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Creepy GOP’er ‘Quarantined’ Over Danger To Women After Serial Sex Harassment

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Sexual Harassment Isn’t The Only Reason You Will Be Freaked Out By This Guy

While the Republicans in the Tennessee state legislature have been busy passing anti-LGBT legislation, they’ve also been dealing with charges of sexual harassment against a former Majority Whip. Representative Jeremy Durham stepped down from his leadership position in January after an investigation by The Tennessean found he had sent inappropriate messages, among other things, to multiple women over a few years.

Sexual harassment by a politician is nothing new in America. But the punishment the legislature has handed Durham after the Tennessee Attorney General’s report is rather strange. The Speaker of the Tennessee House Beth Harwell decided the following:

[s]he is moving Rep. Jeremy Durham’s office to the ground floor of a building across the street and that his access to committee rooms and the House chamber will be limited to when meetings are taking place.

Essentially, Durham’s inappropriateness is so awful it has gotten him a quarantine from the women in the state House offices. No word on the women in the building where his office is being moved.

And make no mistake, this is one creepy fella. The Attorney General of Tennessee stated Durham “may pose a continuing risk to unsuspecting women.” Hard to get more black-and-white than that. But wait, there’s more.

This isn’t the first time Durham has found himself on the wrong side of what most people would consider normal behavior. In 2013, he dodged a grand jury indictment for prescription drug fraud. And solidifying his status as super creepy, in 2014 he wrote “a letter on House stationery on behalf of a former pastor who pleaded guilty to child porn possession and statutory rape of a 16-year-old parishioner.” Because, you know, Jesus and stuff. So weird.

In all fairness, the GOP leadership in Tennessee have asked him to step down. Considering the mounting evidence against him, they really have no choice at this point. But as for now, he’s still seeking re-election in November, sexual harassment charges be damned.

So in this strange election year of creepy political candidates, Jeremy Durham is certainly making a run for the creepiest. Way to shine, weirdo!

Featured image by Hannah Peters/Getty Images.

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This Islamic Country Just Took A HUGE Leap Forward On LGBT Rights (VIDEO)

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Pakistan has taken a huge step forward in LGBT rights

A group of Pakistani clerics have declared that marriage between transgender people is allowed under Islam, a step for the LGBT community that rivals or indeed outpaces the progress made in many Western countries. Additionally, the Tanzeem Ittehad-i-Ummat Pakistan, a clerical body in the city of Lahore have declared that transgender people have the right to be buried following Muslim ceremonies. This information was given in a copy of a religious edict to Reuters that also stated transgender people are allowed to enjoy full rights of inheritance, and parents who deprived their children from this right were “inviting the wrath of God”. As the ruling states,

“It is permissible for a transgender person with male indications on his body to marry a transgender person with female indications on her body. Also, normal men and women can also marry such transgender people as have clear indications on their body.”

The document, signed by 50 clerics, did not specify what these ‘indications’ are; although it does state that those carrying signs of both sexes do not enter into this ruling. Nevertheless, Pakistan, one of the few countries created in the name of Islam, and an Islamic republic since 1956, declared equal rights for transgender citizens since 2012, and one year later gave the right to vote. These rights may not seem like much to many, but considering the strictness of Islamic law (Sharia) and where many Western countries still stand (such as the U.S. and its bathroom bills fight), this is huge. Of course, not everything is great for the LGBT community in Pakistan; marriage is still not allowed for homosexual couples, although male homosexuals are also not charged with anti-sodomomy laws anymore. 

Inside Pakistan, transgender people are often segregated and forced into begging, prostitution or dancing to earn a living. Just last month, Alisha, a 23-year-old transgender woman died when she was shot and doctors refused to treat her in a hospital in Peshawar. Her death sparked voluminous debate over LGBT rights in Pakistan, specifically those for transgender people. And although the clerics ruling (fatwa) is not legally binding, it is an important step for sexual diversity inside a strict and conservative country—bearing in mind the weight clerics have. In addition, the group has also asked harassment to be consider a crime under Islam. As it stated,

“Making noises at transgender people, making fun of them, teasing them, or thinking of them as inferior is against sharia law, because such an act amounts to objecting to one of Allah’s creations, which is not correct.” 

Now, the transgender community and LGBT activists are asking the government to take further action on this and introduce legislation on it. Transgender rights worker Almas Bobby told BBC

“We are glad that somebody’s talked about us too. By Sharia we already had the right [to marry], but unless measures are taken to remove the misconceptions about us in society, the condition of our community will not be changed.”

Without governmental intervention and the right legislation, not much will change. Yet, the importance of religious clerics in a country like Pakistan gives the LGBT community and transgender people the hope of a more tolerant society.

 

[brid video=”43824″ player=”5260″ title=”Pakistan issues fatwa legalising transgender marriages Oneindia News”]

Featured image via Oneindia News screengrab

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TRUMP TERROR: This Horrible Crime Statistic SKYROCKETS In Wake Of Trump Victory (VIDEO)

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It’s been just over one week since Donald Trump’s election, and in that time more than 400 incidents involving harassment or intimidation have occurred, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday.

Trump supporters get their hate on

More than 130 of the incidents targeted immigrants. African-Americans and LGBTQ people were also targeted in large numbers. Most of the harassment happened in K-12 schools, followed by businesses and universities, the SPLC reports.

The SPLC gathered the information from news reports, the social media and direct submissions to the group. It didn’t follow up to confirm reports stemming from individual submissions.

NBC News reports that some of the incidents included:

  • On Sunday, a rector found graffiti that said “Trump Nation, Whites Only” scrawled on walls at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Silver Spring, Maryland. The church offers Spanish language services and it’s likely that is what the vandals were targeting.
  • A Muslim student at the University of Michigan told police a white male ordered her to remove her hijab or he would “set her on fire with a lighter”. Police are investigating, and the campus has issued a safety alert.
  • New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has commissioned state police to open a multi-agency hate crimes investigation after reports that a swastika and Trump’s name was spray painted inside a residence hall at SUNY Geneseo.
  • Philadelphia police are searching for the person who scrawled “Trump Rules” and “Black B—-“ on the hood of a woman’s van.
  • “Colored” and “Whites Only” signs were hung above drinking fountains at First Coast High School in Jacksonville, Florida, a district spokeswoman confirmed.

On Monday, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting division released its yearly “Hate Crimes Statistics” report. This tracks the number of bias-related incidents reported to law enforcement authorities in 2015, and it reports that the number of hate crimes rose 6 percent. In the majority of these crimes (59 percent), victims were targeted due to their race or ethnicity.

More than 5,800 incidents involving hate crimes that targeted more than 7,121 victims were reported by the FBI last year. Photo courtesy of David Taintor/FBI
More than 5,800 incidents involving hate crimes that targeted more than 7,121 victims were reported by the FBI last year. Photo courtesy of David Taintor/FBI

Religious bias and sexual orientation were also another area of concern because they too, were among the most frequently reported types of hate crimes. The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes skyrocketed in 2015, growing by an astounding 66 percent, according to the FBI report.

Related: Trump Supporting Coffee Shop Owner Goes Full Racist, Promptly Gets Destroyed By The Internet (VIDEO)

More than 5,800 incidents involving hate crimes that targeted more than 7,121 victims were reported to law enforcement officials.  Out of the known offenders, “48.4 percent were white, 24.3 percent were African-American, and for 16.2 percent of offenders, race was unknown, according to the report.

And the report not only monitored anti-Arab bias, it also tracked incidents involving anti-religious bias for seven other religions for the first time. It now also tracks bias against Buddhist, Eastern Orthodox, Hindu, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, Sikh and other Christian victims.

Monday is the 25th anniversary of the FBI’s attempts to compile data surrounding hate crimes, and the current report contains data from nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies.

Some political analysts had predicted hate crimes would rise if Trump won, and they based this on his controversial remarks and are comparing this to the Brexit vote. That sparked a 40 percent rise in hate crimes in the United Kingdom.

But it should come as no surprise that Trump’s racist rhetoric has spurred the uptick in these nasty crimes, especially since he’s been endorsed by the likes of David Duke and the KKK.

I’m sad for people of color, for immigrants and for religious people. I’m sad for atheists like myself, who may have to deal with persecution from people who would commit hate crimes.

America, what have you done?

You can watch racism in action in the video below…

[brid video=”78283″ player=”5260″ title=”NeoNazis explain why they like Donald Trump”]

Image via Youtube.

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Pharma-Bro Martin Shkreli’s Latest Stunt May Land Him in Jail, Finally

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Federal prosecutors filed a motion late Thursday to revoke Martin Shkreli’s bail in response to his latest publicity stunt, in which he promised to pay a $5,000 reward to anyone to could “grab” hair from 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton while she is on her upcoming book tour. Shkreli is on bail while he awaits sentencing for his three securities fraud convictions.

In their motion, prosecutors said that Shkreli “poses a danger to the community.”

As if to prove their point, Shkreli replied via his Facebook account: “Lol Hillary Clinton’s presumptive agents are hard at work. It was just a prank, bro!
But still, lock HER up. Spend your resources investigating her, not me!!”

U.S. District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto scheduled a September 14 hearing for legal arguments on Shkreli’s latest stunt. Shkreli’s defense team has until September 12 to file a response to the prosecution’s motion.

Because Clinton is a former First Lady, Secretary of State, and Democratic nominee for President, the U.S. Secret Service is investigating Shkreli’s reward offer. Shkreli has been sought for questioning by the Secret Service, but he declined to meet with investigators, prosecutors wrote in yesterday’s motion.

“Shkreli’s latest threat is concerning not only because it has required a significant expenditure of resources by the United States Secret Service, which is charged with protecting Secretary Clinton, but also because there is a significant risk that one of his many social media followers or others who learn of his offers through the media will take his statements seriously—as has happened previously—and act on them,” the motion states.

Shkreli, 34, is the former pharmaceutical firm CEO who attracted notoriety when he hiked by 5000% the price of a life-saving drug taken by patients with the HIV virus or others with weakened immune systems. Called before Congress to explain this and other actions, Shkreli smirked throughout the hearing but spoke not a word.

Shkreli was arrested in December 2015 for offenses unrelated to that case but connected to his apparent ongoing ambition to be a famous villain. He was charged with eight counts of securities fraud for bilking investors in two healthcare-industry hedge funds, and on August 4 he was found guilty of three of the charges. He faces up to 20 years in prison for the convictions.

Related: ‘Pharma Bro’ Stalked, Harassed Chelsea Clinton

He has remained free since his December 2015 arrest on $5 million bond, but his recent offer of money for the former Secretary of State’s hair is only his latest attempt to amuse himself by harming others: in January 2017, he posted on Twitter edited photos of himself and journalist Lauren Duca in which she is portrayed as his “+1,” as his phrased it. His targeted harassment of the journalist earned him a ban from Twitter. He then used his Facebook account to prolong his harassment of Duca.

RELATED: Pharma Bro Martin ‘Pee-Wee’ Shkreli Reckons with More Federal Charges

He has also used his Facebook account to harass journalist Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks.

Those two harassment cases, both against women, led federal prosecutors to conclude in the motion filed yesterday, “Shkreli’s own prior actions, and his influence over others who have previously acted in reliance on his statements, demonstrate why the government views his latest actions with concern.”

(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Charter School Principal Outs Gay Valedictorian To Parents, Then Cancels His Speech

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Evan Young was the valedictorian at Twin Peaks Charter Academy High School in Longmont, Colorado this year. He had a barnburner speech ready to give to his graduating class.

The theme of his speech was showing respect to others. Unfortunately, Principal BJ Buchmann gave Evan a lesson in how that works in the real world.

Evan had to submit his speech to Bachmann for approval and went through a couple of revisions that the man requested. But the straight-A student with a 4.5 average thought the main theme was going to remain intact. The idea was to talk about the secrets we keep, leading up to the biggest one on Evan’s chest: he was going to reveal that he’s gay. Evan explained:

“My main theme is that you’re supposed to be respectful of people, even if you don’t agree with them. I figured my gayness would be a very good way to address that.”

Buchmann had other ideas, about which he didn’t bother to inform the student. Instead — even though Evan is 18-years-old and legally an adult — the principal went to the young man’s parents and told them their son is gay. Then he cancelled Evan’s speech without telling him. At the May 16th ceremony, the valedictorian wasn’t even mentioned.

So much for respect. So much for trust. It was a hard lesson in ignorance and prejudice.

The parents had no idea their son was gay. They were ultimately okay with the revelation — but not with how it was made. About the information, father Don Young said:

“He’s Evan, you know? He’s never really expressed interest in either (boys or girls). He’s just a teenager. … But we had no indication beforehand.”

But about the way it was handled, he said:

“The kid worked hard for four years. Straight A’s and everything else. He wasn’t even recognized.”

Buchmann didn’t tell Evan that he wasn’t going to give his speech until a few minutes before the graduation ceremony. When it comes to respect for others, the principal gets a grade of zero. He violated Evan’s privacy and stole his opportunity to deal with who he is in his own way. That theft deprived Even, deprived his parents, and deprived the school’s student body.

As word has gotten out, Evan and his family have received a lot of local support from people familiar with the bullying and harassment that LGBT students face, often at the hands of school administrators. Several LGBT advocacy groups  — One Colorado, Out Boulder, and the St. Vrain Valley Safe Schools Coalition — have been front and center with their support.

Rev. Luke Grobe, who is chairman of the Coalition, cut right to the heart of the matter:

“One of the questions that comes to my mind is, are our schools in place to support the students for who they are there, or are our schools in place to prevent our students from being who they are?”

All too often and in too many ways, schools act to repress individuality and freedom of expression.

On Thursday, Twin Peaks Charter Academy released a statement on the controversy that included this ironic description of their mission, “which is to provide students with a rigorous education and the foundations of virtue and character.” As if that weren’t laughable enough, in light of the situation, the school’s attorney, Barry Arrington, added:

“Everyone knows that in our society high school graduation is one of life’s most significant occasions, and a graduation ceremony is a time for family and those closest to the students to celebrate success and express mutual wishes of gratitude and respect. It is not a time for a student to use his commencement speech to push his personal agenda on a captive audience, and school officials are well within their rights to prevent that from happening.”

That statement is wrong-headed in so many ways, it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, respect was the core value at the heart of Evan Young’s speech, but by all evidence, it’s not a value he learned at Twin Peaks. Secondly, commencement speeches, by their very nature, always involve a personal agenda presented to a ‘captive audience’ — who, as far as we know, weren’t locked in at the ceremony.

In 2013, Daily Camera reported on another area graduate who used his speech to talk about what it was like to be a gay student at Boulder’s Fairview High School. Student Ted Chalfen had applied to give the speech, which he used to thank the student body for their acceptance. No one fainted from shock. The speech was well-accepted and circulated widely via YouTube — which just goes to show that, if we expect the best from our youth, the best is what we get.

Feature photo from Twin Peaks Charter Academy Facebook page.

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This Old Navy Ad Is BEYOND Offensive (VIDEO)

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Who came up with this Old Navy Ad? Police brutality and harassment are NOT funny.

While we were busy grumbling about Donald Trump hosting Saturday Night Live, we missed something even more offensive (if you can believe that): An Old Navy ad, titled “You Have the Right to Remain Stylish”. The ad, which stars actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, attempts to inject humor into the issue of police brutality and harassment of people of color.

Yes, seriously, and it’s something you’ve got to actually see to believe:

If the above video gets taken down, click here.

The Old Navy ad aired midway during SNL on Saturday night, and I’m surprised more people haven’t taken notice. The commercial opens with a scene that’s terrifyingly familiar to our nation’s young people and those who care about them: A cop (played by Louis-Dreyfus) stops a car, taps her flashlight against the driver’s window, and coldly orders the car’s occupants to “step out of the vehicle.”

Four good-looking, young hipsters get out — a white man, a black woman, and a man and woman of the sort of vague, not-quite-white ethnicity favored by modern TV producers — and Dreyfus radios in:

“Yeah, I’ve got two attractive couples in some high-end jackets…you’ve all gotta see this.”

Dreyfus then swaggers up and suspiciously demands, “Where’dja get them jackets?” and a woman sporting a stylish hat answers, “Old Navy.” While the viewer can’t quite believe anyone would consider these rather cheap-looking, unremarkable specimens of outerwear to be “high-end,” the cop can’t believe these coats weren’t stolen.

“Oh really. Didja steal them,” Dreyfus smirks, but that annoying bearded white hipster guy insists, “We bought them.” Then comes the dreaded frisking:

“Arms out. I’m gonna test the zippers, sir.”

As hipster guy’s friends gasp in horror and look away, he spreads his arms out. Dreyfus zips his jacket down and back up, then declares:

“It hangs well, I’ll give ya that, [but] You’re all going to prison.”

“No, look,” the woman in the hat pleads, “All outerwear’s on sale at Old Navy.” The police officer then orders them to face away from her, so she can jump in her squad car, peal out, and get one of those “high-end jackets” for herself.

“Face away from me! I’m gonna run away real fast…I’m going to Old Navy.”

This Old Navy ad is so incredibly tone-deaf and callous towards the Black Lives Matter movement, it defies belief. On the other hand, this is an industry that starves young women and forces them to totter down runways in 5″ heels…So go figure.

Photo: Video screen grab/Old Navy.

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Attacks On Mosques And Harassment Of Muslims Skyrocketing In America

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Attacks on mosques in the U.S. have tripled since 2014.

We are living in one of the most intense and violent periods of anti-Muslim sentiment in U.S. history. That is what CNN concludes in their analysis of a map of attacks on mosques in 2015, which was produced by the the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR identified 63 individual incidents of attacks on mosques in the U.S. so far in 2015. That is the highest number on record, and it is three times as many as the number recorded in 2014.

There was a huge spike in Nov., which indicates that some Americans are being radicalized and inspired to violence by  the increasingly heated rhetoric coming from far-right politicians like Donald Trump in response to events like the attacks in Paris and the mass shooting in San Bernardino. A recent poll showed that Republicans who believed the idiotic lie that President Obama is a Muslim are more likely to support Donald Trump. It also showed that those supporters are less likely to agree with the statement that most Muslims don’t support DAESH (formerly known as ISIS).

The month of Nov. marked a huge spike of attacks on mosques, which shows that some Americans are growing more radicalized and inspired to violence by the heated anti-Muslim rhetoric from Donald Trump and others on the far right.

The attacks on mosques have included a wave of arson events, as well as offensive gestures like the head of a pig left in front of a mosque in Philadelphia.

The map and the statistics about attacks on mosques show a compelling general picture of increasing violence. Meanwhile, Muslims across the U.S. provide anecdotal evidence of a growing wave of frightening harassment, intimidation and violence. There have been 19 reported hate crimes against Muslims in the past week alone.

Recently, Muslim women are bearing the brunt of the current wave of harassment, since women wearing a hijab headscarf are easy to identify as devout Muslims. The Los Angeles Times reported on a young Muslim woman in Austin, Texas, who was told by an older white man to “go back to Saudi Arabia.” The man seemed unaware of the irony that he happened to be eating at a Middle Eastern restaurant at the time. The Times also noted other incidents,

In Cincinnati, a driver tried to run down a young Muslim woman. In New York City, a customer called a female pharmacist wearing a headscarf a terrorist and told her to “get out of his country.” In San Diego, a man shoved a pregnant Muslim mother’s stroller into her belly and a San Diego State student reported a man tugged at her headscarf while yelling at her in a parking lot.

In the Tampa, Fla. area this week, a Muslim woman was shot at while leaving a Mosque, and another was nearly driven off the road.

Mother Jones reported that Muslim schoolkids have increasingly become the targets of harassment in the United States. CAIR researched the experiences of Muslim schoolchildren in Calif., and found that 55% reported receiving insults and harassment. The harassment can come from fellow students, or adults, including teachers. In one example:

In Weston, Florida, a high school French teacher allegedly called one 14-year-old Muslim student a “rag-head Taliban” in February. The student’s father, Youssef Wardani, a software engineer and an immigrant from Lebanon, said his son, an honor roll student, now hates going to school.

In the Bronx, a group of boys allegedly assaulted a 6th grade girl, putting her in a headlock, punching her, tearing at her hijab, and calling her “ISIS.”

Threats have even been directed against CAIR, including a “suspicious powder” mailed to one of their offices in Santa Clara, Calif. CAIR says they receive hate messages “daily.”

Some of the attacks have been directed against Sikhs. The Sikh religion has nothing to do with Islam, but they often get mistaken for Muslims because the men wear a headscarf. This indicates that some of the attackers are not only so stupid that they direct their hate at individual terrorists toward a whole religion, but they don’t know the difference between religions. Meanwhile, a coalition of Muslims in Southern California recently raised $100,000 for the victims of the San Bernardino shooting.

If the right-wing continues intensifying its attacks on mosques and their anti-Muslim crusade, we could see something of a kristallnacht in America. The ‘night of broken glass’ in early Nazi Germany was a far more coordinated action than any anti-Muslim violence we have seen yet in America. However, the dynamics are similar. An entire political movement isolates, bullies and scapegoats an entire religion for the nation’s problems. Its rhetoric increasingly demonizes them, including the vast majority of innocent people. The rhetoric inspires members of an aggrieved majority to violence targeting individuals and religious and private buildings owned by members of that religion. We must be vigilant against the right-wing in America making any attempt to institutionalize the growing violence against innocent Muslims in America.

As the attacks on mosques and the rhetoric and violence against Muslims in the US intensifies, conservatives will be helping DAESH’s propaganda and social media recruiting strategy.

CAIR’s Map of attacks on mosques:

Attacks on mosques in the U.S. are skyrocketing.
Attacks on mosques in the U.S. have tripled in 2015 compared with 2014. Source: CAIR.

Featured image with CAIR’s map of attacks on mosques via CNN.

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Florida Woman Admits To Trolling Co-Worker With Confederate Flag

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The Confederate flag is legal, workplace harassment is not. Neither is lying to a federal officer.

58-year-old Susan Thompson has pleaded guilty to lying to a federal officer about placing a Confederate flag on the desk of her co-worker. Thompson worked at the Jacksonville office of the Army Corps of Engineers. Prosecutors say during the investigation she lied twice about placing the flag on the desk in June, while controversy over the Confederate flag was a topic of intense debate in the media after complaints the flag flew on South Carolina’s Capitol building developed in the wake of a mass shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. She faces a possible five-year prison sentence. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Like most who tout the Confederate flag as a symbol of heritage or southern pride, Thompson claimed the prank on her co-worker was not racially motivated. Her perception of the Confederate Ffag as innocuous represents that of many white people around the United States who view complaints and allegations of racism as exaggerated or unfounded. Even Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush had the audacity to defend the “heritage not hate” argument at an event in New Hampshire. That line of reasoning is in line with a Neo-Nazi arguing the Swastika is symbol of heritage for Germans (the Swastika is banned in Germany).

The Confederacy was anti-American, and predicated on preserving the racist institution of slavery. Wealthy landowners and politicians throughout the south propagated to lower working class white people that they were superior to African-Americans, and their livelihood depended upon preserving slavery. South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond revived the Confederate flag during his 1948 presidential campaign to garner votes on fears and anxieties of poor southern whites that African-Americans were going to compete with them in the labor market. W.E.B. Dubois wrote in his 1935 book, Black Reconstruction In America,  in regards to the working class white worker:

“While they received a low wage they were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference…because they were white. They were admitted freely, with all classes of white people, to public functions…The police were drawn from their ranks, and the courts dependent upon their votes treated them with leniency.”

The Confederate flag today is a relic of this division of lower classes based on race. It is a reminder of the white privilege and institution of racism afforded to lower class whites over African-Americans. It is a historic image which should invoke shame, embarrassment, and should be demoted solely to proper historical contexts. 

The response to criticism of the Confederate flag and its presence on government property has incited childish responses from those who insist on preserving this image filled with racist connotations. As a response for the removal of the flag from the South Carolina Capitol, Confederate flag enthusiasts responded with a petition on Change.org to have an African-American monument removed. Those that argue in favor of using the Confederate flag image are delusional to what the image means historically.

In the case involving Susan Thompson, she printed the image at home and brought it to her work with the intent to place it on her co-worker’s desk to agitate her. She knew what effect it would have, and that effect was to harass her co-worker with the hateful and oppressive image of the confederate flag, reminding the co-worker that Susan Thompson is a member of the dominant white culture, so she has privileges solely afforded to white people. Susan Thompson would never admit to being a racist, but her actions are coming from a position of racial privilege. She wanted her co-worker to feel bad when she saw the Confederate flag on her desk. These types of actions are support structures for the systematic levels of oppression and racism towards people of color. The confederate flag represents a historical system of racism, and Thompson utilized that to reinforce the current system of oppression. Instead of coming to an understanding of what the Confederate flag represents, those who stick by it insist they are the ones being attacked and oppressed while ignoring the realities of racial power structures still rampant in America today.

Photo by Elvert Barnes

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Creepy GOP’er ‘Quarantined’ Over Danger To Women After Serial Sex Harassment

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Sexual Harassment Isn’t The Only Reason You Will Be Freaked Out By This Guy

While the Republicans in the Tennessee state legislature have been busy passing anti-LGBT legislation, they’ve also been dealing with charges of sexual harassment against a former Majority Whip. Representative Jeremy Durham stepped down from his leadership position in January after an investigation by The Tennessean found he had sent inappropriate messages, among other things, to multiple women over a few years.

Sexual harassment by a politician is nothing new in America. But the punishment the legislature has handed Durham after the Tennessee Attorney General’s report is rather strange. The Speaker of the Tennessee House Beth Harwell decided the following:

[s]he is moving Rep. Jeremy Durham’s office to the ground floor of a building across the street and that his access to committee rooms and the House chamber will be limited to when meetings are taking place.

Essentially, Durham’s inappropriateness is so awful it has gotten him a quarantine from the women in the state House offices. No word on the women in the building where his office is being moved.

And make no mistake, this is one creepy fella. The Attorney General of Tennessee stated Durham “may pose a continuing risk to unsuspecting women.” Hard to get more black-and-white than that. But wait, there’s more.

This isn’t the first time Durham has found himself on the wrong side of what most people would consider normal behavior. In 2013, he dodged a grand jury indictment for prescription drug fraud. And solidifying his status as super creepy, in 2014 he wrote “a letter on House stationery on behalf of a former pastor who pleaded guilty to child porn possession and statutory rape of a 16-year-old parishioner.” Because, you know, Jesus and stuff. So weird.

In all fairness, the GOP leadership in Tennessee have asked him to step down. Considering the mounting evidence against him, they really have no choice at this point. But as for now, he’s still seeking re-election in November, sexual harassment charges be damned.

So in this strange election year of creepy political candidates, Jeremy Durham is certainly making a run for the creepiest. Way to shine, weirdo!

Featured image by Hannah Peters/Getty Images.

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This Islamic Country Just Took A HUGE Leap Forward On LGBT Rights (VIDEO)

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Pakistan has taken a huge step forward in LGBT rights

A group of Pakistani clerics have declared that marriage between transgender people is allowed under Islam, a step for the LGBT community that rivals or indeed outpaces the progress made in many Western countries. Additionally, the Tanzeem Ittehad-i-Ummat Pakistan, a clerical body in the city of Lahore have declared that transgender people have the right to be buried following Muslim ceremonies. This information was given in a copy of a religious edict to Reuters that also stated transgender people are allowed to enjoy full rights of inheritance, and parents who deprived their children from this right were “inviting the wrath of God”. As the ruling states,

“It is permissible for a transgender person with male indications on his body to marry a transgender person with female indications on her body. Also, normal men and women can also marry such transgender people as have clear indications on their body.”

The document, signed by 50 clerics, did not specify what these ‘indications’ are; although it does state that those carrying signs of both sexes do not enter into this ruling. Nevertheless, Pakistan, one of the few countries created in the name of Islam, and an Islamic republic since 1956, declared equal rights for transgender citizens since 2012, and one year later gave the right to vote. These rights may not seem like much to many, but considering the strictness of Islamic law (Sharia) and where many Western countries still stand (such as the U.S. and its bathroom bills fight), this is huge. Of course, not everything is great for the LGBT community in Pakistan; marriage is still not allowed for homosexual couples, although male homosexuals are also not charged with anti-sodomomy laws anymore. 

Inside Pakistan, transgender people are often segregated and forced into begging, prostitution or dancing to earn a living. Just last month, Alisha, a 23-year-old transgender woman died when she was shot and doctors refused to treat her in a hospital in Peshawar. Her death sparked voluminous debate over LGBT rights in Pakistan, specifically those for transgender people. And although the clerics ruling (fatwa) is not legally binding, it is an important step for sexual diversity inside a strict and conservative country—bearing in mind the weight clerics have. In addition, the group has also asked harassment to be consider a crime under Islam. As it stated,

“Making noises at transgender people, making fun of them, teasing them, or thinking of them as inferior is against sharia law, because such an act amounts to objecting to one of Allah’s creations, which is not correct.” 

Now, the transgender community and LGBT activists are asking the government to take further action on this and introduce legislation on it. Transgender rights worker Almas Bobby told BBC

“We are glad that somebody’s talked about us too. By Sharia we already had the right [to marry], but unless measures are taken to remove the misconceptions about us in society, the condition of our community will not be changed.”

Without governmental intervention and the right legislation, not much will change. Yet, the importance of religious clerics in a country like Pakistan gives the LGBT community and transgender people the hope of a more tolerant society.

 

[brid video=”43824″ player=”5260″ title=”Pakistan issues fatwa legalising transgender marriages Oneindia News”]

Featured image via Oneindia News screengrab

The post This Islamic Country Just Took A HUGE Leap Forward On LGBT Rights (VIDEO) appeared first on ReverbPress.

TRUMP TERROR: This Horrible Crime Statistic SKYROCKETS In Wake Of Trump Victory (VIDEO)

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It’s been just over one week since Donald Trump’s election, and in that time more than 400 incidents involving harassment or intimidation have occurred, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday.

Trump supporters get their hate on

More than 130 of the incidents targeted immigrants. African-Americans and LGBTQ people were also targeted in large numbers. Most of the harassment happened in K-12 schools, followed by businesses and universities, the SPLC reports.

The SPLC gathered the information from news reports, the social media and direct submissions to the group. It didn’t follow up to confirm reports stemming from individual submissions.

NBC News reports that some of the incidents included:

  • On Sunday, a rector found graffiti that said “Trump Nation, Whites Only” scrawled on walls at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Silver Spring, Maryland. The church offers Spanish language services and it’s likely that is what the vandals were targeting.
  • A Muslim student at the University of Michigan told police a white male ordered her to remove her hijab or he would “set her on fire with a lighter”. Police are investigating, and the campus has issued a safety alert.
  • New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has commissioned state police to open a multi-agency hate crimes investigation after reports that a swastika and Trump’s name was spray painted inside a residence hall at SUNY Geneseo.
  • Philadelphia police are searching for the person who scrawled “Trump Rules” and “Black B—-“ on the hood of a woman’s van.
  • “Colored” and “Whites Only” signs were hung above drinking fountains at First Coast High School in Jacksonville, Florida, a district spokeswoman confirmed.

On Monday, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting division released its yearly “Hate Crimes Statistics” report. This tracks the number of bias-related incidents reported to law enforcement authorities in 2015, and it reports that the number of hate crimes rose 6 percent. In the majority of these crimes (59 percent), victims were targeted due to their race or ethnicity.

More than 5,800 incidents involving hate crimes that targeted more than 7,121 victims were reported by the FBI last year. Photo courtesy of David Taintor/FBI
More than 5,800 incidents involving hate crimes that targeted more than 7,121 victims were reported by the FBI last year. Photo courtesy of David Taintor/FBI

Religious bias and sexual orientation were also another area of concern because they too, were among the most frequently reported types of hate crimes. The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes skyrocketed in 2015, growing by an astounding 66 percent, according to the FBI report.

Related: Trump Supporting Coffee Shop Owner Goes Full Racist, Promptly Gets Destroyed By The Internet (VIDEO)

More than 5,800 incidents involving hate crimes that targeted more than 7,121 victims were reported to law enforcement officials.  Out of the known offenders, “48.4 percent were white, 24.3 percent were African-American, and for 16.2 percent of offenders, race was unknown, according to the report.

And the report not only monitored anti-Arab bias, it also tracked incidents involving anti-religious bias for seven other religions for the first time. It now also tracks bias against Buddhist, Eastern Orthodox, Hindu, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, Sikh and other Christian victims.

Monday is the 25th anniversary of the FBI’s attempts to compile data surrounding hate crimes, and the current report contains data from nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies.

Some political analysts had predicted hate crimes would rise if Trump won, and they based this on his controversial remarks and are comparing this to the Brexit vote. That sparked a 40 percent rise in hate crimes in the United Kingdom.

But it should come as no surprise that Trump’s racist rhetoric has spurred the uptick in these nasty crimes, especially since he’s been endorsed by the likes of David Duke and the KKK.

I’m sad for people of color, for immigrants and for religious people. I’m sad for atheists like myself, who may have to deal with persecution from people who would commit hate crimes.

America, what have you done?

You can watch racism in action in the video below…

[brid video=”78283″ player=”5260″ title=”NeoNazis explain why they like Donald Trump”]

Image via Youtube.

The post TRUMP TERROR: This Horrible Crime Statistic SKYROCKETS In Wake Of Trump Victory (VIDEO) appeared first on ReverbPress.

Pharma-Bro Martin Shkreli’s Latest Stunt May Land Him in Jail, Finally

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Federal prosecutors filed a motion late Thursday to revoke Martin Shkreli’s bail in response to his latest publicity stunt, in which he promised to pay a $5,000 reward to anyone to could “grab” hair from 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton while she is on her upcoming book tour. Shkreli is on bail while he awaits sentencing for his three securities fraud convictions.

In their motion, prosecutors said that Shkreli “poses a danger to the community.”

As if to prove their point, Shkreli replied via his Facebook account: “Lol Hillary Clinton’s presumptive agents are hard at work. It was just a prank, bro!
But still, lock HER up. Spend your resources investigating her, not me!!”

https://www.facebook.com/martinshkr/posts/10101609155571295

U.S. District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto scheduled a September 14 hearing for legal arguments on Shkreli’s latest stunt. Shkreli’s defense team has until September 12 to file a response to the prosecution’s motion.

Because Clinton is a former First Lady, Secretary of State, and Democratic nominee for President, the U.S. Secret Service is investigating Shkreli’s reward offer. Shkreli has been sought for questioning by the Secret Service, but he declined to meet with investigators, prosecutors wrote in yesterday’s motion.

“Shkreli’s latest threat is concerning not only because it has required a significant expenditure of resources by the United States Secret Service, which is charged with protecting Secretary Clinton, but also because there is a significant risk that one of his many social media followers or others who learn of his offers through the media will take his statements seriously—as has happened previously—and act on them,” the motion states.

Shkreli, 34, is the former pharmaceutical firm CEO who attracted notoriety when he hiked by 5000% the price of a life-saving drug taken by patients with the HIV virus or others with weakened immune systems. Called before Congress to explain this and other actions, Shkreli smirked throughout the hearing but spoke not a word.

Shkreli was arrested in December 2015 for offenses unrelated to that case but connected to his apparent ongoing ambition to be a famous villain. He was charged with eight counts of securities fraud for bilking investors in two healthcare-industry hedge funds, and on August 4 he was found guilty of three of the charges. He faces up to 20 years in prison for the convictions.

Related: ‘Pharma Bro’ Stalked, Harassed Chelsea Clinton

He has remained free since his December 2015 arrest on $5 million bond, but his recent offer of money for the former Secretary of State’s hair is only his latest attempt to amuse himself by harming others: in January 2017, he posted on Twitter edited photos of himself and journalist Lauren Duca in which she is portrayed as his “+1,” as his phrased it. His targeted harassment of the journalist earned him a ban from Twitter. He then used his Facebook account to prolong his harassment of Duca.

RELATED: Pharma Bro Martin ‘Pee-Wee’ Shkreli Reckons with More Federal Charges

He has also used his Facebook account to harass journalist Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks.

Those two harassment cases, both against women, led federal prosecutors to conclude in the motion filed yesterday, “Shkreli’s own prior actions, and his influence over others who have previously acted in reliance on his statements, demonstrate why the government views his latest actions with concern.”

(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The post Pharma-Bro Martin Shkreli’s Latest Stunt May Land Him in Jail, Finally appeared first on ReverbPress.

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