Category: Crime

Over the last few days there were many news stories I wanted to share. Here are a few I saved open to share.

Tuberville To Block Pentagon Nominees Over Abortion
WI Town’s Publicly-Funded Paper Runs Anti-LGBTQ Ads
LGBTQ+ children in the community have been attacked and are now afraid to go to school or be around other kids. Attacks against adults have risen. But the preacher pushing the hate says it is not a bad thing, he is just telling the truth that "accused the LGBTQ community of "grooming children" and acting in "perverted" sexual behavior."  The article linked paints the community now split as some follow local pastor Ronald Gay in oppressing the targets of his hate and the rest trying to be allies to a frightened group under attack. What a godly leader of the people he is. Hugs
Anti-AP DeSantis Was AP Student Of The Year, Praised AP Courses As “A Gateway To Success In Life” In 2020
IL Governor Condemns Visit By “Hateful” DeSantis
Man Tries To Bring Loaded Assault Rifle Onto Flight
TSA Agents Intercepted Record 6542 Handguns In 2022
Louisiana AG To Keep Satan From Sitting In Libraries
PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Jeff Landry blocks flood damage funding for New Orleans over the city’s position on abortion rights. Landry advises parents on how to evade COVID protocols instituted by public schools. Landry wins court battle to block workplace protections for LGBTQ state employees. The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds Landry’s win against LGBTQ state employees. Hate group leader Tony Perkins praises “courageous” Landry for his attacks on LGBTQ protections. State Rep. Jeff Landry tries to end LGBTQ studies minor at his alma mater, the University of Lafayette.

And in the above we see the move by the rabid right, by the maga, by the majority of republican office holders to move the country from democracy and freedom from religion enforced in laws to instead install a theocracy where their brand of Christianity is forced on the people regardless of their religious views.   This is no longer a minority in the minority party, these people have worked hard and spent an untold amount of money to get their religious believers in to places of power to enforce their religious doctrines as the US Taliban.    Hugs

Florida Christian College Professor Faces Termination For “Indoctrinating” Students On Racial Justice [Video]
From the linked article: “I see this at the very least as a threat to my academic freedom. PBA is a Christian university. It has a deserved reputation as a politically conservative university. I could somewhat understand if the university had requested a meeting to review my material. I say ‘somewhat’ because, as a full professor with over 20 years of experience at the university, one would think they would trust me,” he wrote. “Indeed, the university has shown me little respect throughout this ordeal. But instead, without giving me due process, they brought their concern over my racial-justice unit with a threat of termination. I also believe that things like this do not happen in a vacuum. There is a reason why PBA is threatening me now rather than five years ago or 10 years ago. PBA is conforming to a toxic political culture, and they are playing a role that is a part of that culture’s script: a role that says, ‘We do not like to have uncomfortable conversations about race.’ There is no place for a role like that at an institution that calls itself a university, let alone a Christian university.”
Notice what the Christian teacher is saying. In 20 years of teaching of the racism and need for racial justice in the US he is facing loss of his job because of the stance of the governor DeathSantis who claims that teaching the truth of US racist history and the ongoing injustice minorities face is illegal ideology. It doesn’t fit his white nationalist views and his attempt to install a regressive 1950s white automatic rule / superiority back into society via the schools. It is true that people that get an advanced education often get their eyes open to the bigotry and narrow mindedness of the limited education they received which causes them to move to a more tolerant and open view of reality / society. Hugs

Gustav2  Joe in NM3 hours ago edited
It is an attempt to control all education in the US. From cradle to college.
There has been complaining in all the churches about how the kids don’t come back to church after college. It didn’t matter before because few conservative RCC and Protestant White Fundies went to college, now both have made it to the suburbs, college is expected.
With few marriages preformed in church (only 20%), the churches have lost another connection with the next generation and they are less likely to return with their own children.
The push for only religious marriages are real marriages and the restructuring of education have one thing in common. The steady decline in church membership. Even the largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is not replacing the Olds that are dying off with Youngs.
Indiana House Advances “Don’t Say Gay” Bill [VIDEO]
Too bad it is against a teachers morals to be nice and use a name or pronoun that a person asks them. I don’t see how it is a moral dilemma or even a religious one. If Robert wishes to be called Bobbie the religious teacher is happy with it, but what if Robert wishes to be called Bohdana or Bonita or Bona which are all girls names in different languages. I just learned that in German the name Boby is a girl’s name. In the US the name Bobby is both male and female as all names should be. If the teacher doesn’t know a names gender association and they use it without malice are they committing a sin? I don’t get this fake outrage at something that is just being nice and respectful. Hugs
Shapiro Host: I’d Rather Die Than Have A Trans Child
Pride Flag Torched Outside Manhattan Restaurant
MTG Lays Out Her Plan To Dissolve US: For Red States, Public School Prayers, Ban Everything Gay, No Dildos
MTG: After The “National Divorce” Democrats Who Move To Red States Will Not Be Able To Vote For Five Years
Utah Gov Blasts MTG’s “Evil” Call For “National Divorce”

Yet not one drag queen or trans person.

Mom says anti-LGBTQ+ bullies attacked 13-year-old son in school bathroom while teacher watched

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/02/mom-says-anti-lgbtq-bullies-attacked-13-year-old-son-in-school-bathroom-while-teacher-watched/

What more is there to say.  This is what republicans / the right wants.  “… school officials have said they don’t “condone” LGBTQ+ relationships “around here.””   The boy was called “… has endured months’ worth of verbal abuse from the students who attacked him, including being called the n-word, a fa**ot, and a queer”, which means no support, no safe spaces, no help against bullies.   One black asexual black boy with difficulties communicating was attacked publicly with an adult present and got no help.  The boy himself had to call for medical help.  The in school sheriff officer lied and down played the incident because the victim was a black non straight and so did not deserve protection from planned assaults from straight white kids.  I said when the maga parents rights crowd got rid of the LGBTQ+ in schools next would be to return to separate facilities for whites and minorities.  Now do people understand this is an attempt to return the country and society to a time such as the 1950s where whites were just assumed to be in charge with all the power and rights, white women were subservient to the white cis men, blacks were with our rights or authority and the LGBTQ+ were hidden terrified to come out to live their lives as themselves.   That is what the republican right wants.   That is why the surge in US NAZIs and the US Christian Taliban.   We had moved away from these mindsets and toward an open society for all people.   Sadly the right maga right minority feels embolden to take over the country and force everyone to live in the past.  Do we really want to regress to the past?  Look at other countries that have done that and how backward they are.    Hugs

The child experienced an emotional breakdown after the alleged attack and is “terrified” to return to school, his mom says.
 
By  
Mom says anti-LGBTQ+ bullies attacked 13-year-old son in school bathroom while teacher watched
Photo: Shutterstock

A mother says bullies assaulted her 13-year-old son in a middle school bathroom after months of racist and anti-LGBTQ+ slurs. School and legal officials near Allendale-Fairfax Middle School in South Carolina have been unhelpful, she adds. Now, she’s rallying community attention while pursuing charges against the students involved.

Natasha Green’s son is Black, identifies as asexual and panromantic, and has a diagnosed social communication disorder (SCD). She gave video of his assault to LGBTQ Nation and says a teacher was present when it occurred but did nothing to stop it. LGBTQ Nation won’t name the underaged students involved.

Green’s son experienced an emotional breakdown after the alleged attack and is “terrified” to return to school, Green said. He has been placed on homebound instruction while special care professionals evaluate his residual trauma.

Though the school suspended the involved students for four to five days, Green is now pressing charges. She wants the students expelled for “organizing and executing a hate crime” and for the school to remove the witnessing teacher as well as the police school resource officer (SRO) who, she says, took an inaccurate report of the attack.

The alleged attack occurred around 12:30 p.m. local time on January 25 in the band hall restroom of Allendale-Fairfax Middle School, just after her son’s lunchtime.

As the math teacher escorted his students to the bathroom, a girl pushed her son into the boys’ bathroom after she had arranged for two students to attack him, Green said.

A 48-second video of the incident shows Green’s son standing next to a row of urinals while a larger blond, white male classmate repeatedly says, “C’mon, hit me bro. Hit me. C’mon. Do it.”

Green’s son silently stands, nervously holding his left wrist with his right hand as the classmate gets closer.

“If you don’t speak, I might have to,” the blond says.

An off-camera male classmate then counts down “3, 2, 1,” before the blond kid makes an aggressive motion toward Green’s son. Another male student then runs into the camera frame, pushing Green’s son further into the bathroom while the blond follows.

The video shows the two male students grabbing and pulling her son while the blond throws punches at his head. Her son struggles to pull away from his classmates, kicking at the blond just before the blond throws another punch.

The video ends there, though the video shows another student also recording on his phone. Green says the school has three videos of the attack.

According to Green, five students total were in the restroom when the incident occurred, as was her son’s math teacher. The teacher, Green says, is a foreign-born educator teaching under a work visa as part of a year-long program for which the school paid. Green said the school principal was made aware of the teacher’s presence, apologized on his behalf, and said his inaction was likely due to shock and not knowing how to respond.

Green’s son dialed 911 after the attack, and emergency medical services (EMS) arrived at the school. EMS workers attempted calming techniques with him as school officials contacted Green and her other family members to notify them about the incident. Green’s son also spoke with the SRO, a police officer stationed at the school, about what happened.

Green’s mom (her son’s grandmother) was the first to arrive at school.

“When my mom got there,” Green wrote, “he was agitated and hallucinating again so he was transported to the local [emergency room] for evaluation. At the ER, the doctor suggested he stay out of school until he could fully calm down and see his regular doctors and therapist.”

She said that her son was so terrified after the attack that he had trouble recognizing his family members, had difficulty calming down, and felt as if he was still under attack. When she met with her son’s special needs behavioral health care workers, they said that she’d need to provide the SRO’s incident report so that they could schedule priority responsive care sessions for her son.

When Green received the report on January 27, she said the SRO slid the report to Green through a crack in the door. When Green pointed out that the report didn’t mention the female student who allegedly encouraged the boys to attack her son, she said the SRO informed her that she had based her report on the principal’s account of what happened, hadn’t spoken to any of the other students involved, and refused to change the report.

“I reminded [the SRO] that she talked to my son, and she said no, that was not true. I have video evidence that she did,” Green said.

Green provided the report to LGBTQ Nation. It says, “[The two boys] started a physical altercation with [Green’s son]. The three had a discussion while in the restroom and [the first boy] began physically assaulting [Green’s son] then [the blond boy] joined in he assault bt striking [Green’s son] with closed fist (sic) on or about his body.” It also mentions that Green’s son called EMS who came to the school to treat him, but it doesn’t mention the teacher who allegedly watched the attack.

On January 30, Green went to the Allendale County Sheriff’s Office to file a statement about what happened: One that names the girl allegedly involved and the teacher who allegedly watched the attack without intervening. She said that the Allendale County Sheriff eventually called her boyfriend into a meeting and told him that Green was making a bigger deal out of the incident than it needed to be.

Green says the school and police are treating what happened like a small school fight rather than an orchestrated attack or a hate crime. She also says that her son, who is out as asexual and panromantic at school, has endured months’ worth of verbal abuse from the students who attacked him, including being called the n-word, a fa**ot, and a queer. Her son and his alleged attackers discussed this verbal harassment earlier in the year in an office visit with the school guidance counselor, Green said.

Green’s child has SCD, a condition that affects an estimated 7.5 percent of kids. SCD makes it difficult for a young person to communicate and to understand communication, especially when it’s non-verbal or implied. Her son’s responses to questions sometimes don’t initially make sense, his attempts at “dark humor” can come off as completely serious, and he also gets nervous and has trouble communicating around people who come off as judgmental.

Her son first showed signs of SCD in third grade. As his condition has deepened, she has gotten him a specialized care team that involves his pediatrician, a behavioral health specialist who has tested and diagnosed him, and a therapist who teaches him coping mechanisms. The specialist wants to do additional testing for possible attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), she says.

Green describes her son as intelligent, highly inquisitive, and loving towards his three siblings. When her son came out to her about his asexual and panromantic identities, she said she and her partner praised him and gave him their unconditional love and support.

Her son plays euphonium in the school band and enjoys science and social studies classes. However, Green says that only one of his school teachers submitted a formally requested plan of how to accommodate his SCD-related special needs. Others have since agreed to some special accommodations during her one-on-one meetings with them, but they never submitted the formally requested plans as expected, she added.

The math teacher, on the other hand, allegedly told Green that her son is disrespectful, doesn’t complete his classwork, and doesn’t pay attention in class. When her son asks for additional help, she says, the teacher reprimands him instead of assisting.

After the attack, Green said the principal agreed to put a monitor in her son’s math class, but allegedly said that his teacher wouldn’t be dismissed since he was hired in a year-long exchange teaching program that the school had already paid for.

To Green’s knowledge, the school has no support group or visible safe spaces and allies for LGBTQ+ students. She said other LGBTQ+ parents have come forward since her son’s attack claiming that school officials have said they don’t “condone” LGBTQ+ relationships “around here.” LGBTQ Nation has contacted the Allendale Country School District seeking comment.

“We have obtained an attorney,” Green told LGBTQ Nation. “This week, a petition is being started for my son to have his rights as a citizen and press charges against the students that attacked him (including the organizer), for the students to be expelled for organizing and executing a hate crime, for the teacher to be removed from the classroom and have his work visa revoked, and for the SRO to be removed from the school and/or fired.”

“The school and the sheriff’s office have refused to acknowledge this as a hate crime,” Green added. “Other parents in the area are working on organizing a protest.”

Green herself says that she has helped organize local “Live to Love” anti-bullying and anti-suicide events for kids. The event features free food, fun activities, guest speakers, and local groups to create a safe and encouraging space for young people, she said.

Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

Rep. Raskin brings the house down with clapback of the year

North Dakota weighs ban on ‘sexually explicit’ library books

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/north-dakota-weighs-ban-sexually-explicit-library-books-rcna66271

These clueless morons don’t seem to understand heterosexuality is a sexual orientation.   You cannot have gay without having straight also.   “… prohibit books depicting sexual or gender identity …” also means any books that have parents, boys or girls, no Mr. or Mrs., no dating stories even of straight kids because all of these things are sexual or gender identities.  What these people really want is nothing about anyone not straight and cis.   They want their Leave It To Beaver 1950s style society.   Only a society that never really existed is what they wish for.  These laws apply to public libraries, not just school ones.   They want to erase the entire LGBTQ+ from society in the same way the Russians have done.  Simply make them all illegal, make it illegal to talk about them in a positive way, illegal to write about them in a positive way, illegal to show them in any media such as movies, TV, or even theater in a positive way.   They are doing this in schools in red republican run states like Florida already.   Not even rainbow stickers can be displayed or even rainbow colors on clothing in schools yet I see they have not outlawed the confederate battle flag.   Removing these things from schools and society wont stop kids from being born gay or stop kids from having a different gender identity from assigned at birth, but it does make those kids more isolated and at risk of being targeted or bullied.  This stuff is a radical attempt to undo 70 years of social advancement for minorities.  Hugs

The bill, which would prohibit books depicting sexual or gender identity, proposes up to 30 days in prison for librarians who refuse to remove banned titles.
The wave of attempted book banning and restrictions continues to intensify, the American Library Association reported Friday. Numbers for 2022 already approach last year's totals, which were the highest in decades.
Amanda Darrow, the director of youth, family and education programs, with books at the Utah Pride Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021.Rick Bowmer / AP
 
 
By Associated Press

Books containing “sexually explicit” content — including depictions of sexual or gender identity — would be banned from North Dakota public libraries under legislation that state lawmakers began considering Tuesday.

The GOP-dominated state House Judiciary Committee heard arguments but did not take a vote on the measure, which applies to visual depictions of “sexually explicit” content and proposes up to 30 days imprisonment for librarians who refuse to remove the offending books.

 

The proposal comes amid a national wave of Republican-backed laws to ban books that feature LGBTQ subject matter — though usually those bills have been limited to school libraries, not public ones.

Supporters of the bill said it would preserve children’s innocence and reduce their exposure to pornography.

But critics said the measure is “steeped in discrimination” and would allow government censorship of material that is not actually obscene.

House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, of Dickinson, introduced the bill and said public libraries currently contain books that have “disturbing and disgusting” content, including ones that describe virginity as a silly label and assert that gender is fluid.

Lefor argued that a child’s exposure to such content has been associated with addiction, poor self esteem, devalued intimacy, increasing divorce rates, unprotected sex among young people and poor well-being — though did he did not offer any evidence to support such claims.

Stark County resident Autumn Richard also spoke in favor of the bill, giving examples of explicit content in the graphic novel “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human” and the kids’ comic book “Sex Is a Funny Word” — both available in public libraries.

Richard argued the books might have beneficial knowledge about contraceptives, body image and abusive relationships, but many sections provide information that she said was harmful for minors.

Though supporters of North Dakota’s bill repeatedly called the sexual content “obscene,” opponents said the material in question is not actually considered legally obscene.

“Nearly 50 years ago, the (U.S.) Supreme Court set the high constitutional bar that defines obscenity,” said Cody Schuler, an advocacy manager at the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, who testified against the bill.

Obscenity is a narrow, well-defined category of unprotected speech that excludes any work with serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value, Schuler said. Few, if any, books have been deemed obscene, and the standard for restraining a library’s ability to distribute a book are even more stringent, Schuler added.

The definition of pornography is also subjective, opponents of the bill said.

Library Director Christine Kujawa at Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library said the library has a book with two little hamsters on the cover. At the end of the book, the hamsters get married, and they are both male.

“It’s a cute book,” Kujawa said — but it would be considered pornography under the bill because the book includes gender identity.

Facing criminal charges for keeping books on shelves is “something I never thought I would have to consider during my career as a librarian,” Kujawa added.

In addition to banning depictions of “sexual identity” and “gender identity,” the measure specifies 10 other things that library books cannot visually depict, including “sexual intercourse,” “sexual preference” and “sexual perversion,” — though it does not define any of those terms. The proposal does not apply to books that have “serious artistic significance” or “materials used in science courses,” among other exceptions.

The bill would allow prosecutors to charge any person who displays these materials at places that children visit with a class B misdemeanor. The maximum penalty is 30 days of imprisonment and a $1,500 fine.

The wave of attempted book banning and restrictions continues to intensify across the country, the American Library Association reported in September. Numbers for 2022 approached the previous year’s totals, which were the highest in decades. Bills to restrict mature content in school libraries became laws last year in Tennessee, Utah, Missouri, Florida and Oklahoma.

The most targeted books have included Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir about sexual identity, “Gender Queer,” and Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” a coming-of-age novel narrated by a young gay man, according to an April report.

The U.S. Department of Education investigated the removal of LGBTQ-themed books from the library of a Texas school district in December. The investigation followed a complaint by the ACLU and appeared to be the first based on a nationwide movement to ban school library books dealing with sexuality and gender.

Brutal Persecution of Lesbians under Nazi Regime – Rape, Beatings & Murders – Nazi Germany – WW2

Brutal Persecution of Lesbians under Nazi Regime Rape, Beatings & Murders Nazi Germany. During the Weimar Republic, German society experienced complex social, political, and cultural transformations. Meeting places advertised in a new lesbian press that emerged in the mid-1920s and lesbian journals also contributed to the growth of lesbian networks. Public discussions of sexuality had occurred in Germany since the late 19th century. Physician and sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld as well as others organized gay and lesbian “friendship leagues”, which also included heterosexual members.

Large numbers of Germans were opposed to these public discussions of sex and sexuality. They viewed such debates as decadent, overly permissive, and immoral. Even before coming to power, many Nazis resented the visibility of gay and lesbian communities.

Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on the 30th of January 1933.

Beginning in 1933, the Nazi regime began to harass gay and lesbian communities and individuals by shutting down and raiding their meeting places and organizations. By eliminating gay and lesbian gathering places and presses, the regime made it far more difficult for lesbians and gay men to connect with each other and the Nazis effectively dissolved the communities that had developed during the Weimar Republic.

Over the course of the 1930s, Nazi actions targeting male homosexuality became even more systematically oppressive. In 1935, the Nazi regime reformed Paragraph 175. The statute now criminalized any and all sexual intimacy between men.

Eventually, SS leader Heinrich Himmler took the lead in persecuting male homosexuality, which he called a “public scourge.” In 1936, Himmler created the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion.

However, the Nazi regime never criminalized sexual relations between women as it saw lesbians, first and foremost, as women. The Nazis believed that German women had a special task to perform: motherhood. They had a responsibility to give birth to racially pure Germans, called “Aryans.” The Nazis did not create any separate policies that singled out lesbians as a problem for Aryan procreation. Their reasoning drew on widespread attitudes about the differences between male and female sexuality. The Nazis concluded that Aryan lesbians could easily be persuaded or forced to bear children. During the Nazi regime, lesbians could not continue to live and socialize as they had during the Weimar Republic.

There were lesbians who joined underground anti-Nazi resistance groups or helped hide Jews.

Such was a case of Frieda Belinfante, a half-Jewish lesbian, who was a member of Dutch gay resistance group called the CKC.

The reason why some lesbians were arrested and sent to concentration camps was, that they were arrested as members of other groups such as Jews, Roma, asocials, political prisoners and professional criminals.

In lesbian prisoners’ paperwork, concentration camp authorities usually listed a racial, political, social, or criminal reason as the primary cause for their arrest. In a few cases, the authorities also noted their sexuality.

Such was a case of Henny Schermann, a Jewish lesbian from Germany. Sometimes their arrest had little or nothing to do with the fact that they were lesbians. At other times, their sexuality may have played a role. This was especially the case regarding arrests prompted by denunciations. Yet, denunciations could cause unwanted scrutiny for lesbians. To such women belonged Elli Smula and Margarete Rosenberg.

Between 5,000 and 15,000 men were imprisoned in concentration camps as “homosexual” offenders. This group of prisoners was typically required to wear a pink triangle badge sewn onto their camp uniforms. According to many survivor accounts, pink triangle male prisoners were among the most abused groups in the camps.

However, women who self-identified or were identified as lesbians did not wear the pink triangle. Same-sex relations in the camps could be shocking to other prisoners, who came from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. Homosexual prisoners rarely benefited from solidarity from the other prisoners, which for many camp inmates provided tools of survival, such as access to food and clothing.

To this day, it remains a research challenge to find historical sources related to lesbian experiences under the Nazi regime.

Disclaimer: All opinions and comments below are from members of the public and do not reflect the views of World History channel. We do not accept promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on attributes such as: race, nationality, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation. World History has right to review the comments and delete them if they are deemed inappropriate.

I regret I am so far behind.   It is too hard to sit at my desk, every 15 minutes or so I have to get up and walk around, but then after a few minutes have to sit.   If I have a task I need to do standing for more than 15 minutes I have to take more medication to stop my back from giving out.  I managed to get my MRI I needed this morning, came home ate and went right to bed.   I got up at 2:30 as my back was not getting better.  I see my pain doctor on the 6th of Feb.    Hopefully I can quickly schedule some shots to my spine.  I was getting them regularly to keep the pain down but I got hit with a couple very expensive bills from the spine shots and decided to see if I could handle the pain with muscle shots and pills.  Turns out that won’t work.   I have already had to take more medication than I like to take.   If this doesn’t work I will go to the next level of pain medications.   In the state of Florida it is hard now to get the drugs that caused such problems which can be managed but they want to force everyone to fentanyl even as the republicans scream about how deadly it is.     The clips below are pure republican hate, making it so poor people on snap cannot buy any affordable foods not even can soup.  No meats no matter the kind, no canned vegetables and so much more.  And the continued attacks by republicans and DeathSantis on the idea of inclusion and anything LGBTQ+.    I again today wont be able to catch up but there is always tomorrow I guess.    Hugs

A GOP-backed bill in Oklahoma would fine drag performers up to $20,000 and have them face up to 2 years in jail for performing in front of a minor

https://www.businessinsider.com/oklahoma-bill-fine-jail-drag-queens-20000-performing-minors-2023-1

The right is so desperate to have a white straight homogenous country that they claim reading to children with parents present while dressed in costume is porn and “adult” entertainment.    WTF.  I wonder if the people ever wonder if they can openly lie and make one group illegal will they next make your group illegal using lies?   Hugs

Katie Balevic 
Jan 25, 2023, 11:02 AM
 
A drag queen who goes by the name Flame reads stories to children and their caretakers during a Drag Story Hour at a public library in New York, Friday, June 17, 2022.
A drag queen who goes by the name Flame reads stories to children and their caretakers during a Drag Story Hour at a public library in New York, Friday, June 17, 2022. 

Seth Wenig/AP
  • An Oklahoma bill would make it a felony punishable by a $20,000 fine for drag artists to perform in front of minors.
  • The bill by GOP Rep. Kevin West would also make it a misdemeanor for one to organize drag performances in public.
  • At least ten states have proposed legislation that targets drag performances, including drag queen story hours.

An Oklahoma bill would make it a felony punishable by up to a $20,000 fine for drag artists to perform in front of minors.

The bill would make it “unlawful for a person to engage in an adult cabaret performance” in public before a minor. The fine may fall in the range of $500 to $20,000, and it may also incur a prison sentence from 30 days to two years, according to the bill’s text. 

State GOP Rep. Kevin West, who filed House Bill 2186 on January 19, told Insider that the bill is intended to limit performances “in a public place.” 

“But if you have a private venue and parents want to take their children there, then that would not be affected by this bill,” West told Insider. “It wouldn’t be allowed where just the general public would be able to see the performance. So like a library or a school or something like that would fall into being under the jurisdiction of this bill.”

West’s bill specifically named drag queen story hours as events that would be considered unlawful, as well as other forms of “adult cabaret” performances. It would also create a misdemeanor for anyone who organizes or authorizes such performances in public or in view of minors, threatening a fine of $500 to $1,000 and a maximum of a year in county jail. 

The bill compared drag performers to strippers and topless dancers, defining “drag queen” as a “male or female performer who adopts a flamboyant or parodic feminine persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup.”

One activist on Twitter also suggested that the wording may criminalize a woman displaying a “feminine persona” with heavy makeup around children, per Newsweek. 

But West, in a statement to Insider, disagreed. 

“I’ve gotten emails and seen stuff online where I’m trying to ban the drag queen shows. Well, clearly nothing in the bill says that those are being banned. It’s just making sure that they’re done in the location where it’s intended,” West told Insider.

“I think that it really just comes to some of those boundaries. We have a lot of laws on the books that prohibit certain activities in public spaces and with everything that we’ve been seeing for the last few years on this subject, I think that’s why you’re seeing a lot of bills like this.”

The bill is scheduled to have its first reading in the Oklahoma House on February 6, per the Oklahoma legislature’s website. 

It follows a trend of similar legislation gaining traction nationwide to limit drag performances, such as in Arizona, Texas, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Missouri, Tennessee, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia, according to reporting by Newsweek and the ACLU. Drag story hours in California and North Carolina, and other states, have also been targeted by the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, over the past year. 

In October, a coalition of Republicans in the US House introduced a bill to “Stop the Sexualization of Children,” specifically targeting drag queen story hours as “sexually-oriented events,” Insider previously reported. The bill would give parents grounds to sue public entities that use federal tax dollars, such as public libraries, for “sexually explicit materials or programs.”

CPAC Leader’s wife BLAMES LIBERALS for Husband’s Sex Scandal as Texas Paul Exposes NEW LEAKED TEXTS

After CPAC Leader Matt Schlapp was accused of sexual assault of a male Herschel Walker staffer, both the CPAC organization and Matt Schlapp’s wife, Mercedes Schlapp, have decided to blame…liberals. Texas Paul reacts.

Serious question