(l to r) Rome Pride, Sabastion Mikel and son Jaxen, and Justin Deal. Photos by Ivan Felipe and Lee Jones.
There’s Atlanta, and then there’s Georgia.
My photographer and I, firmly in the former category, were clear about this as we loaded his camera equipment onto my backseat before pulling out of his driveway on an unusually cool October morning en route to Rome, Georgia.
We were two Black gay men leaving behind the safety and inclusiveness — both actual and perceived — that we sometimes take for granted living in Georgia’s most populated city. And unlike many other cities in Georgia, Rome’s national reputation had already been shaped in our consciousness before we entered the city’s downtown area.
Before the 2020 election of Marjorie Taylor Greene to the U.S. House of Representatives, the city of Rome, a small, picturesque southern town an hour north of Atlanta, flew under the national political radar.
Rome, Georgia, October 10, 2022. Photo by Lee Jones Photography for Queerty.
Today, it’s nearly impossible for the 14th Congressional District, home to over 700,000, predominately white (73%) Georgia citizens, and ranking as the 28th most Republican district nationally, to avoid the national spotlight.
Largely because of Greene, Rome reaches beyond its seven hills and three rivers onto the national stage. With every tweet, election denial lie, and QAnon conspiracy theory amplified, Greene simultaneously energizes her supporters and humiliates a minority of the district’s residents in favor of her political agenda.
In February 2021, Greene drew applause from supporters for her opposition to The Equality Act — a long-stalled bill first that would extend civil rights protections to the queer community. But it was Rep. Marie Newman’s (D-IL) decision to erect a trans flag in support of her trans daughter outside her congressional office that provoked Greene to erect an opposing sign declaring “THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS: MALE & FEMALE,” thereby erasing non-binary and trans people while inspiring supporters to echo her anti-trans rhetoric on Twitter.
A sign hangs on the wall outside the office of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as a Transgender Pride flag hangs outside the office of Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) (R) in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill, on February 25, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images.
While Greene and other Republican leaders deploy fear tactics to rile up their base, her actions continue to have real-life consequences for her constituents in Rome, especially for the parents of trans children who believe Greene’s anti-trans rhetoric creates an environment in Rome where their children are less safe.
Rome resident Lynn Green is president of Rome, Georgia’s PFLAG chapter and mother of 15-year-old trans son Ashby. After living a quiet, mostly apolitical life for nearly two decades, she founded a local PFLAG chapter after her son came out as trans three years ago and discovered that she was not the only mother of a trans or gay child in Rome.
“A lot of straight cisgendered families don’t talk about it, so it’s not well known,” she says. “But I guarantee that the family sitting next to you in church or the guy at the restaurant at the next table either has a queer immediate family member, cousin, or friend. But we don’t talk about it. And so, nobody knows here.”
Green tells Queerty that living in the district can be scary. More than 73% of residents voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election, and families like hers are constantly on the receiving end of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s rhetorical blows.
Our society is sick. Mothers are mutilating and murdering their babies through transgenderism and abortion. Meanwhile, society sits back and allows men to destroy women’s sports.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 8, 2022
Twitter says this tweet violated rules about hateful conduct.
I can’t imagine anything more hateful than promoting “gender reassignment” surgeries for children. https://t.co/65LHtYXbGw
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 18, 2022
Only one day each year, we honor military members who died serving our country for ALL of us to be free.
An entire #PrideMonth and millions in spending through corporations & our government on LGBTQ sexual identity needs to end.
The movements goals were achieved, were they not?
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) June 1, 2022
And with the Republican stronghold on the district and Marjorie Taylor Greene campaign signs on almost every block, it’s a constant reminder that queer people in Rome are not only in the minority but the fodder for political attacks that only threaten to get worse in a Republican Congressional majority. In addition, residents across the state face the continued advancement of anti-LGBTQ legislation, including Georgia House Bill 1084, which created an athletic committee with the power to ban transgender youth from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Governor Brian Kemp signed the bill into law this April and remains ahead in the polls in his reelection campaign again LGBTQ stalwart Stacy Abrams.
The fight for trans equality
Sabastion Mikel, 29, is a trans father and birth parent of two boys, Jaxen, 6, and Colin, 3.
A Locust Grove, Georgia native, Mikel is approaching his second year as a Rome resident. He began transitioning at 18 after a tumultuous coming out that led him to escape during his senior year to a now-closed safe house for trans people in Arizona. While he prefers small-town life, Mikel says living in the conservative area as a trans person comes at a price.
Sabastion Mikel with son Jaxen, October 10, 2022. Photo by Lee Jones Photography for Queerty.
“Being an out queer person is kind of scary here. I have concerns about going to the doctor sometimes. I have been turned down in the past for medical care because I am trans,” he says.
In August, Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, a bill that would make providing gender-affirming care to a minor a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison with a maximum fine of $25,000.
Access to affirming trans healthcare is also a concern for Green and her trans son, who have witnessed trans adults in Rome drive as far as 200 miles to Augusta, Georgia, to receive appropriate medical care.
“One of the good things to come out of the pandemic is we’re able to see a doctor in Decatur [Georgia], virtually,” Green says. “My child won’t go to the doctor here. My child wouldn’t go to immediate care even when he had COVID because all his charts say F for female.”
In Georgia, trans individuals must undergo sex reassignment surgery (SRS) before legally amending the gender marker on their birth certificate. Some jurisdictions, however, permit a gender marker change if the individual is undergoing hormone therapy. Green says her son’s legal name change now appears on his birth and medical records. And at 15, he has also begun hormone therapy, a medical decision Green says was necessary for his mental health.
“I know my child, and they were not okay,” she says. “This is not a decision that me and his dad made on a whim. Through conversations with therapists and the doctor, we learned that we could try very small increments of things. And if it’s working, then we know we’re on the right track. And if it’s not working, then we stop. No harm, no foul. No permanent changes,” she says.
Rome resident Lynn Green, October 10, 2022. Photo by Lee Jones Photography for Queerty.
The American Medical Association (AMA) supports Green’s claims and issued a formal recommendation to the National Governors Association in April 2021, urging member governors to oppose state legislation prohibiting medically necessary gender transition-related care to minors.
AMA chief executive officer Dr. James L. Madara wrote that “mental health counseling, non-medical social transition, gender-affirming hormone therapy, and/or gender-affirming surgeries” were medically accepted standards of care, concluding that “it is imperative that transgender minors be given the opportunity to explore their gender identity under the safe and supportive care of a physician.”
In Rome, Green has become a surrogate mother, and her home a safe place for other trans kids who have experienced rejection or been denied medical care — scenarios that Green struggles to accept.
“Why would you not accept your child? I can’t imagine acting any other way or making any other decisions,” she says. “I wish that more people would be open to at least considering [hormone therapy] and having the conversation. It might not be right for every child, but if it’s right for yours, it’ll save their life.”
Green says her entire family is prepared with passports if the proposed bill prohibiting gender-affirming care ever becomes law.
“Who would’ve ever thought I’d have a conversation with my 15-year-old child about what country would you want to live in if we had to leave?” she says. “I never in my life would have predicted those conversations.”
Pride comes in all shapes and sizes
Like Green, Justin Deal, 36, is a Rome activist out of necessity. Deal identifies as pansexual and is the driving force behind the city’s inaugural Rome Pride. The event drew hundreds of people to Heritage Park in June. A few weeks prior, Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly called for an end to Pride Month while citing the “possible extinction of straight people within 150 years.”
Rome Pride celebration in Heritage Park, June 25, 2022. Photo by Ivan Felipe Photography.
“When I think about her [Greene], she’s the epitome and kind of a microcosm of the problems in this area,” Deal says. “And she’s exacerbated those and made them worse.”
According to Deal, Greene’s rhetoric has trickled down into the community, saying it’s not uncommon for Rome Pride to receive emails with profanity and anti-gay slurs. But the unwanted coverage on Greene’s weekly Facebook live show featuring drag performer Benjamin Gentry’s (aka Courtney Chanel Stratton) scheduled appearance during drag queen story time spurred death threats. Gentry subsequently withdrew from the event out of safety concerns.
Gentry accuses Greene of attempting to dox him.
“You can hear her say during the live stream, ‘Do we know where — does he live in Rome?’ She was trying to find my home address to give it out,” he says.
Rome Pride, June 25, 2022. Photo by Ivan Felipe Photography.
Gentry and Pride organizers secretly relocated drag queen story time and notified registered attendees of the new location.
“All these people who were supposedly going to stop drag queen story time showed up to the gazebo to nothing,” Gentry says through laughter. “We had even more people come to see it because of her free advertising.”
“She was poking the bear,” Deal explains. “And at that point, we were just a small-town Pride. We weren’t looking for that kind of coverage.”
Then like clockwork, Greene published a tweet in June threatening to introduce legislation to make it illegal for children to be exposed to drag performances.
I’m introducing a bill to make it illegal for children to be exposed to Drag Queen performances.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) June 15, 2022
The uphill battle to unseat Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marcus Flowers, an army veteran and former official for the Department of Defense, is Greene’s Democratic opponent in the 14th Congressional District seat race.
His surprise appearance donning his signature Black cowboy hat in the Rome Pride Parade and his willingness to listen to their concerns amid Greene’s chaos has endeared him to the local queer community.
Marcus Flowers, running against U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), is seen outside of an America First Rally on May 27, 2021, in Dalton, Georgia. Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images.
“As a member of Congress, you represent all of the constituents of your district, no matter race, creed, religion, or sexual preference,” Flowers tells Queerty. “And that’s what members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene are forgetting.”
It was was a pleasure marching alongside my fellow Georgians in today’s Pride parade in Rome!🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/sRpDsoPezF
Wendy Davis, who lost the Democratic primary election to Flowers but served two terms as Rome’s city commissioner, says that while Greene’s conspiracy theories have gotten most of the attention, she’s actually remained focused on the bread-and-butter of the GOP base.
“How we get here wasn’t because everybody around here went QAnon cuckoo,” Davis told The Guardian. “We got here because she loved Trump, she loved guns, she hated socialism, she hated abortion and that won that primary and it’s a Republican district.”
Will slow and steady win the race?
Justin Deal, October 10, 2022. Photo by Lee Jones Photography for Queerty.
For Deal, Greene’s actions are the fuel that ignites their activism in Rome and keeps Deal from fleeing to a more progressive city. Deal tells Queerty that many residents react positively to the growing visibility of the LGBTQ community in the conservative town. And despite the lack of gay bars or businesses, unexpected allies are creating space.
“There’s never really been an establishment. We have a few spots that’ll do an LGBTQ night. We now have drag shows at least once a month at Peaches,” Deal says, referencing the nightclub venue in Rome that has provided space for local drag queens to perform.
Peaches, Rome, Georgia, October 10, 2022. Photo by Lee Jones Photography for Queerty.
Surprisingly, many local businesses jumped at the opportunity to sponsor Rome Pride.
“We were blown away,” Green says. “Come to find out, they all have a connection, a child, a brother, or a sister that’s part of the community. And so it was important for them to support. But you wouldn’t know that by walking down the street.”
Because of Deal and Green’s organizing, the city of Rome has officially recognized June as LGBTQ Pride Month, a process that only requires approval from the city clerk’s office after citizen request, according to Kristi Kent, communications director for the City of Rome.
Rome Pride, June 25, 2022. Photo by Ivan Felipe Photography.
The proclamation request received little pushback.
That’s not to say the district will become more accepting any time soon. Flowers faces an uphill battle unseating Greene in November, given Greene’s commanding lead in the polls.
But for Gentry, who references one of Greene’s most widely derided conspiracy theories with the wit of his drag persona, the choice is clear.
“The b*tch believes in space lasers,” he says of Greene’s rant about the cause of California’s 2018 wildfires. “How can you vote for someone that thinks Jewish space lasers are turning people gay and liberal?”
Despite her antics and the inhospitality of some residents, the LGBTQ community in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District isn’t going anywhere.
Organizers of a Halloween-themed drag show meant to raise funds for a local LGBTQ resource center are facing threats of violence and death after the event was featured by a right wing Twitter account with a nationwide reach.
Lindsey Knapp, an attorney and U.S. Army veteran who has works as an advocate for victims of sexual violence, said she’s started receiving threats of violence and death over the event from strangers after the event was featured this week by “Libs of TikTok.”
Libs of TikTok’s tweet indicates that one of the drag performers is “inspired by Satanism,” although Knapp says she doesn’t know that performer and they are not on Sunday’s bill.
Happening now: 16 Proud Boys & about 16 others holding signs about “groomers” are outside a venue in Sanford, NC that is hosting a drag brunch pic.twitter.com/QRb5on2gvN
The Proud Boys have been claiming all day they had supporters inside taking pictures of the drag show brunch. I didn’t believe it until this woman came out and got a selfie with them flashing “white power” before she left. pic.twitter.com/I9MkXOzRb6
Notice these assholes are masked. These are the same people that stormed school board meetings to stop mask wearing. These are the same people that would not wear masks in stores or shops when we were having a public health emergency to protect against virus, but will cover their face to harass and intimidate people doing a legal activity. This is so like the abortion clinic protest people, figuring their demands must be met and the facilities closed by force if necessary. Well there is no right to abortion in the red states, and some of those same states have bills to make drag shows against the law also. What is next outlawing gays, lesbians, definitely they will ban trans people. Plus notice these are white supremacy white power groups. This is the right wing now racist gang thug bigots. Hugs
yes, and its the ‘standard’ in NC,and SC, SCs ancient gov loves anything that is anti LGBT, NC relig kooks in upper gov levels are the same….The weather is good in those states, and temps stay in the 1860s Year round……
Agreed. We need to get the gym bunnies out there to intimidate them right back. Those boys can maybe use their muscles for something besides preening and posing in the mirror.
It should be obvious by now that the fascists don’t give two shits about grooming and pedophilia on their side, nor will that dissuade people from voting for them.
Don’t take this personally, but there’s a serious case of chronic “‘Daily Show’ brain” on our side, where people still seem to think that point out hypocrisy on the right, with a bit of snark added for good measure, is an effective political tactic.
Fascists don’t care about consistency or looking like the good guys. They care about power.
“….don’t give two shits about grooming and pedophilia…” That is too true. Whatever they hate about others is food for this behavior. Gay people and abortion are so hated in this country, that they can do this with impunity and they know it. It really is time for some payback.
Not, not at all unsurprising. Except for a few, many cops hate gays and racial/ethnic minorities. Now they feel empowered to put their hatred into action. Derek Chauvin’s conviction and imprisonment were a fluke. How many are still out there, killing with impunity?
Maybe it’s because these guys–at least the unmasked ones–look like guys in pickup trucks hanging around the cruisey area of the local woods, a friend tells me.
So they can keep bullying and terrorizing is without repercussions. I thought it would be obvious by now that it’s useless to try and “well ackshually” them by pointing out hypocrisy and inconsistency.
To be called out on one’s hypocrisy, one would have to have some shame (at least for the calling out to have positive results). Most of this lot have no shame.
This is not democracy. Drag events are legal, and thugs, gang thugs are stopping them. Where are the police to stop this? Is the US a country of laws or a place run by gangs like in Hati? Notice who is behind it and who is pushing it. The damn Libs of TicTok, a rabid hate group run by a woman and her daughter. They claimed gay kids shouldn’t be in the same classrooms as “normal” kids. What is next that black kids shouldn’t be in the same classrooms as white kids? They are the moral police of the right and the gang Proud Boys are the brownshirt enforcers. This is how the republicans want to govern. This is how the right wants to live, being able to cause fear and intimidate other people into living according to the gangs’ demands. Hugs
Organizers of a Halloween-themed drag show meant to raise funds for a local LGBTQ resource center are facing threats of violence and death after the event was featured by a right wing Twitter account with a nationwide reach.
But organizer and SYCC owner Lindsey Knapp, an attorney and U.S. Army veteran who has works as an advocate for victims of sexual violence, said she’s started receiving threats of violence and death over the event from strangers after the event was featured this week by “Libs of TikTok,” a Twitter account with 1.4 million followers that “reposts a steady stream of TikTok videos and social media posts, primarily from LGBTQ+ people, often including incendiary framing designed to generate outrage,” according to a story from earlier this year in the Washington Post.
Libs of TikTok’s tweet indicates that one of the drag performers is “inspired by Satanism,” although Knapp says she doesn’t know that performer and they are not on Sunday’s bill.
“I’m not so concerned about the people who are just mad at me or who may show up to protest,” Knapp said Friday. “On the back end, there are people posting threats, saying to show up with guns and ‘shoot your local pedophile,’ and that’s what has me concerned.”
Knapp has reported three separate death threats to local authorities, and has hired private security for the event. She says accusations of “grooming” and pedophilia have nothing to do with the event.
“This is about showing the LGBTQ community that they are loved and supported, and that their freedom of expression is supported,” she said. “I’m the parent of a trans youth, and I want him to know that he can be himself. I wholeheartedly believe that children should be protected from sexual assault – I own an organization called Combat Sexual Violence and I’m an attorney, and I literally represent survivors every day.”
Knapp said she’s trying to stay positive by planning a sign making party at her yoga studio on Saturday and encouraging those who support the drag show and its cause to show up and make themselves heard.
“We’re just trying to send a message that love wins and we all have a right to exist,” she said.
Sanford Police Department Major Vinnie Frazer said law enforcement is aware of the threats and investigating them.
“We’re adding extra officers that day to be downtown monitoring and making sure nothing happens and nobody’s rights are violated,” he said. “We take any threats of violence seriously.”
This isn’t the first time controversy has surrounded a drag show hosted by SYCC and Hugger Mugger. In June, both the yoga center and the brewery faced calls to cancel the event and subsequent criticism when they declined. But that event didn’t draw any threats of violence, and although a handful of protesters showed up outside, no incidents were reported.
“(Threats of violence are) taking up a lot of my time,” Knapp said. “I’ve reported them, and I had to go sit in front of the magistrate, and all that takes away from what should be a really positive thing. If people want to protest, that’s fine. As a veteran, I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, and that includes freedom of speech. But you have to take threats seriously.”
This is one of the most important posts I have made in my life. This audio (sorry to the hearing impaired but this is too important to ignore) shows how the republicans have seriously skewed the vote due to gerrymandered districts where democrats have to win over 75% or even more to get less than the republicans seats in states, shows how drastically skewed states are in all other aspects. Yes All gives his normal comedian intro warm up, but bypass that to get to the real story. It really is more important than I can describe. Thanks and hugs
At the end of the article you will read what is behind this. A woman demands that the LGBTQ+ materials with stories about or include LGBTQ+ characters be removed and banned from everywhere because “I will not raise kids in a county that has sexual-oriented books on the counter,” she asserted. She told the group they need “to understand that God’s judgment is for Christians and non-Christians, and a fear of the Lord, if it’s not upon you, it will be upon you in hell.” This is not her church and she is not saying her kids shouldn’t be able to read the books, she is demanding that your kids not be able to read them either. Did you notice she goes on to say that judgement is coming for Christians and non-Christians implying that you non-Christians had better live by my church doctrines and rules. Republican elected office holders like DeathSantis have opened the flood gates and let the hyper religious think they now hove more rights than anyone else in the country, in fact they have the right to force you / your family to follow their rules. How long until these people insist you go to their church even if you are not of their religion? In some Islamic countries there is a tax on anyone not Muslim simply to be allowed to exist. First they came for the trans kids, then they came for the entire LGBTQ+, now they are moving the goal to enforcing their “morality from 2,500 years ago” on everyone. Hugs
“I’ve never been sexually assaulted at a drag show, but I have been in church. Twice!” she said, adding that the church “told me it was my fault.”
Jessee Graham going off at the Maury County Board of Trustees Photo: Screenshot
A woman came to a board of trustees meeting and trounced conservative Christians after a county’s library director was driven from his job for refusing to take down a Pride display.
Maury County, Tennessee Library Director Zachary Fox resigned last week after getting pressured by a group of residents who said that the LGBTQ-themed books were inappropriate, according to WSMV-4. Fox said that his last day working would be tomorrow, October 28, but that he would stay until a replacement could be found.
“Coming to this decision has been incredibly difficult, but it is in the best interest of my family and my own health and well being,” he wrote.
Maury County Commissioner Aaron Miller – who runs the local organization Foundation for Liberty and Freedom – was at the center of the controversy, calling on Fox to resign.
“The library invested your tax dollars into a book display for LGBT History Month,” Miller told the Epoch Times. “This was surprising, considering that June is already Pride Month, a period of celebration for the LGBT community.”
Miller said that the materials were “child-targeted.”
“As a father, my line in the sand was crossed when the library exhibited a bright, colorful display of no less than 28 books for this past Pride Month, all of which were written and marketed specifically for minors, especially young children,” he said.
Last night the Maury County Board of Trustees held a meeting that got heated. And one woman – identified as Jessee Graham – is going viral for her righteously angry speech about the people who drove Fox from his job.
“Our town has never seen so much homophobic crap as we have since Miller came along,” Graham said. “These people have been with us this entire time and we have never had a problem with it. They have never done any of the vile and disgusting things that that man and his weird cronies have leaked out of their mouths.”
“I’ve never been sexually assaulted at a drag show, but I have been in church. Twice!” she continued, adding that the church “told me it was my fault.”
She called out the group’s homophobia, accusing them of wanting to “completely annihilate a group of human beings who just wanna exist.” She said that if any of her four kids are “part of this community, they will be lucky because there is not a whole lot of families that would love their child unconditionally.”
“And the fact that they want to take that away from children, that is child abuse, to immediately tell your child that he is wrong for feeling like he doesn’t belong in conversion therapy.”
🔥🔥 MUST-WATCH: “I’ve never been sexually assaulted at a drag show, but I have been at church. TWICE! The men told me it was MY fault.”
MAURY COUNTY library board – local mom rips homophobe County Commissioner Aaron Miller, whose ignorant hate chased out the library director📚 pic.twitter.com/D6HrzugANN
Earlier this month, a woman who introduced herself as Stephanie went on a diatribe at a meeting discussing LGBTQ books in the library system in Maury County that was caught on video.
“I will not raise kids in a county that has sexual-oriented books on the counter,” she asserted. She told the group they need “to understand that God’s judgment is for Christians and non-Christians, and a fear of the Lord, if it’s not upon you, it will be upon you in hell.”
The woman said she represented “every law-abiding, taxpaying citizen here in Maury County,” then told her would-be constituents, “you are blind” not to see that “when perversion permeates our county, that’s when the devil gets our children.”
“Obviously, revelation prophecies are occurring right before our eyes,” she said.
Michigan’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon wants to ban books about divorce because they might give kids anxiety. Jackson White, Ben Gleib, and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks. Watch TYT LIVE on weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live
Read more HERE: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/10/g… “The types of books Michigan’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon wants to ban appear to keep expanding. In recently released audio, Dixon suggested that books about divorce shouldn’t be available to all students in public schools.
This week, the progressive PAC American Bridge 21st Century unearthed the October 2020 clip from Dixon’s time as an anchor on far-right streaming network Real America’s Voice show America’s Voice Live, in which Dixon claimed that a children’s book about divorce caused her daughter anxiety.”*
Christian preacher Jonathan Shelley of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas said that he doesn’t think the Holocaust happened but that he would feel “lucky” if it did. He compared genocide of the Jewish people to shooting gay people.
“These Jews that are out there, they want to destroy everything that is holy, everything that is righteous,” Shelley said. “In our culture, it is not acceptable to say anything negative about them.”
He then mocked people who oppose antisemitism: “The Hol- Haven’t you heard about the Holocaust, Pastor Shelley?”
“Yeah. Why do I care? I mean, if someone walks into a homo bar and shoots ’em all, shoots a bunch of homos and kills all of them, you know how many tears I’d shed for that? Zero,” he said, saying that he doesn’t “care how many of them die” because they “worship the devil.”
“You say, ‘Well, Adolf Hitler was evil,’” he continued. “Absolutely! That guy was full of the devil. That guy was an antichrist figure. You know what? If an antichrist kills another antichrist, I don’t cry even one second.”
“‘Well, he killed six million,’” he said in a mocking tone. “I doubt it. Only if we were lucky.”
He then said that the defining characteristic of Jesus was that he would “preach against the Jews” and not that he was Jewish.
In a vile antisemitic sermon, Christian hate-preacher Jonathan Shelley said we'd be "lucky" if the Holocaust *really* took the lives of 6 million Jews.
He also said he wouldn't shed a single tear if an extremist murdered everyone in a gay bar.
Shelley has a long history of hateful comments, and not just in his church. Earlier this year, he told the Arlington, Texas city council that gay people should be executed as some people in the audience shouted “Amen” and “Yup.”
“According to God we should hate Pride, not celebrate it,” he said. “God has already ruled that murder, adultery, witchcraft, rape, bestiality, and homosexuality are crimes worthy of capital punishment.”
Shelley has declared that gay men are all pedophiles and once celebrated the death of a 75-year-old gay man last year. Jim Fahy, a member of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus, was killed when a driver accidentally drove into the Wilton Manors Pride Parade.
“And, you know, it’s great when trucks accidentally go through those, you know, parades,” Pastor Shelley said about the tragedy. “I think only one person died. So hopefully we can hope for more in the future.”
“You say, ‘Well, that’s mean.’ Yeah, but the Bible says that they’re worthy of death!” he continued. “They say, ‘Are you sad when fags die?’ No. I think it’s great! I hope they all die! I would love it if every fag would die right now.”
“And you say, ‘Well, I don’t think that’s what you really mean.’ That’s exactly what I mean. I really mean it!”
Last week, Shelley said that gay men’s intestines fall out and compared being gay to eating one’s own vomit every day.
“What men do with men is defiling their body, hurting their body, they’re hurting each other,” Shelley said. “They’re causing themselves all kinds of problems. Their intestines will sometimes just fall out because of the actions that they do.”
“Pastor Shelly, you’re gonna have to eat Indian food and ranch dressing every day of your life, or do that one time?” he said, referring to sex with other men. “It’s like, bring on the Indian food.”
“What if you, what if you, Pastor Shelley, what if you had to eat Indian food and ranch and then vomit it up and then eat it again, or do that one time? It’s like, bring on the vomit.
An American flag next to a wooden cross (image via Shutterstock)
Reading Time: 5MINUTES
Anew survey out today from the Pew Research Center finds that nearly half of all Americans, 45%, believe we ought to live in a “Christian Nation.” They disagree, however, on what that means in practice, and most Americans still believe church and state should remain separate.
The phrase “Christian nation” is not meant to be aspirational. As sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry described in their book Taking America Back for God (affiliate link), Christian nationalism basically represents a fusion of conservative Christianity with civic life. It’s not quite a theocracy, but if conservative Christians had their way, it’d be a distinction without a different.
The phrase suggests we were founded as a (conservative) Christian country—we were not—and that we should be guided by (conservative) Christian principles. It’s not about Jesus. It’s about pushing right-wing beliefs on everybody in the country with regards to LGBTQ rights, gender roles, abortion access, who “counts” as an American, and control of public institutions like schools and government.
Christian nationalists have become far more prominent in recent years, especially since the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt to the point where some of its biggest proponents use the phrase as a badge of honor. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has even said, “I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly: We should be Christian nationalists.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has urged Republicans to wear the “full armor of God” as they try to defeat Democrats in the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, the other side is sounding the alarm. Earlier this year, a handful of scholars and activists met with members of the Congressional Freethought Caucus to go over their report on the connection between Christian nationalism and the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I think the proof points about just how central Christian nationalism — we should call it white Christian nationalism — was to the planning and the execution of the insurrection is really undeniable,” [Rep. Jared] Huffman told Religion News Service in an interview.
With all that in mind, what do Americans feel about the phrase? The bottom line is that too many Americans don’t seem to understand the threat posed by Christian nationalists.
The Pew Research Center’s survey asked Americans what they felt about the term “Christian nation” without defining it for them. Because of that, the results are all over the place.
You can see there that 60% of Americans falsely believe we were originally intended to be a “Christian nation,” that 45% of Americans say we should be one, and 33% of Americans say we currently are one.
And yet the other responses don’t quite match up with any of those results. Should Supreme Court members rely on their faith when deciding cases? An astonishing 83% of Americans say no. (They are correct.) Similarly, 77% of Americans don’t want churches (and other houses of worship) endorsing political candidates.
Even among the 45% of Americans who believe we should be a “Christian nation,” the views are not monolithic.
Those people on the left side there (dark blue) want a theocracy. But the rest of them don’t want to go that far when it comes to establishing an official religion, pushing their religious views on everyone else, or blending church and state.
To put that another way, living in a Christian country sounds pretty good to a lot of Americans because they treat “Christian” as synonymous with “good.” Yet they overwhelmingly reject what that looks like in practice, at least based on the warped fantasies of actual Christian nationalists.
Here’s how Pew’s researchers parsed that:
While some people who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation define the concept as one where a nation’s laws are based on Christian tenets and the nation’s leaders are Christian, it is much more common for people in this category to see a Christian nation as one where people are more broadly guided by Christian values or a belief in God, even if its laws are not explicitly Christian and its leaders can have a variety of faiths or no faith at all. Some people who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation are thinking about the religious makeup of the population; to them, a Christian nation is a country where most people are Christians. Others are simply envisioning a place where people treat each other well and have good morals.
Of course, the Christians pushing for Christian nationalism would be more accurately described as bigots, racists, anti-feminists, intolerant, and the sort of people you don’t invite to Thanksgiving dinner. (One survey respondent described a “Christian nation” as a “White Christian ethno-state”… which deserves bonus points for bluntness and accuracy.)
Here’s another silver lining to these results. While nearly half of all Americans said we should live in a “Christian nation,” a lot of Americans have no clue what “Christian nationalism” is. They like the idea of living in a nation guided by (their interpretation of) Christian principles, but many of them aren’t familiar with the more pointed phrase.
More than half of Americans (54%) have never heard the term at all. Only 14% of Americans really know anything about it. And of the people who have ever heard the phrase at all, the ones with an opinion on it are against it.
That means there’s a tremendous opportunity to educate people on what Christian nationalism is, why it’s bad for the country, and what all of us stand to lose if Christian nationalists acquire even more power than they already have.
The “wall of separation between state and church” is an American original. It is an American invention. We should be proud of and defend that contribution to human rights. And we should challenge those who would undermine it with myths, lies, and disinformation about America being founded as a Christian nation.
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Shielding our shared laws from religious influence and capture allows Americans to come together as equals to build a stronger democracy. Democracy, equality, and freedom all depend on the separation of church and state—and the separation of church and state in turn enables those values.
These people vote and right wing media promotes them. Reality means nothing to these people. But why kill the babies, just milk the blood in regular donations keeps the blood fresh and coming in. These people don’t think through things very well. 🙄 Hugs
Just banned by Newsmax, Lara Logan has some thoughts:
The reason I believe that people reacted that way is it’s all about the children. The question they don’t want us asking is where are all the missing children?
What happens to these children? How can hundreds of thousands of kids go missing in the United States every year and nobody knows where they are?
They just vanish? I don’t think so. Every sex trafficking ring worldwide knows, bring the kids to the United States that this administration is participating in the trafficking of kids.
They’re paying companies, LLCs and non-profits and church groups. They’re paying them to take these kids and disappear them.
The report that you showed have talked about the blood of young children being the secret to anti-aging. And why does nobody ask where does blood come from?
How do you get the blood of young children? And does it matter if the children are younger and younger and younger? So now you’re talk — are you talking about the blood of babies now? Is that what you’re talking about?
Logan may be too fucking crazy even for Newsmax, but not for Mike Lindell’s Frank Speech platform.
After getting banned from Fox for saying Fauci is Mengele, then from Newsmax for saying Satanist elites drink the blood of children, Lara Logan doubles down and says hundreds of thousands of kids in the US are being kidnapped so elites can drink their blood to fight aging. pic.twitter.com/Wh1WHiX0U3
According to our research and experience, out of the half a million children that go missing every year in the United States, nearly all of them are found. That’s 97.8%. So, half a million children go missing, but nearly all of them are also found.
When most people think about missing children, they imagine children being lured into white vans. But if a father or mother takes a child without permission, and they don’t have custody, that’s considered a missing child, and the vast majority of missing kids are due to family abductions. There are more than 3,000 attempted snatchings per year, and more than 90% of those are runaways or parental abductions.
Amateur! I reach into their bodies and pull their hearts out, leaving them alive while I lower them into a fiery hell-like pit. As documented in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The term blood libel refers to the false allegation that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish, usually Christian children, for ritual purposes. The Nazis made effective use of the blood libel to demonize Jews, with Julius Steicher’s newspaper Der Stürmer making frequent use of ritual murder imagery in its antisemitic propaganda.
(l to r) Rome Pride, Sabastion Mikel and son Jaxen, and Justin Deal. Photos by Ivan Felipe and Lee Jones.
Jessee Graham going off at the Maury County Board of Trustees Photo: Screenshot
Pastor Jonathan Shelley Photo: Screenshot/Twitter
Scottie's Playtime 