Florida County Bans Kids Book About “Hugging Lion” JMG

I am posting this because of the comments.  At the end of the comments you will see what I and Ali have been saying, if gender can not be discussed then teachers can not be addressed as Mr. or Mrs or Miss.  Also how to explain what bathrooms kids are required to use without discussing gender?  Then also if sexual orientation can not be discussed and same sex couples can not be mentioned, why doesn’t that also mean that opposite sex couples shouldn’t be mentioned?  Hugs

The Tallahassee Democrat reports:

Manatee County officials have removed “Christian, the Hugging Lion” by Justin Richardson, a 32-page children’s book about two men who raise a lion named Christian in a London apartment. When Christian becomes too big, the two men release the lion into the wild in Africa. When the men go to visit Christian in Africa, they find that he remembers them. The book is based on a true story.

The district cited The Parental Rights in Education Act as the reason for removing the book from district libraries. The Parental Rights in Education Act has a line prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms. While the two men, John and Ace, lived together in London and raised Christian the lion, it is never explicitly said in the book whether the two men were in a relationship.

Read the full article.

 


 

 

 

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The documentary is about 45 minutes long, if you’ve got time it’s really sweet.

(Edit: This is just a clip of the background to the story and the happy ending. The full documentary is on YouTube if you search “A Lion called Christian”.)

You know, the one profound thing that YouTube did for me very early on was to intro me to human-animal bonding that I never knew existed. It’s not just domesticated animals we’ve had bonds with. It’s a massive variety of animals!!

I hate to remind them that there is another book where the hero was parading around his home country with his 12 male companions, sleeping and eating together. Oh yes, Jesus and his 12 apostles. living and sleeping together for years. So, lets remove the bible too. And any books about monks living in a monastery together… men living together… have to go. And even books about priests in a rectory in a parish…. The sound of music… nuns living together in the convent. Or Downton Abbey… They had male servants sleeping in the servants quarters.

Here’s a rule of thumb… If you are banning books, you’re on the wrong side of history.

Books don’t kill, bullets do..
And so they banned the books.

They don’t care if children make it through second grade alive, but they do care if your second grader reads about a lion.

PROTECT OUR CHILDREN!

From books? YES!

From Guns? Umm, what?

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“To read too many books is harmful.” -Mao Zedong

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Didn’t he also at one time say that if he was going to run for President, he’d run as a Republican because Republicans are so stupid they’d believe anything you told them?

Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act prohibits the discussion of gender identity in classrooms? Great. Using their corkscrew logic, teachers must be addressed by their first names only, never by their honorific like “Mr.” or “Mrs.” or “Miss.” or, god forbid, “Ms.” And of course we must remove any book that contains an honorific, or dares to mention a husband and wife, or grandma and grandpa.

I’ve been saying how are teachers able to explain the boys and girls bathrooms if gender isn’t to be discussed.

Yes, you can’t really explain to Steve why he can’t used the Girls bathroom, or Sally why she can’t use the boys bathroom, or question why Mark is wearing a skirt to school. All those require discussing gender identity.

And, as was mentioned, straight is a sexual orientation so any books with a married man and woman have to be removed too. Or any book that mention boy or girl or man or woman, because everyone has a gender identity (just like everyone has a preferred pronoun).

SCOTUS has ruled that the 2nd amendment is virtually unrestricted.
If so, then the 1st amendment should be as well. Banned book authors should file a class action lawsuit and make the same arguments the NRA has made.

These 5 books banned from Florida school shelves might surprise you

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2023/09/11/florida-book-bans-5-surprising-books-pulled-from-school-libraries/70788738007/

A small group of very vocal motivated fundamentalist religious right wing bigots who want desperately to return to 1950 are filing all these book challenges.  Again notice the damage one of the main complainers wrote.  “Damaged souls”!   They don’t care about the rights of other parents, just forcing their religious moral views on everyone.   These are public schools, not private Christian schools, but in Florida the fundamental religious bigots have taken over ruling as a majority when they are really a minority.   Hugs.


Here are five books removed from schools and the reasons why they were taken off the shelves.

Ana Goñi-LessanSteven Walker
Tallahassee Democrat
 
 

The Florida Department of Education released a list of all the books removed from school library shelves last year, and some of the titles might be surprising.

In total, Florida saw 386 book removals from 1,218 total objections last year, according to the list. Clay County had by far the most removals with 177 books removed. Martin County removed the second most books in the state with 98 books removed, followed by Manatee County in third with 25 books removed.

Books like “And Tango Makes Three,” Toni Morisson’s “The Bluest Eye,” and “Push” by Sapphire have made headlines for their removal, as parents have objected to their content for violating the Parental Rights in Education act, also known as “Don’t Say Gay,” or for containing material that is considered “sexual content” under House Bill 1069.

But also removed from school libraries, according to the list, are a book about a mammal from Asia and one of the most famous artists of all time.

Here are five books removed from schools and the reasons why they were taken off the shelves:

Ready Player One

Ready Player One
 

“Ready Player One” was removed from all Clay County School District libraries, according to a spreadsheet from the district, after it was reviewed by a committee of parents, librarians and principals.

The science fiction novel by Ernest Cline, published in 2011, was removed from K-12 shelves for mentioning prostitution, drugs and using profane language, according to the request form.

The book’s film adaptation, released in 2018 and rated PG-13, was directed by Steven Spielberg and nominated for an Academy Award.

The requester, a man affiliated with “No Left Turn in Education,” wrote his reasoning for flagging the book was to “PROTECT CHILDREN!! (sic)”

The requester said the book included “victimhood=CRT,” on page 320; prostitution references; drugs and pills on page 270; and profanity, including the F-word.

Under the question for what the requester believes will be the result of a student reading the material, the man wrote “Damaged Souls.”

Christian, the Hugging Lion

Manatee County officials also removed “Christian, the Hugging Lion” by Justin Richardson, a 32-page children’s book about two men who raise a lion named Christian in a London apartment. When Christian becomes too big, the two men release the lion into the wild in Africa. When the men go to visit Christian in Africa, they find that he remembers them. The book is based on a true story.

Manatee County officials also removed "Christian, the Hugging Lion" by Justin Richardson, a 32-page children's book about two men who raise a lion named Christian in a London apartment.

The district cited The Parental Rights in Education Act as the reason for removing the book from district libraries. The Parental Rights in Education Act has a line prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms.

While the two men, John and Ace, lived together in London and raised Christian the lion, it is never explicitly said in the book whether the two men were in a relationship.

The authors of “Christian, the Hugging Lion” were also the authors of “And Tango Makes Three”, a children’s book about two male penguins raising a family. The authors are already suing Florida and a county school in federal court over restrictions on the book.

Grappling with new law:Fearful Florida teachers tossing books, resellers say

Rockin’, rollin’ with book challenges:Internal emails show Moms for Liberty plans

Michelangelo

FILE - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi speak during a press conference in front of Michelangelo's "David statue" after their bilateral summit in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 23, 2015. The head of Florence’s Galleria del’Accademia on Sunday March 26, 2023 invited the parents and students of a Florida charter school to visit and see Michelangelo’s “David,” after the school principal was forced to resign following parental complaints that an image of the nude Renaissance masterpiece was shown to a sixth-grade art class. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)

FILE - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi speak during a press conference in front of Michelangelo's "David statue" after their bilateral summit in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 23, 2015. The head of Florence’s Galleria del’Accademia on Sunday March 26, 2023 invited the parents and students of a Florida charter school to visit and see Michelangelo’s “David,” after the school principal was forced to resign following parental complaints that an image of the nude Renaissance masterpiece was shown to a sixth-grade art class. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)
 

“Michelangelo (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists)” by Mike Venezia is a children’s book about the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, detailing some of his famous sculptures and paintings.

Manatee County district officials removed the book from libraries citing Florida Statute 847.012, titled “Obscenity,” and involves the sale or distribution of harmful materials to minors.

In early 2023, a Tallahassee charter school principal was asked to resign after among other issues, a parent complained a Renaissance art lesson that included Michelangelo’s “David” was pornographic.

Tallahassee Classical School, a charter school in the Leon County School District, was dropped from being a Hillsdale College-affiliated campus after news of the principal’s ousting went viral.

“To set the record straight: This drama around teaching Michelangelo’s ‘David’ sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become a distraction from, and a parody of, the actual aims of classical education. Of course, Hillsdale’s K-12 art curriculum includes Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and other works of art that depict the human form,” Hillsdale stated in a press release.

What on Earth is a Pangolin?

 

Manatee County officials removed “What on Earth is a Pangolin?” by Edward R. Ricciuti, a 32-page children’s book about Pangolins as part of the “What on Earth” series on obscure wildlife. Pangolins are scaly, anteater-like mammals native to Asia and Africa, and are the most trafficked mammal in the world, according to the World Wildlife Foundation.

A baby Chinese pangolin is being weighed at the Prague Zoo, Czech Republic, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. A female baby of Chinese pangolin has been born in the Prague zoo on Feb 2, 2023, as the first birth of the critically endangered animal on the European continent, and was doing well, the park said.

A baby Chinese pangolin is being weighed at the Prague Zoo, Czech Republic, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. A female baby of Chinese pangolin has been born in the Prague zoo on Feb 2, 2023, as the first birth of the critically endangered animal on the European continent, and was doing well, the park said.
 

Manatee County removed the book from district libraries, citing Florida Statute 1006.40(3)(d). However, section (3)(d) does not appear to exist under Florida Statute 1006.40, which is titled “Purchase of instructional materials.”

When asked for clarity and for a full copy of the objection, Manatee County did not respond in time for publication.

Will we ever grow organs?

Florida Virtual School removed a National Geographic article called “Will we ever grow organs?” from a digital anatomy and physiology course, according to a FLVS spokesperson.

The request to remove the article came from a teacher who teaches the course in a school that licenses the class from FLVS.

The teacher raised concerns about the doctor profiled in the article, Paolo Macchiarini. Macchiarini was sentenced to two years and six months in prison this past June after he was found guilty of gross assault.

While the 2012 article touts Macchiarini’s work building windpipes out of stem cells, a Swedish court said the surgeon “acted with criminal intent” by transplanting trachea into three patients, who all died when the implants failed, between 2011 and 2012.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to remove the article referenced from the new version of the course,” said FLVS spokesperson Hailey Fitch.

Cis Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Britons Overwhelmingly Support The Trans Community – #LGBWithTheT

This is in direct refutation of the anti-trans haters that keep claiming that all other countries are stopping trans treatment.  It is, like everything else they claim, a lie.  Hugs

My horrible summer in Canada

I have been distracted and unable to really function online the past week or more of days.  I have unfortunately been thinking / remembering / dwelling / reliving the summer of abuse I had when I was shipped off to Canada.  I guess the goal was to “make a man of me”.   I had a song I had recently learned and sang it to my self constantly along with “Lean on me”, “Bridge over troubled waters”, and a few others.  Songs about helping hands or someone willing to help.  But the song “Day is done” held a special meaning I created in my head as a small and tiny 12 year old boy desperate for help.  

I sent a request to Jill asking her to play the song without mentioning why.  She was kind enough to do so.  I had hoped the song being given Jill’s loving treatment of songs when she posts them would stop the intrusion of the memories of that summer from invading my life.  It did not.  So I wrote to Jill and explained why the song meant so much to me.  She was very gracious and we had conversations about it.   Again I hoped it would stop the memories.  It has not.  They are interfering with my interactions on the computer, I can not focus on stuff.  I get lost in my memories and emotions.  I want to hide in videos but I can’t even remember what I am seeing / hearing. 

I had mentioned to Jill that before on my other blog I use to talk a lot about my abuse when I felt the need to and that it helped me deal with it.   I also mentioned that I got attacked there for sharing my abuse on my blog because a couple of complainers felt it was upsetting, disturbing, and they got too upset reading it.  They complained it was turning off my readers but only a coubple said anything to me about not making the posts.   I think someone on this blog commented almost something similar when I wrote about the angry hurt rape I experienced by my teenage hell spawn sibling.  I asked Jill if I could share parts of the letter I wrote her detailing some of that summer.  She agreed and offered me comfort but also warned me of what I had told her of the complainters.  I think she did not want that to happen and upset me further.  

I took her advice and gave it a lot of thought.  Jill is a very smart compassionate woman who I admire.  But the memories won’t stop.  I even mentioned some of it to Ron in hopes that expressing that small amount would make the memories stop.  I try not to tell Ron too much of my abuse.  He is a wonderful loving man who knows I was abused physically, sexually, and emotionally, and he tries hard to comfort me when I have the nightmares and am in distress at night, when I thrash about, or wake screaming.  But again it is something I had never planned to share with him.  But when on a trip in 2007 I shared some of my childhood he had already had figured out I was abused, he just did not know how bad it was.

So in hopes it will help as my prior therapists have said it will, I will post what I shared with Jill, but I will edit it as needed.  ***Warning below is the story of the physical and sexual abuse I endured the summer I spent in Canada as a child. ***   If you do not want to know what I suffered, please skip the rest of this post.    Hugs  

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scottie-at-11 to 12

This is a picture of me that summer.  The picture was labeled 11 or 12.  But it was the summer after my 6th grade so I must have been 12 years old.  My birthday is in March.  I told Jill I was not sure if I was 12 or 13 but I must have been 12.  The dog is three-legged, named Prince, and was one of my only other comforts of that summer.  The woman watching me is the mother of my adoptive father.  I was always watched I guess to see if I broke a rule so I could be further punished.  To me the picture shows me still standing and being a normal boy despite what they were doing to me.  Hugs

As best I can figure out, I was adopted around the age three.  I don’t know if I had just turned three or how long I had been three but that is when the papers I found say I was, 3 years old when I was taken from the state of NY by bus to Vermont.  I have very vague memories of the trip.  The story about the song begins below.

I was 12 years old.  I was about to move into the Junior high school from our local small town school where the elementary school principal knew something was wrong and did what he could to protect me, to the joint JR / SR high school for the area in a nearby large town.  That summer my adoptive parents decided I should go live in Canada all summer from the end of school until start of the next, living with the adoptive father’s mother and her second husband.

The adoptive father was the oldest of 9 children.  His father was an abusive drunk who died when the adoptive father was starting the 8th grade.  He quit school to provide for his 8 siblings and mother.  He became an extremely well-muscled arrogant bruiser who loved bar fights and was well feared.  He hated the world and was very jealous of those that had an education and faired better than he did in life. It was that kind of anger at learning that caused him to ban me from having books including schoolbooks in the house for years because he felt I was not manly enough. But unlike his hell spawn boys he never showed me the secrets of the skills he did have, he was a master wood worker / carpenter with the certifications to prove it, a millwright, a skilled wielder, and other building construction related fields.  He was very talented with what he did, but his arrogant angry willing to fight attitude combined with his inability to understand math (other than tape measure measurements and basic addition / subtraction) kept him from ever advancing to the place in society he felt he deserved.  He also did not read very well and talked in an uneducated manner. He would be a proud maga today. He got the adoptive mother pregnant when she was 14 and, while she had very good intelligence something the adoptive father lacked, her schooling ended at that point.

Back to the summer I was sent off to Canada because the adoptive father did not want me around.  Please remember he had taken his anger and frustrations on me all my life to this point.  To say I was mistreated would be a huge understatement.  I was physically and sexually assaulted not only by him, but he made it clear to his hell spawn of two girls and two boys, all older than me by at least five years, they were free to use me or do to what they wished to me.  I knew not to complain.  But when I was in 1st grade as a very bruised slight boy in torn clothes who would put his head down on my desk and get some much needed sleep, the school investigated and the adoptive parents were accused of child abuse.  A story I will tell you if you wish, but not important to the song.  It caused the adoptive parents to move us three times in less than half a year to another state, back then to the same state, then again but a much smaller town.  The moved caused the charges to never be followed up on.  After that the beatings grew less and less severe, but the sexual abuse got much worse.

So at first I looked at the trip as an escape, not realizing what was instore for me.  The adoptive fathers mother married a man with a farm, it was a good farm but not great.  He had a married son that will become central to this.  After the adoptive parents left, I was sat down and explained the rules. I was to do as I was told, no argument or back talk, speak only to ask a question or when addressed, but otherwise keep my mouth shut, I would work as long as told, I would rest when given permission, I would obey all the time.  They explained that they were going to make a man of me.  I can only think that was the adoptive father’s directions, as it would happen outside the US so I would not have any help.   At first I thought it would be ok, I was used to mistreatment.  I figured I just needed to be good and work hard and it would be OK.  After all this was only for the summer. It got farther than I imagined very fast.

I will fast forward through most of the daily routine, the early morning being pulled out of bed, the working until I couldn’t stand up in the evening.  But here comes the point of this email and the song.  Sorry but to understand why it is so important to me I had to give you the background.

*** trigger warnings the worst of the abuse there ***

Almost every afternoon I would be ordered to the barn.  The worst part may have been I knew why and what was coming.  The son and wife of the adoptive fathers mother’s second husband would have canes. Sometimes to be extra cruel they would make me pick them up and hand them to them.  Remember these people controlled my life so there was no way not to go or to disobey.  The barn doors were closed and locked as I stood there shaking.  I was positioned facing a wall only inches from it.  Then when they were ready and positioned, I was told to “Run you little fucking bastard”!  As I turned and tried to run to find safety, they started to hit me with the wooden canes they used on the cattle. (one reason I refuse to use or have simple wooden crooked handle canes) They would chase me around until they had little slight tiny me cornered and beat me until I was on the ground.  I was ordered to my knees, ordered to undo Carl’s pants.  Open his belt, undo his pants button, pull the zipper down, and pull down his pants and underwear.  Then I was ordered to either lick his balls or take his penis into my mouth.  He was almost always hard by now but sometimes not.  I would suck him, give him oral sex, occasionally being directed by him or his watching wife to stop and suck or lick his balls, then return to giving him oral sex until he finished in my mouth.  When he came, I was to swallow and keep sucking his cock so that I got every drop.  If any drippled out of my mouth I would be beaten more with the canes, if I stopped before told I could, I would be hit with the canes.  During all the sex act part if they felt I was not trying hard enough to please him or for any reason she, the wife, would hit me with her cane.  During all this sex act time they both would be insulting me, calling me degrading names, threatening me with more beatings if I did not do better.  The worst was the times when after I had made him finish in my mouth and swallowed as commanded, pulled back up his underwear and pants, closed them up, sometimes I would be ordered to remain on my knees and not move.  By then my knees hurt so bad from kneeling on the concrete floor of the barn.  They would leave or move around the barn doing stuff, sometimes they would order me to follow them which was better for me as I could get off my knees.  Soon they would return or order me to get back on my knees, always with the threat of cane hits.  After the first couple times I knew what was to follow and I hated it more than all the rest. I would be ordered to unzip Carl and take out his penis.  Then put it in my mouth.  Then he would pee.  He would piss in my mouth.  I would be ordered repeatedly to swallow more, do it more quickly as it swelled out of my mouth as I franticly gulped down his pee.  If I did not drink as much as they thought I should I after I again put his cock back in his pants and zipped him up I would be beaten with the canes.  During all this time I would be told that I was a cum swallowing piss drinking worthless bastard and so much worse.  After they had their fun I was given free time until it was evening milking time when I was required to work again. I often begged just to give him a blow job to avoid the beatings and the pissing but that would have denied them a lot of their fun I guess.  Sorry to put you through this but most people have no idea of what my damned childhood was like.  Ron says it is an incredible miracle I am as sane or mentally, emotionally, physically stable as I am. And he doesn’t know this fuller account of that summer nor a lot of my childhood abuse, I cannot bring myself to tell him.  It is enough he must hear me screaming in pain or fear at night and try to help me, without burdening him with this knowledge.  And I struggle every day, and at night the nightmares come.

*** abuse part over ****

Now to the part about, the song.  Why it is an important part of my childhood and especially during what I just revealed to you.  See my adoptive mother revealed to me just before I left (as she laid on top of me … another story you might not want to know …) that my real father was alive and in NY state.  She described him or what she claimed he looked like and gave me a few small tantalizing things I was desperate for.  She gave me very little more than that but promised if I was a good boy while gone and pleased her more when I got home, she would tell me who he was.  I so badly wanted to know more, but she told me I had to earn that information.  I knew what that meant.  But if … the hope …!  I had recently learned the Day is Done song lyrics and music.  I could sing it from memory.  Every line seemed to be my unknown dad talking to me.  As I cried in the barn, in my bed, and all the time I was in Canada I dreamed of my unknown dad.  I knew if I thought of him hard enough he would know I was being hurt, that I needed him, and he would come to rescue me.  In my head I created so many dreams of him showing up, defeating everyone hurting me, saving me and taking me to a wonderful new life with him, my dad.  Every day many times a day, especially after the afternoon abuse, I sang that song to myself and dreamed of my savior dad coming to get me.

Sadly as an abused kid, I did not stop to think why I was up for adoption in the first place.  It did not occur to me that my dad simply gave me up because he was a man who couldn’t stop fucking every woman he met and already had a bunch of kids at home and more elsewhere. From what I have found out much later he may have been paid to do so by the adoptive mother’s father for some reason, at least the adoptive mother’s father paid for the adoption costs.  The adoptive parents never came clean with me and as you can imagine I long ago stopped believing anything they told me. 

So that is the story of why the song is so important to me.  During that summer of abuse it was the lifeline I clung to thinking it was something my dad was asking me, thinking if I believed hard enough my real dad would save me.  Like all such beliefs without facts to back them up, it was a lie and false hope.  No one showed up to save me.  At one point I was allowed to call my adoptive parents while the adoptive grandparents sat there and listened, and I begged to be allowed to come back home.  I promised to be a good boy, promised to everything asked of me, promised to never complain … but they already knew what was happening to me and felt it was good for me I guess, would make me more compliant as a teenager in their home. 


During the email conversations with Jill, I shared some more of the physical abuse I suffered.  Below is some of that, again edited.  Hugs

As a 4 or 5 year old I was taken to have my leg bone put back in the hip socket due to being “tossed to see how far I could fly” down the stairs for an afternoon. The doctors think that one of the reasons I have hip and spine damage so bad relates to those … fun times by the hell spawn siblings.  I remember my adoptive mother once laughing with friends as she described how my hell spawn sisters were holding me by the arms and legs throwing me into the air to let me land … sometimes on their bed.  But they suddenly went out to play and after a while she went to their room where she found me unconscious crumpled up on the floor and couldn’t wake me up.  Seems the hell spawn had thrown me into a closed closet door.   But no, I was not taken to any medical place to be examined and no the hell spawn did not get into trouble.  When you described me as something they could take out and play with and throw me into a closet when they were done you were more correct than you could know. For the first nearly 7 years I slept in a hallway as they did not feel the need to provide me with a bed or even a room.  When my older hell spawn siblings would take me into their beds I would enjoy the comfort, after paying the price for it.

If dear readers you made it this I thank you, and you have a far better understanding of me and my childhood than you did before.  Now friends I must, I really have to go do something, watch something, a funny video or a m ovie I can totally immerse myself in.    I so desperatly need to get the things in this letter out of my mind.   Hugs

American Family Association VP Sues American Family Association For Alleged Same-Sex Sexual Harassment – JMG

Hypocrites.  Another fundamentalist ideological right anti-LGBTQIA group caught harboring some members who engage in same-sex relationships while decrying them vehemently.  Hugs

Religion News Service reports:

A former vice president of the American Family Association, a Mississippi-based conservative group that promotes “the biblical ethic of decency in American society,” has sued the religious-right group, accusing leaders of firing him after he reported alleged sexual harassment and financial irregularities.

In a complaint filed Tuesday (Sept. 5), Robert Chambers [photo], former vice president of policy and legislative affairs for AFA from 2015 to 2022, alleges that another staffer, Ron Cook, made repeated sexual advances toward him, beginning in January of 2022.

Those advances allegedly included grabbing hold of Chambers’ face and ear and making comments about masturbation, according to the complaint. “I see you’re really good with that wrist action,” the complaint alleges that Cook told Chambers. “You’d really like me to take you and get a hold of you.”

Read the full article. Chambers says that he was fired for reporting the harassment. The firing reportedly came after the daughter of AFA president Tim Wildmon allegedly told others that she’d had a dream in which Chambers kissed her infant child on the lips and that she was afraid to have her children around him.

As a reminder, the AFA is arguably the nation’s largest and most powerful anti-LGBTQ hate group with tens of millions in annual revenue. The AFA is the parent organization of One Million Moms. In the 2016 video below, the alleged victim blames criticism of anti-LGBTQ laws on Satan.

Chambers last appeared on JMG in 2021 when he joined the attack on RNC chair Ronna McDaniel for a proposed partnership with the Log Cabin Republicans.

 

You’ll note that Chambers was accused of being a pedophile after reporting the same-sex harassment.

Of course. That’s their go-to attack. They have overused it to the point that it is losing its true meaning.

Alleged groper Ron Cook.

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Doggie is silently pleading “Help me!”

LOL I laughed, then I felt horrible for the pup, then I laughed.

Something, something, leopards. Something, something, faces.

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The Wildmon woman has a pedophilic dream so it must be someone else who gets fired.

Likely she faked that dream story to get him out of the way and out of the job.

 

Four hundred years ago she’d have had a successful career in the Jacobean witch trial industry pointing her fingers at innocent people and screeching “Witch!!!!”

I, for one, am shocked — SHOCKED!! — that one of the nation’s most virulently homophobic organizations is a seething HOTBED of repressed and handsy homothexuals!

The common link is that they are all Christian organizations.

it is amazing how the holier than thou crowd is always committing the things they are holier than thou about.

So Wildmon’s daughter has a dream about this dude kissing her child and he gets fired. Meanwhile Josh Duggar was fingering his sisters over the course of multiple years and had a phone chock full of kid porn and he’s a superstar.

Not just his sisters!

These Christians are just fucked up people forcing their dysfunction on the world.

It’s like the Land that Time Forgot.
He’s talking about Satan as a real entity, an actor in everyday affairs.
This is pure creepy.
No one talks like that.
It’s juvenile, from the mouth of a simpleton.
I have no idea what the hell this is all about, I just switched on that clip above and fell through the rift in the space -time continuum.

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That was my impression, as well. They talk about satan as if it’s a thing everyone accepts as real and true, and not a figment of bronze age (or earlier), illiterate shepherds who had to have something to explain why bad things happen in the world. It’s inconceivable to them that anyone would not have the same view.

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everyone knows it, you know it, i know it, they know it, i am the best groper!

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The movement to shrink Oregon and expand Idaho

These people want the minority to rule over the majority.  That is not democracy.  They want their way and if the others don’t agree, they will just change the situation to get their way regardless of what the majority want.  Just like in Florida with schools and libraries.  One woman in the story claims that their representatives don’t represent them, but as the man says the representatives told him they do hear those voters but they just get outvoted.  That is democracy.  Are they wrong to work for what they want, no!  But again, just as the LGBTQIA supporters were late getting involved to stop the right from removing all the LGBTQIA representation / information from schools and libraries, the people trying to keep Oregon the same size as it is now were late standing up to the ones demanding their own way and changing the borders to get it.  I have a feeling that these people wanting to change the borders would be at home in a maga rally or in Florida, agreeing with DeathSantis on all issues.   Hugs.

In a state dominated by progressive politics, some residents in rural Oregon east of the Cascade Mountains want to move the border so that their counties become part of Idaho, a more conservative state that more closely aligns with their values. Correspondent Lee Cowan returns to Oregon for an update on his story (originally broadcast Oct. 16, 2022), in which he talks with advocates of the Greater Idaho movement about why they believe the time is right for this “radical” idea.

US ‘university’ spreads climate lies and receives millions from rightwing donors

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/06/prageru-climate-change-denier-republican-donors

Thanks to Ali for the link.  This continuing assault on education by the right is an attack on democracy itself.  The right doesn’t want a thinking public, they want obedient followers and soldiers who will do as told by the rulers.  Notice the funding for these right wing sites comes from the ultrarich right that wants either a theocracy or a fascist dictatorship.   With them in charge, of course.  If you go to the link you will see several more stories of the right ring billionaires pushing the hard right idology.   Hugs


PragerU is not accredited but has become a key tool in pushing false claims to youngsters – and raked in $200m from 2018 to 2022

An illustration with a red background, with the cut-out of a black-and-white photo of an older white man in the middle. He has white hair and glasses, wears a suit, and appears to be talking. He is surrounded by cartoon images of young-ish people looking at him uncertainly.

Dennis Prager, the conservative talkshow host and founder of the Prager University Foundation, which is not an accredited education organization. Characters in PragerU’s videos downplay the horrors of slavery and make false claims about the climate crisis. Composite: Guardian Photo Composite/Getty Images/PragerU


A rightwing media outlet promoting climate-crisis denialism and other “anti-woke” staples to young students and adults via social media has become a fundraising Goliath, raking in close to $200m from 2018 to 2022 with big checks from top conservative donors, tax records reveal.

Founded in 2009 by the conservative talkshow host Dennis Prager, the eponymous Prager University Foundation is not an accredited education organization. But via online media its PragerU Kids division has become a key tool in spreading false claims to young people with short videos aimed at undercutting widely accepted science that climate crisis disasters are accelerating due, largely, to fossil-fuel usage.

PragerU’s influence in pushing false narratives about climate change and other far-right shibboleths such as airbrushing the brutal reality of American slavery gained ground when the Florida board of education in July gave the green light to using its videos and other materials in classrooms, a move that PragerU is trying to capitalize on in Texas and other states. On Tuesday, Oklahoma’s school system also approved the use of PragerU’s materials.

But some of PragerU’s expansion plans ran into trouble in August, when it was condemned by Texas education officials for announcing prematurely that Texas schools had approved the usage of its advocacy materials, generating new scrutiny and criticism of PragerU’s operations.

Prager’s website trumpets its mission and its niche in the conservative ecosystem.

“PragerU is the world’s leading conservative non-profit, focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.”

That sweeping mission has been fueled by big conservative money and slick marketing, and has led to PragerU’s rising influence on the right.

Among PragerU’s leading financiers are the oil and gas fracking billionaire brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, who have ponied up at least $8m over the past decade, according to Texas financial records.

Other top conservative donors to PragerU, which styles itself as alternative to the “dominant leftwing ideology in culture, media and education”, include the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the National Christian Charitable Foundation and the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation.

Tax records also reveal that PragerU has flourished financially in recent years as the Prager University Foundation raised $196m from 2018 through 2022. That growth is underscored by revenues rising from $17.9m in 2018 to $65.1m in 2022.

Prager’s chief executive, Marissa Streit, whose biography on LinkedIn says she once served in Israeli military intelligence, boasts on its website: “PragerU is redefining how people think about media and education. We produce edutainment – an intersection of education and entertainment. Our content is essential to shaping culture and preserving American ideals.”

Streit’s vision of “edutainment” seems to be reflected in PragerU cartoons and videos, including one about Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America, in which Columbus tries to downplay the horrors of slavery.

“Slavery is as old as time, and has taken place in every corner of the world, even amongst the people I just left. Being taken as a slave is better than being killed,” the cartoon Columbus said. “I don’t see the problem.”

Other PragerU videos about the climate crisis make various false claims: they depict solar and wind power as environmentally dangerous, liken environmental activists to Nazis and claim recent record-breaking heat is just part of the natural weather cycle.

But the edutainment being peddled by PragerU has drawn widespread criticism from academic experts and watchdog groups, who fault its videos and teaching materials for children on the climate crisis, slavery and other issues as erroneous, and unworthy of state approval for classroom usage.

Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos Jr, in Washington in 2017.
Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos Jr, in Washington in 2017. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
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“Prager University is not a university,” said Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard professor of the history of science and the co-author of Merchants of Doubt. “By their own self-description, they are an advocacy group promoting conservative viewpoints on various political, economic and sociological topics.

“It is completely inappropriate for any state to grant them any influence, much less authority. over educational matters.

“For an American state government to authorize misleading, false and overtly biased materials for use in classrooms really crosses the Rubicon. It’s a new and alarming low.”

Other academics express related concerns.

“PragerU may be able to take advantage of overworked teachers in the classroom who are under time crunches to prepare climate-change lessons for their students, and therefore might turn to these inaccurate videos,” said Max Boykoff, an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado.

Boykoff added that boosting public funding of education could help “keep such unsafe and menacing weapons out of the classroom”.

PragerU did not respond to a Guardian request to talk to Streit or Prager.

Critics notwithstanding, Prager, speaking at a Moms for Liberty conference in Philadelphia this summer, was blunt about PragerU’s goals, boasting that “we bring doctrines to children”, adding: “What is the bad of our indoctrination?”

Similarly, in a PragerU promotional video, Prager said: “We are in the mind-changing business, and few groups can say that.”

PragerU annual reports tout its success in spreading conservative doctrines to young people and adults. According to its most recent annual report, PragerU “edutainment” videos scored more than 1.2bn views in 2022 and over 7bn since its launch in 2009.

Until recently, PragerU content and its fight against what it labels the “woke agenda” depended mainly on Facebook and YouTube, but that is poised to expand with PragerU’s access to Florida classrooms, and other states potentially opening their classrooms too.

To keep growing its audience and operations, PragerU’s website showcases several ambitious fundraising programs. In September, PragerU is hosting a “founders’ retreat” in Nashville that seems geared to wooing more checks from major donors who give at least $100,000 a year.

The event is slated to be “an exclusive three-day experience with our innermost circle of supporters”, and will feature Dennis Prager, the conservative Daily Wire’s editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro, and other Daily Wire “personalities”. The event is “open to Donor Club members at the founders level (total annual giving of $100k or more)”.

Like PragerU, the Daily Wire has benefited mightily from billionaire and evangelical preacher Farris Wilks, who gave it $4.7m in 2015 to launch its operations. Wilks remains a co-owner.

PragerU’s fundraising and marketing success in spreading its climate crisis denialism and other misinformation is alarming watchdog groups.

“Prager U plays a significant role spreading well-packaged propaganda about numerous issues, including attacks on efforts to mitigate climate change, through promoting the disinformation peddled by notorious climate-change deniers, and more,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of the progressive watchdog group True North Research. “ It has always targeted younger adults, but in recent years it has added a massive program targeting children with its slick and deceptive videos.”

Other environmental advocates raised broader concerns.

“The danger of the Prager climate misinformation is how quickly it can spread in this era where a lot of people, including children, are being trained not to trust media sources or scientists,” said Kert Davies, who leads investigations at the Center for Climate Integrity. “That it would be in schools as curriculum is even scarier.

“The Prager YouTube library on climate change features a who’s who of career climate deniers and discredited contrarians. These folks will never admit they are wrong, and never change their minds no matter the weight of scientific evidence.”

Davies added: “Prager climate disinformation is dangerously out of step with reality. It is being disseminated just as the global consensus on the climate crisis grows stronger, as extreme weather events seemingly try to outdo each other.”

More broadly, Oreskes sees the spread of PragerU advocacy materials into Florida classrooms and possibly other states as harmful to educational values.

She said: “Every student has a basic right to an education that, as much as possible, is truthful, and, as much as humanly possible, objective. This is the opposite.”

 

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I was hoping you would consider taking the step of supporting the Guardian’s journalism. 

From Elon Musk to Rupert Murdoch, a small number of billionaire owners have a powerful hold on so much of the information that reaches the public about what’s happening in the world. The Guardian is different. We have no billionaire owner or shareholders to consider. Our journalism is produced to serve the public interest – not profit motives.

And we avoid the trap that befalls much US media – the tendency, born of a desire to please all sides, to engage in false equivalence in the name of neutrality. While fairness guides everything we do, we know there is a right and a wrong position in the fight against racism and for reproductive justice. When we report on issues like the climate crisis, we’re not afraid to name who is responsible. And as a global news organization, we’re able to provide a fresh, outsider perspective on US politics – one so often missing from the insular American media bubble. 

Around the world, readers can access the Guardian’s paywall-free journalism because of our unique reader-supported model. That’s because of people like you. Our readers keep us independent, beholden to no outside influence and accessible to everyone – whether they can afford to pay for news, or not.

If you can, please consider supporting us just once from $1, or better yet, support us every month with a little more – and you can cancel any time. Thank you.

Divided on the field

Miami-Dade School Board Rejects LGBTQ Declaration, Proud Boys And Moms For Liberty Menace Attendees – JMG

Notice the threats and intimidation.  Also notice the overwhelming presence of the fundamentalist religious right.  This again is making sure that there is no positive representation of the LGBTQIA in schools or the public square.  Why should kids be taught tolerance and acceptance of the very people these bigots hate?  Why should LGBTQIA kids see positive role models and representations of themselves, see acceptance of themselves from the adults in charge of their daily lives?  And why should the tolerant and accepting of the LGBTQIA parents be allowed a say because a minority of violent loud haters demand kids be taught to hate, target, and bully LGBTQIA kids.  Why should those same LGBTQIA kids be allowed to feel good about themselves rather than deeply ashamed of who they are as the anti-LGBTQIA haters demand?    I am sick of this minority take over.  Lucky for my sanity there has started to be a large amount of push back in Florida and around the country, with teachers, Libraries, and towns fighting back and refusing to bow down to the threats unless they remove all LGBTQIA representation from public and society.   Hugs


Miami’s ABC affiliate reports:

Following a prolonged debate, the Miami-Dade County Public School Board has voted against officially recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month within the district. The contentious decision, passed by a 5-3 vote, comes in the wake of the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law that was signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year.

The debate over Initiative H-11, which sought to acknowledge October as LGBTQ History Month within Miami-Dade County Public Schools, drew a large crowd of concerned citizens to the board’s weekly meeting. Emotions ran high as over 100 people signed up for the public comment section as they expressed both support and opposition to the proposal.

Miami’s CBS affiliate reports:

A few people spoke about the presence of the Proud Boys at the meeting as an intimidation factor. Some of those who spoke agreed with the Parental Rights in Education law, labeled by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, who said the designation felt like indoctrination.

Myra Jordan, a parent, said, “Leave my kids alone. You understand that? You want freedom? Have freedom at home.” Last year, a majority of the board also voted against against the designation.

I encourage you to watch both video reports below.

 

They caved to scare tactics and fascists. Shame on them.

Pretty much how it happened in Germany. Organization after organization siding with the Nazis either through fear or agreement.

The ones that did it through agreement were monsters.
Those that did it from fear were cowards and monsters.

 

Discrimination, pure and simple.

Former Supreme Court Justice Kennedy wrote that gays are a “class” of people who have endured “pure animus”.

In light of the post earlier about the presidential libraries, I think this is a taste of what fascism in America would look like: If you step out of line, it won’t be uniformed officers banging on your door at midnight, but paramilitary thugs harassing and attacking you and a flood of anonymous death threats that the police won’t bother investigating.

we are already there, it is just being measured in degrees.

If Trump wins, it’ll be everyday life

The failure of law enforcement to apply the law without prejudice is a historical issue.

Prominent members of Moms for Liberty have close ties to the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, QAnon and white Christian nationalists. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio once boasted that Moms for Liberty is “the gestapo with vaginas.”

I’m afraid I’m going there with US friends in February.
They are New Englanders against fascism as much as I am.
I will piss off as many fascists as I can, be as liberal and European as I can and tell as many Republicans to go fuck themselves as I can.

 

They all have guns, no license or permit required to carry now. You can assume that any christofascist you piss off has a gun in their waistband and is likely to turn red, pull it out and gun you and yours down in cold blood.

And then claim Stand Your Ground and get off.

Please be careful. Florida is a special kind of crazy.

Remember, this is the state that had not one, but two incidents of face eating Zombies.

 

Well last time there I was threatened by a gang of marching right wingers, who came on the scene after the Pride Parade.
I had yelled at them to go fuck themselves. that seemed to have annoyed them.
But yes, this time I will be more careful; it is a scary place, I saw that.

Any gay bar, club, cruising place, or beach is now a target

And anti LBGT discrimination in Florida is legal

Your best bet is to keep your head down and not be openly gay down there

And yes, I realize how backwards that sounds

 

Back into the closet we go. Exactly where they want us. I for one will not tolerate it. Granted I don’t reside in Floriduh and will never step foot in that state for the rest of my natural life, but I’ve fought too hard to just let these fanatics win the battle. And it is a battle. Between right and wrong and this is just wrong on so many levels. We cannot cower. That’s exactly what they want. No, we have to persevere. Keep spreading love, not hate and keep working on making this society one where all can live freely.

While your point is taken, it is not the totality of Floridians. We should not simply run away, but instead continue to be visible, and vocal and vigilant.

Hot tip for people who jUsT wAnT tO pRoTeCt cHiLdReN: when you’re on the same side as nazis it might be time to reconsider.

Also, you can’t protect your children from time. They will grow up, and stop listening to you.

Except for the old guy with the walker most of these terrorists are young so don’t assume the hate filled voters will die out soon.

You all better get your vote on in 2024.

They don’t like being told what to do, but they sure love telling other people what to do.

That’s what Christianity is all about.

People on here have seem to forgotten that Anita Bryant successfully petitioned the Miami Dade schools against gay teachers. This is just more of the same. Where are the pie throwing machines?

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Notice the empty book shelf and the poster: Pros and Cons of slavery

These fuckers will still cry about how evil Castro was while they do the same damn thing he did to people he hated.
Fuck them.

Hey, they just want kids to have the freedom to commit suicide at home, where they can be hated at their parents discretion.

One of its former directors, Bridget Ziegler, is married to the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. DeSantis recently appointed Ziegler to a commission overseeing Disney’s Orlando theme parks amid a battle between the Florida governor and Disney over the state’s law banning classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Moms For Liberty is not the grassroots organization they claim to be.

None of the right wing or pro-industry groups are actually grassroots.

 

 

 

Pennsylvania school district requires social studies classes to incorporate right-wing propaganda

https://popular.info/p/pennsylvania-school-district-requires

Seriously more attempts to push fundamentalist Christian ideas, moral values, and hates on every public school kid.  The program was developed by a person with degrees in politics but none in education, in a Christian college that the right wants to make the model for all PUBLIC schools. A person who describes himself as a fox in the hen house.   Florida is doing this.  This is entirely driven to push a false narrative of a Christian nation founded by religious figures who disliked slavery among some of the lies.  It is about putting religion and the greatness of the US as a priority rather than facts.  Remember this is being driven by a minority with the goal of forcing their world view on the majority and to allow that fundamentalist religious minority to rule over the secular majority.  Plus look at the money spent, that is pure corruption, a big money giveaway to a religious person pushing a fundamentalist religious agenda.   Hugs


SEP 7, 2023
 
 

Last Monday, the Pennridge School Board, located outside of Philadelphia, imposed a new social studies curriculum that will require teachers to incorporate lessons from the 1776 Curriculum, a controversial K-12 course of study developed by Hillsdale College, a private Christian institution that promotes right-wing ideologies.

The curriculum was developed in part by Jordan Adams, an educational consultant with no experience developing curricula for public schools. Adams launched his company, Vermilion Education, in March 2023. The Pennridge School Board hired Adams in April, paying $125 per hour for his services. The contract includes no limit on the number of hours, no specific deliverables, and no termination date. 

Adams holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hillsdale College and a master’s in humanities from another private conservative school, the University of Dallas. He does not hold any degrees in education. After graduating, Adams returned to Hillsdale College as an employee, where he promoted the 1776 Curriculum. On July 1, in a private presentation to Moms for Liberty, a far-right organization that pushes for changes in educational policy, Adams described himself as a “fox..in the henhouse.” He bragged that “the right people are freaking out” about his contract with Pennridge Schools. As of a few months ago, Adams had no other public school clients. 

Although Adams does not have the qualifications to write curriculum, it was revealed during a Pennridge School Board meeting on August 21 that Adams independently wrote aspects of the new social studies curricula. 

Adams’ proposed curriculum faced opposition from several members of the Pennridge School Board and the district’s own academic experts. Jenna Vitale, the K-12 social studies supervisor, cited concerns in a recent school board meeting about the “age-appropriateness of the elementary curriculum [developed by Adams], highlighting… the lack of the appropriate history background for incoming fourth and fifth graders and the elimination of 19th century U.S. history from the secondary social studies curriculum.” Vitale also cited concerns about Adams’ proposal to shift the third-grade curriculum from a focus on Native Americans to “Colonial America.”

The 1776 Curriculum, created in response to the New York Times’ 1619 project, claims that it is an accurate and unbiased curriculum that “seeks to tell the entire grand narrative of the American story.” Hillsdale’s curriculum, however, includes inaccuracies and skewed interpretations of America’s history. 

For example, the Hillsdale curriculum repeatedly suggests that America’s Founding Fathers had deep reservations about slavery. The ninth grade Pennridge curriculum will require a Hillsdale lesson that encourages students to “[c]onsider also that even among the southern founders who supported slavery or held slaves, several leading founders expressed regret and fear of divine retribution for slavery in America, such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.” The curriculum states that, “Some freed their slaves as well, such as George Washington.” The same wording is also included in the required Hillsdale lesson for fourth graders.

Hillsdale’s description of the Founding Fathers’ views on slavery is highly misleading. In 1781, Jefferson wrote in Notes on the State of Virginia about his belief in the “biological differences between blacks and whites.” Jefferson also had a “purported relationship” with his slave Sally Hemings, and it is believed that he fathered at least some of Hemings’ children. While Madison argued that slaves “were ‘not like merchandize’ and were ‘not consumed,’ and thus could not be held as property,” Madison chose to “not free his slaves in his will,” instead leaving them to his wife, who “sold them off to pay debts.” While Washington did leave instructions to free his slaves after his death, the instructions also stated that the slaves should not be freed until after his wife had also passed. Washington also “order[ed] an enslaved man to be whipped for walking on the lawn” and “aggressively pursued runaway” slaves. This context is not mentioned in the Hillsdale unit.   

A required Hillsdale lesson for Pennridge School District third graders covers the “history of slavery in world history.” The lesson encourages teachers to downplay the prevalence of slavery in America, instead emphasizing slavery in other parts of the world. “Overall, of the nearly 11 million Africans who survived being brought to the Western Hemisphere, around 3 percent, or about 350,000, were brought to the North American continent, with the rest of all Africans taken to other colonies in the Caribbean and South America,” the lesson states.

The 1776 Curriculum has garnered criticism from academic experts. “What [Hillsdale has] done is they’ve simply left stuff out in an attempt to shape a vision of patriotism,” James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, told NBC News. “What they also are trying to do is replace an approach to teaching that teaches students how to think with an approach that teaches the students what to think.”

During a meeting earlier this month, Pennridge School Board member Jonathan Russell asked why the Hillsdale curriculum was listed as “required” for teachers when the proposed inclusion of Hillsdale lessons was originally pitched as an additional resource. Vitale said that Adams told her other board members “asked him to say that it was required.” 

By a 5-4 vote, the Pennridge School Board voted to impose the new ninth grade curriculum this year. The vote occurred on the first day of school, giving the teachers little to no time to prepare lessons based on the new guidelines.  Vitale stated that she was “very nervous” about teachers not having enough time to prepare lessons based on the new curriculum. (The School Board voted to implement the new first through fifth grade curriculum beginning in the fall of 2024).

Hillsdale’s revisionist history 

The 1776 Curriculum spends considerable time on the meaning behind the statement in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” A lesson now required for Pennridge School District ninth graders instructs teachers to pose the question of whether “women and slaves were included in this understanding of equality.” At the time, women did not have the right to vote, had limited property rights, and married women could not earn their own income. Nevertheless, the Hillsdale lesson argues that “the Founders meant that men and women share equally in human dignity and in possession of natural rights or freedoms that are simply part of being human.”

The lesson claims that, despite the limitation on women’s rights, “[w]hat was unique to America was the right to vote at all and then the relatively rapid rate at which the right to vote was expanded to” women. This statement, however, is misleading. According to Pew Research Center, in 1893, New Zealand granted women the right to vote, and “[a]t least 19 other countries also did so prior to the U.S. passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.” The 1776 Curriculum also creates justifications for not granting women the right to vote, insinuating that it was logical to only give the franchise to men, as they are the ones who “would be called to give their lives up for their country” and “had a high personal stake in what the country did regarding various policies, including going to war.”

For fifth grade, the new curriculum includes a Hillsdale lesson on the Civil War that argues that many Southerners believed the Civil War was about “states’ rights” rather than “preserv[ing] the institution of slavery.” The required Hillsdale lesson states that “[t]he majority of Southerners were not slaveholders and while fighting for their states would preserve slavery, many common Southerners fought for the argument of states’ rights rather than to preserve the institution of slavery.”