Seven U.S. state attorneys general sent a letter to Target on Wednesday warning that clothes and merchandise sold as part of the company’s Pride month campaigns might violate their state’s child protection laws.
Republican attorneys general from Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina signed the letter, writing that they were “concerned by recent events involving the company’s ‘Pride’ campaign.”
The attorneys said that they believed the campaign was a “comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children,” criticizing items like T-shirts that advertised popular drag queens and a T-shirt that said ‘Girls Gays Theys.’ They also highlighted merchandise with “anti Christian designs such as pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products.”
The letter also criticized Target for donating to GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ organization that works to end bullying in schools based on sexual and gender identity. The company stated in a 2020 guide that school staff should not tell parents about a child’s gender or sexual orientation without consulting the child first, something the attorneys general said undermines “parents’ constitutional and statutory rights.”
“Take Pride” merchandise display at a Target store in Queens, New York.GETTY IMAGES
The letter did not include any specific demands nor did it outline how they believe the campaign could violate child protection laws, but the attorneys general did suggest that Target might find it “more profitable to sell the type of Pride that enshrines the love of the United States.”
The attorneys general also said they believed Target’s Pride campaign threatened their financial interests, writing that Target leadership has a “fiduciary duty to our States as shareholders in the company” and suggesting that company officials “may be negligent” in promoting the campaign since it has negatively affected Target’s stock prices and led to some backlash among customers.
Target shares have declined 12% this year, but the company is facing issues far beyond the backlash to its Pride collection, which included onesies, bibs, and T-shirts for babies and children. Like many retailers, the company is struggling with a pullback in consumer spending because of high inflation, which has weighed on its profits.
But Target is also facing scrutiny for its merchandise selection, including its Pride line, with its stores removing some of the items in May after facing threats. At the time, the company didn’t specify which products were being removed, although Target has faced criticism online over swimsuits advertised as “tuck-friendly” with “extra crotch coverage” in its Pride collection.
“Target’s management has no duty to fill stores with objectionable goods, let alone endorse or feature them in attention-grabbing displays at the behest of radical activists,” the attorneys general wrote. “However, Target management does have fiduciary duties to its shareholders to prudently manage the company and act loyally in the company’s best interests.”
Backlash to the Pride campaign did involve threats of violence to Target stores and workers. Some merchandise was relocated to less popular areas of the store, and other pieces, including the swimsuits criticized by the attorneys general, were removed.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement earlier in June. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”
Cody from Denver shares his experiences with the devastating real-world impact of transphobia on individuals and their communities, and inspires a discussion of the absolute need to be a militant advocate for marginalized communities, particularly in the face of escalating political persecution and bad faith attempts to justify them.
Remember the governor of Oklahoma is a fervent fundamentalist Christian who has claimed the entire state for Jesus / his Christian god including the Native Peoples lands. He has used the office of Governor to push his religion on the entire state. The backstory of this Oklahoma Education Superintendent, Ryan Walters, is crazy. He is not qualified for the office except he is also a fervent fundamentalist Christian nationalist. The governor tried to have him hold the two highest positions over education but was blocked by that funny thing called laws. It is time to take seriously this sneak effort to get fundamentalist die hard Christian nationalists in to state office at all levels as they have taken over schools up to governors offices. They are the US Christian Taliban and the Christian moral police. They are going to force their religion on everyone, make everyone live by their church doctrines / religious views no matter what religion or lack of that people have. Just look at their insistence on Christian prayers and the Christian bible in public schools. They want to enshrine their church doctrines and religious convictions into state laws that everyone will be subject to and have to follow. Hugs
“Instead of allowing Biden and the unions to inject their ideology through graphic pornography like ‘Gender Queer’ and “Flamer,’ we want the Constitution, we want the bible in our schools where kids understand our nation’s history and what has made this country great. The reality is that the bible is a foundational document in our country’s history. Read the Founders, read their letters, listen to what these men and women said about why founding a country with the freedom of religion, the free exercise of religion was so important.” – Oklahoma Education Superintendent Ryan Walters, today on Fox Business.
Last week Walters declared that the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre should not be taught as having been caused by racism. Over 300 black people were murdered by white mobs and 10,000 were left homeless.
Last month Walters appeared here when he announced that Oklahoma’s public schools will soon have a mandatory daily prayer, the mandatory posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and a mandatory high school course in “Western civilization.”
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.
"We want the Bible in our schools" — Ryan Walters, Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction on Fox Business pic.twitter.com/Zbbep4JFa3
The founding fathers wanted Freedom of Religion specifically so that government couldn’t force a specific religion down people’s throats. (E.g., the state religion of England was Anglicanism, the King being the head of state and the Church). Wasn’t it these same type of evangelicals who warned that JFK was going to be a President ‘controlled by the Pope’?
I get so sick of these religious fanatics trying to cram their religion down everyone’s throat. This whole thing is BS! And it is totally unconstitutional! And no, the Bible was not one of our founding documents!
“Instead of allowing Biden and the unions to inject their ideology through graphic pornography like ‘Gender Queer’ and “Flamer,’ we want the Constitution, we want the bible in our schools where kids understand our nation’s history and what has made this country great.
Ezekiel 23:20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
How about the passage where Ezekiel mentions dildos?
You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. — Ezekiel 16:17
And I really could go on and on about the Song of Songs, that is literally soft core porn.
“You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.” Song of Songs 4:9
Oh, that one is tame. How about the motorboating verse? “My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.” (1:13)
And the cunilingus verse: ““Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.” (4:16)
And fisting: “My beloved put his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.” (5:4)
My gospel is found in Song of Songs 5:16 ~ “His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”
The donkey’s verse is fun, but the context is so much more.
[Jerusalem] saw this, yet she was more corrupt than [Samaria] in her lusting and in her prostitutions, which were worse than those of her sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, mounted horsemen, all of them handsome young men. And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. But she carried her prostitutions further; she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, with belts around their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers—a picture of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. When she saw them she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust, and after she defiled herself with them, she turned from them in disgust. When she carried on her prostitutions so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned from her sister. Yet she increased her prostitutions, remembering the days of her youth, when she prostituted herself in the land of Egypt and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your young breasts. — Ezekiel 23:11-21
You can’t even get through the first chapter of that book without drunken incestuous impregnation. #Groomers
GENESIS 19
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father
The Holy Scriptures given an answer to what happened to Cain:
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch, and he built a city and named it Enoch after his son Enoch. — Genesis 4:15b-17
So, clearly, Cain left the part of the world created by God, moved to another place NOT created by God, and found a wife in a city of people some other deity created.
Nod was the part that god overlooked while creating “the whole world” and “all the animals”. He just didn’t notice that it had rolled under the couch while he was busy watching Adam and Eve, pre-fig leaf.
Creationists and other Fundamentalists claim that Cain’s wife was his sister, leading to an incestuous marriage. Dumb Idiot Ham claims that back then it’s OK to commit incest during the days before the fabled Flood. Although, he claims it’s wrong to commit incest now, how many of you would like to bet that one way or another, Ham approves incest and is trying to hide it through his writings, videos, placards, etc?
If you ask me I prefer to believe that Cain took a wife from a foreign nation instead of his own family. This implies that Adam and Eve and their sons weren’t the only humans around.
But when was Nod created and populated? Genesis is VERY clear that Cain left the place from where God was and traveled to another land that was already populated. By his sister?
Ain’t it funny, how the “the Bible is literally correct and eternally true and must be believed and obeyed exactly as written” crowd have no problem making shit up to fit their own beliefs when the Bible clearly says something different.
Then there are the two competing versions of the creation myth, both of which are in the book so both are canonical despite their inconsistencies.
On the one hand, god makes animals first, then creates humans after. Eve is created as a partner for Adam..
On the other hand god creates Adam first, then in trying to create a partner suitable for him, creates all the animals before finally deciding on creating a second human. Wanton bestiality, I suppose…
Parent and Democratic Chair of Hood County, Adrienne Martin, finally had enough of extremists in her deep-red community trying to get books banned and to inject religion into her child’s school and voiced her frustration to the Granbury Texas school board. Francis Maxwell reports.
LGBTQ+ youth need more than just our attention and our supportive words; they need our resources too.
Commentary by Brian Wenke
Photo: Shutterstock
Think back to when you were a teenager. While this time in our lives can often be filled with new experiences and self-discovery, it can also be deeply challenging and sometimes even painful. Time stretches on forever. You don’t have the full slate of freedoms that most adults take for granted. You are stuck in a microcosm of the real world, spending a good part of your life in a classroom with other young people doing their best to fit in – and feeling like you’re failing in some way.
These challenges of adolescence are even more acute for LGBTQ+ youth, who face an uphill battle to find acceptance in a world that often condemns the beauty of diversity and in many cases seeks to deny their very existence. Even before COVID-19 sent us into seclusion for the better part of the last three years – with devastating mental health consequences for many – LGBTQ+ youth were experiencing higher rates of depression and other forms of mental illness due to higher rates of bullying, harassment, and family rejection.
It’s time to start listening to queer youth. Here’s what they have to say.
Queer youth feel betrayed and abandoned by the adults elected to protect them. When will they start listening?
Now, amid escalating efforts in many states to ban even the slightest mention of sexual or gender identity in schools, the well-being of LGBTQ+ students is under attack.
While young queer activists across the country – including It Gets Better’s incredible Youth Voices – are heroically speaking out against these attacks on their rights, their health and their very identities, they can’t win this fight alone. Right now, adults are failing LGBTQ+ students, and we urgently need to take bold, decisive action to support and protect them.
The first thing we can do to support our queer and trans youth is simple: listen. With the advent of social media, the escalating “culture wars,” and the lingering aftermath of COVID, the problems young people face today are different from those faced by earlier generations. My interactions with LGBTQ+ youth have shown me how deeply they have thought about the challenges they face and what they need to resolve them. We need to resist the urge to default to our own experiences, to say “you’ll understand when you’re older.”
We also need to speak out forcefully against anti-LGBTQ+ education policies, whether they restrict discussion of LGBTQ+ identity altogether, ban the use of preferred pronouns, or attempt to forcibly out trans students to their families. No matter what grades or ages these policies target, their intended message is clear: if you are LGBTQ+, you are not welcome here. Ensuring that queer youth feel empowered to express their identity, safely and on their own timeline, will have a massive, sustained impact on their overall wellbeing.
But LGBTQ+ youth need more than just our attention and our supportive words; they need our resources too. Specifically in schools, there is an almost endless list of priorities in urgent need of funding that would make an enormous difference for the day-to-day well-being of LGBTQ+ students.
Through It Gets Better’s 50 States, 50 Grants, 5000 Voices program, we were so proud to recently announce grants of up to $10,000 each to more than 70 schools across the U.S. and Canada. They cover a range of projects to uplift and empower LGBTQ+ youth, including educator training, inclusive curriculum, community art projects, Pride celebrations, and the priorities of local Genders and Sexualities Alliances (aka GSAs). The philanthropic community stepping up to fund more projects like these at schools across the country would be one of the single most effective, tangible actions to support LGBTQ+ youth we could take.
While the adults in the room argue about the nuances of parental rights in education, the right to healthcare for trans youth, book bans and curriculum restrictions, young LGBTQ+ people everywhere are serving up a counter strike fueled by their passion to create a better world – a world that celebrates diversity and understands its value. Adults should be honored to have a seat at that table to watch and learn – and to catalyze the passion of young LGBTQ+ people who are ready to pick up the banner to concretize their right to exist.
Brian Wenke is the Executive Director of leading LGBTQ+ non profit, the It Gets Better Project, and has led the global storytelling effort to empower LGBTQ+ youth since 2016. He has spearheaded multi-national campaigns to connect and engage with LGBTQ+ youth where they live, work, and socialize – and has successfully leveraged corporate and institutional partnerships to expand the It Gets Better Project’s reach, which now spans four continents and six major languages.
The more I read about Central Bucks Pennsylvania school board the worse it gets. 1. They tried to gerrymander their school district to stay in power 2. They banned pride flags 3. They temporarily banned a quote from a holocaust survivor 4. They spent hundreds of thousands on lawyers and PR firms to uphold their awful “Title 321” There is probably more, if you’re a resident please leave a comment about how awful they are. I make my content for everyone to enjoy for free. If you like my work please go here and buy me a coffee. https://ko-fi.com/waltermasterson
For those that are on the fence about trans kids, and for those that are arguing that this is pushed on trans kids, please watch this short video. The person recording did not plan to record the coming out of a trans kid, but it happened. This video debunks all the trans hater talking points in one short video. Just as kids know who they are attracted to at a very young age, just as kids understand gender at a very young age as soon as they understand the idea of gender such as men or women, boys or girls, these clothing for this group or this bathroom for that gender. Kids understand this very early on. The idea of “early on stage gender dysphoria” has been debunked. I have watched an entire video on where it came from. The biggest threat to kids that know they are trans or gay is from the bigots on the right who are trying to keep kids from information they need, such as don’t say gay and anti gender identification laws. Look these republican right wingers want to return to the 1950s when gays and trans people were not positively portrayed in any media, yet they all existed. I am gay, I never got to read a book about a gay person until I was an adult. In fact the first book about gay kids I read was a book describing how a gay boy got trapped in abuse because of a person threatening to publicly out him. Denying the LGBTQ+ kids the media they need won’t stop them from being LGBTQ+ but it might stop a lot of abuse, and a lot of kids thinking they are the only one that is that way and believing how others say they are so horrible that they kill themselves! Listen to this child, just as I knew even before I was in school that I was a boy and that I was a boy who liked boys, this child knows who they are. Hugs
I was at the Pride Parade trolling the anti-LGBTQ people, when this child adamantly informed me that I am interviewing her. After getting consent from both her and the mother I spoke to her. The mother was present the entire time and requested that I do not include her name.
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????
Ron DeeeeeSantis must wake up every morning and think to himself, “what can I do today to further destroy the lives of the little people?” And then he sets out to do it.
The problem is that they view our pride as their shame. They don’t understand that it’s not about them. They don’t have to feel anything, just acknowledge that we are fellow creatures and move on.
Hey white trash rednecks. Guess what? We don’t need a rally or a fucking hat. We vote for true honor and respect of our country. Go put your confederate flag on the back of your tacky ass pickup truck, while you hurl empty cans of manly beer at electric cars.
Told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
IDK, I rather enjoyed seeing that paltry Trump rally in Bumblefuck, SC…especially the booing of Ms Lindsey. (Imagine being boo’d by the citizens of the very county you were born, raised & lived in. Must be how Trump felt in NYC.)
thatotherjeana day ago No, Brian, no. Nobody wants to “steal” your independence: they want to share in your rights. You’re treating those rights as though they belonged exclusively to white, straight, male people, to be granted to others as you see fit. No. The rights to “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” among other rights, belong to all of us.
That man on the right is anti-LGBT hate leader Brian Brown, meeting with US Supreme Court justices Kavanaugh and Alito aa they decide whether people can be fired for being LGBT.
Brown is heavily involved in Russia, and supports its anti-gay laws (which have proven deadly). pic.twitter.com/RCmPVI61wr
Karma Chases Dogma thatotherjean20 hours ago A man you don’t even know sticks his pecker in another man you don’t even know. Tell me, Brian, exactly how is this stealing YOUR independence? The gay agenda is to live a normal life like everyone else
Brian is objecting to the fact he no longer has the “independence” to stone gay people to death without repercussions as his religion demands. To misquote George Orwell: Some rights are more equal than others.
An armed transphobe in Eugene, OR attempts to intimidate folks at a Pride festival and fails pic.twitter.com/hiVsl3WPEj
— Marjorie Gaylor Queen 🏳️🌈 (@Tim_Tweeted) July 3, 2023
Paddycakes2001 jaspersdad18 hours ago That was great. One thing I wish he had also asked when the guy said drag is inherently sexual is “Oh, does that turn you on?”
True story. There was a guy in the gay bar years ago, who said he was totally straight, but got off on drag queens. But he’s totally straight and it wasn’t gay at all. That’s how their minds work.
AyJayDee221 hours ago There’s a real, concerted effort by the Republicans and the anti-liberal left to use RFK Jr. And Cornel West to spoil the 2024 election and help Trump win another term.
I ran into someone on the left who tried the “why the hating on RFK Jr?” on one of my social media pages. I responded, “Because of the belief in numerous conspiracy theories and ads that appear to have been made in Russian troll farms. No other reason, tho!” 😉
He is not a democrat. He is being supported by the far right. This is their new thing–sham candidates, many of whom run as a democrat and if they win, they change their party affiliation to republican. This sure stinks of election fraud to me. I hope he gets so humiliated that he slinks away back into whatever cave he’s been hiding in and is never seen or heard from again.
In the four years since DeSantis took office, his administration has routinely stonewalled the release of public records, approved a slew of new legal exceptions aimed at keeping more information out of the public eye, and waged legal battles against open government advocates, the press and other watchdogs. DeSantis, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former U.S. attorney, is the only Florida governor known to use “executive privilege” to keep records hidden, transparency advocates and experts said. His travel records, previously under scrutiny by the media, are now secret, thanks to a new legal exemption — one of a record number created in 2023 by the Republican-led Legislature and approved by the governor. DeSantis also has fought to conceal information about some of the most significant events during his tenure, including withholding Covid infection data and blocking release of records about the controversial relocation of dozens of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, legal filings show.
I just listened to episode 2 of Rachel Maddow’s latest podcast, Deja News. Great analysis of how the current dictator of FL is dredging up the hate & fear of others, just as the John’s Report did in the 50s & 60s.
Doughty last appeared on JMG in June 2021 when he blocked the COVID vaccine mandate for federal workers in a ruling that was riddled with false anti-vaccine claims and which cited a notorious anti-vaccine activist. In September 2022 he issued a permanent injunction against vaccine mandates for teachers.
I read through the decision. It’s bonkers. It’s all just regurgitating conspiracy theories and complaining about the decisions of Twitter and Facebook that *every* other court who has looked at this nonsense has held to be private action, not government action, and thus not violating the 1st Amendment at all. And it gripes about things done when Trump was still president. One of the plaintiffs is Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit, a/k/a the dumbest man on the Internet, and the judge complains about a Twitter suspension before Biden became president. And, of course, it claims the story about “Hunter’s laptop” was suppressed even though it was the biggest story in the country — and happened when Trump was president.
This is really nutty stuff. Not surprising, I guess. This is the same judge who credulously quoted anti-vax nonsense and granted an injunction against HHS’s requirement that healthcare workers get one of the vaccines. The Supreme Court undid that and held that “mandate” was perfectly constitutional. This judge can’t learn his lesson and control himself. Given the current composition of the 5th Circuit, though, we shouldn’t be surprised if it stays in place for a while.
They don’t know their flag. They don’t know the law. They don’t know the Constitution. They don’t know their history. They don’t know their Buybull. This is today’s anti-woke Republicans.
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.
Treaty Of Tripoli, Article 11, 1796… passed unanimously in the US Senate by many of the actual ‘founders’.
As a forriner I find it super weird how much the Founding Fathers are respected and ‘claimed’. It’s like a religion to some Americans.
They were just people, and more importantly, people of their time. Slave owners, white, educated (read: rich). People who wanted to do their best for their country but they were full of flaws like the rest of us.
Who gives a fuck what someone said several hundreds years ago? Oh, right: Bible humpers.
“And here’s the thing,” Robinson said during his speech on Sunday. “Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler; whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao; whether you’re talking about Stalin; whether you’re talking about Pol Pot; whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba; or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe, it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes.”
We have reached the point where Republican elected officials are pushing for bans on LGBTQ books but encouraging all to read books by Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. https://t.co/pLBlzpk95F
BartmanLA2 days ago They’re not going to “tolerate” what the actual fuck??? The LGBTQ community has been TOLERATING the hate and bullshit discrimination from the right and conservatives for DECADES… Get off your fucking high horse and go do something actually worthwhile, better yet just go crawl in corner and die!
This is why there is no middle on the issue lgbt rights. We want equal rights; they want us to disappear. At the very least they want us all back in the closet afraid that we will be fired, ostracized or even killed if we come out. There is no middle ground between the two.
Big shots on the right, even the supposedly educated “conservative thought leaders,” always sound so incredibly ignorant when they talk about LGBTQ+ America. They always seem to talk about us like we’re citizens of a different country (the way most of them think Puerto Ricans are citizens of a different country). Are they just pandering to the rank-n-file, or are they really so genuinely clueless? Honestly, part of me would prefer Machiavellian pandering to braindead ignorance.
Former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has called LGBTQ rights the “biggest threat” to religious morality in America.
In an interview with The Christian Post, Huckabee…decried acceptance of LGBTQ people and blamed the “Christian Church” for not doing enough to combat LGBTQ equality.
One of the most wild revelations coming out of the backlash over the anti-trans and anti-gay ad released by the DeSantis team is that the Gays Against Groomers org is basically a Ron DeSantis astroturf organization.