A conservative radio host is accusing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of attempting to indoctrinate American schoolchildren into supporting sexual deviancy through her plan to stop bullying in schools.
Linda Harvey, writing in a column for the anti-gay activist Matt Barber’s website BarbWire, primarily takes issue with Clinton’s inclusion of protections for LGBT students in her anti-bullying plan. She accuses Clinton of attempting to “firmly plant homosexuality and gender confusion as fully accepted behaviors even among grade school children,” adding that such promoting such ideas amounts to “institutional child abuse.”
Clinton’s “Better than Bullying” program, which would cost $500 million, calls upon schools to develop comprehensive anti-bullying policies, including those that address cyberbullying, to expand behavioral health prevention and intervention programming, and to provide support for educators to foster a more inclusive school climate. States would receive grants and matching funds if they complied with those requirements.
Harvey bemoans that Clinton seeks to enforce part of her plan through the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights by having the office crack down on Title IX violations where transgender children are denied access to restrooms or locker rooms that are inconsistent with their gender identity. Those that continue to engage in anti-trans discrimination could lose federal funding as a result.
“These are…children designed like all others as male or female heterosexuals, who are sadly tempted to use their bodies in ways adults and schools should universally discourage,” Harvey writes about LGBT students. “There is nothing positive about homosexual behavior or gender pretense, and this is the position schools should always take for the long-term well-being of students.
“Under Hillary’s plan, Congress would pass the ‘Safe Schools Improvement Act.’ Sounds positive, until one realizes it would be a school ‘anti-bullying’ law to protect homosexuality and gender-switching as behavioral rights in schools,” she adds. “This is what a Hillary presidency will spend its time on. There’s an easy solution, however. Elect a more conservative candidate — Donald Trump.”
"It really started just as a Twitter joke," recalls filmmaker Vera Drew, of her boldly creative comic book movie spoof The People's Joker, a passion project largely inspired by the Oscar-winning 2019 Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix.
"My friend Bri just commissioned me to re-edit Todd Phillips' Joker, and I started doing that," Drew tells Metro Weekly. "And then over the course of a few months, it grew in scope."
As Drew involved other artists in assembling a kaleidoscopic, mixed media take on Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime, what started as a joke between friends eventually gained unstoppable momentum. "And as that started happening," says Drew, "it was just like, 'Okay, no, let's just make an original movie here. Let's just make a parody.'"
Ohio Republican Attorney General Dave Yost is appealing a judge's decision to block the state from enforcing its ban on gender-affirming care for minors and a ban prohibiting transgender athletes from competing on female-designated sports teams.
Yost filed an emergency motion with the Ohio Supreme Court asking it to overturn a temporary restraining order issued by Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook, which blocked the law's provisions from taking effect for two weeks.
Holbrook, a Republican appointee, found that two transgender minors and their parents, who sued to challenge the law in court last month, were likely to suffer "immediate" harm, in the form of reduced access to health care providers willing to treat their gender dysphoria, if the law -- which imposes penalties on doctors who prescribe gender-affirming treatments -- were to take effect.
A Pennsylvania school board reversed the cancellation of an anti-bullying assembly at a local middle school after being accused of discriminating against the guest speaker, actor and author Maulik Pancholy, who is gay.
The Cumberland Valley School District school board voted 5 to 4 to allow the assembly at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, to proceed as originally scheduled.
Students whose parents object to the presentation's content will be allowed to opt out of the assembly.
Pancholy, nationally known for his role as Jonathan on NBC's hit TV show 30 Rock, is the author of two award-winning novels for young adults.
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