I thank Ten Bears for posting this. It is an important to view. It shows clearly how racism and bigotry of the republicans are harming national security. Chris Hayes makes it clear just how racist Sen Tuberville is.He doesn’t want mixing races in the military, but instead wants the best of the best. Well the way he says it is clear he thinks the best of the best are white. I found the view very informing and interesting. Hugs. Scottie
An Ohio high school football coach resigned Monday following his team’s use of racist and antisemitic language during a game last Friday, the school announced https://t.co/9eSA1VyJhA
Boy, it sure would be embarrassing if someone quoted the Florida curriculum standard, which explicitly states that “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” ( https://www.fldoe.org/core/… )
Or, at least it would be to anyone with a conscience.
Duncan appeared here in January 2023 when the House approved his bill to ban vaccine mandates at Medicare and Medicaid-certified health facilities. In 2015, Duncan co-sponsored a bill that sought to place a ban on same-sex marriage in the US Constitution. In 2018, Duncan co-sponsored a bill allowing adoption agencies to ban same-sex parents.
In filing for divorce, wife of Jeff Duncan (R-SC)– another GOP "strong advocate for traditional family values"– said he's been screwing anything that moved including shady DC lobbyist Liz Williams. He's one of the ones trying to shut down the U.S. government for Trump pic.twitter.com/QCioH2i1TH
Honored to receive the Friend of the Family Award this week from the Faith and Freedom Coalition for my conservative voting record in the 116th Congress and commitment to defend the family, protect religious freedom, and stand with Israel. @FaithandFreedompic.twitter.com/uV8he0xTKv
When Jeff Duncan left his "Faith and Freedom BBQ" at the end of August, after calling Melody Duncan his loving and supportive wife, he then went "directly to the home of his paramour." https://t.co/LuZIDcipYF
Hanson last appeared here when the same outlet exposed her arrest record for facilitating prostitution. She made her JMG debut when she was exposed for using the photos of minority women in campaign materials, claiming that they support her. The women said they’d never heard of her. Hanson’s campaign manager spoke at last year’s public hearing on the local Pride event to declare that the festival had provided children with “dildos and butt plugs.”
EXCLUSIVE: Gabrielle Hanson fought Franklin Pride, but celebrated her scantily clad husband at Chicago Pride https://t.co/toLuP98piF
This person, speaking out against Pride at a Franklin BOMA meeting, has the same name and background as the person identified as Gabrielle Hanson’s campaign manager. pic.twitter.com/T1xtFNFaEd
NEW from @formvscontent: “Records show @CityOfFranklin Alderman and mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson. was charged with money laundering, organized crime, in addition to her admission of conviction(s) of promotion of prostitution.”
Republicans don’t care about truth, in fact it seems they hate it as it doesn’t say what they claim. Republicans are so desperate to force the narrative that Biden is as corrupt as trump, so it doesn’t matter as they are the same. This is wrong. While the evidence is clear that did the crimes he is accused of, the evidence is equally clear, Biden is innocent of what the republicans accuse him of. And when called out on it, they get angry at the reporters for showing their lies. Hugs
“I’m not an expert on the timeline,” Rep. Jason Smith said after he was asked about a text message sent before Joe Biden was a presidential candidate.
AJ McDougall
Breaking News Reporter
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee got testy with a NBC reporter during a Wednesday press conference after the journalist challenged him on the timeline of supposed evidence of President Joe Biden’s misconduct.
The journalist pointed out that a WhatsApp message that Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) had presented as potential evidence of Biden’s use of his political influence to help Hunter Biden was dated to June 6, 2017—before Biden was a presidential candidate, let alone president.
“I’m not an expert on the timeline,” Smith replied. “I would love to have President Biden or his family tell us all about the timeline.”
When the reporter pressed him, Smith asked what outlet he worked for. Hearing the answer, the congressman snapped, “So apparently, you’ll never believe us.”
Smith then spluttered that he was “definitely not going to pinpoint one item” of evidence when the journalist again asked him how the message demonstrated misuse of political influence. Shortly after, without having provided an answer, Smith demanded the next question.
A heated exchange occurs between House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) and an NBC reporter during a news conference on the investigation into President Biden's family. The reporter presses Rep. Smith on the timeline of the evidence found against the Bidens. pic.twitter.com/2hfbQXEsPh
The exchange was just the latest example of Republican politicians and right-wing media figures asserting a less-than-stellar knowledge of the Biden-related misconduct allegations they want to indict him on.
Just this week, Fox News buried an interview with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that largely demolished a longtime conspiracy theory asserting that a Ukrainian prosecutor was fired at the behest of then-Vice President Joe Biden to protect his son, Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm at the time.
Poroshenko instead dismissed the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, as a “completely crazy person” who didn’t utter a “single word of truth” about the Bidens and “played [a] very dirty game.”
Even Hunter Biden’s ex-business partner Devon Archer was forced to clear up Republican-spread rumors in July that an administrative request from the Department of Justice in a separate case was an attempt to intimidate him out of testifying in front of a Republican-led congressional committee.
Now do you see the point? This attack on woke is just the same old attack on LGBTQIA people. This is the same right wing attack on people who are different. It is the same right wing attack on gays, lesbians, and trans people that was happening in the1960s and 1970s. It is about removing us, people like me, the entire LGBTQIA from society. Basically a genocide. There are LGBTQIA kids in schools and that go to libraries. These kids need to see people like them, need the information in those books. Plus kids own books that have gay characters are not permitted even for scielent reading by themselves. Removing the books won’t stop kids being born LGBTQIA, it will just increase the targeting and harassment, the bullying along with increasing the isolation / shame these kids will feel about themselves for being different. It is cruel. Especially as science has proven beyond a doubt people are born with their sexual orientations and gender identity already set. DeathSantis said it was a hoax, that no books were being banned only pornographic ones, this order to remove the books specifically says remove them even if there is no sexual content.
The guidance made clear that all books with LGBTQ characters are to be removed even if the book contained no sexually explicit content. The librarians asked if they could retain books in school and classroom libraries with LGBTQ characters “as long as they do not have explicit sex scenes or sexual descriptions and are not approaching ‘how to’ manuals for how to be an LGBTQ+ person.” Vianello responded, “No. Books with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or school library media centers.”
DeathSantis claimed that his anti-woke doesn’t equal don’t say gay. But that is the way the law is written and the goal of the fundamentalist Christian nationalists people that he is a member of and leads. Hugs
Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries.
Charlotte County school librarians sought guidance from the school district about how to apply an expansion of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, to all grades. “Are we removing books from any school or media center, Prek-12 if a character has, for example, two mothers or because there is a gay best friend or a main character is gay?” the librarians asked. Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello answered, “Yes.”
The guidance by Vianello and the school board’s attorney, Michael McKinley, was obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) through a public records request and shared with Popular Information. FFTRP requested “electronic records of district and school decisions regarding classroom and library materials.” In response, FFTRP received a document memorializing a July 24 conversation between Vianello and district librarians, known in Florida as media specialists.
The guidance made clear that all books with LGBTQ characters are to be removed even if the book contained no sexually explicit content. The librarians asked if they could retain books in school and classroom libraries with LGBTQ characters “as long as they do not have explicit sex scenes or sexual descriptions and are not approaching ‘how to’ manuals for how to be an LGBTQ+ person.” Vianello responded, “No. Books with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or school library media centers.”
Vianello also says teachers must ensure that books with LGBTQ characters and themes do not enter the classroom, even if they are self-selected by students for silent reading. According to Vianello, books with “[t]hese characters and themes cannot exist.”
The librarians were seeking guidance on how to interpret a revised version of The Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida. The revised rules, issued by the Florida Department of Education earlier this year, expanded the restrictions imposed by the”Don’t Say Gay” law. According to revised Rule 6A-10.081, educators in Florida “[s]hall not intentionally provide classroom instruction to students in prekindergarten through grade 8 on sexual orientation or gender identity.” (A similar provision was included in a law Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed in May.) The revised rule also extends that prohibition through grade 12, except where explicitly required by state standards or as part of “a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend.”
Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has insisted that allegations that his policies, including the “Don’t Say Gay” law, are being used to ban a wide range of books is a “hoax.” DeSantis claimed that the only books being removed from Florida libraries are “pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students violate our state education standards.” But in Charlotte County, DeSantis’ policies are being used to justify purging all books with LGBTQ characters, even if there is no sexual content.
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Charlotte County Schools told Popular Information that books with LGBTQ characters were removed from libraries because “there are elementary schools that utilize their school library media center as classrooms… [for] elective courses that our students are officially scheduled into and attend on a regular basis.” Therefore, the library “is considered a classroom setting.” As a result, “our school board attorney advises that we do not make books with these themes available in media centers that serve as classrooms since this would be considered ‘classroom instruction’ and such instruction and/or availability of these themes may not occur in PreK- grade 8.” The spokesperson acknowledged that “high school media centers are not designated as classrooms,” but books with LGBTQ characters were excluded anyway because “if a teacher were to bring a class of students to the media center and provide instruction, books with these themes cannot be included in that instructional time unless supported by the academic standards of that course of study.”
The problem with banning all books with LGBTQ characters
There are serious legal issues with banning all books with LGBTQ characters.
In June, the authors of the children’s book And Tango Makes Three, and several students sued the Lake County School Board, the Florida Department of Education, and other state officials for removing the book from K-3 library shelves. And Tango Makes Three is the true story of two male Penguins, Roy and Silo, who lived in the Central Park Zoo and raised an adopted chick. It has no sexual content. The lawsuit contends that the removal of And Tango Makes Three violates student rights under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and by “discriminating based on content and viewpoint, it infringes the authors’ right to freedom of expression.”
In response, the Lake County School Board filed an affidavit on July 13, 2023, from its superintendent, Diane Kornegay. She stated that, on June 21, 2023, she received guidance from the Florida Department of Education that the “age restriction on sexual orientation and gender identity does not apply to library books.” The guidance included a legal memorandum by the Florida Attorney General filed in a separate case challenging the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which contends that the law “does not even arguably restrict library books.”
As a result, And Tango Makes Three was returned to the shelves in Lake County.
The Florida Department of Education has been repeatedly asked to clarify the application of “Don’t Say Gay” and other laws and regulations restricting LGBTQ instruction to library books. But it has refused to do so, despite the urging of FFTRP and others.
“Every child deserves to have their lives reflected in the books available in their public school classroom or library,” Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the FFTRP told Popular Information. “The Florida Department of Education was informed of Charlotte County’s overreaction to the law and state rule over two weeks ago, and has not acted to correct it. Public school families in Florida deserve better. We cannot tolerate this discriminatory exclusion.”
The result of the Department of Education’s inaction has been chaos. And Tango Makes Three remains banned in Escambia County and elsewhere. While Charlotte County is the only school district known to have a formal ban on all books with LGBTQ characters, other Florida school districts have the same policy in practice.
In the Broward County School District, the sixth-largest school district in the country, nearly half of the books that have been removed or restricted feature LGBTQ themes. One of the books banned from all school libraries is the children’s book A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a fictional story about former Vice President Mike Pence’s family bunny. In the story, Marlon Bundo falls in love with another bunny named Wesley, and the two decide to get married. The book does not contain any sexual or explicit content whatsoever. The Broward County School District ordered that all school libraries remove Bundo, because it contained “gender identity content.”
The Broward County School District told Popular Information that it was aware of the state’s position in the Lake County lawsuit. But, as of last month, Bundo remained unavailable in Broward County schools.
A survey of Florida school districts by Popular Information revealed that at least 16 school districts in Florida have banned books with LGBTQ characters.
Please see the intro to my last three post. I am going to simply copy and paste it here as it is the same thing.
The Christian Taliban moral police strike again. When are people in the US going to get tired of the Christian nationalist trying to take over the country and force everyone to live under the doctrines of their churches. Think about it, this is not religious freedom, this is religious dictatorship. Religious freedom is everyone gets to practice and live their life according to their religion as long as it doesn’t harm others. By the Christians insisting everyone honor their idea of the holy day, they deny the religious freedom of others. What about religious sects and religions that have Saturday as the holy day? What about atheist that don’t have a holy day, and their ability to enjoy each day without the religious entanglements is also part of religious freedom. I know that some fundamental religious leaders like to claim there is no right to not be religious, but that is stupid. To be free to practice one’s personal beliefs, one must be free to have no set religious restrictions. People this is a fringe fundamentalist group of very vocal, very driven people willing to rule over every aspect of other peoples lives. They are the worst busybody nosey neighbors ever in existence. Their goal in life is to make you follow their ways, their ideas of right and wrong no matter what you believe, no matter what you think, in fact you are not important as a person for them. You need to comply so their god is happy, that is it. They don’t care if you’re happy or if things are good for you. They only care if their god is happy and they think they know the secret to making their god happy. Fight back. Hugs
The artists, many of whom were people of color and LGBTQ, left the premises to avoid violence
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Over the weekend, a retreat for Appalachian artists in Bledsoe, Kentucky had to be cut short after a conservative Christian mob invaded the rental space falsely claiming that the participants were desecrating a local chapel.
The event was run byWaymakers Collective, a non-profit group that provides grant money and learning opportunities for artists in the region. They say they’ve given away over $1 million to date and this past weekend was supposed to mark their second annual gathering.
The three-day event took place at Pine Mountain Settlement School (PMSS), an 800-acre campus with dozens of buildings. The school’s website says “We have hosted everything from church retreats to theater conferences to recording sessions.” Given that many of the Waymakers’ members had attended events there in the past and “always felt welcome, safe and had positive experiences,” it seemed like a perfect place for the occasion. The schedule included performances, meals, lectures, and free time for the artists to explore their creativity among like-minded peers.
Importantly, participants also had an option to visit the chapel on campus as a “Healing Space.” Waymakers explained it this way:
The healing space was something we instituted last year when our gathering occurred right after the flood in Eastern Kentucky and we knew many of our participants traveling from Eastern Kentucky were coming off of weeks of relief work and being impacted by the floods themselves. We chose to continue that offering this year… It was a spa-like environment to help facilitate restorativeness, rest, and reflection that we invited people to use how they wanted to: take a nap, sit in quiet meditation, or prayerful reflection within their own religious and spiritual traditions.
Organizers said the chapel was decorated with pillows, “soothing lights,” plants, and a painting that included an “Om” symbol—presumably to facilitate the meditation.
That’s what this controversy is all about.
While the “Om” wasn’t meant to be religious in nature, when some people in the community saw pictures of the painting, they flipped out over the idea that a non-Christian symbol made its way into a supposedly Christian space (even though PMSS isn’t a religious location).
Waymakers organizers said they were told they had use of the entire campus as part of their rental agreement, and the only restriction regarding the chapel involved the pews—they were told not to move them because the floors were recently resurfaced. In other words, there was no reason the painting should have been a concern for anyone.
On Saturday, however, an estimated 8-9 community members took matters into their own hands, barged into the space, and entered the chapel “to make sure the House of The Lord wasn’t being disrespected.”
Tate Napier, the mob member whose posted about the situation on Facebook, told reporter Jennifer McDaniels of the Tri-City News:
The people in the chapel said they were doing nothing wrong, and I asked if they were in there to worship Jesus, and a few started raising their voices at me, so I told them to just get their stuff – that we weren’t there to argue, and I even helped them gather their things and pack them to their cars. After that all happened, the state police and sheriff deputies showed up, and they agreed to stay out of the chapel, but then, ultimately, they decided to leave because they said they felt unsafe.
…
If they want to do that stuff, they can do it in their own homes or buildings or wherever else, but it’s not happening in Jesus’ house as long as I’m around to defend it…
Napier, aChristianwho wascharged with first-degree sexual abuseafter being caught in bed with a 15-year-old girl, had no business telling anyone to “get their stuff.” He makes it sound like he was merely escorting out people who shouldn’t have been there when, in fact, he’s the one who didn’t have access to the space. Neither did his colleagues. (Two deputies were indeed stationed outside the chapel afterwards, but unlike what his post said, they weren’t necessarily there to keep people from entering.)
One of the artists in attendance didn’t see the mob’s actions as helpful in any way. Referring to them as “yt supremacists,” Kabrea James said the invaders alleged the artists were “desecrating their space” and “demanded that we leave.” The artists left in order to avoid escalating the situation—which was understandable given that a lot of them come from marginalized communities.
Shortly after the conflict began, a PMSS staffer showed up and played mediator (which the Waymakers said they appreciated). Eventually, police were called in by both PMSS and some of the artists who felt like they were in danger. According to Waymakers, “We were also then told that the Executive Director and Board of the PMSS had ordered our group to not return to the chapel during our stay.” (How does that make any sense?!)
In a statement released by Waymakers on Monday, they expressed concern about why their safety wasn’t paramount in this situation and why their contract wasn’t honored:
What was, ultimately, at issue was the safety of our collective. We are a family-friendly community and we had parents at the event who had brought their children. PMSS is a place that has long welcomed children onto its campus, so we ask the PMSS Board and leadership: Why were children, families, and our guests put at risk in this way? Why were outside people who were not part of our gathering allowed to be present on the campus and interrupt our private, paid-for event? Why were there no safety procedures in place that the staff could follow to keep the people who rent PMSS safe?
These were some of the many reasons we made the call to end our event a day early and leave PMSS for the safety of everyone in attendance, including the staff of PMSS that we did not want to be witness to these intense interactions. To ensure the safety of all of those in attendance, we organized caravans out of the property and county so that no members left the property alone. Many of our participants are deeply traumatized by this experience, especially those of us with personal lived experiences of racial and gender-based violence. We are offering access to free therapy as part of our aftercare approach for the participants that were there.
McDaniels, the reporter, said it’s “unclear if the chapel was a part of the Waymakers Collective retreat facility lease agreement or not,” but the Waymakers certainly believed they had access to it. (Hell, their version of the story involves specific advance discussions about using the chapel.) PMSS has not yet issued any statement about the matter.
Meanwhile, Dan Mosley, the Harlan County Judge Executive, offered support for the mob shortly after the conflict occurred:
I have a lot on my mind this evening but I’m going to be brief. I’m proud of the people of Bledsoe and Big Laurel. Your perspective is my perspective, today, and in the days ahead. It’s always better to ask questions than throw stones and civil discourse is always the best pathway to resolution.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9
“Your perspective is my perspective,” he said of the intolerant Christians who magically claimed ownership of space that wasn’t theirs.
Mosley added separately that seeing the “Om” symbol in the chapel “made me sick at my stomach”:
He basically praised the mob for taking a stand without resorting to violence, as if they deserved a reward for merely threatening the artists rather than doing something even more insane. The comments on that first post overwhelmingly agreed with that position, as did manyothers in the community. (This is apparently what they do in small towns.)
None of the groups opposing Waymakers’ use of the space has issued any official response yet. They sure as hell haven’t denounced the invaders, who simply don’t believe a chapel should be used by anyone who doesn’t share their conservative Christian faith, even if the space is no longer used as a religious site and even if the artists were contractually allowed to temporarily decorate the chapel as they saw fit.
This is nothing more than an act of white Christian supremacy that thankfully didn’t end with victims who are LGBTQ people and artists of color (including ones who are practicing Christians themselves).
If county leaders and PMSS officials aren’t going to take this seriously, and the invaders face no consequences for barging, uninvited, onto private property, it’s hard to imagine anything will change.
Please see the intro to my last post. I am going to simply copy and paste it here as it is the same thing. Also there are videos in the article that I am unable to copy, so to see them please go to the link above. Hugs
The Christian Taliban moral police strike again. When are people in the US going to get tired of the Christian nationalist trying to take over the country and force everyone to live under the doctrines of their churches. Think about it, this is not religious freedom, this is religious dictatorship. Religious freedom is everyone gets to practice and live their life according to their religion as long as it doesn’t harm others. By the Christians insisting everyone honor their idea of the holy day, they deny the religious freedom of others. What about religious sects and religions that have Saturday as the holy day? What about atheist that don’t have a holy day, and their ability to enjoy each day without the religious entanglements is also part of religious freedom. I know that some fundamental religious leaders like to claim there is no right to not be religious, but that is stupid. To be free to practice one’s personal beliefs, one must be free to have no set religious restrictions. People this is a fringe fundamentalist group of very vocal, very driven people willing to rule over every aspect of other peoples lives. They are the worst busybody nosey neighbors ever in existence. Their goal in life is to make you follow their ways, their ideas of right and wrong no matter what you believe, no matter what you think, in fact you are not important as a person for them. You need to comply so their god is happy, that is it. They don’t care if you’re happy or if things are good for you. They only care if their god is happy and they think they know the secret to making their god happy. Fight back. Hugs
The conservative majority on the Community Library Network board voted to close libraries on Sundays, despite threats of litigation
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The Community Library Network in Post Falls, Idaho, on the western part of the panhandle, oversees seven buildings and a bookmobile. Its Board of Trustees, like any board, has to keep an eye on the budget.
On July 20, those Trustees held a discussion about whether it would be prudent to reduce or eliminate Sunday hours. On one hand, closing the library on Sunday would reduce one part-time position per location, saving a total of nearly $28,000. On the other hand, a lot of people use the library on Sunday. Trustees were told how often people accessed the internet, how many times the study rooms were booked, etc. They ended that discussion without taking action but requesting more information.
All of that is a perfectly routine conversation for the board of a library.
What’s unusual is that the Board’s Chair, Rachelle Ottosen, argued that the library should remain closed on Sunday because it’s the Sabbath.
Well, I know many others at these tables don’t subscribe to this, but the Lord blesses people [who] keep the Sabbath day holy. I think having people work on Sunday is actually to our detriment.
One board member politely chimed in to say (I’m paraphrasing) that was a batshit crazy idea. “I’m pretty sure not everybody in this community holds [to] that, so I think we need to look at the whole community concerning hours.”
Ottosen was thankfully on her own. But still, it was a ridiculous suggestion that never should have been offered from a Trustee.
Then, just five days later, Ottosen did it again. This time she came prepared with a Bible verse:
As far as closing on Sundays, most other government entities are closed on Sundays. This is not an emergency service. No one’s gonna [freak] out if they don’t get a book on Sunday.
Anyway, Exodus 20:8-10 says “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.”
So it sounds like we shouldn’t be causing other people to work, as well as not working ourselves.
Once again, another Trustee chimed in to shoot down that explanation: “I’m sorry, this is a government agency, and we need to be available for everyone.” Another Trustee later brought up the fact that some religions consider Sabbath day to be Saturday; Ottosen had no response to that.
She did, however, do her best David Barton impression, citing the Founding Fathers to pretend she wasn’t crossing some church/state separation barrier. She closed her comments by saying, “It’s in our best interests to not dishonor God.”
Last month, Americans United for Separation of Church and State stepped in to warn the Board that it was heading down a dangerous path by listening to Ottosen’s suggestion:
The board received a letter dated Aug. 9 from the nonprofit Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which asserts that closing libraries based on Ottosen’s religious beliefs violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Ms. Ottosen is entitled to her religious beliefs, but she is not entitled to use the power of the government to enshrine those beliefs into law and to thereby force them on her constituents,” the letter said in part. “The board has a legal obligation to refuse to act on Ms. Ottosen’s religious grounds.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has now gotten involved too.
In a letter to Ottosen, attorney Chris Line wrote that she needs to stop using her elected position to “promote your personal religious beliefs.”
While Board members are certainly free to express their religious beliefs in their private capacity outside of their role on the Board, it is unconstitutional for public officials to push their personal religious beliefs during public meetings and to adopt policies based on those beliefs with no secular justification. We request that members of the Board refrain from discussing their religious beliefs during meetings in order to uphold the rights of conscience embodied in our First Amendment. Please inform us in writing at your earliest convenience with an assurance that this won’t happen again in the future.
It’s such a sensible request the two groups are making here. This isn’t about whether or not the library system should close on Sundays. That’s up to the Trustees to decide. But whatever the decision is, it needs to be secular in nature. Someone’s religious beliefs shouldn’t dictate the outcome.
Everyone else on the board seems to understand that. Just not Ottosen.
Incidentally, three of the five board members—Ottosen, Tom Hanley, and Tim Plass—voted to close the libraries on Sundays, but after the board’s attorney mentioned that this could open the door to litigation, the same board then voted 4-1 to table the Sunday closures… even though they had already voted to close them.
The same conservative trifecta took over the board earlier this summer after running on a campaign promoting censorship and keeping books they deemed explicit out of the hands of kids.
Hanley and Plass campaigned on keeping explicit books out of children and teen sections…
Ottosen has been vocal against LGBTQ programs and books for children. She also testified to the Idaho Legislature in support of recent obscenity bills targeting libraries and librarians.
Last month, the three of them also suggested disaffiliating from the American Library Association, calling it “ultra liberal” and criticizing it for opposing censorship. “The ALA has a clear animosity and resentment toward the family and traditional religious values,” Hanley said during an August meeting.
All of that’s to say the move to shut down the libraries on Sundays because some Christians take Sabbath day seriously isn’t just one crazy board member’s wacky suggestion. It’s part of a larger plan to inject Christian Nationalism into a public library system no matter how much that harms people in the community.
Remember these were 8th grade students. Children in 8thgrade in the United States are 13 or 14 years old. They enter 8thgrade at 13 years of age and leave at 14 years of age under normal circumstances. These students should by then known parts of the human body, both male and female. Yet one mother claimed the teacher was making a little girl talk about feeling each other’s breasts. Also by then most people clearly know their sexual attractions and feelings. Yes there are gay kids in those schools and in those classrooms. Remember kids have computer, TV, Movies, they have books with LGBTQIA people in them … well in some states still, they know of same sex couples and families. Some people think young people simply are blank slates with no desires or sexual feelings until either they’re married at 12 or they suddenly get them when they turn 18. These are the same people that think little girls should be forced to carry to term a pregnancy, giving birth, but are too fragile to know that some girls like other girls? How stupid has this country gotten? The last paragraph of the article says: “The book has long been used to teach students about the Holocaust. Its sexual passages reflect similar experiences that teenagers undergo throughout puberty.” Hugs
In the passage, Frank describes her genitals and wanting to see a female friend’s breasts.
A Texas school district has fired an 8th-grade English teacher for having students read a passage from The Diary of Anne Frank in which the titular writer describes her genitals and lesbian attraction.
The Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District (HFISD) of Jefferson County, Texas — a near coastal region about 80 miles east of Houston — fired the unnamed teacher after she assigned students a reading from Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation. The adaptation is an illustrated, comic book version of the diary that Frank, a German-born Jewish teen, wrote in the late 1940s while hiding from Nazis. Frank was 13 to 16 years old when writing the diary.
Grace Linn compared today’s book bans with Naziism and said her late husband didn’t fight in WWII for this.
In one section of the graphic adaptation, Frank asks a female friend if she’d feel comfortable exposing their breasts to each other. In the three-panel scene, Frank’s friend refuses and they both remain clothed. In another section, Frank walks amongst nude female statues and admits, “I must admit, every time I see a female nude, I go into ecstasy. If only I had a girlfriend!”
In yet another section, Frank writes about her own genitals, describing their changing physical appearance as she experiences puberty. This section was omitted from the book’s 1952 English edition but eventually restored in its 1980s republication.
HFISD notified parents on Tuesday via email, “It was brought to the administration’s attention tonight that 8th-grade students were reading content that was not appropriate. The reading of that content will cease immediately. Your student’s teacher will communicate her apologies to you and your students soon, as she has expressed those apologies to us.”
By Wednesday, the district fired the teacher. While district officials said the book had never been approved, “it was on a reading list sent to parents at the start of the school year,” KFDM reported, and the middle school’s principal reportedly approved the syllabus that mentioned the book.
Nevertheless, one parent told the aforementioned news station, “It’s bad enough, [the teacher is] having them read this for an assignment, but then she also is making them read it aloud and making a little girl talk about feeling each other’s breasts and when she sees a female she goes into ecstasy — that’s not ok.”
The fired teacher has reportedly hired an attorney, but this isn’t the first time that the book’s lesbian content has angered parents.
A Florida principal removed the book from the Vero Beach High School library for being “not age appropriate” after a local chapter of the anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty complained the book was “not a true adaptation of the Holocaust” and contained “graphic” and “sexually explicit” illustrations.
The book has long been used to teach students about the Holocaust. Its sexual passages reflect similar experiences that teenagers undergo throughout puberty.
Notice that the girl who made the claim that a trans girl used the bathroom admits she’s not sure of the identity of the person she saw. So just how did she know the person was trans? She went on looks, the girl did not look girly enough for her. I wonder where she got that criteria that who is female should go on how feminine they look? Who drummed that mistaken misogynistic idea into her head. All girls must look beautiful for men? But stop and ask why it is important that a trans girl not be in a bathroom with sinks and stalls? She is going to do what every other girl does, go into a stall, do what they are there to do, and after she makes sure she is dressed goes to the sink where she washes her hands, maybe checks her looks / does a makeup check. Unless girls in the bathroom are walking around / hanging out nude, then no genitals are seen or should be seen. To have this much hate over an issue that makes no sense is anger and hate for no reason other to attack a minority group. It is the same as whites trying to prevent blacks for using the same bathrooms as whites. It is the very same issue. The father of the girl demanded that trans girls use the single person bathrooms, but he was reminded after he claimed his daughter was traumatized and too upset to use the bathrooms at school despite the fact the father admitted they did not know if the person was trans or another cis girl. He was then reminded his daughter could also be using those bathrooms. Also it is important to know that the school district has been allowing all students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with for years, for a very long time with no complaint. So why was one faked and drummed up now on social media. For the simple reason of targeting a small minority of students. For the fleeting joy of hating and ganging up on LGBTQIA kids. That a congress troll is trying to cause rage and hostility towards a few students in the community is horrifying. They simply don’t want trans people, gay people, anyone not straight and cis in public. Hugs
Marjorie Taylor Greene celebrates school freaking out over possible trans girl in bathroom
A girl possibly saw a trans girl in the bathroom, leading to a walkout. Greene was elated that students were protesting against equal rights.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) commended students for organizing a walkout following weeks of panic in the district after a cisgender girl saw another person who was possibly transgender in the bathroom. The cis girl has since said that she’s not sure of the identity of the person she saw.
“This is the way!!!” Greene tweeted with a video of several hundred students walking out of Perkiomen Valley High School in eastern Pennsylvania.
The issue started several weeks ago when Tim Jagger, the father of a student at the school, posted on Facebook that his daughter saw a boy in the girls’ restroom, leading to outrage on social media.
The Perkiomen Valley school board discussed its bathroom policy at its meeting last week on Monday, September 11, following the attention the incident got. The board considered a policy to ban transgender students from using the restroom that corresponds to their gender.
At the meeting, Jagger admitted that “we aren’t sure” if the person his daughter saw was a trans girl, a cis girl, or a boy, but that didn’t matter because his daughter, he claimed, is “too upset and emotionally disturbed” to use the restroom at all. He told the board that “there is zero reason for someone with male genitalia to be in the girls’ facilities” and that transgender students should be forced to use single-person bathrooms.
This echoed the response he got from principal Cynthia Moss that his daughter can use “a number of single-stall restrooms throughout the building” if she doesn’t want to share a restroom with girls who are different from her.
The anti-trans policy was not passed by the school board in a vote at the September 11 meeting, despite getting support from the president of the board.
Superintendent Barbara Russell told The Philadelphia Inquirer that there have been no incidents in the school related to transgender students using the restroom. Students don’t change for gym class and no trans student is playing on a sports team in the school, so there haven’t been any issues with locker rooms either. She told WPVI that the policy aligns with state and federal protections for transgender students and said there’s no need to change it.
“It did not have to come to this social media, ‘Let’s further divide the community and hurt more kids,’ as opposed to support,” Russell said of Jagger posting to Facebook.
That division over allowing transgender students access to an equal education was amplified when student John Ott organized a walkout last Friday.
“Kids were upset. Girls… we wanted to protect them,” he told Fox News. “They were upset. They didn’t want men in their bathroom.”
Fox found some confusion among students, including one, Brandon Emery, who said that he didn’t know how the school district was going to enact the policy of allowing trans students to use the bathroom, even though that is already the current policy and has been for some time.
Fox & Friends, the far-right network’s morning news show, did a segment on the school district and Emery’s mother, Melanie Marren, told the show that the school didn’t take “into consideration how they affect the students and how uncomfortable it is to just be a teenager in general,” as if transgender students at the school aren’t students or aren’t going through awkward teen years themselves.
One trans former student at the school spoke at the September 11 school board meeting. Tarren McDonnell, who is now 21, said that she got harassed when she used the boys’ restroom, so she would use the single-person nurse’s bathroom. She said that it was far from her classes, adding about five to ten minutes to each restroom trip. It also set her up for harassment; she said that she was followed by a boy once who taunted her as she went to the nurse’s bathroom.
She said that she eventually just started using the girls’ room and “nobody ever gave me issues.”
“I’m praying that something does get done that protects us,” she said at the meeting, adding that she was “saddened to see the hatred and the ignorance” of trans people on display at the meeting.
Beau of the Fifth Column often says the younger generations won’t tolerate the hate and bigotry of the ones pushing anti-LGBTQIA / racist ideas. Yes the right wants to remove all mention and safety for kids that are different and return to an assumed superiority of white people. But they are missing the point. It was like that in the past. In the 1950s our society was just like they are trying hard to return to. Yet we progressed. Social acceptance of people being different from each other and the right to live openly as themselves happened. The right thinks it is because they did not push back hard enough to stop it. The right thinks they should have used violence from the start.
But that is not true, there was always hard push back and violence by those in authority and by churches. Ask any gay kid growing up during those times. I grew up understanding I was gay in the time of Anita Bryant, who was the early version of the hate group started by Chaya Raichik’s Libs of TikTok. Think of the abuse the police dished out even into the late 1990s. I remember when Ron had the bar, we had to have an unbreakable material used for the windows because they were being broken as soon as they were repaired. We had to have a bunch of the bigger better fighters assisting people leaving to make sure no one was assaulted and beaten up by groups of haters. I well tell you, the most awesome thing I have ever seen was a lesbian kicking the ass of 3 redneck assholes who attacked a small gay guy leaving the bar. She taught them a lesson they did not soon forget. We fought back then and I honestly thought we were beyond that hate and society was a safe space for the LGBTQIA. Where LGBTQIA kids could be happy in schools knowing they were safe and accepted. But the haters are bringing it all back. We must not let them indoctrinate future generations into hate and bigotry. We must not let them drive kids back into the closet in fear and shame of who they are. We must not let them remove the LGBTQIA from society and public view. We are here and should be equal, we have our rights and they should be enforced for us. Hugs
Angry parents were left sputtering as students rallied in support of the trans teen.
At Oak Park High School in Kansas City over the weekend, students elected a trans homecoming queen. Tristan Young bested four other nominees to take the crown.
And Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik managed to find the only two parents who are mad about it.
“I’m appalled by NKC Schools’ continued support of the LGBT agenda,” whines one parent for Raichik in an email, referring to the North Kansas City School District.
“They not only indoctrinate children, but they are placing certain student populations over others.”
In another stilted statement from a second aggrieved parent, she writes: “As a woman, it breaks my heart to see these girls get passed over and a man stealing what is rightfully theirs.”
Then she adds, also as a woman, “I’m broken-hearted because I know the students voted for him.”
Raichik was clearly desperate to gin up the usual outrage over the student-led vote and failed miserably.
The queer-addled activist, who’s lately tried to refashion herself as an “independent journalist,” posted the “story” with a headline declaring, “Male crowned homecoming queen, beating out four other girls,” which clarified for trans supporters everywhere that Young is just one of the girls.
“Not the point but Chaya is writing at a sub-middle school level, lol” posted one amused commenter.
NKC Schools shared their congratulations for Young in a tweet with photos from the event.
In one, last year’s winner passes the sash to the new homecoming queen. In another, Young’s parents stand by beaming; her dad sports a Kansas City Chiefs Pride hat.
Young’s election in the revered high school ritual was met with a sense of betrayal by online hacks dismayed that a reliably red state like Missouri could harbor open-minded kids.
“Who’s to blame here?” whined transphobic 5th place finisher Riley Gaines, who tied with trans swimmer Lia Thomas in a collegiate meet last year.
Gaines tried sarcasm to make her poorly conceived point in on X: “So stunning & brave🤴🏻✨ Another reminder to all girls that men make the best women. I wonder if a female will win homecoming king or if it’s understood that both of these spots are reserved for males.”
So stunning & brave🤴🏻✨
Another reminder to all girls that men make the best women. I wonder if a female will win homecoming king or if it's understood that both of these spots are reserved for males. Who's to blame here? pic.twitter.com/ZXHU6Wyiiy
Anne FrankPhoto: Public domain, via Wikipedia
Marjorie Taylor GreenePhoto: Screenshot
Photo: Shutterstock
