Rejecting the textbooks puts Miami in a precarious situation by leaving the school district without an approved sex ed curriculum for middle and high school students.
LGBTQ supporters and Democrats rallied against the legislation, branded as “Don’t Say Gay,” disputing that those lessons are being taught in Florida schools and maintaining that the policies would further marginalize LGBTQ students and their families. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Miami-Dade County students could go months without sex education books after school board members this week rejected two proposed textbooks over concerns they violate the state’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, known by opponents as “Don’t Say Gay.”
The decision, which came down to a tight 5-4 vote on Wednesday, marks one of the first major instances of the contentious measure shaping local school policies, an action that came amid parents opposing the books for broaching topics like abortion and contraceptives.
Rejecting the textbooks puts Miami in a precarious situation by leaving the school district without an approved sex ed curriculum for middle and high school students with the fall semester less than a month away. Miami-Dade is the fourth largest school district in the country.
“Some of the chapters are extremely troublesome,” said board member Mari Tere Rojas, who voted against the books. “I do not consider them to be age appropriate. In my opinion, they go beyond what the state standards are.”
Wednesday’s vote came after three hours of public comment and debate over the two “Comprehensive Health Skills” books for students in middle and high school, texts that have been under scrutiny in Miami for months now.
Miami-Dade school officials recommended approving the textbooks following a public hearing on June 8 to field some 278 petitions against the materials, which the district denied.
Some parents argued the lessons extend beyond what schools should be educating students on sex education while others contested that rejecting the books would allow a vocal group to drive the decision for a school district serving some 340,000 students. The outcry in Miami against the sex education books included the local chapter of County Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative group that aims to “defend their freedoms and liberties at the local level.”
Under Florida law, any parent can opt their child out of sex education lessons.
“Our current … process defends parents and their children who do not want to be exposed to this,” said Steve Gallon III, the board’s vice chair who supported the sex education textbooks. “But we cannot deny parents who want to have access for their children to this critically important information.”
The move by the school board shows how Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, passed earlier this year and championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is shaping school curriculum in the wake of its passage. The law prohibits teachers from leading classroom lessons on gender identity or sexual orientation for students in kindergarten through third grade. It also prohibits these lessons for older students unless they are “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate.”
LGBTQ supporters and Democrats rallied against the legislation, branded as “Don’t Say Gay,” disputing that those lessons are being taught in Florida schools and maintaining that the policies would further marginalize LGBTQ students and their families, leading to drastic outcomes like bullying and even suicide. The bill also sparked a fight between Florida conservatives and Walt Disney Co. after the entertainment giant said it would work to repeal the parental rights measure.
County Citizens Defending Freedom’s local executive director, Alex Serrano, claimed Wednesday that “significant portions” of the materials proposed in Miami-Dade “may violate Florida state law” and “much of the content is not age appropriate, usurps parental rights, and is scientifically inaccurate and not factual.”
In snippets of the textbooks circulated by the group, they highlighted lessons surrounding unplanned pregnancies that include definitions of abortion and emergency contraceptives like the Plan B pill.
One speaker at the board meeting claimed the books teach students there are “nine genders,” a likely reference to a page that describes a list of gender identities such as androgenous, cisgender, nonbinary and transgender. The Miami Herald reported that the school board removed the “Understanding Sexuality” chapter from the books for middle and high school students.
“Teachers that will be providing this material to children, which is illegal in the state of Florida, and the board that votes to adopt this, in the end — the country, the state and your community, will consider all of you groomers,” speaker Lourdes Galban, told the board during public comment.
The majority of speakers at Wednesday’s meeting, including parents and students, supported the sex education textbooks and pushed for their adoption. They said that the lessons were crucial for students, pointing to sexual activity rates among teens and that they “want kids to be prepared when the time comes.”
“Parents who wish to limit their children’s information about reproductive health have always had the option to opt out,” speaker Gina Vinueza told the board Wednesday.
“The proposed approval of the textbooks today would not take that choice away from them. However, if the board does not approve the textbooks, they will be taking away the rights of everyone to public ed that is based on facts and science.”
The board’s move to reject the sex education textbooks could trigger school officials to restart the adoption process for the classroom materials. School staffers at Wednesday’s meeting estimated it could take between four and eight months for different books to be approved, a timeline posing an issue for high school students on tap to learn those lessons in the fall.
Miami-Dade’s sex education curriculum is embedded in science and personal fitness classes, school officials said.
An arrest warrant was issued Thursday for indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters after she allegedly violated a protection order and her bond conditions by contacting an employee of the Mesa County elections division.
The warrant alleges that Peters sent an email on Wednesday to Mesa County Elections Director Brandi Bantz — with whom she is barred from having contact — seeking a recount of votes in the June 28 Republican primary for secretary of state. Peters lost that race.
Peters previously requested a recount from the secretary of state’s office but did not provide the roughly $250,000 necessary for the effort. Peters was on the verge of arrest last week as well after she violated the conditions of her bond and traveled to Las Vegas without court approval.
Peters, an election conspiracy theorist who denies the results of the 2020 presidential election, is under a grand jury indictment for allegedly facilitating a security breach in her county’s elections office during a software update last year. She will be in Mesa County District Court for that case in early August.
But don’t they understand? She’s special, and she was robbed. She only lost that election because people liked the other candidates better, and that’s a violation of her Sincerely Held Beliefs? Letting her win would make Baby Cheeses smile.
After reluctantly agreeing to transfer power, the former president told aides he wanted to give a new White House address doubling down on the lie that the election was “stolen”
A video of former President Donald Trump is played as the Jan. 6 committee holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The day after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, then-President Trump released a video finally, reluctantly agreeing to a transfer of power to the “new” Biden administration. As soon as two days after the release of the White House video, however, Donald Trump wanted a mulligan.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter tells Rolling Stone that Trump told aides who were sticking by him that he wanted to deliver another speech to the nation, one in which he would double-down on the lie that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” via “fraud.”
The re-do speech, which Trump envisioned as a primetime address, would have been a tonal 180 from the video the White House posted the day following the Trump-inspired mob assault. The source adds that the president would have directly attacked the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s incoming administration, and vowed to supporters that he would continue “fighting” for them.
Since he left office, Trump has — in a way — delivered the follow-up address that he never got to give while in the White House, when lawyers and close advisers were warning him of his potential criminal exposure after the deadly riot. The twice-impeached former president has for months been repeating his anti-democratic lies in numerous speeches, rallies, interviews, and online posts. He has tried to argue that the violence at the Capitol took place independently of his actions. He has come out in favor of the Capitol rioters while promising to pardon them if elected to another term. He has cemented his lies about the 2020 election as widely-held mainstream conservative positions.
Trump’s push to deliver a second speech countering the one he gave on Jan. 7 came amid an internal struggle over his post-Jan. 6 messaging. The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the work of the Jan. 6 committee, reported on Wednesday that the former president stubbornly refused attempts by staff to get him to condemn the rioters in the taped statement from the White House on Jan. 7
According to the Post, “over the course of an hour of trying to tape the message, Trump resisted holding the rioters to account, trying to call them patriots, and refused to say the election was over.” Trump was allegedly loath to call off the dogs and only agreed to do so after staff reminded him that Congress was considering invoking the 25th Amendment against him.
The public could get a glimpse of outtakes from Trump’s attempts to deliver the address during Thursday’s primetime hearing, in which the committee plans to lay out what they say are their final public arguments in their case against Trump. The committee is expected to focus heavily on Trump’s inaction in the 187 minutes between Trump’s speech at the rally at the Ellipse, and his afternoon message telling the “very special” rioters to “go home.”
In a clip released on Thursday by committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone testify that Trump remained in the presidential dining room watching news broadcasts of the riot unfolding at the Capitol.
The committee is also expected to detail how Trump reveled in the chaos and violence taking place at the Capitol. “He wanted to see it unfold,” Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said this week, according to the Post. “And it wasn’t until he realized that it was not going to be successful that he finally stood up and said something.”
Please listen to this until it gets to Joe Biden. It is not long. This is why the Democrats are losing, why the young people don’t want to follow this party or vote for them. It makes me sick. Compare this to the fire brans on the other side, even to tRump. We are so screwed in the elections. Hugs
Sylvester Stallone is apparently ignoring California’s new rules aimed at conserving water during the current drought, and “End Of Days” star Arnold Schwarzenegger has been credibly accused of passing gas into a fellow actor’s face on the set of that film.
This is a complete travesty. I understand why the family is upset. I have seen this before when white rednecks ganged up on small individual gay men and beat them to death. It was that way with one of my friends. The court did everything they could to help and excuse the men, and they got the minimum time outside the guidelines. The 6 of them beat a small man walking home from a night college class to death because they were afraid he would sex them. That was their defense. We were all angered the courts were protecting them, and I can understand why these family members are upset now. This man helped. He held the dying man’s legs. The murder got 20 years or more. This guy who helped him got 2.5 years? Something needs to be done about this, an investigation, an appeal of the sentence. This is clearly a racist finger on the scale of justice. Hugs
A federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane to 2 1/2 years in prison Thursday for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, calling Lane’s role in the restraint that killed Floyd “a very serious offense in which a life was lost” but handing down a sentence well below what prosecutors and Floyd’s family sought.
Judge Paul Magnuson’s sentence was just slightly more than the 27 months that Lane’s attorney had requested, while prosecutors had asked for at least 5 1/4 years in prison — the low end of federal guidelines for the charge Lane was convicted on earlier this year. He said Lane, who faces sentencing in September on state charges in Floyd’s killing, will remain free on bond until he must turn himself in Oct. 4.
Lane, who is white, held Floyd’s legs as Officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck with his knee for nearly 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020. Bystander video of Floyd, who was Black, pleading that he could not breathe sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the world in a reckoning over racial injustice over policing.
Floyd family members had asked Magnuson to give Lane the stiffest sentence possible, with brother Philonise Floyd rejecting the idea that Lane deserved any mercy for asking his colleagues twice if George Floyd should be shifted from his stomach to his side.
“Officer Lane did not intervene in one way or another,” he said.
Prosecutor Manda Sertich had also argued for a higher sentence, saying that Lane “chose not to act” when he could have saved a life.
“There has to be a line where blindly following a senior officer’s lead, even for a rookie officer, is not acceptable,” she said.
Magnuson told Lane the “fact that you did not get up and remove Mr. Chauvin when Mr. Floyd became unconscious is a violation of the law.” But he also held up 145 letters he said he had received supporting Lane, saying he had never received so many on behalf of a defendant. And he faulted the Minneapolis Police Department for sending Lane with another rookie officer on the call that ended in Floyd’s death.
In sentencing Chauvin earlier this month on civil rights charges in Floyd’s killing, Magnuson appeared to suggest that he bore the most blame in the case, telling Chauvin: “You absolutely destroyed the lives of three young officers by taking command of the scene.”
Lane did not speak at Thursday’s sentencing and neither he nor his attorney, Earl Gray, commented to reporters afterward. Prosecutors did not immediately comment afterward, but Philonise Floyd called the sentence “insulting” and said he didn’t understand why Lane — whom he called “an accessory to murder″ — didn’t get the toughest possible sentence.
“To me I think this whole criminal system needs to be torn down and rebuilt,” he said.
Lane’s attorney had argued that he twice asked his colleagues if Floyd should be turned on his side as officers restrained him face down and in handcuffs, as he said that he couldn’t breathe and eventually grew still.
Magnuson also said he would recommend that Lane serve his sentence at the federal prison in Duluth, a minimum-security facility about 2 1/2 hours from the Minneapolis area. The facility is classified as a “camp” and has no fence and has dormitory-style housing rather than cells. Prison assignments are made by the Bureau of Prisons.
Gray argued during the trial that Lane “did everything he could possibly do to help George Floyd.” He pointed out that Lane suggested rolling Floyd on his side so he could breathe, but was rebuffed twice by Chauvin. He also noted that Lane performed CPR to try to revive Floyd after the ambulance arrived.
Lane testified at trial that he didn’t realize how dire Floyd’s condition was until paramedics turned him over.
When Lane pleaded guilty in state court in May, Gray said Lane hoped to avoid a long sentence. “He has a newborn baby and did not want to risk not being part of the child’s life,” he said.
Chauvin was already serving a 22 1/2-year state court sentence for second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. His federal and state sentences are running concurrently.
Kueng pinned Floyd’s back during the restraint and Thao helped hold back an increasingly concerned group of onlookers outside a Minneapolis convenience store where Floyd, who was unarmed, tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.
Magnuson has not set sentencing dates for Thao, who is Hmong American, and Kueng, who is Black. But he has scheduled a hearing for Friday on objections by their attorneys to how their sentences should be calculated under the complicated federal guidelines. Prosecutors are seeking unspecified sentences for them that would be lower than Chauvin’s but “substantially higher” than Lane’s.
Thao and Kueng are free on bond pending sentencing. They have turned down plea deals and are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 24 on state charges of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
if this is not bias, anti-black, pro white, pro-cop bias then I do not think anything could be. This is why Black people in the US do not trust the police or the courts. I don’t either and I am white. Fuck all of this it needs to be changed. Hugs
The House passed the Right to Contraception Act on Thursday ― a bill that codifies the right to birth control and other contraceptives amid fears that the Supreme Court may come for that aspect of reproductive health care next after the high court repealed Roe v. Wade’s protection of abortion rights last month.
The bill passed despite 195 Republicans who voted against the bill in a final vote of 228 to 195. Republicans who voted against the legislation included Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Jack Bergman (Mich.) and Joe Wilson (S.C.). Just eight Republicans voted in favor of the bill.
NEW: The House passed the Right to Contraception Act on Thursday despite 195 Republicans who voted against it. The bill would codify the right to birth control and other contraceptives. https://t.co/vVZBUKaP3O
228-195: House passes the bill codifying the right to contraceptives into law.
Only eight Republicans voted in favor of the legislation: Cheney, Mace, Upton, Kinzinger, Katko, Fitzpatrick, Salazar, Gonzalez (OH). pic.twitter.com/PqN6G2DsNO
It is not just the RCC that is against contraceptives. Many Evangelical churches and mega churches want younger women to stop delaying families and preach against it.
I once heard a mega church sermon blaming women for delaying families, and The Pill made them infertile. Of course the women had delayed pregnancies because they were educated and with their husbands were saving for the down payment on a house in the $$$$ suburb.
Some popular forms of birth control work by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. If they support this bill, it can be used to say they are not truly pro-life and support killing babies.
That’s probably the most likely explaination. Doesn’t Plan B work that way, and also IUDs prevent a fertilized egg from implanting. So they are more afraid of the Pro-Life people than the anti-gay people.
Perhaps the Federal Goverment, as they have classified Tomatoes as vegetables, can classify abortion drugs as ‘contraception.’
It’s like a group insanity that’s infected the party to the very top level. They don’t seem to understand how unpopular allowing states to ban contraception is because they’ve gone down this rabbit hole of “but the poor little (zygote) babies!”
This is important to watch. It quickly goes over what happened to create the Roe down fall, but then gets to the situation we are in and what is coming. We are screwed. As one of the people said, this is a results drive court, they have the result they want and they don’t care if the law allows it, they will simply cherry pick and force it into being the current law as they wish get the result they want. In my opinion we now have a lawless court. The second time in the US and we will have them for the next forty years or maybe forever if the Democrats do not develop a spine and either expand the court to return it to the rule of law or remove the illegal justices that are on the current court. Hugs
Roe v. Wade has been overturned. So now what the hell are we supposed to do? The hosts of the Strict Scrutiny podcast — law professors Leah Litman, Melissa Murray, and Kate Shaw — are back to help Jon process the shocking decision. Writers Kris Acimovic and Tocarra Mallard also weigh in on why the Democrats answer to this crisis seems to be giving them $15.
“Rather than work with us, Democrats again are spreading fear and misinformation to score political points. That opens the door further to extreme abortion-on-demand and their agenda. H.R. 8373 is a Trojan Horse for more abortions.
“It should be called the ‘Payouts for Planned Parenthood Act!’ It would send more taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood.” – GOP Rep. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, during today’s debate on codifying to right to access contraceptives.
Rodgers is a creationist nutbag who authored Washington state’s bill that would have outlawed same-sex marriage.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) inaccurately claims the bill codifying the right to contraception is a “Trojan horse for more abortions”:
It’s absurd that, in the year 2022, Congress actually has to cast a vote on whether or not women in this country deserve access to contraception like birth control pills, IUDs or condoms. And yet, thanks to extremist members of the GOP, here we are. pic.twitter.com/45EcpCzjwB
Contraception can involve the penis. Contraception can involve the vagina
This is morally reprehensible and has no place in decent society. Once people have access to contraception, they will have sex with animals and marry their toaster. Won’t someone think of the children?
Their anti-freedom positions are so appalling, misogynistic, and hateful, Rethugs have no alternative other than to keep lying about the facts, lying about their own position, and lying about the position and goals of our side.
Read up on the history – Jerry Falwell / Paul Weyrich (Moral Majority) used abortion to drive evangelical votes to GOP when DOJ under Carter said “no government money for segregated colleges” like his “Liberty University” and Bob Jones University, which were “whites only”, even in the mid 70s.
Not just women, men too. I am pretty sure there’s more than a few men who would not want to be forced into supporting a child they weren’t expecting or wanting with a woman they maybe weren’t really wanting to have a lifetime attachment to.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale Of a nearly successful coup That started at the end of Constitution Avenue
A congressman named Loudermilk A MAGA guy obscure Led twelve of his constituents On a three hour tour A three hour tour
One of the guys who was on that tour Who’d learned his way around Came back with the mob the very next day And stormed the Capitol grounds
It wasn’t just a protest That got somehow out of hand But a violent insurrection Meticulously planned
The president who would be king Conspired to make damn sure The rioters would lay siege that day On a three hour tour A three hour tour
The ship of state was nearly wrecked By the lawlessness and guile Of Loudermilligan The Skipper too The millionaire And the wife The movie star The Professor and Mary Ann Here on Mutineers’ Isle
![Demonstrators hold signs saying "It's OK to Say Gay!"](https://www.politico.com/dims4/default/c73e738/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5515x3677+0+0/resize/630x420!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2F18%2F6e%2Fec74a44f4561a2a4a57edc8b3f5a%2Fflorida-same-sex-silencing-29222.jpg "Demonstrators hold signs saying "It's OK to Say Gay!"")
Scottie's Playtime 