Tuesday, July 02, 2024

'Bible in the classroom' Superintendent Ryan Walters dodges questions about content of Bible during interview

 Ryan Walters is a far-right personality. Unfortunately, he is also superintendent of schools in Oklahoma. This means he has spent a large amount of time grabbing the spotlight with his statements and actions all geared on imposing his version of Christianity on to his fellow Oklahomans.

His latest act - mandating that Bibles be incorporated in lesson plans of kids from the 5th to the 12th grades - has of course been extremely controversial (as you can easily guess). The video above is from an interview he gave to CNN on Tuesday.  Let's just say I doubt he converted doubters to his side with his word salads and tangents about the "radical left." To her credit, CNN's Pamela Brown came with the facts checks and would not let him get away with no answering her questions. 

Below is a partial transcript. Hat tip to fellow blogger JoeMyGod (Joe Jervis). (and I know what you're thinking. I was going to post this anyway, but Joe beat me to it so I'm grabbing his transcript 🤪):


CNN HOST PAMELA BROWN: “You’re saying that the teaching of the Bible in the classroom is a must, that every teacher must accept that. The bible includes beheading, rape, and incest. Do you support teaching children about those topics?”

RYAN WALTERS: “I support teaching children our history accurately and what we’ve seen is the radical left and the teachers’ union have driven the bible out of schools. “You can’t talk about our rights coming from God, as Thomas Jefferson referenced, you can’t talk about Abraham Lincoln talking about being on God’s side in what he does and that inspires him? “You can’t talk about the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr., who routinely referenced examples from the bible, including from a “Letter from Birmingham Jail”? 

 “I’m doing the things I’m doing is because of the tenets taught to me by the bible, so it’s essential that our kids understand our history and we’re going to put it back in and the left is going to continue to try to censor our history. Well, we’re not gonna allow it here in Oklahoma.”

 BROWN: “Okay, you didn’t answer my question. We’re going to get to the history and everything, and by the way, Thomas Jefferson, he advocated for freedom of religion, actually not the establishment of a religion for one, but are you okay with all teachings of the Bible? If you want to bring it back into the classroom, rape, incest, beheading. Is that acceptable to you?”

 WALTERS: “Again, I’ll answer your question, you might not like to answer, but it is the answer. It is our history is referenced, the bible was referenced multiple times in American history. It had a profound influence on American history. “It was the bestselling book in American history, to not teach that in the classroom is academic malpractice. Our kids have to understand our history and we’re not going to hide that from them.” 

BROWN: “Okay, so will you allow teachers to teach all aspects of the Bible? How are teachers supposed to know what of the bible to teach and what of the Bible not to teach? It’s a simple question, given the fact that the bible includes, also, you know, pornographic material, something you’ve come out against and actually took a teaching certificate away from a teacher for giving access to students— pornographic material. That’s in the bible.” 

WALTERS: “Yeah, let me be crystal clear. The bible is not on the same plane as Gender Queer and Flamer. These are pornography, the bible is a book that was referenced throughout American history. “We have academic standards that tell our teachers that you are to talk about the bible in reference to the Mayflower Compact, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” the Declaration of Independence, so these are all very clear. “It’s very clear from primary sources that these individuals reference history— in our history, they referenced the bible. 

So look, when it’s historically accurate, we’re absolutely going to include that. “I mean, think about how absurd it would be to teach about the Pilgrims if you don’t mention their intention for moving to the New World, it’s crucial and we’re not gonna allow the radical left to continue to push a false history on our kids that said that faith played no role, well, just read the history. It’s clearly there.”

Posted by at 2 comments:

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Study: Gender-affirming surgeries are performed more on cisgender minors than trans minors

In the race to demonize gender-affirming healthcare when it comes to trans kids, the facts spoken below have been known for quite a while but ignored.

From a June 27 article in The Advocate:

"Little to no" gender-affirming surgeries are being performed on minors in the United States, and those that are performed are overwhelmingly on cisgender minors. Out of the 151 breast reductions that were performed in 2019 on American minors, 146 (97 percent) were performed on cisgender males, according to a new study published in JAMA. 

Out of the 636 breast reductions performed on adults, 507 (80 percent) were performed on cisgender males. The study used data from 47,437,919 adults and 22,827,194 minors who were insured that year, finding that chest-related operations accounted for 1,591 out of 2,664 (59.7 percent) of surgical procedures performed on adults, and 82 of 85 (96.4 percent) of surgical procedures performed on minors.

 The rate of transgender and gender-diverse people undergoing a gender-affirming surgery was 5.3 for every 100,000 adults, and 2.1 for every 100,000 minors ages 15 to 17 years. Among minors ages 13 to 14 years, the rate of gender-affirming surgeries was 0.1 for every 100,000. There were no procedures among minors 12 years or younger.

Study leader Dannie Dai said the following: 

“Our findings highlight a bitter irony: that by banning gender-affirming care for only TGD people, these bills are targeting a group that in reality accounts for the minority of gender-affirming care use and for whom gender-affirming care has been most clearly shown to be lifesaving." 

 In September 2022, an article in The Advocate pointed out that more teens were getting breast implants than trans top surgeries.

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

''Death to LGBTQs' MAGA pastor loses third bid for SC congressional seat' & other Wed/Thur news briefs

Extreme MAGA pastor Mark Burns lost his third attempt to win a Congressional seat.


“Death To LGBTQs” Pastor Loses GOP House Runoff​ - No Congressional seat for Mark Burns as he loses a third primary run for the U.S House. South Carolina Republicans did something right. Though not by much. 

Burns is a notorious opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, having called for the arrest of parents of transgender children, who he compared to the Hitler Youth. He further said that anyone who supports LGBTQ+ youth should be tried for treason or even executed by the government. Biggs was backed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R), with whom she’s been friends with for years. In spite of not being endorsed by Trump, Biggs nevertheless promised to “help President Trump win back the White House.” While she is not nearly as extreme as Burns on LGBTQ+ issues, she nevertheless holds many of the same views as him. These include restrictions on abortions, immigration, and taxes.

Drag queen schools Marjorie Taylor Greene on gender: 'You have no idea what you’re talking about' - Poor MTG. She came for a drag queen and got her "edges ripped." 

Anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist Plan: Allow Anyone To Sue Teacher, Librarian ‘Groomers’ - One of our oldest "friends" on this blog, Janet Folger. Google her name on this site if you have time and a strong stomach. She is a MESS.




Posted by at No comments:

Monday, June 24, 2024

Conservative writer mocked for making his (heterosexual) proposal a failed clap back against Pride Month



Conservative writer Addison Smith succeeded in his attempt to go viral by making his proposal to his heterosexual girlfriend a clap back against Pride Month and the LGBTQ community. Now what did he do that for?


 Addison Smith, far-right wannabe social media influencer posted the following on Twitter as a way of making his proposal to his fiancé all about slapping Pride Month in the face. He obviously did this for the engagement and a chance to rile up LGBTQ people and our allies. Smith clearly got the attention he wanted. He and his right-wing friends and his allies are giddy about how his act has gone extremely viral. 

But at what cost?

Smith comes across as someone deliberately jumping face-first in cow manure while pretending that it's oil he struck. Sometimes if one succeeds in their quest to gain attention, it's not a good thing. It only means more people know how much of a jackass you are, and Smith succeeded in making a jackass of himself. 

He also probably embarrassed his now fiancé, proved our evergreen point about how people like him are completely obsessed with us, and definitely made sure this incident is remembered should the "points" expressed about him by responders (who left brutally funny responses before he shut down the comments) turn out to be true.  It all comes down to how certain folks try so hard to dehumanize us that they end up looking simply stupid.  Can you imagine reducing such a special and sacred event such as a wedding proposal into a failed attempt to "own" LGBTQ people?

But when the adrenaline stops pumping and the glitter fades, that tweet will still be around. And I bet it will come up repeatedly during your marriage. That is if there will be one.  If you make your marriage proposal to your heterosexual fiancé all about making fun of LGBTQ people, you've got issues. And she probably will have problems. Just saying.

Sometimes our enemies are their own worst enemies.



As I said before, the responses have been brutal.

 
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Why do right-wing pastors talk more about gay sex than most gay men I know?


From LGBTQ Nation: 
 Christian Nationalist hate preacher Joel Webbon shared his vision for a wholly Christian nation in a recent conversation on his Right Response Ministries YouTube show, advocating the death penalty for homosexuals, citing a seemingly made-up statistic about gays eating feces, and gay people dying young.

 . . .The wide-ranging discussion with two far-right wingmen, Michael Belch and Wesley Todd, centered on the perversion of gay men and their corrupting influence on American society. 

 . . . Webbon asserted good people “have been lied to by Modern Family, by Will & Grace” into believing that LGBTQ+ people are like everyone else. Degenerate popular culture dictates LGBTQ+ people are “marked by compassion or they’re marked by artistic expression,” Webbon told his Christian Nationalist fellows. “Well, don’t forget the key characteristic,” he continued. “The key characteristic of the gay community is butt sex. That’s the key characteristic. It’s feces. That’s the key characteristic. It’s AIDS, it’s disease. And it needs to be said, because nobody has said it for a very long time.” 

 . . .Belch jumped in with statistics that he claimed backed up Webbon’s embrace of disgust. “17% of homosexuals” consume human feces, Belch claimed, citing discredited data from anti-gay researcher Paul Cameron and his Family Research Institute. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Cameron and his so-called institute a “one-man statistical chop shop” which “churns out hate literature masquerading as legitimate science.” Citing Cameron again, Belch asserted that the “median age of death” for gays and lesbians is 42 and 45, respectively. Webbon joked, “Sounds like if society won’t enforce the penalties, God’ll do it.”

 There they go again. I swear that gay men don't have as much sex as the haters imagine we do. And the vast majority of us certainly aren't as sexually active as they think we are. I'm almost disappointed that he didn't bring up the "gay men stuff gerbils up their rectums" lie.

Reading all of that gave me an ugly blast from the past such as this 1984 anti-gay booklet:



It was even endorsed by a United States Congressman, William Dannemeyer:



And to label this comic as homophobic would be an extreme understatement:







 

Combatting junk like this is why I began this blog in 2006.  Nowadays though, our community is in less danger of three idiotic men drooling over what they imagine us doing sexually. 

It's the covert attempts to undermine our community that's the actual danger.  We have legislators teaming up with far-right groups to write laws they claim will protect kids, but whose actual intent is to wreak havoc on our lives, the safety of our children (particularly trans kids) and our culture.

We've got social media leeches shilling for engagement and clout via distorted videos and pictures which appeal to the worst but mostly unexpressed fears and stereotypes about our community, particularly when it comes to children.

All of it goes to prove that there are still people who believe the worse about LGBTQ and will still embrace some of the most unbelievable lies about us. And they either do it openly like the men above or behind a veneer of respectability. We should never be astounded or upset that people like this exist because they will always exist.

The key is to never allow them to shape our lives or make us live in accordance to their stereotypes and fears. And despite how things have been these days, I think we've done a good job at holding our own. 

At least thus far.


Posted by at 1 comment:

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Trump-supporting hate group leader accuses Biden Administration of being aligned with Satan

Donald Trump (left) and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins (right)

If having a lack of cognitive dissonance was an Olympic sport, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins would win the gold medal every time. 

From People for the American Way:

.

For the record, the Biden Administration is not targeting Christians. And if Perkins' attempt to connect the transgender community with Satan sounds familiar, then you are correct.

He once made the same claim about the LGBTQ community in general 13 years ago.

 

 And thereby lies two points we should remember. Perkins's affinity for playing the "Satan" card underscores how people like him and groups like FRC have recycled their anti-LGBTQ talking points and lies to specifically target the trans community. It's not without cause that the Family Research Council was designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. 

 The other point is as much as Tony Perkins has defended, lied for, and basically acted like a groupie around Donald Trump, he should know better than anyone else just who could be aligned Satan and who isn't.

Related posts:


Posted by at 1 comment:

Monday, June 17, 2024

'Marlon Wayans claps back at the objections after posting Pride pics honoring his trans son' & other Mon/Tue news briefs




Marlon Wayans defied haters by posting Pride pics honoring his trans son - "While Wayans’ post drew hundreds of thousands of likes, the ratio wasn’t all good vibrations. But the negative commenters didn’t cow the In Living Color comedian, though, who responded with more selects from the shoot and some fire for his detractors. “Yeah and just for the HATE MONGERS … I’m posting ANOTHER,” Wayans wrote.


Trump campaign makes bizarre pitch to LGBTQ+ voters - "Former President Donald Trump is asking LGBTQ+ voters worried about an expansion of his anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in a second term to see the forest for the trees — and to ignore everything they’re seeing on the ground. “President Trump’s second term agenda will create a safer and more prosperous America for ALL Americans, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or creed!” 26-year-old campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told The Hill about her boss’s LGBTQ+ policies if he wins a second term." 

Related post - Donald Trump’s 8 Worst Attacks on the LGBTQ+ Community - Trump obviously thinks that the LGBTQ community is stupid. For those who are tempted to be that stupid, Trump's first term wasn't exactly a wonderful time for LGBTQ people. What would make anyone think that his second would be any different? 

Trump-Linked Pastor Admits to Inappropriate Behavior With ‘Young Lady’ After Being Accused of Sexually Abusing a 12-Year-Old - A far-right Trump supporting pastor revealed to be . . . you know where I'm going with this. We've been on this road so many times, we might as well buy a house.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)