Florida’s new slavery curriculum sparks outrage as the state’s war on accurate Black history ramps up with a plan to teach that there were benefits to slavery for enslaved descendants of Africans in America. Florida St. Sen. Shevrin Jones joins Joy Reid to discuss saying, “I want to make it clear to everyone… there were no benefits to being a slave… All of this is disingenuous.”
The MR crew looks at horrifying reports coming out of Texas that show Republican governor Greg Abbott ordered border agents to begin drowning and dehydrating migrant children.
A woman who is undergoing hormone treatments calls in to dispel the myths that transgendered individuals are dominating women’s sports and then gives a powerful story of her own transition.
Jeff Sharlet, professor of English at Dartmouth College, joins to discuss his recent book The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War.
Ben Shapiro reacts to a piece in the New York Times about a recent fashion trend that is seeing men wearing crop tops. Shapiro says: “Just as a fashion matter, no one wants to see the midriff of another man. Just as a general-i’m not going to speak for gay men. women, i don’t think, are interested. Neither are straight men.”
Charlie Kirk responds to reporting from MSNBC that far Right-Wing extremists have used at-home workout trends to expand their reach into mixed martial arts spaces. Kirk says that reporting like this shows that liberals only want men to be weak, depressed, and have low testosterone.
CNN’S Kaitlan Collins asks Senator Tommy Tuberville about the comments he made regarding White Nationalists serving in the military. Collins asks if he’d want to clarify that he wouldn’t want racists to be serving in the military. Tuberville reiterates his belief that he doesn’t see White Nationalists as necessarily racist, and that it’s people’s opinions that they’re racist. He says, however, that if there are White Nationalists who are racist, he wouldn’t support them serving in the military.
Later Tuberville was asked by reporters on Capitol Hill About why he continued to double down on his stance on White Nationalists. Tuberville attempted to amend his response: “I’m totally against racism. If the Democrats want to say that White Nationalists are racists, i’m totally against that, too.”
Texas doctors fear a new era of government intrusion into medicine as lawmakers ban transition care for kids following prohibitions on abortion.
By William Melhado,The Texas TribuneJuly 17, 2023
People gather in front of the Texas Capitol during a protest against bills limiting transgender kids’ access to puberty blockers and hormone treatments in March.
Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune
At least once a day Dr. Ximena Lopez sees a parent crying in her clinic. They’re crying because Lopez just told them they need to find a new way to get transition-related care for their children — by leaving Texas or sourcing treatments outside the state — because the state outlawed these treatments for trans youth.
After a yearslong barrage by activists and lawmakers, the state has won the battle against the use of transition-related care, like puberty blockers and hormone therapies, for transgender youth. While the war over this health care remains in question — and a legal fight to block the new law begins in Texas — clinics have closed and some doctors have stopped providing this care.
“The reason why I’m leaving Texas is that it’s unbearable for me,” Lopez said. “It’s so devastating that I just can’t bear living in a state where I feel oppressed and where I’m just seeing my patients suffer.”
Lopez formerly provided gender-affirming care to trans youth as the director of the GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support (GENECIS) program, which was jointly run by the Children’s Medical Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. By the end of July, she’ll no longer practice at the Dallas hospital and plans to move out of Texas.
In light of the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for kids, The Texas Tribune spoke with over half a dozen doctors who practice this type of medicine about the fear of losing their jobs, scaring away medical providers from working in Texas and — most importantly — revoking this critical health care for transgender children.
From state-launched investigations into the families of trans youth, to threats of actual violence, doctors are fearful to speak out against the attacks on transgender health care. Physicians raised concerns that the state is driving physicians away from Texas and inadequately training the next generation of medical professionals.
Many said Texas was treading into a new era of medicine — marked by restrictions to gender-affirming care and reproductive health care — one in which the government tells doctors how and who they can treat.
Many doctors the Tribune spoke with declined to share their names for fear of harassment. Some likened the conversations with parents informing them that they can no longer provide this type of care to their children to cancer diagnoses or impending hospice care.
Medical providers say this type of care is lifesaving for transgender youth who face higher rates of suicide attempts and mental health problems than their cisgender peers. One in five trans and nonbinary young people attempted suicide in the past year, according to a 2023 survey conducted by The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization that focuses on LGBTQ+ youth.
Last month Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation that restricts transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy, two treatments used to address gender dysphoria, the medical term for the distress someone experiences when their gender identity doesn’t match their body.
“In Texas we must protect children from making permanent, life-altering decisions before they have the mental capacity to do so, and Senate Bill 14 does just that,” Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, said in a statement to the Tribune. Medical providers say puberty blockers are reversible and hormone therapy is partially reversible.
Mahaleris pointed to a recent survey from the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation that found a majority of the Americans surveyed oppose the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy to treat transgender youth.
Senate Bill 14 was the forerunner in a broad swath of bills, aimed at reshaping the lives of LGBTQ+ Texans, that lawmakers pushed through this legislative session. Republican politicians also passed restrictions on drag shows and transgender athletes this session, but the implications of SB 14 are long reaching and profoundly affecting the lives of Texas families, said doctors who practice gender-affirming medicine. Families of trans youth have already fled Texas, but those who remain in the state must grapple with the consequences of losing health care access.
In recent months, many patients — including adults — have lost access to care as providers have left the state, a spokesperson for Texas Health Action, a nonprofit health care provider with clinics in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, told the Tribune.
Dr. Anita Vasudevan, a primary care physician from Texas who chose to continue practicing in California instead of returning to her home state because of the ban on gender-affirming care and abortion, said the loss of Lopez and the GENECIS program highlights the issue of specialized providers leaving the state. This translates to missed learning opportunities for medical professionals in training, which will result in worse care for patients, she said.
“We’re building a generation of providers that just, unfortunately, won’t receive the level of training that they need in order to take care of patients in the ways that they need to be taken care of,” Vasudevan told the Tribune. “That’s a hard pill to swallow.”
An onslaught of interventions
For children already receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy under the guidance of their medical team, SB 14 taking effect presents a daunting transition.
Lawmakers decided doctors must “wean” their patients under 18 of these treatments “in a manner that is safe and medically appropriate.”
But doctors who administer gender-affirming medical treatments say there is no such thing.
“This is comparable to asking a medical professional to wean a Type 1 diabetic off of their insulin — you would never do that,” Brett Cooper, an adolescent medicine physician from Dallas, said in a statement to the Tribune.
Cooper said SB 14 prohibits medical professionals from providing evidence-based, best-practice care to their patients. Including evidence that supports the use of these treatments and the recommendations of major medical groups like the American Medical Association.
He added that, like the state’s ban on abortions, this legislation will make it more difficult to recruit medical professionals to do business in Texas.
“There has been a chilling effect of the Legislature getting involved in the doctor-patient relationship and attempting to prevent physicians from providing the evidence-based and medically necessary care to their patients,” Cooper said. “Physicians know best how to care for their patients, not the Legislature.”
Texas Republicans’ effort to regulate the lives of transgender youth started long before Abbott signed SB 14 in June. Six years ago, the Legislature unsuccessfully tried to pass a bill requiring transgender people to use restrooms in public schools and governmental buildings that aligned with their sex assigned at birth.
In the years since, Republicans in the state have mounted a multipronged attack on gender-affirming care, in part, because issues like restrictions to medical care for LGBTQ+ people and drag shows had strong support from Republican voters.
In 2021, after the Legislature failed to restrict gender-affirming care, activists turned their attention to Lopez’s GENECIS program, targeting hospital board members and accusing the program of committing child abuse. Shortly after Children’s Health quietly closed the clinic, which was jointly run by UT Southwestern, Lopez was prompted to sue the hospital for shutting down operations to new patients.
The following year, Abbott directed the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents providing this type of care to their trans children for child abuse, terrifying families that they might be separated from one another.
More recently, suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton launched investigations against both Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas for providing this type of care — even before SB 14 became law. Doctors working at Dell Children’s parted ways with the hospital after Paxton’s announcement, which left patients and their families scrambling to find specialty care, some of the needed treatments were unrelated to the gender-affirming treatments the state targeted.
Other states that have passed laws forbidding trans youth from taking puberty blockers and hormone therapy have encountered legal challenges. In Arkansas, a similar restriction to gender-affirming care was struck down as unconstitutional on the basis that it violated the due process and equal protection rights of transgender children and families. Legal groups in Texas have already committed to challenging SB 14.
Despite the rebukes of these laws in the courts across the country, the quiet closures of clinics and doctor departures in Texas have left medical professionals feeling alone in the fight for their patients’ best interests. Evidence shows access to gender-affirming care for young people improves the mental health of trans minors. Doctors said hospitals facilitating this type of health care are aware of its benefits, but are fearful of pushback from politicians.
“Many hospitals in these states, like Texas, I think are against these politicians and extremists and legislators, [but] they’re afraid of financial risks, they’re afraid of retaliation and they’re taking the easy way out which is to abandon their doctors and their patients and just subdue to this political pressure,” Lopez said.
Her employer, UT Southwestern, did not return requests for comment for this story.
While large hospital systems are not the only providers who treat trans youth, advocates say it’s evident that a chilling effect has reached physicians who prescribe gender-affirming care across the state.
In San Antonio, a city of nearly 1.5 million, only one doctor was administering gender-affirming care to trans youth in recent years, said Andrea Segovia, senior field and policy adviser for the Transgender Education Network of Texas. But after Abbott leveraged DFPS to investigate Texas families, the provider stopped providing these treatments, Segovia said.
She’s watched the number of providers who care for trans patients shrink. She said parents of trans youth are struggling to find pediatricians for their trans kids even for non-gender affirming care purposes, like routine vaccinations and physicals.
“People are being treated like they have a scarlet letter,” Segovia said.
De facto elimination of care
Prior to his graduation from UT Southwestern Medical School this spring, Antonio García was deliberating where to pursue his residency training in family medicine.
He could stay in Texas, where he grew up and his family lives, by leveraging his existing geographic connections to ”match” into a residency — a competitive process in which medical students are placed at specialized programs in hospitals or clinics for further medical training after graduating.
During medical school, García worked with providers in the GENECIS program, including Lopez, where he saw the positive impact the clinic had on patients and their families. He wanted to continue doing that important work, by providing gender-affirming care to trans people.
To do that García has decided to leave Texas.
“I also saw that as an opportunity to leave all of this behind and go somewhere where I knew that I was going to be able to get gender-affirming-care training, where I was going to be able to live my life openly, freely and not have to have all of these kind of concerns,” García told the Tribune. As a gay man, García said the state’s increasing hostility to the LGBTQ+ community prompted his decision to leave Texas.
Seeing the backlash against individual providers and clinics has been devastating, García said. Noting Lopez’s departure, he said the animosity toward medical professionals and trans people is driving doctors away.
“[The doctors are] doing the right thing for these families, for these kids, and seeing that work be stifled and impeded has been just really unfortunate,” he said.
One area of particular concern, doctors said, is the worsening of an existing pediatric specialists shortage. In Texas, an estimated 17.4% of children have special health care needs that require attention from specialized pediatricians, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. These shortages mean patients have to travel longer distances and wait for weeks or months to see subspecialists, which can result in delaying or forgoing treatment.
Lauren Wilson, a pediatric hospitalist and the president of the AAP Montana chapter, partially attributes this shortage of doctors for children to the disparity in pay between adult and pediatric specialists. According to a 2023 compensation report from the healthcare-related companies Doximity and Curative, endocrinologists make nearly $60,000 more annually than their pediatric specialist peers, who undergo commensurate levels of training.
Shortages in this speciality — pediatric endocrinology — is of particular concern to Wilson because these doctors treat a wide range of children. This area of medicine deals with hormones and associated issues and mostly treats children with diabetes or growth problems. But these physicians also often specialize in gender-affirming care treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapies for trans children (less specialized physicians can also administer gender-affirming care.)
Wilson said these laws targeting pediatric health care — which could criminalize medical practices not even related to gender-affirming care — are unprecedented. In April, Montana became one of 20 states to ban trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care. It’s also the state that barred a transgender lawmaker from the Montana House floor for violating “decorum” rules after she told colleagues that voted in favor of restricting gender-affirming care would have blood on their hands.
Wilson also noted the de facto elimination of care by targeting clinics, by state leaders and extremists, has forced hospitals to stop this care.
“We’re in a position as physicians where we want to do what’s best for our patients, we want to follow all relevant guidelines. But we also want to not go to jail or lose our license to practice medicine,” Wilson said.
The Tribune asked Abbott’s office about the prospect of Texas losing medical providers because of the new law.
“Passed by a bipartisan majority in the Texas Legislature, SB 14 ensures access to appropriate and medically necessary services, with parental or legal guardian’s consent. Endocrinology treatments and procedures that are not intended to change the biological sex of a minor are unaffected by this law,” Mahaleris, Abbott’s spokesperson, said.
It’s not clear how many doctors have left or will leave Texas in response to restrictions on gender-affirming treatments, but states that have enacted other health care restrictions offer some clues.
States with abortion bans saw a 10.5% decrease in applications for obstetrics and gynecology residencies in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Doctors, including Lopez, said they have already seen the effects with candidates deciding after the interview process not to accept positions in Texas “because of the politics.”
“Living in a medical dictatorship”
Treating gender dysphoria in Texas is not new. In 1965, the UT Medical Branch opened a gender clinic, providing treatment for hundreds of transgender people in the decades that followed.
Most major hospitals in Texas have been providing this type of care for over a decade. It only became widely controversial after lawmakers sought to criminalize doctors for providing this care, Lopez said.
Doctors lamented the spread of misinformation by lawmakers advocating against gender-affirming care during the most recent legislative session. Experts say this has further contributed to distrust between the public and the medical community, which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic because of vaccine misinformation.
Hospitals across the country, including Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. and Boston Children’s Hospital, have received bomb threats and violent messages after far-right harassment campaigns falsely accused the hospitals of performing genital surgery on minors.
Doctors say while transition-related surgeries are rarely performed on people under the age of 18, these procedures were also banned by SB 14. Conservative activists have incorrectly cast gender-affirming care as irreversible “genital mutilation” in an effort to restrict access to these treatments.
Several doctors declined to share their names publicly, citing a fear that false allegations would be directed at them. Doctors suspect threats of violence and harassment are why some Texas hospitals targeted by far-right activists chose to quietly stop providing these medical treatments, instead of standing with patients and doctors.
“No one feels particularly safe,” said one doctor who spoke with the Tribune on the condition that their name would not be published.
Lawmakers who oppose this type of care feel emboldened, Lopez said.
“It’s just also, again, a dangerous precedent because if politicians can tell hospitals what to do, then they can do that for so many things,” she said. “And then where is the patient’s autonomy? Where’s the voice of science and medicine at that point?”
Doctors pointed to an example of a trial court in 2021 that ordered doctors to administer the drug ivermectin, commonly used to treat parasitic worms in horses, after a patient’s relative sued the Fort Worth hospital to compel physicians to administer it. The treatment gained notoriety as a false cure for COVID-19 in right-wing circles, including from then President Donald Trump. The 2nd Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision, but the attempt to supersede the doctor’s expertise was clear.
Doctors worry that the latest health care restriction for trans youth is a dangerous precedent with an uncertain future. While much of the attention around gender-affirming care was aimed at children, bills limiting this type of care for adults have also gained traction in the Texas Legislature.
“I can compare this with living in a medical dictatorship, in which you are told what treatment you can and can’t do,” Lopez said. “But it’s not based on reason. It’s based on whatever the person in power is saying is best.”
Seven U.S. state attorneys general sent a letter to Target on Wednesday warning that clothes and merchandise sold as part of the company’s Pride month campaigns might violate their state’s child protection laws.
Republican attorneys general from Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina signed the letter, writing that they were “concerned by recent events involving the company’s ‘Pride’ campaign.”
The attorneys said that they believed the campaign was a “comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children,” criticizing items like T-shirts that advertised popular drag queens and a T-shirt that said ‘Girls Gays Theys.’ They also highlighted merchandise with “anti Christian designs such as pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products.”
The letter also criticized Target for donating to GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ organization that works to end bullying in schools based on sexual and gender identity. The company stated in a 2020 guide that school staff should not tell parents about a child’s gender or sexual orientation without consulting the child first, something the attorneys general said undermines “parents’ constitutional and statutory rights.”
“Take Pride” merchandise display at a Target store in Queens, New York.GETTY IMAGES
The letter did not include any specific demands nor did it outline how they believe the campaign could violate child protection laws, but the attorneys general did suggest that Target might find it “more profitable to sell the type of Pride that enshrines the love of the United States.”
The attorneys general also said they believed Target’s Pride campaign threatened their financial interests, writing that Target leadership has a “fiduciary duty to our States as shareholders in the company” and suggesting that company officials “may be negligent” in promoting the campaign since it has negatively affected Target’s stock prices and led to some backlash among customers.
Target shares have declined 12% this year, but the company is facing issues far beyond the backlash to its Pride collection, which included onesies, bibs, and T-shirts for babies and children. Like many retailers, the company is struggling with a pullback in consumer spending because of high inflation, which has weighed on its profits.
But Target is also facing scrutiny for its merchandise selection, including its Pride line, with its stores removing some of the items in May after facing threats. At the time, the company didn’t specify which products were being removed, although Target has faced criticism online over swimsuits advertised as “tuck-friendly” with “extra crotch coverage” in its Pride collection.
“Target’s management has no duty to fill stores with objectionable goods, let alone endorse or feature them in attention-grabbing displays at the behest of radical activists,” the attorneys general wrote. “However, Target management does have fiduciary duties to its shareholders to prudently manage the company and act loyally in the company’s best interests.”
Backlash to the Pride campaign did involve threats of violence to Target stores and workers. Some merchandise was relocated to less popular areas of the store, and other pieces, including the swimsuits criticized by the attorneys general, were removed.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement earlier in June. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”
Ron DeeeeeSantis must wake up every morning and think to himself, “what can I do today to further destroy the lives of the little people?” And then he sets out to do it.
The problem is that they view our pride as their shame. They don’t understand that it’s not about them. They don’t have to feel anything, just acknowledge that we are fellow creatures and move on.
Hey white trash rednecks. Guess what? We don’t need a rally or a fucking hat. We vote for true honor and respect of our country. Go put your confederate flag on the back of your tacky ass pickup truck, while you hurl empty cans of manly beer at electric cars.
Told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
IDK, I rather enjoyed seeing that paltry Trump rally in Bumblefuck, SC…especially the booing of Ms Lindsey. (Imagine being boo’d by the citizens of the very county you were born, raised & lived in. Must be how Trump felt in NYC.)
thatotherjeana day ago No, Brian, no. Nobody wants to “steal” your independence: they want to share in your rights. You’re treating those rights as though they belonged exclusively to white, straight, male people, to be granted to others as you see fit. No. The rights to “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” among other rights, belong to all of us.
That man on the right is anti-LGBT hate leader Brian Brown, meeting with US Supreme Court justices Kavanaugh and Alito aa they decide whether people can be fired for being LGBT.
Brown is heavily involved in Russia, and supports its anti-gay laws (which have proven deadly). pic.twitter.com/RCmPVI61wr
Karma Chases Dogma thatotherjean20 hours ago A man you don’t even know sticks his pecker in another man you don’t even know. Tell me, Brian, exactly how is this stealing YOUR independence? The gay agenda is to live a normal life like everyone else
Brian is objecting to the fact he no longer has the “independence” to stone gay people to death without repercussions as his religion demands. To misquote George Orwell: Some rights are more equal than others.
An armed transphobe in Eugene, OR attempts to intimidate folks at a Pride festival and fails pic.twitter.com/hiVsl3WPEj
— Marjorie Gaylor Queen 🏳️🌈 (@Tim_Tweeted) July 3, 2023
Paddycakes2001 jaspersdad18 hours ago That was great. One thing I wish he had also asked when the guy said drag is inherently sexual is “Oh, does that turn you on?”
True story. There was a guy in the gay bar years ago, who said he was totally straight, but got off on drag queens. But he’s totally straight and it wasn’t gay at all. That’s how their minds work.
AyJayDee221 hours ago There’s a real, concerted effort by the Republicans and the anti-liberal left to use RFK Jr. And Cornel West to spoil the 2024 election and help Trump win another term.
I ran into someone on the left who tried the “why the hating on RFK Jr?” on one of my social media pages. I responded, “Because of the belief in numerous conspiracy theories and ads that appear to have been made in Russian troll farms. No other reason, tho!” 😉
He is not a democrat. He is being supported by the far right. This is their new thing–sham candidates, many of whom run as a democrat and if they win, they change their party affiliation to republican. This sure stinks of election fraud to me. I hope he gets so humiliated that he slinks away back into whatever cave he’s been hiding in and is never seen or heard from again.
In the four years since DeSantis took office, his administration has routinely stonewalled the release of public records, approved a slew of new legal exceptions aimed at keeping more information out of the public eye, and waged legal battles against open government advocates, the press and other watchdogs. DeSantis, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former U.S. attorney, is the only Florida governor known to use “executive privilege” to keep records hidden, transparency advocates and experts said. His travel records, previously under scrutiny by the media, are now secret, thanks to a new legal exemption — one of a record number created in 2023 by the Republican-led Legislature and approved by the governor. DeSantis also has fought to conceal information about some of the most significant events during his tenure, including withholding Covid infection data and blocking release of records about the controversial relocation of dozens of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, legal filings show.
I just listened to episode 2 of Rachel Maddow’s latest podcast, Deja News. Great analysis of how the current dictator of FL is dredging up the hate & fear of others, just as the John’s Report did in the 50s & 60s.
Doughty last appeared on JMG in June 2021 when he blocked the COVID vaccine mandate for federal workers in a ruling that was riddled with false anti-vaccine claims and which cited a notorious anti-vaccine activist. In September 2022 he issued a permanent injunction against vaccine mandates for teachers.
I read through the decision. It’s bonkers. It’s all just regurgitating conspiracy theories and complaining about the decisions of Twitter and Facebook that *every* other court who has looked at this nonsense has held to be private action, not government action, and thus not violating the 1st Amendment at all. And it gripes about things done when Trump was still president. One of the plaintiffs is Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit, a/k/a the dumbest man on the Internet, and the judge complains about a Twitter suspension before Biden became president. And, of course, it claims the story about “Hunter’s laptop” was suppressed even though it was the biggest story in the country — and happened when Trump was president.
This is really nutty stuff. Not surprising, I guess. This is the same judge who credulously quoted anti-vax nonsense and granted an injunction against HHS’s requirement that healthcare workers get one of the vaccines. The Supreme Court undid that and held that “mandate” was perfectly constitutional. This judge can’t learn his lesson and control himself. Given the current composition of the 5th Circuit, though, we shouldn’t be surprised if it stays in place for a while.
They don’t know their flag. They don’t know the law. They don’t know the Constitution. They don’t know their history. They don’t know their Buybull. This is today’s anti-woke Republicans.
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
Treaty Of Tripoli, Article 11, 1796… passed unanimously in the US Senate by many of the actual ‘founders’.
As a forriner I find it super weird how much the Founding Fathers are respected and ‘claimed’. It’s like a religion to some Americans.
They were just people, and more importantly, people of their time. Slave owners, white, educated (read: rich). People who wanted to do their best for their country but they were full of flaws like the rest of us.
Who gives a fuck what someone said several hundreds years ago? Oh, right: Bible humpers.
“And here’s the thing,” Robinson said during his speech on Sunday. “Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler; whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao; whether you’re talking about Stalin; whether you’re talking about Pol Pot; whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba; or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe, it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes.”
We have reached the point where Republican elected officials are pushing for bans on LGBTQ books but encouraging all to read books by Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. https://t.co/pLBlzpk95F
BartmanLA2 days ago They’re not going to “tolerate” what the actual fuck??? The LGBTQ community has been TOLERATING the hate and bullshit discrimination from the right and conservatives for DECADES… Get off your fucking high horse and go do something actually worthwhile, better yet just go crawl in corner and die!
This is why there is no middle on the issue lgbt rights. We want equal rights; they want us to disappear. At the very least they want us all back in the closet afraid that we will be fired, ostracized or even killed if we come out. There is no middle ground between the two.
Big shots on the right, even the supposedly educated “conservative thought leaders,” always sound so incredibly ignorant when they talk about LGBTQ+ America. They always seem to talk about us like we’re citizens of a different country (the way most of them think Puerto Ricans are citizens of a different country). Are they just pandering to the rank-n-file, or are they really so genuinely clueless? Honestly, part of me would prefer Machiavellian pandering to braindead ignorance.
Former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has called LGBTQ rights the “biggest threat” to religious morality in America.
In an interview with The Christian Post, Huckabee…decried acceptance of LGBTQ people and blamed the “Christian Church” for not doing enough to combat LGBTQ equality.
One of the most wild revelations coming out of the backlash over the anti-trans and anti-gay ad released by the DeSantis team is that the Gays Against Groomers org is basically a Ron DeSantis astroturf organization.
Marchers cheer during the Come Out With Pride Parade in downtown Orlando on Saturday, October 15, 2022. Thousands lined the streets for the yearly event supporting inclusion. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel) User Upload Caption:
Any comprehensive history of Pride Month starts with savagery and defiance — commemorating the first time the nation’s gay community openly mutinied against routine oppression and casual violence. The Stonewall Riots radiated from one small bar in Greenwich Village, which was, in the late 1960s, seen as one of the few tiny havens for LGBTQ+ Americans to live their lives with some degree of openness.
Even inside those confines, any kind of openly non-heterosexual behavior could put life and liberty at risk. That’s why gay-friendly establishments, including the Stonewall Inn, were owned or controlled by organized crime-syndicates. Yes, there was a time in American history when the Mafia did a better job of protecting individual rights than any governmental agency did.
Instead, governments across the nation served as oppressors, raiding gay-and-lesbian clubs or posing as potential sexual partners as a form of entrapment. For the most part, Florida was no different. But slowly, small bastions of liberty began to emerge. And they included Central Florida, where ex-military people were transitioning into the space program.
Pride’s beachhead in Florida
Orlando’s first gay nightclub, The Palace Club, opened the same year as the riots. When Disney’s Magic Kingdom opened its gates, the City Beautiful took on added allure as a safer — though still not safe — space for non-heterosexual Americans to love and live their lives. As documented by the LGBTQ History Museum of Central Florida, a group of entrepreneurs known as the Gay and Lesbian Gang quickly established a series of nightclubs that included the iconic Parliament House. Within a decade of the Stonewall riots, Orlando saw its first Pride Picnic at Turkey Lake Park.
It still took decades to unwind Florida’s layers of hateful, oppressive laws. Every step felt hard-won: Stonewall-era law enshrined total bans on any expression of alternate sexuality. Some of those laws were not invalidated until the early 2000s, when a rapid tumble of landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings battered sexual-identity and orientation laws until they crumbled. And the ugliness never fully went away. Within the past few decades, Florida has seen cruel debates on whether LGBTQ people could adopt children, or marry.
The hearts and minds of Floridians, however, shifted much more quickly. By the turn of the century, most Sunshine State residents expressed support for civil unions and adoption rights. People flew rainbow flags and showed up for Pride demonstrations without fear.
Every step seemed to move things a little closer to a day when sexual orientation and non-gender-conformity were simply accepted as defining traits. When fear and hate were reviled and forced into the shadows, where love was welcome in the full light of day.
Florida saw the reflections of the fear and anger of the Greenwich Village riots shift to cheerful acceptance of sexuality in The Villages —- saw it as a change for the better. The surge of love and alliance after the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub helped heal hearts ripped apart by an openly acknowledged act of terrorism.
But as this Pride Month draws to a close, we must ask: How is it, in 2023, that we are sliding backward?
Back, to a day when providing gender-affirming care — or simply being transgender — could mean losing access to healthcare or even at risk of arrest and prosecution?
Back, to a time when Florida teachers are warned not to talk about sexuality with their students and innocent books that merely acknowledge the differences among families are outlawed?
Back, to a place where official government sources refer to gay people as “groomers” and suggest their mere existence puts children at risk of predatory behavior? Where the governor seems to obsessed by the mere existence of drag queens, and not in a healthy way?
This is nothing to be proud of.
So as Pride Month draws to a close, Floridians must make it clear: They are ready for this new fight to begin. They are ready to rebuke those who would force shame on people who yearned so long for the right to live in safety and with dignity.
They are ready to stand up for the right to love and be loved without fear once again — and be proud to do so.
Oh how I wish I could have watched something like this as a kid. But no I would have been beaten near to death if I had tried. I did not need another reason to be beaten or raped. My dogs that love gravy I am still suffering anxiety over talking on the phone from the beatings I took just touching the wall hanging phone as a kid. This a wonderful video that shows the bigotry that the right wing fundamentalist republicans want to return the US back to. Do we really want to return to this? Please everyone watch it. After the video I will post what I wrote on the longer this is what I am reading post, but to tell the truth I can not face writing it all again. Hugs
The VERY 1st Gay TEEN was the famous MOVIE STAR Ryan Phillippe! Check out the whole story here!
*** Editor note *** It was books that gave me my escape from my life. It was books that let me leave the life of abuse, hurt, and fear I was living constantly at home, in my home. It was books that let me understand I was not a horrible abomination in life that was going to do horrible things and die in a gutter as my adoptive parents (the ones beating and sexually abusing me and letting their kids do so) claimed long before they even knew I was gay, that I did not need to suffer in silence, (Which I did for most of my life). These books that these people are trying to ban and deny to the very kids that need them meant so much to me and other kids. Please do not let them. Look in the 1950s these people want to revert the social and country to there were no of these kinds of books, no positiverepresentatives in media, but gay, lesbian, and trans kids still existed. I am going to post a video about a old long time soap opera about gay people and the damage hate can do. Hugs.
Thank my dogs that love gravy that this hateful right winger did not have a gun. But this attacks and violence is what the right wants, what the right wing media with their lies about anything dealing with gender or sexual orientation is grooming or sexualizing kids. The right wing media screaming PROTECT THE CHILDREN creates the anger, rage, and fear of the subject in their thuggish followers that leads to this. Attacks on the LGBTQ+ and their supporters is the goal! I am tired of it. Already a recent poll of self reporting republicans showed the first ever decline in acceptance of gay people. A drop of 14 points. This is the result of trying their best to demonize any mention of the LGBTQ+, rainbows, and pride flags. Calling teachers groomers, attacking the best medical practice advice of all the major medical organizations which calls for accepting and assisting trans kids. They do so using lies, myths, and just made up bullshit to attack a marginalized group. This has to stop. Hugs
A triple stabbing during a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo is believed to have been a hate-motivated attack, police said Thursday as they laid multiple charges against a 24-year-old former student. The Wednesday attack injured three people and shocked the university campus located about 100 kilometres west of Toronto.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman [photo], a recently graduated international student, faces three counts of aggravated assault, four counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, police said.
“Investigators have reason to believe that this was a planned and targeted attack motivated by hate related to gender expression and gender identity,” Waterloo Regional Police Chief Mark Crowell said at a Thursday news conference.
The police said that on Wednesday, at about 3:40 p.m., about 40 students were in a classroom when the suspect came in and stabbed three people: a 38-year-old female professor; a 20-year-old female student and a 19-year-old male student. All three were taken to the hospital with “serious but non-life-threatening” injuries, the police said.
In what he described as a “shocking attack,” James Rush, a vice president of the university, said in a statement on Thursday that the stabbing took place during a lecture in a class called Philosophy 202 — Gender Studies.
Chief Mark Crowell of the Waterloo Regional Police said at a news conference that the suspect had entered the classroom and spoke briefly to the professor, apparently to confirm the subject matter of the class. Then, he stabbed her with two knives, stabbed the other two students and attempted to stab a third.
Local, federal and provincial leaders have spoken out about the stabbing, condemning this violent act. Speaking to reporters in Brantford on Thursday morning, Premier Doug Ford said the stabbing at the University of Waterloo was “unacceptable” and expressed concern for the victims.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said news of the stabbing was “horrifying and unacceptable. This type of violence must always be condemned.” Marit Stiles, leader of Ontario’s NDP, said she was thinking of the students and staff affected, and called the news “horrifying.”
Hagey Hall reopened on Thursday after being temporarily closed Wednesday night and the campus is open for all scheduled activities, said university spokesperson Nick Manning.
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO STABBING ATTACK WAS HATE MOTIVATED: POLICE
"A 24-year-old recent graduate from the University of Waterloo is facing 10 charges after reportedly stabbing three people, including a professor, during a gender studies philosophy class."https://t.co/bBHlhETAio
Waterloo regional police say a 24 year old, international student has been charged in a hate-motivated crime related to gender expression & gender identity, in connection to a stabbing that injured three people during a gender studies class at University of Waterloo on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/IVbSx91qK4
Gah, and it is so evident, too! What the hell is UP with that? It doesn’t even have to be our community, either. Look at Abbott and his “no water breaks” law. These people just seem to WANT more suffering in the world. I absolutely don’t get it.
Conservatives love to talk like libertarians until someone does something they don’t like. They want to be free to be assholes without consequences but how dare anyone even look at them disapprovingly!
But jesus christ and a half WHY do they WANT to be assholes? This baffles me. Anyone who chooses to be an asshole simply ADDS to the number of assholes in the world! Why would people want this?
I hear you, But the person’s responsible ARE making it up. They are ‘being’ themselves (sic). People full of potential, with dreams and hopes of being AUTHENTIC, are systematically being slaughtered.
Leaving the HATE alone, ignoring it, is no longer an option.
At least being in Canada he didn’t have easy access to a gun.
Hundreds of MAGAT/incels are making their presence known in the comment section of Canada’s national main stream, right wing newspaper suggesting they deserved it because of their woke ideals.
Because this was in Canada, three people were stabbed and all will live. If that had happened in the US dozens would be dead and we’d need DNA to identify some of the bodies.
As far as I’ve seen centrist comments have mainly been confined to ‘look what your inflammatory rhetoric made him do.’ This is directed at trans people and their allies rather than at the hatemongers, of course.
Jordan Peterson is called the Incel King for a reason and I bet when the cops look at this specimen’s computer, they’ll find videos, writings and 4/8 Chan like bullshit from people like Peterson, FOX, Shapiro et al. You can bet on it. It should be noted that while Peterson still has his Incels in Canada, he is seen as an intellectual pariah.
A federal court blocked Florida’s new drag show law, ruling the state’s effort to bar children from attending “adult live performances,” is overly vague and likely unconstitutional. The decision Friday by U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell comes only a day after another federal court overturned another Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed law prohibiting gender-affirming care treatment in Florida from being covered by Medicaid. “This concern rings hollow, however, when accompanied by the knowledge that Florida state law presently and independently… permits any minor to attend an R-rated film at a movie theater if accompanied by a parent or guardian,” Presnell ruled. “This statute is specifically designed to suppress the speech of drag queen performers,” Presnell wrote in his 24-page decision. “In the words of the bill’s sponsor in the House, State Representative Randy Fine: (the legislation) will protect our children by ending the gateway propaganda to this evil – ‘Drag Queen Story Time.’”
Courts are putting a stop on the anti-#LGBTQ laws pushed by @GovRonDeSantis and @TheFLGOP. This is what happens when fascist authoritarians believe they can ignore the U.S. Constitution. Thankfully, some checks and balances still exist. https://t.co/Eaf9yBzapy
“This concern rings hollow, however, when accompanied by the knowledge that Florida state law presently and independently… permits any minor to attend an R-rated film at a movie theater if accompanied by a parent or guardian,” Presnell ruled.
From the opening paragraph, US District Judge Gregory Presnell, an 80-year-old Clinton appointee, calls out the state of Florida's action for what they are: an attempt "to suppress the speech of drag queen performers." pic.twitter.com/BhxHUqZGg6
Paddycakes2001 Melissiaan hour ago From the transcript of the court hearing: THE COURT: The plaintiffs accuse you of invidious discrimination in violation of the 14th Amendment. How do you answer? STATE’S LAWYER: That’s the point, Your Honor.
mkbear684 hours ago Well, this was expected and they knew it, but it plays to the base and gets donations, but it puts real people at risk.
Moms for Liberty is an American conservative organization that advocates against school curriculums that mention LGBT rights, race, critical race theory, and discrimination, while multiple chapters have also campaigned to ban from school libraries books that address gender and sexuality issues. The group began by protesting COVID-19 protections in schools, including mask and vaccine mandates.
Moms for Liberty has been criticized for harassment, for deepening divisions among parents, for making students’ education more difficult, and for having close ties to the Republican Party rather than being a genuine grassroots effort.
The group was labeled an “anti-government extremist” organization in 2023 by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Formation January 1, 2021 Founders Tina Descovich, Tiffany Justice, Bridget Ziegler Headquarters Melbourne, Florida, U.S. Area served United States Membership 70,000
It was very obviously discrimination, and it’s obvious from the arguments they put before the court that this has nothing to do with any form of concern for anything other than brazen politics and just flat out hatred of a minority group.
Bingo. This is performative art for their target voting bloc (evangelicals) who vote solid Red in every election like clockwork. Dems don’t have the equivalent. There’s literally nothing on the Left that’s anything like the consistency of the Right when it comes to voter outreach.
Good. I hope that all these hateful and cruel laws are struck down. The slave states want to make laws that health care workers don’t have to give LGBT people medical assistance at ALL if they have “deeply held” religious beliefs against us. It’s time we are considered to be human beings, not just another theocratic political football. If you prick us, do we not bleed?
Historically, (like 2 years ago, not 20), law in the US doesn’t let you single out a group, especially a disfavored group, and pass laws against them. Nice to see some vestiges of that core idea are still here.
And note that THOMAS is the #1 cheerleader for getting rid of ‘equal protection’.
So you encourage book banning, demonize LGBTQ people and your tactics are compared to the historical actions of Nazis all while being designated as a hate group by the SPLC and then you try and refute that by quoting Hitler?! M4L keeps showing us who they are. Believe them. https://t.co/0WABae4f3A
— Jim Stewartson, Anti-disinfo activist 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙 (@jimstewartson) June 22, 2023
this Hitler quote that Moms For Liberty used is the same Hitler quote that Republican Rep. Mary Miller recited at a Moms For America event two years ago!
And yet republicans never debate about the cost, while claiming $300 for the poorest people with children a month is obscene and we can not afford it. The Pentagon fails every audit, and I just watched where they are overcharging thousands of dollars a piece for a trash can that they use to charge $300 for. Yet Manchin says we need to cut social security. Hugs
Tucker Carlson's former head writer has resurfaced as Charlie Kirk’s radio producer; he had resigned after @oliverdarcy reported that he had posted racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and other awful content on an online forum. https://t.co/K9GLB0wjlSpic.twitter.com/tqAJsBkzs4
Brooklyn Albert18 hours ago I see the handiwork of the likes of Scott Lively and his ilk, spreading the gospel of hate and their twisted comprehension of history to African, Caribbean, and Latin American countries.
Authoritarian advocates, whatever their form, need some “other” to be dehumanized and oppressed. When everybody more or less has the same race and culture in a country, they then cast about for some other way of differentiating for the purposes of fomenting hate. Sometimes it’s by religion, sometimes by ethnicity, but if those are relatively homogeneous, they’ll go for LGBTQ status or political identity.
For example, in America in the 1950s, they did both of those latter, along with racist bigotry: People perceived to be not-straight and those who were accused of being socialist or communist. All three were targeted for systematic oppression.
It stuns me that these leaders are so focused on sexuality and making gay people pay for their sexuality with severe punishments and even death. Why is this even on their minds? Is being gay causing some sort of great turmoil in their countries? Are they trying to undermine their governments? Are they just living their lives like everyone else? So much angst over gay people. He contradicts his own statements in just one paragraph. “Gay Africans don’t exist.” – “kick LGBT people out of Kenya completely,” Well, which is it? Who gets kicked out if they don’t exist in the first place? Screwy like the radical Christians that foment this hatred.
Some of them genuinely seem to think that the existence of LGBTQ people threatens the continued existence of the human race, because not enough people are breeding.
Kenya has 53 million people in an area the size of Texas. Underpopulation is not a serious issue there.
JoeMyGodMod3 days ago You may recall Eric Metaxas for the time he sucker-punched a passing kid on a bicycle on his way into the White House for a Trump event and then lied about it even after video surfaced. It’s what Jesus would want.
Read the full article. Andersen, who lost a lawsuit to get on the ballot, has not so far been accused of wrongdoing. As you can see in his campaign clip below, he ran on a promise to end pandemic mandates.
Earlier this week Kennedy claimed that chemicals in drinking water are turning children transgender and that WiFi radiation causes brain cancer.
Unearthed: RFK Jr. pushed HIV/AIDS denialism, attributing AIDS not to HIV, but to a “gay lifestyle” and recreational drugs:
“There were people that were part of a gay lifestyle, they were burning the candle at both ends, …there were poppers on sale everywhere at the gay bars.” pic.twitter.com/BK2WXxjyg8
Hank: NO MORE WoW!!!4 days ago “The magnitude of the value of the Bible as a literary work outweighs any violence or profanity which may be contained in the book,” So, will they do the same for ALL books??? or just the ones, they deem fit???
“Public spaces are public spaces,” U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer wrote. “Public spaces are not private spaces. Public spaces are not majority spaces. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution ensures that all citizens, popular or not, majority or minority, conventional or unconventional, have access to public spaces for public expression.”
In his 80-page ruling, Judge James M. Moody Jr. of Federal District Court in Little Rock said the law both discriminated against transgender people and violated constitutional rights for doctors. He also said that the state of Arkansas had failed to substantially prove a number of its claims, including that the care was experimental or carelessly prescribed to teenagers.
“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics…the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing.” https://t.co/Y8yImyNZoq
Republicans know these hateful laws will never survive court scrutiny. The point was to drum up paranoia and grievance among voters. And with the help of the media, it was working. But there are hopeful signs that a backlash is forming.
— Matthew, June Goomba (@TeachAllAmerica) June 20, 2023
The law is extremely broad, which actually creates a host of other complications. A group of lawyers previously told The Dallas Morning News that the measure could restrict performances by artists such as Madonna and Miley Cyrus, which often feature sexual dancing. The text could even affect bachelorette parties, if they involved sex toys or other paraphernalia. The new changes could even impact cheerleading and criminalize sexual conduct between consenting 17-year-olds (17 is the age of consent in Texas). Movie screenings and art history classes could similarly come under fire. And of course, the law will affect its original target: drag performers, Pride parades, and transgender people just trying to live their lives. Lawsuits against similar bans are planned or already underway in other states. In Florida, the Orlando outpost of Hamburger Mary’s sued the DeSantis administration last month.
Rep. Lauren Boebert claims that she is forcing a House vote on impeaching President Biden because she is "directed and led" by "the spirit of God" in everything she does: "We are doing what is right, what is righteous. History will prove that." pic.twitter.com/EBoKqYEFif
In the fall of 2022, the FBI got a report that Marian Hudak had used his Dodge 1500 truck to try to run off the road two black people who were also driving. He allegedly yelled racial epithets at them. pic.twitter.com/ZZ9jIRGXbM
Hudak eventually followed them home, where a confrontation happened. Here’s hudak’s truck, which was well known in the area because it was decked out in American, Confederate, and Trump flags. pic.twitter.com/I5x3HG3lgJ
“Kentucky law prohibits the Attorney General from using or attempting to use ‘his official position to secure or create privileges, exemptions, advantages, or treatment for himself or others in derogation of the public interest at large,’” the letter, which was sent out Friday afternoon and obtained by The Daily Beast, said.
Woah. Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky Attorney General and GOP candidate for Governor, was being bankrolled by an addiction recovery company that his office was supposed to be investigating. He only recused himself after people started looking into it. https://t.co/2FlYsqgdzj
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) June 23, 2023
Yikes. 😬
Daniel Cameron tried — and failed — to force TV stations to hide the truth about him hiring the Bevin cronies who helped pardon politically-connected killers and rapists.
Walters, who was appointed state secretary of education by Christianist Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2020, faced calls to resign in 2022 after it was revealed that a Koch-funded group that advocates for privatizing public schools was paying him $120,000/year. Stitt rejected calls for Walters’ resignation and attempted to reappoint him again earlier this year, but the state Senate refused to allow him to hold the elected superintendent and appointed secretary of education posts at the same time.
Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters says separation of church and state is a "false narrative" and that the 1962 school prayer case was one of the Warren court's "unAmerican and hateful court decisions." In a jaw-dropping speech, he says he'll enforce a minute of daily silence. pic.twitter.com/tQvOYVCe1m
Walters is also considering ordering each school to post a copy of the 10 Commandments and to teach a "Western civilization course" as a way "to foster gratitude and informed citizenship." These recommendations came from a panel he picked to return religion to schools.
Yves R. Mektin3 days ago edited Well, Oklahoma does have the second lowest high school SAT scores in the whole country*, so maybe tots and pears will help. * West Virginia is the only state that did worse
All those states compete to see who can lead the fastest race to the bottom. Apparently, Louisiana has the lowest life expectancy in the country (Hawaii has the highest).
So he doesn’t like the 1961 decision…toots, the SC ruled on this a bunch of times. And don’t throw that ‘found fathers’ shit around, they did NOT. Under gawd my ass. ;(
Thomas Jefferson penned the wall metaphor in a letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802. He celebrated the First Amendment for “building a wall of separation between Church & State.” The Supreme Court has endorsed this view many times. First in 1878. And then again “in 1947, 1948, 1961 (three times), 1962, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1977, 1982, and again and again in countless concurrences, dissents, and lower court opinions,” according to a recent law review article. The wall metaphor nicely sums up the relationship.
I thought Article 11 of the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli did a handy job of summarizing what The Founding Fathers™ thought of Christianity in America, since it passed in the US Senate unanimously while being signed by many of the actual founders –
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
Not to forget the Treaty of Tripoli – the first treaty entered into by the United States – and having constitutional power — which states that the United States has no national religion.
After Roe was overturned, the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Institute, which has filed numerous briefs before the court, paid for a trip to Rome for Alito. https://t.co/Kvun6nQidG
Per Florida Politics, the “groomers” slur was first popularized by viciously anti-LGBTQ former DeSantis administration spox Christina Pushaw, a registered foreign agent for the nation of Georgia and his current “rapid response” campaign director. Pushaw began pushing the term early last year during the start of the “Don’t Say Gay” campaign.
sfbob Jack3 days ago “Groomer.” Noun. Definition (per DeSantis): 1. A person who does something you disapprove of or who says something you disagree with. 2. A person who believes in providing factual, age-appropriate information to children on topics pertaining to sexuality, sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity.
What amazes me is, while they’re howling about grooming, they manage to completely ignore the ones actively doing it and getting busted for it weekly, the churches.
The GOP friction stems from a push by Rep Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) who publicly revived the discussion by trying to prevent funding in an energy and water development bill from being used to rename Army Corps civil works projects that are named after the Confederacy or an individual who served in the Confederate military.
“One of the things that is irritating a few of us: a certain member from Georgia is wanting to re-bring up the Confederate base names,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told POLITICO.
Bacon said he told the Georgia Republican that he would “would fight him” on trying to prevent funding from going toward renaming. (Clyde’s amendment doesn’t mention military bases.)
Bacon led that effort in the House to create the process for renaming the military assets.
He noted on Friday that he recounted to Clyde about how African-Americans have thanked him for his work on renaming the Confederate assets. In a separate statement, Bacon added that the issue was settled in 2020 and that he didn’t think it was “wise to re-litigate” it.
“Confederate generals fought for a cause that we know was wrong and violated their oaths to Constitution. Most of the 10 that bases were named for were also terrible generals. … Finally, some were affiliated with racist actions after the war. Most of these bases were named around WW1 and done to placate the Jim Crow elected leaders at the time,” he added in the statement.
Didn't know a Confederate flag presentation in the Capitol riot on January 6th, was a part of a "normal tourist visit," as Congressman Andrew Clyde claimed. pic.twitter.com/UNYqswCV0g
— Rick Ocean 🇺🇲🇳🇴 Support Ukraine, Save Europe (@RickOceanMusic) November 8, 2022
Pollos Hermanos ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈa day ago GOP: “Democrats were the party of The Confederacy.” Also GOP: “Don’t you dare take away honors to The Confederacy!”
I don’t know the “official thinking” of American historians on point, but I believe much of what we’re seeing today with respect to the Republican Party is 160 years of simmering resentment by the South regarding its loss in the 1860s Civil War now coming to the surface.
Trump “tapped” into it. “Build the wall” was metaphor for “keep the coloreds out.” His embrace of rabid racists, including neo-Nazis, is a “message received” by the Republican base.
They miss the old plantation days, the good old days. When the coloreds and the women knew their place and there was no “deviance” like drag queens and trans people.
In Germany, Nazi paraphernalia like swastika flags, et all, as well as neo-Nazi political parties are officially banned by law. (Germany doesn’t have a First Amendment).This is the reason that German Nazis fly Confederate flags. You are known by the company you keep.
RealityBass2 days ago Remember when we were expected to believe that Trump was so rich that he would use his own funds to campaign, didn’t need to raise money, therefore he was incorruptible? Good times.
What a liar. He said he would use his own money. Just like everything else about him, – a lie, a scam, a con, a fraud …..from getting someone to sit his exams to his 2016 campaign to his subversion of a democratic election.
His whole life has been devoted to scamming. He has never earned an honest buck. It’s all been about the underhand deal, the stiffing people and companies what they are owed. Now there is no way around not paying his lawyers. they won’t act for him without being paid up-front. But Giuliani can fuck off, he’s gonna be hung out to flap in the wind.
