first amendment: Celebs Rumors

makes it easier to remove books from libraries that are deemed to have “sexual” content or are considered “inappropriate” for minors.One of the books removed from shelves was And Tango Makes Three, a children’s story based on real-life events about a same-sex penguin couple that hatches an egg together and raises its chick.The book was recently banned by Lake County Public Schools in central Florida, only to be returned to shelves after the book’s authors filed a lawsuit.While Lake County has permitted Tango to return to shelves, the overall law still allows for other titles with LGBTQ themes or characters to be restricted, and the authors’ lawsuit has been transferred to U.S.

Miami Herald that “[p]reparations for a suit in federal court are well underway.”“My civil liberties are not up for debate,” he said of his intention to not only sue Miami Beach Gay Pride, but the city of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County, which are co-sponsoring the Pride parade.Kent Harrison Robbins, an attorney for Basabe, wrote to Horwich warning him that excluding Basabe from participating in the parade “would be willfully, knowingly, and intentionally abridging his First Amendment right to free speech and to peaceably assembly on a public street.”“Legal precedents from the federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have ruled that a concern that there may be physical opposition to [Basabe] is not a legal justification for violating his speech and assembly rights,” Robbins wrote in the letter. “Basabe must be allowed to participate in The Pride Parade and he must be notified immediately through my offices that he will be allowed to do so without any impediments.”Robbins argued that because city and county jurisdictions are among the sponsors of the parade, it doesn’t constitute a private event that would allow for Basabe’s exclusion.

temporary restraining order directing the city of Murfreesboro and its officials, including City Manager Craig Tindall, Mayor Shane McFarland, and the Murfreesboro Police Department, not to “enforce or take any action pursuant to the provision to Murfreesboro City Code 21-71 that includes ‘homosexuality’ within the definition of ‘sexual conduct.'”The so-called “decency ordinance,” which was approved in June, prohibits people in public spaces from engaging in “indecent behavior,” displaying “indecent material,” or subjecting minors to behaviors, material, or events that are “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors.” Those found in violation are barred from sponsoring any events at a public space for a period of two to five years.Critics of the ordinance have argued that such language is overly vague and subject to wide interpretation based on individual biases or preferences.Some have also noted that the ordinance’s references to appealing to the “prurient interest” appear to be specifically targeting drag shows, with the intent of having such performances deemed as “offensive” based on the aforementioned “prevailing standards” of what constitutes “decency.”A year ago, the city started to take action targeting BoroPride over the presence of drag and open displays of LGBTQ identity.Tindall, the city manager, sent a letter to BoroPride organizers stating that he would deny future permits for the festival and drag show on government property.

preliminary injunction stopping the law from being enforced until a trial is held to determine whether the law is unconstitutional, as the plaintiffs challenging the law claim, reports The Associated Press.U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell, of the Middle District of Florida, had issued the preliminary injunction blocking the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation — which, under Gov.

Emma & Mommy Talk to God, The Color Purple, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Separate is Never Equal, Wonder, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Of those titles, only The Color Purple contains LGBTQ content.The display had a piece of artwork showing a child in a wheelchair against a background of five colors, along with a quote from poet Maya Angelou reading, “In diversity there is beauty and strength.”The display also contained a multicolored infinity symbol, symbolizing autism awareness, with the slogan, “We all think differently,” reports The Topeka Capital-Journal.A temporary summer employee, Ruth Splitter, believed the autism symbol signified support for LGBTQ Pride, and told Lancaster, during an argument on June 22, she found it offensive.Even after being told it was a neurodiversity and autism logo, Splitter launched into an “anti-LGBT diatribe,” according to the librarians’ lawsuit.That same day, Splitter complained to library board member Michelle Miller in a text about “gay pride.” Miller, the vice chair of the library board, told Splitter she would raise her concerns at the board meeting the following day, allegedly telling her, “We’re not going to have that display up because I will rally the board members to call [Wheeler] to take it down.”Miller then texted Wheeler, saying she had stopped by the library, even though she had not.“I do not want any kind of rainbow display (aside from solely colors focused) especially in this month,” Miller said, referencing the fact that June is celebrated as Pride Month.

state law seeking to prohibit drag shows by classifying them as “adult cabaret performances.”Blount Pride, a festival featuring music, art, drag performances, and a community resource fair, is held annually in Maryville, Tennessee, less than a half-hour outside Knoxville.This year’s celebration was scheduled to take place during an eight-hour time slot on Saturday, Sept. 2, on the campus of Maryville College.

giving cancel culture a huge heckle offstage. “Most of the people on social media with these [negative] opinions aren’t even real people …They’re trying to strip us of the very thing that makes our country special: the freedom of speech.”Recently, Marlon used comedy to address the senseless violence and brawl at an Alabama dock which caught the nation’s attention. It’s something he spoke in detail about on this week’s episode – along with negative reaction to his own commentary on the incident.“I think social media messed up socializing and we’ve got to get back to laughing and finding reasons to laugh and stop being so damn sensitive,” he said.

intervened in the case, representing Anne and her parents, praised the dismissal of the lawsuit.“Today’s ruling reaffirms that the Constitution is not a vehicle to compel discrimination,” David Carey, the group’s deputy legal director, said in a statement.

A group of students and the authors of And Tango Makes Three, a story about two male penguins raising a chick, are suing the Lake County school district in Florida over the book’s removal from libraries.Published in 2005, the award-winning And Tango Makes Three is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, a pair of male penguins at the Central Park Zoo, who helped protect and hatch an egg and raised the penguin chick, Tango, that emerged from it.Authors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell were inspired to write the book after hearing about how Roy and Silo were “completely devoted to each other,” according to a New York Times article.While the book is geared towards 4- to 8-year-olds and does not contain sexually explicit content, Florida school district authorities banned the book. They removed it from school library shelves, citing Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, also known as the “Don’t Say Law.”Under the law, which is intended to allow parents to have a greater say over the content of their classroom lessons, teachers in public schools are barred from providing classroom “instruction” — which is vaguely defined — on sexual orientation and gender identity.“We removed access to And Tango Makes Three for our kindergarten through third-grade students in alignment with Florida House Bill 1557, which at the time prohibited classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for those grade levels,” Sherri Owens, a spokesperson for Lake County Schools, told the Times in an email.Parnell and Richardson and the parents of five school-age students subsequently sued to challenge the county’s ban on Tango.In the lawsuit, filed in U.S.

And Tango Makes Three, are suing a Florida school board as well as members of the Florida Board of Education. One of the arguments is that the book, based on a true story, is implied to be obscene by the fact that it’s banned.The lawsuit was filed Tuesday, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, the two authors of And Tango Makes Three, along with six children who wish to read the book and their parents.

internal and external protests by LGBTQ employees and their allies — to the “Don’t Say Gay” law. “State leaders have not been subtle about their reasons for government intervention,” the company writes in the lawsuit. “They have proudly declared that Disney deserves this fate because of what Disney said.

The Trevor Project — had been canceled.While Wendler said the idea of raising money for a suicide prevention organization was “a noble cause,” he also characterized drag as “derisive, divisive, and demoralizing misogyny” and even compared it to “blackface.”“Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not,” Wendler said. “As a performance exaggerating aspects of womanhood (sexuality, femininity, gender), drag shows stereotype women in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others and discriminate against womanhood.

Gender Queer — as “obscene,” a designation which would have made it illegal to sell or lend the books in the commonwealth.Circuit Judge Pamela Baskervill rejected the petitions, ruling that the state law being used to challenge the books is unconstitutional on its face because it violates the First Amendment and the Constitution of Virginia, infringing on free speech rights as well as the right to due process for booksellers and publishers, who are not required to be informed of when a book they are selling or distributing has been designated “obscene.”Baskervill also vacated a lower court determination of probable cause for obscenity, finding the lawsuit didn’t present facts that could support a finding that the books are obscene, even as defined under Virginia law. As a result, she dismissed the case.The original petition sought to challenge Gender Queer, Kobabe’s autobiographical story about coming to terms with their sexuality and gender identity, and A Court of Mist and Fury, adult fantasy romance novel, by Sarah J.

Slate, compared the university’s policy on preferred pronouns to compelling a Jewish professor to call a student ‘my Fuhrer’ — adopted the view that the professor’s right to express his personal feelings about gender supersede the university’s attempt to prevent discrimination or the right of a transgender student to not be outed, misgendered, or demeaned in class because of her gender identity. “Traditionally, American universities have been beacons of intellectual diversity and academic freedom … They have tried not to stifle debate by picking sides,” Thapar wrote on behalf of the court.

Photo: Tommy Boudreau, via Unsplash.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. (Photo public domain)