The U.S. has not seen any negative effects on marriage, divorce or living arrangements among all couples since Massachusetts issued the first state-sanctioned, same-sex marriage licenses 20 years ago, a new analysis says.
A review of nearly 100 studies examining the consequences of same-sex marriage on multiple measures of family formation and well-being found no harm to different-sex unions, a report from RAND and UCLA found.
The analysis found that after states legalized marriage for same-sex couples, marriage numbers jumped in those states at rates greater than what could be accounted for by the new marriages of same-sex couples alone. Researchers found no consistent evidence of an increase in divorce as a consequence of legalizing marriage for same-sex couples.
Read the full article. Hate groups warned back then and continue to claim today that same-sex marriage would result in the destruction of the “natural family.” Some, such as the Liberty Counsel, have claimed that same-sex marriage laws legalized pedophilia, bestiality, and incest marriages. Last month the Liberty Counsel declared that the still unfolding 2015 Kim Davis case will soon be before the Supreme Court.
Q&A: These researchers examined 20 years of data on same-sex marriage. They didn't find any harms https://t.co/OK91MX7oZL
Hate is quite profitable: Valentina Gomez, Chaya Raichik, Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher, Anita Bryant, Candace Owens, Michelle Malkin, Rupert Murdoch, the list is endless.
The Evangelicals and the hardcore Right Wing crazies are so obsessed with the sex life of LGBT people that they usually FAIL to take care of their own lives, how many of the more outspoken Anti Gay activists have been divorced, cheated on their spouse with someone else, have been caught soliciting sex from both men and women? They have nothing better to do with their sad pathetic lives than to focus on someone else’s.
I’ll never forget former Congressman Barney Frank asking one of his homophobic colleagues in the House how Frank’s gay marriage adversely affected his colleague’s marriage. The answer, of course, was silence.
He also had a grand ol’ reaction when someone asked him about non-heteros showering or taking a piss next to the straights: “What do you think has been happening for years?”
Remember whenDick Armey called him ‘Barney Fag’ and then tried to excuse it away by saying it was a ‘mispronunciation’? Barney’s reply was the best:<blockquote> “I rule out that it was an innocent mispronunciation,” said Barney Frank from his office this week, reflecting on the slur that shook the 104th Congress. “I turned to my own expert, my mother, who reports that in 59 years of marriage, no one ever introduced her as Elsie Fag.”</blockquote> https://www.nytimes.com/199…
The GQP also said it would lead to child marriage, knowing that it was already legal in a number of states AND that the GQP is still trying to stop proposed bans on the practice.
Drag queen story time reading in Philadelphia sets Guinness World Record for attendance The event, hosted by the Philadelphia Gay News and sponsored by Visit Philadelphia, saw Philadelphia drag performers reading children’s stories to 263 people, which organizers said was a first-ever Guinness World Record for such an event.
Ali sent me this link on March 1st. Told you I have a lot of very old tabs just hang on because I want so badly to read them plus all the new ones I can’t keep up with. Thank you Ali. Hugs. Scottie
The first documented sex between two male humpback whales is just the latest challenge to our presumptions about sexuality
The sighting near Hawaii in 2022 of a male humpback whale penetrating another male has been confirmed in a new study.
Photograph: Lyle Krannichfeld and Brandi Romano/SWNS
A humpback whale’s penis entering another male. Same-sex behaviour has often been observed in cetaceans.
Photograph: Lyle Krannichfeld and Brandi Romano/Marine Mammal Science
Whales are extraordinarily sensuous creatures. Those blubbery bodies are highly sensitive, and sensitised. At social meetings, pods of sperm, humpback and right whales will roll around one another’s bodies for hours at a time. I’ve seen a group of right whales engaged in foreplay and penetration lasting an entire morning
I have also watched a male-female couple so blissfully conjoined that they appeared unbothered by our little fishing boat as they passed underneath it. And in what may sound like a career of cetacean voyeurism, I have also been caught up in a fast-moving superpod of dusky dolphins continually penetrating each other at speed, regardless of the gender of their partner.
That’s why this week’s report of the first scientifically documented male-to-male sexual interactions between two humpback whales off the coast of Hawaii is not surprising.
The remarkable image of a two-metre whale penis entering another male “leaves little room for discussion that there is a sexual component to such behaviour”, as one whale scientist, Jeroen Hoekendijk at the Wageningen Marine Research institute in the Netherlands, notes drily.
In fact, one of the whales was ailing and there has been speculation that the encounter may not have been consensual or that the healthy whale was actually giving comfort to the other. Whatever the truth, such “flagrant” acts also expose many of our human presumptions about sexuality, gender and identity.
Off the north-west Pacific coast of the US, male orcas often leave family pods to rub their erections against each other’s bellies. But females have also reportedly been seen engaging in sexual contact with one another, too.
Indeed, the graphic accounts of male-to-male behaviour may mask many “unseen” female-to-female sexual interactions.
Dr Conor Ryan, an honorary research fellow at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, notes: “It’s easy to visibly identify male ‘homosexual’ sex when an extruded penis can be two metres long.” It is less easy to diagnose when female sperm whales are seen “cuddling”, as Hoekendijk observes.
A humpback whale’s penis entering another male. Same-sex behaviour has often been observed in cetaceans. Photograph: Lyle Krannichfeld and Brandi Romano/Marine Mammal Science
Ryan has often witnessed same-sex behaviour between whales and dolphins. “I am interested in the things that we miss,” he says. He has recorded competitive behaviour by humpback whales in groups that seemed to be typically male, such as pursuing other whales.
But they proved, from DNA samples, to be genetically female. He speculates that humpback females may even use whale song – hitherto thought to be the province of mating males.
“If I were a female being harassed by horny males, maybe I would sing too,” says Ryan. “To attract more females, to take attention off me, while masquerading as a male.”
These observations throw up new ideas about the way these animals behave. Whale society is almost overwhelmingly matriarchal. Female sperm whales, for example, travel in large groups – sometimes thousands strong – in which males are only “useful” for their sperm, visiting the groups briefly, then leaving the females to their own society.
Male-oriented science has in the past made various judgments regarding sexual behaviour. But the idea of lesbian whales should not be surprising. Ryan even cites the case of a “non-binary” beaked whale, which was discovered to have both male and female genitalia.
Even identifying as a species can be fluid for cetaceans. In 2022, near Caithness in Scotland, a bottlenose dolphin was found to be identifying as a porpoise, swimming with a pod of porpoises and using their vocalisations. In one of the great queer pairings of the 20th century, Virginia Woolf referred to her lover, Vita Sackville-West, as “my porpoise”.
We cannot know how whales and dolphins themselves regard genital interactions. But in most cases they appear to enjoy them – without, perhaps, the preconceptions we humans as a species have historically projected upon such behaviour. They may make great clickbait on social media, but they have an important relevance for us, too.
When the Canadian biologist Bruce Bagemihl published his book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity – listing 450 species exhibiting such behaviour, including whales and dolphins – it was used in evidence in a US supreme court case in 2003 that struck down, as unconstitutional, homophobic “sodomy” laws being used in Texas.
It is telling, too, that the best-known work of literary fiction written about whales, Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick, is a decidedly queer book. Melville conflates the queerness and diversity of his characters – his narrator, Ishmael, is declaredmarried to his shipmate, the multi-tattooed Queequeg, based on a Māori warrior – with the mysterious sensuality of the whales he is describing. He even spends an entire chapter describing a whale’s foreskin, with joyful innuendo.
The sea itself seems to be a queer place, where gender is at best a slippery notion at times. Slipper shells stuck together on the beach, which you might find when beachcombing, are in fact changing sex, from female at the bottom to male at the top. Cetaceans’ genitals are concealed, in any case, in genital slits. Sleek and streamlined, it is as if bothersome sexual definitions were overtaken by the sheer beauty of wondrous hydrodynamics.
So much of what we project on to whales and dolphins is about our own complexes. They seem to lead a free and easy life. They may not possess hands to manipulate, but they have the biggest brains on the planet, and highly sensual bodies to match. Having been around for millions of years, it is tempting to imagine their long-evolved existence as one that is beyond all the things that seem to hold us humans back.
NEW: Texas grade school curriculum would infuse the Bible with history and arts lessons under a new proposal from top education officials. MLK's Birmingham Jail letter, for example, would include Biblical stories on "civil disobedience." @PoojaSalhotrahttps://t.co/D3TyT9XpX5
Important story from @The74 The ostensible reason for the curriculum changes is to support cultural literacy. But do students need to read the Book of Matthew in public school to understand The Last Supper? https://t.co/jd0Wsufbjn
Little claims he’s been targeted for harassment and retaliation over his lawsuit. He’s being represented by the anti-LGBTQ hate group, the Thomas More Society, who claims that Little has a First Amendment right not to have the flag within his sight.
Per reports, Little’s salary is more than $200,000. In 2021, a Long Beach lifeguard tower decked out for Pride was destroyed in arson, much to the delight of commenters on the YouTube clip below.
A Christian lifeguard in California is suing his local fire department after it allegedly threatened to dismiss him for refusing to display a Pride flag at his workplace, court documents show. https://t.co/Bq7d9C3SWB
Last year the group’s founder claimed to The Federalist that his foie gras business was boycotted by local restaurants after he posted an anti-LGBTQ screed on Instagram, putting his family in a “dire financial situation.” In the clip below, he talks about that supposed betrayal and rants about “sexual degeneracy.”
With a month of pride celebrations kicking off tomorrow, a group of Catholic men from Louisianna are preparing a prayer rally to reclaim their town from the LGBT agenda.https://t.co/e6mw7eLGzj
Cultists are also raging in the comments of Walmart’s Instagram post. Sample reply: “Walmart and Pride whatever it is, I hate all this because you glorify everything in this world except what God has created to be from the beginning, which is a family, man married to a woman and their children!! Why don’t you give a true family unit a special month??? This evil agenda to shove all that’s unnatural down our throat will be your downfall one day!! God will not be mocked!! Yes, everyone has a right to choose how you live but why does it have to be glorified for a month??? Just wrong!!!”
If the goal was to make “Pride” toxic for brands, as conservative Matt Walsh urged, then mission accomplished. Now, thanks to Bud Light and so many other casualties of excessive Pride, Americans have started to realize how much power they have to change the corporate landscape.
And now for the tRump cult out cries about that guilty verdict.
I love how every accusation they make about Biden and the democrats / left turns out to be a confession by the republicans. For example they claim that Biden has weaponized the Department Of Justice and is controlling the AG Merrick Garland. But the republicans and trump have been calling for the locking up of his pollical opponent since his first run in 2016. He and his supporters have long called for locking up Biden. These people don’t want to run a country, they want to rule the country and everyone in it. They want to raid the treasury and hammer anyone who tries to stop them. Simply put they wrongly claim no one has ever been charged with this same crime, but it has been charged over 9,000 times. But they are now a cult and if the dear leader says it it must be so, reality be damned. Hugs. Scottie
Supporters of former President Donald Trump, enraged by his conviction on 34 felony counts by a New York jury, flooded pro-Trump websites with calls for riots, revolution and violent retribution https://t.co/l0ekYagThWpic.twitter.com/L8Lc6YAMo4
Wow! Joe diGenova suggests on Laura Ingraham's show that Republicans should buy guns because there is a civil war coming. "It’s going to be total war." pic.twitter.com/ctBB1ikrd0
JMG: Regarding Kelly’s lie about E. Jean Carroll, New York’s 2022 Adult Survivors Act was certainly not passed with her in mind and in fact resulted in lawsuits against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, and rapper Sean Combs. In total, nearly 3000 suits were filed before the law expired in 2023.
NBC News: Trump supporters are trying to doxx the jurors in Trump's criminal trial.
A non-profit that conducts public interest research found posts of the purported addresses of jurors on a fringe message board known for pro-Trump content.
believe that the woman in the back shouting “fuck the king and the queen” is the same one seen below bouncing her enormous bare tits earlier today.
'F*** the King': Furious moment Trump supporters clash with British couple outside his NYC hush money trial as cops escort them away after they visited 'purely for entertainment' https://t.co/5B0celZ9R1pic.twitter.com/vyuWS59LWF
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) May 29, 2024
#NOW Trump Supporters TEAR UP SIGNS of Anti-Trump protester, shove boobs in her face and break into a SHOVING MATCH outside NYC Court during Trump’s Hush Money Trial pic.twitter.com/n6PVUOQunG
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) May 30, 2024
NOW: An anti-Trump protester walks into the pro-Trump rally across from the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse and has her signs snatched and ripped
A pro-Trump protester then flashed her breasts in the anti-Trump protester’s face pic.twitter.com/EyaoQeVfWE
Footage relayed by a freelance journalist from outside the courthouse appears to show supporters of Donald Trump attacking a protester, repeatedly ripping up the person’s protest signs, and shoving and yelling “f**k that b**ch” in their face. https://t.co/IL7lsMLd35
Judge Merchan just told the jury that they do not need unanimity to convict. 4 could agree on one crime, 4 on a different one, and the other 4 on another. He said he would treat 4-4-4 as a unanimous verdict.
False reports about the jury instructions in former President Trump's New York hush money trial have led to online threats against Judge Juan Merchan. https://t.co/jnN52R0YGq
Trump called it ridiculous, unconstitutional and un-American “that the highly Conflicted, Radical Left Judge is not requiring a unanimous decision on the fake charges against me.” At first glance, it might appear that the former president doesn’t understand one of the basic tenets of the legal system: that guilty verdicts in criminal cases have to be unanimous.
The jury must be unanimous when it comes to determining whether Trump is guilty or not guilty of each specific falsifying business records count, and whether he did so in an effort to unlawfully impact an election, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said.
He added, however, that the panel did not have to be unanimous about which of those three types of crimes could serve as the underlying violation that brings the state election charge into play. In Trump’s case, prosecutors have offered three types of crimes that would make the state election-meddling charge come into play: federal election law crimes, tax crimes or false business records.
Leavitt went on to claim that President Joe Biden has targeted “innocent” Americans such as the Jan. 6 rioters charged for their roles in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. “They’ve thrown [them] in the gulag in Washington, D.C.,” said Leavitt, who added that Trump said he’d pardon the rioters on “day one” of a second term.
Trump press secretary says their Project 2025 agenda will seek “revenge” on those who oppose Trump, adding that criticizing Trump is a “crime” that requires “justice” pic.twitter.com/HDUNeaIRsF
Watch: A Michigan man left a judge flabbergasted when he appeared in court via Zoom on suspended driver’s license charges, while driving his car. This occurred on May 15, 2024 during Washtenaw County J. Cedric Simpson’s criminal docket hearings. pic.twitter.com/WjqUHq3RCK
Rumors of Trump using the N-word during production of The Apprentice have swirled for years. Executive producer Mark Burnett has long refused to release any outtakes from the show. In 2018, Trump tweeted that the N-word “does not exist in my vocabulary and never has” and that Burnett backs him on this “fake news.”
For 20 years, I couldn’t say what Donald Trump did on the set of The Apprentice. Now I can. https://t.co/yHWnZYKy1l
Read the full article. Per Reuters, Yullo acted in response to the Parkland mass shooting. Yullo also fined insurers $13 million for providing the NRA’s “Carry Guard” coverage for members accused of wrongful death shootings.
So what started out to be a simple fix of a malware problem on the blogging computer I used to completely change all my old Chrome tabs into Firefox tabs. I don’t like the new agreements on Chrome about information gathering no matter who you make your settings to prevent. Basically everything you do is recorded and sent to Google. It is frustrating. Firefox has less work ability and on Chrome I could always recover old tabs if I did not delete them in entire windows, even on other devices. So far Firefox doesn’t seem to have the same ability. If I start to lose to many pages or comments, then I will have to switch back. While privacy is important I need function much more. I need to be able to switch open tabs from one computer to the other to clean them. I will try this but it may not last.
Here are the open Joe My God posts I wanted to share before this all happened. Enjoy.
Read the full article. Earlier this week and this morning it was reported that Florida educators are receiving state training on teaching Christian nationalism and teaching that genocides such as the one committed by Joseph Stalin are examples of cancel culture.
Read the full platform [PDF]. The 2024 platform echoes many of the anti-LGBTQ items seen in the 2022 platform. The platform also contains the many attacks on trans youth now codified into law in nearly two dozen states. Photo: Newly elected Texas GOP chairman Abraham George.
And it total partisan Christian Nationalist news ….
And in bigotry thuggish maga right wing behavior wins news … But think about this. We have normalized and now accept that people going into a store and destroying the merchandise and attacking the staff is OK as long as it fits our religious or political beliefs. Is this what a civilized society is or has become?
Cultists are also raging in the comments of Walmart’s Instagram post. Sample reply: “Walmart and Pride whatever it is, I hate all this because you glorify everything in this world except what God has created to be from the beginning, which is a family, man married to a woman and their children!! Why don’t you give a true family unit a special month??? This evil agenda to shove all that’s unnatural down our throat will be your downfall one day!! God will not be mocked!! Yes, everyone has a right to choose how you live but why does it have to be glorified for a month??? Just wrong!!!”
And more on the attempt to force Christianity on everyone else kids in public schools regardless of the parent’s religion, here is the attempt to teach that the US is and should be a Christian nation whose laws, morals, and rules should be based only on the Christian bible I present this. Yes in Florida where the legislature passed letting Christian religious leaders be untrained school counselors but DeathSantis the governor claimed that no other religion especially the Satanic Temple. Of course the law can’t be used that way but the die hard rabid fundamentalist Christian are desperate to push their religion and only theirs on the public. Side issue, it is hilarious how the fundamentalist Christians freak out over the name not realizing the religion is a science based social civil rights based faith, not one that worships their devil. Although with the way they are anti-science and ant-civil rights for anyone not white, straight, and cis maybe they should freak out. Hugs. Scottie
Training materials produced by the Florida Department of Education direct middle and high school teachers to indoctrinate students in the tenets of Christian nationalism, a right-wing effort to merge Christian and American identities. Thousands of Florida teachers, lured by cash stipends, have attended trainings featuring these materials.
According to speaker notes accompanying one slide, teachers were told that “Christianity challenged the notion that religion should be subservient to the goals of the state,” and the same hierarchy is reflected in America’s founding documents. That slide quotes the Bible to assert that “[c]ivil government must be respected, but the state is not God.” Teachers were told the same principle is embedded in the Declaration of Independence.
The next slide in the deck quotes an article by Peter Lillback, the president of Westminster Theological Seminary and the founder of The Providence Forum, an organization that promotes and defends Christian nationalism. The group’s executive director, Jerry Newcombe, writes a weekly column for World Net Daily — a far-right site known for publishing hundreds of stories falsely suggesting Obama was a Muslim born in Africa.
The Christian nationalist materials were obtained through a Freedom Of Information Act demand.
As the piece notes, Peter Lillback is a signatory to the infamous Manhattan Declaration, which calls on Christians to commit “civil disobedience” against LGBTQ rights.
Photo: Florida education chief Manny Diaz, who previously appeared here over the successful bill to teach K-12 students about the evils of communism and the bans on sociology courses and diversity programs.
Anyone still thinks this is going to end at a ballot box is not paying attention. These people cant be reasoned with. They know one thing. Force. Our side still hasnt realized this and I don’t think they will until its to late. Oh well
The parents of the ‘wrong’ religion are going to be the most vocal in complaining about this. The kids will also still have access to the internet, where religion goes to die.
You’re referring to the Treaty of Tripoli, specifically Article 11 of the treaty. This treaty was signed in 1796 between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary. The article states: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”
This statement was part of the efforts to communicate that the U.S. government’s secular nature would not lead to conflicts based on religious differences, particularly with Muslim nations at the time. It was ratified unanimously by the U.S. Senate in 1797 and signed by President John Adams. Quite the historical mic drop, wasn’t it?
Thomas Jefferson: “Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.” (Letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814)
James Madison: “The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.” (Writings, 8:432, 1819)
George Washington: “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” (Letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789)
Will it actually do any good now that the Supreme Court is stacked with several conservative reactionary justices? We already know that Alito probably wouldn’t agree to recuse himself on this case and wouldn’t rule against this. Barrett most likely wouldn’t rule against it either since she has been a member of the Federalist Society in the past (the Federalist Society is currently planning to gut the federal civil service of anyone who supports the Constitution instead of an ultraconservative political agenda when another Republican president takes office).
When fundy, I was the producer of many a cutsie nativity play. As my faith began to drain away, I wondered how many other teen girls Gabriel had pitched the idea to before he found one naive enough to assent to it. I wanted to include a scene where the other girls laughed like a drain as we say in my part of the Uk and told him to p*** off, they weren’t born yesterday, pull the other leg, it’s got bells on. Never had the courage to act on my fantasy-reality scene unfortunately.
While everyone isn’t paying attention, the theo-fascists continue the coup they began two years ago. Don’t be surprised when you wake up one day and we’re living in a theo-fascist state.
I have a few questions to ask everyone here. Why are Christian Fundie evangelicals so obsessed with Communism and Marxism despite the fact that those things are so outdated, no longer a major concern for everyone, and so 1950s’ and that the Soviet Union is no longer around since 1991? Can’t they not understand that the Cold War is over and that other supposed Communist countries like China and Vietnam have all but abandoned much of Marxism ideologies they once embraced during the Late 1940’s and 1950s’?
I’m reminded of Dumb Idiot Ken Ham bemoaning facing an unfounded future scenario where children are being taken away from their parents to be indoctrinated into some so called secular evolutionary ideology, which is a way for him to project his own plans to tear children away from the arms of their secular parents and be taken to creation indoctrination centers to be indoctrinated into a toxic creationist ideology of his own making.
I like all of these because the message in them is so wonderful. In the first video he talks about a fundamentalist hate preacher and how he is wrong. Rev Trevors says it is not the job of Christians to burn books, to demonize others, to cause harm. He talks about what the job of a Christian really is. Again it is a message I as an atheist can enjoy and agree with.
In the second video he talks about religious men who blame women for their own sexual feelings and lust, so tell those women they must be completely covered and show no skin so men won’t be sexually excited by seeing them. The Rev. again shows how this is wrong. The sexual sin is the man’s, not the woman’s to deal with. Women shouldn’t have to cover up and show no skin to protect men, men need to take responsibility for themselves and their feelings.
The third one I included not so much for the religious nature but as a reminder to all of us, myself included, to take down time, me time, just relax and enjoy life. I hope if you watch them you will enjoy them. Hugs.
Conventioneers listen to speeches during the Texas GOP Convention Friday, May 24, 2024 in San Antonio. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune
Republican Party of Texas delegates voted Saturday on a platform that called for new laws to require the Bible to be taught in public schools and a constitutional amendment that would require statewide elected leaders to win the popular vote in a majority of Texas counties.
Other proposed planks of the 50-page platform included proclamations that “abortion is not healthcare it is homicide”; that gender-transition treatment for children is “child abuse”; calls to reverse recent name changes to military bases and “publicly honor the southern heroes”; support for declaring gold and silver as legal tender; and demands that the U.S. government disclose “all pertinent information and knowledge” of UFOs.
The party hopes to finalize its platform on Wednesday, after Saturday’s votes on each proposal are tabulated.
Passed by delegates at the party’s biennial convention, the platform has traditionally been seen not as a definitive list of Republican stances, but a compromise document that represents the interests of the party’s various business, activist and social conservative factions. But in recent years — and amid a party civil war that’s pushed it further right — the platform has been increasingly used as a basis for censuring Republican officeholders who the party’s far right has attacked as insufficiently conservative, including Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-San Antonio.
As the party has drifted further right, its platform has done the same. In 2022, it called for a referendum on Texas secession; resistance to the “Great Reset,” a conspiracy theory that claims global elites are using environmental and social policies to enslave the world’s population; proclamations that homosexuality is an “abnormal lifestyle choice”; and a declaration that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.
Many of those planks were also included in this year’s platform, which was debated late into Friday night and presented for a vote Saturday afternoon.
One proposal asserts that illegal immigration is the “greatest threat to American security and sovereignty” and calls for the state and federal governments to devote all available resources to deporting undocumented immigrants.
Perhaps the most consequential plank calls for a constitutional amendment to require that candidates for statewide office carry a majority of Texas’ 254 counties to win an election, a model similar to the U.S. electoral college.
Under current voting patterns, in which Republicans routinely win in the state’s rural counties, such a requirement would effectively end Democrats’ chances of winning statewide office. In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott carried 235 counties, while Democrat Beto O’Rourke carried most of the urban, more populous counties and South Texas counties. Statewide, Abbott won 55% of the popular vote while O’Rourke carried 44%.
However, some attorneys question whether such a proposal would be constitutional and conform with the Voting Rights Act because it would most likely limit the voting power of racial minorities, who are concentrated in a relatively small number of counties. (The party’s platform also reiterates its previous calls for the repeal of the Voting Rights Act).
The platform also takes a step further some of the party’s previous calls for more Christianity in public life. The 2022 platform proclaimed that the United States was “founded on Judeo-Christian principles,” for instance, and demanded the repeal of federal prohibitions on political activity by churches.
The 2024 platform goes significantly further: It urges lawmakers and the State Board of Education to “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance,” and supports the use of religious chaplains in schools — which was made legal under a law passed by the state Legislature last year.
Though more subtle, another proposed plank could also aid Republicans’ ongoing attempts to further infuse Christianity into public education. This year’s platform also calls for Thomas Jefferson’s “Letter to the Danbury Baptists” to be included in the list of “original founding documents” to be taught in history classes, along with the U.S. Constitution or The Federalist Papers. Jefferson’s Danbury letter is often cited by activists such as David Barton, a Texas pastor and self-described “amateur historian” who has spent decades arguing that church-state separation is a “myth” that has been used to shroud America’s true Christian roots — a claim that has been thoroughly debunked by actual historians and experts, many of them also conservative Christians.
The new platform comes as Republicans increasingly embrace once-fringe theories such as Christian nationalism, which argues that the United States’ founding was God-ordained, and therefore its institutions and laws should reflect conservative, Christian views. Barton’s ideas have been a key driver of that movement, and were repeatedly cited by lawmakers last year during debates over the chaplains bill and in legislation that would have required the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms. Barton’s group, WallBuilders, was also an exhibitor at this year’s Texas GOP convention, and the party has increasingly aligned with two far-right, fundamentalist Christian billionaires, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.
The draft platform also leans into the Texas GOP’s open hostility toward Texas House leadership and Phelan, with positions that would weaken the power of the House speaker and distribute power to the GOP caucus in the House as a whole. One plank advocates for limiting the speaker to two consecutive terms. Another calls for a discharge petition process, which would allow members to send bills to the House floor for a vote even if they haven’t passed the House committee process.
On Friday night, the convention elected former Collin County GOP Chair Abraham George as the next party chair, a vote that is expected to continue the party’s trajectory. During his candidate speech on Thursday, George called for the party to fight Democrats, radicals and “RINO” Republicans who go against “everything we stand for.”
During a speech on the convention stage on Saturday, former gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Don Huffines carried a printed version of the platform with him. He noted that Republicans have controlled the Legislature and the governor’s mansion for two decades, but the party still struggles to secure its priorities.
“We could get any piece of legislation done anytime we want, but, every session, we struggle to get our platform into law,” Huffines said.
I thought Jon’s part was incredibly spot on and correct. Plus very funny. The man has the touch of comedy for sure. That part ended about 14:13 when the other guy came on. Him I did not find funny even though he had a couple good lines. Hugs. Scottie
Jon Stewart discusses conservative cancel culture following Harrison Butker’s controversial commencement speech, and Michael Kosta weighs in on Nikki Haley reluctantly endorsing Trump, Trump’s bogus assassination claims, and the close of the hush money trial…with no testimony from Trump. #DailyShow#Comedy
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