Category: Police / Law Enforcement / ICE

Miami School Board Votes Against Recognizing LGBTQ History Month As Proud Boys Rally Outside [VIDEO] – JMG

Miami School Board Votes Against Recognizing LGBTQ History Month As Proud Boys Rally Outside [VIDEO]

Again that law pushed by DeathSantis and adored by the maga bigots is preventing the teaching of US history and the education of the students is white washed to remove any LGBTQ+ achievements or advancements.   If you go to the article linked you will find more information such as below.    Also please notice that the Brownshirt enforcement arm of the republican party the Proud Boys showed up to make a show of threating the board to intimidate the board to vote for the dictates of the right wing.    Is this what US democracy has become, that might makes right, that threats and intimidation will win any contest.  I worry about the up coming election due to this stuff.   It is worth noting that all across the country the right is using violence to stop legal LGBTQ+ events simply because they don’t like them and they hate LGBTQ+ people.   Now in Florida it is illegal to even tell students that gay couples exist and that they cannot bully gay students.  In Florida it is illegal to mention court cases dealing with same sex marriage and cases where trans gender students won the right to use the bathrooms they identify with.   It is illegal to teach facts in Florida schools.     Hugs.

Aside from recognizing October as LGBTQ history month, the proposal was tweaked this year to explore the possibility of providing resources for teachers in 12th-grade social studies to teach about “important landmark civil rights” cases. That includes the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling which recognized same-sex marriage and Bostock v. Clayton County, a 2020 high court decision that protects gay or transgender employees from discrimination.

Some speakers at the meeting urged the board to pass the designation, contending that it would benefit marginalized LGBTQ students who face a higher risk of depression and suicide. They said that “LGBTQ history is American history” and it would help students be better allies to their peers.

That law, FL HB1557 (22R), prohibits teachers from leading classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation for students in kindergarten through third grade. It bans such lessons for older students unless they are “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate.”

Backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the law is facing several lawsuits and is making an impact on how school districts approach local policies this year. Miami Dade, for example, wavered over proposed sexual education textbooks in July, rejecting the books before later reconsidering the vote and approving their use. Other school districts have reviewed LGBTQ student support guides in response to the law. These guides are used to help support LGBTQ students and offer guidance to teachers on how to handle such issues.
While some board members agreed with facets of the proposal, the overwhelming majority opposed the resolution this time around, warning that it could run afoul of the new parental rights law.
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Politico reports:

The Miami Dade School Board on Wednesday night struck down a proposal that would have recognized October as “LGBTQ history month” out of concern that it would violate the state’s Parental Rights in Education law, known by opponents as “Don’t Say Gay.”

Miami school board members passed a similar resolution acknowledging LGBTQ history month in 2021 by a 7-1 vote but found themselves in a different situation this fall under the Parental Rights in Education law.

Although the board’s own attorney said the recognition was on a solid legal footing, board members voted 1-8 against the idea after dozens of parents and community members raised their opposition at a marathon meeting. “I do believe this is in direct violation of our parental rights bill,” said board member Christi Fraga, who voted against the measure.

Read the full article.

Watch the clip and you’ll see that the Proud Boys showed up to scream against us. Give the many tweets below a minute to fully load so you can see the photos.

weshlovrcm • an hour ago

This is exactly what DeathSantis wanted in his first step law. The eventual goal of the far-right fascists is an anti-gay “Gay Propaganda” law like in Russia which if in effed here would shut down everything we’ve ever achieved.

Ann Kah weshlovrcm • an hour ago

He also is glad to see the goon squad come out to intimidate the board. He forgets that thugs remain thugs, and can also bully the folks who think they can manage them. This is why we discourage people from letting their leopards sleep on the bed, in case they happen to wake up without a face…

Gustav2 weshlovrcm • an hour ago

Now, now, DeSantis was very clear this was not a “Don’t Say Gay!” law. /s

The_Wretched Hank: NO MORE WoW!!! • 9 minutes ago

I similarly ask people when they choose their religions and if they actually tried out other ones to see what fit or if they just always went with what they were socialized into.

The_Wretched • 14 minutes ago

I’m struck again by how the “Proud Boys” are pretty much straight up thugs – and how they don’t seem to understand that ‘their’ group was stood up by the anti-minority DeVos family. I guess those leopards won’t eat their faces?

Til Tuesday • 18 minutes ago

At the rate things are going backwards in Florida, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Miami School Board voting to recognize October as Anita Bryant month. : (

Tiger Quinn • 28 minutes ago

This is pretty bad. We’re used to them demanding we “go back” to our spaces, but the new rhetoric is just that we should not exist. Anywhere.

To them we’re not a culture, we’re just sick people and they want to make sure their kids growing up thinking that, too.

distributorcap • an hour ago

this is how it started with the Jews in Germany in 1930s – make them “unacceptable” in the most basic places

Gigi weshlovrcm • an hour ago

How did we get to a place where “Proud Boys”with lengthy criminal records that include extreme violence are influencing public school policy?

Sarah • 2 hours ago

Parental* Rights in Education law

*Rights not applicable to LGBTQ parents or students.

SkokieDaddy – wiener dog dad • 2 hours ago

If Florida teachers can say gay, then students might learn that American might not have existed without a gay man.

Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian military man hired by George Washington to whip the Continental Army into shape during the darkest days of the Revolutionary War, is known for his bravery and the discipline and grit he brought to the American troops.

Gigi • an hour ago

I don’t get it. A lot of these “proud” “boys” are POC. It’s kinda like Jews joining the KKK. They might allow you to join but you’re just a ruse. They use you so they can say, “We’re not white nationalists. Look how many ‘spics’ we have in our group.”

SemiFriendly Atheist • an hour ago

For a group of supposed white supremacists, I see a lot of dudes who aren’t white.

I’m not sure what this means.

S_E_P SemiFriendly Atheist • an hour ago

Nothing brings toxically masculine men of all races together better than the hate of women and sexual minorities.

Ann Kah • an hour ago

Why don’t the proud boys just embrace their new slogan, “Bullies want our own way”.

Saturation of Church in State

This was my presentation at the Kentucky Freethought Convention on Sept 3rd, 2022.

Let’s talk about the GOP’s paper plots….

Let’s talk about Trump’s nuclear documents….

Let’s talk about Cara Mund and North Dakota….

Yes I am delaying, Yes I cannot focus, yes inside myself I am still panicking.   Ron is trying to get me to eat a sandwich and a salad.   I really just want to go back to bed.   Hugs

Dennis Prager: “Many Slaveholders Were Nice People”

Dennis Prager: “Many Slaveholders Were Nice People”

Prager is a paid by the right wing normally by the Mercer family to the tune of 36 million dollars to push on YouTube the conservative whatever Republican party wants push is.   Sometimes it is very painful to see the positions they push to forward to advance the republican points.    The bad part is the republicans are funding this.  Yet there is no left democratic alternative paid for by left wing billionaires.    The right wing has been doing this for decades.   The Mercers are White power white Christian supremacy’s who have founded and pay for many right-wing media outlets.   Including Steve Bannon.   The left seriously need to up their game on this.   The point is these people want to change the world to have only their accepted ones in charge of everything and the left wants everyone to have a say in how everything is run.   But our side either doesn’t have the money or won’t spend it on these issues.    Hugs

Dennis Prager: “Many Slaveholders Were Nice People”

September 7, 2022 Crackpots, Republicans

 

“One of the confusing things about life is how many nice people help destroy societies. This is not meant at all facetiously. It is meant literally.

“We think that people who do bad things, either think they’re doing bad and so they’re truly evil or they will be obviously bad in interpersonal relations, but it doesn’t work that way.

“Nice people can support vicious things. The human being is a macro and a micro being among the many, many differences within each of us. There were undoubtedly many nice slaveholders in the South. This is not meant facetiously again, it’s meant literally.

“If you had been invited to one of their homes, you would have been treated beautifully, but they supported a vicious system. The left is a vicious system. It’s not slavery.

“Although the end result of all leftism is the enslavement of populations, not as in transatlantic slave trade or chattel slavery, but in the diminution of human rights and liberties, which is a form of enslavement.” – Dennis Prager.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Prager declares he’d tell grieving parents that that they’re “wrong” to oppose gun control. Prager claims Trump “has never made any bigoted remarks.” Prager says most gay people “cannot think as a person.” Prager claims that if the US were to split, “the Christian side would prosper.” Prager declares the Capitol riot to be a “Reichstag fire.” Prager defends anti-vaxxers by claiming that gay men were not “pariahs” during the 80s height of the AIDS epidemic. Prager declares that doctors “know nothing” about COVID and that everybody should stock up on horse paste. Prager declares that President Obama has “zero masculinity.” Prager rages that if the left really cared about black people, they’d tell them to “elevate their moral standards.” Prager laments that nobody says “Negro” anymore and that he can’t use the N-word.

K Elmquist • an hour ago

“Many Slaveholders Were Nice People”

And Adolph Hitler liked dogs. So what? It doesn’t excuse the abuses.

Fearsome Beard • an hour ago

So Mr Prager, would you feel the same way if the slave owners were black and the slaves were white?

You’re Tedious & Boring • an hour ago • edited

One cannot be a nice person and support horrid people or vicious things.
They are mutually exclusive.
Always.

BensNewLogin • an hour ago

Every Catholic priest ever is a nice person until he gets caught with his hands down the cookie jars pants. Hitler was a vegetarian who love dogs and children, but didn’t like Jews at all.

Slavery had nothing to do with left and right. It had only to do with right and wrong

Rebecca Gardner • an hour ago

Does his word salad come with a Bullshit to English translation?

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️ • an hour ago

Thumbnail
https://twitter.com/sdow64/status/1566246251641081861?s=20&t=pCkx8jbav69N6da-2JHflA

BeccaM • an hour ago

‘Slaveholder’ is a term which vastly understates the vicious brutality of human enslavement.

The practice of enslaving someone always included torture and dehumanization. There was quite literally a profession known as “slave breakers”—men who would travel the slave states offering services to ensure that children or newly enslaved adults were physically and psychologically broken.

When Dennis here talks about visitors being treated kindly and generously by slave owners, he’s referring only to white people. But y’all already knew that.

Houndentenor • an hour ago

No, they weren’t nice. They enslaved other human beings. That’s not nice. Many of them (like Thomas Jefferson) were well aware that it was immoral but kept doing it because it was so financially advantageous. (Too many obvious parallels to our own times to bother with specific examples here.) No, they weren’t nice.

Now were some better to the people they were enslaving? Obviously. But if there were that many “nice” slave owners why did so many risk death and torture to escape? I’ve had some shitty jobs but none so bad I’d have risk death or flogging to escape! Not even close to that. Were some so beat down from a lifetime of abuse that they didn’t try to escape? Sure. That’s a whole field of psychology. but there lives were still horror shows.

Many thanks to the scholars who are researching and writing about this topic. I’ve been reading a lot of their work over the past five years or so and I have learned so much, all of it horrifying. The fact that we have white people trying to minimize 250 years of horrors (longer on other continents) is infuriating. (I can only imagine how much that angers the descendants of enslaved people. I’m white and I’m livid.) There’s no reason to excuse slavery. It should never have happened and it’s disrespectful to the people abused in that system to pretend that it wasn’t that bad.

TX Judge: Insurance Coverage For HIV PrEP Pill Violates Religious Rights And “Enables Homosexual Behavior”

TX Judge: Insurance Coverage For HIV PrEP Pill Violates Religious Rights And “Enables Homosexual Behavior”

These religious nationalist won’t be happy until the LGBTQ+ are driven from society.   First we must be returned to a state of no rights or protection, then made illegal all over the land.   This kind of hate is weird.   People need to defend the rights of the LGBTQ+ or next it will be you they come for.    These people think the Handmaids Tale is a guidebook.    Hugs

The Advocate reports:

A federal judge in Texas has ruled partially in favor of plaintiffs that argued that requiring insurance companies to cover medications for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, violates their rights on religious grounds.

Jonathan Mitchell, who founded a one-person law firm in 2018 intending to challenge decades-old Supreme Court rulings, brought the case Braidwood Management Inc., vs. Xavier Becerra, in the Northern District of Texas.

There, United States district judge Reed O’Conner ruled in favor of plaintiffs who argued that paying for insurance that covers PrEP violates their religious beliefs because PrEP “enable[s and encourages] homosexual behavior.”

Read the full article.

The Dallas Morning News reported in July:

Right now, a half dozen cases on everything from insurance coverage for HIV prevention to employment discrimination and same-sex marriage are wending their way through state and federal courts here. Their outcomes could radically alter rights for LGBTQ people in Texas and across the country.

The lawsuits all have one thing in common: former Texas solicitor general Jonathan Mitchell. Best known as the man behind the state law that allows Texans to file civil lawsuits against people who help pregnant people get abortions, Mitchell opened up a law firm in Austin four years ago with the goal of systematically dismantling decades of court rulings he believes depart from the U.S. Constitution.

 

weshlovrcm • 26 minutes ago

Again, the faith and sincerely held religious beliefs of the people using these drugs is trampled and ignored. If we’re going to become a country where the only thing that matters is “religious beliefs,” then WHOSE religious beliefs will take precedence?

What, me worry? weshlovrcm • 25 minutes ago

Well here’s where we’re going. The checker at your local grocery or drug store can now refuse to sell you condoms because of their religious fantasies.

clay • 25 minutes ago

Over half the people living with HIV contracted the virus through non-homosexual activities.

Nemerah S. clay • 24 minutes ago

“Sorry sir, we can’t condone homosexual behavior.”
“But I’m straight.”
“Sorry, you’re gay by osmosis.”

Liberal Canadian • 33 minutes ago

I didn’t realize an insurance company could have religious beliefs.

Raising_Rlyeh Liberal Canadian • 2 minutes ago

In this case it’s not the insurance company. This fuckface found a bunch of backwards fucking hicks that didn’t want to pay for an insurance plan that covers PREP or birth control and found an insanely conservative judge. They’re are suing to deny people life saving medications

amy cuscuriae The_Wretched • 34 minutes ago

Legislating from the bench is all right if you are a MAGA Federalist Society judge.

Bob’s Your Uncle – BYU • 29 minutes ago

“enabling homosexual behavior”.

Why Straight People Need to Talk More About PrEP
https://www.healthline.com/…

The CDC also recommends taking PrEP if you’re heterosexual and you don’t regularly use condoms during sex with people whose HIV status is unknown. You can also talk to your doctor to find out if you should take PrEP.

Because The virus that supposedly carries god’s judgment can’t infect heterosexuals?

2patricius2 • 29 minutes ago

“United States district judge Reed O’Conner ruled in favor of plaintiffs who argued that paying for insurance that covers PrEP violates their religious beliefs because PrEP ‘enable[s and encourages] homosexual behavior.’”

I would say that this judge’s ruling violates my religious beliefs of treating others as we would want to be treated. His ruling violates my religious belief that one should not use the excuse of religious belief to impose their beliefs on everyone else.

Victor • 37 minutes ago

Jonathan doesn’t seem to realize that HIV drugs are not only used by those people he hates.

What, me worry? • 29 minutes ago

For one thing, homosexual behavior is no longer illegal.

clay What, me worry? • 23 minutes ago

Those two are working on changing that, as well.

Tim H Patter • 35 minutes ago

Yes, our khristian nationalists would prefer that anyone with HIV just die, because they don’t want the 1 cent of their annual insurance coverage to give you medications.

clay Tim H Patter • 29 minutes ago

Oh, it goes beyond anyone with HIV. They include anyone who might be on the receiving end of body fluids from someone with detectable HIV to die, as well. For instance, they want prison medical staff to just die (or quit).

Elected officials, police chiefs on leaked Oath Keepers list

https://apnews.com/article/oath-keepers-leaked-membership-rolls-2ca4195ed3a10e45dd189bf98f3e5a26

Do not think the police will be standing up to protect your civil rights, your rights as a woman, your rights if you are black or a person of color, or your rights as an LGBTQ+ person.   Most police are on the right, and many law enforcement at all levels are trump maga cult members.   Large numbers of the police are part of the gang of thugs used as enforcers by the white Christian nationalists.   I posted before how many white supremacist gangs tried to join and run police forces across the country.    Hugs

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN today
 
 
FILE - Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. A new report says that the names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group that's accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists to find more than 370 people it believes are currently working in law enforcement agencies.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
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FILE – Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. A new report says that the names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group that’s accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists to find more than 370 people it believes are currently working in law enforcement agencies. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
 
FILE - A man wearing an Oath Keepers shirt stands outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, Nov. 19, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis. A new report says that the names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group that's accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists to find more than 370 people it believes are currently working in law enforcement agencies. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
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FILE – A man wearing an Oath Keepers shirt stands outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, Nov. 19, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis. A new report says that the names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group that’s accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists to find more than 370 people it believes are currently working in law enforcement agencies. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

The names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group that’s accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists and identified more than 370 people it believes currently work in law enforcement agencies — including as police chiefs and sheriffs — and more than 100 people who are currently members of the military.

It also identified more than 80 people who were running for or served in public office as of early August. The membership information was compiled into a database published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets.

The data raises fresh concerns about the presence of extremists in law enforcement and the military who are tasked with enforcing laws and protecting the U.S. It’s especially problematic for public servants to be associated with extremists at a time when lies about the 2020 election are fueling threats of violence against lawmakers and institutions.

“Even for those who claimed to have left the organization when it began to employ more aggressive tactics in 2014, it is important to remember that the Oath Keepers have espoused extremism since their founding, and this fact was not enough to deter these individuals from signing up,” the report says.

Appearing in the Oath Keepers’ database doesn’t prove that a person was ever an active member of the group or shares its ideology. Some people on the list contacted by The Associated Press said they were briefly members years ago and are no longer affiliated with the group. Some said they were never dues-paying members.

“Their views are far too extreme for me,” said Shawn Mobley, sheriff of Otero County, Colorado. Mobley told the AP in an email that he distanced himself from the Oath Keepers years ago over concerns about its involvement in the standoff against the federal government at Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, among other things.

The Oath Keepers, founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, is a loosely organized conspiracy theory-fueled group that recruits current and former military, police and first responders. It asks its members to vow to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” promotes the belief that the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties and paints its followers as defenders against tyranny.

More than two dozen people associated with the Oath Keepers — including Rhodes — have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Rhodes and four other Oath Keeper members or associates are heading to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors have described as a weekslong plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power. Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers say that they are innocent and that there was no plan to attack the Capitol.

The Oath Keepers has grown quickly along with the wider anti-government movement and used the tools of the internet to spread their message during Barack Obama’s presidency, said Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim deputy director of research with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. But since Jan. 6 and Rhodes’ arrest, the group has struggled to keep members, she said.

That’s partly because Oath Keepers had been associated so strongly with Rhodes that the removal of the central figure had an outsized impact, and partly because many associated with the group were often those who wanted to be considered respectable in their communities, she said.

“The image of being associated with Jan. 6 was too much for many of those folks,” she said.

Among the elected officials whose name appears on the membership lists is South Dakota state Rep. Phil Jensen, who won a June Republican primary in his bid for reelection. Jensen told the AP he paid for a one-year membership in 2014 but never received any Oath Keepers’ literature, attended any meetings or renewed his membership.

Jensen said he felt compelled to join because he “believed in the oath that we took to support the US Constitution and to defend it against enemies foreign and domestic.” He wouldn’t say whether he now disavows the Oath Keepers, saying he doesn’t have enough information about the group today.

“Back in 2014, they appeared to be a pretty solid conservative group, I can’t speak to them now,” he said.

ADL said it found the names of at least 10 people who now work as police chiefs and 11 sheriffs. All of the police chiefs and sheriffs who responded to the AP said they no longer have any ties to the group.

“I don’t even know what they’re posting. I never get any updates,” said Mike Hollinshead, sheriff of Idaho’s Elmore County. “I’m not paying dues or membership fees or anything.”

Hollinshead, a Republican, said he was campaigning for sheriff several years ago when voters asked him if he was familiar with the Oath Keepers. Hollinshead said he wanted to learn about the group and recalls paying for access to content on the Oath Keepers’ website, but that was the extent of his involvement.

Benjamin Boeke, police chief in Oskaloosa, Iowa, recalled getting emails from the group years ago and said he believes a friend may have signed him up. But he said he never paid to become a member and doesn’t know anything about the group.

Eric Williams, police chief in Idalou, Texas, also said in an email that he hasn’t been a member or had any interaction with the Oath Keepers in over 10 years. He called the storming of the Capitol “terrible in every way.”

“I pray this country finds its way back to civility and peace in discourse with one another,” he said.

Two Florida Covid stories from Joe My God, see if you can spot the difference. Hugs

Florida #1 In COVID Deaths For Third Straight Summer
DeSantis Trots Out Covidiots In New Campaign Ad

Real-life angels protect queer students from ‘armed’ anti-LGBTQ+ protesters

Real-life angels protect queer students from ‘armed’ anti-LGBTQ+ protesters

BYU students and others dressed as angels.

BYU students and others dressed as angels. (YouTube/Latter Gay Stories)

A group of “angel” defenders protected LGBTQ+ Brigham Young University students from protesters who targeted a Pride event.

Utah’s Brigham Young University (BYU) students were confronted by protesters on Saturday (3 September) during a scheduled “Back to School Pride Night” that included an all-ages drag show.

The hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ protesters reportedly screamed homophobic slurs and some had even brought handguns, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

 

But things took a turn after a group of counter-protesters appeared in white cloaks and wings made of sheets.

They formed a protective barrier around the group of rainbow-wearing students.

BYU student and “angel” Sabrina Wong told the Tribune: “I’m doing this because I want our LGBTQ community to feel like they can be themselves and know we have their backs.”

The religious university, which is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon church, disallows LGBTQ+ students from meeting on campus in organised groups.

 

It forbids same-sex dating on campus (despite removing the official policy in 2020), potentially violating several civil rights clauses according to Associated Press.

The group of protesters included former and current BYU students ,who described gender dysphoria as a “social contagion“. Others screamed various slurs at the group, including saying they were “going against God”.

“This shouldn’t be at a public park,” co-founder of the informal BYU conservative group Thomas Stevenson said.

The “Back to School Pride Night” was organised by the RaYnbow Collective, a local group focused on creating safe spaces for LGBTQ+ BYU students and staff.

It was a spin-off of the usual annual Pride event for new students of BYU, this time also featuring a family-friendly drag show that included BYU students as performers.

 

RaYnbow Collective’s founder Maddison Tenney was told by police to expect large anti-LGBTQ+ crowds ahead of the event.

“Religion has been weaponised against the queer community for a long time,” she said. “But that needs to end. I believe there’s nothing more divine than who I am as a queer child of God.”

Tenney initially thought of the angel costumes after seeing them being used by friends of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in 1999.

Shepard died six days after being beaten, tortured, and left hanging from a fence by two homophobic men, who were eventually sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.

The tactic was used to block signs by members of the Westboro Baptist Church that read “God hates f*gs” from public view using the wings as a cover. It has become a common tactic by pro-LGBTQ+ religious groups, including at the funerals for the victims of the Orlando LGBTQ+ nightclub shooting in 2016.