STFU

That is what they want to do to us. They don’t want anything LGBTQ+ online, in the libraries, in the schools, they want criminalize us and wipe us off the face of this earth.

The article this morning in the Hartford Courant on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) mentioned how they are worried that the law will be used to ban us online.

But LGBTQ+ rights organizations across the nation raised alarm bells about the potential for it to lead to the censorship of LGBTQ+ content online, as they argued attorney generals across a variety of states have attempted to attack these organizations and their allies in recent years.

Then The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, released an editorial calling for the censorship of transgender content online, citing KOSA as a way to “prohibit the sexual exploitation of minors and the promotion of content that poses risks to minors’ physical and mental health,” and “guard against the harms of sexual and transgender content.”

Alongside this, Blackburn was recorded in an interview with the conservative Christian organization Family Policy Alliance saying that the top issue for conservative lawmakers should be “protecting minor children from the transgender in this culture, and that influence. And I would add to that, watching what’s happening on social media, and I’ve got the Kids Online Safety Act… This would put a duty of care and responsibility on the social media platforms, and this is where children are being indoctrinated.”

Over 90 organizations encompassing a variety of causes like LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of speech then signed a letter against KOSA. One of the organizations that helped put together the letter was Fight For the Future, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting “basic rights in the digital age.”

“We fundamentally believe that, as it’s currently written in the version that passed the Senate, if it were to go into effect, it would actually make kids less safe online, rather than more safe,” said Evan Greer, the nonprofit’s director.

So this lead me to the research what the conservatives want to ban, the first place to look is Heritage Foundation, the people who wrote “Project 2025.”

How Big Tech Turns Kids Trans
Sep 15, 2022
Commentary by Jared Eckert Former Research Associate, DeVos Center and Mary McCloskey
Summer 2022 Member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation


Key Takeaways

• The spike in teens using social media and identifying as transgender is no mere coincidence.
• The more time teens spend behind screens or scrolling on social media, the more depressed and less satisfied with life they are.
• Decisions about what youth need to hear or see should not be made by Big Tech employees in Silicon Valley.

Okay. Number one, these folks are still back in the 1950s when people believed that we chose to be gay, or lesbian, or trans. That one day we sat down and said, “Gee… I’d like to be discriminated against, I like to be beat up because of who I am.” they still believe that because it clears their conscious if it was a choice.

Of course they are spending more time on the computer… what child isn’t? And maybe they are more depressed because of all the laws the right-wing Republicans are passing, it make me depressed also! And finally… I much rather be regulated by Big Tech, then a bunch of far right-wing evangelical Christians who want to eliminate us.

Behind those screens, sexual and transgender content saturates the digital spaces where most teens hang out. A simple hashtag search will instantly load thousands of LGBTQ posts on the social media platform of choice. For example, on WattPad, a new social media platform, one search turns up over 4.5 million original story uploads. Or consider TikTok. A search for “top surgery” loads countless clips of young women flaunting mutilated chests with millions of views.

None of this happens by chance. Digital spaces are ever more designed to promote sexual and transgender content. For years, Tumblr allowed adult content to its servers before changing its policies. Others, like Twitter, continue to allow pornography on their platforms. With respect to transgender content, TikTok updated its community guidelines this year so that "anti-LGBTQ+ content” is no longer allowed. More recently, Twitter, which has long censored dissenters, has been deplatforming those who say transgender activism is “grooming.”

That word “grooming” connotes that it is a choice. But the word should be used about them because they are the ones tell us what to read, what to say, what is being taught us, and who to associate with. They are grooming children not to think, they want education to be limited to the “Three R,” Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic.

Heritage Foundation Says That Of Course GOP Will Use KOSA To Censor LGBTQ Content
TechDirt
By Mike Masnick
May 24th 2023

We’ve talked a lot about KOSA, the “Kids Online Safety Act” that has massive bipartisan support in Congress. The latest version was introduced with 26 Senators as sponsors or co-sponsors. We’ve explained over and over again how the bill is unconstitutional and will actually do a lot to harm kids.

Of course, like so many of these “bipartisan” anti-internet bills that have bipartisan support, the support on each side of the aisle is based on a very different view of how the bill will be used in practice. We went through this last year with the AICOA antitrust bill. Democrats supported it (falsely) believing that it would magically increase competition, while Republicans were gleefully talking about how they were going to use it to force websites to host their propaganda.

[…]

Meanwhile, Republicans are now freely admitting that they’re going to use KOSA to force websites to censor LGBTQ content. They’re literally proud of it. The Heritage Foundation, which at least used to have some principled stances before being taken over by culture warriors without any principles, is bragging about how it will use KOSA in this manner:

[It then has a tweet about the Heritage Foundation’s article.]

Ashley, correctly calls out that they’re openly admitting how they’ll use KOSA to censor content. And Heritage replies in a quote tweet doubling down that this is exactly their plan:

Yes we do. Keeping trans content away from children is protecting kids. No child should be conditioned to think that permanently damaging their healthy bodies to try to become something they can never be is even remotely a good idea.

[…]

So, um, seeing as over a dozen Democratic Senators, including Richard Blumenthal, Ben Ray Lujan, Tammy Baldwin, Amy Klobuchar, Gary Peters, John Hickenlooper, Chris Murphy, Chris Coons, Brian Schatz, Mark Warner, Peter Welch, Maggie Hasan, Dick Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Bob Casey are supporting, can anyone ask them why they’re supporting a bill that Republicans are saying directly they will use to silence LGBTQ speech?

But since then as the Hartford Courant article states that the Democrats woke up to how the Republicans want to weaponize the bill against us…

“The bill sets a dangerous precedent that would grant the government greater power over free speech online and would hand partisan bureaucrats authority over what speech is ‘appropriate’ for American families to see and hear,” said Krista Chavez, a spokesperson for NetChoice.

Digital privacy groups also have worries about censorship. “KOSA has a duty of care that covers content recommendation, which will lead to companies effectively over censoring broad swaths of information just because they’re afraid that they might get in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission,” said Greer.

Blumenthal refuted these concerns, saying, “There is no provision, none in this bill for blocking content by any government agency or, frankly, by anyone else. There’s no censorship.”

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was asked to describe his test for obscenity in 1964, he responded: "I know it when I see it."

That is the problem, obscenity is in the eyes of the beholder. At one time Burlesque was labeled obscene with no remediable qualities. Virginia Prince in 1960 was arrested for “Distributing Obscenities Through The Mail” what was her crime? Sending love letters through the mail. Over time definitions change along with those that rule. Vice writes,

There’s just one problem: it’s supported by a slew of far-right, anti-LGBTQ organizations, and opponents are warning it will enable states to censor LGBTQ content by claiming it leads kids to depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.

One of the things that I pushing is that book bans cannot be based on any of the protective classes such as religion, race, marital status, or us.

Senate may soon pass 2 child online safety bills, despite worries from LGBTQ+ advocates
Activists fear Republicans will use the laws to block queer youth from seeing age-appropriate LGBTQ+ content online.
LGBTQ Nation
By Elsie Carson-Holt
July 25, 2024

Both bills are set to pass the Senate but need to win votes in the House. While the pieces of legislation aim to stop children from being exploited or harmed by online activities, KOSA has come under fire from some LGBTQ+ activists and groups who fear the bill will enable Republicans to block queer youth from seeing age-appropriate LGBTQ+ content online.

[…]

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), authored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), mandates that social media companies take measures to prevent recommending any content that promotes mental health disorders (like eating disorders, drug use, self-harm, sexual abuse, and bullying) unless minors specifically search for such content. KOSA also requires platforms to limit features that result in compulsive usage — like autoplay and infinite scroll — or features that allow adults to contact young users or track their location. The bill says platforms must provide parents with easy-to-use tools to safeguard their child’s social media settings and notify parents if their kids are exposed to potentially hazardous materials or interactions.

[…]

COPPA 2.0, crafted by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), aims to establish robust online privacy protections for minors under 17. Among its provisions, the legislation would prohibit targeted advertising directed at children and teenagers and introduce an “eraser button,” enabling parents and kids to delete personal information from company databases.

In the Courant article it ends with…

But Blumenthal is confident in KOSA’s ability to pass, citing its bipartisan support in Congress. “I’m feeling very, very hopeful, because of the 91-3 vote in the Senate that gives us a lot of momentum. The bill in the House has a lot of bipartisan support. We have good co-sponsors there.

“If it gets a vote, it will pass,” he said.

I hope he is wrong, he has championed many LGBTQ+ legislation but I think he has blinders on this bill. He wants it too much and ignores the pledge from the Republicans to weaponize it against us. It all boils down to who gets to define what is banned and it will change depending upon who determines what is banned.

 

Down in Florida they banned a two gay males... penguins! Yup. Penguins! It wasn't pornographic was just about two male penguins raising a penguin chick!

Authors file lawsuit after Florida school district restricts book about same-sex penguins
USA Today
By Douglas Soule
June 21, 2023

The authors of "And Tango Makes Three" are suing Florida and a county school district in federal court over a restriction on their children's book about two male penguins who raise a chick together.

Joined in the suit by students, authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson take issue with a Lake County school district's decision to bar students below the fourth grade from accessing their book.

"They barred students from accessing Tango because of its content — namely, the story of a same-sex animal couple with an adopted child — and its expressed viewpoint — namely, that same-sex relationships and families with same-sex parents exist; that they can be happy, healthy, and loving; and that same-sex parents can adopt and raise healthy children," reads the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

When the Republicans are in control they decide what to yank from the bookshelves!
 

Sadly both bills passed the Senate and are sitting in the House to be voted upon.