Category: Diversity / Inclusivity
Greta Thunberg On a British show. I will try to cut it to when the interview starts.
Hi, this is a wonderful display of a normal 19 year old who is autistic. She is open about it, how it affects her daily life, how her celebrity which she is not using for her own benefit, and how she copes she mentions she really doesn’t like what she feels she has to do and often retreats to an environment that soothes her emotion distress. One of the things she mentions is her love of beans, and eating one bean at a time, as it helps her deal. The interview was grand. Here is a 19 year old who could have been using her status to make millions as an influencer yet proudly admits she will use her large platform to introduce other people who have expertise or experience in fighting the climate emergency, and then she steps aside, giving them the entire stage to say what needs to be said.
She is engaging, dare I say cute, without being called out as a sexist pig? She laughed at the host, who was not trying to be funny because that was how it struck her. I loved how she totally was not like other guests, she was herself.
If I don’t clip this right and you want to hear her talk about her autism and how it affects her and her activism, please go through the video. Oh one thing before where I start with her interview, they have kids on, and the kids love her. To the point where the host tries to ask one of the kids if he knew who he was or wanted to talk to him and the kid was like, no, I want to talk to her. What an ego busting moment. Hugs, best wishes, loves. Scottie
Oh notice one thing, she says she doesn’t need to make money from the books and activism, because she is in what we call college or university and her country pays her not only to be there but enough to live. Her living costs are paid because she is a student. Think about that next time an argument about student loans comes up and how great the US is. Hugs
Democrats who swept Moms For Liberty off school board fight superintendent’s $700,000 exit deal
The haters seen the writing on the wall and wanted to give a lot of money to one of them that helped them foment hate and harm to the LGBTQIA kids in schools. Because protecting kids was never the goal, doing the best for schools was never the goal. It has always been to promote and enforce their religious fundamentalist right wing views on students. And they will be back, that was the point of such a huge payout. To make others see the profit in harming the LGBTQIA kids. Hugs. Scottie
This image taken from video shows Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh and Board President Dana Hunter preside over a Central Bucks School District meeting in Doylestown Pa., Nov. 15, 2022. Democrats who swept out a Moms for Liberty majority on the board are challenging Lucabaugh’s last-minute $700,000 exit package. (AP Photo)
Updated 12:26 PM EST, November 22, 2023PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Pennsylvania school board that banned books, Pride flags and transgender athletes slipped a last-minute item into their final meeting before leaving office, hastily awarding a $700,000 exit package to the superintendent who supported their agenda.
But the Democratic majority that swept the conservative Moms For Liberty slate out of office hopes to block the unusual — they say illegal — payout and bring calm to the Central Bucks School District, whose affluent suburbs and bucolic farms near Philadelphia have been roiled by infighting since the 2020 pandemic.
“People are really sick of the embarrassing meetings, the vitriol, they’re tired of our district being in the news for all the wrong reasons. And … the students are aware of what’s been going on, particularly our LGBTQ students and their friends and allies,” said Karen Smith, a Democrat who won a third term on the board.
The district, with about 17,000 students in 23 schools, has spent $1.5 million on legal and public relations fees amid competing lawsuits, discrimination complaints and investigations in the past two years, including a pending suit over its suspension of a middle school teacher who supported LGBTQ and other marginalized students.
The jostling — and spending — look likely to continue as Democrats who won a 6-3 majority in the Nov. 7 election prepare to challenge the severance package for superintendent Abram Lucabaugh, which was added to the Nov. 14 agenda only the night before.
Meanwhile, several voters in the quaint town of Chalfont filed a court petition Monday challenging the school board election tallies, alleging unspecified “fraud or error.”
Student Lily Freeman, a vocal critic of board policies on LGBTQ issues, decried the district’s spending priorities. She called the severance package a bad deal for both students and taxpayers.
“It’s kind of like a slap in the face,” said the senior at Central Bucks East High School. “Teachers are struggling, and there’s a lot of students that are struggling.”
“There are so many resources out there that we could be putting that money to,” she said, noting her school desperately needs better WiFi.
Neither Lucabaugh, who skipped the final meeting, nor outgoing board president Dana Hunter returned calls for comment. School board solicitor Jeffrey P. Garton said he was not involved in the severance agreement.
“I didn’t prepare it and gave no legal advice concerning its content,” Garton said in an email.
Some of the incoming Democrats tried to warn the outgoing board that the payout violates a 2012 state law designed to curtail golden parachutes bestowed on school superintendents, including one that topped $900,000. The law now caps severance pay at a year’s salary, along with limited payments for unused sick time and other benefits.
“The particular circumstances in this case are even more egregious. The board gave Dr. Lucabaugh a 40 percent salary increase (to $315,000) in late July of this year, making him the second-highest paid school district superintendent in Pennsylvania, and is now using that increase less than four months later to calculate a severance payment,” lawyer Brendan Flynn, who represents them, wrote in a letter distributed to the board before the vote.
Lucabaugh’s package includes more than $300,000 for unused sick, vacation, administrative and personal time during his 18 years in various roles with the district; $50,000 for signing the deal; and health insurance for his family through June.
The package also includes a puzzling ban on any district investigations of his tenure and an agreement that he can keep his district-issued laptop as long as he wipes it of school records.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage nixed that last provision on Friday when he ordered Lucabaugh, a defendant in middle school teacher Andrew Burgess’s retaliation suit against the district, to preserve documents that may become evidence in the case.
“It’s hard to imagine a lawyer drafted that contract,” said Witold “Vic” Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, who represents Burgess. “No lawyer would think that a school board could insulate an employee from any kind of of court action or criminal investigation.”
Freeman, the high school senior, declined to revisit the threats and sense of danger she said she and her family have endured as she took on the board the past two years. However, her forceful public remarks at last week’s meeting, posted to TikTok, have drawn thousands of views and comments.
“It was never about protecting kids. It was about erasing people like me from Central Bucks,” she told the board last week as it voted to make students play on sports teams based on their gender assignment at birth. “You continue to make policy after policy preventing people like me from just living our lives.”
On Monday, Freeman said she’s hopeful the tensions will ease under the new board: “I feel as if we shouldn’t have to worry about a lot of these things if our needs are being met.”
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VIRAL VIDEO: Virginia Dad Calls Out “Bad Guys” Moms For Liberty In Blistering Speech Before VA School Board
My great feeling now that I am clearing some of the backlog. Yes I have gone from 68 tabs to 3 open tabs. Don’t cheer, I have been at this since a little after 1 am, and I am getting exhausted now at nearly 10 am. Ron is trying to make a great Sunday breakfast meal, So we will see. But this is such a needed and grand post, I really wanted to get it out to the public that don’t go to Joe My God! But as always do go to the places I post from. Hugs.
November 15, 2023 LGBT News, Viral Video
“You are never going to find a right way to do the wrong thing and Governor Youngkin’s policies are wrong. Never in history have the good guys been the segregationist group pushing to legislate identity.
“Never in history have the good guys been closely connected with and supported by hate groups like the Proud Boys. And the good guys don’t put Hitler quotes for inspiration on the front of their newsletters.
“News flash: they’re the bad guys. They’re the bad guys supporting bad policy. And if you support the same bad policy, guess what? You’re one of the bad guys too. When you look around and see only the wrong people supporting what you’re doing, you’re doing the wrong thing.
“Now you’ve heard some speakers come up here and say how they love these kids but won’t accept them. I’m here to tell you that if your love makes somebody not want to be alive, it’s not love. That’s not love.
“Some of you are going to get up here and say ‘it’s the law.’ Well, I remind you that slavery and segregation used to be the law here in Virginia.” – Virginia Beach father of three Cody Conner, in a speech going viral today on TikTok.
That was powerful.
I like the “There is never a right way to do the wrong thing!”
Well put and well rehearsed. Just puts it right out there, matter of fact, like pointing out the elephant or the nazi in the room.
His speech is simple and direct, cutting through the fascist bullshit. Be The Good Guy is a good campaign slogan.
I love the simplicity of “There is no right way to do the wrong thing”
A good article on this:
It starts with a recap, but they’ve talked to him, and included that. He seems like a good guy.
Conner started speaking out at school board meetings (he’ll be speaking for the 17th time on November 15) because he moved his family to Virginia Beach right before Youngkin’s policies passed and he worries about the future of his 13-year-old trans daughter who is now in the 8th grade.
Thanks! The article mentions Youngkin’s transphobic “model policies” that are apparently up to each school board to decide on adopting, adapting, or rejecting.
This Washington Blade article is much less detailed, but short and sweet:
Virginia Beach schools adopt new policy for transgender, nonbinary students
9-1 vote took place after impassioned debate
https://www.washingtonblade…
❝… This decision was made following more than a year of student walkouts protesting Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students and the formation of Students4Trans. Several parents before the vote came out in support of the policies and voiced their opinions as well to the board.
Board member Jessica Owens is the only one who voted against the policy.
“My sticking point being the issue of not being able to address students in the manner that they would like to be addressed,” she said.
Arlington County Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools and Prince William County Schools are among the Virginia school districts that have refused to implement them.❞
The headline was incomplete:
Virginia Beach schools adopt hateful new policy for transgender, nonbinary students
His words deserve to be shared widely! I used what you transcribed and filled in the rest:
“I wasn’t surprised by another delay at the last school board meeting, ’cause no matter how hard you try to implement these discriminatory policies in the ‘right way’, you are never going to find a right way to do the wrong thing. And Governor Youngkin’s policies are wrong.
One of the ways you can tell is because you have speakers from groups like Moms for Liberty here to support them, and I’ll be real simple in case you aren’t paying attention: they’re not the good guys.
How can you tell? I can help: the good guys don’t get declared extremist groups by human rights organizations. Never in history have the good guys been the ones trying to ban books. Never in history have the good guys been the segregationist group pushing to legislate identity. Never in history have the good guys been closely connected with and supported by hate groups like the Proud Boys. And the good guys don’t put Hitler quotes for inspiration on the front of their newsletters.
News flash: they’re the bad guys. They’re the bad guys, here supporting bad policy. And if you support the same bad policy, guess what? You’re one of the bad guys too. When you look around and see only the wrong people support what you’re doing, you’re doing the wrong thing.
Now you’ve heard some speakers come up here and say how they love these kids but won’t accept them. I’m here telling you that if your love makes somebody not want to be alive, it’s not love. That’s not love.
Some speakers are going to get up here and talk about ‘parental rights’. The only right a parent has is the right to responsibility. And if you need somebody else to tell you who your kid is, you’re probably not that good a parent.
And some are going to get up here and tell you how ‘it’s the law.’ Well, I remind you that slavery and segregation also used to be the law here in Virginia, and that there is no right way to do the wrong thing.
So do the right thing. Reject these policies that harm and endanger our LGBTQ students. Be the good guys, while you still can.”
– Virginia Beach father of three Cody Conner, in a speech going viral on TikTok. (11/15/2023, via JoeMyGod)
https://www.tiktok.com/@bee…
Cody Conner
Great to see. This is the boldness we need on our side to call out the dangerous policies bigots are pushing to their face. Well done, SIR!!
“Be the good guy while you still can” (emphasis mine). I hope they do, but I bet most of them are moral cowards who won’t do the right thing.
They know god is on their side.
Why Conservatives Hate Immigrants
Some staggering Joe My God stories have I in open tabs. With this post one open window of tabs cleared!
Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr last appeared here in 2014 when he launched a “prayer in defense of marriage” campaign as the Sixth Circuit Court considered the same-sex marriage case that ultimately would be folded into the Obergefell case before the Supreme Court.
Dems win big, anti-trans and LGBTQIA hatred loses big. Republicans lose big. What they are pushing which is minority rule by fundamentalist Christian fascism is not wanted. Let people live their lives in peace, equality, and openly as who they are.
Hungary Fires National Museum Director Over World Press Photo Exhibit That Includes Five LGBTQ Images
This is what the M4L and other fundamentalist Christian racist bigot groups want here in the US. This is what they are trying to do. Wipe the existence of LGBTQIA people from public sight / society. They want us gone, outlawed, a progressive society of equality for all so all can live freely as themselves without oppression from government or other people. Instead, they want to replace it with the regressive oppressive society of the 1950s and worse only allow the public display of church approved doctrine. Remember when on TV married couples could only be shown going to bed in separate beds, because god forbid people get the idea that married people slept together back then. The idea that non-married actors would lay down on the same surface was pornographic even if they had their clothing on and were playing a married couple. Remember when the only way a gay or lesbian character could be shown is as a depraved villain who got destroyed somehow by the end of the film, showing that good church doctrines triumph over such evil beings every time. See that is the society they think everyone should be forced to live today, by church doctrines, never letting on people have sexual desires or that anything other than straight cis people exist or are good people. This is the person Orbán, that the right wing pushes as the perfect way to run the US, he is a complete authoritarian driven to change the country and government to his view of morality and under his personal control. Former rights and liberties have been restricted and outlawed. When people show you who they are, believe them. This who the fundamentalist right wing Christian majority are. Hugs. Scottie
The Associated Press reports:
Hungary’s cultural minister on Monday fired the director of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, accusing him of failing to comply with a contentious law that bans the display of LGBTQ+ content to minors.
The dismissal of Laszlo L. Simon, who became director of the museum for a five-year term in 2021, came after Hungary’s government determined in late October that five photos on display at the prestigious World Press Photo exhibition violated the law restricting children’s access to content that depicts homosexuality or gender change.
The museum subsequently put a notice on its website and at the entrance to the World Press Photo exhibition — which showcases outstanding photojournalism — that the collection was restricted to visitors over 18.
Read the full article. Writing this morning on his Facebook page, Simon notes that the age restriction went into place immediately upon the government’s order, adding, “As a father and grandparent of four children, I strongly refuse that our children should be protected from me or the institution I manage.”
As I noted last week, the five offending photos merely portray elderly queer Filipinos caring for each other in a group home they’ve shared for decades. Speaking this weekend to Florida Republicans, Trump again lavished praise on Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban and again falsely claimed that Hungary and Russia share a border.
For years we were lectured about how easily triggered we were…. Again projection.
I assume they wouldn’t even know the subjects of the photos were gay except the descriptions of the photos informed them of it? Image how delicate and unstable they must be to be trigger just by knowing that someone is gay.
One of the five photographs. I’m using it in my week of lectures on Southeast Asia in ten days.
Hannah Reyes Morales for The New York Times (2022) “Members of the Golden Gays community unwind at home after a show, in Manila, the Philippines.”
Clay, you know Joe’s rules about lewd, graphic, and salacious imagery here. 😉
I have no idea what’s LGBTQ about that pic.
The people are queer. That’s enough for the fascists to censor. Other images in the show are more distinctly queer, but none of them are sexual.
‘Look queer’ hmmm that’s a conundrum.
Idiotic, but that’s the way fascists roll. I saw the exhibition in Montréal in August. If you’re a normal person, the elderly queer Filipinos caring for one another were among the most hopeful and least disturbing in the show. Other images feature bloody war, famine, terrorism, environmental catastrophe etc. But it’s the caring queens that’s supposedly too much for youths. It should be noted that Budapest is NOT Orban-friendly like other parts of Hungary.
Yeah, I can’t imagine there is much sexual content in a series of photos taken at a Philippine care home. I could be wrong.
You’re not wrong. A link to the photos and the young photographer. She did beautiful work for a project that was obviously personal for her.
Edited to correct link.
Thanks for sharing that. Gender fluidity in precolonial Philippines tracks the tradition of other Pacific Island and First Nations cultures. Trans persons were referred to as Babaylan, Hawaiian and Tahitians were Mahu and held similar roles in pre-contact society. Generally perceived as shaman or spiritual beings.
It’s time to give dogs a shot at running the world
How exactly would those photos damage children? Were there nudity? Sexual content? Or is it too much for the fragile Hungarians to see men taking care of other men?
Anti abortion is never about pro-life, anti drag queen is never about children grooming and so on and so forth. This is the standard fascist talking point.
The latter, not surprisingly. The images weren’t sexual. The caring and fluid gender roles were what disturbed the powers that be.
Harmless images of gay seniors somehow are more offensive than the scantilly clad beach goers? These fascists love to make a mountain out of a molehill to spin their lies.
Hungary has become a fascist state where there is neither freedom of expression nor freedom of sexual identity.
Freedom of any kind, pretty much.
Scottie's Playtime 