Remember these are a large part republican’s brownshirt maga enforcers using threats of violence and scaring people into closing legal events and removing legal books while white washing the US history. They are the violent threat issuing part of the US Taliban and as the end of the article says they are normalizing political violence targeting the LGBTQ+ events / people. Hugs
Members of the Proud Boys march in Manhattan against vaccine mandates on 20 November 2021 in New York City. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Document of 23 pages shows the lengths to which the far-right group goes to prepare for potentially violent encounters and exposes the militaristic structure and language it has adopted
The document is so dowdy and formal it resembles the annual minutes of a society of tax accountants. Its index lists sections on “objectives” and “rules of engagement” and carries an “addendum” that provides recommendations for hotels and parking.
On the cover, two words give a clue to the notoriety of the group that produced it: “MAGA” and “WARNING”. That and the date: 5 January 2021, the day before the US Capitol attack.
Proud Boys developed plans to take over government buildings in Washington DC
Read more
What goes unsaid on the cover and is barely mentioned throughout the 23 pages is that this is the work of one of the most violent political gangs in America, the far-right street fighters who Donald Trump told to “stand back and stand by”: the Proud Boys.
The document, published by the Guardian for the first time, gives a very rare insight into the meticulous planning that goes into events staged by the far-right club.
The Proud Boys have been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and are alleged to have acted as key organizers of the violent assault on the Capitol.
In the wake of January 6, which has been linked to the deaths of nine people, the New York march featured in the document was called off and the strategy so fastidiously laid out was never implemented. But the document remains sharply revealing.
It shows the lengths to which the Proud Boys go to prepare for potentially violent encounters and then to cover their tracks – something prosecutors have stressed but that has never been seen in the group’s own words. It exposes the militaristic structure and language the Proud Boys have adopted, and their aspiration to become the frontline vigilante force in a Trump-led America.
It also provides clues as to how the group continues to spread its tentacles throughout the US despite the fact that many of its top leaders, including its national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, are behind bars awaiting trial on charges of seditious conspiracy.
The purpose of the document is to provide a “strategic security plan” and call to action, summoning Proud Boys members to a pro-Trump Maga march that was scheduled for New York City on 10 January 2021. That was four days after Congress was to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election – the occasion that would be targeted by the fatal insurrection.
The document was obtained from a Proud Boys member by the extremism reporter Andy Campbell as he researched his new book, We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism. The book will be published on Tuesday. Campbell shared the document with the Guardian.
The author of the document is Randy Ireland, who as president of the group’s New York branch, the Hell’s Gate Bridge Chapter, is one of the most prominent Proud Boys in the US north-east. The paper was circulated through Telegram, the encrypted chat app widely used by the Proud Boys as an organizing tool, to at least nine other chapters in New York and beyond.
Campbell told the Guardian the decentralized structure of the group, into what it claims are 157 active chapters in all but three states, is one of the Proud Boys’ greatest strengths, as reflected in the autonomous nature of the New York planning.
“Chapter leaders like Randy can create their own events, run independently of each other,” Campbell said. “Enrique Tarrio and other leaders are in prison, but these guys are going to continue what they are doing.”
‘We will not disappoint’
The language in the planning paper is overtly militaristic. Ireland designates himself “General of Security Detail”, while his underlings in the chain of command are “VPs” of “Recruiting”, “Scout Security” and “Team Leads”.
The plan is for 60 or so Proud Boys at the 10 January event in Manhattan to be corralled into seven “tactical teams” of five to eight men each (they are all men, as one of the overriding values of the group is misogyny). Members are told to bring protective gear, including “knife/stab protection, helmets, gloves, boots etc” and to make use of radio channels, walkie-talkies or Telegram to communicate with each other.
They are to stick together in groups and under no circumstances allow “Normies” – ordinary Trump supporters who are not Proud Boys – or “Females” into their ranks.
“Their presence will jeopardise the health and safety of all those involved with Security, and simply cannot be allowed to happen!” Ireland writes.
Maps reproduced at the back of the document show positions “scouts” and “tactical teams” should adopt at key points along the route of the march, which was planned to start at Columbus Circle and pass Trump Tower.
“That spot is understood in a very public way to hold special meaning for us,” the paper says, referring to Trump’s home on Fifth Avenue. “WE WILL NOT DISAPPOINT!”
Campbell, who has been reporting on the Proud Boys since they started turning up at Trump rallies in early 2017, describes them as America’s most notorious political fight club. In the planning paper, he sees equal parts fantasy and danger.
“These guys see themselves as super soldiers, like some sort of military outfit,” he said. “On one level it’s funny, as nothing is in fact going to pan out the way they say it will. But on another level, it’s alarming because it shows how much thought they put into this stuff.”
In We Are Proud Boys, Campbell traces the group from its birth in 2015-16 through to its central role on January 6 when a member, Dominic Pezzola, became the first person to breach the US Capitol. At least 30 Proud Boys have been charged in relation to the insurrection, including Tarrio and four others accused of seditious conspiracy – among the most serious indictments yet handed down.
The group was invented by the British-born founder of Vice magazine, Gavin McInnes, who branded himself a “western chauvinist” and peddled in bigotry. McInnes floated the Proud Boys name on his online chatshow in May 2016, introducing them as a “gang” and inventing a uniform, a black Fred Perry polo shirt with yellow trim.
McInnes was careful to brand his creation as harmless fun, a satirical male-only patriotic drinking club that later attached itself to all things Trump. But Campbell argues that from the outset political violence was baked in.
A Proud Boy was an organizer of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which an anti-fascist protester was murdered. The group has held violent gatherings in Portland, Oregon. Outside a Republican event in New York in 2018, several members were arrested and charged with felonious assault.
‘Street-level violence’
Proud Boys membership is structured into four ranks, known as “degrees”, the fourth granted once you “get arrested or get in a serious violent fight for the cause”, as McInnes himself explained. In an interview with Campbell for the book, McInnes denied promoting violence and insisted the Proud Boys were never proactively aggressive, only reacting to leftwing attacks.
That official line is reiterated in the document published by the Guardian. Ireland is careful to portray the Proud Boys as a defensive group.
He writes: “If any violence does spout off, all Proud Boys are expected to respond immediately – only so far as to eliminate and end that threat to them or others. VERY IMPORTANT: Once the threat has been neutralized, WE STOP!”
But there is a glaring contradiction: Ireland presents his chapter as a non-violent organization yet it goes out seeking violence. He assigns the group, uninvited, the role of a vigilante police force.
“We are there as the first line of defense for all event attendees,” he writes, then contradicts himself by saying the only role of the Proud Boys is to play a “back-up role” to law enforcement and to “force them to do their jobs”.
That speaks volumes. It carries the implication that if the police will not assail anti-fascist protesters, Proud Boys will.
“I’ve reported at Proud Boys events where they stood back and relaxed as police lobbed teargas and other munitions into the crowd of counter-protesters,” Campbell said. “Then the Proud Boys didn’t have to do what Randy Ireland is hinting at here – step in and do the fighting themselves.”
For Campbell, the most disturbing aspect of the document is that, with its soft-lensed double-talk and contradictory meanings, it falls into arguably the main ambition of the Proud Boys: the normalization of political violence. Despite having so many leaders behind bars, the group is prospering.
As new chapters pop up, Americans are increasingly inured to the idea of heavily armed gangs in public settings. Proud Boys have posed as “security details” at anti-abortion rallies, anti-vaccination demonstrations, pro-gun protests and of course Trump rallies.
“The street-level violence the Proud Boys helped to create is now being carried out by regular people,” Campbell said. “You saw it on January 6, you see it at Planned Parenthood and LGBTQ+ events where people are harassed and attacked by everyday Americans.”
Remember this lawyer will have access to all the government information required by law to be turned over to trump because trump is the defendant. Another way the top secrets of the nation get spilled to the rest of the world. This special master going over the classified documents must be quashed. Hugs
Donald Trump had his political organization Save America PAC which is under investigation by the DOJ pay $3 million to hire a Florida lawyer named Chris Kise. It now turns out that Kise is a registered foreign agent for the government of Venezuela according to the FARA filings. This is particularly disturbing since Kise is seeking access to the top secret classified records that the DOJ obtained in connection with its August 8 search warrant.
Randy sent this to me, thank you Randy. This line below sums up the maga movement perfectly. It’s a political movement of election denying extremists, many of whom have threatened or committed violence. Feels like there’s a word to describe this. There is it is called terrorist. It is time we be honest about what the maga republican base is, they are a gang of thugs demanding their way through the use of threats and violence. They do not believe in common decency, civil debate, or any compromise. They do not believe in anyone having rights but them. They do not believe in democracy. They are a minority that is demanding through violence that the majority of people act and live as the maga thugs want you to, with no exceptions. They are the US Taliban. They demand that we ignore advancements in science, biology, social understandings and return to an ignorant past where they felt comfortable, but which was mostly myth and misinformation anyway. Hugs
It’s a political movement of election denying extremists, many of whom have threatened or committed violence. Feels like there’s a word to describe this.
Wajahat Ali
OPINION
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
If we are to be blunt and honest, this “hate-fueled violence” that is threatening all of our communities is primarily coming from a single source: an incestuous network of MAGA actors, promoted by the GOP and right-wing media, who have increasingly threatened law enforcement, Democrats, educators, poll watchers, doctors, Republicans who don’t support Trump, and anyone and every institution that stands in the way of their white Christian nationalist utopia.
Earlier this week, Igor Lanis, a 53-year-old Trump fanatic in Michigan, murdered his wife and badly injured one of his children. He, in turn, was killed after firing his shotgun at the police. His daughter, Rebecca Lanis, told The Daily Beast that her father’s embrace of the QAnon conspiracy theory was a “very big contributor to what happened.” She said he was once an “extremely loving” father with no history of violence but all of that changed after Trump’s loss in 2020. According to Lanis, her father latched on to the Big Lie and started going down “crazy rabbit holes” which eventually radicalized him and culminated in bloodshed.
It’s worth remembering that Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by the Capitol police on Jan. 6 after attempting to illegally enter the Capitol building, was also radicalized in part by QAnon conspiracies. She is now praised by Rep. Paul Gosar, an ally of white nationalists, and seen in some right-wing quarters as a martyr.
Pacific Press/Getty
In 2019, the FBI declared QAnon a domestic terror threat in an internal memo. The hateful conspiracy theory believes a deep state of liberals is secretly conducting an international pedophile sex trafficking ring. The FBI warned that QAnon had the potential to radicalize individuals or groups leading up to the 2020 election.
The year is now 2022 and the former president has spent the past weeks promoting QAnon content on his Truth Social platform, ever since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago residence and found hundreds of top secret, highly classified documents. Media Matters Senior Researcher Alex Kaplan reports that Trump has boosted at least 50 QAnon-supporting accounts to his 4 million followers. Since the summer, more than a dozen QAnon-supporting Republican candidates have won their primaries. It is very likely that some of these potential terror threats will be roaming the halls of Congress in 2023.
Influential right-wing peddlers of hate—such as the woman behind the Libs of TikTok account and Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire—have picked up the “groomer” panic and used it to attack medical professionals and hospitals.
Rachael Rollins, middle, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Joseph R. Bonavolonta, left, FBI special agent in charge of the Boston Field Office, and Michael Cox, right, Boston Police Commissioner announcing Catherine Leavy, 37, of Westfield was arrested for willfully making a false bomb threat towards Childrens Hospital at the US District Attorney’s office in the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse.
Boston Globe/Getty
A quick recap: a domestic terror threat is being amplified by the former President of the United States, who is the figurehead of the GOP—a party that is currently supporting and championing extremist candidates, and working with pundits who promote hateful conspiracies that have radicalized individuals to harass, intimidate, and threaten violence.
One would think these revelations in light of the recent violence would be leading the news cycle. However, since Trump is a white man, and the criminal suspects aren’t Muslim, there is no War on Terror. Instead, some media outlets are bending over backward to court Republican viewers and criticize President Biden for speaking in front of U.S. marines, like Republican and Democratic presidents have done many times before him.
The lesson is that it’s good to be a white MAGA extremist. Just look at Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem.
If you’re MAGA, you can hold office, be an active member of a far-right hate group that took part in the Jan. 6 coup attempt, and inch ever closer to becoming the secretary of state of Arizona. Finchem, who actively promotes the Big Lie, recently accused former Vice President Mike Pence of orchestrating a coup against Trump. He is also a proud member of the Oath Keepers, whose leaders are headed to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for allegedly helping Trump in his failed coup.
“The year is now 2022 and the former president has spent the past weeks promoting QAnon content on his Truth Social platform, ever since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago residence and found hundreds of top secret, highly classified documents. ”
A member of the right-wing group Oath Keepers stands guard during a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building on January 5, 2021 in Washington, DC.
We can’t dismiss them as outliers. They are not the exception. They are the GOP’s base.
More than half of Republican Senate candidates have “rejected, cast doubt upon or tried to overturn the 2020 election results.” This includes retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen Don Bolduc, who just won the GOP primary for the New Hampshire senate seat—despite a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spending $4 million to support Bolduc’s less crazy GOP primary opponent, Chuck Morse. Buldoc, for his part, channeled Leonidas and celebrated his victory with cosplay—appearing with a small shield with arrows to symbolize his triumphant victory over the GOP establishment. (Bizarrely, two days after winning his primary, Buldoc flip-flopped, admitting Biden is the “legitimate” president.)
The sad reality is that Bolduc, Finchem, Gosar—along with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebart, Matt Gaetz, and Pennsylvania GOP candidate Doug Mastriano are the present and future of the Republican Party.
Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc greets supporters at a town hall event on September 10, 2022 in Laconia, New Hampshire.
Scott Eisen/Getty
If we don’t speak out, then we will be complicit in normalizing their antisemitic conspiracy theories, hate, threats, and “wanton” recklessness simply because they are conservative, white, and Republican. If MAGA’s radicalized violence is not terrorism, then the word should be retired for good, or we should finally admit we’re only comfortable using it when the suspects are Black and brown people.
Nonetheless, President Biden, elected officials, law enforcement, and leaders from various institutions now have an opportunity to build upon Biden’s bold statements and go step a further to save our fledgling democracy: Declare MAGA as an active terror threat to our nation and finally treat them as such— instead of coddling them under the pretense of civility, the delusion of bipartisanship, and the hope for good TV ratings.
Thug rule! This is how the right intends to have and keep power. These are legal events that are not in any way offensive to normal people. They are in public and well chaperoned. Yet the republicans have made such wild statements their cult base thinks that all drag shows are a sexual orgy and that children are the star participants. It is really just Halloween dress up. This event was by teenagers for mostly teenagers. But this really is like the brownshirts that Hillter used to enforce his ideas and push him into power. These are gang thugs, the mentality of the Taliban. Are we going to tolerate this in the US? Where is law enforcement to say they won’t tolerate this terrorism against the people? If this were a Muslim group threatening this stuff the authorities would be all over that group and would be protecting the library and insisting the events be held. But because this is a gang of white Christian thugs forcing everyone to live by their morality and church doctrine the authorities tolerate it. This has become the normal response by the right now to things they don’t like. It started with masks in schools and Covid precautions where these thugs took over school board meetings and threatened violence to those board members who tried to implement the best practices of the medical community. Trust me it will not stop at drag shows, trans people, the rest of the LGBTQ+. It will be anything and any event the right doesn’t like. It has already been tried at Democratic rallies, and it will get violent because the right believes they have the god given right to use force on others and that the republicans in charge will support them because they are working for republican goals. Will they come for the Jews next? Will they allow laws that they don’t like? Is the US a nation of laws and equality? Or are we a land of gang thugs that enforce a Taliban like vice patrol to enforce their views of what is acceptable that they will let the public do. Hugs
It was advertised as a “fun-filled afternoon” in a Bronx library with a “local celebrity/author who encourages you to embrace your own uniqueness.”
Instead, the free event planned at the Morrisania Library starring drag artist Desmond Napoles was canceled after the teenaged celebrity received hate-filled and violent threats — a trend that has led to many other family-oriented LGBTQ events being canceled across the nation.
Known by the stage name Desmond is Amazing, Desmond, 15, is an LGBTQ+ youth advocate, a published author and influencer with nearly 200,000 social media followers. The 15-year-old is also the owner of clothing line Be Amazing NYC.
Desmond was called “disgusting” and a range of slurs by a person using a recently created Instagram account who also threatened to use violence against Desmond and their family.
Desmond is Amazing wearing clothing from their clothing line, Be Amazing NYC. (Wendy Napoles)
“You need to be locked away in a dog kennel and thrown into the ocean,” read one of the 10 private messages sent to the teen, which were seen by the Daily News.
The nasty attacks on Desmond — a high school sophomore who likes to volunteer at the New York Public Library “because it’s really fun and it gives me something to do during the summer” — came after the Morrisania Library announced that Desmond would present two teen-focused sessions reading from their book, “Be Amazing: A History of Pride.”
The events were originally scheduled for Sept. 17 and 24. Late last week, however, both sessions had to be canceled following the threats, which were reported to NYPL officials and the NYPD.
“I’m going to that library, I’m going with a bucked of dog s–t and I’m pouring it on your parents and rubbing it into their eyes,” the hate-filled Instagram user wrote.
Desmond — who’s no stranger to threats, having performed as a drag artist for the past seven years — showed the messages to their mother, Wendy Napoles, who contacted the library.
Napoles, 45, figured they would be OK and that the person was “just another cyberbully” — something the family has encountered before. “But on Saturday, he called the library to find out if Desmond was still going to be there,” she told The News.
The person, a man with a phone number linked to a business in Louisiana, then went on an angry tirade, saying that such events should not be allowed at the library, calling Desmond “a little f—ot.” The library decided to cancel for the safety of everyone involved.
Amy Geduldig, an NYPL spokesperson, confirmed to The News that “the presenter of the programs has been experiencing harassment online and there were indications that the events would be disrupted by this harassment,” leading the branch to cancel the programs “out of an abundance of caution.”
Desmond was devastated and took the news as a “hit in the heart,” but the scrapping of the event is hardly an isolated incident.
Over the past few months, events involving drag performers in several U.S. states, including Illinois, California, Texas, Idaho and North Carolina, had to be canceled due to “increased threats of violence,” according to local authorities.
Earlier this week, a library in Chicago was forced to cancel a drag queen bingo “due to the severity of the threats made against the library,” while the Cool Beans Bar and Grill in Denton, Texas, pulled the plug on an all-age Disney-themed drag brunch after the host of a conservative program on Blaze TV urged her nearly 250,000 followers to help “shut it down.”
Desmond is Amazing (Wendy Napoles)
The owner of a bakery in suburban Chicago in July was forced to cancel a drag-hosted “Brunch at Night” event after the building “sustained significant damage” as the result of anti-LGBTQ vandalism. Earlier in the month, a drag performer at a Palm Springs bar faced “escalating threats” after right-wing outlets picked up a video she had shared on TikTok featuring a young girl joining her on stage and dancing to Donna Summer’s classic disco hit “Last Dance.”
In early June, a group of five members of the Proud Boys stormed into a library in San Lorenzo, Calif., to protest a Drag Queen Story Hour event. A few weeks later another protest took place in Woodland, near Sacramento, when police had to use pepper spray to control the situation.
Such cancellations and threats of violence are alarming for Napoles.
“These people are feeling more emboldened. You see them bragging that they’ve had a victory when they close down these events,” she said. Linking “this whole anti-LGBTQ rhetoric” to the 1950s, “where people believe now that gays were pedophiles,” she added, “This is bad.”
This is sickening. The state of Texas is terrorizing kids and their families. This has to be stopped. The mother says this is clearly political because the state leading politicians are in tough election fights. Hugs
Amber and Adam Briggle, parents of a transgender child in Texas, joins Yasmin Vossoughian to discuss the hardship their family has endured under the policies of Greg Abbott, including being investigated by the DFPS, and their message to parents and the public about how to support transgender children.
Racist much? Oh yes this is a completely racist screed. I lost count of the lies and misinformation trying to create the impression that all your problems are the fault of those bad brown people coming into the country. But Tucker loves him white Europeans especially those fascist white ethnostate ones that say no mixing of the races allowed like Viktor Orbán. Hugs
“When government officials send you the blessed gift of diverse immigrants or refugees, you must accept. That’s the rule.
“It doesn’t matter how disruptive these new people are. It’s irrelevant how much they cost to support or how dramatically your quality of life may decline after they arrive.
“It doesn’t matter if the crime rate spikes, if your daughter is afraid to go outside, if the schools become unusable, the hospitals fall apart. It doesn’t matter, you never complain. You take it like a man.
“You don’t even mention that it’s happening, even in private text messages to your friends. If you do, you’re a dangerous racist. You could wind up on a government list.
“That’s how America works. Everybody knows it because it’s been going on for a very long time. That’s the rule.” – Tucker Carlson, last night.
It needs to be repeated —because these horrible racist nazi fuckwads like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham never stop repeating their lies— that this whole thing has been thoroughly debunked and it is well documented that immigrants commit crimes in much lower proportions than native-born American citizens do.
These were rules that were working and were not causing problems that the governor is rolling back for ideological / political reasons. He is causing problems for trans and all the LGBTQ+ kids simply to appeal to the republican hateful maga base. I keep reading these red state governors talk about how they are empowering parents, and that the affirmative accepting polices disregarded the rights of parents. But what the right really is saying is a small regressive group wants to revert the society back to the 1950s and undo all the gains of a progressive tolerant society. These parents and religiously driven people want to deny science, advances in medical knowledge, and deny the increased understanding of biology. They want to undo the civil rights protections gained since the 1950s and end anti-discrimination polices. The rules claim it is not up to the state or schools to impose an ideology on students but that is exactly what the maga red state republicans are doing, imposing a regressive republican exclusionary ideology to replace the progressive acceptance of diversity and inclusion. And in red states they are effectively dumbing down the education of kids while undoing the teaching of tolerance and decreasing acceptance of diversity. The last paragraph claims that this will let all kids attend schools without bullying, all kids that are traditional cis gender straight white kids maybe. The rest of the kids, the LGBTQ+ and non-white kids will face increased harassment and bullying from the kids from racist maga hater families and the teachers will be helpless to stop it, and some teachers will feel free to assist the bullies. This is regressing the country 50 years. Don’t forget they also are targeting children of color and racial acceptance, stoking the flames of discrimination by trying to whitewash history and calling the teaching of the truth of slavery as CRT. Hugs
The administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) is rewriting state rules to block transgender students from accommodations they would have received during the previous Democratic administration. (Al Drago/Bloomberg)
In a major rollback of LGBTQ rights, the administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) will require that transgender students in Virginia access school facilities and programs that match the sex they were assigned at birth and is making it more difficult for students to change their names and genders at school.
Under new “model policies” for schools’ treatment of transgender students released Friday evening, the Department of Education is requiring that families submit legal documentation to earn their children the right to change names and genders at school. The guidelines also say teachers cannot be compelled to refer to transgender students by their names and genders if it goes against “their constitutionally protected” free speech rights.
And the guidelines say schools cannot “encourage or instruct teachers to conceal material information about a student from the student’s parent, including information related to gender” — raising the prospect that teachers could be forced to out transgender students to their parents.
School districts must adopt the new state guidelines or “policies that are more comprehensive,” after a 30-day comment period that will begin on Sept. 26, the Education Department said. The Board of Education will not have to vote to adopt the policies.
“These 2022 Model Policies reflect the Department’s confidence in parents to prudently exercise their fundamental right under the Fourteenth Amendment and the Virginia Constitution to direct the upbringing, education, and control of their children,” the guidelines state. “This primary role of parents is well established and beyond debate. Empowering parents is essential to improving outcomes for children.”
The model policies reverse guidelines published in 2021 by the administration of Gov. Ralph Northam (D). Those guidelines mandated that transgender students be allowed to access restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities that match their gender identities, stipulated that schools let students participate in sports and programs matching their gender identities and required that school districts and teachers accept and use students’ gender pronouns and identities without question.
In their own guidelines, Youngkin administration officials wrote that Northam’s guidance sought “cultural and social transformation in schools” and “disregarded the rights of parents.” The Youngkin guidelines state the Northam-era policies are dead: they “have no further force and effect.”
The Northam guidelines were developed in accordance with a 2020 law, proposed by Democratic legislators, that required the Virginia Education Department to develop model policies — and later required all school districts to adopt them — for the protection of transgender students. The law does not define the specific nature of these policies but says they should “address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices” and says they should be designed to prevent bullying and harassment of transgender students.
But — in a move that is likely to draw legal challenges — the Youngkin administration has used that same law to issue its own version of the Education Department guidelines. The 20-page document released Friday states it is being issued “as required under” the 2020 legislation.
The Youngkin administration is also attempting to repurpose the period of public scrutiny the Northam-era rules were subjected to. Those guidelines, as is typical, were posted for weeks online so the public could share their reactions.
The Friday document states that Youngkin’s guidelines were developed by “taking into account the over 9,000 comments received during the public comment period” for the Northam-era policies.
“The 2022 model policy posted today delivers on the governor’s commitment to preserving parental rights and upholding the dignity and respect of all public school students,” Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a written statement. “It is not under a school’s or the government’s purview to impose a set of particular ideological beliefs on all students.”
The reaction from Democratic lawmakers was swift.
“These new policies are cruel and not at all evidence based,” tweeted Del. Marcus Simon, who was a co-sponsor of the Northam-era law. “If enacted these policies will harm Virginia children. Stop bullying kids to score political points.”
Allies of the governor praised the proposal. “Thank you @GovernorVA for fixing one of the most overreaching and abusive uses of a ‘model policy’ that I’ve seen,” tweeted GOP Del. Glenn Davis. “This new standard ensures all students have the right to attend school in an environment free from discrimination, harassment, and bullying.
In a video released yesterday, Radical Right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene can be seen literally kicking a Youth Activist from the organization Voters of Tomorrow as she walks in front of her. Meidas Contributor Texas Paul reacts to the disgusting act, highlighting how this shows what MAGA Republicans think of the average person not in congress.
A California man was arrested on Tuesday, April 20, 2022 and charged in federal court in Springfield, Mass. in connection with making threats against Merriam-Webster.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, Calif., was charged by criminal complaint with one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence. Hanson was released on conditions following an initial appearance in federal court in the Central District of California.
Hanson will appear before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Katherine A. Robertson in federal court in Springfield on April 29, 2022.
According to the criminal complaint, between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8, 2021, Springfield-based Merriam-Webster, Inc. received various threatening messages and comments demonstrating bias against specific gender identities submitted through its website’s “Contact Us” page and in the comments section on its webpages that corresponded to the word entries for “Girl” and “Woman.”
Authorities later identified the user as Hanson. As a result of the threats, Merriam-Webster closed its offices in Springfield and New York City for approximately five business days.
Specifically, it is alleged that on Oct. 2, 2021, Hanson used the handle “@anonYmous” to post the following comment on the dictionary’s website definition of “female”: “It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda. There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.”
Hanson also allegedly sent the following threatening message via the website’s “Contact Us” page: “You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed. It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny [sic] agenda and altered the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality. You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.”
The investigation identified numerous related threats, including to the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Land O’ Lakes, Hasbro, Inc., IGN Entertainment, the President of the University of North Texas, two professors at Loyola Marymount University and a New York City rabbi.
The charge of interstate transmission of communications to injure the person of another provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
Hanson, a Trump supporter who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Los Alamitos, has been carrying out his threat spree for several years, prosecutors say. That April, an unnamed Land O’ Lakes employee reported a threat Hanson allegedly posted on Instagram using the handle @quinserath1: “Land O Lakes headquarters deserve to be shot up and bombed for turning into a cultural Marxist company that panders to political correctness.”
Prosecutors say Hanson followed up with an email to “several” DC Comics employees, under the subject line: “I am going to shoot up and bomb your offices for ruining Superman.” “First, you turn him into a faggot,” the body of the email read. “Now, you make him anti-American. You fucking Marxist pieces of shit. I will make you pay,” the message read, threatening to kill the publisher of DC and “rape and murder his wife.”
The same man, Jeremy David Hanson, was just charged with making death threats towards the Eau Claire, Wisconsin school board.
Hanson "leans very far right politically," according to sources close to him. https://t.co/gxrqGgJIea
A California man has pleaded guilty to threatening a dictionary company and a university president. Though Jeremy David Hanson, 34, only pleaded to charges regarding Merriam-Webster and the University of North Texas, his plea agreement details an extensive history of making politically infused — and usually transphobic or homophobic — threats against people and companies.
I am going to fucking kill you,” he wrote one DC Comics writer after the company announced that Superman — Clark’s son Jonathan Kent — was bisexual. “I am going to rape your wife and decapitate her then blow up DC Comics headquarters.” “We are going to have a civil war and EXTERMINATE you cultural Marxists destroying America,” he wrote the author. “TRUMP 2024.” Court documents indicate that his threats against Merriam-Webster fit the same pattern.
Hanson also sent the following threatening message via the website’s “Contact Us” page: “You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed. It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny [sic] agenda and altered the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality. You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.”
On Oct. 8, 2021, Hanson posted another threatening comment on the dictionary’s website and a threatening message via the “Contact Us” page that read: “I am going to shoot up and bomb your offices for lying and creating fake definitions in order to pander to the tranny mafia. Boys aren’t girls, and girls aren’t boys. The only good Marxist is a dead Marxist. I will assassinate your top editor. You sickening, vile tranny freaks.”
As a result of the threats, Merriam-Webster closed its offices in Springfield, Mass. and New York City for approximately five business days. The charge of interstate transmission of threatening communications provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
My first report on Hanson’s arrest is here. Federal investigators had reportedly interviewed Hanson about similar threats multiples times since 2015. Sentencing is scheduled for January 5th.
California Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening Dictionary Publisher over Gender Identity Entries for ‘Female’ and ‘Girl’https://t.co/auToT6YINq
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