Category: Hate
Transphobia and Right-Wing Paranoia Are a Dangerous Mix
https://www.readtpa.com/p/transphobia-and-right-wing-paranoia
Thanks to Ali for the link to this article. As the article mentions, the trans scare is simply because some people are not manly enough or feminine enough to fit in with other random people’s ideas of what men or women should look like. As I have posted that leads to cis women being accused of being trans and assaulted trying to use the bathroom. Hugs.
The Barbie movie was fun, but the right-wing reaction to it shows that we’re living in a scary time for anyone who doesn’t fit neatly into a box.
JUL 31, 2023
Hello readers. Parker here.
I finally saw the Barbie movie over the weekend. I liked it! Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie are both fantastic, and it was good fun all around.
But today, I want to talk about something tangentially related to the movie (I promise that this will be my last post about Barbie or Oppenheimer… probably, at least). So, if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll probably recognize this actress as Doctor Barbie.
That’s Hari Nef. She’s transgender. This doesn’t come up at all in the movie. Still, Fox News went so far as to claim that Barbie was pushing a “trans agenda” by… uh… allowing a trans woman to have a job. “They gave Barbie the Bud Light treatment,” said a Fox guest, who was both upset that a trans woman was in the movie and upset that the movie’s marketing didn’t involve mentions that Nef is trans (though, I’m sure if the movie had included that in the marketing, she’d have complained about this being shoved “in her face;” the truth is that these ghouls just don’t want trans people to exist in society at all).
And this was kind of an ongoing thing on the right… though it created a few funny situations. For instance:
“Last I checked the Barbie movie is promoting biological women,” wrote Dom Lucre (a.k.a. Dominick McGee) on Twitter X. “I can’t disagree with little girls being influenced to remain a girl.” Attached to the tweet post was a photo of six of the film’s Barbies, including Nef (2nd from the right, wearing the sailor hat).
Here’s a clearer picture:
People were quick to note that a.) you have to be truly deranged to see a movie and immediately try to shoehorn it into your obsession with trans people1, and b.) that there is literally a trans woman in this very photo. Har har, he he, etc. Very funny stuff.
But I wasn’t interested in his post so much as I was interested in the specific genre of unhinged responses from his supporters.
Lots of his followers correctly deduced that there was a trans woman in the movie. What they didn’t do was accurately identify which character was being played by a trans woman. Let’s look at some examples (click the images to expand them).
As you can see, you’ve got a mix of people convinced that the actress playing the character on the left in the green dress, Ana Cruz Kayne, is trans. Others are convinced that Margot Robbie, herself, is transgender. And then, just for good measure, there were people insisting that not only is Robbie secretly a trans woman, but that Ryan Gosling, who has been on TV since he was 13 years old, is secretly a trans man.
None of those people are trans. It wouldn’t be a big deal if they were, but they’re not. This is awkward, yet instructive.
Are you familiar with “transvestigators?”
If not, buckle up, because it’s going to be a ride.
You may see the certainty of the people in the above screenshots calling Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling secretly trans and think, “Oh wow, what strange one-off claims!” And it’d be nice if that were true. Unfortunately, there’s a whole bunch of people on the internet who are absolutely convinced that pretty much every person in Hollywood is trans.
Here’s a video by Jamie Raines, a trans man, about the “transvestigator” conspiracy theory:
And here’s a longer video, by trans woman Mia Mulder, that contains even more examples and gets at the core beliefs of the conspiracy theorists:
And as Mia and Jamie both highlight in their videos, the targets of these sorts of “transvestigations” are often some of the world’s most attractive people. Like, oh, Brad Pitt was born female? And Angelina Jolie is male? Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, both trans? Sure! Why not?
Here’s the kind of stuff “transvestigators” will post online as evidence of someone’s transness. It’s pretty bizarre stuff. In an effort to out secret trans people, they begin seeing trans people everywhere they look. When all you have is a hammer…
But setting aside how weird and creepy it is for people to be staring at photos of complete strangers like, “Oh yeah, as you can see from the shoulder-to-hip ratio, that person is clearly…,” you may be wondering why this matters. After all, the “transvestigator” conspiracy theorists are a very small group of people. They’re not representative of your typical person who is opposed to trans rights, and they’re certainly not representative of society. That’s true. Still, this all ties together.
“We can always tell” … except for when they can’t.
The seemingly common belief that one can “always tell” who is and isn’t transgender is not only flawed but dangerous when combined with rising anti-trans sentiment and policies. And it’s not just harmful to trans individuals, but to anyone who doesn’t look “man-enough” or “woman-enough” to be a “real” man or woman — something that is itself a moving target that’s changed throughout history.
It’s built on a narrative that has led to women being accosted in restrooms, harassed on the streets, and physically assaulted. It’s a narrative that has seen little girls playing sports falsely accused of being “boys.”
Transphobia affects anyone who doesn’t look enough like complete strangers’ ideas of what a man or woman should look like, and that’s why we all should care about just how intense the anti-trans sentiment is getting right now in society.
Transphobia is a belief that is being used to police bodies, scrutinize appearances, and justify discrimination and violence — all in the name of “safety” or faux concern for “the children.” This is all by design, since the current anti-trans movement has never actually been just about trans people. It’s all part of a larger effort to roll back rights for the broader LGBTQ community, women, people of color, the disabled community, and more.
Just look at this June 2015 “Issue Analysis” for “Understanding and Responding to the Transgender Movement,” put out by the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council. Right from the start, it calls feminism, the gay rights movement, and the trans rights movement part of the same “assault on the sexes.”
Texas Professor Suspended For Criticizing GOP Lt Gov
Make no mistake, the fascist racist Christian nationalist right Republican Party will not allow any criticism or deviation from the party line. Hugs
The Texas Tribune reports:
Joy Alonzo, a respected opioid expert, was in a panic. The Texas A&M University professor had just returned home from giving a routine lecture on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch when she learned a student had accused her of disparaging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick [photo] during the talk. In the few hours it took to drive from Galveston, the complaint had made its way to her supervisors, and Alonzo’s job was suddenly at risk.
Alonzo was right to be afraid. Not only were her supervisors involved, but so was Chancellor John Sharp, a former state comptroller who now holds the highest-ranking position in the Texas A&M University System. Less than two hours after the lecture ended, Patrick’s chief of staff had sent Sharp a link to Alonzo’s professional bio. Shortly after, Sharp sent a text directly to the lieutenant governor: “Joy Alonzo has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud [sic] be finished by end of week.”
Read the full article.
The student who made the complaint is the daughter of GOP state Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who was endorsed by Patrick in the last election. Earlier this year, Buckingham attended the wedding of Chancellor Sharp.
Fearing retaliation, three other students who were at the lecture won’t allow their names to be published, but say that Alonzo mentioned Patrick’s opposition to policies that would mitigate opioid-related deaths.
Per the linked report, Alonzo has brought millions in federal research dollars to the university and was last year named its researcher of the year.
Far-Right Figures Are Behind Florida’s Slavery Lessons
You don’t say? What a surprise? People who say slavery was not all bad are on the far right? Just what we already knew. Hugs
Mother Jones reports:
Florida education officials William Allen and Frances Presley Rice, members of the group that crafted the standards, released a statement in response to the backlash. “The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted. This is factual and well documented,” the pair wrote. “Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history.”
The statement includes several examples of such historic figures, including blacksmiths, shoemakers, fishing and shipping industry workers, tailors, and ironically enough, teachers. But, it appears these Florida educators didn’t do their homework.
As critics were quick to note, many of the “examples” listed in the statement were never slaves, or they launched their respective professions only after gaining their freedom. The Tampa Bay Times pointed out several examples, including Booker T. Washington, listed in the statement as a teacher. “Washington was enslaved but did not gain his skills until after being freed at age 9,” the paper notes.
Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch:
Right Wing Watch had written about Rice years ago when she was chairman of the National Black Republican Association, an organization that once ran radio ads and erected billboards falsely claiming that civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. “was a Republican.”
In 2008, the NBRA produced a series of radio ads declaring that “the Democratic Party is a racist party” and attacking then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for being “an arrogant elitist who turned his back on poor blacks and his own country.”
In the wake of Obama’s election, the NBRA took it upon itself to issue a “White Guilt Emancipation Declaration” in which the organization unilaterally declared that all “white American citizens are now, henceforth and forever more free of White Guilt” because the nation had elected “a socialist who does not share the values of average Americans and will use the office of the presidency to turn America into a failed socialist nation.”
Montana judge temporarily lifts ban on drag performances ahead of major Pride event
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/29/montana-lifts-drag-ban-pride-00108877
These laws are being blocked by the courts because it clearly is an attempt to stop people from dressing in a way that fundamentalist conservatives don’t like. It is a way to attack trans people without saying trans. Drag is their word for men dressing as women, or women wearing the fabric of men. Notice they outlaw reading to kids or being in public wearing flamboyant clothing. Quote below. Glamorous or exaggerated costumes. So what are they protecting kids from, color? Are we all to wear drab Amish type clothing? There goes any dress up and make beleive. It is basically the Christian Taliban enforcing the dress code conservatives hope to push back to the stereotypes of the 1950s. What it comes down to is making laws to outlaw things that displease the most uptight right wing religious aunt in a family. Hugs
The law also made Montana the first state to specifically ban drag kings and drag queens — which it defined as performers who adopt a flamboyant or parodic male or female persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup — from reading books to children in public schools or libraries, even though the performances do not have a sexual element.
The ruling will allow Montana Pride to advertise and hold some of its events in public places.
Scenes from a drag show at the Montana Capitol held in protest against a slate of bills aimed at how trans Montanans live, April 13, 2023, in Helena, Mont. | Thom Bridge/Independent Record/AP Photo
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
07/29/2023 01:08 PM EDT
HELENA, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana temporarily blocked a new law that restricts drag performances just days before thousands of people are expected to attend Montana Pride’s 30th anniversary celebration in Helena.
The way the law is written “will disproportionally harm not only drag performers, but any person who falls outside traditional gender and identity norms,” including transgender people, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said Friday.
The law seeks to ban minors from attending what it calls “sexually oriented” performances, and bans such performances in public places where minors might be present. However, it does not adequately define many of the terms used in the law, causing people to self-censor out of fear of prosecution, plaintiff’s attorney Constance Van Kley with Upper Seven Law argued Wednesday.
“Plaintiffs, along with the approximately 15,000 Montanans who wish to attend the (Montana Pride) events, cannot avoid chilled speech or exposure to potential civil or criminal liability,” without the temporary restraining order, Morris wrote.
The ruling will allow Montana Pride to advertise and hold some of its events in public places, said Kevin Hamm, president of Montana Pride. The annual LGBTQ+ celebration — which includes a parade, street dance and drag brunch — begins on Sunday and runs through Aug. 6.
“The language used in the (temporary restraining order) is both impressive and should serve as a warning to discriminatory actions by legislators in the future,” Hamm said.
A lawsuit filed on July 6 challenges its constitutionality, and seeks a preliminary injunction to block it. The complaint was later amended to add the city of Helena as a defendant and Montana Pride as a plaintiff in order to request the more urgent move for a temporary restraining order. Montana Pride worked with the city to get permits to hold its public events.
The city of Helena supported the restraining order, saying the law put the city in the position of infringing on Montana Pride’s constitutional rights of free expression by denying the permit, or subjecting city employees to civil and criminal liability included in the law if it granted the permit. The lawsuit allows a minor who attends a drag performance that violates the law to file a civil lawsuit against organizers or participants at any time over the following 10 years.
The complaint — whose initial plaintiffs include a transgender woman, two small theaters and a bookstore that holds drag queen reading events — calls the Montana law “a breathtakingly ambiguous and overbroad bill, motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ animus.”
Judge Morris found that the law did not adequately define actions that might be illegal and appears likely to “encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”
Montana’s law is flawed — like similar laws in Florida and Tennessee that have been blocked by courts — because it regulates speech based on its content and viewpoint, without taking into account its potential literary, artistic, political or scientific value, Morris found.
“Drag is definitionally political and artistic speech,” said Diana Bourgeois, president of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the State of Montana, an organization that puts on drag reading events and one of the plaintiffs. “The court’s order today protects our right to be commentators and artists and to create a safe, joyful and welcoming environment through our expression.”
Like many Republican-led states, Montana’s conservative lawmakers have passed other laws targeting transgender people. The state is among those to ban gender-affirming care for minors — which is also being challenged in court. It also passed a bill to define sex as only “male” or “female” in state law.
The law also made Montana the first state to specifically ban drag kings and drag queens — which it defined as performers who adopt a flamboyant or parodic male or female persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup — from reading books to children in public schools or libraries, even though the performances do not have a sexual element.
The judge said the law does not define “flamboyant,” “parodic” or “glamorous,” among other terms.
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Morris has scheduled an Aug. 26 hearing on the lawsuit’s request for a preliminary injunction, which could continue to block the law while the case moves through the courts.
“We look forward to presenting our written response and full argument at the upcoming preliminary injunction hearing to defend the law and protect minors from sexually oriented performances,” Emily Flower, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, said in a statement.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell, has said that to him and his constituents, “keeping hyper sexualized events out of taxpayer funded schools and libraries” does not violate the First Amendment.
Editorial | On slavery and race, DeSantis shows his true colors
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Family Leadership Summit, July 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
By ORLANDO SENTINEL AND SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARDS | insight@orlandosentinel.com |
PUBLISHED: July 26, 2023 at 1:25 p.m. | UPDATED: July 28, 2023 at 4:43 a.m.
Long before Moms for Liberty, there were the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Their passion and influence kept generations of Southern children ignorant of how slavery had caused the Civil War and how cruel it had been. The “war between the states” was rather over “states’ rights” and tariffs. Confederate soldiers were the heroes of a “Lost Cause.” Kindly masters had been considerate to contented slaves.
Reconstruction was bad. The Ku Klux Klan was a benevolent civic organization.
The Daughters didn’t have to pull the truth from shelves. Its influence with state boards kept offending books from ever being printed or bought. When a University of Florida professor wrote that the South had been more in the wrong in the Civil War, the Daughters of the Confederacy got him fired.
In Florida, more than a century later, Southern revisionism is at it again.
Slaves with skills
To nationwide scorn and well-deserved derision, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Board of Education has approved a required Black history curriculum with “clarifications” that trivialize slavery and distort the record on racial violence.
Here’s one of them: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Another is worse: “Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to (the) 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C., Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre” (emphasis added).
And by?
In each of those massacres, Black residents were not the instigators. It is a fraud on history and a libel on them to imply that they were. There were cases where residents of African American communities took up arms to defend their homes, their families and themselves. But they were guarding against armed mobs, seething with racism, bent on arson and murder.
Feeding a fiction
From Donald Trump on down, contemporary Americans playing on race for political advantage have been trying to denigrate the Black Lives Matter movement by accusing it of responsibility for violence. The “and by” phrase, unnecessary and gratuitous and now officially part of the Florida social studies curriculum, feeds that fiction.
The mob that ravaged Ocoee in Orange County, where 25 homes burned and at least eight people died, was incited by two Black men attempting to vote. The massacre at Rosewood, which erased the settlement, was set off by a married white woman’s claim that a Black man had attacked her. The official state history cites Black survivors, who said the assailant was a white lover. (For a link to the Sentinel’s 100th-anniversary coverage of the Ocoee Massacre and images of our 1920s coverage, please visit our web site at orlandosentinel.com/opinion. We’re making that historic coverage, along with other fascinating local history, free for everyone this week.)
For Black history, Florida’s previous standards were extensive and objective, unlike Southern propaganda of the 1900s.
1 of 5
These images reflect the contemporary coverage of the Ocoee massacre by the Orlando Sentinel.
But one rotten apple can spoil a barrel, and this one has two. There was nothing beneficial about slavery, except to the masters. When slaves learned a trade, such as blacksmithing, carpentry, or caulking wooden ships, as Frederick Douglass did, it was not for their benefit but for the convenience and profit of their masters. And many of them arrived on these shores with those skills already mastered.
Vice President Kamala Harris accurately described slavery in her speech at Jacksonville, which was aimed at DeSantis without mentioning him.
“Adults know what slavery really involved,” Harris said. “It involved rape. It involved torture. It involved taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity … It involved subjecting to people the requirement that they would think of themselves and be thought as less than human… How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities … that there was some benefit?”
A defense from DeSantis
After DeSantis first said he “wasn’t involved” in writing the standards, he is now defending them.
This would be a good time for him to begin admitting he was wrong. His critics are feasting on this one.
DeSantis owns this horrific mistake, even if he didn’t personally write the standards. It is his education department, run by his appointees.
Cues are obvious in the dog whistles he’s sent. He banned critical race theory in schools (where it wasn’t even being taught.) He signed a law meant to banish all talk of the relevance of past or present racism from Florida schools and workplaces. He’s made it easier to purge school library shelves of innocuous books some people found to be objectionable because they reflected other cultures or talked about the history of civil rights.
The Department of Education’s attempt to document the “personal benefit” issue backfired. Of the 16 historic Black people it cited, as many as half had never been enslaved, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Others, notably the educator Booker T. Washington, acquired their skills after they were freed.
Douglass’ master kept most of the money he earned caulking ships in the Baltimore yards. Fearful of being sold South, Douglass made his escape to become an eloquent, world-famous advocate for the millions in chains.
His memoir recalled how the master, Hugh Auld, rebuked his wife for teaching him the alphabet when he was 11.
Literacy would “forever unfit him for the duties of slave,” Auld said. He should “know nothing but the will of his master and learn to obey it.” This harsh reality, which viewed high-quality education for African Americans as a threat to Caucasian control of society, echoed for decades as Black students were forced into segregated schools. Even now, some schools in high-poverty areas with large minority populations can lack access to options such as advance placement or International Baccalaureate programs.
This is the hideous legacy DeSantis is trying to revive. And no matter how much he squirms and dodges, he can’t erase the stain his actions are leaving on Florida’s reputation.
Coming later this week
DeSantis’ attempts to weaponize racism are turning Florida into a laughingstock and, at long last, turning fellow Republicans and donors against him. Why did it take so long?
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and Anderson. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
RESURFACED videos of Matt Walsh Refereeing NAZI DIAPER WRESTLING
How The Religious Right Ruined Everything
Wow, oh wow. This is so informative and full of information I had to go over some spots several times. The host talks rather quickly, more than I am used to and I did not check the CC as I was listening only as I was doing something else. But my dogs that love gravy she has this stuff down. Hugs
Tyler Perry Offers $100,000 Reward For Information On Killing Of Gay Man
Josiah “Jonty” Robinson, a singer in Grenada, was found dead on a beach last month, with an autopsy reportedly concluding that he’d been strangled.
Jul 27, 2023, 01:43 PM EDT
Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry is hoping to find answers in the killing of Josiah “Jonty” Robinson, offering $100,000 to anyone with information that leads to a conviction.
Perry announced the reward Wednesday on Instagram after 24-year-old Robinson, an openly gay singer in Grenada, was found dead on a local beach last month. Perry, a writer, director and producer known for wholesome comedies featuring mostly Black casts, said his friend Yvette Noel-Schure was in tears when she told him about the killing.
“My soul ached as she shared that he was a young, gifted singer who was murdered because he was gay,” he wrote. “Yvette and I are offering a $100,000 dollar reward to anyone who brings forth information that leads to the conviction of the murderer.”
Robinson’s body was reportedly discovered in the same area of Grenadian town Morne Rouge where he had performed songs the day prior.
Speaking to The New Today, a source close to the Royal Grenada Police Force said an autopsy concluded that Robinson was strangled and thrown into the ocean. The local outlet later reported that police had questioned several people without making a breakthrough in the case.
Elsewhere in his Instagram post, Perry reflected on how Robinson’s death echoed similar tragedies from recent years.
“My mind immediately went to … [Matthew] Shepard, and all the other victims of racist, homophobic, antisemitic, xenophobic, senseless violence,” he said, referring to a gay student at the University of Wyoming whose 1998 killing sparked calls for stronger protections against hate crimes.
In a Wednesday essay for British Vogue, friend Tenille Clarke said that Robinson, who described himself on social media as a “Youth Ambassador,” lived as “an outspoken, openly gay man” in an environment that was hostile at times.
“While Pride month is celebrated annually in metropolises such as New York … his approach to activism in the Caribbean as a member of the LBGTQ community – his voracious desire to live in his simple, beautiful truth – often became a cyclic matter of life or death,” she wrote.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Royal Grenada Criminal Investigation Division at +1 (473) 440-3921.
The murders keep happening just for being gay. Tears… Here is a photo of 24 yr old Josiah
https://www.huffpost.com/en…
‘Arthur’ Book Facing Ban in Florida Over This One Wacko Complaint
https://www.thedailybeast.com/arthur-book-facing-ban-in-florida-over-this-one-wacko-complaint
A minority of a minority with in a minority is trying to force a religious strict moral view of what is acceptable in society. These small groups of driven fundamentalist, who think any advances in society since the 1950s angers their deity they are desperate to please, use threats and violence to take the rights away from everyone else. This one man is demanding the right to decide what everyone’s children get to read and see. Removing other parents rights to bring up their children as accepting of others and themselves. Please note the harm he claims will happen because of this book, damaged souls. One line about playing spin the bottle. Tell me what five year even knows that could be sexual. Kids start playing that as preteens as they go through puberty, daring each to kiss someone. So it is an innocent line, there is no description of what it is. If a kid asks, the adult says it is a game played with the bottle to see how long you can keep it spinning or something. Even worse if they lose their attempts to get a book removed all they have to do is keep filing complaints which keeps it off the shelves or the book get removed as too much of a problem. Hugs
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The children’s book is under review in one school district after a local conservative activist ranted that one aspect of it could “DAMAGE SOULS.”
Brooke Leigh Howard
Published Jul. 27, 2023 12:44PM EDT
A lone parent filed a complaint to a Florida school district that a book in the Arthur series—yes, the same Arthur from the beloved PBS animated show—contained references to Spin the Bottle, and now it’s possibly on the district’s chopping block.
A member of the Clay County School District community, based in Green Cove Springs, filed the challenge on July 12 to Marc Brown’s Arthur’s Birthday, a children’s book geared towards students in kindergarten to sixth grade. District spokesperson Terri Dennis told The Daily Beast that it was among 45 challenged titles now “pending oversight committee review.”
On Wednesday, the district provided The Daily Beast with the stack of challenge forms the school district had received for July. At least eight book challenges filed that month were submitted by a local conservative activist named Bruce Friedman.
Arthur’s Birthday details the title character’s upcoming birthday and how it falls on the same day as another party for a classmate, who happens to be a girl. Arthur wants all of his friends to show up, and figures out a plan to combine the parties together. At the end, Arthur receives a “Spin the Bottle” present from one of the girls.
On his form, Friedman wrote, “PROTECT CHILDREN!! IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE TO DISCUSS ‘SPIN THE BOTTLE’ WITH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN. THIS BOOK IS FOUND IN ALL/ALMOST ALL [DISTRICT SCHOOLS]!”
Friedman continued to scribble across the form how “SPIN THE BOTTLE” is “NOT OKAY FOR K-5 KIDS!” and how the content could potentially “DAMAGE SOULS.” He also included images from the book that he felt were not suitable for its intended audience.
“The entire book is about being inclusive of all friends and not only inviting boys or girls (based on your gender) to your birthday party,” literary watchdog Florida Freedom to Read Project wrote on Twitter.
Reagan Miller, a member of Florida Freedom to Read Project, said she believes book banners are just trying to create “chaos in the education system” and make a boogeyman out of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“I think it’s more to keep feeding a narrative,” she told The Daily Beast, suggesting that even Barney & Friends could be the next target.
Friedman wrote disapproving notes on other book challenge forms. However, he also included disparaging comments about librarians, suggested that district administrators needed to be fired, and consistently berated some authors for being “repeat offenders.”
Dennis told The Daily Beast that “95 [percent] of the book challenges in Clay County come from one individual in the community.” She didn’t specify who that individual was, but Friedman is responsible for nearly all book challenges in the county, according to independent newsletter Popular Information.
Friedman is the president of Florida’s chapter of No Left Turn in Education, a group known for fear-mongering the teachings of Critical Race Theory. According to the group’s website, its goal is to “use all forms of media to expose the radical indoctrination in K-12 education.”
At a Florida Department of Education meeting in December, Friedman bragged about creating a list of over 3,600 books that he felt contained “concerning content,” Popular Information reported. In June 2022, Friedman’s mic was cut off when he attempted to read a rape scene aloud during a school board meeting.
Friedman declined an interview request with The Daily Beast on Thursday. “No thank you,” he wrote in an email.
Clay County School District’s Library Media Services Manual states that “challenged materials should be presented to the District Curriculum Council.”
“Materials under question will be held until a decision has been made,” the manual reads. “A decision to remove materials from the library media center is based on the recommendation of the District Curriculum Council and the final decision of the Superintendent or designee.”
If a book is resubmitted as part of a complaint, the oversight committee—media and academic administrators within the district—can choose to completely chuck the book from schools’ libraries or dismiss the challenge. If the person who filed the complaint wants to appeal the group’s decision, then the school board schedules a hearing and they make the final call.
According to district records, as of Thursday, Arthur’s Birthday is still “Pending Oversight Committee Review.”
Scottie's Playtime 