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National Anti-LGBT Hate Groups Join Fight Against Tennessee High Schoolers’ Gay-Straight Alliance

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MassResistance, Liberty Counsel Lobby School Board Members Ahead of Monday’s Meeting

Two anti-LGBT hate groups from out of state, MassResistance and Liberty Counsel, reportedly have joined the battle against a newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance at Franklin County High School in Winchester, Tennessee. 

In response to a controversy over the GSA, the Franklin County school board will again discuss its policies related to student organizations on Monday night. Chairman Kevin Caroland recently told The New Civil Rights Movement that officials may consider eliminating all 17 of the school’s non-curricular clubs in an effort to ban the GSA without violating the federal Equal Access Act. 

MassResistance, which is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBT hate group, reported Saturday that it had been contacted about the GSA by local parents and a Franklin County school board member, and now plans to send a representative to the meeting. 

MassResistance also reportedly contacted the Liberty Counsel, also listed by the SPLC as an anti-LGBT hate group. Liberty Counsel has provided legal guidance to local officials. 

“With a good legal group now backing them, a decision has been made to take a vote at the School Board’s upcoming meeting this Monday, March 14,” MassResistance wrote. “If the Board does the right thing, listens to their outraged constituents, and votes to disband the GSA club in the face of the LGBT movement, it will be a great show of pro-family strength. And it could be the start of a larger counter-revolution in other places!”

Lisa Rung, a local citizen journalist, disputed MassResistance’s account, saying it was actually a representative from the group, Brian Camenker, who contacted the school board member: 

Screen_Shot_2016-03-14_at_7.47.22_AM.png 

Rung also said in an interview with Franklin County Buzz that even if the school board eliminates all non-curricular clubs, it could be a violation of the Equal Access Act, since it’s clear officials are targeting the GSA. 

“It is absolutely cut and dried; the only reason you’re doing this is because of that one club,” Rung said. “They’re basically saying, ‘We want to erase you, we wish you didn’t exist, and to say that to someone who’s already marginalized. … I hope they won’t walk off a cliff. They’re talking about walking off a cliff. It would be a very extreme thing they’re talking about doing.” 

Franklin County Buzz also reported that if the board violates federal law and loses in court, individual members could be held liable.

The school board has again moved its meeting to the Franklin County High School auditorium to accommodate a large expected crowd.

At the board’s last meeting, opponents of the GSA waved Christian flags and warned that the club is part of a “youth recruitment strategy” from radical gay activists, who want to expose children to fisting, rimming and anal sex. Opponents of the GSA have also compared it to ISIS, and students have vandalized the club’s posters and worn “Straight Pride” stickers in protest. 

Trouble for the Franklin County High School Gay-Straight Alliance first came in January when anti-gay parents compared the GSA to ISIS and called on school officials to resign for allowing it. 

The parent who compared the GSA to ISIS, apparently a Donald Trump supporter based on posts to his Facebook page, also posted the statement from MassResistance to his Facebook page.

Supporters of the GSA again plan a rally prior to the meeting, and they’ve launched a petition calling on the school board to keep non-curricular clubs. 

“In the high school, there are clubs related to the Christian faith,” Franklin County High School senior Katlyn Council wrote in the petition. “Also, in the high school, there are students who do not believe in the Christian faith. There is a simple solution the students in disagreeance with Christian clubs have already found: Don’t attend the club meetings.

“As a senior applying daily for admission into college and scholarship applications, I am able to firsthand tell you how important clubs are to students,” she wrote. “Punishing all students of FCHS is not the answer to a problem that already has a simple solution.”

The Franklin County Buzz reportedly will be streaming video from the rally and school board meeting on its YouTube channel.

 

EARLIER:

Tennessee Officials Weigh Eliminating All School Clubs in Attempt to Ban Gay-Straight Alliance

Anti-Gay Parents Tell TN School Board Gay-Straight Alliance Will Be Used To ‘Recruit’ Children

Anti-LGBT Parents Force Tennessee School Board To Consider Shutting Down Gay-Straight Alliance

 

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News

‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

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April 23, 2024

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Republicans in the Tennessee House passed legislation Tuesday afternoon allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons in classrooms across the state, thirteen months after a 28-year old shooter slaughtered three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville.

The measure is reportedly not popular statewide, with Democrats, teachers, and parents from the school, Covenant Elementary, largely opposed. The Republican Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton, at one point literally shut down debate on the bill by shutting off a Democratic lawmaker’s microphone and then smiling.

Ultimately, Republican Rep. Ryan Williams’s legislation passed the GOP majority House as protestors in the gallery shouted their objections: “Blood on your hands.”

READ MORE: Trump Complains He’s ‘Not Allowed to Talk’ as He Gripes Live on Camera

The legislation bars parents from being informed if their child’s teacher has a gun in the classroom.

State Troopers were called to “prevent people from getting close to the House chambers,” WSMV’s Marissa Sulek reports.

“You’re going to kill kids,” one woman had yelled at Rep. Williams from the gallery on Monday, The Tennessean reports. “You’re going to be responsible for the death of children. Shame on you.”

READ MORE: Biden Campaign Hammers Trump Over Infamous COVID Comment

Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones said on social media, “This is what fascism looks like.”

“In recent weeks,” the paper also reports, “parents of school shooting survivors, students and gun-reform advocates have heavily lobbied against the bill, with one Covenant School mom delivering a letter to the House on Monday with more than 5,300 signatures asking lawmakers to kill the bill.”

The bill, which already passed the state Senate, now heads to Republican Governor Bill Lee’s desk. He is expected to sign it into law.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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OPINION

Trump Complains He’s ‘Not Allowed to Talk’ as He Gripes Live on Camera

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18 hours ago

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April 23, 2024

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At the end of another short courtroom day that required barely three hours of Donald Trump’s time, the ex-president spoke to reporters inside Manhattan’s Criminal Courts Building to complain about a wide variety of perceived and alleged wrongs he is suffering, including, not being “allowed to talk.”

The ex-president’s presence was required only from 11 AM until just 2 PM. Judge Juan Merchan is overseeing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of the ex-president in a case that has already drawn a straight line through the “hush money” headlines to correct them to alleged criminal conspiracy and election interference.

Judge Merchan, for nearly two hours Tuesday morning, heard prosecutors’ allegations that Trump has violated his gag order ten times, and heard defense counsel’s claims that he had not.

It did not go well for the Trump legal team, with Judge Merchan toward the end of the hearing, during which no jurors were allowed, telling Trump lead attorney Todd Blanche, “You’re losing all credibility.”

READ MORE: Biden Campaign Hammers Trump Over Infamous COVID Comment

During the day’s hearing, jurors heard prosecutors’ lead witness, the former head of the company that publishes the National Enquirer tabloid, David Pecker, explain how he was working to help the Trump campaign.

“David Pecker testifies that, following his 2015 meeting with Trump and [Michael] Cohen, he met with former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard,” MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin reports. “Pecker outlined the arrangement and described it as ‘highly private and confidential.’ Pecker asked Howard to notify the tabloid’s West Coast and East Coast bureau chiefs that any stories that came in about Trump or the 2016 election must be vetted and brought straight to Pecker — and ‘they’ll have to be brought to Cohen.’ Pecker told Howard the arrangement needed to stay a secret because it was being carried out to help Trump’s campaign.”

Trump did not discuss any evidence against him with reporters, but he did complain about the gag order. And President Joe Biden. And the temperature in the courtroom. And his apparent attempt to stay awake, which has been a problem for him almost every day in court.

“We have a gag order, which to me is totally unconstitutional, I’m not allowed to talk but people are allowed to talk about me,” Trump told reporters, emphasizing the last word in that sentence.

“So they can talk about me, they can say whatever they want, they can lie. But I’m not allowed to say anything, I just have to sit back and look at why a conflicted judge has ordered me to have a gag order.”

READ MORE: ‘Rally Behind MAGA’: Trump Advocates Courthouse ‘Protests’ Nationwide

“I don’t think anybody’s ever seen anything like this,” Trump claimed, falsely implying no criminal defendant has ever had a gag order imposed on them previously. “I’d love to talk to you people, I’d love to say everything that’s on my mind, but I’m restricted because I have a gag order, and I’m not sure that anybody’s ever seen anything like this before.”

Trump then started to discuss the “articles” in his hand, what appeared to be dozens of articles he said had “all good headlines,” while implying they claimed “the case is a sham.”

Trump oversimplified the legal arguments attached to his gag order, as discussed with Judge Merchan Tuesday morning. The judge has yet to rule on prosecutors’ request to hold Trump in contempt.

“So I put an article in and then somebody’s name is mentioned somewhere deep in the article and I end up in violation of a gag order,” he told reporters, apparently referring to his posts on Truth Social with persecutes say violated his gag order. “I think it’s a disgrace. It’s totally unconstitutional. I don’t believe it’s ever – not to this extent – ever happened before. I’m not allowed to defend myself and yet other people are allowed to say whatever they want about me. Very, very unfair.”

“Having to do with the schools and the closings – that’s Biden’s fault,” Trump said, strangely, as if the COVID pandemic were still officially in process. “And by the way, this trial is all Biden, this is all Biden just in case anybody has any question. And they’re keeping me, in a courtroom that’s freezing by the way, all day long while he’s out campaigning, that’s probably an advantage because he can’t campaign.”

“Nobody knows what he’s doing. he can’t put two sentences together. But he’s out campaigning. He’s campaigning and I’m here and I’m sitting here sitting up as straight as I can all day long because you know, it’s a very unfair situation,” Trump lamented. “So we’re locked up in a courtroom and this guy’s out there campaigning, if you call it a campaign, every time he opens his mouth he gets himself into trouble.”

Watch below or at this link.

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News

Biden Campaign Hammers Trump Over Infamous COVID Comment

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21 hours ago

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April 23, 2024

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Four years ago today then-President Donald Trump, on live national television during what would be known as merely the early days and weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggested an injection of a household “disinfectant” could cure the deadly coronavirus.

The Biden campaign on Tuesday has already posted five times on social media about Trump’s 2020 remarks, including by saying, “Four years ago today, Dr. Birx reacted in horror as Trump told Americans to inject bleach on national television.”

Less than 24 hours after Trump’s remarks calls to the New York City Poison Control Center more than doubled, including people complaining of Lysol and bleach exposure. Across the country, the CDC reported, calls to state and local poison control centers jumped 20 percent.

“It was a watershed moment, soon to become iconic in the annals of presidential briefings. It arguably changed the course of political history,” Politico reported on the one-year anniversary of Trump’s bleach debacle. “It quickly came to symbolize the chaotic essence of his presidency and his handling of the pandemic.”

How did it happen?

“The Covid task force had met earlier that day — as usual, without Trump — to discuss the most recent findings, including the effects of light and humidity on how the virus spreads. Trump was briefed by a small group of aides. But it was clear to some aides that he hadn’t processed all the details before he left to speak to the press,” Politico added.

READ MORE: ‘Cutting Him to Shreds’: ‘Pissed’ Judge Tells Trump’s Attorney ‘You’re Losing All Credibility’

“’A few of us actually tried to stop it in the West Wing hallway,’ said one former senior Trump White House official. ‘I actually argued that President Trump wouldn’t have the time to absorb it and understand it. But I lost, and it went how it did.'”

The manufacturer of Lysol issued a strong statement saying, “under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” with “under no circumstance” in bold type.

Trump’s “disinfectant” remarks were part of a much larger crisis during the pandemic: misinformation and disinformation. In 2021, a Cornell University study found the President was the “single largest driver” of COVID misinformation.

What did Trump actually say?

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out, in a minute,” Trump said from the podium at the White House press briefing room, as Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx looked on without speaking up. “Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection, inside, or almost a cleaning, ’cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. You’re going to have to use medical doctors, right? But it sounds interesting to me.”

READ MORE: ‘Rally Behind MAGA’: Trump Advocates Courthouse ‘Protests’ Nationwide

Within hours comedian Sarah Cooper, who had a good run mocking Donald Trump, released a video based on his remarks that went viral:

The Biden campaign at least 12 times on the social media platform X has mentioned Trump’s infamous and dangerous remarks about injecting “disinfectant,” although, like many, they have substituted the word “bleach” for “disinfectant.”

Hours after Trump’s remarks, from his personal account, Joe Biden posted this tweet:

Tuesday morning the Biden campaign released this video marking the four-year anniversary of Trump’s “disinfectant” remarks.

See the social media posts and videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument

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