These clueless morons don’t seem to understand heterosexuality is a sexual orientation. You cannot have gay without having straight also. “… prohibit books depicting sexual or gender identity …” also means any books that have parents, boys or girls, no Mr. or Mrs., no dating stories even of straight kids because all of these things are sexual or gender identities. What these people really want is nothing about anyone not straight and cis. They want their Leave It To Beaver 1950s style society. Only a society that never really existed is what they wish for. These laws apply to public libraries, not just school ones. They want to erase the entire LGBTQ+ from society in the same way the Russians have done. Simply make them all illegal, make it illegal to talk about them in a positive way, illegal to write about them in a positive way, illegal to show them in any media such as movies, TV, or even theater in a positive way. They are doing this in schools in red republican run states like Florida already. Not even rainbow stickers can be displayed or even rainbow colors on clothing in schools yet I see they have not outlawed the confederate battle flag. Removing these things from schools and society wont stop kids from being born gay or stop kids from having a different gender identity from assigned at birth, but it does make those kids more isolated and at risk of being targeted or bullied. This stuff is a radical attempt to undo 70 years of social advancement for minorities. Hugs
The bill, which would prohibit books depicting sexual or gender identity, proposes up to 30 days in prison for librarians who refuse to remove banned titles.
Amanda Darrow, the director of youth, family and education programs, with books at the Utah Pride Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021.Rick Bowmer / AP
By Associated Press
Books containing “sexually explicit” content — including depictions of sexual or gender identity — would be banned from North Dakota public libraries under legislation that state lawmakers began considering Tuesday.
The GOP-dominated state House Judiciary Committee heard arguments but did not take a vote on the measure, which applies to visual depictions of “sexually explicit” content and proposes up to 30 days imprisonment for librarians who refuse to remove the offending books.
The proposal comes amid a national wave of Republican-backed laws to ban books that feature LGBTQ subject matter — though usually those bills have been limited to school libraries, not public ones.
Supporters of the bill said it would preserve children’s innocence and reduce their exposure to pornography.
But critics said the measure is “steeped in discrimination” and would allow government censorship of material that is not actually obscene.
House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, of Dickinson, introduced the bill and said public libraries currently contain books that have “disturbing and disgusting” content, including ones that describe virginity as a silly label and assert that gender is fluid.
Lefor argued that a child’s exposure to such content has been associated with addiction, poor self esteem, devalued intimacy, increasing divorce rates, unprotected sex among young people and poor well-being — though did he did not offer any evidence to support such claims.
Stark County resident Autumn Richard also spoke in favor of the bill, giving examples of explicit content in the graphic novel “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human” and the kids’ comic book “Sex Is a Funny Word” — both available in public libraries.
Richard argued the books might have beneficial knowledge about contraceptives, body image and abusive relationships, but many sections provide information that she said was harmful for minors.
Though supporters of North Dakota’s bill repeatedly called the sexual content “obscene,” opponents said the material in question is not actually considered legally obscene.
“Nearly 50 years ago, the (U.S.) Supreme Court set the high constitutional bar that defines obscenity,” said Cody Schuler, an advocacy manager at the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, who testified against the bill.
Obscenity is a narrow, well-defined category of unprotected speech that excludes any work with serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value, Schuler said. Few, if any, books have been deemed obscene, and the standard for restraining a library’s ability to distribute a book are even more stringent, Schuler added.
The definition of pornography is also subjective, opponents of the bill said.
Library Director Christine Kujawa at Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library said the library has a book with two little hamsters on the cover. At the end of the book, the hamsters get married, and they are both male.
“It’s a cute book,” Kujawa said — but it would be considered pornography under the bill because the book includes gender identity.
Facing criminal charges for keeping books on shelves is “something I never thought I would have to consider during my career as a librarian,” Kujawa added.
In addition to banning depictions of “sexual identity” and “gender identity,” the measure specifies 10 other things that library books cannot visually depict, including “sexual intercourse,” “sexual preference” and “sexual perversion,” — though it does not define any of those terms. The proposal does not apply to books that have “serious artistic significance” or “materials used in science courses,” among other exceptions.
The bill would allow prosecutors to charge any person who displays these materials at places that children visit with a class B misdemeanor. The maximum penalty is 30 days of imprisonment and a $1,500 fine.
The wave of attempted book banning and restrictions continues to intensify across the country, the American Library Association reported in September. Numbers for 2022 approached the previous year’s totals, which were the highest in decades. Bills to restrict mature content in school libraries became laws last year in Tennessee, Utah, Missouri, Florida and Oklahoma.
The most targeted books have included Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir about sexual identity, “Gender Queer,” and Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” a coming-of-age novel narrated by a young gay man, according to an April report.
The U.S. Department of Educationinvestigated the removal of LGBTQ-themed booksfrom the library of a Texas school district in December. The investigation followed a complaint by the ACLU and appeared to be the first based on a nationwide movement to ban school library books dealing with sexuality and gender.
Well what a mind altering interview. I know the video is described as a debate but it really was a conversation. At first I was bored and almost shut it off even though I mostly enjoy the channel. Then I noticed something. The call in guest got angrier and ever more abusive getting very insulting yet Vaush never reacted to that and instead tried to keep the conversation going centered on the topic. I loved it. I have tried to talk to right wing bigots and I have not had the same composure that Vaush did. It is a great watch if you want to see how a person on the right starts out trying to show how trans people are bad and confused then moves to the point where the one saying this stuff gets very abusive and then just gets really out classed with information to the point where he has to just admit he doesn’t like those trans and hates those people that accept them. Like I said the first part is boring and forgettable, but fast forward through that if you must and watch the rest. For me it was worth it. Hugs
This is well known and the medical has repeatedly said that affirming the gender identity of the person while assisting with necessary age appropriate treatments including puberty blockers or hormone therapy when needed is the best medical practice. That is something the anti-trans people cannot refute, the majority of medical associations including the AMA and the largest pediatric medical associations believe in supporting trans people transitioning. But at the same time the red state republican leaders who mostly have no medical training are trying hard to ban or make the need medical assistance illegal. Why are they doing this? For political gain mostly, and religious indoctrination for others. This is very much like these same legislators denying abortion / reproductive rights to pregnant people or requiring women to cover their arms and where long skirts in state legislative bodies. It is people acting on an ideology to roll back advances in medical understanding and society to return to a time they feel more comfortable with. It is about their comfort not your needs and their ability to force their ignorance on others against the doctors best medical advice. ** BTW this happened to me in Florida. I was on a great medication for muscle spasms called Soma. The state legislators in an attempt to look tough on opioid addictions made it nearly impossible for pain doctors, and only pain doctors, to prescribe Soma. I spent months trying to get a replacement that worked and none were as good. **Hugs
Researchers tracked 315 trans and non-binary young people in what is reportedly the largest study in the U.S. to date.
Hormone therapy improves the mental health of transgender youth. That’s the takeaway from a new study from The New England Journal of Medicine, released last week.
The study is reportedly the largest in the U.S. to date. Over the course of two years, researchers tracked 315 trans and non-binary young people between the ages of 12 and 20 receiving hormone therapy. According to a summary of the research, “During the study period, appearance congruence (alignment between gender identity and physical appearance), positive affect, and life satisfaction increased, and depression and anxiety symptoms decreased.”
Researchers reported that young people who were assigned female at birth saw greater benefits when taking testosterone than those assigned male at birth who took estrogen. Several factors could be at play here, they speculated, including the speed with which the outward effects of testosterone manifest and greater social stigma faced by transfeminine people compared to transmasculine people.
The authors note that “marked increases in referrals but limited evidence as to long-term outcomes have led to controversies and debate” over providing adolescents with gender-affirming hormones (GAH). Across the U.S., state legislators have introduced bills restricting or outright banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
“Research like this is significant because it provides more longitudinal data,” Dr. Kareen Matouk, a clinical psychologist in the gender identity program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told Self magazine. “This helps individuals and their families navigate the health care system with more ease and confidence, and protects access to gender-affirming care that lawmakers are attempting to deny.”
Opponents of gender-affirming care for trans young people frequently argue that puberty blockers and GAH may have harmful or irreversible effects. But Matouk said, “We have some data suggesting that gender-affirming hormone therapy is generally safe and effective under the supervision of an endocrinologist or medical provider who specializes in transgender health care and has experience initiating hormone therapy.”
Gender-affirming care for both adolescents and adults has been endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, and many other professional groups as necessary and frequently lifesaving for transgender individuals.
While the authors of the new study stress that more research into other factors – including access to mental healthcare and the quality of peer relations and family support – is needed, their findings show that “that mental health improves with GAH, whereas withholding treatment may lead to increased gender dysphoria and adversely affect psychological functioning.”
At a time when red state republicans are trying to stop any progress in society since the 1950s with anti- woke laws, stopping the fighting of injustice, and try to remove gay / trans people from the public square, they still keep indoctrination kids by forcing Jesus speakers / promoters on them who lie about gay / trans people to mislead children with their incorrect views. I hate it, everything the right accuses the left of doing is a confession of what the right itself is doing and has done. Hugs
Video shows media personality Woah Vicky lying to kids about LGBTQ people, while urging them to accept Jesus
Woah Vicky, a white girl who uses the N-word, tells fans about Jesus (screenshot via Facebook)
Reading Time: 2MINUTES
Earlier this month, Victoria Rose Waldrip (a.k.a. Woah Vicky, “Atlanta’s new age trap queen”) visited Jonesboro High School in Georgia and preached to the girl’s basketball team. She told them to accept Jesus, promoted her church, told the girls to remain celibate until marriage, and lied about LGBTQ people.
When one girl asked her if being gay was bad, Waldrip said she couldn’t answer the question because she’s not God. She then added there was no such thing as a gay preacher (which is a lie), and said people become gay as a result of getting “touched on” (which is also a lie), and said being gay is like murdering people because they’re both sins (which even most Christians would say is a lie because they don’t think being gay is a sin). And then she praised Jeffrey Dahmer for supposedly discovering God in prison.
You better believe there’s video of it. (The anti-gay stuff begins around the 13:20 mark.)
It raises all kinds of questions for the school: What the hell was she doing there? Who invited her? Why would anyone think this was a good idea?! That’s what @capn_cut_throat and @deconversiontherapy wanted to know when their videos about the matter began picking up steam on TikTok.
Keep in mind that this wasn’t a voluntary event where students were told what they’d hear in advance. In fact, some of the girls later “expressed their outrage” online.
It turns out we do know who’s responsible for this: Frances Miller, a “digital creator” who works as a “character coach” for the team and promotes them on social media. She’s seen in the background of the video. (One source told me that Miller has no official connection with the district.)
Miller bragged about the proselytizing as soon as it happened:
**at the link above to the orginal post there is a facebook thing here. I do not have facebook and due to my security settings they wont show. Hugs **
If, in fact, Miller’s role is unofficial, then her access to students—and how she used that opening to get her friend to push Jesus on them—is especially troubling.
We ask that the District immediately investigate this incident and provide an assurance that outside adults will not be allowed to preach hate and bigotry to students during school-sponsored activities again in the future. If any school employees or administrators were involved, they should be reprimanded and reminded of their obligations as public school employees.
… If the district has no policies that prevent outside adults from delivering hateful religious messages to students as part of school-sponsored activities, one should be adopted.The district should take all actions within its power to ensure that something like this cannot happen again in the future.
It’s possible the school was already taking action here but the nudge can’t hurt.
Can you imagine the outrage if a coach invited a Muslim, or atheist, or Satanist to speak to students about any damn thing? You can’t imagine it, because it would never happen. But when Christianity’s on the menu, everything is just treated as fine and normal even though it shouldn’t. If the administrators aren’t watching out for the children, and the coach of this team isn’t, then who the hell is interested in their well-being? Because it’s definitely not Woah Vicky, whose only goal is gaining clout on social media.
I regret I am so far behind. It is too hard to sit at my desk, every 15 minutes or so I have to get up and walk around, but then after a few minutes have to sit. If I have a task I need to do standing for more than 15 minutes I have to take more medication to stop my back from giving out. I managed to get my MRI I needed this morning, came home ate and went right to bed. I got up at 2:30 as my back was not getting better. I see my pain doctor on the 6th of Feb. Hopefully I can quickly schedule some shots to my spine. I was getting them regularly to keep the pain down but I got hit with a couple very expensive bills from the spine shots and decided to see if I could handle the pain with muscle shots and pills. Turns out that won’t work. I have already had to take more medication than I like to take. If this doesn’t work I will go to the next level of pain medications. In the state of Florida it is hard now to get the drugs that caused such problems which can be managed but they want to force everyone to fentanyl even as the republicans scream about how deadly it is. The clips below are pure republican hate, making it so poor people on snap cannot buy any affordable foods not even can soup. No meats no matter the kind, no canned vegetables and so much more. And the continued attacks by republicans and DeathSantis on the idea of inclusion and anything LGBTQ+. I again today wont be able to catch up but there is always tomorrow I guess. Hugs
They’re using every angle they can to legalize discrimination, what’s next, LGBT people can’t own property? Blacks are not legal voters? This is just the tip of the iceberg that FL is becoming in it’s drive towards a state rooted firmly in the 1850’s and reestablishing laws from back then. It’s incidious and creeping slowly towards pre-civil war laws and acceptance.
This is exactly what (other) fascist takeovers did. Made teaching anything contradictory to their own agenda illegal, and arrested teachers who didn’t comply.
Like, it’s not even a jump. Even if this feels tame, this is fascism, done in the frog/boiling pot fashion.
What comes next are RightThink mandatory courses to re-educate teachers about the “correct and approved” Republican party dogma, which is that white Christian nationalism is doubleplus good.
See also the influence that creationists in Texas had on school textbooks. I’m a member of NCSE and they seem to be relatively quiet these days, but…eternal vigilance and all that.
Nov. 14, 1960…
At the age of 6, Ruby Bridges was the first black child to go to an integrated school. It’s American history. Your child can learn about it.
Why is Ron afraid of allowing this knowledge to be taught?
His preference to withwashi it comes off as very racist.
Hmmmm, So far Republicans have done NOTHING on the economy, immigration, jobs. Done a lot on education though like banning books, harassing teachers, & librarians and choosing for college students what they can and cannot study even though they’re paying for it 🤨🤨🤨🤨
Great point Daddy. Imagine what will come out of the mouths of the future Florida educated workforce when they migrate to other states to work. HR departments need to prepare.
I’m glad you posted those clips. Are evangelicals going to ban all cartoons from that era? How about all movies that have even one character in drag? How would that even work?
How do they define “adult cabaret?” And how is it different that regular cabaret? Also, I have yet to hear a convincing explanation of how a drag performance is inherently harmful to anyone.
Creeping ever closer to Gilead. Between this and the “don’t dare to bare” ladies shoulders thing in FL, it’s coming faster than we might think.
Margaret thatcher thought that by prohibiting teachers discussing homosexuality in schools would prevent kids turning out gay.
She was a fucking fool.
This new fascist trend in the US part of America is equally stupid.
Behind the anti-drag is homophobia, and behind that is evangelical bigotry.
I do fear for the safety of these people though. These lunatics have demonstrated that they are willing and able to harm and/or stir up mentally unstable followers of theirs to inflict harm (see that LibsOfTikTok hag). A drag queen friend of mine who has done drag queen story times recently told a group of our friends in a group chat that she gets several anonymous death threats per day via email or social media.
Never forget that evangelicals – who are directly responsible for this proposal – literally worship a genocidal deity. No wonder their entire lives are dedicated to violence and delusion.
I suppose some of these dorks actually think that preventing their kids from seeing drag will somehow prevent them from “becoming” gay, but I think the majority of them are just cruel miserable assholes who want to suck all the joy out of existence to punish all the people who never loved them. That and the grift of course.
True, that. But I also think that many of them are religionists who HATE anyone who doens’t conform to gender expectations. It’s one of the reasons they hate gay men, because they think we are acting like women, especially in the sex department.
So, Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis, Flip Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, and a large number of other male actors who have appeared in women’s clothing, will they be arrested if kids in Oklahoma watch their films?
Geez.
A felony to perform drag !
What happened American freedom?
Has America gone back to the Elizabethan age where they shut down theatres when there was a performance that they didn’t like?
In the Elizabethan Age, all roles were played by men, women were not allowed on stage. Everything was a drag show, but then as RuPaul says, “We are born naked and everything else is drag.”
The right is so desperate to have a white straight homogenous country that they claim reading to children with parents present while dressed in costume is porn and “adult” entertainment. WTF. I wonder if the people ever wonder if they can openly lie and make one group illegal will they next make your group illegal using lies? Hugs
A drag queen who goes by the name Flame reads stories to children and their caretakers during a Drag Story Hour at a public library in New York, Friday, June 17, 2022.
An Oklahoma bill would make it a felony punishable by a $20,000 fine for drag artists to perform in front of minors.
The bill by GOP Rep. Kevin West would also make it a misdemeanor for one to organize drag performances in public.
At least ten states have proposed legislation that targets drag performances, including drag queen story hours.
An Oklahoma bill would make it a felony punishable by up to a $20,000 fine for drag artists to perform in front of minors.
The bill would make it “unlawful for a person to engage in an adult cabaret performance” in public before a minor. The fine may fall in the range of $500 to $20,000, and it may also incur a prison sentence from 30 days to two years, according to the bill’s text.
State GOP Rep. Kevin West, who filed House Bill 2186 on January 19, told Insider that the bill is intended to limit performances “in a public place.”
“But if you have a private venue and parents want to take their children there, then that would not be affected by this bill,” West told Insider. “It wouldn’t be allowed where just the general public would be able to see the performance. So like a library or a school or something like that would fall into being under the jurisdiction of this bill.”
West’s bill specifically named drag queen story hours as events that would be considered unlawful, as well as other forms of “adult cabaret” performances. It would also create a misdemeanor for anyone who organizes or authorizes such performances in public or in view of minors, threatening a fine of $500 to $1,000 and a maximum of a year in county jail.
The bill compared drag performers to strippers and topless dancers, defining “drag queen” as a “male or female performer who adopts a flamboyant or parodic feminine persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup.”
One activist on Twitter also suggested that the wording may criminalize a woman displaying a “feminine persona” with heavy makeup around children, per Newsweek.
But West, in a statement to Insider, disagreed.
“I’ve gotten emails and seen stuff online where I’m trying to ban the drag queen shows. Well, clearly nothing in the bill says that those are being banned. It’s just making sure that they’re done in the location where it’s intended,” West told Insider.
“I think that it really just comes to some of those boundaries. We have a lot of laws on the books that prohibit certain activities in public spaces and with everything that we’ve been seeing for the last few years on this subject, I think that’s why you’re seeing a lot of bills like this.”
The bill is scheduled to have its first reading in the Oklahoma House on February 6, per the Oklahoma legislature’s website.
It follows a trend of similar legislation gaining traction nationwide to limit drag performances, such as in Arizona, Texas, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Missouri, Tennessee, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia, according to reporting by Newsweek and the ACLU. Drag story hours in California and North Carolina, and other states, have also been targeted by the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, over the past year.
In October, a coalition of Republicans in the US House introduced a bill to “Stop the Sexualization of Children,” specifically targeting drag queen story hours as “sexually-oriented events,” Insider previously reported. The bill would give parents grounds to sue public entities that use federal tax dollars, such as public libraries, for “sexually explicit materials or programs.”
