Arizona Schools Chief Launches Anti-Teacher Snitch Line

Over the last 50 years while the democrats pursued only the highest offices in the land the republicans were pushing hard to take over state government and the churches rushed to take over the school boards.  I remember that in the 1990s in Palm Beach Conty that the big churches were fielding stealth candidates to take over the boards and change what was being taught.  It was underway back then!  Now the right wing /maga republicans are using their complete control over the levers of state power to end right, roll back protections, to take the states back to a time of strict gender roles for the sexes and a time when minorities were second class citizens who either knew their place or they were not allowed in society in any way.  In fact they are not just trying to return society where gays were a shame to the family but they want a time when gays could be arrested along with denied working for any level of government being banned from security clearances.  They are driving hard for this.  Look at the red states trying hard to bring back banned conversion therapy that has been well and full debunked as not only something that doesn’t work but was found to be very harmful to those subjected to it.   They again want to deny the medical science because it shows their ideology is wrong.   Being gay or trans is not a choice, it is not a disease needing to change or cured.   People are born gay / trans and while some manage to hide it, they should have to.  They should be able to live their lives freely as they really are.   Plus now they want to set up secret hidden police where neighbor spys on each other and reports to hotlines those not following the party rule.    Hugs

From the Arizona Department of Education:

Arizona schools chief Tom Horne has launched the Department of Education “Empower Hotline” so that Arizonans can report inappropriate public school lessons that detract from teaching academic standards.

These include those that focus on race or ethnicity, rather than individuals and merit, promoting gender ideology, social emotional learning, or inappropriate sexual content.

The hotline provides the opportunity for constituents to provide feedback, concerns or complaints, which is a standard service offered by multiple government agencies and private-sector businesses.

It is available at 602-771-3500, or through email at empower@azed.gov. The phone line will be staffed during normal business hours, but after-hours phone calls as well as emails will be accepted at any time and followed up appropriately.

Horne explained, “Some say critical race theory (CRT) is a graduate study, not taught in K-12 schools. The evidence is to the contrary. I have a list of 250 Arizona teachers who signed a shocking statement promoted by the national teachers’ union, that if critical race theory were banned, they would defy the law.

“They would not have signed if they were not already teaching it. They come from 25 school districts, including the largest ones. Teachers must teach academics, not use their power over a captive audience, to promote their personal ideology. That is unprofessional conduct.”

Horne added, “I promised to establish this hotline so that anyone could report the teaching of inappropriate lessons that rob students of precious minutes of instruction time in core academic subjects such as reading, math, science, history and the arts. That promise is being kept.”

While Arizona state attorney general, Horne threatened to sue cities that recognized out-of-state same-sex marriages. That same year he proposed legislation allowing public school teachers to carry guns. Horne has faced multiple allegations of campaign finance crimes and has a lifetime trading ban by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to an investment firm he founded before running for public office. As you can see below, he is a supporter of QAnon freak show Vaseline Woman. 

 

Isn’t it odd that they think that they can actually change someone from being gay to being straight after months or years of therapy, but they also think an entire classroom of children will become gay after hearing a guy in a dress read them a story.
Fuck these people and their hatred of the LGBTQ community. They want to exterminate us. Ain’t gonna happen.

We need to lodge complaints in response to any lesson which mentions mommy/daddy, sister/brother, aunt/uncle, etc, as unnecessarily provocative.

‘Gender’ has no place in schools, right?

 

Oh sure let’s further harass and penalize the educators They are already the most over worked under appreciated segment of employment

Just call it the Karen Hotline. Teachers union will have a field day with this. Elections matter.

The real point of this is to force out any teacher who isn’t full-on MAGA. Who would want to work with a witch hunt going on? It’s not worth it.

“Teaching academic standards.” Is that what they’re calling White Supremacy indoctrination these days?

“…detract from teaching academic standards…”

So, no “social emotional learning”?

Granted, I went to Catholic school, but half of my report card was based on behavior. So it’s wrong to teach children social skills like how to behave in class and with each other?

This smells of a Libertarian influence.

I hope that students flood the call line with reports of teachers talking about their heterosexual spouses, or wearing crosses and talking about their faith.


Horne explained, “Some say critical race theory (CRT) is a graduate
study, not taught in K-12 schools. The evidence is to the contrary. I
have a list of 250 Arizona teachers who signed a shocking statement
promoted by the national teachers’ union, that if critical race theory
were banned, they would defy the law.


He missed a great opportunity to use the phrase “I have here in my hand…”

“They would not have signed if they were not already teaching it.”
Uhh.. assumes facts not in evidence. The question did not ask that.

So he has a definition of what CRT is? I wish he would share it with the rest of us.
Is it that white treated black people bad, killed them, and kept them as slaves for decades in this country? That’s not a theory, that’s true…..
This is just what Arizona needs for their teacher supply. It is a common belief among teachers around her that two places you don’t want to go teach is Colorado and Arizona. The pay and benefits are very low. This won’t help the state find teachers.

They were pulling that up in New Hampshire after passing their law banning “divisive concepts” in the classroom.

Now they’re whining about a big teacher shortage because all the good ones who could got the hell out and moved here to Massachusetts or elsewhere.

Arizona Republican Gestapo thinks kids are too stupid to hear anything non-negative about LGBT people, but does think they’re qualified to tell the state to fire their teachers over ‘not meeting the academic program’ before they even learn the material, never mind what the vaguely-worded ‘standards’ are supposed to be?

Umm, the thing is, education on history and racism is not what ‘Critical Race Theory’ is, but you use it as a buzzword to ban or silence any mention of actual things in the laws.

 
  

“The whole function of education is to create a Nazi.” ~ Bernhard Rust, Nazi education minister, February 1938

This Canadian immigrant, son of Polish immigrants, cost Arizona millions of dollars when as Attorney General he got the Republican-run legislature to ban Mexican studies here in Tucson. Went all the way to the Supremes, who told this old fuck to fuck the fuck off. The bill he promoted banned well-known history books because they mentioned discrimination against Mexican-Americans. Always interesting to see immigrants coming to the US and promoting hatred towards other immigrants (e.g., Rupert Murdoch).

Superintendent Horne said, “There’s nothing more outrageous than religious prejudice…”

Nothing? I can think of a few things:

– pastors who sexually abuse children
– revivals
– evangelical parents who brainwash their children
– “ex-gay” torture
– Anti-Semitism
– racism
– rape
– laws that dehumanize and persecute LGBTQ people
– Republicans
– Trumpvangelicals
– QAnon cultists
– White/Christian Nationalists
– book bans
– the dissemination of far-right propaganda
– everyone who works at Fox

“Um… my teacher talks about the Bible all the time and wears a cross necklace. I feel threatened…”

Trans man forced to play in women’s sports due to transphobic Texas laws.

He wants to play in men’s sports but is not allowed.

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  • Posting it mostly because this picture has been making the rounds in transphobe twitter as an example of why trans women shouldn’t be allowed to play womens’ sports… but this is actually a trans man, not a trans woman.

    Ultimately the attempts to ban certain women from sports is stupid, it’s the same logic that leads the Olympics to banning all three medalists in the 800 meter race from participating unless they take feminizing drugs.

    These medalists were all AFAB and identify as women.

  • Avatar

    The Ohio legislature is contemplating banning trans folks from high school sports.

    The Ohio schools athletic association said there are 4 trans students (didn’t identify male or female) in the high school sport system. But only 2 would be playing any sport this year. Out of almost 500,000 high school students, the legislature is all about 2 of them. Wasting time about 2 students.

 

 

 

Jon Stewart takes on Republican lawmaker who wants to ban drag shows in viral interview

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/03/jon-stewart-takes-on-republican-lawmaker-who-wants-to-ban-drag-shows-in-viral-interview/

 

Jon Stewart takes on Republican lawmaker who wants to ban drag shows in viral interview
Jon StewartPhoto: Screenshot/AppleTV+

On the most recent episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart, the show’s namesake and host grilled an Ohio Republican, using his support of drag show bans to expose the hypocrisy behind his opposition to gun control legislation. A clip from the interview, which premiered on Friday, has since gone viral.

Oklahoma state Sen. Nathan Dahm (R) opposes restrictions on firearms, like laws requiring background checks and red-flag laws, because he says they infringe on a person’s Second Amendment rights. He also supports banning drag shows anywhere they might be viewed by minors.

During his interview with Dahm, Stewart clashed with the lawmaker over the idea that increased access to guns makes Americans safer, arguing that Dahm’s efforts to loosen gun restrictions have made it harder for authorities to identify individuals who may pose threats.

“The person is the threat, not the firearm,” Dahm explained.

“But you don’t want anything that could help law enforcement or society determine whether or not a person is a good guy with a gun or a bad guy with a gun,” Stewart countered. “I don’t understand why you won’t just admit that you are making it harder for police to manage the streets by allowing all of these guns to go out without permits, without checks, without background stuff.”

Dahm argued that the restrictions he opposes infringe upon “the individual’s right to keep and bear arms” under the Second Amendment.  

Stewart then pivoted to other examples of ways in which constitutional rights are limited under the law, including requiring voter registration. He then questioned Dahm about his support for an Oklahoma bill that would make it illegal to host drag performances on public property or where they could be viewed by minors. Similar bills are being considered in states across the country. Last week, Tennessee became the first state in which such legislation was signed into law.

Stewart asked Dahm whether Oklahoma’s anti-drag law would infringe on the First Amendment rights of performers. Dahm argued that under the proposed law, drag performers could continue to exercise their right to free speech, “just not in front of a child.”

“The government does have a responsibility in certain instances to protect children,” Dahm admitted.

“What’s the leading cause of death amongst children in this country?” Stewart asked. “And I’m going to give you a hint, it’s not drag show readings to children.”

“It’s firearms,” Stewart continued. “More than cancer, more than car accidents. And what you’re telling me is you don’t mind infringing free speech to protect children from this amorphous thing that you think of. But when it comes to children that have died you don’t give a flying f**k to stop that because that shall not be infringed. That is hypocrisy at its highest order.”

 

The clip has since received over 36,000 views on Twitter and more than 1.2 million views on YouTube.

Some news articles I wanted to post over the last few days.

I tried to group these articles in some sort of order.  But you can see the goals of the right just from the titles.   The eradication of transpeople at any age from society. The removal of any gay rights with the goal of eradicating gay people from society.  The enforcement of stereotypical gender roles and the returning to the days when women were dependent on men, and few had authority or independence on their own.  They want tyranny and dictatorship of one party rule with no restraint on their activities even to the point of attempting the overthrow of the US constitution / government and the celebration of those that committed the illegal acts in the coup attempt.    Republicans want to rule not govern, they want to have the people afraid to disagree with them or dare to speak against their rule.  Just like the countries of China, North Korea, and their beloved Russia.   Please notice the attempt is to return the US to the regressive oppressive times before the New Deal that empowered the public.   They want 1910 to 1920.  We had better join together to stop them or we won’t be able to.   DerSantis is shopping the campaign slogan “Make America Florida”.   Is that not enough of a threat to the country?   Has the trump years not shown how quickly the right can move if given power to destroy all norms and rights to enforce their minority rule.   McConnell even said that while republicans will lose elections the democrats couldn’t stop a republican stacked court system from enforcing republican goals for decades.  He was correct.  Mitch McConnell said, “My goal is to do everything we can for as long as we can to transform the federal judiciary, because everything else we do is transitory.”   Hugs

Read the comments on this to see how things used to be for families and kids before labor laws and government assistance were created. Kids younger than five working a full day in the farm fields. Is this the grand vision of the future the country needs or wants? Think of every movie of the future that has a great working society and they are progressive but the ones with dystopian unfair or dangerous future and it is regressive oppressive hellish places were greed is king with businesses in charge killing any regulation that prevents profit. Hugs

DeSantis DeStruction! | Christopher Titus | Armageddon Update

Republicans take aim at risque jokes and romance novels with anti-sex bills

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/republican-anti-sex-legislation-state-level

Again these bills are a way Christians can force their moral views on everyone, a way they get to rule on how every person gets to live their lives.   It gives these rabid fundamentalists Christian republican groups the right to tell everyone else what they can do, regulating what everyone can watch / read in order to conform to a strict religious view of morality written 2,500 years ago.  It ignores all medical, scientific, and social advances done in the years since their holy books were written and mistranslated.   Society has advanced as human understandings have, yet these oppressive regressive people want to ignore all that.  Would they also like to go back to the medical understandings in the 1600s, 1700s, or even what was known medically in 1900.  That was 28 years before penicillin was discovered.  21 years before insulin was discovered.   Tell me if their holy book written knew everything about morals why did it support slavery?   Do we return to that also to please Christian fascists?  This is an attempt to enshrine a religious morality over everyone regardless of if you belong to that or any religion.   Again it is not about these people being able to live and act as they wish, it is about forcing everyone else to live by their church rules / doctrines.  Hugs

My X says I can't do that : r/MemeTemplatesOfficial

Why are there people who think Islam is not true religion? - Quora

One nation Under (a Christian) God | by Mona Figueroa | inequality | Medium

 

What is the best response when someone asks you 'Do you have a moment to  speak about Jesus Christ'? - Quora

SEPARATION OF RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT: | The Swamp

Sam Ervin quote: When religion controls government, political liberty dies;  and when government...

Bills are part of religious right’s post-Roe strategy, with most prevalent ones relating to age verification of sex-related websites

 

A wave of proposed legislation pushed by Republicans across the US at the state level is aimed at outlawing aspects of sexuality that could have a huge impact on Americans’ private lives and businesses.

Opponents to the laws before legislatures in various states say the planned new legislation could spawn prosecution of breast-pump companies in Texas for nipples on advertising, or a bookstore might be banned from selling romance novels in West Virginia, or South Carolina could imprison standup comics if a risqué joke is heard by a young person.

 
 

The bills are part of a post-Roe nationwide strategy by the religious wing of the Republican party, now that federal abortion rights have fallen. They range from banning all businesses that sell sex-related goods to anti-drag queen bills. Tyler Dees, an Arkansas state senator who wrote an anti-porn bill said: “I would love to outlaw it all,” referring to porn.

The most prevalent bills relate to age verification of sex-related websites. Seventeen states drafted porn age-verification bills, many inspired by Louisiana’s law that went into effect in January. Louisiana’s law requires websites featuring 33.33% or more pornographic content to check government-issued ID to verify users are 18 and older. Websites that don’t comply face civil penalties. Parents can sue the site if kids access it.

In Texas, a new bill requiring age verification on websites with pornographic content defines images of the female breast “below the top of the areola” as porn, potentially hitting at business advertisements. In West Virginia, a bill outlawing all sexually oriented businesses is on the docket, with a definition that includes art studios with nude models and wrestling arenas. In South Carolina a bill would criminalize using “profane language” related to “sexual or excretory organs or activities” in front of minors during performances. The punishment? Up to a decade in prison.

Some bills define porn so broadly that anatomy textbooks or sex education websites would meet them.

“I don’t think such laws for the internet are constitutional,” said Eugene Volokh, a professor of Law at UCLA.

Laurie Schlegel, a Republican state senator who drafted the Louisiana law, is a sex-addiction therapist educated at Baptist seminary, who opposed transgender students from being on sports teams that align with their gender. Schlegel’s anti-LGBTQ+ views fit with the broader goal of the laws, according to Carolyn Bronstein, a professor of media studies at DePaul University.

“These laws are really not about controlling minors’ access to violent pornography … In the conservative world view, pornography is information about LGBTQ identity, abortion, gay marriage,” said Bronstein.

Eight states have justified their actions by saying that porn is “creating a public health crisis”. Louisiana’s bill claims that pornography “may lead to low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages … impact brain development … shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.”

Historian Whitney Strub, an associate professor of history at Rutgers University, doesn’t think these ideas are well-founded. “Framing pornography as a public health crisis is not driven by serious engagement with the social scientific literature,” he said. “They’ve even got fake peer-reviewed journals that give the imprimatur of scholarship … It’s been a very smart rebranding of evangelical Christian conservatism.”

Why are all these bills being proposed now? Strub thinks it’s partly because of the overturning of Roe v Wade“Abortion gave a certain coherence to conservative politics in the United States. And it certainly still does … but they’re in the position of Ahab if he slayed the white whale … I mean, there’s no more Moby-Dick.”

There is hypocrisy on display also.

In many of the states where the anti-porn bills are being put forth, minors can legally have sex and get married. “In Louisiana, you can have sex when you’re 17 with a person in their 30s, but you can’t watch porn,” said Jason Kelley, associate director of digital strategy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, the age of consent is 16. With parental permission, Mississippi allows 15-year-olds to marry, Louisiana 16-year-olds, Arkansas 17-year-olds, and West Virginia kids of any age.

Dees, who wrote Arkansas’s age verification bill, a copycat of Louisiana’s, said porn causes depression and anxiety, divorce and “permissive sexual attitudes” and infidelity. “When I think about the children … I want to protect their innocence,” Dees said.

Strub said this is an old trope: “The political figure of the innocent and imperiled child just has a never-ending purchase on American politics … [it] essentially shuts down debate because it immediately creates a binary in which anybody who disagrees with you is [a] perverted groomer.”

Dees is also the co-author of anti-drag queen legislation in Arkansas, that classifies drag performances as the same category as pornography. “It’s not really a meaningful distinction to [conservatives]. They’re both sexual degeneracy in its different guises,” Strub said.

Dees claimed that his porn verification law “doesn’t have anything to do with any political messaging. It has to do with exposure to material that is harmful, period … There’s a clear enemy in the smut-peddling garbage that’s online.”

But measures already exist to prevent children accessing porn. “There’s a really easy way to keep kids from accessing adult content. And that’s a device-level filter” on mobile phones that block adult websites that are registered as Restricted to Adults, said Mike Stabile of the Free Speech Coalition, which advocates for the rights of sex workers.

These laws, according to Stabile, aren’t going to stop kids from looking at porn. “Even if they were to block all sites, you’re still going to have adult content on Twitter and Reddit … kids will get VPNs,” he said.

Stabile thinks we’ll see up to two dozen age-verification bills introduced by the end of the year.

Dees hopes he is right and has eyes beyond the state level eventually. “My prayer is that enough states continue to push for this measure, and that we send a loud enough message where federal law can be put into place,” he said.

2023 wave of bills is fueling a political ‘war against LGBTQ+ people,’ new report shows

https://19thnews.org/2023/02/2023-anti-trans-lgbtq-bills-record/

I have been reporting on this for years now as the article says “…describes the current political landscape as a “war against LGBTQ people in America and their very right and ability to openly exist.”   These laws have nothing to do with protecting children as they claim but instead are attempts to force regressive religious morality on the entire country by a minority who don’t feel comfortable with “those people” and want them removed from public view / discussion.   With every push to return the country to the society of 100 years ago which rolls back every advancement in civil rights that have been achieved, these people are emboldened to push harder to oppress more people into living the way that maga Christian minority insists they have a right to force everyone else to live as.   It is not enough for them to live as they wish, they insist you live the way they do also, that you believe as they do, that you follow the moral dictates written 2,500 years ago for a culture long gone.    But it is not enough for these people and never will be until they are in charge of and get to rule over every aspect of your life.   Allies of the LGBTQ+ we need to you stand up and add your voice to protect the rights of minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+.   Hugs

Today’s heart rate readings have seen an improvement.   The lowest it has been is 95 the highest sustained was 136 with the average so far of 126 bpm.  So I am getting better.   Still no call from the heart doctor’s office so Monday I will call them.  This has been going on for too long and too dangerous, not to mention causing me to struggle to function.    Hugs

To learn itthe Florida underground railroadrepublican plan 2 yearsFreedom bumpsbook in your backpackBefore I get to burn it.And their kidsBorn girl or be drag queenhate like Christian loveNazi DerSantisThey walk amoung usWhat happened to tolerance for racism

Trans-rights activists protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma State Capitol.
Trans-rights activists protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma State Capitol on Feb. 6, 2023. (SUE OGROCKI/AP)
 
From bills in legislatures to restrictions in schools and health care, growing rhetoric throughout the US is part of a “full-out attack” against LGBTQ+ people, advocates say.
  

The volume and speed of anti-LGBTQ+ bills advancing through state legislatures has already defined 2023 as a historically challenging and frightening year, advocates say.

In a new report, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which tracks LGBTQ+ policy, describes the current political landscape as a “war against LGBTQ people in America and their very right and ability to openly exist.” It is a culmination of efforts: gender-affirming care bans for trans youth becoming law in states where such bills were previously blocked, growing efforts to restrict how students learn about LGBTQ+ subjects in schools, an increase in dehumanizing rhetoric that could lead to harassment or violence. 

“I’ve been working in the movement for 15 years,” said Naomi Goldberg, deputy director and LGBTQ program director at MAP. “To me, this is a different moment. … It is hard to see this as anything but a full-out attack and full-out war on LGBTQ+ people when you look at all of the areas of life, at all of the parts of our communities that are being attacked.” 

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the country’s largest LGBTQ+ organization, sounded similar alarm bells earlier in the week. The organization has so far tracked 340 introduced anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including the most anti-transgender bills ever filed that the group has seen. 

Those bills include ones that would prohibit students from playing school sports that match their gender identity and bills that would restrict gender-affirming medical care for minors. Over 90 bills targeting medical care for trans youth have been filed so far, according to the HRC’s count. South Dakota and Utah have already signed such bills into law, while states like Tennessee and Mississippi are quickly moving similar bans through their legislatures. Other proposed bills direct school employees to effectively misgender students, mandating that students are referred to with pronouns that match their sex assigned at birth unless a parent intervenes. 

“This situation is terrifying. It’s scary and it’s harmful. We know last year was bad. … we anticipate this year being historically bad,” Kelley Robinson, the president of HRC, said on a Tuesday press call with reporters. 

Within the past three years, “firsts” in anti-LGBTQ+ bills have piled up, MAP’s analysis finds: the first legislative ban on trans youth playing sports that match their gender identity in Idaho, the first legislative ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in Arkansas, the first state ban on the use of X as a gender marker on identity documents in Oklahoma, and the first “Don’t Say Gay” law passed in 20 years in Florida. 

Efforts outside statehouses are another part of what make the current moment unique, per the report — including child abuse investigations ordered by the state of Texas against families seeking gender-affirming care and Florida’s board of medicine moving to restrict such care for trans youth.

Some LGBTQ+ advocates are concerned about the potential for new anti-trans bills to restrict whether families can seek gender-affirming care in other states if their own state bans the care. In Oklahoma, one bill prohibits doctors from making a referral to “any physician or health care professional for gender transition procedures” for patients under 18. The consequences of such a referral would be meted out by the state, which would have jurisdiction over its own doctors. However, since any referrals would have to be for out-of-state care, it still has the potential to limit interstate travel for gender-affirming care, said Logan Casey, senior policy researcher and adviser for MAP, over email.  

More bathroom bills, which aim to restrict how trans people are able to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, are filed this year than in previous years, per the Human Rights Campaign’s count — and fewer bills targeting how trans students can participate in sports are being introduced. 

Even when the legislation doesn’t become law, it still causes harm, Olivia Hunt, policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, stressed during the call. Hunt pointed to a recent poll that found 86 percent of surveyed trans and nonbinary youth said that debates around state laws restricting LGBTQ+ rights for young people negatively impacted their mental health. 

“Trans youth are making their way through an already difficult world, where they’re trying to understand who they are … and on that journey, they’re vulnerable, and they deserve the love, respect and support of their communities. Instead, they’re portrayed as someone to be feared, controlled or erased,” Hunt said.  

The Biden administration has vocally supported LGBTQ+ rights, directing federal agencies to roll back Trump-era policies that advocates denounced as discriminatory and prioritizing data collection on LGBTQ+ experiences. Goldberg said she wants to see enforcement of federal protections from the Biden administration. Those include the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed rule to restore protections for gender identity and sexual orientation under the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX protections proposed by the administration that would apply to trans students. Following Biden’s State of the Union address, HRC called on the administration to finalize both of those rules. 

“I think it would be great to have more leadership,” Goldberg said. 

Liberal Redneck – Tennessee Drag Ban

Let’s talk about parents and education….

Bans on books and LGBTQ topics: What’s in Gov. Reynolds’ new education bill

https://www.kcci.com/article/bans-on-books-and-lgbtq-topics-whats-in-gov-reynolds-new-education-bill/42819425

Despite how the republicans like to frame these bills it is about removing the LGBTQ+ representation from schools and society.   It is not about protecting kids against sexualization because in Wyoming GOP Opposes Bill To Ban Child Marriage in a state with no limits to how young kids can get married; the republicans refuse to limit that to 16 and above.   They say it goes against religious liberties.   Yes I guess the right to marry and have sex with 10 or 12 year olds is not sexualizing them but don’t let a drag queen read to them or them know that their teacher is in a same sex marriage because they will rush to be gay?   Plus the way these bills are written shows the target is anything not straight heterosexual 1950s norm.  Schools would not be able to provide any program, curriculum, material, test, survey, questionnaire, activity, announcement, promotion, or instruction of any kind relating to gender identity or sexual activity in grades K-3.  That would require no use of Mr. or Mrs. / Miss.  It would require no use of the word boy or girl.  It would require no mention of either boy / girl dating as well as stopping any same sex dating in school.  Teachers wouldn’t be able to announce they are pregnant and might even have to hide it or be removed as that happens only to females and is caused by sexual activity.   Really it would mean getting rid of separate boy / girl gendered bathrooms as the bills are written.   No gender roles can be discussed such as who can play on which teams as that is related to gender.  Also no girls or boys only clothing as that is gender promotion / instruction.    But all that is ignored with a wink and a nod because everyone understands these are targeted to stop acceptance of gay and trans or other LGBTQ+ kids / people.  It is to stop kids who are different from seeing themselves in books or movies, making it seem they are wrong, evil, sick, or just not to be tolerated in the US society.  It is to promote hetero straight society and remove those who don’t fit that mold.   It is to roll back all the advancements in society.   These same people will target blacks and native people next to be removed.  Also what is social-emotional learning.  That is anti-bullying and programs to promote tolerance of those that are different.   It is about being kind and civil to others.   That is what these republican maga haters are desperate to prevent.  They don’t want kids taught to be nice to others, but they want their kids to be allowed even encouraged to attack and target those who are different from them.   They don’t want non-straight kids to feel safe, they want them scared and in hiding.   I am tired of the attacks, and the clear assault on the rights of people to just be who they really are that harms no one.   Just as straight people are born straight so are gay kids / trans kids.  But these republicans insist that everyone be just like them and that only they have rights.     We must fight to stop what the right is doing to harm the kids and people in our country.   One republican Governor said on the news that there seems to be more trans people now and he did not understand that, maybe kids were being pushed into it.  But that has been debunked.   Has he thought that kids who were not being targeted for how they felt about themselves felt free to express it?  These republicans don’t want information they want to run on feelings, impressions, and misinformation that reenforce their feelings that it is not a true thing.    One republican on the panel said that rather than letting kids change their hair and go by a different name that they should be forced into mental health treatments.  Hugs

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds proposes a wide range of changes for schools including restrictions on LGBTQ topics, new history class requirements and a process to restrict access to certain books.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled a sweeping education bill Thursday that would set new standards for what students can and can’t learn. It also establishes more control for parents over their children’s education. Here’s what’s in the bill:

Restrictions on topics involving gender identity and sexual orientation

 

The bill would ban any instruction related to gender identity and sexual activity in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, charter schools and innovation zone schools in grades K-3.

Schools would not be able to provide any program, curriculum, material, test, survey, questionnaire, activity, announcement, promotion, or instruction of any kind relating to gender identity or sexual activity in grades K-3.

Schools would be required to tell parents any information their child shares with a teacher or staff member about their gender identity if what the student expresses is different from the “biological sex” listed on their birth certificate.

The bill does provide an exception if a school district believes that notifying the parent or guardian would lead to a case of child abuse. In that instance, the school district does not need to notify the parent but would be required to immediately report the safety concerns to the department of health and human services. The department would then determine whether the child is in need of assistance.

Parents would have to give schools written permission for teachers or any school employee to use a nickname or pronoun that does not match the biological sex listed on their child’s birth certificate.

Removing books from schools

The bill would require each school district to publish online all materials used in all classes throughout the district, all employees in direct contact with students, all books available in classrooms and school libraries, and a detailed process for parents to request any material be removed.

Districts would be required to update that information two times a semester or at the start of each trimester.

Any book removed from a school would be put on a statewide “removal list” maintained by the Iowa Department of Education. The “comprehensive removal list” would be available online, updated every month and sortable by the book’s title, author and the school districts that have removed the book from school libraries, classrooms or any areas on school property.

A school district must receive written parental permission before allowing a student to check out or access any book that is on the statewide removal list.

Establishes ‘parental rights’

The bill establishes that “a parent or guardian bears the ultimate responsibility, and has the constitutionally protected right, to make decisions affecting the parent’s or guardian’s minor child, including decisions related to the minor child’s medical care, moral upbringing, religious upbringing, residence, education, and extracurricular activities.”

Schools would be required to receive parental permission for students to attend any activity or instruction provided by a guest lecturer or outside presenter or any activity or instruction that involves obscene or sexually explicit material.

If school districts break that rule, they could face fines of up to $5,000.

Changes to the social studies curriculum

The bill would require all Iowa high school students to take a U.S. citizenship test, and schools would be required to provide the results to the Department of Education.

High school students would need to answer at least 70% of the questions to graduate. Students can continue to retake the citizenship test until they earn a passing grade.

Removing HPV from health curriculum

The bill would remove the current requirement that Iowa schools teach seventh-grade through 12th-grade students instruction related to human papillomavirus and the availability of a vaccine to prevent HPV.

Restrictions on social-emotional learning

Schools would be required to receive written parent permission in order for a student to take any survey or test that evaluates mental, emotional, or physical health that is not required by state or federal law.

Teachers would have to give parents written notice at least seven days before any test or survey that evaluates their child’s mental, emotional, or physical health.

Boomer (NOT a Nazi) Gets Mad About Trans People (Debate)

Well what a mind altering interview.   I know the video is described as a debate but it really was a conversation.  At first I was bored and almost shut it off even though I mostly enjoy the channel.   Then I noticed something.  The call in guest got angrier and ever more abusive getting very insulting yet Vaush never reacted to that and instead tried to keep the conversation going centered on the topic.   I loved it.  I have tried to talk to right wing bigots and I have not had the same composure that Vaush did.   It is a great watch if you want to see how a person on the right starts out trying to show how trans people are bad and confused then moves to the point where the one saying this stuff gets very abusive and then just gets really out classed with information to the point where he has to just admit he doesn’t like those trans and hates those people that accept them.  Like I said the first part is boring and forgettable, but fast forward through that if you must and watch the rest.  For me it was worth it.   Hugs

Website – https://www.vaush.gg/ Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/vaush Donate – https://www.paypal.me/vaush Twitter – https://twitter.com/VaushV Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/vaushv/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/vaushvidya TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@vaushvidya Podcast – https://anchor.fm/vaush Intro animation credit goes to https://twitter.com/ItIsMeKyleG & https://twitter.com/honeybunnbadger for the visuals, and https://twitter.com/sound_sierra for the audio! Thank you! 0:00 Intro 1:10 Not a Nazi 6:10 Are Trans Women Real Women? 10:43 What Would You Do If I Said I Wanted a Woman’s Grant? 16:48 Identifying as a Different Weight 23:48 Trans Racial Identities 29:03 Joe Biden is a Dictator 33:00 Trans Women In Sports 40:20 Puberty Blockers 53:00 Final Meme #chickennuggies #transrights