Read the full article. Josh McKoon [photo above] first appeared on JMG in 2015 when he introduced an ultimately failed bill to legalize anti-LGBTQ discrimination by businesses and employers. In 2016, he appeared here for his pointless bill to “protect” preachers who refuse to officiate same-sex marriages. According to McKoon, the veto of his 2016 bill by GOP then-Gov. Nathan Deal was “slap in the face to conservatives, to evangelicals and to the broader faith community.”
The Confederate monuments (and the flag) are kept around to keep the flame alive that the South is gonna rise up again, and next time they’re gonna win. I can’t tell you how many times I heard “The South shall rise again!” growing up. Far too many Southern whites are still bitter about losing the war and having slavery taken away from them. And the end of segregation just made them even angrier. The Union may have won the war, but far too many Southern whites remain unreconstructed in their heart and mind. They revere the monuments for what they stand for. So, I’m not one bit surprised that the Georgia GOP wants to keep those monuments in place.
O/T: Ms Lindsey’s staunch defense and filthy boudoir mouth at yesterday’s interview explained:
The program enables schools that predominantly serve children from low-income backgrounds to offer all students free breakfast and lunch, instead of means-testing them and having to manage collecting applications on an individual basis. As with many universal-oriented programs, it is more practically efficient and, as a bonus, lifts all boats. This is what Republicans are looking to eliminate.
NEW: The New Republic is reporting that Republicans are focused on banning free lunch for America’s school children. Despite ample need, Republicans believe exacerbating child hunger is a winning message for them in 2024. @newrepublichttps://t.co/P7FcHycoGl
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) June 15, 2023
mkbear68a day ago Because those poor kids cold get a job and pay for their own damn lunch!
and pull them out of school so they are both poor and dumb …equals perfect Fox New viewers.
… well because we all know that nothing says “Loving Christian” better than “Hungry Poor Children”.
now they can live in fear of being human trafficked. By their own parents because they cannot afford to feed them.
GOP: “Why should I pay for free lunches for those rugrats? Let their whore mothers who should have kept their knees together pay for their lunches.”
Also GOP: “Anybody who even gives a pregnant 14-year-old a ride to a state that offers abortions gets the death sentence.”
It is not about abortion… or anything except policing women’s sexuality, keeping the poor poor, and maintaining the rich white cishet “Christian” men from feeling threatened in anyway.
I used to work for my State’s Free Lunch program. You wouldn’t believe the number of kids who told me that the School Lunch was the only real meal they got all day. And they feared the coming of summer because it meant the wouldn’t be getting a real meal until school started again.
You have to be really malignant to pull a meal out of a hungry kid’s mouth.
Gregory In Seattle2 days ago This is what Republicans want for us all. While they might mouth platitudes against violence, this is EXACTLY what they and right wing propaganda outlets stir up with their incessant, vitriolically hateful rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ communities.
JackFknTwist3 days ago Aged 21 and 23. They must know fucking everything at that age. They must be so bright, politically astute and have vast knowledge of international history. Or else they are another pair of ‘fucking morons’ (thanks Rex) or Evangelicals or pro-life , again fucking morons. Or all of the above
Doug1054 days ago A common statement from the religious side of this issue goes something like this “stop shoving your gay agenda down our throats”. In the same breath, they go on to say, “You don’t see us shoving our religion down your throat”. Well then… Have you ever had a homosexual knock on your door (usually around dinner time) asking if you have found Elton John? Have homosexuals ever passed laws that make the government print “In Homosexuality We Trust” on your money? When was the last time homosexuals passed laws that rewrote the Pledge of Allegiance to say, “One Homosexual Nation”? Have homosexuals erected a monument with Marc Jacobs’ top 10 fashion rules at your local courthouse? Have any homosexual groups spent millions trying to pass laws to outlaw marriage between a woman and a man? Have homosexual activists worked to pass laws limiting birth control, abortion, etc? Did a homosexual ever prevent you from buying liquor or a car on Sunday? Is there a book promoting homosexuality in almost every hotel room in the country? Have homosexuals pushed for laws to make the missionary position illegal? Have homosexuals tried to pass a law allowing them to legally refuse service to Christians? Right, they have never shoved their religious agenda down our collective throats.
As a liberal, I am constantly accused of being intolerant for not accepting someone’s hateful or repressive convictions. It’s as if “tolerance” has come to mean accepting and respecting someone else’s views, regardless of what they are or who they affect. And that’s wrong.
Tolerance: a fair, objective and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc.,. Differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry
Being open-minded does not mean arbitrarily respecting everyone and accepting everything. There are things that no one should tolerate, such as bigotry, suppression of liberty, denial of equal rights, and abusive restrictions.
I try to preach and practice tolerance, but I do not have to tolerate anyone’s intolerance. There is never an excuse or justification for hatred or abuse.
Read the full article. Kristina Karamo, you will recall, says Democrats drink the blood of children and that demonic possession is sexually transmitted. She last appeared here when she compared a gun control bill to the Holocaust.
This is what qualifies as the Republican congressperson these days. Someone who proudly uses slurs against minorities for laughs and preens over it. She is like a kid who was unliked until she attacked a kid who also was unliked a bit more than her. She is smug and happy, not realizing her new friends will abandon her as soon as she is not useful for hitting down at others. These people on the right today don’t even pretend to like civility, decency, being nice or kind to others. Everything they demand for themselves, they delight in denying for everyone else. Thugs and childish bullies are now members of congress. Plus she is always pushing her Christian religious views along with her ignorance of biology and hate for sex education in schools. She had to leave school because she was pregnant as a young teen and her teen son also impregnated a young teen, now we find out she is getting a divorce along with all the members of her family being heavy drinkers. Very good Christians? No she is entitled white trash that got a golden ticket by using her body and hateful attacks on minorities. Hugs
She paused and smiled, appearing proud of herself for using a slur in front of such a large group of people.
Lauren Boebert says LGBTQ+ people are “degenerates” in calling for North Face boycott
She is upset about a drag queen’s wholesome Instagram video announcing a Pride event for The North Face.
“Bud Light – or tr***y fluid…” The crowd laughed as she paused, smiling and appearing proud of herself for using a slur in front of a large group of people. “They have lost $27 billion in revenue because you took a stand.”
Her claim that Bud Light lost $27 billion in revenue due to their sponsorship of a 50-second Instagram video by trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney is wrong in multiple ways. First, she is referring to Anheuser-Bucsh’s market value, not revenue earned specifically by Bud Light. Bud Light is owned by Anheuser-Busch, which owns many popular beer brands in the U.S.
Second, the reason for the drop in market value can’t be pinned on the video with Dylan Mulvaney; there are many forces affecting the company’s market value and no reason to ignore all of them except for the Instagram video. Even the timing is off; the market value of Anheuser-Busch started dropping in mid-May, a month and a half after rightwingers started boycotting Bud Light because of the April 1 video.
screenshot/ycharts
People on Twitter mocked her.
Sad that someone who votes on legislation affecting corporations doesn't know the difference between revenue and market capitalization.
Yes @laurenboebert be proud of being a part of ruining a corporation. What could go wrong? Less taxes for the States. Possibly a rise in unemployment. Less revenue for the government which causes our debt to rise. Increase the division in our country. So keep on laughing.
I find unbelievable that in 2023 there are people who still use derogatory terms like that. They aren't making fun of opponent politicians or supporters, they are laughing to an entire community of US citizen fellows who is fighting for equal rights.
Again, it is driven by fundamentalist religious people and their demand to have everyone live by their church / religious doctrines. The right claims that social acceptance and tolerance of people who are different from them, the LGBTQ+, is indoctrination. But teaching kids to stomp on a symbol of another group, teaching kids to yell insults to kids different from them, teaching kids to hate is somehow not indoctrination but good parenting to these bigots. Being kind and respectful of a kid’s feelings and respecting their desire to be addressed by a preferred name or pronouns is abuse, but including your kids in a violent shouting hate shouting when they might be either soon feeling or are feeling that they are different is again good parenting. These people want to close off young minds and deny young people the right to develop into more than clones of their parents. The pro-LGBTQ+ supporters showed up in great numbers and that is what we need in the US also.
One last point. These people scream leave our kids alone, but they are the ones attacking other peoples children. These peopel demand the right to not only teach hate to their children but to also they demand the right to teach that same hate to every other child regardless of those kids parents wishes. They demand parental rights not only for their children but yours as well, removing your parental rights over your own child. Leave our kids alone should be the slogan of the LGBTQ+ parents. These haters are terrorizing the LGBTQ+ kids and their teacher supporters in the schools, yet they claim others are indoctrinating or grooming kids. Hugs
Protests against “gender ideology” in Canada’s capital city Friday brought far-right conservative Christians and Muslims together to attack Ottawa’s local school board for supporting LGBTQ+ students.
The unusual alliance was met by an equal or greater number of counter-protesters defending the rights of LGBTQ+ kids and denouncing “transphobic, fascist ideology.”
A new directive by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board inspired the demonstration, organized by notorious far-right Canadian provocateur Chris Elston, aka Billboard Chris.
The all-staff notice advised the use of they/them pronouns for students until their preferred pronouns were expressed.
Video from the demonstration shows Muslim women and others encouraging young children to stomp and dance on progress Pride flags strewn on the ground and clapping with joy.
The clip shows an older white man holding a large Canadian flag leaning down to shake one kid’s hand in solidarity.
“Right on, boys!” he declares, beaming.
"LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE" – Muslims and Christians unite on the streets of Ottawa, trampling the Gender Ideology Flag. This is a turning point. Let kids be kids. pic.twitter.com/ATvXfzMPao
Shouts of “Leave our kids alone!” were heard up and down the street where the protest took place, home to two high schools and a primary school.
“This is going to horrify Justin Trudeau,” posted Keean Bexte, with the far-right media site The Counter Signal. “All of these proponents of childhood mastectomies and penectomies are officially on notice. The minority communities that have propped up your governments have finally had enough.”
It is very rare for transmasculine teens to get mastectomies before the age of 18 and genital surgery is not performed on trans minors.
Police announced they made five arrests at the demonstration, without providing details. Scattered acts of violence were reported.
While a heat wave, fires, and smoke have enveloped the region since the beginning of June, Bexte laid recent high absentee rates at Ottawa schools at the feet of the school board and their nonbinary naming advisory, claiming parents were pulling their kids out in “silent protest” of Pride Month.
Hundreds showed up to counter the right-wing alliance.
The counter-protest “fills my heart,” said Emily Quail, an organizer and mom of a child at one of the nearby schools.
“The only way to correctly counter fascism is by showing up like this on the street and telling them we outnumber them,” she told The Canadian Press.
“We will not let them spread their transphobic, fascist ideology anywhere, here or anywhere else, and that starts with community strength and that’s what I’m really proud to see today.”
The Ottawa area school board condemned Elston for planning the protest in front of schools.
“It really raises doubts about a group that, I think it goes without saying, but it’s a group that is literally targeting children,” said Alex Silas, a school district official.
In 2020, Elston, a Vancouver insurance agent, paid for a billboard declaring, “I ❤️ JK Rowling”, and then wore the message on a sandwich board at protests after it was denounced as “hateful expression” and taken down.
..this is perhaps off topic: but I have a thread at Talking Points Memo, in “the Hive”: “Pride is Every Day”, and a friend shared this, by ‘anonymous author K’:
Ruminations on the death of Pat Robertson
I don’t like to think
About Pat Robertson going to hell.
That lets him off too easy.
I like to think about
Pat Robertson finding himself
In a heaven he never believed
Would exist.
Where Divine is reading in drag
To the children murdered at
Sandy Hook and Ulvalde.
While Edie Windsor
And Gertrude Stein drink coffee
In the breakfast nook
talking politics with Harvey Milk.
Where Matthew Shepard relaxes by
A stream, reading poetry to
a nameless young man whose family
Never claimed his body
when he died
Of AIDS.
Where the music plays loudly
Welcoming dancers from the Pulse
and Club Q to the floor where they
Twirl and vogue with
All the murdered trans women of color
Whose names we never knew.
Where Jesus puts his arm around
Pat Robertson’s shoulders and
Drapes them with a rainbow feather boa.
And, gesturing around him says
Come, meet my disciples
Yes the left is starting to fight back instead of giving in to the attempt by the religious right to erase those they don’t like or agree with from society. Also people are seeing through the fake claim that they are just trying to protect children from being sexualized. They don’t want to just mold their children, they want the right to mold your child in their image. They are demanding the right to take away your parental rights to raise your child, even as they are demanding more and more rights for themselves to dictate what children are taught. Be clear this is about removing any reference to the LGBTQ+ from first schools and then all of society. They are already moved on to banning drag, which in their written laws means wearing the clothing normally associated with a gender not assigned at birth in public. Why? It doesn’t sexualize kids if a man wears a nice skirt, but it does challenge the strict gender norms these fundamentalist are trying to return all the country to. These fundamentalist religious groups got a huge head start on their attempt to outlaw even the mention of what they don’t agree with, they pushed a false narrative on the public that many have bought into because they were not hearing the other side. Now we who are on the side of progress and advancement need to make sure people get the full story and real goals of these people. We have our work cut out for us, but to save the present and build the future we have to fight back. For the sake of the gay, lesbian, trans, and all the other non-cis and non-binary kids we must fight and win the right for them to see positive role models and see themselves represented in books and movies. We must grant these LGBTQ+ children the safety and security that we should give all children. Hugs
A standing room-only crowd gathered at the Lincolnwood Village Hall Monday for a heated debate about a book with LGBTQ+ content on the public library’s children’s collection.
The monthly library board meeting was moved from the library to the village hall to accommodate a large turnout after last month’s meeting got heated and ended early with police being called.
Once again, library board members and the public came face to face.
“The library has decided that they, not you the parent, knows what is best for your child,” said Bryan Johnson, Lincolnwood resident.
“Gay people and drag queens have a right to exist and be themselves and have books written about them,” said Jen Mierisch, Lincolnwood resident.
At the board meeting, some attendees voice objections to certain titles with LGBTQ+ themes that are part of the library’s children’s collection. At least one formal challenge was filed against a book called “The Hips On The Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish.”
The nursery rhyme book features characters in drag, and was read aloud during a library-sponsored story time over the summer.
“I’m not here to ask for a ban on any books,” said resident Rahila Siddiqui. “I’m here to fight for my right to choose when my elementary school children should be exposed to complicated topics like drag queens.”
“If parents prefer their children not read a book, that’s their decision. But that does not give them the right to impose their short-sighted beliefs on anyone else’s children,” said Susan Ginsburg, Lincolnwood resident.
After reviewing the book, library officials declined to remove it from the children’s department. The library director told ABC7 such action would constitute censorship, adding, “Our goal is to respect everyone in our community and what they want to read.”
“When you’re at Macy’s and you don’t like a purple shirt, you can’t demand that they take it away. Just don’t buy it,” said Judy Abelson, Lincolnwood resident.
Library officials said they also declined a patron’s request to remove another book that some consider anti-transgender. That patron has now dropped that formal challenge on censorship grounds.
Why cannot these people understand or accept that people are born with the sexual attractions / orientation and gender identity are formed in the womb. They are inborn, formed with a person as the rest of them is building. While environment can influence the minor subsets and details of those things, the environmental factors cannot take a straight person and force them to be gay. If a straight person cannot be changed in to loving same-sex relations, why do they think that gay or lesbian people can be changed to be straight. It is not an idea backed up by science, it is a myth these people created to justify their hate. It is no different from the other science denying crap put out by fundamentalist religions / religious people. To deny these facts about sexuality that have been backed up with science is the same as denying the earth goes around the sun or that the earth is a globe instead of flat. It is the same as the refusal to accept the medical science on vaccines or the well documented science on transgender peoples treatments with gender-affirming care. I am so tired and sick of these anti-science anti-progress haters who only want to keep the status quo when they felt in charge and comfortable. Hugs
Via email from activist Wayne Besen:
The Freedom March is a right-wing Christian fundamentalist organization that exists to “help” LGBTQ people “pray away the gay.” They also claim to help people transition out of being trans. So, it was a really bad day for the Freedom March when its founder, Jeffrey McCall, announced online that he was hooking up with multiple men. Freedom March told the world that he was “healed”. They sold the lie that Jesus “cured” him. When Jeffrey McCall said he was straight – we didn’t know he meant straight to bed with men.
It gets worse for the Freedom March. McCall recently announced that she was transgender and came out as Scarlett. This group’s “gay cure” worked so well, that their founder tried to “pray away the gay” and somehow became significantly gayer. Those thoughts and prayers are always so effective. When they promised Jeffrey McCall was transformed by Jesus Christ, I don’t think this is what they meant. Instead of transformation, they got transition.
As you’ll see in the video below, the group is now calling themselves “Rainbow Revival.” In 2021, McCall was featured in the Netflix “ex-gay” documentary “Pray Away” and his appearance in the film resulted in adulatory posts on multiple Christian sites.
I wanted to post here before some people found out other ways. I have went back to my life as Scarlett. I never intended to hurt or disappoint anyone. I felt like no matter what I chose someone would get hurt. That’s a horrible spot to be in. felt like I tried to fight for so long. I tried to help many in ministry for so long. Please remember I’m just a human being and didn’t ask for any of things that I have went through. I didn’t ask to feel this way. Please show me compassion as a human being just as I have always tried to show everyone else compassion and understanding.
I’ve had this argument countless times with bigots on religious websites. Their response is always the same: Jesus didn’t say anything about a lot of things, that doesn’t mean he approved of it. You can’t win for losing with these people.
Christianity is founded on Paul’s teachings, where Jesus is little more than a figurehead. That is why Christianity does not observe the Sabbath, does not keep kosher, and basically ignores Jewish laws. Except, for some inexplicable reason, the prohibition on homosexuality, which the Tanakh imposes only on men, not women.
There actually are gay Orthodox Jews who avoid anal sex so as not to transgress that commandment, but they give and receive sexual pleasure in other ways.
(And there are plenty of other gay Jews who couldn’t care less about that ancient prohibition.)
A lot of LGBTQ christians squirm and writhe and do that christian thing of saying “oh, yes, the bible’s words say that, but what it really means is . . .” but, it’s an intrinsically anti-LGBTQ religion.
If they want to start their own religion, with a rewritten holy book, they’re always welcome to do that. They can make up whatever they want in a new religion. They can call themselves Jesusites or something if they want to hang on to some version of Jesus. But christianity is and has always been anti-LGBTQ, that was built in by the people who invented it.
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I’m an Anglican Priest in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and I get to serve in the Parish of St Margaret of Scotland, in the beautiful city of Halifax, NS, that sits on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people.
My pronouns are he/him/his. My theology is primarily Christo-centric – Jesus is at the centre and it is against Him that all values are bounced off. I believe all people are created in the image of God and are children of God and are heirs to the throne of God – no conditions – therefore every single person we meet deserves our love, and respect.
I love how when Matt Walsh compares fully dressed drag queens reading to kids as obscene and sexual, lance reminds everyone about a place in public that many people of different sexes go wearing hardly anything, men in speedos and thongs, women in string bikinis all with kids around. Yet no outcry from the maga conservative religious right. Why because it is the beach or a pool and there is no association with the LGBTQ+ who are the real targets of the right. Hugs
This is a very important short video because it shows both what I have been saying about these dressing as drag bans and the goal of the fundamentalist driven right. A trans woman was to give a talk, a presentation, at a library. But due to the new ban on dressing in drag in Montana the library had to cancel the talk because the person was trans.
Governor Greg Gianforte signed the extreme, vaguely worded drag ban just last week. The law bans drag performers, which are defined as “a male or female performer who adopts a flamboyant or parodic feminine persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup,” from performing where children are present. It is also the first measure to specifically ban drag story hours in public libraries, meaning it does not only restrict performances that might be more openly sexual.
Jawort is not a drag queen, and the lecture was intended for adults, although children could have attended if they wanted. The library’s decision is a sign that the drag bans are having their intended effect: forcing LGBTQ people out of public view. The law is so confusing, and the punishments are so high, that many people and organizations are trying to avoid the risk.
Notice two things, the law doesn’t say the person or act has to be sexual or have exaggerated sexual characteristics and that even reading to kids is considered a performance. People have tried to argue with me that these drag bans are only to stop kids from seeing burlesque type sex shows. You know, events that could sexualize kids, what ever that means. But reading to kids dressed in a costume in a public library with adults present with parental consent is considered sexual under this ban. How? Well it is a guy dressed in what is thought to be the clothing of the female gender. A person dressed in the other genders clothing would defy or break the strict gender stereotypes from the 1950s that these people are desperately trying to regress the country back to.
This is the goal of the fundamentalist Christian nationalist that have taken over the Republican Party and controls the right, to return to the expected gender norms of the past, and to keep the strict gender roles of the past that they love. No men dressing like a woman or acting womanly, and the same in reverse, no woman dressing or acting manly. It basically outlaws trans people.
Read that last paragraph again please. It outlaws trans people. Next will be to remove the rights from gay people such as same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination laws. The goal as I keep repeating is to drive the country back to the society and social standards of the 1950s. Churches were automatically considered good (Christian churches only of course) and had automatic authority in society. White males were always in charge and could act is what ways they wished towards women and minorities. Women were second class to men and needed a man’s approval in most things and kept the home for the comfort of the man while raising the expected brood of children. Women couldn’t get a divorce without exceptional circumstances, and were stuck in marriages that they did not want and maybe being abused in. Blacks knew their place and kept themselves there. But most important to these people the LGBTQ+ had no rights, gays / lesbians / trans people were not seen or heard from, staying hidden while scared of being found out. When found out, the white males could make their life hell and face no negative consequences.
This is the society these people crave and have obsessively worked for decades. A place with no freedoms or civil rights except for white males, more for those who gave a glancing nod to the Christian church. Oppressive to everyone else, with no personal freedoms to live your life freely if you differed from the church doctrines strict norms and dress codes. For those that have said these laws won’t target cross-dressing and were for protecting kids from being sexualized are not true and never were. Great informative video, I strong hope you will all view it. Hugs
Rep. Lauren BoebertPhoto: Screenshot
Photo: Screenshot Twitter
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