California moves to ban schools from notifying parents of child pronoun changes
The California Senate has approved a bill that bans schools from telling parents if their children want to change their pronouns unless the children give consent or other law requires it.
AB-1955 passed along party lines, with all 29 Democrats voting in favor and their eight Republican colleagues voting against. It now moves to the state Assembly, where it must be passed by committees and on the floor before it can be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
The bill seeks to prohibit school districts and governing bodies of other educational institutions from “enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law, as provided.”
Major Study: Covid Shots Trigger Psychiatric Adverse Events
A large-scale study of two million vaccinated people has uncovered evidence that Covid mRNA shots trigger psychiatric adverse events.
The peer-reviewed study was conducted by top Korean scientists and published in the world-renowned Nature Journal.
Led by Eun Mi Chu from the School of Medicine Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea, the team of researchers analyzed the data of two million Korean citizens who had received at least one dose of a Covid mRNA shot.
The study looked into serious adverse events (AEs) of a psychiatric nature linked to COVID-19 vaccination.
A member of the House Freedom Caucus is taking an unprecedented step to endorse the primary challenger fighting to unseat the ultra conservative group’s chair.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) is endorsing John McGuire, a state senator who is in a highly watched race against Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), McGuire’s campaign first shared with POLITICO.
“I love this country with a soldier’s passion. I’ve served in Congress since 2016, and we need reinforcements to help Make America Great Again. I’m happy to join President Trump by supporting and endorsing John McGuire for Congress,” Davidson said in a statement, describing McGuire as conservative, effective and someone who will drain the swamp.
He added: “I look forward to serving with him in the 119th Congress to support President Trump and the America First agenda. Drain the swamp!”
NEW ROCHELLE, New York — The New York Democrat running to unseat Rep. Jamaal Bowman has an unusual double advantage against the incumbent: local political clout and the backing of a national pro-Israel group.
And it’s Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s ties at home — even more so than his position on the war in Gaza — that could deny the Squad member a third term.
Latimer has picked up endorsements from fellow local leaders week after week — including the mayor and three City Council members in Yonkers, where Bowman lives. And while just 10 percent of Bowman’s campaign contributions come from his neighbors, more than half of Latimer’s donations come from within the district.
Latimer may not have any national name recognition compared to Bowman — who has built his reputation in Congress as a left-wing agitator for sweeping change nationwide — but he enjoys a different kind of celebrity. He’s the Cher of Westchester County, known as just “George” to many in the suburban enclave north of New York City thanks to his 35 years in state and local government.
“Age is just a number, the adage goes. For Donald Trump, that number just got bigger,” writes national political “reporter” Marianne LeVine, who adds that Trump’s age “has also drawn notice from some voters and experts on aging.”
Oh, experts you say? The Post and other media lapdogs love nothing more than laundering their opinions through self-styled “experts,” as we all saw with the Covid panic, Democrats’ republic-destroying lawfare, “cooling” inflation, forever wars, and more — including now apparently presidential fitness and “aging.” As for what the voters notices, let’s just say it diverges from the headline.
LOS ANGELES – President Biden on Saturday night said he expects the winner of this year’s presidential election will likely have the chance to fill two vacancies on the Supreme Court – a decision he warned would be “one of the scariest parts” if his Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, is successful in his bid for a second term.
Biden made the remarks at a fundraiser that his campaign said raised a record $28 million. The event featured Hollywood stars like George Clooney and Julia Roberts, as well as former President Barack Obama.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel moderated a conversation with Biden and Obama, and the two presidents talked about the impact that Trump had on issues like abortion rights by naming conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) appeared on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday and reacted to a Senate investigation that found this week that Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the Court’s most conservative members, had neglected to disclose millions of dollars in unreported gifts from a major conservative donor who has worked to get cases before the court.
Murphy told CNN’s Jake Tapper that it was “up to the American people” to elect more Democrats this fall and ensure the president’s party had the numbers required to push for a code of ethics on the Supreme Court or other measures aimed at holding the justices to an ethical standard.
“I think it would be irresponsible for the president not to talk about the fact that this court is becoming brazenly corrupt and brazenly political,” Murphy said on CNN. “It’s up to the American people this election to do something about that.”
Senator Chris Murphy is pictured during a committee hearing. He called the Supreme court “brazenly corrupt” in a recent interview. (Getty Images)
His remarks allude to the fact that Democrats, who control the upper chamber of Congress and the White House, have found themselves politically stymied when it comes to the issue of responding to the cascade of stories that have come out about Supreme Court justices in recent months.
Thomas and a fellow conservative justice, Samuel Alito, are now both known to have spouses personally involved in what appears to be clear political support for the efforts by Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election — even in the days leading up to and after the bloody attack on the Capitol.
Ginny Thomas, wife of Clarence, is known to have personally reached out to state lawmakers in support of the “fake electors” scheme to change the results of the election through the Electoral College.
Alito has been in the spotlight in recent weeks for flying flags outside his homes that are often used by far-right groups. The justice blamed his wife and said it stemmed from a dispute with a neighbor.
Alito has resisted calls for his resignation after the scandal.
But Democrats in the Senate have no clear path to addressing any of this; the justices have repeatedly turned down offers to testify before the Judiciary Commitee, where Democrats say they lack the numbers to issue a subpoena — which would be largely unenforceable, and also would almost certainly fail to pass the full chamber.
Dick Durbin, Democratic chair of the Judiciary Committee, lambasted progressives this week for pressuring him to call for a vote on a subpoena when their party lacks the votes to pass one.
“Quite honestly, subpoenaing a Supreme Court justice is not in the cards,” he told HuffPost on Wednesday. “It’s not going to happen.”
He did note, however, that senators on the committee have issued subpoenas for some of the “sugar daddies” — referring to the wealthy conservative donors who have plied the justices with gifts.
The FBI’s Dallas Division is asking for the public’s assistance to identify an unknown bank robber responsible for a bank robbery on June 6.
At approximately 2:10 p.m. on Thursday, June 6, the suspect robbed the First Convenience Bank branch located inside the Walmart on Anderson Boulevard in Fort Worth.
The robbery suspect had a small child seated in a shopping cart as he presented a note to the teller demanding cash. After obtaining the money, the suspect fled the location while carrying the child.
The robber is described as a white male, 35 to 45 years old, 5’7″ to 5’9″ with a thin build. He wore a baseball hat, black sunglasses, a multi-color “fishing shirt,” khaki-colored cargo shorts and “Hey Dude” shoes.
Nevada ranked the second highest auto insurance rates in the country, according to Insurify.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday heard arguments over whether car insurance should pay out benefits to a woman who caught a sexually transmitted disease from a policyholder in his insured vehicle.
In GEICO General Insurance Co.v. M.O., a Missouri woman, the titular M.O., claims that her partner, Martin Brauner, negligently infected her with human papillomavirus (HPV) after they had sex in his 2014 Hyundai Genesis. She claims Brauner was aware he had HPV but neglected to inform her before they had unprotected sex, resulting in “past and future medical expenses” and “mental and physical pain and suffering,” court documents state.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a Southwest Airlines flight reportedly plunged to “within 400ft” of the Pacific Ocean during a flight.
A memo distributed to Southwest pilots, obtained by Bloomberg, said that the Boeing 737 Max 8 plunged at a rate of 4,000ft a minute off the coast of Hawaii, coming within hundreds of feet of the ocean before climbing to safety.
News of the incident comes as investigators said a Southwest-operated Boeing 737 Max 8 sustained significant damage after it did a “Dutch roll” during a flight from Phoenix to Oakland in May.
An illegal alien from El Salvador has been arrested on charges of raping and murdering a Maryland mother of five.
Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, crossed the U.S. southern border illegally in February 2023, according to Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler. Six months later, in August 2023, Hernandez is suspected of attacking, raping, and killing Rachel Morin while she exercised on the MA & PA Heritage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore.
“We are 1,800 miles away from the southern border and the American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies,” Gahler said during a press conference Saturday, directing this remark specifically to “1600 Pennsylvania Ave and to every member of both chambers of Congress.”
“This is the second time, in just two years, that an innocent Harford County woman has lost her life to a criminal in our country illegally,” the sheriff said.
Police say a man has been arrested in connection to the death of an 11-year-old boy during a sleepover where he reportedly participated in a dangerous TikTok challenge, according to his family.
Tommy-lee Gracie Billington lost consciousness after inhaling toxic substances and was transported to a hospital, where he later died in March.
‘It is beyond me why anyone would even try this. It’s so dangerous.’
Three months later, Lancashire Police announced that they had arrested a 25-year-old man on from Lancaster suspicion of a slew of charges.
Billington was believed to have died as a result of participating in a TikTok challenge known as “chroming” during which children are encouraged to inhale toxic chemicals in order to create a high comparable to drunkenness. The chemicals used include solvents, aerosols, paint, or cleaning products.
A ruling is pending from the United States Supreme Court, after the justices heard arguments in, what may be, the most significant case regarding the rights of homeless people.
The ruling will decide whether cities are allowed to criminalize people for sleeping outside, even if they don’t have access to shelter.
It appears that global warming experts have some major explaining to do.
The state of Montana is expected to get 12 inches of snow next week as a cold front is expected to hit the state.
The National Weather Service in Montana has warned residents in higher elevations near the Continental Divide are expecting snowfall on Monday that will last until Thursday.
The NWS warned, “Travel could be difficult, especially on backcountry roads. Those in the backcountry should ensure they have appropriate knowledge and gear and may want to consider alternate plans.”
Obama Looks Stunned As Biden Incoherently Rambles In Unearthed Clip
President Joe Biden appeared notably disjointed during his remarks at an event on Sunday, prompting visible astonishment from former President Barack Obama in a recently surfaced video clip from their high-profile Los Angeles fundraiser. The event, aimed at drumming up support for Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, inadvertently showed a series of verbal missteps from Biden that have fueled critiques about his fitness for office.
During his address, Biden made a confusing remark about the nation’s unemployment rates, initially claiming, “We have the highest unemployment” in 50 years, before quickly correcting himself to highlight a record low unemployment rate.
The slip, coupled with his awkward phrasing about job descriptions — was met with a bewildered expression from Obama, captured vividly on camera.
The fundraiser, which also featured celebrity moderator Jimmy Kimmel and raised over $30 million for Biden’s campaign, was intended to highlight the successes of the current administration and the critical nature of the upcoming election. However, Biden’s rambling and the viral clip of Obama’s reaction have overshadowed the event’s achievements, providing ammunition for Republicans and social media users to question Biden’s clarity and capability, or lack thereof.
If you have things like truth, facts, and logic on your side then letting someone speak who disagrees with you should be no problem. But the rainbow mob only has lies and ad hominem attacks on their side, which is why they freak out the moment someone contradicts their truth.
A school district in Manhattan was holding a meeting to discuss a measure that requires schools to hold a public hearing over their policy about trans sports.
Since the measure was passed, trans advocates have shown up at each school board meeting to protest even discussing the possibility of moving forward with the review, which is what happened Wednesday night when anyone with an opposing view attempted to speak.
One video of the bizarre humming and howling performance given by the trans advocates – many of whom were in matching jeans and white t-shirts – showed that the woman whose voice they were drowning out is Amaya Perez, a black, bisexual woman who leads the NYC chapter of Gays Against Groomers.
An illegal alien killed Kate Steinle during the Obama presidency. Then, Laken Riley fell victim to the same criminal scum who illegally entered the United States. There are dozens more victims of illegal aliens who have come here to rape, murder, steal, and run amok in our streets. These aren’t asylum seekers, though that process has also been manipulated. In Harford County, Maryland, we have a new name to add to this tragic list: Rachel Morin, a mother of five, who was raped and murdered by an illegal alien from El Salvador (via Baltimore Sun):
A suspect in the killing of Bel Air mother Rachel Morin is in custody in Tulsa, Oklahoma, pending extradition to Maryland, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said at a news conference Saturday.
“Rachel’s murderer is no longer a free man and, hopefully, he will never have the opportunity to walk free again,” Gahler said.
Tulsa Police and federal authorities found Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, on Friday night and took him into custody for allegedly trespassing, Gahler said. The El Salvador native is being held without bond at a Tulsa County jail, accused of being a fugitive from justice, along with a hold from Maryland to face charges in Morin’s homicide and a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Martinez-Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape in Morin’s death.
CLEMSON, S.C., June 17, 2024 — It’s a one-two punch for students’ ability to speak out. Another leading South Carolina university has earned the top rating for free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Clemson University is one of only two schools in South Carolina, and one of only 67 nationwide, that earns a “green light” rating from FIRE. Green light ratings are reserved for institutions with no written policies that seriously imperil student free speech rights.
“We are proud to be recognized by FIRE for our commitment to freedom of expression, individual rights and meaningful dialogue here at Clemson University,” said Clemson President Jim Clements. “Our dedication to ensuring our students, and all of our Tigers, have freedom of expression is a part of who we are and represents our University values and our culture.”
Can you imagine Joe Biden playing chess? Could he beat, say, an average seventh-grader? C’mon, man: I’m serious! Not a joke!
But on MSNBC’s Saturday edition of The Weekend, co-anchor Alicia Menendez claimed that whereas Biden is playing chess, Donald Trump is — at best — playing Hungry Hungry Hippos[billed as a game for “preschoolers.”] The daughter of Sen. Bob “Gold Bars” Menendez should describe what game he was playing. She’s not in the right place to swagger.
Co-host Symone Sanders Townsend chimed in to suggest that the better game analogy for Trump might be the card game Uno.
The comments came in the context of Biden’s participation in various recent events, including the G7 summit. Sanders-Townsend suggested that Biden’s performance counters any notion that he might be “a little too old.”
Whuh? Surely Sanders and the rest of the panel have seen this video from the G7 of a dazed and confused Biden doddering away until Italian PM Giorgia Meloni gently rescues him.
Trump ridicules special counsel’s gag order request in new filing in classified documents case
The attorneys continued, comparing the request to the gag order Trump is under in a separate case in New York, adding, “Like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Smith seeks to restrict President Trump’s campaign speech as the first presidential debate approaches at the end of this month.”
Biological cheater William Thomas, who declared he was a woman so he could go from the bottom 100 in college swimming to the top in college swimming, was informed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland that his petition to cheat against women in the Olympics was not going to happen.
Thomas was hoping to have a court overturn a policy from World Aquatics banning men from participating against women in swimming even if the man is now larping as a woman. The organization said. “A biological female athlete cannot overcome that advantage through training or nutrition. Nor can they take additional testosterone to obtain the same advantage, because testosterone is a prohibited substance under the World Anti-Doping Code… World Aquatics should remain committed to the separation of athletes in sport into men’s and women’s categories based on biological sex.”
The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected a challenge on Wednesday brought by Lia Thomas against World Aquatics’ ban on transgender athletes participating in the women’s category at elite swimming competitions, thus barring him from participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The court’s rejection is a massive win for women’s sports and a major defeat for transgender athletes’ attempts to subvert biological reality.
World Aquatics’ transgender policy prohibits male athletes from competing against women, stating male-to-female transgender athletes are only granted permission to compete in the women’s category “if they can establish to World Aquatics’ comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later.”
The financial company Fearless Fund Management decided to announce a contest for business funding that would not be open to anyone but black women. They were sued by The American Alliance for Equal Rights on behalf of three people who were not black women.
The 11th Circuit panel struck down the racist policy 2-1, with the far-left judge on the panel dissenting based on the claim these potential candidates were “flopping,” and they never intended on applying in the first place. That judge was Robin Rosenbaum, who made it clear in the dissent this she has no business being in any government office. She was nominated by the far-left anti-American president, Barack Hussein Obama.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently threw a wrench into the blatantly discriminatory practices of big money corporate interests. In American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Fearless Fund Management, over a bizarre dissent by Judge Robin Rosenbaum, Judges Kevin Newsom and Robert Luck upheld an injunction against a venture capital fund with tens of millions of dollars in assets that gives money only to businesses owned by black women. Nobody else is eligible to even apply.
The plaintiff, The American Alliance for Equal Rights, sued on behalf of three of its members—business owners who are not black women and who are, therefore, not allowed to compete in Fearless Fund Management’s funding process. Fearless Fund was apparently fearless about violating anti-discrimination laws.
The threshold question was whether the Alliance had standing to sue on behalf of its members. Each member provided an affidavit showing that they are “able and ready” to participate in Fearless Fund’s competition, meet all prerequisites but the racial one, and have concrete plans to use the funds they would get to build up their businesses if they weren’t racially excluded.
That is all that is required to establish standing according to Judges Newsom and Luck, and they are correct – these business owners have an obvious claim since they are explicitly excluded from even applying for the $20,000 in venture capital offered by Fearless in its grant contest.
Yes, Fearless Fund discriminates against Alliance members because of their race, but that isn’t enough to establish standing, according to Judge Rosenbaum, an Obama appointee. In her dissent, Rosenbaum accused the Alliance of “flopping”—that is, faking an injury the way soccer players do by flopping on the field– “to manipulate the referee into inappropriately exercising his power to award a penalty kick in the box.”
That’s a strange position to take in the 21st century because, by Rosenbaum’s illogic, members of the NAACP who during Jim Crow avoided hotels, restaurants, and buses where they knew they’d be turned away would be “flopping” because they didn’t go in and get turned away. This retrograde view of civil rights ignores that, as Justice Brett Kavanaugh put it recently, “discrimination is harm.” It would also force victims of discrimination into humiliating and even potentially dangerous situations before letting them seek justice.
Speaker Johnson has stated he will be taking his case to the courts to force the DOJ to comply with both the subpoena Garland ordered and the House’s resolution calling for Garland to be prosecuted for contempt.
“It is sadly predictable that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department will not prosecute Garland for defying congressional subpoenas even though the department aggressively prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for the same thing,” the Speaker declared.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that the House will go to court to enforce the subpoena against Attorney General Merrick Garland for access to President Joe Biden’s special counsel audio interview, hours after the Justice Department refused to prosecute Republicans’ contempt of Congress charge.
“It is sadly predictable that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department will not prosecute Garland for defying congressional subpoenas even though the department aggressively prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for the same thing,” Johnson said in a statement. “This is yet another example of the two-tiered system of justice brought to us by the Biden Administration.”
In a letter to Johnson earlier Friday, a Justice Department official cited the agency’s “longstanding position and uniform practice” to not prosecute officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege.
Since Los Angeles County has a progressive prosecutor who does not like to prosecute, brazen crimes are becoming increasingly frequent. Murdered General Hospital actor Johnny Wactor fell victim to the culture of criminality that District Attorney George Gascón condones.
More than 200 protestors rallied in Downtown Los Angeles near the scene of the crime where Wactor was murdered to call for safer streets as well as to put pressure on officials to prosecute the suspect in the case.
A march demanding justice was held on Wednesday in honor of slain “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor, who was shot and killed while trying to stop catalytic converter thieves last month.
The suspects were in the process of stealing Wactor’s vehicle’s catalytic converter when “without provocation, [he] was shot by one of the individuals,” LAPD added.
Friends and family of the late actor, who was known for his role as Brando Corbin in the popular soap opera “General Hospital” and appeared in “Westworld” and “Criminal Minds,” held a rally in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday morning and marched towards city hall, calling for local leaders to take action against the violence.
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Last Friday, my colleague Stephanie Mencimer had the distinct honor—or misfortune—of witnessing Rudy Giuliani’s apparent attempt to convince the Christian right to help him amid his dire financial troubles. That effort saw Giuliani airing crude, conspiratorial rhetoric before the faithful which at one point, saw Giuliani calling Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney in Donald Trump’s Georgia case, a “ho.”
Now Willis is responding, condemning the conservative critics who have relentlessly targeted her since she took on Trump’s Georgia election interference case. While speaking to leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia, Willis appeared to single out the former New York City mayor’s denigrating remarks. She declined to call out Giuliani by name, but the subject of her remarks was evident.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Blames COVID-19 Nursing Home Order on Unknown Staffer During Testimony to Congress
On June 11, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told Congress members that he was not responsible for an order requiring nursing homes to accept residents discharged from hospitals, even if they were still infected with COVID-19, according to lawmakers present in the room.
Mr. Cuomo did “tell us that he did not know that this directive existed, that he did not authorize it, that his Department of Health Commissioner did not authorize it, that somehow it just popped up from an unknown staff member,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told reporters in a briefing after the closed-door hearing.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced plans to combat “conspiracy theories” surrounding the allegations the Justice Department is illegally working in collusion with the Democrat Party to overthrow the American republic. Garland used the DNC-CCP’s content marketing platform to pen an “opinion” piece that sets the DNC-CCP narrative on how to create a culture of fear to prevent whistleblowers and dissenters from publicly challenging the official party narrative.
The nature of Garland’s op-end is revealed in this statement by Garland: “The conspiracy theory that the recent jury verdict in New York state court was somehow controlled by the Department is not only false, it is irresponsible.” Calling a rightful opinion of a kangaroo court trial “irresponsible” is the first step towards criminalizing that same thought, as his critiques rightly point out.
Some might see US Attorney General Merrick Garland getting quite involved in campaigning ahead of the November election – albeit indirectly so, as a public servant whose primary concern is supposedly how to keep Department of Justice (DoJ) staff “safe.”
And, in the process, he brings up “conspiracy theorists” branding them as undermining the judicial process in the US – because they dare question the validity of a particular judicial process that aimed at former President Trump.
In an opinion piece published by the Washington Post, Garland used one instance that saw a man convicted for threatening a local FBI office to draw blanket and dramatic conclusions that DoJ staff have never operated in a more dangerous environment, where “threats of violence have become routine.”
It all circles back to the election, and Garland makes little effort to present himself as neutral. Other than “conspiracy theories,” his definition of a threat are calls to defund the department that was responsible for going after the former president.
Bob Casey Requests Taxpayer Funds for LGBT Center That Offers ‘Wide Array of Services’ to Children as Young as Seven
Democratic senator Bob Casey (Pa.) requested hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds this month for an LGBT center that offers a “wide array of services” to children as young as seven years old.
Casey seeks $565,000 for the LGBT Center of Greater Reading to “support access to mental health care for underserved populations,” according to his June 5 earmark request to a Senate appropriations subcommittee.
The LGBT Center of Greater Reading, which lists Casey as a “proud supporter,” has hosted “Drag Queen Story Hour” events for children and provides referral letters for clients seeking “top surgery” and “bottom surgery,” procedures that reconstruct breasts and genitals, respectively.
What’s more, the director of the center’s wellness clinic, which provides mental health services like those identified in Casey’s request, performs gender reassignment surgeries on adults and minors at a nearby hospital. The physician, Ashley Brandt, has posted photos on social media from the operating room after performing vaginoplasties and breast-removal procedures on transgender adults and filling “testicular implants” in preparation for surgery. Brandt has said she performs surgeries only on post-pubescent children and said that “we all take surgeries on minors very seriously.”
Casey’s funding request could pose a political liability for the Pennsylvania Democrat, considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the upcoming election. A majority of Americans oppose many of the services offered by the LGBT Center. According to a 2022 poll, 60 percent of adults think “Drag Queen Story Hour,” in which drag queens read story books to kids, is inappropriate. The LGBT Center of Greater Reading has hosted that kind of event since at least 2019, according to its social media pages. It held “Out in the Park” in October 2022, in which children under 10 years old were admitted free to an event that featured a “Drag Queen Story Hour,” a “large kids area,” and free HIV testing.
The request also marks an emerging pattern for Casey, who will face Republican businessman Dave McCormick in November. Casey requested $1 million in funding for the William Way LGBT Center last year, but he pulled the request after revelations that the center hosted BDSM and “kink” parties.
The three-term incumbent recently touted a $400,000 earmark for the Mazzoni Center, which, like the LGBT Center of Greater Reading, offers referrals for clients seeking sex-change procedures.
While the LGBT Center of Greater Reading offers its “wide array” of services to children, it is unclear if those services include referrals for surgical procedures and controversial hormone treatments such as puberty blockers.
But Brandt, who hosted a “Gender Affirming Surgery 101” seminar at the center in April 2023, acknowledges performing surgeries on minors, though only those who have gone through puberty and have parental consent and consultation with mental health professionals.
“This idea that we’re operating on minors, that we’re doing irreversible procedures on minors, is not a new idea,” said Brandt, who in a July 2023 interview compared sex-change surgeries to cosmetic surgeries or bariatric procedures. “There are surgeries done on minors all across the board … that require these very intense discussions.”
Casey’s office and the LGBT Center of Greater Reading did not respond to requests for comment.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in a 3-2 decision that public schools do not have a right to determine the type of material that can go into their libraries, that the “rights” of trans and gay kids to have access to trans and gay books trump’s the library’s right to determine what is or is not appropriate for kids to read.
Two of the three judges voting for this limited the books the libraries must return to those without explicit sexual content, while one judge would have forced libraries to put these books backs on their shelves as well. Judge Jacques Wiener, Jr. wrote in the ruling, “[A] book may not be removed for the sole—or a substantial— reason that the decisionmaker does not wish patrons to be able to access the book’s viewpoint or message. . . . [A] book by a former Grand Wizard of the K.K.K., which hasn’t been checked out in years and is discovered by a librarian during routine weeding, could be removed based on lack of interest and poor circulation history.”
One of the dissenting justices, Judge Stuart Duncan, countered, “A public library’s choice of some books for its collection, and its rejection of others, is government speech… This conclusion is supported by a long line of Supreme Court precedent, as well as authority from our sister circuits. It means the Free Speech Clause does not constrain a public library’s collection decisions.”
An appeals court issued a First Amendment decision on June 6, ordering the return of controversial books to public library shelves in the children’s section. The highly fractured court opinion requires libraries in Texas to restock books on trangenderism but not those depicting nudity and sex.
The case arose after community members objected to “pornographic and overtly sexual books in the library’s children’s section,” and libraries removed the objectionable materials in response. Several community members sued.
Litigation in the lower court, which issued a more expansive order to restock the books, continues after the appeal court’s decision and will determine whether the removals violated the First Amendment.
Two judges on the three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit agreed that books like Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, and They Call Themselves the K.K.K. must return to library shelves during the ligitation.
These books discuss sexuality and homosexuality, transgenderism, and “the history of racism in the United States,” respectively.
One judge would have ordered books like In the Night Kitchen and It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health to return to library shelves.
It’s Perfectly Normal, a book written for a 10-and-up audience, is replete with cartoons of people masturbating and having sex.
Judge Jacques Wiener, Jr., who would have ordered all books returned, accepted that libraries must engage in content-based curation, such as assessing what will be or is of interest to the community. Wiener, however, argued that the removal decisions were substantially motivated by a wish to deny patrons access to material the censor personally disagreed with instead of because of a lack of community interest:
[A] book may not be removed for the sole—or a substantial— reason that the decisionmaker does not wish patrons to be able to access the book’s viewpoint or message. . . . [A] book by a former Grand Wizard of the K.K.K., which hasn’t been checked out in years and is discovered by a librarian during routine weeding, could be removed based on lack of interest and poor circulation history.
Judge Leslie Southwick agreed in part with Wiener and wrote a partial concurrence. Southwick, however, argued that removing books like In the Night Kitchen and It’s Perfectly Normal was likely constitutional:
I would have no difficulty in allowing the removal of a book from the children’s section on the basis that it encourages children to engage in sexual activity with adults or includes sexually explicit content. At this stage of the case, I find ordering the return of such books to be error.
Judge Stuart Duncan dissented. Duncan chastised Wiener and Southwick for “appoint[ing] themselves co-chairs of every public library board across the Fifth Circuit” by “issu[ing] ‘rules’ for when librarians can remove books from the shelves and when they cannot.”
In Duncan’s view, public libraries’ curatorial decisions were government speech immune from the First Amendment:
A public library’s choice of some books for its collection, and its rejection of others, is government speech. . . . This conclusion is supported by a long line of Supreme Court precedent, as well as authority from our sister circuits. It means the Free Speech Clause does not constrain a public library’s collection decisions.
