Now House Speaker McCarthy admitted that there were members of the republican party that were on the pay roll of Russia. Now there seems to be a lot more of them. How is it patriotic to be on the payroll of an enemy foreign government who has attempted for years to subvert our democracy to support their dictatorship? Hugs
The Kremlin is deploying new tactics by drawing on favorite themes and conspiracy theories of rightwing Republicans
A report found Russia-linked accounts on Twitter have shifted toward stressing energy and economic impacts of the war. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
As Russia’s ruthless war against Ukraine has faced major setbacks since it began a year ago, the Kremlin has deployed new disinformation themes and tactics to weaken US support for Kyiv with help from conservative media stars and some Republicans in Congress, according to new studies and experts.
Moscow’s disinformation messages have included widely debunked conspiracy theories about US bioweapon labs in Ukraine, and pet themes on the American right that portray the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as an ally in backing traditional values, religion and family in the fight against “woke” ideas.
Further, new studies from thinktanks that track disinformation have noted that alternative social media platforms such as Parler, Rumble, Gab and Odysee have increasingly been used to spread Russian falsehoods since Facebook and Twitter have imposed more curbs on Moscow’s propaganda.
Other pro-Russian messages focused on the economic costs of the war for the US have been echoed by Republicans in the powerful far-right House Freedom Caucus such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Scott Perry and Paul Gosar, who to varying degrees have questioned giving Ukraine more military aid and demanded tougher oversight.
Since Russia launched its invasion last February, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Trump ally – turned influential far-right podcaster – Steve Bannon have promoted some of the most baseless claims that help bolster the Kremlin’s aggression.
For instance, Bannon’s War Room podcast in February 2022 featured an interview with Erik Prince, the wealthy US founder of Blackwater, where they both enthused that Putin’s policies were “anti-woke” and praised Putin’s homophobia and transphobia.
Last month too on the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, Carlson revved up his attacks on US support for Ukraine claiming falsely that Biden’s goal had become “overthrowing Putin and putting American tanks in Red Square because, sure, we could manage Russia once we overthrow the dictator”.
Analysts who track Russia’s disinformation see synergies between the Kremlin and parts of the US right that have helped spread some of the biggest falsehoods since the start of the invasion.
“Russia doesn’t pull even its most outlandish narratives out of thin air – it builds on existing resentments and political fissures,” Jessica Brandt, a policy director at the Brookings Institution who tracks disinformation and foreign interference, told the Guardian.
She added: “So you often have a sort of harmony – both Kremlin messengers and key media figures, each for their own reasons, have an interest in dinging the administration for its handling of the Ukraine crisis, in amplifying distrust of authoritative media, in playing on skepticism about the origins of Covid and frustration with government mitigation measures.”
“That was the case with the biolabs conspiracy theory, for example, which posits that the Pentagon has been supporting the development of biological weapons in Ukraine. The Charlie Kirk Show and Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, among others, devoted multiple segments to the claim. It’s not so much that we’re witnessing any sort of coordination, but rather an alignment of interests.”
Brandt also noted that Russia had an “interest in promoting authentic American voices expressing views that align with the Kremlin’s foreign policy goals. And that’s why you often see them retweet Americans that make these arguments.”
Likewise, two reports issued separately last month by the Alliance for Securing Democracy and the Atlantic Council, reveal how Russian state media have shifted some messaging themes and adopted new tactics with an eye to undercutting US backing for Ukraine.
The Alliance report documented a shift in messaging in the US and Europe from directly defending Russia’s invasion to stressing the energy and economic impacts that it was having, themes that seem to be resonating with some Republican politicians.
In the first six months of the war, Alliance data revealed that Russia-linked accounts on Twitter mentioned “Nazi” in more than 5,800tweets.
But in the following six months from August 2022 through January 2023, “the number of ‘Nazi’ tweets dropped to 3,373 – a 42% decline”. Likewise, mentions of Nato by Russian-linked accounts on Twitter dropped by roughly 30% in the second six-month period.
By contrast, in the most recent six-month period the report said that “tweets mentioning both ‘energy’ and ‘Ukraine’ increased by 267%, while tweets mentioning ‘cost of living’ increased 66%” compared to the first six months of the war.
In another twist, Bret Schafer, who leads the Alliance’s information manipulation team, told the Guardian: “In response to restrictions and crackdowns by major tech platforms, accounts and channels affiliated with Russian state media outlet RT, which has been banned entirely on YouTube, have fanned out across alternative social media and video sharing platforms like Rumble and Odysee that have less restrictive content moderation policies and that allow RT to operate without labels or restrictions.
“Those platforms also tend to cater to audiences who are not necessarily pro-Russian, but are certainly more apt, based on the other videos found on those platforms, to oppose continued support for Ukraine.”
Despite Moscow’s disinformation offensive and the $100bn plus in military and financial assistance that has flowed to Ukraine in one year, the ex-Republican House member Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said that “most GOP members still support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression”.
But Dent stressed that “the hardest edge of the Bannon-Carlson wing of the Maga movement in Congress is more sympathetic to Russian arguments and has an isolationist view of American foreign policy. There are some members who are less willing to push back against autocrats. There are others too who find common cause with Russia’s professed socially conservative orientation.”
Those voices are especially loud in the Freedom Caucus which is wielding growing influence with the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who has said he will not support a “blank check” for Ukraine and this week declined the invitation of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to visit Kyiv.
Freedom Caucus member Greene from Georgia at the recent CPAC conference said flatly: “We’ve done enough.”
Democrats are especially worried about the embrace of pro-Kremlin disinformation by the American right.
The Democratic senator Chris Murphy blasted US conservatives for echoing Kremlin propaganda and traced its roots back to ex-president Donald Trump, who at the start of Russia’s invasion lauded Putin as “savvy” and a “genius”. Murphy said Trump’s “admiration for Putin” has “turned into a collective rightwing obsession”.
How big a threat does the hard right pose to US support for Ukraine?
Read more
Murphy noted that among the obsessed on the right are Donald Trump Jr, whom he follows on social media, and who is “relentlessly making fun of Zelenskiy online”.
Meanwhile, Putin’s own words and propaganda have lately shifted as he has tried to influence opinion in the US and the west, and blunt Russian dissent.
“Millions of people in the west understand they are being led to a real spiritual catastrophe,” Putin railed last month in a wildly hyperbolic speech that homed in on “the destruction of families”, and related themes.
Russia experts warn that Putin’s rhetoric and Kremlin messaging on these themes is far removed from the reality in Russia.
“One of the glaring mistakes of far-right propagandists is to view Vladimir Putin as some kind of defender of Christendom, of family values and as a protector of the white race,” said Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “They repeat the Kremlin talking points and get excited about the Russian ‘gay propaganda’ law. Nothing could be further from reality.
“Today Russia is the leader in Europe of high divorce rates, HIV infections, and low church attendance and practice.”
Senator Murphy expects Putin to count “on the [American] right wing to advance Russian propaganda and exploit our internal divisions.”
So are the LGBTQ+ adults. DeathSantis and his maga sycophants have painted target signs on each of us and his violent gang thug enforcers along with the recharged up fundamentalist religious people who feel they have the right to oppress everyone into forcing them to live by the dictates of their religion are making the lives of queer people in Florida miserable. They keep pushing harder and harder to make their way the only way to live. What is acceptable to them is the only acceptable public expression. This is about not allowing any other social public expression than what their church allows them according to their outdated 1950s strict gender role model based on the idea that white Christian men are automatically in charge and women are subservient to them while minorities know their place and stay there. All according to the white males in charge who like it that way. And they use a set of mistranslated writings from 2,500 years ago to back up their demands. I want you to pay attention to what the student says is happening on high school campuses, where conserative right wing teachers / administrators design polices and punishments for queer kids while using those polices to protect themselves from repremand. The student says she has seen teachers mock and out gay kids to parents and laugh about it. Also kids who try to stand up for the queer kids have their own futures placed in jepardy as their transcripts get lost, documents they need lost, and even collage applications no longer approved, or loss recommendations made by the school if they don’t stop speaking out in support of queer kids. Think of that, the change from the days when kids were encouraged to be active in cuases, in socail movements. Hugs
Students who speak out for LGBTQ+ rights say they face retaliation from hostile school administrations determined to silence them.
By Jorge Martinez
Photo: Shutterstock
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Florida has become a closely-watched epicenter for anti-LGBTQ+ laws – and advocates say queer youth are feeling the impact.
With the passage of sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, such as the Don’t Say Gay law, gender-affirming care bans, and bathroom restrictions, Florida has become a battleground for queer rights. DeSantis’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has continued to exacerbate the issue, leading to concerns among LGBTQ+ advocates that the state is becoming increasingly unwelcoming to queer youth.
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RELATED STORIES
GOP wants to expand Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to target teens & transgender kids
The bill would ban LGBTQ+ education up to 8th grade, ban students from changing their pronouns, and that’s not all…
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“We’re terrified,” Christina Guiriba, a transgender youth advocate, told LGBTQ Nation. “As advocates for the community, we’re very torn. We want to continue this fight.”
Guiriba is the founder of Transcending Adolescence, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit aimed at empowering trans youth.
A trans woman and Florida native who has experienced bullying and physical violence during her childhood, she leads a summer camp called Resilience Retreat for around a dozen trans youth to build their courage and resilience. She wants every participant to leave camp having defined success on their own terms, whether that be finally finding a safe space for the first time or going through with top surgery.
“Seeing a staff full of gender-diverse people that are successful and still alive gave them hope,” she said. Through the power of the outdoors and physical recreation, she hopes to continue to be a voice for “those who are afraid.”
But Guiriba said that many advocates are afraid to continue their work as they find themselves the target of right-wing hate. Transcending Adolescence, in fact, was recently the victim of a doxing attack.
As a result, the organization was forced to adopt stricter security measures such as planning escape routes and installing surveillance cameras and panic buttons. They even hired a private security officer, unable to turn to the Jacksonville police due to their transphobic reputation, such as using deadnames in official police investigations, among other reasons.
But Guiriba isn’t stopping. Her work is becoming increasingly relevant as new research shows how ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ attacks are starting to impact queer youth.
“The consequences are really more dire than even most people would imagine,” Caitlin Viccora, programs manager for healthy & supportive schools at Advocates for Youth, told LGBTQ Nation.
A recent CDC report on youth behavior over the past decade shows record-high levels of depression and suicide risk among teenagers in recent years. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey reveals that more than half of LGBTQ+ students have recently experienced declining mental health and more than one in five had a suicide attempt within the past year. Queer female adolescents fared worse compared to males.
In Florida especially, Viccora said the priority for advocates is to set the record straight and clear the air of false information. Parents have a right to know what’s really happening in their child’s classroom without having to rely on the right-wing’s “targeted disinformation campaigns,” Viccora said.
“It’s not just Republicans who are failing to protect LGBTQ+ students,” she added, “A lot of folks are staying silent.”
She urged community members to speak publicly at local school board meetings and fight proposed regulations that impact queer youth. Submitting public comments, organizing to call local officials such as superintendents, or just showing up to the polls to vote are effective ways to protect queer youth.
Queer youth are learning to “shut up and keep their head low”
“Ron DeSantis is a terrifying man,” Iris, a high school senior in Clay County, Florida, who requested to use a different name out of fear of retaliation, told LGBTQ Nation. “[DeSantis] claims to be a Christian but at the basis of Christianity is acceptance and love. Yet he chooses violence and overall bigotry.”
Iris does not identify as queer, but her queer friends would not speak with LGBTQ Nation, citing safety concerns even if they remained anonymous. Instead, they spoke through Iris.
In her previous attempts to speak out, Iris said her school officials claimed to “lose” her documents, opening the possibility of preventing her from graduating high school. She said speaking out would even “jeopardize my college [applications].”
Iris said Gov. DeSantis has created a “hostile environment” for Florida students that enables hatred and punishes those who try speaking out. She recounts an instance where a close male friend dressed as a PowerPuff Girl for Halloween and was viciously bullied during school hours. The bully received no penalty while Iris’ friend was reprimanded for several infractions, one of them being a dress code violation.
In a second instance, she reports that her school principal outed numerous queer kids to their parents. She said the principal was even spotted laughing and mocking the list of students she outed with one of those students’ parents.
This practice is becoming increasingly common across Florida schools, with school administrators developing formal policies to punish or out queer kids to their families.
“Teachers are able to say and do things without consequence,” said Iris, noting that these types of policies serve to primarily protect conservative and right-wing educators.
She added that queer kids are learning that they need to “shut up and keep their head low” in order to survive.
Both Guiriba and Viccora emphasize the importance of remaining positive, continuing their fight to ensure a brighter future for queer youth across the country.
“It’s important for queer people to know they’re not alone,” said Guiriba, also stressing that advocates take the appropriate time to rest. “It’s not easy to find strength.”
“Living as a queer person in America is really scary when you’re looking at headlines,” Viccora said, especially when queer Americans face discrimination and violence at every corner. Despite this, Viccora urges queer youth to remember the “beauty and resiliency” in the simple fact of our existence.
I really enjoy this author / sub stack writer. I leave in all her requests for support because she deserves it for her work and I am simply borrowing her voice to spread the information she writes about. If you want to know the true that the republican leglisatures are trying to hide to push their agenda on their states, read the article. Hugs
This is one of the most common arguments brought up in anti-trans hearings. The idea that 80% of trans people “will desist” is a complete lie that is easy to debunk.
Please support my independent reporting and activism on transgender legislation by subscribing. You help me keep this going and keep people informed.
One of the most common myths heard in anti-trans hearings is that most trans kids will desist if they are allowed to go through puberty. Sometimes specific numbers are given, such as 80% of trans kids desist. This statistic has been cited as low as 60% and as high as 99% in various legislatures. In Montana, a representative used this statistic to justify passing a medical ban. The Heritage Foundation has also pushed this myth. Nearly every hearing on this topic includes this myth. The desistance myth is one of the most persistent falsehoods and has been used against the trans community for decades. It is misleading and inaccurate as it comes from outdated DSM-4 criteria and decades-old data. Newer studies show that 97.5% of transgender youth are persistent in their gender identities. Let’s examine how this falsehood originated, how it is misused, and what current research reveals about the rarity of desistence and detransition.
See an example of this claim being used on Fox News:
Conservative lawyer Harmeet Dhillon just said trans teens who transition "desist from transition at an 80-90% rate." This is false. pic.twitter.com/0jfiq0b7r9
The DSM-IV, released in 1994, spelled out how to diagnose mental health conditions including “Gender Identity Disorder” (no longer a disorder). In this manual, clinicians made their first attempt to diagnose transgender youth. These first diagnostic criteria were an admiral early attempt, but contained a fatal flaw in how transgender youth were diagnosed: the diagnosis bafflingly did not require a youth to identify as another gender. Instead, it focused on factors such as “preference for cross-sex games and activities” and “preference for friends of the other sex.”
Problems with this diagnostic criteria should be immediately recognizable today: a cisgender tomboy with absolutely no identification as a boy would be diagnosed with gender identity disorder under these definitions. A cisgender boy who likes to put on an Elsa costume and play with girls could be diagnosed with gender identity disorder under these definitions. They were woefully inadequate for judging if youth were transgender. They also came during a time when youth transition did not exist as a medical practice, and so there were no real clinical guidelines on their treatment – thus, little effort was made to change the criteria which were primarily used for discussion in therapist offices and not to support or deny medical transition care.
In 2013, the DSM-V was published and in it, many corrections were made on how gender dysphoric youth are diagnosed. The most important correction was the requirement that a transgender youth demonstrate an insistent, persistent, and consistent desire or identification as the gender that the patient believes they are. The individual factors were also changed and adjusted. These diagnostic criteria were much more stringent, and are the diagnostic criteria used today.
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There is one problem though: until recently, all of the studies that came out used the old criteria. They included several people with no identification with another gender as meeting the criteria for “gender identity disorder,” which is itself no longer a disorder. These studies have a ton of other other problems as well, such as tiny sample sizes, very high dropout rates, old data from a time when youth transition was impossible, and even issues around conversion therapy practiced on trans patients. There are two pieces that are commonly cited. The first is numerous pieces of research by Ken Zucker, including a famous book published in 1995 that serves as the genesis of most “80% detransition” myths. The second is a series of studies from Thomas Steensma, usually centering around his 2011 or 2013 studies. Both of these studies contain the same core methodological flaw above, and both contain their own unique flaws that make them even more inaccurate.
Ken Zucker’s research on transgender youth was performed in 1995, a time when youth could not legally or medically transition. In fact, trans youth in that time likely all “desisted” for some time because of bullying, lack of access to care, and severe repression. I myself grew up as a transgender youth in that time period and I “desisted,” one of the many reasons I am writing this article.
Zucker is the genesis of the number that is most often cited, “80% desist from being trans.” Upon review of Ken Zucker’s research, half of Zucker’s patients did not even meet the definition of diagnostic criteria for transgender youth. His main research consisted of only 45 youth utilizing the old diagnostic criteria. A review of his clinic yielded much darker results, however: Zucker was engaging in conversion therapy practices that sought to push trans youth to identify as cisgender. His clinic was promptly shut down in 2015 as a result of a Canadian anti-conversion therapy law. Although Zucker denies the allegations that he engaged in conversion therapy, his practices and history paint a different picture. In the 1990s, he stated support for gay conversion therapy with the rationale, “a homosexual lifestyle in a basically unaccepting culture simply creates unnecessary social difficulties.”
In shutting down his clinic, a Canadian GIC review was conduced and a report was produced. From the report:
Parents state they were encouraged “not to give into” allowing their youth to wear clothes not of their assigned sex at birth.
Parents state they were told to avoid wrongly-gendered toys.
Parents state they were told to ensure their children would play with children of their assigned sex at birth.
Patients state they were asked intrusive questions about their sexual orientations as early as 9 years old.
Transgender youth were pathologized and correlational mental health issues were interpreted as causative.
Some patients reported pictures of them taken without their consent using cell-phones.
Parental lack of acceptance and desire for the child to identify as cisgender guided treatment.
Because of a tiny sample size, outdated data, the impossibility of youth transition, and Zucker’s clear ideological motivations, his 80% detransition rate clearly should be viewed as false and useless in current research on gender affirming care, especially considering modern data, criteria, and research exists.
Steensma’s 2011 and 2013 studies had similar issues in his research, which in some ways had even worse methodological flaws. Steensma used the old criteria, which is not the way that gender dysphoria is diagnosed today. Worse, the two studies classified every youth who did not return to the clinic as having “desisted” or “detransitioned” with no long term follow-up. Half of the participants in the studies did not return and all were classified as having “desisted.” The sample sizes were tiny at the getgo – only 53 people were in the first study and 127 in the second study. Given the fact that a large portion if not the majority of Steensma’s patients were classified under decades old criteria and assumed permanently detransitioned simply for refusing to follow up, these studies cannot be used to make any reasonable claim of desistance rates.
Furthermore, transgender youth could not meaningfully transition until recently. Medical care for trans youth was highly gatekept if not barred entirely. Transgender youth were rarely, if ever, afforded any form of treatment. Many such youth lost hope in ever being able to transition as puberty took its toll and they were forced to repress over bullying and a dangerous public environment.
Modern studies show a much higher persistence rate as well as important factors behind detransition. In 2015, a study was done on thousands of transgender people, including detransitioners. Only 8% of people reported ever detransitioning – ten times lower than the 80% often cited. Of these 2,000 detransitioners, the largest sample size of any study, 62% of them reported that they only detransitioned temporarily. Among the remaining detransitioners, the most common reason for detransitioning given was parental pressure and discrimination. Only 0.4% of people reported detransitioning because they were no longer trans.
Among trans youth, desistance and detransition rates are incredibly low. The most recent study in the prestigious journal Pediatrics, one of the only studies that use modern criteria, showed that 97.5% of trans youth continue to identify as trans on a 5 year follow-up. The sample size was also larger than all previous sample sizes of this population: 317 youth.
Anti-trans gender affirming care bans often start off with a list of “legislative findings” that seek to “state the science” around gender affirming care. In this list of findings, you might be surprised to see that the later studies are nowhere to be found, but the claims from the former studies pop up and are presented as factual when they are over a decade old, are dramatically outdated, and use standards that are not even in use anymore.
See Georgia’s “legislative findings” section of HB653, which would ban gender affirming care for trans youth
This statistic will continue to be misused to justify anti-trans bans all over the United States. Legislators will state that “80% of people detransition,” even when detransitioning is a statistical rarity. The same dozen detransitioners, like the “ex gays” of the 1990s, will be flown from state to state to justify bans, raising the question as to why they seem to only be able to find a small handful to testify. Meanwhile, actual trans kids who will grow up to still identify as trans, if they can make it to adulthood following these legislative onslaughts, are left to bear the damage of this misinformation.
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This is a web site I really enjoy. Especially when I don’t feel well as it gives the facts and clear information in easy to digest segments. Randy introduced me to it years ago. Here is a sample of the author’s work. Hugs
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
The legislator’s spokesperson said he filed the amendment by accident. Yeah… “whoops.”
Florida 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.
“That is a set up. We’re going to get treated sh**ty and then get no tipped and possibly hate crimed.”
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.
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
Multiple white supremacist groups, including armed protesters, clashed with LGBTQ+ allies.
In 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.
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.
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"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"
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.
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
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.
“The second version eliminates nearly all direct mentions of race, saying that it was illegal for “men of certain groups” to be unemployed and that “certain groups of people” were prevented from serving on a jury.”
"The group complained that a McGraw Hill fifth-grade textbook mentioned slavery 189 times…An eighth-grade book gave outsize attention to the 'negative side' of the treatment of Native Americans" https://t.co/2OFJCiV50i
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.
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.
That wont happen. As it is the red states will pass laws to make it mandatory that all colleges accept their new standards and then sue to get in front of SCOTUS and thats all it takes. Red states know how to take over the country and impose their will without firing a shot.
I wonder if any democratic governors beside Newsom in CA will have the nerve to play hardball with the feds on enforcement of red states rules for blue state citizens?
I thought that was a bit unfair until I clicked through and saw an article which was the current affairs version of the altered ‘Studies Weekly’ textbook. I can’t remember who said it first but if someone says it’s raining and someone else says it’s not, your job as a journalist isn’t to say ‘A says it’s raining, B says it’s dry,’ but to look out of the window to see which one is correct.
Honestly if we the people are content to let it happen its going to get much worse. I just ask myself and our leaders and all of us… why the fuck are we not in the streets marching every weekend, every chance, protesting and standing up to fascist.
So Cuban Floridians you fled a regime in your country supported by Russia and now you vote and support a Russian leaning authoritarian as your governor. Where will you exile next and aid in its demise?
Yes but the whites preach racism against blacks and Mexicans. Let me tell you from living in a Cuban neighborhood and knowing and interacting with many of them.. they give the white rednecks a run for the money on hating those two peoples specifically.
A report found Russia-linked accounts on Twitter have shifted toward stressing energy and economic impacts of the war. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
