Last week, seven Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to Target CEO Brian Cornell warning that selling LGBTQ-themed merchandise "to families and young children" may be illegal. The letter, written by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) — and co-signed by the attorneys general of Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and South Carolina — alleges that selling "LGBT-themed onesies, bibs, and overalls, t-shirts" could violate "[s]tate child-protection laws" prohibiting the “sale or distribution… of obscene matter." An item is obscene, the letter notes, if its "dominant theme… appeals to the prurient interest in sex."
Republican priorities are just unbelievable. They couldn’t care less that crazy people have unfettered access to buy AR-15s to blow our children to smitereens, but here you have multiple Republican Attorneys General using their taxpayer-funded time to gang up on a company for...selling T-shirts with rainbows on them? Putting aside the blatant effort by the top legal officials for multiple states to infringe on First Amendment free speech rights, the idea that rainbow shirts somehow turn kids gay is sheer lunacy. WTF?
If and when these guys get the christian theocracy they crave, they are grooming themselves to be the Imams, Grand Imams and Ayatollahs of the new order.
Oh, it won't be Sharia Law, it will be Old Testament law so you can stone your neighbor for growing two different vegetables in his garden, especially if he wears multi-colored t-shirts.
I am hard pressed to see the difference between the two. Not to disagree with you Bruce. I eschew all religious nuttery without exception and either one is far too crazy for me.
My poorly communicated observation is that theocracies are not different, just an altered set of laws based on different texts, each of which were written by uneducated men.
The last part of your statement is the portion that gets me heated and ready to twist a conversion-by-means-of-concussion-style religious AH into a badly beaten pretzel.
And we're supposed to apply what those stupid and virtually stone-age MF's with their anti-person agenda wrote then, to circumstances and events happening now?
You said griftibility. The RWr'z superpower. Here's an appropriate passage from the "New World RW Bible and Refrigerator Repair Manual," personally signed by Jesus:
"Lead us not from temptation and deliver to us unlimited bounty, griftibility and unearned rewards for ever and ever, world without end."
All the effort put into this nonsense should instead be channeled into protecting children from the real threats of guns, homelessness, hunger, and health care.
Not unlike 1930s Germany when the Nazi party targeted a particular community, Jews, to blame for all if society's ills, the GOP is targeting the LGBTQ community.
If any lesson is learned from the past is this kind of action can happen. I don't think the protection of laws against discrimination will stop it.
Our federal courts and SCOTUS are full of Trump appointees that have no qualms with politics over law.
Over the past 10 years I have heard evangelicals blame the problems in America on the LGBTQ community more than any other group. The alliance of evangelicals and the GOP is in mho a most dangerous alliance and you can bet RAGA has been influenced by the religious right. Enough so that the law bearers of states, Attorney Generals, are willing to put out less than factual letters under their seal to private corporations like Target to target a particular community. They have done so with no regard to federal discrimination laws.
Thanks for important reporting, Judd and team. Democracy is in peril in America you keep the high beam on it.
There was (and is) an expression along the lines of "What starts with the Jews will not end with the Jews." That analogy is applicable here. What starts with the LGBTQ community will not end with the LGBTQ community. They will go after other minorities in the future. Count on it.
After they have no one else to attack, they will attack poor white ppl! Mic drop! The saddest thing of all is the ppl that vote for rePUGliCONs, they have nothing for Americans! Not in legislation, not in regulation...they don’t care about America at all! Money and power! If their not billionaires they will never be happy with the results that literally kill ppl and destroy countries! Shithole America one dumb white rePUGliCON at a time!
Yes shouldnt there be some oversight of these attorney generals putting out “less than factual” letters as you put it. Lies as I would call it. Is there no accountability for their office? They are supposedly the highest law person in their state. They shouldn’t be lying to us.
And the thing that rankles is this, "they" already know they shouldn't be lying to us.
That is what they accuse others of doing all the damn time! You would think a subliminal bell would ring or a light would go off, like when the microwave has finished but... sigh.
And yet somehow, the "Happy, Shiny People" of so many evangelical churches, are not so very happy, shiny, nor protected. Many of their ministers & " respected" elders have targeted, specifically young women from their churches to focus unwanted sexual attentions upon. And as one young woman who'd left her church suggested, that if any grooming was going on, it was being done to young girls & women in teaching them how to be subservient to leaders ( mostly men) and essentially not to learn how to just say " no." Because..in the end, you must respect the hierarchy established by God essentially. Sadly twisted.
Evidently, these people have nothing better to do but harass the LGBTQ community. Theirs would be a laughable effort if not for the real danger it represents.
The real DEEP STATE - conservatives and libertarians. these repubs are the REAL DEEP STATE. As David Pepper documents in his book, they are constantly probing and learning. They have built on the Lewis Powell Memo, used strategies of James Buchanan, and gathered the trust fund baby billionaires to bribe their way to power. Big government - bad - except when it can be used to further THEIR ideas.
Everyday people complain about the government for lying, let me offer you the real problem - corporate America and the conservative libertarians. The tobacco industry lied about their product to counter the government studies, car makers lied about car safety and countered the government studies, fossil fuel knew about the problems of their industry and funded counter studies against the government, you have the vaccines, you have the Sacklers, the list goes on and on.
Ralph Nader was targeted as the real villain for trying to protect the consumers and workers.
When the government does what it is expected to do- protect the people, work for the people- count on the conservatives to be against it. As they say "the government's primary function should be that of protecting property." Translation - protect wealthy possessions and we will use the government to do just that. Employees are property. Their rights do not matter.
RAGA, long before this revolting, sordid addition to their “rap” sheet, has been worthy of this (and more) attention. RAGA’s entwined as co-pilots, navigating the dark-money sluice, in our joyless descent into the current fascist dystopia. They deserve greater focus and way more derision by a democratic society
Someone should also notify children that favoring rainbows means they must be "deviants". By the logic of these RAGA idiots, crayons should be outlawed.
Apparently, the state Attorney General considers being LGBTQ worse than lying in an accusation. In Christian speak that’s called bearing false witness. Whatever you call it, it’s no surprise from morally arrogant fundamentalists for whom the ends always justify the means.
Now where are the letters from state Attorneys General advising Target that shutting out LGBTQ merchandise and customers might violate their state’s laws against discrimination? Or do progressives always drop the ball?
Given recent SCOTUS rulings, the concept of protected classes in public accommodation has been erased, meaning there are no protected classes because the constitution is now color blind (and gender blind, meaning men can't have abortions so neither should women), and the establishment clause has been voided, leaving white Christians to finally take control - again. So it might take some time for the AGs to analyze the rulings and realize their state anti-discrimination rules have been cancelled. Racism is now extinct according to the high court. Progressives are probably doing what they can, although more is always needed. How many progressives are there, anyway? They're certainly not a protected class.
You know what the fuss is really all about? These RAGA/MAGA folken are just dying to come out of the closet, but just cannot let themselves because of... reasons.
Why is it that all these people think about, is sex, sEx, SeX, SEX! Good God. People accuse me of having MY mind in the gutter. I'm nowhere near these people. Not even a thimblefull near.
I am having vast imaginings with me and MTG making lots of little Neanderthal babbies. I am thinking tryst with man with the head of Nixon with may add spice to an otherwise... sorry Terry. Must stop now. Brainz be hurtzzz zzz zz zzzz zpp.
So the Republican party has decided government it is allowed to regulate and moderate business after all! They want to use the judiciary to put limits on what they can or can not represent.
And they, like the recent SCOTUS hearing on the WEB design case, use false information to justify its argument. True, it isn't a new thing to skew your argument with exaggerations to make your point but in both cases it was so easily shown to be wrong. No laws have been broken by the retailers but they have do defend themselves against these 'virtue' crusaders.
If you combine millions of mentally ill people with guns and a mentally ill orangutan from Mar-a-Lago controlling what's left of their minds, you're gonna have some problems.
The renewed attacks on and efforts to roll back progress on LGBT rights are troubling and no doubt reflect an effort to leverage the conservative SCOTUS majority to strike down decisions favorable to same sex unions. The arguments only work if same sex relationships are viewed reductively through the lens of sex. It ignores the richness, complexity, and commitment of same sex relationships. Teaching children that families look different is. It inherently sexual. It is the conservatives who are making it so.
Agreed. Depictions of a straight couple on shirts, cards and other items aren't pornography and they depict actual people together. The sale of symbols, without any depictions or references to sexual acts is obviously not prurient or pornographic. Their argument is nonsensical gibberish.
Thank you, Judd, for revealing more unpleasant truth about how our country has so many streams of fear-based, money-grubbing movements run by people with political power. Ironically, they often tout themselves as "Christians" when their behavior is antithetical to the New Testament teachings about love and wisdom from within.
If the corporations that say they support LGBTQ+ people and their rights, as well as the corporations that say they support equal rights for people of color, as well as the corporations who say they support voting rights and women's rights and all the other rights stopped donating millions to Republicans and their dark money PACS, the Republicans would change their tune in a hot New York second. But they want to have it both ways, so maybe those of us who actually support all those rights should take our business elsewhere.
Ah, the slithering republican golums, suppuratingly dreaming up and trying to create laws of every imaginable stripe of hatred and stupidity while pursuing the enrichment of themselves. Meanwhile, no positive legislation that actually moves the human species forward is ever considered. The GOP Golum high-school mentality is causing America to now fester into civil psychosis.
One would think that being the target of these attacks would result in a backlash where the corporations cease their contributions to these arrogant, bigoted racist Republicans.
Keep calling them out, Judd. You are one of the most courageous of our allies. Thank you for sticking to the truth.
Republican priorities are just unbelievable. They couldn’t care less that crazy people have unfettered access to buy AR-15s to blow our children to smitereens, but here you have multiple Republican Attorneys General using their taxpayer-funded time to gang up on a company for...selling T-shirts with rainbows on them? Putting aside the blatant effort by the top legal officials for multiple states to infringe on First Amendment free speech rights, the idea that rainbow shirts somehow turn kids gay is sheer lunacy. WTF?
It's distraction from the sad state of their state's health, education, and wealth stats. Smoke and mirrors.
If and when these guys get the christian theocracy they crave, they are grooming themselves to be the Imams, Grand Imams and Ayatollahs of the new order.
But they don't like Sharia Law! They said so!!!
Oh, it won't be Sharia Law, it will be Old Testament law so you can stone your neighbor for growing two different vegetables in his garden, especially if he wears multi-colored t-shirts.
I am hard pressed to see the difference between the two. Not to disagree with you Bruce. I eschew all religious nuttery without exception and either one is far too crazy for me.
My poorly communicated observation is that theocracies are not different, just an altered set of laws based on different texts, each of which were written by uneducated men.
The last part of your statement is the portion that gets me heated and ready to twist a conversion-by-means-of-concussion-style religious AH into a badly beaten pretzel.
And we're supposed to apply what those stupid and virtually stone-age MF's with their anti-person agenda wrote then, to circumstances and events happening now?
I think not.
If Target started selling AR-15s would they be off these AG's hit list?
They don’t actually care about any of this - or about children in general. They are catering to the farthest fringe of their voting & donating block.
They enjoy the control & attention & griftability but they don’t really give a sht about the cause or the people they are hurting.
Erasing that which tempts them or goes against what they wish to control is only way they can keep the extremist base pleased.
You said griftibility. The RWr'z superpower. Here's an appropriate passage from the "New World RW Bible and Refrigerator Repair Manual," personally signed by Jesus:
"Lead us not from temptation and deliver to us unlimited bounty, griftibility and unearned rewards for ever and ever, world without end."
Let the church say Amen!
You're bad!
All the effort put into this nonsense should instead be channeled into protecting children from the real threats of guns, homelessness, hunger, and health care.
exactly.
Not unlike 1930s Germany when the Nazi party targeted a particular community, Jews, to blame for all if society's ills, the GOP is targeting the LGBTQ community.
If any lesson is learned from the past is this kind of action can happen. I don't think the protection of laws against discrimination will stop it.
Our federal courts and SCOTUS are full of Trump appointees that have no qualms with politics over law.
Over the past 10 years I have heard evangelicals blame the problems in America on the LGBTQ community more than any other group. The alliance of evangelicals and the GOP is in mho a most dangerous alliance and you can bet RAGA has been influenced by the religious right. Enough so that the law bearers of states, Attorney Generals, are willing to put out less than factual letters under their seal to private corporations like Target to target a particular community. They have done so with no regard to federal discrimination laws.
Thanks for important reporting, Judd and team. Democracy is in peril in America you keep the high beam on it.
There was (and is) an expression along the lines of "What starts with the Jews will not end with the Jews." That analogy is applicable here. What starts with the LGBTQ community will not end with the LGBTQ community. They will go after other minorities in the future. Count on it.
Yes. What’s that saying? First they came for…
Exactly.
After they have no one else to attack, they will attack poor white ppl! Mic drop! The saddest thing of all is the ppl that vote for rePUGliCONs, they have nothing for Americans! Not in legislation, not in regulation...they don’t care about America at all! Money and power! If their not billionaires they will never be happy with the results that literally kill ppl and destroy countries! Shithole America one dumb white rePUGliCON at a time!
Yes shouldnt there be some oversight of these attorney generals putting out “less than factual” letters as you put it. Lies as I would call it. Is there no accountability for their office? They are supposedly the highest law person in their state. They shouldn’t be lying to us.
And the thing that rankles is this, "they" already know they shouldn't be lying to us.
That is what they accuse others of doing all the damn time! You would think a subliminal bell would ring or a light would go off, like when the microwave has finished but... sigh.
And yet somehow, the "Happy, Shiny People" of so many evangelical churches, are not so very happy, shiny, nor protected. Many of their ministers & " respected" elders have targeted, specifically young women from their churches to focus unwanted sexual attentions upon. And as one young woman who'd left her church suggested, that if any grooming was going on, it was being done to young girls & women in teaching them how to be subservient to leaders ( mostly men) and essentially not to learn how to just say " no." Because..in the end, you must respect the hierarchy established by God essentially. Sadly twisted.
Evidently, these people have nothing better to do but harass the LGBTQ community. Theirs would be a laughable effort if not for the real danger it represents.
The real DEEP STATE - conservatives and libertarians. these repubs are the REAL DEEP STATE. As David Pepper documents in his book, they are constantly probing and learning. They have built on the Lewis Powell Memo, used strategies of James Buchanan, and gathered the trust fund baby billionaires to bribe their way to power. Big government - bad - except when it can be used to further THEIR ideas.
Everyday people complain about the government for lying, let me offer you the real problem - corporate America and the conservative libertarians. The tobacco industry lied about their product to counter the government studies, car makers lied about car safety and countered the government studies, fossil fuel knew about the problems of their industry and funded counter studies against the government, you have the vaccines, you have the Sacklers, the list goes on and on.
Ralph Nader was targeted as the real villain for trying to protect the consumers and workers.
When the government does what it is expected to do- protect the people, work for the people- count on the conservatives to be against it. As they say "the government's primary function should be that of protecting property." Translation - protect wealthy possessions and we will use the government to do just that. Employees are property. Their rights do not matter.
Thanks Judd for your excellent work.
And thank you Ricky for your excellent reply!
RAGA, long before this revolting, sordid addition to their “rap” sheet, has been worthy of this (and more) attention. RAGA’s entwined as co-pilots, navigating the dark-money sluice, in our joyless descent into the current fascist dystopia. They deserve greater focus and way more derision by a democratic society
a rainbow appeals to a prurient interest in sex? Someone should have notified God when he created them.
Someone should also notify children that favoring rainbows means they must be "deviants". By the logic of these RAGA idiots, crayons should be outlawed.
Apparently, the state Attorney General considers being LGBTQ worse than lying in an accusation. In Christian speak that’s called bearing false witness. Whatever you call it, it’s no surprise from morally arrogant fundamentalists for whom the ends always justify the means.
Now where are the letters from state Attorneys General advising Target that shutting out LGBTQ merchandise and customers might violate their state’s laws against discrimination? Or do progressives always drop the ball?
Given recent SCOTUS rulings, the concept of protected classes in public accommodation has been erased, meaning there are no protected classes because the constitution is now color blind (and gender blind, meaning men can't have abortions so neither should women), and the establishment clause has been voided, leaving white Christians to finally take control - again. So it might take some time for the AGs to analyze the rulings and realize their state anti-discrimination rules have been cancelled. Racism is now extinct according to the high court. Progressives are probably doing what they can, although more is always needed. How many progressives are there, anyway? They're certainly not a protected class.
You know what the fuss is really all about? These RAGA/MAGA folken are just dying to come out of the closet, but just cannot let themselves because of... reasons.
Why is it that all these people think about, is sex, sEx, SeX, SEX! Good God. People accuse me of having MY mind in the gutter. I'm nowhere near these people. Not even a thimblefull near.
Well think of Matt G and Marjorie G. Sexy peoples no?
/s
Is it Matt Greene or Marjorie Traitor Goetz? Huh. I think those secret Jewish space lasers burned holes in both their brains, and them some.
But... they sexy, no?
Beauty is in the eye of thee beholder. So if ye thinks they sexy, who am I to say otherwise? Right? I say your last word would be right.....
I am having vast imaginings with me and MTG making lots of little Neanderthal babbies. I am thinking tryst with man with the head of Nixon with may add spice to an otherwise... sorry Terry. Must stop now. Brainz be hurtzzz zzz zz zzzz zpp.
So the Republican party has decided government it is allowed to regulate and moderate business after all! They want to use the judiciary to put limits on what they can or can not represent.
And they, like the recent SCOTUS hearing on the WEB design case, use false information to justify its argument. True, it isn't a new thing to skew your argument with exaggerations to make your point but in both cases it was so easily shown to be wrong. No laws have been broken by the retailers but they have do defend themselves against these 'virtue' crusaders.
Next the brown shirts will smash the store windows with baseball bats.
But only "their" store windows. Those others. It's not like they're real people like us right?
If you combine millions of mentally ill people with guns and a mentally ill orangutan from Mar-a-Lago controlling what's left of their minds, you're gonna have some problems.
I should have added the "/s."
Of course you are correct and of course I concur.
The renewed attacks on and efforts to roll back progress on LGBT rights are troubling and no doubt reflect an effort to leverage the conservative SCOTUS majority to strike down decisions favorable to same sex unions. The arguments only work if same sex relationships are viewed reductively through the lens of sex. It ignores the richness, complexity, and commitment of same sex relationships. Teaching children that families look different is. It inherently sexual. It is the conservatives who are making it so.
Agreed. Depictions of a straight couple on shirts, cards and other items aren't pornography and they depict actual people together. The sale of symbols, without any depictions or references to sexual acts is obviously not prurient or pornographic. Their argument is nonsensical gibberish.
Thank you, Judd, for revealing more unpleasant truth about how our country has so many streams of fear-based, money-grubbing movements run by people with political power. Ironically, they often tout themselves as "Christians" when their behavior is antithetical to the New Testament teachings about love and wisdom from within.
I would love to see those "christians" meet Jesus. Woo Charlie the fur would fly!
If the corporations that say they support LGBTQ+ people and their rights, as well as the corporations that say they support equal rights for people of color, as well as the corporations who say they support voting rights and women's rights and all the other rights stopped donating millions to Republicans and their dark money PACS, the Republicans would change their tune in a hot New York second. But they want to have it both ways, so maybe those of us who actually support all those rights should take our business elsewhere.
Ah, the slithering republican golums, suppuratingly dreaming up and trying to create laws of every imaginable stripe of hatred and stupidity while pursuing the enrichment of themselves. Meanwhile, no positive legislation that actually moves the human species forward is ever considered. The GOP Golum high-school mentality is causing America to now fester into civil psychosis.
Thank you Judd, et al, for excellent reporting.
One would think that being the target of these attacks would result in a backlash where the corporations cease their contributions to these arrogant, bigoted racist Republicans.