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.
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.”
More from The Door McAllen church's illegal Christianized "Hamilton."
The line is supposed to be: "What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me." pic.twitter.com/sTV0fLZjiR
More from The Door McAllen church's Christianized "Hamilton."
The line is *supposed* to be:
I am Hercules Mulligan Up in it, lovin' it, yes I heard ya mother said “Come again?" Lock up ya daughters and horses, of course. It's hard to have intercourse over four sets of corsets. pic.twitter.com/o7uMCoJlMT
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.
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.
They “should be dealt with via firing squad,” said the Christian hate-preacher
Matt 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.
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:
After lying about drag queens performing "in a sexual manner" around kids, Christian hate-preacher Matt Powell said they "should all be lined up" and "dealt with via firing squad."
He also prayed for God to "wipe them out" and "eradicate them."
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.
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.
This entire clip is projection. He is railing against ‘book burners’ and ‘cancel culture’ when he comes from a state where the GOP governor is banning books and firing attorneys who don’t fall into line. https://t.co/c1pZ0wizop
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.
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.”
Religious preference takes priority over a woman’s health. In his mind the woman had sex so should be forced to have a pregnancy followed by a forced birth. How dare she enjoy a sexual encounter and have it for anything other than procreation. He is a pharmacist and should not have the job if he cannot dispense medication ordered by a doctor. He is not a doctor. He is not the woman’s medical provider. If he doesn’t want to do the job, then get a different job. Here is a case of demanding special rights due to religion. Remember when the right used to say the gays wanted special rights when we demanded to be treated equally, well religion is now demanding special rights and they are getting it. Hugs
An emergency contraception pill is seen through packaging in this stock photo.
Andrea Anderson of McGregor Minn., sought to fill her prescription for Ella, which is used to stop a pregnancy before it starts, after a condom broke during intercourse.
She had the prescription sent to a nearby Thrifty White pharmacy, but when she called to confirm, pharmacist George Badeaux told her he would not fill it due to “personal reasons.”
According to the lawsuit, he said a colleague might be willing to fill it, but with a snowstorm imminent that person may not make it into work. Anderson got the prescription filled in Brainerd, but it required a 100-mile drive round trip in a snowstorm that allegedly took Anderson more than three hours.
In his deposition, Badeaux said it was not the first time he’d declined to provide emergency contraceptives.
According to the suit, the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy allows pharmacists to decline to fill a prescription for emergency contraceptives if it conflicts with their beliefs. However, they must make other arrangements for the patient to get their medication.
Anderson said in a deposition that the experience made her feel “embarrassment and shame.”
Leaders with the group Gender Justice, which represented Anderson in this case, said they plan to appeal.
“The testimony was so clear that she received lesser services than other customers because what she was going there for was emergency contraception. And so we believe that, by law, that’s discrimination in Minnesota,” said Jess Braverman, legal director for Gender Justice.
Braverman noted that the jury did award Anderson $25,000 for emotional harm caused by the experience, although the pharmacist will not have to pay her that money unless the no-discrimination finding is changed in future motions or on appeal.
Charles Shreffler, Badeaux’s attorney, confirmed that. “In order for [Badeaux] to be liable for damages, he has to be found liable. The jury has to first find that he discriminated against Ms. Anderson on the basis of her sex, and the jury specifically found that he did not discriminate against her.”
“We are incredibly happy with the decision,” he added. “Medical professionals should be free to practice their profession in line with their beliefs.”
Members of the state medical board have agreed to initiate rules that could ban physicians from providing gender-affirming care to transgender people under the age of 18, while also limiting access to care to adults.
The vote by the Board of Medicine on Friday means the Board will begin a several month process that Chairman and Winter Park physician David Diamond said would include public meetings across the state.
Board of Medicine Vice Chairman and Fort Lauderdale physician Kevin Cairns was the only Board member to oppose the rulemaking, which was sought by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo last appeared on JMG earlier this week when he cast doubts on the efficacy of the monkeypox vaccine.
Ladapo, who has refused to disclose his own COVID vaccination status, is affiliated with the far-right anti-vax group, America’s Frontline Doctors.
Early this year the Florida Senate approved him as state surgeon general despite reports that he lied about having treated COVID patients while working at UCLA’s hospital.
During his confirmation hearing, he repeatedly refused to say if he believes that COVID vaccines are effective.
“I think this whole thing is dehumanizing to trans people.” One of the many transgender activists speaking to the Florida Board of Medicine today before they voted to initiate the rule-making process to consider restricting gender-affirming care. #transpic.twitter.com/xjNo3EN6nG
Still thinking about how @PatrickHunterMD , a pediatrician and sitting member of the Florida Board of Medicine, called transgender people a “social contagion” today.
Which came after their “expert witness” claimed that COVID isolation made young people transgender. 🙃
DeSantis replaced an elected Dem DA with an unelected GOP prosecutor because of his and his party’s culture wars on abortion and LGBTQ people https://t.co/qYyuPL4CcI
There’s also this shit. LGBT folks in Tampa now have a Federalist Society bigot as the top DA for their area. I wonder how she’ll be in interacting with LGBT folks?
I think it’s time for CA, OR, WA, HI, NY, NJ, VT, MA, CT, MD, etc. to officially declare Florida to be a “shithole country” (especially the parts immediately around Merde-A-Lardo and wherever Ron DuhSantis is at the moment) and require visas and vaccinations to travel to/from there.
This mofo DeathSentence won election by just four-tenths of one percent — just by 33,000 votes. And he governs as if he had an overwhelming popular mandate to drag Florida back into the Middle Ages.
This is one of the big differences between RepubliQans and Democrats.
Yes, and it’s a relevant one. Another big difference – they fall in line and goosestep down to vote. We have to fall in love before we even think about maybe showing up at the polls. If there’s nothing better streaming.
We have a bunch of fake Christians and far-right fascist idealogues promoting the end of personal freedom and the beginning of a theocracy for Florida. Hold onto your hats–it’s going to get very ugly there.
Notice that all of these have some LGBTQ+ content or characters. It doesn’t even have to be explicit as the rhyming book of babies shows. The goal is to remove representation of LGBTQ+ from society. As if you don’t see it then it won’t exist. Got news for these people, it is straight people that create gay kids. I never read a book with gay characters when I was growing up, but I was gay from birth. This is what was done in Russia and other authoritarian countries, and the maga parents want to have that kind of authoritarian government here. The thing is these vocal groups are the minority. They are a small group of religiously motivated people. Yet they scream that any mention of LGBTQ+ offends them. OK well any mention of religion or the bible offends me. So can we get a don’t say Jesus law for schools, and a warning sticker for the bible that it is not suitable for students. Hugs
Golden Gate High School in Naples, Fla.Google Maps
A southwest Florida school district added warning labels to more than 100 books, many of which touch on issues related to race or the LGBTQ community.
Collier County Public Schools, a district that includes part of Naples, added the labels both on physical copies of the books and in Destiny, the district’s online catalog, according to the nonprofit Florida Freedom to Read Project. The top of the label, according to a photo shared with NBC News by Florida Freedom to Read Project, says “Advisory notice to parents” in capital letters.
An advisory notice to parents placed on over 100 books in public schools in Collier County, Fla.Courtesy Stephana Ferrell/Florida Freedom to Read Project
“This Advisory Notice shall serve to inform you that this book has been identified by some community members as unsuitable for students,” the label states. “This book will also be identified in the Destiny system with the same notation. The decision as to whether this book is suitable or unsuitable shall be the decision of the parent(s) who has the right to oversee his/her child’s education consistent with state law.” A sticker of the notice is on the front inside cover of the books, according to Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which advocates against censorship in Florida schools. Ferrell said a media specialist in the school district shared photos of the labels with her in June.
After a series of public records requests about the labels, challenged books and the district’s creation of a committee that reviews school materials, Ferrell said she received a phone call from Elizabeth Alves, associate superintendent of teaching and learning for Collier County Public Schools.
Ferrell said Alves told her the district began adding the labels in February, after the district’s legal representative spoke with the Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative group that last year issued a “Porn in Schools Report.” The report included a list of books that “promote gender self-identification and same-sex marriage” as well as titles that include “indecent and offensive material,” according to the group.
Alves defended the decision as “a compromise,” Ferrell said.
“I said, ‘It’s unfortunate, because this is a literary work. The sticker that they chose to put on there, the language that they chose, would make any reader who would otherwise pick up the book based on the cover and the description, it would make them think twice about reading the book,’” Ferrell said of her response to Alves.
Chad Oliver, a spokesman for Collier County Public Schools, confirmed that Alves spoke to Ferrell but denied that the warning labels were added in response to a conversation with the Florida Citizens Alliance.
“Based upon advice from the General Counsel, we placed advisory notices on books about which parents and community members had expressed concern and in accordance with the recently passed Parents’ Bill of Rights Law (HB 241),” Oliver said in an email, referring to a state law that allows parents to object to instructional materials.
A total of 110 books feature the advisory labels, according to PEN America, a nonprofit group that promotes free speech. This list, which PEN America shared with NBC News, has significant overlap with a list of at least 112 books that the Florida Citizens Alliance inquired about in a Dec. 11 email sent to Collier County Public Schools. Ferrell, who obtained the email through a public records request, shared a copy with NBC News.
Keith Flaugh, CEO and co-founder of the Florida Citizens Alliance, confirmed his group submitted a public records request about 112 novels in the district.
“Many of these contain sexually explicit and age inappropriate content,” which he said in an email is in direct violation of Florida laws on obscenity and the sale of harmful materials to minors. He also citeda 2017 law that the group helped draft that allows parents and any residents of the state to object to instructional materials and provide evidence for why they believe the material is inappropriate.
“Gender Queer” by Maia KobabeOni Press
Some of the titles that appear on both lists — and now have an “advisory notice to parents” warning label in Collier County Public Schools — include LGBTQ- and race-related books that have landed on banned-book lists across the country. These titles include “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, and “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. The list also includes literary classics like “Beloved” by Toni Morrison and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou.
Also included is the popular children’s book “Everywhere Babies,” a rhyming, illustrated book about what babies do. The illustrations include what could be interpreted as a few same-sex couples, but they are never identified as such in the text. The book first landed on a banned-book list in Walton County, Florida, in the spring, after the Florida Citizens Alliance included it in its 2021 “Porn in Schools Report.”
The labels appear digitally in the library records & physically on the books. They warn: “this book has been identified by some community members as unsuitable for students.” Apparently, a lot is ‘unsuitable’. Even Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers & illustrated by @MarlaFrazee. pic.twitter.com/wA5fT5fjLr
“The labeling of these books risks attaching a stigma to the topics they cover & the books themselves….Every child deserves the right to learn from a diverse set of voices & perspectives & to freely access the books they wish to read.” – @jzfriedman. https://t.co/DSrLhTQf5x
The “Babies, Babies Everywhere” book has a single illustration where there are two dudes sitting on a bench while two babies play nearby. The pairs don’t even look like they’re the same race or ethnicity.
The virulent homobigots decided the only explanation is they must be two gay dads in a blended family, when really there’s no context whatsoever. Could just be a couple of dads who were friends, letting their kids play together.
But somehow this book deserves a warning label stating the book is dangerous.
In truth, these are dangerous times for the entire LGBTQ community. I haven’t seen this kind of non-stop bigoted, slanderous shit since the early 1980s. And in truth, it feels vastly more overtly threatening now.
Great points. The overt threats and vitriol against trans people appears to be growing. If politicians continue to draft and pass laws that target trans people, the physical violence and murder statistics will rise.
I’m so sick of their extremist virtue signaling. They don’t care how much damage they do to children as long as they feel like they triumphed over someone weaker. They are coward bullies.
The fall backwards has been difficult and disturbing. I graduated HS in 92. Without the library, because I grew up pentecostal, I would have had nothing. Putting that label on a book seems like putting a target on those that have checked it out, look at it or maybe put on a list. You can’t put anything past these people I am sad that the freedoms we fought so hard for the ones coming up seems to be disappearing and our compromised Supreme Court along with the radical religious right is ushering us back to the darkness.
I didn’t dare look for anything gay-themed in the school library. This was pre-internet of course. Thank FSM for the college library in town that had a pretty good collection for the time.
Matt Powell delivers a hate-filled tirade (screenshot via Odysee
