Tag: Moms for Liberty

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Episode 37: What’s the Matter with Homer Glen?

On this Week’s episode we talk about guitar playing, the Cubs’ playoff chances, and what the heck is going on in south suburban Home Glen, Illinois, where the local school board apparently fired a teacher for exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of religion. We discussed this last episode but naïvely thought the school district might do the right thing. They did not. 

So, this week, we brought the heat. 

The short version is this: It’s hard to see any legal rationale for the board’s actions, and it may, in the end, expose the board to litigation … along with the pitchfork-wielding extremist mob that demanded the teacher’s firing in the first place. We’re talking about you, Libs of TikTok, Moms for Liberty, Awake Illinois, and Awake Americans. Maybe you folks ought to lawyer up.

On a related note, since the lynch mob raised the teacher’s apparent interest in Satanism, you might want to educate yourself about that theological perspective. It’s not what you think.

We also discuss the racist Jacksonville shooting and conservatives’ disturbing, if predictable, pattern of using “mental illness” as a shield to protect bigots and mass murderers and sword to demonize marginalized people, especially members of the LGBTQIA+ community. 

And speaking of lawsuits, with the rising wave of hate crimes in America, from the  racist murders in Jacksonville to the homophobic murder of Laura Ann Carlton in California to bomb threats phoned into Illinois libraries, it may be time to subject some of these extremist groups to the SPLC treatment. See: Aryan Nations on the Verge of Collapse Following Judgment.

Finally, since groups like Moms for Liberty got their start protesting COVID restrictions in schools before they turned to attacking trans and nonbinary youth, we thought we’d take a look at the number of COVID deaths versus the number of gender affirming surgeries among kids 18 and under. While it’s difficult to find statistics for exactly identical time periods, you won’t be surprised to learn that there were more than 1,800 COVID deaths among kids from 0 to 18 through June 2023, and around 800 surgeries, nearly all on 17 and 18 year olds, during the the two-year period from 2019 to 2021. So, apparently, Moms for Liberty and their affiliates would rather that children die of COVID than have potentially life-saving surgeries. Duly noted.

Anyway, please enjoy this week’s episode, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and, as always, support the rights of LGBTQIA people everywhere! And follow us on Twitter at @itsotetPodcast.

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Episode 33: Mind Your Business

On this week’s show: Our pool is finally open after months of delay. We’re still trying to get the hang of Threads. Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick support the ACLU Drag Defense Fund. Drag queens have First Amendment rights, too. A lot of you have lost your minds. Jennifer says mind your business. “Moms” for “Liberty” doesn’t want this smoke. White people ruined “woke” (just ask Bill Burr). “Awake Americans” … who are awake, but not woke? … are cringeworthy. And more. 

So, please enjoy this week’s episode, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and, as always, support the rights of LGBTQIA people everywhere! 

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Episode 29: Solar Panels, Artificial Intelligence, and Hate Groups

This week’s episode runs a little long, but we think it will be worth your time.

We begin the show talking about solar panels and whether there is a downside to high tech solutions to environmental problems. Then we talk about artificial intelligence and how some employers use it in the hiring process. Perhaps employers use AI to cut down on the biases, implicit or otherwise, that hiring professionals may have … but what about biases that are baked into the AI? Illinois and New York have passed legislation to address some of these issues, but it remains to be seen whether that legislation will be beneficial.

That leads to a broader discussion about implicit bias and whether we’d be better off confronting it and learning to hold it in check rather than relying on technology, which may or may not have its own biases, to replace human involvement. 

And don’t get us started on age discrimination … 

Anyway, we wrap up the show talking about the Southern Poverty Law Center’s recent designation of Moms for Liberty (or, more accurately, “Moms” for “Liberty”) as a hate group. While SPLC brands them as anti-government extremists for their concerted efforts to harass school board members, teachers, administrators, and pubic libraries, they are, in fact, a pro-authoritarian organization that wants to dominate public schools and dictate what other people’s kids learn and what books they can read. And that doesn’t even get into their over-the-top anti-LGBTQIA bigotry. 

Moms for Liberty has affiliated groups throughout the country, including ironically named groups called Awake Illinois and Awake Americans that are trying to destroy our local schools. And they will try to destroy yours, too. We will follow up on this in the coming weeks, but we also briefly mention some people in Illinois who are affiliated with these groups, including a small-town (alleged) “cowboy” who posts (homoerotic?) selfies all day and is convinced that he’s the smartest guy on the planet. You’ll be surprised to learn that he’s … not.

So, please enjoy this week’s episode, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and, as always, support the rights of LGBTQIA people everywhere! And if you’re new here, you can also follow our Twitter account, @itsotetPodcast.

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