Again these people insist the LGBTQ+ are the moral degenerates and that men dressed in costume reading to kids in public is somehow grooming kids for abuse. Hugs
A Kissimmee pastor was arrested Monday after he was suspected of exposing his genitals and masturbating at a Starbucks, according to Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.
Enginio Dali Muniz-Colon, 39, was arrested and taken to Osceola County Jail, where he faces a charge of exposure of sexual organs, OCSO said. Muniz-Colon is a pastor and teaches online Ministry classes, according to OCSO.
On May 9, deputies received a report of an incident involving a man exposing his genitals and pleasuring himself at a Starbucks at 1041 W Osceola Parkway, OCSO said. The sheriff’s office Special Victim’s Unit began investigating and found Muniz-Colon had similar charges at the same Starbucks.
Deputies with the @OsceolaSheriff have arrested Enginio Dali Muniz-Colon after they say he was found exposing himself, masturbating on the patio of Starbucks on Osceola Pkwy. They say this isn’t the first time and that he’s a pastor in Kissimmee. @WESHpic.twitter.com/ju2JEpLvza
With its decision on Roe v Wade, the court has signaled its illegitimacy – and thrown the American project into question
‘Can a country be properly understood as a democracy if it subjugates half of its population?’ Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
As of 24 June 2022, the US supreme court should officially be understood as an illegitimate institution – a tool of minority rule over the majority, and as part of a far-right ideological and authoritarian takeover that must be snuffed out if we want American democracy to survive.
On Friday, in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, the supreme court overruled its nearly 50-year precedent of Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide. It is difficult to overstate just how devastating this is for pregnant people, for women as a class and for anyone with even a passing interest in individual freedom and equality.
But it’s also devastating for those of us who care quite a bit about American democratic traditions and the strength of our institutions. Because, with this ruling, the supreme court has just signaled its illegitimacy – and it throws much of the American project into question. Which means that Democrats and others who want to see America endure as a representative democracy need to act.
Of the nine justices sitting on the current court, five – all of them in the majority opinion that overturned Roe – were appointed by presidents who initially lost the popular vote; the three appointed by Donald Trump were confirmed by senators who represent a minority of Americans. A majority of this court, in other words, were not appointed by a process that is representative of the will of the American people.
Two were appointed via starkly undemocratic means, put in place by bad actors willing to change the rules to suit their needs. Neil Gorsuch only has his seat because Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, blocked the ability of Barack Obama to nominate Merrick Garland – or anyone – to a supreme court seat, claiming that, because it was an election year, voters should get to decide.
And then Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett in a radically rushed and incomplete, incoherent process – in an election year.
And now, this court, stacked with far-right judges appointed via ignoble means, has stripped from American women the right to control our own bodies. They have summarily placed women into a novel category of person with fewer rights not just than other people, but than fertilized eggs and corpses. After all, no one else is forced to donate their organs for the survival of another – not parents to their children, not the dead to the living. It is only fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses that are newly entitled to this right to use another’s body and organs against that other’s will; it is only women and other people who can get pregnant who are now subject to these unparalleled, radical demands.
This raises a fundamental question: can a country be properly understood as a democracy – an entity in which government derives its power from the people – if it subjugates half of its population, putting them into a category of sub-person with fewer rights, freedoms and liberties?
The global trend suggests that the answer to that is no. A clear pattern has emerged in the past few decades: as countries democratize, they tend to liberalize women’s rights, and they expand abortion and other reproductive rights. Luckily for the women of the world, this is where a great many nations are moving.
But the reverse is also true: as a smaller number of countries move toward authoritarian governance, they constrict the rights of women, LGBT people and many minority groups. We have seen this in every country that has scaled back abortion rights, reproductive rights, and women’s rights more broadly in the past several years: Russia, Hungary, Poland, Nicaragua and the United States.
The same week that the supreme court issued its decision in Dobbs, the US House of Representatives has been holding hearings to inform the public about what actually happened during the attempted coup of 6 January 2021, and to ideally hold perpetrators, traitors and seditionists to account. We are only a year and a half past that disgraceful day, when an angry mob decided that they, an authoritarian, patriarchal, white supremacist minority, should rule – that any other outcome, no matter how free and fair the election, was illegitimate.
The supreme court decision stems from that same rotted root: the idea that a patriarchal minority should have nearly unlimited authority over the majority. The conservatives on the court rightly understand that individual rights and women’s freedoms are incompatible with a system of broad male control over women and children, and a broader male monopoly on the public, political and economic spheres.
But that authoritarian vision is also incompatible with democracy.
And so Democrats now have a choice. They can give speeches and send fundraising emails. Or they can act: declare this court illegitimate. Demand its expansion. Abolish the filibuster. Treat this like the emergency it is, and make America a representative democracy.
Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind
A new analysis has found that in areas with high Republican support—particularly those that have supported the current wave of anti-trans laws—the search volume for transgender porn is also exceptionally high.
The analysis comes from Lawsuit.org, who researched Google search trend data between June 1 to 19, 2022, segmented the search volume results by metro area, and compared this to voting patterns during the 2020 election and public opinion polls on LGBTQ+ rights.
According to Ahrefs.com, there are 4.7 million searches for trans-related porn each month. Lawsuit.org found that the top twenty states in the nation with the highest volume of searches for trans porn were all (except 5) red states in 2020. Texas, where Gov. Abbott’s directive seemingly began the wave of anti-trans legislation earlier this year, scored number 1.
In addition to looking at geographic distribution, the researchers plotted the data using linear regression trend lines. These graphs show a (literal) left-to-right correlation between the popularity of trans porn and political conservatism.
To look beyond the blue/red divide and compare the data with specific anti-queer sentiment, the group referenced data from the American Values Atlas, an organization that surveys Americans on social and religious attitudes.
The survey question they examined specifically was: “Do you support religiously based refusals to serve gay and lesbian people?” The researchers explain, “We felt this survey question was a decent proxy for baseline LGBT prejudice, though we recognize some may support the question on Libertarian or Personal freedom grounds that do not have to do with the specific demographics of others.”
The resulting graphalso shows a correlation between supporting discrimination against LGBTQ+ businesses and a high volume of trans porn searches.
According to the HRC, there have been more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced this year, the majority of them in red states. These have disproportionately attacked the transgender community. Some supporters of these measures have been caught up in scandals involving trans porn, including Alabama State Sen. Tom Whatley and queerphobic radio host Alex Jones. No one of course is knocking their porn preferences: it’s the hypocrisy we find unsurprising and exhausting.
Pride Glasgow was gate-crashed by a small group of counterprotestors. (PinkNews)
On Saturday (25 June) afternoon, Glasgow was decked in the colours of the rainbow for the first Pride Glasgow in three years due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
But a small group of less than a dozen counter-protesters bearing signs saying homosexuality is a “sin” as they set up camp in George Square.
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,” read one sign.
The thousands of Pride-goers – many protesting against the British government’s refusal to ban trans conversion therapy – quickly circled the group. They drowned out the counter-protesters as they carried rainbow flags and kept spirits high.
Among them was Glasgow’s Metropolitan Community Church, an inclusive church founded by and for LGBTQ+ people, that stressed it is “fundamentally opposed” to what the counter-protesters stood for.
One of the groups of people who gathered to drown out the preachers' hate speech were from @MCCGlasgow – a church founded by queer people of faith which has been serving the LGBTQ+ community here in Glasgow since 2008 (2/?) pic.twitter.com/1KJ5mEs063
It didn’t take long for the religious demonstrators to get the message.
By around 3pm, the picketers took down their signs and walked away from the Pride to a chorus of cheers and whoops by Pride attendees.
This is the minute the anti-LGBTQ preachers finally gave up, packed up their signs and left #GlasgowPride, to a chorus of cheers and flag waving 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈 (4/4) pic.twitter.com/notxTBgWZg
Scotland, however, may do things a little differently. Though riddled by delays, drafted legislation from the ruling Scottish National Party proposes that trans Scots should no longer have to receive this diagnosis before changing their legal gender.
This would mean they could more easily obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate and have their identity legally acknowledged. This move comes as part of the country’s ongoing discussions around reforming its gender recognition laws.
The Scottish government is also hoping to go ahead with its own trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban. As much as Boris Johnson’s proposals only apply to England and Wales, Scottish ministers have committed to legislating a ban that includes trans people regardless.
“We don’t fit into your boxes – we make our own,” said Glasgow’s first trans councillor, Elaine Gallagher, at Pride Glasgow.
Speaking to the crowd from atop a double-decker bus awash with rainbows, she said: “That’s why the people and the pundits and paid-for opinions all demand that trans people be eradicated. Starting with the kids that are excluded from sports, toilets, schools and life.”
“Conversion is torture,” she added, “it is child abuse. We don’t condone or practise child abuse no matter what the bigots say – it’s them who do.
“And after the trans people and the rest of the queer alphabet, who’s next? We’ve seen whose next. Women who wear their hair short or stand too tall, or don’t wear clothing a man approves of or, God forbid, want to have their own opinions or govern their own bodies.”
I have to remind everyone the current Republican / GOP attack on the Democrats is they are groomers and child abusers. Just saying. Hugs
Matt McIlravy formally resigned from his position of Pilot Point mayor this morning after being indicted earlier this week for online solicitation of a child.
Britt Lusk, the City Manager of Pilot Point, said that on Friday, the city received a letter from MacIlravy announcing his resignation immediately. Because MacIlravy’s resignation comes after the city posted its agenda for the week, the city will act on it at a later date in accordance with state law and the city charter.
For now, the city’s Mayor Pro Tem will serve as the acting mayor. Lusk did not name who that person is, and the Pilot Point City Council’s web page simply had a blank space under “Mayor.”
MacIlravy was arrested on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 in an undercover operation conducted by Dallas police. He is accused of arranging to meet up and engage in sexual activity with a girl he believed was 13 years old.
Pilot Point mayor resigns after being arrested on charge of soliciting a minor https://t.co/TWbP7n2FlN
Dozens of political committees with ties to Florida conservatives are funneling thousands of dollars toward candidates who share Gov. Ron DeSantis’ priorities.
Poll workers at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department deposit peoples’ mail in ballots into an official ballot drop box on primary election day on Aug. 18, 2020 in Doral, Fla. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Republicans are capitalizing on the national movement surrounding parental rights and education by jumping into local school board races with crucial endorsements and much-needed cash.
Dozens of political committees with ties to Florida conservatives are funneling thousands of dollars toward candidates who share Gov. Ron DeSantis’ priorities by campaigning against issues like critical race theory. DeSantis endorsed a slate of 10 school board candidates — a rare, if not unprecedented, move for a Florida governor that could help Republicans capture more support in the midterms from parents energized by contentious issues such as masking students during the pandemic.
“People are frustrated with the business-as-usual on these school boards,” said Christian Ziegler, vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida whose wife, Bridget, is running to keep her seat on the Sarasota County school board and has been endorsed by DeSantis.
“Payback is coming in August” when the school board elections are held, Ziegler said.
School board races in Florida are traditionally nonpartisan, sleepy down-ballot races. But Republicans, led by DeSantis, are getting more involved this year after the Covid-19 pandemic inflamed interest in education and what students are learning in schools, particularly about race and gender identity. Democrats have not shown similar levels of funding.
The candidates backed by GOP-tied cash and endorsements from DeSantis show that Republicans are gunning to unseat incumbent school leaders and reshape boards in key spots across Florida. The effort could help Republicans control nearly all levers of government in the state, from the governor’s mansion, Cabinet, state Legislature down to local school boards.
In Miami, for instance, one race is heating up between a career educator with support from GOP leadership and a longtime school board staple.
Monica Colucci, an elementary language arts teacher with 26 years of experience, claims in campaign material that she has “seen firsthand the detrimental impact of liberal policies” in Miami-Dade County schools. Colucci, who also spent a year serving as special assistant to GOP Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, was among the first candidates endorsed by DeSantis in her race against Marta Pérez, a school board member who has served for 24 years and considers herself a conservative.
“I know the challenges that parents are facing and teachers are facing day in and day out,” Colucci said in an interview. “You can be on a board for 24 years but if you’re not day to day facing the challenge yourself, you get a bit removed.”
Colucci has raised less than half as much cash as her incumbent opponent at this point in the race. But campaign finance reports show Colucci’s first fundraising haul came in May to a tune of $53,000 fundraising and included some $15,000 from committees linked to state Republicans. She followed that up by raising more than $31,000 between June 1-17, records show.
To that end, Colucci scored $1,000 donations from Nuñez as well as from state House members from south Florida and beyond, including Reps. Thomas Leek (R-Ormond Beach), Alex Rizo (R-Hialeah), Daniel A. Perez (R-Miami), Demi Busatta Cabrera (R-Coral Gables), David Borrero (R-Sweetwater) and Bryan Avila (R-Miami Springs).
Another Miami Dade school board candidate endorsed by DeSantis, Roberto Alonso, also has received $1,000 donations from committees led by Republican lawmakers such as outgoing Senate President Wilton Simpson and Sen. Ray Rodrigues (R-Estero), campaign finance records show.
And Colucci and Alonso each landed $1,000 from a committee led by state Sen. Ben Albritton (R-Wauchula), who represents some eight counties in Central Florida but not Miami-Dade, where the races are located. Albritton said in a written statement that he’s “proud to support candidates who share my values, particularly those who will have a voice on the school board.”
Alonso, who DeSantis in 2020 appointed to the Miami-Dade College trustee board, has raised more than $83,000 in his race while the candidate with the next highest contributions, Kevin Menendez Macki, is sitting on $16,555 for the wide-open seat. Alonso’s campaign is closely aligned with the Republican governor and promises to “oppose attempts to impose Critical Race Theory and other extreme liberal agendas in K-12” and “protect female athletes and female sports.”
Pérez, meanwhile, has raised $188,000 in her Miami-area race against Colucci, including $100,000 of her own money, records show. She raised nearly $23,000 between June 1-17, including $4,000 from committees tied to the local teachers union. Yet even with a financial lead, more than two decades experience and the power of incumbency behind her, Perez acknowledges that an endorsement from DeSantis would aid her reelection.
As a conservative, Pérez said she was “very puzzled” to see her opponent, Colucci, earn a stamp of approval from DeSantis. She touted improved graduation rates and workforce programs under her tenure on the board and how she opposed proposals that could have been linked to critical race theory.
“I just don’t understand,” Pérez said in an interview. “Because I have never had a conversation with the governor and he’s supporting someone whose agenda seems to be my agenda.”
Elsewhere in Florida, other candidates that have been — and could soon be — endorsed by DeSantis are collecting money from state Republicans.
Incoming House Speaker Paul Renner’s political committee, for example, donated $1,000 each to five school board candidates in four separate counties, including two in Duval County that were endorsed by DeSantis. These two Duval candidates — April Carney challenging an incumbent and Charlotte Joyce seeking reelection — also landed $1,000 apiece from state Rep. Clay Yarborough (R-Jacksonville), records show.
Carney, a conservative mother who “believes that families know what is best for their children — not bureaucrats or elected officials,” holds a slight financial lead over Elizabeth Anderson, a former educator and board member since 2018, with both raising more than $65,000. Joyce, who earlier this year proposed a proclamation in support of DeSantis and recent legislation that prohibits educators from leading classroom instructions on sexual orientation or gender identity for kids in kindergarten through third grade, has raised nearly $30,000 compared to almost $8,000 by her challenger, Tanya Hardaker.
“We need strong school board members who will set Florida’s children up for success, ensure parental rights in education, and combat the woke agendas from infiltrating public schools at the local school board level,” DeSantis said in a statement accompanying his endorsements.
Some candidates are linked to political committees that have donated to candidates backed by DeSantis, a possible sign of another round of contenders that could eventually get a blessing from the governor.
Jessie Thompson, a Volusia County mother, was endorsed by Renner and Republican Congressman Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), and is in a three-person race to fill a vacated seat.
And in Lee County, a GOP stronghold that’s home to Fort Myers, there have been no endorsements from DeSantis and yet at least a dozen political committees have invested a total of $22,000 in four different candidates. Among this spread are donations from committees led by Republicans like Albritton and state Reps. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R-Fort Myers), Sam Garrison (R-Fleming Island), Lawrence McClure (R-Dover), Josie Tomkow (R-Polk City) and Mike Beltran (R-Lithia), records show.
One of those races features two challengers who are raising more cash than an incumbent and both could earn DeSantis’ endorsement.
Jason “Big Mama” Jones, a radio host and parent, is leading the pack by eclipsing $32,000 so far without donations from political committees. Jones proudly bills himself as the only parent vying for the seat and contends his local school board is missing the needs of students, something he believes puts him in line with the governor.
Jones said he would welcome an endorsement from the DeSantis, whose campaign is pushing for candidates to complete surveys gauging how they closely they align with him on issues like critical race theory and parental rights.
Jones is facing an incumbent in Debbie Jordan, the current chair of Lee’s school board, and Dan Severson, a former “Top Gun Fighter Pilot” and ex-Minnesota lawmaker.
Severson, who spent eight years as a representative of the Minnesota House, including a stint as Minority Whip, appears well aligned with DeSantis by vowing to put “parents back in control of their children’s education” and grapple with “out of control spending, infighting, and liberal policies [that] have taken the focus away.” His campaign, which has raised nearly $21,000 compared to $6,100 for the incumbent, also has ties to state Republicans, receiving $1,000 donations from Rodrigues, state Rep. Spencer Roach (R-North Fort Myers) and another committee that also donated to Colucci in Miami.
The endorsements from DeSantis are expected to shake up races leading to the Aug. 23 primary elections when school board contests — labeled as nonpartisan statewide — unfold. His name and surging political popularity attached to candidates could also help them raise cash in the coming weeks. The effects of DeSantis’ backing are already being felt, like in Miami, where Perez worries about fundraising now that DeSantis threw his support behind her opponent
“Funding for me is like I’m a pariah,” Pérez said. “I’m working like I’ve never worked in my life.”
Payback for what? What exactly have the schools done that is horrible Good luck getting teachers, Florida. Wait until the teacher retirements start en mass.
Teachers, nurses, doctors, they should just leave for another states and let Florida crumble into a shit hole state. Not a place for anyone to raise children.
They will ruin the education system. First, they will set up all these rules for teachers to follow, and they will chafe under them and leave. They won’t be able to fill a lot of the positions, and will lose the best teachers. Next, they won’t want to deal with boring stuff like budgets and maintenance, so the system will get wrecked from negligence, lack of any over sight, and so on. Spending will get out of control. Except corruption, and funds being channeled to bizarre things instead of maintenance and salaries. Once they have screwed it up past the hopeless point, they will declare victory over the liberals and step down. Then someone else will have to pick the pieces by raising taxes.
On Saturday, OAN contributor Alison Steinberg posted a video of herself throwing a humiliating tantrum after seeing the pride flag in Huntington Beach, California. Texas Paul reacts!
As happens when the Republican elected officials claim that people dressing up in costumes reading to kids in public places with other adults present is child abuse. The thugs (brownshirts) are out to enforce the Republican party line. Again the SCOTUS says we need less gun control. Hugs
A man with a gun turned a children’s reading book event into chaos at the Sparks Library Sunday afternoon. During a Drag Queen Storytime event, a group of Proud Boys protested against LGBTQ+ rights outside of the library.
Our News 4 and Fox 11 crew covering the reading event said when the protest came to an end, a man wearing Proud Boys clothing approached the library while carrying a gun, causing everyone, including children, to run into the library for safety.
The Sparks Police Department monitored the protest from a distance, but left soon after. There were no police presence when the man approached the building.
I truly wish the media would stop calling these assholes protesters. They’re not protesting. Protesters don’t show up armed and in combat gear. This is terrorism. FUCK.
white nationalists don’t target the LGBTQ community because they see it as “weak or powerless.”
“It is targeted because that community has brought inclusion into America, It has opened the space around equity and what it means to be an America that moves forward together across lines of difference. That is what frightens the Patriot Front, Proud Boys and other racist bigoted alt-right organizations.
This shows why sexual education is so desperately needed in all US schools at all levels. Even College and homeschooled kids need to be tested in basic biology and anatomy. Hugs
“Maybe because there’s so much going on in the body. I don’t know. I haven’t, you know, seen any studies. But if I’m processing what you’re saying, it wouldn’t surprise me. Because it’s not something that’s happening organically. You’re forcing it. The individual, the male, is doing it as quickly. And so I can see why there is truth to that. It’s unfortunate.” – Virginia Republican US House nominee Yesli Vega, when asked if she’s also heard that it’s “harder for a women to get pregnant from rape.”
Vega, the chair of Latinos For Youngkin, is running to unseat two-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
AUDIO: Virginia congressional candidate Yesli Vega doubts pregnancy after rape
It’s cute that you think most Americans were taught anything resembling medical/science-based sex ed in public schools.That’s especially true in the states that will have abortion bans.
That is the core of the misogynist argument here. They also accept that it wasn’t rape if you don’t fight back hard ‘enough’ or if you drank, wore a skirt, were in the wrong place, went on a date, were just too sexy, were just too available, etc.
“Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, died for our sins. If you accept him into your life, you will not be raped, ever. You will not get unintentionally pregnant. The Angels of Heaven will speak through your mate’s semen and bless you forever and ever, amen.”
Because we learned to get real information about sex and STDs and such instead of believing shit taught to us in right wing churches. I was actually taught that women had one more set of ribs than men because god took a set of ribs from Adam to make Eve. I am not making that up. I was taught that they could tell if a skeleton was male or female that way. There was a very embarrassing moment in HS biology when my teacher corrected me (fortunately this was not in front of the entire class). That was the day I learned to find out science from science books and nowhere else.
Because we had to unlearn all the bullshit we got taught as kids and figure out what’s real.
If there’s one thing we could do for the “straight world”, it’s to help them unlearn all that bullshit about gender roles. I swear, I hear my husband talk about how he and I divvy up household chores with the women he works with and every damn time at least one of them will pipe up with “my husband would never do the laundry” or something idiotic like that. Possession of a vagina is not a requirement to do laundry, folks. Or cook, or pick up the kids, or do grocery shopping. Nor is having a dick a requirement for mowing the yard or doing auto maintenance.
