'Teacher asks about anti-discrimination protection & gets branded as a 'radical homosexual activist'' & other Wed midday news briefs

LGBT rights debate heats up Mansfield school board meeting. And the winner is ...-  A suspended lesbian art teacher in a Texas elementary school is under fire. She has lots of supporters and will probably come out as the winner, but the entire situation underlines a huge problem. She didn't do anything that could be perceived as remotely eyebrow raising. All she did was to inquire about about anti-discrimination protections in her area's schools. That's right. Simply asking about anti-discrimination protections will get you accused of violating religious liberty, wanting girls to be attacked by "male predators" in the bathrooms (i.e. the transphobic horror story du jour) and being accused of attempting to indoctrinate students. It's about homophobia and prejudice, but folks won't admit it and why should they.  They can use the language created by the anti-LGBTQ industry. They will tell you that they don't hate gay people, they are just concerned about their children. That's the hidden danger of religious right anti-gay propaganda. They give people a seemingly justifiable reason to not only hate us but deny us equality. 

Joy Reid Doubles Down: Homophobic Posts ‘Hacked,’ ‘Fraudulent’ - I'm going to say this point blank. Folks need to pay attention to how outside interests are manipulating us to turn against our own. I'm on Reid's side here in this situation. Check out the scenario - we have someone doing good work to call out lies, someone goes digging into the person's past and finds negative things. She acknowledges these things and apologizes. Someone conveniently goes digging again and supposedly finds "new things." There is a time and a place for everything but folks need to recognize game, especially when the players of the game are familiar ones (i.e. that jerk Glenn Greenwald). Now is not the time to allow folks to exploit what they perceive is your weakness. If it happens in this case to Reid, count on other allies having things dug up on them and/or made up against them. I remind folks of how Strom Thurmond tried to use Bayard Rustin's past arrest for being caught having public gay sex in a car to undermine the 1963 March on Washington. Black folks were hip to the nonsense and didn't fall for it. Let's act the same. 

Massachusetts schools to give LGBT history and health lessons - Possibly one of the newest battlefields in our pursuit of equality and self-determination. 

Virginia GOP candidate freaks out after learning kids in California may learn LGBTQ people exist - My point of the above news brief better expressed.