So these Christian Nationalist racist bigots are OK and promote businesses harming / refusing service to LGBTQIA people, but refuse and will use their office to demand no business offer a safe welcoming space to those same targeted LGBTQIA people. That should tell you their goal. Remove all LGBTQIA and anything supporting it from public society. They basically are demanding a cis straight society only, a complete return back to the 1950s or earlier. Hugs
Some central Florida lawmakers said they were considering “all legislative, legal and executive options available” to stop business owners in a small town from voluntarily displaying rainbow decals in their windows indicating that they are “safe place” for LGBTQ+ people who feel threatened.
Four Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to officials in Mount Dora two weeks ago warning that the new, optional city-sponsored program could put the central Florida community outside Orlando “in the crosshairs of potentially detrimental and absolutely unnecessary economic harm.”
Mount Dora’s city council approved the Safe Place Initiative last month. The city of 17,000 residents is known for its antique shops and weekend festivals. The council’s decision to approve the program has coincided with an uptick in anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, including vandalism last month at two LGBTQ+ centers in Orlando.
The initiative was approved by the City Council in a unanimous vote last week, but now may be reconsidered after city officials received the letter signed by Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley, and Reps. Keith Truenow, Taylor Yarkosky and Stan McClain.
“In light of what we have seen around this country in regards to the pushback and unprecedented financial harm to long standing American made companies such as Anheuser-Busch and Target Corporation, this local ‘Safe Place’ program is negligent, irresponsible and divisive at best.”
In a Facebook post applauding the letter – claiming a “legislative wipeout INCOMING” – the Lake County Republican Party said the city “passed a woke program demanding local business owners display ‘Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime stickers’ on the front doors of their businesses.”
State Sen. Dennis Baxley [photo above] last year led the push in his chamber to pass the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. In 2019, he appeared here for his failed bill that would have directed public school teachers to argue against climate change and evolution. In 2005 he introduced the NRA-written “Stand Your Ground” bill that was successfully used in the murder of Trayvon Martin. That same year he introduced a failed bill that would have allowed students to sue university professors if they failed, for example, to allow students to promote Holocaust denial in classroom discussions. A descendant of a Confederate soldier, Baxley fought against the creation of the Florida Slavery Memorial, which was approved in 2018 and remains unbuilt.
'SAFE PLACES': Some central Florida lawmakers said they were considering “all legislative, legal and executive options available” to stop business owners in a small town from voluntarily displaying rainbow decals in their windows. https://t.co/bPrNBoxCfx
OK, WE GET IT ALREADY. Florida Republican lawmakers have made it absolutely, and unequivocally clear that they do not want any safe spaces for LGBTQ people in our state.
So the “free state” of Florida is prohibiting businesses from expressing their free speech and policies. I bet other businesses are allowed to display crosses in their windows in support of Christianity or Christofascists.
Picturesque and hilly, Mount Dora has become an LGBTQ enclave of sorts in recent years due to its robust arts scene and the welcoming stance of town leaders. The town is centered around a lake of the same name about 40 minutes northwest of Orlando.
If a business wants to post a sign in the window saying “Safe Space” ,great! Other businesses should feel free to post a sign saying “Hate Space” so customers can make their own decision.
treating people equally, fairly, and with respect – is negligent, irresponsible and divisive at best.” Let that sink in. What the fuck is wrong with these shit-stirring assholes – let alone harassing small businesses.
1) I’m pretty sure that will not pass any kind of court challenge; 2) This is how far gone the GQP’s rotted little nazi brains are that they think it will; and 3) So much for the RepubliQans being the party of freedom for business!
What part of “voluntary” and “optional” fries your socks, Senator Baxley? Oh, it’s the “voluntary” and “optional” part …can’t go letting people make their own decisions, now can we?
The point of these vouchers is to take taxpayer money from public schools and promoting private for profit / church schools. It has long been a wet dream of the Christian right. Notice if a public school teacher wants supplies she would have to pay for them or start a go fund me, but this law allows the vouchers to be used for other things than education. The funds were being used at Chritmas time for Xboxes and toys, something that public schools wouldn’t be allowed to do. Hugs
A new list of allowable expenses for the publicly funded program is raising eyebrows.
Guidelines allow Florida families receiving school vouchers to buy items like theme park visits, paddleboards and TVs with leftover money in their state education accounts. [ AP; Jefferee Woo | Times ]
Theme park passes, 55-inch TVs, and stand-up paddleboards are among the approved items that recipients can buyto use at home.The purchases can be made by parents who home-school their children or send them to private schools,if any voucher money remains after paying tuition and fees.
The items appear in a list of authorized expenses in a 13-page purchasing guide published this summer by Step Up For Students, the scholarship funding organization that manages the bulk of Florida’s vouchers. Many of the items are similar to what was permitted for vouchers to students with disabilities in the past, but now they’re available to anyone who receives an award of about $8,000.
The list quickly raised eyebrows as it circulated.
“If we saw school districts spending money like that, we would be outraged,” said Damaris Allen, executive director of Families for Strong Public Schools, who recently started speaking out publicly on the issue. “We want to be conservative with our tax dollars. We want to be sure it is being used for worthwhile things.”
By comparison, Allen and others noted, teachers who want some of the same items for their classrooms would have to pay out of pocket or turn to other fundraising sources such as GoFundMe because schools won’t pay for them.
Conversations among parents in online discussion groups have sparked added concern.
Participants inquired about the possibility of vouchers paying for tickets for fan fests and conventions. They discussed whether they could get a television and a projector, or just one of those. They shared sample wording to submit for requests to get theme park passes paid for — something that was prohibited a year ago.
“Every child in Florida deserves an enriching, quality education,” said Holly Bullard, chief strategy officer for Florida Policy Institute, which has raised repeated concerns about the potential cost of voucher expansion. “But is it fair to students in our public schools, whose teachers often pay out of their own pockets for classroom supplies, that taxpayer dollars are being spent on Disney passes and big-screen TVs for voucher families?”
Supporters of the expansion don’t consider the program as wasting taxpayer money. They see it as allowing families to customize education according to their children’s interests.
“We need to stop thinking like it’s 1960 — that the only answer is four walls with traditional districts leading the charge,” Jeanne Allen, founder of the national Center for Education Reform, said in an email.
“To engage young people today, we need to do a lot more than just have them show up,” she said. “They expect 21st century approaches to learning and recreational opportunities for their physical and mental well-being.”
Jeanne Allen [ Courtesy of Center for Education Reform ]
In 2021-22, the latest year for which figures were available, families receiving vouchers for students with disabilities spent $1.2 million on televisions. The purchases required pre-authorization, according to Step Up For Students.
They also spent $43,374 on treadmillsat home, which also required pre-authorization; $30,436 on indoor trampolines and $226,584 on game consoles.
In total, the organization reported distributing $51 million for instructional materials that year, with the largest expenses being test preparation ($26.7 million), computers ($8 million) and iPads ($3.4 million). The amounts are expected to grow along with the expansion of the program, which has nearly doubled in size to more than 425,000 students after HB 1 became law on July 1.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signs HB 1, a bill to expand school vouchers across Florida, during a news conference at Christopher Columbus High on March 27 in Miami. [ MATIAS J. OCNER | AP ]
With the new purchasing guide in place, parents who have children with severe medical needs worried that limited resources would go toward items that families should be paying for themselves, while critical services and equipment might become underfunded.
“Taxpayer dollars going to PlayStations when they could go to students with significant needs, that’s fleecing the taxpayer,” said Abby Skipper, a longtime Polk County special education advocate and parent.
Students with special needs have a longer list of eligible expenses that are not available to students with economic opportunity scholarships. Some of thoseitems include digital devices such as game consoles and computers, assistive technology and sensory material, such asspecialized swings and chairs.
Many other authorized expenses — including field trips to places such as museums and theme parks, physical education equipment like kayaks, classroom furnishings and coursework — are common to both types.
A Step Up spokesperson noted that the scholarship pays for the student’s admission only and sets a limit of one per school year up to $299. A Busch Gardens silver annual pass with no blackout dates costs $213. Disney World annual passes start at $399. Florida resident tickets cost $109 per day.
State senators who voted for the program trust parents to make “appropriate and responsible decisions” when using the funds Florida is dedicating to their children’s education, said Katie Betta, spokesperson for the Senate Majority Office.
“The parents we hear from don’t see the scholarship as a windfall or a means to splurge on big screen TVs and video game consoles,” Betta said via email. “To the contrary, the parents we hear from appreciate the opportunity to use any funds left after tuition is paid to cover the cost of books, therapies and other educational expenses that would be covered if the child was in a public school.”
House Speaker Paul Renner agreed with the goal of giving families flexibility, and indicated lawmakers are open to reviewing the program as needed. House members aim to get the most out of public spending, he said, and are “continually improving how we deliver education so that every child can achieve their full potential.”
Doug Tuthill, the president ofStep Up For Students,said the group’s guidelines, written with parent input, have two primary criteria.
“First, we look at the products and services that are available in district and charter schools,” Tuthill said via email. “Second, we look at the unique learning needs of each child.”
Creating a customized education can explain the rationale behind paying for items that some question, he added.
For instance, large-screen televisions might aid students with visual impairments. Paddleboards, one of several items allowed for physical education, can offer balance training for students who have been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum.
Step Up previously did not approve theme park passes, but reconsideredafter hearing from parents about the potential benefits, Tuthill said. A student with severe developmental disabilities might better focus when stimulated by the sights and sounds, for example, or a home-school family may incorporate “all the different history and culture lessons available at Disney World,” such as art and music festivals.
Several school district officials from across Florida said if their students take field trips to theme parks, parents or community sponsors cover the cost.
These types of conversations are taking place across the nation as education savings accounts gain popularity, said Derrell Bradford, president of the national education reform group 50Can. From his perspective, the accounts help close the gap for families that have no flexibility in their school choices or enrichment opportunities.
Pages from new guidelines detail how Florida families can spend school voucher money left over after a child’s private school tuition and fees have been paid. Allowable Items, which are supposed to have educational uses, include televisions, kayaks and individual trampolines. [ SEAN KRISTOFF-JONES | Times ]
This new model gives parents money and choices, limiting the centrally managed system, Bradford said. Looking at the ways the money can be spent shouldn’tbe a simple yes or no, Bradford added. The key concern ought to bewhat items will best help children learn, he said.
“The question we need to ask is, do you want to let the paradigm of schooling that we know already be the reference point? Or do you want to let something else emerge?” Bradford said.
Florida has clear purchasing rules, with laws against fraud, said Allen, the Center for Education Reform founder. She argued that the expansion of allowable expenses lets families choose “very different kinds of education environments for their children.”
Some Florida activists raised concerns that the state could run into problems like Arizona faced, when its auditor general found education savings accounts being misspent on unauthorized items. Polk County school board member Lisa Miller, who has used vouchers for her nonverbal son, said Florida’s program was ripe for abuse even when it was more limited. She noted that many funding requests came around the winter holidays for items such as Legos and Xboxes.
“Our public school system would not be able to operate like this,” Miller said.
Florida has greater spending controls in place than Arizona did.
Jenny Clark, a member of the Arizona State Board of Education who also runs a group that helps families navigate voucher uses, said, from her perspective, concerns about the timing and type of purchases focus on the wrong thing.
Jenny Clark [ Jenny Clark | Twitter ]
The “great experiment of education freedom and school choice” will succeed only if states design programs that provide “extreme flexibility” in using the accounts to meet children’s needs in a world where many jobs they’ll hold don’t yet exist, said Clark, a mom of five. She offered 3-D printers as an example, saying schools didn’t have them five years ago, and today they’re commonly considered necessary for some studies.
“We’ve got to do the most innovative things,” Clark said. “And the most innovative things make people uncomfortable.”
Florida state Rep. Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, said she understands both sides of the argument. She’s also a special education parent advocate, whose son used a McKay Scholarship to support his schooling.
Tant said she’s hearing from some parents that the voucher amount doesn’t approach the tuition cost of many private schools, if seats are available. At the same time, she said, she hears the complaints that if state funding is limited, recipients who home-school or have small tuition expenses should not be using the money for what might seem to be extras.
Rep. Alison Tant [ Florida House of Representatives ]
“It never occurred to me that those kinds of items would be included,” Tant said, noting that when her son wanted to play video games, he bought his own Xbox.
She did not support HB 1, but said she expected the money would go toward expenses with clear educational value.
“We’ve got to have some checks and balances in there,” Tant said. “I think every Floridian, especially those who are struggling financially, is not going to want their tax dollars spent on things that aren’t educationally relevant. I don’t know if they want to send kids to Busch Gardens on a multiday field trip.”
They will not stop, they believe they are on a moral crusade for their god. Even though the bible they are said to worship supports abortion and clearly claims that a child doesn’t have a soul until it draws breath. But hey why read the book when you can listen to preachers and right wing politicians shout at you that it is murder to abort a fetus even if it will kill the person it is using as a host to grow. The march by the Christian nationalist minority is in full swing and rushing forward at double time to take over the country for their god. Making the US a theocracy where church doctrine is supported by morality police / vice squads. A Christian Taliban of gang thugs like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other white supremacist thugs. They intend to do to the rights of the LGBTQIA to exist publicly in society and get the medical treatment they need, as they are doing to the rights of pregnant people of their own medical decisions or control over their own bodies. These people see the fictional story / TV series The Handmaidens Tale as a guild, not a warning. Hugs
A new ordinance, passed in several jurisdictions and under consideration elsewhere, aims to stop people from using local roads to drive someone out of state for an abortion
A crowd spills into a hallway during a city council meeting in Llano, Tex., when members voted on whether to further limit abortion access. (Christopher Lee/for The Washington Post)
LLANO, Tex. — No one could remember the last time so many people packed into City Hall.
As the meeting began on a late August evening, residents spilled out into the hallway, the brim of one cowboy hat kissing the next, each person jostling for a look at the five city council members who would decide whether to make Llano the third city in Texas to outlaw what some antiabortion activists call “abortion trafficking.”
For well over an hour, the people of Llano — a town of about 3,400 deep in Texas Hill Country — approached the podium to speak out against abortion. While the procedure was now illegal across Texas, people were still driving women on Llano roads to reach abortion clinics in other states, the residents had been told. They said their city had a responsibility to “fight the murders.”
The cheers after each speech grew louder as the crowd readied for the vote. Then one woman on the council spoke up.
“I feel like there’s a lot more to discuss about this,” said Laura Almond, a staunch conservative who owns a consignment shop in the middle of town. “I have a ton of questions.”
Council member Laura Almond questions the proposed ordinance and recommends it be tabled due to the vague and potentially far-reaching language. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
More than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, many conservatives have grown frustrated by the number of people able to circumvent antiabortion laws — with some advocates grasping for even stricter measures they hope will fully eradicate abortion nationwide.
That frustration is driving a new strategy in heavily conservative cities and counties across Texas. Designed by the architects of the state’s “heartbeat” ban that took effect months before Roe fell, ordinances like the one proposed in Llano — where some 80 percent of voters in the county backed President Donald Trump in 2020 — make it illegal to transport anyone to get an abortion on roads within the city or county limits. The laws allow any private citizen to sue a person or organization they suspect of violating the ordinance.
Antiabortion advocates behind the measure are targeting regions along interstates and in areas with airports,with the goal of blocking off the main arteries out of Texas and keeping pregnant women hemmed within the confines of their antiabortion state. These provisions have already passed in two counties and two cities, creating legal risk for those traveling on major highways including Interstate 20 and Route 84, which head toward New Mexico, where abortion remains legal and new clinics have opened to accommodate Texas women. Several more jurisdictions are expected to vote on the measure in the coming weeks.
“This really is building a wall to stop abortion trafficking,” said Mark Lee Dickson, the antiabortion activist behind the effort.
Texas counties and highways targeted by antiabortion ordinances
A new wave of proposals would make it illegal for anyone to use certain roads to drive someone out of state for an abortion.
Conservative lawmakers started exploring ways to block interstate abortion travel long before Roe was overturned. A Missouri legislator introduced a law in early 2022 that would have allowed any private citizen to sue anyone who helped a Missouri resident secure an abortion, regardless of where the abortion occurred — an approach later discussed at length by several national antiabortion groups. In April, Idaho became the first state to impose criminal penalties on anyone who helps a minor leave the state for an abortion without parental consent.
But even in the most conservative corners of Texas, efforts to crack down on abortion travel are meeting some resistance — with some local officials, even those deeply supportive of Texas’s strict abortion laws, expressing concern that the “trafficking” efforts go too far and could harm their communities.
The pushback reflects a new point of tension in the post-Roe debate among antiabortion advocates over how aggressively to restrict the procedure, with some Republicans in other states fearing a backlash from voters who support abortion rights. In small-town Texas, the concerns are more practical than political.
Two weeks before the Llano vote, lawmakers in Chandler, Tex., held off passing the ordinance, citing concerns about legal ramifications for the town and how the measure might conflict with existing Texas laws.
“I believe we’re making a mistake if we do this,” said Chandler council member Janeice Lunsford, minutes before she and her colleagues agreed to push the vote to another time. She later told The Washington Post that she felt the state’s abortion ban already did enough to stop abortions in Texas.
Then came the Llano City Council meeting on Aug. 21. Speaking to the crowd, Almond was careful to emphasize her antiabortion beliefs.
“I hate abortion,” she said. “I’m a Jesus lover like all of you in here.”
Still, she said, she couldn’t help thinking about the time in college when she picked up a friend from an abortion clinic — and how someone might have tried to punish her under this law.
“It’s overreaching,” she said. “We’re talking about people here.”
***
A Confederate statue sits in the middle of Llano, Tex., a town of about 3,400 deep in Texas Hill Country. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
About a month earlier, Dickson had arrived in Llano with an urgent warning.
A “baby murdering cartel” was coming for the pregnant women of Central Texas, he recalled telling a group of about 25 Llano citizens in the town library, wearing his signature black blazer and backward baseball cap.
“By trains, planes and automobiles, I say we end abortion trafficking in the state of Texas,” he said.
Dickson brought along a laminated map of his state, black and red Sharpie marking each of the 51 jurisdictions across Texas that had passed ordinances to become what he calls a “sanctuary city for the unborn.”
He hoped Llano would be next.
A director of Right to Life of East Texas, Dickson joined forces with former Texas solicitor general Jonathan Mitchell in 2019, when abortion was still legal in Texas until 22 weeks of pregnancy. Together, the men set out to ban abortion city by city, focusing on conservative strongholds. The Texas ordinances relied on the novel enforcement mechanism that empowers private citizens to sue, creating the model for the statewide “heartbeat ban” that took effect exactly two years ago, on Sept. 1, 2021.
Since Roe fell, triggering a new ban that outlawed almost all abortions in Texas, Dickson and Mitchell have changed their strategy. Along with passing ordinances in conservative border towns in Democrat-led states, where abortion providers may look to open new clinics, the team has zeroed in on those helping women leave Texas for abortions — a practice they call “abortion trafficking.”
Mark Lee Dickson hosts a luncheon with local activists and pastors in Llano, Tex. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
Mark Lee Dickson displays a map of locations that have adopted the ordinance that he proposed, which makes it illegal to transport anyone to get an abortion on any road within the city or county limits. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
By Dickson’s definition, “abortion trafficking” is the act of helping any pregnant woman cross state lines to end her pregnancy, lending her a ride, funding, or another form of support. While the term “trafficking” typically refers to people who are forced, tricked or coerced, Dickson’s definition applies to all people seeking abortions — because, he argues, “the unborn child is always taken against their will.”
The law — which has the public backing of 20 Texas state legislators — is designed to go after abortion funds, organizations that give financial assistance to people seeking abortions, as well as individuals. For example, Dickson said, a husband who doesn’t want his wife to get an abortion could threaten to sue the friend who offers to drive her. Under the ordinance, the woman seeking the abortion would be exempt from any punishment.
Abortion rights advocates say the ordinance effort is merely a ploy to scare people out of seeking the procedure. To date, no one has been sued under the existing “abortion trafficking” laws.
“The purpose of these laws is not to meaningfully enforce them,” said Neesha Davé, executive director of the Lilith Fund, an abortion fund based in Texas. “It’s the fear that’s the point. It’s the confusion that’s the point.”
While these restrictions appear to violate the U.S. Constitution — which protects a person’s right to travel — they are extremely difficult to challenge in court, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who focuses on abortion. Because the laws can be enforced by any private citizen, abortion rights groups have no clear government official to sue in a case seeking to block the law.
“Mitchell and Dickson are not necessarily conceding that what they’re doing is unconstitutional, but they’re making it very hard for anyone to do anything about it,” Ziegler said.
Mitchell declined to comment for this story.
Bonnie Wallace prays at a luncheon hosted by Mark Lee Dickson. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
Local activists and pastors attend the luncheon in Llano, Tex. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
Asked about the constitutionality of his ordinances, Dickson cites the Mann Act, a federal law from 1910 that makes it illegal to transport “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” If the Mann Act is constitutional, he says, so is this.
Llano was a particularly attractive target, Dickson said, because the town sits at the crossroads of several highways. Travelers driving west toward New Mexico from Austin, for example, would likely take Highway 29 or 71 — both of which pass through Llano.
Key roads out of Llano
A proposed ordinance would make it illegal for anyone to use certain roads to drive someone out of state for an abortion.
When Dickson first came to town to drum up interest for his ordinance, Councilwoman Almond was well aware of his endeavors. She’d seen his flier, advertising “the effort to protect Llano residents from abortion across state lines.” Then a friend reached out to ask if Almond and her husband would sit down with Dickson for a meeting.
“I’ve got a lot going on in my life,” Almond said she told her friend. “And right now, that’s just not where my energy is.”
Almond says she was thankful when Roe was overturned. A 57-year-old former elementary school teacher, she voted twice for Trump, and says she plans to vote for him again. Her friends call her a “pistol-packing mama.” Every time she gets a text message, her phone spits out the sound of two gunshots.
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But Almond — who wears flower earrings and glittery orange nail polish — is also known as a bit of a city council wild card. At her consignment store, “Possibilities,” she employs an eclectic staffwhose beliefs span the political spectrum. Her store manager is one of the only married, openly gay men in town — and if anyone has a problem with him, Almond says, they’d better hope she doesn’t hear about it.
Almond had Llano’s community of “cowboys and hippies” in mind when she chose her store’s slogan: “Where you meet awesome people and the possibilities are endless.”
Llano — just beyond the radius of Hill Country most trodden by Austin weekenders — is known as a deer and dove hunting destination, peppered with taxidermy studios and wild game processors. Every April, residents come together to cook roughly 25,000 pounds of crawfish for a festival that draws people from all across Texas.
For antiabortion activist Mark Lee Dickson, Llano was a particularly attractive target for his proposed ordinance because the town sits at the crossroads of several highways. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
The town recently made national news as ground zero for another cultural flash point when its library removed several books from its shelves, including some that focused on sex, race and LGBTQ+ issues.
“People get along pretty well here until we have dividing issues like the library — and now this,” Almond said.
Since she heard about the proposed ordinance, Almond said, she’d been wondering whether Llano really needed to further restrict abortion. She worried the term “abortion trafficking” was confusing, creating the impression that many women were being forced to get abortions across state lines against their will.
“It sounds like more of a slave situation,” she said.
It was not clear if some of the proposed ordinance’s most ardent proponents in Llano understood what it would do, with several mischaracterizing the measure during interviews with The Post.
While the language of the draft ordinance explicitly states that it would apply to people transporting “any individual for the purpose of providing or obtaining an elective abortion,” the mayor, Marion Bishop, said the term “abortion trafficking” did not apply to women who were choosing to get abortions “on their own free volition.”
“It would be people who were either coerced or undecided, who found themselves loaded onto a van and headed somewhere,” Bishop said in an interview at the vodka distillery he owns downtown.
Pressed on the contradiction between his statement and the language of the proposal, Bishop acknowledged that what he originally said “may not be totally accurate.”
Still, he said, he continues to support the ordinance, which he views as largely symbolic.
“Is it absolutely necessary? No,” Bishop said. “Does it make a statement? Yes it does.”
The morning of the council meeting, Almond decided to cancel her plans so she could fully consider the implications of the ordinance that would outlaw “abortion trafficking” in her town.
She stillwasn’t totally surehow she would vote.
With seven hours to go before the meeting, she pulled out a printed copy of the 16-page proposal. Then she sat down at her kitchen table, pen in hand, and began to read.
***
Many Llano residents approached the podium at the city council meeting to speak out against abortion. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
The meeting was packed, with people spilling into the hallway or taking a seat on the floor. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
The whispers in the back of city hall grew louder as the crowd realized that Almond would not be voting as they had expected.
“Laura can’t do this by herself,” said an advocate for the ordinance, leaning over to the other people in her row. “She needs someone to second. There’s still a chance.”
Then the other woman on the council, Kara Gilliland, chimed in with her own hesitations.
“I’m not for abortions and that’s my personal belief,” Gilliland said. “But I cannot sit up here knowing that there are 3,400 other citizens in this town who don’t have the same belief necessarily as I do.”
Four of the five members of the Llano City Council voted to table the ordinance for another time.
“You can be mad at me if you want to,” Almond said to her town. “But I’ve got to sleep with myself at night.”
Mark Lee Dickson watches as a Llano resident who objects to the proposed ordinance speaks ahead of the vote. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
Llano residents attend the city council meeting. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
Combing through the ordinance that morning, Almond said in an interview, she scribbled furious notes in the margins, trying to identify every potential issue. She feared the law’s civil enforcement mechanism would turn members of the Llano community against each other. While she’d supported the implementation of the Texas “heartbeat ban,” which relied on the same provision, she said she hadn’t given much thought to how that could pit neighbor against neighbor.
Now it was her job to “peel the layers” — and she didn’t like where the law could lead.
As the city council moved on to other matters, Dickson ushered the angry crowd out to the porch.
The ordinance was tabled, he reminded his audience — not dead. The city would have another opportunity to consider the proposal as soon as early September.
“Is this the city council of Austin or is this the city council of conservative Llano?” Dickson said. “This is far from over. … Show up at their businesses with some signs.”
“I know where Laura works,” offered the wife of a local pastor.
Dickson recalled what happened in Odessa, a far larger city in West Texas that failed to advance an earlier version of a “sanctuary city” ordinance several years earlier. With help from antiabortion residents, he said to the group, some of the council members who opposed the measure were ultimately voted out of office.
“Now Odessa has a 6-1 majority that is in favor of this,” Dickson said.
Odessa passed the ordinance in December.
***
Mark Lee Dickson speaks with Llano residents after the city council meeting. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
The next night, Dickson drove 40 minutes to Mason, Tex. to try to convince another small, conservative community to pass the same law.
More than 20 people gathered around plates of pizza and pasta at a restaurant that doubles as a gun store. In the window, next to a sign for “fresh oysters,” someone had painted the message, “Let’s go, Brandon,” an insult aimed at President Biden. On one wall of the restaurant is a confederate flag taller than Dickson; above the bar, a flag for “Trump 2020.”
Dickson chose this location for his next meeting, inviting local pastors and other antiabortion advocates in the area to hear a version of the same speech he delivered a month earlier in Llano.
“Guys, I don’t care if there’s only one person on your city council who wants to pass this,” Dickson said. “If you have a personal relationship with a council member, reach out.”
Mason residents smiled and nodded, digging through their purses for pens to write down Dickson’s email.
Less than 24 hours later, the “abortion trafficking” ordinance was added to the official agenda for the Mason board of county commissioners.
They would take up the matter at their next meeting.
Highway 71 passes through Llano and connects travelers driving west toward New Mexico. (Christopher Lee for The Washington Post)
We all have a pretty skewed image of what “Southerner” means. @TraeCrowderLiberalRedneck takes a look at who the real Southerners are and how our views got so skewed. The American South is a complicated place, and we know a lot less about it than we think we do. And many things about the South that seem to make no sense are less confounding in context. The reality is the history of many Southern things has been manipulated, hidden, or just plain ignored. Trae Crowder guides us through the pride points, failures, and contradictions in “Southin’ Off.”
Let’s be clear urban sprawl, cars, and the needed roads are destroying our country. Here in Florida we have to fight to get any mass transit and it is not planned in the county development plans at all. Every attempt at mass transit and fast trains is destroyed. Also let’s be honest it also was driven not just by profit for big oil and car manufacturers, but also by racism. When I was in Germany in the 1980s I was stunned how towns with housing, shops, everything a person would need including bars were closely clustered in to a small area with lots of land for growing crops or animal pastures around them. Plus I could go anywhere by mass transit, train, subway, or trolley. All fast and convenient. Most soldiers that were transferred in to the country never used their cars that they paid to have shipped. I came from a small cow town and we drove 30 minutes to the nearest big town. Here in Florida, about 30 minutes from where I live by highway is a completely new development based on the model in the video. It has shops, theaters, restaurants on ground floors, business offices above and lots of apartments, even doctor’s offices, and single family town houses, all confined into one place and walkable to everything. The only problem the residents have is all of us outsiders driving our cars in coming in to shop or go to medical appointments and they have very limited parking. If I could afford to live there I would. It simply works and is easy not just for the young but especially us older or disabled people. Give the video a watch please and thank Ten Bears for posting it. Hugs
If the republicans or big business challenges this policy, they are handing the election to Biden and the Democrats. Workers are seriously tired of being abused. Hugs
Please tell me again how teachers are groomers? Please tell me how books and movies with LGBTQIA characters are sexualizing lids? This guy is showing drawings of a penis complete with hairy balls and sperm droplets labeled my kids, to 12 or 13 year old kids and had to break the rules / laws to get his truck as close to them as possible. Think about this, a teacher can not have a rainbow sticker in the classroom or on the door because of these people, yet this upstanding member of the Republican Party who was a GOP leader can not only show kids dick drawings but take their pictures next to it! WTF. It is a game to these people, they don’t believe it in any way harms kids, in fact they support little girls being forced to marry older men and be forced to have babies. It is all about enraging the base and removing the LGBTQIA from the public, from society. Hugs
Ron Hedlund displayed a massive penis sign with the words, “Biden Sucks” written across it at a youth baseball game at RF&P Park in Henrico County, Virginia.
In a video captured at the event, Hedlund, who is listed as a Virginia GOP Central Committee Representative defended his sign after a community member said it was inappropriate because there were children present.
The man also had a “Fuck Biden” inflatable “air dancer” sign in the back of his pick up truck parked near the field. Hedlund celebrated and posted videos of teenage boys taking selfies with his massive penis sign at the park.
Capitol Police detain two men at the Virginia War Memorial’s Veterans Day ceremony in Richmond. On Nov. 11 after 11 a.m. when the ceremony began, officers noticed a man driving over a sidewalk and around barricades on 2nd Street.
The driver then stopped at the base of the amphitheater, which was blocked off due to the ceremony, with a ‘F*** Biden’ sign in the bed of his truck.
Police say the sign was ‘highly visible’ to the crowd at the ceremony. Members of the Capitol Police approached him and asked him to move. The man was identified as Ronald Hedlund, 60, of Glen Allen. Hedlund refused to move.
Hedlund, who also goes by “Ron Benghazi,” has a YouTube channel full of confrontations with the police. And of course, he has a money beg on the Christian site GiveSendGo:
Living in a free society comes with much responsibility and blood, sweat and tears. It also may involve numerous legal battles as corrupt local governments seek to usurp our rights many take for granted. I have been unlawfully arrested at the Virginia Capitol.
That charge was dropped after hiring an attorney for $2500. I have been charged with loitering and that charge was dropped, as well, after representing myself. Currently, I have been served a Protective Order that required hiring an attorney at $1500 and resulted in a 2 year Permanent Protective Order.
I now find myself needing another $2500 to appeal this travesty of justice whereby I will lose all my firearms for a period of two years unless I am able to overturn this legally unsupported Order. This Order is the result of citizens legally exercising our First and Second Amendement rights on public property in spite of objections of the Henrico County Manager.
Virginia GOP Official Displays 16 Foot Penis Sign at Youth Baseball Game to Protest Wokehttps://t.co/ZaOw9rtn9S
Used in a sentence: "Virginia GOP Central Committee Representative, Ron Hedlund, has teenage boys hold a sign of a giant penis at a youth baseball game. Ron is a text book definition of a groomer." pic.twitter.com/xmtatcMznO
Does the penis at the ballfield bother you, or no, it's okay b/c that book exists? It was also at a playground and other places around town. This is a Virginia GOP Rep doing this. pic.twitter.com/hJx6IjTaAf
We saw nothing on the local news either. BlueVirginia labels them the Gross Old Perverts party – but if not for Bitecofer, Kristol, Meidas, it wouldn’t get covered. Crickets from the Gov. https://bluevirginia.us/202…
Scottie's Playtime 