It is what the laws were meant to do, stop the teaching of tolerance and acceptance and vilify LGBTQ+ kids with the goal of trying to return to when LGBTQ+ kids were scared to be found out so were invisible. These laws have to go, it is a horrible attempt to install a fundamentalist religious view on everyone else and their children. Hugs. Scottie
The data comes amid an ongoing explosion in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
According to a new report, anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in K-12 schools have quadrupled in U.S. states that have laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ students.
A Washington Post analysis of FBI data on anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes taking place in K-12 schools and on college campuses, published on March 12 found that anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes “serious enough to be reported to local police” more than doubled across the country in recent years. The Post found that while an average of 108 anti-LGBTQ+ school hate crimes were reported between 2015 and 2019, that average rose to 232 between 2021 and 2022. According to FBI data, the most common hate crimes reported at schools were intimidation, simple assault (assault where no weapon was used), and vandalism.
However, this rise in school hate crimes was more pronounced in the 28 states that have enacted policies restricting LGBTQ+ students’ self-expression and/or limiting how teachers can talk about gender and sexuality in school. In these states, reported anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes on K-12 and college campuses more than tripled from an average of 28 per year between 2015 and 2019 to an average of 90 between 2021 and 2022.
As the Post points out, this increase is even more staggering when you remove college campuses and look at the anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in K-12 schools only. In states that have enacted restrictive laws, there were more than four times the number of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes across elementary, middle, and high schools, per year, from 2021 to 2022, compared with the years 2015 to 2019.
Although it’s only March, the American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking a whopping 478 anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the U.S. this year, with 190 of those bills targeting student and educator rights.
Gerald Declan Radford, 65, initially claimed he shot Lay in self-defense. Prosecutors believe that Declan was the aggressor and was motivated by Lay’s sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, nonprofits that work with LGBTQ+ youth have reported an increase in crisis calls. According to the Post, The Trevor Project received over 500,000 crisis contacts during the fiscal year ending in July 2023 compared to the 230,000 the group received the previous year, while the Rainbow Youth Project received over 1,400 calls to its mental health crisis hotline per month in 2023 compared to 1,000 per month in 2022. According to the Rainbow Youth Project, calls from Oklahoma to the group’s hotline more than tripled after details about Nex Benedict, the trans Oklahoma teen of Choctaw ancestry who died the day after three older girls reportedly beat them in a school bathroom, became national news.
“Young people will say, ‘My government hates me,’ ‘My school hates me,’ ‘They don’t want me to exist,’” the Rainbow Youth Project’s founder and executive director, Lance Preston, told the Post. “That … is absolutely unacceptable. That is shocking.”
Stephen puts aside politics to acknowledge Mitch McConnell’s big announcement, the former PM of Australia confirmed that Trump is obsessed with Vladimir Putin, and the star witness in the House GOP’s impeachment case against President Biden took bogus intelligence from Russian spies and was arrested for lying to the FBI.
This is what all the republican hate driven political crap causes. Simply put it is the same tactic Hitler used. Vilify the people that you want to harm, so that they are less human and your followers feel entitled or allowed to harm them. I have faced / felt this all my life. I thought that with the advancements and acceptance going forward with the modern age all that abuse could change. Then came tRump and his maga, which gave them permission to unleash their worst demons on the LBGTQ+ at any age, especially the most young in schools. It seems the republican maga fundamentalist right thinks it is ok to beat the LGBTQ+ out of any kid. But if they grow up into an adult still being that way … well we have the right to kill them. Can everyone see how disgusting that is? Sadly, some days I feel so frustrated screaming into the wind. Hugs. Scottie
Hillsborough County prosecutors charged a man with murder Friday, alleging that the fatal shooting of a gay man last month at the West Dog Park in Tampa was a hate crime.
Gerald Declan Radford faces a second-degree murder charge in the Feb. 2 death of John Walter Lay. Friends of both men told the Tampa Bay Times that Radford had been harassing Lay for months, hurling homophobic slurs and threatening him. Radford claimed the shooting was self-defense.
The office of Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez announced Friday that they plan to seek an enhanced sentence against Radford under the state’s hate crime statute.
Investigators said they first came in contact with Radford after he called 911 about the shooting. He claimed he shot Lay in self-defense, and with no witnesses to the crime or evidence to prove otherwise, Radford wasn’t arrested.
Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez said her office is now preparing for Radford to attempt to use the “Stand Your Ground” defense. Lay’s sister, Sabrena Hughes, told FOX 13 that the shooting followed two years of harassment and homophobic slurs directed at her brother by Radford.
Authorities also found a video on Lay’s phone. The video was taken like a selfie of the victim as he detailed a threat that was made to him by Radford, according to deputies. Lay claimed in the video that Radford told him, “You’re going to die.”
Colonel Frank Losat with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said the cell phone video on the victim’s phone and character witnesses provided evidence that the suspect did not act in self-defense. Lay had been complaining to his friends about harassment from Radford at West Dog Park for months.
“Some time prior to the shooting, we’re not positive on a timeframe at this point, the suspect and the victim have an altercation over the victim’s sexual orientation,” said Losat. Radford remains in the Hillsborough County Jail.
I normally included the comments because the comments often have many very relevant and important ideas. But I am sorry I no longer strong enough to do that. I have a dozen more posts I want to make, but I no longer have the ability to do it they way I once did. Love and hugs to all. Scottie
The short clip is very important for all to hear. Thank you TG for posting it. I know many here also follow Mock Paper Scissors, but for those that do not or missed the post, this is great. It is about mistreating children, it is about Nex Benedict. Hugs. Scottie
By my dogs that love gravy they are talking concentration / prison type encampments surrounded by guards with prison like rules. Basically no freedoms that all adults enjoy. Plus the Republican Party is seriously going all in that homelessness harms home values and harms tourism / the attractiveness of the state for businesses / people moving to the state. Those conditions, funded by the counties, include clean restrooms, running water, security on premises and bans on drugs and alcohol. They must also be located in places that don’t impact the value of nearby properties. The legislation accords with a stated desire of the Governor to have camps with restrictions on what occupants can do and “help” available, in efforts to include what he has called “judicial scrutiny.” DeathSantis has long wanted to institutionalize that he terms undesirables. Right now it starts with the homeless, but soon who else is going to be put in camps or other style forced confinement? The poor? Trans people? The entire LGBTQIA? What about those who don’t follow the correct and proper god? Like all these culture war type laws it is deliberately written very vaguely so that it can be interpreted as strongly as the most extreme person would want to take it. The same vagueness held true for how a homeless person would get a permit for outdoor camping. Basically the law gives permission / compelling these localities to round up the homeless and put them somewhere. Detain them, jail them, just hide them from the good more well off people of society. One last thing. This was written by a right wing think tank, it is legislation they want to use in every red state. Just like the anti-trans laws / don’t say gay laws Florida will be the test place to see if it will pass, because Florida is run by a crazy maga governor. If it passes here, they will try pushing it everywhere. Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo, who contended Tuesday that a “think tank” wrote the legislation. Hugs. Scottie
The Senate has passed a House bill creating a new financial obligation on localities by banning homeless people from sleeping in public, setting the stage for a Gov. Ron DeSantis priority becoming law.
The measure from Rep. Sam Garrison (HB 1365), passed by a 27-12 vote after being substituted for the Senate version, would ban counties and municipalities from permitting public sleeping or public camping on public property without explicit permission, compelling these localities to round up the homeless and put them somewhere.
The Governor, who has suggested institutionalization should be brought back, said mental health help for the unhoused is “important,” but that he didn’t want “Sodom and Gomorrah” style homeless camps.
Democrats: People are living on the street. We need to build affordable housing.
Republicans: People are living on the street. My wealthy donors don’t like seeing poor people in public. Homeless people need a permit to be homeless. If they can’t pay the fine, toss them into one of the many for-profit prisons owned by my wealthy donors.
Caitlyn Jenner’s suggestion was to bus them out to the desert and have them camp there, instead of near the beaches. No food, no water, no sanitation, but hey, they’re homeless. I guess they’ll adapt somehow?
I fully understand that sodomy comes from Sodom, and I understand what sodomy is. But what do we get from Gomorrah? Gomorrahmy? And what the hell is that.
So, living on the street becomes a crime that will lead to one losing their freedom. They will be shocked when the read the headlines about a mass casualty shooting incident when law enforcement went to enforce this law.
Of course not. However, the number of highway patrol officers assigned to the Spring Break week is increased, in order to keep the- ahem – darker elements away.
It should also be a crime for assholes pretending to be taller by wearing 5 inch lifts. I can hardly wait for the day when Bootsy and his never ending cruelty comes to a very painful end.
Coming to terms with who we are is hard enough to tell people, but for Sean he must come to terms with his exploration in a world that he cannot hear and a world that does not always hear him. A fascinating story of love, trust, and friendship.
I often wondered what my life would have been like if I had been a kid in the modern age where being gay was so much more accepting than it was for me in the 1970s with Anita Bryant spewing her hatred and lies about people like me. Then I remember that today there are the Libs of TikTok and the red state governors / republican fundamentalist Christian legislators who are doing to LGBTQIA kids what was done to me back in the 1970s by Bryant. Spewing lies and hate to make us hated as much as possible.
But there is another part of my thoughts. Like the boy in the short video I couldn’t find the spoken words to tell of my abuse and the signs I was showing people either they couldn’t hear or did not want to. What if I had had the words to say as a four-year-old what was happening when I was asked to go next door, that even though the man was nice, kind even, it left my butt sore, and the hell spawn I lived with would make fun of me for it. They knew, which makes me now believe the adoptive parents knew also. Maybe they pimped me to him? After all, someone had to tell me to go over there, to give me permission. Yes the man was raping me. But he was kind and nice to me. Unlike at home.
Imagine as a 6 yr in first grade, in torn clothing who had bruises all over me who in class just put my head down on my desk and went to sleep because I knew there it was safe to do so because no one would hurt me. To my little boy mind that was shattered when the teacher took me to what seemed to me a large room with some other adults. Both male and female. They asked me to remove my clothing. I started to obey as I had learned not to disobey that demand … but when they told me to remove my underpants I started to cry, to sob. I promised to be good, I promised not to sleep in school anymore, I begged them, I even said as I stood there after taking off all my clothing and they had me move in different ways while touching me to make me stand or show what they wanted to see, that I promised I wouldn’t tell as they asked me questions I dared not answer. I kept repeating that, hoping they knew that I would cooperate and not tell so they would be nice when they used me. They did not understand what I was saying when I said I promised not to tell. I knew the punishment for telling, I did not know they were trying to help. They scared me, because these were adults I did not know and the few times before with adults I did not know first what they did hurt really bad. I simply did not have the words, I did not understand what they wanted, and I had no way to tell them what they wanted to know, yes I was being abused, I was being hit, I was being … In a way that was somehow more traumatizing to me because in my 6 yr old mind I was about to be forced to please and give my body to these four or five adults … If I was lucky and they did not want to simply hit me to make me hurt even more.
If only I could have heard them, and they could understand that which I had no voice to say. I am really tired, I hate that just watching a short YouTube video can bring back such strong memories, making me feel those feelings, relive those events. Hugs. Scottie
It amazes me, but maybe it shouldn’t, that our community all reads the same blogs. Thank you Tengrian for posting this, It is such important information on who news media works for. The wealthy people in this story are arrested, yet all the blame From the media is placed on the poor people stealing the stuff for 7 to 10 cents on the dollar of what the wealthy people sold it for. Yes think on it. For at least four or more years, maybe for others the right has blamed the poor homeless people for shoplifting, but like a lot of stories on car thefts, the real money is not to the thieves doing the stealing, it is the resale of the items by wealthy people that were making the real profit. The poor people were as always being used as the villains when the wealthy people behind the entire operation but normally they don’t get mentioned or ever blamed. Right wing media has been going on for years about poor black neighborhoods and claiming that Target moved out of those areas due to theft even Target told their stockholders it was because the stores were underperforming on profit compared to the cost of the rent and they only moved a couple miles down the road. So that is what the right wing news is spewing and what garbage we have to debunk and correct.
That is like the republican State of the Union rebuttal. It was all a lie, but the right wing media will never tell their cult like followers of that. Not only did it happen when George Bush was president, it also did not happen in the US but in Mexico. So what is important is that the woman who is trafficked is now 32 years old, yet Katie Britt also claimed she went to the US southern border and talked to a 12 year old who suffered trafficking. What the fuck. But again their cult viewers won’t ever see the truth and will believe that is happening right now. Hugs. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 