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Posts tagged ‘LGBTQ+’

California AG Hints at Investigating Second School Board to Back Parental Rights on Kids’ Gender Transitions


By: Ben Johnson / @TheRightsWriter / August 15, 2023

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/08/15/california-ag-hints-at-investigating-second-school-board-to-back-parental-rights-on-kids-gender-transitions/

(Photo illustration: SDI Productions/Getty Images)

Parental rights advanced last week in deep blue California, as another school district required teachers to notify parents if their children begin to identify as transgender.

The school board of the Murrieta Valley Unified School District adopted a Parental Notification Policy by a 3-2 vote Thursday. Under it, teachers must contact a parent or guardian within three days if their child attempts to use a name, pronoun, restroom, or changing facility of the opposite sex, or compete on a sports team of the opposite sex.

Murrieta Valley school board members Paul Diffley, Nicolas Pardue, and Julie Vandergrift voted yes; members Linda Lunn and Nancy Young voted no.

“This policy is especially helpful for the younger kids who start dabbling with this,” Pardue told “Washington Watch” guest host and former Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., the day after the vote.

Gender transition at increasingly younger ages “has become a fad,” Pardue said, “because there are some activist teachers who push this agenda.” Families must be able to shield their children from the predatory transgender industry, said an eyewitness who regrets the brief time she identified as transgender.

“Parents deserve to know if their child is adopting a trans identity at school, because [gender] transition is not harmless. There are kids like me being seriously injured by this,” Chloe Cole, who had a double mastectomy at age 15 before embracing her biological sex within two years, testified at the Murrieta Valley school board meeting.

“The reality is, sex cannot be changed,” Cole told the school board. “As an educational institution, you have a duty to stand for truth. Your policies need to reflect reality and not opinion. You have a duty to stand against ideologies that are held up by low-quality research.”

“The entire trajectory of my life has been altered by delusional ideas that were pushed on me from a young age” and “weaponized by doctors to push a political agenda for monetary gain,” she added. “Socially transitioning is not benign. … It takes away years of necessary social development as your real, biological sex.”

Cole’s testimony “really stuck in my heart, because we all know that teenagers make bad choices, and it is up to us as adults to help them make better choices,” Perdue told Hice.

“I was allowed to grow up as an innocent kid,” the school board member said. “When they talk about ‘a safe space,’ the classroom should be a safe space from politics.” 

Murrieta Valley is the second school district to adopt a parental notification policy in less than 30 days; neighboring Chino Valley Unified School District adopted a similar policy July 20.

“It’s exciting to see parts of California waking up,” Cole said after the vote. “Chino Hills and Murrieta schools are leading the way.”

School boards enacting such parental notification policies follow their “democratic mandate in ways consistent with medical ethics and court doctrine on parental rights,” Substack writer Wesley Yang said.

Pardue, the school board member, said every level of government should ensure that parents, not government, guide children’s formative views of controversial issues.

“Our constitutional rights are what we are supposed to defend as adults and as teachers,” Pardue said at the board meeting. “The world is surprised and shocked to know there are people who believe in the Constitution who live in California.”

If the momentum continues, Cole said, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, “will soon be forced to respect local communities and the U.S. Constitution.”

Yet school districts’ decisions to stand with parents come at a cost. Radical LGBTQ activists immediately barraged Chino Valley school board President Sonja Shaw with threats to kill and dismember her, murder her children, and slaughter her pets.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, also began investigating the Chino Valley school board—a move leftists urged him to take against the Murrieta school board six days before it voted on the parental rights policy.

“[H]ere we go again,” Voices United for CVUSD, an activist group that opposes parental rights, told Bonta. “Please continue to investigate” such “extreme school boards.”

Bonta promptly announced that he has Murrieta in the crosshairs. The attorney general said he felt “deeply disturbed to learn another school district” had adopted a parental rights policy. He described it as a “forced outing policy” that “put at risk the safety and privacy of transgender and gender-nonconforming students.” Parental notification indicates a school district will “target or seek to discriminate against California’s most vulnerable communities,” the state’s attorney general said. “California will not stand for violations of our students’ civil rights.”

“The anti-Christian rhetoric is really intense,” Pardue told Hice on “Washington Watch.”

Adherents to extreme gender ideology “assume that Christian parents aren’t going to love their children if they’re struggling with gender identity issues,” the Murrieta school board member said. “But having a good, strong relationship with your parents is really the [best] step towards making sure that the children are safe. Knowing that they’re getting a loving response from their parents is really a game changer.”

The board’s vote has brought positive feedback, as well, Pardue said

“Ever since the vote, I’ve had quite a few emails thanking me” and the entire school board for “being a strong voice [and] reestablishing a relationship between the teachers and the parents in our community,” Pardue said.

But pro-family advocates say thankfulness should extend nationally.

“Parents all across the country owe a debt of gratitude to people like Mr. Pardue, who are willing to stand in the gap for our kids,” Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for education studies at the Family Research Council, said later on “Washington Watch.”

“We’re really grateful,” Kilgannon said.

Leaders of the Murrieta Valley school district have received national recognition for its students’ loyalty and enthusiasm. Vista Murrieta High School won a $25,000 prize and the title of America’s Most Spirited High School for the third time this year.

Pardue predicts enthusiasm for parental rights also will sweep far beyond the Murrieta district.

“We are not going to be the only district to stand on parental rights,” Pardue told fellow board members before the vote. “There are a lot of people with traditional values who are figuring out that the state of California has pulled something over on them.”

Bonta’s harsh administrative crackdown on parental rights proves that “the Left wants believers to stay on the sidelines,” Hice said.

“They want you to think that you really don’t matter. But history shows that it only takes one person to spark an enormous change, a movement.” Pardue is living proof that “it does only take one person to make a difference,” the former congressman said.

The most important person who can make a difference in a child’s life is Mom or Dad, because “no one … loves children like a parent does,” said Hice. “And government simply cannot fill the gap.”

This commentary originally was published by The Washington Stand

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Education, LGBTQ+ AND TRANSGENDER, Political

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Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – Sticker Shock

A.F. BRANCO | on June 4, 2023 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-sticker-shock/

Gov. Walz loves spending taxpayer money on Illegals and Transgenders while taxpayers’ struggle.

Minnesota Tax Waste
Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2023.

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Push Comes to Shove

A.F. BRANCO | on June 5, 2023 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-push-comes-to-shove/

The left continues to cram the woke transgender culture against our kids down our throats.

Transgender Agenda Pride for Children
Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2023

DONATE to A.F.Branco Cartoons – Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump

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Political

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NHL team skips ‘Pride Night’ warmup jerseys: ‘We support everyone’s individual right to respectfully express their Beliefs’


By: CORTNEY WEIL | January 29, 2023

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/nhl-team-skips-pride-night-warmup-jerseys-we-support-everyone-s-individual-right-to-respectfully-express-their-beliefs/

Photo by Josh Lobel/NHLI via Getty Images

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The New York Rangers hockey team took the ice for warmups before their game on Friday night without the promised rainbow-colored jerseys and stick tape meant to show deference to the so-called “LGBTQ+” community, causing outrage among left-leaning media outlets and activists.

For the past six seasons, the Rangers have hosted “Pride Night Friday” at Madison Square Garden, and that tradition continued this year. On January 27, Michael James Scott, a Broadway star who identifies as gay, performed the national anthem. Andre Thomas, the co-chair of NYC Pride and Heritage of Pride, participated in the ceremonial, pre-game puck drop. The arena, especially the jumbotron, was emblazoned in “rainbow colors,” and members of the Rangers Blue Crew, the people responsible for inciting fan engagement, still carried rainbow-colored flags.

But the players themselves did not don any gear making reference, either by word or by symbol, to sexual relationships of any kind. Instead, they wore Reverse Retro jerseys, which depict the face of the Statue of Liberty.

Writers at many news outlets and activists have heavily criticized the Rangers organization as a result. “New York Rangers … FAIL to explain why they backtrack on promise,” a Daily Mail headline howled. Mollie Walker, the New York Post beat writer for the Rangers, complained that the team took an “otherwise a beautiful celebration of inclusivity” and turned it into a “slight” against “members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

David Kilmnick, the president of the LGBT Network in Queens, called the decision “a slap in the face.”

“If the Rangers are saying they’re going to be celebrating Pride Night, everybody needs to, for lack of a better term, ‘come out’ and celebrate,” Kilmnick insisted. “To give the OK to these hockey players to be homophobic is not celebrating pride. It’s the opposite of it.“

Promotions for the seventh-annual “Pride Night” at MSG did promise that “the Rangers will be showing their support by donning pride-themed warm-up jerseys and tape in solidarity with those who continue to advocate for inclusivity.”

The organization has not explained its seemingly last-minute costume change, though it has issued a statement:

“Our organization respects the LGBTQ+ community and we are proud to bring attention to important local community organizations as part of another great Pride Night,” the statement reaffirmed.

“In keeping with our organization’s core values, we support everyone’s individual right to respectfully express their beliefs,” it concluded.

Some have interpreted the second half of the statement to mean that at least one member of the Rangers organization was planning not to participate. Another NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers, has had to manage a lot of unwanted attention for nearly two weeks after one team member, defenseman Ivan Provorov, publicly stated that, in keeping with the tenets of his Russian Orthodox religion, he would not wear a “pride” jersey.

“I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov told reporters after the Flyers’ win over the Ducks on January 17. “My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion. That’s all I’m going to say.”

No Rangers player has stated publicly that he would have refused to participate in the annual “Pride” celebration, but the entire team walked — or perhaps skated — away winners that night. The Rangers trounced the visiting Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 and are now 27-14-8 on the season, good for third place in the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference.

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Political, Sports

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LGBTQ+ activist in Office of Nuclear Energy once defended website that sex-trafficked young boys


Reported by CORTNEY WEIL | July 05, 2022

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/brinton-lgbtq-child-prostitution/

A man who now has the chance to affect nuclear policy at the U.S. Department of Energy once excoriated the federal government for raiding a website that trafficked young, vulnerable boys as escorts.

In an op-ed published by the Advocate in September 2015 and unearthed by the National Pulse just this week, Sam Brinton — the new deputy assistant secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy — wrote a scathing rebuke of federal law enforcement agencies for raiding Rentboy.com, a now-defunct website that reportedly ran an illegal prostitution ring that often sold the sexual services of young boys to much older clients. Brinton didn’t see things that way, though. Back in 2015, he argued that federal agents, not the pimps at Rentboy, had thrown the lives of these young boys “into turmoil.”

“The raid on its headquarters has thrown many gay, bisexual, and transgender young adults into turmoil as their main source of income has been ripped away due to irresponsible and archaic views of sex work,” Brinton wrote at the time.

In addition to condemning the practice of so-called “conversion therapy,” Brinton argued that taking these young boys out of the care of Rentboy and returning them to their families would endanger them.

“The rent boys weren’t harming anyone. But now these young men might have to return to communities and homes which have rejected who they are. And that’s when the real danger begins.”

The colloquial term rent boy refers to young boys who are paired up with older men, likely for sexual services. According to an indictment, Rentboy.com frequently flouted age verification processes and continued to promote advertisements for escorts whose ages could not be confirmed.

“In one case, after an escort agency failed to provide photo identification for an escort, a RENTBOY.COM employee advised the escort agency that he had deleted photographs with the face of the subject escort but left the advertisement online and left photographs that showed only the escort’s body,” the National Pulse quoted from the indictment.

The indictment also reportedly states that former Rentboy CEO Jeffrey Hurant, who was arrested in 2015, told employees “to apply lesser standards in doing age verification of Asia-market advertisements.”

Yet Brinton lamented back in 2015 that “irresponsible and archaic views of sex work” brought the company to an early demise.

Though that op-ed remained hidden when Brinton’s nomination to the DOE position was announced back in January, Brinton has long been an outspoken LGBTQ+ activist working within the federal government. He has reportedly given lectures about “kink” on college campuses and claims membership in a Washington, D.C., drag club called the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”

Though many outlets have claimed that the Biden administration appointed Brinton to the role at the DOE, Brinton denies that assertion: “To clarify, I am not a Biden appointee (despite what was reported) and instead serve as a career employee in the Senior Executive Service – I intend to be serving my country in this role through many many presidencies.”

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Political

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Carl R. Trueman Op-ed: Queer nation is no nation at all


Commentary By Carl R. Trueman, Voices Contributor | Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/voices/queer-nation-is-no-nation-at-all.html/

An LGBT pride flag is displayed at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in Rome, Italy. | Screenshot: Twitter/USinHolySee

Flags typically serve as rallying points for unity. They point to something a culture considers sacred. The Stars and Stripes was, for many generations, precisely such a rallying point in America. The fact that flag burning, while protected by the Constitution, was deemed by both its opponents and proponents to be remarkably serious, speaks to this: One cannot desecrate that which is not considered sacred.  

This is just one reason why it is interesting that the American Embassy to the Vatican is flying the rainbow flag for Pride month. Commentators have pointed out the obvious intent to cause offense to the Catholic Church. But the embassy’s decision also sends a message to the American people: Another flag has government endorsement. The message of “inclusion” that it represents signals to those Americans who might dissent from the LGBTQ+ movement that in these interesting times their membership in the republic for which the real national flag stands is more a matter of tolerance than full-blooded affirmation.

The problems with LGBTQ+ inclusion are, of course, manifold. First, there is the logical problem that any movement deploying the rhetoric of inclusion has to face: If everyone is included and nobody is excluded, then the movement is meaningless. Thus, the language of “inclusion” here is really a code word for precisely the opposite: It actually means exclusion and the delegitimizing of any person or group that dissents from what the movement’s movers and shakers deem to be acceptable opinion. Acceptable thought will typically tend toward a view of reality that regards such dissenters as mentally deficient, sub-human, or simply evil.   

Second, the emphasis on inclusion must inevitably default to queerness. It is interesting how the word “queer” and its cognates is beginning to supplant the old taxonomy of “gay,” “lesbian,” and even “bisexual” in common LGBTQ+ parlance. The reason speaks to the central incoherence of the movement. Gay men and lesbian women have identities predicated upon a sex binary rooted in biology. That is rather “transphobic,” to use the psychologized terminology typically used to discredit any pushback on the transgender movement. Indeed, in the wonderful world of intersectional mythology, white gay men and white lesbian women rank little higher in the political hierarchy than their straight counterparts.

In fact, the LGBTQ+ movement has always been a marriage of political convenience. Prior to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, lesbian women generally regarded gay men with deep suspicion, as those who enjoyed male privilege and whose sexual desires and experiences differed in fundamental ways from those of females. Only the suffering caused by AIDS gave such men victim status and drew sympathy from lesbians. Gay men and lesbian women then found common cause against the normative status of heterosexuality. As to the addition of the T, it is an interesting question how a form of body dysmorphia that is not necessarily connected to sexual desire became such a key component of the alliance. Again, the answer surely lies in common opposition to that which the movement dubs “heteronormativity.”

But a movement built on opposition to a common foe is not sufficient for long-term unity, especially when that common foe itself becomes culturally weak and implausible and when the positive affinities between the constituent members are not only very weak but, in the case of the L and the G relative to the T, actually antithetical to each other. When you then throw into the mixture the fact that queer and trans identities are detached from any stable biological foundation, the recipe for identity chaos is obvious.

And this brings us back to the question of the flag. The Pride flag itself is now in the state of flux to which the notion of inclusion detached from any objective foundation must inevitably lead. There is an intersex inclusive flag. There is a Progress Pride flag. There is a polysexual Pride flag. In fact, there are now over fifty Pride flags, and, given the numerous intersectional variations, the number is likely to keep increasing.

All of this speaks of a movement that is, at its core, incoherent. This movement’s incoherence, notionally referred to as “inclusion,” is likely to become more and more problematic as the years pass.  And that raises two questions.

The first is a somewhat amusing one: Has the Biden administration, in flying the traditional rainbow Pride flag, inadvertently excluded or snubbed the 50+ sexual and gender minorities that now boast their own pennants? That, of course, is the perennial risk of the cheap virtue signaling to which the Biden administration is prone, built as it is on the shifting sands of political tastes. The president is going to have to authorize much larger flagpoles, or much smaller flags, if he is to appeal to the entire rainbow alliance and include everyone.

The second question is more serious. For a flag to be a powerful, sacred symbol of unity and purpose, it has to symbolize a real common sense of unity — a unified moral vision around which individuals can rally as part of a larger imagined community. That the Pride flag already has so many variations reveals the lack of unity that has always marked the LGBTQ+ movement when the cameras were not rolling.

This disunity has only become more obvious with the advent of intersectionality and the triumph of queerness and transgenderism. So it is significant when a nation decides to endorse the Pride flag and thereby incorporate its moral vision into its national ethos. And it raises this question: If the Pride flag cannot even hold together the community for which it claims to stand, how can it possibly offer a stable vision for a nation and its national culture? By flying the Pride flag at U.S. embassies, the Biden administration indicates that it thinks that it can. The 50+ variations would seem to suggest the opposite. Queer nation will ultimately prove to be no nation at all.

Originally published at First Things. 

Carl R. Trueman is a professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College. He is an esteemed church historian and previously served as the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton University. Trueman has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including The Rise and Triumpth of the Modern Self, The Creedal Imperative, Luther on the Christian Life, and Histories and Fallacies.

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Opinion, Political

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