The After School Satan Club has nothing to do with religion but the program that promotes secularism and scientific rationalism is causing outrage among Christian parents. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks. Watch TYT LIVE on weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live
“A new after-school club at Golden Hills Elementary School in Kern County’s Tehachapi, called the “After School Satan Club,” is drawing community outrage.
That’s largely the point.
For years, the Satanic Temple, a group the Washington Post described as a “nontheistic religious organization advocating for secularism and scientific rationalism,” has been launching these clubs in public schools where evangelical Christian groups — namely, the Good News Club — have their own meetings.”
Libs Of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik posted a tweet scrutinizing an organization in Colorado that, in Raichik’s words, “teaches kids how to become drag queens and helps kids ‘safely experience the art of drag on stage.'” Raichik also tagged two specific Colorado state lawmakers who have supported the organization in the past. This tweet came the morning after the shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Tucker Carlson claims to be frustrated with the media and liberals for pointing he is culpable for violence that what happened in Colorado Springs because his past calls for Fox News viewers to arm themselves against Drag Queen Story Hours.
The war on women! This is the republican white male religious thugs on their glorious war path for their lord! What else is the legal system / law enforcement for except to enforce males’ supremacy over women and to use the power of the state to enforce control over a womans sex organs. Hugs
An Alabama woman who was jailed for allegedly using drugs during pregnancy has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office saying she wasn’t pregnant, AL.com reports.
According to her lawsuit, an investigation was launched against Stacey Freeman by the Department of Human Resources for substance use when one of her children told a social worker her mom was pregnant. Freeman offered to take a pregnancy test and Etowah County Department of Human Resources employees ordered one for her, but she never ended up taking the test and Etowah County Sheriff Investigator Brandi Fuller issued a warrant for her arrest.
She was arrested and charged with chemical endangerment of a child. She was released a little over a day after her arrest and the charges were dropped.
“It’s just shameful you can go off somebody’s word that somebody’s pregnant,” her attorney Martin Weinberg said. “It’s easy to verify through a pregnancy test.”
Fuller has been involved in “an obscene number of arrests for pregnant and postpartum women,” according to the lawsuit.
“The Sheriff’s department and its employees have been reckless in investigating in making arrests of women for chemical endangerment and then encouraging their prosecution,” the lawsuit said.
While her charges have been dropped, they haven’t been expunged, making the case still available as a public record. The warrant incorrectly states that Freeman tested positive for marijuana, amphetamines and alcohol while pregnant.
There will be two articles in this one post. This terrorism, it is minority rule by violence. This is to drive fear and intimidation for a political goal. What the right cannot win at the ballot box because it is unpopular with the majority that has accepted the LGBTQ+ as members of society, the right will try to enforce via violent threats that incite the killing of people. The rest of society must stand up to this attempt to promote their religious morality anti-tolerance of others of this Taliban wannabes. Dogs that love gravy, if we give into these people on this we will be forever giving in to them. Hugs
A local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys plans to disrupt a Dec. 3 drag story event in Columbus, Ohio, just two weeks after the killings at a LGBTQ night club in Colorado Springs.
The Columbus Proud Boys announced their plans to disrupt the kids story time event held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus on Telegram last Tuesday.
Advance Democracy, Inc., a non-partisan, non-profit research organization, first flagged the post. The emphasis of a “wild” protest is likely a reference to Jan. 6. Trump had called on his supporters to attend a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, promising that it would “be wild!”
Earlier this year the leader of an Ohio Proud Boys faction was arrested for punching a black woman in the face after screaming the N-word. In August, a man linked to the Proud Boys was killed following his attack on Cincinnati’s FBI office. The photo above is from last month when Proud Boys menaced a drag event in North Carolina.
They’re a terrorist threat, not simply a protest, and should be viewed by law enforcement as such. No one should be intimidated—much less killed—for going about their lives.
Watched the local CBS affiliate evening news last night. They interviewed the straight owner of the new drag complex in Cleveland about safe spaces and the safety of drag brunches.
Proud Boys at Raleigh rally, November 2020 (Credit: Wikicommons)
A local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys plans to disrupt a Dec. 3 drag story event in Columbus, Ohio, just two weeks after the killings at a LGBTQ night club in Colorado Springs.
The Columbus Proud Boys announced their plans to disrupt the kids story time event held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus on Telegram last Tuesday. Advance Democracy, Inc., a non-partisan, non-profit research organization, first flagged the post. The post read:
The Columbus Proud Boys would like to announce that we will be attending the Holi-drag Storytime being held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus on December 3rd! We look forward to meeting all of the attendees and welcome Americans from all over to join us. It’s gonna be wild! Stand by for details…
The emphasis of a “wild” protest is likely a reference to Jan. 6. Former President Donald Trump had called on his supporters to attend a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, promising that it would “be wild!” Many of attendees of that rally, including members of the Proud Boys, later marched on the U.S. Capitol, attacking police officers and storming the building.
While the Proud Boys is probably best known for its role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol—for which several members face seditious conspiracy charges—the far-right, neo-fascist group is also known for its members’ presence at the 2017 white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one counterprotester was murdered. Since the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Proud Boys members have focused their efforts locally, disrupting school board meetings over mask mandates and LGBTQ-inclusive policies, and harassing attendees of drag story events, fearmongering that trans people are “grooming” children.
Already this year, the Proud Boys have disrupted drag events in Texas, Nevada, North Carolina, and California. In Idaho, the right-wing extremist group Patriot Front took it a step further; 31 people associated with the organization were arrested after they were found in a trailer full of weapons next to a Pride event.
The post by the Columbus Proud Boys announcing its plans to disrupt the Columbus event has been viewed more than 1,600 times. Just 45 minutes after posting, the post was further promoted by the Official Cape Fear Proud Boys, a North Carolina-based chapter that coordinated multiple efforts to disrupt drag events in the past six months. It was also shared by an Ohio Proud Boys channel and “the Infamous Legend Valley Proud Boys” channel, which shared an image the following day promising “Ohio Proud Boys Season Beatings.” On Monday, the Legend Valley Proud Boys shared a meme calling for violence against perceived perpetrators of pedophilia.
A meme posted on the Legend Valley Proud Boys channel. The image depicts a character in the “Walking Dead” who randomly choses a victim and kills him with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed-wire.
The Dec. 3 event is sponsored by Red Oak Community Schools, a school dedicated to fostering “students’ sense of their place and power in the natural world and in their communities.” A Facebook page promoting the event describes “Holi-drag Storytime” as “a new family-friendly, LGBTQ+ holiday tradition” in which local drag queens “will read stories for children of ALL ages and perform a few holiday numbers!”
Of course, the Proud Boys have alleged that the event amounts to “grooming”—the rhetoric at the heart of recent political attacks on LGBTQ people. A video posted the Columbus Proud Boys channel last Thursday called on members to “stand against grooming” and provided the address of the church. “All I want for Christmas is an end to child grooming. Help Saint Nicolas scold the Naughty groomers,” text in the video reads, calling on members to arrive before 10 a.m. Another image shows a picture of Santa Claus giving the middle fingers. “Its rally time boys!” a final message reads.
Right Wing Watch reached out to Red Oak Community Schools and the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus. We will update this story should either respond. The church’s website describes it as a place to “come together to grow in religious depth, valuing freedom, reason, tolerance, love.” Shortly after the Proud Boys’ announcement, Red Oak Community Schools said they meet hate with love and invited donations, posting on Facebook, “For every nasty comment, dislike, negative email, phone call, etc. we receive about our upcoming FABULOUS fundraiser, we’re collecting donation pledges for a local LGBTQ+ organization.”
The Proud Boys’ announced plan to disrupt the event came just days before a lone gunman targeted patrons of a gay night club in Colorado, killing five people and injuring 25 others. LGBTQ leaders have noted that this attack follows years of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and an increasing number of Republican politicians characterizing trans people as “groomers.” Religious-right groups have drafted anti-trans legislation, encouraged lawmakers to sponsor such legislation, and laid the groundwork for their passage through disinformation and pressure campaigns, a Right Wing Watch investigation found last year.
On the Sunday morning following the attack on Club Q, Democratic Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone said such rhetoric was to blame. “When politicians and pundits keep perpetuating tropes, insults, and misinformation about the trans and LGBTQ+ community, this is a result,” she wrote.
The GOP Civil War is full speed ahead as Trump and Ron Desantis are already exchanging blows. Watch as Meidas Contributor Texas Paul LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY as DeSantis brutally MOCKS Loser Trump.
Christian wealth power privilege? Any other kids would have been charged. Plus what were they doing outside of a haunted house? Such things to his dad’s hyper Christian religion must be invoking the devil itself? Was he and his Christian friends planning violence in the name of their god? Hugs
Following a Halloween incident in Guthrie, the Logan County Sheriff’s Office recommended that a charge be filed against the governor’s son for possessing alcohol as a minor, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Oklahoman. On Monday, District Attorney Laura Thomas confirmed she had received the affidavit but decided to offer Stitt and those with him a deferred prosecution program, which involves community service in order to avoid a charge and criminal record.
On Oct. 31 sheriff deputies were called to a Guthrie haunted house where John Drew Stitt, the governor’s 20-year-old son, was intoxicated and in possession of firearms. First reported on Friday, the incident raised questions about why neither John Drew Stitt nor those with him were arrested or cited. Deputies were responding to a call about “found firearms” in a haunted house parking lot when they found a box with two rifles and two pistols, according to an incident report.
Read the full article. Stitt last appeared on JMG when he claimed “every square inch of Oklahoma in the name of Jesus.”
NEW: Media is just now finding out that days before the election, police found Oklahoma @GovStitt’s 20-year-old son drunk and armed outside a haunted house. One of the five guns in his car belonged to the Governor. There were no arrests or charges. https://t.co/A2WAy17WMG
Is this why Stitt claimed every square inch of Oklahoma for Jesus? Because he wanted to make sure his kid could say “the lord performed a miracle and changed my blood alcohol content to convert some water into some wine”?
Of course, most kids found drunk driving with some of their parents’ firearms would be facing some pretty harsh penalties, even if it was their first (known) offense. But since this kid didn’t have a record and called for his guardians, he I guess still has no record so it can happen again… which makes me wonder if this isn’t really the first time, either.
Oh, definitely. He also did that partly because of the SCOTUS case that was trying to enforce some level of tribal sovereignty. Ohhhh boy did he hate that ruling, and will push Jesus all the time as a temper tantrum and treating the ruling as a religious attack (rather than the whole “honoring treaties” thing we should have been doing all along).
Notice they learned from the civil rights movement and their loss of the war on gays. They know now to attack a vulnerable group before the public fully supports them for equality , attack them before they gain equal civil rights. Also cloak their hate and attacks under the fake guise of protecting the children. Make it seem the ones they are pushing hate and harm on are the real villains trying to harm little innocent kids. We have to get the truth out there and protect the trans kids / community that is being demonized, denied healthcare that the majority of medical organizations support, all to advance a political message driven by religious hate. Hugs
LGBTQ rights supporters gather at the Texas State Capitol in 2021 to protest the previous round of Republican bills restricting transgender equality.Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images
Republicans’ midterm debacle could have led the party to conclude that centering an assault on the existence of transgender people is not a winning electoral strategy. But it didn’t. Instead, the GOP is doubling down on its crusade against LGBTQ people. The most vivid example can be seen in the Texas legislature, which saw the introduction of 10 separate bills designed to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth, criminalize drag shows, ban trans kids in sports (again), limit changes to gender markers on the birth certificates of minors, and limit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
For those who are not terminally online, the continued attacks on LGBTQ rights, especially those around drag shows, may seem baffling. Those plugged into the online right’s anti-trans extremism, however, will not be surprised. The blitz in pre-filed anti-LGBTQ bills in Texas is the logical legislative follow-up to the chaotic and threatening scenes outside of drag shows, pride events, and children’s hospitals this past summer. Several LGBTQ events throughout Texas drew protests from neo-Nazis, proud boys, and Christian nationalists—while the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, a group of LGBTQ anti-fascists clad in all-black armed with AR-15’s, were present to provide community defense.
These extraordinary events were partially the result of a moral panic pushed by far-right online influencers such as Chaya Raichik, who runs the notorious Libs of TikTok account. One of the Raichik’s targets was a drag event at the Mr. Misster bar in Dallas. Because of her posts, the drag brunch was surrounded by far-right Christian nationalist protestors, one of whom yelled that the police should go in to the venue and put to “go in there and put bullets in all their heads … that’s what the badge is for.” The following Monday, Tucker Carlson covered the protest and opened with “another weekend in Weimar Germany,” a reference to the extremist view that the “degeneracy” of Weimar Germany—particularly its LGBTQ community—necessitated the rise of the Nazi party to restore “traditional” values. This talking point is commonly repeated in radicalized far-right forums.
The right’s obsession with drag shows is producing dangerous legislation in Texas. Two nearly identical bills introduced on Nov. 14, H.B. 643 and H.B. 708, would classify venues with drag shows as “sexually oriented business” in the same vein as strip clubs. Both bills define drag as “a performance in which a performer exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers and sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience for entertainment.”
New laws would criminalize the parents of trans children and open the door to theirarrest. That definition would encompass every trans person who so much as sings or dances in any public venue and would attach criminal penalties for venue owners if a minor is present. The bill is so broad that it could theoretically apply to a trans person singing the national anthem at a Dallas Mavericks game. Even when only applying it to the intended target of drag shows, it would add onerous restrictions that could essentially eliminate drag shows in the state of Texas.
Since the bill adds the new provisions to an existing statute, additional regulations would attach. Local municipalities with restrictions around “sexually oriented businesses” such as proximity to schools, churches, homes etc. could apply making it near impossible to feasibly host drag shows. Venue owners where drag is performed could be required to pay a $5 fee per patron to the state and post anti-sex trafficking posters in restrooms. Most importantly, it would give Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has already called for the criminal prosecution of drag queens, the ability to file suit against venues who violate the law.
The obsession with drag is not isolated and much of the current moral panic was stoked online, as well. Throughout the summer, Libs of Tiktok began targeting children’s hospitals around the country for providing gender-affirming care, leading to Boston Children’s Hospital receiving death threats and bomb threats to its campus and the homes of providers.
Texas is no stranger to political attacks on health care for trans youth. In late 2021, the GENECIS clinic at the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas that provided gender-affirming care closed as a result of political pressure from Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott. The clinic began accepting new patients again only after a provider filed suit against the state alleging improper political influence as the reason for its closure.
Earlier this year, Abbott, relying on an advisory opinion from Paxton, directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the families of trans minors for child abuse. Abbott’s order resulted in families being investigated by DFPS solely for having a transgender child. Some families went so far as to flee the state of Texas as a result of the threat of state investigations merely for following the standards of care for the treatment of their child’s gender dysphoria. This resulted in a mass exodus at DFPS that has left an agency already mired in scandal on the brink of collapse.
Paxton and Abbott’s plan to punish the parents of trans kids faced road bumps in the courts because Texas law does not actually deem gender-affirming care to be child abuse. Now GOP lawmakers are trying to change that. There are currently three nearly identical pre-filed bills—H.B. 42, H.B. 672, and H.B. 436—that would define gender-affirming care for trans youth as “child abuse” in the Texas Family Code. This treatment is the standard of care endorsed by every major medical organization in the United States. The new laws would criminalize the parents of trans children and open the door to their arrest, while their children would be forcefully separated from loving homes and thrown into a state foster system in crisis.
If labeling loving parents as child abusers wasn’t enough, two nearly identical bills—H.B. 41 and H.B. 122—would make it a felony offense for healthcare providers to perform gender-affirming care. Additionally, the bills would strip liability insurance protections from providers who perform such treatments. In total, there are five bills introduced into the legislature that would criminalize gender-affirming care for both parents and healthcare providers.
The rest of the anti-LGBTQ bills seem almost tame by comparison because they do not criminalize access to healthcare and the existence of trans people in public venues. But that does not mean they wouldn’t cause immense harm. One bill, S.B. 162, would ban changes to the gender marker of a minor’s birth certificate. Another, H.B. 631, is a carbon copy of Florida’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” legislation that resulted in schools eliminating pride flags, LGBTQ teachers being told to hide pictures of their partners, and LGBTQ students being outed to their parents. Finally, H.B. 23 would implement yet another ban on trans kids playing in sports despite one being passed and signed into law in 2021.
One thing is clear from the bills pre-filed for next session: Texas is at war with its LGBTQ citizens. The urgency to pass these kinds of bills has only been exacerbated by far-right online influencers who seek to eliminate LGBTQ people from public life. It is too soon to say whether any of these bills will pass this upcoming cycle—though history suggests at least some of them stand a decent chance of enactment. If there was ever any hope that the midterm results would cause a hesitation to push anti-LGBTQ bills, that hope is gone now.
Proud Boys at Raleigh rally, November 2020 (Credit: Wikicommons)
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