Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) this week took aim at Republican governors who want to ban gender transitioning for minors during a Fox News interview.
On Thursday, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade asked Christie, a 2024 GOP presidential candidate, “Your thoughts about the push in Florida and Arkansas to make it illegal to do it for kids under 18?”
“Brian, you know, I just don’t want to see our government getting more and more intrusive in everybody’s life, getting bigger,” Christie replied, adding:
I don’t think anything can replace parents when you’re talking about major decisions that are needs to be made by our children. And I will tell you this. I want all parents out there to think about something. How many other decisions do you want the government making for you in your home regarding your kids? I don’t want any of those decisions made by the government. Parents are the ones who love their children the most, who care about their children the most, who understand their children the most. And parents should be the ones making these decisions.
“So if a 14-year-old comes home and says, I really want to start switching genders, that’s the parent’s decision?” Kilmeade asked.
“I’ll tell you, it’s more of a parent’s decision than it’s a governor’s decision, for goodness sakes, Brian, you really think that Sarah Huckabee Sanders should be making this decision for children in Arkansas?” Christie insisted.
“I love Sarah. I think she’s a great person and a really good governor. But I don’t think she would ever allow the government to substitute her judgment as a mother for their judgment. And that’s what I’m saying. I would want any government official coming in and telling me what decisions I could help my child through and how I should do it. And I want those decisions to be made by parents, not by the government,” Christie concluded.
A person holds up a flag during rally to protest the Trump administration’s reported transgender proposal to narrow the definition of gender to male or female at birth, at City Hall in New York City, U.S., October 24, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File photo
June 21 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday struck down a Florida rule and a statute that banned state Medicaid payments for transgender healthcare, marking the second defeat in two weeks for anti-transgender legislation in the state.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle declared the state’s practices invalid, saying they violated the constitutional right to equal protection under the 14th amendment in addition to violating the federal Medicaid statue and the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition of sex discrimination.
The injunction was expected after Hinkle on June 6 partially blocked Florida from enforcing its recent ban on people under 18 receiving gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
U.S. district court judges elsewhere have blocked state laws banning gender-affirming care in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana and Oklahoma.
Republican lawmakers introduced more than 500 bills restricting LGBTQ rights this past legislative year, passing more than 70, according to Human Rights Campaign. Twenty states have passed laws banning gender-affirming care for minors.
Sponsors of the laws say they want to protect children who are being misled by parents and doctors and might regret their gender transition.
Hinkle in his 54-page ruling said “many people with this view tend to disapprove all things transgender and so oppose medical care that supports a person’s transgender existence.”
“The elephant in the room should be noted at the outset. Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear,” the judge wrote after a two-week trial.
The plaintiffs were two transgender adults, August Dekker and Brit Rothstein, and two transgender minors who filed under pseudonyms.
The defendants were the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and its secretary, Jason Weida, who did not respond to an after-hours request for comment.
The AHCA had approved Medicaid payments for the plaintiffs, but in 2022 the executive office of Governor Ron DeSantis ordered the AHCA to conduct a new analysis and reversed course. The AHCA “retained only consultants known in advance for their staunch opposition to gender-affirming care,” the judge found.
“The new … process was, from the outset, a biased effort to justify a predetermined outcome, not a fair analysis of the evidence,” the judge said.
DeSantis is running for the Republican nomination for president and has promoted his record of aggressively fighting progressive policies, including LGBTQ rights.
In an uncovered video, RFK Jr. compared mask mandates to Nazi Holocaust camp experiments on Jews.
RFK Jr.: “They’re going to have the right to compel unwanted medical interventions on us. The Nazis did that in the camps in World War II. They tested vaccines on Gypsies and Jews.” pic.twitter.com/ZK2yLTy1dV
“There are tens of thousands of studies that show the horrendous danger of WiFi radiation.” – Robert Kennedy Jr., speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Yesterday Kennedy claimed that chemicals in drinking water are turning children transgender.
Posting this article from 2013 about how RFK Jr’s former wife committed suicide after finding his secret diary detailing his affairs with 37 different women. https://t.co/jOWoAgBCeH
Peter Hotez's criticism of Joe Rogan for hosting anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his podcast led to people showing up at his home. https://t.co/Yaaev9MkJg
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 20, 2023
This is what the right wing media does now, enrage their thuggish followers to find and attack anyone they disagree with. Brownshirt gang enforcers. We have seen this before in history. Hugs
YouTube Removes RFK Jr.’s Interview Claiming Chemicals in Water Supply Turn Kids Trans Just Like It Does to Frogs https://t.co/z6chv8hzlH
Many trans people have brothers and sisters who are cis-gendered and remain so. They grow up in the same environment, drinking the same “toxic” water. It ain’t the water, honey. And it ain’t a “problem” that you can (or need to) solve by throwing your stupidity at it.
32 children died in Samoa from measles after RFK Jr visited to oppose childhood vaccinations & his organization pushed a false story that MMR vaccines killed 2 children, refusing to take it down after it was revealed two nurses mixed muscle relaxant in. https://t.co/zhc3bu1mGr
In 2021, RFK Jr & his organization rolled out a "documentary" "Medical Racism: The New Apartheid" to try to convince African Americans not to get vaccinated against COVID19. It was filled with the same false antivax claims https://t.co/oi29QPJB11
What’s weird is when members of the majority feel the need to hold their own fake hearing. Politico reported:
…Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), joined by a handful of others from the conference’s right flank, hosted an event last week with former Trump acting assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark, people charged in relation to Jan. 6, defendants’ family members and allies. The event featured a veritable kitchen sink of conspiracy theories as well as rehashed false claims, including that the 2020 election was “stolen” and that the Jan. 6 committee “doctored” video.
Just so we’re clear, this was not an actual congressional hearing. The far-right Floridian, however, wanted it to be perceived as one. Gaetz pretended to be a chairman, recognizing members and witnesses, alerting participants to when their time had expired, and explaining that the “testimony” could be used in official proceedings. (That last part was true but irrelevant: Anything can be used in official proceedings, including the blog post you’re reading now.)
The employee told the court the priest urged workers to “get the sins out,” and asked employees if they had stolen from the employer, been late for work, had done anything to harm their employer, or if they had bad intentions toward their employer.
“Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday is a nationalized race hustle. Why do Blacks need their own national independence day? We used to have a red, white, and blue independence day on July 4th. Now, we have one based on the melanin content of your skin. “These people will not be stopped unless you say no more. Appeasement does not work. It’s a middle finger to the promise of 1776, You are going to have to choose.” – Charlie Kirk, who days ago called Juneteenth “pagan garbage.”
He’s getting more and more extreme. I predict within a year he will be calling for the outright enslavement of black people, and the extermination of all LBGTs and anyone living in poverty.
I totally agree! He is becoming more and more extreme by the day. I’ll bet he is just dying to say “the N word” out loud. Next thing you know he’ll be having a swastika flag in the background and explaining why the Nazis were “misunderstood” and were actually brave Christian patriots. Kirk truly is a miserable POS!
He’s in a rat race to be the most extreme commenter on the Internet. That’s why he has to become ever extreme. Of course win or lose, in a rat race you’re still a rat.
Jonathan Joe in NMa day ago Thom Hartmann wrote the other day that after Trump requested the lists of the employees (spies) and had repeated unrecorded conversations with Russian diplomats, Kisylak, and others, the CIA had to pull agents and there was a silence in our intelligence operations, it’s suspected Trump turned them all over to the Russians. Many were killed, or disappeared.
That and a whole lot of other info. He asked for a list of the US spies and I bet you he turned it right over to our enemies in Russia, North Korea, China, etc.
A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation. A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution, and clashes over how much evidence was sufficient to investigate the actions of Trump and those around him all contributed to the slow pace.
EXCLUSIVE – DOJ twice axed plans to investigate Trump link to Jan 6 and Trump-led effort to steal 2020 election. It resulted in premier law enforcement agency not investigating his attack on democracy for more than a year. Me & @byaaroncdavis https://t.co/3rodXS0cQJ
CaliJABa day ago Republicans are attempting to do the same thing to our justice system that they did with the media. They cried media bias again and again until it got to the point they started received special treatment. It became unbalanced in favor of them. Now, if Republicans commit crimes the FBI won’t investigate them. That whole fake elector scheme … the FBI won’t do shit about it. If it was Democrats, they would have been charged on day one.
But they received special treatment from the start! All the right wing does is claim victimhood and blame socialist liberal bullies for having to take drastic action based on made up lies like the election was stolen, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Critical Race Theory or Drag Queens, Gays, and Trans grooming children. And when they go against media outlets like Fox News or the FBI they just let the right wing mob call them names without repercussion. Now there’s right wing talk about defunding the FBI and Pentagon departments, and I assume they will just roll over and keep asking for a belly rub from the right wing and afterwards start an investigation into Hillary’s emails or Hunter Biden’s laptop.
It’s why Comey tripped over himself in a Rush to “go public” with a nothingburger investigation into Hillary right before her election, an act which is widely viewed as costing her the election. And it’s probably why Mueller lacked umph to boldly go where he needed to go
This Washington Post investigation confirms what I have been concerned about for almost two years:
While the DOJ moved quickly to investigate the foot soldiers of the Jan 6 attack, it waited far too long to investigate leaders of the effort to overturn the election. https://t.co/u5VfdhPMIX
The law is extremely broad, which actually creates a host of other complications. A group of lawyers previously told The Dallas Morning News that the measure could restrict performances by artists such as Madonna and Miley Cyrus, which often feature sexual dancing. The text could even affect bachelorette parties, if they involved sex toys or other paraphernalia. The new changes could even impact cheerleading and criminalize sexual conduct between consenting 17-year-olds (17 is the age of consent in Texas). Movie screenings and art history classes could similarly come under fire. And of course, the law will affect its original target: drag performers, Pride parades, and transgender people just trying to live their lives.
I have lived in Dallas for 25 years(OMG, I’ve lived in Dallas for 25 years) and in that time, Texas has existed under complete Republican domination.
Also in that time, I have seen men defecate on the streets of Dallas and drugs being bought, sold and used on the streets of Dallas. I have seen tent encampments of hundreds of homeless. I have seen those encampments bulldozed. There are beggars on every median at every major intersection citywide.
I don’t know how they keep a straight face when they point at SF and sneer. At least there’s a beach.
This bullshit about crime etc appeals to the voters, The people that actually go and vote in every election. It also appeals to the independents. The GOP is going to have them so afraid of out of control crime by “those people” that come the election they will run to vote for desantis. Democrats going to have to turn out in even greater numbers than the last election to defeat these people… thats what worries me the most
The price of living is out of whack. Rents are way too high. The people the GQP pander to are the same ones who cause the problem. A perfect example of why it’s like this; developers who are based in one city (or country) own blocks of land in other cities and countries. One block = one apt complex, which is of course “luxurious” and overpriced. This means people who actually live in the city don’t have the money or leverage to make their home town better. It’s very complicated. This is a broken down version of of a broken system.
New: In the years after the undisclosed trip to Alaska, Republican megadonor Paul Singer’s hedge fund has repeatedly had business before the Supreme Court. Alito has never recused himself. https://t.co/lIc4oQcTNQ
The billionaire hedge fund manager who paid for Alito’s trip & later had business before the Supreme Court has given nearly $20,000 to Tom Cotton’s campaign and leadership PAC, starting in 2013. His family members have also made several max donations to Cotton. pic.twitter.com/A8by9FP5fu
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) June 21, 2023
Dear @propublica: There is a phrase that describes what Justice Samuel Alito did here with his bizarre pre-rebuttal piece to a story he hadn’t even read:
Those amendments, along with a third to evaluate staffing levels within the Defense Department’s so-called diversity, equity and inclusion office, offer an early sign of some of the pending disputes as conservatives target what they call “woke” Pentagon policies. Specifically, Rep. Mark Alford’s amendments, shared with CQ Roll Call ahead of their formal introduction, would bar DOD from using any fiscal 2024 dollars for its working group aiming to counter extremism or for the deputy inspector general post lawmakers previously created seeking to root out extremism in the military.
I know of three highly-unionized professions that tilt heavily conservative: firefighters, police, and airline pilots. And I’ve heard them talk shit about unions in other industries even though they share the very same concerns: wages, staffing levels, working conditions, etc.
Perfect exemplars of the “I’ve got mine, fuck you” mentality.
“All we were doing was promoting literacy and providing kids with cute, good stories,” drag queen Juicy Garland said. In the videos, people are yelling, banging on the windows and doing Nazi salutes while holding a sign that says, “defend white communities,” all while a drag performer was inside reading books to families. The group “seeks to form an underground network of white men who are willing to fight against their perceived enemies through localized direct actions,” according to the Anti-Defamation League’s website. “Off our streets!” NSC-131 members shouted repeatedly. Police at the scene said it was unclear whether or not they were armed. No arrests were made. The men wearing hats with the number 131, said story hour was intended to “groom” young children, and continually shouted slurs at people walking in and out of the cafe. Teatotaller doesn’t get this reaction every time they host a Sunday story hour, but in November it was swarmed by the Proud Boys while the same guest, Juicy Garland, read stories.
CM Punk saw a young man in the crowd with a sign that said “Support LGBTQ+ Youth.” He pulled him into the ring and had this to say. The audience went wild in support of his comments. This is allyship at its best. Thank you @Walters429B for sharing this with me. pic.twitter.com/aBAeeSvQl8
Advocacy groups condemn Alliance Defending Freedom as ‘a danger to every American who values their freedoms’
Glaad said: ‘The ADF is simply an anti-LGBTQ group trying to abuse levers of government to push discrimination and keep their warped sense of control.’ Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
With the US besieged by a rightwing culture war campaign that aims to strip away rights from LGBTQ+ people and others, blame tends to be focused on Republican politicians and conservative media figures.
But lurking behind efforts to roll back abortion rights, to demonize trans people, and to peel back the protections afforded to gay and queer Americans is a shadowy, well-funded rightwing legal organization, experts say.
Since it was formed in 1994, Alliance Defending Freedom has been at the center of a nationwide effort to limit the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people, all in the name of Christianity. The Southern Poverty Law Center has termed it an “anti-LGBTQ hate group” that has extended its tentacles into nearly every area of the culture wars.
In the process, it has won the ear of some of the most influential people in the US, and become “a danger to every American who values their freedoms”, according to Glaad, the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.
Through “model legislation” and lawsuits filed across the country, ADF aims to overturn same-sex marriage, enact a total ban on abortion, and strip away the already minimal rights that trans people are afforded in the US.
Under the Trump administration, the group found its way into the highest echelons of power, advising Jeff Sessions, the then attorney general, before he announced sweeping guidance to protect “religious liberty” which chipped away at LGBTQ+ protections.
The organization counts among its sometime associates Amy Coney Barrett, the supreme court justice who the Washington Post reported spoke five times at an ADF training program established to push a “distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law”.
ADF is engaged in “a very strong campaign to put a certain type of religious view at the center of American life”, said Rabia Muqaddam, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“[The ADF campaign] extends to abortion, it extends to LGBTQ folks, to immigration, to what kind of religion we think is America, what kind of people we think are American,” Muqaddam said.
“It’s as dramatic as that. I think we are in a fight to preserve democracy and preserve America as a place where we do tolerate and encourage and empower everyone.”
ADF was founded in 1994 by a group of “leaders in the Christian community”, according to its website. Among those leaders was James Dobson, the founder of the anti-LGBTQ+ Focus on the Family organization who has said the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, was a “judgment” from God because of declining church numbers.
Its leaders remain involved in niche interpretations of Christianity. Kristen Waggoner, the ADF chief executive, also serves as legal counsel to Assemblies of God, a church which encourages worshippers to speak in tongues and believes in “divine healing” – the power of prayer – as a medical tool.
Over the past two decades, ADF has been a main driver in dozens of pieces of rightwing legislation and lawsuits.
The organization is currently behind the lawsuit 303 Creative, Inc v Elenis, which the supreme court is expected to decide this month, and which could chip away at LGBTQ+ rights. It’s a case that is classic ADF – a seemingly manufactured issue which the group has managed to chase all the way through the American legal system.
The plaintiff, 303 Creative, is a website design company. 303 Creative has never made wedding websites, but its owner, Lorie Smith, claims her first amendment rights are being impinged because, if she were to start making wedding websites, she would not want to make them for same-sex couples – which would violate Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws.
Another ADF obsession is abortion. It was involved, Muqaddam said, in crafting a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi – which prompted a legal case that found its way to the supreme court – eventually resulting in Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion, being overturned in 2022.
“Alliance Defending Freedom has been instrumental in the dismantling of Roe and the ongoing efforts to eliminate abortion nationwide,” Muqaddam said.
“They enacted a law that they knew was unconstitutional, they enacted it for the purpose of generating case after case after case to push it out to the supreme court until they found a court that was sympathetic to their argument,” Muqaddam said.
She added: “I think that’s exactly what is happening in the LGBTQ context as well. Their goal is to limit individual rights as much as possible.”
The ADF website shows the breadth of its involvement in rightwing culture wars. The organization touts its work opposing abortion, on opposing same-sex marriage and opposing trans rights.
“We advocate for laws and precedents that promote human flourishing by recognizing the important differences between men and women and honoring God’s design for marriage between one man and one woman,” ADF’s website reads.
But Emerson Hodges, a research analyst at the SPLC, said what ADF is really doing is attempting to “undo LGBTQ social and legislative progress”.
“They go under the guise of religious liberty, and religious freedom. What that means, though, is this religious liberty to discriminate and the religious freedom to invalidate LGBTQ individuals,” Hodges said.
Worryingly, there are signs that ADF, and other groups like it, are growing in influence. As Republican politicians and rightwing media fan the flames of an extremist culture war, NBC reported that donations to ADF, which is a registered non-profit, more than doubled from 2011 to 2021.
As it has grown in influence, ADF’s “model legislation” has found its way into state legislatures across the country, as the group attempts to strip away LGBTQ+ rights, and the rights of trans people in particular.
They’ve worked to ban the right to choose, and are in cahoots with other extremist groups to oppress marginalized people
Glaad
“Just about every anti-LGBT legislation that you’ve seen probably in the past decade was probably copied or paraphrased off of a model legislation built by Alliance Defending Freedom,” Hodges said.
“They provide legal advocacy support, litigation and policy models for government officials.”
An article on ADF’s website states that it is a “biblical truth” that “men and women are physically different”, and the organization has duly worked to prevent trans people taking part in women’s sports.
The group sued a school district in Minnesota in 2016, and in 2021 a judge in Connecticut dismissed an ADF lawsuit which sought to prevent transgender athletes competing in high school sports. The same year, ADF backed a lawsuit brought by a teacher in Virginia who had said he would not use a transgender child’s preferred pronouns because that would amount to “sinning against our God”.
In April, ADF, which did not respond to a Guardian request for comment, filed in Oregon on behalf of a Christian woman who wanted to foster children, but said she would not agree to “respect, accept, and support … the sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression” of a child placed with her, the Statesman Journal reported.
“[ADF’s] obsession with targeting LGBTQ people is unhinged and drastically out of touch with supermajorities of Americans who support LGBTQ people and laws to protect us from discrimination,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief executive of Glaad.
“Everyone should understand the truth: the ADF is simply an anti-LGBTQ group trying to abuse levers of government to push discrimination and keep their warped sense of control.
“They’ve also worked to ban the right to choose, and are in cahoots with other extremist groups to oppress marginalized people. ADF is a danger to every American who values their freedoms – to be ourselves, live freely, and be welcome to contribute and to succeed in every area of society.”
There is a video at the link. Notice these people were saving children by scaring them by, people are yelling, banging on the windows and doing Nazi salutes while holding a sign that says, “defend white communities, Hugs
CONCORD, N.H. —
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office said it’s looking into an incident outside of a café in Concord.
Cell phone video shows a group of people protesting outside of the Teatotaller on Sunday while the café was hosting its monthly drag story hour event.
“All we were doing was promoting literacy and providing kids with cute, good stories,” drag queen Juicy Garland said.
In the videos, people are yelling, banging on the windows and doing Nazi salutes while holding a sign that says, “defend white communities,” all while a drag performer was inside reading books to families.
“I’m sure that was a lot more scary than anything else for the children that were here,” Liam Magan, Teatotaller general manager, said.
This Teatotaller location just opened up a year ago, and they started hosting these events in November.
But the owner said this isn’t the first time they’ve gotten pushback.
“It’s not the first time. It’s not the second time. It’s not the third time,” said Emmett Soldati, owner of Teatotaller. “But the truth is that we have been doing this kind of programming basically since we have existed in the state of New Hampshire, which is over a decade. And at the end of the day, we are going to continue doing programming that the community loves.”
The attorney general’s office has identified the protesters as members of NSC-131, which the Anti-Defamation League calls a neo-Nazi group, and said its civil rights unit is looking into the incident.
Juicy Garland, the drag queen who was reading at Sunday’s event, said this reaction won’t stop her from doing what she loves.
“I will be back and we will continue to do these,” Juicy Garland said. “If anything, I’m only more encouraged by these people to continue doing what we do.”
Teatotaller management told News 9 that safety is their main priority and that they hope this type of reaction won’t stop people from wanting to come here.
Management said they’re not letting protesters stop them from hosting more events like this in the future because they say there’s a need for more inclusive spaces.
These people claim that a person in a costume reading to kids is harmful to the kids, yet think screaming white supremacist Nazi gang thugs is fine for the kids. It terrifies them, which is the point. Cause the kids and parents so much fear they won’t go to these events. As I posted about this the other day, the police were there but did not interfere with the acts of intimidation and terrorism on the part of the Nazis. Hugs
Juicy Garland reads a children’s book to customers upstairs at Teatotaller while NSC-131 protests outside.Jacqueline Cole / Monitor staff
Members of NSC-131, a neo-Nazi group in New England, protest story hour outside Teatotaller cafe in downtown Concord. Jacqueline Cole / Monitor staff
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Teatotaller in downtown Concord, a “queer, hipster oasis” cafe.Jacqueline Cole
More than a dozen masked men clad in black chanted Nazi salutes as they stood outside Teatotaller cafe Sunday on Main Street. Meanwhile, drag Queen Juicy Garland read story books to a small group of children and parents upstairs, seemingly unfazed.
The men, who did not give their names, identified themselves as members of the neo-Nazi group NSC-131 and held a banner declaring, “Defend White Communities.”
Teatotaller describes itself as “an oasis of queer, hipster, tea, coffee, and pastry goodness.” The cafe opened in June of 2022 and is a beacon of color and inclusivity.
Its bright pink door and “you are loved” pride flag are hard to miss in downtown Concord, but on Sunday they were partially blocked by members of NSC-131 (Nationalist Social Club), a neo-Nazi group with chapters throughout New England. The group “seeks to form an underground network of white men who are willing to fight against their perceived enemies through localized direct actions,” according to the Anti-Defamation League’s website.
“Off our streets!” NSC-131 members shouted repeatedly, facing the glass windows of the cafe. Police at the scene said it was unclear whether or not they were armed. No arrests were made.
In addition to police, community volunteers wearing neon yellow “peacekeeper” vests encouraged offended onlookers to disengage.
Upstairs at Teatotaller, Juicy Garland read “Florence and Her Fantastic Family Tree”by Judy Gilliam to the group who went for Sunday reading hour. One family of three listened to the story, wearing matching shirts that said “proud of my family.”
The men wearing hats with the number 131, said story hour was intended to “groom” young children, and continually shouted slurs at people walking in and out of the cafe.
The protesters did not stop Teatotaller from continuing with their business as usual, despite protestors’ strong, deep chants and visible presence on the sidewalk.
One man, who identified himself as Ted, walked back and forth between the cafe tables and the protesters. He said he was there because he heard about the protest and wanted to protect the children inside Teatotaller.
Teatotaller doesn’t get this reaction every time they host a Sunday story hour, but in November it was swarmed by the Proud Boys while the same guest, Juicy Garland, read stories.
Teatotaller issued a blanket statement in response to events outside the cafe:
“Only recently has there emerged a small band of self-identified white supremacists who have disrupted these events to gain clout. They have not and will not deter us from continuing to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for all Granite Staters to be proud of and recognize they belong here.”
Inside its vibrant exterior, the cashier served coffee and vegan treats to customers and chanted along with the protesters in jest, humming, “off our streets,” while he swiped a credit card.
PRAY FOR NOAHFINNCE!!!! WELL LAYDEES AND GENTLETHEMS… THIS IS QUITE A LOT TO UNPACK. THIS TRANSPHOBE.. THINKS I… NOAHFINNCE AM A BIG BAD SCARY TRANS PERSON… AS THEY ALL DO.
A transgender student at Central Bucks School District in Pennsylvania delivers an effective, powerful response and speech against transphobia. The queer student eloquently explains how he has been hardened by hate and softened by acceptance. His testimony speaks volume about his truth and more in three minutes.
