“A parent in Tallahassee, Florida cost a charter school principal her job after complaining that one of the world’s most beloved artistic masterpieces was pornographic.
Hope Carrasquilla, who had just stepped into her role at Tallahassee Classical School less than a year prior, announced her resignation on Monday during an emergency board meeting, according to the Tallahassee Democrat’s reporting.
She spoke with the Tallahassee Democrat about the incident and the end to her time at the school. Ms Carrasquilla told the paper that the school board’s chair, Barney Bishop, informed her that she would either need to quit or she would be fired.
Though it appears he did not specify why the principal was asked to leave, she believes it was related to a lesson on Renaissance art.”
Florida’s book bans continue unabated. On Tuesday night, the Martin County School Board met and held an hours-long hearing about the proposed banning of books that some feel are inappropriate.
During the meeting, where some people voiced support for banning books while many others voiced anger and dissent at such censorship, 100-year-old Grace Linn, a Martin County resident, spoke into the microphone from her wheelchair. Saying she was “a hundred years young,” Linn spoke about her husband who was killed in action during World War II while “defending our democracy, Constitution, and freedoms. One of the freedoms that the Nazis crushed was the freedom to read the books.”
Linn brought and displayed a quilt that she made in protest of a potential book ban. Stitched into Linn’s quilt are books that have either been targeted or banned. She explained that the books on her quilt represented “a few of so many more books that are banned or targeted and need to be proudly displayed and protected and read.”
The end of her remarks brought the audience to cheers, and rightly so. Linn’s speech is all that needs to be said about banning books.
“Banned books and burning books are both the same,” Linn said. “Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge. Fear, not freedom. Fear, not liberty. Fear is control. My husband died as a father of freedom. I am the mother of liberty. Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this. Thank you.”
So are the LGBTQ+ adults. DeathSantis and his maga sycophants have painted target signs on each of us and his violent gang thug enforcers along with the recharged up fundamentalist religious people who feel they have the right to oppress everyone into forcing them to live by the dictates of their religion are making the lives of queer people in Florida miserable. They keep pushing harder and harder to make their way the only way to live. What is acceptable to them is the only acceptable public expression. This is about not allowing any other social public expression than what their church allows them according to their outdated 1950s strict gender role model based on the idea that white Christian men are automatically in charge and women are subservient to them while minorities know their place and stay there. All according to the white males in charge who like it that way. And they use a set of mistranslated writings from 2,500 years ago to back up their demands. I want you to pay attention to what the student says is happening on high school campuses, where conserative right wing teachers / administrators design polices and punishments for queer kids while using those polices to protect themselves from repremand. The student says she has seen teachers mock and out gay kids to parents and laugh about it. Also kids who try to stand up for the queer kids have their own futures placed in jepardy as their transcripts get lost, documents they need lost, and even collage applications no longer approved, or loss recommendations made by the school if they don’t stop speaking out in support of queer kids. Think of that, the change from the days when kids were encouraged to be active in cuases, in socail movements. Hugs
Students who speak out for LGBTQ+ rights say they face retaliation from hostile school administrations determined to silence them.
By Jorge Martinez
Photo: Shutterstock
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Florida has become a closely-watched epicenter for anti-LGBTQ+ laws – and advocates say queer youth are feeling the impact.
With the passage of sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, such as the Don’t Say Gay law, gender-affirming care bans, and bathroom restrictions, Florida has become a battleground for queer rights. DeSantis’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has continued to exacerbate the issue, leading to concerns among LGBTQ+ advocates that the state is becoming increasingly unwelcoming to queer youth.
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RELATED STORIES
GOP wants to expand Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to target teens & transgender kids
The bill would ban LGBTQ+ education up to 8th grade, ban students from changing their pronouns, and that’s not all…
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“We’re terrified,” Christina Guiriba, a transgender youth advocate, told LGBTQ Nation. “As advocates for the community, we’re very torn. We want to continue this fight.”
Guiriba is the founder of Transcending Adolescence, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit aimed at empowering trans youth.
A trans woman and Florida native who has experienced bullying and physical violence during her childhood, she leads a summer camp called Resilience Retreat for around a dozen trans youth to build their courage and resilience. She wants every participant to leave camp having defined success on their own terms, whether that be finally finding a safe space for the first time or going through with top surgery.
“Seeing a staff full of gender-diverse people that are successful and still alive gave them hope,” she said. Through the power of the outdoors and physical recreation, she hopes to continue to be a voice for “those who are afraid.”
But Guiriba said that many advocates are afraid to continue their work as they find themselves the target of right-wing hate. Transcending Adolescence, in fact, was recently the victim of a doxing attack.
As a result, the organization was forced to adopt stricter security measures such as planning escape routes and installing surveillance cameras and panic buttons. They even hired a private security officer, unable to turn to the Jacksonville police due to their transphobic reputation, such as using deadnames in official police investigations, among other reasons.
But Guiriba isn’t stopping. Her work is becoming increasingly relevant as new research shows how ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ attacks are starting to impact queer youth.
“The consequences are really more dire than even most people would imagine,” Caitlin Viccora, programs manager for healthy & supportive schools at Advocates for Youth, told LGBTQ Nation.
A recent CDC report on youth behavior over the past decade shows record-high levels of depression and suicide risk among teenagers in recent years. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey reveals that more than half of LGBTQ+ students have recently experienced declining mental health and more than one in five had a suicide attempt within the past year. Queer female adolescents fared worse compared to males.
In Florida especially, Viccora said the priority for advocates is to set the record straight and clear the air of false information. Parents have a right to know what’s really happening in their child’s classroom without having to rely on the right-wing’s “targeted disinformation campaigns,” Viccora said.
“It’s not just Republicans who are failing to protect LGBTQ+ students,” she added, “A lot of folks are staying silent.”
She urged community members to speak publicly at local school board meetings and fight proposed regulations that impact queer youth. Submitting public comments, organizing to call local officials such as superintendents, or just showing up to the polls to vote are effective ways to protect queer youth.
Queer youth are learning to “shut up and keep their head low”
“Ron DeSantis is a terrifying man,” Iris, a high school senior in Clay County, Florida, who requested to use a different name out of fear of retaliation, told LGBTQ Nation. “[DeSantis] claims to be a Christian but at the basis of Christianity is acceptance and love. Yet he chooses violence and overall bigotry.”
Iris does not identify as queer, but her queer friends would not speak with LGBTQ Nation, citing safety concerns even if they remained anonymous. Instead, they spoke through Iris.
In her previous attempts to speak out, Iris said her school officials claimed to “lose” her documents, opening the possibility of preventing her from graduating high school. She said speaking out would even “jeopardize my college [applications].”
Iris said Gov. DeSantis has created a “hostile environment” for Florida students that enables hatred and punishes those who try speaking out. She recounts an instance where a close male friend dressed as a PowerPuff Girl for Halloween and was viciously bullied during school hours. The bully received no penalty while Iris’ friend was reprimanded for several infractions, one of them being a dress code violation.
In a second instance, she reports that her school principal outed numerous queer kids to their parents. She said the principal was even spotted laughing and mocking the list of students she outed with one of those students’ parents.
This practice is becoming increasingly common across Florida schools, with school administrators developing formal policies to punish or out queer kids to their families.
“Teachers are able to say and do things without consequence,” said Iris, noting that these types of policies serve to primarily protect conservative and right-wing educators.
She added that queer kids are learning that they need to “shut up and keep their head low” in order to survive.
Both Guiriba and Viccora emphasize the importance of remaining positive, continuing their fight to ensure a brighter future for queer youth across the country.
“It’s important for queer people to know they’re not alone,” said Guiriba, also stressing that advocates take the appropriate time to rest. “It’s not easy to find strength.”
“Living as a queer person in America is really scary when you’re looking at headlines,” Viccora said, especially when queer Americans face discrimination and violence at every corner. Despite this, Viccora urges queer youth to remember the “beauty and resiliency” in the simple fact of our existence.
I really enjoy this author / sub stack writer. I leave in all her requests for support because she deserves it for her work and I am simply borrowing her voice to spread the information she writes about. If you want to know the true that the republican leglisatures are trying to hide to push their agenda on their states, read the article. Hugs
This is one of the most common arguments brought up in anti-trans hearings. The idea that 80% of trans people “will desist” is a complete lie that is easy to debunk.
Please support my independent reporting and activism on transgender legislation by subscribing. You help me keep this going and keep people informed.
One of the most common myths heard in anti-trans hearings is that most trans kids will desist if they are allowed to go through puberty. Sometimes specific numbers are given, such as 80% of trans kids desist. This statistic has been cited as low as 60% and as high as 99% in various legislatures. In Montana, a representative used this statistic to justify passing a medical ban. The Heritage Foundation has also pushed this myth. Nearly every hearing on this topic includes this myth. The desistance myth is one of the most persistent falsehoods and has been used against the trans community for decades. It is misleading and inaccurate as it comes from outdated DSM-4 criteria and decades-old data. Newer studies show that 97.5% of transgender youth are persistent in their gender identities. Let’s examine how this falsehood originated, how it is misused, and what current research reveals about the rarity of desistence and detransition.
See an example of this claim being used on Fox News:
Conservative lawyer Harmeet Dhillon just said trans teens who transition "desist from transition at an 80-90% rate." This is false. pic.twitter.com/0jfiq0b7r9
The DSM-IV, released in 1994, spelled out how to diagnose mental health conditions including “Gender Identity Disorder” (no longer a disorder). In this manual, clinicians made their first attempt to diagnose transgender youth. These first diagnostic criteria were an admiral early attempt, but contained a fatal flaw in how transgender youth were diagnosed: the diagnosis bafflingly did not require a youth to identify as another gender. Instead, it focused on factors such as “preference for cross-sex games and activities” and “preference for friends of the other sex.”
Problems with this diagnostic criteria should be immediately recognizable today: a cisgender tomboy with absolutely no identification as a boy would be diagnosed with gender identity disorder under these definitions. A cisgender boy who likes to put on an Elsa costume and play with girls could be diagnosed with gender identity disorder under these definitions. They were woefully inadequate for judging if youth were transgender. They also came during a time when youth transition did not exist as a medical practice, and so there were no real clinical guidelines on their treatment – thus, little effort was made to change the criteria which were primarily used for discussion in therapist offices and not to support or deny medical transition care.
In 2013, the DSM-V was published and in it, many corrections were made on how gender dysphoric youth are diagnosed. The most important correction was the requirement that a transgender youth demonstrate an insistent, persistent, and consistent desire or identification as the gender that the patient believes they are. The individual factors were also changed and adjusted. These diagnostic criteria were much more stringent, and are the diagnostic criteria used today.
Please support my independent reporting and activism on transgender legislation by subscribing. You help me keep this going and keep people informed.
There is one problem though: until recently, all of the studies that came out used the old criteria. They included several people with no identification with another gender as meeting the criteria for “gender identity disorder,” which is itself no longer a disorder. These studies have a ton of other other problems as well, such as tiny sample sizes, very high dropout rates, old data from a time when youth transition was impossible, and even issues around conversion therapy practiced on trans patients. There are two pieces that are commonly cited. The first is numerous pieces of research by Ken Zucker, including a famous book published in 1995 that serves as the genesis of most “80% detransition” myths. The second is a series of studies from Thomas Steensma, usually centering around his 2011 or 2013 studies. Both of these studies contain the same core methodological flaw above, and both contain their own unique flaws that make them even more inaccurate.
Ken Zucker’s research on transgender youth was performed in 1995, a time when youth could not legally or medically transition. In fact, trans youth in that time likely all “desisted” for some time because of bullying, lack of access to care, and severe repression. I myself grew up as a transgender youth in that time period and I “desisted,” one of the many reasons I am writing this article.
Zucker is the genesis of the number that is most often cited, “80% desist from being trans.” Upon review of Ken Zucker’s research, half of Zucker’s patients did not even meet the definition of diagnostic criteria for transgender youth. His main research consisted of only 45 youth utilizing the old diagnostic criteria. A review of his clinic yielded much darker results, however: Zucker was engaging in conversion therapy practices that sought to push trans youth to identify as cisgender. His clinic was promptly shut down in 2015 as a result of a Canadian anti-conversion therapy law. Although Zucker denies the allegations that he engaged in conversion therapy, his practices and history paint a different picture. In the 1990s, he stated support for gay conversion therapy with the rationale, “a homosexual lifestyle in a basically unaccepting culture simply creates unnecessary social difficulties.”
In shutting down his clinic, a Canadian GIC review was conduced and a report was produced. From the report:
Parents state they were encouraged “not to give into” allowing their youth to wear clothes not of their assigned sex at birth.
Parents state they were told to avoid wrongly-gendered toys.
Parents state they were told to ensure their children would play with children of their assigned sex at birth.
Patients state they were asked intrusive questions about their sexual orientations as early as 9 years old.
Transgender youth were pathologized and correlational mental health issues were interpreted as causative.
Some patients reported pictures of them taken without their consent using cell-phones.
Parental lack of acceptance and desire for the child to identify as cisgender guided treatment.
Because of a tiny sample size, outdated data, the impossibility of youth transition, and Zucker’s clear ideological motivations, his 80% detransition rate clearly should be viewed as false and useless in current research on gender affirming care, especially considering modern data, criteria, and research exists.
Steensma’s 2011 and 2013 studies had similar issues in his research, which in some ways had even worse methodological flaws. Steensma used the old criteria, which is not the way that gender dysphoria is diagnosed today. Worse, the two studies classified every youth who did not return to the clinic as having “desisted” or “detransitioned” with no long term follow-up. Half of the participants in the studies did not return and all were classified as having “desisted.” The sample sizes were tiny at the getgo – only 53 people were in the first study and 127 in the second study. Given the fact that a large portion if not the majority of Steensma’s patients were classified under decades old criteria and assumed permanently detransitioned simply for refusing to follow up, these studies cannot be used to make any reasonable claim of desistance rates.
Furthermore, transgender youth could not meaningfully transition until recently. Medical care for trans youth was highly gatekept if not barred entirely. Transgender youth were rarely, if ever, afforded any form of treatment. Many such youth lost hope in ever being able to transition as puberty took its toll and they were forced to repress over bullying and a dangerous public environment.
Modern studies show a much higher persistence rate as well as important factors behind detransition. In 2015, a study was done on thousands of transgender people, including detransitioners. Only 8% of people reported ever detransitioning – ten times lower than the 80% often cited. Of these 2,000 detransitioners, the largest sample size of any study, 62% of them reported that they only detransitioned temporarily. Among the remaining detransitioners, the most common reason for detransitioning given was parental pressure and discrimination. Only 0.4% of people reported detransitioning because they were no longer trans.
Among trans youth, desistance and detransition rates are incredibly low. The most recent study in the prestigious journal Pediatrics, one of the only studies that use modern criteria, showed that 97.5% of trans youth continue to identify as trans on a 5 year follow-up. The sample size was also larger than all previous sample sizes of this population: 317 youth.
Anti-trans gender affirming care bans often start off with a list of “legislative findings” that seek to “state the science” around gender affirming care. In this list of findings, you might be surprised to see that the later studies are nowhere to be found, but the claims from the former studies pop up and are presented as factual when they are over a decade old, are dramatically outdated, and use standards that are not even in use anymore.
See Georgia’s “legislative findings” section of HB653, which would ban gender affirming care for trans youth
This statistic will continue to be misused to justify anti-trans bans all over the United States. Legislators will state that “80% of people detransition,” even when detransitioning is a statistical rarity. The same dozen detransitioners, like the “ex gays” of the 1990s, will be flown from state to state to justify bans, raising the question as to why they seem to only be able to find a small handful to testify. Meanwhile, actual trans kids who will grow up to still identify as trans, if they can make it to adulthood following these legislative onslaughts, are left to bear the damage of this misinformation.
Please support my independent reporting and activism on transgender legislation by subscribing. You help me keep this going and keep people informed.
The white nationalist religious racist maga fanatics are not satisfied with wiping out the LGBTQ+ from schools and making their lives difficult in Florida. Now they want to whitewash the racist history of the US to wipe out the mistreatment and economy of the slave states built of free slave labor that gave no benefit of that labor to the black people but instead benefited only the white people. This started with outlawing any teaching that would make white kids uncomfortable, with no care how the black kids in the same classes / age groups felt. It was totally geared to the comfort and image of the white students. This current drive removed the historical context as to why the standard economic situations are so different when you compare white economic status to the average black family’s economic status. This denies the systematic racism that has existed in the US even to today. Red lining preventing community up grades, loans for businesses in majority black areas, the taking of black areas by the government so businesses could make profit that again destroyed black communities. Mass transit was often denied to lower income black areas that needed it for work because they couldn’t afford cars. There are so many ways the systems are designed to disadvantage blacks that make the current economic situation clear it is not the black communities fault. Look at the difference in funding and supplies between traditional majority black public schools compared to white majority public schools. This is being done so that racist can make a case that the situation black people are in is their own doing, they are less intelligent than whites, they care less about their families than whites, they care less about their homes / property than whites, the reason police action against blacks is they don’t respect police or follow their directions like white people do leaving out the context of the way blacks are treated by police in the US even in the modern day.
We must fight back against this with everything we have. Florida has already become the Meca paradise for the white supremist white Christian nationalist crowd backed up by thug gang enforcers that love the Gov. DeathSantis attacks anyone who is different while acting like a king with any who disagrees with him, threatening what little free press remains. Oh ya, this is the free state of Florida according to DeathSantis campaign slogan. Hugs
In Florida, textbooks have become hot politics, part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign against what he describes as “woke indoctrination” in public schools, particularly when it comes to race and gender. Last year, his administration made a splash when it rejected dozens of math textbooks, citing “prohibited topics.” Now, the state is reviewing curriculum in what is perhaps the most contentious subject in education: social studies.
In the last few months, as part of the review process, a small army of state experts, teachers, parents and political activists have combed thousands of pages of text — not only evaluating academic content, but also flagging anything that could hint, for instance, at critical race theory. The Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative group, has urged the state to reject 28 of the 38 textbooks that its volunteers reviewed.
“The second version eliminates nearly all direct mentions of race, saying that it was illegal for “men of certain groups” to be unemployed and that “certain groups of people” were prevented from serving on a jury.”
"The group complained that a McGraw Hill fifth-grade textbook mentioned slavery 189 times…An eighth-grade book gave outsize attention to the 'negative side' of the treatment of Native Americans" https://t.co/2OFJCiV50i
I’m glad we are getting some actual examples now of what these changes entail. They are even worse than I imagined. So bad that the students, I hope, will be correcting the teachers.
DeSantis vs. diversity: Blacklists have universities playing defense as Republicans attack<.b>
” In more than a dozen interviews with the Herald, faculty and staff described a quiet calculus on campuses as educators navigate an increasingly hostile work environment resulting from vague and ever-evolving directives coming from Tallahassee.
That wont happen. As it is the red states will pass laws to make it mandatory that all colleges accept their new standards and then sue to get in front of SCOTUS and thats all it takes. Red states know how to take over the country and impose their will without firing a shot.
I wonder if any democratic governors beside Newsom in CA will have the nerve to play hardball with the feds on enforcement of red states rules for blue state citizens?
I thought that was a bit unfair until I clicked through and saw an article which was the current affairs version of the altered ‘Studies Weekly’ textbook. I can’t remember who said it first but if someone says it’s raining and someone else says it’s not, your job as a journalist isn’t to say ‘A says it’s raining, B says it’s dry,’ but to look out of the window to see which one is correct.
Honestly if we the people are content to let it happen its going to get much worse. I just ask myself and our leaders and all of us… why the fuck are we not in the streets marching every weekend, every chance, protesting and standing up to fascist.
So Cuban Floridians you fled a regime in your country supported by Russia and now you vote and support a Russian leaning authoritarian as your governor. Where will you exile next and aid in its demise?
Yes but the whites preach racism against blacks and Mexicans. Let me tell you from living in a Cuban neighborhood and knowing and interacting with many of them.. they give the white rednecks a run for the money on hating those two peoples specifically.
Over the last 50 years while the democrats pursued only the highest offices in the land the republicans were pushing hard to take over state government and the churches rushed to take over the school boards. I remember that in the 1990s in Palm Beach Conty that the big churches were fielding stealth candidates to take over the boards and change what was being taught. It was underway back then! Now the right wing /maga republicans are using their complete control over the levers of state power to end right, roll back protections, to take the states back to a time of strict gender roles for the sexes and a time when minorities were second class citizens who either knew their place or they were not allowed in society in any way. In fact they are not just trying to return society where gays were a shame to the family but they want a time when gays could be arrested along with denied working for any level of government being banned from security clearances. They are driving hard for this. Look at the red states trying hard to bring back banned conversion therapy that has been well and full debunked as not only something that doesn’t work but was found to be very harmful to those subjected to it. They again want to deny the medical science because it shows their ideology is wrong. Being gay or trans is not a choice, it is not a disease needing to change or cured. People are born gay / trans and while some manage to hide it, they should have to. They should be able to live their lives freely as they really are. Plus now they want to set up secret hidden police where neighbor spys on each other and reports to hotlines those not following the party rule. Hugs
From the Arizona Department of Education:
Arizona schools chief Tom Horne has launched the Department of Education “Empower Hotline” so that Arizonans can report inappropriate public school lessons that detract from teaching academic standards.
These include those that focus on race or ethnicity, rather than individuals and merit, promoting gender ideology, social emotional learning, or inappropriate sexual content.
The hotline provides the opportunity for constituents to provide feedback, concerns or complaints, which is a standard service offered by multiple government agencies and private-sector businesses.
It is available at 602-771-3500, or through email at empower@azed.gov. The phone line will be staffed during normal business hours, but after-hours phone calls as well as emails will be accepted at any time and followed up appropriately.
Horne explained, “Some say critical race theory (CRT) is a graduate study, not taught in K-12 schools. The evidence is to the contrary. I have a list of 250 Arizona teachers who signed a shocking statement promoted by the national teachers’ union, that if critical race theory were banned, they would defy the law.
“They would not have signed if they were not already teaching it. They come from 25 school districts, including the largest ones. Teachers must teach academics, not use their power over a captive audience, to promote their personal ideology. That is unprofessional conduct.”
Horne added, “I promised to establish this hotline so that anyone could report the teaching of inappropriate lessons that rob students of precious minutes of instruction time in core academic subjects such as reading, math, science, history and the arts. That promise is being kept.”
While Arizona state attorney general, Horne threatened to sue cities that recognized out-of-state same-sex marriages. That same year he proposed legislation allowing public school teachers to carry guns. Horne has faced multiple allegations of campaign finance crimes and has a lifetime trading ban by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to an investment firm he founded before running for public office. As you can see below, he is a supporter of QAnon freak show Vaseline Woman.
Superintendent Horne said, "There’s nothing more outrageous than religious prejudice…The person who raised this on the school board describes herself as a ‘neuro-divergent queer.’ And when she says that, she expects you to be tolerant of her."https://t.co/yzR4OWxkzA
— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) March 14, 2023
.@electtomhorne: “When @KariLake becomes Governor, and I become Superintendent of Schools and the other Republicans are elected, we’re gonna get CRT out of our schools.” pic.twitter.com/cl1WzWmFEX
Isn’t it odd that they think that they can actually change someone from being gay to being straight after months or years of therapy, but they also think an entire classroom of children will become gay after hearing a guy in a dress read them a story. Fuck these people and their hatred of the LGBTQ community. They want to exterminate us. Ain’t gonna happen.
Granted, I went to Catholic school, but half of my report card was based on behavior. So it’s wrong to teach children social skills like how to behave in class and with each other?
I hope that students flood the call line with reports of teachers talking about their heterosexual spouses, or wearing crosses and talking about their faith.
Horne explained, “Some say critical race theory (CRT) is a graduate study, not taught in K-12 schools. The evidence is to the contrary. I have a list of 250 Arizona teachers who signed a shocking statement promoted by the national teachers’ union, that if critical race theory were banned, they would defy the law.
He missed a great opportunity to use the phrase “I have here in my hand…”
So he has a definition of what CRT is? I wish he would share it with the rest of us. Is it that white treated black people bad, killed them, and kept them as slaves for decades in this country? That’s not a theory, that’s true….. This is just what Arizona needs for their teacher supply. It is a common belief among teachers around her that two places you don’t want to go teach is Colorado and Arizona. The pay and benefits are very low. This won’t help the state find teachers.
Arizona Republican Gestapo thinks kids are too stupid to hear anything non-negative about LGBT people, but does think they’re qualified to tell the state to fire their teachers over ‘not meeting the academic program’ before they even learn the material, never mind what the vaguely-worded ‘standards’ are supposed to be?
Umm, the thing is, education on history and racism is not what ‘Critical Race Theory’ is, but you use it as a buzzword to ban or silence any mention of actual things in the laws.
This Canadian immigrant, son of Polish immigrants, cost Arizona millions of dollars when as Attorney General he got the Republican-run legislature to ban Mexican studies here in Tucson. Went all the way to the Supremes, who told this old fuck to fuck the fuck off. The bill he promoted banned well-known history books because they mentioned discrimination against Mexican-Americans. Always interesting to see immigrants coming to the US and promoting hatred towards other immigrants (e.g., Rupert Murdoch).
Superintendent Horne said, “There’s nothing more outrageous than religious prejudice…”
Nothing? I can think of a few things:
– pastors who sexually abuse children – revivals – evangelical parents who brainwash their children – “ex-gay” torture – Anti-Semitism – racism – rape – laws that dehumanize and persecute LGBTQ people – Republicans – Trumpvangelicals – QAnon cultists – White/Christian Nationalists – book bans – the dissemination of far-right propaganda – everyone who works at Fox
Posting it mostly because this picture has been making the rounds in transphobe twitter as an example of why trans women shouldn’t be allowed to play womens’ sports… but this is actually a trans man, not a trans woman.
Ultimately the attempts to ban certain women from sports is stupid, it’s the same logic that leads the Olympics to banning all three medalists in the 800 meter race from participating unless they take feminizing drugs.
These medalists were all AFAB and identify as women.
The Ohio legislature is contemplating banning trans folks from high school sports.
The Ohio schools athletic association said there are 4 trans students (didn’t identify male or female) in the high school sport system. But only 2 would be playing any sport this year. Out of almost 500,000 high school students, the legislature is all about 2 of them. Wasting time about 2 students.
Another debunked study whose conclusion was clearly wrong used for 20 years by haters to attack gay people. As the article says: “It was the sort of result that played right into the hands of anti-LGBTQ activists. It bolstered their claim that being gay was the result of something that happened to you, not simply who you were. It fed into the idea that gay men are predators, eager to groom children who will eventually turn gay. The Christian hate group Family Research Council even published a piece in 2007 spreading anti-LGBTQ misinformation that cited the article in its defense.” Just like the current frenzied attacks on trans people that are also ideology driven and uses incorrect information, made up myths, and debunked fringe studies to demonize trans kids /teens / adults these attacks were used against gay kids / teens / adults for decades ago. It is simply people who cannot accept the changes in society and those who cannot accept that others don’t follow their selective religious morality / dictates. The same people who use the bible against the gay people seem quite ok with disregarding all the other moral precepts and sins that they either don’t have hate for or indulge in themselves. Notice that how the churches look on divorce has shifted so drastically since such a large part of the population is divorced including church members, the same shift happened in a lot of churches as a lot of in the closet gay people came out and got married, even church members. Even die-hard hate churches tolerate divorce at that same time attacking homosexually. In 20 years all this trans hysteria will be gone, and trans people accepted and gender different kids will be given the acceptance with their gender affirming medical assistance. The hate in schools is not really driven by the students by a small segment of parents who are very vocal and telling their kids to attack trans kids while correcting the teachers. Then run home and tell the parents so they can sue and scream at the school administrators. Enjoy the article, comments are off and you know why. Hugs
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In 2001, the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviorpublished an article titled “Comparative Data of Childhood and Adolescence Molestation in Heterosexual and Homosexual Persons.” The short piece—it was only seven pages—was published by Marie E. Tomeo, Donald I. Templer, Susan Anderson & Debra Kotler, all associated with the California School of Professional Psychology. They attempted to see if there was a connection between “childhood molestation” and homosexuality.
As so many gay people could tell you, those two things aren’t linked. There’s also the whole disconnect between when you first have same-sex attraction and when you might identify as gay, which could be much later in life. But whatever the concerns, the article concluded that there was definitely something going on:
In research with 942 nonclinical adult participants, gay men and lesbian women reported a significantly higher rate of childhood molestation than did heterosexual men and women. Forty-six percent of the homosexual men in contrast to 7% of the heterosexual men reported homosexual molestation. Twenty-two percent of lesbian women in contrast to 1% of heterosexual women reported homosexual molestation…
It was the sort of result that played right into the hands of anti-LGBTQ activists. It bolstered their claim that being gay was the result of something that happened to you, not simply who you were. It fed into the idea that gay men are predators, eager to groom children who will eventually turn gay. The Christian hate group Family Research Council even published a piece in 2007 spreading anti-LGBTQ misinformation that cited the article in its defense.
Google Scholar says the original article has been cited 182 times.
Even Joe Rogancited the article in defense of the lie it was promoting:
That link at the bottom goes directly to the 2001 Tomeo article.
The point is: This article had lasting power and did lasting damage.
But a little over two weeks ago, on February 24, the Archives of Sexual Behavioradded an update to the piece. It came in the form of an “Editorial Expression of Concern.”
The concern, the editors wrote, involved some data in the original piece.
Look at this chart from the 2001 article:
It says that 68% of the gay men who took part in the survey were openly gay before getting molested. 62% of lesbians were similarly out before they were victims of abuse. In other words, most of the participants said being victims of molestation did not have any effect on their sexual orientation. They were gay before and they were gay after.
And yet this is what the authors wrote in the conclusion:
Sixty-eight percent of the present homosexual male participants and 38% of the present homosexual female participants (68 and 36%, respectively, if including just the homosexual fair participants) did not identify as homosexual until after the molestation. This suggests that if molestation resulted in homosexuality, this phenomenon occurs in a greater proportion of male homosexuals.
That conclusion was precisely the opposite of what the table showed. Somehow, the peer reviewers never caught that, nor did the editors.
But now, the editors say this:
Readers are urged to take caution when interpreting the content and conclusions of this article. The Editor has been unable to find current email addresses for any of the authors in order to clarify and correct the article.
Well, that’s convenient…
Wait, it gets worse.
The note also points out that this article was drawn from a dissertation written by one of the co-authors, Marie E. Tomeo. But in that original dissertation, Tomeo wrote that 68% of the men “were molested before self-identification as homosexual” (emphasis mine)… which is also the opposite of what the table shows. She made the same mistake when talking about women.
Finally, the note points out there’s another table in the original piece where the math is wrong all over the place:
In Table III, in the column, “Molested by men,” the 6.7% value should be 5.8% (12/205). The 45.5% value should be 45.1% (56/124). The 24.3% value should be 24.1% (111/460); the 29.3% value should be 28.7% (44/153). In the column, “Molested by women,” the 16.4% value should be 16.1% (20/124).
This is a paper that failed a basic division test, yet it was lauded by conservatives who used it as evidence for why homosexuality is a choice and the result of something traumatic.
Obviously, adding an editors’ note to a 20-year-old paper isn’t going to make waves like the original paper did. People don’t check for corrections after the fact. Misinformation travels faster than the truth ever will.
But all of this raises another question: If the conclusions of the article were this flawed, because the data was misinterpreted this badly, why isn’t the whole paper being retracted? Why just append a note that very few people will ever read?
That’s what psychology professor Warren Throckmorton wants to know.
In 2009, he wrote a blog post about the problems with the original paper. He said he and his colleague noticed the problem three years earlier and contacted co-author Donald Templer about it as he was the advisor to Tomeo at the time. (Side note: Templer also dabbles in white supremacy!) He was unable to get in touch with her. (She seems to have vanished!) Throckmorton also wrote to the editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior but didn’t hear back.
Throckmorton (correctly) wrote in 2009 that the entire article was not worth citing:
The bottom line is that the study should not be cited until a follow up correction can be made. The main results—gays report more abuse than straights—may indeed be correct, given the similarity to past studies. However, I do not believe any inferences about causation should be made. Without the actual surveys, there is no way a reader can figure out the results from the journal article and/or the dissertation.
Now, on his new Substack The Throckmorton Initiative, he wonders if his inquiries were what prompted the recent editors’ note. They don’t mention him, but their corrections match his earlier concerns… almost identically. It’s bizarre that they make no mention of what triggered the initial concerns other than to cite “a reader” who goes unnamed. It’s a strange oversight especially given the stakes of this particular correction.
Separate from that, however, is the fact that the original article is effectively worthless because its conclusions don’t even match its own data. Even the publication admits that now. No one should cite it. Anyone who does, much like its authors, didn’t do their research.
A new list shows dozens and dozens of books have been removed from library shelves in the Martin County School District. This comes as the state puts in new requirements for school librarians to review reading material, and districts must have a process allowing community members to challenge books.
Books by well known authors like James Patterson, Toni Morrison, and Jodi Picoult are now off the shelves in Martin County schools.
“99% of the books we have filed challenges on are highly sexually explicit books,” said Julie Marshall, who leads Moms For Liberty in Martin County and filed many of the objections. Jennifer Pippin, a fellow Moms For Liberty activist in Indian River County, said they share lists and work together.
The removal list includes Picoult’s novel “The Storyteller” about the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who meets an elderly former SS officer. It contains some violent scenes told in flashbacks from World War II and an assisted suicide.
“Banning ‘The Storyteller’ is shocking, as it is about the Holocaust and has never been banned before,” Picoult told us in an email.
“Martin County is the first to ban twenty of my books at once,” Picoult said, slamming such bans as “a shocking breach of freedom of speech and freedom of information.” Picoult said she’s puzzled by the ban, because she does not “write adult romance,” as objections filed against her books claimed.
Insane: Under Ron DeSantis's book crackdown, 20 books by Jodi Picoult just got banned at one county's schools.
One of them is "The Storyteller," about the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor.
Virtually all the objections that resulted in dozens of books getting removed were filed by one person, according to documents supplied to @FLFreedomRead and to us.
The vagueness of DeSantis's directives appears deliberately designed to create a climate of fear and rampant snitching. It encourages teachers to censor themselves and invites parents/activists to become despotic little commissars of local book purging:https://t.co/y0tKdxz6Wspic.twitter.com/RqKtJYW9ub
We have updated the piece with a response from the local Moms For Liberty leader. As we reported, this one person was the primary objector to dozens and dozens of books, leading to their removal:https://t.co/y0tKdxz6Wspic.twitter.com/hWieaL0fAW
This is the point I always make. You ask these people to show you the “pornographic” books and whoopsy-poopsy it’s a bunch of books about the Holocaust, slavery, Jim Crow America, on and on and on….
I would be really happy if one of them were to ever hold up a copy of a “pornographic” book at one of their rant rallies, because it means I would get to alert the cops to a crazy person displaying / distributing pornography to the public.
Why are only right wing wackos challenging books? A gutsy liberal could challenge the bible. Of course they’d need 24/7 security, bulletproof windows and and armored vehicle to travel in because Florida is filled with dangerous raging cultists.
Let’s hope you’re right! Right now he seems to be steamrolling right along in creating not a bastion of “liberty” for moms and kids and dads and other adults, but a SLAVE STATE.
a fellow Moms For Liberty activist in Indian River County, said they share lists and work together.
So none of them have a goddamn clue what is even in the books they find so offensive, and if pressed on why they want to ban any particular book they would be unable to really explain it.
At what point do majority of the Americans and the rest of the world realize we are repeating history again? Until millions of people shove into the oven? Or until it get so uncontrollable that nations need to set off multiple nuclear bombs in the US to make blowing up Hiroshima looks like popping a balloon?
Photo: Shutterstock
