Today we’re looking into a story from Irish news on a drag story telling event that took place during Belfast Pride. Armed with holy water, “Parents Against Grooming” showed up to protest. Like and subscribe if you enjoyed!
A Christian conservative cellphone company is breaching into school boards to spread their ideas and policies onto school districts. Jayar Jackson and Yasmin Khan break it down on The Watchlist. Watch LIVE weekdays at noon ET.
“A little more than a year after former Trump adviser Steve Bannon declared that conservatives needed to win seats on local school boards to “save the nation,” he used his conspiracy theory-fueled TV program to spotlight Patriot Mobile, a Texas-based cellphone company that had answered his call to action.
“The school boards are the key that picks the lock,” Bannon said during an interview with Patriot Mobile’s president, Glenn Story, from the floor of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Dallas on Aug. 6. “Tell us about what you did.”
In a recent interview, California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed Ron Desantis for his ongoing attack son Reproductive Rights and Access in the state of Florida as well as his ongoing attacks on the LGBTQ+ community in Florida. Meidas Contributor Francis Maxwell reacts to the epic takedown.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) donated $100,000 to the campaign of the opponent of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the latest volley in the war between these two governors.
Newsom pledged the money to Rep. Charlie Crist’s (D) campaign, telling reporters that he doesn’t “like bullies.”
“I like Charlie Crist and I don’t like bullies,” Newsom said. “I don’t like people that demean people. I don’t like when people talk down to people.”
Newsom specifically brought up DeSantis’s call for violence against Chief Medical Advisor to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci, when DeSantis said earlier this week at a rally that “Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.” DeSantis, like other conservatives, has been railing against Dr. Fauci for years because the medical advisor advocated masking, social distancing, and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To call someone pejorative terms because they’re short – who the hell raised these guys?” Newsom said of DeSantis. “What kind of people are they? I know all of us had to sit there and suck it up and take Trump’s demonization but not everybody has to act like him.”
“I mean, literally, I remember growing up and folks would have their mouths washed out with soap if they talked like this. I got four kids; I don’t want these guys being models.”
“You’re attacking the LGBT community, you’re attacking women, I mean, this guy is so extreme, rape and incest… Ron DeSantis? Talks about freedom? And a young girl who is raped by her father doesn’t have a right to her own body to make her own decision? Spare me, freedom. There’s no freedom, there’s no choice.”
This isn’t the first time Newsom has attacked DeSantis. Newsom attacked DeSantis’s Don’t Say Gay law, comparing it to California’s Brigg’s Initiative from 1978.
Also in July, Newsom ran an ad trolling the state of Florida, telling them to stand up for their freedom.
“Your Republican leaders: they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,” Newsom said in the ad.
We’re about to celebrate Independence Day — but Freedom is under attack by Republican leaders in states like Florida.
Banning books. Restricting speech. Making it harder to vote. Criminalizing women and doctors.
Yes! Some good news for a change. Sadly the haters and medical science deniers will appeal this. I wonder what the trump judges and the Christian supreme court will do with this? Hugs
Arkansas cannot enact its law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth.
A federal appeals court has said that Arkansas cannot enact Act 626, its law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth because the law relies on sex discrimination.
On Thursday, the three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling blocking the state from enforcing the law.
Act 626, which was passed by the state legislature in April 2021, prohibits medical providers from offering puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, or surgeries to anyone below the age of 18. Such surgeries remain costly, inaccessible, and extremely rare for minors.
The law also prevents medical providers from referring trans youth to other providers who might offer such care. Any medical professional who violated the law would be subject to possible discipline by professional regulatory bodies.
“Because the minor’s sex at birth determines whether or not the minor can receive certain types of medical care under the law, Act 626 discriminates on the basis of sex,” the court’s ruling stated.
In a public statement celebrating the ruling, ACLU of Arkansas executive director Holly Dickson said, “Today, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that no child should be denied medical care they need.”
“We are relieved for trans youth,” Dickson continued. “Research shows that denying gender-affirming care to transgender youth contributes to depression, isolation, eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide. Transgender people deserve the right to live healthy lives without fear and discrimination. It’s time for the Arkansas Legislature to protect trans kids, not target them.”
The ACLU also said that the law furthers no important governmental interest and that the state offered no legal or evidentiary support to show why the law should even exist.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) vetoed Act 626 in April 2021. But the Republican-led legislature overrode his veto. That same year, Hutchinson signed two other anti-LGBTQ bills: one banning trans student-athletes from playing on school sports teams matching their gender identities, and another allowing health care providers to refuse to perform procedures that they religiously or morally objected to.
Alabama and Arizona have both passed laws banning gender-affirming care for trans youth. Similar bills remain in committee in the Ohio and New Hampshire legislatures. Similar bills failed to become law in 12 other states.
The lower court judge who initially ruled against Arkansas’ law will hear a case in October on whether the law violates the rights of trans youth, their families, and health care providers.
Washington, DC – January 6, 2021: Pro-Trump protester with Christian Cross seen during rally around at Capitol buildingPhoto: Shutterstock
The far-right Christian group One Million Moms has launched a new campaign and the target is a little surprising, even for them. This time they aren’t upset with jewelry commercials or Sesame Street, the source of their ire is… other Christians.
Christianity is a “serious threat,” they warn, when practiced as described in the Bible and modeled by the religion’s namesake.
“Parents need to be warned and informed about a continuous threat, and now we have a powerful resource available to help parents with this serious problem,” they warned followers in an email blast.
The group is an astroturf project of the anti-LGBTQ hate group American Family Association. Despite the name, the group has a single employee, Monica Cole, that is employed by the larger organization.
Cole goes on to warn followers about the dangers of “gay Christianity.”
“Let’s see if you’ve heard any of these statements before,” Cole says in the blast. “‘God made people gay, and therefore being gay should be celebrated and affirmed.’ ‘Jesus never mentioned homosexuality even once.’”
“‘The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is about inhospitality and greed, not homosexuality.’ ‘If the Bible were written today, it would be gay affirming.’ ‘The Bible doesn’t say anything about sexual orientation. Christians hate gay people and need to change their theology to be more loving.’”
“If you’ve heard one or more of these statements before – whether on social media, in conversation with a family member, or even promoted by a supposedly Christian pastor – you have just encountered one of the many influences of ‘gay Christianity’,” she warns.
And while it might seem odd for the group to launch the email with all the reasons why their hardline exclusionary brand of Christianity is wrong, the email is actually an advertisement for a book written by one of their employees. It comes with a convenient two-and-a-half-minute video commercial that spends two-thirds of the time reinforcing pro-LGBTQ theology by literally allowing queer people to repeat their positions.
While the group’s nonstop bleating about innocuous things like Oreo cookies, Taco Bell, or children’s magazines has frequently made them a caricature of the hand-wringing judgemental Christian Taliban, this time they accidentally ended up condemning themselves and their anti-LGBTQ hysterics.
This is what the increasing toxic rhetoric spewed by the republicans and hate preachers produces. This week I have posted of people calling on the government and others to put the LGBTQ+ to death. Some of the rabid right thugs will do it. Hugs
The man allegedly threatened to “blow” a security guard’s “skull off” before getting tackled on a sidewalk.
D.C. police have arrested a man who allegedly used anti-gay slurs while threatening hotel workers with a gun.
Court documents describe how Dylan Nation, 21, was staying at the Carlyle Hotel near the LGBTQ neighborhood of Dupont Circle when he got into an argument with his girlfriend at 1:20 p.m. this past Wednesday. A hotel security worker saw them arguing and “stepped in,” the Washington Blade reports.
Nation allegedly told the security guard he needed to get his face wash from his car, but instead he went to his car to get his gun. The girlfriend told the guard that Nation had a gun in his car so the guard went out there to find Nation arguing with another hotel worker.
The security worker told Nation not to bring a gun into the hotel because it’s not allowed, and that’s then Nation allegedly pointed the gun at him and said he will “blow his skull off.” The security guard took away his gun and took out the bullets and told someone to call the police.
He argued trying to get his gun back, and court documents say that the audio was caught on security camera footage. He can allegedly be heard saying that the hotel workers are “not tough because they are from the fa***t part of D.C. and that his gun is only for fa***ts and pu***es,” the records say.
Then Nation tried to flee when he heard the police were coming but the security guard tackled him on a sidewalk.
Nation, who lives in Tennessee, has a preliminary hearing today. The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime.
The maga red states wonder why there is a teacher shortage. They keep lowing the pay, they keep underfunding the schools, they keep increasing the duties of teachers, and they attack the teachers at every turn as groomers and pedophiles. What these maga really want is a Sunday school type day care to put kids in so the parents can work, and when the kids are old enough they should go to work in labor at a reduced pay rate. That is what the red state republicans want because it makes their wealthy business owner donors very happy. They want to end the teaching of science, biology, social studies and add in Christian church dogma. Again notice it was just one maga parent that complained, but that one rabid right parent took priority over all the more normal accepting parents wishes. Hugs
Teachers were asked to box up the books they felt could violate the state’s new censorship law.
An English teacher in Oklahoma has resigned rather than abide by censorship rules imposed by the state and her local school district.
Summer Boismier, who taught at Norman High School in the state until last week, told CNN that teachers in her district were asked to review materials in their personal classroom libraries before the start of the school year, to see if they complied with state new regulations under Oklahoma’s H.B. 1775, which bans teachers from discussing certain topics.
The law was purportedly passed to stop “critical race theory,” a nebulous expression used by the right to describe teaching about the history of racism in the U.S.
According to the new guidelines, if a teacher employs a curriculum which demonstrate “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex” or that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously,” the educator could be suspended or have their license removed.
Boismier had over 500 books in her classroom library. Teachers were asked to box up the books they felt could be at issue, or turn them around so their spines faced inward. Administrators also suggested using butcher paper to cover them up.
Boismier complied and took it one step forward.
She covered the books and labeled the shrouded library “Books the State Doesn’t Want You to Read.” A prominent QR code linked to the Brooklyn Library’s Books Unbanned program, which offers students age 13 to 21 a free e-library card to access books banned in libraries across the U.S.
A label by the code read: “Definitely don’t scan!”
According to a statement from district officials, a parent contacted the school to complain. Boismier says she was placed on administrative leave and told not to return the following Monday.
“The concern centered on a Norman Public Schools teacher who, during class time, made personal, political statements and used their classroom to make a political display expressing those opinions,” officials said.
“Like many educators, the teacher has concerns regarding censorship and book removal by the Oklahoma state legislature. However, as educators it is our goal to teach students to think critically, not to tell them what to think,” the statement said.
Bossimer denied her actions were a “political stunt.” “I want to be clear. I was told to cover my books.”
Officials said they expected Boismier to return to class Wednesday, and that she wasn’t fired, suspended or put on administrative leave.
“But, unfortunately, we understand the teacher has publicly expressed their intent to resign,” the district said.
“The state doesn’t want you to have access to these texts, these texts that center LGBTQ+ perspectives, that center BIPOC perspectives, which I believe absolutely 1,000 percent deserve a place in our reading lists, in individual curricula, that should be centered and protected, because they have historically been erased,” Boismier said.
“Me commenting on the climate of censorship and the chilling implications of a rejection of free speech and free association – me commenting on that is absolutely a political choice. I stand by that.”
The new law, Boismier said, is “intentionally designed to stifle the conversations that we need to be having in the classroom, around systemic inequality, around privilege. It’s my desire and the top objective that I have as an educator, to make my classroom as inclusive as possible.”
Boismier doubts she’ll relocate to another Oklahoma school district, which are all covered by the new state guidelines.
“There’s a difference,” Boismier said, “between political and partisan.”
When they tell you who they are believe them the first time. This racist bigot also denies the accepted medical science that conversion therapy is a torture that never works. This type of therapy / actions to change sexual orientation / gender has been found to not only work but be very harmful to the people it is done to. Advanced countries around the world ban it. But notice what the candidate and the interviewer say about the LGBTQ+. They are confused, that they are not a community, the interviewer seems to think only ethnic groups are a community? Mastriano is more worried about the parents wishes not being followed but he has no concern about the child that will be abused by this. Another reason that teachers must not be made to tell the parents about out kids. But he made it clear way back in 2001 how he felt about gay people. He is one of these people who cannot accept the change in society and fights against the growth of understand the modern world has. Hugs
So-called conversion therapy has been denounced as harmful and ineffective by nearly every major U.S. medical and mental health association.
Doug MastrianoPhoto: Senator Doug Mastriano’s Facebook page
Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, a Christian nationalist, said that it’s “disgusting” that the state’s current Governor Tom Wolf issued an executive order against so-called conversion therapy, a widely discredited form of psychological torture that purports to change people’s sexual orientations and gender identities.
Speaking Thursday on 103.7 FM, a conservative talk radio station, Mastriano expressed anger at Wolf’s recent executive order directing state agencies to ensure that neither government workers nor taxpayer funds promote conversion therapy, The Huffington Post reported.
Mastriano also expressed anger that his Democratic political opponent, Josh Shapiro, has spoken out against conversion therapy too.
“This is disgusting to me, where bureaucrats and Tom Wolf — and Josh Shapiro — thinks it’s okay to come in and threaten parents and therapists because their kids might be confused,” Mastriano said in his radio interview.
The interviewer, Michele Jansen, said she also opposed Wolf’s executive order, adding “[the LGBTQ movement is] an activist, political, ideological group. They’re not an ethnicity. They’re not a community of people.”
To be clear, Wolf’s executive order doesn’t “threaten” parents. It contains no consequences for parents seeking conversion therapy for their kids. Wolf’s order merely ensures that state government resources don’t support a pseudoscience that has been disavowed as ineffective and harmful by the nation’s largest medical and mental health associations.
Also, Mastriano’s comment about kids just being “confused” echoes a popular right-wing talking point. Right-wingers claim that young people coming to terms with possible queer identities are actually just “confused” or have been “indoctrinated” by teachers, peers, and media that essentially pressure them into identifying as part of the LGBTQ community. These arguments have been used to claim that all LGBTQ content should be banned from schools.
During his interview, Mastriano blamed educators for confusing kids and said that schools “have graphic pornographic books laid out.” His latter claim is almost certainly untrue, as any school displaying explicit sexual images would have news and images of the content quickly go viral online, becoming a major news story as it outrages parents and community members across the political spectrum.
In truth, claims of in-school pornography have only been repeated by conservative activists looking to ban LGBTQ-themed books and sex educational materials from schools and local libraries.
Mastriano’s comments aren’t really surprising considering his numerous past actions against the queer community. As a state senator, he has supported anti-LGBTQ legislation including a bill that would ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams and a bill that would force trans people to use public bathrooms matching the gender they were assigned at birth. He has also endorsed legislation that would stop same-sex couples from adopting children.
Additionally, his 2001 college thesis expressed disgust for anyone who doesn’t hold the view that homosexuality is a form of “aberrant sexual conduct,” according to The Washington Post.
The true dangers of so-called conversion therapy
Wolf’s press release announcing his executive order mentioned a peer-reviewed study from The Trevor Project which showed that 13 percent of LGBTQ youth nationwide had reported being subjected to conversion therapy. Of those, 83 percent were subjected to it before reaching the age of 18. The study showed that young people who underwent conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide afterward.
The methods of so-called conversion therapists include encouraging queer people not to masturbate, redirecting their sexual energy into exercise, “covert aversion” (a fancy name for imagining possible negative consequences of being queer), Bible study, directing same-sex sexual desire onto opposite-sex partners, inflicting pain and humiliation anytime LGBTQ feelings arise, and forcing people to act out stereotypical gender roles in behavior and personal appearance.
“Researchers found that when they accounted for the harms caused by conversion therapy – including negative mental health outcomes and substance use – conversion therapy costs our nation $9.23 billion each year,” Wolf’s announcement said.
“Conversion therapy is a traumatic practice based on junk science that actively harms the people it supposedly seeks to treat,” Wolf noted. “This discriminatory practice is widely rejected by medical and scientific professionals and has been proven to lead to worse mental health outcomes for LGBTQIA+ youth subjected to it. This is about keeping our children safe from bullying and extreme practices that harm them.”
Twenty-nine U.S. states have either passed full or partial bans on conversion therapy for minors. In three of those states — Alabama, Georgia, and Florida — court injunctions have stopped the bans from going into effect while legal challenges to the bans proceed in court.
This article was sent to me for all of us to read from Ali. Thank you Ali. I would add that that what this person says about the Kansas legilature can be said about all of them including the federal one. Hugs
CLAY WIRESTONE
AUGUST 18, 2022 3:33 AM
After a year on the job, Kansas Reflector opinion editor Clay Wirestone says he has learned several truths about the state. (Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism)
A year ago Tuesday, I came aboard the good ship Kansas Reflector as opinion editor. While my first column on the job promised big goals and lofty aspirations, I’ll admit that doubts lingered in the cobwebbed recesses of my mind.
Would the work make a difference? Would readers pay attention? Would they and I find it satisfying, both journalistically and creatively?
Thankfully, the answer to all of those questions has been a resounding yes. No, I don’t believe this section and my columns have changed the course of Kansas history, but I think they did a good job of reflecting that history over 12 months. In turbulent times like these, that counts for something.
According to my tally, this is the 123rd article I’ve written from Kansas Reflector’s opinion seat. Here’s more of what I’ve learned over the course of those columns.
Visitors to the Kansas Statehouse could be glimpsed at the bottom of the rotunda on the last regular session day of the Legislature. (Clay Wirestone/Kansas Reflector)
The Kansas Legislature is more badly broken than you imagine.
I thought I knew about the dysfunction at the Kansas Statehouse. I worked in nonprofit advocacy for four years before joining Kansas Reflector and had seen how seldom the needs of everyday Kansans were considered by legislators.
But I didn’t have the full picture.
Watching the full body over the past session taught me difficult lessons. Legislators obscured what they were doing, repeatedly and willfully. The worst derailed hearings and grabbed headlines by attacking the powerless. Worst of all, perhaps, leadership repeatedly ignored good policy and pursued their own power-hungry ends.
Medicaid expansion? Forget about it. Lowering barriers to public assistance? Nope. Not when there’s a Democratic governor to demonize.
Rep. Cheryl Helmer, right, and Rep. Michael Houser respond to having their picture taken during House action April 27, 2022, at the Statehouse in Topeka. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Extremism has taken root in state politics, and we all have to be wary.
This doesn’t have to do with Democrats or Republicans. This has to do with the loudest voices in the room and how they manipulate the public.
You could see this happen in the debate over health measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outspoken residents and legislators spread disinformation that put their fellow Kansans at risk. That’s just the start, of course. We also endured lies about critical race theory and transgender folks.
While outside groups have tried to quantify that extremism, they have fallen short. The news media and public at large have much work to do in shining a light on those who would breed hate and anger for political advantage.
Attendees at the Kansans for Constitutional Freedom watch party in Overland Park applaud after Kansans vote to keep abortion a constitutional right on Tuesday. (Lily O’Shea Becker/Kansas Reflector)
When the stakes are high, Kansans come through.
With all of the above being said, I have to recognize the surprise abortion-rights victory Aug. 2.
Freedom contended with fundamentalist repression on the ballot. Our state chose freedom. That vote, and the nearly 20 percentage point rejection of extremism, suggests that Kansans are fully capable of grasping the stakes when fundamental rights are on the line.
Nearly a year ago, I wrote: “A state that was once known for its moderation and temperance has become, too often, a wannabe member of the confederacy.” For most of the last year, those words rang true for me.
After the vote, I have re-evaluated. Perhaps that moderation and temperance endures, slumbering somewhere underneath the plains, roused only by a genuine threat.
Columnist and documentarian Dave Kendall sent along this image of a crowd singing along with “Home on the Range” at the end of the 2021 Symphony in the Flint Hills concert. He wrote a piece about the event, and then shared video after a storm cut it short this year. (Dave Kendall)
So many of you have so much to say. Please keep doing so.
Kansas Reflector has been lucky to publish so many talented writers in the opinion section.
Max McCoy held down the Sunday column slot for much of the first year, until he decided to step aside. Since then, we’ve welcomed weekend work from Kansas poet laureate Huascar Medina, documentarian Dave Kendall, Mark McCormick, Inas Younis and Brenan Riffel, among others. Do yourself a favor and check them out.
But that’s not all! University of Kansas instructor Eric Thomas has held down the Friday columnist slot, first writing about podcasts and then widening his gaze. Throughout the rest of the week, we’ve welcomed contributions from throughout the state.
The Ad Astra statue aims high atop of the Kansas Statehouse on Jan. 24, 2022. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Kansas Reflector readers are the best.
The biggest surprise this past year has been the support and feedback I’ve received from readers. Two decades in journalism had prepared me for a chorus of catcalls and barrage of brickbats.
Instead, the Kansas Reflector’s opinion section has been welcomed. I’ve heard from so many readers who appreciate a different, people-focused take on news and politics. And while many progressives have gotten in touch, so have libertarians and conservatives. I might lean left, but I also value the honest and open exchange of ideas.
So, thank you. Thanks for the kindness you’ve shown me, and thanks as well for pointing out any missteps via Twitter. Thanks for following along throughout the last 12 months. I’m still learning, and I hope to keep learning until the primordial seas that once covered Kansas return.
Gov. Gavin NewsomPhoto: Screenshot
Photo: Shutterstock
Washington, DC – January 6, 2021: Pro-Trump protester with Christian Cross seen during rally around at Capitol buildingPhoto: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Doug MastrianoPhoto: Senator Doug Mastriano’s Facebook page
Scottie's Playtime 
CLAY WIRESTONE