House panel advances bill protecting war monuments, including Confederate memorials

Remember Florida prevents the real history of racism / slavery to be taught in schools and in fact one school district just stopped showing a pg movie about Ruby Bridges a 6 year old black girl who needed bodyguard escorts to go to an all white school because a white parent felt it would hurt white kids feelings to know how racist white people were / are.   But we can damn well make sure that monuments to the attempt to keep those racist days and slavery as a state right must be protected and displayed.   What does that say to all the black people in the state of Florida?   Remember the Confederacy went to war to over turn the legitimate government of the US and to break up the country.   The Confederacy was an enemy government that attacked the US and there are people who want to put up statues and monuments to the traitors / enemy soliders.   What country does that.   The losers of the war are dictating the winners must celabrate the losing army / officials.     Hugs  https://scottiesplaytime.com/2023/03/28/shameful-ruby-bridges-film-banned-from-school-because-white-parents-feeling-some-kind-of-way/   

‘No group, no individual, has the right to demolish history that belongs to all.’

A House committee approved a bill that could end efforts to move or “re-contextualize” confederate monuments and other markers of war.

The “Historical Monuments and Memorials Protection Act” (HB 1607) cleared its first hurdle in front of the Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law & Government Operations Subcommittee, on a 10-2 vote.

Rep. Dean Black, a Jacksonville Republican who noted he was a “10th generation resident of Florida,” explained that “history belongs to all Floridians, indeed to all Americans,” in introducing his bill.

“If someone destroys historic monuments in one part of the state, all Floridians are diminished because of it,” Black contended.

Asked by Rep. Jervonte Edmonds why this bill was introduced, Black lamented that “mobs that would descend upon a community and tear down their monuments, statues, works of art” until the community is “compelled” to remove these edifices.

 

The bill would encompass historical depictions represented in the form of a “plaque, statue, marker, flag, banner, cenotaph, religious symbol, painting, seal, tombstone, structure name, or display constructed and located with the intent of being permanently displayed or perpetually maintained,” honoring military or public service, “past or present,” with no exceptions contemplated.

Black warned that if monuments were torn down, “people would walk in those parks and say that the things memorialized never happened.”

“They already do that with the Holocaust now,” Black contended. “And if we’re talking about the Civil War, that should never be forgotten. All of the stories should be told.”

Monuments could not be removed, and plaques and signs attempting to put those constructions in historical context would only be permissible “on the monument and memorial” if Secretary of State Cord Byrd signs off. And local governments “are expressly prohibited from removing those memorials from public view.”

According to a committee analysis of Senate companion legislation, this process “may incur workload costs” for the Department of State. But the sponsor thinks the price is worth it.

 

“It is their proper purview,” Black said.

Those who remove or damage monuments would pay treble the cost to restore and move them back, with “punitive damages” also possible.

“No group, no individual, has the right to demolish history that belongs to all,” Black contended.

Public entities owning the monuments, legal residents of the state, and “historical preservation” groups would stand for civil action under this bill.

“I want every Floridian to have the standing to defend the history that belongs to each and every one of them,” Black said.

The bill does allow for moving monuments “for construction, expansion, or alteration of publicly owned buildings, roads, streets, highways, or other transportation projects.” When such a movement happens, the structures must be “relocated to a site of similar prominence, honor, visibility, and access within the same county or municipality in which the monument or memorial was originally located.”

In support of the bill, Rep. Chuck Brannan of MacClenny likened monument removal to graverobbing.

“I may say something today somebody doesn’t like. Is somebody 100 years from now going to go dig my grave up and move me?”

The bill would take effect July 1, if signed.

Black’s bill is the House companion to SB 1096, filed last month by Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Republican from Fort Myers. That measure is also moving through committees.

 

“We must defend and learn from our history.”

And yet earlier today:

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Only white nationalist history for these crackers.

He referred to ‘our history’… you know who ‘our’ is.

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If “history is so important” why don’t they want it taught in the Florida school system?

Reminder… a statue honoring a Confederate hero erected in 1910 is akin to erecting a statue honoring Hitler, Mussolini, or Tojo in 1990.

It makes no sense, and it is not ‘historically significant’ in any way.

Yep… all Jim Crow nonsense in a panicked effort to remind black southerners of their place as second-class citizens.

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Let’s be thankful, peeps, that today’s Republican Party is openly and without reserve “showing its hand” to the American people.

No more “nuance.” No more “careful crafting” of the bigotries and anti-Americanism.

It’s all out in the open now, for all to see.

“History belongs to all of us… And if my family’s history isn’t safe today, no one’s family history is safe tomorrow…”

Then stop banning history books that teach everyone’s history. Obviously POC’s history isn’t safe in Florida… Can’t say gay in Florida… “History belongs to” who, again?

DOUBLEPLUSGOOD!!!!!

He’s made sure that his great grandchildren won’t be able to read about “his family’s history” in history books that teach the oppression POC and Native Americans were put through by “his family’s history”… aka, HERITAGE!

White washing the father’s sins away…

 

Why it Matters

This is a guest post from Randy.   As most people here already know Randy is someone I admire greatly.  Randy is my online brother and a member of our family.   Randy is smart, funny, caring, kind, willing to reach out a hand to those in need while also willing to stand up to protect others.   Randy is the kind of guy who if he knew a co-worker had no other way to get to a much needed job during a snow storm he would get up out of his warm bed and go take them to work.   And not ask any for doing it.   I have asked Randy if he would be a guest author as he has time.  He has delighted me with the first two posts of what I hope will be many more.    Thank you my brother, Hugs.

Why it Matters

In this era of Blue Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter, even All Lives Matter, the defining characteristic is that the authors, the progenitors of the movement, are trying to indicate to the public that there are folks who do not see the lives of some persons either being in jeopardy, being disenfranchised, being set upon as a second class, being abused.  The irreparable loses for some came too early, like the Native Americans, and for others they somehow bought in to the larger idea, others still labor under a “lesser than” status that evidences in odd circumstances when people need someone to blame.

Picture1

It is easy to use extremes to make points in writing, so I’ll use one now.  In the late 1930’s an individual rose to power who realized that it was far far easier to capture the public’s anger and fear through hate and destructive rhetoric.  Hate is bred from fear, and Germany recovering from WW1 was reeling through poverty, inflation, low productivity, and a miasma from losing a war.  This individual captured that fear with not only an ideal he espoused upon the country but a scapegoat: otherwise said is “this is the ideal, but these are the people for whom to blame for our lot.”  It should be noted that an erstwhile general failure in his other pursuits, this individual honed a craft of speaking what people begged to hear in a manner that was convincing enough to overpower the very voice of decency within them.

Picture 2 What did that individual do?  He convinced people that it was ok to place a mark of second class on another human being.  He convinced people that they should be “segregated” for the good of the countrymen.  In time, it went from a fringe movement to the government’s position, and men, women, children were rounded up and “quarantined” for the safety of the citizenry.  Some bought into this with a passion, others were put into a position of placing their own lives in peril to not go through with this new government program as their neighbors were taken, were abused, disenfranchised and even killed. Only a sociopath would look upon the truth of this matter with anything but horror, but it’s amazing what people can justify to themselves when their own comfort is on the line, when their own well-being is on the line.  That individual, after committing war Picture 3 upon his own land, went on to view people in other countries as “lesser than”, as not worthy of existence as neighbors, and went to war with them.  The irony learned by the very public this individual used and then abandoned in his bid for power is that they were now only worse off after his blame-game and were forced to face what had been done in their name.

So, why is that relevant today?  Anytime, Anytime, Every time we accept a person to be cast as a second-class citizen for no other reason than their very being, we lose.  We lost when we decided that Native American Cultures were lesser than.  We lost when we decided that African lives, African American lives were lesser than.  We lost when we decided that whoever was in power at the moment, however that power was expressed- be it by government, wealth, violence- was the correct arbitrator of a person’s worth as a citizen.

This blog clearly speaks up for those who have felt the abuse of those in power due to their being gay, being trans, being somehow different.  Some have looked upon this championing as an acceptable forum for conversation and determination Picture 4of another’s rights and status when said persons  have harmed no one and sought only to be genuine to themselves.  The false definition of reality seems a favorite of those who seek to justify abuse, and let it be understood that abuse of power is what it is!  I see no debate as warranted or even allowed when we seek to determine how another person defines himself.  That is their business, and though we may find it uncomfortable for ourselves we have no right to dictate to another who he or she or they express themselves.

I would like to harken back to the very extreme example used earlier in this writing:  Declaring a person to be lower class and unworthy of their own personhood, their liberty, is not American, but damn if it isn’t what Americans seem to demand.  Excusing and justifying abuses and horrors in the name of being free is antithetical to the very existence of the Constitution, and yet we do it.  Over and over again, we accept abuses on others.  You want examples? Picture 5 Ok, we accept a death knell of school children for the right to sell guns to near anyone.  We accept the demand that drag shows be stopped because it violates our own religious beliefs.  We are demanding that people exhibit who they are defined to be at birth despite who they genuinely feel themselves to be.  We demand that children starve in our public schools so that the wealthiest don’t have to pay a fair tax rate.  We demand that children go to school, then declare their well-educated instructors abusing them for allowing them to have an education.  We demand that the sick seek to gamble their very lives as they balance eating and health care.  And, we demand that the mother give birth to her child no matter how old she is, Picture 6 how she became pregnant, the viability of the fetus, the physical and psychological toll it will put on the mother, the financial devastation it will inflict upon her life, even the ability to feed, clothe, educate, and love the child do we still demand she bring it into the world, then we turn our back upon her.

We as a country seem to demand the right to make these decisions for others, to define them, to restrict them, to force them to conform to what we see as comfortable and proper for them, and yet in the near past, especially, have I seen excuse upon excuse for criminal and the worst examples of abuses inflicted upon others.  Picture 7These so-called Christians – and I place that lowercase as they seem to refuse to follow the example of the one written as Jesus Christ – refuse to use a common reality, hold themselves accountable, hold others in their politics driven values accountable, and as I mentioned, refuse to do as Christ demands, yet stomp their feet if someone were to live in defiance of those somehow “deeply held religious beliefs”.  And, again, harkening back to the earlier extreme example:  1930’s Germany was a very religious country and look at what they allowed for their politics-driven morals and values.

Florida Now Going After Social Studies Textbooks

The white nationalist religious racist maga fanatics are not satisfied with wiping out the LGBTQ+ from schools and making their lives difficult in Florida.  Now they want to whitewash the racist history of the US to wipe out the mistreatment and economy of the slave states built of free slave labor that gave no benefit of that labor to the black people but instead benefited only the white people.   This started with outlawing any teaching that would make white kids uncomfortable, with no care how the black kids in the same classes / age groups felt.   It was totally geared to the comfort and image of the white students.   This current drive removed the historical context as to why the standard economic situations are so different when you compare white economic status to the average black family’s economic status.   This denies the systematic racism that has existed in the US even to today.   Red lining preventing community up grades, loans for businesses in majority black areas, the taking of black areas by the government so businesses could make profit that again destroyed black communities.   Mass transit was often denied to lower income black areas that needed it for work because they couldn’t afford cars.   There are so many ways the systems are designed to disadvantage blacks that make the current economic situation clear it is not the black communities fault.   Look at the difference in funding and supplies between traditional majority black public schools compared to white majority public schools.  This is being done so that racist can make a case that the situation black people are in is their own doing, they are less intelligent than whites, they care less about their families than whites, they care less about their homes / property than whites, the reason police action against blacks is they don’t respect police or follow their directions like white people do leaving out the context of the way blacks are treated by police in the US even in the modern day.   

We must fight back against this with everything we have.  Florida has already become the Meca paradise for the white supremist white Christian nationalist crowd backed up by thug gang enforcers that love the Gov. DeathSantis attacks anyone who is different while acting like a king with any who disagrees with him, threatening what little free press remains.   Oh ya, this is the free state of Florida according to DeathSantis campaign slogan. Hugs

The New York Times reports:

In Florida, textbooks have become hot politics, part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign against what he describes as “woke indoctrination” in public schools, particularly when it comes to race and gender. Last year, his administration made a splash when it rejected dozens of math textbooks, citing “prohibited topics.” Now, the state is reviewing curriculum in what is perhaps the most contentious subject in education: social studies.

In the last few months, as part of the review process, a small army of state experts, teachers, parents and political activists have combed thousands of pages of text — not only evaluating academic content, but also flagging anything that could hint, for instance, at critical race theory. The Florida Citizens Alliance, a conservative group, has urged the state to reject 28 of the 38 textbooks that its volunteers reviewed.

Bypass the paywall via this gift link.

They’re even going after Rosa Parks.

 

 

Hey Teacher … what does “different sorts of groups” mean?

Why did a lady being asked to move her seat go to the Supreme Court?

Kids won’t ask such questions. I remember being told “savages” liked being civilized by European invaders when the country was founded

I thought that sounded wrong but I didn’t speak up as a kid

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
– democratic Socialist George Orwell.

I can’t wait for FL kids to learn about the War of Northern Aggression and the reign of the Tyrant Lincoln. /s

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It “focuses too much” on the “negative side” to our genocide of the collective tribes and nations of the Native American cultures?

So they’re saying they want us to celebrate genocide then?

Figures. They are neo-nazis after all.

I’m glad we are getting some actual examples now of what these changes entail. They are even worse than I imagined. So bad that the students, I hope, will be correcting the teachers.

A whole state full of white supremacists. That’s what ROnda Sandtits is shooting for

Because no one will know that white people did anything wrong .

DeSantis vs. diversity: Blacklists have universities playing defense as Republicans attack<.b>

” In more than a dozen interviews with the Herald, faculty and staff described a quiet calculus on campuses as educators navigate an increasingly hostile work environment resulting from vague and ever-evolving directives coming from Tallahassee.

https://www.miamiherald.com…

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Hey Teach … what does “Colored” only mean?

Can I use my Crayolas and markers?

How long before the first highschooler cant get into college because they learned nothing?

That wont happen. As it is the red states will pass laws to make it mandatory that all colleges accept their new standards and then sue to get in front of SCOTUS and thats all it takes. Red states know how to take over the country and impose their will without firing a shot.

I wonder if any democratic governors beside Newsom in CA will have the nerve to play hardball with the feds on enforcement of red states rules for blue state citizens?

Schools are already eliminating the SAT as a requirement.

There are legislatures pushing state colleges and any college that takes state monies to follow the Hillsdale “classical” education model.

Count on the NYT to call censorship and book destruction by a fascist state ‘hot politics’.

I thought that was a bit unfair until I clicked through and saw an article which was the current affairs version of the altered ‘Studies Weekly’ textbook.
I can’t remember who said it first but if someone says it’s raining and someone else says it’s not, your job as a journalist isn’t to say ‘A says it’s raining, B says it’s dry,’ but to look out of the window to see which one is correct.

Honestly if we the people are content to let it happen its going to get much worse. I just ask myself and our leaders and all of us… why the fuck are we not in the streets marching every weekend, every chance, protesting and standing up to fascist.

So Cuban Floridians you fled a regime in your country supported by Russia and now you vote and support a Russian leaning authoritarian as your governor. Where will you exile next and aid in its demise?

Yes but the whites preach racism against blacks and Mexicans. Let me tell you from living in a Cuban neighborhood and knowing and interacting with many of them.. they give the white rednecks a run for the money on hating those two peoples specifically.

 

Michigan prosecutor mulls charging Lapeer library over LGBTQ book

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-prosecutor-mulls-charging-lapeer-library-over-lgbtq-book

You need to read the article.   As it states this is a blatant attack on the LGBTQ+ community.   With adults checking out the books and taking them to the police.  At the same time the librarian notes that these same people including the prosecutor attack books with LGBTQ+ themes don’t care at all about the many more books for teens that deal with heterosexual sex or pictures and noted the library has the straight Joy of Sex book that I remember well had many depictions of sex, how to have sex, sex organs, and sex positions.   They don’t care about that at all, because that reenforces their world view that sex between boys and girls is great / normal but anything not that is a horrible evil sin against gods ways done by degenerate evil people that want to corrupt the country.   Notice that Lauren Boebert who attacks the gay / trans community nonstop and calls teachers who support equality for the LGBTQ+ community groomers while attacking any and all sex education in any level of public schools announced her 17 year old son got a girl who is now 14 (somewhat sketchy under the laws in that state) pregnant and Boebert couldn’t be happier.   She left school because she was pregnant at 16 and because her son got no education to even use a condom when he had sex he got a minor girl pregnant.  He is also know for driving his four wheelers at breakneck dangerous speed in the local streets endangering small kids and pets along with being an asshole.  

Some quotes from the article:

“I have heard, if he could, he’d arrest me. He’s trying to intimidate us,” she told Bridge.

Churchill told Bridge that the library purchased a copy of “Gender Queer” in the fall of 2022 at the request of a patron.

One resident checked the book out and took it to the police, Churchill said. The police returned the book to the library.

Miller is a Republican who won election as prosecutor in November. In January, four weeks after taking office, Miller filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the library, seeking records connected to the consideration, approval and purchase of “Gender Queer,” which he misidentified as “Gender Queen.” The public records also asked for a record of “who voted for and against the addition of the book” to the library. 

But most telling was this set of quotes from the article.    

Miller said the book’s target audience is teenagers, and that, to him, the drawings of sex acts appeared to involve “prepubescent boys.”

To the prosecutor, the book’s availability to youth could meet the bar for a crime in Michigan because, to him, the book “entices” underage teens to engage in sex acts.

“While I hope not to prosecute someone over this book, I feel it’s part of the community’s decision,” Miller said. “This isn’t about LGBTQ, this is about the exploitation of children.”

Churchill countered that Miller and other conservatives in the community are only objecting to an LGBTQ book with illustrations of sex acts, but not to books like “The Joy of Sex,” which depict sex acts by heterosexual couples, which is also housed at the library.

“If anything, we have an underrepresentation of books about marginalized communities,” including LGBTQ community, Churchill said.

“Gender Queer” is normally shelved in the adult section of the Lapeer library. To Miller, that doesn’t matter because teens could wander over and find it.

The article is below and includes so much more bigotry and hate from the right in it.    Hugs

Amy Churchill in an office
Amy Churchill, director of the Lapeer District Library, is facing the possibility of criminal charges from a conservative county prosecutor in a fight over an LGBTQ-themed book. (Bridge courtesy photo)
  • A Michigan county prosecutor is raising the specter of criminal charges over a controversial book
  • ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ is an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel
  • The book will be discussed at what is expected to be a heated meeting Thursday

Lapeer County Prosecutor John Miller says he may file criminal charges against employees or officials of the Lapeer District Library if an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel isn’t removed from the shelves.

Miller told Bridge Michigan on Monday the illustrations in the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” could rise to the level of accosting, enticing or soliciting a child for immoral purpose, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

“I hope that is not the outcome of this,” Miller said. “I want this to come to a conclusion” that the community agrees on that would “remove the book from the library.”

Related:

The threat of criminal charges against librarians is believed to be a first in the state, and is an escalation of cultural wars that have spread across public and school libraries in Michigan over the past year.

The book, an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel with illustrations of sex acts, has caused controversy in libraries in Michigan and across the country, and Miller’s threat follows a controversy over the book that has brewed since fall in this rural county in Michigan’s Thumb. 

Miller cited the specific criminal code — 750.145a — he believed the book’s presence in a public library could violate. 

The law is often associated with police sting operations of adults who prey on minors, barring enticing anyone under 16 “to commit an immoral act, to submit to an act of sexual intercourse or an act of gross indecency or to any other act of depravity or delinquency.”

Amy Churchill, director of the library, said she’s undeterred by Miller’s threat.

“I have heard, if he could, he’d arrest me. He’s trying to intimidate us,” she told Bridge.

“I am not hard to find,” she added. “If Mr. Miller wishes to arrest me, I am in my office working for the patrons and staff of the Lapeer District Library Monday through Friday.”

Miller said he, “along with other county officials,” will urge the library to remove the book at a Lapeer District Library board meeting Thursday evening. Library officials are considering a patron request to remove “Gender Queer” from the library’s collection.

“Gender Queer: A Memoir,” was the most banned book in school libraries in 2022, according to PEN America, a group that advocates for writers, and the most challenged book by the American Library Association.

The graphic novel is the story of author Maia Kobabe’s coming-of-age as nonbinary, and includes illustrations of sex acts.

“Gender Queer” was one of the books that caused an uproar in Ottawa County last fall, when voters defunded the Patmos Library. That library is operating on donations for now but officials do not believe they can stay open indefinitely without taxpayer support. 

No criminal charges against librarians have been publicly contemplated there, but library officials have received several threats of violence

Keeping books some consider inappropriate away from children is drawing attention among some in Lansing as well. House Bill 4136, sponsored by Rep. Neil Friske, R-Charlevoix, would require public libraries to keep “obscene” books in an area where children do not have access.

Most public libraries are not designed in a way that would allow a restricted book area, Deb Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association, told MLive.

Lapeer District Library serves about two-thirds of Lapeer County, east of Flint. There are seven small branch libraries in the district, with a main library in the city of Lapeer.

Churchill told Bridge that the library purchased a copy of “Gender Queer” in the fall of 2022 at the request of a patron. Soon afterward, some residents began objecting to the book.

One resident checked the book out and took it to the police, Churchill said. The police returned the book to the library.

Miller is a Republican who won election as prosecutor in November. In January, four weeks after taking office, Miller filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the library, seeking records connected to the consideration, approval and purchase of “Gender Queer,” which he misidentified as “Gender Queen.”

The public records also asked for a record of “who voted for and against the addition of the book” to the library.

Lapeer’s library board doesn’t approve individual book purchases, Churchill said. According to the library’s policies, Churchill, as director, has final approval of purchases.

Churchill said she was shocked by the FOIA, sent on official stationery of the Lapeer County prosecutor’s office, since she had never spoken to Miller or anyone in his office, and the information could have been gleaned with a phone call.

The FOIA letter stated Miller would “pay personally” for any charges incurred by the library in fulfilling the request.

“A FOIA is an extremely aggressive way to communicate with someone,” Churchill said. “Usually you’d try to talk to them first.”

Miller said he became involved when several county commissioners approached him with copies of books that had been checked out from the Lapeer library.

He said he dismissed concerns about two of the books – one with LGBTQ themes but no illustrations, and a second that had to do with race relations.

The third was “Gender Queer,” with illustrations that Miller said shocked him, “and that takes a lot for a prosecutor,” he said.  “I’m an attorney, I’ve studied the constitution, I’ve passed the bar exam. My job is to take a position that protects our innocent and our youth. And if this isn’t child sexual abusive material, … it borders on it.”

Miller said the book’s target audience is teenagers, and that, to him, the drawings of sex acts appeared to involve “prepubescent boys.”

To the prosecutor, the book’s availability to youth could meet the bar for a crime in Michigan because, to him, the book “entices” underage teens to engage in sex acts.

“While I hope not to prosecute someone over this book, I feel it’s part of the community’s decision,” Miller said. “This isn’t about LGBTQ, this is about the exploitation of children.”

Churchill countered that Miller and other conservatives in the community are only objecting to an LGBTQ book with illustrations of sex acts, but not to books like “The Joy of Sex,” which depict sex acts by heterosexual couples, which is also housed at the library.

“If anything, we have an underrepresentation of books about marginalized communities,” including LGBTQ community, Churchill said.

“Gender Queer” is normally shelved in the adult section of the Lapeer library. To Miller, that doesn’t matter because teens could wander over and find it.

Miller declined to say who he would consider charging — Churchill as the director, library board members or the author of the book.

“I’m waiting for the community to chime in (before deciding whether to file criminal charges), to say this is something that  should or should not be in the library,” Miller said. “The majority of the voices I’ve heard think it shouldn’t.”

Georgia is considering a bill that would allow school librarians to be charged criminally for objectionable books, as is Indiana, Texas and Wyoming.

 

 

An infamous article linking homosexuality with molestation got its own data wrong

https://friendlyatheist.substack.com/p/an-infamous-article-linking-homosexuality

Another debunked study whose conclusion was clearly wrong used for 20 years by haters to attack gay people.  As the article says: “It was the sort of result that played right into the hands of anti-LGBTQ activists. It bolstered their claim that being gay was the result of something that happened to you, not simply who you were. It fed into the idea that gay men are predators, eager to groom children who will eventually turn gay. The Christian hate group Family Research Council even published a piece in 2007 spreading anti-LGBTQ misinformation that cited the article in its defense.”     Just like the current frenzied attacks on trans people that are also ideology driven and uses incorrect information, made up myths, and debunked fringe studies to demonize trans kids /teens / adults these attacks were used against gay kids / teens / adults for decades ago.   It is simply people who cannot accept the changes in society and those who cannot accept that others don’t follow their selective religious morality / dictates.   The same people who use the bible against the gay people seem quite ok with disregarding all the other moral precepts and sins that they either don’t have hate for or indulge in themselves.   Notice that how the churches look on divorce has shifted so drastically since such a large part of the population is divorced including church members, the same shift happened in a lot of churches as a lot of in the closet gay people came out and got married, even church members.    Even die-hard hate churches tolerate divorce at that same time attacking homosexually.  In 20 years all this trans hysteria will be gone, and trans people accepted and gender different kids will be given the acceptance with their gender affirming medical assistance.  The hate in schools is not really driven by the students by a small segment of parents who are very vocal and telling their kids to attack trans kids while correcting the teachers.  Then run home and tell the parents so they can sue and scream at the school administrators.    Enjoy the article, comments are off and you know why.  Hugs

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In 2001, the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior published an article titled “Comparative Data of Childhood and Adolescence Molestation in Heterosexual and Homosexual Persons.” The short piece—it was only seven pages—was published by Marie E. TomeoDonald I. TemplerSusan Anderson & Debra Kotler, all associated with the California School of Professional Psychology. They attempted to see if there was a connection between “childhood molestation” and homosexuality.

As so many gay people could tell you, those two things aren’t linked. There’s also the whole disconnect between when you first have same-sex attraction and when you might identify as gay, which could be much later in life. But whatever the concerns, the article concluded that there was definitely something going on:

In research with 942 nonclinical adult participants, gay men and lesbian women reported a significantly higher rate of childhood molestation than did heterosexual men and women. Forty-six percent of the homosexual men in contrast to 7% of the heterosexual men reported homosexual molestation. Twenty-two percent of lesbian women in contrast to 1% of heterosexual women reported homosexual molestation…

It was the sort of result that played right into the hands of anti-LGBTQ activists. It bolstered their claim that being gay was the result of something that happened to you, not simply who you were. It fed into the idea that gay men are predators, eager to groom children who will eventually turn gay. The Christian hate group Family Research Council even published a piece in 2007 spreading anti-LGBTQ misinformation that cited the article in its defense.

Google Scholar says the original article has been cited 182 times.

Even Joe Rogan cited the article in defense of the lie it was promoting:

That link at the bottom goes directly to the 2001 Tomeo article.

The point is: This article had lasting power and did lasting damage.

But a little over two weeks ago, on February 24, the Archives of Sexual Behavior added an update to the piece. It came in the form of an “Editorial Expression of Concern.”

The concern, the editors wrote, involved some data in the original piece.

Look at this chart from the 2001 article:

It says that 68% of the gay men who took part in the survey were openly gay before getting molested. 62% of lesbians were similarly out before they were victims of abuse. In other words, most of the participants said being victims of molestation did not have any effect on their sexual orientation. They were gay before and they were gay after.

And yet this is what the authors wrote in the conclusion:

Sixty-eight percent of the present homosexual male participants and 38% of the present homosexual female participants (68 and 36%, respectively, if including just the homosexual fair participants) did not identify as homosexual until after the molestation. This suggests that if molestation resulted in homosexuality, this phenomenon occurs in a greater proportion of male homosexuals.

That conclusion was precisely the opposite of what the table showed. Somehow, the peer reviewers never caught that, nor did the editors.

But now, the editors say this:

Readers are urged to take caution when interpreting the content and conclusions of this article. The Editor has been unable to find current email addresses for any of the authors in order to clarify and correct the article.

Well, that’s convenient…

Wait, it gets worse.

The note also points out that this article was drawn from a dissertation written by one of the co-authors, Marie E. Tomeo. But in that original dissertation, Tomeo wrote that 68% of the men “were molested before self-identification as homosexual” (emphasis mine)… which is also the opposite of what the table shows. She made the same mistake when talking about women.

Finally, the note points out there’s another table in the original piece where the math is wrong all over the place:

In Table III, in the column, “Molested by men,” the 6.7% value should be 5.8% (12/205). The 45.5% value should be 45.1% (56/124). The 24.3% value should be 24.1% (111/460); the 29.3% value should be 28.7% (44/153). In the column, “Molested by women,” the 16.4% value should be 16.1% (20/124).

This is a paper that failed a basic division test, yet it was lauded by conservatives who used it as evidence for why homosexuality is a choice and the result of something traumatic.

Obviously, adding an editors’ note to a 20-year-old paper isn’t going to make waves like the original paper did. People don’t check for corrections after the fact. Misinformation travels faster than the truth ever will.

But all of this raises another question: If the conclusions of the article were this flawed, because the data was misinterpreted this badly, why isn’t the whole paper being retracted? Why just append a note that very few people will ever read?

That’s what psychology professor Warren Throckmorton wants to know.

In 2009, he wrote a blog post about the problems with the original paper. He said he and his colleague noticed the problem three years earlier and contacted co-author Donald Templer about it as he was the advisor to Tomeo at the time. (Side note: Templer also dabbles in white supremacy!) He was unable to get in touch with her. (She seems to have vanished!) Throckmorton also wrote to the editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior but didn’t hear back.

Throckmorton (correctly) wrote in 2009 that the entire article was not worth citing:

The bottom line is that the study should not be cited until a follow up correction can be made. The main results—gays report more abuse than straights—may indeed be correct, given the similarity to past studies. However, I do not believe any inferences about causation should be made. Without the actual surveys, there is no way a reader can figure out the results from the journal article and/or the dissertation.

Now, on his new Substack The Throckmorton Initiative, he wonders if his inquiries were what prompted the recent editors’ note. They don’t mention him, but their corrections match his earlier concerns… almost identically. It’s bizarre that they make no mention of what triggered the initial concerns other than to cite “a reader” who goes unnamed. It’s a strange oversight especially given the stakes of this particular correction.

Separate from that, however, is the fact that the original article is effectively worthless because its conclusions don’t even match its own data. Even the publication admits that now. No one should cite it. Anyone who does, much like its authors, didn’t do their research.

(Featured image via Shutterstock)

Florida Schools Remove Book About Holocaust Survivor

West Palm Beach’s NBC affiliate reports:

A new list shows dozens and dozens of books have been removed from library shelves in the Martin County School District. This comes as the state puts in new requirements for school librarians to review reading material, and districts must have a process allowing community members to challenge books.

Books by well known authors like James Patterson, Toni Morrison, and Jodi Picoult are now off the shelves in Martin County schools.

“99% of the books we have filed challenges on are highly sexually explicit books,” said Julie Marshall, who leads Moms For Liberty in Martin County and filed many of the objections. Jennifer Pippin, a fellow Moms For Liberty activist in Indian River County, said they share lists and work together.

The Washington Post reports:

The removal list includes Picoult’s novel “The Storyteller” about the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who meets an elderly former SS officer. It contains some violent scenes told in flashbacks from World War II and an assisted suicide.

“Banning ‘The Storyteller’ is shocking, as it is about the Holocaust and has never been banned before,” Picoult told us in an email.

“Martin County is the first to ban twenty of my books at once,” Picoult said, slamming such bans as “a shocking breach of freedom of speech and freedom of information.” Picoult said she’s puzzled by the ban, because she does not “write adult romance,” as objections filed against her books claimed.

“I like Florida; everything is in the eighties: the temperature, the ages, and the IQs.” —George Carlin

This is the point I always make. You ask these people to show you the “pornographic” books and whoopsy-poopsy it’s a bunch of books about the Holocaust, slavery, Jim Crow America, on and on and on….

I would be really happy if one of them were to ever hold up a copy of a “pornographic” book at one of their rant rallies, because it means I would get to alert the cops to a crazy person displaying / distributing pornography to the public.

But…but…but…Any book that shows white, Christian people doing hateful things is obviously pornographic. Right? Right? /s

 

Why are only right wing wackos challenging books? A gutsy liberal could challenge the bible. Of course they’d need 24/7 security, bulletproof windows and and armored vehicle to travel in because Florida is filled with dangerous raging cultists.

When exactly will the Florida Führer finally face push back, because he’s storm trooping along with nary a pebble blocking his way.

I think that right now, people are in shock. It’s like having a firehose turned on them.

Let’s hope you’re right! Right now he seems to be steamrolling right along in creating not a bastion of “liberty” for moms and kids and dads and other adults, but a SLAVE STATE.

a fellow Moms For Liberty activist in Indian River County, said they share lists and work together.

So none of them have a goddamn clue what is even in the books they find so offensive, and if pressed on why they want to ban any particular book they would be unable to really explain it.

And like most of these morality groups, they probably don’t even have children in the public schools.

At what point do majority of the Americans and the rest of the world realize we are repeating history again? Until millions of people shove into the oven? Or until it get so uncontrollable that nations need to set off multiple nuclear bombs in the US to make blowing up Hiroshima looks like popping a balloon?

The press actually reporting on this to the general public would sure help.

No surprise. At all. Mustn’t show books that depict white people as bad guys

2023 wave of bills is fueling a political ‘war against LGBTQ+ people,’ new report shows

https://19thnews.org/2023/02/2023-anti-trans-lgbtq-bills-record/

I have been reporting on this for years now as the article says “…describes the current political landscape as a “war against LGBTQ people in America and their very right and ability to openly exist.”   These laws have nothing to do with protecting children as they claim but instead are attempts to force regressive religious morality on the entire country by a minority who don’t feel comfortable with “those people” and want them removed from public view / discussion.   With every push to return the country to the society of 100 years ago which rolls back every advancement in civil rights that have been achieved, these people are emboldened to push harder to oppress more people into living the way that maga Christian minority insists they have a right to force everyone else to live as.   It is not enough for them to live as they wish, they insist you live the way they do also, that you believe as they do, that you follow the moral dictates written 2,500 years ago for a culture long gone.    But it is not enough for these people and never will be until they are in charge of and get to rule over every aspect of your life.   Allies of the LGBTQ+ we need to you stand up and add your voice to protect the rights of minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+.   Hugs

Today’s heart rate readings have seen an improvement.   The lowest it has been is 95 the highest sustained was 136 with the average so far of 126 bpm.  So I am getting better.   Still no call from the heart doctor’s office so Monday I will call them.  This has been going on for too long and too dangerous, not to mention causing me to struggle to function.    Hugs

To learn itthe Florida underground railroadrepublican plan 2 yearsFreedom bumpsbook in your backpackBefore I get to burn it.And their kidsBorn girl or be drag queenhate like Christian loveNazi DerSantisThey walk amoung usWhat happened to tolerance for racism

Trans-rights activists protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma State Capitol.
Trans-rights activists protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma State Capitol on Feb. 6, 2023. (SUE OGROCKI/AP)
 
From bills in legislatures to restrictions in schools and health care, growing rhetoric throughout the US is part of a “full-out attack” against LGBTQ+ people, advocates say.
  

The volume and speed of anti-LGBTQ+ bills advancing through state legislatures has already defined 2023 as a historically challenging and frightening year, advocates say.

In a new report, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which tracks LGBTQ+ policy, describes the current political landscape as a “war against LGBTQ people in America and their very right and ability to openly exist.” It is a culmination of efforts: gender-affirming care bans for trans youth becoming law in states where such bills were previously blocked, growing efforts to restrict how students learn about LGBTQ+ subjects in schools, an increase in dehumanizing rhetoric that could lead to harassment or violence. 

“I’ve been working in the movement for 15 years,” said Naomi Goldberg, deputy director and LGBTQ program director at MAP. “To me, this is a different moment. … It is hard to see this as anything but a full-out attack and full-out war on LGBTQ+ people when you look at all of the areas of life, at all of the parts of our communities that are being attacked.” 

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the country’s largest LGBTQ+ organization, sounded similar alarm bells earlier in the week. The organization has so far tracked 340 introduced anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including the most anti-transgender bills ever filed that the group has seen. 

Those bills include ones that would prohibit students from playing school sports that match their gender identity and bills that would restrict gender-affirming medical care for minors. Over 90 bills targeting medical care for trans youth have been filed so far, according to the HRC’s count. South Dakota and Utah have already signed such bills into law, while states like Tennessee and Mississippi are quickly moving similar bans through their legislatures. Other proposed bills direct school employees to effectively misgender students, mandating that students are referred to with pronouns that match their sex assigned at birth unless a parent intervenes. 

“This situation is terrifying. It’s scary and it’s harmful. We know last year was bad. … we anticipate this year being historically bad,” Kelley Robinson, the president of HRC, said on a Tuesday press call with reporters. 

Within the past three years, “firsts” in anti-LGBTQ+ bills have piled up, MAP’s analysis finds: the first legislative ban on trans youth playing sports that match their gender identity in Idaho, the first legislative ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in Arkansas, the first state ban on the use of X as a gender marker on identity documents in Oklahoma, and the first “Don’t Say Gay” law passed in 20 years in Florida. 

Efforts outside statehouses are another part of what make the current moment unique, per the report — including child abuse investigations ordered by the state of Texas against families seeking gender-affirming care and Florida’s board of medicine moving to restrict such care for trans youth.

Some LGBTQ+ advocates are concerned about the potential for new anti-trans bills to restrict whether families can seek gender-affirming care in other states if their own state bans the care. In Oklahoma, one bill prohibits doctors from making a referral to “any physician or health care professional for gender transition procedures” for patients under 18. The consequences of such a referral would be meted out by the state, which would have jurisdiction over its own doctors. However, since any referrals would have to be for out-of-state care, it still has the potential to limit interstate travel for gender-affirming care, said Logan Casey, senior policy researcher and adviser for MAP, over email.  

More bathroom bills, which aim to restrict how trans people are able to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, are filed this year than in previous years, per the Human Rights Campaign’s count — and fewer bills targeting how trans students can participate in sports are being introduced. 

Even when the legislation doesn’t become law, it still causes harm, Olivia Hunt, policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, stressed during the call. Hunt pointed to a recent poll that found 86 percent of surveyed trans and nonbinary youth said that debates around state laws restricting LGBTQ+ rights for young people negatively impacted their mental health. 

“Trans youth are making their way through an already difficult world, where they’re trying to understand who they are … and on that journey, they’re vulnerable, and they deserve the love, respect and support of their communities. Instead, they’re portrayed as someone to be feared, controlled or erased,” Hunt said.  

The Biden administration has vocally supported LGBTQ+ rights, directing federal agencies to roll back Trump-era policies that advocates denounced as discriminatory and prioritizing data collection on LGBTQ+ experiences. Goldberg said she wants to see enforcement of federal protections from the Biden administration. Those include the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed rule to restore protections for gender identity and sexual orientation under the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX protections proposed by the administration that would apply to trans students. Following Biden’s State of the Union address, HRC called on the administration to finalize both of those rules. 

“I think it would be great to have more leadership,” Goldberg said. 

Some TYT clips I watched. Sorry wish I could do more, but it is what it is. The last one shows how out of touch with the country the maga republicans are.

EXPOSED: Book Banning ‘Moms For Liberty’ Funders Are Exactly Who You’d Guess