion therapy is extremely harmful. Dismissing all that evidence and data simply based on a belief in a book written over a century 2,500 years ago by people who did not even know about germ therapy and whose prophet preached it was not needed to wash your hands doesn’t make any sense. How does that make any rational sense to ignore all the medical / scientific advancements over this time span. These people that wrote those scriptures only knew what was understood at the time. Hell they thought the color of reeds seen by breeding livestock would determine the color of the offspring . There is no way in the modern age we should allow those ideas to harm the children of today, or use those writings to harm whole segments of society. This is 2023 and we know how damaging it is to try to convert a person’s inborn attributes. If you are straight, imagine going through a program to make you attracted to the same sex. What would it take for you to accept you were wrong and you now love the body parts that are the same as yours? I wish all states took this approach and actually cared about the kids instead of the hate rage. Hugs
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Wednesday that prohibits mental health professionals from using so-called conversion therapy on LGBTQ minors
ByJOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press
July 26, 2023, 3:45 PM
FILE – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at the SelectUSA Investment Summit, May 4, 2023, in Oxon Hill, Md. The scientifically discredited practice of so-called conversion therapy, which aims to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to h…Show more
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. — The scientifically discredited practice of so-called conversion therapy, which aims to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations, is now banned for minors in Michigan under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Michigan becomes the 22nd state to outlaw conversion therapy, which state lawmakers defined as any practice or treatment by a mental health professional that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. That does not include counseling that provides assistance to people undergoing a gender transition.
Whitmer, who is the mother of a member of the LGBTQ community, said in a statement that banning the “horrific practice,” of conversion therapy was necessary to making Michigan a place “where you can be who you are.” She signed an executive directive in 2021 prohibiting the use of state and federal funds for conversion therapy on minors.
An estimated 15% of LGBTQ minors in Michigan have reported that they have been threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy as of 2022, according to the advocacy group The Trevor Project.
LGBTQ rights advocates have decried the practice for years, citing research suggesting the practice can increase the risk of suicide and depression.
The ban was approved by the Michigan Senate last month in a 21-15 vote — with one Republican siding with Democrats — after previously being passed by the state House. Republicans in opposition said the legislation could interfere with the work of mental health professionals.
Protecting the rights of Michigan’s LGBTQ community has been a priority for Democrats since they took control of the state government earlier this year. In March, lawmakers amended the state’s civil rights act to codify LGBTQ+ protections and permanently outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state.
Lawmakers in Minnesota, where Democrats also seized control earlier this year, passed a similar ban on conversion therapy in April. In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs issued an executive order last month that prohibits state agencies from using funds to promote or facilitate conversion therapy.
The Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for the LGBTQ+ community in May in response to what it called an “unprecedented and dangerous” spike in discriminatory legislation sweeping statehouses this year. The emergency declaration is the first in the 43-year history of the HRC.
CNN shared a segment about a family from Florida forced to leave due to anti-trans laws passed by Governor Ron DeSantis that impact their trans teenager. Sick, sadistic conservatives celebrated the family’s suffering and claimed it was funny and good.
Scottie's Playtime 