A gay teen who was driven to attempt suicide after his mother came under the sway of the group Moms for Liberty is telling his story publicly.
A Vice exposé details how Moms for Liberty went from a local campaign to harass one Florida school board member to a national organization driving the politicization of education in the U.S. in just a few years. The piece also includes the heartbreaking story of one of those LGBTQ+ students, Tony, and his mother, Carolyn, whose last names are withheld to protect their privacy.
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Ron DeSantis helped Moms for Liberty members get on school boards to settle political scores
Political observers worry that the newly installed members will work to oppose LGBTQ-inclusive and anti-racist education across the state.
As writer David Gilbert reports, after being outed by his boyfriend’s parents in early 2022, Tony was berated by his Southern Baptist mother, who told him he was going to hell and forced him into counseling with their pastor, who told him that being gay was evil.
After Tony’s mental health began a precipitous decline—he reportedly stopped playing baseball, locked himself in his bedroom, and engaged in self-harm—Carolyn briefly consented to allowing him to undergo counseling with the local chapter of LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Rainbow Youth Project.
At the same time, however, Carolyn contacted Moms for Liberty after learning about the anti-LGBTQ+ group on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. For months, the group reportedly bombarded Carolyn with anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation, convincing her that Rainbow Youth Project would “convince Tony to have his private parts removed and changed.”
When Carolyn pulled her son out of counseling with the group, Tony told her, “Mom, you just killed me.” He attempted suicide that same day.
Carolyn continued to engage with Moms for Liberty, receiving a visit from a member of the group’s Austin, Texas chapter who suggested that she sue Rainbow Youth Project for “damaging” her son. Tony’s mental health continued to decline, and a second suicide attempt followed.
“They were trying to indoctrinate me to be a foot soldier for their cause,” Carolyn now says of Moms for Liberty. “Looking back, it was never about Tony. It was about them.”
Crushingly, Tony says that his experience is not unique. He says he knows of at least four other young people who participated in a Rainbow Youth Project virtual peer group “that have been through exactly what I have been, where Moms for Liberty and Fox News have totally pulled their parents into this same trap my mom went through.”
Carolyn now holds Moms for Liberty partially responsible for what the now 19-year-old Tony went through after she found him unconscious on his bedroom floor, overdosing. “I’m responsible because I was literally putting him second to all of this, for lack of a better term, bulls**t, that they were giving to me, and I will never do that again. Ever,” she says.
“They are preying on people and when you have a question and you’re trying to save your kid, they took advantage of me and I honestly believe they do that with other parents.”
Tony said that he and his mother are working on their relationship.
“A lot of people hold her responsible for what happened and she is partially responsible. We’ve had that discussion and she knows how I feel about that,” he said. “But she’s really trying. Our relationship is getting stronger. We’re not there yet, but it’s getting stronger.”
As one California school board member told Vice, the group is “inciting people with conspiracy theories and inflammatory accusations about grooming that put trustees, teachers, and LGBTQ students in real danger.”
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgment-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
I want to thank Ali for noticing the post I tried to do on this did not include the link or the article. Thankfully because she added the links so I could find it again. I don’t know why it did not post correctly. I wanted to make sure to post the photos so people can see that these are real kids going through a real gender issues that these laws would prevent, forcing them to go through a puberty of the gender they won’t want to live as or feel is them. That makes it much harder to live as the gender they are, including using the bathroom of the gender that they are and looking so different they need to spend what money they have on cosmetic surgeries to fit what some people say the look for their gender should be. Remember this fact, less than 2.4% of kids who transition regret it for many different reasons, they mostly do it for peer / family pressure often related to religion. Also a fact most should understand kids don’t turn gay or trans from reading or watching which includes seeing gay / trans / or drag queen people. It is not a choice, it is who you are. Hugs
CORRECTS IDENTIFICATION TO ELLE PALMER FROM ASHER WILCOX-BROEKEMEIER – Elle Palmer, 13, speaks during an interview, Monday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Salt Lake City. Republican lawmakers across the country are banning gender-affirming care for minors. The new laws have parents scrambling to secure the care their kids need. They worry what will happen if they can’t get the medications they’ve been prescribed, especially as their kids start puberty and their bodies change in ways that can’t be reversed. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices guitar in his bedroom, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. When Asher began menstruating, he felt a terrifying disconnect between how his body was changing on the outside and how he felt inside. His mom began researching online to understand what was going on with her son, while Asher’s father, Brian, looked to doctors for expertise. With referrals from his longtime pediatrician, Asher met with therapists and doctors who helped explore his history, personality and feelings over his whole life. (AP Photo/Erin
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Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier sits for a portrait in his bedroom, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. More than a year and a half ago, doctors prescribed puberty blockers and birth control to slow breast development, regulate menstruation and lower the pressure of his disconnect with his body. He’s 13 now, and finds solace in music to ground him in a world of occasional bullying and constant pronoun mistakes. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, poses for a portrait with his sticker-adorned skateboard, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Asher still struggles with moments of gender dysphoria. Friendships that were once strong fizzled after Asher came out as transgender. Parents have disinvited him from their houses out of fears he’s a “bad influence.” (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
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Elle Palmer, 13, poses for a photograph, Monday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Salt Lake City. Elle came out as a transgender girl in fifth grade. Now in seventh, she planned to start hormone treatment this summer so potential side effects wouldn’t interfere with her life during the school year, especially her team’s extracurricular math competitions. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices with his skateboard at an elementary school playground after school hours on Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Asher’s parents have noticed his emotions stabilize through his treatment. “From a parent’s view, I see him as being able to be himself authentically, which is wonderful for him,” Elizabeth said. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As a third grader in Utah, mandolin-playing math whiz Elle Palmer said aloud what she had only before sensed, telling a friend she planned to transfer schools the following year and hoped her new classmates would see her as a girl.
Several states northeast, Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier listened to punk rock in his room, longing to join the shirtless boys from the neighborhood playing beneath the South Dakota sunshine. It wasn’t until menstruation started, and the disconnect with his body grew, that he knew he was one of them.
Both kids’ realizations started their families on a yearslong path of doctors, therapists and other experts in transgender medicine.
Now teenagers, their journeys have hit a roadblock.
Elle Palmer, 13, plays her mandolin, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Republican lawmakers across the country are banning gender-affirming care for minors. Restrictions have gone into effect in eight states this year — including conservative Utah and South Dakota — and are slated to in at least nine more by next year.
Those who oppose gender-affirming care raise fears about the long-term effects treatments have on teens, argue research is limited and focus particularly on irreversible procedures such as genital surgery or mastectomies.
Yet those are rare. Doctors typically guide kids toward therapy or voice coaching long before medical intervention. At that point, puberty blockers, anti-androgens that block the effects of testosterone, and hormone treatments are far more common than surgery. They have been available in the United States for more than a decade and are standard treatments backed by major doctors’ organizations including the American Medical Association.
The new laws have parents scrambling to secure the care their kids need. They worry what will happen if they can’t get the medications they’ve been prescribed, especially as their kids start puberty and their bodies change in ways that can’t be reversed.
“My body’s basically this ticking time bomb, just sitting there waiting for it to go off,” said Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, now 13.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices guitar in his bedroom in Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
___
Elle remembers her first day at the school after she transferred. Before leaving, she came downstairs in rainbow sparkle-embroidered cowboy boots her mother worried would only spur bullies. Taunts from kids at Elle’s prior school drove her into depression so deep she had suicidal thoughts.
But on that first day, a boy told Elle he loved her boots. Some kids bullied her, but classmates and teachers were far more supportive than at her prior school. Elle discovered new passions in hip hop and drama class, and she settled into a new school and a truer version of herself. She started to see a therapist as her uncertainty about how she fit in the gender spectrum grew more pressing.
Elle came out as a transgender girl in fifth grade. Now in seventh, she planned to start hormone treatment this summer so potential side effects wouldn’t interfere with her life during the school year, especially her team’s extracurricular math competitions.
Elle Palmer, 13, poses for a photograph in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
But then Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a gender-affirming care ban in January. In a compromise, the law let kids keep taking medications if they were already on them. So Elle’s mom rushed to get her treatment months earlier than planned, as did other parents.
The waitlist at one Utah clinic swelled to six months. Doctors were confronted with difficult decisions about who to get in for appointments.
Elle’s medication arrived in the mail just before Utah’s law went into effect. A small stick implanted in Elle’s forearm is slow-releasing hormone blockers to prevent the effects of male puberty from taking hold. Eventually she may be prescribed estrogen, and she and her parents will have to navigate the next steps, and whether they’ll find doctors to continue her care.
At least for now, they have a reprieve.
“It feels like we can breathe again now,” Cat Palmer said.
Elle Palmer, 13, speaks during an interview, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
___
There’s no relief for Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier’s family — not yet.
When Asher began menstruating, he felt a terrifying disconnect between how his body was changing on the outside and how he felt inside.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier sits for a portrait in his bedroom. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
Elizabeth began researching online to understand what was going on with her son, while Asher’s father, Brian, looked to doctors for expertise. With referrals from his longtime pediatrician, Asher met with therapists and doctors who helped explore his history, personality and feelings over his whole life.
Nearly two years ago, doctors prescribed puberty blockers and birth control to slow breast development, regulate menstruation and lower the pressure of his disconnect with his body.
He’s 13 now, and finds solace in music to ground him in a world of occasional bullying and constant mistaken pronouns. He practices Blink-182’s “All the Small Things” on guitar, plays trumpet in the school band and is rehearsing various singing roles for the Cinderella school musical. When he’s not thinking about testosterone to lower his voice or eventually getting top surgery, he looks forward to playing in the high school marching band next year.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, pulls an a album by The Offspring from his cassette tape collection. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
Asher still struggles with moments of gender dysphoria. Friendships that were once strong fizzled after Asher came out as transgender. Parents have disinvited him from their houses out of fears he’s a “bad influence.”
But his parents have noticed his emotions stabilize through his treatment.
“From a parent’s view, I see him as being able to be himself authentically, which is wonderful for him,” Elizabeth said.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, poses for a portrait with his sticker-adorned skateboard. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
Now he and his parents worry they’ll have to start over.
In February, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a law banning the medications and procedures that doctors have increasingly prescribed for transgender teens.
Asher’s current doctors in South Dakota won’t be able to prescribe his medications, so the family is looking for a new doctor in neighboring Minnesota, where the Democratic governor has signed an executive order explicitly protecting gender-affirming care for minors. They’re hoping to find a clinic close enough they can drive to appointments and don’t have to pay for hotel stays.
The planning has been time-consuming. Logistical questions to their current South Dakota doctors for referrals have gone unanswered. They want to beat whatever onslaught of patients from other states enacting similar bans will bring to providers in Minnesota, but also want to maintain as much normalcy for Asher as they can.
The sudden twists in Asher’s trajectory makes him question why his health care is of concern to politicians.
“Even though trans people don’t make up a big percent of the population doesn’t mean that we’re not part of it still,” Asher said.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices with his skateboard at an elementary school playground after school hours. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
___
The full consequences of the bans on care for minors aren’t yet clear.
Dr. Nikki Mihalopoulos, an adolescent medicine doctor in a Salt Lake City specialty clinic with transgender teens, worries the new laws will make families too scared to seek help and doctors too scared of losing their licenses to provide care.
In the middle are kids like Elle and Asher.
Multiple studies have shown that transgender youth are more likely to consider or attempt suicide and less at risk for depression and suicidal behaviors when able to access gender-affirming care.
Both sets of parents are trying to shelter their kids from the stress and anxiety caused by the recent changes in the laws.
After years of worrying about their kids’ safety and mental health, they still fear what could happen if they can’t find the drugs their kids have been prescribed.
“My kid being OK is my number one priority. I know what the suicide rate is. I do not want my child to be a statistic,” Cat Palmer said of Elle.
This is such a play for the Christian Nationalist, it is scary how blatant it is. I wish DeathSantis had prayed to his god when Hurricane Ian ripped a third of my home away and caused so much damage to our neighbors homes they moved away. That hurricane we took 8 hours of storm wall hurricane force, the worst part of the hurricane. We have lost not only a third of our home for nearly a year, but we took damage to the underneath along with all our floors needing to be replaced along with appliances. Of course our first priority is the roof which we have a contract for over $15,000 and the under the home repairs are estimated to be over 8 grand. Yet this super Christian right wing governor who seems to have the power of the Christian god decided to use it on a hurricane that moved off the coast as was predicted by the European models of storm tracking. Of course, he only uses that power for his big money donors and on hurricanes that already were projected to turn. Long after it did turn and not hit the state hard. Hindsight is a great help to the religious. Hugs
DeSantis: My Prayers Turned Away A Major Hurricane
“We brought the delegation for prayer at the Western Wall. The only thing I can tell you is my prayer in 2019 is that we would be spared the upcoming hurricane season in the state of Florida. And we were in a situation as we got in the height of hurricane season, you had a monstrous hurricane barreling east – or barreling west towards the Florida peninsula, Hurricane Dorian.
“It was a category 5, a very strong category 5, and it was headed – basically gonna ram right into our state. And at that time, when it was on that track, people were saying, ‘Well, God must not be listening to the governor because we may be getting rammed here’
“Well, the storm was heading our way, it slowed down, it turned all the way, 90 degrees, it went north and never impacted our coast. And so, I’m chalking it up to the prayer I put in the Western Wall.” – Ron DeSantis
Speaking in Jerusalem, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) claims Hurricane Dorian did not hit Florida harder in 2019 because of “the prayer I put in the Western Wall.” pic.twitter.com/awHSgVlYjB
While Hurricane Dorian did veer away from Florida in 2019, it still produced enough of an impact that six deaths in the state were linked to the storm. https://t.co/fcWEBKCpEW
Yes, and pretty arrogant to think that is was -his- prayer that changed the course of the hurricane. What about the thousands of others that were praying, and have prayed each time a hurricane comes to the area?
So the next time there’s a hurricane, we all know it’s DeSantis’s fault. Oh, but let me guess, he’ll tell us God is displeased with people opposing him and sent the hurricane to show his displeasure. ———————— A man who thinks his special connection to God controls the weather should not have access to any levers of power.
While this here is just the usual GOPer false-piety pandering, his gleeful legal advice as a Navy junior JAG at Gitmo resulted in torture and war crimes.
During an event at Israel’s Museum of Tolerance, DeSantis was asked about allegations that he was present on at least one occasion when a former Guantánamo detainee was force-fed by guards to quash a hunger strike. The United Nations has deemed force-feeding a form of torture.
Before the reporter could finish his question, DeSantis, who is believed to be preparing a bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, snapped, “No, no… all that’s BS, totally BS.”
After the journalist completed his question, DeSantis angrily responded: “Who said that? How would they know me? Okay, think about that. Do you honestly believe that’s credible?… This is 2006, I’m a junior officer, do you honestly think that they would have remembered me from Adam? Of course not!”
In response, Mansoor Adayfi, a Yemeni citizen who was incarcerated without charges at Guantánamo for 14 years, tweeted, “I will never forget his face, he was laughing and smiling watching me being tortured on the force-feeding chair.”
Jeezuz, then why the hell didn’t his prayers work last September when hurricane 🌀 Ian slammed ashore near Ft.Myers. Why didn’t they work when a storm dropped 2 1/2 feet of rain on Ft. Lauderdale in 24 hours. Do Ronda’s prayers not work unless he sticks them in The Western Wall? I’m gonna email him and tell him where he can STICK his prayers. What a sorry, pathetic phony
I hate that claim of theirs. The Bible, as a whole, never makes that claim for itself. The doctrine of Biblical inerrancy, even Biblical inspiration, is not Biblical.
But the Bible isn’t actually a whole anything. It’s 60-odd manuscripts chosen by the Council of Nicaea (I think), although some religious groups have added/subtracted from that group, covering a wide range of subjects, with various purposes, in different literary styles.
Only the Revelation to John makes a claim of inerrancy, but it almost didn’t make the final cut. Just because that claim (and magical threat) is the last thing in the last book, some have (tried) to apply it to the entire collection.
The authoritative right wing governor who is against woke and pushed through the don’t say gay bills in schools including up to 12th grade (yes no child has internet and heard about gay people by the time they are legal able to vote) has appointed a board to judge each teacher / professor by their ideology. If they are not republican enough, then they get fired or denied tenure. Remember the point of tenure was to ensure that political influence was removed from higher education teaching. That has not worked well for Republicans that are now a dying minority desperate to hold on to power. This is scary as everything DeathSantis has managed to do in Florida has been copied in other red states. Hugs
During a contentious Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, five professors at the New College of Florida were denied tenure—even though they had already received approvals at every other point in the process.
Those professors are the latest casualties of the culture-war politics that led conservative trustees appointed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis to spearhead a self-declared “hostile takeover” of the college.
The tenure denial prompted the abrupt resignation of Matthew Lepinski, the faculty trustee on the board, who accused fellow members of destabilizing NCF. Lepinski walked out after the vote, announcing suddenly that he was “quitting the college.”
The school’s interim president, DeSantis ally and former state House Speaker Richard Corcoran, said in a memo to the trustees that he wanted the professors’ tenure denied or delayed in part because of the administrative changes and because of “a renewed focus on ensuring the college is moving towards a more traditional liberal arts institution.”
The trustees denied tenure for all five professors on identical 6-4 votes, with the new conservative board members in the majority. Shouts of “shame on you!” came from the audience afterward.
The five professors denied tenure are Rebecca Black and Lin Jiang, who both teach organic chemistry; Nassima Neggaz, history and religion with a focus on Islam; coastal and marine science professor Gerardo Toro-Farmer; and Hugo Viera-Vargas, whose specialty is Caribbean/Latin American studies and music.
— The Chronicle of Higher Education (@chronicle) April 28, 2023
In my 13 years in the Florida State University System I have NEVER seen a Board of Trustees overturn a tenure decision. The justification here were vague "extraordinary circumstances," with one board member citing "questionable publication histories." A 🧵on why that's bunk:
All 5 New College professors going up for tenure were denied today, despite approval from the college's faculty and previous administration. Every academic should be paying attention to what's happening there, now. Florida is very likely your future. https://t.co/9ZyvU7meyP
Tenure isn't just a rubber stamp. It's a years long process involving all levels of university governance, and it's incredibly thorough. These are the steps those candidates would have gone through before the Board decided to overturn it on a whim:
When you're hired to a tenure-track position, you receive both annual performance evaluations and annual tenure appraisals from your department chair. These monitor your progress towards tenure, and provide guidance for hitting the relevant marks.
At the midpoint between hiring and tenure, you undergo mid-tenure review. This involves compiling an exhaustive dossier of your accomplishments, which is appraised by a committee of your colleagues, your chair, and the dean.
All candidates must go up for tenure by their 6th year in a tenure-track position. If you go up early, as all of these New College professors did, it's because your case is a slam-dunk. You also tend to get extra scrutiny from your colleagues for going up early.
The tenure dossier is literally hundreds of pages, and it's a colossal amount of work to assemble. I've been through this process twice, once for tenure, and again for promotion to full professor. It's not fun.
Once your dossier is complied, it goes through multiple levels of review pursuant to established departmental, university, and CBA criteria. Most cases are approved (self-selection), but even then it's not 100%. Rejections happen, and it sucks for everyone involved.
By self-selection, I mean that weaker candidates tend to be weeded out earlier. Their appraisals and mid-tenure reviews make it clear that they are not progressing adequately, and they look for other positions rather than face rejection. Denial of tenure is a really bad look.
Tenure cases are reviewed by external referees, a committee of departmental faculty, the department chair, the dean, the university promotion & tenure committee, the provost, and the university president before ever getting to the Board of Trustees.
The university promotion and tenure committee is where most rejections happen. It consists of faculty from all over the university, and they take their job very seriously. The time commitment is immense, and I have the utmost respect for my colleagues who take this service on.
This basic process is used at every Florida SUS institution, including New College. There are some variations. New College, for instance, has divisions instead of departments, and a provost's advisory committee rather than a tenure and promotion committee, but you get the idea.
So by the time these cases arrived on the desks of Chris Rufo and his fellow partisan hacks, they had already gone through an exhaustive internal and external review process at the university level, and been found to have satisfied all of the relevant tenure criteria.
A note about the Boards of Trustees in the Florida State University System. They consist of 13 members: 6 appointed by the governor, 5 appointed by the SUS Board of Governors, as well as the student body president and the faculty association president.
DeSantis made 6 appointments to the Board back in January. They voted unanimously to deny tenure, and they were the only Trustees to do so. The vote was 6-4 in all five cases. I haven't seen any reporting yet on why three Trustees did not participate in the vote.
So there you have it. Five exceptional academics were voted down by a board of partisans appointed by a governor who's using the nation's highest ranked system of public universities as a political football in his quest for higher office.
Since these professors went up early, they can still apply for tenure again next year. But the more likely outcome is that they'll look for jobs elsewhere, as talented university faculty across Florida are now doing in ever-increasing numbers.
i just got a text from a friend in Florida this morning. Her husband has accepted a teaching position here in Connecticut. She’ll miss the climate, but not the crazy as she so nicely put it.
We had a job opening in our department over the summer. When Dodds was announced multiple people withdrew their applications. It was a nightmare filling the job because multiple people offered the job declined the offer. This after multiple interviews and all that. We wound up with a good hire in the end (which just shows how many qualified people there are for many of these jobs) but his wife did not come here with him so I doubt he’ll stay more than a couple of years.
They want to create Florida’s answer to Wheaton College. There are a few of these schools around the country that are known for indoctrinating students already right-leaning. They want a Florida version of that and creating it. There’s really not much anyone can do to stop them either. I have no idea what the result will be. Will they succeed or (more likely) just make a big mess of things. There are very few of these schools where you can get the liberal arts college experience/education at public school prices, so this and another school in Georgia (I forget the name) and I don’t know of many others. But be clear about this, control it or destroy it…either is fine with the far right.
The real reason faculty need tenure is so they won’t be fired at 50 and replaced with someone right out of school who will ask for less money. That’s the main reason workers fought so hard for things like seniority. I hear people sneer at that, but never anyone who was looking for a job after about 45. Yes, academic freedom is important. Your work should be judged by peers not business people who bought their way onto the board.
How dare anyone question the king wannabe? How dare anyone say something different from the authoritarian thin-skinned guy who runs the state like a mob boss. Just like the trump who first made him governor DeathSantis thinks he is smarter than anyone else and knows more than any other. He attacks those who even dare ask him a question he doesn’t like, and tries to destroy those who dare to disagree with him. One of DeathSantis claims is his standards teach students civic, but I guess it is only credit worth if it is republican ideology being supported, not time to go to the capital and protest the hateful republicans. Hugs
The administration is coming after the Leon superintendent’s teaching certificate as well.
Florida officials are threatening to revoke the teaching license of a school superintendent who criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis, accusing the educator of violating several statutes and DeSantis directives and allowing his “personal political views” to guide his leadership.
Such a revocation by the state Department of Education could allow DeSantis to remove Leon County Superintendent Rocky Hanna from his elected office. The Republican Governor did that last year to an elected Democratic prosecutor in the Tampa Bay area who disagreed with his positions limiting abortion and medical care for transgender teens and indicated he might not enforce new laws in those areas.
Disney also sued DeSantis this week,saying he targeted its Orlando theme parks for retribution after it criticized the governor’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that then banned the discussion of sexuality and gender in early grades, but has since been expanded.
Hanna has publicly opposed that law, once defied the governor’s order that barred any mandate that students wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, and criticized a DeSantis-backed bill that recently passed that will pay for students to attend private school. The Leon County district, with about 30,000 students, covers Tallahassee, the state capital, and its suburbs.
“It’s a sad day for democracy in Florida, and the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, when a state agency with unlimited power and resources, can target a local elected official in such a biased fashion,” Hanna said in a statement sent to The Associated Press and other media Thursday. A Democrat then running as an independent, Hanna was elected to a second four-year term in 2020 with 60% of the vote. He plans to run for reelection next year and does not need a teacher’s license to hold the job.
“This investigation has nothing to do with these spurious allegations, but rather everything to do with attempting to silence myself and anyone else who speaks up for teachers and our public schools in a way that does not fit the political narrative of those in power,” Hanna said.
He said the investigation was spurred by a single complaint from a leader of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative education group, requesting his removal.
“We are fighting tirelessly with our local school board to no avail,” Brandi Andrews wrote DeSantis, citing Hanna’s mask mandate, his opposition to the state’s new education laws and directives and his public criticism of the governor. She noted that she had appeared in a DeSantis reelection TV commercial.
Her letter was stamped “Let’s Go Brandon,” a code used by some conservatives to replace a vulgar chant made against President Joe Biden. DeSantis is expected to soon announce he will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in next year’s election. Andrews issued a statement saying her complaint against Hanna was one of many.
Education department spokesman Alex Lanfranconi said in a statement that while officials would not discuss the Hanna investigation in detail, “nothing about this case is special.”
“Any teacher with an extensive history of repeated violations of Florida law would be subject to consequences up to and including losing their educator certificate,” he said. The threatened revocation was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper.
Before any punishment is meted out, Hanna can have a hearing before an administrative judge, attempt to negotiate a settlement or surrender his license. He said in his statement he has not decided what he will do.
Hanna received a letter from Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. earlier this month saying an investigation found probable cause that he violated a 2021 DeSantis directive barring districts from mandating that students wear COVID-19 masks. Hanna required students to wear masks after a Leon third grader died of the disease early that school year. The fight went on for several months until Leon and several other districts had their legal challenge rejected by the courts.
Diaz also cited a memo Hanna issued before this school year telling teachers, “You do You!” and to teach the way they always had, allegedly giving instructors approval to ignore new laws enacted by DeSantis and the Legislature. That includes the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which supporters call the “Parental Rights in Education Act.”
His letter also cites the district’s failure for one month in 2020 to have an armed guard or police officer at every school as required after the 2018 Parkland high school massacre. Hanna said then that there weren’t enough available officers to meet that requirement and the education department cleared him of wrongdoing.
Diaz also complains that parents were told that their children could get an excused absence if they chose to attend a February student protest at the state capitol opposing DeSantis’ education policies.
Offering students a “free day off of school” to attend the rally “is another example of (Hanna) failing to distinguish his political views from the standards taught in Florida schools,” Diaz wrote.
Notice it is his god, not a generic god or an inclusive what ever your deity may be god. Nope he wants to marry the nation to his Christian god and screw anyone with a different religious view. Hugs
Right-wing priest James Altman ranted that "we should crush like the vermin that they are—and they are—every filthy school board member or teacher who tries to shove their mentally ill tranny freak show down the throats of our precious children." https://t.co/BjHHnSQShShttps://t.co/ELOfq7L0HFpic.twitter.com/9ziVTimPBJ
Oh, that’s just brilliant. GOP lawmakers prefer that these people use the ladies rooms:
And these folks should use the men’s rooms:
If it actually happened, the initial result would be hysteria and attacks by the majority of Kansas patrons. But the actual result will be that transgender Kansans will refrain from using public bathrooms, refrain from making themselves a target, and move away. And that’s the GOP’s ultimate goal, of course: the elimination of transgender people from their state. After which, these loathsome politicians can aim their attacks at lesbians and gays, Jews, Blacks and other “undesirables.”
As April tells us it is not the trans people who blend in that these bills will hurt, but trans people like her who do not blend well due to having to go through the wrong puberty and transitioning later in life. She is correct, not that she is an ugly woman, but these laws give the haters a reason to challenge those that they don’t think are womanly enough or manly enough so these haters will demand others prove to them their gender. They don’t have that right but these laws make them think they do. April is now scared to use public facilities in her state for fear she will be assaulted by people who don’t think she is feminine enough to use a woman’s bathroom. Hugs
This is also a perfect example of how this law is nothing but showboating for all the stoopids. Nobody’s checking the birth certificate of these people, they’re going to continue to use the bathroom they know is now the correct one for them.
Every public bathroom ever has STALLS with DOORS that LOCK.
All anyone ever wants is to go in that stall, lock the door, and do their business in private. Without someone outside bothering them. Give people their dignity.
One parent, just one complained. It is not enough to deny their own child / children the right to see the play but they have to deny it for all the kids. Too bad if you wanted your child to see the play, the hater parent wins because the laws are set up to support right wing Christian maga parents, not anyone else. The majority are now ruled by the tyranny of the Christian Taliban minority. Hugs
A Texas school district canceled a field trip to see a performance of “James and the Giant Peach” after a single parent complained that actors were dressed in drag.
The parent raised concerns at a recent school board meeting that some actors were playing both men and women in the performance, saying that was inappropriate for children, and the Spring Branch Independent School District canceled the visit,reported KTRK-TV.
“Spring Branch ISD’s pending field trips to the Main Street Theater performance of ‘James and the Giant Peach’ are being canceled due to concerns raised about the age-appropriateness of the performance,” administrators told the TV station.
The play, which is based on the Roald Dahl book, is intended for children as young as first grade, and a spokeswoman for Main Street Theater said the parent who complained was wrong.
“Drag is a different art form,” said Shannon Emerick, the theater’s marketing director. “There is a whole art form that is drag. The amazing thing is the kids just believe the story. They’re not interested in any agendas or anything else anyone thinks is going on.”
A Spring Branch parent agreed, and said that shouldn’t matter either way.
“Drag is not a big deal — it’s theater, it’s art,” said parent Cheri Thomas. “It’s been part of our culture for years.”
Remember this is the same person who outright lied about the covid vaccine to please DeathSantis that has also made untrue medical claims about trans care for young people that was used by some anti-trans bigots to discredit the main stream medical associations directives to support transition. This guy will say anything to please his boss regardless of the real medical science / data. Remember Ladapo is an acolyte of Dr. Demon Semen, per Joe.My.God. He was part of the Frontline Doctors team that charged big money to prescribe Ivermectin and other ineffective substances to cure / prevent / treat covid. This group made big money lying to people and they were proud of it. Profit before the health of people, money comes before the lives of the public. Hugs
Joseph Ladapo defended the move, saying revisions are a normal part of assessing such analysis.
Joseph Ladapo, a well-known Covid-19 vaccine skeptic, faced a backlash from the medical community after he made the assertions. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a state-driven study about Covid-19 vaccines last year to suggest that some doses pose a significantly higher health risk for young men than had been established by the broader medical community, according to a newly obtained document.
Ladapo’s changes, released as part of a public records request, presented the risks of cardiac death to be more severe than previous versions of the study. He later used the final document in October to bolster disputed claims that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were dangerous to young men.
The surgeon general, a well-known Covid-19 vaccine skeptic, faced a backlash from the medical community after he made the assertions, which go against guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Pediatrics. But Ladapo’s statements aligned well with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stance against mandatory Covid-19 vaccination.
Researchers with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and University of Florida, who viewed Ladapo’s edits on the study and have followed the issue closely, criticized the surgeon general for making the changes. One said it appears Ladapo altered the study out of political — not scientific — concerns.
“I think it’s a lie,” Matt Hitchings, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida, said of Ladapo’s assertion that the Covid-19 vaccine causes cardiac death in young men. “To say this — based on what we’ve seen, and how this analysis was made — it’s a lie.”
The newly released draft of the eight-page study, provided by the Florida Department of Health, indicates that it initially stated that there was no significant risk associated with the Covid-19 vaccines for young men. But “Dr. L’s Edits,” as the document is titled, reveal that Ladapo replaced that language to say that men between 18 and 39 years old are at high risk of heart illness from two Covid vaccines that use mRNA technology.
“Results from the stratified analysis for cardiac related death following vaccination suggests mRNA vaccination may be driving the increased risk in males, especially among males aged 18-39,” Ladapo wrote in the draft. “The risk associated with mRNA vaccination should be weighed against the risk associated with COVID-19 infection.”
In a statement to POLITICO, Ladapo said revisions and refinements are a normal part of assessing surveillance data and that he has the appropriate expertise and training to make those decisions.
“To say that I ‘removed an analysis’ for a particular outcome is an implicit denial of the fact that the public has been the recipient of biased data and interpretations since the beginning of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine campaign,” he said. “I have never been afraid of disagreement with peers or media.”
He also said that he determined the study was worthwhile since “the federal government and Big Pharma continue to misrepresent risks associated with these vaccines.”
The DeSantis administration referred questions to Florida’s Department of Health.
He was also a supporter of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that former President Donald Trump often praised as a treatment for Covid. The FDA later withdrew emergency authorization for its use.
Ladapo was picked by DeSantis in September 2021 to become the state’s surgeon general as DeSantis waged war against President Joe Biden’s Covid-related restrictions and ordered the state to ban mask-wearing requirements in schools and employer-issued vaccine mandates.
Ladapo drew criticism in part because he was affiliated with the conservative America’s Frontline Doctors, a group founded to fight Covid restrictions by anti-vaccine advocate Simone Gold. Ladapo devoted an entire chapter to his friendship with Gold in a memoir he published last year titled “Transcend Fear.”
Yet the researchers who viewed a copy of the edits said Ladapo removed an important analysis that would have contradicted his recommendation. Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, called Ladapo’s changes “really troubling.”
“He took out stuff that didn’t support his position,” Salmon said. “That’s really a problem.”
Hitchings chastised the integrity of Ladapo’s study after it was released last fall but is now much more critical.
“What’s clear from the previous analysis, and even more clear from Dr. L’s edits, is that absolutely there was a political motivation behind the final analysis that was produced,” Hitchings said. “Key information was withheld from the public that would have allowed them or other experts to interpret this in context.”
Ladapo’s edits also shed new light on an anonymous internal complaint he faced last year. The complaint, which the Florida Department of Health’s inspector general investigated, accused Ladapo of “scientific fraud” for allegedly manipulating the final draft of the study.
The inspector general stopped probing the complaint after the anonymous person failed to respond to emails. In a previous interview with POLITICO, Ladapo said the accusations were “factually false.”
Talk about the party of small government. I guess small enough to fit in your bedroom and in your underwear or bed. How do these people figure they have a right to decide which adults can live together, Oh right they are the Christian Taliban moral police. First they decide what women can do with their reproductive health needs forcing them to carry pregnancies they don’t want or that will kill them, then what is proper clothing to wear for each gender, then who can live with whom, then what those gender roles must be. Oh and notice what they use as justification for preventing consenting adults of different sexes living together? Yes the children, have to protect the children while pushing that Christian religious morality. Here it comes. Hugs
Law signed in 1931 is rarely enforced but carries penalty of prison time and $1,000 fine
In Michigan, for the first time in four decades, Democrats control the legislature and the governor’s mansion. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/AP
An attempt to repeal a Michigan law that punishes unmarried couples who live together is being thwarted by Republicans in the state legislature.
The law, which dates to 1931, targets “any man or woman, not being married to each other, who lewdly and lasciviously associates and cohabits together”.
It is rarely enforced but violations carry a penalty of up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Senate Bill 56, which seeks to repeal the law, attracted support from all state senate Democrats and half of Republicans. But nine Republicans voted against.
Edward McBroom, a Republican, spoke in opposition to the bill on the senate floor – for, he said, the sake of the “common good”.
He said: “This law was not passed to be mean … it was passed for the betterment of society, particularly for children.”
McBroom argued that unmarried cohabitation does not promote marriage, and that such arrangements lead to broken homes that hurt children.
Another Republican state senator against repealing the antiquated law said his reasons for doing so were tax-related.
Thomas Albert said: “I very easily would be a yes on this bill if the tax structure continued to encourage marriage.”
According to federal law, an individual may not claim someone such as their domestic partner as a dependent, if their state outlaws the nature of their relationship. Only one other state – Mississippi – has a similar law regarding unmarried couples.
In Michigan, for the first time in four decades, Democrats control the legislature and the governor’s mansion.
Referencing that new landscape, a Democratic state senator, Erika Geiss, tweeted: “Between this and the anti-abortion laws that are now repealed in Michigan, 1931 was quite the year in Michigan when its legislature was composed of solely men.
“But this legislature in 2023, composed of mostly women, is fixing that shit.”
Photo: flickr / public domain
In Michigan, for the first time in four decades, Democrats control the legislature and the governor’s mansion. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/AP
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