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☆ Anti-LGBTQ+ protests are at an all-time high. A Proud Boys war on drag is a big reason why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Once a week on average in 2022, Proud Boys joined or led anti-LGBTQ+ protests held across the US. Proud Boys joined in seven anti-LGBTQ+ protests in September, 10 in October and 6 in November. In December, they protested at 13 anti-LGBTQ+ protests, more than in any other month last year, ACLED data shows. And the group's anti-LGBTQ+ push is continuing, said Kaufman, who tracks the Proud Boys' estimated 119 chapters in 46 states. Proud Boys are turning up these days at nearly half of all anti-LGBTQ+ activity across the country, she told Insider.

☆ Drag queens take on Tennessee bill seeking to restrict their performances
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Andrew Davis | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

At 5 Points Diner & Bar in Nashville, Tenn., drag performer Veronika Electronika can often be seen strutting between brunch tables. The measure, known as Senate Bill 3, was introduced by Tennessee Republican Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson in November. Tennessee has proposed 31 anti-LGBTQ bills this year, the most of any state, according to Freedom for All Americans. “We tip our servers, we tip our bartenders, we tip our hair stylists, and we tip our drag queens,” she said. As for Veronika, she said she’s determined to rally enough opposition to scuttle Tennessee’s drag bill before it becomes state law.

Two people were arrested at a New York City Council member's apartment building Monday after opponents of a drag reading event targeted it with messages the politician called “pure hate, unmasked,” officials said. A group had targeted the public reading event geared toward neurodiverse children at a library in Chelsea on Saturday, NBC New York reported. Our resolve is strengthened.”Earlier Monday, the hallways inside the building that houses Bottcher’s council district office were also vandalized, police said. Right-wing figures and influencers have targeted drag events, sometimes with incendiary rhetoric about “groomers." Bottcher, who was elected to represent District 3 in 2021 and took office in January, said after Saturday's event that reading helps children grow, and he thanked the drag reading event organizers.

☆ Fact Check-U.S. Rep. Katie Porter did not say pedophilia was an ‘identity’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Comments by California Representative Katie Porter during a congressional hearing on anti-LGBTQ violence on Dec. 14 have been misrepresented online. A congressional hearing on Wednesday by the U.S. House Oversight Committee explored anti-LGBTQ violence following the deadly shooting at the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last month where five people were killed and another 22 wounded. Porter did not say that pedophilia is an identity.”VERDICTFalse. This video does not show Rep. Katie Porter saying that pedophilia is an identity. Full footage of her remarks at a congressional hearing on Dec. 14 shows she was condemning content online that labels members of the LGBTQ+ community as “groomers” or “pedophiles.”This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

☆ Colorado shooting prompts top drag queens to tour with armed guards and metal detectors
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Matt-Lavietes-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Matt Lavietes | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Curtis Brown“We’re trying to smile and make people happy for the holidays, and in the back of our heads we’re thinking, ‘I hope I don’t get shot,’” said Jinkx Monsoon, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season five and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season seven. For months, many right-wing lawmakers, media personalities and activists have accused LGBTQ people — and drag performers in particular — of “grooming,” “indoctrinating” and “sexualizing” children. Latrice Royale, who has appeared on both “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” reasoned that the backlash is due to the greater visibility of drag brought on by the global success of the RuPaul-led competition shows, which have spinoffs in at least 16 other countries. Drag performers who have hosted events that have catered to children, such as Drag Story Hours at public libraries or family-friendly drag brunches, have particularly drawn the ire of conservative protesters. Them.”BenDeLaCreme, who appeared on the sixth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the third season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” shared a similar sentiment.

Some right-wing media figures and influencers have doubled down on the use of inflammatory rhetoric against the LGBTQ community in the wake of Saturday night’s shooting at a Colorado gay club that killed five. “We shouldn’t tolerate pedophiles grooming kids,” Pool tweeted. At least one Republican politician also targeted LGBTQ people on social media in the wake of the shooting. Ellis said leaders in the LGBTQ community have “seen a dramatic uptick” in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. “This is priming some very violent people to do shocking acts of violence, and this is all being pushed on social media and on Fox News, on Tucker Carlson.”

☆ After the Colorado Springs attack, LGBTQ people are furious at the rhetoric targeting them
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

And she’s angry with people who have spread anti-LGBTQ rhetoric online — some for years — leading up to the shooting. Courtesy Elizabeth Pixie / Snapchat“They can call it religion, they can call it politics, they can call it saving people,” Pixie, who lives in Colorado Springs, said. The suspect was apprehended by police after being injured in the attack and is in the hospital. James Davis said the attack at Club Q was a result of "cause and effect." Parker Grey used to be a regular at Club Q but stopped going out of safety concerns.

Parker Grey stopped going to the LGBTQ nightclub Club Q about a year and half ago “because of the growing hatred for our community that started in” Colorado Springs, Colorado. While no motive in the shooting has been disclosed by authorities, the violence comes amid heightened tensions for the LGBTQ community. The movement that advocated for that amendment started in Colorado Springs, they said. "I don’t know that we ever believe that we’ve fully grown out of that," Smith, 32, a longtime Colorado Springs resident, said. Most recently, in Colorado Springs, a transgender girl was kicked out of the homecoming dance because she wore a dress, Smith added.

Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake speaks at a get-out-the-vote rally Saturday in Scottsdale. A recent Marist College poll found Lake and Hobbs deadlocked in the final stretch of the nationally watched race. "That’s why I’ve spent the last two years working to lower costs and create better-paying jobs in Arizona." "We're getting pretty sick and tired of politicians who just lie," he went on, suggesting that Kelly "tricked" Arizona voters into thinking he was an independent when he is really a Democrat. Tucson voter Suzy Jacobs, a Democrat, said Masters represents a rising extremism in the Republican Party that she does not want to see control Arizona.

☆ Be careful before 'quick quitting' and joining the Great Resignation. Your employer may hand you a bill for your job training.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Workers quit in high numbers over the past few years — sometimes after being at the job under a year. Some employers are demanding that quitting workers reimburse them for their training costs. Most prevalent in the healthcare, trucking, and retail industries, these agreements can cost quitting workers thousands of dollars. England of charging quitters $6,000 for reimbursed training costs if they leave before a certain period of time. Regardless, many companies say they are well within their rights to demand compensation for training costs when employees part ways.

☆ Satanic panic is making a comeback, fueled by QAnon believers and GOP influencers
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Brandy-Zadrozny-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Brandy Zadrozny | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +23 min

Utah County Attorney David O. Leavitt speaks on July 31, 2019, in Provo. The accusations were part of a new case from Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith. Discussion about satanism and satanic abuse has increased in recent years, according to data provided to NBC News by Zignal Labs, which analyzes social media conversations. Popular culture and social media have also ferried ideas about satanism and widespread child abuse from fringe to the mainstream. (Anti-LGBTQ politicians and activists have equated LGBTQ people with predators who abuse children as part of a “gay agenda,” the well-worn panic that the gay rights movement’s true motivation is recruitment.

☆ He was my high school journalism teacher. Then I investigated his relationships with teenage girls.
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-16 | by ( Matt Drange | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +40 min

It was a hot July day and the classroom at Rosemead High School should have been empty. (Christopher Vu for Insider) Show less Rosemead High School sits just east of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley. Burgess as an upperclassman at Rosemead High School with the former teacher Hugh Zegers, center, and classmates. The author interviewing Rod Marinelli, a Rosemead High School alum who was then coaching the Detroit Lions, for the Rosemead student newspaper, the Panther's Tale. The author and a classmate, Amy Julia Harris, beside their journalism teacher Burgess at graduation night in June 2007.

Persons: Eric Burgess, Burgess, Brian Bristol, Christopher Vu, Alex Rai, Brian Day, —, Edward Zuniga, I'd, Dwain Crum, Harold Greenberg, Rai, Paul Arevalo, Arevalo, Diane Bladen, Rosemead, Bladen, Eric, weren't, Hugh Zegers, Rebecca Zisser, who'd, Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus Eric Burgess, Rod Marinelli, groomers, Daniel Pollack, Pollack, Matt Drange, Mia Nakao, Nakao, Lois Heilemann, Heilemann, Mia Nakao's, …, Larry Callaham, Catherine, fondling, She'd, they'd, Catherine grappled, Terri Amborn, Amborn, Sarah, she'd, Burgess's, didn't, Burgess texted Sarah, couldn't, Burgess wouldn't, I'm, Uber, Felipe Ibarra, I've, he'd, Sarah doesn't, She's, Amy Julia Harris, Harris Organizations: Rosemead, Bristol, Rosemead High, Facebook, School, Detroit Lions, High School, Rosemead High School, High, Cal State LA, Tower Records, Monte Union High School District, Starbucks Locations: Bristol, Burgess, Rosemead, Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley, California, McDonald's, Detroit, chameleons, Bladen, mdrange

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