Missouri State Senator Elaine Gannon asks incredibly invasive questions about trans teenager Avery Jackson’s body at a Missouri State Senate Committee hearing: “Are you going to go through the procedure?” Gannon asks the child, Avery Jackson, seemingly referring to gender-affirming surgery, as the audience groans.
Personal note ** I hope to be back up to the half speed I have been managing lately in a few days. I had a really bad end of the week, health wise. Ron said Thursday evening my right side back muscles were swollen up higher than his fist compared to the left. I saw the cardiologist, he changed my medication and said I needed an echocardiogram along with a medical heart stress test. He is worried about the shortness of breath and breathing problems, along with something he thinks is going on with my heart. But the change in medications will allow me to get my allergy treatments, and the blood tests came back showing really serious allergies. I will share those another time. Hugs
Please note the open bigotry and privilege. Also note these are a very small group of bigoted religious parents. Let the kids be kids doesn’t apply to the gay or other LGBTQ+ kids. These people find anything offensive that is not just as they are, feel, or want things. They want all their kids to celebrate their school years, but not the gay, trans, or the other LGBTQ+ kids to have that privilege. Notice these kids are teenagers, the woman is complaining that seeing LGBTQ+ other students and information was sexualizing a 14-year-old. Trust me, by 14 a kid knows their gender, their sexuality, and even how to masturbate. This strange idea that kids don’t have feelings, desire, or even that touching themselves feels good until the magic moment they turn 18 when suddenly all those things happen and become real. That is incredibly stupid, that schools even through the senior year can not mention anything dealing with gender or sexual orientation unless it is straight heterosexual 1950s gender stereotypical norms. Hello every teen has a smart phone, and access to smart TV’s, game consoles that browse the internet, along with computers. Get freaken real people. This really is about not letting the LGBTQ+ people be normalized, that is why these groups want to remove the media with gay or trans characters or have LGBTQ+ information. Yet they do want the anti-gay stuff pushed hard. These bans make it so there can be no programs stopping bullying, no safe places for kids that are not cis or straight to feel welcome. It is driving the LGBTQ+ people in the US to the same place the Jewish people were in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Hugs
Seminole County Public Schools is offering to reprint this year’s Lyman High School yearbook and remove two pages for parents upset about LGBTQ+ content, prompting criticism that the district isn’t standing up to bigotry. The pages highlight the school’s LGBTQ+ community and provide definitions of terms such as genderfluid and pansexual. A few parents and students found those pages “inappropriate,” and now the district is offering refunds or reprinted yearbooks with the pages in question removed.
Jessica Tillmann, chapter chair of the Seminole County Moms for Liberty, said she is concerned about the definitions in the yearbook because she thinks they are teaching children about sex outside the state-approved standards that parents can choose to opt their children out of. “They shouldn’t have any sexual definitions in a yearbook,” she said. “This is a yearbook that goes to every student as young as 14.”
Sharmon Craft [screenshot above] was among the parents who believe the page is inappropriate. “This gender ideology crap has parents in an uproar because it’s disgusting and wrong for an adult to sexualize a minor,” Craft said on Facebook.
“The district superintendent is ordering the school to give full refunds or have the books reprinted without the glossary of perverse sexual attractions and pronouns.” District officials said they have received four complaints from parents so far.
Danielle Pomeranz, the high school’s former yearbook advisor, argued against the decision. “We think that it’s important that our book remains inclusive and represents all of the students at Lyman High School,” Pomeranz said.
— Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) June 1, 2023
One page in the high school’s yearbook shows a list of “LGBTQ” terms, including phrases like “genderfluid,” “nonbinary” and “pansexual.” https://t.co/lDc6OKsMUV
14 was my age the first time I was able to look my reflection in the eyes and say, “I am a homosexual” out loud. It was strange to hear myself say it, but it felt so true and freeing.
I almost find it funny that these Moms for Liberty morons think that their children are innocent and pure and know nothing about sex. Do they not know the kids have access to the internet and have cell phones? Those women live in a Christian bubble.
Don’t tell them. ‘Christian’ parents have a tendency to install crappy blocking software on their kids’ phones that ostensibly block porn, but actually block anything a crazy religious parent might object to, like age-appropriate information that teens absolutely should have access to.
Hence the enthusiasm for purging all mention of them everywhere. As homophobe lawyer Matt Staver said recently, if Christian kids get to know gays, they’ll get the outrageous idea they’re not monsters in human form.
And not to mention no-one is sexualising anyone in this yearbook, just defining some terms.
We have to fight back against their characterisation of anything that even mentions LGBT people’s existence as being “sexual”. ‘Heather has two mommies’ is not sexual, and not inappropriate in the slightest for elementary students.
Also yet more infantilisation of teens: “OMG, kids as young as 14 will read this!” 14 years olds know about sex, and we should give them correct information, not religious scare stories.
This should be played in every church and every school across America. Shame on those Christian Americans who have taught their children how to hate in the name of Jesus.
Move comes as rightwing groups increase pressure to remove books, most written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of colour
Nate Coulter, executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System said the law would be ‘totally impractical to enforce.’ Photograph: Katie Adkins/AP
The American Library Association and the Authors Guild are among a group of organisations bringing a lawsuit against the state of Arkansas over a law which makes it a crime for librarians to give children books with “obscene” content.
The lawsuit involves 17 plaintiffs, including the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Association.
The groups are aiming to challenge Senate bill 81, which exposes librarians who provide “obscene materials” to children to criminal liability. The law, part of Act 372 of 2023, is due go to come into force on 1 August.
It says that anyone will be allowed to “challenge the appropriateness” of a book, but it does not define exactly what is meant by “obscene” or “appropriateness”. Under the law, a group of people chosen by head librarians would review material that had been challenged, and vote in a public meeting about whether it should be kept on public display or moved to an area of the library inaccessible to those under 18.
CALS executive director Nate Coulter said this part of the law would be “totally impractical to enforce”, reported the Arkansas Advocate.
The board of CALS voted this month to file the lawsuit challenging parts of Act 372 of 2023. John Adams, a lawyer from Fuqua Campbell, the law firm representing CALS, said that librarians needed clarity on the law to ensure they could do their jobs without risking arrest.
American Library Association president Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada told Publishers Weekly that the lawsuit was “to vindicate Arkansas residents’ freedom to read”.
The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the coming days. It is the second high-profile lawsuit this year concerning the restriction of books available in libraries. Earlier in the month, PEN America, Penguin Random House, and a group of authors and parents, filed a lawsuit against a Florida school district for implementing book bans. The suit argues the removal and restriction of access to books discussing race, racism and LGBTQ+ identities violates the first amendment.
It comes after increased activity by rightwing groups to remove books from libraries and schools in the US. In 2022, calls to ban books hit the highest level ever recorded in the US, according to the American Library Association (ALA), which tracks requests for removal.
Last year, there were requests to ban 2,571 titles; up 38% from 1,858 titles in 2021. Most of the books for which removal requests were made, said the ALA, were written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of colour.
We’re proud to put up 6 “In Florida … We Say Gay!” billboards across Florida to celebrate Pride Month with a message of support and solidarity, funded by over 1,000 Cedar Key Progress donors.
The stakes have never been higher than they are right now for the trans and queer community
Florida Republicans are trying to make it so that our state is unsafe for anyone who isn’t a Christian, straight, white man, and we won’t stand for being known for all of this bigotry and hate. We say gay because the Florida we know welcomes everyone, whether you’re trans or cis, gay or straight, Black, brown or white.
Cedar Key Progress Poll: Floridians Oppose Book Bans, Support DEI
A recent Cedar Key Progress poll of 400 Floridians, conducted May 18-22, 2023 by Civiqs, found that Floridians oppose LGBTQ+ book bans and Ron DeSantis’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Do you support or oppose laws removing books mentioning gay and transgender people and history from public school libraries? Support 42% Oppose 48% Neither support nor oppose 7% Unsure 3%
Do you support or oppose laws banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from colleges and universities? Support 39% Oppose 50% Neither support nor oppose 7% Unsure 4%
Nobody said Gay when I was a kid, there were no Drag Queen Story Hours, no Pride events, no representation of any kind, and I still turned out Gay. These clowns have no idea what they’re doing, they’ll end up hurting kids in the long run. For awhile, I thought we’d made some progress in this country, now I realize the hate, fear and ignorance was just festering, waiting until it was lauded by the Republican Party. The billboards are nice, but they aren’t likely to change anyone’s mind.
My hope is that all this poison can be treated like an infection in the body like an abscess. Now that it has come to the surface, it can be lanced and dealt with. But I am at a loss as to what will be the cure.
Just read yesterday that a whole lot of LGBTQ folks are trying to move away from Florida now. Including parents of gay and trans kids who are terrified the state will seize their children from them.
Valid fear. My friend and his husband left just last month. As my friend put it, the medical scare his husband had is in the past but if one arises again, they didn’t want to risk being in FL and being denied care.
I wonder what will happen, when school comes back into session, and High School Students, consistently ask questions about being Gay in their classes??? What will the schools do to them???
Nate Coulter, executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System said the law would be ‘totally impractical to enforce.’ Photograph: Katie Adkins/AP
