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WATCH: LGBT Students, Allies Clash With Anti-Gay Protesters Outside Tennessee School Board Meeting

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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. 

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. 

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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. 

“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. 

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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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

“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.” 

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. 

“As an attorney who represents school districts and local governments regularly against federal civil rights claims, I respectfully disagree,” Tucker responded. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

“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.  

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“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.” 

“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. 

Weick is a national Christian activist and author who’s best known for her theory that Monster energy drinks are the work of Satan: 

 

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

 

Images: Screenshots via Fox 17 

 

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Pelosi Delivers Brutal Response After McCarthy’s Acting Replacement Orders Her to Vacate Her Office Immediately

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Within hours of Kevin McCarthy being ousted as Speaker of the House late Tuesday afternoon, his hand-picked acting successor, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol Hill offices “by tomorrow.”

McHenry, whose title technically now is “Speaker Pro Tempore,” is a staunch McCarthy ally who worked diligently behind the scenes in January to help the now-former Speaker get elected on the fifteenth attempt, had an aide issue the order.

“‘Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed,’ wrote a top aide on the Republican-controlled House Administration Committee,” Politico reported Tuesday night. “The room was being reassigned by the acting speaker ‘for speaker office use,’ the email said.”

Politico adds that “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ staff helped Pelosi’s office make the move, according to a spokesperson for the former speaker.”

Pelosi, who was honored with the title “Speaker Emerita” in 2022 by the House Steering and Policy Committee in an effort to help unite the House, did not vote for or against McCarthy’s ouster. She remained in California to attend the funeral of her friend and colleague, the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

READ MORE: ‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

But Pelosi, the first and only woman Speaker of the House, who served from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, did not take McHenry’s order lying down.

“With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol,” Pelosi said in a statement, according to Politico’s Nicholas Wu. “Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time.”

“This eviction is a sharp departure from tradition. As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,” She noted.

“Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems important to them,” Pelosi added. “Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important to the American people.”

READ MORE: ‘Terrorist Attacks’: Murphy and Cornyn Slam House GOPers Over McCarthy Ouster

 

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‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

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Just hours after New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron imposed a limited gag order and directed Donald Trump to remove his social media post targeting and attacking, by name, the judge’s law clerk, the ex-president Tuesday evening issued an attack targeting the legal system, and apparently, by extension, Attorney General Letitia James.

Judge Engoron’s Tuesday order barred Trump from “posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” as Politico reported. The judge’s gag order did not extend to any officer of the court, witnesses, or anyone else involved in Attorney General James’ $250 million civil fraud case against Trump.

“Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” Engoron said Tuesday afternoon. “Failure to abide by this order will result in serious sanctions.”

Judge Engoron had announced in court: “This morning one of the defendants posted to his social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff.”

“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances,” Engoron added.

Politico described Trump’s social media post as “a message alleging [the law clerk] ‘is running this case against me.’ The message was pulled from an account on X with fewer than 200 followers. Trump then linked to an Instagram account for Greenfield’s campaign for a judgeship in Manhattan civil court.”

READ MORE: ‘Part of the Authoritarian Playbook’: Trump’s Courthouse Rant Slammed by Fascism Scholars

“’How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!’ Trump added. He also posted a photo of her alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and referred to her as ‘Schumer’s girlfriend.'”

And while the judge ordered the social media post taken down, there’s nothing that can be done about the email blast Trump sent to “millions” of his supporters that included the post, as The New York Times reported.

Tuesday evening, despite having already been given one gag order, Trump appeared to tear into the legal system and Attorney General Letitia James in a series of false claims.

After claiming James’ civil lawsuit against him was unconstitutional and election interference, Trump wrote the decision to apply that statute to him “was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know.”

“It is so unfair that I am being tried under Section 63(12), which is unconstitutionally being used to punish me because I am substantially leading Crooked Joe Biden in the polls,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is a Consumer Protection Statute, and not meant, at all, for Election Interference purposes, which is what this is all about! Under this Section of the law, I am not even entitled to a JURY (there is no checking of a box alternative!).This was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

As The New Yorker reported last week, the law Trump is referring to was “passed at the behest of one of” James’ “Republican predecessors, Jacob Javits.”

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‘Terrorist Attacks’: Murphy and Cornyn Slam House GOPers Over McCarthy Ouster

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After U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and seven of fellow far-right House Republicans voted to oust their own Speaker of the House for supporting a bipartisan vote to keep the federal government of the United States from a shutdown, a powerful Senate Republican and Democrat are both strongly denouncing the work of the few GOP extremists who toppled Kevin McCarthy.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a hard-core Republican of Texas and a former member of the Senate Republican leadership team, blasted the eight House Republicans for their “terrorist attack,” and warned it will happen again.

“We saw a similar thing happen to Boehner, Ryan, and now McCarthy. I’m sure the next speaker is going to be subjected to the same terrorist attacks,” Senator Cornyn said, according to HuffPost’s Igor Bobic.

Responding to a Texas radio talk show host from his official social media account, Sen. Cornyn added, “A handful [of] House members just want to blow up the institution and themselves in the process. Sad.”

READ MORE: McCarthy Ousted as Speaker in Historic First as Republicans Vow Vengeance Against Gaetz: ‘Kiss My A–’

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) called the ouster “a deeply embarrassing moment for America. A consequence of a Republican Party that has become so radicalized that it can no longer function as an organized political party.”

“Nobody should be rooting for this circus,” added Sen. Murphy in video recorded as he watched the House voting to remove McCarthy as Speaker. He warned that the ouster of McCarthy will now take the House away from the critical work of keeping the government open after November 17, “instead of working on a budget.” And he warned that no new funds to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war have been authorized.

“These are life and death stakes,” Murphy said, lamenting this “makes us look so weak and foolish around the world.”

Watch Sen. Murphy’s remarks above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Part of the Authoritarian Playbook’: Trump’s Courthouse Rant Slammed by Fascism Scholars

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