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3 more Polish provinces revoke anti-LGBT declarations
after EU threat to pull funding
28 Sep, 2021 09:24
Three more Polish regions have rescinded their self-declared anti-LGBT statuses over fears of losing funds from the European Union after Swietokrzyskie became the first province to revoke its status last week.
On Monday, councillors in the southeastern regions of Podkarpackie and Lubelskie, as well as the southerly Małopolska, announced they had repealed their LGBT-free statements.
In a statement on the decision to ditch the opposition to “LGBT” ideology, Małopolska Councillor Witold Kozłowski said no officials “were ready to take responsibility” for leaving the region without the EU funds.
He explained that the initial declaration had been made to voice the “importance and value of the family” in the strongly Catholic region.
Which, when compared to money, doesn't seem very important anymore.
The latest revocations come after Swietokrzyskie became the first region to bin its 2019 ruling last week. It had been implemented to demonstrate the province’s “opposition to the attempts to introduce LGBT ideology to local government communities and the promotion of this ideology in public life.”
Earlier this month, Brussels gave the regional authorities of five Polish provinces an ultimatum: either ditch the anti-LGBT statuses or lose EU funding.
Unlike the other regions, Małopolska’s move marks a complete U-turn from its previous actions. In August, its regional council voted to keep its anti-LGBT status despite some €2.5 billion [$3 billion] in EU funding being at stake.
Warsaw and Budapest’s treatment of their LGBT populations has been a point of contention between Brussels and the two central European countries.
In July, the European Commission announced it was starting legal action against the two member states for violating the human rights of its LGBT citizens.
Poland’s legal infringements concerned the declarations of around 100 “LGBT free” zones across the country. Brussels considers this to be incompatible with the bloc’s ethos of non-discrimination.
Earlier this year, the European Parliament declared the whole bloc an “LGBTIQ Freedom Zone” partially in response to Poland’s declarations, but also to the deteriorating situation in Hungary.
Mom blasts school board for allowing books promoting
pedophilia in school libraries
By Ryan Foley,
Christian Post Reporter| Monday,
September 27, 2021
WARNING: The following article contains sexually explicit content
A concerned mother has slammed one of the largest school districts in the United States for including sexually explicit books in their high school libraries, which she classified as “pornography” for their graphic descriptions of sex acts between men and boys.
The parent of a student in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia read aloud sexually explicit material and shared graphic images featured in two books available in the district’s high school libraries at a school board meeting on Thursday. A video of her addressing the board, uploaded by the advocacy group Do Better FCPS, has received more than 300,000 views.
Stacy Langton explained, “After seeing a September 9 school board meeting in Texas on pornography in the schools, I decided to check the titles at my child’s school, Fairfax High School.” Langton held up the two books singled out at the Texas school board meeting that are also available in several public high schools in Fairfax County. She said that “both of these books include pedophilia, [and] sex between men and boys.”
“Both books describe different acts,” she added. “One book describes a fourth-grade boy performing oral sex on an adult male. The other book has detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy.”
Langton added, “The illustrations include fellatio, sex toys, masturbation and violent nudity.” She read aloud from one of the books, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe: “I can’t wait to have your c**k in my mouth. I am going to give you the b**w job of your life and then I want you inside me.”
She then read an excerpt from the other book, titled Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison: “What if I told you I touched another guy’s d**k? What if I told you I sucked it? I was 10 years old but it’s true. I s**ked Doug Goble’s d**k, the real estate guy, and he s**ked mine too.”
As Langton maintained that “this is not an oversight at Fairfax High School,” a school board member interrupted and told her that “there are children in the audience here.”
I wonder if he realized the absurdity of that remark?
In an article on Substack, Asra Normani, the vice president for strategy and investigations at the grassroots advocacy organization Parents Defending Education, who attended the meeting, disputed the assertion that children were present at the meeting.
Langton, who didn't appreciate the board member's interruption of her time to speak, added: “Do not interrupt my time. I will stand here until my time is restored and my time is finished. These books are in stock and available in the libraries of Robinson, Langley and Annandale High Schools.”
A school board member then suggested that teenagers' access to the books is OK because they're only available “for high school students.” However, the majority of high school students are younger than 18, which is the age of consent in Virginia.
Before her time was up, Langton replied to the board member's assertion, saying, “Pornography is offensive to all people; it is offensive to common decency.” When Langton’s time came to a close, the school board attempted to introduce the next speaker as many in the crowd gave the mother a round of applause.
Langton remained at the podium as parents expressed their anger at the school board by chanting, “Go to jail!” As a security official tried to escort her away from the podium, Langton alleged that “This board is in violation of the law of the state of Virginia called 18.2-376! This board should be charged accordingly!”
The law cited by Langton is one of Virginia’s “Crimes Involving Morals and Decency.” It declares that “It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly prepare, print, publish, or circulate, or cause to be prepared, printed, published or circulated, any notice or advertisement of any obscene performance or exhibition.”
Another member of the audience remarked that “this is child pornography and every one of you all should be arrested for allowing this bullcrap to be perpetrated in our schools and infecting the minds of these children.”
In response to the criticism, one member of the board, Karl Frisch, took to Twitter and implicitly defended the inclusion of the book in high school libraries: “It’s not every week the School Board receives two exorcisms during public comment. To be clear, nothing will disrupt our Board’s commitment to LGBTQIA+ students, families, and staff. Nothing.”
Obviously, the exorcism failed!
Fairfax County Public Schools released a statement Friday announcing that “The circulation of these books has been suspended, while a committee reviews and makes recommendations about the text.” After outlining the process for the “Request for Reconsideration of Library or Instructional Material,” the statement indicated that two committees had been formed to determine whether to remove the books from the schools.
“Each committee will include two teachers, two parents, one school-based administrator, one member of the Equity and Cultural Responsiveness team, and two high school students. Each year, we identify potential committee members by working with our schools and regions. The committee members will be randomly selected from the list, though we will ensure that the students selected are 18 years of age given the concerns.”
The controversy is the latest example of school boards facing pushback over some of the material taught to children in public schools. In nearby Loudoun County, Virginia, parents read aloud similar literature their high school children were exposed to in a high school English class at a school board meeting this past spring.
Earlier this month, Mayor Craig Shubert of Hudson, Ohio, called on the school board to resign or face criminal charges for allowing a book titled, 642 Things to Write About.
The book features sexually explicit writing prompts intended for use in a college-level English class taught in the district’s high school. Like Langton and parents in Loudoun County, parents of students in the Hudson City School District read some of the sexually explicit writing prompts that children taking the class were asked to write about to the board.
Prompts students were asked to write about included instructions to “explain a time when you wanted to orgasm but couldn’t” and “write a sex scene you wouldn’t show your mom.”
Concerns about the kind of material children are exposed to in public schools have led to the foundation of several advocacy organizations, including Parents Defending Education and the 1776 Project PAC, which seeks to “get school board people in there who can actually start reversing it.”
27 policewomen injured in clashes with abortion rights activists
in Mexico City
29 Sep, 2021 12:04
Protesters and police officers face each other in Mexico City, September 28, 2021. © Toya Sarno Jordan/Reuters
Protesters tore down fences outside the National Palace and vandalized buildings in Mexico City on International Safe Abortion Day. More than 20 female police officers were hurt in the clashes, a senior security official said.
Women marched across Mexico’s capital and other cities on Tuesday, banging drums and wearing green scarves, which have become the symbols of reproductive rights in Latin America.
“Abortion – yes, abortion – no, that’s for me to decide,” the activists chanted, and “We must abort the system of the patriarchy,” and “Take your rosaries out of our ovaries.”
The termination of pregnancies is severely restricted in most parts of Mexico. In September, the country’s top court set a possible precedent by ordering the northern state of Coahuila to decriminalize abortion.
Members of the radical left-wing Black Bloc also participated in the protests. Wearing black and pink ski masks, they smashed the windows of an Autonomous University of Mexico State campus with hammers and vandalized its walls with spray cans.
On their way downtown, protesters clashed with police. Some were filmed shooting spray-paint at officers’ face shields.
A group of protesters also tried using spray cans to set fires to the fence surrounding the capital’s main Catholic church.
Others attempted to scale the fence that protects a tall monument to Mexico’s independence.
Once the crowd gathered outside the National Palace, the official residence of the country’s president, people tore down some of the fencing.
Firecrackers were used, creating thick plumes of smoke. Local media quoted protesters claiming that firecrackers were set off by the police.
Marcela Figueroa, Mexico City’s top security official, denied this, saying the officers carried only personal protective gear, helmets and shields, and some carried fire extinguishers.
Some policewomen wore green and pink masks to show solidarity with reproductive rights and feminist causes.
Figueroa said that 37 people were injured during the protests, including 27 female officers, a government official and nine civilians.
Feminism just isn't what it used to be.
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