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.”
Transgender people in the military have until June 6 to "out" themselves and leave their respective branches if they wish to be eligible for voluntary separation pay, according to a Pentagon memo issued by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Transgender individuals in the reserves have until July 7 to do the same.
The memo came in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to begin enforcing the ban on transgender military personnel even as the policy itself is being challenged in the courts.
The high court did not rule on the merits of the policy, including whether it is constitutional or whether it is motivated by anti-transgender animus, as lower courts have previously found.
Poised to juggle her past and present, her fears and joys, in the one-woman autobiographical show Circus of the Self, Lucy Eden will also be juggling her two favorite props.
"I'm using balls and knives," Eden says, grinning. "And there's also some unicycling, some balance elements. I like to balance things on my face. It's one of my favorite elements of juggling."
So is comedy, which the performer blends with poetry and first-person narrative to relate her own origin story -- someone who is trans and grew up in rural south Georgia, before relocating to the Bay Area.
"One of the things about me is that I don't hear 'No,'" says Kimberley Bush, the executive director of the DC LGBTQ+ Community Center. "I do everything I can to make a 'Yes,' whether that means making a place at the table, or pulling the chair out at the table. I'll always find a way."
Born and raised in Yonkers, N.Y., Bush grew up extremely close to her parents, especially her mother, whom she describes as her best friend. After her parents divorced when she was in high school, and her mother, who worked at AT&T, was forced to relocate due to her job, the family moved to the D.C. area, where she has spent most of her adult life.
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