Category: Religion / Religious / Theocracy

Mississippi parents get ‘pornographic’ Heartstopper books banned from teens in public library

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/08/24/heartstopper-library-ban-mississippi/

These are books written for 14 year olds and up, you know young adults.   Again these same Christian warriors think girls that age should be forced to marry older men and be forced to carry a pregnancy to full term. But don’t tell kids about being gay or having a book that shows them their feelings are normal.  That is the part that the Christian warriors hate, that it is normal and books like these show it as normal.  As one parent claimed, “Gays use these books to recruit kids into the LGBTQ+ community”. By my dogs that love gravy it is 2023, and being gay is well understood not to work that way.  You can not make a person gay.  Full stop.  No one can make a straight person gay and no one can make a gay person straight.   What they want is to remove all LGBTQ+ representation from society, make gay kids ashamed that they feel different from the other kids around them, and to keep the society a nice forced Christian nation of the 1950s.  We have to stop giving in to these overly loud minority.  They are not the entire country, as maga people like to claim.  You can’t please them.  You can’t give in a bit because it is never enough.  They will keep pushing for more and more their way.  What they want is the erasure of an entire part of the population.  Think on it.   Even if the LGBTQIA was only 10% of the population, that is a minimum of 36 million people.  I am sorry these people hate so, but LGBTQIA people exist and yes there are kids who are in that community.  When the fuck do they think kids feel sexual, at 18?  Why do kids start dating at 13, 14, 15?  Because they feel an attraction.  They have already started to use these laws to demand segregation, because good white kids are traumatized by having to sit in classrooms with black kids.  A return to the 1950s.   Hugs

 one young boy said. 

“Seeing that gave me at least a little bit of hope that maybe this town was OK and that people like me, kids, would feel like it’s not a bad thing and feel like they can have something relatable to connect with and make them feel hopeful and happy and secure, something as simple as a book,” he said.

Kit Connor as Nick Nelson and Joe Locke as Charlie Spring in a still from the Heartstopper two trailer.

Nick and Charlie are all grown up and kissing – a lot – in Heartstopper season two. (Netflix)

The graphic novel series Heartstopper will no longer be available in the teen section of a Mississippi public library after a group of parents claimed the books were pornographic.

The Heartstopper books, which tell the story of two teen boys who fall in love, were removed from the teen section of the Columbia-Marion County public library and placed in the adult section after complaints.

The library moved the graphic novels from the teen section after a meeting on 9 August in which a group of parents claimed the books were pornographic, with one reportedly claiming homosexuals were using the series to “recruit” children into the LGBTQ+ community. 

One mother also reportedly cited 14 other books that they found “objectionable”, asking for the board to remove them from the teen section in order to “protect our children”, The Mississippi Free Press reported.

Other titles described as objectionable included Dress Codes for Small Towns, by Courtney Stevens and Luna, by Julie Anne Peters, both of which have LGBTQ+ themes. 

Heather McMurry, the mother said to have submitted the complaint about the Heartstopper series, said she had visited booklooks.org, a site run by “concerned parents” who screen children’s and young adults’ books for “objectionable” content. According to the site’s reports for Alice Oseman’s popular series, the graphic novels contain “sexual activities, alternate sexualities, alternate gender ideologies, profanity and violence.”

In reality, the books have a few scenes featuring kissing, but contain no explicit material. 

Bookslooks was launched in 2022 by a member of the vocal conservative advocacy group Moms for Liberty, which has been branded as a far-right extremist organisation by civils rights activists at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Alice Oseman hints at what to expect from season three of Heartstopper.
Alice Oseman is the author of the Heartstopper series of graphic novels. (Getty)

A local mother who wanted to remain anonymous said that she had not been given a chance to speak in favour of Heartstopper at the meetings, and told the newspaper that only opponents of the book had spoken. 

Her son previously told the Mississippi Free Press that he had been pleased to see the series in the library. 

“Seeing that gave me at least a little bit of hope that maybe this town was OK and that people like me, kids, would feel like it’s not a bad thing and feel like they can have something relatable to connect with and make them feel hopeful and happy and secure, something as simple as a book,” he said.

His mum said that while she was relieved the books were not banned outright, moving the titles to the adult section could mean that a child with a homophobic parent will not be able to read them.

The library’s director, Ryda Worthy, and the branch manager, Mona Swayze, who reportedly did not have a say in the decision to move the titles, confirmed that teenagers can only obtain books from the adult section with parental permission.

The restriction comes during a time of growing calls to censor or remove books containing LGBTQ+ themes from libraries, with one in the state of Washington facing closure over a single book about trans people.

The American Library Association tracked 1,269 demands to censor library books in the US in 2022, with Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel Gender Queer topping the list of most-complained-about books. 

However, some states are fighting back, with a Texas judge ordering books banned for containing LGBTQ+ and racial content to be returned to library shelves.

Denver Archdiocese sues Colorado over right to exclude LGBTQ people from universal preschool

Denver Archdiocese sues Colorado over right to exclude LGBTQ people from universal preschool

Of course they are.  Another attempt at establishing extra rights to discriminate and be above any laws Christians don’t like.  “We don’t have to follow laws because of our god special rights”.  But we still deserve to not pay taxes and still get taxpayer money from the state because again we are most special because of our god.  Pay us to discriminate against taxpayers.   Because hate and bigotry are more important than inclusion.  Way to spread Chritistan love and the message of Christ.   Hugs

State’s non-discrimination requirements “directly conflict with St. Mary’s, St. Bernadette’s, and the Archdiocese’s religious beliefs,” the lawsuit says.

Archbishop Samuel Aquila speaks during a ...
AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post
 In this file photograph Archbishop Samuel Aquila speaks during a press conference to address sexual abuse in the Catholic church on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019.
By  | ehernandez@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED:  | UPDATED: 
 

The Denver Catholic Archdiocese along with two of its parishes is suing the state alleging their First Amendment rights are violated because their desire to exclude LGBTQ parents, staff and kids from Archdiocesan preschools keeps them from participating in Colorado’s new universal preschool program.

The program is intended to provide every child 15 hours per week of state-funded preschool in the year before they are eligible for kindergarten. To be eligible, though, schools must meet the state’s non-discrimination requirements.

The Denver Archdiocese, St. Mary Catholic Parish in Littleton and St. Bernadette Catholic Parish in Lakewood filed suit against Lisa Roy, executive director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, and Dawn Odean, director of Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program, on Wednesday.

The Denver Archdiocese and the Colorado Department of Early Childhood could not immediately be reached for comment.

“The Department is purporting to require all preschool providers to accept any applicant without regard to a student or family’s religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, and to prohibit schools from “discriminat[ing] against any person” on the same bases,” the lawsuit said. “These requirements directly conflict with St. Mary’s, St. Bernadette’s, and the Archdiocese’s religious beliefs and their religious obligations as entities that carry out the Catholic Church’s mission of Catholic education in northern Colorado.”

The Denver Archdiocese said in the suit they do not believe adhering to their religious beliefs against accepting LGBTQ people qualifies as discrimination. The Denver Post published written guidance last year issued by the Denver Archdiocese to its Catholic schools on the handling of LGBTQ issues, including telling administrators not to enroll or re-enroll transgender or gender non-conforming students and explaining that gay parents should be treated differently than heterosexual couples.

The lawsuit said St. Mary’s and St. Bernadette’s each require their preschool staff sign annual Archdiocese-approved employment contracts affirming that staff abide by traditional Catholic teachings on life, sexuality and marriage. They require parents who send their kids to their preschools “to understand and accept the community’s worldview and convictions regarding Catholic moral issues like life, marriage, and human sexuality,” the lawsuit said.

The Denver Archdiocese argues in the lawsuit that the state has “cornered the market” for preschool services by providing universal funding and any preschool providers who don’t participate will be “severely disadvantaged” and forced to charge “significantly” higher fees, disadvantaging low-income families whose children attend Archdiocesan schools.

“Colorado did not have to create a universal preschool funding program, but in doing so it cannot implement that program in a way that excludes certain religious groups and providers based on their sincerely held religious beliefs,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said enrolling children with gay parents into an Archdiocesan school “is likely to lead to intractable conflicts” because a “Catholic school cannot treat a same-sex couple as a family equivalent to the natural family without compromising its mission and Catholic identity.”

The lawsuit is seeking a jury trial and for the state to reverse its decision and allow the Denver Archdiocese to participate in the universal preschool program while giving them the ability to exclude LGBTQ students, staff and parents from their schools.

Texas University Forced To Close LGBTQ Center

Texas University Forced To Close LGBTQ Center

This part of the plan to wipe out the LGBTQIA from society, from public view.  Because if you can not see us, we won’t exist.   But they can put crosses and churches on every street.  It seems strange to me that in Texas which is a state that is already minority majority with whites staying in political power by the dirty tricks of voter suppression and gerrymandering.  Suppressing the brown people’s votes as much as possible.  So here are a bunch of white cis men trying to remain the most powerful group by outlawing and banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions.  Hugs

The Texas Tribune reports:

Jamie Gonzales, a former program coordinator at the University of Houston’s LGBTQ Resource Center, hasn’t slept well ever since she heard that the center will be disbanded in accordance with Senate Bill 17, a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions.

Although she knew the closure was coming after the bill passed in April in the Texas Senate, she still found herself emotionally ill-prepared to grapple with the reality: an end of an era for a place that served as a beacon of acceptance, safety and support for thousands of queer “Coogs,” as UH students often call themselves.

“There were a lot of special moments held in that space,” said Gonzales while crying during a phone interview this week. Before Thursday, the effect of the law at UH was unclear to many students, alumni and faculty. But all that changed last week when students noticed a flyer taped to the door of the center that read, “In Accordance with Texas Senate Bill 17, the LGBTQ Resource Center has been disbanded.”

Read the full article.

The law’s author, Sen. Brandon Creighton [photo], is also behind his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill for public schools. Creighton first appeared on JMG in 2019 for his bill seeking to overturn LGBTQ protections enacted by Texas cities. In March 2023, he appeared here for his bill that would deny the prospect of tenure to newly-hired university professors. Creighton has spearheaded the Texas campaign to protect Confederate monuments.

 

Todd20036 6 days ago

This isn’t even about children. College students are adults

It’s about erasing LBGTs out of existence

Todd20036 6 days ago

This isn’t even about children. College students are adults

It’s about erasing LBGTs out of existence

Ninja0980  Todd200366 days ago

They want us dead, simple as that.

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️  Todd200366 days ago

The CultPAC spoke,
Eradicate (people) from public life.

This is but one step.

customartist  Todd200366 days ago

Private colleges should begin offering public school tuition rates to LGBTQ students.

THE CAPE CUBSADER  Todd200366 days ago

IT’S ABOUT ANYTHING THAT IS NOT WHITE!

AzBearin 6 days ago

many years ago I was a student at Northern IL university and during this time I was confused and questioning my sexuality. I found out there was a small office for Gay and Lesbian folk so I went and had an interesting and worthwhile discussion with a wonderful lesbian who shared her story with me. i still remained in the closet for a few more years but I have never forgotten what she told me, in her own way she helped me come out some years later. I still wonder what if I had not gone to that office that day,.

Posthumously  AzBearin6 days ago

That kind of affirmation is exactly what Republicans are trying to prevent.

patty thomas  AzBearin5 days ago

It’s an amazing feeling when you first realize you aren’t the only one in the world. I’m not gay, just an ally but I went through a somewhat similar experience when I first found out I wasn’t the only atheist in the world. I didn’t even know there was a word for it. We need connections to survive and thrive.

Edwin&Rufus  Randy5035 days ago edited

In the mid 80’s, I was at a homophobic, major university in Indiana. The chancellor declared in a speech, there were no “homosexuals” there.

By accident, I found a gay, then gay/lesbian group across the street from the student union, but actually iff campus in the Wesley Foundation. It was jointly sponsored by the Methodist / Episcopalian outreach programs. No religion was pushed. We met in the church basement.

It was truly life saving, during the era of lethal, rampant AIDS, police stings, discrimination, and other abuses.

The University couldn’t touch them. They were off campus, and inna church.

CJ 6 days ago

“a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion”

There is NO question what Republicans have in mind.

BeccaM  CJ6 days ago

Yes: All out unapologetic white nationalism.

Niblet58  BeccaM5 days ago

White straight nationalism.

another_steve 6 days ago

They want us dead, peeps.

How do we respond?

BeccaM  another_steve6 days ago edited

By driving them out of elected office, a process that will likely take as long as it took *them* to seize power. Which is to say, it needs to be a sustained and unrelenting effort that over the course of many election cycles.

another_steve  BeccaM6 days ago

As a survivor of the HIV/AIDS crisis, I see uncanny similarities in how today’s Republican Party is attacking our community.

Back then, it was “let them die, they deserve death.”

Today it’s “do what we can to make their lives, their beings, invisible and non-existent.”

Ninja0980  BeccaM6 days ago

Taking the courts back as well is part of that.

doninkansas  BeccaM6 days ago

we have to start local (county and city, then state), then work our way up to federal, challenging and changing judges as we go. it is a multipronged effort that all too many don’t want to take time to do. that was how the “moral majority” did it, they started with school boards and city councils, then county level and state level. when they had a strong base in place, then they took federal offices quite easily. once in place there, they appointed judges from within their ranks and owned the country. we will have to fight tooth and nail to get this reversed.

Archipelagos  another_steve6 days ago edited

Political mobilization is super important, but I would also gently encourage folks to also give space to what is necessary to protect their own health and wellbeing, and that of their friends and family. Don’t panic, prepare has been my mantra for a while now.

Boreal6 days ago

Guess what, knuckledraggers? You have one, maybe two presidential election cycles before the generation you keep fucking over is the majority. They will decide what nursing homes you end up in as well as a host of other issues that will affect your hateful lives.

AyJayDee2  Boreal6 days ago edited

That’s why they’re trying to destroy democracy – it’s to create minority rule. Remember that whites were always a minority in South Africa, and Apartheid lasted almost 50 years.

jk1056 days ago

I remember in the 60s and 70s colleges having sit ins to create these centers. I think it is time for such activism to start again.

Flora DeMann  jk1056 days ago

Those 60s and 70s college students are today’s college students’ grandparents. I don’t know what happened.

 

Arkansas: Turn In All Black History Material For Review

Arkansas: Turn In All Black History Material For Review
Aunt Lydia: Black History Course Is Leftist Propaganda

Because we must make slavery look as beneficial as possible to the black slaves.  White people were doing these subhumans a favor by enslaving them and they gave them a chance to find the true god, have shelter, to have food, and work which every republican thinks black people should do more of.   Sickening, but she is a true believer in the white race and in the need to have her god in every aspect of everyone’s life, enforced by the Christian Taliban moral police gang thugs.  Hugs

Anti-LGBTQ+ hate incidents tripled during Pride month this year

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/07/anti-lgbtq-hate-incidents-tripled-during-pride-month-this-year/

The violence underscores a year that included hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ incidents.

By Daniel Villarreal Saturday, July 22, 2023

a colorful group of people march in the Los Angeles Pride Parade holding a sign that says "All are welcome here"

Los Angeles Pride paradePhoto: Shutterstock

At least 145 incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism occurred nationwide during Pride 2023, three times the amount that occurred during Pride 2022, according to a new report. The violence underscores a year that included 356 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, as well as an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation nationwide.

The report, created by the queer media watchdog organization GLAAD and the hate monitoring group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), found that between June 2022 and April 2023, 305 incidents of harassment, 40 incidents of vandalism, and 11 incidents of assault occurred nationwide.

The incidents included the deadly Club Q shooting, the murder of a lesbian woman at a gas station, vandalism against Pride flags, bomb threats sent to LGBTQ+-associated venues, public protests against inclusive brands like Target, and death threats against doctors and politicians.

Of the incidents, 138 involved drag events and performers, 33 involved schools and educators, 23 involved healthcare facilities and providers, and 22 involved government buildings and elected officials.

This isn’t surprising considering that right-wingers have increasingly claimed that drag performers, LGBTQ+-inclusive educators, gender-affirming medical professionals, and allied politicians are trying to “groom” and “sexualize” children and want to force them to undergo “genital mutilation.”

Nearly half of the reported incidents were perpetrated by individuals associated with extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Front. Additionally, 128 of the incidents also involved antisemitic tropes, and 30 involved racist tropes, showing the overlap of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment with hatred of Jews and non-white races.

“Since many anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism incidents go unreported, the true numbers are likely far higher,” the report said.

GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said, “This new report makes abundantly clear that extremism is escalating against LGBTQ+ people and endangers every American… Extremists, including elected officials, must be held accountable for inciting violence and using vile rhetoric against marginalized people who just want to live in safety and peace.”

In June, the Western States Center, an anti-bigotry organization, wrote a guide on “Protecting Pride,” explaining how to protect events from extremist hate.

The guide recommends that event organizers create a vocally supportive coalition of partnerships with government, business, faith, and community organizations; coordinate with law enforcement to monitor and document online and local extremist threats; create safety response plans for coordinators and attendees to follow at events; and also teaches how to use media spokespeople to flip “groomer” claims by showing how extremists threaten local kids and families with violence and hate.

Trump judge upholds Don’t Say Gay law because bullying is “a fact of life”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/10/trump-judge-upholds-dont-say-gay-law-saying-bullying-fact-life/

This is crazy.  Another religious right wing judge pushing her views.  She dismissed the suit saying there was no harm because a reasonable person wouldn’t think that the law precludes talking about gay people and same sex families.  Just what the other trump judge said, but that is a lie.  The law is written to allow any religious bigot to burden the school with lawsuits.  Here are a couple examples from the article.   Hugs

Based on the law, the Florida Board of Education recently instituted a new rule that says any K-3 teacher who is found to have taught their students about LGBTQ issues can have their licenses suspended or revoked.  And in September, the Miami-Dade School Board voted against recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month over fears that it would violate the Don’t Say Gay law.

 

“It is simply a fact of life that many middle school students will face the criticism and harsh judgment of their peers,” wrote the judge.

By Molly Sprayregen Monday, October 24, 2022

Supreme Court, law, legal, case, court, judge, gavel, ruling

Photo: Shutterstock

For the second time, a Trump-appointed judge has upheld the legality of Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law.

Lambda Legal, the Southern Legal Counsel, and the Southern Poverty Law Center joined together with a group of LGBTQ students and their families to advocate for a preliminary injunction on H.B. 1557 – which prohibits K-3 teachers from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity issues with their students. The lawsuit argued that the law restricts free speech and encourages bullying.

But U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger dismissed their request.

“Plaintiffs have not directed this Court to any fact that would lead a reasonable person to believe that the law prohibits students from discussing their families and vacations at school or even on a school assignment,” Berger reportedly wrote in the decision, “or that it would prohibit a parent from attending a school function in a ‘pride’ t-shirt or generally discussing their family structure in front of other people.”

Lambda Legal staff attorney Kell Olson called Berger’s decision “wrong on the law and disrespectful to LGBTQ+ families and students.”

“H.B. 1557 suppresses wholesale the speech and identities of LGBTQ+ students and their families. It sends a message of shame and stigma that has no place in schools and puts LGBTQ+ students and families at risk,” Olson continued.

“The students and families at the heart of this case have experienced more bullying in the months since the law went into effect than ever before in their lives, but the court dismissed their experiences of bullying as ‘a fact of life.’ The court’s decision defies decades of precedent establishing schools’ constitutional obligations to protect student speech, and to protect students from targeted bullying and harassment based on who they are.”

Berger acknowledged some of the plaintiff’s bullying worries but said that “it is simply a fact of life that many middle school students will face the criticism and harsh judgment of their peers.”

“Indeed, middle school children bully and belittle their classmates for a whole host of reasons,” Berger continued, “all of which are unacceptable, and many of which have nothing to do with a classmate’s gender identity.”

A challenge to the Don’t Say Gay law was dismissed by another Trump-nominated judge, Allen Cothrel Winsor, in early October.

The Don’t Say Gay law, which went into effect on July 1, continues to make its mark on Florida schools.

Based on the law, the Florida Board of Education recently instituted a new rule that says any K-3 teacher who is found to have taught their students about LGBTQ issues can have their licenses suspended or revoked.

And in September, the Miami-Dade School Board voted against recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month over fears that it would violate the Don’t Say Gay law.

Trump-appointed judge dismisses challenge to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law a second time

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/08/trump-appointed-judge-dismisses-challenge-to-floridas-dont-say-gay-law-a-second-time/

It is clear she supports the law.  In the article, a man chaperoning kids felt he couldn’t mention his husband or their family as others were doing.  That is the point of the law, to make the LGBTQIA disappear from society.  Not mentioned, not heard about, don’t exist.  Make it a weird fringe thing, instead of a large segment of the population.  I don’t know how we get around the legal road blocks that the maga right has installed.  Think of it, this judge says students, parents of students, and their legal representatives don’t have standing, yet the religious liberty legal groups can create a fictional business that doesn’t even exist and the court rules yes Christians have a pass to discriminate.  What next, Christians suing to not serve black people?  What about Jewish people.  Yet if someone tried not to serve Christians their heads would explode and that would be illegal.   Please note the related story of a trump appointed judge saying that gay kids shouldn’t be protected from bullying.  “It is simply a fact of life that many middle school students will face the criticism and harsh judgment of their peers,” wrote the judge.  Well that was changing just as acceptance of people of color stopped a lot of the tolerated bullying of black children, so the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ kids with anti-bullying programs was working also.  Those programs were stopping the bullying and gay kids felt accepted and included at school.  That is what the republicans were desperate to stop.  That what these laws are doing.   Hugs

 

U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger ruled that most of the plaintiffs lacked standing and accused them of “legal posturing.”

By John Russell Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Judge with gavel

Photo: Shutterstock

A Trump-appointed judge has dismissed a challenge to Florida’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law for the second time.  

Last week, U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger rejected a lawsuit brought by Lambda Legal, the Southern Legal Counsel, and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of a group of LGBTQ+ students, parents, and a nonprofit group seeking a preliminary injunction against the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

RELATED STORIES

Trump judge upholds Don’t Say Gay law because bullying is “a fact of life”

“It is simply a fact of life that many middle school students will face the criticism and harsh judgment of their peers,” wrote the judge.

The legislation, signed into law last year by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), bans instruction on topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and requires discussion of those topics to be “age appropriate” in higher grades.

This is the second time Berger has dismissed this case. Last October, she rejected a previous version of the lawsuit, giving plaintiffs until November 3 to file an updated version. (Another Trump-appointed judge, Allen Cothrel Winsor, dismissed a separate challenge to the law earlier this year.) As Orlando Weekly reported, the revised version of the lawsuit argued that the law violates the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights by chilling speech related to sexual orientation and gender identity, while also raising equal protection and due process arguments.

“The impact of the law has been immediate and severe,” the revised version stated. “Defendant school boards and their agents have already begun implementing significant changes under the law. They have instructed teachers to review hundreds of books that acknowledge LGBTQ+ people and families and have eliminated vital support systems for LGBTQ+ students, including guidance and training that combat bullying and violence.”

In her 37-page ruling, issued last Wednesday, Berger wrote that all but two of the plaintiffs lacked standing. She also rejected the argument that the law forced one parent, David Dinan, to censor himself while chaperoning a school field trip “because he was concerned that mention or discussion of his husband or family could have been considered classroom instruction by a third party.”

“While Dinan felt his speech was chilled when he was acting as a chaperone, plaintiffs still fail to offer any argument as to how a reasonable person would have objectively believed that mentioning his same-sex spouse while acting as a chaperone would constitute instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity,” Berger wrote.

While the law does not explicitly ban the mention of LGBTQ+ people in schools, the Florida Department of Education has not yet released official guidance on how the law should be applied. At the same time, the law allows parents to sue school districts if they feel the law has been violated. Critics of the law say that it caters to particularly litigious parents who will sue school districts over their own interpretations of its provisions, forcing schools to foot the bill for frivolous lawsuits and, thus, chilling any mention of LGBTQ+ people out of an abundance of caution.

Berger also wrote that the plaintiffs “continue to include numerous allegations that appear to be wholly immaterial.”

“Even if such allegations are not immaterial,” she wrote, “the complaint is not the proper place for legal argument or posturing.”

A majority of queer youth feel hopeful despite widespread bullying & stress

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/08/a-majority-of-queer-youth-feel-hopeful-despite-widespread-bullying-stress/

 
 
90.3% of LGBTQ+ youth said they were proud to be part of queer community, and 83% had come out to their families.
By 
LGBTQ+ students, youth, schools,
Photo: Shutterstock

Nearly half of all LGBTQ+ youth feel unsafe in school settings, and over half said they had been bullied due to their queer identities, a new report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) found.

But even though over half of queer respondents also showed signs of anxiety and depression, majorities of LGBTQ+ youth have also come out to their families and feel hopeful for the future nonetheless.

————————————————————-

RELATED STORIESAnti-LGBTQ+ legislation is making 66% of queer youth more anxious & suicidal

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/05/anti-lgbtq-legislation-is-making-66-of-queer-youth-more-anxious-suicidal/

A recent survey suggested several ways to help LGBTQ+ youth, too.

The HRC’s 2023 LGBTQ+ Youth Report surveyed over 13,000 LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 13 and 17, from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Approximately 54% of transgender and gender-expansive youth and 46% of LGBQ+ youth surveyed said that they felt unsafe in at least one school setting. Nearly 60% of all LGBTQ+ youth said that they had been “teased, bullied, or treated badly” at school over their LGBTQ+ identities.

Only one in five LGBTQ+ youth reported school bullying to a school staff member. While 23.3% of these kids said the adult “didn’t help me at all,” 20.0% said the adult “helped me a lot.”

Additionally, 55.1% of survey respondents screened positive for depression, 63.5% screened positive for depression, and 64.7% rated their ability to manage stress as “fair” or “poor.” These rates were on average five points higher for transgender and gender-expansive youth. 48.9% of LGBTQ+ youth had received therapy in the prior year.

The HRC noted that these findings have likely been affected by the spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide. During the most recent legislative session, 10 have passed transphobic “bathroom bills,” 23 states have passed transphobic “sports bans,” six have passed “forced outing” bills requiring schools to out trans and gender-expansive youth to their parents, and six have passed “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” bills banning queer content from classrooms.

Despite this, 90.3% of LGBTQ+ youth said they were proud to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, and nearly 83% of queer youth said that they had come out to at least one member of their immediate family.

Trans and gender-expansive youth who feel free to express their gender identity around their families and those whose family members use their correct pronouns and names also reported the lowest levels of depression and anxiety among trans and gender-expansive youth.

Additionally, 56.8% of LGBTQ+ youth said they somewhat or strongly agree that “the LGBTQ+ community is accepted more and more every day.”

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.

An Iowa school district is using ChatGPT to decide which books to ban

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/08/an-iowa-school-district-is-using-chatgpt-to-decide-which-books-to-ban/

But notice what book they don’t submit to the bot scan is the bible, which includes everything they programmed into it for getting rid of LGBTQIA inclusive material.

Official: “It is simply not feasible to read every book” for depictions of sex.

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A book wrapped in chains.
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In response to recently enacted state legislation in Iowa, administrators are removing banned books from Mason City school libraries, and officials are using ChatGPT to help them pick the books, according to The Gazette and Popular Science.

The new law behind the ban, signed by Governor Kim Reynolds, is part of a wave of educational reforms that Republican lawmakers believe are necessary to protect students from exposure to damaging and obscene materials. Specifically, Senate File 496 mandates that every book available to students in school libraries be “age appropriate” and devoid of any “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act,” per Iowa Code 702.17.

But banning books is hard work, according to administrators, so they need to rely on machine intelligence to get it done within the three-month window mandated by the law. “It is simply not feasible to read every book and filter for these new requirements,” said Bridgette Exman, the assistant superintendent of the school district, in a statement quoted by The Gazette. “Therefore, we are using what we believe is a defensible process to identify books that should be removed from collections at the start of the 23-24 school year.”

To determine which books fit the bill, Exman asks ChatGPT: “Does [book] contain a description or depiction of a sex act?” If the answer is yes, the book will be removed from circulation.

The district detailed more of its methodology: “Lists of commonly challenged books were compiled from several sources to create a master list of books that should be reviewed. The books on this master list were filtered for challenges related to sexual content. Each of these texts was reviewed using AI software to determine if it contains a depiction of a sex act. Based on this review, there are 19 texts that will be removed from our 7-12 school library collections and stored in the Administrative Center while we await further guidance or clarity. We also will have teachers review classroom library collections.”

Unfit for this purpose

In the wake of ChatGPT’s release, it has been increasingly common to see the AI assistant stretched beyond its capabilities—and to read about its inaccurate outputs being accepted by humans due to automation bias, which is the tendency to place undue trust in machine decision-making. In this case, that bias is doubly convenient for administrators because they can pass responsibility for the decisions to the AI model. However, the machine is not equipped to make these kinds of decisions.

FURTHER READING

Lawyer cited 6 fake cases made up by ChatGPT; judge calls it “unprecedented”

Large language models, such as those that power ChatGPT, are not oracles of infinite wisdom, and they make poor factual references. They are prone to confabulate information when it is not in their training data. Even when the data is present, their judgment should not serve as a substitute for a human—especially concerning matters of law, safety, or public health.

“This is the perfect example of a prompt to ChatGPT which is almost certain to produce convincing but utterly unreliable results,” Simon Willison, an AI researcher who often writes about large language models, told Ars. “The question of whether a book contains a description of depiction of a sex act can only be accurately answered by a model that has seen the full text of the book. But OpenAI won’t tell us what ChatGPT has been trained on, so we have no way of knowing if it’s seen the contents of the book in question or not.”

It’s highly unlikely that ChatGPT’s training data includes the entire text of each book under question, though the data may include references to discussions about the book’s content—if the book is famous enough—but that’s not an accurate source of information either.

“We can guess at how it might be able to answer the question, based on the swathes of the Internet that ChatGPT has seen,” Willison said. “But that lack of transparency leaves us working in the dark. Could it be confused by Internet fan fiction relating to the characters in the book? How about misleading reviews written online by people with a grudge against the author?”

Indeed, ChatGPT has proven to be unsuitable for this task even through cursory tests by others. Upon questioning ChatGPT about the books on the potential ban list, Popular Science found uneven results and some that did not apparently match the bans put in place.

Even if officials were to hypothetically feed the text of each book into the version of ChatGPT with the longest context window, the 32K token model (tokens are chunks of words), it would not likely be able to consider the entire text of most books at once, though it may be able to process it in chunks. Even if it did, one should not trust the result as reliable without verifying it—which would require a human to read the book anyway.

“There’s something ironic about people in charge of education not knowing enough to critically determine which books are good or bad to include in curriculum, only to outsource the decision to a system that can’t understand books and can’t critically think at all,” Dr. Margaret Mitchell, chief ethicist scientist at Hugging Face, told Ars.

House Republicans Cite Noah’s Ark In Motion Backing Texas Using Circular Saws, Razor Wire On Rio Grande

House Republicans Cite Noah’s Ark In Motion Backing Texas Using Circular Saws, Razor Wire On Rio Grande

 

The Houston Chronicle reports:

More than 20 members of Congress want to join a federal lawsuit to help protect Gov. Greg Abbott’s buoy barrier in the Rio Grande, referencing Noah’s Ark and questioning if the river can be considered a “navigable waterway” despite being the fourth largest river in North America.

In a motion filed on behalf of U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, and other GOP members, lawyers for the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation have asked to be part of the case and targeted how a key law is interpreted in it.

The U.S. Justice Department sued Abbott last month for deploying a 1,000-foot buoy barrier in the Rio Grande without first getting permission from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers as required by the federal Rivers and Harbors Act.

From their amicus brief:

Indeed, if one takes the Book of Genesis literally, then the entire world was once navigable by boats large enough to carry significant amounts of livestock. Under the federal government’s theory, these anecdotes would render any structure built anywhere in Texas an obstruction to navigation subject to federal regulation.

Arrington was among the 126 Republican House reps who voted to overturn the 2020 election.

 

worstcultever 11 days ago

Send the goddamn Army Engineers to turn that shit into a scrap pile TODAY

BensNewLogin 11 days ago

The cruelty is always the point. And the point is always pointless. By their lack of reason, anytime there’s a flood, no one can do a thing about it, because Noah has an ark.

Houndentenor 11 days ago

“Indeed, if one takes the Book of Genesis literally….”

Well, we have a problem already because no rational person takes those stories literally.

Sam_Handwich 11 days ago

Indeed, if one takes the Book of Genesis literally, then drunken incestuous impregnation is a handy way to perpetuate the human race.

OwossoHarpist  Sam_Handwich11 days ago

Dumb Idiot Ham has something like this in his putrid attractions. There’s a placard at his “museum” claiming that it was OK for anyone to commit incest back then because it was a way for humans to produce children like rabbits in the mythical Pre-Flood world.

ConnieHinesDorothyProvine  Sam_Handwich 10 days ago

To be certain, had Noah’s family been the only surviving one, then humanity would’ve quickly inbred itself out of existence.

Smokey 11 days ago

From that same book in their bible they’re always so fond of quoting to condemn LGBT’s,

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Hal  Smokey11 days ago

The evangelicals cherry-pick Bible verses that seemingly justify their own cruelty. Verses about welcoming strangers are ignored.

weshlovrcm11 days ago

If we’re going to use the Bible to justify drowning and killing people looking for a better life, it’s important to remember that Jesus first and foremost commanded us to treat others as we want to be treated. Moreover, the Bible is full of verses telling us we should help the poor, needy, and strangers.

Nic Peterson  weshlovrcm11 days ago

None of the things you mention there seem very christian, not in my experience. All I remember is bootstraps, poor people are bad and queers rot in a lake of fire for eternity. They are quite adamant about all of that. Then it gets weird.

ConnieHinesDorothyProvine  Franciscan 10 days ago

Most of the stuff that the fundies rally around is from the Old Testament, even though Jesus said to ignore all the old teachings (which is why the Christians think it’s okay to eat pork).

StarGmom  weshlovrcm11 days ago edited

Yes, but cherry pickers ignore those bits, especially if the strangers are the wrong color

PickyPecker11 days ago

again

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Jeff Breeze 11 days ago

Yet another reason why every time Texas whines about seceding, I wish they’d put their money where their mouth is

Elagabalus  Jeff Breeze11 days ago

That state is like a petulant child that is always threatening to run away from home but never does for all the obvious reasons.

Nic Peterson  Jeff Breeze11 days ago

An independent state of Texas would last for about 15 minutes. Then the power would go out and the cartels would take control. Texas would be reabsorbed into Mexico. Past is prologue.

James Parson (Zero-One-∞ Rule)  Nic Peterson 11 days ago

I don’t think Mexico wants them either.

ECarpenter  Jeff Breeze11 days ago edited

The Texas Republicans have gerrymandered and dirty tricked their way into staying in power, even though they don’t actually have majority support anymore. It’s a very divided state that remains in the hands of lunatics, for now. Eventually the majority will just be too big to suppress anymore, and it will flip.