News brief special: Hysteria over Critical Race Theory has pivoted to LGBTQ-themed books

Apparently the GOP has found a new target to create hysteria amongst its base. 

There seems to be a bullseye painted on the book Gender Queer: A Memoir, with legislators and other elected officials as well as the astroturfed parental concern groups and spokespeople pointing to images in the book they claim are pornographic. 

In other words, they have all conveniently found a focal point and will attempt to exploit it to the fullest extent to radicalize their supporters and demonize efforts to educate people on the lives and plight of LGBTQ people and specifically our LGBTQ  kids.

It demonstrates two things  - 1. That the nonsense over Critical Race Theory is apparently dying out. 2. How easy it is for them to pivot to targeting LGBTQ Americans. 

Here are just a few of the instances in which it is happening:

Debate over explicit memoir becomes a focus of GOP gov races - GOP gov candidates are clearly mimicking a successful strategy ov VA Gov-elect Glenn Youngkin by targeting books as 'the enemy' of parents. 

GOP governor bans LGBTQ book in school library as ‘obscene’ - In my state of South Carolina.

Texas Gov Launches Criminal Investigation Over 'Pornographic' Books in Schools - In Texas.

Central Kitsap School Board considers policy review after graphic novel removal 

What books are being targeted at school libraries? 

School board book bans on LGBTQ issues and race are hurting, not helping, students.

'

Needs to be investigated as a crime': Florida school board member files criminal complaint over teen LGBTQ book - This just in. Florida. But a different books.

Evangelical group claims that 'the Left' is putting drag queens in children's shows to introduce them to gay sex . . . or something like that

According to the Family Research Council, Billy Porter as the fairy godmother in 'Cinderella' is part of a 'leftist plot' to get children interested in gay sex.

Conservative evangelical organization the Family Research Council has never abandoned the false claim that LGBTQ people are trying to 'recruit' children for sex. The group simply engages in creative ways to state it. Such as the following email:

. . . The far Left has been trying to normalize abnormal sexual behavior through the media for years. 

 From Amazon's musical "Everybody's Talking About Jamie," about a 16-year-old becoming a drag queen to "Cinderella," featuring Billy Porter as a cross-dressing fairy godmother -- there is now a constant stream of agenda-driven content being created for and directly targeted at our children. 

 And that's not all: PBS in New York City faced significant backlash for a broadcast of its "Let's Learn" series. The target audience (children three to eight years old) learned something alright -- from drag queen host "Lil Miss Hot Mess." In addition to singing from his book "The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish" to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round," Lil Miss explains to children what a drag queen is: "[We are] everyday people who like to play pretend and dress up as often as we can," he said, adding, "I think we make pretty good role models." 

 PBS, which rakes in a significant amount of taxpayer dollars, has been overwhelmed by complaints from angry parents. And no wonder, considering the man hosting the show happily commented, "I think we might have some drag queens-in-training on our hands."

Oh the horrors! 

For those who aren't keeping score, the email is a sequel to FRC's last hysterical money ask when it claimed that Disney, LEGOs, Skittles, and Kellogg's were plotting to 'indoctrinate' children into homosexuality.

Like the last email, FRC is merely trying to scare people.  In fact when one eliminates the fear which FRC (and other right-wing sources such as the Daily Caller which was responsible for the non-controversy involving "Lil Miss Hot Mess) infuses into the situation, it's easy to recognize what's going here. Just a bunch of tired hypocrites fueling parental fears to the point of hysterics in order to fundraise. To them, everything showing how LGBTQ people contribute to the diversity of our country (and especially our families) is a plot. Just like to them, any thoughts or mentions of LGBTQ people must be semantically branded with ideas of sexual intercourse. The more vulgar and depraved, the better.

And they especially brand drag queens as if they were cautionary creatures parents used to frighten their children with if they stepped out of line. Forget the monsters like Peg Powler,  Nelly Longarms or Jenny Greenteeth which parents evoked to scare their kids from straying too far from home. To FRC, drag queens are monsters to spook strictly the parents. Don't let your children even get close to them. And be careful of any program using them because they are trying to change your children. If you don't,  your child may wake you up in the morning to tell you that he or she is gay. Or bisexual. Or  transgender. Even worse, you may catch them wearing make-up and doing odd things with those Barbie dolls and He-Man action figures you bought them for Christmas.

While that is a bit over the top, it's akin to the connotative effect the Family Research Council hopes to have on its supporters when it comes to LGBTQ people. That's the irony of groups like the Family Research Council. They claim to be fighting depravity, but the depravity they rail against is usually what they have put into other people's minds.

'Right-leaning Facebook pages earning lots of interaction on posts about trans issues' & other Wed midday news briefs

Right-leaning Facebook pages earned nearly two-thirds of interactions on posts about trans issues - This is a serious lack of balance. Those spewing fear and ignorance are far outdistancing education and accuracy. 

Sean Meloy, politics guru for LGBTQ Victory Fund, declares run for Congress - Keep your fingers cross. This promises to be good. 

Russia deems queer activists “foreign agents” as China shuts down LGBTQ advocacy group​ - Well THIS is awful 

The All-Queer Justice League Is Back to Make the Yuletide Gay - And time to cue the 'woke whiners.'

Dennis Prager should never forget 'When AIDS Was Funny' and neither should the rest of us

 

I apologize to those who may get bad flashbacks from the above. I wouldn't have posed it if it weren't necessary.  On Monday night, conservative personality Dennis Prager said an absolutely idiotic thing in defense of anti-vaccine activists:

“During the AIDS crisis, can you imagine if gay men and intravenous drug users, or the vast majority of people with AIDS, had they been pariahs the way the non-vaccinated are? But it would’ve been inconceivable.”

Prager is being inane on so many levels. For the purpose of this blog, his inanity involves a deliberate rewrite of history. The truth was that the people Prager listed were seen as pariahs during the AIDS crisis,  most specifically gay men. The above video underscores that fact: It was created by director Scott Calonico and premiered during World AIDS day in 2015:

The nearly 8-minute film features previously unreleased audio of former Reagan press secretary Larry Speakes scoffing at, and making light of, persistent questions in a span of three years (1982-1984) on the disease's outbreak from reporter Lester Kinsolving. The audiotape, which includes reporters openly laughing at the notion of a "gay plague," puts the administration's lack of response in perspective. 

 "As you can hear in the tape, the whole AIDS issue was treated by Speakes and the press pool, for that matter, as a joke. I'd like to think that the Reagan administration didn't realize what they were grappling with at first," Calonico told MSNBC. 

 Reagan did not utter the word AIDS until 1985, following the death of his friend, Hollywood actor Rock Hudson, from the disease. He did not speak about the disease at length until near the end of his second term in 1987 during an AIDS conference in Washington, D.C. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died," by the time Reagan made that speech. Reagan also reportedly prevented his surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, from being more aggressive about raising public consciousness of the disease.

One reason why Koop may have been unsuccessful could have had to do with a White House aide by the name of Gary Bauer. Bauer reportedly undermined Koop's efforts because he felt that AIDS was "God's punishment." Since that time, Bauer has traveled in and out of several "traditional values" groups, including  Focus on the Family and serving for a time as president of hate group the Family Research Council. His last bit of exposure was being one of the conservative evangelicals supporting and making excuses for former president Donald Trump when he was in office. As far as I know, Bauer has never been questioned or confronted about his activities regarding the AIDS crisis while he was in the Reagan Administration.

'Transphobic tweet final straw for soap opera: 'General Hospital' releases troublesome cast member' & other Tue midday news briefs

“General Hospital” Actor of 26 Years “No Longer Part of Cast” After Calling Four Star Transgender Admiral a “Dude” on Social Media - And Fox News, etc will anoint him the new "victim of cancel culture" even though based upon the article, he has been acting rather stank on a number of issues for a while.

U.S. proposes rescinding Trump-era expansion of religious exemptions - That's right. Drop those exemptions. 

Gay Republican group declares “struggle for gay rights” is over & announces new focus on Middle East - These are some straight up dumbasses. Who are they to declare that for the rest of us? 

‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ LGBTQ discharged vets urged to seek benefits - Because they deserve them.

Fox News aired 88 segments about a sexual assault in VA to lie on trans kids, pro-trans policies in schools

Years ago when Fox News was gaining power, some of us predicted what would happen should that propaganda crap shack folks call a network turned its full force against the LGBTQ community. The election last Tuesday in Virginia demonstrated what we were afraid of. And Media Matters has the details:

Right-wing media weaponized a sexual assault at a Loudon County, Virginia, high school in order to spread anti-trans disinformation and make trans rights into a wedge issue in Virginia’s gubernatorial election -- despite trans-inclusion having nothing to do with the assault. In particular, Fox News aired 88 segments in just over a three-week period about a student sexually assaulting a classmate in a girls bathroom. 

After right-wing outlet The Daily Wire published a story about the assault, which included an interview with the survivor’s father, right-wing media twisted the story into an opportunity to perpetuate the myth that trans-inclusive bathrooms allow predators to attack women. In the October 11 story, the assault survivor’s father asserted that the attacker “is apparently bisexual and occasionally wears dresses.” In addition, he falsely claimed that kids are using the trans-inclusive bathroom policies “as an advantage to get into the bathrooms.” However, as Media Matters previously reported, the policy was passed by the school board on August 11 -- months after May 28, when the assault was reported to have taken place.

 . . .From October 11, the day of the Daily Wire’s published interview with the survivor’s father, through November 4, Fox News aired 88 segments that discussed the assault.

 Key findings include: 

 Fox’s so-called “straight news” programs aired 33 segments about the assault, accounting for over one-third of the total segments. The remaining 55 segments were from its opinion programs. 

 Fox & Friends and its weekend counterparts as well as Fox & Friends First, the network’s weekday early morning show, together aired the most segments (26) about the assault. The Ingraham Angle and Fox News Live aired the second-most segments (7 each), followed by America Reports With John Roberts & Sandra Smith (6 segments). Tucker Carlson Tonight aired 4 segments on the topic. 

 On October 26, one day after a Loudoun County juvenile court judge “found sufficient evidence” that the “teen sexually assaulted a classmate in the girls’ bathroom,” coverage of the story peaked, with Fox airing 10 segments on the subject. The second-most segments per day occurred on October 13, two days after the Daily Wire report was published, and October 27, two days after the judge’s verdict. Fox aired nine segments on the topic each day. 

Fox hosts and guests repeatedly tried to use the story to bolster the debunked bathroom predator myth. In one segment, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) claimed, “Maybe [Attorney General] Merrick Garland's Department of Justice should be looking into Loudoun County School Board superintendent who can't protect young girls from being raped by boys pretending to be girls." In another, Fox News host Jesse Waters called the incident a “transgender bathroom rape cover-up.” 

 Fox hosts also incorrectly claimed that the district’s trans-inclusive bathroom policy allowed the teen to sexually assault another student. On October 21, Fox host Will Cain asserted that the father of the survivor “wanted accountability from the school board after their transgender policies led to his teenage daughter being allegedly raped in the school bathroom by a man in a skirt.”  

The entire article deserves a read and a huge re-sharing. Fox News ran the same alarming story repeatedly without any courtesy of correction or any interviews from the trans community - i.e the community being targeted. I cringe to think how Fox News would have justified the lynching of black men for false accusations of raping white women had it been in existence during that time in American history.

Don't get angry or alarmed because I said that, readers. You know it's true.

'Marvel's 'The Eternals' has very strong box office opening' & other Mon midday news briefs

'The Eternals' are a hit.

Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ opens strong at box office despite mixed reviews - And worldwide, it is even a larger success. Thank goodness. Now I hope I don't have to hear any 'backlash against wokeness' garbage.

Eternals reignites the debate over LGBTQ superhero representation - But discussions like this are always good. 

There are only 5 Black trans elected officials across the entire United States​ - Can you say underrepresentation, boys and girls? 

U.S. Navy Launches Ship Honoring Harvey Milk - It becomes official. 

A story of a gay miner leads to one of the biggest scandals in American history - Lawd!