Lo-fi Republican on Twitter - "When opponents of the Florida bill which prevents school counselors from talking to 7-year-olds about sexual topics without parental consent decry it as an "attack on LGBTQ+ culture" you should ask yourself what they mean by that"
Poll: Over 60% of U.S. voters support language of Florida parental rights bill - "61% of U.S. registered voters support the language of Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law, which bans classroom instruction through the third grade on sex and gender issues. While critics dubbed S.B. 1157 the “Don’t Say Gay Act” long before Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law on Monday, the survey from Public Opinion Strategies also found that a majority of respondents from all political affiliations approved of the measure’s language when they read it. The poll found that 70% of registered Republicans, 58% of independents and 55% of Democrats agreed with this key sentence from the legislation: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through third grade or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” While the law’s critics say it punishes children who bring up gender issues in the classroom, the bill applies only to elementary schools’ lessons. “Voters across partisan lines strongly support the new Florida law after being provided with the actual language of the bill,” pollster Robert Blizzard wrote in a memo summarizing the poll’s key findings... 70% of Trump 2020 voters, 53% of Biden 2020 voters, 67% of parents, and 60% of suburban voters supported the Florida statute. Even among those who said they know someone who is LGBTQ, 61% of respondents said they agreed with the bill’s language."
That's why liberals need to misrepresent the law to get people to oppose it
Blaire White on Twitter - "Disney is condemning Florida as "anti-gay" while simultaneously launching streaming in Saudi Arabia. Everything is stupid."
Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ on Twitter - "Disney has lost more than $20 billion in shareholder value since the release of internal videos exposing the company's plan to embed gender ideology into its children's programming. It's a strong opening shot against woke capital—and there is more to come."
Disney Insider Says Phones Have Been Ringing Off The Hook In Recent Weeks With Negative Phone Calls - "A few weeks ago, Disney's cowardly CEO caved to pressure from woke employees and tried to get Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the state's anti-grooming bill. Since then, the CEO has been apologizing for not doing more to promote sex to kids, while Disney HQ has held grievance sessions for employees triggered by DeSantis' parental rights bill...
'The poll asked likely voters if "news reports [that] reveal Disney is focusing on creating content to expose young children to sexual ideas" made them more or less likely to do business with Disney. Nearly 70 percent of respondents, including about half of Democrats and 73 percent of independents, said they were "less likely." Only nine percent said it made them more likely to support the company. A majority of every group (78% of Republicans, 72% of independents, and 59% of Democrats) said that the comments Disney staffers made in the leaked videos make them more likely to look for alternative sources of family-friendly entertainment.'...
Disney is huge. It's an unstoppable behemoth. But they will surely, in the end, respond to market forces (look at how they cave to China almost immediately every time)."
Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ on Twitter - "SCOOP: I've obtained video from inside Disney's all-hands meeting about the Florida parental rights bill, in which executive producer Latoya Raveneau says her team has implemented a "not-at-all-secret gay agenda" and is regularly "adding queerness" to children's programming."
Disney producer cops to 'adding queerness' to animated shows - "The leak of Raveneau’s comments came as Karey Burke, president of Disney’s General Entertainment Content, vowed to drastically increase inclusivity in its productions, promising that at least 50 percent of its characters will be LGBTQ or racial minorities by the end of the year... DeSantis told supporters in Boca Raton earlier this month that Florida’s policies must be based on the “best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musings of woke corporations.”"
If "minorities" are the majority, are they still "minorities"?
Disney prez says, as mom of 'transgender' and 'pansexual' children she wants diverse characters - "Disney's diversity and inclusion chief Vivain said that they no longer address theme park visitors as 'ladies and gentleman, boys and girls' but instead as 'dreamers' and 'friends'. Burke choked up during Monday, saying the issue hit close to home because of her children. 'I'm here as the mother of two queer children, actually, one transgender child and one pansexual child, and also as a leader'"
Disney slams Florida for signing 'Don't Say Gay' bill into law - "The battle over Disney’s political leanings reaches as high as the C-suite, with current CEO Bob Chapek reportedly preferring to stay out of partisan debates — and chafing at interference from his progressive-minded predecessor, retired executive chairman Bob Iger. Disney attempted to stay out of the public debate over Florida’s law. But the situation intensified on Feb. 24, when Iger tweeted that he agreed with President Biden’s stance that it was a “hateful bill” — even as Chapek-led Disney declined to take a public stance. Chapek reportedly felt undermined by his predecessor. After days of mounting pressure from LGBTQ rights groups, Chapek broke his silence on the bill in an internal memo on March 7. He reiterated Disney’s “unwavering commitment to the LGBTQ+ community,” but asserted that “corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds” and often divide the public further. Within days, Chapek apologized for failing to be a “stronger ally” — adding that Disney would pause all political donations in Florida and donate $5 million to LGBTQ rights groups, including the Human Rights Campaign. Disney restored a same-sex kiss scene to Pixar’s upcoming feature film “Lightyear” — a reversal that came after the damning letter from Pixar employees. The company also held a “town hall”-style forum last week in a bid to ease tensions among its workforce. The measures appeared to have little effect — with some Disney employees reportedly going over Chapek’s head and complaining to Iger about how the company has responded to the Florida bill"
BASED: Bill Maher defends DeSantis’ anti-grooming bill - "Talk show host Bill Maher on the "Overtime" segment of his Friday night's episode defended Florida's anti-grooming law, which critics have falsely dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill despite no mention of the alleged directive in the legislation. The bill has had opposition from Democrats country-wide, and even from corporate entities such as Disney, after it bowed to the liberal mob. "I'm glad somebody asked this: 'Is Florida's Don’t Say Gay bill designed to trap Democrats into saying they support teaching young children about sexuality?' is the question"... "And I guess it's a reaction to Republicans who feel that there's too much talk in lower grades. I think it's only — they're talking about kindergarten to third grade." "So we're talking about very young kids who, you know, as always with this stuff, you know this. It's not like there's no kernel of truth in that maybe kids that young shouldn't be thinking about sex at all," Maher stated, noting: "I don't think it's specific. It's not like you're not allowed to literally not say 'gay.'" "They just don't want teachers talking about it; they think it's the province of parents""
Yes, David French, Public Schools Are Absolutely 'Grooming' Children - "In kindergarten classrooms across the country, teachers are reading books like Michael Hall’s “Red” to five-year-old students. The book teaches these kids it’s possible to be born in “the wrong body.” You don’t think this is grooming? You don’t think that telling them this lie and planting this seed of doubt exploits their vulnerability and primes them for future insecurity to be preyed upon by pharmaceutical companies that benefit from their lifelong dependence on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that will render them permanently sterile?... One of the grooming components you mentioned, Mr. French, was “trust development and keeping secrets.” Did you know that these counselors foster the trust of these students, often encouraging them to use alternate names? That they keep this information from the parents? That they convince the students they are more trustworthy than their parents? That the official American School Counselor Association has actually published a guide directing counselors to hide information from parents? Are you seeing the grooming yet? Do you think sexual violation has to happen at the hands of an individual as opposed to a corporation? We’ve got 13-year-old girls lining up for elective double mastectomies because they’ve been groomed to believe their happiness lies on the other side of self-mutilation... We’ve got story after heartbreaking story of parents who’ve lost their kids to the gender cult specifically because a school employee encouraged the child to express a secret identity at school without ever telling the child’s parents about it. No grooming here, though? I personally know a couple who had to move to a different state to save their daughter from the gender cult. They were in danger of losing custody of their daughter for refusing to treat her gender dysphoria with hormones and pronouns. She was groomed into her cognitive dissonance at her local school. Will you tell these desperate parents that they don’t know what they’re talking about? That they’re wrong about the grooming that almost killed their daughter?"
'Grooming': The ubiquitous buzzword in LGBTQ school debate - "An Oklahoma school choice advocacy blog, Choice Remarks, shared an article on its Facebook page alleging that public schools are sexualizing children. “Groomers are gonna groom”"
‘Anti-Grooming’ Rally at Disney Is Latest Stop for Culture War Traveling Circus - "The Disney corporation has been accused of supporting grooming children ever since it withdrew its support for Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law"
Some people still claim "grooming" is only about sexually abusing kids yourself
Public schools are grooming your children - "On April 9, Oklahoma State University hosted a “drag queen story hour” for children as young as 2 years old on its campus... the NEA is telling you straight up that they will be teaching your children that two-parent families, traditional morality and heterosexual fidelity should be dismantled and replaced by their neo-Marxist sexual nihilism... Not only are your local schools abusing your sons’ and daughters’ hearts, minds and souls, but they are also abusing their bodies. America’s public schools have become hunting grounds for sexual predators. This past week, Chris Rufo reported the following: The most comprehensive analysis concerning sexual abuse in America’s public schools (published by the U.S. Department of Education) estimates that nearly 10% of K-12 students have been victims of sexual misconduct by a public-school employee."
Presumably some people are going to interpret this as a claim that public schools as institutions are personally sexually abusing children. I know liberals claim that they are raped by capitalism, but they don't actually mean that literally (I hope, anyway)
What Parents Need to Know About Sexual Grooming | NSPCC - "Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them."
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is "far right"
Gary Lucia: Gay Disney Dissenter - " I see some folks on this comment thread saying that calling this behavior “grooming” isn’t right, and that this isn’t an appropriate response to it. I’m a Boy Scout leader. Every year I have to take Youth Protection Training. And it sucks. We hear stories from adults of how they were taken advantage of as kids. You hear gut-wrenching stuff. It’s awful. The case studies are cringe-inducing. We send the kids off to watch a video (Star Wars Rebels is great!) while we sit through the class. One of the key points they make in that training is that one of the strategies that abusers use is to expose kids to sexuality at an age before they are emotionally ready to deal with it. And another is that they tell kids to hide abusive behavior from their parents. Offering access to pornography to underage children is another desensitization strategy. Every one of these behaviors that our gracious host (rightfully) calls out in the trans ideology is characteristic of predators grooming children for abuse. And while the Disney and the school systems Rod points to may not be intending to do so, they are creating a culture and a system within which abuse will flourish because they are enabling them."
Democrats: Party Of Groomers - "Most Americans do not want their little kids groomed by woke classroom ideologues to embrace a queer identity. The Democrats have done to the wall on this issue. Great — let them own it. Let the American people understand that Joe Biden and his party are the people who want children to be catechized by queer activist teachers, and want schools to be able to keep parents in the dark about it. This is not a blogger on a right-wing website smearing the Democrats. This is who they are, and are proud to be. It’s not working with the American people. Americans are broadly tolerant of trans people, but they correctly draw the line at grooming children... Here is gay Florida teacher Amber Mercier saying that she will defy the law. Great. Drag her in to the principal’s office, and if she doesn’t retract, fire her on the spot... About the term “groomers”: it’s usually used to describe pedophiles who are preparing innocent kids for sexual exploitation. I think it is coming to have a somewhat broader meaning: an adult who wants to separate children from a normative sexual and gender identity, to inspire confusion in them, and to turn them against their parents and all the normative traditions and institutions in society. It may not specifically be to groom them for sexual activity, but it is certainly to groom them to take on a sexual/gender identity at odds with the norm. And it’s working. Kids are getting this in school, and they’re getting this from the media. Here’s a new video from a Disney executive pointing out that the media really are indoctrinating kids, and that they should recognize “there’s a lot of power in that”... If people like me point out that the media are doing this, half the conservatives say I’m alarmist, and all the liberals say that I’m bigoted and alarmist. But in that whole series of Disney executive clips, over and over top Disney people not only say that they do it, but the boast of it to shore up support from the woke Disney workers... It is super-creepy that so many adults — especially adults in power — are fixated on queering children. It is past time for the backlash. You would never know it from media coverage of the Florida law, but this poll shows that Gov. DeSantis and the Florida legislature are on the side of the people — even Biden voters... It’s time for people to stop falling for the sky-is-falling propaganda from LGBT campaigners and allies... This is what campaigners have been saying for at least two decades now: that if you don’t give them every damn thing they demand, then you will have LGBT blood on your hands. Take Biden’s claim today that transgendered people “continue to face epidemic levels of violence, and 2021 marked the deadliest year on record for transgender Americans.”... I’ll stop there, at 25 killings, about the halfway point. I find that I’ve been working on this post for two hours now, and don’t want to do it anymore. Of those 25, I could find only one — Rayanna Pardo — who likely met his death because of bigotry (if it’s true that he ran into a road in front of a car to escape a mob). Many of them were killed by lovers or ex-partners. Some were involved in prostitution, one of the most dangerous kinds of work. Some were killed for reasons we may never know — but that is no reason at all to assume that they died because someone who hated transgendered people wanted them dead. These lists from activists inform the news media and the Democratic POTUS, all of whom want to believe that there is an “epidemic” of anti-trans hatred that is causing the streets to run with blood. According to the HRC list, there were 57 killings of trans people in America in 2021. Know how many people overall have been murdered in only the city of Chicago, just this month alone? Thirty-five. Where’s the presidential denunciation “epidemic” of homicides in Chicago? All murders are evil. But those that don’t serve a progressive Narrative don’t get attention. You should know that we are all being gaslighted by the President, by the Democrats, by the news and entertainment media, and by Woke Capitalism. Why? Who benefits? Other than alienating children from their parents, their religious traditions, and even their bodies, what is the end goal here? We ought to find our voices and demand answers."
Liberals who claim that you should be fired if you refuse to do your job (when it was about gay marriage) and that no one is above the law (when it was about Trump supposedly breaking it) are very upset about teachers who refuse to follow Florida law
Meme - Bobby Whitsett @thatprogressiveconservative: "Hypocrites say tax the rich but then get mad at DeSantis for ending Disney's special tax district."
Someone claimed that no one was saying that, and when I cited Robert Reich, former Clinton official and professor, and Occupy Democrats, rated top influenced Progressive Facebook page, he said they were unimportant nobodies
Meme - "No, Disney will not leave Orlando. But Disney will pay a LOT of money to make sure Ron DeSantis leaves Tallahassee. - TRISTAN SNELL
OCCUPY DEMOCRATS"
Just like that, liberals not just advocated for big corporations to pay less taxes, they also championed big corporations interfering in politics
Revolt in Disney’s Florida Kingdom - WSJ - "The Walt Disney Co. needs Florida more than Florida needs Walt Disney. That’s the latest chapter in this tale of a CEO who followed his woke staff like a lemming off the cliff of cultural politics. Disney employees demanded that Mickey Mouse oppose Florida’s misdescribed “don’t say gay” bill. Now state lawmakers are reacting by putting down a few glue traps. The Florida Legislature voted this week to abolish the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which in effect lets Disney World run its own private government. Created by the Legislature in 1967, the district covers about 40 square miles and features two water parks and four theme parks, including the Magic Kingdom. Disney essentially controls land use, environmental protection, fire service, utilities, more than 100 miles of roads, and more... the district saves the company tens of millions of dollars a year. Without it, services like fixing potholes could revert to county government. Disney largely funds the Reedy Creek district, which had about $150 million in revenue last year. It also carries close to $1 billion in debt... Are Florida Republicans engaged in unfair political retaliation? “As a matter of first principle,” Mr. DeSantis said last month, “I don’t support special privileges in law, just because a company is powerful.” Live by the corporate carve-out, die by the corporate carve-out. As a matter of political realism, the Reedy Creek district is a perk the state gave Disney. The mystery is why Disney thought it could push around state lawmakers without any pushback. One answer is that previous corporate political signaling came with little cost and media hosannas. Recall when Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star Game out of Atlanta, as a punishment for Georgia’s new voting law. “Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. The voting law “does not match Delta’s values,” fretted CEO Ed Bastian. Did they read the bill? Or did they trust President Biden, who called it “Jim Crow 2.0”? Voting absentee in Georgia is still easier than in New York or Delaware. The political frenzy in Florida began with a similar dynamic... At first CEO Bob Chapek told employees that Disney would take no position. “As we have seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds,” he wrote. “Instead, they are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame.” But inspired by an earlier tweet from former CEO Bob Iger, Disney employees went into open rebellion. Soon Mr. Chapek was groveling to his underlings and calling Florida’s bill a “challenge to basic human rights.” Perhaps he thought this would be a free way to mollify his staff, but Mr. Chapek misjudged the political moment. Republican voters who have watched companies side with the progressive agenda and silence employees who disagree are fed up. Mr. Chapek was right the first time: Disney’s political foray didn’t stop the Florida law. But it made a lot of people mad, including Disney customers and state lawmakers. There’s a warning here to other companies, especially Big Tech and Wall Street, which are mainly based in liberal states but conduct business everywhere. If they try to impose their cultural values, they risk losing Republican allies on the policy issues that matter most to their bottom lines, such as regulation, trade, taxation, antitrust and labor law. Polls show rising GOP hostility to big business, and that is likely to be reflected when Republicans take power. If good tax policy can’t pass Congress because Republican voters are furious about cultural imperialism from the C-suite, that’s bad for the country. It’s also bad for business. The Disney lesson for CEOs is to stay out of these divisive cultural fights. The lesson for political partisans in the workplace is that their bosses run the office, but they don’t run the country."
When liberals support corporations setting up parallel governments
If taking away special corporate privileges is wrong, why do liberals demand an end to fossil fuel subsidies?
Disney’s Woke Politics Depart from Walt Disney’s Values - "Now Disney’s critics rebuke it for thanking Chinese officials involved in genocide in Xinjiang, shoehorning sexual ideas and transgender ideology into children’s entertainment, and eliminating all mention of “ladies,” “gentlemen,” “boys,” and “girls” in its theme parks. There’s no doubt that “Woke Disney” has come a long way from the values of its founder. Two months before the 1964 election, Walt Disney wore a Barry Goldwater button while accepting the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson, Goldwater’s opponent. Walt Disney was also a key supporter of Ronald Reagan for governor of California in 1966, just before Disney’s untimely death. Disney’s crusade against the recent Florida law — a law that would have been uncontroversial until very recently — is an unusual risk for an entertainment giant. A March Public Opinion Strategies poll found the Florida bill backed by 61 percent to 26 percent. Even among people who “know someone LGBTQ,” the law is supported by 61 percent to 28 percent... Executives chose to ignore the many thousands of its employees who either support the law or want the company to stay away from the issue. In March, a large number of conservative Disney employees wrote an open letter to their bosses saying that the internal culture at The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) is a hostile work environment for them... Nor do all gay Disney employees support the company’s crusade... the company is now forgetting that its stories should seek to reflect the culture it’s trying to entertain; instead Disney is trying to make its audience “better people.” “There is an old saying in Hollywood that nobody pays for homework, the preachy messaging that grates on many and turns customers away”... A recent company-wide Zoom staff meeting at Disney about the Florida bill provides clear evidence that executives are into giving audiences “homework.” Executive producer for Disney Television Animation Latoya Raveneau touted Disney’s new efforts to promote gay themes. “In my little pocket of Proud Family Disney TVA, the show runners were super welcoming . . . to my not-at-all-secret gay agenda,” Raveneau said in a leaked video obtained by journalist Christopher Rufo. “I was just, wherever I could, adding queerness. No one would stop me, and no one was trying to stop me.” At the same time, Karey Burke, president of Disney’s General Entertainment Content, pledged in another company-wide Zoom call that at least 50 percent of its characters will be LGBTQ or racial minorities by the end of the year. People who knew Walt Disney told me that were he alive today, he’d be broadly supportive of expanding civil rights to gays. But he would draw the line at his company being weaponized in favor of a cultural agenda steeped in “wokeness.” He would also be keenly aware of Disney’s fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders and employees. Disney stock is off 33 percent from a year ago and has fallen some 10 percent since it became clear that its special theme-park privileges were in jeopardy. More ominously, an April survey by the Trafalgar Group found that more than 69 percent of respondents said they were likely to support “family-friendly alternatives” to Disney. Finally, Walt Disney hated hypocrisy. He would be stung by Governor DeSantis’s observation that the company he founded was pushing a “social warrior” agenda in the U.S. while at the same time remaining silent doing huge business in China with the blessing of the Chinese Communist Party, which is the enemy of human rights for the people of the Uyghur region, Hong Kong, and Tibet. Walt Disney was a visionary who originally called his Orlando project Epcot, an experimental community of tomorrow. After his death, the company turned away from the Epcot vision and built Disney World and a series of now-overpriced theme parks."
Meme - David French @DavidAFrench: "Hobby Lobby won at SCOTUS. Masterpiece Cakeshop won at SCOTUS (7-2). Speech codes have been struck down from coast to coast. When parts of the left tried to suppress liberty, they lost. So it's just false to say the only option is to "fight fire with fire.""
Common Sense Extremists @crushmarxismnow: "Hobby Lobby and Masterpiece Cakeshop weren't getting advantages over their competitors. Disney was getting advantages Universal and Seaworld were not. Please tell me where the first amendment guarantees advantages over your competitors."
Nearly 40 Percent of U.S. Gen Zs, 30 Percent of Young Christians Identify as LGBTQ, Poll Shows
Gen-Z Drives Surge Of More Americans Identifying As LGBT - "21% of Generation-Z adults identifying as LGBT in the survey, almost double the rate of Millennials, five times that of Generation X and eight times the rate of Baby Boomers. The jump from 5.6% in 2020 to 7.1% in 2021 also represented the largest increase in a single year... The rate of Millennials identifying as LGBT has has also ticked up in recent years—from 5.8% in 2012 to 7.8% in 2017 to 10.5% today—while the number of Generation-X and Baby Boomers remains steady."
Weird. I thought sexuality was genetic and immutable and the media didn't and couldn't influence sexuality
Meme - "And we get banned while these leftists don't. So to Hell with these groomers."
Leftists: "you can't call you've called me us groomers!!!"
Normal person: "you've called me Nazi for six years"
LA Confidential on Twitter - "Guys, let’s not get too out of hand calling them groomers after they called us Nazis, racists, psychopaths, rapists, etc. for the last decade, we wouldn’t want to appear unhinged to a bunch of people that think kids should have their genitals lobbed off."
Matt Walsh on Twitter - "My Heroes: Governor Ron DeSantis is fast-tracking the "Don’t Say Gay” bill, banning discussion of LGBTQ people or issues in classrooms. Help us stop the DeSantis Censorship and Surveillance state agenda."
"I have two heroes. My two mums *buzzer goes off*"
"This is the propaganda the left is pushing about the Florida bill. It bears no relation at all to the actual bill. Nothing in this ad has anything to do with the legislation. Democrats invented a fantasy and the media ran with it, as always."
J. Chase Davis on Twitter - "Before 4th grade, I had no idea if my teachers were even married or what they did in their free time. That didn’t seem to prevent them from effectively teaching."
Matt Walsh on Twitter - "It's a very simple strategy for the Left. They didn't like the Florida parental rights bill but couldn't argue against it without sounding like a bunch of perverted freaks, so instead they completely invented a different bill out of thin air and argued against that instead."
Allie Beth Stuckey on Twitter - "Normal adults don’t tell kids to keep secrets from their parents. Normal adults have no inclination to talk to 5-9 year olds, who are not their children, about sex and gender switching. Perverts and predators do."
Frank J. Fleming on Twitter - "Almost 20 years again, South Park had an episode where Mr. Garrison tried to get fired by teaching kids explicit, sexual content, but the parents wouldn’t do anything for fear of appearing anti-gay. I think a lot of the grooming stuff is people too afraid to draw a line for fear of being called anti-LGBTQ."
William Wolfe on Twitter - "For the longest time I bought the trope that "laws are downstream from culture." Maybe. But same-sex "marriage" became law 7 years ago, and look where the culture is now: Openly grooming kids. Sure seems like our culture is now downstream from the legal ruling of Obergefell.
Which means it's not a one-way flow. The law both reflects current realities & teaches us what it is good & acceptable. Roe *taught* that the unborn don't matter. Obergefell *taught* that marriage is meaningless & sexual morality is an à la carte exercise. Well, here we are."
Meme - Teacher: "OK, CLASS, TODAY WE'RE PROTESTING AGAINST THE "DON'T SAY GAY" BILL!"
Student: "That's gay"
Student: *outside principal's office*
How Florida’s Newly Enacted ‘Parental Rights in Education’ Law Actually Protects Gay Students - "Another provision dictates that schools “may not discourage or prohibit parental notification of and involvement in critical decisions affecting a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.” This latter provision has not attracted nearly as much attention (or criticism) as the former. But as discussed below, it will likely have a bigger impact on students—and a highly beneficial one... In the early 2010s, American policymakers at both the state and federal level began putting pressure on school districts to defer to students’ gender self-identification—i.e., their declared status as boys or girls. The official rationale for these efforts, as articulated in bureaucratic guidelines and court rulings, was centred on mental health... Although court orders on behalf of transgender students are typically tailored to the circumstances of the plaintiffs, advocacy groups such as the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network have leveraged them to bring about much broader forms of institutional change. These groups have (correctly) counted on the fact that school boards are afraid of lawsuits; and even a single complaint or accusation can lead to a costly and embarrassing civil-rights investigation, or massive out-of-court settlement. As a result, schools now face strong incentives to take the gender self-declarations of their students at face value—with or without a medical diagnosis. Failure to create a “safe” environment, it is thought, exacerbates the mental-health problems of gender nonconforming students, leading to high rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. A common claim is that a failure to instantly “affirm” a student’s trans identification will send him or her hurtling down a dark path to suicide. (There is a lack of good evidence for such claims, yet they have become embedded in the received wisdom of many activists and educators.) The problem here is that even before a student goes on puberty blockers (let alone pursues surgical interventions), mere social transition can have permanent consequences—notably, for those trans children who would eventually desist to their natal sex identity. While activists present social transition as a sort of safe experimental zone in which children and adolescents can “explore their gender nonconformity,” emerging research—including a study by Dutch experts who pioneered pediatric transition practices—suggests that social transition may itself contribute to the persistence of gender dysphoria. This would mean that, in some cases at least, a school encouraging social transition would actually be exacerbating or at least prolonging symptoms of gender dysphoria... Parents know their children better than anybody at school, and they deserve to be at the center of this kind of decision. They are in a much better position to evaluate whether a child’s gender-related distress is a symptom of some other disturbance, trauma, or mental-health issue; or is truly indicative of a lifelong struggle with dysphoria. If reserving all skepticism, and simply taking a child’s gender declarations at face value, is what activists mean by being a “supportive parent,” then most parents, fortunately, are “unsupportive.” In some cases, it is only the involvement of the parents that can stop the transition process in its tracks, and allow a child time and space to process his or her feelings. As noted above, schools face strong incentives—legal and financial—to affirm their students’ gender self-identification, while it is families that will be left to address the fallout if the decision is incorrect. The Florida law aims to align the incentive structure of school officials with this reality. The claim that the Florida law is homophobic is ironic—or rather cynical—given the studies showing that cross-gender identification in prepubescent boys is a better predictor of being gay than of being “trapped in the wrong body.” Reliable studies on natal females with no pre-adolescent history of dysphoria do not yet exist. But anecdotal evidence, coupled with the testimonials contained on online forums devoted to de-transitioners, suggest that many young women with same-sex attraction are being pressured to interpret their as-yet unsettled feelings as evidence that they are transgender. A recent webinar hosted by Genspect (which self-describes as “a voice for parents with gender-questioning kids”) featuring de-transitioned panelists brought this reality vividly to light. In fact, “Don’t Say Gay” would actually be a more appropriate description for current transgender policies in schools, given the manner by which these policies encourage children and adults (albeit unintentionally) to interpret proto-gay or -lesbian feelings and behavior as evidence of being trans. In most cases, as discussed above, the school officials implementing these policies are merely being risk-averse. But it is also important to note that the educational bureaucracy in many areas contains real gender ideologues. As Abigail Shrier has reported, some teachers have actively encouraged children to find their “true” inner trans or queer selves. Thanks to the court rulings and administrative guidelines that signal boost their campaigns, these in-house activists have outsized power relative to teachers, principals, school board members, and parents with different values and viewpoints. And in videos of school board meetings where gender identity policies are discussed, one can often see advocates of “affirming” policies try to suppress concerns by reference to legal requirements... Schools In Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools, published by the HRC, indicates that it is never too early to start a gender transition or to discuss issues surrounding gender identity in the classroom. Like the Model Local Education Agency Policy on Transgender and Nonbinary Students produced by GLSEN and the National Center for Transgender Equality, it insists that students should participate in athletics based on their gender identity—a policy that, according to a recent poll, most Republicans and Independents oppose and that only a razor-thin majority of Democrats support. (And this poll was taken in 2021, well before the negative publicity surrounding trans swimmer Lia Thomas’s controversial NCAA swimming title.) A good illustration of the disconnect between advocacy groups and public sentiment is the recent controversy in Texas and Virginia over Gender Queer: A Memoir by the “non-binary” author Maia Kobabe (who uses “e/em/eir” pronouns). The book, which has made its way to school library shelves across America, is a graphic memoir that depicts explicit scenes of adolescent masturbation and oral sex. One has to see it to understand the lengths to which schools are willing to go to appease LGBT activists. (Needless to say, Kobabe has maintained that the book is essential for ensuring the mental health of gender nonconforming students, even calling it “lifesaving”). Students who want to read the book can buy it on Amazon or borrow it from a friend. For those who fear being “outed” to their parents, there is always the option of getting in touch privately with the myriad LGBTQ advocacy groups operating at the local, state, and national levels. Their shelves are brimming with books such as this. The point of putting it on a school bookshelf is to signal to other students how they should think about sexual development. Critics of the Florida law worry about its vague language, and the chilling effect it may have on educators. Yet gender activists themselves have leveraged radically expansive interpretations of words such as “safety” for many years as a means to make their case, often ghoulishly accusing their opponents of consigning children to lives of misery, cut short by suicide. By comparison, the drafting of the new Florida law is direct and sincere. And it will benefit the state’s students, never mind the efforts of those who would falsely smear it as an artifact of homophobia."
Trans mania is the true conversion therapy, since most non-gender conforming children grow up to be gay
According to liberal logic, non-normative sexual identity can only be suppressed - not encouraged, and normative sexual identity can only be encouraged - not suppressed. i.e. Kids can only be coerced into identifying as straight, but not as LGBTQ
Geoff Morrell leaves Disney after three months following 'Don't Say Gay' controversy - "Geoff Morrell, the chief corporate affairs officer who helped architect Disney’s public response to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, has decided to leave the company... According to people who worked with him, Morrell set out to be more transparent with Disney’s communication than his predecessor, Zenia Mucha, who was known to closely guard Disney’s image... Morrell’s thinking, according to people familiar with the matter, was based on setting precedent. He feared if Disney took a public stand against “Don’t Say Gay,” the company may also have to publicly fight future human rights issues, including potential offenses from China, an important market for Disney content. Morrell also feared potential 2024 presidential candidates Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has championed the bill, would use Disney as a punching bag if the company opposed the bill. Morrell has been proven correct in recent weeks, after Disney quickly reversed its decision to stay silent amid large protests from Disney employees... Disney’s brand is arguably its most important asset, and the company has largely avoided these types of public relations missteps in the past. Morrell appears to be taking the fall for the past two months by announcing his immediate resignation."
I Am a Gay Employee at Walt Disney World. Disney Does Not Speak For Me. - "As most people hopefully know by now, the bill does not mention the word ‘gay’ once. Here are some statements from Lesbians United on the bill: “Despite what you may have heard, the Parental Rights in Education Act does not require schools to out gay students to abusive parents; nor does it erase gay people and gay history. Rather, the Parental Rights in Education Act would protect children – including young lesbians and gay boys – from exposure to inappropriate sexual content, and give loving and supportive parents access to the information they need to protect and guide their children.” “The Parental Rights in Education Act, which major news outlets and homophobic organizations have smeared as a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, isn’t about gay erasure at all.” “The bill’s prohibition on teaching sexual orientation applies only to children below fourth grade. It does not prohibit age-appropriate discussion of sexual orientation in middle- or high school sex ed, and it does not prohibit the discussion of gay history in classes beyond third grade. The purposely misleading nickname“Don’t Say Gay” was a Trojan horse. It drew people in and got them all fired up because they thought the bill was attacking gay people. In a headline or quick soundbite, it seemingly told you all you needed to know. This was done intentionally—there has been an outcome of support and acceptance from the public at large since Gay Marriage was made legal, so those fighting the bill knew any attack on gay people would be met with outrage. The detractors of the bill used this to lure you in, but they wanted to hide the gender ideology part of the bill, which is what people should really be concerned about. The public was being played, and gay people were being used as pawns. Any gay adult man who felt a kinship with that little boy dressed as Tinker Bell should be made aware of this: It is a very different world from the time you grew up—even from the world ten years ago. In today’s culture, that little boy would not be told it is OK to be gay; he would be led to believe he is ‘really a girl’. Across the nation and the world, gender non-conforming boys and girls are being pushed into believing they are trans. THIS is what is at the core of teaching ‘gender identity’, and it is a form of CONVERSION, just as contemptible as those religious groups that attempt to ‘pray the gay away’. As a gay man and employee of Disney, I support the Parental Rights in Education Act and feel the need to go on record that I do NOT agree with the Disney ‘LGBTQ+’ leaders and groups that purport to speak on my behalf. I also feel the need at this time to make a statement that I do NOT consider myself a member of your ‘LGBTQ+ Community’ and I object to any assumption that I am included. I REJECT this ‘community’ and refuse to participate with or be subjected to any of its declarations. Why? Because there is no such thing as an ‘LGBTQ+ Community’. There can’t be, because within those letters are obvious conflicts—people who are same-sex attracted vs. people who deny the biological reality of sex. This is something that has been bothering me for years, as the ‘T’ was tacked on to LGB, even though it stands for a group with entirely different issues. This was soon followed by the heinous ‘Q’ for Queer, a slur used against gay people that somehow became an ‘identity’. More letters followed, in a ‘the more the merrier’ approach, culminating in the ‘+’ being added in the end to signify the message ‘to hell with it—let’s just include literally anyone and everyone’. At a DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) discussion with my coworkers this topic came up and I shared my feelings. It was illuminating because it became clear to me that my coworkers did not even know what all the letters in LGBTQ stood for. One coworker asked in particular how the word ‘Queer’ became so widespread, so quickly. A great question that I was unable to answer, as I am just as perplexed about this. Another coworker told me privately afterword that she always thought the ‘Q’ stood for ‘Queens’! (It’s OK to laugh; I did.) The furor over the Parental Rights in Education Bill has exposed the illogicality of the term ‘LGBTQ+’... the biggest irony of it all is that the organizations and ‘allies’ who are condemning the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” are the same people who almost never say the word ‘gay’ themselves. They are always referring to the ‘LGBTQ Community’ (or some variation of that alphabet soup). Let me speak for myself: I am not LGBTQ, LGBTQ+, or LGBTQIA+. I am gay, just GAY. When you refer to me as ‘LGBTQIA+’, it is offensive to me. You are putting a label on me that I never approved. You are lumping all these groups of people together, and we are not a monolith. In addition, you are including the word ‘Queer’ as part of that label, and I am highly offended by that word, which is a slur that has been used to attack me. While my fellow cast members have been expressing their outrage that Disney is not doing enough to fight this bill, I have been watching over the past year or so as Disney continues to push gender ideology on its employees. As gender ideology offends me as a gay man, I feel that Disney is doing TOO MUCH... We were promised a conversation in which Disney would ‘get real’, but I watched the event and did not hear a lot of reality being discussed. I did not hear the biological reality of sex mentioned. I did not hear any acknowledgment of the social contagion currently happening in which there has been an astonishing increase in the number of teenage girls who are identifying as trans. I did not hear any acknowledgment of adolescents who are gender-nonconforming and identify as trans that eventually desist and go on to be gay and lesbian adults... I didn’t hear any discussion about woke homophobia among today’s youth, in which ‘cis gay’ is used a slur and being a lesbian is not ‘cool’. If you have teenagers in your life, go ask them how many kids they know who identify as gay or lesbian compared to how many identify as trans, non-binary, queer, pansexual, or one of the multiple other ‘new’ and ‘unique’ choices... One of the panelists in my supposed ‘community’ of people meant to represent me in this Conversation introduced herself as a ‘biromantic asexual’, which I had to Google because I had never heard of it before. (Has anyone??) This ‘identity’ has nothing to do with me as a gay person. She bragged about ‘adding queerness wherever she could’ in the kids’ shows she writes. This person absolutely does not speak for me. For all the commotion about “Don’t Say Gay”, the only self-identified gay man on the panel of eight was a person who in his introduction apologized for being ‘cisgender’. Because apparently, being born as a man is something to be ashamed of. There was talk of kids committing suicide if they are not affirmed as trans. This is called EMOTIONAL TERRORISM. These organizations are mangling statistics to further their beliefs, and using children as pawns. Yes, we live in an extremely stressful time and kids are very high strung. Trans/non-binary/queer etc. is being force-fed as the solution to these problems, rather than searching for other underlying issues. (You’re depressed? Find a gender label that fits! You’re going through a difficult puberty and feel uncomfortable in your body? Maybe you’re really a boy!) LGBTQ+ organizations are telling parents “It’s better to have a trans son than a dead daughter.” This is repugnant... Toward the end of the program, Nadine Smith, the ‘special guest’ from Equality Florida, gave an example of how the bill prohibiting discussion of gender identity to kindergarteners-third grade could be applied. She explained that if a teacher was pregnant and a student asked if she was having a boy or a girl, the teacher wouldn’t be able to answer. A cute story, but a lie. Smith is gaslighting. She knows very well what is meant when we are talking about discussing gender identity with children. We’re talking about telling children they were ‘assigned a sex at birth’ and asking them if they ‘feel’ like a boy or a girl, opening the door to outdated gender stereotypes. We’re talking about telling children they can choose their pronouns before they even know what a pronoun IS. We’re talking about lessons like 'The Genderbread Person'. THIS is the kind of thing children are being taught. The average adult can’t even make sense of this. How can you expect a first grader to understand it? Why would we ever discuss gender identity to children? Why would we tell kids they have been ‘assigned’ a sex at birth, and that they can change this throughout life? Why are we promoting ‘feminine and masculine’ gender stereotypes? To young children, this is confusing and inappropriate. Children should be children; they shouldn’t be concerned with matters of sex, gender, and sexuality. The Parental Rights bill prevents this madness from happening...
Why do I care so much about all this?
Because ‘gender identity’ is reductive. It reinforces stereotypes we’ve been trying to get rid of for decades. Flowers, dolls, and the color pink are ‘feminine’ while trucks, football, and short haircuts are ‘masculine’. I thought the goal was to tell boys and girls they could like and do anything without these limitations?
Because ‘gender identity’ is misogynist. It tells boys they can identify as girls and invade girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, and participate (and dominate) in their sports.
Because ‘gender identity’ is homophobic. Boys and girls who might grow up to be gay and lesbian adults are now being told they are ‘really’ the opposite sex. It’s a form of conversion--transing the gay away. This is a form of ‘woke homophobia’—parents who would prefer to have a trans child than a gay son or daughter.
Because ‘gender identity’ is an aberration. It lets children SELF-DIAGNOSE their psychological issues. It preys on kids with mental illness, autism, severe clinical depression, ADHD, anorexia, and trauma from sexual abuse. ‘Trans’ is celebrated as the ‘answer’ to their issues, while these other comorbidities are ignored.
Because ‘gender identity’ is child abuse. It’s an experiment and kids are being used as guinea pigs. Doctors are medicalizing children, altering their development before/while they go through puberty. They are mutilating teenagers’ bodies with the promise that it will help them be their ‘true selves’. [Why would the medical industry do this, and why are some politicians endorsing this? Trans adults require continual treatment. ‘Trans kids’ creates customers for life. Pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry are two of the largest lobbying groups in the USA. Draw your own conclusion.]
The Parental Rights Act is important because it will prevent the practice of schools withholding information about their children’s health... Are you willing to add a ‘D’ for Detransitioners to your LGBTQIA+ Community? Because, mark my words, if we continue down this road of medicalizing and mutilating kids before they have time to grow up and make these decisions as adults, this is the group that will have the largest increase over the upcoming years. Indeed, it is already growing as we speak."
Disney’s Child-Predator Problem - "In 2014, reporters at CNN published a bombshell six-month investigation that discovered at least 35 Disney employees had been arrested for sex crimes against children, attempting to meet minors for sex, and possession of child pornography over the previous eight years... Why Disney? Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who oversaw some of these investigations, explained why child predators would choose the Magic Kingdom as a place of employment. “Wherever you find children, you’ll find sexual predators,” he told reporters. Most employees “work at Disney because they want a good, stable job for a great company, but there is always a few that are there because they can see children. They can live in a child’s world.”... Instead of joining the drumbeat of fashionable left-wing sexual theories and promoting gender ideology in elementary school classrooms, a more productive campaign for Disney executives would be to identify and remove the predators from within their company’s ranks."