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Time For Roland Martin’s Peers To Host A Gay Equality Intervention

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Roland Martin, the CNN contributor who during the Super Bowl on Sunday advocated violence against gays, after a scantily-clad David Beckham appeared in an H&M ad for Beckham-branded underwear. Martin made several vile comments, including one advocating violence: “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!” Since we all know that well-respected peers can have a profound impact on our beliefs, we believe it’s time for the more enlightened of Roland Martin’s peers and co-workers to get together and perform an intervention.

Who exactly are Roland Martin’s peers? Well, of course we know Don Lemon at CNN. Lemon last May came out as a proud gay man. There also is Anderson Cooper at CNN — widely assumed to be gay and rumored to be making that public this month. Of course, there are other highly-respected journalists at CNN who are not gay, but certainly could do their part to speak with Martin and help him understand that his anti-gay bigotry does no one any good — certainly not him, certainly not CNN’s brand, and certainly not themselves.

Folks like Wolf Blitzer and David Gergen and Donna Brazile.

But Roland Martin has other peers and co-workers too. Like the ones who are represented by the same speakers bureau that represents Martin: Keppler Speakers.

Keppler Speakers bureau represents well over 100 famous names, and it’s time they started properly managing their assets.

So, just exactly who are these famous people?

Well, Keppler represents people like Elizabeth Birch, a “Human Rights Pioneer and Workplace Diversity Consultant,” and former Chairman of the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and former Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

Eric Alva, an Iraq War Veteran and LGBT Rights Activist.

Bob Arnot, a “Leading Medical Expert, Award-Winning Journalist, and International Humanitarian.”

Then there’s Keith Boykin, “New York Times Best-Selling Author and TV’s Leading Commentator on Politics, Race, and Sexual Orientation,” and one who publicly has attempted to counter Roland Martin’s anti-gay comments via Twitter before, including yesterday and today.

Keppler is also home to Morris Dees, the “Legendary Civil Rights Activist,” who is the co-founder and chief counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — the good folks who have branded organizations like the American Family Association as certified anti-gay hate groups.

Who else from Keppler should intervene with Roland Martin?

How about Howard Fineman? Jennifer Granholm? Or Lani Guinier?

Who’s Lani Guinier? Here’s her bio via Wikipedia:

Lani Guinier is an American lawyer, scholar and civil rights activist. The first African-American woman tenured professor at Harvard Law School, Guinier’s work includes professional responsibilities of public lawyers, the relationship between democracy and the law, the role of race and gender in the political process, equity in college admissions, and affirmative action.

I’m betting she’d have a few choice words for Roland Martin.

There’s also Robert F. Kennedy. And civil rights advocate, attorney, and cancer survivor Ted Kennedy Jr. and international human rights activist and author Kerry Kennedy. And fellow CNN journalist Soledad O’Brien.

And if all these folks are a little busy, there are a few more folks the Keppler Speakers bureau represents that I know could do the job: Ellen DeGeneres, Dan Savage and Judy Shepard.

It’s time for Roland Martin’s anti-gay behavior and comments to change. It’s time for an intervention from a jury of his peers.

What can you do?

Contact Keppler Speakers here. Let them know you’re concerned about the comments someone they represent, Roland Martin, has made. If enough people do it, they may talk with him. Heck, maybe they’ll suggest he give a speech discussing his views on homosexuality and the LGBT community. 

You can also sign GLAAD’s petition here.

And contact CNN here.

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘Pits Parents Against Parents’: House Republicans Pass Anti-LGBTQ Florida-Style K-12 ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’

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The Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives Friday morning passed HR 5, the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” legislation similar to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ laws that have led to book bans and targeting of LGBTQ children.

The bill passed 213-208, with 14 Members not voting. All yes votes were from Republicans only. Five Republicans joined Democrats to vote no.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu of California warned the legislation “pits parents against parents.”

“The extreme MAGA H.R. 5 bill will let other parents dictate what books your child gets to read. It’ll make it easier for other parents to know if your child has an eating disorder, or is experiencing a mental health crisis,” Lieu warned.

READ MORE: Watch: GOP Lawmaker Orders Grieving Parkland Parents Removed From ‘ATF Overreach’ Hearing

U.S> Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) warned, “H.R. 5 would codify Republican book bans all over the country. Stories of Holocaust survivors, enslaved Americans, and over 1,600 other stories have already been pulled from shelves.”

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said HR5 is “a vehicle for hate and political nonsense.”

Congressman Greg Murphy, Republican of North Carolina, in a recorded statement falsely claimed the bill was needed because “Children are being taught to hate our country,” and “parents are labeled as domestic terrorists.”

In his speech before the bill passed, Speaker Kevin McCarthy declared, “We believe parents should know what your children is [sic] learning.”

CNN reports the bill would also “require elementary and middle schools that receive federal funding to obtain parental consent before ‘changing a minor child’s gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name on any school form; or allowing a child to change the child’s sex-based accommodations, including locker rooms or bathrooms.'”

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the legislation “Orwellian to the core,” and promised it “will not see the light of day.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Far Right Christian Nationalist Brags His ‘Biblical Worldview’ Group Is Behind Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Anti-Trans Law

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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation Tuesday prohibiting transgender people from using public school facilities that match their gender identity. Later that same day, Jason Rapert, a former Arkansas state senator and founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, posted a video crediting his organization for the legislation.

Rapert, a longtime religious-right activist and ardent Christian nationalist, bragged that this piece of legislation was first proposed by Arkansas school board member David Naylor during an annual NACL meeting, endorsed by the organization, and finally brought to the Arkansas state legislature by state Rep. Mary Bentley, who serves on the board of the NACL.

“The NACL has seven working committees,” Rapert said. “Those committees actually debate and discuss every major policy issue in this country, all from a biblical worldview.”

“We make model laws,” he continued. “Do you know that just recently Rep. Mary Bentley of Arkansas passed a model law that the NACL adopted at their last meeting in the state of Texas?”

“Rep. Mary Bentley, [who] is our chair of the National Legislative Council, she went to the Arkansas legislature, took that concept that came from Dr. David Naylor that was then adopted by the full body of the NACL, and guess what? It’s already been placed into law in the state of Arkansas,” Rapert crowed. “That’s the difference the NACL can make in your community.”

“This is what the NACL does every day all across this country,” Rapert bellowed later in the video. “We are fighting for the lives of little babies. We are fighting against the people that are putting the queer books into your school libraries and trying to groom these children into homosexuality. We’re standing up. We’re pursuing school board policies to save the nation. We are standing up and have our members running bills in the halls of the state legislatures to stand up against this woke ideology, to push back against the things of the devil in our country.”

In December, Rapert declared that right-wing Christians must rise up and “take authority” over everything from their local school boards to the federal government. The National Association for Christian Lawmakers seeks do just that, advancing legislation that fits their narrow conservative biblical worldview in statehouses throughout the country. The group’s advisory board includes politicians like Mike Huckabee and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as well as influential religious-right activists like Tony Perkins of Family Research Council and Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel.

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.

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News

Jim Jordan Busted for Helping Trump ‘Tamper’ With Probe: ‘Beyond All Bounds of What’s Legal’

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Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg rebuffed a Republican House demand for a peek inside an investigation involving Donald Trump as “unlawful,” and MSNBC’s Al Sharpton agreed it amounted to “tampering.”

Bragg’s general counsel denied a request for documents and an interview with the district attorney by Judiciary, Oversight and Administration Committee chairs Jim Jordan (R-OH), James Comer (R-KY) and Bryan Steil (R-WI), calling the congressional inquiry an “unprecedented” intervention into a pending local prosecution undertaken at Trump’s request.

“Any man that is up in the middle of the night, that is going with this kind of language, is scared to death,” Sharpton said of Trump, who has been posting highly provocative online attacks against Bragg. “The problem, though, is that he is inciting people, no matter how small they have become as a crowd, to do something. Add that to him having the photo of the bat at a sitting prosecutor, I mean, it’s unimaginable. You’re right, we’d be arrested for that.”

“We have chairmen of committees telling a prosecutor, who is in the middle of an investigation, to come and give us the evidence,” Sharpton added. “I mean, they’re really tampering with an investigation. This is not an investigation that’s concluded. Before we know whether there is an indictment or charge, they’re saying bring us the evidence? I mean, this is unheard of. What is Jordan talking about? They’re in the middle of a grand jury proceeding. You want the prosecutor to leave the proceeding and tell me the evidence you’re giving, and we’ll put it on national television so the target can understand the evidence? I mean, we are going beyond all bounds of what is legal, what is respectful, and we have a man who is scared to death, that is up in the middle of the night inciting violence, having a photo with a bat, because he’s scared to death he’s going to have to face this prosecution.”

READ MORE: Trump is ‘out of his mind scared’ after late-night outburst : Morning Joe panel

Watch the video below or at this link.

 

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