Category: Religion / Religious / Theocracy
Liberal Redneck – Republican Projection
Marjorie Taylor Greene held an anti-trans rally at the Capitol & almost no one came
Marjorie Taylor GreenePhoto: ScreenshotRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) held an anti-trans rally at the Capitol this week. A whopping 12 or so people attended and no major media outlets covered it.
The rally was a veritable who’s who of contemporary transphobic trolls, including members of the book-banning “parents’ rights” group Moms for Liberty; members of the anti-LGBTQ conservative think tank Heritage Foundation; de-transitioned young adult right-wing media darling Chloe Cole; J.K. Rowling fanboy Chris Elston; conspiracy theorist James Lindsay; sexually harassing “comedian” Alex Stein; and of course, Greene herself.
The protestors held signs proclaiming, “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers,” “Gender ideology does not belong in schools,” and signs that defined the words “mom” and “dad” as “a human parent who protects kids from gender ideology.”
Greene brought the transphobic sign that she hangs in front of her congressional office which says, “There are two genders: male and female. ‘Trust the science.’” In reality, biology has proven the existence of numerous animals that can change gender and that gender and sex are both more complicated than binaries.
The protestors spent their time taking pictures of each other and then re-tweeting one another’s posts about the protest.
In a tweet tagging many of the protestors, the Heritage Foundation wrote that the demonstrators were “calling out policies that push for minors to have access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-reassignment surgeries.”
This is a lie, of course. No policies are “pushing” minors to undergo gender-affirming treatment, and surgeries aren’t conducted on minors either. The policies the protestors oppose include acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ+ people in schools and ensuring that trans youth have access to life-saving care as well as an equal education.
Right-wing transphobes imagine that LGBTQ+ people and allies, drag queens, and medical professionals all use “gender ideology” to “indoctrinate” and “groom” impressionable young kids into states of “gender confusion” and “rapid onset gender dysphoria” in order to “mutilate” their bodies in profitable surgeries.
However, every major medical and psychological association recognizes that trans youth self-identify consistently, insistently, and persistently from young ages. They also have deemed access to gender-affirming care as necessary for ensuring the emotional and physical well-being of trans youth.
The rhetoric used by these protestors has helped encourage others to issue death threats against gender-affirming medical professionals and educators alike.
School board meeting descends into chaos during debate about rights for LGBTQ+ students
Why? My dogs that love gravy why would an adult want kids bullied and hurt? Damn why are republicans and the right so hateful? This is to respect and protect students making the classroom a place they can learn without fear. Their push to have a homogenous society where everyone is just the same as them and fit into the mold they insist everyone must be with no diversity or difference from them? They see no beauty in others if they are not clones of themselves. These people are so spiteful they would see kids harmed rather than allow them to be protected. There is a video at the linked site that my security / cookie settings won’t show. Hugs
Idaho State Senator Chris Trakel (R) Speaks out against a proposed policy protecting LGBTQ+ studentsPhoto: ScreenshotAn Idaho school board meeting devolved into chaos on Monday night while a Republican state senator was virulently speaking out against a proposed policy to protect LGBTQ+ students in the district.
The proposed Caldwell School Board policy seeks to prevent discrimination against LGBTQ+ students by, among other things, allowing them to use the locker rooms and bathrooms that align with their lived gender, requiring teachers and other staff to use their preferred names and pronouns, and allowing same-sex couples to attend dances and other activities.
The room was reportedly filled to capacity that night, with several others standing up to speak about the policy before state Sen. Chris Trakel (R) took the podium.
According to KTVB, most speakers were there to advocate against implementing the policy, but three students spoke out in favor of it.
Before Trakel got up to speak, the meeting was almost recessed and adjourned several times as people continued to get rowdy during the public comment period.
Trakel’s speech is immediately hostile. Video of the meeting shows him lambasting the board for allegedly violating Idaho state law based on other proposed curriculum policies and for violating the meeting attendees’ First Amendment rights by not allowing them to criticize school district employees.
“Now, to get on to the exciting part,” he said before attacking the proposed LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination policy and saying he was there under his official position as a state senator.
“You, under Idaho law, are required to maintain the morals and health of all the students… You are going to put all of their moral health and safety at risk, and like I told you before you will face litigation. You call that a threat, I’m telling you that is what will happen. It has already happened in several states and there’s already been rulings on it.”
“Before you waste taxpayer money, before you put a kid in harm’s way, you better throw this policy out and not even consider it.”
At that point, the board chair, Marisela Pesina, turned to a fellow board member and whispered something. Trakel snapped, “I’ve got the floor. Ms. Pesina will you please listen to me.”
“Sir,” Pesina responded tersely. And that is when the chaos began.
Trakel started yelling, “You claim you want people to follow the rules, but you break the rules left and right.”
As his rant continued, Pesina called a recess, at which point more meeting attendees began yelling along with Trakel. The board then voted to adjourn the meeting early, which only caused more anger in the audience.
People began screaming “cowards” and “unethical.” Many could be heard threatening to recall board members.
“Boo on all of you! This is absurd!” one person shouts.
“It was disappointing that some attending refused to follow the rules, which prevented others from sharing their thoughts with the Board,” Caldwell School District communications director Jessica Watts told Idaho EdNews. “Caldwell School District welcomes and encourages feedback on its work. What we do not welcome are those who refuse to follow the steps necessary for a civil, courteous, and respectful environment for that feedback to occur.”
There is a video at the link.
Policy 3281 Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation v4 01062023
Students protest Pride flag ban at Massachusetts high school
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/01/students-protest-pride-flag-ban-massachusetts-high-school/
The young people of today don’t want to live in the 1950s. The adults trying to force that need to understand they cannot keep the country locked in a static bubble of out of date social morality. That is the way of the Taliban, that is the way of vice police. The US needs to join the rest of the developed advanced nations and embrace diversity and LGBTQ+ people. This is the fascist right view that if they can ban the opposition symbols it is easier to ban the opposition. Notice the teachers that refused to ignore the rights of gay students were threatened with more punishment. Teachers were told not to tell the students about the policy because that is how the authoritarians work, hide the attacks on minorities. There is no neutral in civil rights. One side wants to deny them and the other side is people who want their equality. The idea that one side gets to deny others their space to stay comfortable is wrong and not acceptable. I just posted how a 13 year old boy in France felt so threatened and had no safe space at school he killed himself. Stop the bigotry. Hugs
Photo: ShutterstockA high school in Stoughton, Massachusetts was the site of a protest Tuesday night over the school’s ban on what it calls “political” flags and posters in classrooms.
The action was organized by Stoughton High School senior Olivia Tran, who was suspended last week for leading a student demonstration against the policy during class hours. Tran draped a large Pride flag outside the school’s administration office in that protest and the group refused to return to class.
Tuesday’s demonstration took place in and outside a previously scheduled school committee meeting, where Tran encouraged students and residents of the school district to “advocate for the disenfranchised.”
School Superintendent Thomas Raab instituted the speech policy in September, when he informed teachers that classrooms were to be considered “neutral” spaces. Flags with “political” messages, including Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, would be banned, and teachers who failed to comply would be subject to “disciplinary action.”
Three teachers at the school initially balked at the request and were called to the principal’s office, according to local news outlet The Enterprise. After receiving a letter threatening “further disciplinary action,” each complied.
The ban originally applied only to flags. Now all material deemed “political” is forbidden.
Teachers were advised not to discuss the policy with students, according to staff, who spoke anonymously for fear of reprisal.
Dozens of students and parents turned out for the demonstration and meeting.
Superintendent Raab addressed the group before public comment.
“It is important to have allies at school,” he said. “We have a fully trained, educated staff and we have provided teachers with lanyards and progressive ally stickers.”
“But we must keep classrooms neutral,” he said. “We can’t pick and choose which flags are appropriate or not.”
While committee members generally agreed with the superintendent’s policy, they faulted Raab for a lack of communication.
“Thank you for acknowledging the community’s concerns and for being a part of discussions with us,” committee chair Sandra Groppi told Raab. “It is important, when implementing new policies, to do things slowly and take everything into consideration.”
Vice-chair Katie Pina-Enokian added: “This community is very strong, so it would’ve been important to discuss before.”
Public comment included a rabbi who cited Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests as reasons to ban political speech in classrooms and a local parent who advocated for the American flag: “It’s for everyone.”
Olivia Tran, who spoke with her mother by her side, was cheered on by fellow students.
“I am bisexual, and I am an Asian American girl,” Tran said.
“There is no ‘neutral.’ Give us the justice we deserve.”
The goal is to erase gay and trans people and return society to a straights only time these people enjoyed. It also is about regulating what other people can see or read.
GOP proposes anti-drag bill that classifies gender non-conforming performers as “adult oriented”
Clothing is scary for republicans it seems. Pants on women, dresses on men, I wonder they don’t freak out about ear rings on men or long hair. Stupid, pure stupidity, rather than work on real issues they want to worry about what other people wear. Hugs
Photo: ShutterstockArkansas state Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R) has filed a bill that would classify drag queens as employees of an “adult-oriented business,” similar to nude models, porn actors, and sex workers.
The bill would put restrictions on transgender and non-binary people singing and dancing in public. It would also require bars, restaurants, shops, and theaters to relocate if they allow such behavior from people of those identities or anything resembling drag.
The bill, S.B. 43, defines a drag performance as one in which a performer “exhibits a gender identity that is different from the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other accessories that are traditionally worn by members of… the performer’s opposite sex,” and performs a song or dance “intended to appeal to the prurient interest” in front of an audience of two or more people.
By this broad definition, a transgender or non-binary person singing a song about lovemaking, reciting a sexual story, or gyrating while dancing would be legally considered the same as a sex worker or someone having sex on camera. In fact, the law would consider any person doing these things as someone who works for an “adult-oriented business” if they wore anything not associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
The law would also redefine an adult-oriented business as any place where such a performance occurs. This would include bars, restaurants, and any places that allow gender non-conforming individuals to sing, dance, or otherwise perform.
The state’s zoning laws would require such businesses to be relocated outside of areas where children can easily view them.
Legislators from at least seven states — Arizona, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas — have proposed anti-drag laws in recent months, according to Bloomberg Law. Republican legislators in these states claim that drag shows “sexualize children” even though such performances rarely ever feature sexual content.
The proposed legislation would almost certainly be challenged in court soon after being signed into law since it violates constitutional protections for free speech. But the real aims of such laws are to silence LGBTQ+ allies and generate outrage against the LGBTQ+ community.
Their proposed legislation has also emboldened neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, white supremacists, and other anti-LGBTQ+ activists to issue death threats against businesses and public libraries that hold all-ages drag events. At least 124 incidents targeting drag events were reported in 2022 far this year across 47 U.S. states, according to the LGBTQ+ media watchdog group GLAAD.
NE Bill Would Criminalize Taking Kids To Drag Shows
News Channel Nebraska reports:
A bill proposed in the unicameral would place limitations on who can watch drag shows in Nebraska. The bill would ban anyone under 19 from watching a drag show, and it would prohibit anyone under 21 from watching drag shows where alcohol is present.
LB371 was introduced by Republican State Sen. Dave Murman and is already stirring debate in the Legislature. Democratic State Sen. Megan Hunt has filed a motion to postpone the bill indefinitely, a decision that is still pending.
Anyone who knowingly brings someone underage to a show would be subject to a misdemeanor. The entities themselves would be subject to a $10,000 fine per violation. The bill would also make it illegal to use state funds to host a drag show.
Read the full article.
Looking for the silver lining, this means parents can’t take kids to church anymore, right?
liondon#traitor-ex-president7 hours ago
Guns kill thousands pf kids yearly and pedophile clergy prey on thousands more… so eff these mofo’s.
Strolling In, Softly Whistling7 hours ago
I bet they’re not banning child beauty pageants, though.
Uncle Mark Strolling In, Softly Whistling7 hours ago
charemor Uncle Mark3 hours ago
I wonder what these kids think about this as they grow older and mature.
Zorba Strolling In, Softly Whistling7 hours ago
I’ve always thought that these child beauty pageants were pedophiles’ dreams.
{Sigh}
Moms for Liberty say they’d like to see Parental Rights in Education law expanded
And so the haters / republicans / right wing pushes it further. Really it is turning the clock back. It is regressive. It is denying every advance in society and in medical science since the 1950s. Ask your self why that age / time stamp is so attractive to republican males? Because everyone but them were oppressed and they had unfettered control. Hug
Advocates want the bill to forbid discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity to 8th grade.The Florida chapter of Moms for Liberty, the conservative nonprofit that advocates for parental rights in schools, would like state lawmakers to expand the state law that restricts classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation for children from kindergarten through the third grade.
The Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its critics, ignited a firestorm of criticism among Democrats and LGBTQ advocates and received national attention after it was introduced and later signed into law last year.
“We are advocating to increase that as far as ages and grades to have it be K-8,” said Angela Dubach, the Pinellas County chapter chair of the organization, speaking to the members of the Pinellas County legislative delegation as they met as a group on Wednesday morning at the Clearwater branch campus of St. Petersburg College.
A group of students, parents, and teachers filed a lawsuit last year to block the measure from being implemented, alleging it is unconstitutional in part because it “chills speech and expression that have any connection, however remote, to sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Brandon Wolf, press secretary for Equality Florida, slammed the idea.
“At every step of the way, right-wing extremists have gaslit the community about its insatiable desire for censorship and erasure of LGBTQ people,” he told the Phoenix in an email.
“They insisted that the Don’t Say LGBTQ law would be narrow in scope and limited to K-3, despite knowing that the law’s impacts would be far broader and more sweeping. Already, we’ve seen books with LGBTQ characters banned, ‘Safe Space’ stickers peeled from classroom windows, the contributions of LGBTQ people in history censored, and LGBTQ History Month itself rejected in districts across Florida,” he continued.
“The desire of right-wing groups like Moms for Liberty to wield more government censorship over more students is shameful and at odds with the bogus rationalization for this harmful policy they were peddling throughout 2022. LGBTQ people are a part of society’s fabric. We are your neighbors, family members, and friends. And our state should be a place committed to protecting all students and respecting all families.”
Four asks
The expansion of that law was one of four proposals that Dubach called on lawmakers to consider going into the 2023 legislative session. Dubach said that she’d also like legislators to “take a look” at expanding the timeline on legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021 that bans private employers and government entities from implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandates and school districts from requiring face masks. The measure is slated to expire on June 1.
Another measure that the Florida chapter of Moms for Liberty supports relates to school board races.
“Myself and our organization supports partisan school board elections,” Dubach said. “That’s something that we are asking you to take a look at. I was originally told that we’d have to change the Florida Constitution so we wouldn’t be able to do that, so if you could advise me on that that’d be wonderful.”
Measures have been filed in both the House and Senate this year calling for a constitutional amendment to require members of a district school board to be chosen in partisan elections. If approved, it would go into effect in 2026.
Florida voters voted overwhelmingly in 1998 to make school board races nonpartisan, and efforts to put such an amendment on the ballot have failed in recent legislative sessions. But that was before Gov. DeSantis weighed in on the topic last summer and endorsed 30 candidates in school board races, the majority of whom won either in their Primary or General Election contests last year.
The last item Dubach mentioned was “some type of legislation” around the amount of mental health funding that public schools in Florida receive.
“Right now, Pinellas County schools have $140 million allocated for mental health, and I talk to teacher after teacher after teacher and they say, ‘We are not mental health counselors. We want to educate these children and get them ready for the next grade,’” Dubach told the group of legislators. “They don’t want anything to do with mental health. That is up to the parents, their doctors, and all of that stuff is at home.”
The Phoenix reached out to the Pinellas County School District to confirm those financial figures but did not immediately receive a response. State lawmakers have five more weeks of committee meetings scheduled between now and the official beginning of the legislative session on March 7.
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