WATCH: LGBT Students, Allies Clash With Anti-Gay Protesters Outside Tennessee School Board Meeting
Franklin County Officials Weigh Strict New Rules For Student Clubs in Response to Controversy Over Gay-Straight Alliance
In response to the controversy over a newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance, the school board in Franklin County, Tennessee, is set to approve strict new regulations affecting all non-curricular clubs, including a requirement that students obtain parental permission before joining.Â
LGBT students and their allies clashed with adult anti-gay protesters on Monday outside Franklin County High School in the small town of Winchester, where board members discussed the proposed new regulations that are expected to be voted on in April.Â
Supporters of the GSA staged a peaceful rally prior to the meeting, but things got heated when they encountered anti-gay protesters with Westboro Baptist Church-style signs saying things like, “DANGER: SIN KILLS: TURN OR BURN,” suggesting that LGBT people who don’t change their sexuality will go to Hell.Â
“You will go to Hell for judging,” one student told an anti-gay protester before a sheriff’s deputy intervened and separated them, according video (above) from Nashville’s Fox 17.Â
The anti-gay protester was wearing a T-shirt saying: “Homosexuality Leads to Hell” on the front and “LGBT: Letting Go Of Biblical Truth” on the back. As we reported Monday, national anti-LGBT hate groups MassResistance and Liberty Counsel have joined the fight against the GSA.Â
The school board called in extra security, barred supporters and opponents of the GSA from bringing large signs into the auditorium, and ordered the crowd to remain silent during the meeting.Â
In addition to parental consent before joining clubs, the proposed new rules would require all student organizations to keep membership rolls, attendance logs and minutes of their meetings. In addition, non-curricular clubs would be barred from “solicitation for membership,” an apparent response to fears that the GSA will be used to recruit children, and required to obtain approval from the administration before having visitors.Â
Only one board member, Adam Tucker, objected to some of the requirements, saying he believes they’re designed to target the GSA, which first met in January.Â
“Prior to January, there was never any discussion by this board, or to my knowledge, discussion among any administrative employees, about seeking approval from parents before children participate in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or P7,” Tucker said, referring to two non-curricular clubs for Christian students. “It’s a double standard.”Â
When supporters of the GSA cheered Tucker’s statements, board Chair Kevin Caroland threatened to remove them. Caroland then argued that according to Tucker’s logic, the board could never consider new rules for student clubs — since the GSA was the most recent one approved. He also said the board’s legal counsel has indicated that the language is acceptable.Â
“As an attorney who represents school districts and local governments regularly against federal civil rights claims, I respectfully disagree,” Tucker responded.Â
Other board members referenced a Tennessee law requiring any school-sponsored discussion of sexuality to stress abstinence, as well as pending state legislation that would require parental permission to join student clubs.Â
Tucker also objected to the solicitation ban and a requirement that clubs promote “a positive school and community atmosphere and unity” — saying it is subjective. And he proposed an appeals process if clubs are accused of violating the rules.Â
The GSA’s faculty sponsor later wrote on Facebook that despite the proposed new rules, it was “a good night, on balance.” Last week, board members indicated they would consider eliminating all non-curricular clubs to get rid of the GSA without violating the federal Equal Access Act.Â
“The GSA still stands,” the faculty sponsor wrote. “The clubs still stand. And overworked and underpaid faculty (and administrators) will likely be buried in paperwork … again.
“I cannot tell you how wonderful these FCHS GSA kids are!” she added. “Wow! They are going to change the world. You can count on it.”
After the meeting, supporters of the GSA again clashed with opponents. Â
“It’s not discrimination or hate,” the man wearing the anti-gay T-shirt told Fox 17. “It’s actually loving them and helping them.”Â
“I love the homosexuals. I want them in heaven with me, and the Bible is clear that with that choice of lifestyle, they’re not going to go there,” said anti-gay protester Christine Weick.Â
Weick is a national Christian activist and author who’s best known for her theory that Monster energy drinks are the work of Satan:Â
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EARLIER:
Anti-LGBT Parents Force Tennessee School Board To Consider Shutting Down Gay-Straight Alliance
Students Wear ‘Straight Pride’ Signs In Tennessee High School After Gay-Straight Alliance Formed
Tennessee Parents Wage War On Gay-Straight Alliance, Compare Club To ISIS
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Images: Screenshots via Fox 17Â
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
