Country music star Maren Morris has raised over $100,000 for transgender support organizations after white supremacist Tucker Carlson mocked her on his Fox News show last Thursday.
Carlson called Morris a “lunatic,” and a “fake country music singer” after mentioning Morris’ public statements against transphobic comments made by Brittany Kerr Aldean. Aldean is a beauty lifestyle influencer married to Grammy-nominated country music artist Jason Aldean.
Morris immediately mocked Carlson’s insult by publishing a fake image of herself with a chyron from Carlson’s show declaring her as a “lunatic country music person.”
Morris then published a tweet announcing the sale of a t-shirt with the words, “Marren Morris: Lunatic Country Music Person” on it. The shirt also had the phone number of the Trans Lifeline, a peer support phone service run by trans people for trans and questioning peers.
“All proceeds will be split between @TransLifeline & the @GLAAD Transgender Media Program,” Morris wrote in the tweet.
By Labor Day, Morris announced on Twitter, “Over $100K raised. Have a great Labor Day weekend, lunatics.”
During his rant against Morris, Carlson said that in 2022, “You’re required to believe that minors should be castrated by their parents.”
Brittany Kerr Aldean told Carlson, “For some reason, people are thinking that we can let a child choose their gender so young. It’s very baffling to me. Especially when that process is irreparable. I mean, you wind up castrating children removing their sex organs, making them sterile for life. I mean, these are huge consequences.”
In reality, genital surgeries for trans minors are rare, but cisgender parents regularly conduct such surgeries on intersex children without the child’s informed consent. Other forms of gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth — such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy — are reversible and do not cause permanent sterility.
Carlson has repeatedly used his show, Fox News’ most popular program, to push an anti-Semitic and white supremacist “replacement theory,” the idea that immigrants and people of color seek to replace white Americans to fundamentally change the nation’s racial makeup and political culture. The theory has been cited by white supremacists as a justification for political and physical violence against Jews and non-white people.
The feud between Morris and Brittany Kerr Aldean began on August 24 when Aldean wrote on an Instagram video caption, “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life.” Her comment ignorantly parroted several right-wing claims about trans youth and highlighted her and her husband’s recent outspoken conservative activism.
On Twitter, Morris responded to the video by writing, “You know, I’m glad she didn’t become a boy either because we really don’t need another as***le dude in the world. Sucks when Karens try to hide their homophobia/transphobia behind their ‘protectiveness of the children.’”
Morris also published tweets referring to Aldean as “a scumbag human” and “Insurrection Barbie.”
Aldean has since marketed clothing with the phrase “Don’t Tread On Our Kids.” Profits from the clothing will go to Operation Light Shine, a Nashville-based organization that combats human trafficking and child exploitation.
Aldean’s donation furthers the right-wing claim that LGBTQ activists and allies of trans-youth want to “groom” children for sexual exploitation.
After Liz Truss’ victory in the Tory leadership race, we look at her likely new cabinet and their stances on LGBTQ+ rights.
Truss was confirmed as Britain’s next prime minister on Monday (5 September), and will take office after visiting the Queen in Balmoral on Tuesday (6 September).
Immediately, she will set about installing a team of allies around her, who collectively will shape Britain’s path on everything from education and finances to equality and human rights.
It’s been widely predicted that Liz Truss’ cabinet will include current business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and former leadership rival Suella Braverman as home secretary.
The current ministers in those roles – Nadhim Zahawi and Priti Patel, could offered lesser offices – whether they would accept demotions remains unclear.
There won’t be a job for Rishi Sunak, it’s thought. However Kemi Badenoch, who also vied for the leadership and was an equalities minister under Truss, is tipped for a big promotion, with work and pensions secretary Thérèse Coffey also being eyed for a key role.
Ahead of the official announcement, we take a look at the likely candidates for Liz Truss’ cabinet and scrutinise their LGBTQ+ records.
Suella Braverman
Suella Braverman wants schools to be able to misgender trans kids. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Attorney general Suella Braverman made a short-lived bid for the Tory leadership, with a campaign rooted firmly in “war on woke” rhetoric.
She announced her bid with an anti-trans dogwhistle, claiming: “We need to get rid of all of this woke rubbish and get back to a country where describing a man and a woman in terms of biology does not mean that you’re going to lose your job.”
While anti-trans talking points became a defining part of the Tory leadership race, Braverman didn’t simply pick up this rhetoric to win votes. Even before Johnson’s downfall, she was making headlines for suggesting Westminster could block Scotland’s vital and long-promised reform of the Gender Recognition Act, which would make it easier for trans people to get a Gender Recognition Certificate.
Since she was knocked out of the race, her profile heightened, she has continued this line of politics. In a speech in August, she attacked LGBTQ-inclusive education, saying schools should not be teaching kids “keywords” about the LGBTQ+ community or affirming trans identities.
She also told The Times that teachers have no legal requirement to support trans and non-binary pupils by letting them use the toilets or wear school uniform that aligns with their gender.
Kemi Badenoch
Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch. (Facebook/ Kemi Badenoch MP)
Truss confirmed in August that Kemi Badenoch was in line for a top cabinet role.
During her leadership bid, Badenoch positioned herself as “anti-woke”, winning an endorsement from far-right group Britain First.
Nadine Dorries
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has increasingly taken aim at trans rights. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
There is speculation that Nadine Dorries could remain in her role as secretary for digital, culture, media and sport, primarily so that she can continue her work around reforming the BBC license fee and privatising Channel 4.
This is bad news for the LGBTQ+ community – in particular, trans athletes.
Dorries has been vocal in her support of banning trans athletes from women’s sports, telling British sports bosses that trans women competing alongside cis players is “inherently unfair”.
In June, Dorries told representatives from football, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics and other sports: “I have made my position absolutely clear: I expect sporting bodies to follow the policy that competitive women’s sport must be reserved for people born of the female sex.”
In 2013, Dorries voted against same-sex marriage and even compared it to incest, asking parliament: “If the gay marriage bill takes sex out of marriage could a sister marry a sister to avoid inheritance tax?”
She labelled the bill “political suicide” and argued that same-sex marriage could never be valid because queer couples couldn’t consummate the union with “ordinary and complete sex”.
In 2021, Dorries called the vote her “biggest regret”. “I will regret it all of my life but truly hope that all same-sex marriages live happily ever after,” she said.
Thérèse Coffey
Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey
Thérèse Coffey has become known for her staunch opposition to same-sex marriage.
She voted against marriage equality in England and Wales 2013 and against in Northern Ireland in 2019.
Explaining her views in 2020, she said: “I took the view at the time, and I still hold to that, I have a strong faith background about what is a legal partnership and what is marriage.”
Kwasi Kwarteng
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng arrives at CCHQ ahead of the prime minister announcement. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Kwasi Kwarteng, who is expected to take the role of chancellor in the newly formed cabinet, twice voted against same-sex marriage in 2013, and has been absent from all other votes on the subject since.
Kwarteng told Sky News: “I don’t think there’s a culture of misogyny”. He later conceded that while there were some “bad apples”, “that doesn’t mean that the entire culture is extremely misogynistic or full of male entitlement”.
James Cleverly
James Cleverly, education secretary, arrives for a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
James Cleverly, currently education secretary, could become the new foreign secretary after he backed Truss’ campaign.
Cleverly has never voted on LGBTQ+ rights in parliament but has made statements supporting same-sex marriage, LGBTQ-inclusive education and LGBTQ+ servicepeople.
“There were ‘no’ gay soldiers when I joined the army, yet some of my closest military friends were gay,” he said in 2019.
“Since homosexuality was legalised in the forces we discover that military discipline didn’t collapse and (surprise, surprise) we are still a world class fighting force.”
In a 2005 blog titled “I like marriage”, which he reposed in 2013, he described his views on equality.
“Gay ‘marriage’ takes nothing away from heterosexual marriage and while there will be some civil partnerships which are done for the wrong reasons the same can be said of straight marriage. Best of luck I say,” he wrote.
Another person who chose a job serving the public who demands the right to discriminate against a segment of the public due to religious privilege. If you think this sounds OK, replace the LGBTQ+ with Jews or Blacks. If she were suing to have the right to not serve black couples or Jewish couples would that sound reasonable? Think of this, what these religious people want is to roll back all civil rights laws against discrimination for them. They want special privileges. Remember when they said gays wanted special privileges just because we wanted to be treated equally? Well now they insist they be above anti-discrimination laws, because god demands the right to hate, the right to treat others as less than the good people. They feel that their hate is good, their hate is righteous. But the day they get the right to not give a marriage license to gay couples how long until they demand the right to not give one to a mixed-race couple? An adoption agency got the right to discriminate against gay people and still receive taxpayer money by the supreme court, they then promptly denied service to a Jewish couple. They were the only adoption agency in that region that could certify homes, basically denying adoption to both couples. That is the goal of these Christian groups, to elevate Christianity to above any laws regulating them to not discriminate or to treat people equally. The goal is to elevate Christianity to above every law or requirement making them above the laws. I wonder if my sincerely held belief lets me violate the speed limits? Hugs
She said her “sincerely held religious beliefs” would be violated if she had to treat LGBTQ customers equally.
Federal district court Judge Benjamin Beaton has ruled in favor of a Louisville, Kentucky wedding photographer who said her religious beliefs should allow her to refuse service to same-sex couples, even though her refusal would violate the city’s non-discrimination ordinance. The Trump administration had supported the photographer in the case, and the judge was appointed by Donald Trump.
The city has said it will likely appeal the judge’s ruling.
The case in question involves Chelsey Nelson, a photographer who said that shooting a same-sex marriage would violate her sincerely held religious beliefs and her First Amendment rights.
Nelson preemptively sued the city over its non-discrimination “fairness ordinance” in 2019. The ordinance requires all businesses to treat customers equally, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Before filing her lawsuit, no same-sex couple had even asked her to work at their wedding.
Nelson herself said that her belief that “God created marriage to be an exclusive covenant between one man and one woman [affects] every aspect of her life… her business, her art, and her creativity.” She added that she’d “decline any request” to work for “a same-sex wedding, polygamous wedding, or an open marriage wedding because creating artwork promoting these events would violate Chelsey’s religious and artistic beliefs.”
Beaton granted Nelson’s request to issue an injunction against the ordinance. His injunction order said that the city couldn’t use its ordinance to compel her to photograph same-sex weddings or “otherwise express messages inconsistent with Nelson’s beliefs,” U.S. News reports.
“We’re pleased the court agreed that the city violated Chelsey’s First Amendment rights,” said Bryan Neihart, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the SPLC-designated hate group that served as Nelson’s legal counsel and the legal counsel in numerous cases seeking to erode LGBTQ civil rights.
“The court’s decision sends a clear and necessary message to every Kentuckian — and American — that each of us is free to speak and work according to our deeply held beliefs,” Neihart said.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer (D) disagreed with Beaton’s ruling and said that city attorneys would likely appeal.
“We are a city of compassion and we appreciate the many ways our LGBTQ+ family contributes to our diverse community,” Fischer said. “Louisville Metro Government will continue to enforce to the fullest extent possible its ordinance prohibiting anti-discriminatory practices and will fight against discrimination in any form.”
In 2020, Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a “statement of interest” supporting Nelson’s stance. The DOJ’s filing was unsurprising seeing that, in July 2018, the DOJ announced the formation of the Religious Liberty Task Force to allow religious discrimination in national civil rights cases. The Task Force was the brainchild of anti-LGBTQ hate groups.
In June 2018, the DOJ also filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court siding with the anti-gay baker in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. In its brief, the DOJ said wedding services are basically forms of “art” and that the government has no compelling interest to stop societal homophobia.
The problem with defining publicly offered business services as “artistic acts of self-expression” and “free speech” is that numerous other businesses and employees could say that their own professions — such as medicine, training, or child care — are all “arts” that shouldn’t be extended to individuals whose lives contradict their own religious beliefs.
Seeing as six of the current nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court are current or former members of the Federalist Society, they have the majority power to uphold the Society’s belief in religious-based discrimination. The Justice may do so if a case like this ever reaches the nation’s highest court.
Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the top hospitals that provide trans healthcare for children, received a bomb threat after multiple reports of targeted online threats regarding transgender healthcare. The Majority Report crew talks about fascism and its influence on the Right. The MR crew also revisit one of Peterson’s famous videos on individualism and how it contradicts his statements about how trans people do not have the right as individuals to transition because it disrupts society.
Matt Walsh discusses threats being levied against the Boston Children’s Hospital due to Walsh and Libs Of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik’s terror campaign. Walsh says that there is a “smoking gun” for why they wanted to bring so much attention to the hospital. The “smoking gun” is an audio recording of Raichik speaking with 2 hospital receptionists who try to transfer her to the right department at the hospital.
The governor says how a student expresses their gender is a choice for the parents. WTF. It is not a choice. The student has a right to use the names and pronouns they wish, it is only being respectful and nice. If Jonathan wants to go by John or Johnny you don’t see people freaking out. If a kid goes by Ace or Skip because their first name sucks no one freaks out. So why if Tommy wants to be called Mary or some other nick name does it require a parents permission? Remember when Ms. was an alternative to Miss. If a student doesn’t want to be called Miss but Ms. does the parent have to be notified? Or is this really just about anti-trans hate and trying to keep kids that feel unsafe from coming out at home forced to stay hidden and quiet about their gender identity. That is what this really is all about. Hate and making kids stay in the closet. Making the LGBTQ+ disappear. All because some people cannot stand that tradition is changing and that society has moved on and some religious people insist that being nice and polite to LGBTQ+ is against gods wishes. Because god wants them to be assholes and jerks right? Hugs
Gov. Glenn Youngkin insisted that how a student will “express their gender” is a choice parents should be making.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) called on school officials to out transgender and gender nonconforming students to their parents. Speaking at a “Parents Matter” rally on Wednesday, Youngkin criticized Fairfax County Public Schools’ Regulation 2603, which allows students to use the pronouns, restrooms, and other school facilities that correspond with their gender identity and does not require school officials to notify parents of students’ transition.
“They think that parents have no right to know what your child is discussing with their teacher or their counselor,” Youngkin said, “particularly when some of the most important topics, most important topics that a child may want to discuss are being determined.”
“What’s their name? What pronoun will they use? How are they going to express their gender? This is a decision that bureaucrats in Fairfax County believe that they should be able to make without telling parents,” the governor continued.
Youngkin’s comments drew a rebuke from GLSEN. The organization works to end bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and has published a guide along with the ACLU detailing the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming students.
“It’s devastating to see politically motivated attempts to break trust between students and educators and to force educators to violate students’ privacy by outing them to guardians,” the organization’s executive director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers said in a statement sent to the Los Angeles Blade. “This kind of hostile school climate puts trans youth at greater risk of harassment, mental health challenges or discrimination. Transgender and nonbinary students need respect and autonomy, not additional scrutiny and policing of their gender identity in school.”
In a separate statement, Equality Virginia blasted Youngkin for targeting transgender students to gain political points. “Transgender and nonbinary students are not going anywhere, and we need to treat them with the respect and care that they deserve,” the statement read. “The governor’s administration needs to hear and really listen to what transgender youth in our schools have to say about their experiences and ensure that there are policies in place to protect them. By instead making open threats to their rights, the administration is failing transgender students in Virginia and contributing to hostile school environments for our youth.”
So-called “parental rights” in education have recently become a particular flashpoint for conservatives aiming to control what kids learn about and the ideas they are exposed to in schools. The line of attack has led to disruptions atlocal school board meetingsacross the country, book bansin school and public libraries, and laws restricting the teaching of topics related to race and LGBTQ issues. Florida’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law – officially known as the Parental Rights in Education Act – bans any mention of LGBTQ topics at most grade levels.
I posted a great video clip from TYT where Cenk and Ana talk about how Tucker Carlson talks that it has been proven that the hospitals all over the country … are chopping up kids into to body parts. We know that for a fact he said. Well it is like when Bill O’Rielly called the abortion doctor Tiller the baby killer night after night. Someone killed him to stop the baby killing. So now the rabid right wing maga are threatening to bomb hospitals to save the kids. All because of lies. If you are part of spreading those lies, you need to understand first your lying and second you are inciting violence against both the LGBTQ+ and those that help them with medical best practices. Do you know there is genital mutilations done on babies that all these groups sanction including the government? Yes the cutting off of part of the penis that makes the gland less sensitive and deadens pleasure. It is called circumcision. Routinely done on baby boys. Go after that and leave the trans kids alone as they are not having surgery as kids. Hugs
The hospital has been the target of an online misinformation campaign because it helps transgender youth.
Following a weeks-long harassment campaign from anti-LGBTQ groups, police are investigating an anonymous bomb threat that was called in to Boston Children’s Hospital Tuesday night.
According to NBC News, the Boston Police Department sent its bomb squad to the hospital at around 8:14 p.m. on Tuesday, but found no explosive devices or suspicious items. On Wednesday morning, Detective John Boyle said that the investigation was still active.
“We are relieved no bomb was found and that employees and patients are safe,” the hospital said in a statement. “We remain vigilant in our efforts to battle the spread of false information about the hospital and our caregivers. We are committed to ensuring the hospital is a safe and secure place for all who work here and come here. We will provide additional information as we are able.”
In recent weeks, Boston Children’s Hospital, which ranks among the best pediatric medical facilities in the country, has been the target of what it has described as “hostile internet activity, phone calls, and harassing emails including threats of violence toward our clinicians and staff.” The harassment campaign is the result of misinformation that has proliferated on right-wing social media about the hospital’s Gender Multispecialty Service program, which treats children experiencing gender dysphoria.
On August 11, Chaya Raichik, who runs the anti-LGBTQ Twitter account “Libs of TikTok,” reposted an “expose” by Christina Buttons for the right-wing site Post Millennial, sponsored by conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow. The “special report” consisted of videos publicly available on Boston Children’s website along with commentary insinuating that children as young as two or three were receiving gender-affirming surgery at the hospital.
Fact-checking site PolitiFact later debunked the claims. Patients qualifying for gender-reaffirming surgery must be at least 18-years-old and have a “persistent, well-documented, gender dysphoria,” according to the hospital’s website. “All genital surgeries are only performed on patients age 18 and older.”
After the initial post went viral, Raichik posted an additional 13 tweets peddling misinformation about the hospital and Gender Multispecialty Service program.
In the weeks since Raichik’s tweets, Boston Children’s Hospital physicians have been inundated with death threats and harassing calls and emails. The hospital has also increased its security.
As the GOP lurches toward authoritarianism, one of its key tactics is to suppress free thinking. What better place to start that effort than in the schools (and by extension school libraries)? It’s no surprise that schools have emerged as one of the key battlegrounds in the culture war.
But what’s less noticed is that in branding itself the education party, the GOP is actually the ignorance party. Republicans’ constant attacks on bogus controversies like critical race theory are just an excuse to dumb down the school curriculum. That’s because Republicans believe that schools are where children should be taught how to become Republicans if they are taught anything at all.
Two things are happening as Republicans go after schools. One is to focus on public schools and make sure that students learn a right-wing version of history. That involves eliminating groups that the right doesn’t like, like LGBTQ people. Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill is an obvious example of erasing the visibility of non-approved groups from schools.
Then there are the bills that protect the tender emotions of white students. These so-called “divisive concepts” laws prohibit any discussion of race in the classroom that could cause students to feel “anguish, guilt or any other form of discomfort or stress.” In short, the bills are meant to denature history so that the ongoing quest for civil rights in the U.S. effectively ends with the Civil War.
Not content to remove current events and history from schools, Republicans have gone after other subjects as well. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) called for the removal of 54 math books because he claimed that they somehow slipped critical race theory into the multiplication tables.
Absent from any of this discussion is anything about academic standards or, you know, actually making students smarter. There’s a good reason for that. What Republicans are interested in isn’t making students smarter, it’s making them more Republican. Apparently, the way to do that is to keep them as ignorant as possible.
That’s where the second part of the plan comes in. Republicans have been pushing hard for “school choice,” which would use taxpayer money to fund private schools. This effort got a big boost from–you guessed it–the Supreme Court, which ruled in its last session that two anti-LGBTQ Christian schools in Maine were entitled to receive state funding.
As those schools proved, the curricula are not designed to educate but to indoctrinate. School choice options, like religious schools and, worse still, home schools, can be as political as they want. Indeed, a leading figure on the right–Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA–has started a chain of “anti-woke” academies based on “bedrock principles” that sound a lot like Trumpism.
Tucker Carlson is regurgitating conspiracy theories about children’s hospitals performing illegal experiments on minors. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.
“TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): In recent weeks, we’ve learned a lot about what is actually happening inside children’s hospitals around the country. Most people trust children’s hospitals implicitly. They just didn’t know the details but thanks to the internet we now do. It turns out some of these hospitals are performing horrifying experiments on children: elective hysterectomies on minors, physical and chemical castration, things you think would be crimes but that apparently aren’t and that are going on in children’s hospitals in the United States.”
Marren MorrisPhoto: YouTube screenshot
Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
