The old cultural imperialism was supposedly greedy corporatism like Disneyland, McDonald’s, and Starbucks sprouting up worldwide to supplant local competitors.
But these businesses spread because they appealed to free-will consumer demand abroad. They were not imposed top down.
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Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives this week passed a bill supporters tout as protecting LGBTQ individuals from discrimination but which many expect to impact women’s sports, healthcare providers, and religious schools.
The bill passed 102-98, nearly along party lines, in the almost evenly divided House. Among Republicans, only Representatives Aaron Kaufer (R-Luzerne) and Alec Ryncavage (R-Nanticoke) supported the bill which advocates call the “Fairness Act.” Representative Frank Burns (D-Johnstown) cast the sole Democratic vote against the measure.
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On Saturday, a student-led drag show was held at Tucson High School titled the “School is a Drag, Show,” as planned by the school’s Q Space, a club for LGBTQ+ students. In response, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R) said these shows should not be held in the schools.
“In my view, adults have first amendment rights to attend drag shows if they choose to, but they don’t belong in school,” Horne said via the phone to The Arizona Sun Times.
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On Monday, a legislative committee passed a bill a cosponsor admits would force Pennsylvania physicians to provide treatments meant to mask a gender-dysphoric person’s biological sex.
A measure supporters call the “Fairness Act” and tout as an anti-discrimination bill passed the Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee on a 12-9 party-line vote. In a speech defending the bill, cosponsoring Representative Emily Kinkead (D-Bellevue) confirmed assertions by the legislation’s opponents that it would compel doctors to deliver “gender-affirming” medicine.
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As conservative Catholic Daily Wire podcaster Michael Knowles took the podium at the University of Pittsburgh Tuesday night, protesters chanted, “Trans rights are human rights!”
About to make his initial remarks at a debate titled “Should Transgenderism Be Regulated by Law?” Knowles took the shouts in his stride.
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Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles on Wednesday responded to Deirdre Nansen McCloskey’s withdrawal from their scheduled University of Pittsburgh debate, calling the libertarian economist “scared” and “not honest.”
The event, sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), was to take place next Tuesday and Knowles said he and ISI are looking for a replacement for McCloskey. Knowles, a traditionalist Catholic, and McCloskey, a transgendered woman and professor emerita at the University of Illinois-Chicago, planned to argue over the nature of womanhood and current gender-policy issues.
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An Arizona school district encouraged students to attend “queer” spring break activities put on by an organization aimed at serving the LGBTQ youth, according to an email obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In an effort to “provide supports for our queer students,” Chandler Unified School District’s department of counseling and social services asked teachers to direct kids to a list of spring break activities put on by One-n-ten, a nonprofit that works to assist LGBTQ youth ages 14 to 24, according to an email obtained by the DCNF. Students could attend events such as “Trans & Gender Non Conforming (TGNC): Hair Journey” and “Queer Island Utopia” during their time off from school.
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The White House will host a “Roundtable on Affirming Transgender Kids” Friday as part of its observance of “Transgender Day of Visibility,” according to a fact sheet. The roundtable is part of a push from the administration to support transgenderism, including childhood medical transitions, in the wake of numerous red states restricting the procedures. The discussion will focus on the experiences of children who identify as transgender and their parents in states that have restricted child sex changes, according to the White House.
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Two leftist Pennsylvania state senators are reintroducing legislation that would ban the use of solitary confinement for gay and transgender prisoners but allow its limited use on others.
Senators John Kane (D-Chester) and Katie Muth (D-Royersford) sent colleagues a memorandum describing their proposal and bemoaning the effects of isolation on prisoners’ mental health. Their bill would limit to 15 days a period of solitary confinement for any of Pennsylvania’s 37,000 state-facility inmates. LGBTQ individuals as well as pregnant women, minors and those 70 or older would be shielded from any isolated imprisonment.
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Over 100 concerned parents, educators, and others showed up at a school board meeting of Washington Elementary School District No. 6 (WESD) in Glendale to speak Thursday night, most of them upset that the school board unanimously decided that the district would no longer hire student teachers from Arizona Christian University (ACU). Newly elected School Board Member Tamillia Valenzuela, who describes herself as “witchy AF” and “queer AF,” led the effort, stating the university’s “biblically-informed” values made her feel unsafe.
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Arizona Christian University (ACU), represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), filed a lawsuit against the Washington Elementary School District (WESD) Thursday, alleging the district discriminated against the school based on its religious beliefs.
“By discriminating against Arizona Christian University and denying it an opportunity to participate in the student teacher program because of its religious status and beliefs, the school district is in blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution, not to mention state law that protects ACU’s religious freedom,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman, vice president of U.S. litigation. “Washington Elementary School District officials are causing irreparable harm to ACU every day they force it to choose between its religious beliefs and partnering with the area’s public schools.”
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Arizona State Sen. Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) released a statement Friday calling for Tamillia Valenzuela to resign from the Washington Elementary School District (WESD) Governing Board after making anti-Christian remarks during a recent meeting.
“While we’re facing a shortage of teachers, Valenzuela is impugning the motives of teachers with certain religious beliefs. This is NOT what our country was founded on,” said Kern.
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Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom caught the attention of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Twitter over the weekend after criticizing legislation recently signed into law in the Volunteer State.
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The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) 2023 Annual Meeting took place in Nashville this weekend at Vanderbilt University.
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The White House condemned Tennessee Governor Bill Lee for signing two pieces of legislation this week that regulate drag shows and ban minors from getting sex-change operations.
On Thursday, Lee signed SB3/HB9, which outlaws drag shows in public spaces and restricts them to age-appropriate venues, and SB1/HB1, which prohibits minors from receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries.
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The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) condemned the passing of HB1/SB1 in the Tennessee General Assembly and promised legal action if the legislation is signed into law by the governor.
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The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that, if enacted, would ban “adult cabaret” performances – such as drag shows – on public property or anywhere they “could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.”
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The Metro Nashville Human Relations Commission is speaking out in opposition to a number of proposed bills making their way through the Tennessee General Assembly this legislative session, specifically ones that are “harmful” to the transgender community.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed State Representative Chris Todd from Jackson, Tennessee to the newsmaker line to detail his House bill that would prohibit young children from attending drag queen shows resulting in either misdemeanor or felony charges for the performers.
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The United Nations is releasing a report in June regarding the “perceived contradictions” between religious freedom and sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, laws and is looking to push governments to “fully comply with their obligations under international human rights law to protect and empower LGBT+ persons,” according to a U.N. announcement.
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An 18-state coalition led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed a brief opposing the Biden administration’s reinterpretation of Title IX allowing transgender girls to participate in girls’ sports.
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TrevorSpace bills itself as an affirming place for LGBTQ young people. Several Wisconsin school districts encourage their students to check out the site. But is the social networking site little more than an online dating community putting kids as young as 13 at risk of sexual exploitation?
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In announcing the appointment Monday of James Bond as his new secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, Gov. Tony Evers made sure to note that Bond would be the first “openly LGBTQ (gay) individual” to serve as a state cabinet secretary.
While Evers checked off an important liberal virtue signaling box, he failed to mention that Bond has been the No. 2 ranking official at a troubled state agency that has veterans deaths on its hands.
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PHOENIX, Arizona – Monday marked the opening day for the 56th Legislative Session, but before getting down to business, the Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) and a group of Republican Legislators from the House and Senate met with the press to state they would be filing a lawsuit against Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D).
“It’s become a modern phenomenon for Executive Branches across the country to try and legislate via executive order. We saw it with Barack Obama. We see it now with Joe Biden. And now, seemingly, Katie Hobbs, she also believes that she has the ability to legislate with the power of the pen, attempting to create law that simply does not exist,” said State Sen. Jake Hoffman (Queen Creek).
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Madison East High School will host a “family friendly” drag show later this month, a taxpayer-funded woke event that is “Exhibit A” for expanded school choice, according to a parental rights activist.
East High parents recently received an email announcing the event, sponsored by the Gender and Sexuality Alliance. The show is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Jan. 19, according to the school’s calendar. The festivities will take place in the high school’s Margaret Williams Theater.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed newly elected Maury County Commissioner Aaron Miller in studio to discuss why he decided to run for county commission and his battle against grooming with the Maury County Library.
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Walt Heyer, one of the first transgender women when he transitioned four decades ago, has long since transitioned back to male.
Today he rejects the notion that there can be a transgender person, arguing a person struggling with gender dysphoria almost always an underlying issue.
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The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added 18 new LGBTQ+ entries in 2022, including words like gender-affirming, multisexual, top and bottom.
The OED added nearly 2,000 words in the past year, according to announcements from March, June and September, with 18 of those words updated or added to specifically define ever-evolving LGBTQ+ terms. In March, OED added anti-gay and anti-homosexual, with the former receiving a specific definition while anti-homosexual was listed only as a subcategory.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Misrule of Law blogger and retired attorney Mark Pulliam to the newsmaker line to discuss his recent article which addresses the favoritism of LGBTQ rights over Christians and conservatives.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed (R-TN-14) State Representative Jason Zachary to the newsmaker line to discuss the ACLU’s lawsuit threat to Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare’s failure to maintain a schedule gender reassignment surgery and his legislature to maintain such surgeries halt in the state of Tennessee.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Braden Boucek of the Southeastern Legal Foundation in studio to comment upon Colorado web design firm, 303 Creative’s free speech rights.
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Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis is responding after the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) threatened legal action if the healthcare system does not reschedule the cancellation of surgeries for transgender and nonbinary patients.
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Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (D) on Wednesday joined a number of state, federal and city officials to celebrate the awarding of $2.5 million in taxpayer funds to a gay and transexual activity center in Philadelphia’s “Gayborhood.”
Wolf said the money from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) will go toward several major renovations envisioned for the William Way LGBT Community Center just south of City Hall. The grant comes in addition to $1 million the center received from the state in 2019 to improve the property’s heating, ventilation and cooling systems as well as to remodel the building’s front area.
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The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) suggested in a new report that one in seven voters will identify as LGBTQ by 2030.
LGBTQ voters are predicted to become the fastest growing voting bloc in the near future, with the report suggesting that one in five voters will be LGBTQ by 2040, according to the HRC and Bowling Green State University (BGSU). The report explained that 11% of voters are currently LGBTQ, and expects numbers to continually climb as Generation Z voters age and “come out.”
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Children in the Hastings Public Schools district can easily get their hands on a book titled “Gender Queer” that includes illustrations of sexual acts, a school board member said.
In an interview conducted by Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Dippel, Hastings school board member Carrie Tate confirmed that the controversial graphic novel by Maia Kobabe is available to schoolchildren in the district. The book depicts oral sex and masturbation.
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One of the most banned controversial books in the United States, according to the New York Times, has been removed from Columbus City Schools high school library shelves.
The autobiography, Gender Queer: A Memoir, was published in 2019 and is both written and illustrated by Maia Kobabe. The 240-page book tells Kobabe’s story from adolescence to adulthood covering sensitive topics such as gender identity, masturbation, menstruation, and navigating the world as someone who considers themself nonbinary.
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Virginia Democrat State Delegate Elizabeth Guzman has backed down from introducing a bill that would have expanded the definition of child abuse to include parents inflicting “physical or mental injury” on children due to their gender identity or sexual orientation.
The Epoch Times reports that Guzman first began drafting such legislation in order to counter Virginia GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin’s transgender policies in which parents of transgender children had to be made aware if their child wanted to transition or go by a different name at school.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Capitol Resource Institute’s Executive Director Karen England in studio to discuss the inappropriate sexual material in Clarksville, Tennessee K12 public schools.
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The administration of Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed a contract for a child foster care consultant on gender identity and sexual orientation, according to documents made public by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Children’s Services Agency, which “oversees all child welfare services for children,” is seeking a “Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Consultant” as of Sept. 12, according to documents made public by the Washington Free Beacon. The consultant would be a part of the “Diversity Equity and Inclusion Unit” and would focus on determining the “needs and concerns of LGBTQ staff, families and children.”
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Author and journalist Matt Walsh, who broke the story on how Vanderbilt University Medical Center was caught providing transgender surgeries to minors, announced that he is holding a rally at the Tennessee State Capitol to “end child mutilation, sterilization, and abuse in Tennessee hospitals and beyond.”
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The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) reacted to several Tennessee lawmakers calling for an investigation into Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
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Ohio’s State Board of Education on Tuesday heard public comment on a proposed resolution treating biological sex as an “objective, scientific fact” and opposing school policies that seek to blur the lines on this subject.
Board member Brendan Shea (District 5) introduced the measure, which balks at regulations recently proposed by President Joe Biden. If finalized, the federal Department of Education rules would effectively force schools to call gender-dysphoric K-12 students by their preferred names and pronouns rather than their given names and biological pronouns. They would also require school athletic programs to assign children to teams based on avowed gender identity rather than physiological sex.
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Hilliard City Schools met for a board meeting on Monday to discuss a policy regarding release time for religious instruction. However, the meeting was flooded with concerned parents over a different issue. The LGBTQ badges.
These badges were implemented at the beginning of the school year and were distributed by the teachers union National Education Association (NEA) and its local affiliate, Hilliard Education Association (HEA). They provided a badge to any teacher who requested one. According to Lisa Chaffee, director for Ohio Parents Rights and Education, “The school district did not give permission for these badges. Rather, the Union president with the HEA, Linna Jordan, did it on her own volition.” Several unsuccessful attempts were made to contact Jordan for a comment.
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An Arizona citizen, Peggy McClain, recently filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) Superintendent Kathy Hoffman because of LGBTQ-focused chat rooms available on the ADE website where youths can speak to adults about sex and gender identity.
“She’s [Hoffman] in an office to protect children and to guide children and to make children better and she’s putting them in grave danger,” McClain said to the Arizona Sun Times via the phone.
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A Tennessee science museum is hosting its first ever “family friendly” drag show as a part of its “Summer of Pride” program, according to the museum website.
The Museum of Science and History in Memphis, Tennessee, which is a “place to explore, discover and experience history, science, culture and nature” is promoting its “Memphis Proud Drag Show And Dance Party” on Sept. 23 to be “family friendly” and open to all ages, according to the museum website. The event will feature seven performers including “drag clown” Barbie Wyre, who is hosting the event, Angel Fartz and Siren Moss, who will “manifest the art of drag.”
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The city of Bloomington’s second annual “Pride Celebration” — billed as a family-friendly event — saw drag queens receiving cash tips from young children and a giveaway of condoms and “Plan B” pills.
Minnesota photojournalist Rebecca Brannon posted to Twitter several pictures from the Saturday event, including three pictures showing kids tipping drag performers with cash.
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A Florida school district has placed warning labels for parents on more than 100 books containing LGBTQ and raced-based content, according to Fox News.
Collier County public schools in Collier County, Florida, began adding warning labels to books in the district library after a February “Porn In Schools Report,” according to Fox News. The “advisory notice to parents” stickers are placed on books in both the school’s library and online catalog.
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The Biden administration and Florida Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried approved the lunch money application for Grant Park Christian Academy in Tampa just days after the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Christian school.
The school was being denied children’s lunch funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, which Fried administers. The program benefitted 56 low-income children at the Christian school by providing them with free meals.
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The largest public school district in California is teaching a curriculum promoting transgenderism and gender theory to children, according to public documents.
The Human Relations, Diversity and Equity department at Los Angeles Unified School District is using presentations, training programs and clubs to instruct K-12 students on gender identity, according to public documents, first reported by City Journal that include classroom instruction materials and district-sponsored event calendars. The “trans-affirming” curriculum first appeared during the 2020-2021 academic school year.
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In Florida, over 100 churches formerly affiliated with the United Methodist Church (UMC) have filed a lawsuit against a regional UMC group to negotiate fair terms for formally departing the denomination.
According to The Daily Wire, the lawsuit was filed on July 14th in the Circuit Court for the Eighth Judicial Circuit for Bradford County, Civil Division; the suit was filed against the UMC’s Florida Annual Conference. The lead plaintiff is the Grace United Methodist Church in Lawtey, which argued that, in the process of splitting from the church, it should not be forced to purchase its property from the regional body since the church itself already bought the location before the denomination was founded in 1968.
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