As I keep saying this is a small very loud mostly religious driven minority using ever tool and lie they can to change perception of the LGBTQ+ to erase them from society to create the cis straight society they want to force on everyone. We must counter them by being as loud and forceful to not only refute their lies but also promote the joy of living freely as an inclusive society. Hugs
Close-Up of rainbow flag with crowd In background during LGBT Pride Parade. Getty Images.
Ohio lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have introduced several LGBTQ-related bills so far this General Assembly.
Republicans have put forth a drag ban bill, a piece of legislation that would make it harder for a student to use a different name or pronoun at school, and a bill requiring transgender political candidates to list their deadname, among others.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats have introduced the Ohio Fairness Act and a bill that would ban conversion therapy.
An Ohio court partially overturned a ban on gender-affirming care for LGBTQ youth earlier this year, meaning doctors can still prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Anti-LGBTQ bills
Ohio House Bill 249 would ban drag performers from performing anywhere that is not a designated adult entertainment facility. State Reps. Angie King, R-Celina, and Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., introduced the bill, which has had sponsor testimony.
This is a re-introduction of a bill from the previous General Assembly that did not make it out of committee and faced much opposition.
Ohio House Bill 190 would require parental permission for schools to use different pronouns or different names for students that don’t match up with the biological sex or birth name.
Williams and state Rep. Johnathan Newman, R-Troy, introduced the bill, which has had sponsor testimony.
Ohio House Bill 172 would ban children 14 and older from receiving mental health services without parental consent. Newman also introduced this bill, which has had sponsor testimony.
Ohio House Bill 196 would require political candidates to list their former names on candidacy petitions. This, however, would not apply to names that have been changed due to marriage. King and state Reps Rodney Creech, R-West Alexandria, introduced the bill, which has had sponsor testimony.
Ohio House Bill 262 would designate the weeks from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day as Natural Family Month. Williams and state Rep. Beth Lear, R-Galena, introduced the bill, which has had sponsor and opponent testimony.
Pro-LGBTQ bills
Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, has introduced a few bills that support LGBTQ people. Antonio is the only openly gay lawmaker in the Ohio General Assembly.
Ohio Senate Bill 70, also known as the Ohio Fairness Act, would expand anti-discrimination laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity. House Bill 136 is a companion bill.
Antonio has introduced the Ohio Fairness Act in every General Assembly since she was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 2011 and this is the first time since 2018 the bill has no Republican support.
Ohio Senate Bill 71 would ban any licensed health professionals from doing conversion therapy when providing mental health treatment to minors. Antonio and state Sen. Beth Liston, D-Dublin, introduced the bill. House Bill 300 is a companion bill.
Ohio Senate Bill 211 would designate the first full week of June as “Love Makes a Family Week.” Antonio introduced this bill as well.
None of these bills have had any hearings so far this General Assembly. Ohio lawmakers are on summer break and will come back to the Statehouse this fall.
Mehdi moderates a panel with YouTube star Brian Tyler Cohen, LA city council member Nithya Raman, and podcaster Van Lathan, LIVE in Los Angeles!
Mehdi and Zeteo concluded our one-year anniversary tour last week, with a final stop in the city that has made headlines in recent days and weeks, after the Trump administration deployed the National Guard against protesters.
Yes, Los Angeles. Political commentator and YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen: “If it was happening in another country… We would not hesitate for a single second to call it autocracy, authoritarianism, or a dictatorship”
In this special live recording, Mehdi sits down with Cohen, as well as LA City Council member Nithya Raman and “Higher Learning” co-host Van Lathan for a conversation on President Donald Trump’s targeting of LA protesters and immigrants, Democrats’ response, and the media’s handling of Trump 2.0.
LA Councilmember Nithya Raman: “There is an incredible amount of fear right now,” Raman tells Mehdi. “They’re [ICE] showing up at workplaces. They’re showing on street corners. They’re showing up taking street vendors who are selling outside of a Home Depot…
They showed up outside of an elder care facility in Santa Monica and took workers from there. I mean these are kidnappings.” Mehdi asks Lathan, who frequently appears on CNN, about whether he believes the media is meeting the moment right now when it comes to covering Trump’s second term.
Van Lathan: “The legacy media right now is made to serve a commercial break ‘I’m mad on the left,’ ‘I’m on the right,’ ‘I am the host, you two stop fighting! We’ll be right back,’ ‘Proctor & Gamble.’” Did you like this video? It was published on zeteo.com several days ago.
If you would like early access to more exclusive content like this, then do consider becoming a paid subscriber. It costs as much as a single coffee a month, gives you early access to all our fearless, independent reporting, and goes a long way in supporting our mission of bringing the best of journalism to YOU our subscribers. So what are you waiting for?
The minority groups trying to push hate on the LGBTQ+ are well funded by billionaires like J.K. Rowling and the Christian church. They are using every media they can to turn young people against the LGBTQ+ using the most misinformation they can generate. And as much as they want / demand society return to their fantasied Christian 1950s pro white cis straight only country it was not true then and can’t be true now. Their goal is the total erasure of the LGBTQ+ and also any rights for those gained in the civil rights act. Below is a quote from the article. Hugs.
“I’m almost 40 and have seen so much progress like equal marriage,” Kelly says. “But something is changing. Hatred towards people like me is becoming mainstream again.”
Demonstrators participate in an event called “Show the flag: For queer visibility in the Bundestag!” in front of the Reichstag building that houses Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, on July 8. The conservative president of the Bundestag said the rainbow flag would no longer be raised on top of the parliament building during Pride month, which in Germany runs from June 28 until July 27.
Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images
The tree-lined neighborhood near Nollendorfplatz square in central Berlinis as gay today as it was a century ago.
It’s where Christopher Isherwood wrote novels chronicling the rise of the Nazis amid the city’s rich queer nightlife that inspired the musical Cabaret.
Every summer, the neighborhood throws its own smaller-scale LGBTQ+ Pride event separate from the city’s main annual parade taking place this weekend.
It’s just one of more than 200 Pride events taking place in Germany this year. But with far-right extremist groups staging anti-Pride protests, many Pride attendees fear for their safety.
Sipping on a cocktail as the street party gets underway, 62-year-old Georg Schmidt says he’s relieved that this event is a relaxed affair. He says he attended a different local pride parade last month across town in the district of Marzahn and the mood there was tense.
“There was a massive police presence to shield us from anti-Pride protests. We only felt safe because the police kept us apart,” Schmidt says.
Revelers march down the Leipziger Strasse street during a Pride parade in Berlin, July 23, 2022.
Markus Schreiber/AP
Sabine Volk, a researcher at the Institute for Research on Far Right Extremism at the University of Tübingen, says these groups attract young men who promote what they call traditional family values — a kind of pride that has little to do with rainbow flags.
“The key slogan is that the German flag and Germany itself is already colorful enough,” Volk says. “And the overall message is that queer life does not have a place in Germany.”
President of German Parliament Bundestag Julia Klöckner speaks to the media on July 8 in Berlin.
Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images
Speaking on public broadcaster ARD, Merz signaled his support for the rule at Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, with the words, “the Bundestag is not a circus tent” — a remark to which many have taken umbrage.
Merz backs his colleague’s argument that the lower house must maintain neutrality and cannot support events with a political agenda.
Nyke Slawik speaks during a parliamentary debate on queer hate crime in the Bundestag. Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa (Photo by Carsten Koall/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Carsten Koall/picture alliance via Getty Images
Opposition Green Party lawmaker Nyke Slawik criticized the move. “Declaring the rainbow a political symbol is highly problematic” stressing that “queer people are not an ideology; they are people!” Slawik told public broadcaster ZDF.
Slawik argues they are people increasingly in need of protection. Germany’s federal police report an almost tenfold increase in reported queerphobic hate crimes since 2010 and they believe the majority of cases go unreported.
The issue is not divided by party political lines; criticism of Merz’s choice of words has come from within his own party. Sönke Siegmann, the chair of the Christian Democrats’ LGBTQ+ Association, says some within his party are still catching up on terminology.
“If you say queer in my party, most people take a deep breath and say: ‘Oh, that’s a left-wing term,’ ” Siegmann observes. He says he has spoken with Merz since he made his “circus tent” comments.
“We explained to him what queer really means and two days later when asked in Parliament about LBGTQ+ hate crimes and what his government will do about them, Merz actually used the term queer,” Siegmann says.
Back inthe Nollendorfplatz area, rainbow flags fly every month of the year. But local resident Chris Kelly says the mood here is not as “live and let live” as it once was. He recently opened a boutique that sells high-end garments made from industrial strength rubber. He says business is good and he has a broad customer base, but it was almost impossible trying to find premises for the boutique.
“We found plenty of suitable spaces to rent and our finances are solid, but a lot of landlords rejected us, saying they didn’t want people like us,” Kelly remembers. “Real estate agents had warned us, but I was flabbergasted to encounter such prejudice in Berlin’s queerest, gayest neighborhood.”
Kelly’s store is located just down the street from Romeo and Romeo, a gay bar whose owner was attacked last month. Kelly says he too gets more verbal abuse than he used to and he hears again and again of attacks on members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I’m almost 40 and have seen so much progress like equal marriage,” Kelly says. “But something is changing. Hatred towards people like me is becoming mainstream again.”
Kelly points out that a few doors down in the other direction is where the legendary nightclub Eldorado stood until the Nazis closed it down in 1933, eventually sending its queer clientele to concentration camps.
A commuter walks down the steps of Berlin’s Bundestag subway station, decorated with rainbow colors, the symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, on July 24.
John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images
As preparations for Berlin’s main Pride parade get underway, the city police say they’ve received a permit request for a counterdemonstration protesting “against Pride terror and identity disorders.”
In reaction to the Bundestag president’s decision not to fly the rainbow flag on top of parliament this year, Berlin’s transport authority has decorated its Bundestag subway station stop in rainbow colors, writing on Instagram: “So our Bundestag is ready for Pride.”
Kelly urges people to attend Pride and stand up to a new generation of the far-right. He has no desire to say Goodbye to Berlin and the neighborhood around Nollendorfplatz, as Isherwood was forced to do.
Of course, I’m just joking, but I might be starting something here. If MAGAts can believe in chemtrails (and they do), then they can believe President Barack Obama used Kenyan voodoo to give Trump cankles. They already believe in a lot of crazy shit.
The Trump administration claims that Obama committed treason by ordering an investigation into Russia collusion, but how is that treason? Who is it treasonous to, Trump? Is it treasonous to Russia? And how is ordering an investigation into an attack against our country treasonous? I think it’s more treasonous to ignore it or lie about it. It should be treasonous to take Putin’s side over America’s.
If Trump were president in World War II, and Russia had bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, he would have called it a “hoax” and “fake news.”
Now, Trump is coming up with more bullshit to distract his zombies from the Epstein case. He’s howling for prosecuting Beyonce and Oprah. Even if what he was howling about was true, a president (sic) is supposed to let the Justice Department do its job, and leave it alone. Here, Trump wants the DOJ to prosecute Beyoncé and Oprah for supporting his political opponent.
MAGAts have been asking us, “How is Trump fascist?” Ordering the prosecution of your political opponents is just one example of fascism.
One final note: I do know that voodoo is not Kenyan. (snip)
Die, Die, UVA DEI, Die by Clay Jones
A board without diversity will hire the next UVA president Read on Substack
Abigail Spanberger will be Virginia’s next governor. Governor Glenn Youngkin knows this and has probably known throughout his regime that not only was he limited to one term, but so was his party. Just as Trump left things horrible for Joe Biden to clean up in 2021, Youngkin is leaving a mess for the next governor. With help from the Trump regime, one of those messes is at UVA, the University of Virginia.
As you may remember, Trump’s politicized Department of Justice, chock-full of goons, has forced out the president of UVA over DEI policies. They used his integrity against him, blackmailing him by withholding federal funds unless he resigned.
Now, UVA’s Board of Visitors will hire a new president. Unfortunately, the board is stocked entirely of right-wing fucknuts appointed by Glenn Youngkin, including former state Attorney General and member of the first Trump regime, Ken Cuccinelli. The board is nearly as White as the Trump cabinet. Even the two non-white members probably love them some mayonnaise sandwiches.
Trump has stripped funding for schools to implement his anti-DEI policies, which include shutting down student protests. Columbia University recently agreed to pay a $200 million fine to protect its funding, but lost a huge chunk of its independence to the Trump regime. (snip-MORE, and it’s very good!)
It’s as I thought back when so many were supposedly dropping all their “DEI” programs; those were “washing” names to begin with, for the profit-makers, who likely run their HR the same way today as they did under “DEI”, and as they did before we used the term, “DEI.” I like this guy in Wichita; obeying the law and the federal E.O., and taking good care of things. My guess is, this is similar to how most entities are doing things. I actually was reading the story because I’m curious how our (KS’s) public schools are working things out, with various federal funding methods stalled. Schools here have to turn in their next-year budgets to the state Leg. in the Spring before the session ends, then receive their money after July 1, when KS’s fiscal year begins. But as we’re aware federal dollars are held up, so I was curious. Some of that is addressed in this story, but what a nice surprise to read about the other!
WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) — As summer comes to a close for Wichita Public Schools students, the district is preparing the welcome students back to the same schools with some slight changes.
The very first change is monthly updates from Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld through press conferences, the first of which was held Friday. Superintendent Bielefeld says WPS principals returned to school this week, and teachers and students will soon follow as school is set to begin on August 14.
Over at Isely Traditional Magnet Elementary School, a 6th-grade class will attend the school for the first time. This is the start to a transition that will take years as Isley begins to accommodate grades Kindergarten through Eighth.
“The parents that I’ve talked to that have students attending Isely are very excited about it, the fact that their kids can stay there for middle school,” said Bielefeld. “The plan was to also do something similar at Cessna had the bond passed. That’s on hold for now.”
The district says it’s looking to communicate better with parents in light of the feedback it received after its bond failed in February.
In addition to monthly updates from the superintendent, the district announced the creation of a new “Director of Partnerships and Belonging” position. The district says it’s accepting applications, adding that this person will be responsible for working with community partners and strengthening the school-home connection for students and parents.
“This program will target more the community engagement piece that we’ve been hearing from parents, constituents, teachers, everybody, we need to do a better job of that,” said Bielefeld.
The district says programs that fell under Dr. Polite will continue, as those programs have never been about race and instead focused on the different risk factors students face.
“The guidance we’ve been given from the Department of Education currently is that any race-based initiatives are illegal. We have not been doing that,” said Bielefeld. “We’ve been complying with the law. We continue to comply with the law, which is why we’re continuing the programs. And it wasn’t necessarily intentional, but it does describe the position better.”
The district will be creating a Night School at West High as a way for students to complete additional coursework in the afternoons. This is the first time the credit recovery program will be offered at a comprehensive high school.
Over at South High, the “school within a school” alternative program will help sophomores who get off track as freshmen.
“So instead of waiting until junior or senior year when they’re significantly behind on credits, we’re intervening earlier,” said Bielefeld.
The Superintendent says the district will also be establishing AI guidelines at an upcoming board meeting. Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education released a statement encouraging teachers to utilize AI as a tool in their classrooms.
“The better they understand it, I think, the less they fear and the more they can understand how students are using it,” said Bielefeld. “We continue to look for ways to support our students to become future-ready, and every student in the district to become future-ready.”
Additional information released by the district is as follows:
In-person enrollment is July 28, from 12 to 7 p.m.
All kindergarten families need to enroll in person.
(snip-local info)
Girls Flag Football will launch this year at all 7 comprehensive high schools, supported by the Kansas City Chiefs and Chiefs Flag Football League.
Item 1 of 2 The CBS broadcasting logo is seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, New York, U.S., July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
[1/2]The CBS broadcasting logo is seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, New York, U.S., July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Summary
Companies
FCC chair says Trump administration reshaping media
Democrats say FCC actions violate First Amendment rights
FCC not dropping complaint against CBS over ’60 Minutes’ interview with Harris
WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump and the Federal Communications Commission have vowed to force American broadcast media outlets to make significant changes.
CBS may be just the beginning.
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“President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr told CNBC Friday. “The media industry across this country needs a course correction.”
On Thursday, the FCC voted 2-1 to approve the $8.4 billion merger between CBS parent Paramount Global (PARA.O), opens new tab and Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to ensure CBS news and entertainment programming is free of bias, hire an ombudsman for at least two years to review complaints and end diversity programs.
Trump has repeatedly attacked broadcast networks for what he perceives as unbiased news coverage and called on Carr to rescind their licenses.
“The new owners of CBS came in and said, ‘It’s time for a change. We’re going to reorient it towards getting rid of bias,” Carr said. “At the end of the day that’s what made the difference for us.”
Carr’s comments suggest the FCC will ramp up efforts to rid mainstream media of what he and President Trump consider a deep and enduring liberal bias, creating an opening for more conservative views among the biggest media companies.
The FCC regulates broadcast media outlets, which use the public airways and are required to act in the public interest. Carr has cited the public interest standard in seeking the changes at CBS.
Democratic FCC Commission Anna Gomez accused Paramount of “cowardly capitulation” to the Trump administration. She also said the FCC was imposing “never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.”
Earlier this month, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a $20 billion lawsuit filed by Trump, claiming CBS News’ “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount did not admit wrongdoing.
Some Democrats have called the payment a bribe and vowed to investigate. “Trump demands allegiance from everyone around him and it’s disgusting to see companies like Skydance and Paramount bowing to his endless and illegal demands,” Representative Frank Pallone said.
Soon after being designated chair by Trump in January, Carr reinstated a “60 Minutes” complaint, as well as complaints about how Walt Disney’s (DIS.N), opens new tab ABC News moderated the pre-election televised debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump and Comcast’s (CMCSA.O), opens new tab NBC for allowing Harris to appear on “Saturday Night Live” shortly before the election.
Disney and Comcast did not immediately comment Friday.
Carr told Reuters Thursday the FCC is not closing its investigation into the “60 Minutes” interview.
July 26, 1953 In his first move to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista, 26-year-old Fidel Castro led 134 other young revolutionaries to unsuccessfully attack the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Castro had concluded that armed struggle was the only way to unseat Batista, who had taken power in a military coup in 1952. The Cuban Revolution is known as the July 26 Movement, and is celebrated annually there. The Moncada Barracks, still showing a few bullet holes and pockmarks from that fateful early morning assault in 1953, is now both a historic site and an elementary school.
July 26, 1967 H. Rap Brown, then head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was ordered arrested by then-Governor Spiro Agnew, who accused him of inciting a riot through his speech two days earlier at a civil rights rally in Cambridge, Maryland. At the event, Brown declared, “Black folks built America, and if America don’t come around, we’re going to burn America down . . . If Cambridge doesn’t come around, Cambridge got to be burned down.” Shortly after the speech, Brown was hit in the head by buckshot from a policeman’s shotgun. That night the segregated elementary school on the black side of town and 20 businesses burned down (there was no looting), some along Race Street, the racial divide which neither black nor white were expected to cross. H. Rap Brown following the disturbances in Cambridge, Maryland. What happened in Cambridge
July 26, 1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. It prohibited discrimination based on disability in employment, in public accommodation (e.g., hotels, restaurants, retail stores, theaters, health care facilities, convention centers), in transportation services, and in all activities of state and local governments. The law did not go into effect until January 26, 1992.
GENEVA — The U.N. Human Rights Council voted on Monday to renew the mandate of an LGBTQ rights expert, a move welcomed by advocates amid the absence of the United States, a former key supporter that is now rolling back such protections.
Western diplomats had previously voiced concerns about the renewal of the mandate of South African scholar Graeme Reid who helps to boost protections by documenting abuses and through dialogue with countries.
The motion for a three-year renewal passed with 29 votes in favor, 15 against and three abstentions. Supporters included Chile, Germany, Kenya and South Africa while several African nations and Qatar opposed it.
“The renewal of this mandate is a spark of hope in a time when reactionary powers worldwide are trying to dismantle progress that our communities fought so hard to achieve,” said Julia Ehrt, executive director of campaign group ILGA World.
The United States, which has disengaged from the council under President Donald Trump, citing an alleged antisemitic bias, was previously a supporter of the mandate under the Biden administration.
Since taking office in January, Trump has signed executive orders to curb transgender rights and dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the government and private sector.
His administration says such steps restore fairness, but civil rights and LGBTQ advocates say they make marginalized groups more vulnerable.
In negotiations before the vote, Pakistan voiced opposition to the mandate on behalf of Muslim group OIC, calling it a tool to advocate “controversial views.”
Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement targets
‘You’ve got no rights’: teenage US citizen records violent arrest by immigration officers – video
On the morning of 2 May, teenager Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was driving to his landscaping job in North Palm Beach with his mother and two male friends when they were pulled over by the Florida highway patrol.
In one swift moment, a traffic stop turned into a violent arrest.
A highway patrol officer asked everyone in the van to identify themselves, then called for backup. Officers with US border patrol arrived on the scene.
Video footage of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio, an 18-year-old US citizen, appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men*, two of whom are undocumented. They appear to use a stun gun on one man, put another in a chokehold and can be heard telling Laynez-Ambrosio: “You’ve got no rights here. You’re a migo, brother.” Afterward, agents can be heard bragging and making light of the arrests, calling the stun gun use “funny” and quipping: “You can smell that … $30,000 bonus.”
“The federal government has imposed quotas for the arrest of immigrants,” said Jack Scarola, an attorney who is advocating on behalf of Laynez-Ambrosio and working with the non-profit Guatemalan-Maya Center, which provided the footage to the Guardian. “Any time law enforcement is compelled to work towards a quota, it poses a significant risk to other rights.”
Chokeholds, stun guns and laughter
The incident unfolded at roughly 9am, when a highway patrol officer pulled over the company work van, driven byLaynez-Ambrosio’smother, and discovered that she had a suspended license. Laynez-Ambrosio said he is unsure why the van was pulled over, as his mother was driving below the speed limit.
Laynez-Ambrosio hadn’t intended to film the interaction – he already had his phone out to show his mom “a silly TikTok”, he said – but immediately clicked record when it became clear what was happening.
The arrest of an undocumented man in Florida, as caught on video by Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio on 2 May 2025. Photograph: Screengrab from video by Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio/Courtesy of the Guatemalan-Maya Center
The video begins after the van has been pulled over and the border patrol had arrived. A female officer can be heard asking, in Spanish, whether anyone is in the country illegally. One of Laynez-Ambrosio’s friends answers that he is undocumented. “That’s when they said, ‘OK, let’s go,’” Laynez-Ambrosio recalled.
Laynez-Ambrosio said things turned aggressive before the group even had a chance to exit the van. One of the officers “put his hand inside the window”, he said, “popped the door open, grabbed my friend by the neck and had him in a chokehold”.
Footage appears to show officers then reaching for Laynez-Ambrosio and his other friend as Laynez-Ambrosio can be heard protesting: “You can’t grab me like that.” Multiple officers can be seen pulling the other man from the van and telling him to “put your fucking head down”. The footage captures the sound of a stun gun as Laynez-Ambrosio’s friend cries out in pain and drops to the ground.
Laynez-Ambrosio said that his friend was not resisting, and that he didn’t speak English and didn’t understand the officer’s commands. “My friend didn’t do anything before they grabbed him,” he said.
Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, filmed his own arrest in Florida. Photograph: The Palm Beach Post/Reporter Valentina Palm
In the video, Laynez-Ambrosio can be heard repeatedly telling his friend, in Spanish, to not resist. “I wasn’t really worried about myself because I knew I was going to get out of the situation,” he said. “But I was worried about him. I could speak up for him but not fight back, because I would’ve made the situation worse.”
Laynez-Ambrosio can also be heard telling officers: “I was born and raised right here.” Still, he was pushed to the ground and says that an officer aimed a stun gun at him. He was subsequently arrested and held in a cell at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) station for six hours.
Audio in the video catches the unidentified officers debriefing and appearing to make light of the stun gun use. “You’re funny, bro,” one officer can be overheard saying to another, followed by laughter.
Another officer says, “They’re starting to resist more now,” to which an officer replies: “We’re going to end up shooting some of them.”
Later in the footage, the officers move on to general celebration – “Goddamn! Woo! Nice!” – and talk of the potential bonus they’ll be getting: “Just remember, you can smell that [inaudible] $30,000 bonus.” It is unclear what bonus they are referring to. Donald Trump’s recent spending bill includes billions of additional dollars for Ice that could be spent on recruitment and retention tactics such as bonuses.
Laynez-Ambrosio said his two friends were eventually transferred to the Krome detention center in Miami. He believes they were released on bail and are awaiting a court hearing, but said it has been difficult to stay in touch with them.
Laynez-Ambrosio’s notice to appear in court confirms that the border patrol arrived on the scene, having been called in by the highway patrol. His other legal representative, Victoria Mesa-Estrada, also confirmed that border patrol officers transported the three men to the border patrol facility.
The Florida highway patrol, CBP, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment before publication.
‘We are good people’
Trump officials increasingly recruit local police for immigration enforcement despite ‘red flags’
Read more
Laynez-Ambrosio was charged with obstruction without violence and sentenced to 10 hours of community service and a four-hour anger management course. While in detention, he said, police threatened him with charges if he did not delete the video footage from his phone, but he refused.
Scarola, his lawyer, said the charges were retaliation for filming the incident. “Kenny was charged with filming [and was] alleged to have interfered with the activities of law enforcement,” he explained. “But there was no intended interference – merely the exercise of a right to record what was happening.”
In February, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed an agreement between the state and the Department of Homeland Security allowing Florida highway patrol troopers to be trained and approved by Ice to arrest and detain immigrants. While such agreements have been inked across the US, Florida has the largest concentration of these deals.
The arrests of 2 May 2025. Photograph: Screengrab from video by Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio/Courtesy of Guatemalan-Maya Center
Father Frank O’Loughlin, founder and executive director of the Guatemalan-Maya Center, the advocates for Laynez-Ambrosio, says the incident has further eroded trust between Florida’s immigrant community and the police. “This is a story about the corruption of law enforcement by Maga and the brutality of state and federal troopers – formerly public servants – towards nonviolent people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Laynez-Ambrosio is trying to recover from the ordeal, and hopes the footage raises awareness of how immigrants are being treated in the US. “It didn’t need to go down like that. If they knew that my people were undocumented, they could’ve just kindly taken them out of the car and arrested them,” he said. “It hurt me bad to see my friends like that. Because they’re just good people, trying to earn an honest living.”
The Guardian is granting anonymity to Laynez-Ambrosio’s mother and the men arrested in the footage to protect their privacy
Scottie's Playtime 