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Activists Chalk Texas Schools With Pro-LGBT And Anti-Bullying Messages

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The weekend before last week’s Martin Luther King Day, residents of Lampasas, Texas — a rural community about 26 miles from Ft. Hood, with a population of approximately 8,000 — witnessed the civil rights movement first hand when unknown person(s) delivered pro-LGBT and anti-bullying messages to Lampasas Middle School and Lampasas High School.

The messages sprawled the sidewalks, courtyards and even the doors of the school singing to students and faculty to “love, not hate,” and telling teachers, “Teachers, it is your duty to speak out and stand up against bullying.”

According to information obtained from an anonymous source, Lampasas schools were chosen due to reports of a high incident of bullying against LGBT youth.

Last year, the Texas Legislature passed anti-bullying legislation which was largely praised by LGBT rights groups in spite of its lack of enumerated protections. All enumerations of suspect classes were removed from the legislation after it was decided that it could not pass with the inclusion of gender identity.

Although the new law establishes a definition of bullying to include cyber-bullying, added awareness, prevention, identification and resolution/intervention into the  health curriculum, and provided local school boards discretion to transfer the student found to have bullied another student to a new classroom or campus, it did not go far enough in protecting children. More specifically, the bill merely required local school districts to adopt and implement a bullying policy that would recognize a minimum set of guidelines to prohibit bullying, provide counseling options and establish procedures for reporting bullying. At no point did the policy expand to include (or exclude) reporting requirements based upon “suspect classes” such as sexual orientation or gender identity.  These policies will be left to each of the 1,265 school districts in Texas.

Sources close to the action noted that these pro-LGBT messages are needed to ensure that LGBT children are not ignored as each of the districts begin writing and implementing their local policies.

One source stated, “There is a lot of ground to cover in Texas to prevent bullying against youth, especially LGBT youth. The legislature, by amending the bill prior to passing to exclude suspect classifications for reporting of bullying, de-powered our voices. We can no longer go to the legislature for help. Now we have to go to each of the 1,265 districts and hope they realize the need for inclusiveness. It will be a daunting task when we have to fight tooth and nail for Gay Straight Alliances in schools, as was the case in Flower Bluff.”

Additional photographs from the schools are available on Facebook.

Jay Morris is a State Lead for GetEQUAL​.org, a founding member of the Direct Action Network San Antonio and blogger at jaysays​.com. You can find him posting randomness on Twitter or engage him in conversation on Facebook.

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Melania Trump Hails Herself as a ‘Visionary’ at Women’s History Month Event

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First Lady Melania Trump, in remarks at a White House Women’s History Month celebration, hailed herself as a “visionary” as she gave advice to guests.

“As a visionary, I know success is not born overnight, but rather takes shape after long, and sometimes challenging process,” the First Lady said. She also described herself as “a mother, humanitarian, philanthropist, and entrepreneur.”

Mrs. Trump also mentioned her new film, “Melania,” saying that she “shaped its creative direction, served as a producer, managed post production and activated the marketing campaign.”

Noting that “curiosity is a core value” that keeps her “ahead of the curve,” she said that her “unrestricted mindset” has led her to “build across very different sectors,” including, “fashion, digital assets, publishing, accessories, skincare, commercial television, and of course, filmmaking.”

Sharing advice and personal experience, Mrs. Trump told the audience, “Often alone at the top, I follow my passion. Listen to my instincts, and always maintain a laser focus.”

She also declared that the “strength of America is closely tied to the role women play in shaping their children’s character, education, and morals. The values cultivated within our communities shape the voice and vision of our next generation.”

“A woman’s influence strengthens our democracy, capital markets, and time-tested business institutions,” she said. “Across the country today, women are finding unique ways to balance career, ambition, and family.”

Image via Reuters 

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‘Seems to Be No Plan’ Expert Says on Trump Securing Iran’s Nuclear Material to End War

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President Donald Trump says he is bombing Iran so it “does not obtain a nuclear weapon,” but a veteran nuclear policy expert is blasting his war strategy, warning there appears to be no plan to secure Iran’s nuclear stockpile — a failure that could leave the U.S. in the “worst of all worlds” while Iran is “holding all the nuclear cards.”

“This may be the worst planned war in history,” Joe Cirincione told Mother Jones. “I see no sign that they knew what they were doing. It seemed to be just literally bomb, bomb, bomb. There didn’t seem to be a plan for how you were going to get at that particular material. If there is one, it hasn’t emerged.”

He warns, “there seems to be no plan for how to end this war.”

“Almost all wars end by some sort of negotiation,” Cirincione says. “If you project forward several weeks, it’s going to have to end. Usually there’s some sort of arrangement that’s made to end a war.”

But, he says, President Trump “seems to be flying by the seat of his pants and making this up as it goes along,” so “we just don’t know.”

READ MORE: Trump Has ‘No Idea’ If Iran War Will Win Him Nobel Peace Prize

Cirincione warns that “it’s possible that Trump has put us into the worst of all possible worlds. He’s made it impossible for us to have a negotiated solution to this. And we can’t use any military means to solve the problem. So we’re left in this worst of all worlds, which is Iran is holding all the nuclear cards at the end of this war.”

Mother Jones reports that “with his war in Iran, Trump has created a big, possibly catastrophic problem: A half-ton of highly enriched uranium, which can be made bomb-ready, is somewhere…out there—available for use by Iran’s new regime or perhaps not fully secured and susceptible to theft or expropriation.”

So, what are the options?

“The United States either has to conduct some high-risk military maneuver where we would land people from the 82nd Airborne or an Israeli commando unit into the site at Isfahan and try to find the uranium, go down hundreds of meters underground, retrieve the uranium and pull it out or perhaps destroy it on site,” says Cirincione. He calls it “a high risk proposition.”

“What you’re left with is really the only other solution where we started: a negotiated deal.”

President Barack Obama signed one with Iran. Trump tore it up during his first term.

With a negotiated deal, “You have to get Iran’s agreement to secure that material, declare it, allow inspectors, and then either secure it under inspection or downblend it—the process in reverse, bring it down to a 3-percent or 4-percent level. That’s the only two solutions to this problem.”

READ MORE: ‘Trying to Look Cool’: Patel Roasted for Inviting UFC Stars to Train FBI Agents

 

Image via Reuters 

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Trump Has ‘No Idea’ If Iran War Will Win Him Nobel Peace Prize

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President Donald Trump says not only does he not know if his war against Iran will help win him the Nobel Peace Prize, he also doesn’t care, and doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Trump claimed to have ‘no idea’ if Operation Epic Fury will ‘get him over the finish line’ with committee members,'” the Washington Examiner reported on Thursday, after a telephone call with the president.

“I don’t know,” Trump told the Washington Examiner. “I’m not interested in it.”

“No, I don’t talk about the Nobel Prize,” Trump also said, when asked if the topic came up in his recent talks with foreign leaders.

The Examiner’s Christian Datoc, who spoke to the president, reported via video that Trump “appears to be having a massive about-face about winning the Nobel Peace Prize amid his war with Iran.”

“He told me over the phone that he’s not sure if he’s deserving of this award anymore,” Datoc added. “This is a massive change in the president’s rhetoric from really anything he’s said over the past thirteen months.”

READ MORE: ‘Trying to Look Cool’: Patel Roasted for Inviting UFC Stars to Train FBI Agents

 

Image via Reuters 

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