UN expert “deeply alarmed” at state of LGBTQ equality in the U.S.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/un-expert-deeply-alarmed-state-lgbtq-equality-u-s/

 

 
UN expert “deeply alarmed” at state of LGBTQ equality in the U.S.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz Photo: Screenshot
 

The United Nations’ independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity says he is “deeply alarmed” by the state of LGBTQ equality in the U.S.

At a Tuesday press briefing following a 10-day trip to the U.S., Victor Madrigal-Borloz warned that progress made over the course of previous decades is being undermined at both the state and federal level.

“Despite five decades of progress, equality is not within reach, and often not even within sight,” Madrigal-Borloz said.

During the trip, Madrigal-Borloz visited Washington DC, Miami, San Diego, and Birmingham, Alabama, and met with representatives from federal, state, and local governments, representatives from civil society organizations, LGBTQ people, and authorities at a detention center holding asylum seekers, according to a United Nations release.

“I am deeply alarmed by a widespread, profoundly negative riptide created by deliberate actions to roll back the human rights of LGBT people at state level,” he said. “The evidence shows that, without exception, these actions rely on prejudiced and stigmatizing views of LGBT persons, in particular transgender children and youth, and seek to leverage their lives as props for political profit.”

The U.S. has seen a wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation at the state level in recent months, much of it targeting LGBTQ youth. In his report, Madrigal-Borloz noted that in 2021, 268 anti-equality bills were introduced in state legislatures and that the number is expected to be even higher in 2022. He called out so-called “Don’t Say Gay” laws in Florida and Alabama, which severely restrict the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools; laws restricting transgender and gender diverse people’s access to bathrooms; and laws criminalizing transgender children’s access to gender-affirming healthcare.

Madrigal-Borloz also noted that LGBTQ people of color are particularly at risk in the U.S., facing inequality in relation to health, education, employment, and housing, as well as being disproportionately impacted by violence.

He acknowledged the Biden administration’s efforts via executive orders to combat anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

“The Biden-Harris administration has adopted powerful and meaningful actions that are in conformity with international human rights law, reveal a thoughtful strategy created through participative approaches, and provide significant capacity for their implementation,” he said. “In light of a concerted attack to undermine these actions, I exhort the administration to redouble its efforts to support the human rights of all LGBT persons living under its jurisdiction.”

 

The anti-trans middle school vice principal who threw beer on a woman has been reinstated

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/anti-trans-middle-school-vice-principal-threw-beer-woman-reinstated/

The arbitrator said the man shouldn’t be disciplined for protecting his wife.   But that is not what he was doing.   They were in a public place and his wife was loudly causing a scene about a transwoman.   A fellow patron started recording the wife, the man got up to confront the woman recording them.    Now that woman was with in her rights, he is going to her to confront her.   The woman says “Please take your hate elsewhere,” the patron who is recording them said. Michael Smurro then threw his beer at the woman.  He threw his beer on a woman because he was angry she asked him to take his bigotry elsewhere, he was angry she dared tell him what to do.  So he threw his beer on her.  Is that the way we want someone who is in the job of “Vice Principal of Safety”  to act?    Really this is what we should teach kids, that when you are angry it is OK to pour your drink on someone?   But I am glad the school district is standing up for the LGBTQ+ and want him to resign.   Hugs

 
The Neptune Township Board of Education held a meeting to discuss Michael Smurro's reinstatement
The Neptune Township Board of Education held a meeting to discuss Michael Smurro’s reinstatement Photo: Lana Leonard
 

Dozens attended a New Jersey school board meeting to denounce the reinstatement of Neptune Middle School’s former Vice Principal Michael Smurro.

A viral video recorded by patrons shows Michael Smurro and his wife, Lisa, at the outside seating area of a local restaurant as Lisa Smurro ranted loudly about a transgender woman who used the bathroom. When the Smurros realize that someone at a different table was recording them, they get up to confront that person, while Lisa Smurro continued to rant about the trans woman.

“Please take your hate elsewhere,” the patron who is recording them said. Michael Smurro then threw his beer at the woman.

The video of the confrontation quickly garnered national media attention.

The recording raised questions about what happened that day, particularly, whether or not Mr. Smurro engaged in transphobic behavior himself. Smurro quoted the transphobic slur of the unidentified woman his wife used when explaining the incident to District Superintendent Dr. Tami Crader, according to the investigation.

The Neptune Township Board of Education requested his termination and the commissioner’s office agreed. However, Barbara C. Deinhardt, the arbitrator, disagreed with the school board and approved his return to work starting on August 18.

“The district took legal action to terminate [Smurro] through tenure charges, but the arbitrator assigned to the case instead ruled in favor of the penalty of six months unpaid suspension. Mr. Smurro’s tenure remains in place and he has been reinstated as a vice principal of safety located in the central office,” said President Chanta L. Jackson to the audience.

Lisa Smurro was the only individual using transphobic language, therefore, he can’t be guilty by association, according to the investigation’s 35-page decision.

“The theory that because he defended his wife who arguably expressed intolerance for transgender persons, he thereby discriminated in the provision of benefits or services to students is far-fetched,” reads Deinhardt’s conclusion.

Superintendent Crader agreed with the public consensus in the investigation. However, Jackson warned the board couldn’t respond to public questions involving the employment or discipline of employees before public comment.

Michael Hoffman, the father of children in the school district, believes in forgiveness. He believes in second chances, yet, he believes as a public official the vice principal should resign regardless of the arbitrator’s award.

“A person in this light should not work around children. By bringing this person back we are showing children it’s okay to lead with anger and violence,” said Hoffman. “Neptune, I’m asking you to stand up and be a school where trans kids and all kids can grow up and feel safe.”

Hoffman’s words echoed others who spoke in the public portion of the meeting – including his wife Kym Hoffman.

Kym Hoffman is running for the Board of Education in the general election. The incident partially encouraged Hoffman’s run for public office. Her hope is to continue Neptune’s LGBTQ training, inclusivity and equity in the school, while making an effort to hold people in power accountable.

“There is nothing we can legally do now, but push for [Smurro’s] resignation,” Hoffman said.

The reinstatement comes at a vulnerable time for civil rights in classrooms as hundreds of anti-LGBTQ education bills trickle throughout the country.

“As of April 2022, there have been more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed in the U.S. Forty-two percent of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide last year, and for transgender and nonbinary youth that number increases to 52%,” said Hoffman.

Ethan Dayback, a Neptune resident and transgender activist, reminded the district that he isn’t going anywhere and called for Smurro’s resignation.

“We live in this community. We get up and go to work everyday. We have friends, we have family. We’re just like everybody else, and we deserve to have protections just like everybody else; and that includes not having unsafe people around children,” Dayback told the board.

Dayback went on to explain the harm LGBTQ children face throughout their lives, but that he is living proof that life goes on.

“I want the kids to see that I am here. I am a functioning adult. It wasn’t always easy, but I kept going. If you are a queer child and you are watching this, and you feel like all of these people aren’t protecting you… [it’s] because they’re not.”

A handful of students founded Neptune Township High School’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) while Bastian Poranski was a senior at the Jersey Shore high school in 2008. Poranski was elated to join. Only four people did. Fear of being retaliated against for being out, for being proud, kept people from joining. Still, Poranski found strength in four.

“So when I heard about other schools discriminating against LGBTQ+ youth, I was like: ‘Well, no. It’s not my school. I’m glad that’s not my school,” Poranski told the board at Monday night’s meeting. “But that’s not the case today.”

However, the school board president said she is doing her best.

Jackson said she appreciates the attendance of the concerned public in an email to LGBTQ Nation.

“Please know that this board amended our district’s slogan to reflect ‘A Community for ALL Learners’,” Jackson wrote. “We aim to embody this in all that we do.”

With the inclusion of ongoing training in concepts related to the LGBTQ community over the last two years, the school district is working in preparation for New Jersey’s Diversity and Inclusion Law to diversify hiring practices too.

“[We] have updated all school and classroom libraries to include offerings that portray political, economic, and social contributions of persons with disabilities as well as from lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” Jackson said.

Smurro was unable to be reached for comment.

 

Let’s talk about the explanation from Trump America deserves….

Holy dogs that love gravy this is a must watch video. Hugs

Republican Virginia State Rep Loses Lawsuit To Stop Barnes & Noble From Selling “Obscene” LGBTQ Books – JMG

The Washington Post reports:

A Virginia judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by two Republicans that sought to limit how bookstores and public school libraries could distribute two books to minors, closing — at least temporarily — an unusual commercial strategy in what conservatives say is a campaign to protect students. The two books at the heart of the suit are Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” a memoir about identifying as nonbinary, and Sarah J. Maas’s “A Court of Mist and Fury,” a fantasy novel that depicts a dark fairy romance.

The suit, filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court by Del. Tim Anderson [photo] and congressional candidate Tommy Altman, aimed to prevent the Virginia Beach school system and locations of the private bookseller Barnes & Noble from selling the books to children without first obtaining parental consent. In her order dismissing the lawsuit, Judge Pamela Baskervill concluded that part of Virginia’s state law dealing with obscenity is unconstitutional.

Read the full article.

 

madknits • 23 minutes ago

It begins with banning books. It ends with banning people.

CunninLinWood, Equines • 18 minutes ago

An example of actual obscenity:

Thumbnail

Adam Schmidt CunninLinWood, Equines • 13 minutes ago

Got it… taking kids to see drag queens read story books is obscene but posing with your kids in front of a “Fuck Biden” flag with two women showing their ass while you get your kids to flip the bird… that’s good parentin’!

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️ • 20 minutes ago

I suppose a law mandating browser history review of lawmakers who target minority groups might cause many (R) to break out in cold sweats…

I suppose…

SRT • 24 minutes ago

Bigots gonna bigot.

Government does not belong telling private books stores what books they can and cannot sell.

If parents don’t want their kids to buy the book, it’s their job to police that.

This suit just personifies that both these bigots believe parents aren’t capable of raising their own kids.

Gustav2 SRT • 23 minutes ago

It’s about controlling other people’s kids and what they have access to so their own kids are not “tainted” by the real world and knowledge.

SkokieDaddy – wiener dog dad Gustav2 • 17 minutes ago

I’ve never heard of a child forced to go to a drag queen story hour, but tons of kids were forced to go to church.

But gosh, the right only foams at the mouth about the former.

Doug105 • 15 minutes ago

Hopefully had to pay court costs for Barnes and Noble too.

Judas Peckerwood • 21 minutes ago

I can’t believe the court violated his right to free speech by refusing to ban those books!

another_steve • 26 minutes ago

Today, in 2022, it reduces basically to this:

If you get a non-MAGAt judge, justice might prevail.

If you get a MAGAt judge, you’re screwed.

JWC • 26 minutes ago

They now want to invade the private sector

Girlgoon • 12 minutes ago

Rethuglicans always use freedom of speech law to protect religion then get mad when it bites them In the ass.

Biden Faces Criticism For Calling Out A Hard Truth About Trump Supporters

Joe Biden is getting backlash for referring to some MAGA enthusiasts as fascists. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.

Read More HERE: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/…

“At a separate event Thursday, Biden said Trump’s party doesn’t “just threaten our personal rights and economic security…They’re a threat to our very democracy,” he said. “They embrace…political violence. They don’t believe in democracy.”

Herschel Walker Can’t Defend Or Explain His Own Policies

Herschel Walker cannot be compelled to clarify where he stands on basic political issues. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks.

Read More HERE: https://newsone.com/4282620/herschel-…

“And while it’s not a stretch of the imagination to associate limited intelligence with football players, Walker more than fumbled during an interview with a right-wing conservative news outlet that tried to gently hand off a question to him with which he should have been able to run straight to the proverbial end zone for an undeniable touchdown of an answer.”

Alex Jones Tells His Audience To Use Political Violence And Prepare For War

Alex Jones fearmongered about the bringing down of America, warning his viewers that the left wing is plotting the enslavement of America.

Read More HERE: https://www.mediaite.com/weird/alex-j…

“Jones added the globalists, whom he clarified are “mid-level,” have tricked many Americans into thinking there will merely be a “leftist revolution.” In fact, Jones prophesied, there will be a “civil war.”

Cochise County sheriff: 7-year-old student had 2 guns, ammunition in backpack

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-breaking/2022/08/30/cochise-county-sheriff-7-year-old-boy-had-2-guns-ammo-in-backpack/7942704001/

What the hell is going on!   This is lawful gun ownership when a 7 year old can get ahold of and go to school with 2 handguns and ammo?   Why did the kid feel he should take them to school.   What kind of storage did the parents have for the guns?   Hugs

A 7-year-old boy at a Cochise County school was discovered with two guns and ammunition in his backpack on Monday, according to the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies arrived and met with school officials and the second-grade student, who they learned was discovered with a gun and ammunition inside of his backpack. After searching his backpack, they found a second handgun.

The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office did not identify the student nor specify what school the incident occurred at.

The parents of the student were contacted, and a “juvenile referral” was completed for charges of misconduct with a weapon and a minor in possession of a firearm.

Similar incidents have taken place in Arizona this year. On Thursday, a gun was confiscated from a fourth-grade student attending Legacy Traditional School in Queen Creek.

And in March, a 15-year-old teenager was arrested after he brought a gun to Verrado High School and had it confiscated by officials.

 

High school Christian club that rejects LGBTQ students reinstated by court order

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/high-school-christian-club-rejects-lgbtq-students-reinstated-court-order/

Another way Christianity is getting permission to discriminate.   I remember about five years ago a LGBTQ+ group was forced by the court to allow anti-gay Christians to not only join the group but also seek leadership positions.   The LGBTQ+ gay support group was sued by the Christians who demanded that they be allowed not only to join but run for the top position of the club, with the idea of changing it to anti-gay.   The courts ruled that the gay club had to let the Christians join and a short time later the support group disbanded.    But my dogs that love gravy when the situation is reversed no way those gays deserve equal treatment.  Notice the judge called out the teachers who may have made fun of or insulted the students who were religious in the club, but totally ignored the insults and attacks by Christians students and teachers on the LGBTQ+ students.    Welcome to the US Taliban theocracy.   Hugs

 
High school Christian club that rejects LGBTQ students reinstated by court order
Fellowship of Christian Athletes Photo: Fellowship of Christian Athletes
 

In a major victory for religious freedom advocates and a defeat for LGBTQ rights, a three-judge panel in California reinstated a public school club in San Jose that denied membership to LGBTQ students based on a “Sexual Purity” pledge.

On Monday, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes was ordered reinstated for the current school year while litigation continued in a lower court.

Writing for the majority, Trump appointee Judge Kenneth Kiyul Lee of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the case represented “two competing values that we cherish as a nation: the principle of non-discrimination on the one hand, and the First Amendment’s protection of free exercise of religion and free speech on the other hand.”

Non-discrimination lost.

The case emerged from an all-school controversy in 2019, when a teacher at Pioneer High School in San Jose asked students what they thought about the Christian club’s “Sexual Purity” pledge, which according to court records states: “The Bible teaches that the appropriate place for sexual expression is in the context of a marriage relationship. The biblical description of marriage is one man and one woman in a lifelong commitment.”

Leaders of the group were required to sign.

Students weren’t having it.

Protests erupted outside the club’s meetings, and complaints were filed. Teachers and allies spoke out publicly.

The outcry prompted the San Jose Unified School District to rescind the club’s official status. The club sued, alleging religious discrimination.

In his opinion, Lee said the crux of the issue was how the school district applied its non-discrimination policy to all school clubs, not just the Christian Fellowship group.

“Under the First Amendment, our government must be scrupulously neutral when it comes to religion: It cannot treat religious groups worse than comparable secular ones,” he wrote. “But the School District did just that.”

The judge cited a “Senior Women Club” that excluded male students, and a “Big Sisters/Little Sisters” club that was “obviously intended” to serve female students, not male students.

While the court didn’t “minimize the ostracism that gay and lesbian students may endure,” Lee wrote, “in our pluralistic society in which people from diverse backgrounds must coexist despite having starkly different worldviews, the Free Exercise Clause requires the government to respect religious beliefs and conduct, even if many people may find such beliefs to not be ‘acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible.’”

Lee cited numerous recent precedents upholding religious freedom, from the Supreme Court down.

He also called out “animus” in the school’s treatment of the faith-based group.

According to the court’s findings, one teacher called the club’s beliefs “bulls—”, another described evangelical Christians “as ‘charlatans’ who perpetuate ‘darkness’ and ‘ignorance,’” and another “denigrated his own student as an ‘idiot’ for empathizing with FCA members who faced backlash from teachers and students.”

“This is not, to put it mildly, neutral treatment of religion,” Lee wrote. “More than a whiff, a stench of animus against the students’ religious beliefs pervades the Pioneer High School campus.”

The school district said it was “reviewing the court’s opinion, assessing options, and will determine next steps as soon as possible.”

 

 

LibsOfTikTok linked to Russian disinformation campaign to stir outrage over LGBTQ rights

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/libsoftiktok-linked-russian-disinformation-campaign-stir-outrage-lgbtq-rights/

Pure hate for hate’s sake.  Promising further harm when informed that your actions lead to death threats and threats of bombing of hospitals along with the violent attacks on drag queen events such as the drag queen story hours.   These people seem to forget that many comedians in the past often dressed up as women.   But the libsoftiktok are insidious in spreading their propaganda.   Just the name makes you think they are liberals when they are the most rabid of the maga cult.   Then the stuff they spout is the most vile and out right lies that have been frequently debunked but they push them out as fact to rile up their gang of thugs followers.   Like most of the rabid right and other LGBTQ+ haters they have to make up things like this fake pamphlet, they have to selectively edit the video to change the meaning, and they pretend that things are being done to kids that are not at all true.   Hugs

 
pedophile pamphlet, LibsOfTikTok, Russian propaganda
An image of the fake pro-pedophile pamphlet Photo: Twitter screenshot
 

A video posted this month by the far-right anti-LGBTQ Libs of TikTok Twitter account has since spread among anti-LGBTQ Russian and European disinformation networks, effectively furthering the anti-queer agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The account’s founder has pledged to do even more to threaten LGBTQ lives in the future.

On August 10, Chaya Raichik, who goes by LibsofTikTok on social media, posted a video of a therapist who works with jailed sex offenders. In the video, the therapist announces their pronouns and advises people to use the term “minor-attracted persons” (MAPs) rather than “pedophiles.” They said the latter term has “moved from being a diagnostic label to being a judgmental, hurtful insult that we hurl at people in order to harm them or slander them.”

Indeed, the Libs of TikTok account itself has regularly accused pro-LGBTQ teachers of being “groomers” and has called the youth anti-suicide organization The Trevor Project a “grooming organization.” Grooming is a term for gaining the trust of a child so you can rape them. The term has since become a common anti-LGBTQ slur. Gay men were frequently accused of being pedophiles by the religious right although that accusation had faded over the years.

The therapist also said that MAPs are among the most vilified people in society, and added that most of them don’t choose their attraction to underage people. The therapist said that MAPs shouldn’t be solely defined by that one aspect of themselves.

Raichik only posted the first two minutes of the therapist’s presentation, which made it seem like they were advocating for people to be nicer to child sex abusers. However, Vice News reported that, in the full archived version of the video, the therapist unmistakably condemns such crimes. The therapist has since gone into hiding after Raichik posted the video.

After Raichik posted it, “major Russian disinformation networks on Telegram, some with hundreds of thousands of followers, began sharing it” alongside images of a fake leaflet that had gone viral on Russia’s social network Vkontakte.

The fake leaflet, which local St. Petersburg news organizations claimed had been found in the U.K. by a Russian tourist, was entitled, “What to do if a stranger comes up to you on the street.” It advised children to stay silent if a stranger approached them in public, not to call them a “pedophile,” and to invite the strangers back to their homes.

Polish fact-checkers questioned the leaflet’s authenticity, noting that its original social media sharer neither disclosed any details about where the leaflet was found nor of the Russian tourist who allegedly found it. The leaflet uses the American-English spelling of “pedophile” (not the British-English “paedophile”), it contains no logos or credits atrributing its creator, and only four photos of the brochure exist with no other copies being found.

On August 15, the Russian Tsargrad TV channel published an article titled “British Children Learn to Invite Pedophiles Home.” The channel’s editor-in-chief was the Kremlin’s chief ideologist, Alexander Dugin, who helped promote Putin’s infamous law against “gay propaganda” as a way to “protect children.”

Tsargrad TV’s article said the leaflet was evidence of Western culture’s “moral decay,” and added, “It is worth noting that the promotion of the legalization of pedophilia in the West is not an isolated incident, but a deliberate vector of the hard work of perverted lobbyists. We in Russia do not need such ‘values’ — violence against our children is categorically unacceptable.”

Russian and European social media users combined mentions of Raichik’s video along with news of the leaflet to create an emotional argument against LGBTQ-inclusive “groomers.” One message, shared on a Telegram channel with 180,000 followers posted the video and leaflet images and declared, “This is definitely not a fake.”

Similar posts also surfaced on a Russian Telegram channel with 400,000 subscribers.

Libs of Tik Tok received a seven-day no-posting suspension from Twitter after falsely claiming that the Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C. was performing hysterectomies on transgender children — her claim led to harassment, bombing and death threats against hospital workers. Libs of TikTok has also been suspended multiple times on multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, Media Matters reported.

Despite the slap on the wrists, Raichik recently pledged on her Substack newsletter to do even more to endanger hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth.

“Any sane person realizes that mutilating children for gender affirmation is barbaric,” she wrote, pushing the lie that gender-affirming surgeries are performed on children. They are not.

“Any doctor performing these surgeries should have their license revoked. They belong in prison,” she continued. “But alas, they are celebrated while Twitter and the media are running cover for them. Getting suspended by Twitter has only made me realize my biggest mistake. I only called one hospital I should have called dozens because I promise you Children’s National is not the only one. I promise to learn from my mistake and uncover more of what our Big Tech overlords don’t want us to know. I will do better in the future.”

 

Substack, a digital newsletter platform, has made millions from anti-vaccine movement influencers and anti-LGBTQ figures, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The platform has become popular for “hate actors,” according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO Imran Ahmed. Ahmed says the platform’s leaders regularly fail to enforce its own safety rules and guidelines under the guise of “not censoring writers.”

There’s proof that Libs of TikTok’s posts result in real-life threats against queer people and their allies. Raichik’s posts on all-ages drag shows have compelled Proud Boys and other forces to angrily confront LGBTQ parents, their children, allies, and drag performers in public, taking their pictures, and sharing their identities on social media.