If you want to understand this conflict, if you want to see what real bigotry / racism is watch this video. There is no doubt who is in the wrong, who are the villains really are. Hugs. Scottie
The jerk below is a well known right wing agitator who used to make stuff up about BLM protestors to try to promote anger at them and black people. I watched the video in which he claims people of color stopped the performance yet in the video all the people are white. Hugs
Look at the pictures, and tell me what is sexual happening? What is threatening to kids in these pictures? A small group of angry violent haters were allowed by the 10 police officers there to deny other people the right to use a public facility and see the performance they had come to see. The police allowed them to block entrances, to scream profanities in front of children they claimed to be trying to protect, and seemed to feel entitled to force others to do only what the hateful protesters want. This is not democracy. Think of how the police handle BLM protestors, and yet made no move to arrest these protestors. Below is a quote from the article. Hugs
“Protesters claimed they want to keep children safe while pounding on walls, shouting obscenities and slurs toward my staff and library staff, and using strollers to blockade moving vehicles. The hypocrisy is astounding,” Horvath said.
Drag queen Pickle reads a story to children during a Drag Queen Story Hour event at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach on June 17.(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)———————————————————————————Dozens of protesters physically blocked the entrance to the San Fernando Library this week to stop a scheduled drag storytime reading event from taking place.
Videos posted on social media showed a group of about 70 people — some of whom had previously attended similar demonstrations in North Hollywood, Glendale and elsewhere — wearing black-and-white shirts reading, “Leave our kids alone.” They chanted the same slogan through bullhorns while hurling verbal abuse and slurs at the guest reader.
Story hours, during which drag queens read to children at venues such as libraries, schools and bookstores, have drawn fury and condemnation from conservatives and right-wing extremists across the country. Some events have been the subject of anti-LGBTQ+ threats and at times violent confrontations.
Wednesday’s scheduled 30-minute event, which organizers said was intended to promote youth literacy, never took place.
“What was meant to be a celebration of love and inclusion turned into the opposite,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, the event’s host, said in a statement Thursday.
“Protesters claimed they want to keep children safe while pounding on walls, shouting obscenities and slurs toward my staff and library staff, and using strollers to blockade moving vehicles. The hypocrisy is astounding,” Horvath said.
Horvath’s staff said in an email that the supervisor, who was inside the library, did not officially cancel the event. But it did not proceed because demonstrators “blockaded” entrances — denying entry to both library patrons and drag queen Pickle, the guest reader.
Pickle, Los Angeles chapter president of the nonprofit Drag Story Hour, said she parked blocks away from the library “for safety reasons,” anticipating some hostility.
Video footage showed that San Fernando police officers encircled Pickle near the rear entrance. The phalanx moved toward a metal gate but stopped short as some protesters screamed “pervert,” “pedophile” and “disgusting freak” at Pickle.
About six to eight protesters refused to leave the entrance even after police issued a dispersal order, according to Pickle. The San Fernando Police Department did not confirm or deny whether such an order had been given.
The drag performer said she and the police then attempted to move to the front entrance. As they walked, protesters blared car horns, refused to move and positioned nearby tables to block the front entryway, she said.
“At this point, the police weren’t making arrests, they weren’t stopping the mob and they were allowing an unelected group of people to determine who could and who could not access a public building,” Pickle said. “Shame on the San Fernando police.”
Pickle received a text from Horvath’s staff telling her to leave since she was unable to enter the building. After receiving a police escort back to her car, she did so.
“They canceled the event and I can’t believe how they handled the situation,” Pickle said, referring to staff from the library and Horvath’s office. “This goes beyond hurt feelings. This is about civil rights and they shouldn’t have invited me down if they weren’t going to stand up for them.”
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Questions emailed to L.A. County Library personnel, who oversee the San Fernando Library, were not immediately answered Thursday.
Pickle said she has attended about 50 drag story hour events, but this was the first canceled in person.
A story hour she was scheduled to appear at in Glendale last spring was canceled ahead of time, and protesters also disrupted another of her storybook hours in Sherman Oaks in April.
San Fernando Police Lt. Pete Aguirre said 10 officers were deployed to the library.
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Aguirre said no arrests were made and no assaults or property damage were reported.
Aguirre said protesters began arriving at 10:30 a.m., with most staying until the event was terminated at noon. Others didn’t leave for another hour and engaged with a “small contingent of counter protesters.”
“We weren’t able to get to the venue, but we ensured that the performer was not assaulted in any way and that they were able to leave the venue unharmed,” Aguirre said.
HIV criminalization lawsPhoto: ShutterstockThe American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Transgender Law Center have filed a federal lawsuit against a Tennessee law that requires HIV-positive sex workers to register for life as a “violent sex offender.”
The aforementioned advocacy organizations filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state LGBTQ+ advocacy groups OUTMemphis and four “Jane Doe” plaintiffs who were convicted under the law. The plaintiffs, which include a transgender woman, allege that they have faced discrimination and life struggles because of their violent sex offender status. These struggles have forced the trans woman to continue doing sex work, since finding a job can be difficult for someone on the registry.
Another plaintiff said that they were sent back to jail after violating the registry’s requirements. The plaintiffs allege that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by handing harsher punishments to people with HIV, a chronic disease covered by the ADA’s anti-discrimination statutes. Tennessee is the only state with this law, according to the Edge Media Network.
“This statute solely targets people because of their HIV status and keeps them in cycles of poverty while posing absolutely zero benefit to public health and safety,” said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. “HIV stigma is becoming a thing of the past, and it’s time for state law to catch up.”
The lawsuit lists Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN), Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch, and Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada as defendants.
While sex work is a misdemeanor crime in Tennessee, the HIV criminalization law turns the crime into a felony. An estimated 83 Tennesseeans are currently in the registry because of it. Tennessee legislators passed the law in 1991 near the height of the AIDS epidemic when over 100,000 Americans had died from the illness, and scientists were still trying to find effective medical treatments against it.
In 2021, Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia repealed their felony HIV criminalization laws. However, in 2022, Pennsylvania signed a law making it a felony to pass on a communicable disease when they “should have known” that they had it — the law included HIV.
As of 2022, 35 states have laws that criminalize HIV exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many of the laws were passed at a time when little was known about HIV and millions were dying from the virus.
Medical professionals have said that HIV criminalization laws do nothing to stop the spread of the virus and may even encourage people not to get tested for fear that the knowledge could subject them to criminal penalties.
“Many of these state laws criminalize actions that cannot transmit HIV – such as biting or spitting – and apply regardless of actual transmission, or intent,” the CDC wrote. “After more than 40 years of HIV research and significant biomedical advancements to treat and prevent HIV transmission, many state laws are now outdated and do not reflect our current understanding of HIV.”
A 2018 Williams Institute study on HIV criminalization in Georgia found that “Black men and Black women were more likely to be arrested for HIV-related offenses than their white counterparts.” While 26% of HIV-related arrests were of white males, 46% of HIV-related arrests were of Black males. Additionally, 11 % of those arrested were white females, while 16% were Black females.
For those that don’t know, I dropped my TYT membership this summer. I found that Anna’s hard right turn and Cenk’s hate for Biden along with trying to destroy the Democratic Party became too much to take. But on this he is correct. Plus I love how David, who is the rational national, presents the facts in the video. Hugs. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 