Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, announced its endorsement of Governor Gavin Newsom for re-election on Thursday. The organization previously supported Newsom in his 2018 primary and general election campaigns and was the first organization to officially oppose the attempt to recall him in 2021. Throughout his career, Newsom has been a staunch advocate for LGBTQ+ civil rights and social justice, including — most recently — as an outspoken opponent of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks from far-right governors in Florida and Texas.
In order to defend Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, and others like it being introduced across the country, some rightwing media figures are stating that all male teachers are likely pedophiles.
On Sunday night, David Mamet, a 74-year-old Pulitzer prize-winning playwright who is also a male teacher of playwriting, told Fox News host Mark Levin, “What we have is kids being — not only indoctrinated — but groomed in a very real sense, by people who are, whether they know it or not, sexual predators.”
“Are they abusing the kids physically? No, I don’t think so,” Mamet continued. “But they are abusing them mentally and using sex to do so. Teachers are inclined, particularly men because men are predators, to pedophilia.”
Echoing Mamet’s views, conservative radio host Jesse Kelly wrote via Twitter, “All this talk about teachers and I’ll just say that if your kid has a dude teaching them kindergarten, you already got all the red flags you need.”
The National Education Association has said that only two percent of kindergarten teachers nationwide are male. Only about 16 percent of teachers from kindergarten to middle school are male, the association added. Among the top reasons that men don’t take the jobs are low pay and distrustful stereotypes about pedophilia, CBS News reported.
Words like Mamet’s and Kelly’s are not only shaming male teachers and depriving young students of positive male role models in the classroom, they’re also reinforcing the idea that men lack sexual self-control and encouraging people to accuse them child sex abuse, act violently towards male educators, or get them removed from classrooms.
In a recent installment of his show, Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked, “I don’t understand where the men are. Like where are the dads? You know, some teachers pushing sex values on your third grader, why don’t you go in and thrash the teacher? Like this is an agent of the government pushing someone else’s values on your kid about sex, like where’s the pushback?”
For the past month, Republicans have focused their attacks on LGBTQ people and liberals. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) press secretary Christina Pushaw has called the “Don’t Say Gay” law an “anti-grooming law.” Grooming is the act of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child’s inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse.
“If you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children,” Pushaw wrote. “Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn’t make the rules.”
Fox News host Laura Ingraham has also recently said that “Liberals are sexually grooming elementary students.”
Numerous social media commentators have pointed out that Republicans have long underfunded and attacked public schools as places of “indoctrination” in order to push a “school choice” agenda that would direct taxpayer dollars to largely unregulated charter schools that can discriminate against students and push religious agendas.
Mamet’s and Kelly’s comments, though, could be a sign that conservatives are expanding the narrative to include anyone who defies traditional gender roles in any way, like men who work in early childhood education and child care.
Anti-LGBT+ social media influencer Libs of TikTok attended the 6 January Capitol insurrection, according to deleted tweets.
Libs of TikTok, which began on TikTok but later moved to Twitter, posts content from liberal social media users, inviting ridicule and outrage from right-wing conservatives, often directed at LGBT+ folk and teachers.
The account has soared in popularity, garnering almost 700,000 Twitter followers since 2020, and although known to be a woman, Libs of TikTok has managed to remain anonymous, until now.
On Saturday, 16 April, software developer Travis Brown revealed the account’s previous Twitter handles, information he said was “OSINT [open source intelligence] 101-level stuff”
He tweeted: “Pro-tip: If you want to run a viral moral panic account for the worst people on earth and stay anonymous, maybe start from scratch instead of doing whatever the f**k this is.
“The first screen name used by the Libs of TikTok account seems to have been @shaya69830552, then @shaya_ray (also used by apparently unrelated accounts both before and after), then @chayaraichik.”
After finding the account’s previous Twitter handles, Brown was also able to unearth deleted tweets which show that the account holder reported attending the 6 January Capitol insurrection.
The tweets show that the account posted video footage of the riots, reported rubber bullets and tear gas being used by law enforcement, and wrote: “I am taking off work to come support Trump. Every single supporter matters.”
It has been reported that a Brooklyn-based real estate agent named Chaya Raichik is behind the Libs of TikTok account based on the accounts former Twitter handed, and the blank libsoftiktok.us domain name is also registered to someone named Chaya Raichik.
Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz published an exposé on Tuesday (19 April), which also named Raichik as the person behind the account.
Throughout the last two years, Libs of TikTok has used its platform to target activists and teachers that promote LGBT+ rights and LGBT-inclusive education.
The account has described teaching children about the existence of trans people as “literal grooming”, and said that parents embracing their trans children is “child abuse”.
The account’s influence has reached such a level, that experts have even said it is influencing legislation.
Ari Drennen of US media watchdog Media Matters told the Daily Beast: “Libs of TikTok is basically acting as a wire service for the broader right-wing media ecosystem.
“It’s been shaping public policy in a real way, and affecting teachers’ ability to feel safe in their classrooms.”
War came to our house suddenly and severely. It was brought by a cruel and ruthless aggressor: Russia.
More than 10 million Ukrainians were forced to seek refuge around the world, where it is much safer today. My elderly mother and I stayed in Kyiv because she needs daily help and support, and she can’t move far from home because of her poor health.
It is not easy for an intersex person to live in Ukraine, even in peacetime, but in times of war it is even tougher. Moreover, without the appropriate ID (passport) that corresponds with my gender and appearance, it is nearly impossible for me to leave the country.
More than 10 years have passed since I began my struggle to get a correct document, but today the lack of one creates for me a real danger. During the occupation of Bucha and Irpin and other cities we lost touch with some our intersex colleagues. We do not know what happened to them, and for me it’s very scary because as it turned out I live just 10 km from the frontlines.
I am well-known to the Russians because of my activism, and as it turned out they are not tolerant of Ukrainians. I know that they are even more cruel towards people like me. They also slaughter LGBTIQ people; torturing them before killing them.
Julia Pustovit is the head of Egalite Intersex Ukraine, the first intersex rights organization in Ukraine. Pustovit lives in Kyiv, Ukraine, with her mother.
A 120-year-old rural resort in north Sonoma County has sold for $20 million.
Guernville-based Isaac LLC, an affiliate of agent Michael Clark, sold the 15-acre Dawn Ranch Lodge at 16467 Hwy. 116 in Guerneville to San Francisco-based Tidewater Capital and Bridgeton Holdings, a private real estate firm based in New York, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The wooden lodge, perched on the Russian River, has 55 cottages, three bungalows and a restaurant, with extensive grounds for weddings and other events, about an hour drive from San Francisco.
Amenities include wine country tours, canoeing and kayaking, and trips to the nearby Sonoma coast.
Drive-to hotels and resorts in the Bay Area have been some of the hospitality market’s best performing properties, sought after as long-term investments and for their repositioning potential.
Dawn Ranch, with no in-room TVs or phones, can accommodate 500-person weddings and has been featured as a choice venue in magazines from Martha Stewart Weddings to Glamour. Its grounds also feature about 30 so-called “glamping” sites.
Established in 1905 after Theodosia Button Murphy bought the then-orchard site, Dawn Ranch was built into a hospitality property and run for decades by the Murphy family until it was sold in 1978, when it became known as Fife’s Resort.
Isaac LLC bought the rsort in 2001 for $3,025,000, according to records from Property Shark, and rebranded the property as Dawn Ranch Lodge in 2005.
Dawn Ranch Resort “will be positioned as one of the top lodging properties in the market,” Akash Sharma, president of Bridgeton, said in a statement. “We are excited to realize the full potential of the resort through thoughtful design and management.”
On Thursday, CBS 46 News reported that four teenagers in Loganville, Georgia have been arrested following an incident in which they allegedly “forc[ed] a 15-year-old male 9th grader into a bathroom closet for a prolonged period of time while being sprayed or doused with liquid cleaning products,” all the while taunting him with homophobic slurs.
Only one of the suspects, 17-year-old Kelsey Juliana Hayes, has been identified and her mugshot released. The four of them face several charges including felony and misdemeanor false imprisonment, battery, and reckless conduct.
“While police reports state that the harassing comments were homophobic in nature, CBS46 does not know if the student victim in this case identifies with the LGBTQ community and would not expose the victim’s personal information without consent,” reported Joyce Lupiani and Hayley Mason. “CBS46 reached out to Jeff Graham, the executive director of Georgia Equality, who the homophobic bullying allegations are troubling. ‘Knowing that the administration did take action that is important, but this student that was so violently attacked needs to be protected,’ Graham said.”
“Student safety is a top priority and school officials are investigating the incident and working with law enforcement officials to ensure the district’s code of conduct and legal charges are appropriately enforced,” said Loganville High School in a statement.
The Pasadena Police Department needs public assistance in finding the individuals responsible for attacking three Ixtapa Cantina Bar patrons in March.
A police department spokesperson posted a statement on social media:
We are aware of and are actively investigating an incident that occurred last week as patrons were leaving the Ixtapa Cantina Bar. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and we are asking anyone who may have witnessed the incident to provide any information that can help in the identification and apprehension of a suspect or suspects.
We thank those community members who have already come forward to provide some information and we encourage others to do the same by calling the police department or by contacting Los Angeles Crime Stoppers.
KABC 7 Los Angeles reported that Diamond Gonzalez told reporters his group of three were leaving the bar when they were attacked in the parking lot of the bar.
“A group of guys came up and attacked us,” he said. “My back was faced toward them and they hit me from the back and just knocked me out cold.”
Gonzales was taken to a local hospital. He and his friends suffered multiple cuts and bruises.
“Everyone looked like bowling pins, getting knocked out,” said Noah Offield, one of three who were attacked.
The other victim, Ray Carabantes tried to take pictures of the assailant’s license plate number but was unsuccessful.
“He turned around with a weapon and said, ‘Do you want to take a picture of my license plate now?’” recalled Carabantes. “So immediately, I thought to myself, ‘I’m just going to run away.’”
A Home Office minister attempted to defend Rwanda’s LGBT+ and human rights record amid backlash to Boris Johnson’s plan to give asylum seekers a one-way ticket to the African nation.
Prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Thursday (14 April) plans for the UK to ‘offshore’ many asylum seekers to processing centres in Rwanda.
Tom Pursglove, junior minister for justice and tackling illegal migration, was confronted with the Foreign Office’s own travel advice for LGBT+ people going to Rwanda by Sky News on Friday (15 April).
The department warns that while there is no law forbidding same-sex relations, homosexuality is “frowned on by many” in Rwanda and LGBT+ people experience “discrimination and abuse”.
Tory justice minister Tom Pursglove sought to justify the government’s ‘evil’ immigration plan. (Sky News)
“That is the advice given to gay people in this country from the Foreign Office, just round the corner from you,” said host Niall Paterson.
Pursglove stumbled over his words: “We have this, I have to say, some appalling stereotypes thrown around in the last 24 hours since this announcement.
“The fact is Rwanda has made huge strides forward over the last three decades. It has a female-majority parliament, it has an anti-discrimination law that runs right through its constitution.”
Tory plans asylum plan will ‘result in gay refugees being deported to death’
Pursglove was again confronted with a 2021 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on the practice of “round-ups” by Rwandan officials.
The non-profit spoke to nine LGBT+ people as well as sex workers, homeless children and others who were detained by officials to “clear up” the streets ahead of a high-profile Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Detainees were held in overcrowded rooms without adequate food, water and healthcare and beaten by guards at a transit centre in Kigali.
Gay and trans detainees told HRW they were accused of “not representing Rwandan values”.
One trans woman said: “Police said we were cursed, and asked how we could behave in this way, having sex with people of the same sex as us. They said we’re delinquents and put us in that room. But in the room, we were badly beaten by other detainees and police did nothing despite our cries.”
One detainee was arrested after kissing his same-sex partner in a bar. Another gay detainee said he was beaten and told he needed to be “rehabilitated.”
While same-sex relations are not illegal, there are no legal protections for LGBT+ people aside from a general anti-discrimination measure.
Similar “round-ups” have been recorded before other high-profile events, with widespread reports of authorities arresting queer people on charges of “deviant behaviour”.
In 2020, one trans woman told Vice that she was arrested while making her way home from a party. Officers falsely claimed she was homeless and selling drugs, taking her to Gikondo Transit Center – where she was detained for six months.
Men sit in the Gikondo transit center in Kigali on September 24, 2015. (Getty)
“They directly cut your hair, they remove your clothes, and see who you are. They put me in front of 400 people and removed my clothes,” the woman, Bella, said. “They said, ‘See how he’s behaving, and he has a penis.’”
Bella said that she was held in a dark, dirty cell known as “the cat box”, where she was forced to urinate and defecate on herself. She was told “to become a man”, beaten multiple times, and raped by fellow detainees at least three separate times.
This reputation is why LGBT+ rights advocates have reacted in horror to the UK government’s Rwanda asylum proposal.
Among them is Dr S Chelvan, head of immigration and public law at the firm 33 Bedford Row, who told PinkNews that if enacted, the plan “will result in genuine gay refugees being deported to death”.
“Rwanda’s human rights record includes forced disappearances and killings, and even today’s UK [Foreign Office] travel advice warns LGBT+ travellers of state-sanctioned abuse and discrimination,” Chelvan said.
“This government has lost its moral compass, and as we have seen in the past few days has no respect for the rule of law.
“The British public has shown with both Afghanistan and Ukraine we are a country that provides sanctuary and welcomes refugees into, and to stay in the UK.”
Home secretary Priti Patel visited Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on Thursday to sign the agreement.
British home secretary Priti Patel (C) visited Kigali, where a dozen LGBT+ people were detained last year by the authorities. (Cyril Ndegeya/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The plan would relocate thousands of migrants and offer them the option of seeking settlement in countries other than Britain, being forced back to their home country or staying permanently in Rwanda.
Trying to justify a policy that LGBT+ and human rights activists have dubbed “evil“, Pursglove said Rwanda has a “rich and proud history” of providing sanctuary to asylum seekers.
He claimed that the decision of whether to fly asylum seekers out would be taken on a “case by case” process.
Asked by Good Morning Britain whether he would happily live in Rwanda, he said he would only visit.
According to a Home Office fact sheet on the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, any asylum seeker who is “inadmissible to the UK asylum system” and can be “removed” would automatically be flown away to a “safe third-world country”.
Only if the person cannot be “removed” would their claim be considered by the Home Office.
Whether the policy will be implemented remains uncertain. This week, parliament will again consider the Nationality and Borders Bill that would intensify the Conservative government’s already hardline immigration policies. Johnson has admitted that he expects the plan to face legal challenges.
Given that the proposal is not yet law, Chelvan called on the House of Lords and judges “to make sure our obligations to the Refugee Convention in line with our proud history and tradition in the UK to provide sanctuary to refugees is not broken by our broken politicians.”
Lawmakers in the Pennsylvania House have passed a bill that would ban trans students from competing in girls’ and women’s sports – despite the governor’s promise to veto it.
House Bill 972 (HB 972) would prohibit trans girls from participating in girls’ and women’s athletics at publicly-funded schools, “public institutions of higher education” and any school or institution where “students or teams compete against a public school”.
The controversial bill passed in the state’s House by a 115-84 vote on Tuesday (12 April). A lone Republican voted against it, while four Democrats crossed lines to vote in support of the anti-trans bill, CNNreported.
The bill will now make its way through the Republican-controlled Senate, but HB 972 may be ultimately doomed to fail. Governor Tom Wolf has vowed to veto “transphobic legislation” pushed by GOP lawmakers in the state.
“As states across the country push transphobic legislation, some Republicans in the General Assembly are wasting time attempting the same in Pennsylvania,” Wolf wrote on Twitter. “It won’t get past my desk.”
The Democratic governor also promised to veto HB 972, which he described as “discriminatory”, last year as the bill made its way through the state legislature.
The Pennsylvania bill comes as the inclusion of trans youth in school athletics has become a flashpoint in US politics, and over a dozen states have passed legislation restricting the ability for trans kids to play on school sports teams.
Ryan Matthews, Pennsylvania state director for the Human Rights Campaign, said the bill “serves one purpose” – to “advance self-serving political objectives” of anti-LGBT+ lawmakers at the “expense” of trans youth”.
Matthews said lawmakers in the state’s House knew the legislation “isn’t going anywhere” – given Wolf’s promise to veto it – and called on the Senate to now “reject this bigoted attack”.
“This kind of legislation, which targets a marginalised population without doing any good whatsoever, is simply part of a coordinated, nationwide campaign aiming to incite hatred and attract extremist votes, and it has no place in this state,” Matthews added.
The Pennsylvania legislation also comes after Lia Thomas, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, became the first trans athlete to win an NCAA Division I title in March. Thomas, who came in first in the women’s 500-yard freestyle event, has faced mounting vitriol as she has become the centre of the debate on trans women’s participation in sports.
Republican state representative Barb Gleim, who is the prime sponsor of HB 972, spoke about Thomas during the debate around the legislation, NBC Philadelphia reported.
Gleim claimed that allowing trans girls to compete in girls’ sports gives them an “immense unfair advantage” and alleged that Thomas’ win ‘decimated an entire league’ in women’s sports.
Olympic silver medalist Erica Sullivan, who recently competed against Thomas, has also declared that all athletes “deserve to be respected and included, exactly as we are”. She wrote in an op-ed for Newsweek that Thomas has been “unfairly targeted” for “being who she is”.
The openly queer swimmer also condemned those pushing anti-trans legislation in the name of ‘protecting women’s sports’.
“As a woman in sports, I can tell you that I know what the real threats to women’s sports are: sexual abuse and harassment, unequal pay and resources and a lack of women in leadership,” Sullivan declared. “Transgender girls and women are nowhere on this list.”
