Category: Gun Control
Republican Reveals What Election Deniers Say Behind The Scenes
Read more HERE: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dan-cr…
“Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) revealed what election deniers actually say behind closed doors as a slew of reality-defying candidates run as Republicans in next week’s 2022 midterms.
“It was always a lie. The whole thing was always a lie. And it was a lie meant to rile people up,” the Texas Republican said of the lie that Donald Trump was cheated by widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election during the latest episode of his “Hold These Truths” podcast.”
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A GOP Official Is Allegedly Knocking on Doors to Tell People They Can’t Vote
https://www.vice.com/en/article/akeaaz/voter-intimidation-texas
Dogs that love gravy this is scary. These people are seriously trying to stop voters from voting in everyway possible and even demanding to see who the person is voting for or trying to make the person they are intimidating tell them who they voted for. This is so wrong, government by gang of thugs. Read this if you want to see what maga republicans think is acceptable way to treat non-white voters and even white voters in a democratic voting area. Hugs
VICE News has uncovered multiple reports of voter intimidation across Texas in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
Voters in Texas are facing an onslaught of voter intimidation tactics in the lead-up to the midterm elections next week—and in at least one instance the intimidation is allegedly being carried out by a prominent member of the local Republican Party.
Last week, a woman in Austin reported an incident of voter intimidation at her home allegedly carried out by a member of the Travis County Republican Party to the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“We received a very alarming report over the past week about a precinct chair of the Travis County Republican Party, knocking on people’s doors, accusing them of illegally voting by mail, even though the people we spoke with were clearly eligible to vote by mail,” Christina Beeler, a voting rights staff attorney with the civil rights group, told VICE News. “They were being extremely aggressive.”
The voter in Austin said that the person at the door identified herself as a precinct chair and the voter was later able to identify the person as a precinct chair for the Travis County Republican Party. The woman was accompanied by an unidentified man and accused the voter of illegally voting by mail. Beeler said the campaign appeared to be targeting people who have been voting by mail because the list of people who vote by mail is available publicly.
The hostile and confrontational nature of voter intimidation tactics in Texas has increased significantly in recent weeks.
Throughout the state, in addition to aggressive door-knocking campaigns, VICE News has also uncovered reports of election officials demanding that voters hand over their smartphones and smartwatches before voting and found that some poll workers looking over voters’ shoulders and wearing obviously partisan attire while inside the polling stations. Threatening letter-writing campaigns to voters have occurred as well.
As concerns about voter intimidation heat up nationwide, and armed groups threaten voting locations, VICE News also spoke with voter rights groups about threats ahead of next week’s midterms.
“I think we’ve had fewer reports of election intimidation, but the reports that we have received have been more egregious than in past elections,” Beeler said. “I think that the aggressive, egregious voter intimidation we have seen during this election cycle has a chilling effect on people and suppresses voter turnout.”
VICE News has also uncovered reports of election officials demanding that voters hand over their smartphones and smartwatches before voting and found that some poll workers looking over voters’ shoulders and wearing obviously partisan attire while inside the polling stations.
The Texas Civil Rights Project doesn’t know how many voters were impacted by this door-knocking campaign from the GOP, but those impacted appear to be among the most vulnerable.
“Some of the most egregious complaints we’ve gotten have involved elderly voters, because some of the door-knocking efforts seem to be targeting people who are voting by mail and in Texas, voters over 65 are eligible to vote by mail automatically,” Beeler told VICE News.
And Beeler pointed out that the door-knocking campaign could impact not only those who hadn’t voted yet but also those who had already sent in their ballot. “You can move to cancel your mail-in ballots, so if you get someone knocking on your door telling you that you’re illegally voting and you’re not informed and you don’t call our hotline and you don’t know about Texas election law, you can move to cancel your ballot,” added Beeler.
The Travis County Republican Party told VICE News it was investigating the incident.
“I think that the aggressive, egregious voter intimidation we have seen during this election cycle has a chilling effect on people and suppresses voter turnout.”
This is not the first time a GOP-linked door-knocking campaign in Texas has tried to intimidate voters. In July, a right-wing group launched a campaign in Harris County, which includes Houston, to obtain non-public personal information from residents.
“The Harris County Elections office has been informed of scammers who are impersonating election workers and going door-to-door in an attempt to obtain private voter information,” the Harris County Election office said in a Facebook post in July. The office also posted a picture of an affidavit that the door knockers were asking residents to sign “under penalty of perjury.”
It turned out that the group running the campaign was the Texas Elections Network, a right-wing group founded last year by Melissa Conway, the Republican National Committee’s Texas state director for election integrity. The group did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment.
The campaign was targeting “communities of color and historically Black neighborhoods here in Houston, trying to challenge the eligibility of certain voters,” Beeler said, adding that the group conducting the campaign submitted hundreds of challenges to the elections administrator in Harris County related to the 2020 election.
There have also been multiple reports of intimidation at early polling locations across the state, and in several instances the intimidation appears to have been racially targeted.
Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of the nonpartisan voter education group Common Cause Texas, told VICE News that a Black man voting in a predominantly white neighborhood rang the group’s hotline to report that he had been approached by a white man outside a polling location at a southeast Dallas community college and asked to hand over his smartphone and smartwatch before voting.
It was only after the man voted that he realized that the person who had demanded his devices was not an election official, he told Common Cause. Voters are not allowed to use their phones inside polling locations, but there is no rule requiring them to surrender their devices.
Beeler said that the Texas Civil Rights Project also received a very similar call from another Black voter who was also asked to give up their smartphone before voting. But this time, the voter said, they were asked to do so by an election official.
“This particular voter was a black person and there were white voters who were walking in and were not being asked to remove their cellphones or their watches,” Beeler said, adding that her group interceded in the incident and the election worker in question was “reprimanded.”
The Dallas elections office also told the Washington Post this week that it had received multiple reports of poll observers trying inappropriately to confiscate phones and smartwatches from voters.
It was only after the man voted that he realized that the person who had demanded his devices was not an election official.
Gutierrez told VICE News that his group had received many other calls about issues at polling locations, including poll watchers who were taking notes while standing behind the check-in tables at polling locations “in a way that’s making voters unnerved.”
Another voter reported poll watchers “getting way too close to where they could actually see the voter’s screen, as they were trying to cast their ballot,“ Gutierrez said.
And, a Common Cause volunteer this week observed a poll worker wearing “what I would categorize as partisan, dog whistle jewellery,” Gutierrez said. The item was a bracelet that said “Free the J6ers. Arrest the mules.” Gutierrez added that there had been a number of reports made to Common Cause of poll workers wearing partisan hats and t-shirts at other locations.
Some of the voter intimidation tactics included letters being hand-delivered to people’s homes. Residents in Tarrant County, Texas, this week reported receiving letters from someone claiming to be part of a group “investigating the integrity of local elections.” The letter lists the resident’s name and address and claims to known when and where they voted.
The letter also suggests that the person voted in an early polling location that was a long distance from their house, and that “there is an unusually high number of people from our neighborhood traveling to the Stop Six area to vote when there are many early voting sites between here and there.”
The Tarrant County Elections Office warned residents to ignore the letters and tweeted that “voters have the choice to vote at ANY location open in the County. Choosing a location far from your home DOES NOT indicate an “anomaly,” it just means it was convenient for the voter.”
In Travis County, a couple who live in the city of Lakeway told a local Fox station that they received a chilling letter in the mail that criticized their support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. The letter called them an “enemy of the state of Texas.”
The letter goes on to make an even more worrying threat: “We also now know that you don’t believe in the Second Amendment and don’t have a gun to protect yourself and your family so you will not be able to protect yourselves. Don’t worry, there are lots of your neighbors that do believe in the Second Amendment and will decide if they want to help you or not if there is an issue.”
The letter called them an “enemy of the state of Texas.”
Sam Taylor, a spokesperson for the Texas secretary of state’s office, told VICE News that his office had received “at least two complaints regarding potential voter intimidation,” but said those complaints are not publicly accessible until “either we’ve determined the complaint does not warrant an investigation by the attorney general, or the attorney general’s investigation is completed:”
“Most of the voter intimidation complaints we’ve been made aware of involve campaign activity, which is not something our office handles,” Taylor said.
JR Johnson, the executive director of the Texas Ethics Commission, told VICE News that he could not “confirm or deny the existence of specific complaints, and our investigations are conducted confidentially.” He said that only after a bipartisan panel of eight commissioners find that a violation has occurred, the final order will be made publicly available on his agency’s website.
But activist groups claim that part of the problem of voter intimidation lies not only with fringe groups but also with the secretary of state’s office itself. Last month, voter rights activists decried the decision by Republican Secretary of State John Scott, who was part of Trump’s legal team in 2020, and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to send election monitors to observe the elections in Harris County, claiming it would lead to both voter intimidation and disrupt the counting process.
“It is true that our secretary of state often does send monitors to counties if a certain number of voters request them,” Gutierrez said. “What’s alarming about it for us who work on voting rights in Texas is who our secretary of state is and who our attorney general is. I’ve seen a lot of news about election deniers running for secretary of state posts in other states and that’s who we have in office in Texas now.”
(Scott’s office disputes the suggestion that the secretary of state was an election denier and said he had been subject to death threats himself as a result of speaking out against election deniers.)
Like others across the country working to undermine the election process, the door-knocking campaign groups in Texas are “seemingly informed by right-wing conspiracies,” Beeler said, and specifically by the 2000 Mules conspiracy film that was released by Dinesh D’Souza earlier this year.
D’Souza’s film, which has been thoroughly debunked, is based on bogus claims from a group known as True the Vote which falsely claimed to have obtained cell phone data that proved thousands of so-called “ballot mules” were stuffing drop boxes with fake ballots during the 2020 election.
Earlier this week, a judge in Texas ordered that the two founders of True the Vote, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, be detained for refusing to disclose the name of the person who supposedly helped them investigate election software company Konnech Inc, which is suing the founders for defamation.
But authorities are concerned that the conspiracies being spread by people like Engelbrecht and Phillips are not only fueling voter intimidation tactics but also increasing the amount of threats from violent extremists, which has been widespread in the weeks leading up to the midterms.
The U.S. government last week warned that election conspiracies could trigger violence around the election. In Arizona, armed election vigilantes were forced to stand down only after a court order. And there has already been some politically linked violence in the build up to election day, including the attack on Nancy Peloi’s husband and the attack on a Democrat running for a state House seat in Pennsylvania that left the candidate unconscious.
Update: This story has been updated with comments from Secretary of State John Scott’s office. Additionally, after this story was published, the Travis County Republican Party told VICE News it was investigating the incident.
MAGA Extremists Threaten Voters: “You Will Be Beaten”
Read more HERE: https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxnbz…
“Days before the U.S. government issued a chilling memo about the threat domestic extremists pose to next week’s elections, a member of the far-right message board known as The Donald threatened voters in Arizona with a message that eerily echoed much of the government’s warning.
“We will post up at every single drop box,” the user wrote. “If you try to drop off more than one ballot, you will be beaten without question. Better tell your gramma to drop off her own vote cause no games are being played this time. You will see violence if caught stuffing ballots in a drop box.”*
Christian preacher says he uses anti-gay slurs to teach “a perfect hatred” of LGBTQ people
The NIFB sect is one of the fast growing of the Christian religion. It is all about hate, white male power, and limited rights for women. They are flat out openly Christian nationalist who want a theocracy where they get to enforce their views on the entire population. The Taliban is the Muslim model of what they want the US to be under their rule. This is the sect that openly calls for the killing of gay people and this preacher is happy with the extermination of Jews. Hugs
Tanner Furrh Photo: ScreenshotBrother Tanner Furrh of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas explained in a sermon why he uses anti-LGBTQ slurs instead of just saying that gay people are condemned to hell.
“If I stand up and I tell you, ‘You should treat the homosexual with honor and dignity,’” he said, mocking other homophobic churches’ “Love the sinner, hate the sin” stance. “Does that make you want to hate that person in your heart? No.”
“But if I get up here and I say, ‘Every fa***t is a pedophile, they are a child molester, they are an abuser,’ guess what? That instills a little bit of hatred. In fact, you’ll grow to have a perfect hatred for the enemies of God.”
Christian hate-preacher Tanner Furrh says he uses anti-LGBTQ slurs because he wants you to “hate that person in your heart.”
“Even though it doesn’t sound good… it’s actually benefiting the Spirit.” pic.twitter.com/mWeU63QkOQ
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) November 2, 2022
Furrh’s words come as Republicans have spent the past year doing just that, calling LGBTQ people and their allies – especially doctors and teachers – “groomers,” referring to how child sex abusers lure children.
Stedfast is part of the New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement, a set of churches that focuses heavily on hatred of LGBTQ people. Steven Anderson’s Faithful Word Baptist Church is a part of the movement.
Furrh has previously called for death to lesbians, saying that “a bullet in their head is too nice.”
“They’re sick and gross because the Bible says so,” Furrh said in June. “And not just the male fa***ts. Also the women-fa***ts too.”
“All the lesbos, all the dy**s, all these butch dy**s out there, they deserve the death penalty too,” he continued. “It should be punished with death by the government.”
Stedfast is the same church where Jonathan Shelley preaches. Last month, Shelley claimed that gay men’s “intestines will sometimes just fall out because of the actions that they do.”
“Pastor Shelly, you’re gonna have to eat Indian food and ranch dressing every day of your life, or do that one time?” he said, referring to sex with other men. “It’s like, bring on the Indian food.”
“What if you, what if you, Pastor Shelley, what if you had to eat Indian food and ranch and then vomit it up and then eat it again, or do that one time? It’s like, bring on the vomit.”
Shelley also expressed doubt that six million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust this past month, saying that he would feel “lucky” if that happened, just how he would feel “if someone walks into a homo bar and shoots ’em all, shoots a bunch of homos and kills all of them.”
Culprit burns Pride flag, gives Nazi salute in Newberg, video shows
It won’t really stop a racist bigoted school board but it will give allied teachers and the LGBTQ+ students some cover and breathing room. Notice they knew they needed more sensitivity training after a teacher came to work in black face. Plus there was this from the students. Earlier this month, the Newberg Graphic discovered that at least one student at Newberg High School was involved in a Snapchat group called “Slave Trade,” where teenagers from across the country share racist, homophobic and violent messages, sometimes specifically targeting Black students.
They knew they had an issue with racism and attacks on gay, lesbian, and trans kids. But they still wanted to take away any training or discussions to promote tolerance, acceptance, and diversity. This is the republican party today. This is the maga cult trying their best to roll back all the civil rights gains. If you go to the link on the superintendent you will see that the board want only cis white Christian symbols and accepted speech. … (T)he conservative board members fired Morelock because he didn’t aggressively implement their ban on controversial symbols, … is from that link. These people can not accept the changes in society and refuse to accept the advancing better understanding of biology and psychology than was known in the 1950s. Hugs
Police are investigating after a masked person approached the home of Newberg School District employee, lit the employee’s Pride flag on fire and performed a Nazi salute on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. File photo
Just weeks after a Yamhill County judge ruled a controversial ban on the display of Pride flags in Newberg schools was unconstitutional, a masked person approached the home of school district employee, lit the employee’s Pride flag on fire and performed a Nazi salute.
A home security camera captured the flag burning on film, and a 14-second video clip posted to Twitter Monday had 123,000 views by Thursday morning.
The family filed a police report with the Newberg-Dundee Police Department, telling investigators their Pride flag had previously been stolen. Monday’s flames left black soot damage to the brick siding of the home, police said.
No arrests have yet been made, according to Newberg police.
In a statement Tuesday, the Newberg School District referred to the flag-burning as a hate crime.
“We are shocked and saddened to hear that such a horrendous act took place in our community,” the statement said. “The act of invading someone’s private property to burn a flag is abhorrent and alarming.”
The video shows a person walking up a driveway toward a house with their face fully covered, except for their eyes. After lighting the flag on fire, the person is shown facing the security camera and performing a Nazi salute before walking out of sight.
According to the Twitter account that shared the video, the flag-burning occurred at 3:15 a.m. Flames had spread onto leaves around the flag by the time the homeowner went outside, the account said.
The flag-burning arrives a little over a year after a controversial policy banning the display of Pride and Black Lives Matter flags in district schools threw Newberg into the national spotlight.
Newberg’s school board voted in September 2021 to adopt a policy barring educators from displaying symbols considered “political, quasi-political or controversial.” The 4-3 vote followed a pair of racist incidents in district schools and drew fierce criticism from state lawmakers and members of the Newberg teacher’s union. After enacting the policy, board members abruptly fired former superintendent Joe Morelock.
Dundee Elementary School teacher Chelsea Shotts sued the school district and four of its board members in December 2021 after a rainbow flag she kept in her classroom window was the subject of a complaint under the policy.
A Yamhill County judge ruled on Sept. 22 that the policy banning the display of certain symbols in schools was unconstitutional and forbade the district from enforcing it.
— Catalina Gaitán; cgaitan@oregonian.com; @catalinagaitan_
WI GOP Rep’s Stunt Gets Election Commissioner Fired -JMG
Why is it all the verified election fraud is done by republicans. I guess this is why they know it is happening, their people are the ones doing it. Hugs
Milwaukee’s Fox affiliate reports:
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson announced Thursday, Nov. 3 that Milwaukee’s Election Commission deputy director Kimberly Zapata has been fired. This, after he says she fraudulently requested military absentee ballots and sent them to Republican state lawmaker Rep. Janel Brandtjen.
“This has every appearance of being an egregious and blatant violation of trust,” Mayor Johnson said. “I was stunned, absolutely stunned, to hear the very serious allegations against her.”
As a member of the military you don’t have to register or show an ID to vote. The city believes Zapata was trying to prove a loophole in the elections process. Last week, Rep. Janel Brandtjen shared the photo below of military ballots delivered to her home with apparently fake names.
Read the full article. Democrats are calling for criminal charges against Zapata and Brandtjen, the latter of whom appeared here in July when she called for decertifying Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election result.
crewman • 15 hours ago • edited
If this was a stunt to show fraud could be committed, her stunt needs to stay the course and experience the consequences of that fraud. Not a slap on the wrist or a “Oh this was just a stunt, so no charges.” No, it needs to be felony charges and jail time with penalties at maximum level to show others how the system works, which seems to be what she was after.
They want to demonstrate how “easy” it is to game the system. The ONLY appropriate response is (1) show that safeguards exist and that those who try it will be caught, and (2) show that people who try to game the system will spend serious time behind bars.
“I was just testing the officers to see if they were properly dealing with drunk drivers, so I downed a fifth of whisky and sped down the highway”
Yeah, if that wouldn’t fly in court, neither should this.
GOPeePee=GrandOld Putin’sParty • 15 hours ago
” I have been attacked by the liberal media, democrats who benefit from the system, and republicans who don’t have the backbone to take on the issues,” -State Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R )
Translation : THE LIBS MADE ME CHEAT! POOOOR ME!
OK Donut Shop Firebombed After Hosting Drag Event – JMG
This is a direct result of the attacks on drag queens by republicans and the right wing media. These are legal venues, this is the action of thugs, vigilantes enforcing the republican talking points via terror and intimidation. This is a crime. “Nice business you have here be a shame if something happened to it if you do something we don’t like”. These maga gang thugs don’t care about the laws, they think what they want is above laws. They don’t like democracy because the majority doesn’t like their bullshit, so they want to rule as a minority by threats and violence. Hugs
Tulsa’s ABC affiliate reports:
Tulsa Fire investigators are looking for a person of interest after someone smashed a window at a Brookside donut shop and threw a Molotov cocktail inside. This is the second time the business has been vandalized in the past two weeks.
The owners of The Donut Hole near 31st and Peoria said they were out of town when they got the devastating call that their business had been targeted again.
Investigators said the person first puts a letter with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on the door of a neighboring business, then uses a bat to smash through the glass door. Once it was broken, the person is seen throwing the explosive device inside.
From the store’s Facebook page after the first attack:
We had the privilege of being able to be a part of the vision of The Queens Dirty Dozen; An art installation donut shop run by drag queens.
The event was an enormous success with over 500 guests attending, and an overwhelming reaction of laughing, jokes, fun and good times were had by all.
Unfortunately, there was also a reaction of hate and we were the victim of somebodies malicious acts. But in ones attempt to rain on our parade, the community answered by showing overwhelming support.
From the GoFundMe that was started by Queens Dirty Dozen, goals were surpassed in less than one hour.
Repairs will be made and all extra proceeds will be given to the Tulsa Equality Center to help spread acceptance, tolerance and love.
These malicious acts have resulted in thousands of dollars going towards the cause this entire event was meant to support. Love wins.
The GoFundMe drive has been restarted.
JoeMyGodMod • 18 hours ago
In the video report above, they say the fire department is investigating a “person of interest.” So we’ll likely have his name pretty soon.
Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️ • 18 hours ago
Imagine:
People in power that inspire these attacks being held accountable…
Free speech isn’t consequence free.
Serene Pumpkin JoeMyGod • 18 hours ago • edited
It’ll emerge that his dog sitter’s niece’s godmother’s piano teacher’s boyfriend’s grandfather’s neighbor once displayed a Pride flag, so the fascists will of course proclaim that he is a BLM antifa Commie.
What, me worry? JoeMyGod • 18 hours ago
I’m guessing his social media posts will show him to be a Trumper.
April Smith JoeMyGod • 15 hours ago
I’m very familiar with the area. There are many businesses I’m sure they can check their security cameras as he left the area. Hopefully it will catch him getting into a particular vehicle.
Judas Peckerwood • 18 hours ago • edited
someone smashed a window at a Brookside donut shop and threw a Molotov cocktail inside. This is the second time the business has been vandalized in the past two weeks.
So terrorism is reduced to vandalism when it’s committed by fascists. Got it!
Judas Peckerwood Halou • 18 hours ago
My point here is that our brave, truth-seeking, completely objective and unbiased MSM characterizes serious attacks on our side as “vandalism”, whereas a bunch of people peacefully protesting SCOTUS justices who are dismantling our civil rights are committing “terrorism”.
Drag Queens making and serving donuts. How mortifying. I am so happy that all of OK’s other problems have been solves so they can focus on this.
How toxic is one’s masculinity if they’re threatened by drag queen donuts? Seriously, that’s effed up.
“But crime only happens in blue states!”
Judas Peckerwood Serene Pumpkin • 18 hours ago
It’s apparently not a serious crime when progressives are the target — note that the news story states that the business was “vandalized” as opposed to being the target of terrorism.
TAJ Serene Pumpkin • 18 hours ago
NPR and other outlets have had pieces on the “creation of the enemy as Antifa and Radical Left” turns out the actual numbers and origins of incidents don’t point to any left wing folk.. not to any degree at all.. wow, Nov. elections are here and important..
PRW Serene Pumpkin • 16 hours ago
Bear in mind that to them this is no crime.
amandagirl15701 Serene Pumpkin • 12 hours ago
The anti Fetterman ads running in Pennsylvania say crime is running rampant across the state. I have not heard of one piece of legislation from our Republican legislature to combat this, but, apparently it’s Fetterman’s fault.
Oh, Parker Serene Pumpkin • 15 hours ago
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but at the gubernatorial level Oklahoma may be blue this time around. The race is tied and the sheer hatred and assholism of Kevin Stitt has united all kinds of people in opposition, including many Native American tribes. Fingers crossed!
Rebecca Gardner • 18 hours ago
Something to cheer us up.
Douglas Rebecca Gardner • 18 hours ago • edited
That’s a courageous preacher who tells the truth. Good for him. I just sent his church a donation to thank them for his and the congregation’s courage to speak up for rationality, compassion, and the truth. I encourage others to donate, too.
(((GC))) – End the filibuster! Douglas • 17 hours ago
The hypocrisy of using Leviticus for queer-bashing while eating shrimp and catfish and lobster – true!
“We all got to look at ourselves” – true!!
“We all need Jesus” – debatable.
Republicans pull DISGUSTING stunt after Pelosi home invasion
Closeted Gay Teen’s Parents Find His Search History | Gay Teens | Hidden Kisses
I am not really not feel all that well. Nothing bad but my stomach is unsettled and upset. I think I just needed a down day. But then this clip popped up in my feed. It is a story of two boys who are gay teens, they discover each other. At the point of this clip one of the gay boys has been beaten up for being gay and his teachers want to bring in a guest speaker to try to teach tolerance and acceptance of gay kids. The person in charge at the school is against it because some parents will think the school is proselytizing or pushing gay rights / gay sex on the kids. Sound familiar? The boy who got beat up is accepted by his dad who celebrates his 16th birthday by taking him to a gay club / bar where he lets the boy meet other gay people. But the main focus of this clip is on the other boy Louis and the highly negative reaction of his parents to seeing his search history, his chat logs with Nathan his boyfriend, and finding out he is gay. They don’t take it well with the dad hurting the boy and then they try to force him to change claiming both it is a choice he is making and a sickness he has. They take away his phone and computer and keep him grounded not even allowed to go to school until he comes to his sense and decides not to be gay anymore. Louis figures he has to lie to get back his life so tells them he is not gay but the dad finds out he has been using his forbidden phone to contact his boyfriend. It just makes the situation worse. His father demands the entire family shun him. He cannot eat with the family, he cannot be in the rooms with them, he is to stay in his room, and even his little brother is not allowed to talk or be with him.
I am posting this for those that don’t understand how important it is for LGBTQ+ kids to have acceptance at school, to have teachers willing to provide them with safe classrooms where they know the teacher will not let them be attacked or bullied. Especially kids with highly religious or bigoted families. If the kids don’t think it is safe for them to tell their parents how does a teacher telling the parent make it any better or safer for the kid. It is why symbols like the rainbow flag and other gay pride things in the classrooms or on the doors are so very important. This is happening in the US right now, all over the country. Kids are born gay, they know it, and some parents are accepting due to the positive teaching in society. But some parents are horrible bigoted and not only punish their own kids for how they are born but either make them do conversion therapy which has been proven to be harmful and of no benefit or worse kick them out of the home making them homeless forcing them to live on the streets somehow. Sadly that for most homeless gay / trans kids means selling their bodies for food or shelter. The very thing the parents claimed to want to protect them from. I have watched videos and read stories of Christian / Muslim families who claim that their gay child is choosing to let the devil in to them by sinning so they cannot have their young gay teen in their home. The clip is not in English, but the subtitles are very good. Please understand this is what the Don’t Say gay Bills are doing, promoting this bigotry and harm to gay kids. In Florida it has removed safe spaces for gay kids and forces teachers to tell bigoted parents that their child is gay or trans so they can be treated this way. It removes the teaching of tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. It removes the positive reinforcement about LGBTQ+ people so that the only thing kids hear / know about them is the negatives, that those people are bad and dangerous to the good normal kids so they need to be stopped, hurt, and harmed before they hurt good normal kids. Please watch and leave me a comment on your feelings. Hugs
ABOUT ‘HIDDEN KISSES’: Nathan goes to a high school party and meets Louis. The two find themselves out of sight and kissing, but someone takes a photo of them. When the photo is placed online, a storm overtakes their lives.
Scottie's Playtime 