Wednesday, June 09, 2021



A Virginia gym teacher who was suspended for objecting to two policies related to transgender students because he said they went against his religion has been ordered to be reinstated by a judge, who pointed to free speech and religious liberty in his decision

Byron Tanner Cross, 38, was suspended from Leesburg Elementary in Loudoun County, Virginia, two weeks ago, after speaking at a school board meeting on May 25.

He was arguing over two policies put in place by the public school board: one mandating teachers use the pronouns a transgender child identifies with, and one allowing transgender kids to take part in sports with the gender they identify with. The second one also allows kids to use the locker room and bathroom of the gender they identify with.

Cross, in his speech, said the policies 'defile the holy image of God' and constitute child abuse. He also cited a recent 60 Minutes where Leslie Stahl interviewed a handful of young people who had transitioned within months of seeking treatment then regretted it.

He was suspended afterwards with just about three weeks left in the school year and the school board said it was investigating his remarks.

On Tuesday, Twelfth Circuit Judge James E. Plowman ordered the school district to restore Cross' job.

'Defendants shall immediately reinstate the Plaintiff to his position as it was prior to the issuance of his suspension and remove the ban that was placed upon him from all buildings and grounds of Loudoun County Public Schools,' a letter from Plowman read.

Cross had filed a restraining order and temporary injunction, demanding his job back and asking that his views not be censored again.

The temporary injunction is set to stay in place until December 31 unless any alterations are agreed to before then.

If either side is to request a trial, the judge says they must initiate that process by June 16.

In his letter, Plowman suggested that the school district would lose a case against Cross at trial based on the merits of the case, arguing that Cross' First Amendment rights were impacted adversely.

Plowman pointed to emails the school district received in regards to Cross, saying they didn't prove Cross had disrupted the school day and that the few emails paled in comparison to the size of the school.

'[T]he Court has found … that the disruption relied upon was insufficient,' Plowman wrote.

'The Court finds that in balancing all of the factors and weighing the facts presented, the Plaintiff's interest in expressing his First Amendment speech outweigh the Defendants interest in restricting the the same,' Plowman wrote.

Five declarations were provided to the court from other school staff who felt they couldn't speak about the issue after Cross' suspension for fears of retaliation.

The judge also said, 'Upholding constitutional rights serves the public interest' in making his decision.

Loudoun County Public Schools has not commented on the ruling, but Alliance Defending Freedom - which represented Cross - celebrated the decision.

'Nobody should be punished for expressing concern about a proposed government policy, especially when the government invites comment on that policy,' ADF President and CEO Michael Farris added to Fox News.

'For that reason, we are pleased at the court’s decision to halt Loudoun County Public Schools’ retaliation against Tanner Cross while his lawsuit continues. Educators are just like everybody else — they have ideas and opinions that they should be free to express. Advocating for solutions they believe in should not cost them their jobs.'

After the ruling, Cross appeared on America Reports with his attorney to praise the decision as well.

'We're so happy,' Cross said during Tuesday's appearance. 'There were lots of tears, lots of hugs - we're just happy we were reinstated and I look forward to going back to serving Leesburg Elementary.'

Attorney Tyson Langhofer also stated that he believes Cross will retain his job beyond the injunction, repeatedly pointing to his right to speek freely as a private citizen at a public school board meeting.

Cross previously doubled down on his position on transgender rights, which he said is not in keeping with his Christian views.

He does not believe that every student or teacher in the district should have to accept his view of how best to show compassion to youth struggling with gender dysphoria, but he believes that teachers should not be compelled to say things they do not believe to be true, he said, adding that his faith teaches him using pronouns that don't correlate to a person's biological sex would be a 'lie.'

He argued in his lawsuit that kids he teaches don't have the wherewithal yet to make a decision as life changing as transitioning, and said the school shouldn't force a policy that parents might not agree with either.

'Children do not have a fully developed capacity to understand the long-term consequences of their decisions,' his lawyer said in the lawsuit.

Cross also said in his court filing that he doesn't think it's right for kids to access bathrooms and locker rooms of the opposite biological sex.

He said that where possible, the school should create designated facilities for trans kids who feel like they don't belong in facilities reserved for their biological sex.

The two policies being proposed by the school district have not yet been put into place.

**********************************

Black MSNBC analyst sparks fury after claiming she was 'disturbed' to see 'dozens of American flags' on pickup trucks during a recent trip to Long island

New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay sparked fierce backlash on social media Tuesday after saying she was 'disturbed' to see American flags flown on pickup trucks in a recent trip to Long Island.

Speaking on MSNBC's Morning Joe, she said the flags were being flown on trucks belonging to Trump supporters, with the vehicles also bearing expletives against President Joe Biden.

She said the displays were symptomatic of a broad coalition of Americans who feel threatened as citizens.

'The reality is here that we have a large percentage of the American population — I don't know how big it is, but we have tens of millions of Trump voters who continue to believe that their rights as citizens are under threat by simple virtue of having to share the democracy with others,' she said.

'I was on Long Island this weekend visiting a really dear friend, and I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with explicatives (sic) against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing because essentially the message was clear. It was this is my country. This is not your country. I own this.'

She added that a solution, 'to get every American a place at the table,' needed to involve separating 'whiteness' from 'Americanness.'

Gay was responding to a call by host Mika Brzezinski for an investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Her comments received a scathing response on social media, where the commentator was slammed for what many said was a dig against displays of patriotism.

'As a son of a WWII [veteran], I proudly display the American flag on the front of my house,' tweeted Harry McNeir.

'American flags is now considered hateful what the hell is going on with our country,' posted @DankRhythm.

'Wow dozens of American flags the horror of of it lol,' Blake Katuin commented.

'Wait now a pick up trick with an American flag is now racist?? What's next saluting the American flag?' tweeted @swell472.

'Why is skin color even being brought into this discussion?' tweeted Matt Haubrich. 'This narrative is disgusting and they keep peddling it, and Joe's panel says nothing. I find people who group everyone in boxes very disturbing.'

'Mara gay is but a glimpse of what the future will be like for the US, a self-loathing, socialistic hateful country, with no borders.' said @kendrickNQB.

'So... who's the threat? This is disturbing!' wrote Chris Barnett. 'American flags relate to whiteness? The American flag represents any color or creed of [a] person who legally lives here!'

*******************************************

Monuments And Teams Have Changed Names As America Reckons With Racism. Birds Are Next

Our relationship with nature often begins with a name.

It's an introduction that tells us something about that animal, like spotted turtle, gray tree frog, or yellow-bellied sapsucker.

In many cases that creature's name is not a window into its natural history, but a remnant of our own.

But, America is trying to come to terms with its complicated racial past by changing the names of institutions, ranging from military bases to baseball teams.

Now efforts are also underway to change the names of some living monuments — birds.

When early naturalists like John James Audubon discovered a new bird, for example, they often named it after a friend or colleague.

"There's Wilson's warbler, and Swainson's warbler, and Kirtland's warbler," lists Kenn Kaufman, author of several birding field guides.

"You've got Nuttall's woodpecker, and Cassin's vireo, Cassin's auklet, and then there's Botteri's sparrow, and Bachman's sparrow," he says.

Kaufman, like many birders, hadn't paid much attention to the people behind the bird names.

That is, until last year when he learned more about that last guy on his list. "John Bachman was a Lutheran minister in South Carolina," Kaufman says. "He also fancied himself to be a scientist," says Kaufman, "and part of what he wrote about was suggesting that whites were just naturally superior to members of other races." He says Bachman's theories supported efforts to justify slavery.

"Once you start realizing that kind of thing about these historical characters," says Kaufman, "the bird names take on a more sinister tone."

It's a tone that birding activists are trying to change.

Jordan Rutter, a young birder from Washington, D.C., is co-founder of Bird Names for Birds, a group trying to make birding more inclusive by removing all eponymous bird names, that is, those named after people.

Rutter, in August 2020, petitioned the American Ornithological Society, the body that determines the names of birds, to take up the cause.

"We call these bird names verbal statues," Rutter says, "because so many of them truly are honoring folks that were involved in colonial and Confederate times."

Rutter says removing eponymous names might also reenergize efforts to protect bird habitats.

"As we have this community-wide education event to relearn the names, we can talk about the conservation need that they have."

American Ornithological Society president Mike Webster is committed to the idea.

"We want to, and will, change those bird names that need to be changed," he says.

Webster points to last year when McCown's longspur was renamed the thick-billed longspur, after it was noted that John McCown was a Confederate general. He says it reflects a new consideration for social justice concerns.

But Webster is not convinced all eponymous names need changed.

Last month, he set up an 18-member committee of ornithologists, experts, and activists o decide how to manage the process and cautions against too rapid of a switch.

He says common names, like street names, provide guidance for those navigating the scientific literature, "And if you changed the names of a quarter of the streets in a particular city overnight, that would cause chaos."

The name change movement is part of a growing awareness that bird-watching has a diversity problem.

"I feel like it's a start," says Nicole Jackson, a birder in Columbus, Ohio.

She's one of the organizers of Black Birders Week, which was first held last year after a Black birder was accosted by a white woman in Central Park.

One goal of the event is to highlight the need for safe access to nature for people of color.

"Black people are in these spaces," says Jackson, "and we need to feel like we have enough of a community that we can talk to each other and feel safe."

#BlackinNature and #SafeinNature are themes in this year's Black Birders Week.

The project is inspired by the Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights movement, which traces a route for Black birders to travel through the South in pursuit of their hobby.

"As an activist in the birding community I would say that I'm seeking to decolonize the birding experience," says James says.

He says that white, colonial past has been handed down in the names of around 150 North American birds named after people.

James believes names should say something about the birds themselves and their natural history, "not glorifications of folks that would not want people like me birding today."

The renaming committee is expected to have its recommendations ready by the end of the year.

***************************************

My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com TONGUE-TIED)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://john-ray.blogspot.com (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

*****************************************

No comments: