So many of the horrible things happening in America right now, like teaching our children slaves were lucky to learn skills, or allowing women to bleed out in hospital parking lots, or pushing migrants into rivers to drown, could be stopped by the women who look exactly like me.
Being gay, lesbian, trans, or any other thing non-cis straight is not a sickness that needs to be cured. There is so much evidence, medical science, peer reviewed studies that show that being LGBTQ+ is normal and that conversion therapy is extremely harmful. Dismissing all that evidence and data simply based on a belief in a book written over a century 2,500 years ago by people who did not even know about germ therapy and whose prophet preached it was not needed to wash your hands doesn’t make any sense. How does that make any rational sense to ignore all the medical / scientific advancements over this time span. These people that wrote those scriptures only knew what was understood at the time. Hell they thought the color of reeds seen by breeding livestock would determine the color of the offspring . There is no way in the modern age we should allow those ideas to harm the children of today, or use those writings to harm whole segments of society. This is 2023 and we know how damaging it is to try to convert a person’s inborn attributes. If you are straight, imagine going through a program to make you attracted to the same sex. What would it take for you to accept you were wrong and you now love the body parts that are the same as yours? I wish all states took this approach and actually cared about the kids instead of the hate rage. Hugs
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Wednesday that prohibits mental health professionals from using so-called conversion therapy on LGBTQ minors
ByJOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press
July 26, 2023, 3:45 PM
FILE – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at the SelectUSA Investment Summit, May 4, 2023, in Oxon Hill, Md. The scientifically discredited practice of so-called conversion therapy, which aims to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to h…Show more
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. — The scientifically discredited practice of so-called conversion therapy, which aims to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations, is now banned for minors in Michigan under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Michigan becomes the 22nd state to outlaw conversion therapy, which state lawmakers defined as any practice or treatment by a mental health professional that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. That does not include counseling that provides assistance to people undergoing a gender transition.
Whitmer, who is the mother of a member of the LGBTQ community, said in a statement that banning the “horrific practice,” of conversion therapy was necessary to making Michigan a place “where you can be who you are.” She signed an executive directive in 2021 prohibiting the use of state and federal funds for conversion therapy on minors.
An estimated 15% of LGBTQ minors in Michigan have reported that they have been threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy as of 2022, according to the advocacy group The Trevor Project.
LGBTQ rights advocates have decried the practice for years, citing research suggesting the practice can increase the risk of suicide and depression.
The ban was approved by the Michigan Senate last month in a 21-15 vote — with one Republican siding with Democrats — after previously being passed by the state House. Republicans in opposition said the legislation could interfere with the work of mental health professionals.
Protecting the rights of Michigan’s LGBTQ community has been a priority for Democrats since they took control of the state government earlier this year. In March, lawmakers amended the state’s civil rights act to codify LGBTQ+ protections and permanently outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state.
Lawmakers in Minnesota, where Democrats also seized control earlier this year, passed a similar ban on conversion therapy in April. In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs issued an executive order last month that prohibits state agencies from using funds to promote or facilitate conversion therapy.
The Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for the LGBTQ+ community in May in response to what it called an “unprecedented and dangerous” spike in discriminatory legislation sweeping statehouses this year. The emergency declaration is the first in the 43-year history of the HRC.
CNN shared a segment about a family from Florida forced to leave due to anti-trans laws passed by Governor Ron DeSantis that impact their trans teenager. Sick, sadistic conservatives celebrated the family’s suffering and claimed it was funny and good.
These white men won’t quit until the US is a Christian theocracy policed by Christian Taliban moral police thugs. Some important quotes that show their mindset. Regardless of the legislative strategy, the panelists agreed changing the culture of America to take on a Christian biblical worldview, which will require all pastors to take the same position on abortion as their own. Also week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. The panel was part of a week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. The moderator of the panel, Derin Stidd, opened by asking, “Why do you all hate women?” to which the men laughed. Hugs
Florida's new African American history standards include a requirement that middle schoolers learn "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." @goni_lessanhttps://t.co/DCjauBVLbV
Enslavers defended slavery by claiming it was a “positive good” for Black people. Today Florida’s Board of Education approved new Black history standards that note enslaved Black people developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”https://t.co/xNEIZoK4o3
^ That captures it in a nutshell. The education of slaves was to benefit the people holding them in bondage as property.
Some of his fans are disappointed they don’t get to see him in action.
So DeSantis and his followers trash talk and urge boycotts against a company in which the trust fund HE oversees invests; and when his followers boycott the company and crash the sales, he threatens to sue the company. What a maroon.https://t.co/UcBeyANmTL
If I’m understanding this correctly, DeSantis praised the Bud Light boycott, claimed he’d never drink the beer again, and now wants to sue because … the boycott he endorsed and engaged in had consequences? https://t.co/cKJyHkvZVB
It seems entirely premature, but the looming Oct. 1 deadline for state parties to submit delegate changes to the RNC has the Trump team moving to lock down their support now—and know where they might stand if there’s a 2nd ballot on the floor. https://t.co/E4LE7i5we6
Texas A&M University said on Friday that its president would retire “immediately” after fallout surrounding political pushback of a new director of its journalism program because of her work promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Germany’s 1933 civil service law applied to university professors as well as elementary and secondary-school teachers. … Scholars who were Jewish or supported left-leaning parties struggled to find research and teaching positions in public, government-supported German universities and often worked in private ones instead. With the passage of the new law, the Nazis attempted to root out any dissent to their policies and ideology that remained in German higher education.
They call it other things, like “Protecting Children” or “Academic Freedom”. None of which is their actual goal, but it’s just bigotry and racism repackaged to make it more palatable.
Honestly, who would be against diversity? Racists… that’s who.
🚨BREAKING: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signs new congressional map that does NOT contain the second majority-Black district that the U.S. Supreme Court required.
Parents and police at the Chino Valley Unified School District board meeting.Photo: KTLA screenshot
California State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond was kicked out of a contentious four-hour meeting of the Chino Valley Unified School District board on Thursday evening after he allegedly spoke for more than his allotted one-minute time limit against a policy to out transgender students to their parents.
An estimated 300 people attended — many on both sides of the issue waving flags, T-shirts, and signs — and 83 people commented during the meeting. The board eventually voted 4-1 to approve the policy, which will require educators to notify parents within 72 hours if their child requests to use bathrooms, pronouns, or names that don’t match the gender and name listed on their birth certificate.
The state once allowed trans students use bathrooms, pronouns, and play on sports teams matching their gender identities. Not anymore…
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“The policy you consider tonight may not only fall outside of privacy laws but may put our students at risk,” Thurmond said before being ejected. In response, school board President Sonja Shaw said, “Tony Thurmond, I appreciate you being here, but we are here because of people like you,” Shaw said. “You’re in Sacramento, proposing things that pervert children.”
As security officers led Thurmond away, some attendees chanted, “Kick him out!” Officers also ejected several other attendees. While some of the other public commenters said that parents have a right to know if their child is questioning their gender, others said the policy will violate trans students’ privacy by outing them to their potentially unsupportive parents and will also burden teachers with additional stressful responsibilities that will diminish student-teacher trust.
In a statement issued via Twitter after the meeting, Thurmond wrote, “I don’t mind being thrown out of a board meeting by extremists. I can take the heat — it’s part of the job. What I can’t accept is the mistreatment of vulnerable students whose privacy is being taken away.” He also wrote that ejecting him from the meeting silences the voices of those he represents.
“Let me be clear,” he continued, “I will always stand with California students and will use every power of my office to protect them from politicians who seek to divide our communities instead of keeping our kids safe.”
Tonight I went to a school board meeting to stand up for LGBTQ+ students who invited me to join them as they spoke out against a radical new policy that threatens their safety. When done speaking,the board president verbally attacked me an instructed the police to remove me.(1/5)
In a letter to the Chino Valley Unified school board Thursday evening, state Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote, “By allowing for the disclosure of a student’s gender identity without their consent, Chino Valley Unified School District’s suggested Parental Notification policy would strip them of their freedom, violate their autonomy, and potentially put them in a harmful situation. Our schools should be protecting the rights of all students, especially those who are most vulnerable, and should be safeguarding students’ rights to fully participate in all educational and extracurricular opportunities.”
The policy is supported by several anti-LGBTQ+ groups, including the California Family Council, a group that considers gender-affirming care for trans youth a form of “medical abuse”; the Pacific Justice Institute, which opposes bans on conversion therapy; and Moms for Liberty, a so-called “anti-woke, parents’ rights” group that has recently been labeled as an extremist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality California, called the district’s proposal “truly sick” and said it “directly, blatantly goes against state law.”
The California Department of Education’s (CDE) website states that “schools must consult with a transgender student to determine who can or will be informed of the student’s transgender status, if anyone, including the student’s family.”
The CDE states that “schools are required to respect the student’s wishes” and adds that in some “very rare circumstances where a school believes there is a specific and compelling ‘need to know,’ the school should inform the student that the school intends to disclose the student’s transgender status [to their parents or guardians], giving the student the opportunity to make that disclosure [themselves].”
Right-wing groups have said such policies are needed to prevent schools from “secretly” “encouraging” students to change genders without their parents’ knowledge. However, medical experts say that transgender and non-binary youth don’t transition just because their peers and adult figures pressure them to do so.
A 2022 Trevor Project survey revealed that only 32% of trans and nonbinary youths felt that their home was a supportive and gender-affirming environment.
This about bigotry and erasing LGBTQ+ people from history. These same people refusing to teach kids about an openly gay political claiming he was a pedophile, insinuating he was abusing little children. He was said to be in relationships with a couple of older teens who were well over the age of consent. In NY at the time the age of consent was 14. But these same bigot haters have no trouble promoting the teaching of republican politicians who have been charged and found guilty of child sex abuse. Also there is a double standard. No one refers to Elvis as a pedophile or pederast. Priscilla Beaulieu was only 14 years old when she met 24-year-old Elvis Presley. At the age of 40, Elvis dated Reeca Smith, then 15 years of age. There are scores of examples of male celebrities and their 16-year-old girlfriends. This is just an excuse to prevent children from learning that gay people exist and are leaders in government. These haters want to wipe out any mention of gay or trans people from history and society. Plus these bigots refused to use the new textbooks with Milk in them even after the parents overwhelming told them to do so. Quotes below. Hugs
The repeated decisions by board members have drawn the ire of many Temecula parents, who have taken to city streets to protest the decision. They’re upset by the board’s conscious disregard of public opinion in which 98.8% of TVUSD parents voted to support the adoption of the new curriculum, according to data from the Governor’s office.
“Once again, it is clear that you are a homophobe,” the woman said while speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced that the state would be fining the Temecula Valley Unified School District in an ongoing battle over a social studies curriculum that involves gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
On Tuesday, the TVUSD board voted against the new curriculum, which has been endorsed by the state, adding to what has been a tumultuous span of weeks in which the governor and district have been trading jabs.
A 3-2 vote saw the board again reject the material solely based on the mention of Milk, a gay rights figure who paved the way for LGBTQ+ members today, becoming the first openly gay man elected into office in California. Board members and a group of parents are upset over allegations that Milk was a pedophile and had a relationship with a teenager while he was in his 30s.
As a result, Gov. Newsom imposed a $1.5 million fine for the district, in what he calls a “willful violation of the law.” He also plans on providing the new textbooks to TVUSD students prior to the start of the new school year, which begins on Aug. 14, along with the estimated $1.6 million price tag to acquire the textbooks.
“The three political activists on the school board have yet again proven they are more interested in breaking the law than doing their jobs of educating students — so the state will do their job for them,” Newsom said in a statement. “California will ensure students in Temecula begin the school year with access to materials reviewed by parents and recommended by teachers across the district. After we deliver the textbooks into the hands of students and their parents, the state will deliver the bill — along with a $1.5 million fine — to the school board for its decision to willfully violate the law, subvert the will of parents, and force children to use an out-of-print textbook from 17 years ago.”
OFFICE OF GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM
The repeated decisions by board members have drawn the ire of many Temecula parents, who have taken to city streets to protest the decision. They’re upset by the board’s conscious disregard of public opinion in which 98.8% of TVUSD parents voted to support the adoption of the new curriculum, according to data from the Governor’s office.
“They embrace the fact that Governor Newsom is getting involved because it’s almost like that’s their goal,” said Aaron Cook, a TVUSD parent. “Rather than doing what’s best for the students.”
On top of that, their current textbooks are dated and don’t contain an accurate representation of the state’s history, preventing children from receiving a thorough education.
“This is not a religious school district,” said another TVUSD student. “It’s a public school district that has to abide by California Public Education Code.”
In what was yet another emotionally charged meeting on Tuesday, a video shows one woman being escorted out of the room after confronting board members.
“Once again, it is clear that you are a homophobe,” the woman said while speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Other members voiced their full support for the efforts of the board members.
“I can tell you know that you have more support than you’ll ever know,” said one man, whose comment was met by cheers from others in the crowd.
Upon request for comment, TVUSD issued a statement on behalf of Board President Komrosky, which said:
“I speak personally here and not on behalf of the entire TVUSD Board when I say, the Temecula Valley Unified School District is not done with its work on curriculum for the 2023-2024 school year. We continue to engage our parents and work diligently towards finding the right solution for our community, and every day we make progress towards that goal. We still have the time to continue this critical process and meet all state and federal mandates before the next school year begins. Throughout this process, we have put a high value on Board priorities such as curriculum & instruction as well as family & community. One such policy priority of the Board is that “Our families and community members will feel connected, informed, and welcome to participate as true partners in the education of our students.” We take that policy seriously and intend for those words to have actual meaning. Additionally, parental feedback is critical in collaborating with our educators, and executive staff to find agreement on what standards will best achieve educational excellence.
A critical component of that exercise is to determine the subject matter’s age appropriateness for any curriculum and the specific grade level at hand. While engaged in this process, I am confident that while reviewing any curriculum for use in this District, TVUSD will select the best material that emphasizes our mission of, “High-Quality Teaching and Learning for All”, but that also avoids any teacher-to-student conversations related to sex and sexual activity at the elementary school level. These conversations are better left to the parents and their children.
Despite our continuing work and commitment to core values, Governor Newsom has taken unilateral action to intervene in the middle of our work without even contacting the school district first to understand what the school district may be further doing to meet all of the curriculum needs of our students. What he calls inaction we see as responsible considerations for all of our community’s viewpoints as we come to a final decision and with time left to do so. To that end, I will be calling a Special Meeting of the Board for July 21, 2023, to consider a culmination of our work on this issue and the potential adoption of curriculum that meets all state and federal mandates. We do not appreciate Governor Newsom’s effort to usurp local control and all that will apparently result from these tactics is a waste of the taxpayers’ money. We sincerely hope he has a 14-day return policy with the publisher of the books he just purchased.”
“My question is, why even mention a pedophile?” he said at the highly contentious meeting.
In the time since, Newsom has directed public comments towards the school board, referring to Komrosky as “an ignorant person.”
Komrosky responded to the governor, in a rhetorically-charged statement of his own.
“I assure you that I am anything but ignorant regarding what you said. Governor, you said it right when you said this isn’t Texas or Florida as we could be so much better than these states if we had better leadership than the top levels of government…,” Komrosky said.
This is the latest instance of the California governor’s attempts at preventing book banning, both in the Golden State and nationally, after interjecting himself into ongoing debates in Republican-controlled states like Texas and Florida.
The mention of LGBTQ+ material has been highly-divisive in school districts across the United States, with several notable instances taking place in Southern California in recent months.
A private gender neutral bathroom is normally one that is single person / family usage with a door lock. This raw outrage is what right wing lies and propaganda that trans people are just men trying to attack little girls in bathrooms. This man felt entitled enough to shout and abuse lower level employees in public over his perceived grievance. He felt he wouldn’t face any consequences for doing so. Also these people think they are the only people that have a say and they voice the opinion of the majority of people when they do not. They get to decide who has what rights in public, no one else. They are in charge in their minds. Trans people have been around forever and using public bathrooms for as long as the facilities existed. How crazy and entitled have these right wing maga outrage addicts. Hugs
A video has been making the rounds on social media of a man having a meltdown inside a Fairview, Ohio Petco because the location had a private gender-neutral bathroom.
The footage depicts the man yelling at employees: “This is stupid! People have had enough of that crap. I don’t care what your policy is.” In the meantime, his terrified (and perhaps embarrassed) dog tries to pull him in the opposite direction.
Anti-LGBTQ+ trolls Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles finally said the quiet part loud.
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One employee then tells him to “ask to speak with somebody.”
“I just did!” he screamed, gesturing toward the person behind the desk at the grooming department. “She just told me it didn’t matter. She’s about to talk to me like that?”
He then begins to walk out.
“Stop with the gender-neutral sh*t,” he says as he heads toward the exit. “Men and women are different.”
He then demanded the employees “pass it up the chain” because “people are tired of it.” As he says this, an employee stands at the door and emphasizes that he needs to leave.
“You’ll have to do that because it’s your concern,” the employee says.
As the man repeatedly tells him to “pass it up the chain,” the employee again responds, “I don’t have a problem with it so I’m not going to.”
The incident comes on the heels of a chaotic Pride Month during which conservatives repeatedly called for boycotts of any company that expressed support for the LGBTQ+ community or sold Pride merchandise.
In addition to posting videos of themselves walking the aisles of stores like Target and being outraged by rainbow clothing, some even threatened violence, with multiple Target locations receiving bomb threats.
Gay and trans people exist, get over it! Gay and trans kids exist. LGBTQ+ people are real and in every part of society. We deserve equality and our civil rights. We deserve representation in media as much as white religious people. These programs are not sexual acts or positions instructions. These programs do not teach kids how to change their genders and flaunt their parent’s god. What they do is give kids information on what some feelings they are having might be, they teach that different people exist. These programs increase understanding, acceptance, and tolerance for people that are different. That is what really is horrifying to these religious bigots. They seem to think if they deny that LGBTQ+ people are real, if they wipe out any representation of them in media of all kinds, they can make the LGBTQ+ disappear. Poof, gone. It doesn’t work that way! It is like claiming that redheads don’t exist and removing books and movies that have redheads in them that redheads will disappear. Do they think if they ignore people of color, they will just stop existing? It doesn’t happen that way. Like red hair and skin color being LGBTQ+ is something you are born as, it is not learned or a lifestyle choice. Remember there have been gay and trans kids / people in all the history of the human existence. I grew up in a time and place where there were no books about gay kids, there were no movies with gay kids, there were no out gay people among anyone I knew. Yet I was gay, I knew it in every part of me that I was attracted to boys growing up. I felt it, I was experiencing it, but I had no understanding of what it was. As I got near my teens, I thought I was the only one in the world that felt this way. How great it would have been for me in school to have been able to see a movie with a gay boy and have it be accepted as normal. How great it would have been to read stories of gay boys instead of straight boys and girls only all the time. It is like if you were black and had to watch movies or read books with only white people in them. And think how great it would have been had a teacher explained to me and my classmates what those feelings were, and that there was a world of good role models for people like me. Think of the years of teenage bullying that could have been avoided or tempered if the schools / teachers had inclusion and acceptance programs. These religious bigots want their kids to be able to shame and insult / bully LGBTQ+ kids without any push back or consequences. These bigots have to learn to coexist with others. They are not living in a bubble, in isolation. They are like the Amish except they are not happy with themselves being allowed to ignore advances / changes in the world but they are demanding that everyone else do so also. They are demanding that everyone live as they do and the world pretend that only they are real. Hugs
A group of parents is suing the school board to allow them to opt their children out of LGBTQ+-inclusive lessons.
Parents protest Montgomery County Public Schools no opt-out policy.Photo: Screenshot/WUSA9
Parents are demanding that a Maryland school district allow them to opt their children out of its LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum.
As Axios reported last month, in March, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Rockville, Maryland, ended a policy allowing parents to opt their students out of the district’s pre-K–12 language arts curriculum, which had been updated to include books featuring LGBTQ+ characters.
States across the country are banning discussions of LGBTQ people in schools. Not Maryland.
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According to a district statement on its “Inclusive and Welcoming Learning” initiative, the LGBTQ+-inclusive materials are part of the district’s efforts to cultivate “an inclusive and welcoming learning environment” and “to create opportunities where all students see themselves and their families in curriculum materials.”
In a Frequently Asked Questions section of the statement, the district notes that there is no “explicit instruction on gender and sexual identity in elementary school as part of content instruction,” adding that the LGBTQ+-inclusive books “include a diversified representation of people.”
The decision to end the opt-out policy, which the district instituted last October, led to an outcry from religious groups and members of the community. Protesters began showing up at Montgomery County School Board meetings in late March.
In May, a group of Christian and Muslim families sued the Montgomery County school board and superintendent, arguing that not allowing them to opt out of the lessons violates their First Amendment rights.
“Our clients represent families from all across Montgomery County with diverse religious faiths,” Will Haun, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty which is representing the families, told KATV in May. “And while they have differences on those issues, they share one thing in common, which is the right of parents to direct their children’s religious upbringing and their education, especially when it comes to sensitive issues, like a person’s identity, their child’s own identity.”
According to WUSA9, the lawsuit points to a Maryland law that requires school systems to establish opt-out policies for students. But in its own court filing, MCPS said that the school administrators are allowed to deny opt-out requests if they become too burdensome.
“Individual schools could not accommodate the growing number of opt-out requests without causing significant disruptions to the classroom environment and undermining MCPS’s educational mission,” MCPS’s response read.
Last Thursday, both protesters and counter-protesters again descended on a Montgomery County School Board meeting. As WUSA9 reported, the protest against the no opt-out policy was led by Muslim parents, one of whom argued that religious children were being bullied and labeled as bigots by their peers.
“You say you want to protect the rights of trans children and their families while simultaneously you violate the rights of other children and their families,” Nadhira Rasheed said.
Rachel Hull, the parent of a non-binary child, was among the counter-protesters. “Much of the opt-out arguments are couched as parental rights and religious freedom,” she told WUSA9. “But what it boils down to is that the LGBT+ community is being told that their very existence is abnormal. And that their identity should be a source of shame.”
Scottie's Playtime 