This is all about forcing their religious views on others, despite the medical evidence they are wrong. People are born gay, conversion therapy won’t work. But more important, being gay is not a sickness needing a cure. These people do such harm in their attempt to push their hate and the hate of their god on to everyone else. These are the Christian Taliban and the Christian ISIS missionaries. They demand the right to oppress others, and since they lost that right in most developed countries they are trying to prevent acceptance in the undeveloped countries from ever taking hold. They came their god is all powerful and that their god creates every person individually, so why does their god keep making gay and trans people? Hugs
Category: Violence
Most Of Kenyan Starvation Cult’s Victims Are Children
I am sorry but I can not deal with this. For the last few days I have read of how bad gays and trans people are and I have even posted religious leaders screaming about this. I am really not able to process that the very religion’s that scream about how bad people like me are but they don’t seem to care about the members of their faith that rape or even kill the followers of their faith. Before anyone tries to tell me about the very few gay / trans killers please remember that our community did not gather around to protect those horrible people. Churches / religious organizations do! Hugs
Hugs
Are we going to let these states devolve into even more open racism and bigotry?
Collier teacher under investigation for showing “Confederate History Month” video to school
NAPLES, Fla. – A teacher at a Collier County school is facing backlash from parents after they showed a video celebrating “Confederate History Month” to the entire school.
The video aired as part of the morning announcements on Tuesday at Manatee Middle School, according to a district spokesperson.
“If you didn’t know, April is an officially celebrated month here in the State of Florida named Confederate History Month,” the teacher said in the video.
The school district wouldn’t identify who the teacher is but said they are investigating.
“Every year our state celebrates and memorializes that valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during that known as the Civil War,” said the teacher in the video.
The teacher bills the video as a look into the state’s recognition of Confederate History Month.
However, parents call this pro-Confederate propaganda.
“It was very biased seeming,” said Casey Smith. “The confederacy, as far as I’m concerned, has always been a stain on American history.”
“To me, it looks like straight out of a Confederate sympathizer playbook,” said Annie O’Donnell.
At one point in the video, the teacher suggests a different name for the Civil War.
“[The] Civil War, but may be more correctly titled the War To Prevent Southern Independence,” he said.
“No. It is the Civil War,” responded Casey Smith. “It has always been called the Civil War.”
Parents tell NBC2 they have no problem talking about slavery, the Civil War, or our nation’s darkest days.
“Some of this actually sounds very accurate,” Smith said.
The issue they have is with what the teacher made up and put in the video and in front of their child’s faces.
“They spoke about celebrating the confederacy in the State of Florida,” Smith said.
O’Donnell, whose kids don’t go to Manatee Middle School, said it’s important for kids to learn about our nation’s history, but not in a way like this.
“Doing it accurately, holistically, fully,” she said. “I would find it difficult to imagine that the students here are going to be able to trust this particular teacher again.”
The State of Florida does recognize April as Confederate History Month. Several movements in recent years have failed. In Florida, the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, along with Confederate Memorial Day are all considered state-legal holidays.
Collier County Public Schools said the instruction of Confederate History Month is not a part of the district’s curriculum.
The district wouldn’t identify who the teacher is, but a spokesperson did say they are still employed while the school investigates.
This Country Just Made It Illegal To Be Gay
Homophobic vandals ruin elderly Christian couple’s work painting rainbow in front of church
Just a strong reminder that not all religious people are hateful, nor are all Christians bigots. We have some great religious people that visit here. Hugs
Volunteers repaint the church’s steps.Photo: ScreenshotVandals defaced the rainbow steps in front of the Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney, Australia during the city’s World Pride celebration. But the church’s community repainted the steps less than half a day later, refusing to let the hateful act deter them from their welcoming message.
On February 24, someone recorded and posted a video to social media of a man walking up to church volunteers who were painting the steps. He asked them, “Is this Christian? What are y’all doing here… Is God for this?”
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The woman in the video smiled and calmly answered, “Absolutely. God is for love, for welcome, for hospitality. God is very hospitable towards this.”
The man then asked where in the Bible God expresses support for same-sex marriage, adding, “God is love? Of course he is, but he’s holy too.”
The man continued, “You believe God is holy, you believe he’s got commandments, and do you believe we should obey them? Because God says, if you love me, keep my commandments. But love is not at the expense of truth, is it? This is an abomination to God. Do you read the Bible? Do you read your Bible?”
The woman repeated that God supports love and then said, “I don’t think these are Christian questions that you’re asking,” before saying that she needed to continue painting the steps.
The man literally growled and told viewers, loud enough for the woman to hear, “She’s disgusting.” He then told her, “You need to repent.”
The man continued, “A Christian is a Christ-follower. You’re not really following Christ. Without Christ, you’re going to a devil’s Hell. Did you know that? You’re being deceived, man, and I don’t want to be deceived. I’m worried for your soul.” He asked her repeatedly, “Do you know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah?”
As he left, his camera scanned the stairs as he said, “This is not Christian. This is an abomination, and God is going to judge those people. It’s wrong. It’s wrong.”
Later that night, two unknown vandals recorded their visit to the church. One poured grey paint onto the steps and spread it with a paint roller. One vandal said, “F**k the LGBT.”
Soon after, Charlie Bakhos, a man who runs the Facebook page Christian Lives Matter, reposted the video. His post said the vandals were “superheroes” who were “adding their artistic touches to the church steps.”
Though the Sydney City Police Area Command is investigating the people behind the two videos, Facebook has previously removed content from the Christian Lives Matter Facebook group for violating the social network’s hate speech policies, The Guardian reported. The group also promoted an anti-LGBTQ+ speech late last month where a large mob physically assaulted a small group of pro-LGBTQ+ protestors. The mob shouted “Leave our kids alone!” and accused police of “protecting the pedophiles,” as the protestors fled by taxi.
The morning after the vandalism, February 25, the church quickly repainted the steps and then posted photos of them on Twitter. Church members then marched in the World Pride parade later that day, under a banner that said, “Rainbow Christians Together.”
‘Hate is never acceptable,” Uniting Church President Rev. Sharon Hollis said in a Facebook statement.
“A place of worship is a sacred space where all people should feel welcome and safe. I stand against these acts of vandalism and verbal attacks on Church members. We send our prayers and solidarity to Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney and to all LGBTIQA+ people of faith and their allies.”
Pitt Street Uniting Church’s Rev. Dr. Josephine Inkpin told Insights, “Such an attack is sad but not surprising and part of a range of harassments Pitt Street Uniting Church and fellow affirming Christians are enduring.”
“Pitt Street Uniting Church has met such opposition for years on our stand for various aspects of justice and the quick renewal of the rainbow is part of our strength and determination,” she continued. “We pray however that others may now see the need for more active affirmation in both church and world.”
An estimated 500,000 people participated in the World Pride events, and nearly 300 Pride attendees attended the church’s February 21 pancake breakfast event. The church also regularly holds interfaith events and intercultural events for trans people and people of color.
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
Why It Matters 4 by Randy
Why it Matters IV
The cost of doing business
As I look into the mirror, shaving a greyed beard from a face lined by time and trouble, I remember a younger face once looking at me from this very glass with similarly sad eyes. A boy of dirty elbows and skinned knees, and behind that perpetually down-cast sight beat a heart filled with impotent rage. I knew my life was wrong, it was unfair, and it was a hot mess of a kid staring back from the mirror that reported horrible things filled with quiet unshed rage and denial of every truth that came anywhere near. 
At that younger time, I was pure lethality with a gun. I made a game of being able to spin the cap off a bottle without breaking the bottle by just nicking the side with the bullet, but I enjoyed the explosions of the shattering glass when I missed. Like many kids, I relished the wanton destruction, the control of continued existence or the end of that bottle. I felt powerful, skilled, and capable in a world where otherwise I foundered at the whim of forces I felt incapable of withstanding, weak, ineffectual.
If you have never held a gun, you know not the thrill of life, nor of death. For many a gun is the mark of independence, the goal of maturity, the status symbol of greatness. Instead, a momentary pull of a finger decides an accident of foolishness or the demands of a spurned heart 
and the most intimate of actions lets one be alive still and another not so very much. It is horror and excitement and at no point does the heartbeat slowly for any involved. It is but for targets, some may say, but what is target practice but the refinement of the skills necessary to kill that which you intend great harm? Some say it is an act of freedom to hold the means to life and death in your hands, but whose life, whose death? And why is the ability to take a life a definition for freedom?
From the tenor of this post, many would think I am against gun ownership. To be fair, I couldn’t care less if someone owns a gun. I similarly don’t care if someone owns a pit bull, a monster truck, or wants to live life as a raging karen. 
It is the unmitigated gall, the pretentious and pompous attitude that one’s ownership of a gun shall not be infringed, even in the misuse and mishandling. Bill upon bill has come before congress, requesting the mere modicum of relief to those of us unwilling to be set upon by others unfettered 2nd amendment rights, only to wither in committee, shot down by the special interests lobby. How sad a people who have decided money is far more important than the life of a school child.
I often wonder if Dylan Thomas knew about the lure of guns when he wrote “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at the close of the day.” When imagined and closeted monsters come and seek to take all that we hold precious, when fear and anger burn so bright as to risk all that is dear, 
do hold tight to that instrument of power, that wand of courage that burns away the dark and sends the monster back into the closet? But power is fickle, isn’t it? It isn’t only our own fear, our own rage that dispels in the smoke of a smokeless powder concussion. Quiet little sparks in Uvalde, in Sandy Hook, splashed out little stars in last moments of terror. And as those little lives fade, do you wonder if their last thoughts are to be thankful that old men may rage, that young men may rage? Hold on to your fear, gentlemen, do hold on to your fear if that is all you have left.
Don’t be sad, little ones. It’s just the cost of doing business. You understand, don’t you?
