Tag: moms for liberty
Trump Campaign Can't Defend His Absurd Lie About Schools and Trans Surgeries

Trump Campaign Can't Defend His Absurd Lie About Schools and Trans Surgeries

Donald Trump recently joined the Hitler-quoting book-banners at Moms for Liberty for their “Joyful Warriors” summit in Washington, D.C., and in addition to him admitting he lost the 2020 election “by a whisker” and a good dash of overt racism, one particular claim of Trump’s stood out for its over-the-top mixture of delusion and conspiracy.

“The transgender thing is an incredible thing,” said a slouching, low-energy Trump. “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child, and you know many of these childs [sic] 15 years later say ‘What the hell happened? Who did this to me?’”

The moment was so ludicrous that it’d be easy for the media to just ignore the comment, like it does with so many of Trump’s outrageous statements. However, CNN didn’t just shake its head and move on. The outlet thoroughly fact-checked Trump’s lie and followed up with both his campaign and various conservative groups.

For the record, this is what CNN found when they asked education and health experts about Trump’s lie:

Trump’s claim is false. There is no evidence that US schools have sent children into gender-affirming surgeries without their parents knowing or performed gender-affirming surgeries on site; Trump’s own presidential campaign could not provide a single example of this ever happening. Even in states where gender-affirming surgery is legal for people under age 18, parental consent is required before a minor can undergo such a procedure.

As Dr. Landon Hughes, a fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, made clear to CNN in an email, “There are no instances of children receiving surgeries or access to surgeries from their schools,” adding, “No provider in the US would perform surgery on a minor under the direction of a school, let alone without parental consent.”

While Hughes was speaking about gender-affirming surgery, the same is true if the question was a tonsillectomy—because grade schools and high schools don’t do surgery. You’d be hard-pressed to find a school nurse willing to hand a kid an aspirin without a parent’s permission, much less break out a scalpel.

Little Jimmy is not getting secretly shuffled off for gender-related surgery on his way to history class.

And when CNN asked Trump’s campaign for examples of the “transgender thing” their candidate was pushing, the outlet didn’t receive any. Instead, a Trump spokesperson insisted that she had personally talked to parents who were upset after learning that their children were “being called entirely different names” at school.

Somehow, that doesn’t seem like the same thing.

CNN even followed up with four conservative groups, allowing them to take their best shot at showing this “thing” Trump talked about had ever happened. Despite right-wing claims that make it seem as if every child in America is only days away from a gender switch, the groups didn’t produce a single case even vaguely related to Trump’s claims.

However, Tiffany Justice, the Moms for Liberty co-founder who interviewed Trump at her group’s summit, was smitten with Trump’s lie.

“It grabbed your attention,” she said, “and we’re talking about it now, and that makes me very happy.”

As with the myth about litter boxes in schools, the right doesn’t care if Trump’s statement has an ounce of truth to it. His lie is one that Republicans can now repeat to audiences who will nod along with the hoax. Another log to throw on the trans-panic bonfire.

CNN did an admirable job of following up on every aspect of this lie and showing ... it's a lie, only a lie, and nothing but a lie. Now, expect Trump to repeat it. Often.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Busted: Moms For Liberty Moralist Quits School Board After Shoplifting Arrest

Busted: Moms For Liberty Moralist Quits School Board After Shoplifting Arrest

This past Friday, Keri Leigh Blair, a Tennessee school board member backed by the far-right group Moms for Liberty, was arrested and charged with stealing over $700 of merchandise from a local Target. Oh, the morality! Blair resigned from her position on the Collierville Schools board on Tuesday, having served just over one year, saying she is leaving for “personal, family reasons.”

According to the Collierville Police Department, Blair is accused of stealing from Target by “skip scanning” items at the self-checkout on November 25, November 30, Deccember 3, December 6, December13, December 18, and December 20—seven times! Target alleges Blair made off with $728.61, and police say the chain “is prosecuting.”

This is just the latest example of book-banning moralist moms behaving badly. Around the same time that Blair was being investigated, a so-called “parental rights” activist in Pennsylvania was facing criminal charges of “assault, harassment, and furnishing minors with alcohol” at a birthday party she hosted in September.

The rot of this anti-education movement can be seen at the top as well. Recently, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler and her politically connected Republican husband, Christian Ziegler, have been embroiled in a scandal after a woman who’d been in a sexual relationship with the married couple accused Mr. Ziegler of sexual assault. In every instance, these holier-than-thou actors—who seek to censor our country’s racial history and attack LGBTQ+ children—demand that everyone submit to their narrow view of the world. Everyone except, of course, themselves.

As for the school board seat left vacant by Blair, the local ABC affiliate reports that state law dictates that the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen appoint a replacement who would serve until November 2024.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Christian Ziegler

Police Expand Rape And 'Voyeurism' Probe Of Florida GOP Chair

Sarasota police are expanding their criminal investigation into Christian Ziegler, the embattled chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, to include video voyeurism, a felony that carries a possible five-year prison penalty. Ziegler has been accused of rape by the same woman he and his wife Bridget, a Moms for Liberty co-founder and school board member who helped draft Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law, admit to having a three-way sexual relationship with.

According to a search warrant affidavit, police believe Christian Ziegler unlawfully filmed his alleged rape of the woman, which he claims was consensual. They have obtained a search warrant for Ziegler’s Instagram account, which they believe contains “evidence of the crime,” according to the Florida Trident, which also first broke the news of the rape allegation against Ziegler and of the three-way relationship.

The woman, who has not been named, says she was not aware Ziegler had filmed the encounter.

The alleged rape occurred after the woman canceled a planned three-way sexual encounter with the Zieglers, known as Florida’s Republican “power couple,” upon learning Bridget Ziegler, Christian’s wife who has strong ties to Gov. DeSantis, was not available.

“Detectives spoke with both the victim and Ziegler’s wife,” Sarasota Police Det. Megan Buck wrote in the search warrant affidavit. “The victim did not give Ziegler consent to take this video of them having sex. Neither … Ziegler’s wife or the victim knew anything about this video that had been taken of the sexual encounter on 10/02/23, and neither had seen the video of this encounter.”

The Herald-Tribune adds, “A Sarasota police detective wrote in the search warrant affidavit for Instagram records that she believes ‘probable cause exists to show (Zeigler) has utilized Instagram to commit the crime of Video Voyeurism.'”

Police have obtained two sex videos of the Zieglers: the one Christian reportedly filmed of the alleged rape, and a second one, of Bridget Ziegler “engaging in sexual relations” with an unidentified woman, sources said, according to a previous report by theTrident. “It is not known if the woman in the video is the same woman who has alleged she was sexually assaulted by Christian Ziegler.”

Bridget Ziegler confirmed the married couple had a three-way sexual relationship with the woman now accusing Christian Ziegler of sexual battery. She stood right behind DeSantis, now a GOP presidential candidate, when he signed his “Don’t Say Gay” legislation into law, an act some have called hypocritical given her consensual three-way sexual relationship and that both helped write and promote the legislation.

Last month the Republican Party of Florida stripped Christian Ziegler of his $120,000 annual salary and responsibilities, finding him unfit to serve. He has refused to resign, but reportedly is willing to step down if handed a massive payout, allegedly up to $2 million.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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