Category: MAGA / Republican
Republican filed bill to ban Pride flags, fly Confederate flag in goverment buildings
This is what passes for Republican patriotism, denying rights to people but instead trying to honor the active attempt to overthrow the US government in order to continue to own people as property. No joke, and no it was about heritage bullshit, even the people at the highest levels said it was about the right to own those people with a non-white skin as property. That is what the republican party has become and seems to have been for nearly 70 years. They wanted to deny black people rights, and now they want to keep denying anyone but white Christians rights. It if fucking time they grow up and realize that modern society is not built on their racism and bigotry. That is why they are attacking the schools that teach children acceptance and tolerance, not racism and bigotry. Hugs
Photo: ShutterstockFlorida state Sen. Jay Collins (R) filed an amendment to legislation about what flags could be flown on public government buildings and properties to allow the Confederate flag to be flown at such buildings, classrooms, and offices. The legislation excluded the LGBTQ+ Pride flag from a list of approved flags.
Collins has since withdrawn the amendment, with his spokesperson saying that Collins filed it in “error” and is not a “confederate sympathizer.” The spokesperson didn’t explain why Collins had pro-confederate amendment laying around his office for him to accidentally file.
Collins’ legislation, S.B. 668, allows only the following flags to be flown: the U.S. flag; U.S. military flags; the United Nations flag; the Olympic flag; the flags of foreign countries; the prisoners of war-missing in action (POW-MIA) flag; the Firefighter Memorial flag; the flags of Florida, its counties, municipalities, public universities, and colleges; and flags indicating beach warnings. His amendment would have added the Confederate flag to that list.
While the legislation didn’t explicitly mention the LGBTQ+ flag, Maxx Fenning, president of LGBTQ advocacy group PRISM, told Miami New Times last month, “This [legislation] feels like a no-brainer that this is directed at pride flags.”
Orlando Gonzales, executive director of local LGBTQ nonprofit SAVE (Safeguarding American Values for Everyone), called the bill “a fake, postured patriotic bill” that violates free speech.
“What are they afraid of? What is the fear?” Gonzales asked the publication. “I think the fear is very clear and that is less and less America is being made of white individuals, and those individuals feel that their power is being threatened.”
The House version of the bill was introduced by state Rep. David Borrero (R), a co-sponsor of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits the mention of LGBTQ+ identities in public elementary schools.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Collins’ spokesperson Ted Veerman said that Collins, a military veteran, “is an American patriot who personally sewed his arm back together on the battlefield in Afghanistan as he was hemorrhaging blood along with losing his leg due.”
“Any insinuation that Jay is a confederate sympathizer is disgusting,” Veerman added. “This amendment draft was filed in error and has already been pulled as we work to ensure the wording of our bill is in line with the state constitution and statute, which is what created this issue in the first place.”
The Confederate flag, created by pro-slavery forces during the U.S. Civil War of the early 1860s, was revived by white supremacists and others in the South during the Black Civil Rights era of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, according to National Geographic.
Neo-Nazis descended on a drag queen story hour event shouting “Sieg heil”
The enforcement arm of the republican party shows how rabid the right wing has become. They are there to “protect the children” by screaming white supremacy slogans and saluting Hitler to those same children. The thugs are scaring they claim are harmed by people dressing up peacefully reading to the kids instead of the angry shouts about how they will harm these people and displays of violence and firearms. How much does it harm a child to be part of a situation where they and their parents are harassed while walking to an event by people screaming horrible abuse at those same parents?
This has nothing to do with the children. Nothing. It is about controlling the public and what is visible in society. It is about threatening the public so much that these no one will attend these events, no venue will put on the attractions. It is about making everyone in the country / state / area do as this small violent minority demand people do, act as these thugs demand you act, control what can be seen / heard in public. Most of these people are regressive Christian nationalists who demand you follow their moral ideas based on something from 2,500 years ago with the current upgrade to 1855. They want the right to force you to act in accordance with their loose collection of fundamentalist church doctrines. It is not about the children as these enforcers bosses cut child food assistance, cut school lunch programs, slash the age at which little girls can be married off to fully grown adults, refuse to curb guns used in schools shootings, and so much more, but instead they are banning learning because education increases the chance a child moves beyond the fundamentalist conspiracy ideology and move into the modern reality that these people are fighting against. Hugs
Chris Pohlhaus Photo: ScreenshotIn a scene that is becoming all too common around the U.S., white supremacist and far-right anti-LGBTQ+ protesters descended on an Ohio park where a drag queen story hour event was taking place over the weekend, clashing with supporters and descending into chaos and violence.
According to documentarian Ford Fischer, who attended the event and posted video online, extremist groups including Proud Boys, Patriot Front, III Percenters, White Lives Matter of Ohio, and Neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe joined local conservatives to protest a family-friendly “Rock-n-Roll Humanist Drag Queen Story Hour” at Wadsworth Memorial Park in Wadsworth, Ohio on Saturday. The groups clashed with supporters of the event, including Parasol Patrol, a Colorado-based group that uses rainbow umbrellas to shield children from anti-LGBTQ+ protesters at similar events.
Protesters shouted neo-Nazi slogans as well as racial and anti-LGBTQ+ slurs. One man with a megaphone led the crowd in a call-and-response chant of “Sieg heil,” and another waved a flag bearing a swastika. At least one man, later identified as Blood Tribe founder Chris Pohlhaus, was armed.
According to the Akron Beacon Journal, protesters followed parents and children who attended into and out of the event. Police said that the crowd included at least 200 people, with protesters outnumbering supporters and many vehicles bearing out-of-state license plates.
A Black journalist with the Beacon Journal left the scene after being targeted with racist slurs.
Kristopher Anderson, a local Republican who helped organize about 90 people to protest the event, claimed that the white supremacist and white nationalist groups were not affiliated with his group’s protest. Anderson said his group was there to protest the supposed “grooming” of children and called the racist messaging a “distraction.” Another protester said he was shocked by what the white supremacist groups were saying.
According to local newspaper The Gazette, Christian conservative protesters chanted “18-plus gets rid of us.” Some claimed they were not anti-LGBTQ+ but merely wanted to ban children from drag events.
At one point, a protester with Anderson’s group pulled what appeared to be a gun and pointed it at counter-protesters. The same man was later arrested for hitting a counter-protester with a flagpole, and police later confirmed that the object was not a firearm, but a device designed to deploy pepper spray.
A counter-protester was also arrested and charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
While no one was injured, paramedics treated one person for a seizure and another for a twisted knee.
Organizers of the “Rock-n-Roll Humanist Drag Queen Story Hour” obtained a permit from the city to host the event in the park earlier this month. But the event was controversial. A private venue previously declined to host it, and Wadsworth City Council President Bob Thurber promised to ask the city council to “consider legislation that would ban adult-oriented performances held on city property with minors in attendance.” Tennessee recently became the first state in the nation to pass similar legislation.
Despite the chaos surrounding the picnic shelter where the event took place on Saturday, the “Rock-n-Roll Humanist Drag Queen Story Hour” proceeded as planned. According to The Gazette, drag performer River Rose read to about 15 children and later sang and danced. Aaron Reed, a Wadsworth resident who promoted the event, said that the attire and music were appropriate for children.
Happening now…
Happening now…
In 1 minute, a senate committee in Kansas will be holding a hearing to ban gender affirming care up to the age of 21.
It is one of the most cruel anti-trans bans in the country.
I will be covering it live. Follow along.
🧵
As always, I rely on people like you to do my work. Please consider subscribing to support me at my newsletter, where you'll get over 200 articles focusing on trans news around legislation and life moving across the United States per year.
https://erininthemorn.substack.com/
You can follow along with me and watch the hearing here:
The bill is SB12.
We are beginning now.
Looks like the bill has been shifted to SB233, which has some differences in penalties.
Aaaand of course we have Chloe Cole.
You’d think if they are swimming in detransitioners they’d be able to find more than the same 5 they bring to every one of these.
Political Detransitioners like Chloe Cole really are the new ex-gays.
They used to trot the ex gays out before each hearing too for bans on gay marriage and conversion therapy.
https://erininthemorn.substack.com/p/political-detransitioners-are-the
"I have to remove my hair with laser hair removal"
(advocates for a bill that will force hundreds of trans amab youth through a male puberty which will result in them having to go through laser hair removal and expensive surgeries as adults)
This guy is testifying from "Mass Resistance."
This organization is responsible for a book called "The Hazards of Homosexuality," a pro-conversion therapy outlet that calls gay people's existance a "public health issue"
Like I said. The new ex gays, folks.
This is one of their main invited testimonies.
See Mass Resistance here:
https://www.massresistance.org/AboutUs.html
And we have our first "the testimony of Jamie Reed" in Washington University at St Louis.
I have a point by point refutation of Jamie.
https://erininthemorn.substack.com/p/missouri-anti-trans-whistleblower
Dr. Gaylyn Perry is speaking not on behalf of any medical organization.
She’s a pulmonologist, not an endocrinologist.
She’s a sleep therapist.
Also she's stating that Europe is "closing its clinics."
Not a single country she is referring to has categorically banned gender affirming care.
From the Alabama lawsuit, relying on Europe helped sink that bill in court:
"No country in Europe has categorically banned gender affirming care"
Now a retired doctor is testifying.
“I’m here to speak the truth about natural law and the truth given to us by our savior.”
This is not medically oriented testimony and his belief in god should have no bearing on the right of parents to make decisions for their kids.
This doctor is using the old 2011 study of "19x suicide rates" among trans people.
This is an inaccurate reading of the Dhejne study, who has specifically come out against people reading it that way:
Essentially, they are comparing a specific high risk group trans people to the general public, and not to trans people with no interventions, and it was also looking at a 30 year retrospective during some of the worst acceptance of trans people in history. (1980s)
A representative of the Kansas American Academy of Pediatrics with 450 physicians in Kansas.
She’s saying that this decision should be between doctors and patients and families.
The ACLU of KS representative is speaking.
"This bill violates the constitutional rights of children, parents, and doctors"
“It places politicians feelings against medical advice of hundreds of thousands of doctors”
"Every state attempting to defend these bills has lost"
“People will die. Families will suffer. The practice of medicine will be compromised.”
“The very care this bill attacks is responsible for my life.”
Another trans person, a trans man, is speaking.
He was on puberty blockers til 17, and took testosterone.
“College was much easier after I had my medical interventions to be my true self.”
“I can’t imagine such a life without them.”
A WPATH Doctor is speaking.
“This bill will directly impact the lives of transgender youth, directly impacting lives. Their blood will be on your hands. This is unethical.”
"For a minor to access gender affirming care, I ensure in collaboration with mental health experts assess the consistent, insistent, and persistent presence of gender dysphoria and require consent from parents" and she talks about all of the hoops patients have to jump through.
Reverend Kayla Simons Wood is speaking on behalf of Kansas Interaction.
Submits testimony from 10 clergy opposing this bill.
“I and many other Christians believe trans people are created in Gods image.”
Beth Oller:
“I provide full spectrum care from babies to end of life and I provide gender affirming care. I am an actual practicing Kansas physician.”
“The majority of people detransition not because they are not trans, but because of violence and difficulties with family”
"We need to listen to their perspective rather than the curated presentation in front of you"
Senator Stephen is asking Dr. Hubbard, a WPATH doctor, a question.
"Ms. Hubbard, Are you telling me the AAP unwaiveringly supports surgical interventions"
Dr. Hubbard: “I would appreciate it if you refer to me as Dr. Hubbard, please.”
Then points out that the treatments are tailored to the individuals.
Questioner: "Can you tell me where from Kansas you received your gender affirming care?"
"I'm not from Kansas…"
Questioner: "Is this the first time you've testified?"
"No…"
Asking Dr Crabs:
"Your testimony was from the 1980s about transgender suicides. So not current. Can I ask you where you practiced?"
"I did not practice here"
"can you verify you had a license in kansas?"
The chair cut her off.
Now a Senator is asking Dr. Beth Oller where she works (one of the people against the bill):
The doctor responds she works in Kansas.
Strongly pointing out that all of the people in support of the bill are coming from out of state.
Now a Senator is asking one of the trans man transitioners if he was given all of the info around his transition.
He answers in the affirmative.
Now they are asking a question of one of the detransitioners,
"Do you believe you were groomed into the decision to transition?"
“I don’t believe in using that word… it’s too divisive…”
This hearing isn't going super well for them.
(They'll probably still vote it through)
ACLU witness:
“I am referring to the 1.3 million doctors that are represented by the medical organizations that support this care.”
This Senator is claiming puberty blockers and HRT are causing early onset cancer.
There’s no evidence of any sort of outbreak of early onset cancer in trans youth.
Asked of the AAP representative if the majority supports gender affirming care in their chapter.
She testifies yes, most of the 450 do.
Now she is asking about the Missouri whistleblower.
“A radical supporter of the far left has blown the whistle”
“Are there other areas of medical practice where the child directs their health care?”
The doctor: “Everything the child is involved in, but the child themselves does not direct gender diverse issues. It’s parents, doctors”
The doctor in the zoom call wanted to jump in and answer, but the chair cut the committee short and immediately adjourned.
I guess we're done for the day?
That was abrupt.
I have never seen such a rushed hearing with so few witnesses called forward… what the heck did I just see?
Sorry to those of you who showed up to testify who didn't get to.
Well… thanks for following along. We'll watch to see how they vote. Please support my independent reporting and activism by subscribing.
http://erininthemorn.substack.com
Originally tweeted by Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) on February 14, 2023.
Florida Now Going After Social Studies Textbooks
The white nationalist religious racist maga fanatics are not satisfied with wiping out the LGBTQ+ from schools and making their lives difficult in Florida. Now they want to whitewash the racist history of the US to wipe out the mistreatment and economy of the slave states built of free slave labor that gave no benefit of that labor to the black people but instead benefited only the white people. This started with outlawing any teaching that would make white kids uncomfortable, with no care how the black kids in the same classes / age groups felt. It was totally geared to the comfort and image of the white students. This current drive removed the historical context as to why the standard economic situations are so different when you compare white economic status to the average black family’s economic status. This denies the systematic racism that has existed in the US even to today. Red lining preventing community up grades, loans for businesses in majority black areas, the taking of black areas by the government so businesses could make profit that again destroyed black communities. Mass transit was often denied to lower income black areas that needed it for work because they couldn’t afford cars. There are so many ways the systems are designed to disadvantage blacks that make the current economic situation clear it is not the black communities fault. Look at the difference in funding and supplies between traditional majority black public schools compared to white majority public schools. This is being done so that racist can make a case that the situation black people are in is their own doing, they are less intelligent than whites, they care less about their families than whites, they care less about their homes / property than whites, the reason police action against blacks is they don’t respect police or follow their directions like white people do leaving out the context of the way blacks are treated by police in the US even in the modern day.
We must fight back against this with everything we have. Florida has already become the Meca paradise for the white supremist white Christian nationalist crowd backed up by thug gang enforcers that love the Gov. DeathSantis attacks anyone who is different while acting like a king with any who disagrees with him, threatening what little free press remains. Oh ya, this is the free state of Florida according to DeathSantis campaign slogan. Hugs
The New York Times reports:
In Florida, textbooks have become hot politics, part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign against what he describes as “woke indoctrination” in public schools, particularly when it comes to race and gender. Last year, his administration made a splash when it rejected dozens of math textbooks, citing “prohibited topics.” Now, the state is reviewing curriculum in what is perhaps the most contentious subject in education: social studies.
In the last few months, as part of the review process, a small army of state experts, teachers, parents and political activists have combed thousands of pages of text — not only evaluating academic content, but also flagging anything that could hint, for instance, at critical race theory. The Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative group, has urged the state to reject 28 of the 38 textbooks that its volunteers reviewed.
Bypass the paywall via this gift link.
They’re even going after Rosa Parks.
Hey Teacher … what does “different sorts of groups” mean?
Why did a lady being asked to move her seat go to the Supreme Court?
Kids won’t ask such questions. I remember being told “savages” liked being civilized by European invaders when the country was founded
I thought that sounded wrong but I didn’t speak up as a kid
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
– democratic Socialist George Orwell.
I can’t wait for FL kids to learn about the War of Northern Aggression and the reign of the Tyrant Lincoln. /s
It “focuses too much” on the “negative side” to our genocide of the collective tribes and nations of the Native American cultures?
So they’re saying they want us to celebrate genocide then?
Figures. They are neo-nazis after all.
I’m glad we are getting some actual examples now of what these changes entail. They are even worse than I imagined. So bad that the students, I hope, will be correcting the teachers.
A whole state full of white supremacists. That’s what ROnda Sandtits is shooting for
Because no one will know that white people did anything wrong .
DeSantis vs. diversity: Blacklists have universities playing defense as Republicans attack<.b>
” In more than a dozen interviews with the Herald, faculty and staff described a quiet calculus on campuses as educators navigate an increasingly hostile work environment resulting from vague and ever-evolving directives coming from Tallahassee.
Arizona Schools Chief Launches Anti-Teacher Snitch Line
Over the last 50 years while the democrats pursued only the highest offices in the land the republicans were pushing hard to take over state government and the churches rushed to take over the school boards. I remember that in the 1990s in Palm Beach Conty that the big churches were fielding stealth candidates to take over the boards and change what was being taught. It was underway back then! Now the right wing /maga republicans are using their complete control over the levers of state power to end right, roll back protections, to take the states back to a time of strict gender roles for the sexes and a time when minorities were second class citizens who either knew their place or they were not allowed in society in any way. In fact they are not just trying to return society where gays were a shame to the family but they want a time when gays could be arrested along with denied working for any level of government being banned from security clearances. They are driving hard for this. Look at the red states trying hard to bring back banned conversion therapy that has been well and full debunked as not only something that doesn’t work but was found to be very harmful to those subjected to it. They again want to deny the medical science because it shows their ideology is wrong. Being gay or trans is not a choice, it is not a disease needing to change or cured. People are born gay / trans and while some manage to hide it, they should have to. They should be able to live their lives freely as they really are. Plus now they want to set up secret hidden police where neighbor spys on each other and reports to hotlines those not following the party rule. Hugs
From the Arizona Department of Education:
Arizona schools chief Tom Horne has launched the Department of Education “Empower Hotline” so that Arizonans can report inappropriate public school lessons that detract from teaching academic standards.
These include those that focus on race or ethnicity, rather than individuals and merit, promoting gender ideology, social emotional learning, or inappropriate sexual content.
The hotline provides the opportunity for constituents to provide feedback, concerns or complaints, which is a standard service offered by multiple government agencies and private-sector businesses.
It is available at 602-771-3500, or through email at empower@azed.gov. The phone line will be staffed during normal business hours, but after-hours phone calls as well as emails will be accepted at any time and followed up appropriately.
Horne explained, “Some say critical race theory (CRT) is a graduate study, not taught in K-12 schools. The evidence is to the contrary. I have a list of 250 Arizona teachers who signed a shocking statement promoted by the national teachers’ union, that if critical race theory were banned, they would defy the law.
“They would not have signed if they were not already teaching it. They come from 25 school districts, including the largest ones. Teachers must teach academics, not use their power over a captive audience, to promote their personal ideology. That is unprofessional conduct.”
Horne added, “I promised to establish this hotline so that anyone could report the teaching of inappropriate lessons that rob students of precious minutes of instruction time in core academic subjects such as reading, math, science, history and the arts. That promise is being kept.”
While Arizona state attorney general, Horne threatened to sue cities that recognized out-of-state same-sex marriages. That same year he proposed legislation allowing public school teachers to carry guns. Horne has faced multiple allegations of campaign finance crimes and has a lifetime trading ban by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to an investment firm he founded before running for public office. As you can see below, he is a supporter of QAnon freak show Vaseline Woman.
I hope that students flood the call line with reports of teachers talking about their heterosexual spouses, or wearing crosses and talking about their faith.
Horne explained, “Some say critical race theory (CRT) is a graduate
study, not taught in K-12 schools. The evidence is to the contrary. I
have a list of 250 Arizona teachers who signed a shocking statement
promoted by the national teachers’ union, that if critical race theory
were banned, they would defy the law.
He missed a great opportunity to use the phrase “I have here in my hand…”
They were pulling that up in New Hampshire after passing their law banning “divisive concepts” in the classroom.
Now they’re whining about a big teacher shortage because all the good ones who could got the hell out and moved here to Massachusetts or elsewhere.
“The whole function of education is to create a Nazi.” ~ Bernhard Rust, Nazi education minister, February 1938
This Canadian immigrant, son of Polish immigrants, cost Arizona millions of dollars when as Attorney General he got the Republican-run legislature to ban Mexican studies here in Tucson. Went all the way to the Supremes, who told this old fuck to fuck the fuck off. The bill he promoted banned well-known history books because they mentioned discrimination against Mexican-Americans. Always interesting to see immigrants coming to the US and promoting hatred towards other immigrants (e.g., Rupert Murdoch).
Superintendent Horne said, “There’s nothing more outrageous than religious prejudice…”
Nothing? I can think of a few things:
– pastors who sexually abuse children
– revivals
– evangelical parents who brainwash their children
– “ex-gay” torture
– Anti-Semitism
– racism
– rape
– laws that dehumanize and persecute LGBTQ people
– Republicans
– Trumpvangelicals
– QAnon cultists
– White/Christian Nationalists
– book bans
– the dissemination of far-right propaganda
– everyone who works at Fox
Just remember this is what the republicans are screaming vehemently against
Woke = Compassion, caring, sympathy/empathy and love.
Michigan prosecutor mulls charging Lapeer library over LGBTQ book
You need to read the article. As it states this is a blatant attack on the LGBTQ+ community. With adults checking out the books and taking them to the police. At the same time the librarian notes that these same people including the prosecutor attack books with LGBTQ+ themes don’t care at all about the many more books for teens that deal with heterosexual sex or pictures and noted the library has the straight Joy of Sex book that I remember well had many depictions of sex, how to have sex, sex organs, and sex positions. They don’t care about that at all, because that reenforces their world view that sex between boys and girls is great / normal but anything not that is a horrible evil sin against gods ways done by degenerate evil people that want to corrupt the country. Notice that Lauren Boebert who attacks the gay / trans community nonstop and calls teachers who support equality for the LGBTQ+ community groomers while attacking any and all sex education in any level of public schools announced her 17 year old son got a girl who is now 14 (somewhat sketchy under the laws in that state) pregnant and Boebert couldn’t be happier. She left school because she was pregnant at 16 and because her son got no education to even use a condom when he had sex he got a minor girl pregnant. He is also know for driving his four wheelers at breakneck dangerous speed in the local streets endangering small kids and pets along with being an asshole.
Some quotes from the article:
“I have heard, if he could, he’d arrest me. He’s trying to intimidate us,” she told Bridge.
Churchill told Bridge that the library purchased a copy of “Gender Queer” in the fall of 2022 at the request of a patron.
One resident checked the book out and took it to the police, Churchill said. The police returned the book to the library.
Miller is a Republican who won election as prosecutor in November. In January, four weeks after taking office, Miller filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the library, seeking records connected to the consideration, approval and purchase of “Gender Queer,” which he misidentified as “Gender Queen.” The public records also asked for a record of “who voted for and against the addition of the book” to the library.
But most telling was this set of quotes from the article.
Miller said the book’s target audience is teenagers, and that, to him, the drawings of sex acts appeared to involve “prepubescent boys.”
To the prosecutor, the book’s availability to youth could meet the bar for a crime in Michigan because, to him, the book “entices” underage teens to engage in sex acts.
“While I hope not to prosecute someone over this book, I feel it’s part of the community’s decision,” Miller said. “This isn’t about LGBTQ, this is about the exploitation of children.”
Churchill countered that Miller and other conservatives in the community are only objecting to an LGBTQ book with illustrations of sex acts, but not to books like “The Joy of Sex,” which depict sex acts by heterosexual couples, which is also housed at the library.
“If anything, we have an underrepresentation of books about marginalized communities,” including LGBTQ community, Churchill said.
“Gender Queer” is normally shelved in the adult section of the Lapeer library. To Miller, that doesn’t matter because teens could wander over and find it.
The article is below and includes so much more bigotry and hate from the right in it. Hugs
Amy Churchill, director of the Lapeer District Library, is facing the possibility of criminal charges from a conservative county prosecutor in a fight over an LGBTQ-themed book. (Bridge courtesy photo)
- A Michigan county prosecutor is raising the specter of criminal charges over a controversial book
- ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ is an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel
- The book will be discussed at what is expected to be a heated meeting Thursday
Lapeer County Prosecutor John Miller says he may file criminal charges against employees or officials of the Lapeer District Library if an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel isn’t removed from the shelves.
Miller told Bridge Michigan on Monday the illustrations in the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” could rise to the level of accosting, enticing or soliciting a child for immoral purpose, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
“I hope that is not the outcome of this,” Miller said. “I want this to come to a conclusion” that the community agrees on that would “remove the book from the library.”
Related:
- Michigan GOP official: Shut down ‘by force’ public library with LGBTQ books
- After LGBT book spat, Michigan family gives $100K to library they haven’t seen
- Why LGBTQ books may imperil west Michigan library: ‘This isn’t New York’
The threat of criminal charges against librarians is believed to be a first in the state, and is an escalation of cultural wars that have spread across public and school libraries in Michigan over the past year.
The book, an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel with illustrations of sex acts, has caused controversy in libraries in Michigan and across the country, and Miller’s threat follows a controversy over the book that has brewed since fall in this rural county in Michigan’s Thumb.
Miller cited the specific criminal code — 750.145a — he believed the book’s presence in a public library could violate.
The law is often associated with police sting operations of adults who prey on minors, barring enticing anyone under 16 “to commit an immoral act, to submit to an act of sexual intercourse or an act of gross indecency or to any other act of depravity or delinquency.”
Amy Churchill, director of the library, said she’s undeterred by Miller’s threat.
“I have heard, if he could, he’d arrest me. He’s trying to intimidate us,” she told Bridge.
“I am not hard to find,” she added. “If Mr. Miller wishes to arrest me, I am in my office working for the patrons and staff of the Lapeer District Library Monday through Friday.”
Miller said he, “along with other county officials,” will urge the library to remove the book at a Lapeer District Library board meeting Thursday evening. Library officials are considering a patron request to remove “Gender Queer” from the library’s collection.
“Gender Queer: A Memoir,” was the most banned book in school libraries in 2022, according to PEN America, a group that advocates for writers, and the most challenged book by the American Library Association.
The graphic novel is the story of author Maia Kobabe’s coming-of-age as nonbinary, and includes illustrations of sex acts.
“Gender Queer” was one of the books that caused an uproar in Ottawa County last fall, when voters defunded the Patmos Library. That library is operating on donations for now but officials do not believe they can stay open indefinitely without taxpayer support.
No criminal charges against librarians have been publicly contemplated there, but library officials have received several threats of violence.
Keeping books some consider inappropriate away from children is drawing attention among some in Lansing as well. House Bill 4136, sponsored by Rep. Neil Friske, R-Charlevoix, would require public libraries to keep “obscene” books in an area where children do not have access.
Most public libraries are not designed in a way that would allow a restricted book area, Deb Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association, told MLive.
Lapeer District Library serves about two-thirds of Lapeer County, east of Flint. There are seven small branch libraries in the district, with a main library in the city of Lapeer.
Churchill told Bridge that the library purchased a copy of “Gender Queer” in the fall of 2022 at the request of a patron. Soon afterward, some residents began objecting to the book.
One resident checked the book out and took it to the police, Churchill said. The police returned the book to the library.
Miller is a Republican who won election as prosecutor in November. In January, four weeks after taking office, Miller filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the library, seeking records connected to the consideration, approval and purchase of “Gender Queer,” which he misidentified as “Gender Queen.”
The public records also asked for a record of “who voted for and against the addition of the book” to the library.
Lapeer’s library board doesn’t approve individual book purchases, Churchill said. According to the library’s policies, Churchill, as director, has final approval of purchases.
Churchill said she was shocked by the FOIA, sent on official stationery of the Lapeer County prosecutor’s office, since she had never spoken to Miller or anyone in his office, and the information could have been gleaned with a phone call.
The FOIA letter stated Miller would “pay personally” for any charges incurred by the library in fulfilling the request.
“A FOIA is an extremely aggressive way to communicate with someone,” Churchill said. “Usually you’d try to talk to them first.”
Miller said he became involved when several county commissioners approached him with copies of books that had been checked out from the Lapeer library.
He said he dismissed concerns about two of the books – one with LGBTQ themes but no illustrations, and a second that had to do with race relations.
The third was “Gender Queer,” with illustrations that Miller said shocked him, “and that takes a lot for a prosecutor,” he said. “I’m an attorney, I’ve studied the constitution, I’ve passed the bar exam. My job is to take a position that protects our innocent and our youth. And if this isn’t child sexual abusive material, … it borders on it.”
Miller said the book’s target audience is teenagers, and that, to him, the drawings of sex acts appeared to involve “prepubescent boys.”
To the prosecutor, the book’s availability to youth could meet the bar for a crime in Michigan because, to him, the book “entices” underage teens to engage in sex acts.
“While I hope not to prosecute someone over this book, I feel it’s part of the community’s decision,” Miller said. “This isn’t about LGBTQ, this is about the exploitation of children.”
Churchill countered that Miller and other conservatives in the community are only objecting to an LGBTQ book with illustrations of sex acts, but not to books like “The Joy of Sex,” which depict sex acts by heterosexual couples, which is also housed at the library.
“If anything, we have an underrepresentation of books about marginalized communities,” including LGBTQ community, Churchill said.
“Gender Queer” is normally shelved in the adult section of the Lapeer library. To Miller, that doesn’t matter because teens could wander over and find it.
Miller declined to say who he would consider charging — Churchill as the director, library board members or the author of the book.
“I’m waiting for the community to chime in (before deciding whether to file criminal charges), to say this is something that should or should not be in the library,” Miller said. “The majority of the voices I’ve heard think it shouldn’t.”
Georgia is considering a bill that would allow school librarians to be charged criminally for objectionable books, as is Indiana, Texas and Wyoming.
Fox News Host Blames Bank Collapse On Pride Month
He is covering up for Trumps deregulation of banking reforms that began after the 2008 crash.
The bank collapsed because the Trump administration weakened Obama era banking regulations, which allowed it to take on more risk so the CEO and shareholders would make more money.
But ya, blaming it on Pride sounds “scarier” and more plausible to conservatives.
☘️Uncle Mark’s Lucky Charms2 hours ago
Y’all know that if this bank was based in a red state, these reich-wing babbling-heads would be blaming the Fed (“under the malicious direction of Pres Biden”) for raising interests rates and “targeting red state banks.”
Their rhetoric is so tired & predictable.
Woke = Compassion, caring, sympathy/empathy and love.
jk1052 hours ago edited
I hear most employees at this bank are white heterosexuals. If we must engage in a culture war over what is a banking regulation issues, why don’t we blame its failure on white heterosexuals?
Yes, yes, it was definitely the pride activities and not Peter Thiel spurring a run on the bank by withdrawing all his money.
There are very few banks that’ll survive a run, because they’re not built to.
Basically, Peter Thiel had enough money there personally, along with some other people that he had strong influence with, to basically be a run all on its own. The bank, on the other hand, was *mostly* okay. It had weathered the current financial climate a bit worse than others, because it wasn’t diversified, but it wasn’t in an eminent collapse situation.
It’s like someone tripping and being a little unsteady, but pretty likely to regain balance. You can help them up, or even ignore them, with little consequence, because once they have their balance bank things are back to normal. Or you can give them a push, and then they may never get their balance back.
Peter Thiel saw this bank wobbling, and said “oh, hey, they might grab me to try to regain their balance” and pushed them away from him instead. I mean, it probably wasn’t *actual* malice. But any excuse to be angry with Thiel is a valid excuse in my book.
Yep. I mean, this bank was small enough that it qualified for “small bank” exceptions written into the tighter banking rules.
Someone mocked Biden elsewhere by saying “the banking sector is strong if you believe me saying it’s strong” but like… the reality is, it basically requires people to trust it to be able to function. No bank can withstand a real run, because it’s a logistical impossibility for them to have enough money everywhere to pay everyone immediately even if they had *none* of it invested, but obviously a lot of that money is in “asset” form and would need to be sold first anyway.
Like, the whole banking system depends on people not panicking about banks.
Like, it’s pretty likely if nobody ever heard about Thiel’s withdrawal, SVB would’ve recovered just fine. And if the news agencies hadn’t stoked panic, the other banks would’ve been fine (or at least had structured shutdowns over a much longer time period with no panic or real losses).
But *this* is what has everyone in a panic, instead of the actual threat posed by the “sure, default on government debt” types.
Oh fuck it.
I’ve spent the last seven years working to get my licence so I can operate the Big Gay Weather Machine.
And now I have to learn how to bring down the global banking system as well?
At our next secret meeting, I’m going to suggest that lesbians are given control of the Big Lesbian Global Financial Hegemony Machine.
(It’ll be #17 on the Gay Agenda.)
Jon Stewart takes on Republican lawmaker who wants to ban drag shows in viral interview
Jon StewartPhoto: Screenshot/AppleTV+On the most recent episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart, the show’s namesake and host grilled an Ohio Republican, using his support of drag show bans to expose the hypocrisy behind his opposition to gun control legislation. A clip from the interview, which premiered on Friday, has since gone viral.
Oklahoma state Sen. Nathan Dahm (R) opposes restrictions on firearms, like laws requiring background checks and red-flag laws, because he says they infringe on a person’s Second Amendment rights. He also supports banning drag shows anywhere they might be viewed by minors.
During his interview with Dahm, Stewart clashed with the lawmaker over the idea that increased access to guns makes Americans safer, arguing that Dahm’s efforts to loosen gun restrictions have made it harder for authorities to identify individuals who may pose threats.
“The person is the threat, not the firearm,” Dahm explained.
“But you don’t want anything that could help law enforcement or society determine whether or not a person is a good guy with a gun or a bad guy with a gun,” Stewart countered. “I don’t understand why you won’t just admit that you are making it harder for police to manage the streets by allowing all of these guns to go out without permits, without checks, without background stuff.”
Dahm argued that the restrictions he opposes infringe upon “the individual’s right to keep and bear arms” under the Second Amendment.
Stewart then pivoted to other examples of ways in which constitutional rights are limited under the law, including requiring voter registration. He then questioned Dahm about his support for an Oklahoma bill that would make it illegal to host drag performances on public property or where they could be viewed by minors. Similar bills are being considered in states across the country. Last week, Tennessee became the first state in which such legislation was signed into law.
Stewart asked Dahm whether Oklahoma’s anti-drag law would infringe on the First Amendment rights of performers. Dahm argued that under the proposed law, drag performers could continue to exercise their right to free speech, “just not in front of a child.”
“The government does have a responsibility in certain instances to protect children,” Dahm admitted.
“What’s the leading cause of death amongst children in this country?” Stewart asked. “And I’m going to give you a hint, it’s not drag show readings to children.”
“It’s firearms,” Stewart continued. “More than cancer, more than car accidents. And what you’re telling me is you don’t mind infringing free speech to protect children from this amorphous thing that you think of. But when it comes to children that have died you don’t give a flying f**k to stop that because that shall not be infringed. That is hypocrisy at its highest order.”
The clip has since received over 36,000 views on Twitter and more than 1.2 million views on YouTube.
Scottie's Playtime 