"1/50K know your bridges." Is an organizational code for county level insurrection. This man, who already sought a pardon for the Jan 6 insurrection, is organizing a revolt against the government on Twitter right now. Republicans are active traitors & a threat to our democracy. https://t.co/MDFTpsCkV7
— A New York Observer (@NewYorkHistory) June 9, 2023
Category: Terrorism
Small town Pride organizer forced to flee state after “groomer” group targeted him
Domestic terrorism against the public by religious gang brownshirt thug enforcers of the conservative wing. Please notice this is entirely religious driven, using Christian fundamentalist talking point. They are desperate to turn the secular US in to a religious Christian theocracy with their own moral police and Taliban enforcers. They are demanding the right of superior privilege for their religion yet deny any rights to others or other faiths. Notice also thewy changed their name to protecting the children to get more people to agree with their bigotry. Notice the leader of the religous group was asking for the pride leader to take down a old picture on his facebook page that said everyone should get laid once. Just that idea that people should be able to have enjoyable sex at least once was offencive to them. Hugs
Alex Keen wanted to show support for his local LGBTQ+ community. Now he’s afraid to even enter his home.
By Daniel Villarreal Friday, June 9, 2023
The downtown area of Connersville, IndianaPhoto: YouTube screenshot
Alex Keen, a 38-year-old gay man who grew up in the conservative rural Indiana town of Connersville (population 13,310), wanted to show support for his local LGBTQ+ community. So, last December, he founded a group called “Whitewater Pride” and later organized three events for this Pride Month.
Soon after announcing the events, two residents — Melissa Rose and her husband Andrew Rose — set up a now-defunct Facebook group called “Whitewater Groomer Removers,” which insinuated that Keen is a child sex abuser. Its members harassed his events’ sponsors. Keen has been followed in public by the group’s supporters and has gone into hiding. He now plans on moving out of the state, worried that someone will target him for violence.
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“I spent most of my life in the closet. I didn’t come out until I was 36. And so living in this community, surrounded by right-wing Christian conservatives, it’s hard to be gay, it’s hard to come out of the closet,” Keen told LGBTQ Nation. “I just wanted there to be some kind of organization, some kind of support for the LGBT community… Having that support system around us is very important.”
Keen’s group, which mostly consists of him and three board members, purchased a table at the May 15 Celebration in the Ville community fair. For Pride Month, his group planned two all-ages games nights at the local Fayette County Public Library, a drag night at a local bar named Ozzie’s on June 15, and an all-ages pool party at the Roberts Park Family Aquatic Center on June 30.
But on April 29, Ozzie’s bar canceled the event after people complained, Keen said. LGBTQ Nation contacted the bar for comment. The adults-only event didn’t have any drag queens booked. Instead, it offered a $50 award to the attendee wearing the best drag.
Around the same time, Keen became aware of a Facebook group named “Whitewater Groomer Removers.” One of its members linked to Keen’s personal Facebook page, and another wrote, “Sick… Let’s make him famous for trying to groom children.”
Andrew Rose posted an image of Pantera’s album Vulgar Display of Power that showed a man being punched in the face.
Rose wrote, “The vibe of this song is the vibe I’m going for with this group…. I refuse to allow these freaks impost their will in my community…. I plan to protest every event put on by the suspected child grooming operation known as ‘whitewater pride’ (as well as any other group promoting the same degeneracy) & I’m going to need A LOT of good people behind me. I crated this group to organize & discuss such matters.”
Melissa Rose posted an image of a late March edition of the local newspaper, the Connersville News Examiner, specifically an article mentioning Whitewater Pride’s efforts. She told her group’s members to call the paper and complain, stating, “We don’t want this group sexualizing and grooming our children in Fayette County.”
LGBTQ Nation contacted the Roses for comment.
One of their group’s members reposted an image from Whitewater Pride’s Facebook group announcing its three Pride Month events. Commenters wrote, “Pride is a sin in the eyes of God! And everything associated with it,” “Our kids are targeted by the left,” “Yes they are! Bas**rds are everywhere,” “Shame on all of them.”
When Keen looked through the group’s members, he recognized about a third of its members, including a person who regularly cut his lawn. He knew some of these people from around town. A week after discovering the group, he stopped staying at his home. Ever since, he has stayed at a friend’s place about 10 minutes away.
“It’s got to the point it’s affecting me physically,” he said. “I usually wake up and throw up in the morning, not really eating anything.”
By May 5, “Whitewater Groomer Removers” changed its name to “Protecting Our Children.” Its banner image showed a white man rolling up his sleeves.
As the May 15 Celebration in the Ville community fair approached, Melissa Rose sent messages to Sassy Peacock Events, the fair’s organizer, discouraging them from allowing Whitewater Pride to host a table at the event. She claimed that the group wants to allow pornography in schools, let “men be able to use girls’ locker rooms and restrooms,” and legalize the “mutilation of children under the age of 18” (even though gender-affirming genital surgeries aren’t conducted on minors).
At this point, Whitewater Pride’s Facebook page only contained posts about respecting people’s pronouns, Indiana’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, suicide and bullying statistics for queer youth, a bio of Stonewall veteran Marsha P. Johnson, announcements of upcoming game nights, a call for volunteers, and posts recognizing International Women’s Day and the International Transgender Day of Visibility.
“They are most certainly trying to set up a stronghold of far left sexually inappropriate ideologies for children,” Melissa Rose wrote to Sassy Peacock Events. “These are all of the issues that they are fighting for, on the side of evil, and that is ver much going to be devisive in a Conservative, Christian family oriented community. They should not even be trying to do all of this political activism while also trying to embed themselves in our community, under the guise of ‘helping kids to feel accepted.’… [They are] doing all of this work to indoctrinate confused kids.”
She demanded that Sassy Peacock Events allow her group to have a booth as well and suggested that she might stage a possible protest.
Though that protest never materialized, Sassy Peacock Events contacted the mayor’s office and local police anyway. In a public May 2 Facebook post, the organizer wrote, “There will be an extensive multi-departmental security presence Friday evening for set-up, through the night and all day Saturday till the end of the event. The whole downtown area has security cameras, there will be multiple drones capturing footage for us throughout the event as well.”
“We expect everyone to behave in a professional, respectful manner,” the organizer added. “Sassy Peacock Events has no tolerance for hate speech, disruptive displays, harassment, or protests.”
In early May, Whitewater Proud announced that it had received a grant from the Fayette Community Foundation, a local organization that funds local non-profit efforts, as well as small donations from a few other local businesses. The Roses’ followers called the foundation and those businesses to complain, Keen said.
During one of Whitewater Pride’s game nights at the Fayette County Public Library in early May, three older men from a “second amendment club” showed up to try and disrupt the event, the library staff told LGBTQ Nation. The men complained about the hour-long event, even though they’re poorly attended and held in a private room separate from the main library.
“It was all awful and I wish it hadn’t happened,” library staff said of the men’s appearance.
On May 15, Andrew and Melissa Rose confronted Keen at one of his library game nights. In a video of their conversation in the library’s lobby, Andrew Rose said it wasn’t right to “indoctrinate” children. He claimed that Keen’s group and game nights “encourage children.”
“They’re sitting there,” he said. “They’re watching, they’re observing.” At this time, however, no minors had ever attended the game night.
“God doesn’t think it’s right either,” Andrew Rose told Keen. When Keen told him that he was free to have his own religious beliefs, Andrew Rose said, “Well, LGBT is a religion.”
Melissa Rose told Keen that she and her husband are “super nice and calm and wouldn’t harm anyone” and that her online comments had no “context of anger, violence, or hatred behind them.” She claimed that Facebook commenters had called her group’s members’ employers to get them fired and that her son’s girlfriend had also been “targeted.”
“We’ve had people from all over the globe, LGBT, coming and then saying we are literally causing harm and violence and trying to eradicate their community,” she said.
Melissa Rose then expressed disappointment that Keen and his group didn’t publicly defend her group when a nearby Pride organization, Rainbow Richmond, made an April 28 Facebook post referring to the Roses’ group as an “active hate group.” Keen has no affiliation with Rainbow Richmond.
“You could have certainly approached [Rainbow Richmond] and said ‘Look, this really is just escalating the situation, All this is doing is just fueling the fire of hatred and ignorance,’” she told Keen. “We didn’t want to contribute to any sort of disruption in the community or make you guys feel threatened in any way.”
She also admitted that she took down her group’s page when she “realized it was getting so much attention.” She then asked if Keen would make a statement against her group being called a hate group.
“I started hysterically laughing,” said Jama Sullivan, a local straight ally who was present during the discussion. “I was like, ‘First of all, we’re not doing that. Second of all, you are bigots…. I told her, ‘You started a fire and you’re getting burned a little from the flames, and you want us to put it out? Like, no, it doesn’t work that way.’”
Sullivan said she too has been publicly identified and targeted by Roses’ followers because of her support for Whitewater Pride.
“I put cameras all around my property because now we’re worried because you’ve targeted us,” Sullivan said she told the Roses. “It takes one person you’ve triggered, one person to come to my home and shoot at my house. I have a child there. So no, we will not put out a public statement on your behalf. You’re an idiot.”
When another person asked Melissa Rose why their respective groups can’t just co-exist, Rose said, “You can exist. No one’s trying to stop you.”
Melissa Rose then said that she doesn’t think that it’s appropriate for Keen to say he supports children because his personal Facebook page contained a photo, taken years ago at the Coachella Music Festival, of something that said, “Everyone should get laid once.”
“I think you should delete that,” Rose told Keen. He told her that he had already deleted that post.
During the conversation, Sullivan said she pointed out to the Roses that the U.S. Catholic Church has been accused of hundreds of thousands of child sex abuse cases.
“You’re not at our local Catholic school saying, ‘Get these kids out of here. They’re not safe,’” Sullivan told the couple. “You’re the library attacking adults. I mean, there’s not even children here. It’s just adults in a room playing games.”
“In Connersville,” Sullivan said, “we have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state of Indiana, one of the highest unemployment rates in the state of Indiana. We have one of the highest drug uses in the state of Indiana. Connersville is ranked like 92 out of 100 in the healthiest cities in Indiana. The education system is suffering dramatically. The rate of high school dropouts is astronomical.”
She recently advised a lesbian friend against moving to the town because she’d likely be targeted with hate if she and her same-sex spouse walked into a Walmart store holding hands.
“So what can we do, as a community, to make people feel welcome to get them to stay here?” Sullivan asked rhetorically.
The Roses showed up again at June 5 Pride Month game night with three fellow protesters. Keen said they “got incredibly worked up” when four older teenagers showed up to play games.
“I heard one of them call me a coward when I walked away from them,” Keen said. He said that the protesters followed him to his car after the game night ended. Though he hasn’t personally received any death threats, Keen hasn’t returned to his home since early May. He plans on selling his house and moving out of state because he no longer feels safe.
He contacted several LGBTQ+ and Pride organizations around the state for advice on how to safely hold his events. Volunteers from other local Pride groups have said they’ll help with their security. That may come in handy, since the Roses have reportedly pledged to protest his June 30 pool party.
Despite the intimidation, Keen has added one extra event to his Pride Month plans: a June 28 march through Connersville on the 54th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
“I just want a combined show of strength that the LGBTQ community in the area has come together and is going to stand up to the people who want to bully us back into the closet,” Keen said.
Sullivan praised Keen when he first told her about his plans to start Whitewater Pride because she felt their community really needed it. But when Keen told her of his plans to leave the state, she said, “You can’t Alex, because they win. You’re letting them win.”
“I’m angry. I’m so angry,” she said. Keen told her that he doubted anyone would want to continue leading Whitewater Pride after he leaves because of all the hatred he’s endured.
“I think I’m going to tell him, I’ll [run his group] in the interim and take applications for a new director,” Sullivan said, “because I don’t want this to go away.”
Vandals Deface Seattle Mural Of Drag Icon Divine
I don’t know if the bigots that did this to a person’s home were driven by religious bigotry against the almost nude showing of the one woman’s boobs or the fact that a fully clothed Divine was also there, she was in a famous movie Hairspray and is a man in drag. I have no idea of their pronouns, and I apologize if I wrongly gendered them.
Regardless, this is a property crime. This is domestic terrorism causing harm to others for a political gain or point. No one had the right to do what these four individuals did, but due to their right wing or religious views, they felt they were entitled to do so. Their god’s happiness comes before the happiness or security of any human or people. The right demands total obedience to their views, or they feel free to hurt and harm those that won’t do as they say. This is how far the right has fallen into total fascism and dictatorship. Do as we demand, live as we tell you, or we destroy your home, and even threaten your health and life. It is very anti-democracy and the things the US use to be, but it is very much the way things went in the 1930s Germany. That was when Hitler supporting Brownshirts did just what the gang thugs enforcement arm of the Republicans are doing today, attacking those that resisted the restrictions and ascendancy of their preferred fascist leaders. It is a very scary time in the US as most people today don’t know or understand that history. Hugs
They were seen on surveillance taking their time to douse the mural for nearly five minutes. The paint rained down on the roof the art, the porch, and the windows. Nothing was spared.
The owners of the house say whoever did this seems intent on destroying iconic feminist images.
Every other time, the owners have been intent on restoring the murals. This time, the entire house will have to be repainted. Anyone with information is asked to call Seattle police.
Seattle’s CBS affiliate reports:
Vandals targeted an iconic mural in Seattle early Sunday morning, according to the homeowner and video from the scene. The home – located off Interstate 5 near the Northeast 65th Street exit – has a mural on an outside wall that faces the freeway featuring 1950s pinup model Bettie Page and historic drag queen Divine.
Just after midnight Sunday, suspects approached the home with what appeared to be pressurized containers with red paint, which they used to cover the mural and much of the house. They were seen on surveillance taking their time to douse the mural for nearly five minutes. The paint rained down on the roof, the art, the porch, and the windows. Nothing was spared.
Read the full article. Watch the video. The owner of the home and his wife say repairs might cost $20,000, but the mural will stay.
So here’s the 2 of them again, later that same evening…
Massive Brawl Erupts Outside California School Board As Extremist Groups Rage Over Pride Month Vote [VIDEO]
This is more information on the LA school board meeting that the enforcement arm of the right, the maga brownshirt gang thugs the right uses to terrorize the LGBTQ+ community along with other minorities. As I wrote in a reply to Roger, the maga brownshirts gangs don’t want any mention of the LGBTQ+ or pride. They don’t mind using violence and harming those that they disagree with, including trying to intimidate the board members by releasing their names with an implied threat. These people won’t be happy until every gay, trans, lesbian, or not straight cis person is removed from public view and society. They want the LGBTQ+ people hiding and scared to be outed. They want the Russia / Uganda laws against the LGBTQ+ community fully active and enforced today in the US, and they started this by claiming it was just to protect the kids same as those countries did. As if just the existence of gays or trans people are a threat to children somehow, many who are gay or trans themselves. Just being alive is a threat in their world view. Sound familiar? I remember some other country who had gangs that tried to remove a segment of the population and force them into hiding by violence and harm. Now a Fox host Jessie Waters is attacking Furries as sexualizing children just like the gays, trans, drag queens, and pride signs with rainbows. Why? Because they are looking and dressing different and having fun doing dress up. That is a fundamentalist religious person’s nightmare. They dread the idea that somewhere someone is having fun and being happy. They cannot tolerate that, the idea that someone is allowed to be different and happy. They think their god doesn’t want happy people who are doing their own thing, their god wants unhappy people who live their lives under strict codes that eliminates any free thought or acting different than the church doctrines. Hugs
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Three people were arrested Tuesday at protests held outside a meeting of the Glendale Unified School District board, where pro-and anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrators faced off over how schools teach gender and sexuality.
Law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly after fighting broke out outside the building, officials said. The situation temporarily disrupted the meeting, which was about an hour into public comments on an agenda item calling for recognition of June as Pride Month — which board members unanimously approved late in the evening.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of protesters had swarmed outside the building, some waving American flags and others waving Pride flags, with many documenting the scene with their smartphones. Those who were protesting the board’s LGBTQ+ policies chanted, “Leave our kids alone” while naming each of the five members of the board.
Los Angeles’s NBC affiliate reports:
Large barricades set up by Glendale Police to control crowds were seen containing hundreds of demonstrators outside of the Glendale Unified School District headquarters.
A dispersal order was issued around 6:15 p.m. as police were heard using a loudspeaker to order the crowds’ removal, declaring an unlawful assembly. A large barricade was placed in the middle of the parking lot, separating the two contentious groups.
While most of the protest remained peaceful, police said a “small group of individuals engaged in behavior deemed unsafe and a risk to public safety.” Officers were also heard saying they would not hesitate to use a chemical agent against the crowds.
Los Angeles’s ABC affiliate reports:
Footage from AIR7 HD captured the chaos as punches were thrown in the parking lot. After the skirmishes, police in riot gear kept pro-LGBTQ+ protesters and conservative groups separated. Three people were arrested for various charges, including allegedly using pepper spray and obstructing officers, according to the Glendale Police Department. Close to 500 people showed up at the protest at GUSD headquarters.
“While most of the protest was peaceful, a small group of individuals engaged in behavior deemed unsafe and a risk to public safety,” police said in a statement. A dispersal order was given just after 6 p.m. and additional police resources were requested “to ensure the safety of the Glendale community would not be compromised.” Board members later unanimously adopted the resolution to declare June as Pride Month.
You can count on it: This is coming soon to wherever you live.
Be prepared to stand against the hatemongers. We must, we absolutely must.
Welcome to Facebook Terrorism.
Check the background of those who chant “Leave our kids alone”. Chances are they are the one who are doing unimaginable things to their children and other people’s children. Also they are probably the ones who won’t leave the women bodies alone.
They probably don’t even have kids and just get off on being an agitator
Paid to show up.
They’re very careful not saying it, but my money is on the bigots using pepper spray and getting arrested…
Maybe. But don’t forget the cops might be on the side of the bigots.
The proper response was for the board to ignore “Meal Team 6” and the “Gravy Seals” agitation and go forward with declaring Pride Month. Ironically, all these Qtards did was reemphasize why Pride month declarations are necessary.
If any of the protesters are non-parents of kids in the school system it’s fair to assume they have travelled from elsewhere with the express purpose of causing trouble. There should be an extra charge brought against them.
There are Professional Trouble makers that make the rounds. The threat that close our local school months ago over a Satan Club here in Pennsylvania, came fro North Carolina.
All of this over pronouns?
Really?
You life is so well organized and so successful that this is what you decide to take a stand on?
Grow up.
Their new tactic seems to be the same as their old tactic. Equating us with child molesters seems to be their go to.
Now we have a new twist though. Apparently a declaration of pride is the same as teaching kids the mechanics of anal sex. This is the argument I’m getting from the idiots on the MSN boards. While I enjoy fucking other guys up the ass, we all know that being gay doesn’t immediately mean that all of us participate in that act. It also doesn’t mean that Pride is inherently sexual, nor is it a seminar of sexual instruction.
Pride has its own unique meaning to all of us, but for me, it means I can be proud of the person I am. I don’t have to feel ashamed of myself, which is the primary message of religion and society when it regards homosexuality. I don’t have to be ashamed of the people I love.
It says more about the other side that they are against pride than it says about me for being for it.
As usual conservatives are disgustingly void of empathy. It seems to be a requirement for membership in that group.
Psst. During the whole Purity Ring thing…they discovered anal sex.
They also discovered oral sex! O…M…G!
And this is what happens when homophobic MIS-information is shoveled out as fact. I doubt there is a teacher anywhere in the world that is making sexual preference or gender identity a part of their 3rd grade lesson plans – but the right wingers will use that to push their theo-facist agenda.
yes, the kids aren’t alright.
“Today we will be learning the times tables and how gays have sex in the butt since there is no vagina involved. I will also be handing out the Pride issue of Highlights where you should look at Goofus and Gallant, because who don’t like a bad boy once in a while?”
If it hasn’t been mentioned, this is the same group of antis who spearheaded last week’s Saticoy Elementary School protest against anything LGBT. Quite near by but different city, different school district, same Christians and Armenians plus the same t-shirts. Way to close to where I live. All over the Glendale School Board issuing a Pride month proclamation same as they have done for past 5 years. Now it’s all about grooming and how mentioning 2 moms or 2 dads is only about sexualizing children.
They are quickly getting bolder. I am a pessimist in how this ends. Fascism is rising faster and harder than any of us would have imagined 5 years ago when it felt like we were achieving positive acceptance and the hate group would have to grudgingly move on. It turns out that those who stoke their base instincts weren’t moving on at all. They weaponize the hate for financial gain in the fringe and social media.
Fascism has arisen at the same rate as Dominionism has taken charge of the GQP:
Anti-Pride Protests Are Turning Violent
Read more HERE: https://knock-la.com/anti-lgbtq-viole….
“An anti-LGBTQ+ protest was organized on Instagram after a Pride celebration was scheduled at Saticoy Elementary in North Hollywood. The Pride celebration included a book reading about different types of families. Shortly after the celebration was announced, someone broke into the school after-hours to steal a transgender teacher’s pride flag and burn it. The same teacher was also doxxed by right-wing activists.
Some news outlets have reported that the anti-LGBTQ+ event was planned by parents concerned with how sexual education is taught to young students. Knock LA attempted to interview some of these parents, but was met with silence or a negative response. Two young adult women on the anti-LGBTQ+ side said they were there because “it’s cool.”
“Glendale has had enough!” shouted one of the right-wing protest leaders over his PA. “Time to bust out the zip ties!” he told the police, continuing with “I’d like to zip tie the principal!””
DEMOCRATS vs REPUBLICANS! Let’s Compare & Contrast | Christopher Titus | Armageddon Update
Seriously informative on the bullshit of the republicans. Hugs
The Stomach-Churning Things Nazis Did To Gay Men
And yet history is repeating itself again. The very acceptance of homosexuality and personal sexual freedom experienced by German People was attacked by a movement that wanted to villainize it and made a virtue of not just all things heterosexual but of attacking the homosexuals along with those things that symbolized them or support for them. The things happening in Florida, on the Daily Wire, and in the fundamentalist Republican Party are the same steps taken by Nazi’s in 1930 Germany and in Russia more recently. As yourself, if the Nazi’s stopped with just the homosexuals or trans? Are you comfortable with the direction of the Russian / openly Nazi supporting Republican Party today? Hugs
The conversation had been growing and growing by the week. What started as murmurs of far-right thugs had developed into a fear of a coming political party. Across the bars and meeting places all over the country, the LGBT community of Germany could feel a storm coming. Homosexuality was illegal at the start of 20th century Germany but was counterweighted by a healthy thriving gay culture. Yet what was once angry grandstanding from a fringe socialist worker’s party soon became national policy. In 1933, Adolf Hitler would become Chancellor of Germany and enforced a thoroughly phobic policy agenda by the day. Barely a year later, following a Night of long knives, the Nazi police state made Germany’s homosexual population a primary target. Persecution, arrests, physical abuse, castration, and even the fate of the concentration camps lay ahead. Welcome to History on Fleek, today we examine the unspeakable fates of gay men in Nazi Germany.
Threats against the LGBTQIA+ community intensifying: Department of Homeland Security
I wonder why with all the slurs and garbage spewed by the right wing religious haters and republicans in office. Talk about stoking anger and making a minority group targets for the right wing gang thugs. Hugs
Anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation has been introduced in recent months.
ByJosh Margolin and Teddy Grant
May 15, 2023, 8:32 PM
1:27
about:blank
National headlines from ABC News
National headlines from ABC News
Catch up on the developing stories making headlines.
Threats of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community are on the rise and intensifying, according to a new briefing by the Department of Homeland Security.
The DHS document, distributed to government and law enforcement agencies on May 11, said that domestic violence extremists and people who commit hate crimes have increased threats of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community within the last year.
“These issues include actions linked to drag-themed events, gender-affirming care, and LGBTQIA+ curricula in schools,” DHS said.MORE: LGBTQ group targeted in alleged ‘slaughter’ threat in response to Nashville shooting
DHS said that the issues inspiring threats and calls of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community could lead to a rise of potential attacks against larger targets, such as public spaces and healthcare sites that may be linked to the community.
DHS analysts also cite social media chatter celebrating the recent mass shooting at a Nashville church school.
“High-profile attacks against schools and faith-based institutions like the recent shooting in Nashville have historically served as inspiration for individuals to conduct copycat attacks,” DHS said.
In recent months, politicians in Tennessee, Florida and other Republican-run states have introduced legislation that critics say targets the LGBTQIA+ community.
In March 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by detractors.
The bill banned classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Last month, the Florida Board of Education expanded those restrictions to include all grades. In March, Tennessee became the first state to restrict public drag performances.MORE: Public drag performances restricted in Tennessee
HB 9 and SB 3, signed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, make “a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property” — or where it can be viewed by minors — a criminal offense.
Last month, a federal judge temporarily blocked the law, saying it was vaguely written and overly broad, according to AP.
At least 14 states have passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority, which is the threshold for legal adulthood.
According to DHS, about 20% of all hate crimes reported throughout the country in 2021 were motivated by bias linked to sexual orientation and gender, citing the FBI’s hate crime statistics.
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
Randy sent me this video. He did not include any commentary. This is caused by the same people that want to deny any public mention of LGBTQ+ people. Hugs
Bakery that hosted drag event closes after hate groups made her work a “nightmare”
This is being allowed in the land of the free and where the laws apply to everyone! Yes the maga thugs who are the enforcement arm of the republicans preach about freedom but what they mean is freedom for them to oppress anyone who doesn’t do as the right dictates. This is a deliberate scare tactic telling other businesses that if you dare support something the right doesn’t like we will destroy your business and keep you from being able to make a living. Is this the USA we want to live in. When they get their way with the drag queens and drive the trans people from society who will they target next. Those gays who think they have a legal right to exist and marry, beat the shit out of everyone of them who dares to show themselves in public. Who next, any non-Christian? The Jewish people are already under attack by these same thugs who publicly support Nazism while working as the Hitler brownshirts for the republican party. There is a reason why these Nazi gang thugs support DeathSantis and other white supremacist republicans. Hugs
Photo: ShutterstockA bakery will permanently close its doors after experiencing months of vicious harassment for hosting a drag show.
Uprising bakery & café is located in a Chicago suburb called Lake in the Hills and owned by Corinna Sac, who opened the bakery in 2021 as an inclusive space for all. A press release announcing the closing details Sac’s desire for the bakery to be a space where LGBTQ+ couples could come for wedding cakes.
“Her dream of an inclusive bakery has since become a nightmare no businessperson could have anticipated,” the release states.
“Closing our doors is the direct result of the horrific attacks, endless harassment, and unrelenting negative misinformation about our establishment in the last eight months,” Sac, who is bisexual, said in a statement. “From an award-winning bakery that donates to local organizations and supports diversity and inclusion, we have been rebranded by misinformation as ‘gay only’ and ‘pedophiles.’”
She added that the relentless protestors have caused local customers to be afraid to visit the bakery out of fear of harassment.
The press release describes the event in question as a “family friendly show featuring drag performers” that was hosted by the café in 2022 and required registration and a ticket.
“The event drew outrage from many resulting in a targeted attack of vandalism at the property the night before. The doors and windows were destroyed, the glass was shattered, and messages of hate were painted on the building.”
Sac said the man who did this, Joseph Collins, was a member of the white nationalist hate group Proud Boys and was charged with a hate crime.
After more attacks took place, the Village of Lake in the Hills then told Sac she could no longer hold events in the space due to zoning, even though she’d already been hosting events there for a year with no issues.
“A campaign was initiated to discredit, damage and defame Ms Sac, her staff, her food, and her patrons,” the press release went on. “Protestors spent more than 120 consecutive days on the property, creating disturbances, inciting violence, photographing license plates of patrons, and harassing them on social media and online.
Because patrons have been too intimated to visit the bakery, Sac’s sales have plummeted and thus, she cannot afford to stay open. She said she’d need $30,000 to keep her doors open.
Sac is currently working to raise money for employees so she can give them some financial padding. There are also events and fundraisers scheduled throughout the rest of the month to try to save the bakery. If they do not succeed, it will close on March 31st.
“Everything I have is in this business,” Sac said. “Our home, our cars, retirement, savings. We put everything we had on the line and personally secured this location, our equipment, and our dreams.”
No matter what happens, Sac vowed never to stop fighting for justice. She recently testified at the state legislature about her experiences.
“If we have to go out, we will go out with a BANG,” she declared in the release, “and make it long-lasting and positive. I will do everything I can to make sure what happened to my American Dream doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Fueled by anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation on social media, over the past year, drag queen story hours and other family friendly LGBTQ+ events featuring drag performers have become a target for far-right groups like the Proud Boys as well Republican politicians. Earlier this month, Tennessee became the first state to pass a law intended to ban drag performances in public spaces. Similar legislation has been introduced in state houses across the country.
