Republican legislators in Iowa have introduced their version of a “don’t say gay” bill, largely mimicking the one that became law in Florida last year, and a bill that would essentially out transgender and nonbinary students to their parents.
House File 8, introduced Wednesday, would prohibit instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. House File 9, introduced the same day, would bar schools from making accommodations for a student’s gender identity, if different from the one assigned at birth, without the written consent of a parent or guardian. It also says school staff must not encourage students to undergo gender-affirming care or pressure their parents into allowing them to receive it.
House File 9 is partly a reaction to policies like that in Iowa’s Linn-Mar Community School District, which allows students to set up a gender support plan without giving notice to their parents, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. Parents Defending Education, a right-wing group, has filed a lawsuit against the policy.
“We need to empower parents,” House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican who cosponsored both bills, told The Gazette. “In our opinion, that’s what the goal of these [bills] are, making sure conversations are happening with children and their parents, instead of happening in the school system. We feel confident standing in that position.”
Republican Rep. Skyler Wheeler, also a sponsor of both, made a similar comment. “Parents want to know what’s going on,” he told the Dispatch. “They need to know what is happening with their children. They need to be the first one to be helping their children through processes and things that they truly need help with.”
But it’s not as simple as that, LGBTQ+ advocates pointed out. “We absolutely encourage students to come out to their parents on their own time, on their own ground, their own rules, when they are most comfortable,” Damian Thompson, director of public policy for Iowa Safe Schools, told the Dispatch regarding House File 9. “Ultimately, unfortunately, there are parents that are just not affirming people. And that can really put a student in danger get if they are outed, not on their own terms.”
Of House File 8, Keenan Crow of One Iowa told the publication, “It’s taking all the tools that educators have to deal with bullying on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and throwing them up out the window. If we’re saying that you can’t have any materials or announcements regarding gender identity or sexual orientation, that the very antibullying policies that school districts are required to publicize and to create training materials around for students are not going to be able to be shared with the students.”
But Wheeler said the bill wouldn’t have such a deleterious effect. “If a kid has, you know, same-sex parents, nothing prevents them in this bill from mentioning that in class,” he said to the Dispatch. “It just simply says to the teacher, ‘Hey, we’re going to stick to what we’ve been teaching.’”
Sen. Liz Bennett, who is bisexual and was the first queer woman elected to the Iowa legislature, called both bills harmful. “This sends the message to these kids that people think that there is something so wrong” with being part of the LGBTQ+ community, Bennett, a Democrat, told The Gazette. “That’s incredibly harmful.”
“I think it’s really sad that at a time when Iowans are struggling to afford groceries, trying to find jobs, struggling to go the doctor, etc., that we’re seeing more extreme culture war legislation,” she added. “That should not be the priority here in Iowa.”
Republicans have nominated right-wing commentator Leon Benjamin for Virginia’s special U.S. House election next month. Benjamin is an election denier who has frequently pushed fringe conspiracy theories, including claiming that the pandemic was actually a “cover-up” by elites to usher in a “new world order”; COVID-19 vaccines contain a “tracking system” and herald the “mark of the beast”; and COVID-19 tests secretly implement a “wiring system inside you that is controlled by 5G.”
Benjamin has been on a program on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars network with host Owen Shroyer, who is a January 6 insurrectionist and Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist. Benjamin posed for a picture with Jones in 2021. He is running in the February 21 special election for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District, which was vacated due to the death of Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin. Benjamin unsuccessfully ran for the seat in 2020 and 2022.
Pastor Leon Benjamin, a Republican candidate for Congress in Virginia who denounced homosexuality and called gay marriages illegal in an August speech, said in an interview that Michael Flynn’s endorsement represents “that affirmation and that understanding that we’ve got to have the right candidates in, and it’s not always popular, not always goes along with the grain.”
There’s so much more crazy at the first link, including Benjamin’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen by China and many other communistic nations.”
Also, his 2020 US House loss by 23 points? Stolen.
Benjamin last appeared on JMG in September 2022 for the “binding demons, witches, and warlocks” bit of crazy seen below.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking state universities for the number and ages of their students who sought or received gender dysphoria treatment, including sex reassignment surgery and hormone prescriptions, according to a survey released Wednesday.
Why he’s conducting the survey wasn’t completely clear. DeSantis has been criticized by LGBTQ advocates for policies seen as discriminatory, including banning instruction on sexual and gender identity in early grades and making it easier for parents to remove books related to the topic in public schools.
“We can see cuts in funding for universities to treat students with this condition, and I think an all-out elimination of services is certainly on the table,” said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell.
The survey was released the same day the university presidents voted to support DeSantis’ anti-woke agenda and to reject “the progressivist higher education indoctrination agenda” and committing to “removing all woke positions and ideologies by February 1, 2023,” according to a Department of Education news release.
The survey is being sent to the university board of trustee chairs by DeSantis’ budget director, Chris Spencer.
“Our office has learned that several state universities provide services to persons suffering from gender dysphoria,” Spencer wrote. “On behalf of the Governor, I hereby request that you respond to the enclosed inquiries related to such services.”
The governor’s office did not respond to emails and a phone call seeking information about the purpose of the survey, which must be completed by Feb. 10. Spencer told the chairs the survey is to be completed as part of their obligation to govern institutional resources and protect the public interest.
Driskell said DeSantis is trying to remake the state’s universities “in his own image” as far as what can be taught and how students can be treated.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a really terrifying place that we’re at in Florida history,” Driskell said. “What can happen is a brain drain where we have Florida students not want to stay here and attend school at our public colleges and universities.”
The survey is similar to one the governor is forcing state universities to complete regarding spending on diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory programs.
The current memo asks universities to “provide the number of encounters for sex-reassignment treatment or where such treatment was sought” as well as data for students referred to other facilities. It says to protect students’ identities when completing the information.
The survey requires a breakdown by age, regardless of whether the student is age 18 or older, of people prescribed hormones or hormone antagonists or who underwent a medical procedures like mastectomies, breast augmentation or removal and reconstruction of genitals.
Britain will seek to ban conversion therapy targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, cracking down on so-called treatments that claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Culture minister Michelle Donelan said on Tuesday the government would publish draft legislation soon, setting out proposals to ban conversion practices in England and Wales.
“The Bill will protect everyone, including those targeted on the basis of their sexuality, or being transgender,” Donelan said in a statement.
Conversion practices, which may include extreme or harmful methods, are aimed at suppressing or preventing a person from being gay or existing as a gender different from the sex recorded at birth. A 2017 national LGBTQ survey people found that 5% of respondents had been offered conversion therapy and 2% had undergone it, with over half of it done by religious groups.
The British government said in 2021 it would introduce a ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ people to prevent “abhorrent practices which can cause mental and physical harm,” but later decided the ban would only cover lesbian, gay or bisexual people.
Donelan said on Tuesday the draft legislation will aim to cover transgender people as well, and that the government will ask for pre-legislative scrutiny of the bill by a joint committee.
Many advocates have long called for a ban on conversion therapy, but others have argued that any ban should not outlaw conversations with clinicians or therapists helping people with gender issues.
“The legislation must not, through a lack of clarity, harm the growing number of children and young adults experiencing gender related distress, through inadvertently criminalizing or chilling legitimate conversations parents or clinicians may have with their children,” Donelan said.
Over two dozen health and counseling groups signed an updated memorandum of understanding last year, agreeing that “conversion therapy, whether in relation to sexual orientation or gender identity, is unethical and potentially harmful.”
Separately, Britain said on Monday it would block a bill passed by Scotland’s devolved parliament that makes it easier for people to change their legal gender.
Gary Carnivele: Talk about your early years. Were your parents musical? Was music an important aspect of your home?
John Beland: My parents loved music and my father loved dancing. Music always played at our house either on the radio or television.
GC: At what point did you first pick up an instrument and did you realize that you would devote your life to performing?
JB: I received my first guitar when I was six. It was a Davy Crockett guitar, but it was real, not just a toy. By the time I was 12, I was obsessed with not only the guitar but with music in general. I didn’t realize how I was going to do it but I felt deep inside that it was my life’s calling, crazy as it seemed.
John Beland, 1955
GC: Who were your earliest musical educators and what did their support and encouragement mean to you – both at the time and throughout your career?
JB: My earliest musical educator and profound influence was an older kid named Greg Peters who had just moved down the street from us from New York. He was a jazz pianist and a musicologist of sorts. He knew everything from jazz to the new pop invasion coming down in England. He was brash and cocky and I idolized him. He turned me on to groups I had never heard of before like the Rolling Stones and Them, as well as jazz virtuosos like Vince Guaraldi and Ramsey Lewis. He took me under his wing like a little brother and taught me a gold mine of musical knowledge. We lost Greg this year, sadly.
GC: Which artists really inspired you in those early days?
JB: I loved the Everly Brothers, Les Paul & Mary Ford, Buddy Holly and later the Beatles and Stones as well as Ricky Nelson and Gene Pitney. I was also a big fan of the early Beach Boys. I loved harmony acts.
GC: Did you perform with bands as a young man and what did you take away from those experiences?
GC: Yes, I had a high school band and played bars and dances all along Cicero Avenue on the south side of Chicago, even though we ere all under legal age. The band as made up of Sicilian brothers and we were always protected from the rowdy drunks. I took away a lot from those early gigs. We even backed up R&B black acts at high school dances. It was an exciting time to say the least.
GC: Were you always comfortable on stage?
JB: Always. When I was 5 years old, our neighbor, who was a professor of language, took a couple of us kids down to the university to make a real recording of our voices. It was in front of a packed gallery of students. Each of the five of us were allowed to get up to the microphone and say anything we wanted. A disc recording was made of each of our performances. The other kids were petrified of the audience and only said their names and a few sentences. I filled both sides of the record. The professor told my folks that I should think about a career in broadcasting.
GC: When did you start writing music and when you look back at those early efforts now, what do you think about them?
JB: I started writing songs when I was 16, after I found out we were moving to southern California. They were crude little songs mostly about leaving my hometown, my girlfriend etc. But they did have clever melodies and some catchy lyrics for a kid my age with no prior experience. It was also a pain reliever of sorts. I could lose my sadness and loneliness in safety of my tunes. It was therapeutic in a way.
GR: Talk about your creative process. How do you write a song? How did you learn or teach yourself to do that?
JB: Well, often I’ll start with a title. Something will pop into my head and like magic a melody will appear. The lyrics are a bit more difficult but it all works like a fine- tuned machine. Especially, after my experiences co-writing with some of the top writers in the music business. I learned from them. I taught myself by listening and observing from all the professionals around me.
GC: Talk about how you were ‘discovered’ and ended getting signed by Apple Records.
JB: I ran away to Hollywood when I as 16. I had a little tape I made on a cheap tape recorder singing and playing my tunes. I hit all the publishers during the day and played at open mic nights at folk clubs, like the Troubadour and the Garrit in west Hollywood. I was living on the street at that time. Eventually a couple named Dan and Lois Dalton, who were producers, heard me playing one night at the Troubadour and took me in and raised me in the business. They taught me the ins and outs. They got me a record deal and publishing deal. I started playing and singing on sessions around Hollywood and soon other major artists started recording my songs.
In 1973, I was in England playing guitar and music director for pop singer Johnny Tillotson. Johnny had a friend, Tony King, who was now the manager for the Beatles record company Apple Records. Johnny told him about me and they set up a meeting at Apple. Tony liked what he heard and told Ringo, who approved my being signed. I as the last artist signed to Apple Records. James Taylor was the first.
GC: How many songs had you written at that point and how did you and your producer decide which you would record for the record?
GC: I had written a lot of songs by 1973. I didn’t use a producer because Apple allowed me to produce myself. The result was my first solo album in 1973, John Eduard Beland, which you can find on Apple Music, Amazon or on YouTube.
GC: Were you emotionally prepared for such an important turning point in your life and career?
JB: In a way “yes” because of the Daltons’ who were both very strict and very loving. However, I have had moments when success tested me. I always wondered how it was that all these things were happening for me when only a few years earlier I as dragging home my cheap guitar through the freezing Chicago winters. The transition from Chicago to Hollywood was a lot to absorb.
GC: Did the universe present you with mentors at the time who could help you navigate the notoriously cut-throat music business?
JB: Yes, a few mentors guided me along for many years. The Daltons and hit songwriters Larry Murray and Dewayne Blackwell. Of course, there were bad moments by bad people but all in all the Universe took good care of me.
GC: Tell us about recording your eponymous-titled debut album and the musicians who were in the studio with you.
JB: My first album in 1973 was recorded in Hollywood, NY and Las Vegas. I used a few top LA players but most of the musicianship fell on me. My second album years later as a different story. I had Don Everly, Sonny Curtis, the Memphis Horns, Kim Carnes and a host of other top artists.
GC: How long did it take from the first recording session to the time when that vinyl was on record store shelves?
JB: It took about 7 months from the first session until it hit the shelves.
GC: What was the critical response?
JB: Rolling Stone gave it a good review. At the time of the release, I was Kristofferson’s lead guitarist and he was hot. That didn’t hurt.
GC: Did you go out on tour to support the record? Talk about how you took to life on the road and some of your experiences.
JB: I didn’t tour as a solo act when the album came out. I didn’t need to. I had my own 2-song spot in Kristofferson’s tour at the time. Not bad!
GC: Where did your career careen after that first record?
JB: After that album in 1973, I went on to play guitar for Kristofferson, The Bellamy Brothers, Mac Davis, Dolly Parton The Flying Burrito Brothers, Ricky Nelson and continued with my session work.19
GC: Talk about some of the incredible artists you worked with in those early days.
JB: The most fun I had was Rick Nelson. He was a sweetheart of a guy and I was a huge fan going back to my youth in my Chicago. I did Saturday Night Live with Rick, toured with him and played on his records.
Rick Nelson and John on tour
Dolly was incredible. We became very close and remain friends today. I truly love her.
Dolly Parton with John
Mac Davis was not much fun. I hated playing in his Vegas shows. Real shmaltz. He was a distant kind of guy. Very insecure as well.
The Bellamy Brothers were also not a favorite of mine. They had very shady management. Scary at times.
Kristofferson is a wonderful fellow. The REAL DEAL. Down to Earth and a genius. He had just broken in when I came to work for him and his wife Rita Coolidge. He was a great guy, but had demons, mostly his drinking. He gave it up eventually and went on to long successful film career.
Working with Garth Brooks on Friends In Low Places was a thrill. It became the biggest selling record in country music history. A great humble person, a true mega-talent and a joy to record with.
I love Linda Ronstadt who I worked with from my early days in Hollywood back in 1970. Friend even today. Sweet and mega talented. A sheer joy to have worked for.
Linda Ronstadt with John in 1970
Arlo Guthrie is my dear friend to this today. Through him I was able to work behind many of the greats in folk music. We played Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl together.
GC: How did you become a Flying Burrito Brother?
JB: I knew all the guys in the band at the time. They had been trying to get me to join for years but I was always busy with better paying artists. Finally in 1980 I gave in – ha-ha. I stayed with the Flying Burrito Brothers for 17 years. We scored 9 country hits with them during my run with them.
GC: Was that a shift in the way you were thinking about your career?
JB: Not really. I wanted to write hits for the Burritos so joining them provided me with the opportunity to do so. Eventually, I went on to produce them.
John and the Flying Burrito Brother
GC: At what point did you become a session musician?
JB: About 6 months after I first landed in Hollywood in 1967. I started playing on demo sessions and eventually graduated to albums and movie soundtracks, as well as commercials and TV shows.
GC: I can only imagine it’s not easy to narrow this down, but which artists had the most to teach you about songwriting or performing or life.
JB: Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton and of course the Beatles.
GC: You have talented children. Talk about raising them while pursuing your career and what they are doing now.
JB: My son Chris Beland is a recording artist living in Arroyo Grande, Ca. My daughter Jessie is a club DJ in New Orleans. My son Tyler lives in Napa and is a beat producer and exceptional guitarist. My 2 granddaughters Gabby and Harmony are unbelievable singers. My other daughter Sara is an actress. Loys of apples off the tree.
Chris and Harmony Beland
GC: At what point did you realize you may not be exclusively heterosexual?
JB: When I first came to Hollywood at 17. I was hit on many times when I lived on the street and my first manager, who I worked with for a brief time, was gay. He lived in Bel-Air. There were gay books all around his lavish house, where I was living briefly. I found them arousing. Friends of his were always coming over. Some very well-known too. Then when I started getting busy in the business I was always around gay guys. I, like most guys, experimented and never thought much about it.
GC: At what point in your life did you begin to ‘come out’ to your family, children, friends, and professionally?
JB: Well, I really didn’t, because my family and friends wouldn’t take it so easily. I’ve had relations on the road both here and abroad and I chose to keep that part of my life to myself. I’m very private about my sexual activity. I’ve never mentioned recognizable names to the closest of friends and prefer it that way.
GC: Did you experience much anti-LGBT sentiment in your chosen profession?
JB: Of course. Half of my career was in country music! The hypocrisy of the macho good-ole-boy mentally of country music is that a few traditional country stars had gay relationships going on while at the same time trashing the LGBT movement. It was a farce…a sad one, really.
GC: Were you aware of ‘closeted’ musicians, who would later or who have never truly come out as queer?
JB: Absolutely, but no names
GC: There is a terrific documentary titled Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music that showcases the many lesbians who have written numerous Country hits. Needless to say, it wasn’t an easy road for them, most of who would rather perform their own work, but were urged to stay closeted and/or behind the scenes. What are your thoughts about what queer songwriters bring to the music business?
JB: I don’t really know but judging from what I saw around me in Nashville in the 1970s. I can tell you that I understood their reluctance to come out, especially in Nashville.
GC: At this point, there are many openly queer artists, most of whom came out when their career once they were already established. Why is it if openly queer artists – with very few exceptions – fail to raise to the heights of fame, but rather enjoy modest or limited success?
JB: Many gay artists have risen to heights. Maybe not so much until the mid 1980s. It seems everything in the business up untill then took place in secret as in the movie community. Just my opinion.
GC: You’ve been covered in the musical press, which was – sometimes still is – notoriously anti-gay and misogynist. Talk about some of the highs and lows once that interview, profile, or review reaches the public.
JB: I would only say that it must be terribly hurtful to suddenly be thrust into that public arena where being gay is looked upon as a sick affliction of sorts by narrow minded, judgmental people. I grew up with it. The Irish side of my family could be just as racist and bigoted as anything going on below the Mason-Dixon line
GC: When did you decide to write your memoir and talk about the reasons to do so?
JB: I wanted to leave behind something for my children and grandchildren. I wanted them to see the journey I made as it really was. Not the theatrics or the stereotype images we read about or see in videos, but the real journey – flaws, as well as the rewards.
GC: Best Seat in the House is a terrific read – so full of fascinating stories. Talk about your writing process and what point you decided this would be the first installment?
JB: Well, there was a lot of ground to cover so I stopped at the point where Rick and the band go down in the plane crash. I would have been on that plane because two weeks later I was coming back to work for him. It was an appropriate place to stop and take stock. The second book takes off from there.
GC: How did you remember so much from decades ago?
JB: I have saved photos and press clippings and Google to go to – plus a great memory. Ha-ha!
GC: How did readers, critics, and your fellow performers response to Best Seat in the House?
JB: Overwhelming positive response. 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon. I was shocked!
GHC: Tell us about your second book: Pass the Guitar and I’ll Tell You a Story.
JB: It takes off from here “Best Seat” leaves off. More touring, recording and peronal adventures and of course cool photos.
GC: Talk about your new music and where we can listen to it?
JB: Sound cloud, YouTube, Amazon Music – the usual places
GC: You’ve just recently moved to Sonoma County. Talk about establishing yourself in a new area, thankfully one with a lively live music scene.
Well, I used to live in Yountville in the late 1990’s. My mom and dad loved Napa and they are buried there. My kids live close by. It’s a little early to comment on the music scene but I have my studio up and running, where I play on recordings for artists as far away as Norway. When home I like to play instrumental classical guitar at local wineries, bistros, and intimate events.
GC: Where can we see you perform?
Here and there locally. Just need to keep an eye peeled. I’ll be touring again in March, this time with the Ronstadt Revue, a great, great show. Check them out on Facebook.
What are you working on right now?
I’m producing 2 Bay Area artists. That keeps me plenty busy!
The Egyptian government failed to ease the ongoing repression campaign against critics in 2022 or repeal laws curtailing basic freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2023. Meanwhile, the government carried out a concerted whitewashing effort to improve the country’s image without enacting critical reforms, including issuing a presidentially sponsored national dialogue and hosting the COP27 UN climate conference in November.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared 2022 the “year of civil society,” but key members of civil society faced arbitrary travel bans, asset freezes, and criminal investigations in retaliation for their peaceful activism or criticism. Despite hosting COP27, the government has imposed arbitrary funding, research, and registration obstacles that have debilitated local environmental groups, forcing some activists into exile and others to drop important work.
“In 2022, apart from cosmetic changes, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government has shown no real political will to end systematic rights abuses against wide segments of society,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Egyptian authorities should understand that no PR campaign will be enough to overshadow the country’s human rights crisis, only an end to repression and genuine reforms will suffice.”
In the 712-page World Report 2023, its 33rd edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in close to 100 countries. In her introductory essay, acting Executive Director Tirana Hassansays that in a world in which power has shifted, it is no longer possible to rely on a small group of mostly Global North governments to defend human rights. The world’s mobilization around Russia’s war in Ukraine reminds us of the extraordinary potential when governments realize their human rights obligations on a global scale. The responsibility is on individual countries, big and small, to apply a human rights framework to their policies, and then work together to protect and promote human rights.
Thanks to concerted efforts by Egyptian and international activists, COP27 turned from a PR opportunity for the government to a rare moment of reckoning. Egypt’s abysmal human rights record featured in global headlines before and during the conference. During the conference, the government faced real pressure despite its attempts to curtail local participation.
Between April and November, the authorities claimed they released about 1,000 unjustly detained activists and journalists but human rights groups have documented the arrests of many others including rearrests of some of those released. Prisons are still sprawling with thousands of people detained for their political backgrounds, and the government keeps their numbers secret. The Interior Ministry police and National Security agents continued to forcibly disappear opponents. Egyptian prison authorities and security forces ill-treated and tortured detainees, including with systematic sexual violence to degrade them with near-complete impunity.
In North Sinai, Human Rights Watch published evidence that the Egyptian army and its affiliated militias carried out three extrajudicial executions of shackled or wounded men in custody.
Throughout 2022, Human Rights Watch documented cases in which security forces used digital targeting, based on “debauchery” provisions and the Cybercrime Law, to entrap lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people (LGBT), arbitrarily arrested and detained them based on digital evidence found on their personal devices, and ill-treat them in police custody.
In September 2022, prosecutors summoned three Mada Masr journalists, as well as the chief editor, and charged them with “spreading false news” over a news article. The chief editor was also charged with operating an unlicensed news site. Authorities continued to block access to hundreds of news and human rights websites without judicial orders.
In March 2022, the authorities violated the international legal prohibition on refoulement by deporting 31 Eritreans, including 8 children, after detaining them in poor conditions and denying them access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to lodge asylum claims, according to the Refugees Platform in Egypt.
Right-wing pundit Leon Benjamin, the Republican-backed nominee for a U.S. House special election in Virginia next month, says that he runs a “ministry” devoted to getting people to “escape” from “homosexual and lesbian living.” Benjamin has falsely and dangerously claimed LGBTQ people can be “healed” by changing their identity and compared his ministering to helping adulterers, thieves, and murderers.
Benjamin is the host of the streaming program B-Alert News and a frequent guest on far-right shows. Media Matters previously reported that he has repeatedly used his media platform to push bizarre anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and false claims about elections being stolen.
The Republican Party of Virginia is backing Benjamin. Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin endorsed Benjamin during his 2022 run and appeared at at least one event with him.
On January 15, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart challenged Benjamin over a Facebook post he wrote comparing LGBTQ people to being “sick” and addicted to drugs. Benjamin responded by claiming he has compassion for LGBTQ people.
But in numerous media appearances, Benjamin pushes conversion therapy, the torturousand discredited practice which attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people. GLAAD has written:
Anti-LGBTQ activists have falsely claimed for years that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity is a choice and changeable — but only for LGBTQ people. They often falsely claim that LGBTQ identities are not real, but rather an expression of mental illness or an emotional disorder that can be “cured” through psychological or religious intervention.
…
Programs that claim to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, known as “conversion therapy,” have been widely condemned. In 2013, notorious “ex-gay” ministry Exodus International closed its doors, issuing an apology for the harm done by its programs. Since then, 20 U.S. states have banned the practice (for minors only, in some instances). But it is important to note that despite condemnation and refutation from all major medical, psychiatric, and psychological organizations, these harmful and abusive practices continue.”
Benjamin has said that for over a decade he’s run a “ministry” called Escape Hall, with “Hall” standing for “homosexual and lesbian living.”
He has compared supposedly healing LGBTQ people to saving adulterers, thieves, and murderers, stating: “When I’m dealing with someone in that lifestyle, it’s just like adultery. When I see a person who’s adulterous, I got to see them as somebody that God wants to save. When I see a thief or murderer like Apostle Paul was a murderer, God saw him as an apostle.”
Benjamin’s sermonizing about supposedly transforming LGBTQ people was on display during an August 13, 2022, speech in New York for Clay Clark’sfar-right ReAwaken America Tour. He devoted much of his time to telling LGBTQ people that they can be “healed” and “come out of homosexuality.”
“You’re going to get delivered. You’re going to get healed,” Benjamin said. “I don’t care if it’s homosexuality, fornication, adultery, lesbianism. God says he’s going to touch you today. You going get this out of your spirit. You’re going get it out of your life. And God’s going to renew your mind. And you’re going to be transformed.”
He later added: “The devil lied to you and I. He told you that you can change your sex, but he is a liar! … You got to come out of homosexuality! You got to come out of adultery! You got to come out of fornication! … I don’t care how long you’ve been a homosexual. I don’t care how long you’ve been a lesbian. The weight of the Holy Ghost is more powerful than any demon.”
“Hey everyone, George Santos here, congressional candidate in New York’s 3rd Congressional District. Let’s talk real quick about the Florida bill, Don’t Say Gay.
“Although the bill doesn’t mention those words, that’s what the left-leaning Democrats and progressives are labeling it.
“I’ll leave you with this – as a gay man I stand proudly behind not teaching our children sex or sexual orientation. That’s incumbent on the parents, not educators.
“DeSantis, you have my full-blown support and I support your decision to protect our children’s innocence.
“I stand proudly behind the Florida legislature for putting a decent bill that will protect values.” – George Santos, in an April 2022 Facebook post.
A bill proposed in the unicameral would place limitations on who can watch drag shows in Nebraska. The bill would ban anyone under 19 from watching a drag show, and it would prohibit anyone under 21 from watching drag shows where alcohol is present.
LB371 was introduced by Republican State Sen. Dave Murman and is already stirring debate in the Legislature. Democratic State Sen. Megan Hunt has filed a motion to postpone the bill indefinitely, a decision that is still pending.
Anyone who knowingly brings someone underage to a show would be subject to a misdemeanor. The entities themselves would be subject to a $10,000 fine per violation. The bill would also make it illegal to use state funds to host a drag show.
A freshman lawmaker from Wyoming has already begun efforts to remove LGBTQ+ books for youth from both school and public libraries in the state.
Republican Rep.-elect Jeanette Ward has introduced House Bill 87, which expands the definition of “child pornography” to mean “any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, cartoon, drawing, computer or computer generated image or picture, whether or not made or produced by electronic, mechanical or other means, or any other form of depiction of explicit sexual conduct.”
The bill also repeals a law that gives exemptions for those who “possess or disseminate obscene material” for activities related to schools, universities, colleges, museums, and public libraries.
Based on this definition, many books that provide sexual health information to youth would be banned, along with several books that help LGBTQ+ youth learn about their identities.
“Not requiring tax payers to pay for obscenity is reasonable and just,” Ward told the Casper Star Tribune. “These books will continue to be available in the marketplace, but not paid for by taxpayer dollars. Reasonable people everywhere recognize these books as obscene and reasonable people do not want their money used to subsidize obscenity.”
According to the Tribune, Ward, herself, has passionately advocated for the removal of two LGBTQ+ books from a high school library in her district – speaking at multiple school board meetings against the acclaimed graphic memoir Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and a trans resource guide called Trans Bodies, Trans Selves.
Ward also helped members of the anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty get elected to the Natrona County school board. Moms for Liberty members have been running for school board positions across the country as part of the right-wing effort to shift schools toward a more conservative ideology.
On boards where Moms for Liberty is in control, curricula is likely to exclude LGBTQ+-inclusive and anti-racist education.
In Florida, anti-LGBTQ+ Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, himself, helped Moms for Liberty members get elected to local school boards. The newly seated members repaid DeSantis by ousting school officials who dared defy his orders against school mask mandates during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ward’s bill in Wyoming currently has 13 Republic cosponsors. If it passes, it will go into effect on July 1st.
