Fogbow

The US retail giant Target is removing certain items from its stores and making other changes to LGBTQ+-themed merchandise ahead of Pride month, after an intense backlash from a minority of customers included some violent confrontations with shop workers.

“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 12:12 pm https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ucts-items

The US retail giant Target is removing certain items from its stores and making other changes to LGBTQ+-themed merchandise ahead of Pride month, after an intense backlash from a minority of customers included some violent confrontations with shop workers.

“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”

LGBTQ+-themed

Ugandan president signs anti-LGBTQ+ law with death penalty for same-sex acts
Global outcry over Museveni’s assent to draconian new anti-gay law, condemned as a ‘permission slip for hate and dehumanisation’

Samuel Okiror in Kampala
Mon 29 May 2023 13.44 BST

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts.

The move immediately drew condemnation from many Ugandans as well as widespread international outrage. The UK government said it was appalled by the “deeply discriminatory” bill, which it said will “damage Uganda’s international reputation”.

US President Joe Biden decried the act as “shameful” and “tragic violation of universal human rights”. He said Washington was considering “sanctions and restriction of entry into the United States against anyone involved in serious human rights abuses” – a suggestion that Ugandan officials may face repercussions.

Early on Monday, the speaker of the Ugandan parliament, Anita Annet Among, released a statement on social media confirming Museveni had assented to the law first passed by MPs in March. It imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in prison for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, and anyone convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” faces a 14-year sentence.

Described by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, as “shocking and discriminatory”, the bill was passed by all but two of 389 MPs on 21 March. Museveni had 30 days to either sign the legislation into law, return it to parliament for revisions or veto it. He sent it back to MPs in April, with a request for reconsideration. The bill would have still become law without the president’s assent if he returned it a second time.

Among tweeted on Monday morning: “The president … has assented to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. As the parliament of Uganda, we have answered the cries of our people. We have legislated to protect the sanctity of [the] family.




https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... th-penalty

Rainbow flag burned at North Hollywood school where some parents oppose Pride event
LAPD is investigating possible hate crime after LGBTQ+ flag was burned at Saticoy Elementary School

An LGBTQ+ flag placed in a plant pot outside of a classroom at Saticoy Elementary School was lit on fire, the flag was destroyed, and it is being investigated as a possible hate crime, according to LAPD.

The school has been the focus of a group of parents who are objecting to an upcoming Pride Day assembly on Friday, June 2, at which the school plans to teach children about LGBTQ+ identities during a book reading.

The fire incident at the school is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, said Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton of the Valley Bureau. “The investigation is ongoing. It is a vandalism hate crime. The hate crime is still significant but it is a misdemeanor,” he said on May 27.

The blackened planter and burned flag were discovered by school personnel on Monday, May 22, at 6:30 a.m., Hamilton said. He did not know when the planter and flag were burned and there are no suspects, he said.

Conservative parents with children enrolled at the school last week posted their objections on social media to the upcoming school assembly and book reading on June 2, asking parents to boycott the event and “keep their children home and innocent” that day. The group passed out flyers in the neighborhood with a similar message.

Ben-Prime wrote: ↑Wed May 24, 2023 2:36 pm It's only an LGBTQ- until the extra credit is factored in. Then it's an LGBTQ+.

Sesame Street @sesamestreet wrote: This #PrideMonth, let's celebrate diversity and unity and spread love and acceptance. Together, we can make the world a kinder place for all.

Augustina 🇻🇦 @AugustinaJJD wrote: Reported for grooming.

Elon Musk @elonmusk wrote: “gender-affirming care for minors” is pure evil

Judge Finds Tennessee Law Aimed at Restricting Drag Shows Unconstitutional
The law, one of the first aimed at curbing drag performances in front of children, had been on hold for nearly two months as the legal battle went on.

By Emily Cochrane.
June 3, 2023

A federal judge said late Friday that a law in Tennessee aimed at restricting drag shows was unconstitutional, saying it was overly broad and violated the First Amendment.

The ruling is an initial victory for supporters of L.G.B.T.Q. rights after weeks of turmoil and confusion over the law’s language and how it would affect not only drag artists in the state, but also transgender, nonbinary and other gender-nonconforming people. Tennessee, which passed the law this year with the stated goal of protecting children, was among more than a dozen states that passed measures restricting L.G.B.T.Q. rights.

Although only Shelby County, where the lawsuit was filed, is explicitly prevented from enforcing the law, the decision by Judge Thomas L. Parker of the Federal District Court in Memphis sent a clear signal about the statute that could affect enforcement of the law and lead to challenges elsewhere in Tennessee.

The attorney general of Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti, who said he expected to appeal the decision, maintained that the ruling did not affect the rest of the state. “The Adult Entertainment Act remains in effect outside of Shelby County,” he said. He added that the law’s language “is rooted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-established First Amendment precedent.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/03/us/p ... uling.html

We now have new permanent rainbow lights at the Ark Encounter so all can see that it is God's rainbow and He determines its meaning in Genesis 6.
The rainbow is a reminder God will never again judge the wickedness of man with a global Flood—next time the world will be judged by fire.
The Ark is lit permanently at night with a rainbow to remind the world that God owns it and He decreed it's a sign of His covenant with man after the Flood—Christians need to take back the rainbow as we do at the Ark Encounter.

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 7:58 pm I'm not quite sure what's going on, but there is some kind of movement in the evangelical right to reclaim the rainbow based on a Bible verse.

We now have new permanent rainbow lights at the Ark Encounter so all can see that it is God's rainbow and He determines its meaning in Genesis 6.
The rainbow is a reminder God will never again judge the wickedness of man with a global Flood—next time the world will be judged by fire.
The Ark is lit permanently at night with a rainbow to remind the world that God owns it and He decreed it's a sign of His covenant with man after the Flood—Christians need to take back the rainbow as we do at the Ark Encounter.

I got this off a cousin's FB page. The quote is from Ken Ham.

BREAKING: A court in Florida issued a preliminary injunction against the state of Florida from enforcing its ban on gender affirming care, both the board rule and SB254.

The PI is only for the plaintiff parties but it would likely preclude enforcement.

These 25 rainbow flag-waiving corporations donated $13.5 million to anti-gay politicians since 2022

Popular Information

In 2023, conservative activists have advanced the theory that major corporations are pushing a radical, pro-LGBTQ agenda onto the country.

For example, Anheuser-Busch sent trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney a few beers, including one with her face on it, and paid her to post a 60-second video promoting a contest. Anheuser-Busch spends about $7 billion each year on marketing. This Mulvaney promotion was as a nominal expenditure to increase the brand's appeal to LGBTQ people in the United States, a community with more than $1 trillion in annual purchasing power.

But many on the right took the Mulvaney promotion as proof that Anheuser-Busch has gone "woke." Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), posted a video announcing that he was “going to throw out every single Bud Light we have in the fridge.” Pundits Charlie Kirk and Matt Walsh declared that they would “put Budweiser out of business.” The musician Kid Rock published a video of himself donning a MAGA hat and opening fire on three cases of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle. The escalating rhetoric has coincided with a surge of violent threats against LGBTQ people.

But while major corporations are continuing to spend token amounts on marketing to the LGBTQ community, a Popular Information investigation reveals the same companies are spending millions backing anti-LGBTQ politicians. The investigation found that 25 corporations have donated $13.5 million to anti-LGBTQ politicians since January 2022. Popular Information's analysis includes:

1. Money donated by corporate PACs to the campaigns of members of Congress that received a zero rating on the latest Congressional scorecard produced by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's most prominent LGBTQ rights organization.

2. Money donated by corporate PACs to the leadership PACs of members of Congress that received a zero rating on the latest Congressional scorecard produced by HRC.

3. Money donated by corporations and corporate PACs to state legislators who sponsored anti-LGBTQ legislation in Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.

4. Money donated by corporations and corporate PACs to the Governors who signed anti-LGBTQ legislation into law in those states.

5. Money donated by corporations to the primary 527 organizations that support anti-LGBTQ state legislators and governors: the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) and the Republican Governors Association (RGA).

The investigation found that Anheuser-Busch donated $227,108 to anti-gay politicians since January 2022, including the sponsors of anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas and Florida and 29 members of Congress rated zero by HRC.

All 25 corporations included in Popular Information's analysis were highly rated by HRC's 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI). 20 of the 25 corporations received perfect scores (100) and none received a score below 85. Along with workplace policies, the Corporate Equality Index purports to measure corporations' "public commitment to the LGBTQ community." But HRC's methodology excludes political donations.

That could change. "In light of recent events, the corporate community must reject and speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ extremism going into Pride Month, and stand firm in their commitment to the LGBTQ+ community," HRC said in a statement last week. HRC suspended Anheuser-Busch's CEI score after the company responded to right-wing boycotts by releasing a statement that failed to defend Mulvaney or support the LGBTQ community.

THE YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM 2022

In 2022, SPLC documented 1,225 hate and antigovernment extremist groups across the United States. Extremist ideas that mobilize these groups now operate more openly in the political mainstream. But the ascent of the hard right is not inevitable. We can push back against this rising authoritarianism and turn the tide.

POLICY TO PREVENT, EXPOSE, COUNTER AND REMEDY HATE AND ANTIGOVERNMENT EXTREMISM

Effective and strategic policies are crucial, but we cannot legislate, regulate, tabulate or prosecute racism, hatred or extremism out of existence. These policy recommendations are but one piece of the larger effort to counter extremism.

Speak Out and Act Against Hate, Political Violence and Extremism

Make Federal and State Hate Crime Data Collection Mandatory

Policy Recommendations for Government Prevention and Response to Extremism

Enforce Hate Crime Laws

Address Long-term Contributors to Hate and Extremism

Ensure adequate funding for the wide array of government initiatives and public-private partnerships announced at the September 2022 White House United We Stand Summit.

Provide equitable access to government funds for security infrastructure to house of worship and community institutions targeted with violence, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities and LGBTQ centers.

Provide government support for civics education, digital literacy initiatives, culturally competent and linguistically accessible conflict resolution programs, and initiatives to reduce structural racism.

RTH10260 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 07, 2023 10:35 am The table of donors to anti-lgbt causes

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 07, 2023 7:27 pm I'll probably get jumped all over for saying this but...

Corporate PACs donate based on their perceived needs and issues and to those who they think can advance their agendas. If Joe Smith is chair of the Committee Overseeing the Trains, Planes and Automobiles Agency, he's going to get donations from PACs representing automakers, plane makers, highway construction companies, etc. If he's voted against pro-rights bills 100 times, the PAC isn't looking at that and may not even be aware of it. In most cases, I doubt these companies have an anti-rights agenda, but do have a what's in it for me one. These lists don't mean much without context.

A trans writer’s talk was banned over a drag law. So she’ll speak here instead
Adria Jawort was supposed to give an Indigenous history lecture in Montana. She reflects on the cancellation and reasons for hope

Adria Jawort, interviewed by Kathleen McLaughlin
Thu 8 Jun 2023 16.00 BST

On the first day of Pride month, Adria Jawort was scheduled to speak at the public library in Butte, Montana. She was going to give a lecture on the history of trans and Two Spirit people in the west. She is not a drag performer. And yet the city’s top elected officials pressured the library to cancel her talk, saying it might pose a legal risk given the state’s new law against drag performers reading to children.

Perhaps naively, I thought my city would be one of the last places to censor Jawort, an Indigenous trans woman. Butte, the mining town where I grew up and now live, hasn’t voted Republican in generations. It’s the historic heart of the labor movement in the US west, a scrappy place where people pride themselves on standing up to power and protecting the less powerful. But our political landscape is changing.

Across the country, far-right politicians are waging war on the rights of queer people. In Montana, a state facing an affordability and housing crisis of historic proportions, a Republican supermajority in the legislature largely ignored the economic issues facing most residents and instead gained a national spotlight by passing laws targeting drag shows and healthcare for trans people, in debates loaded with hateful rhetoric.

I spoke with Jawort about her work and what this censorship means.



https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/ ... ransgender

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Wed Jun 07, 2023 7:38 pm

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 07, 2023 7:27 pm I'll probably get jumped all over for saying this but...

Corporate PACs donate based on their perceived needs and issues and to those who they think can advance their agendas. If Joe Smith is chair of the Committee Overseeing the Trains, Planes and Automobiles Agency, he's going to get donations from PACs representing automakers, plane makers, highway construction companies, etc. If he's voted against pro-rights bills 100 times, the PAC isn't looking at that and may not even be aware of it. In most cases, I doubt these companies have an anti-rights agenda, but do have a what's in it for me one. These lists don't mean much without context.

Sigh.