David Badash, Staff Writer - The New Civil Rights Movement
Stephan:
I find it quite interesting that a true spiritual leader Pope Francis is moving the Roman Catholic Church into acceptance of same sex partnerships, while christofascists like Ron DeSantis, who have no spiritual qualities that I can see, are moving the christofascist transformation of Christianity in the United States in the opposite direction. What I am waiting to see now is LGBTQ folk moving out of Red states to more tolerant Blue states.
Christofascist Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, struggling to retain his number-two ranking in the 2024 GOP presidential primary race, framed supporters of same-sex marriage as a threat to America’s religious institutions, and to the sacraments of Christian churches.
“You have previously said that the definition of marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman. I’m curious, is that still how you feel today?” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Gov. DeSantis at the network’s town hall in Iowa Thursday night.
“So that’s just what marriage is with the church,” responded DeSantis, who is known for his anti-LGBTQ “Don’t Say Gay” legislation.
“And I respect the Supreme Court’s decision,” he continued, referring to the 2015 ruling that found the U.S. Constitution provides the same rights and responsibilities to marriage for same-sex couples as for different-sex couples. “We’ve abided by that in Florida even though our constitution defines it as between a man and a woman.”
But the Florida governor quickly pivoted to suggesting that somehow the seven […]
Here is some good news that is getting little or no coverage in media. Brittany Watts who went to the hospital four times because of complications with her pregnancy, was not helped and who, sitting on her toilet the next day had a spontaneous miscarriage and was subsequently arrested by MAGAt politicians and police for abuse of a corpse. She has just had all charges dropped and been freed by a grand jury.
Credit: Busra Ispir / Getty
On Thursday, a grand jury concluded that Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman accused of self-managing an abortion after experiencing a home miscarriage, will not face charges. If Watts had been indicted, she would have faced a year in prison and a $2,5000 fine.
“I am relieved that the grand jury has finally ended the wrongful and dehumanizing case against Brittany Watts. But this decision does not erase the harm that Brittany has experienced as the result of this case,” Yveka Pierre, senior litigation counsel at If/When/How, said in a statement. “Brittany should have been able to focus on taking care of herself after her pregnancy loss. She should have been able to process, and grieve with her family and community. Instead, she was arrested and charged with a felony.”
At a visit to a Catholic hospital after Watts miscarried in September, a nurse reported her to authorities, launching a police investigation and leading Watts to be prosecuted under Ohio’s vague abuse-of-corpse statute.
“From the start of this case, I have argued that the charge was […]
Heidi Stevens, Staff Writer - Tribune News Service / Raw Story
Stephan:
Sexual hysteria is one of the most prominent characteristic of the MAGAt personality. The entire craziness about the LGBTQ portions of the American population is the most glaring example. But it has also become a major issue in schools and their libraries. How crazy has it gotten? Consider this story from Florida, one of the most poorly governed states in the country. When I read this, I thought this cannot be true, but when I checked other sources I found out it was. MAGAts want to ban dictionaries from school libraries, and another report said they also want to ban encyclopedias. Think about that for a second. They want to ban dictionaries and encyclopedias, two of the central sources of information when you are a school child. As I have published in SR and discussed on the SR podcast states governed by Republicans are already less literate than Blue states, and less capable at math. And now Red state children are going to get even less educated, if their MAGAt parents and the politicians they voted for have their way.
Credit: Dreamstime / Dreamstime / TNS
A school district in Florida has made the bold and bewildering decision to ban dictionaries (dictionaries!) from its libraries on the grounds that allowing children to read them violates a law aimed at protecting children from sexual content.
Under HB 1069, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last May, Florida residents have the right to demand the removal of any library book that “depicts or describes sexual conduct.”
“As the world goes mad,” Gov. DeSantis said in a statement announcing the new law, “Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”
The bill was part of a sweeping package of bills called Let Kids Be Kids. I remember it being a very big deal when we all got calculators in fifth grade because one kid showed the rest of us how to use boring old numbers to spell funny words for female anatomy.
Kids will, in fact, be kids.
Meanwhile …
“The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary for Students and Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary are among more than 2,800 books that have […]
One of the defining characteristics of the MAGAt personality is sexual hysteria. It is notable that this involves more that trans and LGBTQ issues. in Republican MAGAt controlled states there are higher rates of out of wedlock pregnancies and higher divorce rates. MAGAts simply are highly uncomfortable with anything that has to do with sex. And yet there is also a higher usage of porn
Credit: Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post / Getty
A West Virginia Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill that would classify transgender people as “obscene matter” and ban them from getting within 2,500 feet of a school.
Senate Bill 197, which was introduced Wednesday, prohibits obscene matter from being within 2,500 feet of a public school building or facility. Obscene materials are defined as something that is sexually explicit “in a patently offensive way” or something that “lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
The bill states that, for the sake of protecting children, obscenity also includes “any transvestite and/or transgender exposure, performances or display to any minor.”
Any school faculty or staff that allow obscene material within 2,500 feet of the school can face up to a year in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both. The bill, which was introduced by Republican state Senator Michael Azinger, makes no mention of how the new rules would affect transgender students.
Besides the obvious transphobia of the bill, which dehumanizes trans people by classifying […]
I’m not sure the United States still has a functioning House of Representatives, therefore I’m not sure we have a functioning Congress. The Republican members no longer seem to have any interest in governance, as this article describes. If this same group of people are re-elected in November, even if Biden wins, we are still going to be in a state of chaos. If Trump were to win we’ll have no functioning government at all.
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon / Axios
As Congress stares down a budget deadline and multiple crises overseas, some House Republicans have focused their efforts on trying to impeach President Biden and his officials.
Why it matters: Impeachment has emerged as the House GOP’s cudgel of choice against the Biden administration as they struggle to secure policy wins in spending negotiations.
Driving the news: A House Oversight Committee hearing on holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress made headlines when the president’s son made a surprise appearance.
His arrival prefaced heated arguments between committee members and other shocking scenes of discord – just the latest twist in an impeachment inquiry into President Biden that has consumed the attention of the Oversight and Judiciary committees.
The House Homeland Security Committee, simultaneously, held the first hearing in its impeachment proceedings against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas over the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Zoom in: Biden and Mayorkas aren’t the only targets this week.
