This is another area where the American setup is VERY different to Australia.
We don't have school boards for public schools. They're all run and funded by the state education department. There's a national curriculum: schools and individual teachers have a lot of latitude in HOW they teach, but very little in WHAT.
Private schools have to adhere to the same curriculum. They can add extra material, like Religion, if they want, but they can't alter the core curriculum. No science denying or LGBTQIA+ erasure allowed.
Any school which tries to mess with the curriculum, especially around religious or racist dogma, risks losing its accreditation. That means loss of all public funding and tax status. Also the pupils are no longer considered "enrolled in school", and parents are liable to legal problems if they don't move them. This has happened.
And targeting LGBTQIA+ or racial material is breaching Federal anti-discrimination laws, so there's that. We have no Constitutional right to Free Speech, thank the FSM.
C’mon Jared, don’t let those goddamned Californios get one up on you! We need to hit these dumbass “conservative” book banners in CO where it hurts… in the ‘nads!
Um… I mean, “pocketbook”! Yeah, that’s it! Pocketbook!
It might be a fly in the ointment, but could say a "creationist" then claim that as part of a "marginanized group" teaching materials with Jesus riding a dinosaur couldn't be kept out of the school library, or . some rightly marginalized group like neo-nazis demand a children's edition of Mein Kamph be on the shelves?
Since school administrators are some of the most spineless fools I've ever met, maybe this law will be used by them to "flip the script" on those asshole book banners. It would be nice for THEM to be told, for a change, "Oh we'd love to help you with this, but you see, our hands are tied!"
"Joseph Komrosky, baselessly slandered Milk, asking at a board meeting, “My question is, why even mention a pedophile?”"
I'm getting to the point that these LGBT=pedo folks need to catch some hands. Which I don't like considering in myself, but I also want fascists to be scared to voice their hate.
Agree. Someone also needs to point out to these assholes the number of children that are molested by family members who are straight, though I’m sure the ones making the loudest accusations know that.
They are taking that from the fact that Milk met one of his partners when the partner was 16, but there is NO EVIDENCE anything sexual or even a relationship started happening until the young man was 18.
Once again, no critical reasoning from those assclowns, and only a load of bullshit to stir up the worst among them.
And I think they should catch hands for it. They have completely turned upside down my "liberal" NoCal uni town with this bullshit, and they are putting targets on the backs of teachers and librarians.
We have had 2 bomb threats emailed in to *all* of our schools this week (on M and T) and the emails contained vile bullshit against the LGBTQ+ community, including this pedo groomer crap.
Prior to that, there were bomb threats called in the previous week and the week before that--all prompted by Moms for Liberty stirring shit up by posting photos of teachers and librarians and a load of other bullshit to the libsoftiktok and other right wing sites and stirring people up on Xitter.
They need to be trounced into the damned dirt. It's only a matter of time before someone gets killed.
And now I'm starting to get afraid of speaking out on the political blog I comment on b/c they are not engaging there but are taking shit to Xitter, which I'm not on, so now I'm afraid they'll take screenshots (with my real name on it) and I'll end up with more threats of violence against me (I had 2 of them from assholes on Nextdoor just because I dared express my opinion).
I've got a rainbow flag as my FB avatar, bc I put it there for Pride Month one year and now keep it purely out of spite. I'm a cis het woman, but because of the picture a lot of troglodytes assume I'm LGBTQIA+ and try to insult me with that. I live in Australia.
They used to call me a lesbian. But over the last year, they've changed to calling me a trans woman. The grooming/pedophile accusation gets a lot of airplay.
This vicious, baseless shit isn't confined to its immediate surroundings. Republican pandering and demonisation is infecting ALL Anglophone countries, and probably a lot that don't have English as their first language.
It really has. I'm so disappointed in my town and the number of right wing extremists who apparently are part of the neighborhood moderation teams. I don't know what rocks they slimed out from under, but 2 years ago I never would have guessed they existed in this community in any appreciable numbers.
Now I have a couple of gay colleagues afraid to be out and open around town. In a fucking "liberal" college town. :(
They are investigating the threats, but since the person used a VPN when sending the emails, they're not getting much traction.
They are also now investigating the M4L Chair's social media posts for potential illegal doxing (taking photos of specific teachers, librarians, etc. and posting them and then they become the targets of these threats).
I never reported the Nextdoor crap to the police, but I did report it to the main admin and they were removed for a time. If they do it again, I will take it to the police. Thanks so much!
same. I want them to crawl back underground and figure out their horridness. That they CHOSE to be absolute pieces of shite. That is on them. May they EARN a lifetime of social isolation and UTTER loneliness due to peeps seeing what kind of shite soul resides in that human body.
May those who are able make this happen (and be mindful about this, make sure blowback from ANY action goes to them).
May we all protect each other from evil POS's. I want all the bigots on all the issues to be VERY afraid, not just of other humans but of ALL living things, the atoms and the anger of the universe herself. BTW, I'm a 'to the pain' sort of chica.
They seem to have enough vile humans to keep them company, though.
They have a toehold in my fucking *liberal uni town* right now and have caused utter chaos. And are convincing bystanders that the schools are indoctrinating, etc. Look at what this one Moms for Liberty b**** posted on Xitter about a post that was in our local political blog yesterday:
"Meanwhile, YOU should be using your platform to remind our community not to jump to rash conclusions and unfounded accusations. [about why the almost daily bomb threats are happening now when they never happened prior to these Bints for Liberty agitating and stirring up the whackaloons on Xitter and other vile right wing sites.]
YOU should be investigating the crystal clear evidence of indoctrination Beth has unearthed.
YOU should be reporting on women and girls losing access to safety, dignity and privacy within our single sex spaces and sports.
YOU should be investigating the Antifa cell we have on our university campus.
YOU should be reporting on the ever increasing number of detransitioners speaking out about how they were groomed into medicalization, sterilization and the removal of healthy body parts.
Instead your piece makes it clear you’re just angry this uppity woman isn’t saying what YOU want her to say, and you seem to want her punished for it."
What a load of vile, bullshit lies and disinformation. I'm so sick of these fucking "Moms" and their bully boys.
Except they don't really want people to Investigate their claims, because those claims are made up bullshit.
I regularly get into Full and Frank Discussions. People will make a wild accusation about crimes committed by LGBTQIA+ people (especially, of course, trans women).
I say gosh that's awful, do you have details so I can learn more about that? Names, dates, places, links, anything that I can use to verify THIS BULLSHIT ACTUALLY HAPPENED? Invariably they drop out or go off on a tangent. In which case I keep dragging them back to the "give me evidence" point until they put up or shut up.
On the rare occasions they actually provide a source I READ that bitch and tell them why their source is bullshit and doesn't prove jack (the source is *always* bullshit and doesn't prove jack). Rinse and repeat until they give up.
When (not if) the enablers appear and say People are Entitled to Their Opinions, I agree! Of course people are entitled to think what they want, and please point out where I said different. What I'm objecting to is the misinformation. If they can prove drag queens regularly whip out buttplugs to unsuspecting kids during Story Hour, I'll join with them to have those weirdos jailed. As long as they join with me to go after all the abusive priests, sports coaches etc. And apply consistent standards, and shut down all church services and junior sports leagues as the sinks of depravity they obviously are.
People soon learn to keep their bullshit away from anywhere I might see it.
I literally drove anti vaxxers off my community FB page. I have time and spite.
Thank you for the suggestions for this tactic. I'm off of social media, other than Nextdoor, but this may come in handy to pass along to the local LGBTQ+ organization who is very vocally pushing back against them.
I hope it helps! Here's another good tactic (which I learnt from online trans activists). It's for the inevitable "We should just let kids be kids and not confuse them with all this gender stuff" enablers.
Trans activists point out that this is ONLY ever said about trans kids and allowing children to act in non gendered ways. No one says it's "confusing" when kids are expected to conform to their assigned gender.
So I take the above statement literally, and congratulate the enabler for their commitment to raising kids gender neutral. They certainly *shouldn't* be pushed into gender expressions that don't suit them, especially trying to make trans kids act cis! Welcome to the Trans Liberation Army, Comrade!
My personal favourite reply was an outraged "That wasn't my point!".
Republinazi Party: Banning speech, banning education, banning books, banning the human right to make choices about ones own body... and screaming about FREEDUMB!!!
“I saw Gavin Newsom banning hateful book bans, so I banned hateful book bans.” - governors who know their Mean Girls quotes and like freedom of thought
YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO READ, MR. PRESIDENT OF CALIFORNIA!!!1!! Oh, I can still read whatever I want? Well, this is awkward. Ummm . . . FREEDUMBS!!1!!!111111!
One of the main take-aways for me from all this is that school board elections are important. I've usually paid very little attention to them, often not voted. No more.
This is another area where the American setup is VERY different to Australia.
We don't have school boards for public schools. They're all run and funded by the state education department. There's a national curriculum: schools and individual teachers have a lot of latitude in HOW they teach, but very little in WHAT.
Private schools have to adhere to the same curriculum. They can add extra material, like Religion, if they want, but they can't alter the core curriculum. No science denying or LGBTQIA+ erasure allowed.
Any school which tries to mess with the curriculum, especially around religious or racist dogma, risks losing its accreditation. That means loss of all public funding and tax status. Also the pupils are no longer considered "enrolled in school", and parents are liable to legal problems if they don't move them. This has happened.
And targeting LGBTQIA+ or racial material is breaching Federal anti-discrimination laws, so there's that. We have no Constitutional right to Free Speech, thank the FSM.
It's a real shame that Harvey is not around to kick Komrosky's ass.
C’mon Jared, don’t let those goddamned Californios get one up on you! We need to hit these dumbass “conservative” book banners in CO where it hurts… in the ‘nads!
Um… I mean, “pocketbook”! Yeah, that’s it! Pocketbook!
Shove it down their throats!
In my limited experience, pocketbooks don't fit down throats.
It might be a fly in the ointment, but could say a "creationist" then claim that as part of a "marginanized group" teaching materials with Jesus riding a dinosaur couldn't be kept out of the school library, or . some rightly marginalized group like neo-nazis demand a children's edition of Mein Kamph be on the shelves?
Those aren’t on the curriculum, which, I believe, is the standard that the law refers to. They could sue, but good luck with that.
Since school administrators are some of the most spineless fools I've ever met, maybe this law will be used by them to "flip the script" on those asshole book banners. It would be nice for THEM to be told, for a change, "Oh we'd love to help you with this, but you see, our hands are tied!"
Good times...good times...
CA ban on book bans : bad news for biden … in 3, 2, 1 …
So how the hell are we supposed to indoctrinate kids into our christo-fascist ideology if we can't ban things we don't want them to see?
"Joseph Komrosky, baselessly slandered Milk, asking at a board meeting, “My question is, why even mention a pedophile?”"
I'm getting to the point that these LGBT=pedo folks need to catch some hands. Which I don't like considering in myself, but I also want fascists to be scared to voice their hate.
Agree. Someone also needs to point out to these assholes the number of children that are molested by family members who are straight, though I’m sure the ones making the loudest accusations know that.
Not to mention church officials. "Youth pastors" seem to be especially dangerous.
They don't want to hear that b/c they don't want to face the uncomfortable truth.
They are taking that from the fact that Milk met one of his partners when the partner was 16, but there is NO EVIDENCE anything sexual or even a relationship started happening until the young man was 18.
Once again, no critical reasoning from those assclowns, and only a load of bullshit to stir up the worst among them.
And I think they should catch hands for it. They have completely turned upside down my "liberal" NoCal uni town with this bullshit, and they are putting targets on the backs of teachers and librarians.
We have had 2 bomb threats emailed in to *all* of our schools this week (on M and T) and the emails contained vile bullshit against the LGBTQ+ community, including this pedo groomer crap.
Prior to that, there were bomb threats called in the previous week and the week before that--all prompted by Moms for Liberty stirring shit up by posting photos of teachers and librarians and a load of other bullshit to the libsoftiktok and other right wing sites and stirring people up on Xitter.
They need to be trounced into the damned dirt. It's only a matter of time before someone gets killed.
And now I'm starting to get afraid of speaking out on the political blog I comment on b/c they are not engaging there but are taking shit to Xitter, which I'm not on, so now I'm afraid they'll take screenshots (with my real name on it) and I'll end up with more threats of violence against me (I had 2 of them from assholes on Nextdoor just because I dared express my opinion).
I've got a rainbow flag as my FB avatar, bc I put it there for Pride Month one year and now keep it purely out of spite. I'm a cis het woman, but because of the picture a lot of troglodytes assume I'm LGBTQIA+ and try to insult me with that. I live in Australia.
They used to call me a lesbian. But over the last year, they've changed to calling me a trans woman. The grooming/pedophile accusation gets a lot of airplay.
This vicious, baseless shit isn't confined to its immediate surroundings. Republican pandering and demonisation is infecting ALL Anglophone countries, and probably a lot that don't have English as their first language.
TBF Nextdoor has morphed into a right wing sewer.
It really has. I'm so disappointed in my town and the number of right wing extremists who apparently are part of the neighborhood moderation teams. I don't know what rocks they slimed out from under, but 2 years ago I never would have guessed they existed in this community in any appreciable numbers.
Now I have a couple of gay colleagues afraid to be out and open around town. In a fucking "liberal" college town. :(
Damn, that sucks. {{{hugs}}} Guess it would be too much to ask the cops to investigate these bomb threats - and personal threats.
Thanks.
They are investigating the threats, but since the person used a VPN when sending the emails, they're not getting much traction.
They are also now investigating the M4L Chair's social media posts for potential illegal doxing (taking photos of specific teachers, librarians, etc. and posting them and then they become the targets of these threats).
I never reported the Nextdoor crap to the police, but I did report it to the main admin and they were removed for a time. If they do it again, I will take it to the police. Thanks so much!
same. I want them to crawl back underground and figure out their horridness. That they CHOSE to be absolute pieces of shite. That is on them. May they EARN a lifetime of social isolation and UTTER loneliness due to peeps seeing what kind of shite soul resides in that human body.
May those who are able make this happen (and be mindful about this, make sure blowback from ANY action goes to them).
May we all protect each other from evil POS's. I want all the bigots on all the issues to be VERY afraid, not just of other humans but of ALL living things, the atoms and the anger of the universe herself. BTW, I'm a 'to the pain' sort of chica.
They seem to have enough vile humans to keep them company, though.
They have a toehold in my fucking *liberal uni town* right now and have caused utter chaos. And are convincing bystanders that the schools are indoctrinating, etc. Look at what this one Moms for Liberty b**** posted on Xitter about a post that was in our local political blog yesterday:
"Meanwhile, YOU should be using your platform to remind our community not to jump to rash conclusions and unfounded accusations. [about why the almost daily bomb threats are happening now when they never happened prior to these Bints for Liberty agitating and stirring up the whackaloons on Xitter and other vile right wing sites.]
YOU should be investigating the crystal clear evidence of indoctrination Beth has unearthed.
YOU should be reporting on women and girls losing access to safety, dignity and privacy within our single sex spaces and sports.
YOU should be investigating the Antifa cell we have on our university campus.
YOU should be reporting on the ever increasing number of detransitioners speaking out about how they were groomed into medicalization, sterilization and the removal of healthy body parts.
Instead your piece makes it clear you’re just angry this uppity woman isn’t saying what YOU want her to say, and you seem to want her punished for it."
What a load of vile, bullshit lies and disinformation. I'm so sick of these fucking "Moms" and their bully boys.
Except they don't really want people to Investigate their claims, because those claims are made up bullshit.
I regularly get into Full and Frank Discussions. People will make a wild accusation about crimes committed by LGBTQIA+ people (especially, of course, trans women).
I say gosh that's awful, do you have details so I can learn more about that? Names, dates, places, links, anything that I can use to verify THIS BULLSHIT ACTUALLY HAPPENED? Invariably they drop out or go off on a tangent. In which case I keep dragging them back to the "give me evidence" point until they put up or shut up.
On the rare occasions they actually provide a source I READ that bitch and tell them why their source is bullshit and doesn't prove jack (the source is *always* bullshit and doesn't prove jack). Rinse and repeat until they give up.
When (not if) the enablers appear and say People are Entitled to Their Opinions, I agree! Of course people are entitled to think what they want, and please point out where I said different. What I'm objecting to is the misinformation. If they can prove drag queens regularly whip out buttplugs to unsuspecting kids during Story Hour, I'll join with them to have those weirdos jailed. As long as they join with me to go after all the abusive priests, sports coaches etc. And apply consistent standards, and shut down all church services and junior sports leagues as the sinks of depravity they obviously are.
People soon learn to keep their bullshit away from anywhere I might see it.
I literally drove anti vaxxers off my community FB page. I have time and spite.
Thank you for the suggestions for this tactic. I'm off of social media, other than Nextdoor, but this may come in handy to pass along to the local LGBTQ+ organization who is very vocally pushing back against them.
I hope it helps! Here's another good tactic (which I learnt from online trans activists). It's for the inevitable "We should just let kids be kids and not confuse them with all this gender stuff" enablers.
Trans activists point out that this is ONLY ever said about trans kids and allowing children to act in non gendered ways. No one says it's "confusing" when kids are expected to conform to their assigned gender.
So I take the above statement literally, and congratulate the enabler for their commitment to raising kids gender neutral. They certainly *shouldn't* be pushed into gender expressions that don't suit them, especially trying to make trans kids act cis! Welcome to the Trans Liberation Army, Comrade!
My personal favourite reply was an outraged "That wasn't my point!".
Republinazi Party: Banning speech, banning education, banning books, banning the human right to make choices about ones own body... and screaming about FREEDUMB!!!
"and yes, for Gov. Pritzker in Illinois"
Aw, c'mon, that's a bit of a backhanded compliment for a state that AFAIK, was the first to institute a law against book banning.
It became cool when California did it. Illinois did it before it was cool😎
Stuck here in flyover country, Illinois is not considered cool.
And you know what? That's OK. We'll just keep chugging along.
“I saw Gavin Newsom banning hateful book bans, so I banned hateful book bans.” - governors who know their Mean Girls quotes and like freedom of thought
This is bad news for Shasta county.
Yep. I know exactly what you mean.
YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO READ, MR. PRESIDENT OF CALIFORNIA!!!1!! Oh, I can still read whatever I want? Well, this is awkward. Ummm . . . FREEDUMBS!!1!!!111111!
You know some of them think that way: "HOW DARE YOU TAKE AWAY MY RIGHT TO BE FORBIDDEN FROM READING!"
It's their freedom to forbid other people from reading that they don't want to lose.
Bingo.
Let's hope this starts a national trend.
One of the main take-aways for me from all this is that school board elections are important. I've usually paid very little attention to them, often not voted. No more.