Even protecting kids from killing themselves and bullying is the target of hate from the “Christian” right. Seriously, you would think the Pro-life crowd would rush to protect children from death, instead they pretend that someone dressed in a costume reading a story is the real danger to kids. Sickening and the world needs to wake up to the cesspool that X, Twitter, and right wing media has become. Hugs. Scottie
The Trevor Project, which has nearly 350,000 followers on the platform, said LGBTQ young people are “regularly victimized” on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Trevor Project at the Los Angeles Pride Parade on June 11.Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images file
The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, announced it is leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, because of “increasing hate & vitriol on the platform targeting the LGBTQ community.” The decision comes just over a year after billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk finalized his $44 billion purchase of the company.
“LGBTQ young people are regularly victimized at the expense of their mental health, and X’s removal of certain moderation functions makes it more difficult for us to create a welcoming space for them on this platform,” the organization wrote in a tweet Thursday.
The Trevor Project, which has nearly 350,000 followers on X, said the decision to leave was made with “input from dozens of internal and external perspectives.” In particular, the group wrote, “we questioned whether leaving the platform would allow harmful narratives and rhetoric to prevail with one less voice to challenge them.” But in the end, the group decided that leaving was “the right thing to do.”
The Trevor Project has made the decision to close its account on X.
At the end of its message, the organization directed LGBTQ young people to TrevorSpace.org, its own social networking space for queer teens and young adults. The Trevor Project also noted that it will continue to maintain its presence on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Facebook.
X’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on The Trevor Project’s departure or its characterization of “hate & vitriol” on the platform.
As NBC News reported last month on the one-year anniversary of Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, many LGBTQ people say the once-hospitable home for community building has turned toxic.
This, they say, is due in part to a number of policy changes and business decisions at the company, including the layoff of employees who worked on reducing misinformation and harassment on the platform, and the removal of the site’s previous ban on intentionally using the incorrect pronouns or names for transgender people, practices known as misgendering and deadnaming.
GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group, releases an annual Social Media Safety Index and Platform Scorecard that evaluates social media platforms’ policies for ensuring the safety of LGBTQ users. In its most recent scorecard, published in June, X ranked in last place among the major social media platforms.
Since Musk took over the platform, LGBTQ people running some of the most-followed X accounts have abandoned it. Elton John, who has over a million followers, announced he was leaving in December, and Ellen DeGeneres, who has 75 million followers, hasn’t tweeted since April.
And The Trevor Project is not the only LGBTQ nonprofit to leave. The San Francisco LGBT Center, LGBTQ Youth Scotland and the U.K.-based Mermaids, a transgender charity, have also left the platform, just to name a few.
Another calm rational explanation of what is happening and the probable reasons why. The video details of the clear attempt of Israel to reclaim the land for its own use, removing all Palestinians from Gaza. Hugs. Scottie
Fox News host Sean Hannity reacted to the news that Issue 1, the Ohio abortion ballot measure was adopted. Hannity said that Democrats are “…trying to scare women into thinking Republicans don’t want abortion legal under any circumstances.”
In 2008, GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a radio interview that the fall of Rome, per some historians, was attributed to “…not only the deprivation of the society and the loss of morals, but also to the rampant homosexual behavior that was condoned by the society.”
Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland examine the absurdity of recent attempts to paint the US as having a lack of leverage over Israel, walk through the practicalities of a ceasefire and what an attempt to actually dismantle Hamas would look like (if Israel or Biden cared).
Counterpoints’ Ryan Grim and Emily Jashinsky asked Rand Paul for his response to the israel/Gaza conflict after the October 7th attack by Hamas. Paul acknowledges that Israel’s response could potentially radicalize more people to resist violently and resist coming to a diplomatic conclusion.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau almost, accidentally, voiced support for a ceasefire while answering a question during a leader’s summit in Washington DC. This while marches took place worldwide in support of ceasefire.
I want to thank Ten Bears for the link to this article. Look Israel is destroying entire city blocks full of people, civilians, children just to get one or two people they don’t even know are there. How is that in any way justifiable? The police suspect a criminal in an apartment building so they bomb the entire building killing everyone in the complex? Do you support that? How many civilian Palestinians need to die to equal the harm that was done by Hamas? 10,000 civilian Palestinians dead to the Israeli 1,400 dead. And the Palestinian death toll keeps rising. Bibi says no cease fire or humanitarian pause is because Israel might lose the world’s support to keep destroying Gaza and taking the land. Hugs. Scottie
Palestinians inspect the destroyed home of the Barhoum family after an Israeli bombing. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
The Israeli air force says it has once again attacked hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip and killed several Hamas commanders.
Around 450 targets were bombed from the air in the past 24 hours, the army said on Monday morning. These included tunnels, military installations and launching pads for anti-tank missiles.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also said troops had taken over a military complex on the ground. According to the military, “several Hamas terrorists” were killed during the operation.
Observation posts, training areas and tunnels are said to have been located on the site. The information could not be verified independently.
The Islamist Hamas movement, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US.
The military also reported attacks by the Israeli navy on command centres, anti-tank missile launching posts and other Hamas observation posts.
Hamas member Jamal Mussa was killed during the operations. He is said to have been responsible for “special security operations” and to have “carried out a shooting attack” on Israeli soldiers in the border area in 1993. The statement did not specify whether any soldiers were killed.
The current fighting started after the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement launched a terrorist attack from the Gaza Strip against Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 mainly civilians and taking some 240 people hostage.
Israel then launched a retaliatory bombing campaign to eliminate Hamas that has killed at least 9,770 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry there.
Palestinian children inspect the destroyed home of the Barhoum family after an Israeli bombing. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
Palestinians bury their relatives, who were killed in the Israeli raids on the Maghazi refugee camp, in mass graves. Mohammed Talatene/dpa
23-year-old Democratic voter Atong Chan got into a heated exchange after she challenged Democratic primary candidate Dean Phillips on his opposition to a ceasefire.
During an appearance on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, an IDF official admitted to intentionally striking the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza where hundreds of civilians were located. I discuss the details of that event, the response from Democratic leadership, how Biden’s position is affecting his poll numbers, a reaction from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, and a lot more.
A clear rational straight forward description of what Israeli military is doing. Please look at the before and after photos of entire cities, or entire city blocks flattened. Remember all the buildings had children, half the population of Gaza is children! One of the Israeli government claims there are no civilians in Gaza, just terrorists. All the people are dehumanized so that the military has support to kill all the people. Why is Israel attacking the West Bank, where there is no Hamas in charge? Simply because they can kill Palestinians with world support and get more of the land. The world, the US must stop this, must use all pressure to stop Israel. Please listen to the video. Hugs. Scottie
While countless human rights groups call for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, Hillary Clinton, and many in power like her, are on the wrong side of history.
Via press release from the Justice Department: An Oregon man was sentenced today to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release for attempting to run over three people with a car as part of a week-long crime spree targeting the LGBTQI+ community around Boise, Idaho, in October 2022. According to court records, on Oct. 8, 2022, while at the Boise Public Library Main Branch in downtown Boise, Matthew Alan Lehigh, 31, approached a transgender library employee, called her a slur, punched her and threatened to stab her. A member of the library’s security staff intervened, and Lehigh fled into the parking lot. When the security guard attempted to speak to Lehigh in the parking lot, Lehigh got into a car and suddenly accelerated it toward the guard, intending to collide with him. The guard narrowly escaped being struck by jumping behind a concrete barricade at the last moment, and Lehigh fled the scene. Four days later, while sitting in his car in a public parking lot elsewhere in Boise, Lehigh saw two women walking together towards another vehicle. Assuming that the women were lesbians, Lehigh began shouting threats and slurs at them, then suddenly accelerated his car toward the women, intending to collide with them. The women jumped out of the path of Lehigh’s oncoming car, which struck the other vehicle at significant speed. On June 15, 2022, Lehigh pleaded guilty to one felony count of violating the Hate Crimes Prevention Act for the vehicular assault on the library security guard, and a second felony violation for the vehicular assault on the two women. As part of his plea agreement, Lehigh also admitted that he was responsible for three other instances of anti-LGBTQI+ vandalism and violence that occurred in Boise during early October 2022. Specifically, he admitted to setting fire to a rainbow-striped “pride” flag attached to a residential property in North Boise, breaking several windows at a commercial building jointly occupied by an LGBTQI+ community organization and an LGBTQI+-affirming religious congregation and punching a grocery store customer after calling him an anti-LGBTQI+ slur. Read the full press release.
#NEW: Matthew Lehigh has pleaded guilty to 2 federal hate crimes for attempting to run three people over with his car in Boise because he perceived these people as LGBTQ+. pic.twitter.com/oY2GL3vWOe
