Category: Clothing

Lincolnwood Public Library declines to remove books with LGBTQ content from children’s collection

https://abc7chicago.com/lincolnwood-library-childrens-books-il-news/12504956/

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

https://abc7chicago.com/lincolnwood-library-childrens-books-il-news/12504956/

https://abc7chicago.com/video/embed/12505241

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.

“Ex-Gays” Rebrand After Founder Comes Out As Trans

“Ex-Gays” Rebrand After Founder Comes Out As Trans

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.

 

 

weshlovrcm3 days ago edited

Jesus never mentioned homosexuality. So you can pray to Him all you want to “change” you, but He won’t. Because you’re fine the way God created you.

Elagabalus  weshlovrcm3 days ago

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.

Gregory In Seattle  PlutoAnimus3 days ago

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.

(((GC))) – End the filibuster!  Gregory In Seattle 3 days ago

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.)

ECarpenter  PlutoAnimus3 days ago edited

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.

Greg3 days ago edited

I suppose that if a man is attracted to men but then transitions to a woman, the term “ex-gay” would be accurate. 🧐

 

cfa  Greg3 days ago

If she is now a woman, and still sleeping with men, then she is a heterosexual. And she has certainly been transformed.

Be careful with prayer. God doesn’t answer prayer by giving you what you want. God gives you what you need (which can sometimes be a good bitch-slap).

Dramphooey 3 days ago

Please show me compassion as a human being just as I have always tried to show everyone else compassion and understanding. -McCall

What did you think you were showing encouraging people to be miserable?

TrollopeReader3 days ago

whatever happened to those duck dynasty folks ?? aren’t dynasties supposed to last a few generations, at the very least ?

ConnieHinesDorothyProvine  TrollopeReader 3 days ago

As it turned out, those twerps were originally a bunch of country club types. Once again, rich assholes like to pose as the “common folk”.

heleninedinburgh  ConnieHinesDorothyProvine 3 days ago

Duck Dynasty was the class equivalent of blackface.

 

Vitriol From An Asshat In Spokane

Hey everyone – hit like and subscribe to see what we produce next!

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.

Pinned by Rev Ed Trevors

Rev Ed Trevors2 weeks agoAn article… https://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-sermon-goes-viral-for-violent-anti-trans-message/article_74d97ad8-f907-11ed-8a37-a3dc71ff6f01.html

Matt Walsh DEVASTATED over Tennessee Drag Ban being ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL (HUGE VICTORY for LGBTQ+)

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

Trans Vaush Fan BANNED From Speaking In Montana

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

They have not failed, you have

Anti-Pride Protests Are Turning Violent

Anti-LGBTQ protesters targeted a school in LA. Jayar Jackson and Jessica Burbank break it down on The Watchlist. Watch LIVE on weekdays at 5pm ET. http://youtube.com/watchlisttyt/live

Read more HERE: https://knock-la.com/anti-lgbtq-viole….

“An anti-LGBTQ+ protest was organized on Instagram after a Pride celebration was scheduled at Saticoy Elementary in North Hollywood. The Pride celebration included a book reading about different types of families. Shortly after the celebration was announced, someone broke into the school after-hours to steal a transgender teacher’s pride flag and burn it. The same teacher was also doxxed by right-wing activists.

Some news outlets have reported that the anti-LGBTQ+ event was planned by parents concerned with how sexual education is taught to young students. Knock LA attempted to interview some of these parents, but was met with silence or a negative response. Two young adult women on the anti-LGBTQ+ side said they were there because “it’s cool.”

“Glendale has had enough!” shouted one of the right-wing protest leaders over his PA. “Time to bust out the zip ties!” he told the police, continuing with “I’d like to zip tie the principal!””

Let’s talk about the ruling in Tennessee….

I have a doctor’s appointment this morning, and after that I plan to ignore news and reply to comments.  Plus if I can I will give a health update.   So until we meet again, best wishes and hugs.    

Moms For Liberty Harasses Florida High School Into Reprinting Yearbook Without Pages On LGBTQ Students

Moms For Liberty Harasses Florida High School Into Reprinting Yearbook Without Pages On LGBTQ Students

Personal note **  I hope to be back up to the half speed I have been managing lately in a few days.   I had a really bad end of the week, health wise.   Ron said Thursday evening my right side back muscles were swollen up higher than his fist compared to the left.   I saw the cardiologist, he changed my medication and said I needed an echocardiogram along with a medical heart stress test.   He is worried about the shortness of breath and breathing problems, along with something he thinks is going on with my heart.   But the change in medications will allow me to get my allergy treatments, and the blood tests came back showing really serious allergies.   I will share those another time.   Hugs

Please note the open bigotry and privilege.   Also note these are a very small group of bigoted religious parents.   Let the kids be kids doesn’t apply to the gay or other LGBTQ+ kids.    These people find anything offensive that is not just as they are, feel, or want things.   They want all their kids to celebrate their school years, but not the gay, trans, or the other LGBTQ+ kids to have that privilege.   Notice these kids are teenagers, the woman is complaining that seeing LGBTQ+ other students and information was sexualizing a 14-year-old.   Trust me, by 14 a kid knows their gender, their sexuality, and even how to masturbate.    This strange idea that kids don’t have feelings, desire, or even that touching themselves feels good until the magic moment they turn 18 when suddenly all those things happen and become real.   That is incredibly stupid, that schools even through the senior year can not mention anything dealing with gender or sexual orientation unless it is straight heterosexual 1950s gender stereotypical norms.   Hello every teen has a smart phone, and access to smart TV’s, game consoles that browse the internet, along with computers.   Get freaken real people.   This really is about not letting the LGBTQ+ people be normalized, that is why these groups want to remove the media with gay or trans characters or have LGBTQ+ information.    Yet they do want the anti-gay stuff pushed hard.   These bans make it so there can be no programs stopping bullying, no safe places for kids that are not cis or straight to feel welcome.   It is driving the LGBTQ+ people in the US to the same place the Jewish people were in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.   Hugs

 

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

Seminole County Public Schools is offering to reprint this year’s Lyman High School yearbook and remove two pages for parents upset about LGBTQ+ content, prompting criticism that the district isn’t standing up to bigotry. The pages highlight the school’s LGBTQ+ community and provide definitions of terms such as genderfluid and pansexual. A few parents and students found those pages “inappropriate,” and now the district is offering refunds or reprinted yearbooks with the pages in question removed.

Jessica Tillmann, chapter chair of the Seminole County Moms for Liberty, said she is concerned about the definitions in the yearbook because she thinks they are teaching children about sex outside the state-approved standards that parents can choose to opt their children out of. “They shouldn’t have any sexual definitions in a yearbook,” she said. “This is a yearbook that goes to every student as young as 14.”

Click Orlando reports:

Sharmon Craft [screenshot above] was among the parents who believe the page is inappropriate. “This gender ideology crap has parents in an uproar because it’s disgusting and wrong for an adult to sexualize a minor,” Craft said on Facebook.

“The district superintendent is ordering the school to give full refunds or have the books reprinted without the glossary of perverse sexual attractions and pronouns.” District officials said they have received four complaints from parents so far.

Danielle Pomeranz, the high school’s former yearbook advisor, argued against the decision. “We think that it’s important that our book remains inclusive and represents all of the students at Lyman High School,” Pomeranz said.

 

Jay Silversmitha day ago

STFU. If you’re such a snowflake, tear the two pages out yourself. I’m sick of a couple of people dictating to the rest of the schools.

Joeonhold  Jay Silversmitha day ago

100% correct!! Why do they kowtow to idiots??

BearEyes  Jay Silversmitha day ago

manufactured drama to needlessly excite others as they push their astro-turf nonsense.

Octoberfurst  Jay Silversmitha day ago

And yet schools and other places kowtow to these idiots with their reactionary agenda. It makes me sick!

Karl Dubhe IV a day ago

14 year olds know that gay people exist.

Fearsome Beard  Karl Dubhe IVa day ago

14 year olds often already know if they are gay or straight or even fluid, I sure did.

Don_K  Fearsome Bearda day ago

I always knew I wasn’t like the other boys. 14 was when I figured out what that difference was.

MarkSAF  Fearsome Bearda day ago

I knew long before I was 14

Don_K  Shy Guya day ago

I wasn’t out in public until I was 24, but I was out to myself at 14.

EdmondWherever  Fearsome Beard a day ago

14 was my age the first time I was able to look my reflection in the eyes and say, “I am a homosexual” out loud. It was strange to hear myself say it, but it felt so true and freeing.

Don_K  EdmondWherevera day ago

Same age here, but for me it was as I was cumming while thinking of the guys in the locker room at school

Octoberfurst  Fearsome Bearda day ago

I almost find it funny that these Moms for Liberty morons think that their children are innocent and pure and know nothing about sex. Do they not know the kids have access to the internet and have cell phones? Those women live in a Christian bubble.

Shy Guy  Octoberfursta day ago

Don’t tell them. ‘Christian’ parents have a tendency to install crappy blocking software on their kids’ phones that ostensibly block porn, but actually block anything a crazy religious parent might object to, like age-appropriate information that teens absolutely should have access to.

PrequelDev  Karl Dubhe IVa day ago

14 year olds with phones know a lot of things.

fraser  Karl Dubhe IVa day ago

Hence the enthusiasm for purging all mention of them everywhere. As homophobe lawyer Matt Staver said recently, if Christian kids get to know gays, they’ll get the outrageous idea they’re not monsters in human form.

Shy Guy  Charles in Bloomingtona day ago

Indeed:

Thumbnail
 
Shy Guy  Marka day ago

And not to mention no-one is sexualising anyone in this yearbook, just defining some terms.

We have to fight back against their characterisation of anything that even mentions LGBT people’s existence as being “sexual”. ‘Heather has two mommies’ is not sexual, and not inappropriate in the slightest for elementary students.

Also yet more infantilisation of teens: “OMG, kids as young as 14 will read this!” 14 years olds know about sex, and we should give them correct information, not religious scare stories.

Don_K  Shy Guya day ago

Rule 1: White kids are innocent babes until at least age 30.
Rule 2: Black and Latino kids are fully adult hyper-sexual beings by age 10.

bearLvrFL  Marka day ago

…and they don’t blink an eye at the outfits of the cheerleaders or the pictures of prom, both strongly “sexualizing.”

 

 

I was a transgender child.

This is the terrifying person the maga right conservatives want to erase and claim is a threat to society.   This is a really informative video by a young man who describes the steps it took to get what he needed to be the person he really was.   This person’s lived experience put to lie all the myths the anti-trans people claim are happening, like mass pushing kids to be trans, no medical checks, and just rushing kids to sex changes.  It amazes me that in 2023 we still have throwbacks to dark ages in understandings of biology and social development.  Notice this boy knew his gender was wrong most of his early childhood and even at 9 years old he knew he was not a girl but should grow up to be a guy, but it became a serious issue for him at 12 years old.   Puberty time.  This is the same period of time the maga religious right wants to claim kids don’t know anything about gender or sexual attraction.  And even though this boy did not have teachers telling him about pronouns or gender expression, he still realized he was not his assigned sex / gender.  He talks about gender conversion, gender dysphoria, and the misinformation about trans kids / people.     His story is interesting.   It also is very informative and destroys a lot of the trans haters talking points, even to the point of no harm and many benefits of letting kids socially transition.    Well worth watching.    Hugs