Trans 2 drag story hr
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SEE THREE 12 23
this is sorta transgender 2
target wedge culture war hype pink pill
see hype fear
polarization
neglect 3 23 mma erradicate? 5 23 i cannot keep up w/ bills in red state (supermaj?)
driven by xian nat'l fundamentalism
marriage is fundamental xian inst? fundamental binary, last bastion for solo weak man to have power? at least i'm not black, and i can force my wife and kids to obey.
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aha/hmmn 8 23 expansion: trump says i am your retribution [// the storm qanon] demonization of enemy evil commie enemy, they must be taken from power and punished
see treason traitor execution
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/extreme-accountability-stew-peters-delivers-a-bloodthirsty-rant-at-the-latest-reawaken-america-event/
no vid rww 8 23
stew Peters is a far-right virulently anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his nightly “The Stew Peters Show” program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalists and antisemites and to spread wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and calls for violence.
Lately, those calls for violence have become increasingly explicit, as just last week Peters used his program to urge Americans to begin exploring “extra-legal options” to remove “enemy combatants” like Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs from office.
Over the weekend, Peters joined members of former President Donald Trump’s family and inner circle and a cavalcade of far-right conspiracy theorists for a ReAwaken America event in Las Vegas, where he delivered a bloodthirsty rant that was alarming even by Peters’ already unhinged standards.
Speaking on the same stage as the likes of Donald Trump Jr., Lara Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Michael Flynn, Peters repeatedly called for his perceived political enemies to be executed.
Peters vowed to arrest former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci and prosecute him for the COVID-19 pandemic, after which Peters said Fauci “will hang from a length of thick rope until he is dead.”
Hunter Biden, Peters then pledged, will be tried fortreason and “when he is convicted of those crimes, he will get the punishment that traitors like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg received before him: Death!”
Peters proceeded to declare that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is “atreasonous traitor, and in the world that we are going to build, traitors will hang.”
On top of that, Peters warned that any medical professional who provides treatment to transgender youth will be charged with “child mutilation.”
“Child mutilation will be a capital offense,” Peters proclaimed. “And those who commit it will receive the death penalty without exception.”
“We are going to see extreme accountability,” Peters asserted. “Maximum accountability. We are going to have permanent accountability, with extreme prejudice!”
Every one of Peters’ violent threats was met by wild cheers from the audience[vid]
despite Peters well-documented history of using extremely bigoted and increasingly dangerous rhetoric, he nevertheless regularly manages to get Republican leaders, elected officials, and candidates for office to appear on his program.
The ReAwaken America touris the brainchild of right-wing conspiracy theorist Clay Clark, who has openly bragged that the participation by Michael Flynn and members of the Trump family in these events is “legitimizing what we are doing in the minds of many people” and allowing him to get various conspiracy theorists and self-proclaimed “prophets” directly into “Trump’s inner circle.”
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texas too?
ymail 11 23
stephen Miller, the notorious advisor to former president Donald Trump, suggested on X yesterday that a "conservative state Attorney[] General" should pursue civil and criminal charges against Media Matters. Miller claims that Media Matters committed "fraud" by reporting that X was displaying ads from major brands next to white nationalist and neo-Nazi posts. X has accused Media Matters of "completely misrepresent[ing] the real user experience on X." But, according to X's own statement, all Media Matters did was create an account, follow some users, and observe what ads were displayed.
Musk, a self-described "free speech absolutist," responded favorably to Miller's proposal to subject journalists to criminal prosecution, declaring it "interesting." But the idea that Media Matters' conduct is legally actionable is absurd, especially since X has already admitted that ads were displayed next to the posts identified by Media Matters.
Nevertheless, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) took Miller up on his suggestion. "My team is looking into this matter," Bailey posted in response to Musk.
Bailey expanded on his investigation of Media Matters' reporting in an interview on Newsmax, a far-right cable channel:
The Missouri Attorney General's Office is tasked in statute with protecting Missouri consumers. That means consumers that participate on social media platforms as well. And so if we have an instance where there was a deceptive or fraudulent business practice where Media Matters was using some sort of coercive or fraudulent algorithms or advertising, that's going to be problematic on the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.
It does not appear that Bailey gave this "investigation" much thought. Media Matters’ conduct did not involve "fraudulent algorithms" or "advertising." And the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act only applies to "the sale or advertisement of any merchandise in trade or commerce." Media Matters was not selling anything.
But Bailey's announcement should not come as a surprise. Bailey has never been elected by the people of Missouri. He was appointed to his position in January by Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R). Since then, Bailey has brazenly exceeded the legal authority of his office to grab headlines. Bailey is running for a full term in 2024 and is seeking to make sure he is not outflanked from the right in the Republican primary.
Bailey circumvents legislature, announces "emergency" rule on trans medical care
In March 2023, Bailey announced that he was unilaterally implementing emergency regulations that would impose severe restrictions on transgender hormone therapy for children and adults. What authority did Bailey cite to justify circumventing the legislature? The Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. Bailey's actions were condemned by Democrats and Republicans.
Bailey proposed requiring 15 hourly therapy sessions over 18 months before any person could receive hormone therapy. Doctors would also need to certify that "for at least the 3 most recent consecutive years, the patient has exhibited a medically documented, long-lasting, persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria" and "any existing mental health comorbidities of the patient have been treated and resolved." Further, doctors would need to have in place a system to monitor "all patients beginning the first day of intervention and continuing for a period of not fewer than 15 years."
Bailey claimed he had the authority to issue these rules — the first in the country limiting hormone therapy for adults — because "gender transition interventions are experimental and have significant side effects." But hormone therapy and other gender-affirming treatments are not experimental. They have existed for decades and are supported as medically necessary by the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association.
Prominent Missouri Republicans harshly criticized Bailey's efforts. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) blasted Bailey for exceeding his authority. "If you're an adult, you have the capacity to make your own decisions," Ashcroft said. "I don't believe it's the role of [the] government to forbid it."
Trans advocates sued to block Bailey's rule, and it was temporarily blocked by a state judge. In May, the Missouri legislature then passed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. Shortly thereafter, facing increasing criticism from all sides, Bailey withdrew the rule.
Bailey claimed protecting reproductive rights in Missouri would cost taxpayers $50 billion
Reproductive rights supporters are seeking to put the Missouri Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment on the state ballot in 2024. (Missouri banned most abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe). The amendment would enshrine "the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care," including abortion, in the Missouri Constitution. Reasonable restrictions on abortions after "fetal viability" would be permitted.
Bailey's role in this matter is very limited. Before the organizers can collect signatures, Bailey must certify that "the proposed ballot language isn't more than 50 words, and that it includes the auditor's cost estimate." Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick (R), an abortion opponent, estimated that the amendment would cost the state about $51,000 annually.
"Even though I would prefer to be able to say these initiative petitions will cost the state billions of dollars, I have a responsibility to the people of Missouri to not allow my personal beliefs to prevent the Auditor’s office from providing a fair cost estimate based on facts," Fitzpatrick said.
Bailey, however, refused to certify the amendment because he claimed the real cost was not $51,000, but over $50 billion. According to Bailey, if the state protected abortion rights, it would lose $12.5 billion in Medicaid funding. (This is not true.) Bailey also claimed that the amendment would "cost the state billions more in lost revenue because future taxpayers wouldn't be born." A state judge rejected both of those arguments.
Undeterred, Bailey then claimed the cost of another proposed constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights was $21 million. Bailey said that, as an opponent of abortion rights, he could not in good conscience defend the amendment as Missouri's Attorney General. Therefore, he would have to hire outside counsel to do his job. Those lawyers, Bailey claimed, would cost $21 million annually. That figure was included in the descriptions of the amendment for voters drafted by Secretary of State Ashcroft.
Bailey's unprecedented effort to overturn a manslaughter conviction
Earlier this summer, Bailey asked a judge to throw out the conviction of a white police officer who killed a 26-year-old Black man outside his home in 2019. The former detective, Eric DeValkenaere, was found guilty of “second-degree manslaughter and armed criminal action” in the death of Cameron Lamb. DeValkenaere claimed that he fired his gun after Lamb pointed a gun at his partner, Troy Schwalm. But a judge rejected this defense, arguing that the officers “had no probable cause to believe [Lamb] had committed a crime, had no warrant for Lamb’s arrest and had no search warrant or consent to be on the property,” the AP reported. Prosecutors also claimed that the officers planted a gun on Lamb after the shooting.
Bailey, however, insists the conviction was based on insufficient evidence. “DeValkenaere’s use of force was reasonable in light of Mr. Lamb’s use of deadly force against Schwalm, and the court erred as a matter of fact and law in determining that Schwalm and DeValkenaere were the initial aggressors,” Bailey’s office argued.
But experts say that Bailey’s move is unusual. As the Kansas City Star wrote, the state’s Attorney General office “has historically fought to defend convictions.” Jean Peters Baker, the prosecutor whose office secured the conviction, called the reversal “unprecedented” and “disappointing.”
“I’ve been doing this work for 40 years. And I can just say, I’ve not been involved — in the scores and scores and scores of murder cases I’ve tried — where the attorney general came in and filed a brief seeking to reverse a conviction I obtained,” Tim Dollar, a private attorney who assisted with the prosecution, said.
In October, a three-judge panel rejected Bailey's position and "ruled unanimously that there had been enough evidence" for a conviction. DeValkenaere began serving his six-year sentence that month after spending two years free on bond while his appeal was pending.
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no lnx vid
The right-wing Barbie meltdown shows how reactionary forces are losing the culture wars
Ben Shapiro: “Get ready, folks. It’s going to be liberated Barbie time."
Special PROGRAMS
LGBTQ
WRITTEN BY MADELINE PELTZ
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JACINA HOLLINS-BORGES & SOPHIE LAWTON
PUBLISHED 07/18/23
Barbie
CitationAndrea Austria / Media Matters
The Barbie movie is scheduled to be released on July 21; as it stands, there is no evidence that anti-trans attacks by right-wing influencers have resonated with audiences at all. (Barbie is distributed by Warner Bros. Movies, which is currently being struck by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.)
Greta Gerwig, director of the film, recently explained the underlying thesis of her latest project in a New York Times Magazine article.
“People say, ‘Well, what’s the story of Barbie?’” Gerwig recalls. “The story of Barbie is the fight that’s been going on about Barbie.”
In keeping with recent anti-LGBTQ extremist campaigns, right-wing media personalities have now imposed their anti-trans agenda onto that fight. They certainly have the muscle memory for ideologically wrestling with toys: Great battles in the conservative culture war have been waged over Mr. Potato Head, Legos, Xbox, Muppets, and more.
Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy, and the gambit of right-wing blogs are outraged that Hari Nef, a transgender model and actor, stars in the movie as Doctor Barbie. (There are more than a dozen characters named Barbie in the movie, per IMDb, and an audio clip of each Barbie greeting each other by the same name has gone viral on TikTok.) This is not the first time Mattel has celebrated transgender representation through the Barbie brand: In 2022, the company released a doll version of Emmy-nominated actress Laverne Cox.
On June 30, Kirk called the movie “trans propaganda that is in this hyper-feminine, ultra pink propaganda thing, but it’s really been taken over by thetrans mafia.” He later added the trailer for Barbie was “the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” then floated a boycott of the film.
Video
CitationFrom the June 30, 2023 edition of Real America's Voice's The Charlie Kirk Show
After repeatedly tweeting about Nef’s casting, Shapiro warned, “The new Barbie movie is going to be a woke bleep show.” He attacked Nef for writing a letter to Gerwig advocating that she be cast in the movie and predictably went on to repeatedly misgender her.
“Get ready, folks. It’s going to be liberated Barbie time.”
Video
CitationFrom the June 28, 2023 edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
On Fox, Campos-Duffy complained that “the left has given Barbie a complete feminist makeover,” then went on to misgender and attack Nef. “They couldn’t get a woman to play a doctor?”
Video
CitationFrom the July 3, 2023, edition of Jesse Watters Primetime
In a panel segment following her monologue, Campos-Duffy said Gerwig’sBarbie is “another indoctrination vehicle.”
On his podcast, right-wing pundit Dave Rubin asked, “Why do they go out of their way to have a biological boy play a girl who’s supposed to be completely a girl in the Barbie movie unless they’re trying to confuse kids?”
Right-wing blogs are also furiously churning out their own Barbie takes. Conspiracy theory-peddling website Revolver News ran a guest post by Federalist contributor Peachy Keenan titled “The Pink Menace” that described Gerwig as the “Destroyer of Dolls” and zeroed in on Nef, labeling her “Groomer Barbie.”
The Pink Menace
CitationScreenshot from Revolver News
An article on right-wing “media watchdog” NewsBusters asked whether the movie was preparing a “Woke Barbie Bait-and Switch” from its press tour to the actual contents of the film, suggesting (baselessly) that the promotion was intentionally papering over Barbie’s “potentially progressive leanings,” citing “the movie’s aggressively diverse cast” and the inclusion of Nef as Barbie.
Both Fox News and the Washington Examinerwrote about Christian movie review site Movieguide instructing audiences not to take children to see the upcoming movie.
From the decades-long legacy of the doll to the upcoming star-studded merchandisable movie, Barbie is a phenomenon. Social media users are flooding feeds with “Barbiecore”: hot pink outfit inspiration, adorably plastic makeup tutorials, and rankings of red carpet looks from the movie’s premiere events. There’s been an “explosion” of Barbie-themed launches selling out across the market — from frozen yogurt to shoes and clothes to couches.
Mainstream audiences simply do not hate transgender actors enough to hold back their enthusiasm for the film.
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drag give proud boys etc entree?
russian Militia Has Links to American Neo-Nazi and Anti-Trans Figures
Ben Makuch
The leader of the anti-Putin Russian Volunteer Corps is publicly connected to Robert Rundo and Christopher Pohlhaus.
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https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1673383652409876482
call for prayer ### river
carbon credit party 2 yrs, sign contract to die, watch movie,woman breasts 7 yo dick cut off heroes, already cda woman killed herself good for earth 23 states hu compost for food we eat bugs
June 26, 2023
- If you missed the right-wing Road To Majority conference last week, we can pretty much sum it all up for you in just one word: Woke.
- Tim Barton says that critics have to use ad hominem attacks on him and his father, Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton, for not having any academic credentials as historians because they know they can’t attack the history they present “because what we’re promoting is actually true.”
- The fact that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is hosting a “health policy roundtable” featuring unhinged anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Sherri Tenpenny should tell you all you need to know.
- Jarrin Jackson is angry that GOP figures talk generically about God: “Be specific. Jesus Christ. The One of Scripture. The One Who rose (bodily) from the grave for the remission of sins. It is a deception to not be specific when He so clearly changed the course of history on the cross. Don’t let Muslims smuggle in Allah. Or Buddhists Buddha. Or Jews ‘not Christ’. Or pagans Thor. Or atheists science & reason. Christ is King.”
- Sean Feucht brags that members of Congress helped him sneak into the U.S Capitol so that he could take communion in the Rotunda: “We laid hands all over that place. We brought oil. We brought shofars. We’re crazy.”
- Finally, if you arrive at church to find Alex Jones up on stage with your pastor, ranting about how they’ll require you “to cut your children’s genitals off to get ESG money” as they mandate “government-forced suicide” perhaps it is time to find another church?
Tags: Alex Jones Jarrin Jackson Rodney Howard-Browne Sean Feucht Tim Barton Leftovers Road to Majority Conference Faith and Freedom Coalition
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https://www.alternet.org/grad-queen-story-hour/
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aha? cognitve dissance --> existential threat?
raw 6 23
no lnx
In the wake of Donald Trump's indictment over his handling of classified information, some worry that the anger and resentment that led to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has been kicked back into high gear. According to extremism expert, author and podcast host Brad Onishi, the religious underpinnings that inspired the violence on Jan. 6 could spark violence once again.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Onishi said that while it's good that no violence erupted outside the Miami courthouse where Trump was booked this week,"there are little fires everywhere that are pointing us toward deep civil unrest and deep mistrust in our public square."
Onishi says that "Christian nationalism is pervasive in right-wing American politics at the moment," and it emanates from politicians, pastors, and Fox News hosts.
Christian nationalism seeks a nostalgia for a time when America was the “city on a hill," Onishi says.
"The narrative now is that that city on the hill has been overrun by interlopers, and those for whom the country was never intended. So maybe we need to 'build a wall' around the city, because it needs protection — too many folks have gotten in and ruined it and eroded the order that we need in the country."
According to Onishi, when Christian nationalists talk about "freedom," what they really mean is "living out your role in God’s hierarchy."
"They may see the trans person, for example, as not living according to their God-given gender," Onishi said. "So just by being on the subway, or being in their kids’ school, they’re making them less free, because the order is all out of whack. And therefore they need to do something about it. They need to go tear down displays at Target or put forth anti-trans legislation."
Christian nationalists believe that America is on the precipice of an Apocalypse, but they don't see it as the end of the world -- they're more focused on the end of the United States, he said.
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}:
"It is sense of a cosmic war between good and evil. Many Christians believe that they are characters in an epic, and that the ending hasn’t been written yet in terms happens to the United States," Onishi says.
Read the full interview over at Rolling Stone.
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https://www.alternet.org/elon-musk-misgendering-twitter-documentary/
an 5 23
no lnx
biillionaire and Twitter Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk publicly backed the use of anti-transgender rhetoric on the social media app Thursday.
Per the right-wing news outlet The Daily Wire, the site's Co-CEO Jeremy Boreing took to Twitter to share "Twitter canceled a deal with the conservative media company to stream its hit documentary 'What is a Woman?' for free on the social media platform due to 'misgendering.'"
Boreing railed against Twitter in a sixteen-tweet thread:
READ MORE: Right-wing hosts call teachers 'groomers' for showing kids a 'diverse collection' of books and movies
Twitter canceled a deal with @realdailywire to premiere What is a Woman? for free on the platform because of two instances of 'misgendering.' I'm not kidding. Here's what happened:"
2/16 One year ago today, we released What is a Woman?. To celebrate the occasion and expand the movie’s already enormous impact, we decided to give it away for free for 24 hours on Twitter.
3/16 With Twitter's recent commitments to free speech, we thought it would be the perfect place to distribute the film and drive the conversation forward on one of the most important topics of our day.
4/16 Twitter responded with enthusiasm and offered us the opportunity to buy a package to host the movie on a dedicated event page and to promote the event to every Twitter user over the first 10 hours.
5/16 We accepted and signed an agreement. After we signed, Twitter asked to see the film to better understand what parts may 'trigger' users, so they could better prepare their response. They said they were still all hands on deck for launch, so we sent them a screener.
6/16 After reviewing the film, though, Twitter let us know that not only could we no longer purchase the package they offered, they would no longer provide us any support and would actually limit the reach of the film and label it as 'hateful conduct' because of 'misgendering.'
7/16 Specifically: In the film, a father refers to his 14-year-old daughter as 'her,' and a store owner uses the 'wrong' pronoun in a confrontation with a trans person.
8/16 We reminded Twitter they removed 'misgendering' from their policy, that the term 'misgendering' itself is misleading, and that enforcing such a policy places them on the side of the most radical elements in society - the side most opposed to their commitment to free speech.
9/16 Twitter clarified they only removed 'misgendering' from their policy because they didn’t need to be that specific, but that they still consider “misgendering” abuse and harassment. They gave us the opportunity to edit the film to comply. We declined.
10/16 When we asked how much they would limit the visibility if we posted the film anyway, Twitter replied that our own followers would not be able to see it in their feeds. This, they said, is part of their 'speech not reach' policy.
11/16 Of course, saying 'you have the right to speak, but we'll make sure no one hears you' is a bit like saying “you have the right to cast a vote, but we'll make sure it isn't counted.' That's not a right at all!
12/16 We brought all our shows to Twitter Tuesday because we believed Twitter was committed to free speech, especially on this issue. After all, the @TheBabylonBee was silenced on Twitter over this very issue, and that in part prompted @elonmusk to purchase the platform.
13/16 The other tech platforms have already decided where they stand in the trans debate and demonetize and deprioritize all those who disagree. Now, Twitter has joined the ranks of the other tech superpowers in ensuring one side of the debate is suppressed.
14/16 @elonmusk is not beholden to conservatives. He has the right to run his business as he sees fit. But if Twitter is going to throttle one side of one of the most important debates facing society, it cannot claim to champion free speech.
15/16 I hope @elonmusk will reconsider this awful policy. If we can't debate these issues on Twitter, where can we debate them? If conservatives aren't welcome on Twitter, where are they welcome? It’s unlikely another centibillionaire will come along to offer an alternative.
16/16 We plan to post the movie anyway tonight at 8:00 pm eastern. Will Twitter make good on their threat to throttle it and label it 'hateful conduct,' or will Twitter live up to its great promise? We'll all find out together.
READ MORE: Daily Wire host: Having a transgender child is 'like a death of a child while they're still alive'
Seth Dillion, the owner and Chief Executive Officer of the conservative site Babylon Bee, replied to Boreing's thread, saying, "In the interview we just released, Musk reaffirmed his commitment to free speech, saying there will be no compromise, even if it means lost revenue. He also said that Tucker Carlson's main concern was the possibility of censorship. Elon assured Tucker that lawful speech would not be censored. Tucker only announced he'd be bringing his show to Twitter after getting that assurance. Seems like someone over there hasn't gotten the free speech memo."
Musk also replied to Boreing, writing, "This was a mistake by many people at Twitter. It is definitely allowed. Whether or not you agree with using someone's preferred pronouns, not doing so is at most rude and certainly breaks no laws. I should note that I do personally use someone's preferred pronouns, just as I use someone’s preferred name, simply from the standpoint of good manners. However, for the same reason, I object to rude behavior, ostracism or threats of violence if the wrong pronoun or name is used."
The Daily Wire host Matt Walsh later tweeted, "What Is A Woman streams tonight at 8 ET.Elon says that the decision to label the film hate speech was a 'mistake by many people at Twitter.' But currently the clips from the film are still flagged and censored and all trends related to What Is A Woman are still being suppressed," before adding, "We will see what happens tonight."
In November, VICE News reported:
Musk's apparent embrace of the white supremacist community has already led to a rise in hate speech on the platform, and it’s about to get even darker. In far-right forums, extremists of all stripes are salivating at the prospect of being able to share their hateful ideologies on a platform with much greater reach when Musk reinstates accounts that were banned for spreading hate speech.
Furthermore, Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism told VICE News, "As soon as" Musk "took over Twitter, we saw extremists trying to exploit the platform, we've seen hate of all kinds increase, so these messages that he’s sending have to be understood in the context of what is happening to that platform. As it's becoming a hellscape for antisemitism and racism and bigotry, it just so happens that he is putting out the type of language that is appreciated by those who are doing that."
READ MORE: 'A fate worse than death': Matt Walsh launches vicious attack on parenting trans kids
The Daily Wire's full report is available at this link. VICE News' report is here.
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an raw 5 23
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been accused of citing illegally leaked children’s medical records as part of a vendetta against trans kids and their families.
Paxton announced an investigation Friday of trans care by Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, according to the Houston Chronicle.
But Harris County attorney Christian Menefee is firing back that Paxton’s move was predicated by conservative-media reports based on illegal leaks from his office, the report said.
“Menefee called for ‘swift and appropriate action’ in response to the apparent records leak and described Paxton’s investigation as ‘legally baseless,’” the Chronicle reported.
“This illicit release of medical records puts children and their families at risk, and swift action must be taken to ensure that this does not happen again," he said in a statement.
"I have spoken with representatives at Texas Children’s Hospital and understand that the hospital will fully investigate how this happened and notify all impacted families if their information was released.
“I expect they will fully disclose what they find to the United States Department of Health and Human Services. If a hospital employee leaked these medical records, they must be fired. If it was a hospital vendor, their contract must be terminated.”
The Chronicle said the AG's investigation followed as series of tweets from an activist that shared what he called evidence that the hospital "secretly" provided gender-affirming care. The tweets included details from medical records, with the patients' names redacted.
Menefee, the first Black person to serve as the top lawyer in Texas’ largest county, which is home to Houston, “noted that unauthorized disclosures of medical records may violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known as HIPAA,” the newspaper reported.
Hospital officials fired back at Paxton as well: “At Texas Children’s Hospital, our mission is to provide high-quality care for all patients. Throughout the policy debate surrounding gender medicine, our healthcare professionals have always and will continue to prioritize the care of our patients within the bounds of the law.”
The Chronicle said the AG's investigation followed as series of tweets from an activist that shared what he called evidence that the hospital "secretly" provided gender-affirming care. The tweets included details from medical records, with the patients' names redacted.
Menefee, the first Black person to serve as the top lawyer in Texas’ largest county, which is home to Houston, “noted that unauthorized disclosures of medical records may violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known as HIPAA,” the newspaper reported.
Hospital officials fired back at Paxton as well: “At Texas Children’s Hospital, our mission is to provide high-quality care for all patients. Throughout the policy debate surrounding gender medicine, our healthcare professionals have always and will continue to prioritize the care of our patients within the bounds of the law.”
“Though many unhinged activists compromising the healthcare field think otherwise, children are not to be treated as science experiments. Doctors and hospitals should not be pushing mutilative and irreversible ‘gender transitioning’ procedures that will negatively impact innocent children for the rest of their lives.”
As the Texas Tribune reported Friday, Paxton’s newest investigation is part of an ongoing effort aimed at trans care.
The Texas Legislature recently passed a bill that would bar minors from receiving that medical care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and related surgery — though such surgery is rare for minors, the Texas Tribune reported. “Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will sign the bill, and it is expected to go into effect in September.”
Paxton’s targeting of Texas Children’s Hospital was only the latest salvo in an ongoing campaign, according to the Tribune.
“Two weeks ago, Paxton announced a similar investigation into Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, citing allegations from a hidden camera video investigation from the conservative activist group Project Veritas," it reported.
“The same day Paxton announced the investigation, parents began receiving calls from Dell Children’s, telling them their appointments were canceled and their doctors had parted ways with the adolescent health clinic.”
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ref tex trib legit
no lnx
attorney General Ken Paxton has once again waded into the conservative fight to restrict access to gender-affirming care for trans youth, announcing Friday that he was opening an investigation into “potentially illegal” practices at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas.
The investigation comes in the wake of a video report that alleges to show a social worker at Dell Children’s saying the Austin-based hospital provides certain gender-affirming treatment for patients “as young as eight, nine.”
Gender-affirming care is an umbrella term for the treatment of gender dysphoria, or the discomfort that comes when someone’s gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender-affirming care ranges from “socially transitioning” — using different pronouns or dressing differently — to puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions.
Project Veritas, a far-right activist group that engages in deceptive practices to do hidden camera-style investigations, filmed health care professionals at Dell Children’s and other facilities around the country as they discussed gender-affirming care.
The clip of the social worker at Dell Children’s takes up less than a minute of the 11-minute edited video package. In the video, the woman is seen saying that patients could potentially be prescribed puberty blockers after just one appointment with a doctor.
“It’s not something that we want to gatekeep and require you to, you know, come to us 10 times before it’s prescribed,” the woman in the video said.
In a statement, Dell Children’s said they are reviewing the situation and will take appropriate action “to the extent that care provided at our clinic may have been inconsistent with our organization’s position on this important issue. The statement also noted that Dell Children’s does not prescribe hormone therapy or use surgery to treat gender dysphoria, but does “provide a safe and welcoming place for children to receive other forms of primary care and treatment.”
On Friday, Paxton filed a “request to examine” letter with Dell Children’s parent organization, Ascension Seton, asking them to turn over documents relating to the use of puberty blockers and counseling for trans youth.
It’s not clear what law Paxton believes Dell Children’s has broken; Texas does not currently have age limits on gender-affirming care, nor does it require doctors to see patients a specific number of times before prescribing puberty blockers.
But that could soon change. Paxton announced this investigation on the day of a crucial House vote on Senate Bill 14, which would prohibit transgender youth from getting puberty blockers and hormone therapy. In the two years since the Legislature last met, gender-affirming care for trans youth has emerged as a central issue for Republicans, led in many ways by Paxton.
Last session, the Legislature did not approve a measure that would have classified gender-affirming care as child abuse. But during the interim, Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion, claiming that existing state law allowed for parents who provide their trans children with gender-affirming care to potentially be classified as child abusers.
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Citing this opinion, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s child welfare agency to pursue investigations into families with trans children. The subsequent investigations sent shockwaves through Texas’ LGBTQ communities as parents of trans children lawyered up or left the state out of fear of persecution.
The Texas Supreme Court said in a ruling that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services erred in following Abbott or Paxton’s guidance on this, and a court order has broadly blocked the agency from opening new investigations.
But this has not stopped Paxton from continuing to push the issue. He has opened deceptive trade investigations into two pharmaceutical companies that produce puberty blockers and joined multistate coalitions opposing other state laws allowing for gender-affirming care.
In a statement Friday, he urged the House to pass SB 14, “to ban acts of child abuse such as so-called ‘gender transitioning’ surgical procedures and prescribing puberty-blocking drugs for minors.”
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https://www.alternet.org/jericho-march-extremists-illustrate-threat/
an 5 23
no lnx
as Donald Trump plots a return to the White House in 2025, his past courtship of militant far-right groups — some of whom led the mob that overran the U.S. Capitol — highlights an ongoing threat of political violence in the United States.
Trump has continued to signal to violent extremists since Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. In February, the former president amplified a user on the Truth Social platform who pledged that his supporters will “physically fight for him” to win the Republican nomination while warning that “we Are Locked and LOADED.”
Jacob Glick, a former investigative counsel for the January 6th Committee, told Raw Story it’s largely beside the point whether Trump directly or indirectly coordinated with the militant groups that attacked the Capitol — including, most prominently, leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
“The scheme is in plain sight,” said Glick, who now serves as policy counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center. “The fact is that both Trump’s authoritarianism and the fascistic bloodlust of the militant groups who aligned with him were out in the open. They each saw each other without necessarily communicating directly. That doesn’t make it any less dangerous. That’s how this anti-democratic dynamic has operated throughout history.”
A patch on a tactical vest worn by a Trump supporter at the Jericho March rally reads: "Water boarding is how we baptize the terrorists." Jordan Green/Raw Story
Glick pointed to one particular strand of the Jan. 6 story as exemplifying Trump’s proximity to the militant groups.
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Robert M. Weaver, then employed in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, co-organized the Jericho March — a series of quasi-religious gatherings attended by a loose coalition of Trump supporters who staged weekly rallies in state capitols that culminated with a major demonstration in Washington, D.C., in December 2020.
The Jericho March helped set the stage for what transpired less than a month later on Jan. 6, 2021.
Texts obtained by the January 6th Committee show that Weaver communicated extensively with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, a featured speaker at the rally, and also received confirmation of Trump’s approval through an undisclosed contact within the Trump camp.
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“What the messages show is a really egregious instance of a pro-Trump political operative serving in the administration at the time who was extremely active in Stop the Steal — welcoming the help of armed extremists and didn’t reject it,” Glick told Raw Story.
A representative for the Trump campaign could not be reached for comment.
Weaver’s collaboration with Rhodes — now among six Oath Keepers convicted of seditious conspiracy — represents a “mainstreaming and normalization of political violence” seen in multiple instances of crossover between political operatives and militants in the runup to Jan. 6, Glick said, adding, “The Jericho March was 1,000 percent in that category.”
‘Let his church roar’
Weaver presented an unlikely candidate to lead the Christian nationalist wing of the election denial movement. It’s a movement that materialized quickly, one bent on keeping Trump in power after 2020 election returns showed the former president losing the electoral vote to Democrat Joe Biden.
A member of the Quapaw Tribe in Oklahoma with a business background in healthcare and employee benefits, Trump had made Weaver part of his administration. Then-President Trump first tapped Weaver to lead the Indian Health Service in 2017. But Weaver withdrew following a report by the Wall Street Journal that indicated his resume inaccurately stated his qualifications.
Despite being denied the leadership post, which required Senate confirmation, Weaver in July 2020 joined U.S. Department of Health and Human Services staff as anadviser to the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
While other political operatives such as Ali Alexander, Amy Kremer, Felisa Blazek and Tomi Collins began organizing weekly rallies to sow doubt about the result of the 2020 election, Weaver launched a similar effort tomobilize Christians and a smaller subset of conservative Jews behind Trump. Weaver teamed up with Arina Grossu, a former Family Research Council spokesperson who was also working at Health and Human Services at the time, to lead what they called the Jericho March.
A self-described “holy roller, speaking-in-tongues” Pentecostal Christian, Weaver recalled during a Dec. 9, 2020, interview with Christian radio host Eric Metaxas that two days after the election he cried out to God in prayer, and then heard a voice telling him: “It’s not over.”
Weaver told Metaxas: “And the vision was of people all over the crowd, shofars blowing. I saw Catholics. I saw evangelical Christians. Charismatic Christians. I saw all kinds of nuns. I saw Jewish rabbis. I saw people praying. The church was united. And I knew that we were supposed to march on the 12th, that God was showing us that. And I knew we were also supposed to go to the contested states, and do the same thing. And it wasn’t just one time. God said to do it every day at noon, so we’ve been doing it since.”
]A man holding a pro-Second Amendment flag raises his hand during a praise song at the Jericho March in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 12, 2020. Jordan Green/Raw Story
As described by Weaver and others, the Jericho March was inspired by the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament, in which Joshua, the successor to Moses, leads an army of Israelites who conquer the ancient city of Jericho by marching around it seven times while blowing horns, with the walls crumbling at the seventh pass.
“God had told me that this was about unity,” Weaver said. “He told me to let his church roar.”
On the same day he described his vision to Metaxas, Rhodes added Weaver to the “Dec. 12 DC Security/Leadership” Signal chat, according to the communications which Weaver turned over to the January 6th Committee.
In a separate text obtained by the January 6th Committee, Weaver introduced Rhodes to Stephen Brown, whom the organizers hired to handle logistics for the event, writing: “Steve meet Stewart with Oathkeepers security. Please get with him to work on extra security.” Not only did the Oath Keepers provide additional security for the rally, but Rhodes spoke from the stage during the event.
Responding to news on the eve of the rally that the Supreme Court would refuse to hear a challenge filed by the Texas attorney general, Rhodes launched into a rant in the “Dec. 12 DC Security/Leadership” chat labeling the justices as “compromised or deep state traitors” and calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act.
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“We are at war,” Rhodes wrote. “At war with China and all its American proxies, who are the domestic traitors and insurrectionists. Trump needs to be a wartime president and wage war on our enemies. That is all he has left. If he doesn’t do that, then we will have to fight against an illegitimate Biden regime and all of the deep state with him. It will be a bloody and desperate fight.”
Rhodes' comments on theSignal chat previewed his remarks when he took the stage the next day.
“He had these grand visions of being a paramilitary leader,” Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers, told the January 6th Committee during a public hearing last July. “And the Insurrection Act would have given him a path forward with that. The fact that the president was communicating, whether directly or indirectly messaging that gave him the nod. All I can do is thank the gods that things did not go any worse that day.”
Trump ‘encouraged by’ Jericho marches
While Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder, was emboldened by Trump’s flirtation with the Insurrection Act in 2020, the Jericho March organizers were able to cite the president’s approval to galvanize supporters. Trump’s benediction was passed down to Weaver through a contact at the White House, his co-organizer told the January 6th Committee.
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In a Nov. 10, 2020 Jericho March newsletter obtained by the committee, Arina Grossu wrote: “President Trump is also aware of the Jericho Marches and is encouraged by them.”
One of the staff members asked Grossu how she knew that Trump was aware of the marches.
“So that is a question for Rob,” she responded. “I don’t have — I was not in those conversations or in any of those — I did not have that kind of connection.”
Grossu also told the committee thatin the days leading up to the Dec. 12 rally, “there was talk that maybe he would fly over,” and indeed Trump did signal his approval to the rally by flying over in Marine One that day.
President Trump flies over the Jericho March in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 12, 2020. Jordan Green/Raw Story
Again, Grossu said her information came from Weaver.
“Rob would probably know more about details of that,” she said. Grossu said she did not know the identity of Weaver’s point of contact at the White House.
The committee did not depose Weaver, although he did provide documents. Reached by phone by Raw Story last week, Weaver abruptly hung up.
The Dec. 12, 2020, Jericho March event in Washington, D.C. was a pivotal moment in the lead-up to the insurrection,in Glick’s view.
Two days later, the duly appointed electors would meet to cast electoral votes on behalf of their respective states. And in the early morning hours of Dec. 19, following a late-night meeting at the White House at which Trump’s allies urged him to call out the National Guard to seize voting machinery, Trump would summon his supporters to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 with his infamous “be there, will be wild” tweet.
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“It’s all of the January 6th story compressed into one disturbing arc,” Glick said. “December 12th was such an important day in terms of proving that model of political-militant coordination can work. They were able to replicate it on January 6th.
“December 12th was also important because Trump flew over the rally,” he continued. “That night D.C. descends into violence. He sends out his tweet a week later. We see Trump witnessing firsthand the violent potential of the Stop the Steal movement on the ground in D.C. Then, a few days later, when his paths to victory are all but closed off, he calls out his supporters again.”
“Be there, will be wild” was only the culmination of Trump’s courtship of militant groups, Glick said.
“The dynamics are crystal clear in the January 6th Committee report, in the DOJ prosecutions and in public reports,” Glick said. “Trump leaned into the potentially violent power of his base, while he was simultaneously orchestrating multiple illegal schemes to undermine the election. His extreme base followed those cues. They engaged in a call and response that stretched back for months and years before January 6th.”
Trump cultivated militant far-right groups throughout the 2020 campaign.
The former president kicked off his last re-election campaign with a speech in Orlando, Fla. in June 2019 in which he complained that “our patriotic movement has been under assault from the very first day” as members of the Proud Boys street gang prowled the streets outside the venue chanting, “Pinochet did nothing wrong” in homage to the late Chilean dictator known for extrajudicial execution of political opponents.
Days before a January 2020 Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Va. that attracted militia members, neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists, Trump tweeted: “Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attackin the Great Commonwealth of Virginia.” As protests against COVID restrictions took shape across the country — including one in which men in tactical gear carried assault rifles into the Michigan state capitol — a couple months later, Trump tweeted, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN,” and, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege.”
During his first debate with Joe Biden in September 2020, Trump infamously instructed the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” And in the closing days of the campaign, he minimized a plot by Three Percenters to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer,telling supporters at a rally in Lansing that “people are entitled to say maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn’t.”
‘2024 is the final battle’
The same contours of desperation that drove Trump’s 2020 campaign are in place again for his 2024 bid.
While Trump is the early favorite to again win the Republican presidential nomination, significant trouble looms for him. The multiple criminal investigations against Trump may only increase the incentive for him to inflame his supporters with appeals to base fears. He will also face a 2024 Republican primary featuring several legitimate, conservative candidates intent on ending Trump’s political career for good.
Recalling that the Trump campaign sought to link civil unrest that erupted during his administration to Biden, Kristofer Goldsmith — a military veteran who leads the anti-sedition group Task Force Butler — predicted that Trump will encourage rioting during the 2024 election in order to inflict political damage on his Democratic opponent.
“Any opportunity he has to inspire a riot, especially in American cities — what are traditionally considered Democrat-controlled areas — he has every incentive to inspire riots, and there are tons of neo-Nazis around the country who are desperate for that kind of permission structure,” Goldsmith said.
While militant leaders such as Rhodes looked to Trump for approval to carry out acts of violence, Trump signaled to extremists at key moments during the 2020 campaign when he needed to energize his base by invoking fears about federal investigations, gun control, urban crime, and pandemic restrictions.
Goldsmith said Trump shows every sign of similarly exploiting anti-LGBTQ hate as the 2024 campaign unfolds.
RELATED ARTICLE: How Trump-backing Jan. 6 ‘marshals’ ditched their pink vests and staged an insurrection
“The way that the last two years have gone with the radicalization of the Republican Party and the adoption of legislation specifically targeting, taking away the rights of, and imposing restrictions on the LGBTQ community, I expect Trump to use that,” Goldsmith told Raw Story. “I expect Trump to use the LGBTQ community as a punching bag to further radicalize the Republican Party — to give permission to elements of the far right that have a desire to go out and use violence.”
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During a campaign rally in New Hampshire last month, Trump demonstrated how his rhetoric has evolved since he left the White House in January 2021. Specifically, he used anti-LGBTQ language and apocalyptic political imagery to excite his supporters.
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“Does anybody really believe what’s going on in this country?” Trump asked. “I will sign a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states. And this is what we must do to save our country from destruction. 2024 is the final battle. If we don’t take it over, we’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Far from condemning those who committed violence on his behalf, Trump has offered symbolic support.
The former president glorified the rioters who attacked the Capitol by playing a recording of Jan. 6 defendants housed at the D.C. jail singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” during a recent rally in Waco, Texas. And last week, during a CNN town hall in New Hampshire, Trump said he was inclined to pardon many of those who face criminal charges in the attack. That signaling gives a green light to future violence, Goldsmith said.
“He wants to assure his fascist troops and out-and-out neo-Nazis that he will go to bat for them if they commit violence on his behalf,” Goldsmith said.
Again, as in 2020, Trump is refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of any outcome in the 2024 election that does not make him the victor, while claiming that America’s very nationhood is at stake.
“I’m just telling you,” he said during his campaign rally in New Hampshire last month, “if we allow them to cheat, because that’s the only way they’re going to win the election — if we allow them to cheat again, you’re not going to have a country.”
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https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-warns-hypnosis-pornography-will-lead-transgenderism
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bud lite MTG...
https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/youtube-strips-ad-revenue-matt-walsh-show-after-repeated-vitriol-against-dylan-mulvaney
no lnx many
youTube strips ad revenue from The Matt Walsh Show after repeated vitriol against Dylan Mulvaney
Walsh has been leading an effort to boycott Bud Light for its collaboration with the TikTok star, whom he previously called “weird and artificial”
Special PROGRAMS
LGBTQ
WRITTEN BY ARI DRENNEN
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALYSSA TIRRELL
PUBLISHED 04/20/23
In a speech at the University of Iowa, self-described “theocratic fascist” and Daily Wire host Matt Walsh complained that his YouTube channel had been stripped of advertiser revenue, which he said was bringing in more than $100,000 per month. An independent estimate suggests that Walsh’s YouTube revenue could have been as high as $1.6 million per year.
YouTube confirmed the demonetization, with a spokesperson writing, “We suspended monetization on Matt Walsh’s channel due to repeated violations of our YouTube Partner Program policies, which include our Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines. These policies apply equally to all creators, regardless of political viewpoint, and channels that repeatedly violate these policies are demonetized."
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The demonetization, which was announced before the speech in a Twitter thread by Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boering, reportedly comes in response to Walsh’s increasingly vitriolic campaign against Dylan Mulvaney, which escalated after the transgender TikTok star announced a collaboration with Bud Light.
Speaking before an audience of college students, Walsh announced that rather than stop his tirades against Mulvaney, he would make his show free to all viewers on the Daily Wire+ app and would upload episodes toTwitter, suggesting some kind of deal with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. “I truly see the fight against gender ideology as the last stand for Western civilization,” Walsh said. “Because if the sane side loses this, it's over. It's over after this."
Walsh has targeted Mulvaney in a series of increasingly vicious attacks over a period of several months, beginning with a rant in which Walsh told the trans influencer, “You are weird and artificial, you are manufactured and lifeless, you are unearthly and eerie.” The monologue led to backlash within right-wing media and was cited by one Daily Wire writer in her decision to leave the company. But Walsh doubled down, saying that he “would rather be dead” than have a trans child. And then, at the start of April, Bud Light sent Mulvaney a can of beer with her face on it.
Walsh, who previously made comments supportive of teenage pregnancy, has a history of spreading anti-trans vitriol. As documented by Media Matters, between mid-February and mid-March, Walsh also repeated his statement about preferring death to a trans child; misgendered and deadnamed a trans woman featured in a Hershey’s chocolate ad (in Canada); defended his colleague Michael Knowles’ call to eradicate “transgenderism … from public life entirely” by claiming to be “in a war against the most deranged ideology ever invented by the human race,” which he called a “parasite”; and called the trans community “a suicide cult.”
YouTube’s hate speech policy promises to “remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups” based on ... “gender identity and expression” and/or “sexual orientation.” Social Blade indicates that two Walsh videos had already been demonetized in April when the Daily Wire host led a boycott against Bud Light for collaborating with Mulvaney. If Walsh’s contract contains provisions similar to those found in the contract offered to Louder with Crowder host Steven Crowder, which stated that being demonetized would lead to a 25% cut in his salary, the loss of YouTube revenue is a huge financial blow to Walsh.
The Daily Wire+ app continues to be available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.The Apple App Store’s content guidelines lay out a prohibition on “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary” targeting gender or sexual orientation, especially if the app or content “is likely to humiliate, intimidate, harass, or harm individuals or groups.” The Google Play terms of service similarly forbid “apps that promote violence, or incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, caste, immigration status, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.”
Walsh’s move to uploading his show to Twitter comes at a convenient time for the Daily Wire host. Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022, recently updated its terms of service to remove its previous prohibition on targeted misgendering and deadnaming of trans people. Musk recently launched an effort to reassure nervous Twitter advertisers and to convince those who previously abandoned the platform to return. In one recent interview, Musk claimed that Twitter was open to advertiser feedback but that “freedom of speech is paramount.”
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Pagination
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https://www.alternet.org/trump-jr-trans/ bogus
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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-religious-right-coalition-behind-kansas-slew-of-anti-trans-bills/
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https://www.mediamatters.org/candace-owens/candace-owens-says-existence-trans-people-worse-jim-crow-laws
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https://www.mediamatters.org/greg-kelly/newsmaxs-greg-kelly-says-transgender-individuals-armed-guns-are-real-threat-our democ and way of life
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aha before any gop dirty trick ok rationalized b/c THEY dems are baby murderers; nowsecession --> dog whistle for violent civil war [also (white) xian nat'lism?:
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-guest-says-**secession-necessary**-because-democrats-are-so-unclean-and-are mutilating kids
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mtg 60 min leslie stahl wow
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https://www.mediamatters.org/4chan/4chan-anti-trans-hoax-about-trans-day-vengeance-spread-twitter-various-right-wing-figures
tucker boebert?
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note self defense
https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirks-conspiratorial-fearmongering-and-retaliatory-fantasies-reach-dangerous
no lnx many vids
Charlie Kirk's conspiratorial fearmongering and retaliatory fantasies reach a dangerous new level
Kirk: "We are living in an enemy-occupied country. They have taken over the government and we have to think as dissidents.”
WRITTEN BY SOPHIE LAWTON & JACK WHEATLEY
PUBLISHED 04/03/23
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In late March, Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk repeatedly told his audience that they must take action against a demonic and tyrannical force that is targeting them for their conservative political views. While Kirk is no stranger to extreme rhetoric, his noticeably more incendiary and alarmist rhetoric is primarily in response to three news stories from the past week — the March 27 school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee; recent reports that the IRS visited the home of journalist Matt Taibbi; and the March 30 indictment of former President Donald Trump by a New York grand jury.
Trump indictment
As reports of Trump’s indictment in New York emerged on March 30, Kirk held a special livestream to speculate about the news and reasoning behind the sealed charges. Kirk claimed that the indictment is a distraction from the shooting in Nashville and is actually a “designed campaign” to goad conservatives into violence. Kirk stated, “They would love nothing more than for people to act uncharacteristic. They need to try to incite you to right-wing violence to justify their mass takeover of the country.”
Kirk also called for retribution against his political opponents, who he claimed are “acting like Stalinists,” and said “we must make them pay a price and a penalty” by indicting Democrats. “They crossed the Rubicon,” Kirk claimed. “They have declared quote-unquote the Roman Civil War.”
Video
CitationFrom the March 30, 2023, edition of Real America's Voice's The Charlie Kirk Show
As a guest on Thursday night’s edition ofThe Ingraham Angleon Fox News, Kirk took to spreading more conspiracy theories following the news of Trump’s indictment. Kirk again insinuated that the left and the “national security state” are “almost trying to incite the American conservative community to act uncharacteristic” and carry out right-wing violence which, in turn, would be used to presuppose the creation of “a Patriot Act 2.0, and that could then further justify their power grab across the country.”
Later on in the segment, Kirk claimed that Trump’s indictment was an act of revenge by those still upset over his election in 2016, saying that “it seems as if there is this bloodthirsty appetite and desire at the highest level of the Democrat eliteto quote-unquote get Trump.” Kirk went on to claim there’s a “kind of Stalinization of the American criminal justice system” that he hopes independent and moderate voters will recognize before the upcoming presidential race. Fox host Laura Ingraham agreed and added, “It’s like Stalin’s purges, right? That’s what we’re seeing.”
Addressing his audience the day following Trump’s indictment, Kirk said the only way to “bring the country together” and “heal” is for conservatives “to win,” then told his listeners that winning will include “a lot of our side going to jail, a lot of their side going to jail.” Kirk reminded his audience to stay peaceful though quickly reverted to inflammatory rhetoric, saying, “The country we grew up in has ended, a new country is born. Who’s going to control it? If we want it, we can win.”
In the same March 31 episode, while introducing an interview withDonald Trump Jr., Kirk told his listeners, “You should be angry today. And this is a time for action, and this a time to realize that the country we love has slipped away and we have to get it back.”
Video From the March 31, 2023, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show
Nashville school shooting
In the wake of the tragic school shooting in Nashville on March 27, Kirk unleashed vile attacks on the LGBTQ community following police reports that the shooter was transgender.
On his March 28 show, Kirk claimed that activists are becoming “trans jihadists” in the name of “this lie of a quote-unquote trans genocide” adding that “people think they’re on kind of a holy crusade.” He said that “there’s a lot of violent fantasies, unfortunately, among the trans radicals,” and went on to specifically blame the transgender community for the tragic attack in Nashville, claiming that they have “a violent undercurrent that tragically manifested in three dead kids and three dead teachers yesterday.” (Labeling all transgender people as violent is a common anti-trans trope.)
In his Tuesday episode with guest and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, Kirk read a statement from a group called the Trans Resistance Networkreferencing the shooting in Nashville and claimed the group “is blaming us, is blaming Michael Knowles, blaming Matt Walsh, blaming Jack Posobiec, blaming all of us for the massacre of children.”
After discussing the Nashville shooting again on his March 29 podcast, Kirk told his audience, “The trans movement is almost on a jihad.They have been told that people like us want them deadand I’m afraid they’re on some sort of unholy crusade,” adding, “We have to stop it immediately.”
Supposed IRS targeting
IRS agents reportedly made a recent house call to Substack journalist Matt Taibbi, according to a statement from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government based on Taibbi’s own claims. Kirk told his audience that the supposed IRS visit to Taibbi was just the beginning of a “targeted campaign to chill speech” and that the government will be visiting “Real America’s Voice listeners and viewers, grassroots conservatives” first. Kirk called the visit “Stalinistic, Maoist behavior from the Biden regime.”
After once again referring to the IRS visiting Taibbi as “the Stalinization of America” during his March 29 show, Kirk called it “full outright Gestapo behavior.” He then told his audience that “we are living in an enemy-occupied country. They have taken over the government and we have to think as dissidents.”
Video From the March 29, 2023, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show
Kirk’s fearmongering about the government targeting “political enemies,” specifically conservatives, included claiming that “the IRS is one of the most dangerous” and “powerful government agencies that is able to ruin your life,” telling his audience that “political force” will be used to “try and crush you.”
Kirk also suggested the government planned the IRS visit to scare Taibbi out of testifying against “the liberal quote-unquote street gang,” claiming, “If you want out, they beat you up, they kill you.” Kirk questioned, “You have to wonder did somebody plan the IRS visit so Matt Taibbi would reveal his sources? Did they do the house call to his front door the day he was going to testify for the purpose that he would break? Was it the equivalent of waking up with a horse’s head in your bed, how the mob used to operate?”
Other extremist comments
On his March 29 podcast with guest Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Kirk defended the Second Amendment by claiming someday Americans may need guns to fight against a “tyrannical, usurpatious government.” Kirk claimed that “the last 100 years shows 150 million people slaughtered because they were disarmed.”
At a Turning Point Faith event that same day, Kirk suggested that conservatives know evil is happening but are afraid to act on it because “the cost is being called something they wish they would not be called. Racist, bigot.” Kirk then said that “racism and bigotry mostly comes from the left,” saying. “We are such a decent, not racist country, that the incentive structure is to fake your own hate crime.”
At the same Turning Point event, Kirk compared the existence of transgender people to “homeless encampments” and said, “We should not have tolerance for public degeneracy or depravity of our streets.”
During an earlier live event on March 28, Kirk went on a rant about how the “woke mind virus” is a product of Satan sent to “destroy the greatest nation ever to exist in the history of the world.”He encouraged American pastors “excommunicate … the demons of the woke,” stating, “Evil should not be tolerated in the American church.”
Video From the March 28, 2023, Turning Point Faith event, livestreamed on YouTube
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At the March 28 Turning Point Faith event, Kirk also attacked universities and academics, claiming their actions are “rooted in anti-whiteness” and that “I think they’re trying to start a race war in this country.” Throughout his seemingly endless stream of extreme comments, Kirk also issued calls to action to his listeners.
At the same event, when asked about critical race theory, Kirk called the educational theory a “tumor” in our schools that happened because “good people have allowed evil to spread.” Kirk then called on the audience to be part of stopping such “evil,” claiming it will ”require good people with courage and boldness to stand up against what seems to be an overwhelming force and to say stop.”
“CRT has spread, andnow it’s time for us to remove the tumor,” Kirk concluded.
Video From a March 28, 2023, Turning Point Faith event streamed live on YouTube
Kirk used the “tumor” metaphor again when discussing a recent Wall Street Journal poll showing a decline in patriotism in America. Kirk claimed this generation of Americans are “the most depressed, most suicidal, most alcohol-addicted, most drug-addicted generation in history.” He then told his listeners, “Sometimes you need to get harsh, honest news and then have a battle plan, a plan of attack to remove the tumor” — implying the need to remove unpatriotic people from the country.
vid From the March 27, 2023, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show
Kirk has not specified what he means when he tells his audience to “stop” transgender people or critical race theory, but he’s also promoted preparing for future events by investing in gold and “buying a lot of bullets.”
Video From a March 28, 2023, Turning Point Faith event livestreamed on YouTube
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Pagination
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Right-wing media rally behind Michael Knowles’ eliminationist anti-trans rhetoric
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Right Wing Bonus Tracks: Rise Up, Normies
March 30, 2023 5:10 pm
Edward Szall: US Should Limit Access to Internet and ‘Free Thought’ Like Taliban and China
March 30, 2023 3:26 pm
Far Right Exploits Nashville Shooting to Smear LGBTQ People
March 30, 2023 9:13 am
FEATURED
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READ MORE
Stew Peters Says Uganda’s Harsh Anti-LGBTQ Legislation Is ‘100 Percent Awesome’
READ MORE
Religious-Right Figure Steve Turley Celebrates Uganda Legislation Criminalizing Homosexuality
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https://www.mediamatters.org/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-says-trans-people-should-be-banned-owning-firearms
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https://www.alternet.org/missouri-gop-dont-say-gay/
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35yrs rip off covid $ 150K landscape biz?
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joe Harding, the now-former Florida Republican lawmaker who authored the extremist "Don't Say Gay" bill could face up to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday afternoon to federal felony fraud charges in a scheme to obtain $150,000 in COVID-19 relief funds, according to Florida Politics‘ publisher Peter Scorsch.
Harding, 35, was a construction project manager who started his own lawn care company. He quickly became a right-wing darling after his anti-LGBTQ legislation, officially the Parental Rights in Education Act, was embraced by Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed it into law.
Harding was charged in a December federal indictment with six counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements in his plot to obtain $150,000 in COVID funds. He resigned from the legislature the following day. He originally pled not guilty.
READ MORE: 'Chilling': Law Enforcement 'Seriously' Investigating Threats Ahead of Possible Trump Indictment Says Top WaPo Reporter
After Harding was charged and resigned, Nadine Smith, the executive director of Equality Florida, responded via social media, saying: "So much harm to students, parents and teachers because of his raw political ambitions. He slandered entire communities and trafficked in lie after lie that has emboldened violent bigotry. He will have his day in court but his legacy is already a despicable one."
Harding is not the only family member accused of criminal acts.
"Harding's indictment follows a September guilty plea from his brother-in-law, Patrick Walsh," Florida Politics reported in December. "As reported by Fresh Take Florida, Walsh pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges connected to his receipt of nearly $8 million in disaster relief loans."
Unrepentant to the harm many feel he has done to children and the LGBTQ community, in a statement Tuesday Harding said: "During the past legislative session I have felt the support of millions of Americans while fighting for our shared concerns and for the rights of parents. I will never forget the support I received from every corner of this great country."
READ MORE: 18 Attorneys General Blast Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Law as Unconstitutional
Harding will be sentenced in July.
Florida's Voice also reported Harding's guilty plea Tuesday.
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minnestota State Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, in a recent interview, suggested abortion and pornography are the reasons for domestic abuse, and asserted trans children are influenced by Satan, Heartland Signal reports.
Heartland Signal shared a clip of the "The Pastor's Study" interview, tweeting, "MN State Sen. Gruenhagen (R) says gender-affirming care is "Satan going after the children." In the same interview, he blames domestic violence on pornography and abortion: "Women need to understand that [it] sends a certain message to men. It objectifies them."
The right wing lawmaker said, "Women need to understand that abortion and pornography sends a certain message to men. It objectifies them."
READ MORE:GOP senator vows to 'make abortion unthinkable'
He continued, "So, women who care about this issue and women being abused they should look at limitations on abortion and they should also oppose the pornographic sewage which is flooding our society."
According to Heartland Signal, in addition to spreading anti-abortion and anti-trans rhetoric, "Gruenhagen is an avid climate change denier and attended a “Storm the Capitol” rally in St. Paul on Jan. 6, 2021, the same day as the U.S. Capitol riot."
The Senator also came after trans children, saying, "If I can say one thing from a Christian standpoint, we know that in reading the Bible, when society goes after and kills its innocent children, and destroys them like through gender surgery, there is a Satanic perspective on that.So I mean, it's Satan going after the children."
Gruenhagen's comments came just days before six people — including three children — were killed by guns during a mass shooting at a Nashville Christian school.
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a trove of leaked emails between South Dakota legislators and anti-trans lobbyists read like excerpts from "The Handmaid's Tale," according to a new report.
The communications between lobbyists, state Rep. Fred Deutsch and other South Dakota legislators use deeply religious language that shows Christian nationalists are pushing restrictions on LGBTQ rights as part of what they believe is a holy war, reported Vice News.
“Know that many have prayed and are praying for you this day," wrote Vernadette Broyles, a lawyer and president of the Georgia-based Children and Parental Rights Campaign in a 2020 email. "Do not back down, nor should you be afraid. Know that the Lord is with you. The children of South Dakota belong to him. He is jealous over them. Let his jealousies be spoken forth in the House of Representatives of South Dakota today so that his children would be made safe. Know you are HIS representative today. Do not be afraid. Stand firm in what is right."
The emails were shared with Vice by Elisa Rae Shupe, a trans woman who had de-transitioned and become an anti-trans advocate before re-transitioning and renouncing her ties to Christianity.
“I fell prey to the belief that if I did what they suggested that I would be cured of my gender dysphoria," Shupe said. "I was encouraged to confess my sins, ask for forgiveness by Jesus, and turn my plight over to the Lord Jesus Christ. I was also asked to accept that my transgender status was a sexually motivated sin and to cure myself by attending a religious 12-step program, which I did for approximately a year."
The messages are peppered with references to blessings, prayers and apocalyptic warfare.
“It is the language of Christian nationalism,” said Thomas Lecaque, an associate professor of history at Grand View University. “It is the language of people who very much believe they are doing God’s will, and it is the language of people who very much believe that they are engaged in a holy war.”
:{:{Lecaque said South Dakota Republicans, who've gotten three anti-trans bills signed into law byGov. Kristi Noem, and GOP legislatures around the country are trying to eradicate the trans community while presenting themselves as underdogs.}:
“They are not trying to protect children," Lecaque said. "They are trying to murder the transgender community,”}:
“Stopping the existence of transgender people and the acceptance of trans people in the public sphere is to them some sort of religious imperative,” Lecaque added. “It’s particularly fascinating that this group that has all this money, control in state legislatures, control of the house, they had a presidency, is acting like somehow they are David in the struggle.”
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https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/daily-wire-has-earned-millions-facebook-interactions-amplifying-anti-trans-content
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clashes between Proud Boys and counter-protesters led to at least one arrest on Sunday.
The incidents occurred on 7th Avenue in New York City at the Drag Queen Story Hour with Attorney General Letitia James event.
Videos shared online showed some protesters wearing gear and colors associated with the Proud Boys.
Members of the far-right group were seen clashing with counter-protesters in the street.
One video shows a man in Proud Boys colors being arrested.
In another video, a group member appears with blood on his face.
"I came here to help, not get the shit beat out of me," he says.
Watch the video clips below.
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"The left has told us something that should put fear into the heart of every parent,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene began her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday morning. “They said they’re coming for our children.” Dressed in a light pink blazer and with straightened bleach blonde hair, Greene painted a gruesome (and fictional) picture: a multibillion dollar industry preying on kids and eager to subject them to life-altering surgery.
“I am going to be introducing my bill, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, that will make it a felony to perform anything to do with gender care on children,” she said. The crowd roared in applause.
At CPAC, held this past weekend at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center in National Harbor, Maryland, trans bashing—and talking about kids’ genitals—was a main theme. Panels were dedicated to it, speakers harped on so-called “transgender ideology,” and politicians threw out one-liners about trans people when they were short on applause. CPAC is a place where rhetoric and strategy are typically tested, where politicians get a sense of what lands with their base, and this past weekend, Republican politicians eagerly deployed transphobia for their gain. As they denied trans people’s existence, CPAC’s speakers paired their attacks with efforts to galvanize the conservative base ahead of 2024 and to take over public schools.
How Did We Get Here?
The panel following Greene’s provides some insight as to how we arrived at this place. Terry Schilling of the anti-LGBTQ American Principles Project took the stage with Chloe Cole, a woman in the process of reversing her transition, and Riley Gaines, a former Division 1 swimmer at the University of Kentucky who lost races last year to Lia Thomas, a trans woman. After describing the “transgender lobby” as “evil,” Schilling belabored the state of women’s sports.
Before “grooming” rhetoric was commonplace on the right, religious-right groups like Schilling’s began peddling stories about trans girls hurting girls’ sports. But this supposed concern was never about sports. In 2020, a Right Wing Watchinvestigation found that while much of the anti-trans messaging focused on sports, a coalition of religious-right groups was busy taking action, drafting legislation not only to prevent trans girls from playing on girls’ sports teams, but also to preventtrans kids from receiving gender-affirming care.Called “Promise to America’s Children,” the coalition included groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, Heritage Foundation, and Family Research Council—groups that have long been dedicated to rolling back rights for LGBTQ Americans. Thanks to these groups and allied state legislators, in 2023, some 400 anti-trans bills have been proposed in 42 states and 9 have passed, according to a national trans legislation tracker.
vid?]
"The strategy is fearmongering and propaganda,” Schuyler Bailer, a trans rights activist, told Right Wing Watch. “There’s absolutely no data to support the idea that trans people are an inherent threat to children.” In fact, gender-affirming care is supported by major health institutions, Bailer noted, with the American Medical Association declaring it “medically-necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people.” But the facts aren’t what these attacks are about.
“Republicans found that when they could paint trans people as deviant, nefarious, harmful people that are going to hurt you in the bathroom or groom your children as the narrative goes, they could drive votes,” Bailer said.
Religious-right groups like Family Research Council have been explicit that their attacks on trans people are part of what they see as an election-winning strategy. “Our goal: Make the SAFE Act THE ‘wedge issue’ of the 2022 midterm elections!” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wrote in a 2021 fundraising letter for FRC Action.
The Right’s Strategy on Display
The right’s strategy was on display on CPAC’s mainstage.
Sebastian Gorka—a former Trump adviser and an alleged member of a Nazi-cooperating political group in Hungary
shortly before Marjorie Taylor Greene Friday to try to fire up the nearly empty room. He focused his sights on 2024.
“We have to win it so big that this radicalized party that thinks it’s OK to have open borders, to change the Constitution, to get rid of the Supreme Court, to,” he paused for effect, “mutilate young girls and boys as sacrifices on the altar of the transgender insanity. We have to so crush them at the next election that they collapse."
[vid]
*eron Greenesmith, a researcher at Political Research Associates, told Right Wing Watch Saturday that “CPAC is showcasing the truth of the right.” “Trans people have become, once again, the recruitment tactic and fundraiser of the right,” Greenesmith said. “Trans-supportive conservatives have ceded the floor to those who advocate openly for anti-trans violence.”
As these ideas about the need to “protect” kids and women snaked their way into right-wing media, the right has expanded its messaging. Now, right-wing activists say a shadowy “gender lobby” preys on kids to turn them trans. Politicians portray drag queens reading books to kids as “grooming” children. Gay teachers are “indoctrinating” children, they say, as are diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings.
Such fearmongering is effectively being deployed by groups like Moms for Liberty, which is trying to ban books about the LGBTQ experience, and Moms for America, a conservative group that urges right-wing candidates to run for school boards and claims to have more than 500,000 members across the country. Kimberly Fletcher, president and founder of Moms for America, made it clear to the CPAC audience that it’s not just trans people her group is organizing against, but the honest teaching of the history of our nation, sex education, and the tolerance and acceptance of the LGBTQ community writ large.
At a Thursday CPAC panel titled “One Tuff Mutha,” Fletcher claimed the left was coming after children, her voice quivering as she spoke. “They’re trying to erase us as moms,” she said. “And they know historically that’s what you do—that’s what Hitler did, that’s what Mao did, that’s what Stalin did. You take the children, you win the future.”
She listed a series of fears, her voice rising at each new alleged assault: “Everything that we’re facing: The CRT—the critical race theory is racism, that’s 101, that’s what it is. The comprehensive sex education, which isteaching kindergartners how to stimulate themselves. The gender confusion, where they’re having coming out parties since the first grade, and children are coming home terrified they’re suddenly going to turn into the opposite sex.”
She called on the audience to go on “the offensive,” asking kids to record their teachers. What we really need, she said, is “a new PPP”: “parents, pastors, and people of faith uniting together to save this country, protect our kids, and reclaim our culture, and restore the republic.”
The Right’s End Goal
Beneath the fearmongering about trans people as a tool to galvanize the base ahead of 2024 and to instigate a right-wing takeover of the schools is an even more dangerous ideology and agenda: a belief that trans people do not and should not exist.
On the third and final day of CPAC, The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles made that stance explicit: “The problem with transgenderism is not that it’s inappropriate for children under the age of 9,” Knowles said. “The problem with transgenderism is that it isn’t true.”
“There can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism,” Knowles said. “If it is false, then for the good of society… transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.” The crowd erupted in applause.
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[twt]
as controversy ensued, Knowles insisted that he never called for the eradication of trans people but merely the eradication of an ideology. But transness is not an ideology, and ‘transgenderism’ is simply a phony term used by anti-trans activists. Based on Knowles’ remarks at CPAC and elsewhere, the results of such a call to action is clear: eliminating so-called “transgenderism” in public life as he emphatically calls for would make it impossible for trans people to live as themselves.
“It is a call for the eradication of trans people because you can’t separate transness and trans people,” Bailer told Right Wing Watch. “You cannot take away ‘transgenderism’ and leave the person. That’s not how it works.”
Bailer said that Knowles’ comments came up in the trans support groups he guides. His clients were terrified by the statement—not so much for Knowles’ transphobia but for the reception his comments received. “The cheering of the crowd—that was really disheartening and striking to receive watching that video,” he said.
In 2020, Right Wing Watch spoke to LGBTQ activist and writer Charlotte Clymer as religious-right groups and far-right politicians were attacking trans girls in sports. When asked what their goal was with such attacks, she was blunt—and prescient.
“Their goal has been to wipe out trans people from the public square from day one,” she said.
Tags: Marjorie Taylor Greene Michael Knowles Sebastian Gorka Anti-LGBTQ transphobia Moms for America
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https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/daily-wire-hosts-have-repeatedly-violated-youtube-and-spotify-terms-service-statements
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https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/right-wing-media-rally-behind-michael-knowles-eliminationist-anti-trans-rhetoric
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rick Scarborough—a self-described “Christocrat,” strident anti-LGBTQ activist, and longtime critic of public education—has his sights set on taking over public education in Texas this year. He intends to do so by taking over school boards and fearmongering about public school students “being groomed by homosexuals and the trans perverts [and] recruited into their evil lifestyles.”
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Last week, Scarborough revealed another aspect of his strategy.
about his intention to take over school boards at an event organized by the Texas Tea Party Republican Women, Scarborough admitted that he is trying to “take over America” for Jesus and is working to “expunge this entire state of every immoral book in the library.”
Scarborough began his remarks by recounting how, earlier in his career, he had been portrayed in the media a right-wing theocrat intent on forcing his far-right Christian views on the nation. That was an accurate assessment, Scarborough now admits.
“They went after me as trying to take over the town, trying to take over America,” Scarborough said. “And, in all honesty, I was, but I couldn’t say that. I mean, why not take it over for Jesus?”
“Sixty-eight percent of the teachers in Texas, by poll … now believe that the LGBTQ agenda should be taught and embraced,” Scarborough complained later in his speech. “We’re grooming our children for pedophiles. That’s what’s happening. Now, let me tell you what I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing—and by God’s grace, if I can raise the budget and get people behind me: In four years, I want to expunge this entire state of every immoral book in the library. Call me a Nazi, call me a book-burner, I’ve been called worse." [vid]
scarborough has plenty of company. Right-wing politicians and political groups are restricting the freedom to learn by demanding the removal of books they don’t like—often those featuring Black or LGBTQ characters—from schools and public libraries. In Texas, the author of the state’s anti-abortion bill is drafting local ordinances that would allow citizens to sue librarians over “immoral content.”
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https://www.alternet.org/judge-denies-desantis-mental-examinations/
ct loss
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desantis pulls funding/permit from venue?
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cspan book TV AA armstrong aa dude on 25 lies? has to guard bathroom of dtr in public
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Right-wing host wants to 'ban transgenderism entirely' because of 'occult sexual rituals'
Last Thursday, the Kansas State Senate voted 26-10 along party lines to pass what it calls a "Women's Bill of Rights" which seeks "to define a 'woman' as a biological female for leg...
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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/daily-wire-host-doctors-who-provide-gender-affirming-care-should-be-executed
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David BadashThe New Civil Rights Movement
February 01, 2023
As part of his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump is now declaring war against transgender people – especially transgender children – even vowing to use DOJ and Congress to make being transgender illegal under...
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The week between Christmas and New Year’s tends to be a somewhat quiet news cycle, as people celebrate and rest through the holidays. But the conservative audience’s hunger for outrage demands feeding, leaving right-wing media desperate for scraps as several outlets harped on a singular tweet from theCenters for Disease Controland Prevention to manufacture a scandal over LGBTQ-inclusive education policies.
On December 27, the Twitter account for the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health promoted a document titled “LGBTQ Inclusivity in Schools: A Self-Assessment Tool.” Published in October 2020, it is a voluntary guide for school administrators, educators and health staff to scope out their own strengths and weaknesses in serving their LGBTQ students.
[twts]
several right-wing outlets took offense to this message, consistent with the ongoing conservative campaign to demonize LGBTQ students, teachers, and allies. An article from Blaze Media took a swipe at the CDC’s role in promoting the assessment, with language that echoed harmful and debunked social contagion rhetoric suggesting youth are being pressured by their peers into becoming transgender.
“As its name suggests, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tasked with preventing the spread of diseases,” the December 29, 2022 article noted. “One CDC division is, however, working to help facilitate the spread of LGBT activists' radical social agenda in schools.”
All too eager to dogpile over a single tweet promoting the two-year-old guide, a few right-wing outlets incorrectly reported the document as new.
The Daily Wire’s December 31 article was headlined “CDC Promotes New Tool To Increase Schools’ Acceptance Of Gender Ideology,” while PJ Media’s December 30 headline warned of “The CDC's Radical Plans for Your Children.” While both outlets were incorrect about the timing of the document, PJ Media made perhaps the most egregious error by outright claiming the guidance was “released mere days after Christmas.”
The outlet also went on to say the tool was really for “assessing how brainwashed educators are by the transgender cult.”
The Published Reporter,a South Florida-based outlet known for having its Facebook ads about the “Plandemic” documentary removed, repeatedly called the guidance a “new tool” developed by the Biden administration, despite the document being published before the 2020 election.
Breitbart and Just the News did not address the age of the document at all, leading readers to assume this guidance was new.
Worse yet, American Greatness combined its vagueness about the original publication date with doubt about whether the CDC’s guidance is really optional, playing into the idea that the guide’s inclusive policy suggestions could soon be federally enforced — a notion with little to stand on if the original publication date of the document was explained.
Citing Breitbart, the article claimed the CDC “has been forcing teachers across the country to follow certain guidelines demonstrating their commitment to ‘LGBTQ inclusivity’ in their classroom instructions.”
The Breitbart article used the same fearmongering tactic, saying, “While the CDC says the guide is not mandatory at a national level, it appears entirely possible that a school administrator could make it mandatory for their school.”
Right-wing organizations are picking up on this false narrative, too.
The Herzog Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to “the development of quality Christ-centered K-12 education,” published an article on January 4 titled “CDC announces new disease: conservatism.” The piece, which also incorrectly dated the document, bemoaned that the guidance did not align with the CDC’s goal of eradicating disease, “unless the disease in question is conservative values. In that case, the CDC is certainly doing its part to eradicate it.”
Moms for Liberty is a conservative “parental rights” group that has been behind campaigns against LGBTQ representation and so-called critical race theory in schools. On Twitter, the group also attacked the CDC guidance:...[libs of]
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For nearly half a century, billionaire Charles Koch has quietly funded, initiated, and supported efforts to dismantle democracy in the United States, two professors wrote for Progressive Magazine.
Nancy MacLean, the William H. Chafe distinguished professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University, and Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research and a co-creator of the websites Koch Exposed and Koch Docs, detailed a seemingly never-ending list of ways one of the richest people in the world and his wealthy allies continue to “divide the American electorate.”
The conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has long been funded by Koch and his late brother, David, has strategized on ways to enforce voter suppression efforts by passing voter ID laws – which began when Barack Obama was first elected in 2008.
READ MORE:How Koch Industries is fighting democracy both 'at home and abroad': journalist
Last year, the Center for Media and Democracy, for which Graves sits on the board, found that a handful of Koch-backed groups collectively spent more than $1 billion on the 2020 election.
One of the organizations, Americans for Prosperity, spent around $70 million leading up to the 2022 midterms, involving itself in over 450 races on efforts that heavily targeted swing voters.
Soon after the election, Koch released Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World, a book in which he claimed he was ready for “a final act building bridges across political divides.” No more political involvement. MacLean and Graves noted that a few days prior to the book release, The Wall Street Journal published an article titled, “Charles Koch Says His Partisanship Was a Mistake.”
The book even contained phrases like, “Boy, did we screw up.” “What a mess!” “This is crazy! Are we going to have a civil war?” He had convinced the public that his time toying with democracy was over.
READ MORE:Charles Koch must be held accountable for his climate disinformation campaign
But, MacLean and Graves said that “mainstream news editors seemed to forget that” they were reporting on “a specialist in strategic disinformation, who had perfected the practice of deceiving the public during his network’s three decades of climate change denial” – a mastermind of finesse.
Even with that, what Maclean and Graves call Koch’s “most diabolical” move thus far, is how he bandwagoned the “white supremacist” reaction to nationwide civil unrest following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, by initiating a campaign that geared fear-mongering language towards the idea of teaching race in schools – also known as critical race theory.
The Koch network proceeded to fund organizations that actively fought against CRT, although a spokesperson from a Koch-funded group claims that is untrue.
Two examples of Kock-backed anti-CRT initiatives include ALEC’s financial support of a workshop titled “Against Critical Theory’s Onslaught,” featuring the main figurehead of anti-CRT rhetoric, Christopher Rufo in 2020; and when a coalition of Koch-funded groups including the Manhattan Institute and Heritage Foundation advocated against the idea of teaching race in schools in a published letter.
READ MORE:'That's oligarchy': Bernie Sanders batters billionaires over election spending
Aside from funding organizations that promote anti-CRT language, Koch also funds Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) and Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), which work in tandem to promote anti-trans language. For example, the groups created a “Women’s Bill of Rights” which asserts that trans women are not women.
MacLean and Graves wrote, “Just as Koch-funded operations weaponize and intensify racism to secure political power, they also exploit and escalate misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia by any means to boost Republican power.”
Despite his claim that he was removing himself from politics two years ago, it’s clear that with the success of a majority conservative Supreme Court, the continued push to control the bodies of women; anti-CRT, anti-trans, and other discriminatory laws that Koch’s behind-the-scenes funding and staunch support of those who can bring he and his allies' vision of a fully dismantled democracy to life presses on.
READ MORE:Koch keeps doing business in Russia as top journalist says family fortune came from Hitler: report
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https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/salems-charlie-kirk-compares-trans-people-disastrous-invasion-iraq
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- Media Matters: Turning Point panelist claims drag queens are provoking extremists into murdering them “to create summer 2020 again.”
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https://boingboing.net/2022/12/14/texass-attorney-general-requested-a-list-of-all-transgender-texans-didnt-get-it.html
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a holiday drag story time event was canceled in Columbus, Ohio, after the Proud Boys and other right-wing extremist groups showed up in force.
Red Oak Community School and the First Unitarian Universalist Church had advertised its “Holi-Drag” story time charity event for kids last month. Shortly after, members of the Proud Boys announced plans to disrupt the event, Right Wing Watch first reported.
On Saturday, scores of Proud Boys dressed in the signature black and yellow uniforms and members of Patriot Front, some of whom were armed, rallied outside of the First Unitarian Universalist Church, which was hosting the event. Alleging that the story time event amounts to “grooming”—the rhetoric at the heart of recent political attacks on LGBTQ people—the Proud Boys held signs with messages like, “Groomers make Santa sad” and “Groomers go home.” Another read “Proud Boys Story Hour Today’s Book Death of the West Chapter 9,” in an apparent reference to a book authored by far-right activist Pat Buchanan, who fearmongers about immigrantsreplacing “America’s white majority.”
Other videos show Proud Boys members dancing to the “YMCA,” the unofficial LGBTQ anthem, and a police officer acknowledging that he high-fived a Proud Boy because he had complimented his mustache.
On Dec. 3, the day of planned event, Cheryl Ryan, the school’s manager announced its cancellation. Taking the church’s stage decorated by kids who had planned on listening to stories that afternoon, she said the school had canceled the event after an internal debate over “how this community could be best protected.” Ryan saidshe called the Columbus Police and was initially told they could hire a special duty officer “who may or may not show up because they’re understaffed,” while a “community defense team” they hired felt uncomfortable with a police presence. Ultimately, the event was canceled when the performers said they were uncomfortable performing without a police presence.
“The world is getting more and more unsafe for the LGBTQ community; the attacks are constant and getting worse,” Ryan said. “The fact that we not able to successfully host this simple event shows the extent of the damage. We have to do better.”
“I implore this community’s leaders to consider how this could’ve gone differently,” she said at another point in her speech. “How will they do better for next drag story time the Proud Boys threaten to show up at again, which they will.”
“You’re damn right we will. That’s a promise,” the Official Cape Fear Proud Boys responded in a post on Telegram, painting her speech as “unconditional surrender.” “Not once did she acknowledge the groomers who are truly responsible for the Proud Boys showing up. If you don’t want Proud Boys outside your drag event, don’t invite children.”
“We will be watching, and We. Are. Everywhere,” read another Telegram post by the Proud Boys Ohio.
In another post, The Columbus Proud Boys gloated over a video of a woman who said that her little sister is a drag queen and called her for fear of her safety after the Proud Boys came to Columbus. She also said that the Proud Boys were harassing businesses that had hosted drag shows. The Columbus Proud Boys shared the video with the caption, “She forgot to say ‘and everyone clapped!’”
One commentator responded to the video with a meme that stated, “KILL IT WITH FIRE.”
For its part, the Columbus Police disputed the school’s account that they were absent and said they tried to work with the school and the church. On Monday, the police chief issued a message to the community after an officer was seen high-fiving a Proud Boys member, claiming that the dialogue team member’s action “was not done to show solidarity but to diffuse a tense situation.”
“I along with the officers in the department stand fully with the LGBTQ+ community. No one should be intimidated, harassed, or threatened just because of who they are or whom they love. As a division historically, we know there has been a disconnect between members of this community and our department. We have worked and will continue to work hard to strengthen those relationships,” Police Chief Elaine Bryant said. “We will not stand for extremist groups to come into this city and cause violence.”
Department of Homeland Security issued a new bulletin last week that added the LGBTQ community to groups under threat of potential domestic terror attacks. That followed the shooting at a LGBTQ night club in Colorado in which five people were killed and 25 others were injured.
The cancelation of the Columbus drag story time stands in stark contrast to others that have proceeded with police support amid right-wing extremists’ vows to disrupt them. In Lakeland, Florida, right-wing extremists rallied outside a drag charity event, holding Nazi flags, shouting profanities, and recording attendees. Police were called in, and the show went on. DeShazo, the host and a performer of that event, told local news station WFLA that he was satisfied with how Lakeland Police responded to the incident.
“I think they did well at being neutral but also making sure we were safe and they came in several times to check on me and check on our people. So I’m happy with the way they responded,” said DeShazo.
Tags: Anti-LGBTQ Columbus Proud Boys Proud Boys
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EMILY GRACE RAINEY (GUEST): Let me lay the scene out for you. You have a very quaint downtown of a southern conservative Christian area, and a drag show event coming from Raleigh, called the House of Coxx with the chief performer, Naomi Dix, decides they're going to do an all-ages drag show in our historic downtown theater. So, like you mentioned, we countered – we mobilized the community, got enough pressure to the point where they finally relented and changed the age from all ages to 18 and up, so our first objective was achieved and we are very happy about that, but we still wanted to protest and pray, because it was inappropriate that such a red light district show was right in a family friendly downtown, and it was within a thousand feet of a church and school, so these were breaking basic ordinances.
So, we gathered, and for two hours, from 5-7 PM, a group of Christians and myself, we prayed over – out front of the theater and read scriptures, Holy Scripture, and prayed, while no less than what was equivalent to an exorcism was happening on the other side of the police tape and the, you know, relentless Christophobic, anti-Christian hate speech being spewed from a group of LGBTQ aggressive activists was, you know, incredibly disturbing, theblasphemies were really just unspeakable, and we were, we – as much as theseaggressive leftistswant there to be an attack on a drag show, they just can't seem to get the Christians to attack. Well, maybe it's just because that's not what Christian conservatives do. And so, if they can't have us attack them, they will invent an attack. And that's what happened next.
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a local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys plans to disrupt a Dec. 3 drag story event in Columbus, Ohio, just two weeks after the killings at a LGBTQ night clubin Colorado Springs.
The Columbus Proud Boys announced their plans to disrupt the kids story time event held at the First Unitarian Universalist Churchof Columbus on Telegram last Tuesday. Advance Democracy, Inc., a non-partisan, non-profit research organization, first flagged the post. The post read:
The Columbus Proud Boys would like to announce that we will be attending the Holi-drag Storytime being held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus on December 3rd! We look forward to meeting all of the attendees and welcome Americans from all over to join us. It’s gonna be wild! Stand by for details…
The emphasis of a “wild” protest is likely a reference to Jan. 6. Former President Donald Trump had called on his supporters to attend a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, promising that it would “be wild!” Many of attendees of that rally, including members of the Proud Boys, later marched on the U.S. Capitol, attacking police officers and storming the building.
While the Proud Boys is probably best known for its role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol—for which several members face seditious conspiracy charges—the far-right, neo-fascist group is also known for its members’ presence at the 2017 white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one counterprotester was murdered. Since the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Proud Boys members have focused their efforts locally, disrupting school board meetings over mask mandates and LGBTQ-inclusive policies, and harassing attendees of drag story events, fearmongering that trans people are “grooming” children.
[post]
already this year, the Proud Boys have disrupted drag events in Texas, Nevada, North Carolina, and California. In Idaho, the right-wing extremist group Patriot Front took it a step further; 31 people associated with the organization were arrested after they were found in a trailer full of weapons next to a Pride event.
The post by the Columbus Proud Boys announcing its plans to disrupt the Columbus event has been viewed more than 1,600 times. Just 45 minutes after posting, the post was further promoted by the Official Cape Fear Proud Boys, a North Carolina-based chapter that coordinated multiple efforts to disrupt drag events in the past six months. It was also shared by an Ohio Proud Boys channel and “the Infamous Legend Valley Proud Boys” channel, which shared an image the following day promising “Ohio Proud Boys Season Beatings.” On Monday, the Legend Valley Proud Boys shared a meme calling for violence against perceived perpetrators of pedophilia.
A meme posted on the Legend Valley Proud Boys channel. The image depicts a character in the “Walking Dead” who randomly choses a victim and kills him with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed-wire.
The Dec. 3 event is sponsored by Red Oak Community Schools, a school dedicated to fostering “students’ sense of their place and power in the natural world and in their communities.” A Facebook page promoting the event describes “Holi-drag Storytime” as “a new family-friendly, LGBTQ+ holiday tradition” in which local drag queens “will read stories for children of ALL ages and perform a few holiday numbers!”
Of course, the Proud Boys have alleged that the event amounts to “grooming”—the rhetoric at the heart of recent political attacks on LGBTQ people. A video posted the Columbus Proud Boys channel last Thursday called on members to “stand against grooming” and provided the address of the church. “All I want for Christmas is an end to child grooming. Help Saint Nicolas scold the Naughty groomers,” text in the video reads, calling on members to arrive before 10 a.m. Another image shows a picture of Santa Claus giving the middle fingers. “Its rally time boys!” a final message reads.
Right Wing Watch reached out to Red Oak Community Schools and the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus. We will update this story should either respond. The church’s website describes it as a place to “come together to grow in religious depth, valuing freedom, reason, tolerance, love.” Shortly after the Proud Boys’ announcement, Red Oak Community Schools said they meet hate with love and invited donations, posting on Facebook, “For every nasty comment, dislike, negative email, phone call, etc. we receive about our upcoming FABULOUS fundraiser, we’re collecting donation pledges for a local LGBTQ+ organization.”
The Proud Boys’ announced plan to disrupt the event came just days before a lone gunman targeted patrons of a gay night club in Colorado, killing five people and injuring 25 others. LGBTQ leaders have noted that this attack follows years of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and an increasing number of Republican politicians characterizing trans people as “groomers.” Religious-right groups have drafted anti-trans legislation, encouraged lawmakers to sponsor such legislation, and laid the groundwork for their passage through disinformation and pressure campaigns, a Right Wing Watch investigation found last year.
On the Sunday morning following the attack on Club Q, Democratic Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone said such rhetoric was to blame. “When politicians and pundits keep perpetuating tropes, insults, and misinformation about the trans and LGBTQ+ community, this is a result,” she wrote.
Tags: Anti-LGBTQ Columbus Proud Boys Proud Boys
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https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/matt-walsh-drag-shows-cancer/
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Right-winger Matt Walsh compares drag shows to 'cancer' and calls for mass arrests of performers
Brandon Gage October 20, 2022
Right-wing Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh on Thursday said that drag shows should be criminalized when kids attend, that performers are pedophiles and groomers, and that progressivism is a "cancer" metastasizing within the fabric of Western society.
Walsh began by expressing bigoted bewilderment over basic terminology:
Now, a few things here are confusing. Well, more than a few things, but focusing just on these for a moment. For one thing, the pronoun situation is all over the map, okay? It's not clear of the various people mentioned here, which are actually females, though they all use female pronouns. I mean, it doesn't really make a difference I suppose, the child is being exploited either way, the adults are creeps and degenerates and worse either way, uh, but that is a confusing aspect of this.
Also, I was not previously familiar with the term 'drag mom,' though from context it seems that this is just another way of describing a professional groomer. The quote 'drag child' is handed over to the drag mom to be groomed and conditioned. It seems to be essentially a sort of pedophilic, predatory farm system that the groomers have set up.
LGBTQ+ individuals – particularly gay men – commonly refer to their friends as girl, her, ma'am, and she. It has nothing to do with one's gender identity or sex. Walsh's subsequent allegation is both false and selectively ignorant. A drag mom is an experienced industry performer who coaches an aspiring queen.
[READ MORE: 'It is now my turn to speak': Drag performer targeted by right-wing activist files defamation suit
Nevertheless, Walsh continued:
So, what can be done about this? That's really the question. We've established that this is happening and it's only getting worse over time. Progressivism does what the name suggests, what the label suggests, it's progressivism so it progresses, except that it progresses in the same sense that, say, cancer progresses. It keeps spreading and getting worse and eating away at our civilization until it is stopped or until it destroys its host. And just like cancer, stopping it is not a gentle or a painless process. The farther along the cancer is, the more aggressive you have to be in fighting it. Culturally, we are approaching, if we haven't already reached, a terminal state, which means we have to be all the more aggressive, which calls for two things.
He then suggested that drag performers should be locked up as pedophiles if children are present (which is up to parents):
First, obviously involving children in drag events in any capacity should be outright criminalized everywhere. There is no other way. You know, this doesn't stop until police are breaking down the doors at these places and carting the adults away in handcuffs. Charge them all as pedophiles. Throw them in prison, and whenever they get out, if they do get out, put them on the sex offender registry for life. That man in the first clip dancing around with his skirt up should be treated legally as a child predator. That's the level of protection that our children are owed and the people sexualizing and exploiting them are owed that level of punishment. This is something that needs to start in red states. And if Republicans take over the White House, it should be handled on the federal level as well.
Watch below via Media Matters for America or at this link.
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https://www.mediamatters.org/libs-tiktok/right-wing-media-spread-doctored-footage-drag-queen-concoct-fear-pride-events
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https://www.mediamatters.org/libs-tiktok/right-wing-media-spread-doctored-footage-drag-queen-concoct-fear-pride-events
A drag queen who performed at the Idaho Pride event targeted by white nationalists in June is suing a right-wing blogger who doctored footage of his performance to falsely claim he had exposed himself to children. Even though the video was swiftly debunked by local news, right-wing media — including Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik and others who initially helped drive harassment against the Pride event — pushed the edited footage, leading to abuse against the performer.
On June 11, police in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, arrested 31 members of the Patriot Front near Pride in the Park, a planned Pride event. Authorities said evidence showed the white nationalists, who had gathered at the park from across the country, were planning to riot at the event and in multiple areas around the town. Patriot Front has a history of anti-LGBTQ actions, including burning trans pride flags and vandalizing a memorial for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated it as a hate group.
The event was also targeted by a far-right biker groupthat announced it was holding an event nearby at the same time as Pride in the Park, with organizers saying there were “going to be going after the groomers” while alluding to possible violence.
One of the performers at the event was Eric Posey, whose drag name is Mona Liza Million. Following Pride in the Park, right-wing blogger Summer Bushnellposted footage from Posey’s performance that blurred his crotch. In her posts, Bushnell erroneously claimed Posey had exposed himself to minors and called for her audience to report the video to police. The video, which was debunked by local news two days after the event was held, led to harassment against Posey after it went viral on social media. Now Posey is suing Bushnell, claiming she defamed him in an effort to gain popularity as part of the nationwide effort to malign LGBTQ people and Pride Month events.
A key instigator in manufacturing outrage over the event was Chaya Raichik, who runs the social media account “Libs of TikTok.” Raichik not only targeted Pride in the Park after Idaho-based white nationalist Dave Reilly called for her to do so, but she also helped spread Bushnell’s video weeks after it had been debunked by both the media andauthorities. On July 31, Raichik retweeted a tweet with Bushnell’s video and calling Posey a “pedophile,” with Raichik adding, “This is what a ‘family-friendly’ drag show looks like.” Commenters reacting to Raichik’s post falsely accused Posey of being a “groomer” and “pedophile,” while others threatened extreme acts of violence against him, including multiple threats to castrate him.
Although the tweet she quoted was later removed for violating Twitter’s rule on hateful conduct, Raichik’s tweet was never deleted.
[twt vid libs]
raichik was joined in sharing the doctored video by anti-LGBTQ trolls including right-wing podcaster Liz Wheeler and Gays Against Groomers, with the latter writing, “If gay rights do get rolled back, it will only be because of things like this.”
The renewed social media pickup of the doctored video led to an article published by right-wing blog Post Millennial headlined “Drag queen accused of exposing self to children at 'family friendly' Pride event.” The article promoted conspiracy theories that antifa was involved in targeting the Idaho Pride event, and the header for the article included a still from Bushnell’s video, with the edited video embedded.
The Idaho Family Policy Center, a right-wing Christian nonprofit that partners with extreme anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom and multiple other anti-LGBTQ organizations, posted a petition on September 8 denying law enforcement’s debunking of the video and claiming it had “reviewed the unedited footage and can confirm it portrays public exposure of the performer’s genitalia.” Included with the petition, which called for drag performances to be banned from taking place around children, was a still from Bushnell’s video. The petition remains active as of publication date.
Far-right conspiracy theory outlet Infowars posted an article also featuring a still from the doctored video. The article suggested the targeting of the event by Patriot Front was “a federal false flag operation” and criticized the “mainstream media” for “ignoring a potential child sex crime occurring at the very same event.”
The article cited a press release from the local sheriff’s department saying police were investigating the video. The announcement came after a local outlet had already debunked the claims and released the unedited video, and despite law enforcement officials acknowledging that their investigation stemmed entirely from reports by individuals who had seen Bushnell’s doctored footage and none of whom had seen the performance in person. The stunt culminated on July 1 with the city prosecutor stating what had been demonstrated weeks earlier — Posey had not exposed himself.
Disregarding available evidence, right-wing media widely used the release to push the false narrative and disseminate the doctored footage. Stephanie Hamill, a contributing writer for Media Research Center and ambassador for Turning Point USA, tweeted Bushnell’s video while adding that the “dancer's genitals were reportedly exposed on the main stage with children viewing the ‘dance.’”[twt vid]
right-wing author Janie Johnson tweeted a link to the video to her nearly 200,000 followers, attempting to excuse the white nationalists who targeted the event and writing, “Wonder what ticked the Idaho dads? This drag demon exposed himself to children.”
The incident is nearly identical to another manufactured controversy pushed by right-wing media in which an edited photo of a drag performer reading to children at a library in 2019 was blurred and paired with the claim that they were exposing themselves to children. That smear, too, was quickly debunked, which did not prevent the ensuing harassment and an attempt from lawmakers to strip libraries of their funding.
The targeting of Posey and the broader attacks on Pride in the Park followed an escalating campaign of harassment against drag and Pride Month events that falsely accused participants of abusing children. This harassment, and the escalating rhetoric of maligning LGBTQ people as groomers, has largely been enabled by the failure of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to adequately handle the targeted harassment.
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Authorities from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Harris County Sheriff’s Department responded to an anti-LGBTQ protest outside a Texas church on Saturday.
“First Christian Church Katy is hosting a drag bingo fundraiser benefiting the ministry’s Transparent Closet, a free boutique aimed at helping young people in the LGBTQ community in the largely conservative west Houston suburb,” Jay R. Jordan reported for Axios on Friday. “Protect Texas Kids, led by North Texas’ self-described “Christian fascist” Kelly Neidert, plans to protest outside the church, according to a Facebook event from the group.”
The report noted anti-fascist activists were planning a counterprotest.
“Neidert’s protests have drawn support from neo-Nazis and other anti-LGBTQ groups,” Axios reported. “Men in Nazi regalia and alleged Proud Boys wearing Buc-ee’s masks joined Neidert’s protest outside a drag brunch at Hamburger Mary’s downtown in July.”
On Saturday, Jordan posted a video clip from the scene.
“Proud Boys and Kelly Neidert’s Protect Texas Kids are in Katy, Texas, protesting a drag bingo fundraiser at First Christian Church. PB and Houston antifascists just clashed. Heavy police presence dividing the two groups now,” he reported.
He noted “Houston’s Nazis” had arrived and police formed a line between the two sides.
“The group of Nazis appear to be leaving the protest, sporting for the first time today a flag with a swastika. Proud Boys and Patriot Front have also left,” he reported.
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