Remember that hundreds of elected Republicans support Russia over the US interests and vote against any aid to Ukraine. This is the country the right wing media support and want the US to become. Seems they really hate democracy. Hugs
Torture in Russia is becoming part of the government’s policy, the head of a disbanded anti-torture organization warned Sunday.
Sergei Babinets, the head of the Russian Committee for the Prevention of Torture, announced that his organization is disbanding after the government labeled it a “foreign agent.” It is the latest indication of Moscow violating human rights at home and through its invasion of Ukraine.
In a Telegram post, Babinets wrote that he did not want to continue to work under the label, which he described as “an insult and slander,” from the Russian government, according to a report from The Moscow Times.
“Despite the obvious importance of our mission, the authorities have been trying for many years to portray it as foreign and harmful,” he said in his post, according to the newspaper. “The authorities are sending a signal that torture is becoming [or has already become] a part of government policy.”
Torture in Russia is becoming part of the government policies, warned the leader of an anti-torture NGO that disbanded on Sunday. The news came one day after authorities labeled the organization a foreign agent. Russian Police officers run to detain a man holding a poster reads: “No war” during a unsanctioned protest rally at Manezhnaya Square in front of the Kremlin, March,13,2022, an inset of Committee for the Prevention of Torture NGO.GETTY/NGO
In Russia, the “foreign agent” label is often used against organizations, journalists, and opposition members accused of being funded by foreign governments. Those who carry the label may be subject to penalties or other constraints, according to the Times.
The committee, founded in 2000, has advocated for justice against Russian authorities accused of torture, particularly in Chechnya, which is viewed as a particularly authoritarian region in Russia where the group has faced security concerns, according to a 2016 report from The Guardian.
Their work had been made more difficult by the Russia-Ukraine war as thousands of Russians have been arrested for protesting the invasion that was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin in late February, Babinets said in a March interview with the organization Civil Rights Defenders.
“Currently, the work of the Committee is facing more and more obstructions, and human rights are practically seen as an ‘enemy’s value,'” he said at the time.
The organization’s press secretary Natalia Kurekina, in the same interview, warned of “alarming” violence from police against those engaged in anti-war demonstrations, including “ill-treatment” and beatings. She added the government’s crackdown on the independent media has made it more difficult to publicize this information.
It’s the latest sign of the Russian government potentially cracking down on human rights. According to data from OVD-info, an organization that tracks the number of arrests in Russia, at least 15,451 protesters have been arrested so far since the conflict began.
The Russian military has also faced allegations of human rights abuses in Ukraine, including attacks targeting civilians, including on kindergartens and hospitals.
Please read this short article. It details how the drive to return the country to 1950s was driven mostly by one man who was disgusted by the 1960s and any changes to his white Christian male dominated society. He quickly spread his message of hate to the party to win elections. Now that segment of the party has shrunk to about 20% but are the driving force behind the entire culture wars the republicans are pushing. The goal is return to 1950 where they felt happy and in charge, sex was still icky, and done in only one way. That is the other thing, what do these people have against sex, it is really wonderful, they should try it. Also notice the way they attack trans people. No real mention of trans, they ignore trans boys / men, instead focus only on bodies of trans girls and fear. It is really interesting how the lives of the people do not to matter as long as these people get the political power and the religious power they want. Hugs
The recent blitz of anti-trans bills may not align with what many Republicans believe, but party lawmakers pursue them on behalf of their most important interest group.
When it came down to it, Rick Colby called on his spirituality in deciding how to support his transgender child, Ashton.
It wasn’t a guarantee. Colby had dedicated his life to Republican politics, starting in 1984 on the field campaign to reelect Ronald Reagan. Reagan and the Republican Party with him and in the decades following would push anti-LGBTQ+ policies. But Colby’s Methodist church by comparison preached inclusivity and empathy, a message that conflicted with what he was hearing from Republicans.
Colby went with Ashton to his first endocrinologist appointment. He held Ashton’s hand the following year as Ashton awoke from gender-affirming top surgery.
“You know, as a parent, you want to protect your child from the nastiness of the world,” Colby said. “I was so relieved as a parent that he was being accepted. And it was just wonderful.”
Survey after survey show that Americans support LGBTQ+ equality, and Republicans are no exception. Still, Republican-dominated states have seen a blitz of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation since 2020, particularly anti-transgender bills. That dissonance — between the reality of the electorate and the priorities of Republican lawmakers — may seem counterintuitive to many.
Randall Balmer, a Dartmouth professor who was raised evangelical, has spent much of his career researching those kinds of contradictions. His book, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of Religious Right traces the rise of the evangelical voting bloc from nonexistent in the 1960s to the single most important interest group for any Republican candidate in the 1980s. In a conversation with The 19th, Balmer said that rise was driving Republican support for anti-trans legislation now.
“They have an interest in keeping the base riled up about one thing or another, and when one issue fades, as with same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage, they’ve got to find something else,” Balmer said. “It’s almost frantic.”
Bob Jones University sign at entrance on Wade Hampton Boulevard, Greenville, South Carolina, United States. (John Foxe/Wikimedia) [CC BY-SA 3.0]
While many people believe that abortion was the issue that first galvanized evangelicals to the polls in the 1980s, Balmer points to a different issue. Paul Weyrich, an evangelical Christian who helped initially organize the “religious right,” had been testing out issues that would drive other evangelicals to the polls in the 1970s, Balmer says. Weyrich found it in Bob Jones University, a religious institution that was facing the loss of its tax-exempt status for refusing to racially integrate.
Weyrich’s strategy worked. In 1980, evangelicals – a group of denominations separate from mainline churches like Colby’s – flocked to the polls to back what had been billed as the freedom of a religious school to operate without government interference. Reagan backed Bob Jones University, with two-thirds of the evangelical vote, denied President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat and an evangelical himself, a second term. It cemented White evangelicals as the key ingredient to Republican wins.
Any Republican who wanted to cross the finish line would have to kneel at the feet of the evangelical base, Balmer says. Decades later, Donald Trump would initially campaign on welcoming LGBTQ+ people into his Republican platform, only to later adopt the ideology of the far-right evangelical base he needed to win.
While Trump appeared to start out a social moderate, far-right evangelical policies increasingly dominated his agenda. On the campaign trail, Trump briefly vowed to be an ally to queer Americans. In office, his administration made so many policy moves against LGBTQ+ Americans that advocacy organizations branded his leadership “The Discrimination Administration.”
The religious right’s fixation on “social issues” — abortion, religious-based education, LGBTQ+ rights — served two purposes. In addition to keeping evangelicals a cohesive voting unit, they also formed an ideological bedrock for the religious right. Before Weyrich died, he argued that conservatives should be fighting to return to family structures of the 1950s, a goal that has been picked up by leaders after him.
In his book The Next Conservatism, Weyrich wrote that the goal was to weed out “cultural Marxism,” and “restore a non-ideological American republic, which is what we had up until the wretched 1960s,” when women and Black and LGBTQ+ Americans pushed for and won greater rights.
After Reagan’s 1980 victory, Weyrich would continue to test issue after issue to keep evangelicals voting, including abortion. This idealized rewind to 1950s America would systematically challenge the basic rights gained by Black Americans, LGBTQ+ people and those with disabilities.
“As they were searching for different issues, I think they understood that any issue that had some sort of connection to sexuality or sexual behavior was going to work for them,” Balmer told The 19th.
The first issue was “sodomy laws,” which aimed to make gay sex illegal. The Supreme Court overruled the last of them in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas. Next came marriage equality, which was granted nationwide by the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling in 2015. Still, according to the Public Religion Research Institute, evangelical Protestants were the only major religious group as of 2020 that opposed same-sex marriage: just 34 percent of those surveyed support marriage equality.
The country, however, moved on.
“It’s staggering how quickly [marriage] disappeared as an issue,” Balmer said “And so, they almost frantically began looking for something else. And of course, the trans thing was the next thing on the horizon.”
Today, nearly 8 in 10 Americans back nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, according to a poll from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute. That includes 65 percent of Republicans. A 2021 poll by PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll found that two-thirds of Americans opposed bills limiting the rights of transgender people.
Maps of states that have passed laws that would ban abortion if the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade almost mirror those that have passed anti-trans bans. Eleven of the 15 states with a sports participation ban for trans youth have also moved to curtail abortion rights.
Zein Murib, assistant political professor at Fordham University, says that overlap is no mistake.
“They’re saying, ‘Forget about rights. This is about bodies,’” Murib said. “This is about these bodies being in places where they again presumably do not belong. … You see them deploying scare tactics like, ‘men disguised as women in girls’ restrooms’ or ‘boys in girls’ locker rooms.’”
As 19th News found in an investigation in 2021, the vast majority of anti-transgender bills never use the word “transgender” at all. Lawmakers instead pitch the bills as critical to securing rights for women in sports and larger society. Those arguments fail to acknowledge transgender women, and advocates say they are increasingly out of touch with the general electorate.
Chris Bull is the editorial director of queer media firm Q.Digital and the author of the 2001 book Perfect Enemies: The Battle Between the Religious Right and the Gay Movement. Bull argues that Republican lawmakers have abandoned 80 percent of their voters to cater to a sliver of their voters.
“I think that the cliche of American politics is not holding anymore,” he said. “They’re really running base campaigns, that 20 percent of the electorate.”
Still, political scientists warn that the strategy to attack trans rights could backfire and cost them support among an increasingly diverse electorate. More Americans, like Colby, know transgender people than ever before. More than that, evangelicals are statistically shrinking as a voting block, while the number who support LGBTQ+ people continues to rapidly grow.
In the 2018 midterms, the Human Rights Campaign, with polling firm Catalyst, found that people they dubbed “equality voters,” those whose support for LGBTQ+ rights strongly influenced their voting choices, made up 29 percent of the electorate. White evangelicals made up 26 percent of the vote.
Please notice in this short article the references to protecting the children from the propaganda of LGBTQ+. This guy praises these laws that are more don’t say gay, outlawing any mention of the LGBTQ+ and the authoritarian strongman leaders that implement them. They want to outlaw the LGBTQ+ out of existence, and where do you think the US rabid right Republicans get these ideas. More and more as these laws pop up all across the world to either stop or roll back acceptance of the LGBTQ+ people / rights I remember how Brian Brown, Scott Lively, and other US religious figures went to developing nations and pushed for strict punishments for any same sex conduct, anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and helped elect politicians with religious views. Some big money person / groups are pushing this hate world wide. The haters are using the same laws and same talking points. Hugs
Miloš Zeman, president of the Czech Republic, vows to veto legislation that would give same-sex couples the right to hold civil weddings in the country. (Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto via Getty)
Czech president Miloš Zeman has said he plans to veto proposed legislation that would give same-sex couples the right to get married in the country.
The measure, which was drafted by lawmakers across the Czech political spectrum, was submitted to the parliament’s lower house on Tuesday (7 June), the Associated Pressreported.
Lawmakers have yet to set a date to debate the proposed same-sex marriage legislation. Yet the country’s president has said he is strongly opposed to the measure and will strike it down should it even land on his desk.
“I’d like to announce that if I really receive such a law to sign I will veto it,” Zeman said.
Miloš Zeman has served as the president of the Czech Republic since 2013. The president is considered a largely ceremonial role as the elected leader has limited executive powers, but he does have a considerable role in political affairs.
Zeman said that the Czech Republic passed a law in 2006 allowing same-sex couples to enter into registered partnerships, but he believed “family is a union between a man and a woman”, “full stop”.
Czech president Miloš Zeman said he believes “family is a union between a man and a woman”, “full stop”. (Getty/Mikhail Svetlov)
The registered partnership gives queer couples in the Czech Republic some rights similar to those of heterosexual married couples, but it stops short of placing same-sex couples on fully equal footing with their heterosexual counterparts.
Same-sex marriage remains illegal in the country because marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman under the Czech Republic’s civil code.
Parliament started debating similar same-sex marriage legislation back in 2018, but the legislation stalled as lawmakers didn’t take a vote before last year’s general election. The measure had to then be re-submitted for debate.
Lawmakers in the Czech parliament’s lower house can override Zeman’s veto if they can reach a majority vote.
Miloš Zeman has often espoused anti-LGBTQ+ views in the past. Last June, Zeman said he finds trans people “disgusting” while discussing Hungary’s so-called LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’ law, which bans any depiction or discussion of queer people in schools, the media and advertising.
Zema said he thought people who undergo gender-affirming treatments are “basically committing a crime of self-harm”.
“Every surgery is a risk, and these transgender people to me are disgusting,” he added.
Adults younger than 30 are more likely than older adults to say their gender differs from their sex assigned at birth, a new Pew Research Center report found.
The 45th annual Seattle Pride Parade on June 30, 2019. Genna Martin / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images file
By Zachary Schermele
Approximately 5 percent of young adults in the U.S. identify as transgender or nonbinary, and an increasing number say they know someone who is trans, according to data released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.
Adults younger than 30 are more likely than older Americans to say their gender differs from their sex assigned at birth. The findings estimate that the total number of adults who identify as transgender or nonbinary (meaning they identify as neither exclusively male nor female) in the U.S. is 1.6 percent.
The new data, which was weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. adult population, comes from an online survey panel from mid-May of 10,188 randomly sampled people. The findings are part of a broader survey that will be released some point this summer about the general public’s “attitudes about gender identity and issues related to people who are transgender or nonbinary,” the report states.
Since 2017, the number of adults who say they know a trans person has been on a slight but steady increase, rising from 37 percent that year to 42 percent in 2021, and 44 percent this year. Although that number decreases as adults get older, a third of those 65 and older in the survey still said they know a transgender person.
More people know transgender people as friends than as co-workers or family members, according to the findings. A little over a quarter of adults said they have a friend who is trans, with roughly 1 in 10 having a trans co-worker or family member.
The survey also found 1 in 5 U.S. adults said they personally know a nonbinary person. A similar Pew survey from last year found an increase — from 18 percent in 2018 to 26 percent in 2021 — in the number of Americans who said they knew someone who preferred using gender-neutral pronouns.
The survey’s estimate of the percentage of trans and nonbinary people in the U.S. is notable because that figure has been historically difficult to gauge, as the Census Bureau has dragged its feet on updating its questions to be more inclusive. In 2016, research sponsored by the Department of Labor uncovered obstacles to the feasibility of adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to the current population survey, though the Census Bureau took the historic step last year of adding those questions to its household pulse survey, which measures the impact of the pandemic on families.
A 2021 estimate from UCLA Law’s Williams Institute estimated the number of nonbinary adults in the U.S. to be 1.2 million, and a 2016 report from the institute placed the number of transgender adults in the U.S. at 1.4 million.
Results from an Ipsos global survey released last year, which drew on data from 19,000 people in 27 countries, found 4 percent of young adult respondents identified as transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid or “in another way.”
The new Pew results found that while it is more likely for a Democrat than a Republican to know a trans person (48 percent vs. 42 percent), the split has narrowed since last year.
In addition, the Pew researchers conducted six focus groups in March with 27 trans and nonbinary people of different ages and racial identities to discuss a range of topics, from access to gender-affirming care to social policy. Those discussions, which were not intended to be statistically representative of the entire population in the U.S., showed that historic challenges — including employment discrimination, bias and violence — appear to persist.
Some participants said deciding whether to reveal their gender identities to other people can be a “constant calculation.” Many participants talked about hesitation in discussing their trans or nonbinary identities in work settings, for some because of a perceived lack of professionalism.
They also discussed financial barriers to medical treatments such as hormone therapy and surgery, with some leaning on “underground networks” for help. Some also described feeling a lack of connection with the larger LGBTQ community, while others felt more accepted.
The findings come amid a record surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation, particularly targeting the rights of trans people at the state level, with the Human Rights Campaign estimating that more than 320 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed in state legislatures so far this year.
Many of the participants said they did not become more certain of their gender identities until “well into adulthood.” A middle-aged trans man described not knowing “what trans was” until getting to college — “that was when I had a word for myself for the first time,” the participant said.
Many participants cited young people as a reason for optimism.
“They understand almost intrinsically so much more about these things than I feel like my generation did,” a nonbinary participant in their mid-30s said. “They give me so much hope for the future.”
German LGBT+ pride goers were subject to attack. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)
A Pride event in Karlsruhe, Germany descended into chaos after 30 men violently attacked the crowd and set an LGBTQ+ flag ablaze.
The incident occurred on Saturday (4 June) when the group ganged up on the flag carrier and began to hurl a barrage of insults and hate speech, as reported by Queer.de.
Members of the crown attempted to help the person being attacked, but were in turn attacked themselves. People reported that they were pulled by their hair, kicked, brought to the ground and further beaten.
The attackers then proceeded to steal the flag and burn it. The person carrying the flag sustained several minor injuries and was transported to the hospital.
Karlsruhe police have opened an investigation into the incident, but have been accused of failing to prevent the attack and of reacting “inappropriately”.
An eyewitness at the event alleged that the police let the group of men “run on without being checked.”
German journalist Amelia Brandt wrote on Twitter: “The police who were called reacted to the situation in an extremely inappropriate way.”
She added: “Despite a police presence of at least 10 vans, only 9 police officers got out and took care of those affected.”
— 🍂 Armilla Brandt 🍂 (@armillabrandt) June 6, 2022
Brandt also alleged that the those who were injured and attended to by emergency services were met with anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments.
Criminal police are now investigating. A statement released on Monday (6 June) said: “Police headquarters in Karlsruhe have received allegations from various quarters that investigations were not carried out on site and subsequently not with the required intensity.”
The LGBTQ+ spokesperson for Germany’s ruling SPD party, Florian Wahl, said: “Our sympathy goes to the victims of this attack. But anti-queer attacks are increasing across Germany, and we have to take decisive action against them.”
Wahl said that allegations made about the Karlsruhe police would be investigated. He said: “An anti-queer attack is not a simple brawl… but an attack on the existence of the victim. The state government must ensure that the police recognize anti-queer attacks, call them by name and act appropriately and sensitively.”
Hate crimes continue to be a concern for the LGBTQ+ community in Germany. Reuters reported that violence against queer people increased by 36 per cent in 2020.
Markus Ulrich, a spokesperson for Germany’s biggest LGBTQ+ group LSVD, told Reuters at the time: “Hate crimes against queer people have been on the rise in the past three or four years.”
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Germany since 2017 and a Pew Research survey found that 86 per cent of Germans think homosexuality should be accepted.
What the republican right wants to happen here in the US. I have five of these stories in my news feed this morning. I doubt I will post all of them, but it shows that attacks on the LGBTQ+ is on the rise worldwide. This is not normal that this hate would continue unless it is fueled by something / someone. Here in this story it is politicians that refuse and block change. Why? Who is paying them to anti-LGBTQ+ instead of moving forward toward acceptance? Religions? Big money fascism? The worst of these stories come from the former Soviet countries and Russia. Russia is exporting anti-tolerance hard. No wonder the right wing in the US loves Putin, they all hate the same groups. Hugs
Uzbekistan LGBT+ continue to face violent human rights violations. (Photo by Monirul Bhuiyan / AFP) (Photo by MONIRUL BHUIYAN/AFP via Getty Images)
A new report has found that the LGBTQ+ community in Uzbekistan is under renewed threat as many face persecution, imprisonment, abuse, and brutal human rights violations.
Thirty-six LGBTQ+ people were convicted under the Article 120 of the Uzbek Criminal Code, which criminalises homosexuality in the majority Muslim country, in 2021, found a new report by the International Partnership for Human Rights, Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA), and the Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity (ECOM).
Twenty-five of them were imprisoned.
Police play a key part in the persecution of queer folk, demanding money in exchange for not outing people to relatives, and torturing and humiliating them.
One young man recounted his experience in a detention centre in the report, and said: “They suspended me from the ceiling using handcuffs, beat me severely, and tried to rape me with a truncheon.
“I have never been beaten and intimidated like that in my entire life. I wanted to die to free myself from this torture.”
The police told him to pay $2,000 (£1,623) or face imprisonment under Article 120. The man paid the police officers and was released.
Elsewhere in the report, one gay man reflected on Uzbekistan attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community. He said: “It’s as if we lived on a different planet, where it is normal to hate, imprison, discriminate, and kill people simply for who they are.”
Uzbekistan redrafting of the criminal code will make life harder for LGBT+ people. ( Credit: ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images)
Stories like this continue to crop up in the former Soviet country, the only one which still hasn’t removed its Soviet-era anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
The report even found that police use information from HIV centres to find people in order to exploit and extort money from them.
Currently under Article 120, same-sex sexual conduct can be a punishable offence up to three years. Uzbekistan is currently drafting a new criminal code but the law would merely transpose Article 120 into a new Article 154, with the wording unchanged, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Between 2017 and 2021 it was reported by HRW that police carried out bogus, debunked anal examinations to find and prosecute men for same-sex relations, but these were in fact found to be forms of torture and abuse.
Politicians have stood in between any kind of legislation changes.
In 2021 Alisher Kadyrov, leader of Uzbekistan’s National Revival party, even suggested identifying LGBTQ+ people in the country and taking away their citizenship so that other countries could offer them refuge.
“When I put forward this proposal on social networks, up to 100 LGBT people got in touch with me and agreed with what I had said,” Kadyrov said, according to EurasiaNet.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants his office to help defend Llano County officials being sued for restricting and banning books from their public library system. In a court filing, Paxton asked Austin-based federal district court Judge Robert Pitman to let the state intervene in the lawsuit, which was filed by seven Llano County residents.
If Pitman grants the motion, Paxton’s office could aid the county judge, county commissioners and library director in fighting the lawsuit. Books removed from the library include Maurice Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen” and Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants his office to help defend Llano County officials being sued for restricting and banning books from their public library system. #TXlegehttps://t.co/cNukzBOs92
When given a choice, Republicans show repeatedly, consistently they have no true principles. “Principles” are just a shield or a weapon to achieve the goal of power. They abandon those very same principles the very second it’s useful to do so. Do they care about the First Amendment now? No. Have they ever. Only when it’s ever been convenient to them.
But Republicans fight to the death over defending books that depict racist stereotypes and caricatures. They lost their collective little mind over Dr. Seuss books with clear racist overtones being taken off school shelves. Something anti-racist and educational, though? Suddenly banning books is fine. Patriotic, even.
Books removed from the library include Maurice Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen” and Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group”
In a society run by Texan GQPers, all public libraries will have the identical offerings as your local Christian bookstore and church waiting room, as well as the same propaganda as Stormfront.
I’m so tired of the cranky contrarians in the center and left who only see “cancel culture” as happening on college campuses or in civil rights movements. Will they call this out, but will the likes of Bill Maher continue to obsessively condemn trans folks who speak out against Dave Chappelle?
Ethan Schmidt, a friend of Arizona MAGA candidate Kari “KKKari” Lake, was arrested on an outstanding warrant on Sunday in Mesa.
Schmidt showed up at a March For Our Lives rally with an assault weapon. Then, he found out what happens when you show up at an anti-gun rally with an assault weapon.
This is the same fine person who said he’d be “hunting LGBT supporters” at Target stores during Pride Month and also has been filmed harassing Black Lives Matter protesters.
Schmidt previously appeared on JMG when he harassed cancer patients at a wig store for wearing masks.
In January, he was banned from the Arizona Capitol after harassing a black lawmaker, saying that his mask was a “slave muzzle.”
In February, he earned national headlines when he berated store employees for selling Black History Month items.
Earlier this month he was detained after his group harassed abortion rights protesters and his accomplice was arrested for assault.
According to the Tucson Sentinel, Schmidt is currently awaiting trial for DUI. In a video posted to Reddit, Schmidt can be seen flaunting his ankle monitor.
Ethan Schmidt was arrested after harassing people at the March For Our Lives rally in Phoenix. pic.twitter.com/SofYObVcBi
Ethan Schmidt, a right wing provocateur who has made videos with Kari Lake, Wendy Rogers, and Paul Gosar, warned Target he will “hunt LGBT supporters” in their stores and across Phoenix in June, stating they “are not safe” and they “can’t hide.” pic.twitter.com/O3ReHVN3qY
Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers made a video promoting Ethan Schmidt, who is now stating he will “hunt LGBT supporters” at Target and across Phoenix. pic.twitter.com/1CBmJGHYvN
Kari Lake appeared in a video promoting Ethan Schmidt’s account.
Kari Lake refuses to publicly denounce Ethan who is now stating he will “hunt LGBT supporters” at Target and across Phoenix. pic.twitter.com/FB9Ue831G9
My question as well. In my opinion, just threatening to hunt people down and shoot them should be a crime. I thought it was. Silly me. I guess they’ll be giving him a $300 bail and give his gun back when they release him.
What is most pathetic about people like him and people of his ilk is that he has no ideology except hate. Anything he disagrees with is all about the 2nd amendment and using weapons to take back their lives. They really don’t understand what they are hating. They just threaten against anything they disagree with. Very sad and very republican.
Another dumb fuck who has had stupid hammered into him He has no clue what the second amendment mean but can only parrot ‘second amendment second amendment. These people have always been around but have achieved a high degree legitimacy under X#45 . Lethal confrontation has become an accepted norm
School districts across Ohio will be able to authorize teachers, principals and other staff to carry firearms into classrooms this fall after 24 hours of training.
The new law, signed Monday by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, will lower the required training hours for armed school personnel from about 700 hours to four scenario-based training hours, plus a maximum of 20 hours for first-aid training, history of school shootings and reunification education.
“In life we make choices, and we don’t always know what the outcome is going to be,” DeWine said at a news conference. “What this Legislature has done, I’ve done by signing it, is giving schools an option based on their particular circumstances to make the best decision they can make with the best information they have. That’s all any decision-maker can do.”
Ohio school districts are not required to allow staff to carry firearms under the law. House Bill 99 allows local boards of education to decide whether they want staff to carry firearms at all and how much training will be required.
DeWine said he directed the Ohio School Safety Center to require at least 24 hours of training and eight hours of requalification training each year. The move appeared aimed at eliminating confusion among lawmakers over whether the bill established a minimum number of training hours.
Private businesses that want to train school staff must also meet the 24-hour minimum to have their curriculum approved, DeWine said.
‘Do something’
Democrats and gun control advocates panned the new law, saying it won’t do enough to prevent gun violence and mass shootings. Law enforcement officials have also said 24 hours is not enough time to learn how to safely use a firearm.
Opponents argued DeWine walked back on promises to address gun violence after a gunman killed nine people in Dayton in 2019. The governor responded to cries of “do something” by unveiling a package of gun control reforms, but they never went anywhere in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
“I feel like a putz for believing him,” Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “He did something, alright. He gave in like a coward, and he made the problem worse.”
DeWine has signed three bills loosening gun restrictions since the shooting.
“It’s a complete bastardization of what people said in Dayton, frankly,” said former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who is running for governor against DeWine. “This is not what the people of Dayton had in mind when they started chanting that.”
During Monday’s news conference, DeWine urged lawmakers to consider provisions of the 2019 legislation that would increase penalties for straw purchases and prevent people with severe mental health conditions from possessing a firearm.
DeWine touts school safety efforts
DeWine’s signature puts an end to years of debate over how many hours of firearm training Ohio teachers should have.
Parents in the Madison Local Schools district in southwest Ohio sued the district over its armed teacher program, arguing that the training required – about 24 hours – violated state law. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled for the parents in 2021.
The court ruled in a 4-3 decision that Ohio Revised Code required anyone authorized to carry a gun on school grounds to have 20 years of experience or peace officer training. DeWine argued the ruling made firearm training unmanageable for school districts that wanted to permit it.
But some law enforcement disagreed.
“I think it’s a horrible idea to arm our teachers,” Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said. “There’s a lot of training that’s involved in that. It’s naïve to believe that is something we can put on them and expect them to respond to from a law enforcement perspective.”
The governor used Monday’s news conference to highlight other school safety initiatives that he’s rolled out since the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The new capital budget includes $100 million in grants that schools can use to upgrade building security. The state is also investing in training to help school staff identify behavioral health problems in students.
“We are trying to do and have been trying to do every single day things that people keep safer – keep kids in school safer but also these same children who go home to neighborhoods where there’s violent crime and repeat violent offenders,” DeWine said. “Their lives are important, too. All children’s lives are important.”
#BREAKING: Gov. Mike DeWine, joined by Lt. Gov. Jon Husted Monday morning, confirmed he has signed a bill that allows teachers and education staff to carry guns with training slimmed down from peace officer requirements. DETAILS: https://t.co/Dq6Fh9OwhZpic.twitter.com/0676jRWreW
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday that he signed a bill permitting teachers to carry guns to school. The bill requires only 24 hours of training if school districts opt into the new legislation.
Republicans: teachers are communists who want to molest your kids and change their genders while listening to Bob Marley. Also republicans: we need to arm teachers.
Scottie's Playtime 