In an email sent Monday afternoon, Kennesaw State University Professor Jalessah Jackson told the students of her Gender Studies &#8220;Love and Sex&#8221; class that she is relocating that evening&#8217;s class and approaching it in a different &#8220;format&#8221; than usual. The new location? The Campus Green. The new format? A protest against bestselling author and Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles. The students are &#8220;expected to be present&#8221; at the protest of the mainstream conservative, Jackson asserts in the email.
In the email to her students, a screenshot of which was published Monday by <a href="https://www.yaf.org/news/kennesaw-state-professor-takes-love-and-sex-gender-studies-class-on-field-trip-to-protest-michael-knowles/">Young America&#8217;s Foundation</a> (the organization sponsoring Knowles&#8217; appearance on campus), Prof. Jackson begins by pulling almost word for word from an announcement posted on Facebook earlier by progressive activist groups providing details about the protest ahead of Knowles speech.
&#8220;Dear Students,&#8221; the email reads. &#8220;I am emailing to inform you all of today&#8217;s class format and meeting space. KSU Young Americans for Freedom will be hosting a transphobic [event] today, Monday, Oct 21 called &#8216;Men are not Women&#8217; with Michael Knowles, who has been known for his racist and transphobic comments. You may know him as the man who was recently banned from Fox News for calling Greta Thunberg a &#8216;mentally ill Swedish child&#8217;.&#8221;
Jackson goes on to inform the class that they are &#8220;expected to be present&#8221; at the protest event.
&#8220;As a class, we will be coming out to support trans students at KSU. We want to communicate to the campus and broader community that transgender people have advocates on campus who support them and their right to exist,&#8221; she continues, again drawing almost verbatim from portions of the progressive activist group&#8217;s earlier announcement.
&#8220;Although the event is 4-7 pm, you all will be expected to be present during class time 5:00-6:15pm,&#8221; she writes. &#8220;However, feel free to come early and stay the entire time.&#8221;
&nbsp;
<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-30834 lazyloaded" src="https://www.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_7519-548x1024.jpg" alt="" width="548" height="1024" data-lazy-src="https://www.yaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_7519-548x1024.jpg" data-was-processed="true" />
Forcing students to attend a protest is obviously a violation of the First Amendment and far oversteps any reasonable school policy on employee advocacy of a political view or cause.
Called out for the apparent coercion of students to protest another student group&#8217;s event, Jackson seem to contradict her assertion that students would be &#8220;expected to be present during class time,&#8221; insisting to Young America&#8217;s Foundation that students would not be &#8220;penalized for not attending.&#8221;
&#8220;Attendance will not be taken for today’s class,&#8221; Jackson told YAF. &#8220;As a result, students not in attendance will not be penalized for not attending.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michael-knowles-men-are-not-women-speech-protested-by-ksu-progressives">The Daily Wire</a> reported earlier Monday, the protest of Knowles&#8217; speech was organized over the weekend by progressive student activist groups Kennesaw State United and Kennesaw Pride. Below is the full text of the announcement of the protest, some of the language of which Jackson heavily borrowed in her highly problematic email to her Gender Studies students:
<blockquote>Stand with the Transgender Community: Educating the Campus on Trans Issues &amp; Identities
KSU Young Americans for Freedom will be hosting a transphobic event this Monday, Oct 21 called “Men are not Women” with Michael Knowles, who has been known for his racist and transphobic comments. You may know him as the man who was recently banned from Fox News for calling Greta Thunberg a “mentally ill Swedish child”.
Our campus continues to be a hostile and dehumanizing environment for marginalized people, while the university protects hate and allows it to proliferate.
This event will be peaceful to ensure the safety of trans people on campus as historically KSU has not acted to protect marginalized people. The campus climate is very hostile and we don’t want to ignite more hate against the trans community. Please be mindful of the effects of your actions on the campus LGBTQ community.
We’ll be coming out to educate the campus on transgender issues and identities. We want to communicate to the campus and broader community that transgender people have advocates on campus who support them and their right to exist.
The event begins at 4:00pm on the Campus Green. We’ll be handing out information and speaking with passerbys about LGBTQ issues, addressing transphobic misconceptions, and educating people about the effects of hate speech on marginalized communities. People are welcome to bring blankets, snacks, Pride flags, signs, balls, bubbles, or any other material that contribute to our mission and makes the space more comfortable. NO AMPLIFIED SOUND (megaphones or speakers) or STAKES IN THE GROUND.
The demonstration will begin at 6pm and consists of a few speakers sharing their perspectives and experience. Again, signs and flags can be used. We’ll occupy the space without being too loud, rambunctious, or anything that will alert KSU police or dilute our positive message of education and goal of protecting the trans community from increased hate.
There is a possibility that transphobes, white supremacists, and others may approach. If approached, please minimize your interactions with them for your own safety and everybody else’s. If you’re comfortable, however, you may engage in productive conversation away from others as to not disrupt the positive space.
At 7pm, Young American for Freedom’s event will start. Although we have no plans to enter or disrupt the event, for those who decide on their own to enter the event, please be aware of the impact of your actions on the transgender community. Outbursts or combative behavior can be used against us by these groups to further marginalize trans people and incite transphobia.
For everyone involved in our efforts, please defer to KPA and KSUnited for guidance on conduct.
Please contact us if you have any questions.</blockquote>

Michael Knowles

Professor Tells Students They&#8217;re &#8216;Expected&#8217; To Join Her In Protesting Daily Wire&#8217;s Michael Knowles

LGBT

Progressivism

Singer Miley Cyrus stoked the ire of the LGBT community for seeming to suggest that homosexuality is a choice in a recent video telling women they &#8220;don&#8217;t have to be gay&#8221; so long as they find the right man.
Needless to say, Cyrus has had a tumultuous year. After divorcing actor Liam Hemsworth less than nine months into their marriage, she embarked on a sexual fling with Brody Jenner&#8217;s ex-wife, Kaitlynn Carter, before finally settling down with model and singer Cody Simpson. Speaking to her 100 million followers on Instagram as Cody Simpson laughed along on Sunday night, Cyrus told women to keep themselves open to good men.
“There are good men out there, guys, don’t give up. You don’t have to be gay, there are good people with dicks out there, you’ve just got to find them,” Cyrus said, as reported by <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/miley-cyrus-women-gay-right-man_n_5dadb4f2e4b0f34e3a7965ae">HuffPost</a>. “You’ve got to find a dick that’s not a dick, you know? I always thought I had to be gay because I thought all guys were evil, but it’s not true. There are good people out there that just happen to have dicks. I’ve only ever met one, and he’s on this live.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“Don’t give up, you don’t have to be gay, there are good dicks out there, you just have to find them”
“I always thought I had to be gay because all guys are evil but that’s not true”
&#8211; <a href="https://twitter.com/MileyCyrus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MileyCyrus</a> what&#39;s good? <a href="https://t.co/y3yjUGpCSN">pic.twitter.com/y3yjUGpCSN</a>
&mdash; • (@bljcmie) <a href="https://twitter.com/bljcmie/status/1186107023500275712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The video message did not go over well with Miley&#8217;s fans, who immediately roasted her on social media. It should be noted here, however, that Cyrus came out as &#8220;pansexual&#8221; in 2015, which means somebody who swings all ways.
&#8220;Miley, this is so not it. Women don’t &#8216;have to be gay&#8217; because they &#8216;can’t find a good person with a d*ck,'&#8221; tweeted Rosie Percy. &#8220;Don’t use the queer community as a stop-gap because you couldn’t find a boyfriend. People aren’t queer because they &#8216;gave up&#8217; on men. This is so insulting.&#8221;
&#8220;Damn. In 30 seconds [Miley Cyrus] managed to burn up all goodwill she&#8217;d ever built with queer and trans people. Not all &#8216;guys&#8217; have dicks, Miley. Thought you knew better,&#8221; tweeted one user. &#8220;You &#8216;had to be gay&#8217; because men are bad? Do you not realize what an anti-lesbian trope that is? Gross.&#8221;
After enough backlash, Miley Cyrus clarified in an Instagram post on Monday that she does not believe that people choose their sexuality.
“Let me be clear,” she wrote on Instagram Stories, “YOU don’t CHOOSE your sexuality. You are born as you are. It has always been my priority to protect the LGBTQ community I am a part of. Happy Monday!”
Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth&#8217;s divorce reached a fever pitch in August when allegations surfaced that she cheated on him. In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/miley-cyrus-says-she-never-cheated-liam-hemsworth-paul-bois">fiery post on Twitter</a>, she rejected that assertion.
“I can accept that the life I’ve chosen means I must live completely open and transparent with my fans who I love, and the public, 100% of the time. What I cannot accept is being told I’m lying to cover up a crime I haven’t committed. I have nothing to hide,” she said. “It is no secret that I was into partying in my teens and early 20’s. I have not only smoked, but advocated for weed, I’ve experimented with drugs, my biggest song to date is about dancing on molly and snorting lines in the bathroom.”

Glastonbury Festival 2019 &#8211; Day Five

WATCH: Miley Cyrus Tells Women ‘You Don’t Have To Be Gay’ After You Find A Good Man

Miley Cyrus

Bestselling author and Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles&#8217; scheduled speech at Kennesaw State University, titled simply &#8220;Men Are Not Women,&#8221; will be proceeded by protests organized by progressive student activists groups, who suggest that his &#8220;transphobic&#8221; speech will help contribute to the university&#8217;s already &#8220;hostile and dehumanizing environment for marginalized people.&#8221;
In a post shared on its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/446008019356876/permalink/446009872690024/">Facebook page</a>, Kennesaw State United announced Saturday that it was joining with fellow student activist group Kennesaw Pride to demonstrate Monday ahead of Knowles&#8217; Young Americans for Freedom-hosted speech, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Monday night.
&#8220;KSU Young Americans for Freedom will be hosting a transphobic event this Monday, Oct 21 called &#8216;Men are not Women&#8217; with Michael Knowles, who has been known for his racist and transphobic comments,&#8221; the announcement begins. &#8220;You may know him as the man who was recently banned from Fox News for calling Greta Thunberg a &#8216;mentally ill Swedish child&#8217;,&#8221; the group adds in reference to Knowles referencing Thunberg&#8217;s diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
&#8220;Our campus continues to be a hostile and dehumanizing environment for marginalized people, while the university protects hate and allows it to proliferate,&#8221; the groups declare.
The groups also take pains to present the demonstration as &#8220;peaceful&#8221; and only designed to &#8220;ensure the safety of trans people on campus as historically KSU has not acted to protect marginalized people.&#8221; But the announcement also suggests that the groups fear that some on their side will not eschew violence.
&#8220;The campus climate is very hostile and we don&#8217;t want to ignite more hate against the trans community. Please be mindful of the effects of your actions on the campus LGBTQ community,&#8221; the announcement stresses.
&#8220;We&#8217;ll occupy the space without being too loud, rambunctious, or anything that will alert KSU police or dilute our positive message of education and goal of protecting the trans community from increased hate,&#8221; the groups explain, before warning of the potential for run-ins with &#8220;transphobes&#8221; and &#8220;white supremacists.&#8221;
&#8220;There is a possibility that transphobes, white supremacists, and others may approach,&#8221; the announcement continues. &#8220;If approached, please minimize your interactions with them for your own safety and everybody else&#8217;s.&#8221;
Those who want to &#8220;engage in productive conversation&#8221; with people who disagree with them should do so &#8220;away from others as to not disrupt the positive space.&#8221;
&#8220;Although we have no plans to enter or disrupt the event, for those who decide on their own to enter the event, please be aware of the impact of your actions on the transgender community,&#8221; the groups warn. &#8220;Outbursts or combative behavior can be used against us by these groups to further marginalize trans people and incite transphobia.&#8221;
In response to the planned protest, Knowles told The Daily Wire that his speech &#8220;is probably the least objectionable speech I&#8217;ve ever written.&#8221; His remarks, he said, will cover &#8220;fake news and how all this nonsense—a la, &#8216;men can be women&#8217;—enters the public consciousness in the first place.&#8221;
Knowles has been the subject of campus protests several times now, including being targeted by the violence-embracing Antifa at a speech at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-knowles-fox-heres-big-takeaway-politicians-james-barrett">Knowles On Fox: Here’s The Big Takeaway From Politicians’ Ignoring Antifa Violence</a>
Below is the full text of the announcement of the demonstrations:
<blockquote>Stand with the Transgender Community: Educating the Campus on Trans Issues &amp; Identities
KSU Young Americans for Freedom will be hosting a transphobic event this Monday, Oct 21 called &#8220;Men are not Women&#8221; with Michael Knowles, who has been known for his racist and transphobic comments. You may know him as the man who was recently banned from Fox News for calling Greta Thunberg a &#8220;mentally ill Swedish child&#8221;.
Our campus continues to be a hostile and dehumanizing environment for marginalized people, while the university protects hate and allows it to proliferate.
This event will be peaceful to ensure the safety of trans people on campus as historically KSU has not acted to protect marginalized people. The campus climate is very hostile and we don&#8217;t want to ignite more hate against the trans community. Please be mindful of the effects of your actions on the campus LGBTQ community.
We&#8217;ll be coming out to educate the campus on transgender issues and identities. We want to communicate to the campus and broader community that transgender people have advocates on campus who support them and their right to exist.
The event begins at 4:00pm on the Campus Green. We&#8217;ll be handing out information and speaking with passerbys about LGBTQ issues, addressing transphobic misconceptions, and educating people about the effects of hate speech on marginalized communities. People are welcome to bring blankets, snacks, Pride flags, signs, balls, bubbles, or any other material that contribute to our mission and makes the space more comfortable. NO AMPLIFIED SOUND (megaphones or speakers) or STAKES IN THE GROUND.
The demonstration will begin at 6pm and consists of a few speakers sharing their perspectives and experience. Again, signs and flags can be used. We&#8217;ll occupy the space without being too loud, rambunctious, or anything that will alert KSU police or dilute our positive message of education and goal of protecting the trans community from increased hate.
There is a possibility that transphobes, white supremacists, and others may approach. If approached, please minimize your interactions with them for your own safety and everybody else&#8217;s. If you&#8217;re comfortable, however, you may engage in productive conversation away from others as to not disrupt the positive space.
At 7pm, Young American for Freedom&#8217;s event will start. Although we have no plans to enter or disrupt the event, for those who decide on their own to enter the event, please be aware of the impact of your actions on the transgender community. Outbursts or combative behavior can be used against us by these groups to further marginalize trans people and incite transphobia.
For everyone involved in our efforts, please defer to KPA and KSUnited for guidance on conduct.
Please contact us if you have any questions.</blockquote>

Michael Knowles’ ‘Men Are Not Women’ Speech Protested By KSU Progressives

Transgender

Just a little over a week after Chick-fil-A opened its first location in the United Kingdom, the restaurant will be closing because the shopping center will not extend the restaurant&#8217;s six-month lease in response to the protests of LGBTQ activists.
&#8220;Gay rights campaigners called for a boycott of Chick-fil-A, which opened its first branch at The Oracle shopping centre in Reading on 10 October,&#8221; reports the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-50094551">BBC</a>.
A spokesperson for The Oracle shopping center told the BBC that &#8220;the right thing to do&#8221; was to prevent the fast-food chain from doing business in response to the LGBTQ outcry.
&#8220;We always look to introduce new concepts for our customers, however, we have decided on this occasion that the right thing to do is to only allow Chick-Fil-A to trade with us for the initial six-month pilot period, and not to extend the lease any further,&#8221; said the spokesperson.
Reading Pride expressed delight over the &#8220;good news,&#8221; saying the six-month period was &#8220;reasonable request &#8230; to allow for re-settlement and notice for employees that have moved from other jobs.&#8221; Reading Pride did, however, promise to keep haranguing the restaurant with protests until it officially left the shopping center for good.
Chick-fil-A told the BBC that the organization has donated to Christian groups for youth and education, noting that they serve as home to a diverse number of employees. &#8220;There are 145,000 people – black, white; gay, straight; Christian, non-Christian – who represent Chick-fil-A,&#8221; said a spokesperson.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/18/chick-fil-as-first-uk-location-will-close-after-pressure-from-lgbtq-rights-group.html">CNBC</a>, a Chick-fil-A spokesperson said that the chicken empire will continue expansion into international markets.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A is always evaluating potential new locations in the hope of serving customers great food and award winning service. This six month pilot licensed location in Reading, UK is part of our exploration in international markets,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
The hate toward the chicken sandwich empire began in 2012, when company president Dan Cathy expressed support for traditional one-man/one-woman marriage, prompting boycotts across the country from LGBTQ activists.
“I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,&#8217;” Cathy <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/chick-fil-a-president-says-gods-judgment-coming-because-of-same-sex-marriage-78485/#SUuZKIURo5MhCW2p.99">said at the time</a>. “I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”
Just last year, two major publications wrote scathing articles begging people to boycott the business: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29418/new-yorker-columnist-chick-fil-evil-and-must-be-ben-shapiro">The New Yorker</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31789/huffpost-if-you-really-love-lgbtq-people-you-just-joseph-curl">HuffPost</a>. “If You Really Love LGBTQ People, You Just Can’t Keep Eating Chick-fil-A,” wrote Noah Michelson of HuffPost. When Chick-fil-A wanted to set up shop in New York City, Dan Piepenring of The New Yorker called it a “creepy infiltration” of the city. Following that, multiple universities and two city airports have banned Chick-fil-A from doing business.
Despite the efforts to harm the business, with college campuses and two city airports banning the chain from opening up shop, the chicken empire’s sales continue to climb and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chick-fil-sales-have-doubled-face-leftist-paul-bois">have only doubled</a> since the boycotts launched in 2012.
“Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis,” reported <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-s-sales-have-doubled-since-lgbt-boycott-began-in-2012.html">Christian Headlines</a> last month. “In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, <a href="https://www.wsbradio.com/business/chick-fil-keeps-growing-despite-uproar/9Qtv5hIeJUc59lFUfxZQ3L/">sales totaled</a> $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-with-a-mission-to-glorify-god-is-now-3rd-largest-restaurant-in-u-s.html">totaled</a> $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.”

&#8220;Chick-Fil-A Is Anti-Gay!&#8221; PETA And The LGBT Community Protest

Chick-Fil-A Closing First U.K. Location After Pressure From LGBTQ Activists

Chick-fil-A

United Kingdom

Actress Elizabeth Olsen, known for her role as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in &#8220;The Avengers&#8221; franchise, announced her excitement to see the superhero genre to become more inclusive regarding racial and sexual diversity.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/avengers-elizabeth-olsen-superheroes-hollywood">Fox News</a>, Olsen said that &#8220;now more than ever&#8221; is the time to see representation in the superhero genre.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s important to have all representations of superheroes on the big screen, now more than ever,&#8221; said Olsen. &#8220;I feel like we are moving and we are making changes. And &#8230; I&#8217;ve always just felt it&#8217;s hard for me to say I have been treated so and so way because I&#8217;m a female at work because &#8230; I&#8217;ve always had a lucky experience.&#8221;
Olsen added that people of color and sexual minorities have not had the same lucky experience as her, which makes sense when considering she is the younger sister of twin duo Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen – two of the biggest child stars of the 1990s.
&#8220;But I do believe that, that I know and I understand that that&#8217;s not the universal experience,&#8221; said Olsen. &#8220;I feel like it&#8217;s women, it&#8217;s women of color, it&#8217;s men of color. I feel like it&#8217;s representing different sexualities. I just feel like now people are listening, people are paying attention. So now it&#8217;s the opportunity.&#8221;
The Marvel universe has faced criticism recently for not including enough LGBTQ characters or superheroes, though producers Kevin Feige and Victoria Alonso <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-gay-character-in-avengers-endgame-was-not-supposed-1835665347?utm_source=io9_twitter&amp;utm_medium=socialflow&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">have promised</a> they will be arriving soon. The latest “Avengers” installment, however, did break new ground with the inclusion of Grieving Man (played by co-director Joe Russo), who was seen at the very beginning telling Steve Rogers about a man he was dating. However, LGBTQ activists took the character as Marvel’s cheap attempt at diversity.
“As disappointing as [previous] missed opportunities for queer representation were, none of them stung anywhere nearly as much as the Grieving Man’s introduction inadvertently does, because his presence comes across like an inconsequential afterthought, and it doesn’t help matters that the Russos and Marvel appear to be quite pleased with the creative decision,” wrote Charles Pullman at <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-gay-character-in-avengers-endgame-was-not-supposed-1835665347">Gizmodo</a>.
“Spider-Man” actor Tom Holland also recently told <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tom-holland-interview-robert-downey-jr-avengers-billy-elliot-spider-man-v8963l3kx?wgu=270525_54264_15620633691442_0df4b3c34c&amp;wgexpiry=1569839369&amp;utm_source=planit&amp;utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_content=22278&amp;wgu=270525_54264_15621805969014_d627b67eb5&amp;wgexpiry=1569956596&amp;utm_source=planit&amp;utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_content=22278" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:2;elm:context_link;itc:0">Britain’s Sunday Times</a> that he would be open to his character being openly gay in the future.
“I can’t talk about the future of the character because honestly I don’t know and it’s out of my hands,” Holland told the outlet. “But I do know a lot about the future of Marvel, and they are going to be representing lots of different people in the next few years.”
“The world isn’t as simple as a straight white guy,” he continued. “It doesn’t end there, and these films need to represent more than one type of person.”
Actress Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie in “Thor: Ragnarok” and &#8220;Avengers: Endgame,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tessa-thompson-valkyrie-could-be-marvels-first-paul-bois">said recently</a> that her character could become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first LGBTQ superhero.
“As new king [of Asgard], she needs to find her queen. That will be the first order of business,” said Thompson at Comic-Con.
In “Avengers: Endgame,” the character Thor declared Valkyrie the new queen of Asgard. Ever since her character appeared in “Ragnarok,” Thompson has pressed the point that Valkyrie’s sexuality swings both ways. In fact, the hit movie had a deleted LGBTQ scene in which Valkyrie was shown to be bisexual when a female lover leaves her bedroom. Thompson said the film’s director Taika Waititi wanted to keep the scene, but was forced to cut it.
“He kept it in the film as long as he could; eventually the bit had to be cut because it distracted from the scene’s vital exposition,” Thompson explained to <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/how-tessa-thompson-went-from-indie-actor-to-thor-ragnarok-badass-w510485" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:11;elm:context_link;itc:0">Rolling Stone</a>.

Celebrities Visit Build &#8211; October 8, 2019

‘Avengers’ Star Elizabeth Olsen: We Need ‘All Representation Of Superheroes’

Hollywood

Marvel

The new DC Universe television series &#8220;Batwoman,&#8221; which was hyped by DC and The CW as an overtly social justice-oriented series, finally aired two weeks ago amid much buzz. With two episodes released, reviews of the series reveal a dramatic gap between the response of critics and viewers. While the critics overall have given the series their official endorsement, viewers loathe it to a degree of unanimity rarely seen.
The new &#8220;Batwoman&#8221; series features a lesbian lead character who is &#8220;armed with a passion for social justice and flair for speaking her mind,&#8221; as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cw-launch-batwoman-tv-series-one-big-social-james-barrett">The Hollywood Reporter</a> described it when it was first announced last year:
<blockquote>Batwoman revolves around Kate Kane, who, armed with a passion for social justice and flair for speaking her mind, soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an out lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the failing city&#8217;s criminal resurgence. But don&#8217;t call her a hero yet: in a city desperate for a savior, Kate must overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham&#8217;s symbol of hope.</blockquote>
&#8220;Intersectional&#8221; controversy quickly arose when the identity of the actress who would play Kane/Batwoman was first announced last year.  Actress Ruby Rose, who generally presents herself as female but identifies as &#8220;gender fluid,&#8221; came under such severe backlash from angry left-wing critics for being &#8220;not gay enough&#8221; that she felt compelled to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ruby-rose-quits-twitter-after-leftist-critics-emily-zanotti">get off social media</a>.
Amid growing anticipation, &#8220;Batwoman&#8221; finally aired two weeks ago. With two episodes now released, review aggregating site <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/batwoman/s01">Rotten Tomatoes</a> gives the series a critics&#8217; score of 70%, meaning a strong majority of critics scored it positively. The site offers the following &#8220;Critics Consensus&#8221; summary that gives a nod to the series&#8217; identity politics focus:
<blockquote>Though it needs more time to develop its own identity to truly soar, Batwoman&#8216;s fun and stylish first season is a step in the right direction for representation and superhero shows alike.</blockquote>
While the show enjoys a healthy 70% critics score, with 40 reviewers having weighed in thus far, the audience score is a far different matter. With over 5,500 viewers having offered their opinions, &#8220;Batwoman&#8221; currently has a devastating 12% audience score — a 58% gap between how viewers and critics score the show.
<div id="attachment_56651" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-56651" class="size-medium wp-image-56651" src="https://editorial.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Batwoman-Tomatometer-300x172.png" alt="Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audience score for &quot;Batwoman.&quot;" width="300" height="172" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/Batwoman-Tomatometer-300x172.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/Batwoman-Tomatometer-768x439.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/Batwoman-Tomatometer.png 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Screenshot: Rotten Tomatoes</div>
So far, out of the 40 critics, 28 give the show a &#8220;fresh&#8221; rating while 12 give it a &#8220;rotten&#8221; score. Many of the critics endorsing the show tip their hand that its &#8220;representation&#8221;-focus has something to do with their positive view of it.
&#8220;Batwoman is shaping up to be the queer, boundary breaking superhero television deserves,&#8221; writes Refinery29&#8217;s Ariana Romero.
&#8220;The best part of the new series is that unfussy, effortless way of getting Kate&#8217;s sexual orientation out of the way, and also Kate herself,&#8221; says Newsday&#8217;s Verne Gay, who gives it a 2.5 out of 4 stars.
&#8220;Ruby Rose is very fun in this role. She&#8217;s cheeky and flirty and butchy and broody and punchy and I can&#8217;t wait to see what else she brings to one of my all-time favorite fictional lesbian characters,&#8221; writes Autostraddle&#8217;s Heather Hogan.
&#8220;Gritty and fiercely feminist, the series is very much an Arrowverse show that also stands as its own thing,&#8221; says TV Guide&#8217;s Keisha Hatchet, who gives it a 70 out of 100.
Among the complaints of those relatively few critics who give it the thumbs down is the show&#8217;s &#8220;lack of identity,&#8221; its &#8220;poorly conceived supporting cast,&#8221; and its habit of &#8220;trying too hard.&#8221;
&#8220;Thanks to a poorly conceived supporting cast and a serious lack of identity, the Batwoman pilot isn&#8217;t all that great, especially if you&#8217;re not a mega fan of the already existing Arrowverse franchise,&#8221; suggests ComicBook.com&#8217;s Charlie Ridgely, who gives it a 3 out of 5.
&#8220;Batwoman has a lot of potential but this pilot feels too torn. When the show is not trying too hard, it works decently. But, when it forces itself to deliver messages, it falls apart,&#8221; writes Jo Blo&#8217;s Movie Emporium&#8217;s Alex Maidy, who gives it a 6 out of 10.
While 70% of the critics liked it overall, only 12% of viewers who took to Rotten Tomatoes to offer their opinion say they did. Many of the over 5,000 audience reviewers score the series 1 or 0.5 out of 5 stars.
&#8220;Not good, trying way too hard,&#8221; writes one audience reviewer. &#8220;Very boring and preachy, could of been great but as is now its a HUGE fail,&#8221; writes another.
&#8220;Painfully cramped story and predictable characters &#8230; seems to fit a whole season&#8217;s worth of content in the first two episodes,&#8221; writes another viewer. &#8220;I definitely think they turned down the wokeness seen in the trailer, but either way, that is not what makes this series fail so far.&#8221;
&#8220;This could have been amazing. Such a disappointment,&#8221; writes another. &#8220;I paid nothing to see this commercial free and I feel ripped off,&#8221; says another viewer.
The huge disparity in the critics and audience score echoes what happened with the similarly social justice/feminist-themed comic book production, &#8220;Captain Marvel.&#8221; In fact, the terrible &#8220;want to see&#8221; score on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of the release of the film compelled the site to completely drop the score, only allowing viewers to post responses after the film/show is released.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/update-hows-captain-marvels-audience-score-rotten-james-barrett">How’s Captain Marvel’s Audience Score Since Rotten Tomatoes Purged ‘Troll’ Reviews?</a>
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Ruby Rose Batwoman

Woke ‘Batwoman’ Endorsed By Critics, Shredded By Audience

Feminism

Social Justice

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) scolded Democratic presidential candidate Beto O&#8217;Rourke on Wednesday for supporting a plan to strip religious institutions of their tax-exempt status if they do not officially recognize same-sex marriage.
&#8220;Last week, a former member of Congress didn&#8217;t blink an eye &#8212; a former member of Congress now running for President &#8212; didn&#8217;t blink an eye when he announced that he would strip religious institutions &#8212; colleges, churches, and other not-for-profit service organizations &#8212; he would strip them of their tax-exempt status if they don&#8217;t agree with his political positions,&#8221; Sasse said while speaking on the Senate floor. &#8220;That&#8217;s a pretty major departure from what America is and what we usually talk about in this body.&#8221;
&#8220;So, we should pause, and we should call that what it is. That is extreme intolerance, it is extreme bigotry, and it&#8217;s profoundly unAmerican,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The whole point of America is the First Amendment, and the whole point of the First Amendment is that no matter who you love, and no matter how you worship, we believe in America that everyone, everyone is created with dignity.&#8221;
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While Sasse refrained from directly naming the person he was referring to, O&#8217;Rourke notably received widespread backlash after he revealed during CNN’s LGBTQ town hall event earlier in October that he would penalize religious institutions that adhere to their own religious texts by denying them tax exemptions under federal law.
&#8220;There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America, that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke said at the time. &#8220;So as president, we&#8217;re going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.&#8221;
Following the town hall, the Nebraska lawmaker swiftly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bigoted-nonsense-sen-ben-sasse-condemns-betos-call-to-strip-churches-of-tax-exempt-status-for-opposing-same-sex-marriage">issued a statement</a> condemning the &#8220;bigoted nonsense,&#8221; and called on leaders from both parties to do the same. Sasse took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to <a href="https://www.sasse.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/d99566cc-0d90-4356-af2d-db257f298cd6/religiouslibertyresolution.pdf">introduce a resolution</a> in response to O&#8217;Rourke, which would put every member of Congress on record on whether or not they &#8220;affirm the First Amendment and, in particular, the free exercise of religion and the free assembly clauses.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a fundamental American tenet. It&#8217;s why this country was founded. And because we are all created with dignity, none of us have the right to dictate the conscience commitments of other people,&#8221; Sasse said. &#8220;The freedom of the conscience is a fundamental American belief and thankfully politicians have no business policing that.&#8221;
&#8220;At the end of the day, there are really just two kinds of societies: there are societies that are about force and power, and there are societies that are about persuasion, about assembly, and about love,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;For more than 230 years, we&#8217;ve decided in this country that we&#8217;re the latter. We&#8217;re a community of persuasion, not primarily a community of power and force. In America we don&#8217;t think the center of life is defined by government. We think the frame of life is defined by government.&#8221;
Sasse further explained that the First Amendment of the Constitution consists of five entwined freedoms &#8212; religion, speech, press, assembly, and protest &#8212; which serve as the foundation of America.
&#8220;The five freedoms are interconnected, interdependent, and all in that same amendment &#8212; the First Amendment &#8212; for a reason,&#8221; Sasse said. &#8220;These are the rights of conscience that belong together, and they cannot be taken or policed by government.&#8221;
&#8220;So that means that if a Texas politician pandering for a sound bite decides to make a bold-faced threat against Muslims, Jews, and Christians, all Americans from every faith and every walk of life, we have an obligation to come together and to defend our freedoms,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So we should do that.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t care what some nitwit said on CNN last week to satisfy his fringy base and try to get a sound bite in a presidential debate,&#8221; Sasse added. &#8220;The American people ought to know that this body stands for the historic First Amendment. That&#8217;s what we all took an oath to uphold and to defend, and that&#8217;s what we ought to vote to affirm again.&#8221;

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford And Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Testify To Senate Judiciary Committee

WATCH: Ben Sasse Slams &#8216;Nitwit&#8217; Beto O&#8217;Rourke For Targeting Religious Institutions: &#8216;Extreme Bigotry&#8217;

Ben Sasse

Beto O'Rourke

First Amendment

Free Speech

Twitter informs me that today, October 16, is a Holy Day of Observation known as Pronouns Day. Following the sacred traditions of our ancestors, Pronouns Day provides the LGBT crew with yet another opportunity to lecture the world about how we are all supposed to think, speak, and behave. That is a very good thing because they did not get enough of a chance on International Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31), Lesbian Visibility Day (April 26), International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (May 17), Harvey Milk Day (May 22), Pansexual and Panromantic Visibility Day (May 24), Pride Month (June), Bisexuality Day (September 23), Bisexual Awareness Week (September 23 – September 30), National Coming Out Day (October 11), National LGBT Center Awareness Day (October 19), Spirit Day (October 20), Intersex Awareness Day (October 26), Asexual Awareness Week (October 23 – 29), Transgender Day Of Remembrance (November 20), Pansexual/Panromantic Pride Day (December 8), and Transgender Trisexual Tricyclists on Trampolines Awareness Day (December 19). I only made one of those up. The point is, LGBT folks apparently need a lot of days dedicated to themselves, and that is where Pronouns Day comes in.
At first blush, it may seem odd to have a day set aside for a grammatical construct. Why not a Verb Day or an Adjective Day or a Preposition Day? Well, I’m sure we’re headed in that direction, as the English language becomes more and more subjectivized and people are increasingly encouraged to make up their own grammatical rules as they go. Besides, it might take a whole day to learn all of the wacky and wild <a href="https://uwm.edu/lgbtrc/support/gender-pronouns/">new pronouns that have been invented</a> out of whole cloth in recent years. The ever-growing list includes such gobbledygook as “ze,” “hir,” “xemself,” “ver,” “xyrs,” “perself,” “(f)aerself,” “xem,” “xex,” and “zelfself.” I made two of those up but you can’t tell which ones, and that’s the point. None of these are words. They are just random letters and sounds blended into a linguistic frappe. We now live in a culture where a sentence like the following is supposed to mean something: “Ve went to the store with per and met xem and ze got into xyr car and drove home.” You have no idea what I was just conveying there, and neither do I. Mainly because I was speaking gibberish.
This is the problem with the whole idea of people claiming their own pronouns. A pronoun, again, is a grammatical construct. It must be deployed according to the laws of grammar, not the fickle whims of the individual to whom it refers. If I am standing on a table, and you want to communicate to someone else about the fact that I am standing on the table, you will say “he is standing on the table.” It would be grammatically incorrect to say “she is standing on the table,” as “she” denotes a human female, which I am not. It would also be incorrect to say “they are standing on the table,” as that indicates more than one person on the table, which there is not. And it would be incorrect to say “xe is standing on the table,” as that suggests that there is some sort of space alien on the table, which there is not.
In a similar way, if I am standing on a table and I insist that my preferred preposition is “off,” it would make no sense for you to respect my preferences and tell everyone that I am standing off the table. I may prefer the word off — whatever it means to prefer a certain word to another — but that doesn’t change the objective fact that I am indeed on the table. Prepositions, nouns, verbs, and pronouns are meant to convey objective facts about reality. If they are not going to perform that function, then they no longer perform any function at all. And meaningful, useful words have been reduced to impotent nonsense.
But shouldn’t we just be polite and call people by their preferred pronouns, anyway?
Answer: No. And here’s why.
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First, you don’t generally call someone a pronoun when you’re speaking to them. If you want to address a person directly, you use his or her name. And a name can be whatever you want it to be. If a woman says her name is Fred, or a man says his name is Sally, I will call her Fred and him Sally. Names are, by definition, personal and basically arbitrary. Pronouns are more objective and also, generally, more distant. You are usually called by a pronoun when you are not physically present for the discussion. So when someone insists on a preferred pronoun, he/she is trying to prevent you from using proper grammar even when he/she is not in the room with you. He/she is essentially saying, “Whenever you refer to me, even if I am 10 thousand miles away, you must abandon the rules of grammar and parrot whatever nonsense I assign to you.” That’s not only absurd — it’s also arrogant in the extreme.
Second, using an incorrect pronoun (incorrect as in a pronoun that does not properly convey objective reality) is not only nonsensical but also dishonest. If I say “she did this and that” when I really mean “he did this and that,” I am lying. I may be lying with the best intentions, but a lie is a lie.
But doesn’t grammar and language evolve over time?
Yes, it does. However, language evolves according to coherent rules and standards. That’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about people making up their own rules individually, which isn’t evolution, but devolution and collapse. Language is being destroyed, not simply changed or modified, by LGBT activists.
Besides, we aren’t talking merely about changes in language. If we all decide to start using the word “xem” instead of “him,” fine. It seems a little weird and Dr. Seuss-y to me, but there is no reason why the word “him” has to always be “him.” Different languages have their own words for “him.” And sometimes those words change. That’s okay. But the LGBT lobby isn’t asking us to exchange one word for another. Rather, the lobby is asking (demanding) that we pretend to believe in entire new categories of human existence.
“Xem” isn’t a new word for “him.” “Xem” is supposed to be a completely separate sort of person — neither a her nor a him. But nobody can even begin to explain what a “xem” is, exactly, and how it differs from her or him. They only say “some people identify as xem.” But identify as what? What is that? What does it mean to identify as that? Tell me about the experience of discovering that you are a xem. What does a xem do differently? What are the biological markers of a xem? And how does a xem differ from a xyr or a zer or a vim or a dabbadabbadoodlefim? It is one thing for me to suggest that we start calling elephants “shmelephants” from now on. It is another thing for me to insist that there are separate creatures called “shmelephants” who are entirely distinct from elephants. We have moved now from language to biology, and I am going to have to provide some kind of proof that these mythical shmelephants exist and are indeed different from elephants.
Nobody can provide any proof for any of these claims or any coherent answers to any of the questions I have posed. We are supposed to just accept their assertions, however incoherent, and timidly cooperate as they mutilate our language and make nonsense out of everything. But I am not willing to provide my cooperation. And I make no apologies for that.

Rainbow Pride Flag

WALSH: You Get Your Own Name. It Can Be Whatever You Want. But You Don’t Get Your Own Pronouns.

Homosexuality

Sexuality

On Tuesday’s episode of “The Michael Knowles Show,” Knowles talks about how Beto O’Rourke is actually brutally honest about the Left’s political endgame. Video and partial transcript: 
The most honest person in politics right now, I think, is Beto O&#8217;Rourke. Certainly, nobody in the news — it&#8217;s not a newsperson, it&#8217;s not a Hollywood celebrity, it&#8217;s not a real politician. It&#8217;s an out-of-work politician named Beto O&#8217;Rourke, [who is] saying a lot of stupid things. He&#8217;s making a lot of untrue statements, but he&#8217;s honest because he is actually showing the logical conclusions of leftist policies. 
So [Beto] was called out, he raised some firestorm, because he was too honest during the LGBTQ town hall on CNN. During that town hall, he was asked, &#8220;Would you take away tax exempt status from churches that don&#8217;t go along with leftist ideology?&#8221; And he said, &#8220;Yeah absolutely.&#8221;
If you don&#8217;t go along with leftist ideology and whatever the new definition of marriage is today, and whatever the new version of gender ideology is today, then we&#8217;re going to take away your tax exemption. We&#8217;re gonna try to bankrupt you and we’ll make you face consequences. So this caught flak not because people disagreed with him. I mean, most of the candidates at that CNN debate agreed with the statement. It&#8217;s because he put it too honestly, put it too bluntly. It was in too stark terms.
So Beto O’Rourke was asked about this on MSNBC [and they’re] basically saying, &#8220;Beto, Beto cut it out man! Don&#8217;t tell them what we&#8217;re really up to!&#8221; And Beto, to his credit, doubles down. 
<blockquote>O’ROURKE: To be clear, you are free to believe anything that you want to in this country, to associate with whom you please, to practice your faith as you best see fit. But you are not allowed to discriminate against people in this country — to violate their civil rights or their human rights. </blockquote>
I love the &#8220;but.&#8221; Look you&#8217;re allowed to practice your religion, but — and it’s that &#8220;but&#8221; that makes him a butthead — you&#8217;re not really allowed to. You&#8217;re not allowed to discriminate. What does that word mean in the context of religion? You&#8217;re not allowed to discriminate? I mean, ideas discriminate. If you hold one idea, you are necessarily discriminating against other ideas. If you believe in one God, you are discriminating against other gods. 
Let’s say you go to church, and you don&#8217;t worship Allah, and you don&#8217;t invite people in who worship Allah — because you&#8217;re a Methodist, so you worship the Methodist conception of God. I guess that&#8217;s discrimination. Are you going to be shut down? 
Let&#8217;s use the gender or the sex example. In the Catholic Church, there are priests. There have always been priests, there have never been priestesses. Women can&#8217;t be priests. They can be nuns, they can do a lot of things. They can&#8217;t be priests. Well, that&#8217;s discrimination. 
So is Beto O’Rourke going to shut down the Catholic Church? Yeah, it sounds like he would. He would try to. I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;d win. Catholic churches have endured a little bit longer than could be taken down by a one-term congressman, or more than one-term congressman — but now an ex-congressman. I think the Church will probably win out. 
Some people are calling on Beto O’Rourke to change his tune. I don&#8217;t want him to change his tune. I&#8217;m glad he&#8217;s telling us what he really thinks, he&#8217;s telling us what the Left really thinks. He&#8217;s telling us what the Left thinks not just about this issue of gender ideology, he&#8217;s telling us what they think about religion. 
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-knowles-show/id1266577963?mt=2">Listen to full episodes of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on iTunes.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show">Watch &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on-demand!</a>

Beto O&#8217;Rourke

KNOWLES: Beto O’Rourke May Be The Most Honest Person In Politics

Catholic Church

Christianity

Religion

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The tragic suicide of transgender comedian Daphne Dorman has been linked in a misleading way by some in the media to comedian Dave Chappelle and his “transphobic” standup.
Dorman, a transgender comedian and activist, posted a goodbye note to Facebook on Friday before committing suicide. Dorman was friendly with Chappelle, who mentioned their friendship in a “hidden extra” from his latest standup special “Sticks &amp; Stones.” 
Some in the media, however, reported on the tragedy by deceptively tying Chappelle to Dorman’s death. The smear began with a misleading headline from <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-daphne-dorman-dave-chappelle-suicide-transphobic-netflix-special-20191012-kbwfswhydjgalp4mro2hcmvpxm-story.html">The New York Daily News</a>: “Transgender actress, activist and comedienne Daphne Dorman, referenced in Dave Chappelle’s ‘transphobic’ Netflix special, commits suicide.”
“Dorman was at the center of controversy recently after she was referenced by Dave Chappelle in a stand-up special that some people called transphobic,” the piece said. “Dorman, however, ‘was laughing the hardest’ at the trans jokes in his practice set, the comedian said.”
The NY Daily News continued, notably mentioning Chappelle&#8217;s alleged &#8220;transphobic&#8221; set: 
<blockquote>Dorman was cited by Dave Chappelle in his special “Sticks and Stones.”
The Netflix show, which premiered on Aug. 26, was slammed as <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomiobaro/dave-chappelle-transphobic-netflix-special-sticks-and-stones">offensive</a> by many critics for the comedian’s “<a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59ngpb/you-can-definitely-skip-dave-chappelles-new-netflix-special-sticks-and-stones">obsession</a> with making fun of trans people.”
Its humor, however, was praised by some conservative outlets, such as Breitbart and The Federalist.</blockquote>
The post was quickly shared online by fellow journalists. 
<a href="https://www.phillymag.com/author/ernest-owens/">Ernest Owens</a>, writer at large for Philadelphia Magazine, was explicit in contributing blame to Chappelle for Dorman’s suicide. “‘It’s just jokes,’ they said. Dave Chappelle made a ‘joke’ about a transgender actress, activist, and comedian named Daphne Dorman in his Netflix special,” Owens wrote. “She recently died to suicide. Trans people are not a joke. Enough is enough.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;It&#39;s just jokes,&quot; they said.
Dave Chappelle made a &quot;joke&quot; about a transgender actress, activist, and comedian named Daphne Dorman in his Netflix special.
She recently died to suicide.
Trans people are not a joke.
Enough is enough. <a href="https://t.co/B1mAZdSgjR">https://t.co/B1mAZdSgjR</a>
&mdash; Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrErnestOwens/status/1183423251814506496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Journalist Nicki Mayo also shared the NYDN piece, merely posting the headline, “Transgender actress, activist and comedienne Daphne Dorman, referenced in Dave Chappelle’s ‘transphobic’ Netflix special, commits suicide.”
The tweet blew up, receiving over 1,200 retweets and thousands of likes by Sunday night. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Transgender actress, activist and comedienne Daphne Dorman, referenced in Dave Chappelle’s ‘transphobic’ Netflix special, commits suicide <a href="https://t.co/GjyoAXVzSq">https://t.co/GjyoAXVzSq</a>
&mdash; Nicki Mayo (@nickimayonews) <a href="https://twitter.com/nickimayonews/status/1183148644360437760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Over an hour later, and after numerous commenters criticized the “misleading headline,” Mayo added the following tweet: “In the ‘hidden extra’ of the special, Chappelle told a story about sparking an unlikely friendship with a trans woman … Dorman confirmed on social media the same day that she was the trans woman Chappelle was referring to.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In the “hidden extra” of the special, Chappelle told a story about sparking an unlikely friendship with a trans woman &#8230;
Dorman confirmed on social media the same day that she was the trans woman Chappelle was referring to.<a href="https://t.co/Sto35Iafeu">https://t.co/Sto35Iafeu</a>
&mdash; Nicki Mayo (@nickimayonews) <a href="https://twitter.com/nickimayonews/status/1183165559283863552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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As <a href="https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1183440676404580359">highlighted</a> by popular YouTuber June Lapine, a.k.a. Shoe, Dorman had repeatedly praised Chappelle online. 
“Yep, I&#8217;m the Daphne that Dave Chappelle is talking about in Sticks and Stones,” Dorman’s Twitter bio reads, with an added angel emoji. 
“Punching down requires you to consider yourself superior to another group. [Dave Chappelle] doesn&#8217;t consider himself better than me in any way. He isn&#8217;t punching up or punching down. He&#8217;s punching lines. That&#8217;s his job and he&#8217;s a master of his craft. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SticksAndStones?src=hashtag_click">#SticksAndStones</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/imthatdaphne?src=hashtag_click">#imthatdaphne</a>,&#8221; Dorman posted to Twitter on August 29. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Punching down requires you to consider yourself superior to another group. <a href="https://twitter.com/DaveChappelle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DaveChappelle</a> doesn&#39;t consider himself better than me in any way. He isn&#39;t punching up or punching down. He&#39;s punching lines. That&#39;s his job and he&#39;s a master of his craft. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SticksAndStones?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SticksAndStones</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/imthatdaphne?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#imthatdaphne</a>
&mdash; Daphne Dorman (@DaphneDorman) <a href="https://twitter.com/DaphneDorman/status/1166937728681791488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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In another August tweet, replying to conservative outlet Town Hall’s piece on “Sticks &amp; Stones” “triggering” liberals, Dorman <a href="https://twitter.com/DaphneDorman/status/1166656181726658561">posted</a>, “Nah, I&#8217;m a liberal and I thought it rocked. I&#8217;m literally the Daphne he talks about meeting in the Epilogue.”
Dorman, who leaves behind a young daughter, posted the following note to Facebook on Friday, hours before news of the suicide broke:
<blockquote>I&#8217;m sorry.
I&#8217;ve thought about this a lot before this morning. How do you say &#8220;goodbye&#8221; and &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry&#8221; and &#8220;I love you&#8221; to all the beautiful souls you know? For the last time.
There&#8217;s no good way. That&#8217;s what I got out of all that thought.
To those of you who are mad at me: please forgive me. To those of you who wonder if you failed me: you didn&#8217;t. To those of you feel like I failed you: I did and I&#8217;m sorry and I hope you&#8217;ll remember me in better times and better light.
I love you all. I&#8217;m sorry. Please help my daughter, Naia, understand that none of this is her fault. Please remind her that I loved her with every fiber of my being.</blockquote>
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I&#039;m sorry.I&#039;ve thought about this a lot before this morning. How do you say &quot;goodbye&quot; and &quot;I&#039;m sorry&quot; and &quot;I love you&quot;&#8230;
Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DaphneAlexandraDorman">Daphne Dorman</a> on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/DaphneAlexandraDorman/posts/10156751918998473">Friday, October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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H/t <a href="https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1183433937655386119">June Lapine</a>

Dave Chappelle

SMEAR: Media Link Dave Chappelle To Trans Comedian&#8217;s Suicide

On Thursday, CNN hosted an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/at-cnn-lbgtq-event-elizabeth-warren-contemptuously-dismisses-men-of-faith">LGBTQ town hall</a> event for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. During Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) segment, she was asked a question about traditional marriage between a man and a woman.
&#8220;Let’s say you’re on the campaign trail &#8230; and a supporter approaches you and says, ‘Senator, I’m old-fashioned, and my faith teaches me that marriage is between one man and one woman.’ What is your response?&#8221; asked Chair of the Human Rights Campaign’s Board of Directors Morgan Cox.
Warren replied:
<blockquote>Well, I’m going to assume it’s a guy who said that, and I’m gonna say, &#8220;Then just marry one woman.&#8221; I’m cool with that &#8230; assuming you can find one.</blockquote>
The audience cheered and applauded Warren’s &#8220;mic drop&#8221; moment.
After answering the question about traditional marriage, the senator spoke about faith as she perceived it when she was a young person, adding that the alleged &#8220;hatefulness&#8221; from the faithful &#8220;always really shocked&#8221; her:
<blockquote>The hatefulness, frankly, always really shocked me. Especially for people of faith because I think the foundation is the worth of every single human being. And I get people may make decisions for themselves that are different than the decisions other people make, but by golly, those are decisions about you; they are not decisions that tell other people what they can and cannot do.</blockquote>
On Saturday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) tweeted a response to Warren’s town hall comments:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Vividly captures the condescension of elites &amp; their incessant ridicule of Americans with traditional values. It elicits glee among celebrities &amp; blue check brigade. But for the millions sick of being disrespected it elicits support for fighting back, even in a crude or vulgar way. <a href="https://t.co/uJgfyxMpUQ">https://t.co/uJgfyxMpUQ</a>
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1183069482522152960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>Vividly captures the condescension of elites &amp; their incessant ridicule of Americans with traditional values. It elicits glee among celebrities &amp; blue check brigade. But for the millions sick of being disrespected, it elicits support for fighting back, even in a crude or vulgar way.</blockquote>
Despite the tweet receiving more than 8,200 &#8220;likes&#8221; and being retweeted nearly 2,300 times as of publication, it was brutally ratioed (23,000 comments and counting). Rubio got dragged in the comments, with many users claiming &#8220;bigotry&#8221; and &#8220;hatred,&#8221; as well as bringing up President Trump’s indecent history and behavior.
Bobby Berk of Netflix’s &#8220;Queer Eye&#8221; even commented, comparing Rubio to the &#8220;Pharisees&#8221;:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">
Ur such a hypocrite! Using the word “values” when it suits u. 
Jesus would drive you out of the temple just like he did the pharisees. Stop using his name 2 try 2 take rights away from people. That is NOT what Jesus would do &amp; u know it. U just need <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Trumpers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Trumpers</a> to get re-elected <a href="https://t.co/8DHusn7O1T">pic.twitter.com/8DHusn7O1T</a>
— Bobby Berk (@bobbyberk) <a href="https://twitter.com/bobbyberk/status/1183432928077836293?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>Ur such a hypocrite! Using the word “values” when it suits u. Jesus would drive you out of the temple just like he did the pharisees. Stop using his name 2 try 2 take rights away from people. That is NOT what Jesus would do &amp; u know it. U just need <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/Trumpers?src=hashtag_click">#Trumpers</a> to get re-elected.</blockquote>
Writer Kimberly Johnson tweeted, &#8220;Not surprising the fake Christian would consider tolerance ‘crude and vulgar.’”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">
Not surprising the fake Christian would consider tolerance “crude and vulgar.”
— Kimberley Johnson (@AuthorKimberley) <a href="https://twitter.com/AuthorKimberley/status/1183221802044219393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
Over the last two decades, the percentage of the population in favor of same-sex marriage has grown dramatically.
According to <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/">Pew Research</a>, the percentage of self-identified Republicans, as well as those who &#8220;lean&#8221; Republican, who support same-sex marriage has risen from 23% in 2001 to 44% in 2019.
Even among ostensibly religious people, the percentages have risen.
In 2001, approximately 13% of &#8220;white evangelical Protestants&#8221; supported same-sex marriage. By 2019, that support more than doubled to 29%. In that same period of time, support among &#8220;white mainline Protestants&#8221; went from 38% to 66%. Catholics mirror this rise, with 40% support in 2001 compared to 61% support in 2019.
Among the general American public, support has risen from 35% in 2001 to 61% in 2019, reports Pew.

Marco Rubio.

Rubio Gets Dragged After Calling Out Elizabeth Warren’s LGBTQ Town Hall Remark

Elizabeth Warren

Gay Rights

Marco Rubio

Same-Sex Marriage

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As I’ve already covered, the LGBT town hall hosted by CNN was a debacle for the Democrats. Their extremism, moral derangement, and disregard for liberty and basic human decency were put on display for all to see. Democratic presidential hopefuls applauded child abuse, announced plans to violate the First Amendment, and called for tax payer funding of genital mutilation procedures, among other things. Of course the moderators were only there to prop up and support the candidates. At no point was any candidate asked anything approaching a tough or penetrating question. Indeed, even when Beto O’Rourke called for the revocation of tax exempt status of churches that support biblical marriage, the moderator didn’t think to ask whether mosques should be punished as well.
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But in an alternative universe where the media displays an interest in scrutinizing Democrats with even a fraction of the zeal and intensity with which Republicans are scrutinized, here are two very basic questions, relevant to last night’s town hall, that would surely be asked of every candidate:
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1) If you now believe that sex is not determined by biology, when did you come to that conclusion? What made you change your mind? Was there any scientific discovery or breakthrough that caused you to believe that men can have vaginas? If not, how did you arrive at your current position?
2) Please define the words “woman” and “man.”
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<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Every prominent Democrat in the country has adopted the belief — or pretended to adopt the belief — that sex exists on some sort of spectrum. They believe — or pretend to believe — that men can get pregnant, and women can have penises, and a little boy might discover through some mystical revelation that he has a little girl trapped inside his boyish shell. None of these people ever hinted at harboring such notions until very recently. In fact, for their whole careers, they have spoken of “women’s issues,” making it very clear that a subject like abortion is exclusively a concern of women. But if men can get pregnant, then the whole category of “women’s issues” is meaningless. There are no women’s issues or men’s issues because there is no definable difference between those two groups. That is the position now taken by every Democratic candidate. Why? What changed? These are questions an honest media would ask.</div>
<div dir="ltr"></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Then, once they have explained such a drastic change in thinking, they should be made to answer the second question. Okay, you don’t think the terms “woman” and “man” can be defined biologically. How, then, can they be defined? What is a woman? What is a man? What do you mean when you use these words? You do still use them, after all. You must have some meaning in mind. Explain your meaning. You insist that a man who identifies as a woman is a woman. Fine. What does that mean? He is &#8230; what? A woman, yes, but what is that? It’s not a human female, apparently, so then what is it? This seems like not only a fair but utterly necessary question if we will have any hope of understanding each other. I honestly don’t know what the Left means when they talk about women anymore. I have been waiting for one of them to offer some kind of definition, and so far, none have been able to do so. Maybe this illustrious group of candidates is up to the challenge.</div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Again, all I want to know is when and why these Democrats decided that a woman isn’t a human female. And, as a follow up, what they think a woman is, if not a human female. I don’t think that question is too much to ask. If only we had a real news media to ask it.</div>

Dem candidates.

WALSH: The Two Very Basic Questions Every Democrat Should Be Asked, But Won’t Be

2020 Election

Media Bias

Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro’s passionate defense of religious freedom during his podcast Friday has gone viral after Media Matters and other left-wing critics framed the comments as Shapiro threatening violence in response to a Democratic presidential candidate’s call to strip schools and churches of their tax-exempt status if they &#8220;oppose same-sex marriage.&#8221;
During a CNN-hosted town hall on LGBTQ rights on Thursday, Beto O’Rourke defended his campaign platform mandating the loss of tax exemption for entities that oppose gay marriage. “Freedom of religion is a fundamental right,” O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s LGBTQ plan reads, “but it should not be used to discriminate.”
“Do you think religious institutions — like colleges, churches, charities — should they lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?” asked moderator Don Lemon.
“Yes,” said O’Rourke, a response met with raucous applause and cheers from the Democratic crowd. “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us. And so, as president, we are going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Beto O’Rourke on religious institutions losing tax-exempt status for opposing same-sex marriage: &#8220;There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone &#8230; that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EqualityTownHall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EqualityTownHall</a> <a href="https://t.co/tjwVGqv5h0">pic.twitter.com/tjwVGqv5h0</a>
— CNN (@CNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1182484830044467200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
Shapiro responded on his podcast Friday by saying O’Rourke’s call for federally imposing a policy that infringes on people’s deeply held religious beliefs runs exactly counter to “the fundamental rights that the Constitution was created in order to protect.”
Shapiro asserted that if O’Rourke’s plan to impose such “indoctrination” is taken to the extreme — stripping parents of their rights to choose where their children attend school or church — it would make this country “come apart at the seams,” forcing people to either leave or “pick up a gun” to keep the government from taking their kids.
“Your mere existence is an infringement, according to Beto O’Rourke,” Shapiro said, referencing people of faith whose religious beliefs do not accept same-sex marriage. “The institutional existence is an infringement on liberty, according to Beto O’Rourke, and you must be shut down. You want a culture war in this country? You damn well have it, Beto O’Rourke. You want a culture war in this country? You want this country to come apart at the seams? This is how you do it.”
“Because, I promise you, if you come to tell me that you’re going to indoctrinate my kids into a particular policy and that I can’t pull my kid out of the school and send my kid to a school I want to send them to — that I can’t go to the church or synagogue that I want to go to. And if you make that national policy — not just California policy, where I can move, but national policy,” said Shapiro. “People are not going to stand for that. They’re not going to stand for that. And if you send a truant officer to remove my child, I have two choices at that point, right? If I have no place to move because you have now made this national, federal policy, I now have two choices: One is to leave the country utterly. Two is to pick up a gun. Those are the only choices you have left me.”
“And now people on the Left [will say] how can you say stuff like that? How you can be so extreme?” Shapiro continued. “It’s not extreme to defend the fundamental rights that the Constitution was created in order to protect. These rights pre-exist government. My right to raise my child in my faith is my right. That is a First Amendment right. There is only one reason the government exists: to protect those rights, not to invade those rights. It is my right to raise my child with the moral precepts that I find to be beneficial for my child. Beto O’Rourke does not to get to raise my child — and if he tries, I will meet him at the door with my gun. That is insane.”
In a tweet that has since made the rounds online, Media Matters’ researcher Jason Campbell posted a video clip of Shapiro’s comments, writing, “Ben Shapiro warns that if politicians try to mandate LGBTQ &#8216;indoctrination&#8217; at all schools, then he will ‘pick up a gun.’ Further adding ‘Beto O&#8217;Rourke does not get to raise my child. And if he tries, I will meet him at the door with a gun.’”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Ben Shapiro warns that if politicians try to mandate LGBTQ &#8216;indoctrination&#8217; at all schools, then he will &#8220;pick up a gun.&#8221; Further adding &#8220;Beto O&#8217;Rourke does not get to raise my child. And if he tries, I will meet him at the door with a gun&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/Hq7SyF7FeI">pic.twitter.com/Hq7SyF7FeI</a>
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1182694698659569664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
Others on the Left have taken Media Matters post and portrayed the comments in even more extreme and disingenuous ways, suggesting that Shapiro was calling for violence.
Amid the left-wing hysteria, conservatives have noted that all Shapiro said was what Americans have been saying since its founding.
“Yes. It is very normal in Amearica to say you will defend your most fundamental freedom – religious freedom – with force if required,” tweeted Shapiro’s “Backstage” co-host Jeremy Boreing. “Every generation of Americans from the founding to today has said the same.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Yes. It is very normal in America to say you will defend your most fundamental freedom &#8211; religious freedom &#8211; with force if required. Every generation of Americans from the founding to today has said the same. <a href="https://t.co/xxp2wk2smw">https://t.co/xxp2wk2smw</a>
— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyDBoreing/status/1182741289260814337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bigoted-nonsense-sen-ben-sasse-condemns-betos-call-to-strip-churches-of-tax-exempt-status-for-opposing-same-sex-marriage">‘Bigoted Nonsense’: Sen. Ben Sasse Condemns Beto’s Call To Strip Churches Of Tax Exempt Status For Opposing Same-Sex Marriage</a>

Ben Shapiro

WATCH: Ben Shapiro Defends Religious Freedom; Media Matters, Leftists Lose It

Constitution

During the CNN LGBTQ town hall on Thursday night, 2020 presidential hopeful Beto O&#8217;Rourke openly stated that he would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dys-beto-orourkes-liberty-is-no-liberty-at-all">seek to strip religious institutions</a> of their tax-exempt statuses if they opposed same-sex marriage. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) immediately denounced this policy as &#8220;bigoted nonsense.&#8221;
&#8220;This bigoted nonsense would target a lot of sincere Christians, Jews, and Muslims,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/sasse-condemns-beto-orourkes-bigoted-call-to-strip-churches-of-tax-exempt-status/">wrote Sasse in a statement</a> released Friday. &#8220;Leaders from both parties have a duty to flatly condemn this attack on very basic American freedoms. This extreme intolerance is un-American. The whole point of the First Amendment is that … everyone is created with dignity and we don’t use government power to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate and which aren’t.&#8221;
During the CNN town hall on Thursday night, O&#8217;Rourke not only stated that he would support stripping churches of tax-exempt status — he also earned a round of applause and cheers from the audience for saying so.
&#8220;There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break, for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,&#8221; O’Rourke said. &#8220;And so, as president, we’re going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.&#8221;
Writing for <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/871115/why-beto-orourkes-gay-marriage-idea-collapses-under-scrutiny">The Week</a>, Bonnie Kristian said O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s proposed policy is simply a &#8220;bad idea&#8221; and that it does not &#8220;hold up to scrutiny.&#8221;
&#8220;In the broader polity, it simply doesn&#8217;t hold up to scrutiny,&#8221; wrote Kristian. &#8220;Whatever one thinks about gay marriage — and tax exemptions for religious institutions, for that matter — this is a bad idea. It&#8217;s flagrantly unconstitutional content discrimination. It&#8217;s a shortsighted political strategy that will not play so well in the general election. And, realistically, it could do serious harm to vulnerable people being served by the religious institutions whose finances O&#8217;Rourke would assail.&#8221;
&#8220;The Supreme Court has come down hard on federal efforts to manipulate religious institutions&#8217; internal decision-making processes; in 2012, for example, the justices unanimously struck down an Obama administration attempt to interfere in church hiring for ministerial roles,&#8221; Kristian continued. &#8220;This means that whatever O&#8217;Rourke says about making his proposed change &#8220;a priority,&#8221; he would face a steep uphill legal battle. That legal reality isn&#8217;t debatable, and it turns O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s position into empty grandstanding. It&#8217;s also a safeguard that works both ways: If a President O&#8217;Rourke can strip nonprofits of tax exemptions based on their beliefs, so can a President Trump.&#8221;
Brad Polumbo of <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beto-orourke-basically-wants-to-bankrupt-churches-who-dont-believe-in-gay-marriage">The Washington Examiner</a> was even more direct, arguing that Beto wants to crack down on churches that do not support same-sex marriage.
&#8220;The candidate just spat in the face of the First Amendment. Whether you support gay marriage or not (I certainly do), this amounts to a pernicious form of government viewpoint discrimination,&#8221; wrote Polumbo. &#8220;O’Rourke wants to use the weight of the government to punish religious groups he disagrees with. It’s bizarre, immoral, and shameful.&#8221;
Some openly gay commentators, such as Dave Rubin of &#8220;The Rubin Report&#8221; and Chad Felix Greene, also blasted Beto&#8217;s call to have the government effectively regulate churches based upon their religious beliefs.
&#8220;There are many churches and temples in the United States which perform same-sex marriages. There are no mosques that do. Beto is obviously an Islamophobe. Someone call the Cancel Club!&#8221; said Dave Rubin.

‘Bigoted Nonsense’: Sen. Ben Sasse Condemns Beto’s Call To Strip Churches Of Tax Exempt Status For Opposing Same-Sex Marriage

Last night, a number of presidential candidates took part in a lengthy CNN town hall centered around LGBT issues. It should have been a safe event for the Democrats. Had they spent the evening shouting vapid slogans like &#8220;love is love&#8221; and &#8220;equality for all,&#8221; they would have come out looking enlightened in some people&#8217;s eyes and basically harmless to almost everyone else. Gay rights — if by that, we mean the right to get married — is (like it or not) now a politically winning issue for the Democratic Party. Polling <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fullpage/poll-shows-growing-support-gay-marriage-18757411">consistently shows</a> that an increasing majority of Americans have a generally positive attitude towards gay marriage and homosexuality. Politically speaking, the Democrats are in good shape when they stay in that lane. But last night, they veered far, far outside of it — eventually careening off the highway, over the guardrail, down an embankment, and into the river below.
Even on the issue of gay marriage, the Democrats found a way to turn a political winner into a political loser. Beto O&#8217;Rourke advocated using the IRS to <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1182484830044467200">punish</a> schools and churches that maintain their belief in one-man/one-woman marriage. The carefully curated crowd of radical leftists responded to the illegal and bigoted proposal with uproarious applause. And of course the moderators, who displayed staggering levels of cowardice throughout the evening, did not follow up by asking the congressman whether this initiative would extend to mosques. Most Americans are on board with gay marriage, but they&#8217;re also <a href="https://www.barna.com/research/religious-freedom-clergy/">on board</a> with religious liberty. &#8220;Go after the churches&#8221; may be a rallying cry that earns you applause in a CNN town hall, but it won&#8217;t win you votes in Ohio.
The real trouble came when the discussion turned to transgenderism. All of the candidates tried their best to pretend that they actually believe in the radical Left&#8217;s various superstitions regarding sex and gender. I&#8217;m not sure if their performances were convincing to leftists, but from the perspective of sane and normal people, it teetered between awkward and downright horrifying. On the awkward side of things, Kamala Harris opened up by giving her<a href="https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1182470527044243456"> preferred pronouns.</a> This is a sacred ritual in gender studies lecture halls across the country, but everyone else just finds it ridiculous. Even Chris Cuomo couldn&#8217;t help but crack a joke. &#8220;Fredo&#8221; promptly apologized, but there&#8217;s a reason why he instinctively responded the way he did. Introducing yourself with your pronouns is objectively bizarre. Only those who have been thoroughly brainwashed ahead of time can manage to keep a straight face when confronted by such silliness.
On the horrifying end of the spectrum, Elizabeth Warren <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1182471208270352384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1182471208270352384&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fwarren-inmates-are-entitled-to-taxpayer-funded-transgender-surgery">came out</a> in favor of forcing taxpayers to fund genital mutilation procedures for incarcerated transgenders. This is a reversal of her position only a few years ago. Indeed, every single one of these candidates have undergone a sudden and dramatic transformation on the issue of sex and gender. They all spent almost their entire adult lives believing that sex is an immutable and biological characteristic. If you could go back in time to the year 2004 and ask any of them — Warren, Sanders, O&#8217;Rourke, whomever — whether men have penises, they would look at you with stunned bemusement and then say something like, &#8220;What? Yes, obviously.&#8221; They probably would have given you that answer in 2008, 2012, and maybe even 2016. It&#8217;s only in the last couple of years that all prominent Democrats in the country have decided that men can menstruate and woman can produce sperm.
This all raises a question: Why did they change their minds on this? What accounts for the weirdest and most dramatic flip flop in the history of politics? Well, I know the answer. So do you. But they won&#8217;t give that answer. I&#8217;d be curious to hear what answer they do give. And if we had an actual news media interested in holding liberal politicians accountable, we would all get a chance to hear it. In any case, however, they came to the conclusion that biological sex doesn&#8217;t exist — whether due to collective head injury, spiritual epiphany, vision, drug-induced hallucination, or cynical political calculation. It is doubtful that a majority of voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida agree with their current position.
<a href="https://twitter.com/HRC/status/1182465629477097473">Most horrifying of all</a> was the nine-year-old &#8220;transgender&#8221; child whose abuse and exploitation was heartily endorsed by Elizabeth Warren and the audience. The poor child — a girl who thinks she&#8217;s a boy — read a question that had clearly been prepared by her mother, who was standing beside her beaming with pride.  That mother apparently works with the militant leftist Human Rights Campaign. Funny, isn&#8217;t it? Radical leftist parents who subscribe to progressive gender theory are so often the ones who end up with &#8220;transgender&#8221; children. It&#8217;s almost like &#8220;transgenderism&#8221; in children is usually a product of conditioning. Parents intentionally foster gender confusion so that they can parade their kids around as fashion statements. &#8220;Hey, look at me! My kid is trans! Beat that, you woke posers!&#8221; It&#8217;s disgusting, evil, and tragic. And I am confident that most sane people recognize it as such. But the Democratic Party has no use for sane people, and is no longer trying to represent them.

WALSH: Applauding Child Abuse, Denying Science — The Democrats Put Their Insanity And Cruelty On Display Last Night

Democratic Party

Leftism

In yet another instance of an institution refusing Chick-fil-A due to the Christian views of the company&#8217;s founding family, a high school in New Orleans declined a free catered lunch from the fast-food restaurant due to opposition to the company&#8217;s alleged anti-LGBTQ stances.
&#8220;On Oct. 10, Steven Corbett, principal of Lusher High School, said that he had recently declined a free lunch from the chicken-centric chain for his employees, provided through the College Football Playoff Foundation (CFPF), explaining that the restaurant’s values do not align with those of the school,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/high-school-decline-chick-fil-a">Fox News</a>.
In a statement to <a href="https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/lusher-high-school-turns-down-free-chick-fil-a-lunch-over-companys-anti-lgbtq-history/289-70b1156b-2c39-4285-9692-1d186d161594">WWL-TV</a>, Corbett said the school would be offending its LGBT employees and students if it permitted Chick-fil-A on campus.
&#8220;Out of respect to our LGBTQ staff, we have chosen to not serve Chick-fil-A at an employee lunch. The number one rule at Lusher is to &#8216;be kind&#8217; and we live this motto every day,&#8221; Corbett said. &#8220;Chick-fil-A has been politically outspoken about its views, and we feel it is not part of Lusher’s culture of kindness and community. Anytime an organization is anti-LGBTQ, and has efforts to infringe upon their rights, we thought it was important to support and stand up for their community at this time.&#8221;
A spokesperson for CFPF said that the organization respects Lusher&#8217;s decision and announced that lunch from another restaurant would be served instead.
&#8220;[We are just] glad teachers will have a good lunch tomorrow,&#8221; spokesperson Tony Fay said.
A spokesperson for Chick-fil-A told Fox News that the business has no political or social agenda when it comes to serving food.
&#8220;We are a restaurant company focused on food and hospitality and have no political or social agenda. Our priority is on providing a welcoming and respectful environment for our guests and team members,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
The hate toward the chicken sandwich empire began in 2012, when company president Dan Cathy expressed support for traditional one-man/one-woman marriage, prompting boycotts across the country from LGBTQ activists.
&#8220;I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, &#8216;We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'&#8221; Cathy <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/chick-fil-a-president-says-gods-judgment-coming-because-of-same-sex-marriage-78485/#SUuZKIURo5MhCW2p.99">said at the time</a>. &#8220;I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.&#8221;
Just last year, two major publications wrote scathing articles begging people to boycott the business: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/29418/new-yorker-columnist-chick-fil-evil-and-must-be-ben-shapiro">The New Yorker</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31789/huffpost-if-you-really-love-lgbtq-people-you-just-joseph-curl">HuffPost</a>. &#8220;If You Really Love LGBTQ People, You Just Can’t Keep Eating Chick-fil-A,&#8221; wrote Noah Michelson of HuffPost. When Chick-fil-A wanted to set up shop in New York City, Dan Piepenring of The New Yorker called it a &#8220;creepy infiltration&#8221; of the city.
Despite the efforts to harm the business, with college campuses and two city airports banning the chain from opening up shop, the chicken empire&#8217;s sales continue to climb and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chick-fil-sales-have-doubled-face-leftist-paul-bois">have only doubled</a> since the boycotts launched in 2012.
&#8220;Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis,&#8221; reported <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-s-sales-have-doubled-since-lgbt-boycott-began-in-2012.html">Christian Headlines</a> last month. &#8220;In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, <a href="https://www.wsbradio.com/business/chick-fil-keeps-growing-despite-uproar/9Qtv5hIeJUc59lFUfxZQ3L/">sales totaled</a> $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/chick-fil-a-with-a-mission-to-glorify-god-is-now-3rd-largest-restaurant-in-u-s.html">totaled</a> $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks.&#8221;

High School Declines Free Chick-Fil-A Due To Alleged Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry

At yet another CNN town hall event for Democratic Party presidential hopefuls, former Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-TX) once again peeled back the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s carefully crafted veneer of political centrism to reveal what the Left really thinks about bedrock American principles.
For weeks, O’Rourke has been touring the country to tell us all about his plan to take away America’s guns. Rather than embrace the importance of this Second Amendment freedom, O’Rourke continually doubles down, often invoking words you can’t say on television to emphasize his seriousness that, under his hypothetical administration, the American government will forcefully disarm its own citizens.
This has pushed some on the Left to turn their metaphorical guns on O’Rourke. These tepid rebukes of the erstwhile wunderkind who nearly toppled Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sound more like, “Hey, don’t tell everyone what we really think.”
Having staked his position on the Second Amendment Thursday night, Robert Francis O’Rourke turned his attention to the First Amendment. Sagging in the polls, O’Rourke stood opposite CNN’s Don Lemon as Lemon read from one of O’Rourke’s plans. All the longshot presidential hopefuls have a plan, it seems. And every plan is fine-tuned for a niche audience. This was a plan for the LGBTQ+ community.
Lemon noted that O’Rourke’s plan praised freedom of religion as a fundamental right, but one that “should not be used to discriminate.” With that setup, Lemon asked, “Do you think religious institutions, like colleges, churches, charities, should they lose their tax exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?”
At this point, everyone in the audience knew what O’Rourke’s answer really was. But they also knew what he had to say if he was going to turn the corner after the primary to gain traction in a general election. True to himself, O’Rourke wasted no time in casting off the shackles of centrism. He told the world what the Left really believes.
“Yes,” O’Rourke says, “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for any one or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.”
Perhaps O’Rourke came to that conclusion after a discussion with someone in a Buc-ee&#8217;s bathroom. Perhaps it is what he has always thought. Perhaps he tested the answer in focus groups and has plans to double down on his answer in the coming days on the campaign trail.
Whatever the reason, O’Rourke’s answer is revealing for its honesty. While the Obama administration prosecuted nuns over birth control, it at least spoke in platitudes about “freedom to worship.” Celibate nuns may have to pay for birth control, but at least they are afforded a modicum of freedom to practice the worshipful elements of their religion.
Not so for O’Rourke. If a religious entity — religious colleges, charities motivated by religion, and churches adhering to two millennia of doctrine — disagrees with O’Rourke, it forfeits its tax exemption.
That’s a far cry from former Justice Anthony Kennedy’s promise in Obergefell v. Hodges, which emphasized “that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost sincere conviction” their religious beliefs regarding human sexuality. Indeed, Kennedy promised that “[t]he First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths.”
Yet under an O’Rourke administration, Kennedy’s promise is only fulfilled when organized religion pays its own freight. Thus, Catholic hospitals, Muslim charities, evangelical soup kitchens, and Orthodox Jewish synagogues might manage to continue their good deeds, but only at a taxable rate. They must hope that their former donors are motivated more by the mission than by the tax incentives that have fueled the billions of dollars of charity that Americans have spread around the globe through religious organizations — charity that has relieved the American government from having to address it on its own.
O’Rourke’s plan has the high hurdle of a body of case law that makes it illegal for the government to deprive citizens of a protected right based upon the viewpoint of the citizen — but that’s not his point. O&#8217;Rourke knows that. Everyone knows that. Just like everyone knows O’Rourke has no legitimate path to presidential victory.
Rather, O’Rourke’s purpose is to expand the borders of the increasingly far-left Democratic Party. If a “churches lose their tax exemption” O’Rourke plan is too much. Then Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) “use [of] the Department of Justice to go after schools” plan is made more palatable and a Warren “pass the Equality Act” plan is practically mainstream. And so the entire political machine lurches just a little further to the left — comfortably on the road to total government control.
O’Rourke will not win the presidency. But he is not supposed to. Laugh, if you must, about his trademark flapping arms and insatiable desire to address crowds while standing on tabletops, but take with deadly seriousness his ability to say what his party is increasingly thinking.
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Jeremy Dys (<a href="https://twitter.com/jeremydys">@JeremyDys</a>) is Special Counsel for Litigation and Communications for First Liberty Institute, a non-profit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom for all Americans. Read more at <a href="https://firstliberty.org">FirstLiberty.org</a>.

Beto O&#8217;Rourke CNN town hall

DYS: Beto O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s &#8216;Liberty&#8217; Is No Liberty At All

Don Lemon

Gun Buybacks

Gun Control

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) enthusiastically applauded a nine-year-old biological girl who identifies as a “transgender American” during CNN’s LGBT-focused town hall on Thursday night. 
&#8220;My name&#8217;s Jacob, and I&#8217;m a nine-year-old transgender American,&#8221; the child said, standing next to her smiling mother. 
&#8220;All right, Jacob!&#8221; Warren gushed, loudly applauding the child&#8217;s declaration of transgenderism. The CNN audience also erupted in applause.
Jacob asked Warren what she&#8217;d do in her first week as president to make transgender kids &#8220;feel safer in schools&#8221; and what &#8220;schools need to do better so I don&#8217;t have to worry about anything but my homework.&#8221;
&#8220;Oh, I like that question, Jacob! Let me start by saying I want to have a secretary of education that who both believes in public education and believes in the value of every one of our kids and is willing to enforce our civil rights laws,&#8221; the presidential hopeful responded, as reported by <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/warren-applauds-9-year-old-transgender-child-at-cnn-forum">The Washington Examiner</a>. &#8220;We&#8217;ve had some secretaries of education who&#8217;ve been better, and we&#8217;ve had one that&#8217;s been a whole lot worse. Her name is Betsy DeVos. So, when I&#8217;m president, she&#8217;ll be gone.&#8221;
Warren then added that she wanted the child to help her pick the right person.
&#8220;I want to make sure that the person I think is the right secretary of education meets you and and hears your story, and then I want you to tell me if you think that&#8217;s the right person and then we&#8217;ll make the deal,&#8221; she said.
Jacob was the <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1182439582400303104">second</a> transgender child included in the town hall event.
Politicos online voiced outrage over CNN&#8217;s actions.
The Daily Wire&#8217;s Michael Knowles tweeted, &#8220;&#8216;Hi, my name is Jacob, and I&#8217;m a 9-year-old transgender American&#8230;&#8217; The CNN producers who chose to exploit this child on national television are some truly sick monsters.&#8221;
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&quot;Hi, my name is Jacob, and I&#39;m a 9-year-old transgender American&#8230;&quot;
The CNN producers who chose to exploit this child on national television are some truly sick monsters. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EqualityTownHall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EqualityTownHall</a>
&mdash; Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1182474616016556032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Hey! Hi. This mother is abusing her daughter, and Elizabeth Warren &amp; CNN are applauding it,&#8221; posted Blaze TV&#8217;s Allie Beth Stuckey.
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Hey! Hi. This mother is abusing her daughter, and Elizabeth Warren &amp; CNN are applauding it. <a href="https://t.co/X9FjAGYbTz">https://t.co/X9FjAGYbTz</a>
&mdash; Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) <a href="https://twitter.com/conservmillen/status/1182485311424782339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Being Libertarian cofounder Eric July succinctly reacted, &#8220;Bro. I’m logging off for the night.&#8221;
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Bro. I’m logging off for the night. <a href="https://t.co/HgvD5D75kA">https://t.co/HgvD5D75kA</a>
&mdash; Eric July (@EricDJuly) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricDJuly/status/1182495279746031616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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During the same town hall event, Elizabeth Warren flip-flopped from a previous stance and said criminals in prison are &#8220;entitled&#8221; to taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery.
The Democrat said she regretted her past position on the matter: &#8220;It was a bad answer [at the time]. I believe that everyone is entitled to medical care and medical care that they need and that includes people who are transgender who, um, it is time for them to have [transgender] surgery. I just think that&#8217;s important,&#8221; she said, as reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/warren-inmates-are-entitled-to-taxpayer-funded-transgender-surgery">The Daily Wire</a>.
In Warren&#8217;s &#8220;Plan For LGBTQ+ Rights And Equality&#8221; released Thursday, the Democrat vows that she&#8217;ll &#8220;direct the Bureau of Prisons to end the Trump Administration&#8217;s dangerous policy of imprisoning transgender people in facilities based on their sex assigned at birth.&#8221;
Her stance would result in female inmates being housed in facilities with biological males who identify as females.
She also tackles prostitution, announcing her openness to decriminalizing so-called &#8220;sex work.&#8221;
&#8220;I am also open to decriminalizing sex work. Sex workers, like all workers, deserve autonomy and are particularly vulnerable to physical and financial abuse and hardship,&#8221; the plan states.
WATCH:
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CNN invites 9-year-old transgender boy to ask Sen. Warren a question <a href="https://t.co/j0yuNG58qA">pic.twitter.com/j0yuNG58qA</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1182465900190011397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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WATCH: Warren Applauds 9-Year-Old Transgender Questioner At CNN Town Hall

CNN host Chris Cuomo made a lighthearted joke about his &#8220;preferred pronouns&#8221; during the network&#8217;s LGBT-focused town hall event on Thursday night, but quickly felt compelled to apologize.
Flexing her LGBT chops, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) told Cuomo at the outset, &#8220;My pronouns are she, her and hers.&#8221;
&#8220;She, her and hers? Mine, too,&#8221; Cuomo quipped.
&#8220;All right,&#8221; the presidential hopeful said back, unamused.
The CNN host was quickly hit with backlash online for his egregious transgression.
&#8220;Chris Cuomo just mocked Sen. Kamala Harris saying her pronouns by responding &#8216;mine too&#8217; and the gasp I let out. Not. Okay,&#8221; said The Advocate&#8217;s Editor-in-Chief Zach Stafford.
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Chris Cuomo just mocked Sen. Kamala Harris saying her pronouns by responding &quot;mine too&quot; and the gasp I let out. 
Not. Okay.
&mdash; Zach Stafford (@ZachStafford) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZachStafford/status/1182469418170892288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Anyone else think it&#8217;s uncool for Chris Cuomo to treat pronouns like a joke at a debate centered on LGBTQ issues?&#8221; Fox 13 journalist Rebecca Green asked.
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Anyone else think it&#39;s uncool for Chris Cuomo to treat pronouns like a joke at a debate centered on LGBTQ issues?
&mdash; Rebecca Green (@wordofgreen) <a href="https://twitter.com/wordofgreen/status/1182469179909128192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Cuomo posted a public apology to social media later that night in which he insisted to those now questioning his commitment to the LGBT cause that he truly is &#8220;an ally&#8221;:
<blockquote>&#8220;PLEASE READ: When Sen. Harris said her pronouns were she her and her&#8217;s, I said mine too. I should not have. I apologize. I am an ally of the LGBTQ community, and I am sorry because I am committed to helping us achieve equality. Thank you for watching our townhall.&#8221;</blockquote>
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PLEASE READ: When Sen. Harris said her pronouns were she her and her&#39;s, I said mine too. I should not have. I apologize. I am an ally of the LGBTQ community, and I am sorry because I am committed to helping us achieve equality. Thank you for watching our townhall.
&mdash; Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisCuomo/status/1182479789518516225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The Intercept&#8217;s Glenn Greenwald hit both Harris and Cuomo over the incident.
&#8220;Is Sen. Harris also going to announce her pronouns at the start of events at the Iowa State Fair, farm lunches in New Hampshire, and in churches in South Carolina, or is this just for the LGBT groups?&#8221; the journalist asked. &#8220;That said, I&#8217;m very relieved to learn that Chris Cuomo is a good &#8216;ally.'&#8221; 
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Is Sen. Harris also going to announce her pronouns at the start of events at the Iowa State Fair, farm lunches in New Hampshire, and in churches in South Carolina, or is this just for the LGBT groups? That said, I&#39;m very relieved to learn that Chris Cuomo is a good &quot;ally&quot;: <a href="https://t.co/xUNJuHQZZ6">https://t.co/xUNJuHQZZ6</a>
&mdash; Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) <a href="https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1182626059126280193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The town hall also took heat from folks on the Right over their use of two transgender nine-year-old children. One child was accompanied by their mother who posed a question. The other child, Jacob, was met with thunderous applause when the nine-year-old asked a question to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
“My name&#8217;s Jacob, and I&#8217;m a nine-year-old transgender American,&#8221; the child, a biological female, said.
Warren, as well as the CNN audience, loudly applauded the child’s declaration of transgenderism. &#8220;All right, Jacob!&#8221; the senator gushed.
Jacob asked the senator what she&#8217;ll do her first week as president to make transgender kids &#8220;feel safer in schools&#8221; and what schools should be doing so all the child has to &#8220;worry about&#8221; is &#8220;homework.&#8221;
&#8220;Let me start by saying I want to have a secretary of education that who both believes in public education and believes in the value of every one of our kids and is willing to enforce our civil rights laws,&#8221; the presidential hopeful responded, as reported by The Washington Examiner. &#8220;We&#8217;ve had some secretaries of education who&#8217;ve been better, and we&#8217;ve had one that&#8217;s been a whole lot worse. Her name is Betsy DeVos. So, when I&#8217;m president, she&#8217;ll be gone.&#8221;
&#8220;I want to make sure that the person I think is the right secretary of education meets you and and hears your story, and then I want you to tell me if you think that&#8217;s the right person and then we&#8217;ll make the deal,&#8221; the presidential hopeful told the child.
WATCH:
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Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris panders to CNN&#39;s LGBT town hall, says: &quot;My pronouns are &#39;she/her/hers&#39;&quot;
CNN&#39;s Chris Cuomo mocks her: &quot;Mine too!&quot; <a href="https://t.co/aXX3HNkVLp">pic.twitter.com/aXX3HNkVLp</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1182469726905098241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Kamala Harris and Chris Cuomo

WATCH: CNN&#8217;s Cuomo Makes &#8216;Preferred Pronoun&#8217; Joke; Forced To Apologize

Chris Cuomo

Kamala Harris

In a series of tweets Thursday night, presidential candidate Julián Castro&#8217;s campaign set the record straight: he does support a biological man&#8217;s right to get an abortion.
&#8220;Does Julian Castro plan on reiterating his support for extending abortion rights to men in tonight&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EqualityTownHall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EqualityTownHall</a>?&#8221; tweeted Michael Knowles, Daily Wire podcast host and author of a bestselling book with no words, Thursday night.
&#8220;Of course,&#8221; the Castro campaign&#8217;s national political director responded. &#8220;To anyone who needs an abortion, however they identify.&#8221;
Castro&#8217;s support for &#8220;anyone&#8221; to get an abortion first made headlines after the first Democratic presidential primary debate in June, when the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary made one of the more memorable gaffes of the night.
Asked if his health care plan would cover abortion, Castro proudly declared — like the rest of his progressive colleagues — that it definitely would. But as Castro began to elaborate on what &#8220;health care&#8221; a &#8220;woman&#8221; should or shouldn&#8217;t be provided, he tripped over the transgender issue and made this head-turning claim: A &#8220;trans female&#8221; — a biological male who identifies as a woman — should be able to have an abortion, too.
&#8220;I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pc-insanity-julian-castros-transgender-abortion-hank-berrien">said</a> Castro. &#8220;And, you know, what that means is that just because a woman — or let’s also not forget someone in the trans community, a trans female — is poor, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the right to exercise that right to choose. And so I absolutely would cover the right to have an abortion.&#8221;
As left-leaning <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/27/julian-castro-debate-abortion-1385950">Politico</a> noted, &#8220;Castro won applause inside the debate hall for mentioning reproductive justice and the trans community. But he was also lightly criticized on Twitter by LGBT activists for mistakenly saying &#8216;trans female.'&#8221;
Amid the &#8220;light criticism,&#8221; Castro&#8217;s  campaign manager Maya Rupert clarified to Politico that he&#8217;d simply misspoken.
&#8220;When we&#8217;re talking about abortion access and really access to reproductive rights stuff in general, there a number of people who don’t identify as women who still need access to those services,&#8221; said Rupert. &#8220;It&#8217;s trans men, it&#8217;s nonbinary folks — a lot of people. What he was trying to do was say, &#8216;Yes, women do need access to abortion, but it’s also important to remember that a lot of times you need a path for trans folks as well.'&#8221;
But on Thursday night, Castro&#8217;s national political director Natalie Montelongo, responding to Knowles&#8217;s joke, de-clarified the progressive candidate&#8217;s position on abortion rights for men.
&#8220;Does Julian Castro plan on reiterating his support for extending abortion rights to men in tonight&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EqualityTownHall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EqualityTownHall</a>?&#8221; Knowles trollingly tweeted.
&#8220;Of course,&#8221; responded Montelongo. &#8220;To anyone who needs an abortion, however they identify.&#8221;
&#8220;I just made a joke that Julian Castro supports abortion rights for men, based on a misstatement he made at an earlier debate,&#8221; Knowles wrote in a bemused follow-up tweet. &#8220;The campaign&#8217;s national political director just confirmed that Castro does, in fact, support abortion rights for men. We&#8217;re through the looking-glass.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Does Julian Castro plan on reiterating his support for extending abortion rights to men in tonight&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EqualityTownHall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EqualityTownHall</a>?
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1182493964110184448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Ofcourse. To anyone who needs an abortion, however they identify. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EqualityTownHall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EqualityTownHall</a> <a href="https://t.co/ItnsabXCLT">https://t.co/ItnsabXCLT</a>
— Natalie Montelongo (@natimontelongo) <a href="https://twitter.com/natimontelongo/status/1182496580957548546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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I just made a joke that Julian Castro supports abortion rights for men, based on a misstatement he made at an earlier debate.
The campaign&#8217;s national political director just confirmed that Castro does, in fact, support abortion rights for men.
We&#8217;re through the looking-glass. <a href="https://t.co/6eDCafICUV">https://t.co/6eDCafICUV</a>
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1182497700022906880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Knowles has since posted a video online highlighting the Castro campaign&#8217;s response and other Democrats&#8217; increasingly radical stances on transgenderism, particularly as it relates to children with gender dysphoria.
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Castro campaign confirms he supports abortion rights for men. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EqualityTownHall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EqualityTownHall</a> <a href="https://t.co/TfvjSv9CcT">https://t.co/TfvjSv9CcT</a>
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1182497987311702020?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Professor Tells Students They’re ‘Expected’ To Join Her In Protesting Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles