Category: Sex / Sexual

Bans on books and LGBTQ topics: What’s in Gov. Reynolds’ new education bill

https://www.kcci.com/article/bans-on-books-and-lgbtq-topics-whats-in-gov-reynolds-new-education-bill/42819425

Despite how the republicans like to frame these bills it is about removing the LGBTQ+ representation from schools and society.   It is not about protecting kids against sexualization because in Wyoming GOP Opposes Bill To Ban Child Marriage in a state with no limits to how young kids can get married; the republicans refuse to limit that to 16 and above.   They say it goes against religious liberties.   Yes I guess the right to marry and have sex with 10 or 12 year olds is not sexualizing them but don’t let a drag queen read to them or them know that their teacher is in a same sex marriage because they will rush to be gay?   Plus the way these bills are written shows the target is anything not straight heterosexual 1950s norm.  Schools would not be able to provide any program, curriculum, material, test, survey, questionnaire, activity, announcement, promotion, or instruction of any kind relating to gender identity or sexual activity in grades K-3.  That would require no use of Mr. or Mrs. / Miss.  It would require no use of the word boy or girl.  It would require no mention of either boy / girl dating as well as stopping any same sex dating in school.  Teachers wouldn’t be able to announce they are pregnant and might even have to hide it or be removed as that happens only to females and is caused by sexual activity.   Really it would mean getting rid of separate boy / girl gendered bathrooms as the bills are written.   No gender roles can be discussed such as who can play on which teams as that is related to gender.  Also no girls or boys only clothing as that is gender promotion / instruction.    But all that is ignored with a wink and a nod because everyone understands these are targeted to stop acceptance of gay and trans or other LGBTQ+ kids / people.  It is to stop kids who are different from seeing themselves in books or movies, making it seem they are wrong, evil, sick, or just not to be tolerated in the US society.  It is to promote hetero straight society and remove those who don’t fit that mold.   It is to roll back all the advancements in society.   These same people will target blacks and native people next to be removed.  Also what is social-emotional learning.  That is anti-bullying and programs to promote tolerance of those that are different.   It is about being kind and civil to others.   That is what these republican maga haters are desperate to prevent.  They don’t want kids taught to be nice to others, but they want their kids to be allowed even encouraged to attack and target those who are different from them.   They don’t want non-straight kids to feel safe, they want them scared and in hiding.   I am tired of the attacks, and the clear assault on the rights of people to just be who they really are that harms no one.   Just as straight people are born straight so are gay kids / trans kids.  But these republicans insist that everyone be just like them and that only they have rights.     We must fight to stop what the right is doing to harm the kids and people in our country.   One republican Governor said on the news that there seems to be more trans people now and he did not understand that, maybe kids were being pushed into it.  But that has been debunked.   Has he thought that kids who were not being targeted for how they felt about themselves felt free to express it?  These republicans don’t want information they want to run on feelings, impressions, and misinformation that reenforce their feelings that it is not a true thing.    One republican on the panel said that rather than letting kids change their hair and go by a different name that they should be forced into mental health treatments.  Hugs

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds proposes a wide range of changes for schools including restrictions on LGBTQ topics, new history class requirements and a process to restrict access to certain books.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled a sweeping education bill Thursday that would set new standards for what students can and can’t learn. It also establishes more control for parents over their children’s education. Here’s what’s in the bill:

Restrictions on topics involving gender identity and sexual orientation

 

The bill would ban any instruction related to gender identity and sexual activity in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, charter schools and innovation zone schools in grades K-3.

Schools would not be able to provide any program, curriculum, material, test, survey, questionnaire, activity, announcement, promotion, or instruction of any kind relating to gender identity or sexual activity in grades K-3.

Schools would be required to tell parents any information their child shares with a teacher or staff member about their gender identity if what the student expresses is different from the “biological sex” listed on their birth certificate.

The bill does provide an exception if a school district believes that notifying the parent or guardian would lead to a case of child abuse. In that instance, the school district does not need to notify the parent but would be required to immediately report the safety concerns to the department of health and human services. The department would then determine whether the child is in need of assistance.

Parents would have to give schools written permission for teachers or any school employee to use a nickname or pronoun that does not match the biological sex listed on their child’s birth certificate.

Removing books from schools

The bill would require each school district to publish online all materials used in all classes throughout the district, all employees in direct contact with students, all books available in classrooms and school libraries, and a detailed process for parents to request any material be removed.

Districts would be required to update that information two times a semester or at the start of each trimester.

Any book removed from a school would be put on a statewide “removal list” maintained by the Iowa Department of Education. The “comprehensive removal list” would be available online, updated every month and sortable by the book’s title, author and the school districts that have removed the book from school libraries, classrooms or any areas on school property.

A school district must receive written parental permission before allowing a student to check out or access any book that is on the statewide removal list.

Establishes ‘parental rights’

The bill establishes that “a parent or guardian bears the ultimate responsibility, and has the constitutionally protected right, to make decisions affecting the parent’s or guardian’s minor child, including decisions related to the minor child’s medical care, moral upbringing, religious upbringing, residence, education, and extracurricular activities.”

Schools would be required to receive parental permission for students to attend any activity or instruction provided by a guest lecturer or outside presenter or any activity or instruction that involves obscene or sexually explicit material.

If school districts break that rule, they could face fines of up to $5,000.

Changes to the social studies curriculum

The bill would require all Iowa high school students to take a U.S. citizenship test, and schools would be required to provide the results to the Department of Education.

High school students would need to answer at least 70% of the questions to graduate. Students can continue to retake the citizenship test until they earn a passing grade.

Removing HPV from health curriculum

The bill would remove the current requirement that Iowa schools teach seventh-grade through 12th-grade students instruction related to human papillomavirus and the availability of a vaccine to prevent HPV.

Restrictions on social-emotional learning

Schools would be required to receive written parent permission in order for a student to take any survey or test that evaluates mental, emotional, or physical health that is not required by state or federal law.

Teachers would have to give parents written notice at least seven days before any test or survey that evaluates their child’s mental, emotional, or physical health.

Brutal Persecution of Lesbians under Nazi Regime – Rape, Beatings & Murders – Nazi Germany – WW2

Brutal Persecution of Lesbians under Nazi Regime Rape, Beatings & Murders Nazi Germany. During the Weimar Republic, German society experienced complex social, political, and cultural transformations. Meeting places advertised in a new lesbian press that emerged in the mid-1920s and lesbian journals also contributed to the growth of lesbian networks. Public discussions of sexuality had occurred in Germany since the late 19th century. Physician and sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld as well as others organized gay and lesbian “friendship leagues”, which also included heterosexual members.

Large numbers of Germans were opposed to these public discussions of sex and sexuality. They viewed such debates as decadent, overly permissive, and immoral. Even before coming to power, many Nazis resented the visibility of gay and lesbian communities.

Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on the 30th of January 1933.

Beginning in 1933, the Nazi regime began to harass gay and lesbian communities and individuals by shutting down and raiding their meeting places and organizations. By eliminating gay and lesbian gathering places and presses, the regime made it far more difficult for lesbians and gay men to connect with each other and the Nazis effectively dissolved the communities that had developed during the Weimar Republic.

Over the course of the 1930s, Nazi actions targeting male homosexuality became even more systematically oppressive. In 1935, the Nazi regime reformed Paragraph 175. The statute now criminalized any and all sexual intimacy between men.

Eventually, SS leader Heinrich Himmler took the lead in persecuting male homosexuality, which he called a “public scourge.” In 1936, Himmler created the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion.

However, the Nazi regime never criminalized sexual relations between women as it saw lesbians, first and foremost, as women. The Nazis believed that German women had a special task to perform: motherhood. They had a responsibility to give birth to racially pure Germans, called “Aryans.” The Nazis did not create any separate policies that singled out lesbians as a problem for Aryan procreation. Their reasoning drew on widespread attitudes about the differences between male and female sexuality. The Nazis concluded that Aryan lesbians could easily be persuaded or forced to bear children. During the Nazi regime, lesbians could not continue to live and socialize as they had during the Weimar Republic.

There were lesbians who joined underground anti-Nazi resistance groups or helped hide Jews.

Such was a case of Frieda Belinfante, a half-Jewish lesbian, who was a member of Dutch gay resistance group called the CKC.

The reason why some lesbians were arrested and sent to concentration camps was, that they were arrested as members of other groups such as Jews, Roma, asocials, political prisoners and professional criminals.

In lesbian prisoners’ paperwork, concentration camp authorities usually listed a racial, political, social, or criminal reason as the primary cause for their arrest. In a few cases, the authorities also noted their sexuality.

Such was a case of Henny Schermann, a Jewish lesbian from Germany. Sometimes their arrest had little or nothing to do with the fact that they were lesbians. At other times, their sexuality may have played a role. This was especially the case regarding arrests prompted by denunciations. Yet, denunciations could cause unwanted scrutiny for lesbians. To such women belonged Elli Smula and Margarete Rosenberg.

Between 5,000 and 15,000 men were imprisoned in concentration camps as “homosexual” offenders. This group of prisoners was typically required to wear a pink triangle badge sewn onto their camp uniforms. According to many survivor accounts, pink triangle male prisoners were among the most abused groups in the camps.

However, women who self-identified or were identified as lesbians did not wear the pink triangle. Same-sex relations in the camps could be shocking to other prisoners, who came from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. Homosexual prisoners rarely benefited from solidarity from the other prisoners, which for many camp inmates provided tools of survival, such as access to food and clothing.

To this day, it remains a research challenge to find historical sources related to lesbian experiences under the Nazi regime.

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CPAC Leader’s wife BLAMES LIBERALS for Husband’s Sex Scandal as Texas Paul Exposes NEW LEAKED TEXTS

After CPAC Leader Matt Schlapp was accused of sexual assault of a male Herschel Walker staffer, both the CPAC organization and Matt Schlapp’s wife, Mercedes Schlapp, have decided to blame…liberals. Texas Paul reacts.

Brutal Torture of Gay Men under Nazi Regime – Nazi Germany

Please notice the similarities of what the Nazis did with what DeathSantis and the republican leaders in red states are doing now with the don’t say gay laws.  The Nazis started with getting rid of the literature and any gay positive news or newspapers.  They made laws restricting and outlawing gay meeting places just like the red states are doing with drag queen shows.  Also they made gay associations and gay supporting groups to disband and forbid them from existing just like in Florida where no gay straight alliance clubs can now be formed in schools supporting the gay / LGBTQ+ kids.  There is so much more in the video that shows how DeathSantis and his advisors are following the Nazi play book to eliminate the LGBTQ+ community, to rid the state of the gay and trans people.   Such as using thugs called Brown Shirts to attack and scare gay establishments which reminds me of the Proud Boys gangs.  Arresting and stopping events claiming they were preventing crime and if they got a gay person in the arrests or anyone with any public indecency in their record they made a big deal of making an example of them, claiming the need to protect the public and the children.   One of the reasons that the Nazis hated the gays was they did not produce Aryan children which was the goal of the movement.  Similar to the current white nationalist / Christian nationalist that claim that same sex marriage is not a true marriage and that same sex families are not real because same sex couples can not produce offspring.   In their minds there is not enough white kids being born.   Please note the same things said about homosexuality then are the same things said about gays today by republicans, including what the religious evangelicals today say about same sex marriage not producting children.   Hugs

George Santos Apparently Planned To Commit Bigamy

George Santos Apparently Planned To Commit Bigamy

 

Of all the things this piece of pond scum has been accused of doing or lying about this is not one I care about other than it seems it was an illegal marriage to allow an end run around immigration laws.   As for family groupings and relationships that are adult and consensual in my opinion it is not one’s business except the people involved.   Mind your own business is the way I look at it.   If multiple people want to be in a consensual relationship with each other why should anyone else care.   I don’t.   Why should the government be involved in regulating how many people can be in love or which adults can have consensual sex?  And absolutely no religion has a say in how non-members arrange their relationships or sexual encounters.    Hugs

The Daily Beast reports:

Two years into his mysterious marriage to a woman—and five years before they divorced—George Santos invited friends to celebrate his engagement to a man, The Daily Beast has learned. “Good evening everyone! As you all may already know Pedro and I have decided to join our toothbrushes! Lol and a very few friends have been selected to share this special moment with us!” Santos wrote in a 2014 Facebook “engagement dinner” invitation.

The invitation was shared with The Daily Beast by Santos’ old roommate, Greg Morey-Parker, and the boyfriend, Pedro Vilarva, confirmed that the future congressman planned the celebration. Vilarva told The Daily Beast the engagement party “never happened” because he rejected Santos’ proposals. “He asked me 3x but I didn’t accept it,” Vilarva wrote in a text. “There was never a party [or] anything in regards to it.”

Read the full article.

Same-sex marriage became legal in New York state in July 2011. Santos’ divorce was finalized in 2020 two weeks before he filed paperwork to run for the US House.

According to Santos’ former roommate, Santos told him he could make money by marrying a Brazilian woman so that she could obtain US citizenship.

SkokieDaddy – wiener dog dada day ago

A man who was 18 years old when he began dating and then moved in with George Santos—while the future congressman was married to a woman—says he was lied to, too.

“He used to say he would get money from Citigroup, he was an investor,” Pedro Vilarva told The New York Times of his 2014 romance with Santos, who was then 26. “One day it’s one thing, one day it’s another thing. He never ever actually went to work.”

Vilarva said Santos once gave him tickets to Hawaii that did not exist—and then he found out he was wanted on theft charges in Brazil.

“I woke up in the morning, and I packed my stuff all in trash bags, and I called my father and I left,” he said.

https://www.thedailybeast.c…

Do Straight Men Enjoy Gay Sex? – Dr Joe Kort

In this episode we chat with sexologist, author, social worker Dr Joe Kort about male sexuality and sex. We discuss – Gay sex – What is sexual fluidity? – What does non-binary mean? – Porn, good or bad? – The problem of men, sex & shame – Homosexual attractions in straight men – What does it mean to be gay & bi – What is sex therapy?

Connect with Dr Joe Kort

IL Baptist Pastor Arrested On Child Grooming Charges

IL Baptist Pastor Arrested On Child Grooming Charges

I am posting this for the tic Tok video where the person lays it out how it is in the churches where the real grooming takes place, not schools or library book, nor drag queens reading stories.  Hugs

 

The Baptist Press reports:

A pastor from McLeansboro, Ill., was arrested Jan. 5 on two counts of grooming minors for sexual purposes. Garrett Biggerstaff was charged after a four-month investigation that included the seizure of his electronic devices and collection of evidence at his home.

Biggerstaff was taken into custody and booked at the Jefferson County Jail. His bond was set for $150,000.

Biggerstaff, 28, was employed by the Spring Garden School District in Ina, Ill., at the time, but he resigned when the investigation became public in November. He was also the pastor of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Fairfield. The church suspended Biggerstaff immediately.

Read the full article. The TikTok user below has something to say about this one.

https://twitter.com/LanceRYPU/status/1611891375288770561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1611891375288770561%7Ctwgr%5E036164dd16fd102ca2f2a879cf1a8aedce105f85%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joemygod.com%2F2023%2F01%2Fil-baptist-pastor-arrested-on-child-grooming-charges%2F

 

Randy5033 minutes ago

She really nails it! Bravo!

rednekokie23 minutes ago

Okay — how many of these since the first of the year??????

https://twitter.com/JoeMyGod/status/1613268992902176773?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1613268992902176773%7Ctwgr%5Ee0c21671694a99ce948202d4d515abe97d26958d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Djoemygodt_i%3D39283120https3A2F2Fwww.joemygod.com2F3Fp3D392831t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fwww.joemygod.com2F20232F012Fil-baptist-pastor-arrested-on-child-grooming-charges2Ft_e%3DIL20Baptist20Pastor20Arrested20On20Child20Grooming20Chargest_d%3DIL20Baptist20Pastor20Arrested20On20Child20Grooming20Chargest_t%3DIL20Baptist20Pastor20Arrested20On20Child20Grooming20Chargess_o%3Ddefaultversion%3D6333b8c1c426cdcf85e997fce9c86820

Rebecca Gardner3 hours ago

Still no Drag Queens or LGBT folks grooming children. It’s always the fucking ChristoNazis.

Halou3 hours ago

The moral panic against drag and trans people is being used as an excuse to look the other way when members of the clergy get caught.

Longpole Galvestonian2 hours ago

It will take lawsuits and TV commercials about rape by clergyman. Lawyers talking about the cover up of abuse and how to fight back in order reach most people and create awareness.
The news media has failed to get the message out on this danger in the churches.

Darreth Longpole2 hours ago

All of that would have to happen for years to even make a dent. It’s very public how many diocese’ have gone bankrupt due to sexual abuse issues and still parents send their children off to the rectory unsupervised.

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️ Galvestonian3 hours ago

Because the faith addict never likes to admit their addiction…
And to do so publicly is tantamount to suicide for their faith.

cheakamus Galvestonian3 hours ago

Absolutely. If people in small communities who rarely read the news began putting two and two together are realized that the problem starts in their own churches, we might begin to have some action on this front. It wasn’t until the accusations against the Catholic Church went mainstream that priests and other church employees began to be held accountable. Now do the Evangelicals!

Raging Bee JoeMyGod4 hours ago

If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and really wants to talk to us, then how would it even be possible to “remove God from a society?”

Nic Peterson4 hours ago

Dear TikTok lady, I love you but you need to understand that they don’t care about children being abused in churches. Why not, because to point that out would hurt the feefees of churchy people and just like some white folk don’t want to be made uncomfortable because of our shared history, many christians would like the same treatment when it comes to the wholesale sexual abuse of children and others at the hands of religious leaders.

Please keep it up though. Many hands make big work small.

bambinoitaliano Nic Peterson3 hours ago

I think her question at the end of the video was meant to be rhetorical.

What, me worry?4 hours ago

I have yet to see a mug shot of a drag queen who was arrested for molesting or “grooming” children. And you know that we would definitely see it if it ever happened.

sex panic

The second-poorest state in the nation just made monitoring people’s porn viewing habits its top priority

https://www.queerty.com/second-poorest-state-country-just-made-policing-adult-videos-online-top-priority-20230109

What makes these people so afraid of sex?   Why do they think teens / young adults were not just as horny in the 1950s as they are in the 2020s?   How much better to just explain porn to kids starting at about ten years old.   Explain it is not real, explain about consent, and as the kids age explain their feelings, desires, needs, and conception because teens and young people are going to have sex.   They really are, and they have forever.   The body is driven to it and unless you give them an outlet for that need, they will do it the most risky way as that normally is what young people do.   The most risky stuff.   Hugs

adult-video-sexual-content-louisiana-drivers-lisence-id-identification Young man is sitting in bed and watching movie on laptop

Louisiana web users who want to view adult content must now provide a valid driver’s license or state ID to prove they’re above 18 years of age, thanks to a new state law that recently went into effect.

And while that might sound funny, Republicans want to pass a similar law nationwide.

The law, House Bill 142 (HB 142), says that any commercial website containing 33.3 percent or more of sexually explicit material must “perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material.” While all popular adult websites haven’t instituted age checks yet, if they don’t, they can be sued for non-compliance.

The bill was introduced by anti-LGBTQ+ state Rep. Laurie Schlegel, a woman who introduced legislation banning transgender kids from playing on school sports teams matching their gender identities.

Schlegel’s HB 142 says, “[Sexual content] is creating a public health crisis and having a corroding influence on minors.” It also blames adult content for “the hypersexualization of teens and prepubescent children… low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior.”

The bill also says sexual content may “impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.”

Louisiana is the second-poorest state in the country, with 17.4% of its population at or below the poverty line. It also has the second-highest rate of childhood poverty, with 26.8% of its children living at or below the poverty line. And this is what state lawmakers there are currently focused on.

Web viewers will have to enter information from their IDs into a third-party verification system that claims not to store the user data.

Schlegel says the bill is meant to protect children rather than penalize adults. However, if web viewers feel scared about entering their personal information into a verification system, they may turn to lesser-known websites that feature illegal content, one researcher worries.

Olivia Snow — a sex worker, professor, and research fellow at UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry — told TechCrunch, “[The law is] really just further marginalizing sex workers, which I think is going to be the primary effect. I imagine this means that there will be an increased black market of premium [sexual] content that’s non-consensually disseminated.”

If Schlegel’s bill sounds ridiculous, don’t laugh. It may actually be a sign of things to come.

In November 2022, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced a bill that would revise the federal definition of “obscenity” to essentially criminalize any web users who view or share “obscene” images online.

“The definition for obscenity [under Lee’s law is] so broad that it would encompass almost all sexual speech now legal,” adult industry advocacy group Free Speech Coalition (FSC) Director of Public Affairs Mike Stabile told The Mary Sue.

“It would also criminalize fans who share content, or couples who sext or share intimate images on dating apps. People don’t think of themselves as ‘[sexual content] distributors,’ but under this bill, even retweeting adult content or DMing a dick pic is a criminal act. The headlines are about [sexual adult content], but this bill criminalizes sex,” Stabile added.

Report: 188 Catholic clergy members in Kansas are alleged predators

https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/report-188-catholic-clergy-members-in-kansas-are-alleged-predators/

Damn, Damn, Damn!   Joe My God had two of these today.   All religious leaders but not a single one a drag queen or a trans person.   This one left me raw, maybe because it is late and I had a rough day but more likely if I admit the truth because of what the victims said.  I admit that I had to stop reading after that and go get an alcohol filled drink.  Even Odie who is sacked out on my desk lifted his head to look at me when I let out my gasp of anguish at this.   I won’t be graphic but those who have not been taken against their will / wishes really don’t understand the feelings those things bring up in those of us who have.  Even typing this I have had to wipe the tears from my eyes and blow my nose.   And this is not in anyway graphic!  It is just I can fill in the gaps, I know … Damn I know and at nearly 60 years old I still cannot forget.  Anyway it is a worthwhile read.   Hugs

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation also cited 400 alleged victims of Catholic sexual abuse since 1950
 
Avatar photoby HEMANT MEHTA

 

 
Report: 188 Catholic clergy members in Kansas are alleged predators | Catholic priest with hands on his head
Catholic priest with hands on his head (image via Shutterstock)
Reading Time: 3 MINUTES

 

Afour-year investigation into Kansas’ Catholic churches has found 188 alleged predators suspected of committing “aggravated criminal sodomy, rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child and aggravated sexual battery.”

The report also says there were 400 victims of sexual abuse in the Kansas archdioceses since 1950, but in most of those cases, either the clergy member has died or the statute of limitations has long expired.

The [Kansas Bureau of Investigation] originally focused on reports of clergy sexual abuse in the state’s four Roman Catholic dioceses — Wichita, Salina, Dodge City and Kansas City, Kansas. It later expanded to include the Society of St. Pius X, a breakaway Catholic group known for its traditional Latin Mass with a large branch in St. Marys in northeast Kansas.

Some of the victims withheld vital information from investigators because they said they had signed non-disclosure agreements. In many cases, the report said, Church leaders failed to report allegations of abuse to law enforcement, failed to keep records of those allegations, and failed to conduct thorough internal investigations.

And, just as you’d suspect, there were instances where accused priests were merely shuffled to another parish while remaining on the Church’s payroll.

It’s a predictable yet troubling account of what we’ve seen in state after state ever since attorneys general began taking these matters seriously. After a Pennsylvania grand jury report came out in 2018, the floodgates opened. In some states, laws were enacted to put power back into the hands of victims by reopening a window for filing sexual abuse lawsuits that had previously been closed due to statutes of limitations. It’s not clear how Kansas politicians will act moving forward.

Whatever they do, if they do anything, it’ll be too late for some:

A few of the victims the task force dealt with were in prison and attributed that in part to the sexual abuse they’d endured as children, the report said.

“Our agents witnessed men, now in their 60s and 70s, break down in tears as they reported their sexual abuse to our team,” it said. “In many cases they have never previously disclosed the sexual abuse to anyone.

“Many times the victims thought they were the only victim of the offending priest. Following appropriate investigative interviews and actions, some victims learned for the first time they were not the only one the priest had abused.”

Some of the alleged victims had also died by suicide.

There are a couple of silver linings, that is if there can really be any in a situation like this.

One is that this investigation was requested by a Republican attorney general (Derek Schmidt), in response to a request from Kansas City Archdiocese Archbishop Joseph Naumann, which came after lawyers identified 15 clergy members who “warranted further investigation.” The people who may seem least likely to take these matters seriously did the right thing, though it’s possible public pressure had a lot to do with that.

The other is that the Church appears to be taking these matters more seriously. Too little, too late, no doubt, but it’s something. The allegations are more likely to have occurred decades ago than recently. That said, only a few dozen priests accused of abuse have been identified by name by the four dioceses in Kansas. The report suggests there are many more where those came from.

I would also highlight the report’s list of how the Catholic Church, despite cooperating with the KBI, hindered the investigation. The KBI cites non-disclosure agreements, Church officials using language that “minimized the seriousness or severity” of abuse, a failure to report abuse allegations to law enforcement, a lack of “transparent communication” with parishioners about the allegations, horrible recordkeeping policies, inadequate internal investigations, and an inability to hold people accountable for their roles in the abuse.

We knew a lot of those things already, but that means the Church’s willingness to assist with the investigation was hampered by the Church’s own actions in the past. The people who (sometimes unintentionally) destroyed evidence shouldn’t get much credit for supposedly opening their doors wide open to investigators.

As of now, no criminal charges have been filed in the 30 cases where the task force submitted affidavits. That’s likely because there are some hurdles (including death) that prosecutors can’t overcome. Justice will not be served in those cases.

Which means the only real consequence the Catholic Church in Kansas will ever face is the exodus of worshipers who call themselves Catholic. If you’re a Kansan who still attends or supports the Catholic Church with your time or money, you’re complicit in their actions. It’s not too late to break ties. Tradition is no excuse to prop up a criminal institution. If that leads to more of these dioceses going bankrupt, no one who cares about the victims is going to shed a tear. The Church has enough property and stashed artwork to sell to cover the costs of the trauma they’ve inflicted upon victims.

It’s long past time for the Catholic Church in Kansas (and everywhere else for that matter) to suffer for what it’s done to members. 

Avatar photo

HEMANT MEHTA

Hemant Mehta is the founder of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, podcast co-host, and author of multiple books about atheism. He can be reached at @HemantMehta. 

Is the Right to Contraception About To End in America?

https://hartmannreport.com/p/is-the-right-to-contraception-about?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share

My dogs that love gravy please make no mistake in thinking what these people are driving hard for.  It is not the 1950s as most of us assume, but for these die hard Christian white male power nationalists the goal is the 1850s.    Hugs

As of last week, Republican efforts to ban birth control in America have officially started, and teenagers in Texas are its first victims

 

Thom Hartmann
 
 
 
 
Image by Thomas Breher from Pixabay

To paraphrase Pastor Niemöller, first they came for our abortion rights. Now they’re coming for our birth control.

Psychologist Dr. Marty Klein notes at Psychology Today that there are typically only a few reasons why people oppose birth control. They are:

— Fundamentalist religions fear sexual pleasure, which birth control facilitates
— Contraception effectively limits family size, empowering women
— Contraception promotes personal autonomy [making women more likely to challenge male authority]
— Birth control may make abortion more acceptable to society

As of last week, Republican efforts to ban birth control in America have officially started, and teenagers in Texas are its first victims.

When Clarence Thomas wrote in his Dobbs concurring opinion that the Supreme Court should next overturn the right to birth control in the United States, a lawyer and a judge in Texas were apparently listening.

Most Americans have no idea this high-stakes drama — heading toward the Supreme Court but already now law in Texas — is even going on.

Lost in the Christmas holiday chatter, a Trump-appointed federal district judge in Texas just a week ago put a stop to teenagers getting confidential access to federally-funded birth control pills and devices in that state.

He did it based on a lawsuit filed by attorney Jonathan Mitchell, the same man who co-authored the Texas “abortion vigilante” law. Everybody ridiculed that effort at first, you’ll recall, but the Supreme Court upheld it and today it’s Texas law and spreading across Red states like a fungus.

Mitchell is also known as the guy who supported the Mississippi abortion ban before the Supreme Court that led to the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade.

Perhaps anticipating Clarence Thomas’ later call to overturn Supreme Court decisions legalizing birth control,  homosexual behavior, and gay marriage (Griswold v Connecticut, Lawrence v Texas, Obergefell v Hodges), Mitchell even wrote in his amicus brief for the Dobbs case an originalist reference similar to the argument the Texas judge would later make against birth control:

“The right to marry an opposite-sex spouse is ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’; the right to marry a same-sex spouse obviously is not.”

In the Texas federal lawsuit Mitchell brought, Deanda v. Becerra, Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that teens between 15 and 18 shouldn’t be able to make birth control decisions independent of their parents because, he ruled, that had always been the law in the early years of America:

“For centuries, the common law held minors were incapable of giving consent to make important life decisions.”

Somehow, he managed to overlook the fact that the age of sexual consent “for centuries” was, in every American state from the founding of this nation in 1789, 10 to 12 years old. It wasn’t raised to 14, 15, or 16 in any US state until the 1930s.

But don’t try to argue facts with people running on religious or male-power arguments.

Although the fight for women’s bodily autonomy is as old as time, this part of the story begins in 1970.

Richard Nixon had a reputation as an awkward, bumbling prude when it came to sex, but even he knew that teenagers should be able to get birth control without their parents’ consent.

A teenage pregnancy could destroy a young woman’s life, and, at that time, over one-in-ten girls became pregnant between 15 and 19 years old. Fully 92 percent of those teenage pregnancies, according to research published in the following decade, were unintended and could have been prevented with access to birth control.

So, in 1970, President Nixon signed into law Title X, a federal grant program that included funds for confidential access to birth control for people across the nation regardless of their age.

Nonprofit agencies were formed in each state to receive the federal money and provide birth control (among other services): in Texas “Every Body Texas” is the group that administers Title X statewide through 32 agencies and 156 clinics.

The week of Christmas, because of Kacsmaryk’s Deanda v. Becerraruling, Texas agencies affiliated with Every Body Texas learned they had to start turning away teenagers, virtually all of them girls and women, who were seeking confidential birth control.

This is now the law in Texas.

Picking up the beat, Republican legislators in Missouri, Idaho, and Louisiana have introduced or are proposing birth control bans in those states, according to the Pew Trust. Expect Republicans in your state to soon try the same.

Lest you think that hyperbolic, consider how Republicans in the US House and Senate voted when Democrats introduced the Right to Contraception Actimmediatelyafter Clarence Thomas suggested the Court should overturn that right.

Fully 195 Republicans voted against the legislation in the House; only 8 supported it. And when it reached the Senate, it was killed by a Republican filibuster.

The Deanda v. Becerradecision in Texas banning confidential dispensing of contraception to teenagers will be appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, known across the nation as the place most likely to uphold crackpot rightwing rulings. From there it goes to the six crackpot rightwingers on the Supreme Court.

Republicans appear quite fixated on banning both abortion and birth control nationwide.

Authoritarian societies have a long history of trying to regulate women’s bodies.

The first books the Nazis burned in May of 1933 were birth control guides by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, shortly before Hitler banned birth control in that nation (soldiers were allowed to possess condoms “to maintain their good health”).

Birth control was similarly banned in Romania by Nicolae Ceaușescu, bringing that nation Europe’s highest infant mortality rate and lowest life expectancy (particularly for women), a legacy which continues to this day even though Ceaușescu was overthrown and killed in 1989.

And now the GOP wants to ban birth control in the United States, starting with the youngest and most vulnerable among us. Authoritarians, after all, always first attack those least able to defend themselves before they climb the ladder of the society they intend to conquer.

This opening shot — coming out of Texas, just like the first ban on abortion (and from the same lawyer) — should make all Americans sit up and take notice.