Morning Briefing: 'Increasingly Dehumanizing Rhetoric, Political Repression, and Threats of Violence'
Morning Briefing: 'Increasingly Dehumanizing Rhetoric, Political Repression, and Threats of Violence'
Hospitals and medical facilities that provide gender affirming medical care are facing a far right campaign of 'increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric, political repression, and threats of violence.'
Morning Briefing: A member of the Women’s Liberation Front, the trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) and self described “gender critical” group, created the “Gender Mapping Project” which “documents the locations of thousands of establishments around the world that serve trans people in some way.”
The “Gender Mapping Project” map, which was created by with Google Maps, is no longer available online, and company spokesperson said Google determined the map was in “violation of our policies and have removed it from My Maps.”
The Twitter account associated with the project has been suspended, and the Facebook account associated with the project appears to have been removed.
However, the creator of the “Gender Mapping Project” remains active on Twitter, and has claimed that any criticism of the project is part of an “anti semitic conspiracy theory” and characterized the increasing threats against health care facilities that provide gender affirming care as “hoax phone calls and bogus threats.”
Additionally, Advocates Protecting Children, a nonprofit advocacy organization that claims “there is no such thing as a transgender child,” has published a spreadsheet listing the locations of “Pediatric Gender Clinics.”
The “Gender Mapping Project” is part of an ongoing campaign of “increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric, political repression, and threats of violence” by far right anti-LGBTIQ groups and amplified by right-wing media.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the Children’s Hospital Association asked the “Justice Department to investigate threats being made against children’s hospitals and physicians providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth.”
Children’s hospitals around the country that “have been targeted on social media for providing gender-affirming care — and even some that haven’t — are stripping information about those services from their websites.”
The Nationalist Social Club 131 (NSC), a neo-Nazi group with chapters based in the New England, appeared to stage a protest in Kennedy Park in Lewiston, Maine, as “nearly two dozen people dressed in black standing on the corner of Kennedy Park facing city hall.”
The FBI received a tip in November of 2020 in the form of a secret recording of Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far right militia the Oath Keepers, telling “members of his paramilitary group to get ready to fight for President Donald Trump in the streets of Washington”
Prosecutors said during the trial of Rhodes and four other members of the Oath Keepers that group “trained and planned for Jan. 6, stockpiling weapons at a northern Virginia hotel outside the capital for a so-called ‘quick reaction force’ that would be ready if called upon to transport arms into Washington.”
Stephanie Scott, a local official who oversaw voting in Adams Township, Michigan, who made online post about the QAnon conspiracy theory and promoted “false conspiracy theories of a rigged 2020 election could face criminal charges related to two voting-system security breaches.”
Join the conversation on Twitter Spaces on Friday, October 7 at 12:00pm EDT (11:00am CDT / 9:00am PDT) ― This Week in Extremism: Christian Nationalism and Spiritual Warfare
Must Reads
Peter Montgomery writes that “one force driving much of the effort to keep Trump in power, one which has not been explored publicly by the Jan. 6 committee but has drawn the attention of many journalists, scholars, and activists, was the political ideology of Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is grounded in beliefs that the United States was founded by and for Christians, that being a ‘Christian nation’ is central to national identity, and that it’s the job of activists and government officials to keep it that way. Under Trump, this ideology has woven its way into the broader religious-right movement and Republican Party, while far-right and white nationalist activists have made it a cornerstone of their movements. Ahead of the insurrection, Christian nationalists promoted the belief that Donald Trump was chosen by God and that his opponents were opposing God in a spiritual war between good and evil—providing some insurrectionists with the belief that their storming of the Capitol was a righteous act.” [Right Wing Watch]
David Armiak writes that the State Policy Network “met last week in Atlanta for its 30th Annual Meeting, where members spent four days immersed in a far-right agenda of social, political, economic, and culture war issues they hope to advance at the state level—in resistance to ‘federal overreach.’ SPN groups play an integral role in making sure that legislation gets passed in state houses—by providing academic legitimacy when called upon to testify at hearings, producing “studies” or model legislation, and attracting media attention. That legislation is sometimes drafted as model bills by corporate lobbyists and lawmakers at SPN’s sister organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). SPN currently has 64 affiliate members, along with 99 associate members that include many prominent national right-wing groups—from Charles Koch’s Americans for Prosperity (AFP) to the Heritage Foundation, as well as one of the network’s largest funders: DonorsTrust.” [Center for Media and Democracy]
Kathryn Joyce writes that “over the last month, Florida teachers have been sharing examples of the culling process on social media, with multiple examples of books featuring Black characters being cut, while books about Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, Dick Cheney and Pope John Paul II are allowed. On Facebook, a mother in the Indian River County school district posted a photograph from her daughter's classroom of a wall of bookshelves roped off with pink tape, with all the books reversed so the spines didn't show. The mother told a local reporter that the teacher was close to tears as she explained she was worried she'd get in trouble if parents complained about her classroom library. As the statewide anti-censorship organization Florida Freedom to Read Project has documented, there was good reason for that teacher to be afraid: in Indian River, teachers had been given the option either to close their classroom libraries or sign an electronic form confirming their collections complied with all new laws, potentially transferring all legal liability to them.” [Salon]
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; Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right; Field Notes delivers research on key organizations and analysis of the strategies and tactics of the Radical Right.
