A study tracking hundreds of macaques over three years has found that same sex behaviour in males is very common, and it might even be beneficial to the species.
“We found most males were behaviourally bisexual, and that variation in same-sex activity was heritable,” said the first author Jackson Clive from Imperial College London.
“Our research therefore shows that same-sex sexual behaviours can be common amongst animals and can evolve. I hope our results encourage further discoveries in this area.”
Although there’s been plenty of reports of same-sex behaviour in the animal kingdom, usually they are just opportunistic observations in the wild, and so are classed as rare.
This study observed 236 male rhesus macaques on the Puerto Rican island, Cayo Santiago. The observations were taken from 2017 to 2020, and was accompanied by genetic analysis, and a review of the macaques’ pedigree (or family tree) records back to the mid-1950s.
They found that 72% of the males in the study undertook same-sex mounting, while only 46% did different-sex mounting.
This at first might seem paradoxical. Sexual behaviour that is not reproductive would soon be bred out. This is called ‘Darwin’s paradox’.
The team investigated whether the same-sex behaviour led a loss in genetic ‘fitness’ – meaning less offspring overall. This was not the case – they suggest that bisexual males may be more successful in reproducing.
“We also found that males that mounted each other were also more likely to back each other up in conflicts – perhaps this could be one of many social benefits to same-sex sexual activity,” says Clive.
“The behaviour can have an evolutionary underpinning.”
Using the genetic data, the team found there was a small heritable component – around 6.4%. This is the first evidence of a genetic link to primate same sex behaviour outside of humans. They also found a genetic correlation between which role – the mounter or the mountee – the males undertook.
Demographic factors such as age and social status didn’t affect the likelihood of the macaque undertaking same sex behaviour or which role they took.
The researchers say that this challenges the belief that same-sex behaviour is rare, or only a product of particular environmental conditions.
“Unfortunately there is still a belief amongst some people that same-sex behaviour is ‘unnatural,’ and some countries sadly still enforce the death penalty for homosexuality,” says senior author Professor Vincent Savolainen also from Imperial College London.
“Our research shows that same-sex behaviour is in fact widespread amongst non-human animals.”
McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley filed a lawsuit after a state agency warned her about refusing to marry gay couples. She hopes a recent U.S. Supreme Court case about religious freedom helps her cause.
Gay marriage supporters hold a pride flag in front of the U.S. Supreme Court before a hearing about gay marriage in Washington, D.C., in 2015. Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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Since Waco judge Dianne Hensley received a public warning from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for refusing to perform same-sex marriages in 2019, she’s waged a public battle against the state agency.
She’s long claimed the governmental body violated state law by punishing her for actions taken in accordance with her religious faith. Now, she has submitted a brief arguing that the recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of a business owner who refused services to same-sex couples will help her case.
After Hensley was warned by the judicial conduct commission, she filed a lawsuit claiming the investigation and warning “substantially burdened the free exercise of her religion, with no compelling justification.” She seeks damages of $10,000. She has been represented by the First Liberty Institute, a high-profile religious liberty legal group based in Plano. The legal group also has strong ties to suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Her lawsuit alleges that the commission violated her rights under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Her lawsuit was dismissed by a lower appeals tribunal, but last month, the Texas Supreme Court said it will hear arguments on whether to revive the state judge’s lawsuit.
This new brief, submitted last week by Hensley’s legal team, argues that though the Supreme Court used the First Amendment and not state law in the 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis case, the decision is also applicable in her lawsuit. The First Amendment case decided last month said a Colorado web designer cannot be forced by the state to compromise her beliefs and serve same-sex couples.
“303 Creative was interpreting the First Amendment’s Speech Clause rather than the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Its holding is nonetheless instructive because it rejects the idea of a ‘compelling interest’ in forcing wedding vendors to participate in same-sex and opposite-sex marriage ceremonies on equal terms,” the brief states.
Justin Butterfield, an attorney for Hensley at First Liberty Institute, has maintained throughout the lawsuit that religious liberty is Hensley’s right as a citizen.
“303 Creative affirmed that religious liberty is not a second-class right in America,” Butterfield wrote in an email to The Texas Tribune. “We look forward to vindicating Judge Hensley’s rights in the Texas Supreme Court.”
Hensley was not available for comment on Wednesday.
According to the Texas judicial commission’s 2019 warning, Hensley referred gay couples who wanted her to preside over their marriage ceremony to other people who would officiate. The state’s judicial code requires judges to conduct “extra-judicial activities” in ways that don’t cast doubt on their impartiality on the bench. The commission issued a public warning, saying she cast doubt “on her capacity to act impartially to persons appearing before her as a judge due to the person’s sexual orientation.”
According to Dale Carpenter, chair of constitutional law at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, the U.S. Supreme Court case has little to do with Hensley’s case, since one is dealing with private businesses, and Hensley is a government official acting in an official capacity. Carpenter has written extensively on the Colorado case and agreed with the 6-3 Supreme Court decision. He says the two cases are similar in that they include services to a same-sex couple, but “that’s where the similarities end.”
“The service in [Henley’s] case is the service of a government official, so if 303 Creative had involved that government denying services to a same-sex couple, then that’d be a very different case,” Carpenter maintained. “I don’t think 303 helps the judge’s case at all.”
He believes this is the first of a “slew” of cases that will be coming through the state and country that will attempt to expand the reach of the Colorado case and when LGBTQ+ people can be denied certain services on First Amendment grounds.
“This is going to have to be worked through the judicial system, including trial courts and appellate courts, over a period of probably several years at this point because 303 Creative is going to lead us to see many, many more of these cases,” Carpenter said.
Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, says it’s also important to understand that if the Texas Supreme Court were to rule in Hensley’s favor, they “would have to expressly extend the holding of 303 Creative” to her case. This means that Hensley’s case goes beyond the current bounds of what the SCOTUS decision says.
Johnathan Gooch, a spokesperson for Equality Texas and a University of Texas at Austin School of Law graduate reiterated Carpenter’s points on the differences between the two cases, and pointed to Hensley’s position as a purveyor of the law.
“The law of the land is marriage equality. It’s as simple as that,” Gooch said. “If judges and justices of the peace were empowered to only enforce the laws that they agreed with, we would quickly descend into anarchy.”
Carpenter says the implications of Hensley’s case are hard to predict, since the Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments only on whether to revive the lawsuit, not if the lawsuit has merit. He believes it will be a long time before Hensley’s lawsuit has real effects.
Conversely, Ash Hall, an ACLU of Texas policy and advocacy strategist, believes that the case could be substantial, if the lawsuit is eventually won.
“If Judge Hensley were to actually win this case, it would basically gut a good portion of marriage equality that we got,” Hall said. “Your ability to get married then would be dependent on your ZIP code and kind of what resources were around you.”
LGBTQ+ activists aren’t surprised by Hensley’s attempt to use the SCOTUS case in her favor. Some say a continual onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ bills passed in the Texas Legislature have left them numb.
“I have nothing to say anymore,” said Verniss McFarland, founder and executive director of the Mahogany Project, which advocates for LGBTQ+ communities of color. “As a Black trans femme person, we are already on the margins. When something like this happens, it’s just like: ‘Oh, this again.’”
Hall says that the ACLU was not surprised by Hensley trying to use the 303 Creative case. They said once the SCOTUS decision was passed down, they all bolstered themselves, preparing for the lawsuits that they knew were on the way.
“Traditionally, that is what has happened: When the courts have ruled in a way that gives people an option to refuse service or discriminate against other people, you get a whole bunch of court cases pertaining to that to see how far they can take it,” Hall said. “It’s not surprising, just disappointing.”
This nonstop transanity doesn’t sell, and it’s damaging our state’s efforts to safeguard young Hoosiers. My office will continue working daily to protect our children and uphold parental rights. https://t.co/kzTNpgOdDv
Indiana's attorney general is leading seven states expressing legal concern that Target’s ‘LGBTQIA+ Pride’ campaign is damaging efforts to safeguard citizens. https://t.co/ED1UvcZTbo
A lawsuit seeking to invalidate a Wisconsin statute from 1849 outlawing abortion will proceed, after the presiding judge on Friday denied a motion to dismiss the closely watched legal action. @cnsjkellyhttps://t.co/LKqYBXBoJc
Patrick Henry: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity,…
You will be unsurprised to hear that Patrick Henry never said this. It comes from a 1956 article in a magazine called The Virginian. But what's a fake quote between friends? https://t.co/PZCEhfNlqW
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) July 5, 2023
15 hours and this fake quote is still up. Christian Nationalists' identity depends on deliberately spreading disinformation about American history, especially the founders and the founding. https://t.co/z6bRSUYnQW
Christian theocrat uses a fake quote to make his case. Many of the founding fathers were deists and the constitution establishes a secular government. Your version of christian Saudi Arabia is authoritarian and unpopular. Give it up https://t.co/SCu5MFAWjg
Next time, instead of arguing whether America was founded on ‘christianity”, ask them why it is so important for them to make their (incorrect) point. Okay, we were founded on Christian principles of slavery, and women as chattel with no vote, natives were stripped of their land and other rights, and only white male property owners could vote. Not to mention child labor was rampant, the majority of the country were small farmers, divorce was nearly impossible and so on. Hurray! What is you want NOW? You want to reinstitute all of that? No, they will likely say, they just want “Christian principles” reinstitute. Like what? Name them, specifically. They will be likely more in line with Christian nationalism — no LBGT rights, minorities voting is restricted, reduction in social safety net, more deregulation and so on. So now you can drill down — what does Christianity have to say about laws that control pollution, radioactive waste, plastics in our food, chemicals in the water you drink? They will give you mumbo jumbo about freedom, and all that. “”So why do we have to be a Christian nation” to achieve your goals of less regulation? What it will likely come down to is morals and values. Again, we can hit hard back — you mean no divorce? Because Jesus had a lot to say about it. Premarital sex? Birth control? IF you want to talk about morals, let’s talk about children going to bed or to school hungry, of which millions do. What about the homeless? Again, we don’t need Christian nationalism to tackle those issues. It wil come down to nothing at all — just a vague desire to make people go to church more, pray more, and be more aligned with god or something. “So you want to force people to pray?” I could go on, but you just have to nail them down on specifics. Hawley is just about control — they don’t want drag queens, people having wanton sex, abortion, and all that. Force them to admit that.
I remember in 2020 when they used the flag of the Russian Federation to decorate the Republican National Convention, which inspired me to make this meme.
GQP ads constantly have Russian troops, ships and MiGs because they use creative agencies in Russia, because few US agencies often full of GQP intended victims will do work for them.
Creative houses use the stock images they have on hand. That’s why so much Russian stuff shows up in their ads.
Early data shows globe just had its warmest June on record by far, and July 3 and 4 set a record for the hottest days yet recorded (since 1979). I suspect July 5 will be added to that list… https://t.co/EkJtXJhBO9
When children first are taught the letters of the alphabet, the letters are capitalized. Maybe the MAGAs never got farther than that.
Snow White is a 19th century German fairy tale. The name literally refers to the character’s skin color. This is what actual cultural appropriation looks like. Probably the most blatant case we’ve seen yet. https://t.co/erALE33kj0
Meet the cast of Disney’s new woke Snow White film. Snow White is Columbian now and the 7 dwarves look more like the 6 normal sized hipster pedos and 1 dwarf from Portland. Snow White no longer has "skin white as snow". Absolutely ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/DKZInYty89
So they have one little person playing a dwarf to be more “politically correct?” So 6 other little people didn’t get the job or the check and somehow this is more “sensitive?”
Elagabalus2 days ago Reminds me of the time Megyn Kelly got so flummoxed that Santa Claus was presented as black because in her worldview, Santa Claus was clearly white. What is it with conservatives and fictional characters?
If you read the articles on this it says that trump did not argue that the evidence was not there to show he committed a crime but that it was improperly gained. His lawyers are admitting to the crime basically. Hugs
Federal judge also orders far-right also-ran Mark Finchem and their famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz to split some costs — though Dersh has a lighter share.
A DeSantis staffer has reportedly been caught on camera saying he is telling voters “eat my balls” if they are upset by being asked to support DeSantis. “I’m a little stoned, so I don’t even care.”
ICYMI: "Broward County has lost more than a half-dozen conventions as their organizers cite the divisive political climate as their reason to stay out of Florida."https://t.co/V6sDOmAX6I.
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) July 8, 2023
According to @alltherooms, the Orlando DMA for Air BnB is down 35% from May 2022 to May 2023. Per @VisitOrlando: rentals in Orange County, occupancy year-to-date so far 60.9%, down 10% from 2022. The average daily rate through May 2023 is $175, a 7% increase from 2022. @MyNews13
— Spectrum News Asher Wildman (@AsherWildman13) June 29, 2023
— The Florida Phoenix (@FLPhoenixNews) July 5, 2023
"Black engineers and “Game of Thrones” fans are the latest groups canceling Orlando events and attributing their decisions to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s political climate."
Kirk Cameron demands investigation of American Library Association for religious discrimination https://t.co/ls3wyqeBP6
— The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) July 9, 2023
“Library staffers were deluged with harassment and a bomb threat.”
Oregon Public Broadcasting's @_jlevinson revealed that the mayor of Newport, Ore., had for years been posting hateful memes on a private FB group for law enforcement officers.
“But when you’re asked to take the word of a fugitive making videos for the New York Post over career prosecutors making sworn statements with their entire careers & livelihoods on the line…I gotta be honest. I’m leaning toward trusting the government.” https://t.co/Axhv3CyOnO
In May, one of the informants in the Republican-led investigation into the Biden family went missing. That informant was later revealed to be Gal Luft, who is now charged with acting as a foreign agent for China. https://t.co/ErabfF07tq
Another Hunter Biden whistleblower bites the dust. James Comer's whistleblower, Gal Luft, has just been indicted by the DOJ for arms trafficking, violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, making false statements to federal agents, and being a Chinese spy.pic.twitter.com/yQK2pNkNCs
“Several lawyers who have had business before the supreme court…paid money to a top aide to Justice Clarence Thomas, according to the aide’s Venmo transactions. The payments appear to have been made in connection to Thomas’s 2019 Christmas party.” https://t.co/NIpf6mHBgN
Abortion should be freely available at any stage of pregnancy, on demand, without apology.
Reposting:
“The very concept of sin comes from the Bible. Christianity offers to solve a problem of its own making! Would you be thankful to a person who cut you with a knife in order to sell you a bandage?”
― Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
Farmers Insurance announced today they're pulling out of Florida, the 4th major insurance co to leave Florida since @rondesantis took over
THAT's the economy of DeSantis, too busy screaming hysterically about some made up "woke" boogeyman to give a shit about actual people
While Florida’s property insurance market was BURNING 🔥, Ron DeSantis used GOP supermajorities to obsess over wokeness, drag queens, and pronouns.
Now 100,000 Floridians will lose coverage, but at least no one is talking about gay in school. pic.twitter.com/8kgBrSIdYJ
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) July 11, 2023
Gov. DeSantis and his allies in the Florida Legislature chose to focus on culture wars, instead of addressing the issues facing everyday Floridians, during the 2023 session.
How many of our congress is on the payroll of Russia. Hugs
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Tuesday introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require transgender men to register for the draft:
Indeed trans men should sign up for selective service when they turn 18, just like all cis men. But then trans men should be able to use the men’s room, just like all cis men do.
The current law states that all persons either born in the US or (with few exceptions) legally resident when they turn 18, and identified as male at birth are required to register for the Selective Service when they turn 18, no exceptions. If you are an American citizen living abroad, you must still register. If you are a legal resident alien, you must still register. If you are in a prison or mental asylum, you must still register. If you are here under a diplomatic passport (say, a parent works at an embassy or consulate) or have a tourist or student visa, you do not need to register. People who were identified as female at birth are NOT required to register for the Selective Service, and in fact trying to register can get you in legal trouble for filing a “frivolous” legal document (not sure if it has ever been prosecuted, but it is in the regulations.)
If they are going to make transmen register, then they must also make transwomen exempt. They will also need to clarify at what point relative to the age of 18 this will kick in: is it enough to identify as trans, or will they need to have passed some benchmark in transitioning? What if a person comes out as trans after they are 18, but before they turn 25 (the age that your registration remains in effect)? And if transwomen are not exempt, they they should make registration mandatory for ALL 18 year olds regardless of gender identity: there is no longer any restriction from women serving in combat, after all. Maybe if their precious daughters are required to register, and fact the very serious penalties for not registering, we can finally get rid of this whole Selective Service idiocy once and for all.
BREAKING: ARIZONA AG Kris Mayes has APPOINTED a team of PROSECUTORS to investigate republican attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state. MI and NM referred their findings to the DoJ, and GA will make charging decisions in August. https://t.co/lEijrZczDF
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) July 13, 2023
I guess it was done the same way the former idiot allowed a bunch of Russian spies into the building.
#Hungarian authorities issued a 12 million (EUR 32 000) fine on a book publisher, based on the homophobic „child protection" law.
Reason: stores displayed Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper in the youth section, and the books – that "depict homosexuality+ were not in closed packaging. pic.twitter.com/S0N6Q8JV8r
This is the country and leader the republicans love almost as much as Putin.
Because if you don’t acknowledge LBGTs exist, kids will stop being gay
Clay’s policy is to place a temporary ban on all challenged books until they complete the challenge process (which can include an appeal to remove to the Board).
With 350+ challenges and growing, this temporary ban could last years. https://t.co/Sjcbx5Si8f
— Florida Freedom to Read Project (@FLFreedomRead) March 29, 2023
This year in the U.S. the majority of books most often banned are by LGBT writers and writers of color.
Here’s a good report from the writers’ organization PEN on the state of censorship in the U.S. https://pen.org/report/bann…
New: The Texas Department of Agriculture renounced a mandatory workplace training on Wednesday that mentioned gender identity definitions.
The same state agency in April ordered employees to dress “in a manner consistent with their biological gender.” https://t.co/6sUlMTHF0n
Oh my God, I'm so sick of this christian bigotry. This is the exact reason the EEOC laws exist. And it's training.. good grief. For a bunch of tough men you'd think they could handle some words about gender.
How did people get it in their heads that they have a “right” to never be offended? That is not a right and never has been. Freedom of speech, remember?Astonishing how the “fuck your feelings” crowd so quickly turn around to demand safe spaces where their precious feelings are prioritized so much.
Didn’t a black woman in Texas get five years for voting just once? I think they claimed she was ineligible for some reason.And it was a provisional ballot and was not counted. Further it was a poll worker that told her to fill out a provisional ballot.
Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina argues against humanitarian aid for women and children in Afghanistan because it is not mentioned in the Constitution.
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 14, 2023
Jesus isn’t in the Constitution either. Let’s start there.
Gov. Newsom slams "cancel culture" and "radicalized zealots" at Temecula school board, vows state action over Harvey Milk issue https://t.co/3y6aekUGDY
They’ve already grabbed lots of the courts, then they want to control education (‘member how so many righties loves to quote hitler on this…) & inject religion into the schools – while wiping out all dissenting ideas & critical thinking – fast forward 10 years and VOILA – you have a whole generation of little christo-fascists that taxpayers are footing the bill to educate with xtian nationalist dogma. These wack job conservatives (an extreme minority) are proving too damn good at a multi-decade slow play here. People have to wake up.
GOP attorneys general tee off on large corporations over diversity policies https://t.co/A3QkBLHhWD
🚨BREAKING: After Randy Fine didn’t make the cut, the state has stepped in and halted the hiring process for the next FAU President https://t.co/HvOW1pdQor
— The Space Coast Rocket (@CoastRocket) July 8, 2023
The DeSantis state regime is launching a full-scale investigation into why their bigoted GOP ally Randy Fine wasn’t selected as a finalist to be FAU’s president…and why an applicant may have been asked their preferred pronouns.
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) July 14, 2023
Philanthropist Dick Schmidt, whose family has donated more than $47 million to FAU, served on the search committee. “I feel personally outraged and slandered by the implications of the chancellor’s letter on me and my colleagues…”https://t.co/xkJXqXgu0f
— Carlos Guillermo Smith (@CarlosGSmith) July 14, 2023
Rep. Jill Tokuda, Democrat of Hawaii, “admonished her Republican colleagues for the tenor of the debate. ‘From the backwards, racially insensitive comments spoken on this floor, it seems D.E.I. training would be good right here in the halls of Congress’” https://t.co/0kTcKpUNsh
219-210: The House passes the National Defense Authorization Act.
The House GOP added a raft of conservative policy to the traditionally bipartisan legislation, including limiting abortion access and transgender health care for service members and banning Pentagon DEI trainings. pic.twitter.com/Tdge06jwyB
Again highly religious fundamentalists got into positions of authority and are pushing their religious beliefs on the entire community. Gerard Kleinsmith says he doesn’t like books about transgender people, he calls it garbage and feels it is his duty to remove all such booksbecause god doesn’t make mistakes! Think on that, other religious sects say it is OK that god created transgender people, yet their beliefs don’t matter, just his. He is supported in this stance by the other members of St. Marys’ five-person city commission, a heavily religious group that attends the Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX, an extreme religious sect that broke away from the Catholic church. Hugs
City commissioners says they don’t want ‘garbage’ on the public library’s shelves
St. Marys city commissioners have taken offense with a transgender book in the Pottawatomie Wabaunsee Regional Library. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)
ST. MARYS — Gerard Kleinsmith says he hates the idea of censorship.
He just wants to pull the lease for the city’s public library because he doesn’t like books about transgender people.
As a city commissioner, he feels it is his duty to remove transgender content — “garbage,” as he refers to it. Kleinsmith said during a city commission meeting that removing the library was part of his job as a city official, emphasizing “God doesn’t make mistakes,” and his belief that people can’t change genders.
“My goal is to terminate the lease with the library,” Kleinsmith said. “If they want to have their library, so be it. Go do it. Find another building to do it in, I can’t stop that. My intention is not to stop that, but I will not ever vote for any taxpayer money, facilities, anything to be used anywhere that houses this kind of garbage.”
He is supported in this stance by the other members of St. Marys’ five-person city commission, a heavily religious group that attends the Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX, an extreme religious sect that broke away from the Catholic church. The commissioners have said at previous meetings that their views are influenced by their religious affiliation.
“Some things are wrong,” said commissioner Richard Binsfeld, during a city commission discussion about transgender books and the transgender community at large. “If you live up to your morals, if you stand by your morals at all, you’d look at it and say, ‘Why do we have it?’”
The public library has been under scrutiny from local officials for months, narrowly surviving an attempt to pull the lease at the end of last year. Library director Judith Cremer said she and her staff were trying to work with the commissioners while remaining in accordance with legal guidelines for public libraries.
She’s still not sure why the commissioners have taken issue with the library in recent months when it had operated in its St. Marys location for decades without problems. Cremer has held her position since 2003, and until last year, this was a position without controversy.
“We’re not part of the city structure and the lease agreement is the only leverage that they have seemed to be able to find,” Cremer said. “They seem to be continuing down that road, which I’m disappointed with because we have still been here doing our job, trying to help people, trying to do summer reading, and I feel like it’s a misunderstanding of who we are. We are trying to do our job and we have followed the rules.”
While commissioners have no governing influence over the library, the Pottawatomie Wabaunsee Regional Library would be forced to shift locations if the lease isn’t renewed, giving up a community spot it has held for decades and depriving St. Marys residents of easily accessible library material.
The library has been housed in St. Marys since the 1980s, operating on an annual lease with the city. The library acts as the headquarters for eight locations, including Alma, Alta Vista, Eskridge, Harveyville, Olsburg, Onaga, St. Marys and Westmoreland, with county residents funding the library through taxes.
An eight-member board of trustees provides oversight of the library’s operations, with Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee County commissioners appointing members to the board to serve four-year terms. The commission doesn’t have influence over board decisions.
The library formed an advisory group in an attempt to address community concerns with library materials, but efforts toward reconciliation have been unsuccessful.
The library’s lease renewal came up for debate last year because the library refused to accept a renewal clause asking for the removal of all LGBTQ and socially divisive books from the shelves. Facing intense public pressure, the commission in December renewed the lease for one year.
Now, city commissioners have renewed their campaign against LGBTQ books, despite federal legal protections for public libraries.
St. Marys City Commissioner Richard Binsfeld says the library’s LGBTQ books conflict with his sense of morals. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)
During the April city commission meeting, Kleinsmith raged against the book “Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition,” a coming of age story about a transgender teenager.
“This author is absolutely wrong. God does not make mistakes,” Kleinsmith said. “God cannot make a mistake. We can make mistakes. Mankind can make a mistake. God cannot make a mistake. … I will do everything I can to fight this kind of garbage.”
“If God makes you as a male, you are a male,” he added. “If God makes you a female, you are a female, no matter what.”
St. Marys Mayor Matthew Childs, who formulated the anti-LGBTQ renewal clause last year, said during the April meeting that the library’s contents would once again influence the commission’s decision to renew the lease.
“We don’t want transgender books in the library. … The elephant in the room is that we don’t want the library to be promoting certain types of material,” Childs said. “If the library is, we come back to the question, do we want to renew it at all?”
Sharon Brett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, which warned commissioners to drop their censorship attempts during the first lease renewal discussion, said city officials need to remember constitutional protections.
“Each member of the commission should remember that their own discomfort with a certain book does not justify restricting its availability to everyone else in the community,” Brett said. “Not only is this potential censorship authoritarian, it has implications under even a basic reading of our First Amendment. We urge the commission to remember their obligations under the Constitution.”
Cremer said she and the library board had been trying to cooperate with the commission and concerned residents as much as possible.
“We’re providing services to the community,” Cremer said. “We’re taking care of the same people. I don’t see why there should be a problem.”
Following the April commission meeting, she sent a letter to the commissioners asking them to directly address their concerns with library staff, as they had a process in place to review book complaints.
Library staff are also participating in the advisory committee. Cremer said the library was sending regular updates about the library and the advisory committee’s work to the city commission.
But she is still fielding criticism from religious members of the community, including during a contentious June 28 library board meeting attended by Binsfeld and other St. Marys residents.
“As we move forward, we would like to see that all LGBTQ+ media — whether audio files, movies, books, activities, etc. — be removed from this branch altogether and from any access, including online ordering and inter-library loans, to any minor through this branch,” resident Stephen Murtha wrote in a letter to library board members.
The library should reflect the community’s Christian majority, Murtha wrote.
Cremer said for the most part, these complaints were from a small segment of the population and that she hasn’t had problems or complaints from a majority of library customers.
But she is concerned about the future of the library.
“We have continued, even though that stress and controversy has been significant,” Cremer said. “My staff and I have continued forward just as we always have to provide those services, because it’s not the people that we’re serving, it’s not their fault, but they’re the ones that are going to be losing.”
Seven U.S. state attorneys general sent a letter to Target on Wednesday warning that clothes and merchandise sold as part of the company’s Pride month campaigns might violate their state’s child protection laws.
Republican attorneys general from Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina signed the letter, writing that they were “concerned by recent events involving the company’s ‘Pride’ campaign.”
The attorneys said that they believed the campaign was a “comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children,” criticizing items like T-shirts that advertised popular drag queens and a T-shirt that said ‘Girls Gays Theys.’ They also highlighted merchandise with “anti Christian designs such as pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products.”
The letter also criticized Target for donating to GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ organization that works to end bullying in schools based on sexual and gender identity. The company stated in a 2020 guide that school staff should not tell parents about a child’s gender or sexual orientation without consulting the child first, something the attorneys general said undermines “parents’ constitutional and statutory rights.”
“Take Pride” merchandise display at a Target store in Queens, New York.GETTY IMAGES
The letter did not include any specific demands nor did it outline how they believe the campaign could violate child protection laws, but the attorneys general did suggest that Target might find it “more profitable to sell the type of Pride that enshrines the love of the United States.”
The attorneys general also said they believed Target’s Pride campaign threatened their financial interests, writing that Target leadership has a “fiduciary duty to our States as shareholders in the company” and suggesting that company officials “may be negligent” in promoting the campaign since it has negatively affected Target’s stock prices and led to some backlash among customers.
Target shares have declined 12% this year, but the company is facing issues far beyond the backlash to its Pride collection, which included onesies, bibs, and T-shirts for babies and children. Like many retailers, the company is struggling with a pullback in consumer spending because of high inflation, which has weighed on its profits.
But Target is also facing scrutiny for its merchandise selection, including its Pride line, with its stores removing some of the items in May after facing threats. At the time, the company didn’t specify which products were being removed, although Target has faced criticism online over swimsuits advertised as “tuck-friendly” with “extra crotch coverage” in its Pride collection.
“Target’s management has no duty to fill stores with objectionable goods, let alone endorse or feature them in attention-grabbing displays at the behest of radical activists,” the attorneys general wrote. “However, Target management does have fiduciary duties to its shareholders to prudently manage the company and act loyally in the company’s best interests.”
Backlash to the Pride campaign did involve threats of violence to Target stores and workers. Some merchandise was relocated to less popular areas of the store, and other pieces, including the swimsuits criticized by the attorneys general, were removed.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement earlier in June. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”
Cody from Denver shares his experiences with the devastating real-world impact of transphobia on individuals and their communities, and inspires a discussion of the absolute need to be a militant advocate for marginalized communities, particularly in the face of escalating political persecution and bad faith attempts to justify them.
Remember the governor of Oklahoma is a fervent fundamentalist Christian who has claimed the entire state for Jesus / his Christian god including the Native Peoples lands. He has used the office of Governor to push his religion on the entire state. The backstory of this Oklahoma Education Superintendent, Ryan Walters, is crazy. He is not qualified for the office except he is also a fervent fundamentalist Christian nationalist. The governor tried to have him hold the two highest positions over education but was blocked by that funny thing called laws. It is time to take seriously this sneak effort to get fundamentalist die hard Christian nationalists in to state office at all levels as they have taken over schools up to governors offices. They are the US Christian Taliban and the Christian moral police. They are going to force their religion on everyone, make everyone live by their church doctrines / religious views no matter what religion or lack of that people have. Just look at their insistence on Christian prayers and the Christian bible in public schools. They want to enshrine their church doctrines and religious convictions into state laws that everyone will be subject to and have to follow. Hugs
“Instead of allowing Biden and the unions to inject their ideology through graphic pornography like ‘Gender Queer’ and “Flamer,’ we want the Constitution, we want the bible in our schools where kids understand our nation’s history and what has made this country great. The reality is that the bible is a foundational document in our country’s history. Read the Founders, read their letters, listen to what these men and women said about why founding a country with the freedom of religion, the free exercise of religion was so important.” – Oklahoma Education Superintendent Ryan Walters, today on Fox Business.
Last week Walters declared that the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre should not be taught as having been caused by racism. Over 300 black people were murdered by white mobs and 10,000 were left homeless.
Last month Walters appeared here when he announced that Oklahoma’s public schools will soon have a mandatory daily prayer, the mandatory posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and a mandatory high school course in “Western civilization.”
Walters, who was appointed state secretary of education by Christianist Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2020, faced calls to resign in 2022 after it was revealed that a Koch-funded group that advocates for privatizing public schools was paying him $120,000/year.
Stitt rejected calls for Walters’ resignation and attempted to reappoint him again earlier this year, but the state Senate refused to allow him to hold the elected superintendent and appointed secretary of education posts at the same time.
"We want the Bible in our schools" — Ryan Walters, Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction on Fox Business pic.twitter.com/Zbbep4JFa3
The founding fathers wanted Freedom of Religion specifically so that government couldn’t force a specific religion down people’s throats. (E.g., the state religion of England was Anglicanism, the King being the head of state and the Church). Wasn’t it these same type of evangelicals who warned that JFK was going to be a President ‘controlled by the Pope’?
I get so sick of these religious fanatics trying to cram their religion down everyone’s throat. This whole thing is BS! And it is totally unconstitutional! And no, the Bible was not one of our founding documents!
“Instead of allowing Biden and the unions to inject their ideology through graphic pornography like ‘Gender Queer’ and “Flamer,’ we want the Constitution, we want the bible in our schools where kids understand our nation’s history and what has made this country great.
Ezekiel 23:20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
How about the passage where Ezekiel mentions dildos?
You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. — Ezekiel 16:17
And I really could go on and on about the Song of Songs, that is literally soft core porn.
“You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.” Song of Songs 4:9
Oh, that one is tame. How about the motorboating verse? “My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.” (1:13)
And the cunilingus verse: ““Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.” (4:16)
And fisting: “My beloved put his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.” (5:4)
My gospel is found in Song of Songs 5:16 ~ “His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”
The donkey’s verse is fun, but the context is so much more.
[Jerusalem] saw this, yet she was more corrupt than [Samaria] in her lusting and in her prostitutions, which were worse than those of her sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, mounted horsemen, all of them handsome young men. And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. But she carried her prostitutions further; she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, with belts around their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers—a picture of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. When she saw them she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust, and after she defiled herself with them, she turned from them in disgust. When she carried on her prostitutions so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned from her sister. Yet she increased her prostitutions, remembering the days of her youth, when she prostituted herself in the land of Egypt and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your young breasts. — Ezekiel 23:11-21
You can’t even get through the first chapter of that book without drunken incestuous impregnation. #Groomers
GENESIS 19
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father
The Holy Scriptures given an answer to what happened to Cain:
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch, and he built a city and named it Enoch after his son Enoch. — Genesis 4:15b-17
So, clearly, Cain left the part of the world created by God, moved to another place NOT created by God, and found a wife in a city of people some other deity created.
Nod was the part that god overlooked while creating “the whole world” and “all the animals”. He just didn’t notice that it had rolled under the couch while he was busy watching Adam and Eve, pre-fig leaf.
Creationists and other Fundamentalists claim that Cain’s wife was his sister, leading to an incestuous marriage. Dumb Idiot Ham claims that back then it’s OK to commit incest during the days before the fabled Flood. Although, he claims it’s wrong to commit incest now, how many of you would like to bet that one way or another, Ham approves incest and is trying to hide it through his writings, videos, placards, etc?
If you ask me I prefer to believe that Cain took a wife from a foreign nation instead of his own family. This implies that Adam and Eve and their sons weren’t the only humans around.
But when was Nod created and populated? Genesis is VERY clear that Cain left the place from where God was and traveled to another land that was already populated. By his sister?
Ain’t it funny, how the “the Bible is literally correct and eternally true and must be believed and obeyed exactly as written” crowd have no problem making shit up to fit their own beliefs when the Bible clearly says something different.
Then there are the two competing versions of the creation myth, both of which are in the book so both are canonical despite their inconsistencies.
On the one hand, god makes animals first, then creates humans after. Eve is created as a partner for Adam..
On the other hand god creates Adam first, then in trying to create a partner suitable for him, creates all the animals before finally deciding on creating a second human. Wanton bestiality, I suppose…
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Scottie's Playtime 