Great to see the decent accepting people fighting back against the red state haters, the anti-LGBTQIA jerks, the ones trying to remove anyone who is not cis straight gender role conforming from public view and society. We need more of this open fighting back. Hugs
The law is a direct rebuke to national efforts to erase LGBTQ+ identities from schools.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is about to sign a law that would forbid schools from banning LGBTQ+-inclusive books. The law also requires schools to have trained staff to help queer kids and reiterates protections against forcibly outing LGBTQ+ students to their possibly unsupportive parents.
The law, known as Assembly Bill 1078, is a direct rebuke to anti-LGBTQ+ book-bans, “don’t say gay” laws, and other nationwide efforts to discriminate against queer students. Newsom has long opposed anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in education and other areas. Once signed, AB 1078 will go into immediate effect.
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California just became the first U.S. state to establish Transgender History Month
“I believe that as Californians our strongest defense against the anti-trans agenda is just to tell the truth.”
“California is the true freedom state: a place where families — not political fanatics — have the freedom to decide what’s right for them,” Newsom wrote in a Twitter post announcing his intention to sign the law, known as Assembly Bill 1078. “With the passage of legislation to ban book bans & ensure all students have textbooks, our state’s Family Agenda is now even stronger.”
The law prohibits “the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school” from “refusing to approve or prohibiting the use” of any book on the basis of an individual’s or group’s diverse racial or cultural characteristics. Any school that bans such books could lose state funding. Existing state law requires social sciences classes to include contributions of diverse groups, including, among others, LGBTQ+ Americans and members of other ethnic and cultural groups.
“Restricting access to classroom and library materials because they feature LGBTQ people or were written by LGBTQ authors discriminates against LGBTQ people and constitutes censorship in violation of California law and policy,” the law states. “Similarly, efforts to categorically exclude topics related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics, or of present or historical discrimination based on protected characteristics, from school library collections, curricula, or classroom discussions constitute censorship that violates California law and policy.”
Additionally, the law reminds state officials and agencies that they have the authority to enforce federal and state laws protecting students from unlawful discrimination and harassment that create an inequitable learning environment.
This reminder is likely connected to three California school districts — the Murrieta Valley, Orange, and Chino Valley Unified School Districts — which recently passed policies forcing educators to out trans and nonbinary students to their parents. California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) filed a lawsuit against the Chino Valley United School District, and a judge blocked its policy from going into effect.
The law also reiterates that schools may offer “peer support or affinity clubs and organizations, safe spaces for LGBTQ or other at-promise pupils, counseling services, staff who have received anti-bias or other training aimed at supporting these pupils or who serve as designated support to these pupils, health and other curriculum materials that are inclusive of, and relevant to, these pupils, [as well as] online training” and complaint procedures developed to assist LGBTQ+ students with their learning experiences.
Right-wing groups have said that anti-LGBTQ+ educational policies are needed to prevent schools from “secretly” encouraging students to change genders without their parents’ knowledge or to stop the “indoctrination” of “gender ideology” onto students. These policies are often promoted by anti-LGBTQ+ groups who also oppose the expansion of queer civil rights in other non-educational areas of public and private life.
This is in direct refutation of the anti-trans haters that keep claiming that all other countries are stopping trans treatment. It is, like everything else they claim, a lie. Hugs
Hello readers and followers. In my last post I put in the line I needed to go clear my mind of the post. That was because I had to go over and over what I wrote to correct it. However I do not want people to take that as I might not want comments on the post. If you have a comment to make, please feel free to do so. And I will respond. I belong to a survivor’s forum and talking about the abuse and feed back from others can be helpful. That is why all the therapist I have seen in the past recommending writing it out even if it was only in a letter I wouldn’t ever send. It is just a way to get it out of my mind and body and try to let it go away. If you try to ignore it or deny it, if you do what I did for so very long and bury it as deep as possible never letting on why you are hurting it leads to consequences such as self harm. Thank you. Hugs
Hypocrites. Another fundamentalist ideological right anti-LGBTQIA group caught harboring some members who engage in same-sex relationships while decrying them vehemently. Hugs
Religion News Service reports:
A former vice president of the American Family Association, a Mississippi-based conservative group that promotes “the biblical ethic of decency in American society,” has sued the religious-right group, accusing leaders of firing him after he reported alleged sexual harassment and financial irregularities.
In a complaint filed Tuesday (Sept. 5), Robert Chambers [photo], former vice president of policy and legislative affairs for AFA from 2015 to 2022, alleges that another staffer, Ron Cook, made repeated sexual advances toward him, beginning in January of 2022.
Those advances allegedly included grabbing hold of Chambers’ face and ear and making comments about masturbation, according to the complaint. “I see you’re really good with that wrist action,” the complaint alleges that Cook told Chambers. “You’d really like me to take you and get a hold of you.”
Read the full article. Chambers says that he was fired for reporting the harassment. The firing reportedly came after the daughter of AFA president Tim Wildmon allegedly told others that she’d had a dream in which Chambers kissed her infant child on the lips and that she was afraid to have her children around him.
As a reminder, the AFA is arguably the nation’s largest and most powerful anti-LGBTQ hate group with tens of millions in annual revenue. The AFA is the parent organization of One Million Moms. In the 2016 video below, the alleged victim blames criticism of anti-LGBTQ laws on Satan.
Chambers last appeared on JMG in 2021 when he joined the attack on RNC chair Ronna McDaniel for a proposed partnership with the Log Cabin Republicans.
A former VP at the AFA say another male staffer groped him and sexually harassed him. He alleges that leaders of the group, which promotes "biblical morality" looked the other way then fired him when he complainedhttps://t.co/YuIHVIZ0fS
Four hundred years ago she’d have had a successful career in the Jacobean witch trial industry pointing her fingers at innocent people and screeching “Witch!!!!”
I, for one, am shocked — SHOCKED!! — that one of the nation’s most virulently homophobic organizations is a seething HOTBED of repressed and handsy homothexuals!
So Wildmon’s daughter has a dream about this dude kissing her child and he gets fired. Meanwhile Josh Duggar was fingering his sisters over the course of multiple years and had a phone chock full of kid porn and he’s a superstar.
It’s like the Land that Time Forgot. He’s talking about Satan as a real entity, an actor in everyday affairs. This is pure creepy. No one talks like that. It’s juvenile, from the mouth of a simpleton. I have no idea what the hell this is all about, I just switched on that clip above and fell through the rift in the space -time continuum.
That was my impression, as well. They talk about satan as if it’s a thing everyone accepts as real and true, and not a figment of bronze age (or earlier), illiterate shepherds who had to have something to explain why bad things happen in the world. It’s inconceivable to them that anyone would not have the same view.
Notice this is the test backed by fundamentalist Christians, home school parents who don’t want any questions that might be based on books and ideas they don’t allow their kids to read that public schools did … until now, and it is the favorite among the hard right wing that wants to deny real history and science. It is the test of choice by home school parents, fundamentalist Christians, and ideologues who want a skewed version of history. As one board member said, the test scores have not been verified to be an accurate measure of how well-educated a student is compared to the well researched SAT and ACT. I will post some comments from Joe My God after this article. Hugs
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at an event in August. Photo: Megan Varner/Getty Images
Florida’s public universities will now permit the Classic Learning Test in admissions, offering a conservative-backed alternative to the SAT and ACT.
Why it matters: Florida is now the first state university system in the country to allow for the Classic Learning Test (CLT), which has gained recent popularity among the state’s Christian and charter schools.
The classical education model — not to be confused with “classics” or “classical humanities” — focuses on a return to “core values” and the “centrality of the Western tradition.”
Driving the news: The Florida state university system’s board of governors on Friday approved the test for use in undergraduate admissions.
“The system is pleased to add the CLT to reach a wider variety of students from different educational backgrounds.Not intimidated by controversy or critics, our focus is on the success of our students, and the State of Florida,” the State University System of Florida said in a statement Friday.
“Because we reject the status quo, today’s decision means we are better serving students by giving them an opportunity to showcase their academic potential and paving the path to higher education,” they added.
Of note: University of Florida professor Amanda Phalin was the only board member who opposed the approval of the Classic Learning Test during Friday’s meeting.
She said she wasn’t opposed to the use of the CLT overall but “the use of it at this time” because of a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating it is “of the same quality as the ACT and the SAT.”
Phalin clarified that her opposition did not stem from the test’s “focus,” “its content,” or “its creators.”
“I’m simply concerned because the test’s reliability and validity have not been independently demonstrated or verified,” Phalin said.
The big picture: Over 200 colleges across the U.S. accept the Classic Learning Test, which launched in 2015, according to Florida’s university system. It’s gained recent momentum in Florida charter schools and private Christian schools.
Homeschooling families and co-op groups have also used the test.
Flashback: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law in May that makes students “eligible to earn Bright Futures Scholarships with CLT scores,” per the test’s official website.
DeSantis‘ office and the Florida Department of Education did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.
He’s is destroying FL universities. That must be his plan. What does he think is going to happen? Well, this might allow unqualified persons (bible thumpers) to access jobs they have no right to have. I’m thinking FL civil services being taken over. If you have not had to pleasure of working under an unqualified evangelical, let me tell you: it is soul crushing and very nearly killed me
“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
(Bolding is motherfucking mine.)
Even if, as PolitiFact writes, “critical thinking” here refers to a specific relabeling of “outcome-based education” (which, as they note, takes many different forms), the platform plank still glorifies “fixed beliefs” and “parental authority” above true education.
Problem is that the real working world will not settle for “Jesus did it” as an acceptable answer. Is it any wonder that current interest to attend Florida colleges have dropped 30%?
It’s been a few years decades since I took the ACT but I don’t remember any of it being woke or socialist or anti-Western or any other kind of nonsense. I’d bet the folks who approved this are heavily invested in it monetarily.
No, but you aren’t a right wing nutjob. The SAT allegedly (they never reveal how they structure the test) draws its vocabulary words from literature and current news. (So, words you would need to know to understand what you are reading.) If you stick to right wing news and avoid certain books commonly on HS and college reading lists, you are unlikely to know those words and won’t do as well on the test. That’s the bias they are worried about.
Home schooling advocates tout their higher test scores but there are two problems with that claim: 1) they often spend far more time on SAT test prep than public school students would get and 2) the students unlikely to do well on such tests just don’t take them. So the numbers are distorted. This is also true of the state mandated tests.
He refuses to recluse himself or retire because he is on a mission from his god to force his god and his sect or highly strict religious views on the entire country. He can not lose his spot as one of the 6 unelected claim to be untouchable rulers of the US. What he says about congress having no authority over the courts is clearly and demonstrably wrong and if he really believes that he has lost his reasoning capacity so shouldn’t be on the bench. Hugs
<blockquote>
Article III
Section 1.
The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.
Section 2.
The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;–to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;–to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;–to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;–to controversies between two or more states;–between a state and citizens of another state;–between citizens of different states;–between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects.
In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, andunder such regulations as the Congress shall make.
The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or placesas the Congress may by law have directed.</blockquote>
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito released a sharp statement on Friday, rebutting a request from lawmakers to step down from an upcoming tax case after he gave an interview with an attorney involved in the matter.
In July, Alito sat for an interview with David Rivkin Jr. and James Taranto to discuss the workings of the court. The resulting favorable article, which was filed on the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page, revealed the justice’s thoughts on prior rulings and his colleagues.
In an aside toward the end of the article, the authors divulged that Rivkin is participating in an upcoming tax case before the court, Moore v. U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Richard Durbin sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, arguing Alito’s behavior warranted a recusal in the case. Alito disagreed.
Alito, one of six conservative justices on the court, said in his statement, “When Mr Rivkin participated in the interviews and co-authored the articles, he did so as a journalist, not an advocate. The case in which he is involved was never mentioned; nor did we discuss any issue in that case either directly or indirectly.“
He added: “We have no control over the attorneys whom parties select to represent them.”
The senators’ letter also suggested Alito recuse himself in any future cases concerning legislation that regulates the court after he told the Journal, “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court – period.“
Samuel Alito refuses to recuse himself from tax case before supreme court https://t.co/KyZqeWSEyJ
Corrupt republican judge sam alito is now refusing to recuse himself from a landmark case pushed by his buddies to profit rich tax cheats. More breathtaking republican court corruption. pic.twitter.com/sQSl3dvoAs
And these should not be lifetime appointments. The very idea is absurd and wrong. I don’t know how long is appropriate but there needs to be term limits. These people should not be allowed to rule our highest court for the rest of their lives. Same for Congress. Term limits – not just endlessly re-elected. It’s no wonder our laws and government is so incredibly fucked up.
The senators’ letter also suggested Alito recuse himself in any future cases concerning legislation that regulates the court after he told the Journal, “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court – period.“
That statement should warrant recusal, it calls for impeachment. Sadly we will not have a large enough congressional majority to make it happen.
He, without shame or embarrassment, announced he does not understand basic, easy to comprehend parts of the our constitution.
[He added: “We have no control over the attorneys whom parties select to represent them.”]
Right, which is why all courts do conflict checks and then recuse the judge if it turns out that the attorneys are their buddies, lovers, donors, in-laws, former clerks, former clients etc. It’s literally at the top of the case checklists.
Alito and Thomas are corrupt to the core and they don’t give a fuck because no one, least of all Roberts, is going to hold them to account. They are the embodiment of the GQP “ethos.”
This is actually great news, not Alitos words but the fact that he fell right into the trap. This is terrible optics and only helps Dems when they decide to do something about the out of control court.
Thanks to Ali for the link. This continuing assault on education by the right is an attack on democracy itself. The right doesn’t want a thinking public, they want obedient followers and soldiers who will do as told by the rulers. Notice the funding for these right wing sites comes from the ultrarich right that wants either a theocracy or a fascist dictatorship. With them in charge, of course. If you go to the link you will see several more stories of the right ring billionaires pushing the hard right idology. Hugs
PragerU is not accredited but has become a key tool in pushing false claims to youngsters – and raked in $200m from 2018 to 2022
Dennis Prager, the conservative talkshow host and founder of the Prager University Foundation, which is not an accredited education organization. Characters in PragerU’s videos downplay the horrors of slavery and make false claims about the climate crisis. Composite: Guardian Photo Composite/Getty Images/PragerU
A rightwing media outlet promoting climate-crisis denialism and other “anti-woke” staples to young students and adults via social media has become a fundraising Goliath, raking in close to $200m from 2018 to 2022 with big checks from top conservative donors, tax records reveal.
Founded in 2009 by the conservative talkshow host Dennis Prager, the eponymous Prager University Foundation is not an accredited education organization. But via online media its PragerU Kids division has become a key tool in spreading false claims to young people with short videos aimed at undercutting widely accepted science that climate crisis disasters are accelerating due, largely, to fossil-fuel usage.
PragerU’s influence in pushing false narratives about climate change and other far-right shibboleths such as airbrushing the brutal reality of American slavery gained ground when the Florida board of education in July gave the green light to using its videos and other materials in classrooms, a move that PragerU is trying to capitalize on in Texas and other states. On Tuesday, Oklahoma’s school system also approved the use of PragerU’s materials.
But some of PragerU’s expansion plans ran into trouble in August, when it was condemned by Texas education officials for announcing prematurely that Texas schools had approved the usage of its advocacy materials, generating new scrutiny and criticism of PragerU’s operations.
Prager’s website trumpets its mission and its niche in the conservative ecosystem.
“PragerU is the world’s leading conservative non-profit, focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.”
That sweeping mission has been fueled by big conservative money and slick marketing, and has led to PragerU’s rising influence on the right.
Among PragerU’s leading financiers are the oil and gas fracking billionaire brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, who have ponied up at least $8m over the past decade, according to Texas financial records.
Other top conservative donors to PragerU, which styles itself as alternative to the “dominant leftwing ideology in culture, media and education”, include the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the National Christian Charitable Foundation and the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation.
Tax records also reveal that PragerU has flourished financially in recent years as the Prager University Foundation raised $196m from 2018 through 2022. That growth is underscored by revenues rising from $17.9m in 2018 to $65.1m in 2022.
Prager’s chief executive, Marissa Streit, whose biography on LinkedIn says she once served in Israeli military intelligence, boasts on its website: “PragerU is redefining how people think about media and education. We produce edutainment – an intersection of education and entertainment. Our content is essential to shaping culture and preserving American ideals.”
Streit’s vision of “edutainment” seems to be reflected in PragerU cartoons and videos, including one about Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America, in which Columbus tries to downplay the horrors of slavery.
“Slavery is as old as time, and has taken place in every corner of the world, even amongst the people I just left. Being taken as a slave is better than being killed,” the cartoon Columbus said. “I don’t see the problem.”
Other PragerU videos about the climate crisis make various false claims: they depict solar and wind power as environmentally dangerous, liken environmental activists to Nazis and claim recent record-breaking heat is just part of the natural weather cycle.
But the edutainment being peddled by PragerU has drawn widespread criticism from academic experts and watchdog groups, who fault its videos and teaching materials for children on the climate crisis, slavery and other issues as erroneous, and unworthy of state approval for classroom usage.
Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos Jr, in Washington in 2017. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images ——————————————————- “Prager University is not a university,” said Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard professor of the history of science and the co-author of Merchants of Doubt. “By their own self-description, they are an advocacy group promoting conservative viewpoints on various political, economic and sociological topics.
“It is completely inappropriate for any state to grant them any influence, much less authority. over educational matters.
“For an American state government to authorize misleading, false and overtly biased materials for use in classrooms really crosses the Rubicon. It’s a new and alarming low.”
Other academics express related concerns.
“PragerU may be able to take advantage of overworked teachers in the classroom who are under time crunches to prepare climate-change lessons for their students, and therefore might turn to these inaccurate videos,” said Max Boykoff, an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado.
Boykoff added that boosting public funding of education could help “keep such unsafe and menacing weapons out of the classroom”.
PragerU did not respond to a Guardian request to talk to Streit or Prager.
Critics notwithstanding, Prager, speaking at a Moms for Liberty conference in Philadelphia this summer, was blunt about PragerU’s goals, boasting that “we bring doctrines to children”, adding: “What is the bad of our indoctrination?”
Similarly, in a PragerU promotional video, Prager said: “We are in the mind-changing business, and few groups can say that.”
PragerU annual reports tout its success in spreading conservative doctrines to young people and adults. According to its most recent annual report, PragerU “edutainment” videos scored more than 1.2bn views in 2022 and over 7bn since its launch in 2009.
Until recently, PragerU content and its fight against what it labels the “woke agenda” depended mainly on Facebook and YouTube, but that is poised to expand with PragerU’s access to Florida classrooms, and other states potentially opening their classrooms too.
To keep growing its audience and operations, PragerU’s website showcases several ambitious fundraising programs. In September, PragerU is hosting a “founders’ retreat” in Nashville that seems geared to wooing more checks from major donors who give at least $100,000 a year.
The event is slated to be “an exclusive three-day experience with our innermost circle of supporters”, and will feature Dennis Prager, the conservative Daily Wire’s editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro, and other Daily Wire “personalities”. The event is “open to Donor Club members at the founders level (total annual giving of $100k or more)”.
Like PragerU, the Daily Wire has benefited mightily from billionaire and evangelical preacher Farris Wilks, who gave it $4.7m in 2015 to launch its operations. Wilks remains a co-owner.
PragerU’s fundraising and marketing success in spreading its climate crisis denialism and other misinformation is alarming watchdog groups.
“Prager U plays a significant role spreading well-packaged propaganda about numerous issues, including attacks on efforts to mitigate climate change, through promoting the disinformation peddled by notorious climate-change deniers, and more,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of the progressive watchdog group True North Research. “ It has always targeted younger adults, but in recent years it has added a massive program targeting children with its slick and deceptive videos.”
Other environmental advocates raised broader concerns.
“The danger of the Prager climate misinformation is how quickly it can spread in this era where a lot of people, including children, are being trained not to trust media sources or scientists,” said Kert Davies, who leads investigations at the Center for Climate Integrity. “That it would be in schools as curriculum is even scarier.
“The Prager YouTube library on climate change features a who’s who of career climate deniers and discredited contrarians. These folks will never admit they are wrong, and never change their minds no matter the weight of scientific evidence.”
Davies added: “Prager climate disinformation is dangerously out of step with reality. It is being disseminated just as the global consensus on the climate crisis grows stronger, as extreme weather events seemingly try to outdo each other.”
More broadly, Oreskes sees the spread of PragerU advocacy materials into Florida classrooms and possibly other states as harmful to educational values.
She said: “Every student has a basic right to an education that, as much as possible, is truthful, and, as much as humanly possible, objective. This is the opposite.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I was hoping you would consider taking the step of supporting the Guardian’s journalism.
From Elon Musk to Rupert Murdoch, a small number of billionaire owners have a powerful hold on so much of the information that reaches the public about what’s happening in the world. The Guardian is different. We have no billionaire owner or shareholders to consider. Our journalism is produced to serve the public interest – not profit motives.
And we avoid the trap that befalls much US media – the tendency, born of a desire to please all sides, to engage in false equivalence in the name of neutrality. While fairness guides everything we do, we know there is a right and a wrong position in the fight against racism and for reproductive justice. When we report on issues like the climate crisis, we’re not afraid to name who is responsible. And as a global news organization, we’re able to provide a fresh, outsider perspective on US politics – one so often missing from the insular American media bubble.
Around the world, readers can access the Guardian’s paywall-free journalism because of our unique reader-supported model. That’s because of people like you. Our readers keep us independent, beholden to no outside influence and accessible to everyone – whether they can afford to pay for news, or not.
If you can, please consider supporting us just once from $1, or better yet, support us every month with a little more – and you can cancel any time. Thank you.
Notice the threats and intimidation. Also notice the overwhelming presence of the fundamentalist religious right. This again is making sure that there is no positive representation of the LGBTQIA in schools or the public square. Why should kids be taught tolerance and acceptance of the very people these bigots hate? Why should LGBTQIA kids see positive role models and representations of themselves, see acceptance of themselves from the adults in charge of their daily lives? And why should the tolerant and accepting of the LGBTQIA parents be allowed a say because a minority of violent loud haters demand kids be taught to hate, target, and bully LGBTQIA kids. Why should those same LGBTQIA kids be allowed to feel good about themselves rather than deeply ashamed of who they are as the anti-LGBTQIA haters demand? I am sick of this minority take over. Lucky for my sanity there has started to be a large amount of push back in Florida and around the country, with teachers, Libraries, and towns fighting back and refusing to bow down to the threats unless they remove all LGBTQIA representation from public and society. Hugs
Following a prolonged debate, the Miami-Dade County Public School Board has voted against officially recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month within the district. The contentious decision, passed by a 5-3 vote, comes in the wake of the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law that was signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year.
The debate over Initiative H-11, which sought to acknowledge October as LGBTQ History Month within Miami-Dade County Public Schools, drew a large crowd of concerned citizens to the board’s weekly meeting. Emotions ran high as over 100 people signed up for the public comment section as they expressed both support and opposition to the proposal.
A few people spoke about the presence of the Proud Boys at the meeting as an intimidation factor. Some of those who spoke agreed with the Parental Rights in Education law, labeled by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, who said the designation felt like indoctrination.
Myra Jordan, a parent, said, “Leave my kids alone. You understand that? You want freedom? Have freedom at home.” Last year, a majority of the board also voted against against the designation.
I encourage you to watch both video reports below.
The gangs all here — we have Proud Boys, Moms for Liberty, book banners and all the usual suspect far-right extremists outside the Miami school board @MDCPS right now campaigning against LGBTQ History Month.
First up, we have we have book Miami banner, Proud Boys supporter and Elders of Zion poster Daily Salinas. She claimed she’s not part of M4L but her posting for selfies begs to differ.
The M4L caucus is one stand by! Maylin Villalonga (white shirt back to camera), Eulalia Jimenez (arrow), QAnon flat earther Isabella Rodriguez #RedPillBabe (jean jacket), book banner Daily Salinas (glasses) and realtor Lourdes Galban. 3/ pic.twitter.com/eWVCbN1YUt
Also spotted outside the school board is Palm Beach, FL lawyer Cory Strolla who operates as Strolla Law.
Last year he attended the Hialeah Proud Boys rally in support of white supremacist Rubio canvasser Christopher Monzon. Yikes! 6/ pic.twitter.com/FMjkJ9VFVv
Among the seven Proud Boys who showed up, most of whom had to be imported from hours away, is president & discount rack Liver King “Miami Lex” and his flag boy wearing the sun glasses. 7/ pic.twitter.com/n7zSrIjAGP
Next up for the Proud Boys we have Micheal Anderson aka “Wolf Blitzkrieg” of Jacksonville, FL, believed to be a current or former DOD employee working at FRCSE, Fleet Readiness Center Southeast.
Would you trust this pro-insurrection extremist handling military secrets? 8/ pic.twitter.com/dKusWxzTWT
Mr. Buckeyes mask Proud Boy is one we’ve seen before in front of the school board but he really doesn’t need it because we already have his full face here. 9/ pic.twitter.com/SBjCuCp45T
We said “we will soon learn who she is” and just like that we did.
Looks like Miami Moms for Liberty hasn’t recruited a new member after all. Instead they brought Catalina Stubbe, director of M4L Hispanic outreach staffer, former Miss World Colombia + washed up actress. 11/ https://t.co/mcCrjhyPWFpic.twitter.com/5fZvdWtv4E
And there’s still more people to name at the Miami school board @MDCPS opposing LGBTQ History Month!
Once again, let’s meet Herbert Silver, an 80+ year old geriatric Proud Boy who is now using a walker. He’s long been a fixture at their rallies, events and socials. 15/ pic.twitter.com/nXZHATmEQH
Next up at the Miami school board against LGBTQ History Month we have a gem of a video about a looming “communist takeover” & dangerous “Fa-del regime.” 😂
Meet QAnon conspiracy blogger running Patriots Perspective & Miami Commission District 2 candidate Christi Tasker. 17/ pic.twitter.com/gv9jDilfr3
And once again, let’s say hello to far-right activist Maylin Villalonga.
A failed candidate for Hialeah city council, she’s known for doing a podcast interview with Lourdes Galban inside the personal studio of Enrique Tarrio with him as the producer (2nd pic, bottom right) 21/ pic.twitter.com/wM2MoMaZvs
In light of the post earlier about the presidential libraries, I think this is a taste of what fascism in America would look like: If you step out of line, it won’t be uniformed officers banging on your door at midnight, but paramilitary thugs harassing and attacking you and a flood of anonymous death threats that the police won’t bother investigating.
Prominent members of Moms for Liberty have close ties to the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, QAnon and white Christian nationalists. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio once boasted that Moms for Liberty is “the gestapo with vaginas.”
I’m afraid I’m going there with US friends in February. They are New Englanders against fascism as much as I am. I will piss off as many fascists as I can, be as liberal and European as I can and tell as many Republicans to go fuck themselves as I can.
They all have guns, no license or permit required to carry now. You can assume that any christofascist you piss off has a gun in their waistband and is likely to turn red, pull it out and gun you and yours down in cold blood.
Well last time there I was threatened by a gang of marching right wingers, who came on the scene after the Pride Parade. I had yelled at them to go fuck themselves. that seemed to have annoyed them. But yes, this time I will be more careful; it is a scary place, I saw that.
Back into the closet we go. Exactly where they want us. I for one will not tolerate it. Granted I don’t reside in Floriduh and will never step foot in that state for the rest of my natural life, but I’ve fought too hard to just let these fanatics win the battle. And it is a battle. Between right and wrong and this is just wrong on so many levels. We cannot cower. That’s exactly what they want. No, we have to persevere. Keep spreading love, not hate and keep working on making this society one where all can live freely.
While your point is taken, it is not the totality of Floridians. We should not simply run away, but instead continue to be visible, and vocal and vigilant.
People on here have seem to forgotten that Anita Bryant successfully petitioned the Miami Dade schools against gay teachers. This is just more of the same. Where are the pie throwing machines?
One of its former directors, Bridget Ziegler, is married to the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. DeSantis recently appointed Ziegler to a commission overseeing Disney’s Orlando theme parks amid a battle between the Florida governor and Disney over the state’s law banning classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Moms For Liberty is not the grassroots organization they claim to be.
Seriously more attempts to push fundamentalist Christian ideas, moral values, and hates on every public school kid. The program was developed by a person with degrees in politics but none in education, in a Christian college that the right wants to make the model for all PUBLIC schools. A person who describes himself as a fox in the hen house. Florida is doing this. This is entirely driven to push a false narrative of a Christian nation founded by religious figures who disliked slavery among some of the lies. It is about putting religion and the greatness of the US as a priority rather than facts. Remember this is being driven by a minority with the goal of forcing their world view on the majority and to allow that fundamentalist religious minority to rule over the secular majority. Plus look at the money spent, that is pure corruption, a big money giveaway to a religious person pushing a fundamentalist religious agenda. Hugs
Last Monday, the Pennridge School Board, located outside of Philadelphia, imposed a new social studies curriculum that will require teachers to incorporate lessons from the 1776 Curriculum, a controversial K-12 course of study developed by Hillsdale College, a private Christian institution that promotes right-wing ideologies.
The curriculum was developed in part by Jordan Adams, an educational consultant with no experience developing curricula for public schools. Adams launched his company, Vermilion Education, in March 2023. The Pennridge School Board hired Adams in April, paying $125 per hour for his services. The contract includes no limit on the number of hours, no specific deliverables, and no termination date.
Adams holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hillsdale College and a master’s in humanities from another private conservative school, the University of Dallas. He does not hold any degrees in education. After graduating, Adams returned to Hillsdale College as an employee, where he promoted the 1776 Curriculum. On July 1, in a private presentation to Moms for Liberty, a far-right organization that pushes for changes in educational policy, Adams described himself as a “fox..in the henhouse.” He bragged that “the right people are freaking out” about his contract with Pennridge Schools. As of a few months ago, Adams had no other public school clients.
Although Adams does not have the qualifications to write curriculum, it was revealed during a Pennridge School Board meeting on August 21 that Adams independently wrote aspects of the new social studies curricula.
Adams’ proposed curriculum faced opposition from several members of the Pennridge School Board and the district’s own academic experts. Jenna Vitale, the K-12 social studies supervisor, cited concerns in a recent school board meeting about the “age-appropriateness of the elementary curriculum [developed by Adams], highlighting… the lack of the appropriate history background for incoming fourth and fifth graders and the elimination of 19th century U.S. history from the secondary social studies curriculum.” Vitale also cited concerns about Adams’ proposal to shift the third-grade curriculum from a focus on Native Americans to “Colonial America.”
The 1776 Curriculum, created in response to the New York Times’ 1619 project, claims that it is an accurate and unbiased curriculum that “seeks to tell the entire grand narrative of the American story.” Hillsdale’s curriculum, however, includes inaccuracies and skewed interpretations of America’s history.
For example, the Hillsdale curriculum repeatedly suggests that America’s Founding Fathers had deep reservations about slavery. The ninth grade Pennridge curriculum will require a Hillsdale lesson that encourages students to “[c]onsider also that even among the southern founders who supported slavery or held slaves, several leading founders expressed regret and fear of divine retribution for slavery in America, such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.” The curriculum states that, “Some freed their slaves as well, such as George Washington.” The same wording is also included in the required Hillsdale lesson for fourth graders.
A required Hillsdale lesson for Pennridge School District third graders covers the “history of slavery in world history.” The lesson encourages teachers to downplay the prevalence of slavery in America, instead emphasizing slavery in other parts of the world. “Overall, of the nearly 11 million Africans who survived being brought to the Western Hemisphere, around 3 percent, or about 350,000, were brought to the North American continent, with the rest of all Africans taken to other colonies in the Caribbean and South America,” the lesson states.
The 1776 Curriculum has garnered criticism from academic experts. “What [Hillsdale has] done is they’ve simply left stuff out in an attempt to shape a vision of patriotism,” James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, told NBC News. “What they also are trying to do is replace an approach to teaching that teaches students how to think with an approach that teaches the students what to think.”
During a meeting earlier this month, Pennridge School Board member Jonathan Russell asked why the Hillsdale curriculum was listed as “required” for teachers when the proposed inclusion of Hillsdale lessons was originally pitched as an additional resource. Vitale said that Adams told her other board members “asked him to say that it was required.”
By a 5-4 vote, the Pennridge School Board voted to impose the new ninth grade curriculum this year. The vote occurred on the first day of school, giving the teachers little to no time to prepare lessons based on the new guidelines. Vitale stated that she was “very nervous” about teachers not having enough time to prepare lessons based on the new curriculum. (The School Board voted to implement the new first through fifth grade curriculum beginning in the fall of 2024).
Hillsdale’s revisionist history
The 1776 Curriculum spends considerable time on the meaning behind the statement in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” A lesson now required for Pennridge School District ninth graders instructs teachers to pose the question of whether “women and slaves were included in this understanding of equality.” At the time, women did not have the right to vote, had limited property rights, and married women could not earn their own income. Nevertheless, the Hillsdale lesson argues that “the Founders meant that men and women share equally in human dignity and in possession of natural rights or freedoms that are simply part of being human.”
The lesson claims that, despite the limitation on women’s rights, “[w]hat was unique to America was the right to vote at all and then the relatively rapid rate at which the right to vote was expanded to” women. This statement, however, is misleading. According to Pew Research Center, in 1893, New Zealand granted women the right to vote, and “[a]t least 19 other countries also did so prior to the U.S. passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.” The 1776 Curriculum also creates justifications for not granting women the right to vote, insinuating that it was logical to only give the franchise to men, as they are the ones who “would be called to give their lives up for their country” and “had a high personal stake in what the country did regarding various policies, including going to war.”
For fifth grade, the new curriculum includes a Hillsdale lesson on the Civil War that argues that many Southerners believed the Civil War was about “states’ rights” rather than “preserv[ing] the institution of slavery.” The required Hillsdale lesson states that “[t]he majority of Southerners were not slaveholders and while fighting for their states would preserve slavery, many common Southerners fought for the argument of states’ rights rather than to preserve the institution of slavery.”
Viced Rhino is an atheist YouTuber who mostly does debunking of Christian apologist. But as a father of three children including one out lesbian teenager, he has covered a lot of the anti-LGBTQIA stuff. He has compiled a pretty great list of studies and medical information. He broke it out into categories. I love it as it is easy to use and all the material to respond to anti-trans haters is in one neatly organized place. Hugs
Photo: YouTube screenshot
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