See how things improve when you get rid of old traditional culture ways of thinking about gender. Let it go. There is no women’s clothing or men’s clothing, there is only clothing. Let go of gender roles, it is a woman’s job or a men’s job, no it is simply a job. When you stop putting everything in a box that only some are allowed to do, when you allow access to that thing by all, it makes everything better for everyone. Hugs
While other airlines struggle to fill staff vacancies, Virgin has no issues recruiting the best potential employees.
The company has reported that the number of applications filed with the airline has doubled since implementing the new more inclusive policy. While other airlines struggle to fill staff vacancies, Virgin has no issues recruiting the best potential employees.
“We saw a 100% uplift in applicants following the campaign, ‘See the world differently’,” Shai Weiss, Virgin’s chief executive officer, said.
Gendered outfits have been tossed on the dustbin and so have other sexist requirements. Female cabin crew is no longer required to wear makeup, tattoos can be visible, and staff are now allowed to wear gender pronoun badges.
Pronoun badges will also be available to customers, who can ask for one at any check-in desk. Customers with gender-neutral markers on their passports will also now be able to select gender-neutral markers for their ticket bookings.
“In lieu of passports with gender-neutral gender markers being available for all, Virgin Atlantic is implementing a longer-term plan to amend communication preferences to ensure customers are addressed by their preferred pronouns across all touchpoints,” the company said in October when they updated the policy.
“At Virgin Atlantic, we believe that everyone can take on the world, no matter who they are,” said Virgin Chief Commercial Officer Juha Jarvinen. “That’s why it’s so important that we enable our people to embrace their individuality and be their true selves at work. It is for that reason that we want to allow our people to wear the uniform that best suits them and how they identify and ensure our customers are addressed by their preferred pronouns.”
Cabin Crew member Jaime Forsstroem celebrated the changes. “The updated gender identity policy is so important to me. As a nonbinary person, it allows me to be myself at work and have the choice in what uniform I wear.”
‘Detransition’ refers to when a trans person returns to living as the gender they were assigned at birth. (PinkNews)
Ky Schevers was confused about her gender, and detransitioned after being “sucked in” by “gender-critical feminism”. Now, she’s rebuilding her life.
Schevers, who is transmasculine, genderqueer and uses she/ her pronouns, began medical transition by taking testosterone when she was 20, after coming out as a trans man.
But Schevers soon realized that her gender wasn’t binary.
“I had tried living as a more binary trans guy but that didn’t really work out, and I felt more genderqueer,” she tells PinkNews. “Then I thought I felt more like a butch dyke, and I kind of wanted to explore that part of myself.”
Looking for support, she turned to online forums.
“I was expressing these doubts and in a psychologically vulnerable place.”
She was approached by a woman who Schevers describes as “fairly TERFy” (TERF stands for trans exclusionary radical feminist) and had, like her, been reading some content online about detransition.
“I feel like we both got sucked in towards transphobic or gender-critical feminism because, firstly, those are the people who were trying to latch on to stories [like ours],” Schevers explains.
“It kind of made sense to me, like I wasn’t sure how to reclaim the female or butch parts of myself without drawing on some of the stories I’d already heard – that there’s pressure on butch lesbians to transition, or they’re transitioning because of internalized misogyny.”
Over the next few years, Schevers descended down an anti-trans rabbit hole. She found a community in circles of detransitioned radical “feminists”, and was held up as an example of transness being a result of internalized misogyny, homophobia and trauma.
“It was very well-attended a whole lot of TERFy lesbians who showed up to hear about the poor lesbians who got sucked in… they just ate that up. Now looking back, I can see I got love-bombed, there was lots of positive attention.”
Schevers describes this sense of community and support as “intoxicating”, and adds: “It felt like we were doing this important work, and helping people. A lot of us had gone through this sort of intense conversion experience, converting to this particular interpretation of radical feminism, lesbian feminism.
“But I feel like most of us were in some kind of real distress and believing in this stuff felt good. We did find connection with each other, we were just connecting over transphobic beliefs and also, I would say, self-harm.”
It was very cult-like, it was very controlling.
Schevers is clear that there is nothing wrong with detransition, and that everyone’s journey of gender discovery is different. The problem is that when those people search for support, they are more often than not finding radicalised, anti-trans communities to lean on.
“This is one of the reasons I feel like there needs to be more talk about these issues outside of transphobic groups, if they’re the only people talking about it, it’s easier for people to get sucked in and radicalized and end up believing a bunch of transphobic crap.”
The process of extricating herself from the group she found herself embedded in was gradual, Schevers says: “It was very cult-like, it was very controlling. It’s one of those things where it’s easy to join the group, harder to leave.”
Once, before she even admitted to herself that she wanted to get out, she happened to attend a book reading by a gay man who had been through conversion therapy.
“The way he described his experiences resonated with me,” she says.
“A light bulb went off, but I was also like, ‘Oh, s**t.’ You don’t necessarily want to believe you accidentally created an ex-trans community, that you’ve been doing conversion therapy on yourself.”
Ky Schevers realized links between TERFs and the far-right
It wasn’t the first time right-wing Christians has “misused” her writing, she says.
“But at the time has book came out, I was already saying: ‘My transition didn’t really hurt me.’ I was trying to make peace with being genderqueer and trans. I couldn’t say that yet, because I would have gotten too much backlash from other detransitioned women.”
The book helped her to realize the ties between trans-exclusionary radical feminism and the far-right, as she saw that Anderson was parroting “a lot of the same arguments that these supposed feminists were making”.
“I was horrified because I thought the point of radical feminism was to fight the patriarchy and dismantle it, not like ally [with the right] to go after trans people.
“But when you’re siding with the Christian right just to go after trans people, you’re just a transphobe. You do not care about fighting the patriarchy, sexism, or homophobia, you just want to go after trans people.”
Anderson’s use of her writing made Schevers think.
“If telling my story is supposed to help uproot the patriarchy, and the patriarchy is using it, well there’s a problem here.”
As time went on, Schevers began to feel more at peace with herself and her transition, and consequently began feeling much happier.
I kind of realized that a lot of these like supposed feminists are just using me.
But what surprised her was that the anti-trans radical feminists around her were “threatened” by her happiness.
“It was actually a disturbing experience, because I’m feeling happier, but they didn’t really care. Obviously, I knew conservative Christians never had my best interests at heart, and I kind of realised that a lot of these like supposed feminists are just using me, and then I realised these other detransitioned women in my own community just want to use me.”
Getting out meant cutting off most of the people around her, Schevers says, and it took her a long time to speak out publicly about her experience.
“I felt comfortable actually sharing my story and speaking out and talking about this stuff because I don’t want people to suffer like I did,” Schevers says.
“I don’t want people to fall prey to toxic communities.”
And to those people who may be thinking about going through detransition, Schevers remarks: “People should be asking, ‘What do you need? What do you need to be well?’ We need to help people figure out if it’s transition that’s the problem, or if it’s living in a society wants everyone to see transitioning as harmful.”
How can the LGBTQ+ get a fair hearing in the courts now. I feel like we are suddenly back 70 or 80 years, and all the growth and gains of society are thrown out by these justices / judges pushed on to the courts at all levels by a powerful Christian hate group. Also I noticed at the end of the article the Federalist are really worried that homosexual rights will interfere with the Christian’s right to discriminate or will marginalize those who think homosexuality is immoral, but they don’t give a care at all about how the gay person feels. We are born this way, we don’t deserve to be discriminated against because a person chooses to follow the rules of people 2,500 years ago. Why should their right to cut us out of society take priority to our living equally in society? Hugs
The Federalist Society wants to end same-sex marriage because homosexuals are “promiscuous” and gay men raising children are a “social experiment.”
Justices have traditionally been expected to at least appear to be politically neutral. But their attendance at the political event illustrates the court’s continued rightward swing since overturning the right to legal abortion in June.
The four justices in attendance all voted in favor of overturning abortion rights (the fifth was fellow right-leaning Justice Clarence Thomas). Three of the justices — Barrett, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh — were appointed by former President Donald Trump, considered by many to be the most anti-LGBTQ president of all time.
Sherman noted that the Federalist Society’s co-chair Leonard Leo helped Trump vet his judicial nominees. Though the group claims to be “independent of partisan politics,” it’s still closely aligned with Republican priorities.
A full 85 percent of Trump judges are members of the society, an ideological clearing house of conservative lawyers. Approval by the group practically guarantees that a judicial nominee it approves of will rule against LGBTQ rights on the bench. The Society has also had a stated goal of undoing what it calls the “Judicial Legacy of Barack Obama.”
The society has published articles criticizing California’s ban on conversion therapy and often writes defenses in favor of religious liberty exceptions to LGBTQ-inclusive civil rights legislation. Such exceptions would allow people to discriminate against LGBTQ people on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs.
The Federalist Society’s website contains a discussion against same-sex marriage that accuses same-sex couples of being more promiscuous, calls gay adoption a “social experiment,” and worries that legalized same-sex marriage will harm religious people by “marginalizing those who believe homosexuality is immoral.”
Justice Thomas’s dissenting opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – the ruling that ended the federal right to an abortion in June – suggested that the right to same-sex marriage should be overturned. If the Court makes that move, it will have the Federalist Society’s full approval.
The last post I did on over the top maga right wing haters who won seats on school boards was in Florida. This time it is in Lafayette, Indiana. He is another that thinks there is a gay ideology, an indoctrination of gayness and trans quotas. Look that is just a rehash of the gay agenda we all heard so much about, but no one could tell us what it was or who had the authority to create it. It was just a mysterious thing claimed by conservative right winger to hint that gays were trying to recruit your kids and molest your little boys /girls. Well I guess it is the boys the gays molest and the trans go after the girls, right? You know the gay agenda right wingers would seriously say to each other. After all every right winger knew gays couldn’t breed so the only way new gays happened was recruitment / molestation of the young. They just couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that kids are born gay or straight and everywhere on the spectrum of sexuality / orientation. He says it is ok for gay teachers to exist but not to really be out. They cannot talk about how they feel like straight people can or that is pushing the gayness on others. It is back to the 1970s /1980s gay teachers are just looking to sex your kid from kindergarten to the senior prom. Don’t these people ever grow up? Did they not understand society moved on from their 1950s homosexual pervert threat thoughts. Anita Bryant flamed out people, stop holding on to her ideas. WTF, I am so tired of this shit. He admits up front he is totally against that way of life. So what, there are gay people, gay people exist. We are legally able to get married and have families, and to say just the idea of promoting tolerance and ending bullying is pushing gay lifestyle on others is wrong and stupid. Because every heterosexual act then is pushing sexuality and sex on to students and other adults. You cannot have it both ways, if a straight couple can talk about their spouse and it be OK then so can a same sex couple. If a boy and girl can hold hands, then so can two girls or two boys. What these people want is to erase gays / trans / and civil rights from society and they will start in the schools. In Florida attacks and assaults against LGBTQ+ students have gone up at an alarming rate and teachers are not able to use the programs / instructions in stopping discrimination and promoting tolerance / acceptance they used to do. This new school board member doesn’t want any posters put up in schools trying to stop bullying or promoting tolerance / acceptance. That is pushing the gayness I guess.
Plus he is sure they are teaching CRT and he won’t have it. These people think teaching the truth about the horrors of slavery and how the economy of the south was built on the backs of black people because the whites did not want to work is CRT. That is bullshit. CRT is a legal theory of the interconnectedness of institutional racism in business / society.
Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.
The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.
CRT is not being taught in grade schools, middle schools, nor even in high schools but it damn well should be. It should be part of every history class tailored for the class level and age of the students. It is our history in this country. The people who keep claiming US exceptionalism need to be made to defend slavery and the discrimination of black people from the end of slavery to that it is still going on today. But that is just what the conservatives don’t want, they don’t want kids knowing that the “nation founded to be a Christian nation” was up to its neck in horrifying harm to different segments of the population, genocide and slavery in all its ugliness. Teach it so discrimination stops and doesn’t ever come back.
This guy ran against teaching peer to peer sexual education. I think he thought comprehensive sexual education is in class orgies? He wants teachings on emotions gone. Again understandings have increased and kids need to learn positive emotions and how to handle negative emotions. Hell we are making these same kids do active shooter drills, yes they need emotional reassurance. He goes on to list a bunch of other woke stuff he is against. Then he gets back to the in my day we did this but did not have that and we were great, look how great we are that we think the best thing to do is hit kids. Like all these type of people they have a romantic attachment to the “Leave It To Beaver” TV show and think the 1950s was the peak of human civilization. They have no understanding that society and human understanding has improved and moved forward. They long for the past that was more how they liked life. Damn. He talks about things he doesn’t even understand and talks like he is an expert. He has the strange idea that because these things were not talked about when he was a kid (he is 80 years old, so he started school in 1947) and his five kids he says went through school without any of these modern ideas, and things were all great being normal. But again is 80 years old, if he had his children in his 20s, his kids would have been in school during the 1960s or early 1970s. Things have changed a lot since then. Hey let’s return to teaching only what was known in the 1600s while we are being regressive. Wouldn’t that be better? The last thing he talks about is how bad it is that a minority is telling the majority what to do, he is not going to allow it. Yet he and the republicans are the minority that are trying to rule the majority and he is too blinded by hate or old age to see it. Hugs
Newly elected board member Chuck Hockema ran on a platform of keeping gay teachers in the closet.
There’s a new school board member in town, and he’s taking names.
Eighty-year-old Chuck Hockema, elected Tuesday to the Lafayette Community School Board in Lafayette, Indiana won’t brook openly gay teachers, Critical Race Theory for kids, or a “woke” agenda.
“My reason for running for school board is because when I talked to the school board members, they would not give me an answer to the questions,” Hockema told the Lafayette Journal & Courier. “And I thought, ‘Now this is some crap.’ If you can’t tell me whether you’re going to vote for CRT or you are not, you’re on my list and I’m going to find out why.”
Hockema is also coming for anyone advocating a gay “ideology.”
“If there’s a teacher that wants to be gay, that’s OK,” Hockema said. “That’s their prerogative. I’ve hired gay people. I’ve had them work for me, but I would not allow a gay person to push his feelings and his ideology off on other employees.
“If they did that, they’d be gone.”
“I’m totally against that as a way of life,” said Hockema.
“I don’t want to see any banners, I don’t want to see any posters,” he said. “The teachers are there to educate, not to try a form people’s opinions about anything other than reading, writing, arithmetic, civics, and science.”
Hockema ran on a platform supporting the three R’s, and against “undermining of traditional values and beliefs, promoting gender confusion, encouraging peer-to-peer sex education, violating or undermining parental rights, supporting critical race theory (CRT) or social-emotional learning (SEL) when used as a cover for divisive instruction, and promoting ‘woke’ ideology.”
“I’ve got five children that went through school, and we did well with that,” Hockema said of teaching the basics. “We never had any issues to worry about when it came down to CRT or woke or SEL or transgender or none of that stuff. They didn’t teach this. We helped them with their assignments, and it was a different world then.”
Hockema says he isn’t going to “monkey around” with school board members, either.
“If they want to support these things, I feel like they should be removed from office. That’s my strong opinion.”
Hockema said he’s got no quarrel with LGBTQ kids, “as long as they stayed within their bounds.”
“A little boy might be like, ‘I feel more like a little girl.’ And if you got a teacher that encourages that, that’s the impression they’re probably going to go. And if they just left them alone because it’s a normal thing to have that thing happen to children at different ages, they’ll grow out of it,” Hockema said. That is not how being transgender works; transgender children’s identities have been shown to be stable into adulthood.
His goal, Hockema says, is to “save the children.”
“I don’t want them being indoctrinated by someone’s opinion, who’s 100 percent different than mine. What my wife and I teach our children, I don’t want them to erode that with their ideology. They can make it sound so sweet and so pleasant and so wonderful, and kids are impressionable.”
“When the minority starts ruling the majority like these whole issues, you got one percent of the population dictating what the rest of us, what we can and can’t do, that’s ridiculous.”
As you read this story I want you to keep in mind several points. He lied about why he was running for the board and what he wanted to focus on. He tried to sound normal by saying he wanted to focus on generic sounds good school policy stuff. His priorities were to ensure proper education that helps everyone succeed, improve safety and mental health for students and teachers, and address budgetary concerns. As soon as he got elected the rabid Christian pushing his god and his hate for other came rushing out. I thought good Christians did not lie.
Also notice that he wants to beat kids (spank, paddle, strap, you know corporal punishment. Seems he got it as a kid and liked it) even without their parents’ permission. He or anyone else ever used corporate punishment on my kids (hit my kids) they better start gathering up guns fast, because I am coming to see them, and I will be angry!
He thinks disabled kids get away with too much and have it too good. He really means mentally / emotionally disabled kids get away with too much and have it too easy, so keep them home or even though he doesn’t say it we are back to the hit them hard and often, tie them to the desk shit. I suspect he hates the accommodations for kids with physical disabilities who need accommodations like ramps and other changes.
He also thinks gay kids get away with too much and because there is not a policy of blocking out time that the straight kids get to beat up the gay kids, he wants Christian stickers with saved zone on them for places where the Christian kids can gather and force religion on everyone else. He seems to think that is what a rainbow safe place sticker does, provide classrooms where the gay can be forced on all the kids, and maybe that trans stuff being pushed also. Time to get the Christian symbols up in the schools because the gays have special rights not to be assaulted, can’t have that. God first with mandatory prayer. (Maybe he doesn’t think kids will be praying just before they get hit with a heavy paddle for being kids not robots) He intends to go through all the history books because he claims they have revisionist history in them like that this was not a Christian nation and slavery was a bad thing. Going to make sure the kids are taught the truth, god himself set up the US as a Christian nation for Christians only, slavery was not that bad and good for those people, and that kids are taught good republican civics so they can go out and vote republican like god and the founding fathers intended. See he is going to fix that woke liberal indoctrination. Notice he wants / demands respect for authority. Sounds like he is saying you will do as your told and like it, think only republican thoughts, do only straight heterosexual stuff.
The last point I want to make is this asshole wants to block any public health measures including / especially vaccines. He was in the Air Force and that vaccine shit is against freedom. Seems his mind is going on him because in the military you have to take a lot of vaccines and you don’t get a choice, because it is so you can be deployed to places that have really bad shit to make you sick. So he wants to allow every anti-vaccine person to be allowed to send their sick kids to school to make everyone else sick, and that is called freedom in his mind.
Get the point on what is happening here in Florida. Three of these people that believe as he does got elected, this guy pushed out a person who was a teacher for 30 years. They were all backed by the same big money Christian group / network for the express purpose to drive the country regressively back to the 1950s and worse. Total hard right wing Christian propaganda in the schools with zero tolerance for LGBTQ+ or disabled students. We need a lot of people to get upset with what is happening here as the intent is to spread it from Florida and Texas, pushing it all over the country. DeathSantis is going to try to use this type of stuff to become president which means every other republican with ambition is going to go ever more hard core on these issues. Oh and the Qanon darling Gen. Flynn who was working behind the scenes for Russia as trumps National security advisor addressed the candidate’s supporters. Dogs that love gravy, our kids in schools are in a world of hurt and so are we. Hugs
Newly elected Collier County school board member Jerry Rutherford wants to bring corporal punishment back to district classrooms, he said the morning after Tuesday’s election.
He added that disabled students’ behavior in particular is “out of control.”
Additionally, he said he’d like to see fewer “rights” for LGBTQ students — or the same extended to religious students who want to practice religion in school.
Jory Westberry, who lost her school board seat to Rutherford, said his views on corporal punishment, LGBTQ students and religion in schools would “put something so pervasively wrong in schools.”
Florida allows corporal punishment in public schools as long as the district allows it.
“First of all,” she said, “if (Florida) allows corporal punishment, Collier County does not.”
“Second, students with handicaps are entitled to a free public education without retribution because of their behavior. That’s why we have behavior specialists who work with students, parents and teachers to enable them to have a more effective, productive experience in school,” Westberry said.
Westberry was one of several who spoke out against Rutherford’s priorities.
Rutherford won the District 1 seat away from longtime teacher, administrator and school board member Westberry in the 2022 election with a strong 65.4% of the vote to Westberry’s 34.6%.
After speaking on myriad issues at school board meetings countless times for more than 35 years, Rutherford told the Naples Daily News in July he decided he didn’t want to be on the outside looking in anymore, so he joined the school board race.
This was his first time running for any elected position, he said.
Rutherford was endorsed by the Collier County Republican Executive Committee, which endorsed all three challengers to the school board. All of them won their races.
As a devout Christian, he’s fought to distribute Bibles in schools and to institute prayer at school board meetings. He has also protested Naples’s LGBTQ Pride festival, specifically speaking out against drag shows.
A veteran of the Air Force, Rutherford has worked in sales and construction and owned a painting business in the Naples area for more than 20 years. He also served as a substitute teacher in the district for three years.
Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative education nonprofit headquartered on Marco Island, congratulated Rutherford, as well as the two other challengers Wednesday via email.
“This win of all three seats is a tremendous victory for the 48,000 kids in Collier schools, their parents, and grandparents, as it now gives a clear conservative majority over a previous left-leaning school board,” Florida Citizens Alliance marketing manager Moise Stael Dantes wrote. “The delivery of quality academics while maintaining the principle of liberty can now become real.”
The ‘board of education’
Rutherford’s stated positions changed dramatically before and after his election.
In July, he told the Naples Daily News his priorities were to ensure proper education that helps everyone succeed, improve safety and mental health for students and teachers, and address budgetary concerns.
But Wednesday morning, reached by phone, Rutherford said he has a five-point agenda he’d like to implement, including “mental and physical discipline,” or physical punishment of children in Collier’s public schools.
“I only went to the principal’s office one time when I was in school and that was when they used the ‘board of education,’ if you get what I’m saying,” Rutherford said.
Rutherford added that disabled students are not in control and get away with too much. He read an article by a California teacher that said he left teaching because his disabled students were swearing and otherwise misbehaving, and he couldn’t hold them accountable.
According to a 2021 analysis by the Education Commission of the States, which tracks education policies, Florida is one of at least 18 states that allows corporal punishment in public schools as long as the district allows it. According to the National Association of State Boards of Education, Florida does not require parental permission, only written parental notification after the fact.
Currently, Collier County prohibits corporal punishment. According to school board policy 5630, “the use of corporal punishment, defined in Florida statute as the use of physical force or physical contact for disciplinary purposes, is prohibited.”
Furthermore, Florida Statute 1003.573 states that disabled students can only be physically restrained if there is an imminent risk of serious injury or death to the student or others and only once all positive behavioral strategies have been exhausted.
Jackie Stephens, CEO of the Children’s Advocacy Center in Collier County, said she is “alarmed” to hear a school board member wants to bring back corporal punishment to the classroom.
“It can be detrimental to the children,” Stephens said. “There’s no studies that really indicate that spanking is beneficial. It can actually lead to worse behavior and aggression.”
Stephens said many countries have outlawed the spanking of children, even by their own parents. In the United States, many organizations have registered as a “No Hit Zone,” which means they do not condone hitting of any kind.
“There’s a lot of places that are becoming no hit zones, like the Children’s Advocacy Center and hospitals. I think at school would be a good place not to hit children.”
Rutherford’s agenda also focuses on “respect,” he said. “There needs to be respect for ourselves, for others, and for authority.”
In that vein, he said he believed people are being indoctrinated into supporting LGBTQ rights, and “when it comes to indoctrination, I will not put up with that,” he said.
Rutherford added that some legislators had passed bills he believes extends the rights of LGBTQ people beyond normal rights.
“I’m all for equal rights, but I’m not for special rights,” he said.
For example, he said, an LGBTQ student group in Collier County gave teachers a sticker to put on their doors with a rainbow that says “safe zone.” One teacher, he said, refused to put it up.
He did not elaborate further on what rights LGBTQ people have that others do not.
According to The Safe Zone Project, which gives trainings that allow people to learn about LGBTQ identities as well as examine prejudices and biases, the words “safe zone” typically communicate that the person is an ally of the LGBTQ community, has gone through a Safe Zone training, or is trying to communicate support.
“I don’t have a problem with that, but it should extend to sectarians,” Rutherford said.
“If you’re going to have a secular symbol, you have to give a religious one,” he said. “What if we gave teachers a sticker with a cross that said ‘saved zone?’ We have religious rights, and we have personal rights.”
GLSEN, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting LGBTQ students through policy writing and advocacy, said elected leaders and elected school leaders have a responsibility to protect all young people, including LGBTQ youth.
“Queer students in Florida, especially those of color and those who are trans and nonbinary, are being cruelly targeted by extremists,” said GLSEN executive director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers. “They are facing a hostile climate amid curriculum censorship laws and have been repeatedly subject to political attacks. Florida’s students deserve so much better from the adult politicians who are supposed to support them. This kind of anti-LGBTQ+ fear mongering and misinformation from any school leader is unacceptable.”
“We are absolutely saddened by his agenda,” said Naples Pride president Cori Craciun. “LGBT kids’ rights have been taken away by the Parental Rights Bill, and the Florida Medical Board, which banned (gender-affirming) care for transgender minors. … The ‘safe zones’ are there to protect these children. They are often the only place these children know there is a supportive adult they can reach out to.”
Religion in public schools
Federal law on Bibles in public schools is derived from 1963 Supreme Court case Abingdon v. Schempp, which draws a distinction between devotional reading and the objective study of religion.
In short, while religious texts like the Bible are allowed in public schools for the purpose of studying, what is not allowed is devotion or reading from the Bible as religious practice.
Rutherford added he wants to see “textbooks that are free from bias, censorship and rewritten history,” as well as “morals and ethics in school.”
He said he planned to review all new textbooks and would flag anything he saw as dubious or biased. He did not specify what he considered to qualify as biased or rewritten history.
Rutherford was also eager to see a civics class reinstated in the curriculum, where students would study the Constitution and the Bill of Rights per Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent policy.
But Rutherford said he felt the government has gone too far in other ways, such as by forcing students and teachers to wear a mask in 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and by requiring military personnel to get vaccinated against the virus that has killed more than 1 million people across the U.S.
As a former airman, he expressed frustration by that.
“They’re saying no (to the vaccine), and they’re getting thrown out for that,” he said.
He noted that while Collier Public Schools required masking early in the pandemic, Mason Classical Academy, a local charter school, did not, which he believes better exemplified respect for students’ rights. Collier should follow Mason’s example, he said.
Education reporter Nikki Ross contributed to this article. Kate Cimini is an investigative journalist covering Florida. Share your story at (239) 207-9369 or kcimini@gannett.com.
Marriage really is a social contract between people and accepted by society as conveying certain benefits and rules. This is why same sex marriage is so important. This article shows another way that the laws give a benefit to straight people that is denied to gay people when there is no same sex marriage right. Now I am glad that Ukraine is ready and wants same sex marriage rights and will do that after the war. But you know that the anti gay factions will fight it hard. Right now the way around this issue is to let the people in the military (or even the general public) designate / assign several people that can claim their bodies regardless of relationship. It is a shame that a fake marriage has to be created to simply make sure that your body gets a proper burial. The anti-same sex marriage people like to claim that same sex marriage degrades the idea of marriage, but forcing people into a fake marriage simply to have the same rights that straight people do also degrades the ideals of marriage. Ron and I made our commitment to each other on Oct 12th 1990. We were sure we were the ones we wanted to spend our entire lives with. And we have with our love growing stronger every day. But we were always denied the legal benefits of marriage that even people getting married for a short time got. In 2014 I was no longer able to work and because my health insurance was through our employer, I no longer had medical coverage. I couldn’t be covered under Ron’s insurance because the company we both had worked for only allowed married people to be covered under a worker’s medical insurance. In January 2015 when same sex marriage became legal in Florida we were the first same sex couple in our county to get married. That allowed me to be on Ron’s insurance. The marriage did not change our love nor our time together, but it opened up over 1,100 legal benefits to us. That is why the right to marriage matters. Hugs
A Ukraine soldier ( Getty Images)
A woman in Ukraine has said she plans to marry her gay soldier friend so someone can “claim him if he dies” while fighting in the war.
In the latest horrifying news from the war in Ukraine, Kyiv resident Leda Kosmachevskaya told the i newspaper that since same-sex marriage is illegal in the country, her friend would not have anybody to “retrieve his body or bury him” if he were to die at war.
The friend, who remained anonymous, has a partner, but due to the law, the army does not recognize his boyfriend as next of kin.
“His great fear was that nobody would be able to retrieve his body or bury him,” Kosmachevskaya, 33, told the i.
“He could be buried as an unknown person, or considered missing.”
Kosmachevskaya explained she had known the friend since childhood, but that the call asking her to marry him came completely out of the blue.
She spoke to her own partner, and accepted after hearing her soldier friend had been told he would be deployed to a dangerous area on the front line.
Two men sitting on a bunk bed in an LGBTQ+ shelter in Ukraine. (Provided)
Kosmachevskaya explained that the pair discussed his wishes, including organ donation and burial details, but hopefully, he will return safely from the war and they will get a divorce.
“I would be happy not to get into this arrangement,” she told the newspaper. “But this is the only way to help my friend.”
In July, a petition calling for the legalization of marriage equality in Ukraine gained more than 28,000 signatures, passing the 25,000 threshold required for it to be considered by the president.
In August, Zelensky formally responded, noting that the constitution could not be changed during war time or in a state of emergency.
According to Reuters, in an official decree, he said: “I asked prime minister [Denys] Shmyhal to address the issue raised in the electronic petition and to inform me of relevant decisions.”
LGBTQ+ rights activists have asked for civil partnerships to be considered in the meantime, as in cases such as Kosmachevskaya’s, the bodies of LGBTQ+ soldiers cannot be collected by partners unless they are married.
She added to the i: “I hope this situation will help to resolve this issue [of same-sex marriage].
“I know there are many other people who are afraid to talk about this and keep silent because of negative comments.”
In a 2019 survey, 69 per cent of Ukrainians asked said “no” to the question: “Should society accept homosexuality?”
Nearly most of the day has gone by but I am so frustrated and due to allergies about ready to jump out of my own skin.
Today I went to an older woman’s home, she is someone I helped even when I tried to go back to work, and even after failing when I sunk into a deep depression, I would work up the ability to leave my bedroom and go to her home to help her with computer / phone issues. Her husband is a wonderful person who in the park for decades that we have been here is well sought after as he is every knowledgeable for every type of repair from wood to electrical. I never asked about his background, but it seems just from his knowledge he has been in the construction field for a long time.
But his wife has had computer issues and I have helped them and their sister in the park. Remember I work only for donations and never make payment an issue, I will help anyone who needs assistance regardless if they are willing to offer me anything or not.
This time it was a repeat problem they had where they needed to print something important, but the printer only printed a page in one color. As I knew and understood the problem it was an easy if time consuming fix. But the conversation between us all was far more valuable to me than the money they insisted I take even when I tried gracefully to refuse.
We got talking about how the park has changed, and these are two people I have never heard a curse word from. I have never heard either of them say a bad word against anyone. Not to dox them but I would say that as I understand it they are from Indiana originally.
As I was cycling the printer through the cleaning program which is all it really needed, I mentioned how the park had changed for Ron and I. How it has gone from when I was on the homeowner’s board and Ron and I would walk around being given hellos and hand waves to now where we are ignored and glared at by some of the people. Not a lot but a notable amount.
This couple is the only people I know who I have never heard say vulgar words against others, they do not curse, they also do not push any kind of religious message or other holier than thou message. They are an enigma as far as that goes, but I learned a few things today sitting with them. When I mentioned how the park had changed and how some people now refuse to acknowledge Ron and I when we are walking around, I mentioned a specific person / home who had directed seeming dislike and nastiness towards us but I mentioned we try to be nice when we walk by that home. The man ( I trying to be deliberately vague so if by some weird the haters come across this they can not attack such a nice couple) for the first time spoke up telling me he told that person they did not belong in our park and chewed them out. Remember in the last decade this has been one of the most sought-after persons for every repair anyone could need. He is legendary in the park to the point if you don’t know how to do a repair or build project everyone says go ask him. And he told me how he went off on the guy after hearing him say something very homophobic (he wouldn’t tell me what the other guy said) and after telling him off and refusing to work for him told him that he did not belong in this park! Then he told me that if Ron and I ever needed advice or help to let him know and he would help us any way he could.
Wow! I knew anti-gay feelings were gaining strength here in our park, our home. We have noticed that the waves and hellos had decreased and sometimes completely ignored as we walk around and meet people. They told me of several people leaving the park I did not know about, and I guess that the change is happening park wide. This is DeathSantis state, so I guess soon it will be our turn to move away. Ron is already making the arrangements. I had so hoped it wouldn’t go that way this year. Sad hugs, keep the asylum doors open please. Hugs
To be very clear if this article doesn’t make it clear to you, the right is not interested in “protecting” children, they don’t really think that talking about LGBTQ+ sexualizes children, they don’t mind sexualizing children, but they are demanding to indoctrinate the kids, all kids, into believing that only heterosexual orientation / sexuality exists and teaching hating the gays / trans. That is what this entire “don’t say gay” thing is about! About spreading hate and making kids think that only heterosexual ways exist, that only opposite sex marriage is real, only way to date is boy / girl, that all families must be mommy / daddy. it is total indoctrination to make the 1950s come alive again. Plus they want to stoke hatred against the gay and trans people including kids at school. They want the bullying and they want the gay / trans kids picked on and made to be scared and in fear for being who they are. But as this guy who is big in the anti-LGBTQ+ movement says, it is great to take kids to Hooters to see what he calls the great view, in other words to see big breasts / titties. He wants to have boys reading sex magazines showing nude women. He seems to think that people have a choice about their sexual attraction / orientation and wants to make sure all the kids choose straight which he thinks is the correct choice. WTF! Do you see how this entire protect the kids / don’t sexualize kids and let them be children, is a cover for what they really want, they hate gays and want them punished and erased from society. That is the point over don’t let teachers talk about or defend kids from same sex families and forbidding pride stickers / flags and removing all LGBTQ+ materials from libraries. It is about the idea that if kids don’t see or hear that being gay is normal and same sex families are normal then the kids will be straight or pretend to be so they can fit in and have families. Plus for some reason this guy thinks all straight people are republicans and all gay people are democrats. Hugs
“If more members of Gen Z had been brought to Hooters as children, I can GUARANTEE we would have had a red wave last night.”
MAGA author Nick Adams – who was complaining about drag queens and teachers discussing LGBTQ people earlier this year as part of the larger groomer panic – is now advocating parents take minor children to Hooters.
“If more members of Gen Z had been brought to Hooters as children, I can GUARANTEE we would have had a red wave last night,” Adams – né Nicholas Adamopoulos – tweeted earlier this week about the restaurant chain known for its young female waitresses who don’t wear much clothing.
If more members of Gen Z had been brought to Hooters as children, I can GUARANTEE we would have had a red wave last night.
Adams is the Australian author of several volumes of far-right pulp including The Most DANGEROUS President in History (about President Joe Biden), Trump and Churchill: Defenders of Western Civilization, and Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness. He claims to be Donald Trump’s favorite author.
He calls himself an “alpha male” in his Twitter handle and his account is often mistaken for a parody of the far right, but his fans know that he’s on their side.
Yesterday’s was only one of many of his tweets advocating taking minors to Hooters.
“I am sick and tired of beta males and feminists trying to guilt alpha males out of eating at Hooters,” he wrote earlier this week. “There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with eating at Hooters on a weekly basis, EVEN with the family and kids.”
I am sick and tired of beta males and feminists trying to guilt alpha males out of eating at Hooters.
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with eating at Hooters on a weekly basis, EVEN with the family and kids.
“99% of the people who pass judgment about Hooters and parents who take their children to Hooters have never actually been to a Hooters,” he wrote yesterday.
“People who demonize parents who take their kids to Hooters are pathetic,” he also tweeted yesterday. “I feel sorry for their children.”
People who demonize parents who take their kids to Hooters are pathetic.
Adams really loves Hooters and it appears to be more of a lifestyle choice for him than a restaurant with chicken wings. In a video this week, he called it a “family restaurant”
“Hooters is fantastic,” he shouted at his camera, wearing an untucked short-sleeve shirt while standing in front of a framed picture of himself. “The view is good, the food is good, the drinks are good.”
“Alpha males have a history replete with visits to Hooters,” he claimed. Hooters opened in 1983. “If you haven’t been to Hooters, it makes it all that bit more difficult for you to claim alpha male status.”
While Adams advocates taking children to the sexually-charged environment at Hooters, he doesn’t think that teachers should be mentioning LGBTQ people to students in school, lest kids learn that there are different kinds of families. In April – at the height of groomer panic where conservatives were complaining about books like And Tango Makes Three (about a penguin with two penguin-dads) being available in schools – Adams decried kindergarten teachers who he claimed wanted to “discuss sexuality” in school and called them child molesters.
“Any adult that needs to discuss sexuality with a kindergartner is a predator, not a teacher,” he wrote.
Any adult that needs to discuss sexuality with a kindergartner is a predator, not a teacher.
— Nick Adams (Alpha Male) (@NickAdamsinUSA) April 15, 2022
In July, he said that only a “bad parent” would allow their kids to see a drag queen.
If you are okay with your young child being exposed to sex toys and drag queens, you're a bad parent.
— Nick Adams (Alpha Male) (@NickAdamsinUSA) July 23, 2022
That same month, he appeared to advocate giving pornography to underage boys, even though federal law prohibits the distribution of pornography to minors.
— Nick Adams (Alpha Male) (@NickAdamsinUSA) July 14, 2022
Trans YouTuber Natalie Wynn pithily summed up Adams’ latest tweets: “Heterosexuals openly admit they have to groom children to perpetuate their lifestyle.”
Heterosexuals openly admit they have to groom children to perpetuate their lifestyle pic.twitter.com/2diIPde4Qg
While I like this idea, I really am in favor of rapists getting their dicks hurt. But I worry what will happen to a woman after the rapist feels this thing dig into his dick. Rape is not all sexual and a lust to orgasm, it is also about power and control over another person. Trust me I learned this the hardest way. So imagine the reaction of the man who already cares so little for the other person that they want to and are willing to rape them, gets these imbedded in his penis causing pain, he is going to lash out in rage. He is going to hurt the victim even more, maybe even kill them. Yes the rage of the rapist is something the rape victim must be prepared to face in this. Especially in a country where men feel entitled to control women, where men feel entitled to sexual satisfaction even if it comes from raping someone. I wonder where to get these. Hugs
Back after 9/11 I used to hear people demand that “good” Muslims stand up to the terrorist “bad” Muslims. Politicians said it, Christian religious leaders said it, until it became part of the way to slam all Muslims by claiming that no other Muslims would stand up to the Muslims causing havoc and death in the world. As is mentioned in the video when Westboro Babtist got pushing their hate message it was non religious groups that took to fighting them, most notably bikers who used their bikes and bodies to block both the sight of the Westboro Babtist people, their hate filled signs, and their screeds shouted through bullhorns. As hate preachers got more numerous and louder with more press coverage I asked that question of Christians they demanded from Muslims, where are the good Christians to fight or counter these hate mongers calling for my death. For a long time not one Christain answered my request or answered my call for them to stand between me and their hateful breather. But in the last two years I have seen them come forward, these good Christians. This year on my blog here we have seen a few grand people of faith who have pushed back hard on the bigotry and hate of the bad Christians. Over the last year and especially over the last 6 months I have seen, read, and posted of Christians going to school board meetings to argue against their bigoted fellow Christians, putting themselves in front of those trying to harm gay and trans kids. I can see that the LGBTQ+ does have allies in some churches and among those who feel their god is a god of love, understanding, and forgiveness. Those whose faith doesn’t require them to monitor the genitals and consensual sexual relationships of adults are become more vocal in trying to make other Christians see their religion shouldn’t be used to hurt and harm others, but to uplift and care for others.
I am listening to this short video for the third time. I am amazed how simply honest Rev Trevors is being, how sincere, and I respect him and his faith more for what he is doing, what he says here. I just hope other Christians will stand up to those who want to hijack their faith to make it a religion of hate, their holy book a weapon, and attacking those who are different as the mission given them from their god. Hugs
Photo: Shutterstock
Scottie's Playtime 