Category: LGBTQ+ / Gay / Trans / Gender

The Right Is Misusing the Word “Grooming,” and It Can Have Serious Consequences

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-right-is-misusing-the-word-grooming-and-it-can-have-serious-consequences

 

LGBTQ supporter holding sign that says don't say gay
CHANDAN KHANNA/GETTY IMAGES
 

As survivors of sexual violence and advocates for survivors, we know exactly how precious and vital it is to be safe in our homes and our bodies, and how much is lost when that safety is violated by people who claim to love and protect us. We also know that words have power – both the words we use to describe our own experiences, and the words other people use to describe us.

That is why we can no longer stay silent while right-wing extremists appropriate the idea and terminology of “grooming” and “pedophilia” to attack gender equity and young people’s access to necessary education, whether these attacks are used to stoke fear and panic in attempts to ban any discussions of LGBTQ+ identity from classroom discussion, leveraged in efforts to ban books or get teachers or administrators fired, or used to undermine access to necessary relationships and sexuality education. The word “grooming” means something specific and serious: it is a secretive process by which someone builds false trust with a child they are intending to abuse.

LGBTQ+ representation and acceptance is life-saving for young people questioning their gender or orientation, and age-appropriate comprehensive sexual health education both gives youth skills to recognize and disclose abuse and helps reduce perpetration of sexual abuse.

 

This is why we are speaking today with one voice to demand that the journalists covering this devastating and false rhetoric do so responsibly. Whenever a source invokes the terminology of child abuse survivors as reasons to oppose education, LGBTQ+ rights, or other fundamental freedoms, we call on you to responsibly contextualize what child abuse actually is, and center the voices of survivor advocacy groups.

 

Child sexual abuse is real, and it is devastating. Standing in solidarity with the LGBTQ community has nothing to do with child sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse is about people in positions of power harming the most vulnerable. As Kendall Ciesemier, a survivor, wrote in the New York Times: “Abusers often seek to gain the trust of their victims and, in time, use that trust to assert control over them… No anti-LGBTQ education bill, book ban or health care ban, would have prevented my abuse or helped me in its aftermath.” For survivors who are trans or queer, remaining in the closet and not coming to terms with our own identities has never protected us from the kind of violence we endured as children. For some of us, our abuse may have been directly related to others’ attempts to suppress our identity, and the impacts of this abuse were made worse by being unable to access LGBTQ-specific information about sexuality, sexual health, and relationships.

 

The extremists who use this harmful rhetoric are not keeping anyone safe. They do not support or speak for survivors. To the contrary: They are muddying the waters of language, trivializing the suffering of survivors, gaslighting the public, and making it increasingly impossible for children to name when they are experiencing harm from abusers. When there is confusion about what child abuse actually is, it will be harder to identify it and intervene to stop it. Using inaccurate and sensational narratives to stir a moral panic about LGBTQ+ rights and sexual health education will lead to ineffective and harmful interventions and policy decisions based on fictions rather than evidence. These extremists are only fueling the epidemic of child sexual abuse, increasing violence against the LGBTQ+ community, and ultimately threatening public health.

Many of the same politicians co-opting the use of language created to name sexual violence are doing nothing when their political allies are discovered to have committed actual sexual violence. They are using this rhetoric because they believe that keeping us afraid will help them gain and cling to power. And by spreading these baseless, cynical allegations, they are inciting violence against queer and trans people — people who are already significantly more likely to be victims of abuse, rather than perpetrators of it.

In fact, the very initiatives that do reduce children’s vulnerability to groomers and prevent child sexual abuse are the ones extremists are weaponizing the language of child abuse to oppose. LGBTQ+ affirming books and curricula save lives by helping all kids know their lives and rights to bodily autonomy are important, and that their identities are valid. Studies repeatedly show that quality, inclusive relationships and sexuality education can reduce child abuse, and empowers children to report if someone does try to harm them. We are tired of being weaponized as a right-wing talking point against the education and protections that will prevent more children from experiencing sexual violence.

Survivors of abuse will tell you that information is power and the real threats are fear, shame, and silence. Don’t make children pay the price for these politicians’ lies. By centering survivor advocates in this narrative and educating the public about what grooming is and is not, you can help people see through this fear-mongering ploy, return the power of words to survivors, and make children across this nation safer in the process.

Respectfully,

Advocates for Youth

Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Initiative

Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence

 

Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking

Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence

EducateUS: SIECUS In Action

Equality Federation

Equality Florida

Equality North Carolina

Florida Freedom to Read Project

 

Freedom Network USA

Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Jane Doe Inc. (JDI), the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

Jews for a Secular Democracy

Keshet

Know Your IX

Lauren’s Kids

Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault

 

Michigan Organization of Adolescent Sexual Health Action Fund

Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence

Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence

National Alliance to End Sexual Violence

National Center for Transgender Equality

National Survivor Network

Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence

 

New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault

North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence

Our Bodies Ourselves Today

Partners in Sex Education

Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida

Polaris

PRISM FL, Inc.

 

Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence

SafeBAE

Scarleteen

SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change

Stop It Now!

The Irina Project

The Trevor Project

Transinclusive Group

 

UN|HUSHED

University of Kansas Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Victim Rights Law Center

We Testify

Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault

You Are More Than

And the Following Individuals:

Amy Agigian

 

Anastasia Owen

Annie E. Clark

Beth Roselyn, PhD, Lecturer, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Kansas

Chel Miller

Chris Ash, Advocate and Educator

Dr. Melinda Chen

Florida Representative Anna V. Eskamani

Florida Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith

 

Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book

Hannah E. Britton

Heather Corinna

Ida V. Eskamani

Jaclyn Friedman

Kimm Topping

Lenny Hayes, Executive Director, Tate Topa Consulting

Kai X. Christmas

 

Kolyn Brown

Mary Eakins-Durand

Max Micallef, Queer Rights & Suicide Prevention Activist

Melanie Andrade Williams

Pamela Merritt, Executive Director of Medical Students for Choice

Rebecca Kling, Advocate for Transgender Rights

Renee Bracey Sherman

Rin Alajaji

 

Sarah Deer

Sarah “Mili” Milianta-Laffin

Sarah Sophie Flicker

Shael Norris

Soraya Chemaly

Stacey Vanderhurst

Takeata King Pang

Premier League player makes history marching in Pride: ‘A huge moment for football’

Premier League player makes history marching in Pride: ‘A huge moment for football’

Leeds United footballer Luke Ayling attended Leeds Pride. (Lewis Storey/Getty Images)

Leeds United defender Luke Ayling has become the first known active Premier League player to march in a Pride event.

Ayling, affectionately nicknmed ‘Bill’ by fans, joined former Leeds United players Jermaine Beckford and Noel Whelan at Leeds Pride on Sunday (7 August).

The trio marched with LGBTQ+ organisation Marching Out Together, which supports Leeds United’s queer fans.

 

Co-founder Andrew Tilly said the footballers joining the march was a brilliant example of the power of allyship.

“There will be 70,000 people on the streets who will see Jermaine and Bill and Noel with us today and they will get the same message,” he told the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Tilly added: “I still have to deal with abuse sometimes at away games, rarely at home games and you have to deal with fans that still haven’t come on the journey that most people have.

“And I feel empowered to challenge them because I can say: ‘What’s your problem… because Jermaine doesn’t have a problem, Bill doesn’t have a problem, if they are your team then go and find another team because their values aren’t your values.”

Fans commended Whelan, Ayling and Beckford for attending the event.

 

“Not only do you support the local community, the work has international reach,” tweeted one fan. “Have a great day. Proud to be @LUFC.”

Another applauded Leeds United for pushing for inclusivity. “Proud of @LUFC and the work they do with @MarchingoutLUFC to make our football club more inclusive,” they wrote.

“Understand that@lukeayling_8 is the first active premier league footballer to march at pride – thank you Bill for your solidarity – absolute legend.”

Whelan also took to Twitter to share photos of the day. He wrote: “Three decades of ⁦[Leeds United] players representing the club … very proud and had a fantastic day with everyone , have a great celebration.”

Leeds United was a sponsor of Leeds Pride 2022, with Marching Out Together thanking the club for “taking a huge step as LGBT+ allies”.

It called the players’ attendance a “huge moment for football”.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Tilly specifically thanked Leeds United CEO Angus Kinnear.

Tilly said the club is “not just doing it to tick boxes. It matters to them, big time”.

In a statement ahead of the event, Leeds United CEO Angus Kinnear said: “The Leeds United players and directors all send their best wishes to Marching Out Together and everyone associated with Leeds Pride. We do hope fans will come along and join us or watch the parade pass through the city. It is a great opportunity to show our support to the LGBT+ community.”

Though homophobia in football remains an issue, the game is slowly becoming more inclusive.

In May, Jake Daniels came out as the first openly gay active English professional male footballer since Justin Fashanu in 1990.

 

‘Social contagion’ isn’t causing more youths to be transgender, study finds

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/social-contagion-isnt-causing-youths-transgender-study-finds-rcna41392

By the way this is the same study that Tildeb tried to attack in a comment.   As you can see, the study debunking the social contagion idea is accepted by both mainstream media and the medical community.   I find it interesting that Tildeb claims I have a religious like faith in my acceptance of trans people and the best care practices for trans gender kids which is supported by the majority of medical organizations, yet the idea behind the social contagion idea has been completely debunked and Tildeb still clings to it.    Which one of us is unaccepting of the data and reality?   He tries so hard to push fearmongering right wing myths about trans people and he manages to confuse some people.   It is sad and harmful, and it must be countered as often as possible.    Hugs

The study, published in Pediatrics, disputes the theory that more adolescents, particularly those assigned female at birth, are identifying as trans due to social influence.
 
A giant trans flag held by participants of the Reclaim Pride Coalition's (RPC) fourth annual Queer Liberation March, on June 26, 2022 in New York.
A giant trans flag held by participants of the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s (RPC) fourth annual Queer Liberation March, on June 26, 2022 in New York.Erik McGregor / LightRocket via Getty Images file
 
 
By Jo Yurcaba
 

“Social contagion” is not driving an increasing number of adolescents to come out as transgender, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics. 

The study also found that the proportion of adolescents who were assigned female at birth and have come out as transgender also has not increased, which contradicts claims that adolescents whose birth sex is female are more susceptible to this so-called external influence. 

 

“The hypothesis that transgender and gender diverse youth assigned female at birth identify as transgender due to social contagion does not hold up to scrutiny and should not be used to argue against the provision of gender-affirming medical care for adolescents,” study senior author Dr. Alex S. Keuroghlian, director of the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center at the Fenway Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Gender Identity Program, said in a statement.

The “social contagion” theory can be traced back to a 2018 paper published in the journal PLOS One. Dr. Lisa Littman, who at the time was a professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University, coined the term “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” which she described as adolescents experiencing a conflict between their birth sex and gender identity “suddenly during or after puberty.” These adolescents, she wrote, “would not have met the criteria for gender dysphoria in childhood” and are experiencing dysphoria due to social influence.  

Littman also hypothesized that adolescents assigned female at birth are more likely to be affected by social contagion and, as a result, are overrepresented in groups of adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria when compared to those who were assigned male at birth.

After intense debate and criticism, PLOS One conducted a post-publication reassessment of the article, and issued a correction that included changing the headline to clarify that Littman did not survey transgender or gender-diverse youth themselves, but actually surveyed their parents. The correction also noted that, “Rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) is not a formal mental health diagnosis at this time.”

To test the social contagion theory, researchers used data from the 2017 and 2019 biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which collected gender identity data across 16 states from ages 12 to 18. In 2017, 2.4%, or 2,161 of the 91,937 adolescents surveyed, identified as trans or gender diverse. In 2019, that percentage dropped slightly to 1.6%, or 1,640 of 105,437 adolescents surveyed.

Researchers concluded that the decrease in the overall percentage of adolescents identifying as trans or gender diverse “is incongruent with the (rapid-onset gender dysphoria hypothesis) that posits social contagion.” 

The study also found that the number of transgender adolescents who were assigned male at birth outnumbered those assigned female at birth in both 2017 and 2019, providing additional evidence against a “notion of social contagion with unique susceptibility” among those assigned female at birth.  

The social contagion hypothesis, by assuming that youth are coming out, for example, because their friends are, asserts that there’s some social desirability to being trans. Some supporters of the theory, according to the study, also believe that more youth identify as trans or gender diverse because those identities are less stigmatized than cisgender sexual minority identities, or those who identify with their birth sex and are lesbian, bisexual, gay or queer, among other sexual identities.  

To evaluate these claims, researchers examined rates of bullying among adolescents who identified as trans and gender diverse, and those who did not.

 

They found that, consistent with other surveys, trans and gender-diverse youth were significantly more likely to be victims of school bullying (at 38.7% in 2017 and 45.4% in 2019) compared to cisgender lesbian, gay and bisexual youth (at 30.5% in 2017 and 28.7% in 2019) and cisgender, heterosexual youth (at 17.1% in 2017 and 16.6% in 2019).

“The idea that attempts to flee sexual minority stigma drive teenagers to come out as transgender is absurd, especially to those of us who provide treatment to [transgender and gender diverse] youth,” study lead author Dr. Jack Turban, incoming assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement. “The damaging effects of these unfounded hypotheses in further stigmatizing transgender and gender diverse youth cannot be understated. We hope that clinicians, policymakers, journalists, and anyone else who contributes to health policy will review these findings.” 

They wrote that despite the methodological flaws in Littman’s study, the concept of rapid onset gender dysphoria “has been used in recent legislative debates to argue for and subsequently enact policies that prohibit gender-affirming medical care” for trans and gender diverse adolescents. 

For example, in June, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration issued guidance against gender-affirming care for minors — including social transition, which involves changing a child’s name, pronouns, clothing and/or hairstyle. The guidance linked to reports that cited Littman’s paper.

An increasing number of states have also tried to ban or restrict trans youths’ access to gender-affirming medical care through legislation. The number of bills seeking to restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender youths has grown from one in 2018 to 36 this year, according to an analysis by NBC News. Governors in three states — Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee — have successfully signed such restrictions into law, though judges have prevented those measures from taking effect in Alabama and Arkansas. 

The study lists several limitations, including that the data were collected through a school-based survey and, as a result, youths who don’t attend school were not represented. It also noted that youths were asked, “What is your sex?” and that response options were limited to female and male. It didn’t ask about respondents’ “sex assigned at birth” and didn’t include an additional question about their “gender identity,” which is an established research method for asking about gender identity. But the researchers credited several studies that found trans and gender-diverse youths are aware of the differences between their sex assigned at birth and gender identity. 

 

Florida instructs schools to ignore federal protections for transgender kids

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/07/florida-instructs-schools-ignore-federal-protections-transgender-kids/

 

Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said that new federal protections under Title IX “are not binding law.”
 
By      
schools, transgender, tennessee,
Photo: Shutterstock

Florida’s Department of Educations has instructed the state’s public and private schools to ignore federal guidance on protecting transgender students from discrimination.

In a memo sent to school administrators on Thursday, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said the new federal protections under Title IX “are not binding law, do not create any new legal obligations, and should not be treated as governing law.”

“The Department will not stand idly by as federal agencies attempt to impose a sexual ideology on Florida schools that risk the health, safety, and welfare of Florida students,” the memo continues.

Last month, the Biden Administration proposed changes to the legal interpretation of Title IX which would help prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The proposed changes mostly undo rollbacks of Title IX rights during the Trump administration.

“As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of this landmark law, our proposed changes will allow us to continue that progress and ensure all our nation’s students — no matter where they live, who they are, or whom they love — can learn, grow, and thrive in school,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in June.

Diaz claims that allowing transgender girls to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their gender and to participate in school sports as their gender would jeopardize “the safety and wellbeing of Florida students” and risk violating Florida law. In 2021, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill to ban transgender girls from playing school sports.

“While Governor DeSantis and Commissioner Diaz are intent on weaponizing state agencies in their war on transgender youth, the fact remains: the U.S. Department of Education has said unequivocally that students are to be protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” Equality Florida press secretary Brandon Wolf said in a statement.

“The DeSantis Administration repeatedly puts the political ambitions of the Governor over the wellbeing of Florida’s students and the result is a state that is increasingly more hostile toward and unsafe for young people. LGBTQ students exist. The federal government has recognized that they are protected from discrimination. Even as the Governor attempts to bolster his right-wing bona fides by hurtling our state toward full-tilt authoritarianism, school districts across Florida should remain committed to protecting all students.”

DeSantis has declared an all-out war on Florida’s LGBTQ community. In March, he signed the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law, prohibiting any mention of LGBTQ topics in schools.

Last month, he signaled that he is open to using Florida’s child protective service laws to terminate the parental rights of adults who take their kids to see drag shows, and his administration is trying to get a drag bar’s liquor license revoked for allowing children to attend a drag show.

 

Turkey’s LGBT crackdown is about silencing all opposition

https://nordot.app/927253037178732544?c=644607769890374753

 

From Istanbul to Izmir, thousands of Turkish activists took to the streets in protest to commemorate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Pride month in June. In response, Turkish authorities launched a series of attacks against LGBT rights activists, lawyers, and journalists. Kaos GL, a Turkish LGBT rights group, reported that the government banned 10 LGBT-related events and detained over 530 people in just 37 days.

Many of those detained at Istanbul Pride reported being held and handcuffed, in hot vehicles without food or water for long periods. The majority were detained overnight. Police also prevented lawyers from meeting with clients in a timely fashion, making them wait as long as three hours – a violation of detainee rights.

Only two lawyers were permitted to meet detainees held on the buses and one was met with violence when she confronted the police about her client. She has even filed a criminal complaint following the incident.

”Turkish authorities’ persistent efforts to sequester LGBT rights as a cultural matter—a threat to moral, religious, and family values—obfuscates the bigger picture: the political context and anti-rights agenda undergirding the government’s crackdown on LGBT rights activists and their supporters. Crackdowns on LGBT rights are part and parcel of the Turkish government’s intensifying campaign to silence opposition voices and dismantle democratic safeguards. ”

This latest string of attacks is a tidal wave in what were already very treacherous waters for LGBT people in Turkey. The government’s assault on LGBT rights involves taking measures to undermine freedom of expression, association, and assembly for those endorsing or allegedly endorsing pro-LGBT rights speech and then, seeking to justify these violations under the guise of upholding public morality.

Since 2015, the government has executed an extensive campaign to break-up LGBT rights public events, including Pride marches and, in Ankara, all LGBT events and public LGBT-related discussions from 2017 to 2019.

In numerous instances, the authorities have pursued legal action against activists and organisations for their support of LGBT rights and detained journalists reporting on Pride events. The government has also censored media and fined outlets positively portraying or allegedly positively portraying LGBT people.

These anti-LGBT efforts have largely been undertaken in the name of protecting the public from immorality and “perversion.” Government officials have taken the public stage to cast LGBT people as antithetical to “Turkish social values” and as a threat to families and children.

In March 2021, after the government received widespread domestic and international criticism for withdrawing from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (known as the Istanbul Convention), officials responded with an anti-LGBT statement and declared that they withdrew from the convention because it is being hijacked by groups to normalise homosexuality.

Homophobic government statements like these have reverberating effects in the public sphere, where LGBT rights groups have documented a dramatic rise in anti-LGBT rhetoric in the news.

Turkish authorities’ persistent efforts to sequester LGBT rights as a cultural matter—a threat to moral, religious, and family values—obfuscates the bigger picture: the political context and anti-rights agenda undergirding the government’s crackdown on LGBT rights activists and their supporters.

Crackdowns on LGBT rights are part and parcel of the Turkish government’s intensifying campaign to silence opposition voices and dismantle democratic safeguards.

In recent years, Turkish authorities have met political dissent with growing hostility, arbitrarily detaining and prosecuting human rights defenders, pro-Kurdish politicians, women’s rights protesters, student activists, independent journalists, and other perceived government critics. The government and bodies acting under its control have imposed punitive sanctions on independent radio and television networks. They have pursued individuals for social media posts that have not advocated violence, with prosecutors charging them with such offences as “insulting the president” and “inciting public enmity.”

Turkish authorities have outright banned more than 349,000 websites in the past 5 years.

Such sweeping actions occur in the context of widespread and systematic government violations of free speech and democratic norms that accelerated after the coup attempt in 2016.

The worst and most pervasive manifestation of the government’s campaign has been the routine targeting of perceived political opponents and critics with baseless charges of spreading terrorist propaganda and membership of terrorist organisations, positioning these individuals not only as outside the nation, but an existential threat to it.

As human rights are sacrificed by invoking vague threats to national security, public order and morality, those marked as “outsiders,” have become expeditious targets and scapegoats. This tactic is neither novel nor original. Governments buckling under genuine concerns about how they mishandle inflation, corruption, or the impacts of climate change have long turned to scapegoating unpopular social groups as a cynical strategy for self-preservation.

Turkey’s dive deeper into the trenches of authoritarianism endangers not only LGBT people but everyone who wants to express dissent and to seek a democratic future for the country in which everyone’s rights are upheld.

VA Gov: Teachers Should Out LGBTQ Kids To Parents

VA Gov: Teachers Should Out LGBTQ Kids To Parents

Dogs that love gravy these people really are clueless on the subject.   Don’t they every ask themselves why the kids are not coming out to mom and dad already?   The kids live with them.   They get a feel for how they would react.   Kids are still being kicked out of homes or forced into conversion therapy to force / torture them to act straight.    The governor says that parents need to be at the forefront of these decisions.    Got news for you there is no choice to be made as to if your gay, lesbian, or trans.   It is something you are born with.   Yes kids know at a very young age what orientation and gender they are.    It cannot be changed.   As soon as a kid realizes there are stuff for girls and other stuff for boys they understand gender and which one they are.   As soon as a kids realizes that some people are attracted to each other, that there are boyfriends and girlfriends they understand attraction / orientation.   The only choice is to help the child accept and be happy with who they really are or scare and intimidate them into a miserable life of hiding who they are.    That is what these republican leaders want, what the religious leaders want.   They want the LGBTQ+ to go away, to hide, to not be seen or heard.   Why does the rainbow flag trigger them so much, it is a sign that the LGBTQ+ are here and we exist.    Damn it, the dangers of this are clear and being ignored.   Now wonder red states want unqualified untrained teachers that will follow the authoritarian state line.  They want the increase in kids committing suicide.   Why do they deny proven science?   Hugs

“With regards to informing parents with most important decisions about their children, I think everybody knows where I stand, parents matter. 

“Parents should be at the forefront of all of these discussions. And I firmly believe that teachers and schools have an obligation to make sure that parents are well informed about what’s happening in their kids’ lives.

“And one of the things we learned last year during the campaign is that parents were tired of being pushed to the background in their child’s education.” – Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

JCF  11 hours ago

“I think everybody knows where I stand, parents matter.”

Repeat after me, motherfucker: Best. Interests. Of. The. Child!!! 🤬

Ed Michigan • 12 hours ago

And when child abuse and abandonment skyrocket, what will be his excuse?

Tim 🇺🇦 Ed Michigan • 12 hours ago

Same as it is now.
Parents right.
Children aren’t people to GQP, they’re possessions.

crewman Ed Michigan • 11 hours ago

No problem. They’ll just clamp down on reporting, a la DeSantis during the Covid pandemic.

Uncle Mark eats the rainbow Snarkaholic • 9 hours ago

He’ll blame the kids, schools, media, internet for making the kids LGBTQ in the first place.

Lazycrockett • 12 hours ago

If kids felt they could talk to their parents, teacher and schools wouldnt be asked for help.

Karl Dubhe IV • 12 hours ago

So the kids can be murdered, tortured or abused by their parents?

Oedipal bastard.

bovsklo Karl Dubhe IV • 11 hours ago

That’s what would have happened in my house. I needed that deniability until I was out of there.

Posthumously bovsklo • 9 hours ago

I admit to the same.

What, me worry? • 11 hours ago • edited

My father would have beaten the crap out of me and possibly kicked me out. As it was, he was pressuring me about being homosexual. I didn’t even know. I just knew that I was different. I left “home” when I was not quite 16. That was in 1967. It saddens me to see things are going right back to those bad old days. All of the progress of the last 50 years, gone in a split second.

Atman, Schopenhauer’s Poodle • 11 hours ago

When I came out in my early twenties, my mother cried and said, “I was ready for this when you were in high school, but I figured when you didn’t, you weren’t.” And I thought, “Yeah, I know you were ‘ready’ then, which is exactly why I didn’t.” I had to wait until she had no control over my life or I would’ve ended up at some Christian “conversion” camp. I’ll just take the regular pain life throws at people, please and thank you.

BensNewLogin • 11 hours ago

Simply put, they want to cause harm. They want kids to be afraid to come out.

Steve in NOLA BensNewLogin • 9 hours ago

If a child is going to a teacher for help about this, that means they don’t trust their parents not to be horrible, even violent. If schools start outing children who had good reason to keep their secret, then a significant number of them are going to kill themselves rather than face their parents’ wrath. This guy is trying to kill our children.

ECarpenter • 12 hours ago

So gay kids stuck in fucking christian cults won’t have any safe haven, anywhere. That’s what these fucking assholes want.

Jurgen • 11 hours ago

Twenty five effing years after Ellen came out. 24 since Will and Grace and Matthew Shepard, 53 since Stonewall, 19 since Lawrence v Texas, 7 since Obergefell. These cruel shits in sweater vests will never stop, so neither can we.

JCF • 11 hours ago

“I think everybody knows where I stand, parents matter.”

Repeat after me, motherfucker: Best. Interests. Of. The. Child!!! 🤬

Texas Church Performs Christian Version Of “Hamilton,” Adds Anti-Gay Commentary And Hamilton Gets “Saved”

Texas Church Performs Christian Version Of “Hamilton,” Adds Anti-Gay Commentary And Hamilton Gets “Saved”

NBC News reports:

A Texas church has come under fire for a Christian-themed — and allegedly unauthorized — rendition of the acclaimed Broadway musical “Hamilton” that appeared to conclude with a sermon by a church pastor comparing being gay to being addicted to alcohol or drugs.

The two-hour performance, which was produced and livestreamed Friday by The Door Christian Fellowship Ministries in McAllen and RGV Productions, included several biblical references not originally included in the Tony Award-winning musical.

On Stage Blog reports:

The church also decided to add and change text throughout the show. For instance, they added a scene where Hamilton is “saved” right before “It’s Quiet Uptown. At the conclusion of the show, a pastor delivers a sermon that includes anti-LGBTQ messaging.

The pastor states, “Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs, with homosexuality, maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, God can help you tonight. He wants to forgive you for your sins.”

 

another_steve • 12 minutes ago

The hate knows no limits. That’s where we are today in America — both in the Republican Party and in the religious right.

The challenge for decent Americans is “how to put the barbarians out of business, out of power.”

J.C another_steve • 7 minutes ago

“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.”

Imagine wearing this in front of all bigots.

liondon#traitor-ex-president • 12 minutes ago

Stealing for Jesus?

another_steve liondon#traitor-ex-president • 7 minutes ago

The fundamentalist lunatics have the ultimate “get out of jail” card. Their god forgives any abomination, any crime, they commit — as long as they do it in “Jesus’s name.”

Fundamentalist religion (make or model, irrelevant) is the biggest scam in the history of Planet Earth, to date.

BartmanLA • 17 minutes ago

Like a pesky legal “Cease and Desist” order is going to stop them from entertaining their congregation, after all this is the new Christofacist Theocracy they’re trying to build.

Matt Powell: The government should execute certain drag queens

https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/matt-powell-the-government-should-execute-certain-drag-queens/

They “should be dealt with via firing squad,” said the Christian hate-preacher

Hate-preacher Matt Powell: The government should execute drag queens | Matt Powell delivers a hate-filled tiradeMatt Powell delivers a hate-filled tirade (screenshot via Odysee

Creationist Matt Powell wants the government to murder drag queens because he falsely believes they perform sexual acts in front of children in libraries. That was only one of the hateful, lie-filled comments he made in a video he purposely uploaded to a non-YouTube site in order to evade punishment.

Powell usually makes himself look bad by spreading scientific misinformation, like saying evolution is racist because it teaches that “we evolved from African Americans” even though, he argues, there are “African Americans that are still alive today.” Or that the fight to save endangered species is somehow proof that evolution is a hoax. Or that it’s a “historical fact” that dinosaurs were killed in the Civil War. Just a bizarre mix of unearned confidence and extreme ignorance all rolled into one.

But let’s not forget Powell is also a hate-preacher.

In recent years, he’s said that homosexuality “should be illegal,” that LGBTQ people were “trying to recruit” children, and that gay people should be executed by the government as commanded in Leviticus 20:13. The video he posted came down shortly after that and he’s mostly backed away from the topic since then.

Recently, however, he uploaded a similar video on the right-wing haven Odysee. In it, Matt Powell takes the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist approach, calling for government-sanctioned executions of drag queens while spreading all kinds of lies about gay people. (This was first picked up by @AtheistJr.)

Here’s the 46-minute sermon boiled down to under two minutes:

But they’re saying, “We’ll convert your children.” Do you know how they convert children? By molesting them. By abusing them. That’s how they convert children. That’s how people even become homosexuals, is by getting molested by one of these creeps.

…

And let me ask you a question: Why would you celebrate a group of people that leads the world in pedophilia?

…

Do you know what Jesus preached about child molesters, people that would go around flaunting their bodies and doing perversion in front of children? That they should be dealt with by the government. Capital punishment. I believe that all of these drag queens… should be lined up, every single one of them that has flaunted their body in a sexual manner in front of children, I believe that they should all be lined up, and by the power of the United States Constitution and the authority of God’s Word, should be dealt with via firing squad.

…

The only reason they adopt children is probably to molest them, according to statistics.

…

So why is the church today affirming them? “We affirm it!” What, you’re affirming AIDS? Affirming pedophilia? What kind of nonsense is that?

…

If you’re homosexual, you can’t multiply. The only way you can multiply is by molesting children and creating—like zombies creating more child molesters.

…

Dear Lord, I pray that America would wake up to the perversion that is going on, and that parents would not send their kids to Drag Queen Story Hour to be around a bunch of pedophiles. Lord, I pray You’d strike those pedophiles dead. Every single one of these drag queens. Dead, Lord. I pray that You would wipe them out and that You would eradicate them through Your power. And Lord, we know that You will someday if not now.

…

I’m sorry. Our ancestor was not Spongebob Squarepants, okay?

Needless to say, this is a steady stream of lies, often perpetuated by conservative Christians and right-wing commentators who don’t give a damn about honesty. (Drag queens who read stories to kids in libraries are not performing the same act that they might in a more adult-oriented setting.)

Matt Powell is using misinformation about drag queens to justify his anti-LGBTQ bloodlust. Much like with those Christian hate-preachers in the New IFB world, I’m not worried about potential violence committed by the person doing the talking. I’m worried about what their followers might do.

It’s all just vile hate speech in the name of Jesus. This is where Powell’s Christianity led him: To a Creationist ministry where the desire for other people’s death is treated as perfectly normal exegesis. He says this stuff because no one at Kent Hovind’s weird Creationism complex has the guts to challenge him. He says it because he knows other conservative Christians share his bigotry (if not his extreme views on what the consequences ought to be).

Also important: Powell knows exactly what he’s doing when it comes to the best ways of spreading his brand of Christian hate. He uploaded that screed on a mostly unknown website so it wouldn’t punish his YouTube channel’s revenue stream… while directing his followers there through a more innocuous video on YouTube.

None of this will stop unless the people in his life have the heart to talk sense into him. It hasn’t happened yet. I worry it never will.

 

Public libraries face new attacks from conservative Christians

https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/public-libraries-face-new-attacks-from-conservative-christians/

The people who only care about one book don’t want you to read other books
 
by HEMANT MEHTA
 
Public libraries face new attacks from conservative Christians | Forbidden books
Forbidden books (image via Shutterstock)
Reading Time: 4 MINUTES
 

Afew stories about conservative Christians coming after public libraries:

Voters in Jamestown Township, Michigan chose to defund the library, depriving it of 84% of its 2023 budget. Unless that decision is reversed, the Patmos Library will be forced to shut down sometime next year. The reason the vote failed? Because conservative Christians in the community didn’t like that some of the books featured same-sex couples.

Library Director Amber McLain resigned this spring, telling Bridge she had been harassed online and accused of indoctrinating children. Interim director Matthew Lawrence resigned later.

When the Patmos staff and elected board of directors declined to remove the  books from the library’s collection, some upset residents organized an effort to defeat the library’s millage renewal. 

One of the people who organized the attack on the library naturally cited her Christian faith:

Amanda Ensing, one of the organizers of the Jamestown Conservatives group, emerged from the library Tuesday wearing an “I voted” sticker. “They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” Ensing said of library officials. “It’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”

The Vinton Public Library in Iowa was forced to close for over a week after its interim director, who’s gay, resigned over the Christian community’s homophobia.

Colton Neely had been hired as the children’s librarian in 2020 and did his job well. But between nasty comments said within earshot, and demands to hide or censor books about LGBTQ people, and objections to a summer reading challenge that “encouraged patrons to read books by people of color and LGBTQ authors,” it was clear the people in this town wanted to make the librarians’ lives miserable. Neely only became the director after his predecessor left town to take over a library in a more welcoming community. Before long, he decided he had to go, too:

“You could tell half the crowd was just like, ‘Ugh, you’re disgusting,’” he said of the June 8 meeting. “That was the board meeting where I was just like, ‘I’ve had it.’”

He penned a resignation letter to the library board on June 27, writing that despite his hard-earned qualifications, he felt reduced to just “the gay man of the library.” 

“It hurts and I am disappointed,” he wrote. 

One of the board members who created this mess was Jennifer Kreutner who, when accused of promoting only conservative perspectives, responded with, “I represent the entire rural community, but most of them are conservative Christians.” As if that made everything better.

In South Carolina, the Greenville County Schools are forming committees to review any books/materials that are challenged at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. They’re currently looking for people to serve on those boards. Don’t have experience with this sort of thing? IT DOESN’T MATTER. At the high school level, for example, the committees will consist of:

  • Three parents with children enrolled in Greenville County high schools
  • Three district high school teachers from different subject areas
  • One high school media specialist
  • Two non-employees of the school district
  • One member of the clergy

What the hell is a clergy member doing on this committee? There’s one at the other levels, too. All of those other members have some kind of connection to the district, and I would hope the “non-employees” have qualifications for assessing instructional materials, but why on earth would they save a seat at the table for someone who has religious training?! (And let’s be honest: They’re only referring to Christians, even if they don’t say that directly.)

They could easily have asked for a psychologist or a social worker or someone who represents a minority group in the community. Nope. They’re going with religious leader, as if a priest should have any say in what children learn in public schools.

All of this is happening while right-wing politicians are banning books left and right if they commit the cardinal sin of exposing children to LGBTQ people/characters or teaching them about our nation’s racist history. Just this week at CPAC, Sen. Rick Scott claimed liberals were a “modern day version of book burners,” all while conservatives work to shut down public libraries and access to materials that may educate students about perspectives they’re not used to hearing.

What none of these conservatives admit is that a public library is a place where quality books of all kinds should be available to all people. Furthermore, libraries offer so much more than books. They also offer meeting spaces, internet access, video games, audiobooks, reference materials, etc. They’re one of the only places you can go to these days to browse things you don’t already own with no pressure to spend any money. But the bigots will point to anything as a way to imply these places are liberal sanctuaries that must be stopped, whether it’s literature that shows LGBTQ characters in a positive light, Drag Queen Story Hours (which are not sexual), or the celebration of “banned books.”

There’s a dark joke about how it’s a good thing libraries have been around for centuries because there’s no way in hell Republicans would allow them to be created today. But the flip side of that is that conservative Christians are now painting libraries as enemies of children all because they dare to offer people access to information that others may want to keep from them.

If pastors don’t take a lead in shutting this shit down by calling out their own church members’ participation in these mobs, more libraries (and librarians) will suffer, which will have ripple effects throughout their communities. The same principle applies to public schools, which conservatives are also trying to decimate. They’ve always underpaid teachers, but they’re now micromanaging what they’re allowed to say (and not say) to students and funneling taxpayer dollars to private sectarian schools.

The public institutions that have formed the bedrock of our nation are under attack by Christian nationalists and their allies. They want to keep everyone else in the dark like they do in their churches, and conservative politicians and judges are eager to help them achieve their goal.

We shouldn’t be surprised, though. The people least likely to find value in an infinite supply of books are the people who believe only one book matters.

THE FASCIST CIRCUS COMES TO CPAC TEXAS

The Fascist Circus Comes to CPAC Texas

Republican politicians joined Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for speeches laced with antisemitism and overt Christian nationalism.

by 

Hundreds of die-hard right-wing activists descended on the Hilton Anatole in Dallas for the Conservative Political Action Conference this week. It’s the third CPAC event this year alone, following prior events in Orlando, Florida and Budapest, Hungary. It’s also the third CPAC event in a row which featured explicitly Christian nationalist and fascistic speakers.

Before the speeches kicked off on Thursday, Christian musician Natasha Owens—who wore an American flag dress branded with the logo of a Christian mobile phone company—gave a brief concert. 

“You know, President Trump coined the term ‘America First,’” she said. When she attempted to launch into the eponymously named song, the wrong music began playing instead. Incidentally, the term America First was initially popularized by pro-Nazi groups in the United States and was also used by the Ku Klux Klan. 

Though only two of the speakers on Thursday were Texas politicians, the introductory session—”Texas: The Start of the Big Red Wave”—placed the state at the center of the American conservative movement.

“There are two big red engines to our politics and economy,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of CPAC. “As many of you know we had CPAC Florida, and it’s right to be here in Texas.”

“IF YOU WANT TO PITCH IN AND HELP OUT, YOU CAN BUY YOUR OWN BORDER BUS.”—GREG ABBOTT

Governor Greg Abbott was the first guest brought to the stage, where he spoke in front of a more than half-empty room about the border, Elon Musk, California liberals, critical race theory, the ongoing program to bus undocumented immigrants to Washington, D.C., and why he thinks Republicans will win big with Hispanics and Latinos in Texas. 

“If you want to pitch in and help out, you can buy your own border bus,” Abbott said to the crowd. “You can help fund sending all these folks to Washington, D.C. and make them deal with the problem.”

Out of all of Abbott’s statements, this one seemed to garner the most excitement from the crowd.

A major theme among speakers at the conference—aside from the officially stated one, “Fire Pelosi: Save America”—was Christian identity and nationalism. In addition to leading the crowd in prayer, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick took a page right out of the John Birch Society playbook by proclaiming that the Constitution was literally written by God. 

“We’re a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God because he wrote the Constitution,” Patrick said to the crowd. “We were a Christian state and lost that for many years.”

So much for James Madison. But if Patrick is correct, one has to grapple with the difficult questions of whether God also wrote the Articles of Confederation or perhaps signed off on the deeply racist Three-Fifths Compromise, as well as how this all squares with the notion that God doesn’t make mistakes.

“WE’RE A NATION FOUNDED UPON NOT THE WORDS OF OUR FOUNDERS, BUT THE WORDS OF GOD BECAUSE HE WROTE THE CONSTITUTION.”—DAN PATRICK

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—who recently gave a speech criticizing “race mixing” which caused a long-time advisor to resign and describe it as a “pure Nazi diatribe”—spoke severely about the ostensible Judeo-Christian roots of his nation and urged Christian nationalists across the world to unite together in a struggle against the so-called “woke globalists.” 

Orbán’s language dovetailed with the John Birch Society-tinged talking points around “globalists” and Christian government that have become so common in contemporary politics, and the crowd was so excited by what he had to say that Orbán had to pause for uproarious applause on several occasions. One young man from Oklahoma told me that Orbán was the only speaker he was excited to see, and an elderly couple said they particularly enjoyed Orbán’s speech.

“Globalists go to hell, I have come to Texas,” Orbán bellowed as he concluded his speech.

But not everyone was thrilled with the Hungarian’s presence in Dallas. In the atrium of the hotel, two groups of protesters expressed their displeasure. One group covertly hung a banner and dropped flyers condemning the conference before dashing away. Another group, which included a legendary civil rights activist who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Peter Johnson, held banners specifically condemning Orbán’s presence before being escorted out by Dallas Police.

“Dr. King told me that as long as I’m alive, I ought to stand up against bigotry, antisemitism, and racism,” Johnson told the Texas Observer. “So I’m standing up.”

Johnson was joined by Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk, a socialite from Dallas, who also spoke out against Orbán. “It’s very important for people to know that Orbán stands for Holocaust denial, antisemitism, racial purity, and is against interracial marriage,” Thompson-Frenk said. “I don’t think a lot of Republican people actually agree with that, but they need to speak out and let their leaders know they don’t endorse that.”

Former Republican Congressman Alan Steelman issued a statement in response to Orbán’s presence as well. “Is this what the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan and Bush has come to?” Steelman wrote. “Orbán’s record and spoken word during his 12 years in office are clearly those of a white supremacist, an antisemite, and anti-immigrant leader.”

A sense of subtle antisemitism pervaded a number of comments made by speakers, Orbán included. Orbán claimed that all the worst things in history were orchestrated by people who hate Christianity and juxtaposed these comments by describing George Soros—a Hungarian-Jewish investor and philanthropist who is a common boogeyman among the far right—as his “opponent.”

“Papa John” Schnatter told the crowd there are “five evil entities” that own the processed food and pharmaceuticals industries (suggesting the former make you sick so you take the latter) as well as media and academia. But he was not talking about the recently released conspiracy-theory themed Mike Myers show, The Pentaverate. He claimed this all somehow ties back to the Frankfurt School, a group of primarily Jewish left-wing intellectuals and academics founded during the Weimar Republic in the lead-up to Nazi Germany that has become the villain of the far-right “Cultural Marxism” conspiracy theory, which itself is a rehashing of the Nazi propaganda term “Cultural Bolshevism.”

RAMBO-TRUMP CUTOUTS, BEDAZZLED PURSES IN THE SHAPE OF .45 PISTOLS, AND EVEN A MOCK JAIL CELL COULD BE SEEN ON THE EXHIBITION FLOOR.

Friday and Saturday will feature other guests and speakers that have their own histories of antisemitism, including Jack Posobiec, a fascistic media figure who the Southern Poverty Law Center reports has “collaborated with white nationalists, antigovernment extremists, members of the Proud Boys, and neo-Nazis in his capacity as an operative.”

The speakers are only one part of the CPAC experience. Rambo-Trump cutouts, bedazzled purses in the shape of .45 pistols, and even a mock jail cell could be seen on the exhibition floor. Nearby, our federally indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton—who recently teamed up with other Republican attorneys general to sue the federal government for the right to take lunch money from LGBTQ+ kids—mingled with an AM radio host. Toward the end of the day, Posobiec spoke in front of the Patriot Mobile booth with Leigh Wambsganss, a woman who has played a major role in the PACs that have helped elect far right school board candidates across Texas.

This is all to say that the mask of this movement has slipped, if not fallen off completely. It has revealed its illiberal, anti-democratic, deeply prejudicial tendencies, even if it comes across as completely absurd. The entire scene, a veritable circus of far-right fascistic kitsch, brings to mind what legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote about Las Vegas: “The Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This is the sixth Reich.” 

An exaggeration, certainly, but an apt one. But don’t just take it from me. Norm Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, described the event as the “Neo-Nazi movement in America.”