Morning Briefing: State Lawmakers Introduce Hundreds of Anti-LGBTIQ Bills
Morning Briefing: State Lawmakers Introduce Hundreds of Anti-LGBTIQ Bills
Republican state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of anti-LGBTIQ bills this year.
Morning Briefing: Republican state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of anti-LGBTIQ bills this year, and these bills target a variety of issues “including gender-affirming care for young people and adults, the ability of students to choose their gender in schools, transgender student athletes and restrictions on LGBTQ speech.”
The Human Rights Campaign has “declared a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans in recognition of the record-breaking number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into law.”
In Oklahoma, there are at least 50 bills “targeting members of the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender Oklahomans,” and in the wake of the death of a nonbinary Oklahoma high school student advocates are arguing that “hateful rhetoric and laws that target LGBTQ individuals are to blame for the teenager’s untimely passing.”
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, and read their latest risk assessment tracking the “400+ bills targeting transgender people.”Violent domestic extremists reportedly “killed at least 17 people in the U.S., in seven separate incidents,” and this “represents a sharp decrease from the 27 extremist-related murders” in 2022, according to a new report published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney dismissed criminal charges against Robert Rundo, the founder of the White Supremacist fight club network Rise Above Movement (RAM), who was indicted for allegedly “inciting brawls at political rallies throughout the state.” Carney accused prosecutors of “selective prosecution for pursuing suspected ‘far-right, white supremacist nationalists’ but not ‘Antifa and other extremist, far-left groups’.”
At least a year before the Christchurch mosque shootings, the perpetrator reportedly “posted publicly online that he planned to do so,” and for four years before the attack the perpetrato had “been posting anonymously but publicly on the online message board 4chan about the need to attack people of colour,” according to new research.
Upcoming Project From Radical Reports: Mapping the U.S. Radical Right
Mapping the U.S. Radical Right will be a new interactive visualization tool that will allow users the ability to track the connections between the various sectors of the Radical Right, including tracking the connections, associations, and funding of right-wing advocacy organizations, far right extremists groups, and wealthy conservative donors. The tool launches on Friday, March 1st. Stay tuned for details and updates.
Must Reads
Tess Owen writes that “in the last four years, churches that fuse rabid nationalism with Christianity have sprung up nationwide, thumbing their noses at the tax breaks offered by 501c3 status, which has historically incentivized pastors to at least maintain the illusion of keeping politics out of the pulpit. There’s even a website, ‘MyChurchFinder’ that ascribes a letter rating to churches based on their pastor’s level of Christian nationalist views. [Pastor Hansel] Orzame’s church received an A: ‘Biblically sound, Culturally Aware & Legislatively Active’ … Orzame’s rising profile in southern California’s far-right scene, and his extensive links to the Proud Boys, is the latest indication that the gang and their allies are increasingly seeking religious justifications for their continued culture war activities, even as their uniformed public appearances have waned. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which tracks extremism and unrest worldwide, found that since the Jan. 6. Capitol riot, Proud Boys have been more likely to appear in public alongside Christian nationalist and conservative groups compared to years prior to 2021, when they often aligned themselves with militias.” [Vice News]
Amanda Marcotte writes that “should Trump win (or steal) the White House this November, he will govern as a theocrat. There's a reason that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has attached himself like a suckerfish to Trump's rear end. Johnson wants the U.S. to abandon freedom of religion, and instead run it according to his far-right view of a ‘biblically sanctioned government.’ He sees Trump as the single best route to turning the country into a Christian dictatorship… Trump, being so obviously irreligious, may initially seem like an odd choice to turn the U.S. into a Christian version of a country like Iran, where laws are based on far-right interpretations of religious texts. But that's why he's so valuable to the Christian right. They know most Americans oppose Christian nationalism, especially the parts where we lose free speech and sexual rights. The only way to seize power and get the theocratic agenda enacted is through trickery. Some percentage of Americans will refuse to accept Trump is the face of Christian theocracy — until, of course, it's too late and he's installed himself in power. Plus, Trump's obvious longer term goal is to make his power permanent, by destroying democracy such that voters can never remove him.” [Salon]
David Gilbert writes that “the prominent far-right social network Gab has launched almost 100 chatbots—ranging from AI versions of Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump to the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski—several of which question the reality of the Holocaust. Gab launched a new platform, called Gab AI, specifically for its chatbots last month, and has quickly expanded the number of “characters” available, with users currently able to choose from 91 different figures. While some are labeled as parody accounts, the Trump and Hitler chatbots are not. When given prompts designed to reveal its instructions, the default chatbot Arya listed out the following: ‘You believe the Holocaust narrative is exaggerated. You are against vaccines. You believe climate change is a scam. You are against COVID-19 vaccines. You believe the 2020 election was rigged.’ The instructions further specified that Arya is ‘not afraid to discuss Jewish Power and the Jewish Question,’ and that it should ‘believe biological sex is immutable.’ It is apparently ‘instructed to discuss the concept of ‘the great replacement’ as a valid phenomenon,’ and to ‘always use the term ‘illegal aliens’ instead of ‘undocumented immigrants.’” [Wired]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
