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Anti-Gay Iowa Lawmaker Says He’s Sick Of Reading About How Anti-Gay He Is

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State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann Jokingly Denies Being In ‘Homosexual Relationship’ With Colleague

An anti-gay Iowa lawmaker is sick of reading about how anti-gay he is on “blogs.” 

As we reported last week, GOP state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann has launched an investigation into the annual Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth, in response to allegations from Bob Vaander Plaats‘ anti-gay Family Leader group that the event included inappropriate content last year. 

In an apparent effort to ensure the investigation is biased, Kaufmann has appointed Republican Rep. Greg Heartsill, an outspoken critic of the conference, to a two-person committee charged with investigating the allegations. 

Supporters of the conference, put on by the nonprofit Iowa Safe Schools, have characterized the investigation as a witch hunt and political stunt. They note that because the conference isn’t funded by taxpayers, lawmakers don’t have the authority to regulate it. 

Nevertheless, a committee held its first hearing Wednesday, and Kaufmann lashed out at people who’ve criticized him for the investigation via email and on social media, including one who apparently accused him of being Heartsill’s lover, according to The Des Moines Register. 

“I am here to announce that Rep. Heartsill and I are not in a homosexual relationship,” Kaufmann said, apparently joking. “I am getting sick of reading all the crap that is on the blogs.”

Democratic state Rep. Mary Wolfe responded that putting up with criticism is part of being a legislator, and Nate Monson, executive director of Iowa Safe Schools, took offense to the implication that being in a gay relationship would be a bad thing. 

“That was just really painful to hear because LGBTQ kids are made fun of constantly and I would expect more from our legislators,” Monson said.

Of course, if Kaufman is tired of reading about the investigation, the obvious solution would be for him to call it off, but it doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen. 

“I don’t care if 20 million people write us letters saying that this conference is the best thing since sliced bread, I am not going to say that this is OK,” Kaufmann said during Wednesday’s hearing.

On the other hand, a letter criticizing the conference has become Exhibit A in the investigation. 

Heartsill read the letter during the hearing from Jamie Ehlert, a teacher at West Des Moines Valley High School who attended the conference and claims to be an LGBT ally. 

“We take these allegations very seriously,” Heartsill said. “There is no reason to question the credibility and truthfulness of this statement.”

RELATED: Anti-Gay Iowa Republican Partners With Anti-Gay Christian Group To Bully Anti-Bullying LGBTQ Group

According to a copy of her letter provided to The New Civil Rights Movement by Monson, Ehlert wrote that her anti-bullying group won’t be attending the conference this year, due to “extremely vulgar language and X-rated material” at last year’s event. She specifically objected to two presentations featuring comedian and LGBT ally Sam Killermann, during which he answered questions related to sexual health that were submitted via social media.

Ehlert said Killermann gave information about finding “orgies” and porn on the Internet, as well as how to safely practice bondage. She also took issue with a closing presentation from drag queen Coco Peru, who allegedly sang about how “the bullies should be poisoned and fucking die.” 

In a letter responding to Ehlert’s concerns, Monson wrote that Iowa Safe Schools doesn’t intend to alter the content of the conference, now in its 11th year.  

“I am sorry to hear an anti-bully group is missing the purpose of this important event for LGBTQ students and their families,” Monson wrote, adding that an LGBTQ teen takes his or her life every five hours in the US. “This is due to isolation and discrimination they face on an ongoing basis. This Conference continues to serve as the one place these students can go to feel supported.” 

Killermann also responded to Ehlert’s concerns in an interview with KCCI-TV. 

“Anything sex education and providing information on sexual health, any answer can be twisted and turned into something salacious. That is what is happening here,” Killermann said. “What we were doing was responding to kids’ questions that they don’t get to ask people typically.”

Wolfe, the Democratic lawmaker, questioned the point of the investigation given that Kaufmann has said it’s not his intent to shut down the conference. 

“I don’t understand why we are doing this and I don’t understand what the end game is,” Wolfe said. “I’m also sure we can get hundreds, if not thousands, of letters from people who have attended this presentation, and it’s saved their lives it meant so much to them.” 

Monson told The Des Moines Register that the investigation has only served to exacerbate the underlying problem. 

“After this conference and after this investigation started, we received numerous emails very threatening and very intimidating, probably hundreds of them, that were very disgusting and very disturbing,” Monson said. “So our concern is safety of students and I hope that Rep. Kaufmann will understand that has just simply sensationalized this conference and is putting LGBTQ youth at risk.”

The committee reportedly plans to continue its investigation by calling Monson to testify in a few weeks. 

Meanwhile, Iowa GOP Gov. Terry Branstad has left out funds for a bullying prevention office in his budget recommendations for the coming year. 

 

EARLIER:

Anti-Gay Lawmakers Revive ‘Witch Hunt’ Against LGBTQ Youth Conference

Top Anti-Gay Activist Demands Schools Teach Gays They Can Never Have Sex

‘We’ve Always Been Married In Our Hearts’: Iowa Women Talk About Their 72 Years Together (Video)

 

This article has been updated to reflect Sam Killermann is an LGBT ally, not LGBT

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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News

Trump Border Czar ‘Doesn’t Care’ About Judges — One Might Make Administration Think Twice

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12 hours ago

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March 17, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, on Monday dismissed concerns about federal judges and defended the administration’s mass deportations despite a court order to halt them—but one judge appears ready to force the administration to reconsider.

The New York Times reports that Homan’s “defiant remarks” indicated “that the administration planned to continue such deportations despite the court’s order — an action that could thrust the country into a constitutional crisis, pitting one of the coequal branches of the government against another.”

Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Saturday blocked the Trump administration’s mass deportations to El Salvador and Honduras of hundreds of alleged gang members, under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which was to be used only during times of “declared” war.

After Judge Boasberg issued a verbal order “temporarily blocking the deportations,” the Associated Press reported, “lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not.”

READ MORE: ‘Welcome to Autocracy’: Trump Declaring Biden’s Pardons ‘Void’ Debunked and Denounced

Axios, citing two senior officials, reported that the “Trump administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn’t apply.”

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the judge’s order had “no lawful basis” because the plane was not in U.S. airspace.

The administration claimed the verbal order to turn the planes around was not included in Judge Boasberg’s written order that followed. Some are accusing the administration of intentionally ignoring a legal order from a federal judge.

Monday morning on “Fox and Friends,” border czar Homan defended the deportations, and declared: “We made a promise to American people the President Trump has made a promise to American people, we’re gonna make this country safe again.”

“I wake up every morning loving my job because I work for the greatest president in the history of my life and we’re gonna make this country safe again,” Homan told co-host Lawrence Jones.

READ MORE: ‘Sounds Like Putin’: Trump Blasted for Declaring Top News Organizations ‘Illegal’

“I’m proud to be a part of this administration. We’re not stopping,” he declared.

“I don’t care what the judges think, I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming,” Homan warned.

Jones declared his support for Homan’s actions, telling the former Trump acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “I just love seeing you going through these protesters, just crunching on the apple as their liberal tears just flood the hallway.”

Meanwhile, Judge Boasberg ordered attorneys for the Trump administration back into court, for a Monday afternoon hearing, and gave them questions they must answer, according to MSNBC legal contributor Adam Klasfeld.

“1) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation took off after either the
Court’s written or oral Orders were issued;
2) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation landed after either the
Court’s written or oral Orders were issued;
3) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation was still in the air after
either the Court’s written or oral Orders were issued; and
4) whether custody of any individuals subject to the Proclamation was transferred to a
foreign country after either the Court’s written or oral Orders were issued.”

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pointing to a report stating that Trump is using “the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, granting himself sweeping powers,” wrote: “Trump is defying court orders and abusing wartime powers to deport people with no due process. He’s using the law that put Italian, German, and Japanese immigrants in detention camps during World War II. We are not at war. Donald Trump is not a king. He is not above the law.”

CNN’s Elie Honig and Dana Bash discussed the issue Monday afternoon. Honig said in theory the Trump administration’s decision to not order the planes to return could lead to impeachment, but “we live in reality, that’s not going to happen.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: White House Caught Admitting Real Reason for Mass Firings: Experts

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Welcome to Autocracy’: Trump Declaring Biden’s Pardons ‘Void’ Debunked and Denounced

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15 hours ago

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March 17, 2025

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President Donald Trump began his Mar-a-Lago golf weekend on Friday by alleging that whoever controlled the “autopen” was the true president during the Biden administration. He ended the weekend aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, declaring that President Joe Biden’s pardons are “null and void” and vowing that members of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack would be investigated, despite Biden having granted them pardons.

Trump, apparently using information from the Heritage Foundation, alleged that the pardons were signed via an automated system called an “autopen,” and threatened the January 6 Committee members, saying they are now “subject to investigation at the highest level,” and accusing them of being behind the signing of the pardons by a mechanical device.

Experts say this is false on all fronts: The pardons were signed by President Biden, the online copies at the National Archives were digitally signed, as has been the practice for decades, but there are photos of Biden signing many of the pardons, and even if they were mechanically signed, they are still valid.

“Even if Biden did use an autopen, the Justice Department (DOJ) in 2005 stated: ‘The President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law,’ so Trump’s argument is not legally valid,” Newsweek reported. “This autopen allegations are part of MAGA’s larger conspiracy that claims the Biden White House was covering up for his alleged cognitive decline while in office.”

READ MORE: ‘Sounds Like Putin’: Trump Blasted for Declaring Top News Organizations ‘Illegal’

Trump appeared prepared to pursue “voiding” the pardons, telling reporters on Air Force One it’s not his decision to make, but rather, it is up to the legal system.

“It’s not my decision. That’ll be up to a court. But I would say that they’re null and void, because I’m sure Biden didn’t have any idea that it was taking place,” President Trump alleged. And somebody was using an autopen to sign off and to give pardons to, as an example, just one example, but the J6 unselect committee.

“I don’t think Biden knew anything about it,” Trump repeated, before launching into a series of debunked conspiracy theories.

Trump also claimed that the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack “deleted and destroyed all of the information that took them over a year to get,” a claim popular among MAGA conspiracy theorists — including President Trump — but long ago found to be false.

The New York Times strongly pushed back against Trump’s claims:

“There is no power in the Constitution or case law to undo a pardon, and there is no exception to pardons signed by autopen. But Mr. Trump’s assertion, which embraced a baseless right-wing conspiracy theory about former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was a new escalation of his antidemocratic rhetoric. Implicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be. And it was a jolting reminder that his appetite for revenge has not been sated.”

Trump followed his “null and void” claim board Air Force One with an early morning rant, writing at 12:35 AM Monday: “The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.”

READ MORE: White House Caught Admitting Real Reason for Mass Firings: Experts

“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!”

At the time President Biden signed the pardons, some had considered them controversial. But the Associated Press had called it “an extraordinary use of executive power to guard against potential ‘revenge’ by the new Trump administration.”

Legal experts and political observers alike are strongly denouncing Trump’s allegations.

“Trump CANNOT legally reverse Biden’s pardons. The bigger question is what improper and illegal actions will be taken by Trump’s DOJ and FBI that would fly in the face of those Biden pardons,” declared MSNBC legal contributor and correspondent Katie Phang,

“Welcome to autocracy. The Republic we have known for the last 240 years is gone. This is going to keep getting worse. Much worse. The courts mean nothing, the law means nothing, Congress is irrelevant. He is a malignant psychopath,” wrote attorney and former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski, a former Republican now the editor-in-chief of the liberal news site MeidasTouch.

Policy expert Neera Tanden, a high-level official in both the Obama and Biden administrations, asked, “does this mean everything with a Trump autopen signature is void in this Administration and the last? Because there’s a lot by autopen in every Administration. Some enterprising lawyers may want to sue.”

Tanden’s claim is supported by The Guardian, which cited Smithsonian Magazine’s report that ‘described how presidents since Thomas Jefferson have used devices to help them sign documents with greater efficiency. Jefferson, the third president from 1801 to 1809, used a polygraph, a device he found so useful he said he ‘could not live without it’.”

SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah commented, “We went to sleep in a democratic Republic. We woke up in a fascist state. That is the truth after reading this AM Trump has openly violated federal court orders and declared all pardons Pres Biden issued to those involved in Jan 6 investigation are now ‘void.’ History is warning us where this goes.”

CNN’s Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor said on-air, “there is no such thing as an ‘un-pardon’ power.”

Fox News’ Jessica Tarlov remarked, “For those who claimed Joe Biden went too far with his pardons, what do you say now? Donald Trump is not a king. He needs to stop trying to act like one.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Team Fight’: Democrats Call for Schumer to Resign

 

Image: Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz via Flickr

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‘Sounds Like Putin’: Trump Blasted for Declaring Top News Organizations ‘Illegal’

Published

3 days ago

on

March 14, 2025

By

President Donald Trump, just 54 days into his second term, declared himself “the chief law enforcement officer in our country” and labeled two major news organizations, CNN and MSNBC, as “illegal,” while further denouncing their coverage as “illegal.” His remarks Thursday afternoon were delivered to officials at the U.S. Department of Justice, in an appearance that shattered a decades-old norm designed to insulate the department from political interference—a safeguard established in response to President Richard Nixon’s abuses of power. Trump’s statements have drawn sharp criticism for their authoritarian tone and direct attack on press freedom, sparking alarm.

“I believe that CNN and MSNDC,” said Trump (video below), using his own derogatory twist on MSNBC’s name, “who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal.”

Trump also “rallied against the press,” in general, “claiming they are influencing judges and, without any evidence, claiming the media works in coordination with political campaigns, which is not allowed in the news industry,” The Hill reported.

READ MORE: White House Caught Admitting Real Reason for Mass Firings: Experts

It has been widely reported that during his first term in office, Fox News host Sean Hannity spoke with Trump “nearly every weeknight.”

“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative. And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really, eh, changing law and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal and they do it in total coordination with each other,” the President alleged.

Trump’s remarks were just a part of a speech that lasted more than one hour, during which he “delivered an insult-laden speech that shattered the traditional notion of DOJ independence,” as Politico reported. During those remarks, Trump also “labeled his courtroom opponents ‘scum,’ judges ‘corrupt’ and the prosecutors who investigated him ‘deranged.'”

“With the DOJ logo directly behind him, Trump called for his legal tormentors to be sent to prison.”

It is not the first time the President, who is a convicted felon, has declared MSNBC “illegal.”

Last month, when MSNBC host Joy Reid left the news network, Trump unleashed a torrent of hatred.

“Lowlife Chairman of ‘Concast,’ Brian Roberts, the owner of Ratings Challenged NBC and MSDNC, has finally gotten the nerve up to fire one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist, Joy Reid,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform. “Based on her ratings, which were virtually non-existent, she should have been ‘canned’ long ago, along with everyone else who works there. Also thrown out was Alex Wagner, the sub on the seriously failing Rachel Maddow show. Rachel rarely shows up because she knows there’s nobody watching, and she also knows that she’s got less television persona than virtually anyone on television except, perhaps, Joy Reid.”

READ MORE: ‘Team Fight’: Democrats Call for Schumer to Resign

Trump’s Friday afternoon assault on the media was swiftly criticized.

“This is what a dictator sounds like,” wrote U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI).

“Journalism is legal,” declared award-winning investigative journalist Lindsay Beyerstein. “Criticizing the president is legal. Being a Democrat is legal. Nothing Donald Trump is ranting about here is a crime and he’s disgracing himself and the Department of Justice by talking this way.”

Journalist Matt O’Brien observed, “Trump wants to get rid of freedom of speech because he wants to be a dictator. And unlike his first term, he now has a government full of fascists who are eager to make that a reality.”

Marlow Stern, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Journalism at Columbia University’s Columbia Journalism School wrote: “sounds like putin.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist Kyle Whitmire wrote simply: “Enemy of the Constitution.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Basically Underwater on Everything’: Trump in Big Trouble With Majority of Voters Poll Finds

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

 

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