A religious person forcing her church doctrines on what is acceptable in society on all students, teachers, and other parents. It is not enough for her child to deny gay kids exist, but to force all kids, even the gay ones, to pretend that no gay people exist. Are we going to let this keep happening? Is everyone OK with driving the country back to civil inequality and denying human rights to appease a religious view of how things should be based on a misinterpreted book written before people understood what germs were? I cannot stand this drive to return to the time when gay kids were scared and in hiding, when there were no books for them to read with gay content, when there were no positive role models, when kids were targeted for abuse if it was discovered they might not be straight. Why are we letting a group of religious conservative bigots drive us to a theocracy with a Christian Taliban in charge? Hugs
Also I want people to understand just how repressively religious these people are. Want to know where else this movie won’t be shown due to the gay story line of a few minutes of just dialog? Disney refrained from showing “Strange World” in the Middle East, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria, Uganda and other countries because of the LGBTQ storyline. Yes other religious fundamentalist countries and countries that restrict personal freedom with the government ruling what people can do in their private lives with other consenting adults. Hugs
A Florida teacher is under investigation by the state Department of Education after what she believes is a targeted attack by a school board member who took issue with a Disney movie shown in her classroom. At a Hernando County School Board meeting Tuesday, fifth-grade teacher Jenna Barbee alleges school board member Shannon Rodriguez reported her to DOE for showing her students Disney’s 2022 movie “Strange World.” It’s the first Disney movie with an out, gay character.
Barbee, a teacher at Winding Waters K-8, said during public comment the Disney movie tied into her students’ Earth science lesson and did not have sexually inappropriate content. Rodriguez, who was elected to the school board last fall, was endorsed by conservative parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty. In her short tenure, she has argued there is “smut” and “porn” on schools’ library shelves and has asked for books to be removed, according to Suncoast News.
A complaint by a #Florida school board member who belongs to the fascist group Moms for Liberty may lead to a first-year teacher being fired for showing a Disney movie in class. Welcome to what America would be like with #DeSantis as President. https://t.co/FABUjNVXP8
“The word indoctrination is thrown around a lot right now, but it seems that those who are using it are using it as a defense tactic for their own fear-based beliefs without understanding the true meaning of the word,” Barbee said at the lectern.
Florida educators are prohibited from teaching about gender and sexual identity due to the Parental Rights in Education Act, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year. Also known as “Don’t Say Gay” by critics, teachers have expressed anxiety and confusion over the vague wording of the law for fear of losing their teaching licenses or criminal penalties if found in non-compliance.
Opponents of the law say the vague wording unfairly targets books and classroom materials with gay and transgender characters and themes.
Hernando County’s school district confirmed a fifth-grade teacher is being investigated for showing “Strange World,” and that a parent complained to the principal about the movie not being appropriate for students.
Rodriguez, who was elected to the school board last fall, was endorsed by conservative parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty. In her short tenure, she has argued there is “smut” and “porn” on schools’ library shelves and has asked for books to be removed,according to Suncoast News.
She also alleges Rodriguez called her father to tell him about the DOE complaint.
“I’m a first-year teacher. I’ve had to learn so much this year,” she told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida. “I work with teachers who have taught for 20 years, 30 years, tell me every day it never used to be like this. Times have changed so much and they are so micromanaged, they’re not allowed to teach anymore. They’re basically a caregiver who has to teach the standards. Teachers stay for the children, but because of the laws and the fear of being let go for saying one wrong thing, they can’t connect to their students.”
At the end of the school board meeting, Rodriguez said Barbee broke school policy because she did not get the specific movie approved by school administration and said the teacher is “playing the victim.”
Rodriguez’s daughter is in Barbee’s class.
“It is not a teacher’s job to impose their beliefs upon a child: religious, sexual orientation, gender identity, any of the above. But allowing movies such as this assist teachers in opening a door, and please hear me, they assist teachers in opening the door for conversations that have no place in our classrooms,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez also said she has called DOE about other issues in the district and believes children should not be “a pawn in the crossfire” of liberal political agendas.
“As a leader in this community, I’m not going to stand by and allow this minority to infiltrate our schools,” she said.
Please note again the religious parent / school admits above that she who is a minority on the school board and among the parents and is the only one objecting to the movie, is saying “She is not going to let this minority (meaning gay people or the LGBTQ+) infiltrate our schools”. Think about what she is saying, gay kids existing is an infiltration, that gays in society / public are so offensive to her that she needs to wipe them out. In other words, genocide! Hugs
Disney refrained from showing “Strange World” in the Middle East, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria, Uganda and other countries because of the LGBTQ storyline.
“In countries where we operate, we seek to share our stories in their original form as we and the artists involved have created them. If we make edits, because of legal or other considerations, they will be as narrow as possible. We will not make an edit where we believe it would impact the storytelling. In that circumstance, we will not distribute the content in that market,” Disney says in its Human Rights Policy, which was updated in 2022.
Hanna believes the investigation began after Brandi Andrews, a board member of the Leon County chapter of Moms for Liberty, sent a letter to the governor calling on the superintendent “to be removed from his position.” The letter was stamped with “LET’S GO BRANDON,” a saying popular among conservatives who use the G-rated term in place of “(Expletive) Joe Biden.”
Andrews included an excerpt from an email, a Facebook post and an op-ed in the Democrat, all written by Hanna in August 2022, as examples of “issues we have with our local school board right here in Leon County.”
In a statement, Andrews told the Democrat her complaint is “one of many.”
“Any assertion that concerns I expressed as a parent should not be presumed as a catalyst for any investigation,” she said.
The movie had no sex. It had a gay person. The prudish homophobes on the right are not worried about children being exposed to porn, they are worried about children being exposed to the fact that gay people exist.
They also think we are evil, so they don’t want to see us treated as normal or equal to them. We must be despised if they are to feel good about themselves.
I find it remarkable that that’s what they believe. There wasn’t a single gay person in my sphere of influence whatsoever as I was growing up. Not one. Thus, the reason it took me to 23 yrs old to fully come out. I had zero exposure to the gay universe. Let me tell you that I made up for lost time…
Those people seem to believe that gay sex is so hot, so rapturous, so absolutely irresistible, that even the thought of it is enough to entice anyone into giving up straight sex immediately. That’s why they are so adamantly against having anyone even mentioning anything that reminds them of what they want but won’t allow themselves to have. The temptation is just too strong and they are just too weak.
Indeed. You’d think that would give them pause, but at least some of them seem to mean it when they say they’d rather have a dead child than a gay one.
One of the first people I met when I was coming out, was an only child of a couple who disowned him when he came out to them. Not only did they disown him, however, but when people would ask how many children they had, they would say that they didn’t have any children.
Conservative Plan to Destroy the Public Education System: 1. Create fake outrage about “horrible” things kids are being taught. 2. Attack teachers and the education system to sow distrust. 3. Get radical conservatives on local school boards to create havok. 4. Siphon off funding for public schools by creating vouchers for private schools. 5. When educated teachers quit, lower standards to allow others without teaching degrees to “fill the gap”.
Mom’s for Liberty is active in my area too. I absolutely despise them! They are an outright fascist group made up of prudes and religious fanatics. They don’t want schools to acknowledge the existence of gay / trans kids and they want to whitewash American history in regards to racism. I think it was in Tennessee where one Mom’s for Liberty member wanted a book on the life of Martin Luther King banned because it was “anti-American”! JFC!
But, according to the article, they are winning. This is the saddest part, so many are supporting them and they’re increasing their control and dominance over others.
It’s because a large section of our population is made up of bigoted idiots. Plus their pleas of “Think of the children” resonates with people with no critical thinking skills.
A point repeatedly made is that the parent / school board member that is on a rampage about the gay kids in the movie who did not even kiss had no problem with all the kissing done by the straight couple in the beginning of the movie. The parent / school board member is entirely about removing all representation of gays in schools at any level. She finds them abhorrent and wants them out of society. Notice this is not about trans which is where this started, it is about pushing a religious message about being gay is shameful and bad, so don’t admit to being gay. They must not be allowed to make another generation of gay kids targets of that hate. Replace gay with Jewish or black and it wouldn’t be accepted, yet. But that is where these haters are going, back to the 1950s with only Christian white straight males being in charge and gender roles strictly enforced. Hugs
Florida teacher probed after showing Disney film in class. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks. Watch TYT LIVE on weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live
Read more HERE: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/new… “A Florida teacher is under investigation by the state Department of Education after what she believes is a targeted attack by a school board member who took issue with a Disney movie shown in her classroom.
At a Hernando County School Board meeting Tuesday, fifth-grade teacher Jenna Barbee alleges school board member Shannon Rodriguez reported her to DOE for showing her students Disney’s 2022 movie “Strange World.”
It’s the first Disney movie with an out, gay character.”*
As I keep saying, the anti-trans terfs all have to admit that the major medical organizations say affirming a trans child / person’s gender identity is the best medical practice possible. That includes social transitioning along with mental and medical care continuing as best to meet the needs of the person who is identifying as a different gender than assigned at birth. How in hell do you expect people to look at a baby and know what that baby is going to develop as it’s sense of its own gender as it grows up? Only the growing child can possibly know how they identify. Until all the anti-trans people get the combined medical expertise of the AMA and the American Academy of Pediatrics then accept their guidance of the best medical practices, which again is to affirm the gender identity claimed by the person no matter their age. Hugs
He said the AMA “simply will not stand” for the bans and will use “every avenue available” to oppose them.
Jesse Ehrenfeld the soon-to-be president of the AMAPhoto: YouTube screenshot
Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld is a U.S. Navy combat veteran who will be inaugurated as the American Medical Association’s (AMA) first out gay president on June 13 – and he says the organization “simply will not stand” for legislation targeting abortion and gender-affirming care. He has pledged to use “every avenue available” to oppose such laws.
“We see the attack on reproductive care, reproductive access, and transgender healthcare as a continuum of government overreach into patient-physician decision making,” Ehrenfeld told The Washington Blade. The AMA, whose mission is to advocate “the art and science of medicine [for] the betterment of public health,” represents at least 271,660 members, including physicians and medical students.
“We simply will not stand for the government coming in to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship [by passing bills that] outlaw what we know to be appropriate, evidence-based clinical guidelines-based care,” Ehrenfeld said.
But Ehrenfeld said his inauguration marks an “important moment” in the AMA’s history as it signals increased LGBTQ+ visibility in a field that wasn’t always open to queer professionals or queer patients’ needs. Ehrenfeld and his husband will be marching with an AMA group in Chicago’s Pride parade, a first for the group that seems particularly significant considering the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being introduced nationwide.
“We have a lot of backseat drivers trying to tell doctors what to do,” Ehrenfeld said of bans on gender-affirming care for minors that have been passed in 18 states and introduced in 13 other states. He said these “backseat drivers” include “insurance companies who put up barriers around prior authorization for getting approval for care and services.”
The AMA has said that gender-affirming care is safe and essential to the overall well-being of trans youth. However, laws that criminalize gender-affirming care — charging doctors with felonies and revoking their medical licenses for rendering such care — cause “moral injury” to physicians, Ehrenfeld added, putting medical professionals in “an untenable choice: provide the care that they know is in the patient’s best interests, or break the law and [potentially] go to jail.”
“That stress is real,” Ehrenfeld said. “There’s not a week that goes by that I don’t hear from a colleague who says I can’t take it anymore.”
Additionally, Ehrenfeld said that the AMA has noticed a drop in healthcare workers applying for jobs in states passing such legislation. The lack of workers could eventually risk the lives of every potential patient in those states, regardless of their feelings on trans care for minors.
Ehrenfeld noted that a lot of his professional work has included improving healthcare access for LGBTQ+ people. He pledged that the AMA will use “every avenue available” to oppose such legislation, including encouraging the National Governors Association to file lawsuits and amicus briefs against bans on gender-affirming care as well as working with other stakeholders to influence state and federal policies in governmental and private sectors.
Ehrenfeld directs a philanthropic organization called Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment and has previously taught at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine. He has also worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization’s Digital Health Technical Advisory Group and as a special adviser to President Donald Trump’s (R) U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
While serving as Adams’ adviser in 2019, he testified to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee against Trump’s ban on trans military members. Ehrenfeld told the committee that he found “no medically valid reason — including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — to exclude transgender individuals from military service.”
DeSantis signs bill to defund DEI programs at Florida’s public colleges
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that would bar the state’s colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and limit how race can be discussed in some courses.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks on a book tour in Des Moines on March 10, 2023. (Rachel Mummey for The Washington Post)
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law Monday barring the state’s colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and limiting how race can be discussed in many courses.
The move comes amid a larger conservative attack on higher education DEI programs, which DeSantis and others say reinforce racial divisions and promote liberal orthodoxy. Supporters of the programs say they are critical to serving the nation’s increasingly diverse student populations.
“If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,” DeSantis said at a news conference at New College of Florida in Sarasota. “And that has no place in our public institutions. This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida.”
Florida’s new law prohibits public colleges from spending state or federal money on DEI efforts. These programs often assist colleges in increasing student and faculty diversity, which can apply to race and ethnicity, as well as sexual orientation, religion and socioeconomic status.
The law also forbids public colleges from offering general education courses — those that are part of a required curriculum for all college students — that “distort significant historical events,” teach “identity politics,” or are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.”
The Florida legislation has been met with backlash at both the state and national level, where higher education experts and First Amendment advocates say the state is trampling on academic freedom. “It’s basically state-mandated censorship, which has no place in a democracy,” Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, said in a recent interview with The Washington Post.
DeSantis said students who want to study “niche subjects,” such as critical race theory, ought to look elsewhere. “Florida’s getting out of that game,” he said. “If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley. Go to some of these other places.”
The governor held the signing on the campus of New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college in Sarasota, where the governor recently appointed a crop of conservative trustees. Eliminating New College’s DEI office was among the newly constituted board’s first orders of business.
The event drew protests, whose chants could be heard inside the bill-signing ceremony.
Along with their parents and two health care providers, two trans teens are suing the state of Montana for its recent ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.
The plaintiffs argue that the law, S.B. 99, violates the state constitution, which guarantees the right to equal protection, the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children, the right to dignity, and the right to seek healthcare.
Her lawsuit to be allowed back in failed right as the legislative session ended. Some of her colleagues were happy to see her.
The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by the ACLU of Montana and Lambda Legal, also argues the unjust nature of the law because it bans gender-affirming care for trans youth but allows cisgender youth access to the same medical care for other reasons.
“The Act is so damaging to the health and well-being of transgender adolescents that some of these adolescents’ families with the resources to do so have taken steps to uproot their entire lives to move out of Montana in light of the Act,” the lawsuit states.
“For many more, however, that devastating option is not available, so these families and youth will have no choice but to remain and endure the harms that the Act inflicts.”
The litigants include 16-year-old trans girl Scarlet, along with her parents Jessica and Ewout van Garderen; 15-year-old trans boy Phoebe, along with his parents Molly and Paul Cross; Dr. Katy Mistretta of Bozeman Creek Family Health; and Dr. Juanita Hodax of Community Medical Center.
“I will never understand why my representatives are working to strip me of my rights and the rights of other transgender kids,” said Phoebe Cross in a statement. “Just living as a trans teenager is difficult enough, the last thing me and my peers need is to have our rights taken away. There were many things I hoped my elected officials would achieve, this regression in human rights is not one of those things. The blatant disrespect for my humanity and existence is deeply unsettling.”
Jessica van Garderen added, “It is mentally and physically painful to feel like you are trapped in the wrong body. Going through puberty for the wrong sex is like having your body betray you on a daily basis. The only treatment we have found to be effective and give our daughter hope again is hormone therapy. The difference we have experienced is night and day and there is no going back. Taking away this crucial medical care is inhumane and a violation of our rights. We will fight this law for our daughter and every other family whose rights are being trampled.”
The legislation was signed in April by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and will go into effect on October 1. The state became the center of national discourse after the anti-trans Republicans banned trans Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D) from the state house floor for speaking out against the bill.
Zephyr accused Republicans of having “blood on your hands” for supporting the bill. They then voted to prevent her from entering the chamber after she raised an inactive microphone toward protestors in the state house gallery who chanted, “Let her speak!” The protestors were later arrested.
Zephyr was forced to vote remotely on bills while sitting on a bench outside the chamber in the state Capitol building. She also filed a lawsuit, but the judge declined to grant her relief from the Republicans’ censure order.
She would remain barred from the state house floor until the legislative session was adjourned. It has since ended, and she made a triumphant return.
This is done by Christian Nationalists, not Christians. I want to be as clear as I can that I no longer think of these religious zealots as Christians. They are not religious for the moral teachings, they are not interested in living by a personal code to do the right thing towards others. They are not interested in the truth or history of their religion. No instead they simply want to gain power and then to use that power to force others to do as their church doctrines demand. It is not about them living as their religion tells them to, it is about making others, the nonbelievers in their views, forcing those others to live as the Christian Nationalists believe / demand they must. I want to be clear that I don’t blame people who use their religious faith as a guide to their own life for the acts of these US Taliban or wannabe moral police. This is the same thing the Muslim Taliban did the first time they controlled Afghanistan when they destroyed very valuable old statues claiming they were offensive to their god. The Christian Nationalist railed constantly against the Muslim countries ruled by their religious zealots / church leaders, yet they are trying to do the very same thing here in the US demanding their god / religion be in charge of the government and laws be enacted to make everyone live according to their church doctrines / rules. Hugs
Porter Sculpture Park, listed by TIME Magazine as one of the top 50 American Roadside attractions in 2010, was vandalized Wednesday, May 10. It will now take up to several years to repair the damage, said the creator and operator of the park Wayne Porter.
His sister Audrey Porter said that when she got a call from her brother that Wednesday around noon, she immediately realized that something was wrong as usually it was her who was calling her brother and not the other way around.
“I call him, he doesn’t call me, he might text me about things, but he doesn’t [call],” said Porter.
That Wednesday morning, Porter went to check on his sculpture park, for the annual opening of the new season planned for May 15.
Porter was in the far northwest corner of the 18-acre park west of Sioux Falls when he noticed that someone had apparently visited the place before him this year. His sculpture group of the bull and its four guardians was vandalized.
The guardians, which look like human-sized skeletons with protruding ribs and goat-like faces and horns stationed around the bull, were beheaded, and the heads were gone. The bull’s base was spray-painted with the messages “Satan is defeated,” and “Jesus is King.”
A few other sculptures, including the Irish monks and a sculpture depicting the artist’s brother, have also been vandalized. Porter said that it will take him more than a year’s worth of work to replace the pieces that were stolen if they cannot be recovered.
His sister noted that the worst part of it is that it all came up just before their opening for the new season. It usually takes them a few days and several adults to get the place running at the best circumstances, she said.
“There will be four strong adults working on it under the best of circumstances, and it’s a big job.”
Her brother said that in the past there had already been a few instances of vandalism in the park, but they were usually limited to minor issues, including spray-painting, but that did not bother him a lot because he could repaint pieces if needed.
“I don’t care about paint, I will just paint over,” said Porter. “It does happen occasionally.”
His sister said that from time to time they were getting a comment on their social media that referred to the bull sculpture as Moloch. Moloch is a deity mentioned in some religious texts as a deity whose worship was marked by the sacrifice of children by their own parents.
Both Porter and his sister said they never heard the term before. Porter noted that when it first came about, he looked it up, and discovered that the deity had arms and legs, while his sculpture was clearly a bull.
His sister noted that she remembered that some of the visitors would come up to her and mention that they felt Satanic influence associated with the park sculptures, while at the same time they would also get visitors that would come up to her and say that her brother must be the world’s best Christian.
Porter said that while neither of that was true, she could assert that her brother was the kindest human being on the planet. It was the essence of art, Porter noted, to reveal what the spectators already carry around with them.
“Art is whatever people bring with them, and whatever they want to see — they see,” she said.
The sculptor himself said that his bull had a neo-Egyptian art influence about it. Porter, a graduate of South Dakota State University with a degree in political science and history, said he was fascinated with the ancient Egyptian empire.
After graduating from the university, Porter used to run a sheep farm. Although not a professionally trained artist, Porter has been making sculptures since he was a child helping in his father’s blacksmith shop.
Both his historical background, as well as his rural experiences are now evident in his sculptures although they are so varied in styles that people think it might be several artists working on them. He said he is an outsider artist, who doesn’t know art words.
“I am all over the place,” said Porter.
During his time at the sheep farm, he continued to make sculptures whenever he had some spare time, and over the years he accumulated dozens of them.
“The sculptures added up over a long period of time,” said Porter.
Eventually, people started to want to come and see them, and when they did, they wanted to pay for what they saw even though Porter initially declined, and that was how the sculpture park gradually got going.
Potter said that his urge to make a bull sculpture came from his experiences of growing up in St. Lawrence, Hand County, with a population of less than 200 people. The surrounding area, he said, has always been known as a cattle region and home to famous rodeo riders, such as the Etbauer brothers.
The Porters noted that although the majority of their social media followers were supportive of them after the incident, they still got a few comments stating that “the vandalism was justified in the name of God.” But the family said they had no assumptions on who committed the act of violence.
“Most people are good people, but you have a slim sliver of crazies,” said Porter. “They are clearly violent.”
In addition to simply being art pieces, Porter’s sculptures are also part of his personality. He said that he himself pounded every square inch of them with a hammer. His sister said that her brother puts his whole life in his sculptures, and the recent attack hit hard on him.
“He puts his whole life into his sculptures,” said Porter. “He can’t even sell them, they become a part of who he is, and he keeps them.”
The Porters family asked anyone who might have tips on the whereabouts of the guardians’ heads to contact the McCook County Sheriff’s Office at 605-425-2761. The family announced a $1,000 reward for the return of the stolen heads.
I would not have known that this had happened except for JMG posting it. But, believe me, if the reverse had happened and Satanists had vandalized a cross or some other Christian symbol this would be a major news story, especially on right–wing media. Hannity would talk about it for days! Every right-winger would be ranting about “Christian persecution in this country.” Tolerance is certainly not a Christian virtue.
Remember when a 10 Commandments monument in Oklahoma City was destroyed when a guy drove his car into it? They absolutely flipped out and were working on getting it replaced that day.
(Of course, the replacement was later removed because of that pesky rule about not singling out a religion for promotion by the gov’t, and they weren’t going to let anyone else put up a monument for their religion or lack thereof…)
It never was. They claim to follow Christ, but they have no idea what Christ was all about. They should read the Sermon on the Mount. It pretty much spells it out for them.
Fucking tax the churches. Christianity is the most destructive political and genocidal motivator of the past two thousand years. They can at least pay.
This is an important article and I hope everyone takes a minute to read it. Then think about what happened. A teacher had permission slips to show Disney catalog of movies to her students, and every parent said yes they were OK with their children seeing the Disney movies. Then this movie Strange World was show and one parent freaked out and filed a complaint against the teacher. Think of it, again one maga right winger maybe highly religious parent gets to derail the public education of all students to push their rabid right wing agenda.
So what was in the movie that could be that offensive, you ask? I did ask that, so Ron and I bought the movie for 20 dollars off Amazon Prime. Almost from the start, I saw what these MAGA right-winger republican types would hate. The parents were a loving couple who loved to smooch and kiss as they made breakfast, all very clean and not sexual / porn, just mom and dad quick cute kisses. So what is offensive about that to the maga? Well if you have seen the trailer you know that the mom is black and the dad is white. Which leads to the next maga issue.
The son, Ethan Clade, is a mixed race drawn with darker skin tone openly gay boy who is accepted by his family and his friends. In the opening get to meet the characters part of the movie, Ethan’s friends show up with some kind of game cards. With them is a boy Ethan has a crush on and the movie plays out letting us know in a funny sweet way of Ethan being shy around the boy. But the movie also makes it clear that the boy Ethan has a crush on likes Ethan as well along with all the friends being OK / happy with the boys being gay and liking each other. That is when the dad interrupts them and does the dad meeting his son’s boyfriend stating to Ethan how he likes the boy, saying something like he can see why Ethan likes him. I thought the movie was cute at this part, as most teenagers are embarrassed of their parents around their friends and to meet the one they have a crush on.
Which leads us to the the last part I think the maga people get angry at. Remember I have only gotten about a 1/4 of the way into the movie but in the movie the mother, who is black remember, is the outgoing adventurous one who manages to swoop in and save the flying ship. Imagine the maga people going crazy that a black woman acts to save everyone while the white people cling to the ship trying to hang on. Oh and also the women in the movie so far are more the adventurers and seeming more capable than the main white man character so far. Another thing I guess makes maga right-winger upset, the movie destroys their gender role stereotypes.
In all I like the movie so far. It is inclusive in a way that real life is. It is drawn and colored in bright vivid colors. The dialog and action is fun to watch. I have not watched a lot of movies in the last few years and I have not watched any animated ones. But I am really enjoying this one. But I can see why the republican right winger maga want to destroy Disney and take over what kinds of shows / movies they produce. This movie is a very far place from the stereotypical gender role models and public social standards of the 1950s that the maga are desperate to return the country to. Hugs
Purported investigation after screening of Disney animated movie comes amid governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on educators
DeSantis has claimed, without evidence, that there is ‘indoctrination in our schools’. Photograph: Daniel A Varela/AP
Florida education officials allegedly told a school teacher that she was under a misconduct investigation after, her friend claimed, she showed students the Disney animated film Strange World.
The purported investigation following this alleged showing of Strange World comes amid rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on educators that include book censorship and limitations on discussions of race and sex as he jockeys for his party’s presidential nomination with “anti-woke” talking points.
———————————————————————————
‘The point is intimidation’: Florida teachers besieged by draconian laws
“My friend showed Disney’s Strange World in a Florida classroom and one student reported it to their parents. Now she’s under investigation by the state,” Carl Zee tweeted on 11 May. “Florida is not safe for teachers, DO NOT MOVE HERE.”
The film involves a group of explorers who try saving a “mysterious land from losing its vital energy source”, per Variety. It also has a prominent gay character – a rarity in children’s animation.
Zee included a photo of a letter from the Florida department of education, stating that “following receipt of a receipt of a complaint, this office has determined an investigation is warranted into allegations that you engaged in inappropriate conduct”.
“If you have evidentiary witnesses or documents pertinent to the case, send them to this office no later than two weeks from receipt of this letter,” the alleged missive continues. CBR.com first reported on Zee’s Tweet.
The alleged letter does not state specific allegations against this teacher. The Florida department of education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In response to a Twitter user who said that teachers who break the law find themselves under investigation, Zee wrote: “She has signed permission from every parent in the classroom to show Disney & Dreamworks movies in class, even offering lines to specify specific movies parents didn’t want shown. Not one exception was written down, so no she didn’t break the law. Try again, doofus.”
News of the alleged investigation is in keeping with Florida teachers’ concerns that they are being stymied and intimidated by new legislation championed by DeSantis. He has claimed, without evidence, that there is “indoctrination in our schools” and allowed his press secretary to claim that teachers are “grooming” pupils.
A new Florida law has effectively resulted in book bans, with classrooms and libraries removing books over concerns they contain “inappropriate” content.
One high school English teacher in Palm Bay, Florida, told the Guardian that a librarian took away a third of the books in his classroom – among them a collection of Emily Dickinson’s poems, which was not on her list of green-lighted books.
DeSantis has also assailed Disney as a company after the entertainment titan pushed back against his “don’t say gay” legislation. He hit back at Disney by signing a bill that took away Disney’s status as a self-governing special district near Orlando.
Disney fought back against DeSantis, filing a federal lawsuit contending that he retaliated against the company for expressing its first amendment right to free speech. In the suit, Disney is asking to stop the governor’s attempted takeover of the special district.
My friend showed Disney’s Strange World in a Florida classroom and one student reported it to their parents. Now she’s under investigation by the state.
Tell the teacher to show the kids Song Of The South and all will be forgiven. It’s hard to find since Disney threw it in the vault and ate the key, but the DeSantis crowd will love him/her for it.
I’ll bet that teachers and medical professionals will also be leaving, as well as high school graduates who want a real college education. It’s a crime what republicans are doing.
Yep, my daughter’s teacher friend from Florida already packed it in and moved away to a blue state where she gets paid a LOT more and has more freedom to teach. She is urging her fellow teachers stuck in that hell hole to get the fuck out now.
They’ve already got a plan in place to hire less-than-honorably-discharged ex-military and rogue cops to teach the kids. They will be armed at all times so the kids will be totally safe.
So, there literally is a war against one of the most popular companies in the world right there in Florida. Evangelicals can literally destroy anything.
Investigating a teacher for showing a Disney film? Migrant workers are leaving your state in droves, which will affect construction projects, the gathering of crops, the hotel and hospitality sector of tourism, and God knows what else, and you’re still trying to stomp on Disney by going after a teacher for showing a film? Lord love a duck, just how stupid are you, Ron?
Don’t forget that the SEAWEED MONSTER has come to destroy their beaches and recreational tourism, but let’s focus on a fricken kids animated movie that might have a gay cartoon character in it.
One parent complained. ONE. So nobody gets to watch it. That sure sounds like cancel culture to me. I’ll bet the parent who complained didn’t even have any children in the school.
A screenshot taken from Google Street View shows the gas station parking lot in Dallas where Gabriella Gonzalez was fatally shot the morning after she’d gotten an abortion in Colorado.
Google Street View/Screenshot by NPR
A man fatally shot his girlfriend in Dallas on Wednesday because he was upset she’d gotten an abortion, court records allege.
Harold Thompson, age 22, is facing murder charges in connection with the death of 26-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez.
The pair were in a “dating relationship,” according to an arrest affidavit, and were seen walking together in a gas station parking lot the morning after Gonzalez had traveled to Colorado to get an abortion.
A police investigator wrote that Thompson was believed to be the father of Gonzalez’s child, and that he did not want her to end her pregnancy.
Video surveillance shows that Thompson put Gonzalez in a “choke hold” as they were talking, police say, but she “shrugs him off.”
Thompson then pulled out a firearm and shot Gonzalez several more times before fleeing. Police declared Gonzalez dead at the scene.
Thompson is being held in a Dallas County jail. Court records show he will be represented by state-appointed counsel but did not list the name or contact information of his attorney.
A separate arrest warrant for Thompson, issued in March, was still active at the time of the shooting, court records show.The March affidavit does not name Gonzalez as the complainant, but the May affidavit describes her as “the victim” in the incident reported then.
The March affidavit states that Thompson had beat the victim, a woman pregnant with his child, several times throughout their relationship, including trying to strangle her and leaving her with a black eye.
The victim claimed that Thompson had “violently attacked her and left her bruised up” and remained “very fearful of the suspect,” police wrote.
“She is scared of the suspect because he had made threats to harm her family and her children,” the warrant states. “She has kids from a different relationship, and suspect is very jealous of the complainant’s ex-boyfriend.”
Court records show Gonzalez’s sister, MilenyRubio, was a witness to the shooting.
“He was so angry that she wanted to get away from him,” she told local news outlet local news outlet KXAS. She added later, “I knew she wasn’t OK but we couldn’t get help, we didn’t know how.”
Gonzalez had just ended a tumultuous, four-month relationship with Thompson when the shooting occurred, her family said.
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