Randall Bertrand, the parent of an LGBTQ student who was at the forefront of the effort to protect gender-identity rights in the district, recommends to Flagler Palm Coast High School Principal Greg Schwartz how to diffuse the situation at FPC after the principal opted to suspend student-protest organizer Jack Petocz following today’s walkout protesting anti-LGBTQ legislation.
14th Amendment
Anti-‘Woke’ and ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bills Clear Florida House Following Emotional, Futile Debates
Yet two hotly-debated bills — HB 7, limiting conversations about racism and sexism in schools and at work, and HB 1557, restricting classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity — were both passed by the House on near-party lines Thursday.
Full Federal Appeals Court Re-Hears St. Johns Schools Transgender Bathroom Case
In a case with local and national implications, a previous, three-judge panel of the court had ruled in favor of the student who was denied use of the boys’ bathroom. The St. Johns school district appealed to the full court.
Women’s Freedom and Autonomy? Not in Florida.
These magnanimous Republicans will allow women and girls to have control over their own bodies until the fetus inside them gets to be about the size of an apple. After that, ladies, you’re nothing but a “host body,” as former Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva famously said.
League of Women Voters President Blasts Florida’s Shackling Voting Law on 1st Day of Trial
League of Women Voters of Florida President Cecile Scoon testified Monday in federal court that Florida’s new election laws — adopted in 2021 Senate Bill 90 — makes voter-registration drives, voting by mail, and rendering basic assistance to voters in line needlessly difficult, resulting in voting suppression.
Republicans’ Historical Amnesia on Voting Rights
A Trumpified Republican Party that’s left the legacy of Abraham Lincoln far behind, is still flipping Democrats the Byrd as it stands steadfastly in the way of the voting rights legislation that’s now slowly and torturously making its way through Congress.
Teaching to Transgress: bell hooks Will Endure
As a leading Black intellectual, hooks pushed the feminist movement beyond the preserve of the white and middle-class, encouraging Black and working class perspectives on gender inequality. She taught us about white supremacist capitalist patriarchal values – giving both the words to define it and the methods to dismantle it.
New York City Will Allow 800,000 Non-Citizens Right to Vote in Local Elections
Nationwide, 14 municipalities allow noncitizens to vote, including two Vermont cities that approved similar measures earlier this year. San Francisco allows noncitizens to vote in school board elections, while nine Maryland towns permit noncitizen voting in local elections.
Grace from the Crime of Punishment
Under the appealing but misguided credo of victims’ rights, prosecutors reach plea deals giving disproportionate weight to what the victim’s family wants. The defendant can end up either with a savior, as Joey Renn did this week in Flagler, or, more often, a gang of rage. A person’s fate should never depend on a dice throw between grace and vigilantism.
Democrats’ Failure to Protect Abortion Rights
Conservative Republicans started prioritizing a high court takeover, with the explicit aim of ending legal abortion, more than 40 years ago. Democrats and progressives stuck their heads in the sand. Women, denied autonomy over their own bodies, are poised to pay the biggest price.