Marchers carry a rainbow flag to the Alabama Capital during the 2019 Pride March and RallyPhoto: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser/ via IMAGN
Alabama’s legislature is advancing two censorious anti-LGBTQ bills: H.B. 130 would ban LGBTQ+ flags in classrooms and expand the state’s “Don’t say gay” law to include grades 6-8; H.B. 385 would jail librarians for giving “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent. Both bills were approved in the Alabama House of Representatives this week and now head to the state’s Republican-led upper legislative chamber.
Alabama’s current “Don’t Say Gay” law says that K-5 classrooms “shall not engage in classroom discussion or provide classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” H.B. 130 would also remove the section “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” banning LGBTQ+ discussions completely.
The sweeping education bill also includes a trans bathroom ban.
The H.B. 130 expansion, which passed the state House on Tuesday, would expand the law to include grades 6-8 and also prohibit “flags symbolizing sexual orientations or gender identities” in all grade school levels.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Mack Butler (R), said the bill is necessary to “purify the schools” of “some indoctrination going on,” ABC News reported.
“[LGBTQ+ discussions and flags are] a component of Marxism where we’re – you know – destroying the family and teaching some of these things. Let it happen somewhere else other than our schools.” Butler said.
The ACLU of Alabama has spoken against the law, saying that it would silence “inclusive” and “essential” discussions among students and teachers in classrooms while violating their First Amendment rights to free speech.
On Thursday, the Alabama House also passed H.B. 385, a bill would expand the state’s definition of “sexual conduct” to include conduct that “knowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd and lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent.”
The law would place libraries in the same category as “adult-only” stores, movies, and entertainment” in order to criminalize librarians who provide “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent.
The bill would force school and public librarians to remove any books that other people find “obscene” or “harmful” to minors — though the law doesn’t specify who would determine what’s “obscene” or “harmful.” After filing a written objection to the library director or principal, librarians would then have seven days to remove the book from shelves.
Librarians who fail to do so could initially face a misdemeanor criminal charge and a fine of up to $10,000 and a county jail or hard labor sentence of up to one year. If a librarian is convicted of a second or subsequent violation, they could face a class C felony charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison, The Alabama Reflector reported.
State Rep. Neil Rafferty (D) said the law is so broadly written that it could allow a single complaint to result in a warrant being issued for someone who wears an objectionable Halloween costume or sundress.
“I do still have some serious problems with this because I feel like this is a violation of First Amendment, I feel like is easily going to be abused, and we will be dealing with unintended consequences of it,” Rafferty said.
“This bill is government overreach, robs parents of their rights, and would have a chilling effect on free speech by potentially incarcerating librarians because particular books are available, including even the Bible,” wrote Craig Scott, president of the Alabama Library Association.
Both bills are among several copycat laws across the country that seek to block minors from accessing LGBTQ+ content under the belief that such content “sexualizes” and “indoctrinates” children. Sponsors of these bills never note that numerous types of classroom and library materials have depicted heterosexual romance and issues without much parental or political objection.
The American Library Association (ALA) has released its top 10 most challenged books of 2023, and seven of them were challenged for containing LGBTQ+ content.
“In looking at the title of the most challenged books from last year, it’s obvious that the pressure groups are targeting books about LGBTQ+ people and people of color,” said ALA President Emily Drabinski in a press release.
The vocal protests of the ALA emphasize the ways in which libraries and their workers have striven to address the needs of their readers with progressive and crucial services.
“At ALA, we are fighting for the freedom to choose what you want to read. Shining a light on the harmful workings of these pressure groups is one of the actions we must take to protect our right to read,” Drabinski said.
The number of titles at risk for censorship increased by 65% in 2023 compared to the year before, the highest ever recorded by ALA.
The 10 most challenged books of 2023 are as follows:
Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe
Reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Reasons: LGBTQ+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQ+ content, rape, drugs, profanity
Flamer by Mike Curato
Reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI content
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQ+ content
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity
Let’s Talk About It by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQ+ content
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicitly, rape
“These are books that contain the ideas, the opinions, and the voices that censors want to silence — stories by and about LGBTQ+ persons and people of color,” said Deborah Caldwell, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
“Each challenge, each demand to censor these books is an attack on our freedom to read, our right to live the life we choose, and an attack on libraries as community institutions that reflect the rich diversity of our nation. When we tolerate censorship, we risk losing all of this. During National Library Week, we should all take action to protect and preserve libraries and our rights.”
According to the ALA, most of the challenges prior to 2021 sought to remove access to a single title, whereas more recent challenges – fueled by the so-called parents’ rights movement and anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups like Moms for Liberty – target multiple titles 90% of the time.
“Overwhelmingly, we’re seeing these challenges come from organized censorship groups that target local library board meetings to demand removal of a long list of books they share on social media,” said Caldwell-Stone.
“Their aim is to suppress the voices of those traditionally excluded from our nation’s conversations, such as people in the LGBTQIA+ community or people of color. Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person’s constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore. The choice of what to read must be left to the reader or, in the case of children, to parents. That choice does not belong to self-appointed book police.”
Seriously people are proud of acting this way? Really? If a child acted like this the parents would discipline or correct them, yet adults think college kids and tRump supporters think the thuggish racist behavior is great. tRump loves it. It is his style. Berate, ridicule, insult, demean others is what tRump thinks is intellectual reasoning and discussion. What has this country devolved into? I thought we grew out of this childish shit a long time ago. Hugs. Scottie
There were hundreds of counter-protesters, in contrast to the few dozen pro-Palestine protesters. The scene evoked memories of the resistance to the civil rights struggle in the US south six decades earlier.
The counter-protesters included individuals waving American flags and Trump flags. At one point, they sang the American national anthem, drowning out the pro-Palestine group’s chants.
There were no arrests, but the actions of the counter-protesters – who shouted “Fuck Joe Biden”, “Who’s your daddy?”, “USA”, “Hit the showers”, “Your nose is huge”, and included a white man making monkey noises at a Black woman – have been widely condemned on social media.
Trump released an ad featuring the University of Mississippi frat group who made monkey gestures and monkey noises at a Black woman student who was protesting for Palestine. pic.twitter.com/8xQc7zEdky
I would like to think that his behavior is just a bit of bad judgment he will grow out of, but I seriously doubt it. Not in Mississippi. He has so very, very few good examples to look to.
These white boy frats have been raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars via GiveSendGo over the past few days. There are all kinds of right-wing companies that want employees like this.
Remember when we thought we had finally started to turn the page with the election of Barack Obama?
Turns out it only emboldened the worst fucking people in this country, who will do absolutely anything to ensure they stay in power as their majority dwindles.
This is direct backlash against having a Black man in the White House. Magats are butthurt about it, and they need to reassert their claim on the government
This interview points out some of the flaws in the Cass Report, and how Cass herself was a known anti-trans person who had worked with DeathSantis and his administration. Talk about asking the fox about the hen house security. The people who wanted a badly done report on trans care / trans kids choose a known anti-trans person to do it. Erin Reed is a trans person who is very well versed in trans issues. The video is not long, about 14.19 minutes long but very informative if you know someone who is an anti-trans hater who often says well look at the UK and those places they are stopping care, or someone who likes to refer to the Cass report. Hugs. Scottie
Journalist Erin Reed, author of the Erin In The Morning newsletter on SubStack, discusses the recent gender identity review by the National Health Services (NHS) in the United Kingdom.
Erin Reed and Emma then jump right into the background for the UK’s recent Cass Report on transgender care, stepping back to briefly cover the rise of transphobic activism in the UK at the end of the 2010s, and the major policy impacts it had despite fringe following, including the NHS-sponsored ‘independent’ and ‘unbiased’ review by Hillary Cass. After giving some background on the evidently not-so-unbiased Cass herself, Reed parses through the clear failure of the report itself to live up to these supposed standards, actively excluding both trans voices and experts on trans care from the report, relying on outdated and fraudulent statistics (compiled by notorious homophobes nonetheless), and repeatedly requiring absurdly high standards for trans care – standards not met by the vast majority of both adult and pediatric care – while rarely substantiating any of the claims about the supposed dangers.
You want to know the truth of the media bias and what is the true violence at these don’t do a genocide protests. Watch the entirety of this video. It is delivered in a nonsense style and the only loud parts are the violent police shooting round after round of tear gas, flash bangs, and rubber bullets which can be lethal at the students. The videos shown show how violent and gleeful the police thugs were to use their weapons of force. This was one of the best breakdowns of the campus police raids I have seen. The first 5 minutes might not grab you, but please watch past it. Get to the meat of the video. It will change your minds on a lot of the media coverage. Vaush spends a lot of time quietly going over the ridicules things the report has to say like look they have chairs, why would you have metal chairs at a protest if not to harm others … maybe in a day’s long protest people might want to sit down? The reporter asks about how did the things the protesters have get there because they won’t fit in their pockets? Really, a large group of people planing a large scale protest wouldn’t know how to arrange to bring in stuff together to make it easier for them? How corporate media do these reports now have to be these days? Please watch the video if not in full, if not at least half way to understand the disinformation being spread by the media. Hugs. Scottie
Owen Jones then joins, as he and Emma reflect on the last seven months of constant scenes of devastation and genocide coming out of Gaza, and the mainstream media’s heart-wrenching insistence on downplaying the horror, denying the deaths, and running cover for Israel’s project of ethnic cleansing under the guise of victimhood.
Jones and Emma explore how the severe repression and propaganda from mainstream Western political institutions is seeing an en-masse public awakening to the genocide of Gaza, and the Western elites’ violent commitment to controlling the discourse, with supposed “liberal democracies” from the US to the EU and UK defaming anti-zionist Jews and anti-semites and uplifting actual racists and Jew-haters as legitimate actors.
If you go to the link as I did, you can see just how over the top old school 1950s / 1960s racist these people are. I can not understand younger people in this day and age being so stupid as the use the slurs and name calling of fellow humans because of skin color. Even worse the governor was supportive saying he was proud of the racists. Republican Governor of Mississippi Tate Reeves also posted on X that the group of counter-protestors “warms my heart.” Users on X reacted to the video of the students and Governor Tate Reeves’s proclamation of support for the counter-protestors: This is the world that tRump inspired and help flourish in the US. Hugs. Scottie
A video was posted on X Thursday of a group of counter-protestors at the University of Mississippi — or Ole Miss — shouting and making monkey noises towards a Black woman who was part of a group protesting the war in Gaza.
Another bystander at the university uploaded a video of the students shouting “Lizzo! Lizzo! — in reference to the pop/hip-hop singer — and “f**k you fatass, f**k you bitch” to the same woman.
Republican Governor of Mississippi Tate Reeves posted on X that the group of counter-protestors “warms my heart.” The shocking video earned praise from Republican legislator Rep. Mike Collins, who posted the video and wrote “Ole Miss taking care of business.”
Ashton Pittman adds on Threads: “Hundreds of frat boys showed up to counter protest a small group of ~50 pro-Palestine protestors on the UM campus, with some frat boys throwing food, drinks and bottles at them. Others waved Trump flags and flipped the protestors off.”
Rep. Mike Collins, R-Georgia, praises a video showing a University of Mississippi frat boy dancing like a monkey and making monkey noises near a Black woman student who was protesting for Palestine while other frat boys chant "lock her up." https://t.co/Gfg4ZtqDqC
Rep. Collins reposted the video from Richard Hanania, a right-wing extremist who previously wrote for alt-right and white supremacist publications under the pen name Richard Hoste.
Crowds of mostly white Ole Miss frat boys coming together to shout down and intimidate people fighting for justice for oppressed people is not a revelation or a historical anomaly. pic.twitter.com/OkUxTeHlsJ
Jemele Hill: 1) What fraternity does he represent? That fraternity’s national leadership needs to be contacted immediately and that frat should be barred from campus.
2) We have recently seen endless conversations and action items created about antisemitism, but I’m guessing that same energy won’t be there to protect this open hostility directed at Black students.
Monkey sounds to a black women… the South will always be full of hate and racism. I find it amusing how ‘proud’ the south is of their heritage. Any southerner reading this, never again ask why we think you are so stupid. You just are. And racism is alive and well. Disgusting corner of America.
There’s racism and bigotry everywhere. The Pacific Northwest, where I grew up, is a hotbed of white supremacist crap. Oregon was even established as a whites-only state, and to this day Portland is the whitest major city in the country. Even Vermont, with it’s reputation for crunchy hippie culture, has antisemites.
It’s the concentration of hate and racism bread into the South. It may exist all over, but do not compare the slave states to the north. It’s not even close. Idaho may as well be part of the south, that state is notorious for idiocy.
Scottie's Playtime 