Category: Religion / Religious / Theocracy
Man has screaming tantrum in Petco because of its gender-neutral bathroom
A private gender neutral bathroom is normally one that is single person / family usage with a door lock. This raw outrage is what right wing lies and propaganda that trans people are just men trying to attack little girls in bathrooms. This man felt entitled enough to shout and abuse lower level employees in public over his perceived grievance. He felt he wouldn’t face any consequences for doing so. Also these people think they are the only people that have a say and they voice the opinion of the majority of people when they do not. They get to decide who has what rights in public, no one else. They are in charge in their minds. Trans people have been around forever and using public bathrooms for as long as the facilities existed. How crazy and entitled have these right wing maga outrage addicts. Hugs
Even his dog seemed embarrassed of him.
By Molly Sprayregen Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Photo: Screenshot
A video has been making the rounds on social media of a man having a meltdown inside a Fairview, Ohio Petco because the location had a private gender-neutral bathroom.
The footage depicts the man yelling at employees: “This is stupid! People have had enough of that crap. I don’t care what your policy is.” In the meantime, his terrified (and perhaps embarrassed) dog tries to pull him in the opposite direction.
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One employee then tells him to “ask to speak with somebody.”
“I just did!” he screamed, gesturing toward the person behind the desk at the grooming department. “She just told me it didn’t matter. She’s about to talk to me like that?”
He then begins to walk out.
“Stop with the gender-neutral sh*t,” he says as he heads toward the exit. “Men and women are different.”
He then demanded the employees “pass it up the chain” because “people are tired of it.” As he says this, an employee stands at the door and emphasizes that he needs to leave.
“You’ll have to do that because it’s your concern,” the employee says.
As the man repeatedly tells him to “pass it up the chain,” the employee again responds, “I don’t have a problem with it so I’m not going to.”
The incident comes on the heels of a chaotic Pride Month during which conservatives repeatedly called for boycotts of any company that expressed support for the LGBTQ+ community or sold Pride merchandise.
In addition to posting videos of themselves walking the aisles of stores like Target and being outraged by rainbow clothing, some even threatened violence, with multiple Target locations receiving bomb threats.
Parents protest school district’s no opt-out policy for LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum
Gay and trans people exist, get over it! Gay and trans kids exist. LGBTQ+ people are real and in every part of society. We deserve equality and our civil rights. We deserve representation in media as much as white religious people. These programs are not sexual acts or positions instructions. These programs do not teach kids how to change their genders and flaunt their parent’s god. What they do is give kids information on what some feelings they are having might be, they teach that different people exist. These programs increase understanding, acceptance, and tolerance for people that are different. That is what really is horrifying to these religious bigots. They seem to think if they deny that LGBTQ+ people are real, if they wipe out any representation of them in media of all kinds, they can make the LGBTQ+ disappear. Poof, gone. It doesn’t work that way! It is like claiming that redheads don’t exist and removing books and movies that have redheads in them that redheads will disappear. Do they think if they ignore people of color, they will just stop existing? It doesn’t happen that way. Like red hair and skin color being LGBTQ+ is something you are born as, it is not learned or a lifestyle choice. Remember there have been gay and trans kids / people in all the history of the human existence. I grew up in a time and place where there were no books about gay kids, there were no movies with gay kids, there were no out gay people among anyone I knew. Yet I was gay, I knew it in every part of me that I was attracted to boys growing up. I felt it, I was experiencing it, but I had no understanding of what it was. As I got near my teens, I thought I was the only one in the world that felt this way. How great it would have been for me in school to have been able to see a movie with a gay boy and have it be accepted as normal. How great it would have been to read stories of gay boys instead of straight boys and girls only all the time. It is like if you were black and had to watch movies or read books with only white people in them. And think how great it would have been had a teacher explained to me and my classmates what those feelings were, and that there was a world of good role models for people like me. Think of the years of teenage bullying that could have been avoided or tempered if the schools / teachers had inclusion and acceptance programs. These religious bigots want their kids to be able to shame and insult / bully LGBTQ+ kids without any push back or consequences. These bigots have to learn to coexist with others. They are not living in a bubble, in isolation. They are like the Amish except they are not happy with themselves being allowed to ignore advances / changes in the world but they are demanding that everyone else do so also. They are demanding that everyone live as they do and the world pretend that only they are real. Hugs
A group of parents is suing the school board to allow them to opt their children out of LGBTQ+-inclusive lessons.
By John Russell Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Parents protest Montgomery County Public Schools no opt-out policy.Photo: Screenshot/WUSA9
Parents are demanding that a Maryland school district allow them to opt their children out of its LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum.
As Axios reported last month, in March, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Rockville, Maryland, ended a policy allowing parents to opt their students out of the district’s pre-K–12 language arts curriculum, which had been updated to include books featuring LGBTQ+ characters.
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According to a district statement on its “Inclusive and Welcoming Learning” initiative, the LGBTQ+-inclusive materials are part of the district’s efforts to cultivate “an inclusive and welcoming learning environment” and “to create opportunities where all students see themselves and their families in curriculum materials.”
In a Frequently Asked Questions section of the statement, the district notes that there is no “explicit instruction on gender and sexual identity in elementary school as part of content instruction,” adding that the LGBTQ+-inclusive books “include a diversified representation of people.”
The decision to end the opt-out policy, which the district instituted last October, led to an outcry from religious groups and members of the community. Protesters began showing up at Montgomery County School Board meetings in late March.
In May, a group of Christian and Muslim families sued the Montgomery County school board and superintendent, arguing that not allowing them to opt out of the lessons violates their First Amendment rights.
“Our clients represent families from all across Montgomery County with diverse religious faiths,” Will Haun, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty which is representing the families, told KATV in May. “And while they have differences on those issues, they share one thing in common, which is the right of parents to direct their children’s religious upbringing and their education, especially when it comes to sensitive issues, like a person’s identity, their child’s own identity.”
According to WUSA9, the lawsuit points to a Maryland law that requires school systems to establish opt-out policies for students. But in its own court filing, MCPS said that the school administrators are allowed to deny opt-out requests if they become too burdensome.
“Individual schools could not accommodate the growing number of opt-out requests without causing significant disruptions to the classroom environment and undermining MCPS’s educational mission,” MCPS’s response read.
Last Thursday, both protesters and counter-protesters again descended on a Montgomery County School Board meeting. As WUSA9 reported, the protest against the no opt-out policy was led by Muslim parents, one of whom argued that religious children were being bullied and labeled as bigots by their peers.
“You say you want to protect the rights of trans children and their families while simultaneously you violate the rights of other children and their families,” Nadhira Rasheed said.
Rachel Hull, the parent of a non-binary child, was among the counter-protesters. “Much of the opt-out arguments are couched as parental rights and religious freedom,” she told WUSA9. “But what it boils down to is that the LGBT+ community is being told that their very existence is abnormal. And that their identity should be a source of shame.”
Rightwing propaganda outlet PragerU’s materials approved for schools in Ron DeSantis’ Florida
But Governor DeathSantis claims that he has ended indoctrination in Florida schools. If you don’t already know, Prager U is a YouTube channel funded to the tune of at least $36 million a year (last I read) by the billionaire Mercer family to spread bigotry and racism. The Channel has videos against every civil rights gain since the 1950s, while pushing the wholesome goodness of white men. The channel pushes that white people had a right to do what they have done in history to other groups and that god has established the traditional way life should be. The fact is what the republicans working with or are religious fundamentalist bigots are fiercely pushing indoctrination of right wing religious views while trying to erase all social and scientific advancements since 1950. Hugs
PragerU (initialism for Prager University, and short for Prager University Foundation[4]) is an American advocacy group and media organization that creates content promoting conservative viewpoints on various political, economic, and sociological topics. It was co-founded in 2009 by Allen Estrin and talk show host Dennis Prager.
Despite the group’s name being an initialism for Prager University, it is not an academic institution and does not confer degrees. PragerU’s videos contain content widely considered to be misleading or false in promoting climate change denial. Historians and political scientists have also criticized PragerU’s videos for containing misleading or inaccurate claims about topics such as slavery and racism in the United States, immigration, and the history of fascism. PragerU has also been accused of promoting anti-LGBTQ politics.
PragerU purports to liberate children from the “dominant left-wing ideology.”
By Molly Sprayregen Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Gov. Ron DeSantisPhoto: Shutterstock
A right-wing nonprofit that “offers a free alternative to the dominant left-wing ideology” has announced that Florida has become the first state to approve the organization as an educational vendor.
“This fall in schools across America, students will be watching PragerU videos in their classrooms as states officially make PragerU an approved educational resource,” the group said in a press release, according to the Miami New Times.
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PragerU, which is not an accredited academic institution, offers propaganda-filled materials for students in kindergarten through 12th grade through its PragerU Kids program. It describes itself as being in “the mind-changing business.”
“In the past, teachers have been disciplined — even fired — for showing PragerU videos in their classrooms,” the press release states. “Now, PragerU videos are not only being allowed in classrooms but superintendents and education commissioners are actively encouraging teachers to use PragerU’s content to educate their students… PragerU supplemental curriculum offers an easy, cutting-edge way to teach core knowledge in subjects ranging from civics and history to entrepreneurship and financial literacy.”
In addition to a slew of videos for kids, the organization offers resources like a sample anti-critical race theory policy. Its videos claim the gender wage gap does not exist and that white people are unfairly villainized for stealing the land of Native Americans.
A petition on its website claims that “PragerU is trying to help America’s students—but the left (which has hijacked and controlled the education system, including teachers unions) is doing everything in its power to label us as ‘far right,’ deplatform us, and keep PragerU out of schools.”
“The left wants you to think that the reason students are failing is because bureaucrats need more money,” it states. “The left wants you to believe that teachers unions are protecting kids and doing right by teachers. The left claims kids don’t need patriotic education. Instead, they are teaching Critical Race Theory, gender fluidity, and that math is racist.”
The Florida Department of Education told the Miami New Times that it “reviewed PragerU Kids and determined the material aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards.”
“PragerU Kids is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion,” said deputy director of communications Cassie Palelis.
Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) office did not respond to a request for comment, but the group’s way of thinking is in line with the governor’s right-wing ideology.
During his time in office, DeSantis has waged war on public education, most notably through his “Don’t Say Gay” law and his vendetta against the teaching of racial and LGBTQ+ issues in schools.
In May, he signed a law forbidding colleges and universities from spending state or federal funding on programs that promote political or social activism or “diversity, equity, and inclusivity” (DEI). DeSantis said such DEI programs often actually stand for “discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination.”
In 2022, DeSantis signed the so-called “Stop WOKE Act,” which forbids schools and businesses from offering educational programs on racism and gender-based discrimination. The law is currently on hold as a court considers its impact on constitutionally protected rights to free speech.
Italy begins stripping lesbian mothers of their parental rights
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/07/italy-begins-stripping-lesbian-mothers-of-their-parental-rights/
Right wing governments working with Christian churches to deny rights to LGBTQ+ people. To stop equality, to stop same sex marriage. To deny family status at the same time as right governments and churches claim family units are best for children. We already know that children raised in same sex households do as well as or better than children in traditional opposite sex households. This is an attempt to make anything but the traditional male / female relationship status meaningless. Sure you can have civil partnerships but you get no rights with it, same with same sex marriage in the US if the republican fundamentalist religious right has its way. Because it is not good enough for those people to be able to do their things, do their beliefs, follow their own doctrines, their goal is to force everyone else to live by their church rules also. Hugs
Photo: ShutterstockIn conjunction with its crackdown on the rights of same-sex parents, the Italian government has begun retroactively stripping same-sex parents of their legal connection to their children.
Michela Leidi told the Daily Mail that she “cried for ten days” after receiving a letter informing her she would be removed from her daughter’s birth certificate. “It was as if I did not exist.”
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The couple doesn’t know why they were targeted as one of the first to have their legal status changed retroactively, as in most cities the policy has been focused on new babies born. They said their community, friends, and family have always supported them.
“I suspect the government is afraid that a family that looks different, like ours, can be as happy – maybe even happier sometimes – as a traditional family,” Liedi said. “On paper, they say Giulia has one mother but we know she has two. We will do everything possible to prove we are a good family.”
Her wife added, “No one from the government or the prosecutors came to see that we are a happy family with a happy baby.”
While same-sex civil unions have been legal in the country since 2016, same-sex couples do not have the right to adopt, thanks in part to opposition from the Catholic Church. Surrogacy remains illegal in Italy and there are restrictions that prevent the adoption of “stepchildren” by one parent. Medically assisted reproduction, like in vitro fertilization (IVF), is only available to heterosexual couples.
Viola became pregnant through artificial insemination, and the couple had to travel to Spain to receive the treatment.
Until March, there were several Italian cities where same-sex couples could be listed as “parents”—as opposed to “mother” and “father”—on birth registrations. But the Interior Ministry began sending letters ordering an end to the practice.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, made anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric a cornerstone of her campaign for office. She opposes allowing same-sex couples to adopt as well as marriage quality, calling civil union “good enough” for LGBTQ+ couples.
“Yes to the natural family, no to LGBT lobbies,” she declared last summer.
Under current Italian law, the member of a same-sex couple who is not legally recognized as a child’s parent could lose custody if the legally recognized parent dies or the relationship ends.
This is particularly horrific for another couple, Vanessa Finesso and Cristina Zambon. Finesso is the one who gave birth to their daughter after undergoing IVF in Spain. Even though she used Zambon’s egg, Zambon has been threatened with the loss of parental rights by the government. Finesso has cancer and is worried that if she dies, her wife will lose custody of their daughter.
The order also leaves the children of same-sex couples in jeopardy in other ways. “Children end up having limited access to key services and benefits, such as healthcare, inheritance, and child support,” Angelo Schillaci, a law professor at Sapienza University in Rome, told BBC when the policy was first announced. “At present, only one parent is recognized by law, the other one is a ghost. In real life, parents and children play together, cook together, play sports, and go on holiday together. But on paper, they are apart, the state does not see them. It’s a paradoxical situation.”
In the city of Padua, where Finesso and Zambon live, 27 families (33 children) have gotten warning letters that one parent may lose parental rights and be stripped of their place on their kids’ birth certificates. Some plan to leave the country for good.
But the mayor of Padua, Sergio Giordani, is defying the government’s orders and continuing to issue birth certificates recognizing two-mom families.
“My phone is full of pictures of happy families with shining eyes,” he said. “I’m really proud of what I’ve done.”
Florida History Curriculum To Note “Benefits” Of Slavery
Remember these racist bigots are a minority. They have been so since they lost the war to keep black people as property. Think about what the reporting says the majority turned out against this, yet the Board of education did it anyway. Der DeathSantis handpicked board. Think of what he would do if president. They are driven white supremacists who want real history erased and a fake nice version of slavery taught instead. Ask why? What is the gain, to not feel guilty? That is stupid, no current white person should feel guilty of racism unless they are promoting / practicing racism. And that is the point. These white people want to keep practicing racism, and a lot of them want to make it worse by returning to a time before the civil rights act that gave people of color a voice and a right to some equality in the country that the constitution says they are equal citizens. Seriously scary how deeply racism is in the red states and especially Florida and Texas.
As a side note when we first got to Florida we had a black friend visit us. I mention the skin color only because when we all went out to eat, the waitress at the restaurant refused to take his order, instead asking both Ron and then myself what the other (pointing to our friend) wanted to eat. This was in 1994. We complained but our friend who was experienced in the south did not want us to make a scene, so we agreed when management only offered to change the waitress. It was the first time I had experienced / seen that, and it really stuck in my mind. Totally horrible any person had to go through that dehumanizing experience that our friend did. I can not image how it makes one feel to be treated that way in front of friends. Hugs
The Tallahassee Democrat reports:
The Florida Board of Education approved a new curriculum for African American history on Wednesday, but not without pushback.
After more than an hour of public comment, with a majority of speakers opposed, the board voted unanimously to approve the social studies standards for African American history for kindergarten through 12th grades. Opponents say the curriculum leaves out Florida’s role in slavery and the oppression of African Americans, victim blames Black communities and uses outdated language.
In a letter to board member Ben Gibson, a group of 11 organizations, including the NAACP and the Florida Education Association, criticized the state for omitting or rewriting “key historical facts about the Black experience.”
The Washington Post reports:
More than a dozen speakers at Wednesday’s board meeting opposed the changes, including state Sen. Geraldine Thompson (D), who helped pass a law in 2020 that requires schools to teach lessons about the Ocoee Massacre. The incident in 1920 began when several Black residents attempted to vote, and ended with as many as 60 people dead, making it the deadliest instance of Election Day violence in U.S. history.
Thompson said the new curriculum “suggests that the massacre was sparked by violence from African Americans. That’s blaming the victims. ” State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D) said she was concerned about inaccuracies in the new standards, including instructing that enslaved people “developed skills” that could be helpful. “That is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish,” she said.
A short round up as I start a new post to catch the Friday to Sunday bunch.
the Republican infrastructure plan !!
House Bill 245 expands the definition of adult cabaret performers from strippers and topless dancers to include “entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s gender assigned at birth.”
Biden got a Target Letter, too!
Book Bans Are Fascist
How Junk Science is Being Used Against Trans Kids
From a medical journal
Scottie's Playtime 