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Election 2022: NWP proposing a review of Anvil Centre rental fees, improved way-finding for galleries

The creation of a NW Art Market and a review of rates for using Anvil Centre for arts-related activities are two of the election ideas being put forward by the New West Progressives.

In an Aug. 22 press release, the New West Progressives say local artists have been neglected by the local government and have no dedicated, affordable space to work and showcase their art.

New Westminster has a vibrant arts and culture community with talented and creative professionals. These artists are musicians, painters, actors and entrepreneurs, said council candidate Jiayi Li-McCarthy in the news release. As a city councillor, I will ensure city hall continues its multi-year arts and culture funding strategy and explore every opportunity to develop new places in the city for artists to work and display their art.

If elected, New West Progressives council candidates pledge to better promote the citys artists and cultural activities in New Westminster and beyond to raise awareness about the citys artistic community.

Our city has an incredible arts and culture community that has demonstrated it can produce top-quality festivals, events and products, said the news release. Sadly, nobody knows about it.

The NWP is proposing to install additional signage to direct the public and tourists to local artisans and their studios. This would also include more permanent public signage and promotion of farmers markets and similar events.

Artists need space to create and showcase their work, says Li-McCarthy. One of my initiatives on city council will be to establish accessible city land or buildings to foster the development of a new NW Art Market which would profile and celebrate local artisans.

Concerned that Anvil Centre rates are too costly for many citizens to rent a room or use the facility, the New West Progressives are promising to conduct an independent review of the Anvil Centres programs, cost structure and fees, with the goal of making it more of a regional hub for concerts and plays.

In addition, the New West Progressives are proposing to bring the community art space down to the street level to encourage greater public interaction.

Located on the third floor of Anvil Centre, the community art gallery provides a space where New Westminster-based arts groups can organize members exhibitions.

New Westminster city council adopted a new arts strategy in December 2018. The 34-page document includes a variety of goals related to the arts: to increase public awareness of the arts; to cultivate support for artists and develop audiences; to increase inclusion and accessibility in the arts; to create economic opportunities and increase contribution to the arts; and to embrace and encourage innovative ideas.

The citys arts strategy task force was comprised of some council members, city staff and members of the arts community.

In 2016, the city embarked on a process to update the arts strategy that had been developed in 2008. The draft five-year strategy was unveiled at Anvil Centre in April 2018, where a variety of concerns were raised about the document.

In May 2018, council unanimously agreed to send comments on the draft strategy back to staff for another look. Council ultimately approved a revamped 2018 to 2023 strategy in December 2018.

NWP will also implement effective, meaningful and ongoing dialogue with the local arts and culture community to gather their input on support services and programs, McCarthy said in the news release. There is a duplication of city-operated arts programs and those run by community groups and agencies. With the publics feedback, we will reduce or eliminate these redundant programs with an aim to supporting community groups as the first priority.

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New West Progressives pledging to better promote local artists and arts events - The Record (New Westminster)

by James C. Sherlock

The Virginian-Pilot, in an editorial, bemoaned Governor Youngkins endorsement of a policy that would require schools to tell parents about their kids transexual identity expressions at school.

Its as though the potential consequences of such a policy have never crossed his mind.

The sure consequences of opposing that policy were not discussed.

The Pilot brain trust did not address, and perhaps did not care, that a child in Virginia must have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria as a predicate for mental health treatment. And, of course, for physically invasive treatments.

Most Virginians think parental/guardian consent is required for all of that.It certainly should be. But it wont be if progressives find the right judge.

Medical ethics should help protect kids, but will not. Progressive medical providers think themselves to be doing the best thing for the child, even with the dangerous, irreversible and ghastly treatments to which some providers subject children diagnosed as gender dysphoric.

Neither will judicial ethics. Read the papers every day for things that progressives think best for all of us. Progressive judges will think themselves to be doing the right thing as well.

Virginia is thick with progressive doctors and judges. It is thicker with parents.

The progressives need to be stopped by changes in Virginia law. This is a very complicated subject. So the background discussion will be extensive.

The editorial references high LGBTQ child suicide rates the suicide card. A serious issue. Professional mental health intervention will reduce suicides. Everyone can get behind that. But school psychologists are not licensed for clinical practice.

So, professional help depends upon parental/guardian consent or a court order.

Another chapter of the progressive catechism holds that transgender children should be supported by puberty blockers, the effects of which are reversible, and cross-gender hormones, the effects of which include sterilization. But that also requires parental/guardian consent.

Or a court order.

The left would have to thread needles with no eyes in justifying both not telling the parents and getting the children medical treatment. So, they ignore the practical impossibility of holding both positions.

Dogma assumes miracles.

Or a court order. Progressive nirvana.

Dangerous parents. The Pilot wants parents kept in the dark.

It wants schools to honor the wishes of a child not to tell his or her parents. As a direct result, the children could not legally be diagnosed or treated without a court order. Which, in turn, would require the parents be advised of the childs transsexual proclivities.

In order to take the child from the parents control using the normal state due process procedures in Virginia, a Child Protective Services (CPS) evaluation is required. It is predicated on evidence of abuse, not an assumption of it by school personnel. If CPS finds abuse, it will remove the child from danger. After which a guardian can make a decision on diagnoses and treatments of the child.

But the guardian would then need to agree with the treatments progressives favor.

So, while I urge the left to pick a side on this issue or at least acknowledge that CPS must be involved,they wont.

Theyd rather go to court. And cut out both parents and guardians.

Off-label use of drugs for treatment of gender dysphoria.

Lets look at the process that it would take to get hormones that are approved for cancer treatment and chemical sterilization approved by the FDA for use in treatment of gender dysphoria in children:

In a phase 1 clinical trial, the tolerability and safety of the new drug is studied, usually in a small number of healthy volunteers. Phase 2 is aimed at determining the drugs efficacy and optimal dosing regimen. After phase 2, the drug is entered into the next phase of testing in a phase 3 trial.

The main focus of phase 3 trials is to demonstrate and confirm the preliminary evidence gathered in the previous trials that the drug is, a safe, beneficial and effective treatment for the intended indication.

Phase 3 is the last phase of testing to be completed before the drugs details and clinical trial results are submitted to the regulatory authorities for approval of the drugs release on the open market. Phase 3 is therefore a vital phase of drug development and billions may be spent progressing the drug to a phase 3 trial, only for the drug to prove ineffective in a larger patient population or have serious safety concerns that prevent its approval.

Not going to happen.

Not because of the cost, but because the subjects of the trials would have to be children. And the hormone drugs in question are already known to be dangerous in their approved uses on adults. Read the warning labels.

One wonders where childrens hospital pharmacists and patient safety committees stand on this. Or if they have taken a position.

The suicide card. The Pilot, to seal the deal, plays the suicide card.

It asserts that transgender kids (along with the entire LGBTQ+ community of youth) are suicidal at epidemic rates. Yet it does not recommend broad suicide preventions policies. Which would make sense.

It simply recommends keeping information from parents that results in those children not being able to get professional help mental health help even without resorting to dangerous drugs or surgical procedures.

And thus increasing the probability of suicide.

The Pilot refers to theTrevor Project,a LGBTQ+ advocacy group with a mission to prevent suicide. I applaud that mission. I agree with much of what they recommend in Model School District Policy on Suicide Prevention. School divisions should review it.

Look in particular at the section on Sample Language for Student Handbook.

The only thing I would change is where it says help connect the student to appropriate local resources. I would substitute help connect the student and his parents/guardian to appropriate local resources. That mistake is repeated elsewhere.

But that work is far superior to Model Policies for theTreatment of Transgender Students in Virginias Public Schools. Which uses the word suicide twice in 23 pages of text.

A part of the Trevor Project suicide preventionModel Policywith which I respectfully disagree is:

Referrals and LGBTQ Youth

Information about a students sexual orientation or gender identity should be treated as confidential and not disclosed to parents, guardians, or third parties without the students permission.

In the case of parents who have exhibited rejecting behaviors, great sensitivity needs to be taken in what information is communicated with parents.

Additionally, when referring students to out-of-school resources, it is important to connect LGBTQ students with LGBTQ-affirming local health and mental health service providers. Affirming service providers are those that adhere to best practices guidelines regarding working with LGBTQ clients as specified by their professional association (e.g., apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/guidelines.aspx).

The Trevor Project, like others who advocate such policies, drifts through the complexities it raises without addressing them.

Where do progressives stand? The lefts positions on schools informing parents about the transgender expressions of a child are seemingly contradictory to a logical person:

The left seemingly must pick one. It would be interesting to see which they would choose. But they will continue to support both.

And seek court orders to get what they want in one step.

It gets worse. There is, unfortunately, a path to realizing that objective that does not go through parents and guardians. Progressive doctors and judges.

Doctors prescribed opioids to people for money. And went to jail for it.

So, there will be mental health professionals who will provide the gender dysphoria diagnosis on request. Because they believe in transgender support and diagnose any kid who exhibits transgender expression as gender dysphoric a necessary step to provide that support. That is not even illegal.

So, please dont contend that wont happen. Or has not already.

In America broadly and in Virginia, parents can make decisions regarding their childs medical treatment in everyday situations without state intervention. If the child is in a life-threatening health situation, a judge may put the child in state custody if the parent refuses medical treatment.

All the emphasis on LGBTQ youth suicide has two purposes:

Judge-shopping is a real thing in both progressive and conservative circles.

Some progressive judges will lean forward on this issue. Again, please dont contend none will do it. Read the papers.

If a progressive judge finds gender dysphoria life-threatening, he or she can overrule parental/guardian objections and order a diagnosis from a progressive mental health professional and then invasive treatments from doctors specializing in them. A progressive virtuous circle.

Recommendation for providers. I recommend childrens hospitals set internal requirements to get a court order for purposes of:

It would be even better if those hospitals sought a second opinion on the diagnosis outside of the hospital system and took it to the judge. Break the closed loop.

That will help a lot for systems determined to do what most of us think is the right thing. Which I suspect is most of them.

But as a practical matter, it is unlikely to be a problem for a progressive-run childrens hospital with progressive doctors inclined to both issue a diagnosis and provide the treatments to find a judge to order those treatments with parental or guardian concurrence.

Those institutions and their medical people already are doing the right thing as they perceive it.

They should get the court order anyway. See the reasons above.

Recommendations for the state.The Virginia law controlling sterilization of children applies only to surgery. Chemical sterilization is not addressed. There is no logical reason it is not. It just isnt.

That is what opens Virginia children up to be subjects of treatments with cross-gender hormones drugs known

Change the law to prohibit chemical sterilization of children. Make it a serious felony.

The issue of doing any treatmentsagainst the wishes of the parents or guardian also needs to be addressed.

I recommend Virginia specify in law that judges may not make a determination of a life- or health-threatening condition in the case of a child gender dysphoria diagnosis and use that finding toorder treatments of any sortwithout parental or guardian consent.

Or, in todays highly politicized environment, one certainly will.

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Progressives in Virginia In Position to Overrule Parental Objections to Invasive Child Gender Dysphoria Treatment - Bacon's Rebellion

More than three weeks before Liz Cheneys shellacking in the Wyoming primary, it was clear across our neighboring state to the north that her campaign was kaput.

As we drove through Saratoga, Rock Springs, Jackson, Alta and beyond in late July, I counted three Cheney for Wyoming signs and dozens of Hageman for Congress billboards and yard signs. The polls were a more scientific metric for sure, and they were equally unequivocal.

Everybody knew it. Cheney was toast.

Wyoming is deeply in the thrall of the cult of Trumpism. And its not the only place that is.

Across 4,100 miles, we traveled through Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Utah and British Columbia as well as Wyoming and witnessed a smorgasbord of Americana that ranged from F Biden and Lets Go Brandon banners on homes in otherwise respectable neighborhoods in Idaho to tidy public campgrounds complete with toilets and showers for people experiencing homelessness in downtown Seattle.

As Oregon residents eagerly anticipate Jan. 1, 2023, when they will be able to buy magic mushrooms legally, in Utah possession of an ounce of marijuana can still result in a year in jail. (Which, incidentally, hasnt stopped dispensaries from crowding the highways just across the Colorado border.)

And while a recycle bin is as rare as a Democrat in Wyoming, in Washington and across the border in B.C., the conservation ethic is sacrosanct. Compostable cups, lids, straws, forks and takeout containers are the norm, and electric cars are ubiquitous.

The ideological whiplash can be breathtaking.

The West, alas, is wilder than ever and a tour of the landscape outside our Colorado bubble is both enlightening and alarming.

Lower your voice, my husband whispered as I talked about a news story about Alex Jones over breakfast in a Best Western in Evanston, Wyo., where the lobby was creepily decorated with a full complement of stuffed dead bears and other wildlife.

Just days before we had seen crowds of young people rocking to live music at an event to save wild salmon habitat.

READ:Colorado Sun opinion columnists.

Who are we?

Crossing the border provides yet another jolt of political culture shock.

At the Peace Bridge, a Canadian agent asked us if we had a gun in the car and if we owned guns at all. When we said no to both questions, she smiled.

You live in Colorado, and you dont own a gun?

Ba-dump-bump.

In the blistering summer of 2022, the political crevasse between states, countries and political parties yawns deep and wide.

What will it take to bridge the vast gap?

Liz Cheney is betting its her.

Way back in January when she voted to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection, it was obvious she had presidential ambitions and was charting her new political path.

Shes laid her bets on a majority of Americans including some Republicans coming to their senses and rejecting the corruption, the racism and the lies at the heart of the cult of Trumpism. Shes put her career on the line with her role as vice chair of the committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

Shes drawn relentless fire from her party and yet has seized the political spotlight at a time when the Democratic prospects for 2024 are keeping mum, and the Republicans Cruz, Pence, DeSantis are like Larry, Moe and Curly, bumping into each other as they try to figure out how low they must go to prostrate themselves at the feet of Trump.

At least until the indictments come down.

Cheney is patiently waiting for the fault lines to shift (as inevitably they must), leaving her the brave face of the resistance; a proud slayer of dragons, tyrants, Giulianis, Hawleys and Trumps.

Through it all, as Wyoming voters unceremoniously dump her, she is riding a wave of ovations from moderates and progressives who otherwise share few of her conservative views and openly bemoan her voting record.

And women friends, who usually strenuously disagree with her positions on abortion rights, climate, voting rights and a host of other issues, are expressing gushing admiration of Cheney for her principled stance in calling for accountability for Trump and his enablers.

Theyd vote for her, they tell me, because she has the guts to stand up to a bully. And without her, they say, Trump might easily win reelection in a field of liars, toadies and generally undistinguished potential candidates.

She might not be that bad, they say. Shes a woman. She might even be good.

Maybe.

Its a calculation Im not ready to make.

In a party where leaders can denounce Trump as a liar and a traitor, and then days later stand up to defend him, her steadfast courage is awe-inspiring. She stands firm in the face of death threats and rebukes from her party and her constituents.

For all these reasons, Liz Cheney has earned a place in history.

Shes also earned my respect.

But she hasnt yet earned my vote.

Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant.

The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Suns opinion policy and submit columns, suggest writers or give feedback at opinion@coloradosun.com.

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Carman: Here's to Liz Cheney and here's to the progressive who can beat her in 2024 whoever that may be - The Colorado Sun

Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP/Shutterstock

Mondaire Jones was first elected in 2020 to represent parts of Westchester County and Rockland County in Congress, becoming one of the first Black and openly gay members of Congress. But this year, a fiercely debated redistricting process merged his district with that of another fellow progressive, Jamaal Bowman. Rather than challenge Bowman, Jones moved 30 miles south to Brooklyn, where hes running in the newly redrawn Tenth Congressional District.

As a result, the congressman has drawn predictable allegations of carpetbagging in his race against a large field of primary candidates, including City Councilmember Carlina Rivera, State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, former congresswoman Liz Holtzman, and veteran federal prosecutor Dan Goldman (who was recently endorsed by the New York Times editorial board).

In his bid, Jones has been backed by the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and many of his congressional colleague,s including Representatives Jamie Raskin and Pramila Jayapal and Senators Cory Booker and Ed Markey. I spoke to Jones about his decision to run in another district, what actions should be taken on student-loan debt, and how Democrats need to improve their messaging to voters.

It goes without saying that redistricting forced a lot of people to change their campaign plans. For you, that resulted in you choosing to run in the Tenth District. What went into that decision?New Yorks redistricting has been a disaster. The Republican acting Supreme Court judge adopted a Republican gerrymander intended to reduce the number of Democrats in New Yorks congressional delegation and reduce the number of progressives of color. My residence was drawn into the same district where Jamaal Bowman had announced his candidacy. My options were to run against a fellow Black progressive and one of the few people who fully appreciates the threats that we face as a nation in this moment or to run against the chair of the DCCC, whose primary job responsibility it is to help us keep our majority and defeat fascism in America. It was an impossible situation. I decided to run to represent a community that has given me a lot to me. One that helped me come out as an openly gay man in America and live an authentic life. A community that I have worked in and that I now live in. And, most importantly, one whose communities I have already been fighting for and delivering for as a sitting member of Congress.

What would you say to voters who might know and respect your work in Congress but wonder if you know the district well enough to represent it?I have been working diligently with stakeholders throughout lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, diving into issues like the BQE and Gowanus Canal and the Lower East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, as well as having done a listening session with leaders in Chinatown around public safety, anti-AAPI hate, and our broken economy. Im proud to be endorsed by four different labor unions as well as the Grand Street Democrats and tenant-association leaders like Dereese Huff in Campos Plaza.

Why are you the best choice to represent the Tenth District?Voters in the Tenth want and deserve a progressive champion with a track record of actually delivering results. I am that candidate in this race. I am a leading progressive member of Congress who has helped bring billions of dollars to New York City for schools, housing, and health care. I also played a key role in getting not just Build Back Better passed through the House last fall but in enacting the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law through bringing progressives like myself and our conservative Democratic colleagues together to pass both of those bills. Now, billions of dollars are coming to New York City for infrastructure and I am running, in part, to bring as many of those dollars to lower Manhattan and to Brooklyn as possible. Im also the guy who had the vision to introduce legislation to expand the Supreme Court, long before it became popular, because I knew that we would find ourselves in this moment. My Democratic colleagues scoffed at me at the time, but now the American people are on my side. We need bold, visionary leaders like me in Congress who are willing to fight with Republicans while pushing our fellow Democrats to fight harder for the things that we say we believe in.

What did you make of the Times endorsement of Dan Goldman?Many people who read the New York Times endorsement, which featured more favorable references to the work Ive done as a sitting member of Congress, were left wondering why the endorsement was not explicitly of me rather than Mr. Goldman. Since the publication of that endorsement, New York Citys press corps is abuzz with discussion of the publisher potentially having intervened and overruled the editorial board with an instruction to endorse Dan Goldman over me in this hotly contested race. [A Times spokesperson says theres no connection between Goldman and the papers publisher.] My job is to run the strongest possible race and to let journalists do whatever investigatory work that they want to do about this.

You recently just teamed up with one of your opponents in the race, Yuh-Line Niou, for an event urging voters to support anyone but Goldman. Why?This is one of the most progressive districts in the entire United States. The idea that a self-funder who supports abortion restrictions and opposes progressive priorities like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and my legislation to expand the Supreme Court could buy his way into Congress is horrifying. It is especially horrifying at a time when we face overlapping crises requiring bold progressive leadership to get us through the climate crisis and the assault on fundamental rights as well as rising wealth inequality and wage stagnation. Can you imagine Mr. Goldman, who would become the richest member of the House, and who has not been civically engaged during the time he has not been spending at one of his many summer homes, representing NYCHA residents in Congress?

Congress just passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes significant funding for climate initiatives. What other actions should be taken to further address climate change?We need more than rebates and tax credits. We need affirmative mandates on the business community so that we can accelerate our reduction of carbon emissions by the year 2030 and by the year 2050. We also have to do more to make clean, renewable energy affordable for working-class people. We need to retrofit our public housing, and we need to create millions more electric-vehicle-charging stations. We need the Department of Defense to do the things that Ive been calling for it to do, which is reduce its carbon emissions.

An issue thats on the top of the minds of many voters is that of student-loan debt. President Biden has already taken some steps with debt relief, particularly dealing with for-profit schools, but do you believe Biden should tackle student-loan debt in a more substantial way?I am proud to have helped get this president to a point where he will now cancel some student debt. I think all of it should be canceled. We have reached a legislative impasse that requires executive action, specifically under the Higher Education Act. When I met with the president in the Roosevelt Room a few months ago, I told him that student-debt cancellation isnt just an issue of racial justice and of gender justice. It is also an issue of LGBTQ+ justice. We know that members of the LGBTQ+ community disproportionately have student-loan debt because their families are more likely to disown them and not provide the support that other people in our society received from their family members.

That is the value of having bold progressive leaders like me in Congress who are able to pivot to other ways, outside of the legislative process, of accomplishing progressive goals while still fighting hard legislatively in Congress. I also did this with Cori Bush and AOC last August when we rallied outside the Capitol on those steps for days on end calling for the president to reverse his position and instruct the CDC to extend the nations eviction moratorium, which he did. Thats the kind of savvy progressive leadership that I have already demonstrated. Many people have asked the question, Why would you not send someone like that back to Congress? Especially in such a time as this when on-the-job training is not something we should be accommodating.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, theres been a push to codify abortion rights on the federal and state level.What steps are you personally advocating for?I have called for a Supreme Court expansion to restore balance, integrity, and a pro-fundamental-rights majority to a rogue, far-right institution. I have also been leading the fight to limit the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Most cases decided by the Court, the Court is only able to decide because Congress has specifically legislated jurisdiction for it to do so. I have pushed to include provisions in the Womens Health Protection Act and in my legislation with Jerry Nadler, called the Respect for Marriage Act, to deprive the Supreme Court of jurisdiction to review matters arising under those statutes and to channel jurisdiction to more favorable courts like the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. I think that kind of creative, aggressive energy is needed now more than ever to protect fundamental rights. We know that Justice Thomas and his majority are not stopping with the issue of abortion. He said as much in his concurring opinion in Dobbs.

Public safety is a significant issue for many New Yorkers, but, at the same time, there are some who are concerned that some moves to improve safety could come at the expense of criminal-justice reform. How should lawmakers try to balance those two concerns? New Yorkers deserve to feel and actually be safe. Black and brown communities also deserve to not be overpoliced and brutalized. We need a member of Congress from this district who is going to push state, local, and federal governments not to be reactionary but rather to address the root causes of crime. That means investments in education, housing, and mental-health support. It also means ending the epidemic of gun violence through common-sense federal action, like the assault-weapons ban that I helped pass in the House as a very active member of the Judiciary Committee. And it means giving law enforcement the tools to address the rise in white-supremacist domestic terrorism, whether against our AAPI brothers and sisters, our Jewish brothers and sisters, or other communities of color.

You mentioned making reforms to mental-health care in this country. What are some actions that the federal government could take there that it hasnt so far?The federal government could pass Medicare for All, which I am proud to co-sponsor and be a champion for, unlike my opponent, Daniel Goldman, who opposes Medicare for All. It would make sure that people have the mental-health support they need as a human right, regardless of their employment status or how much money they have in their pockets or bank accounts.

Theres speculation that the Democratic Party could lose control of the House following November. How are you feeling about your partys chances in the midterms?Im feeling optimistic, especially given the climate and health-care bill we passed last Friday (the Inflation Reduction Act), which the president will sign today. However, we need to be able to message our accomplishments to the American people in a way that is galvanizing. We also have to assure people that, if we retain the majority, we will continue to make transformational change. Those two projects have not been well executed this congressional term. Weve got to tell people not only to vote but what were going to do if they vote us back in. It means weve got to tell people were going to pick up just at least two more Democratic Senate seats to make future filibusters an impossibility.

So you feel that theres sometimes this disconnect between what the party can and has accomplished and how much voters know about that and understand that?There is that disconnect. There is also a disconnect among many people in the House Democratic Caucus and how Democratic voters in particular are feeling. Its not enough, as I have reminded some of my colleagues, to tell people that we are better than the other folks. Most Americans know that. Most Americans also agree overwhelmingly with the policies that we propose.

The issue is that people dont trust us to get these things done. They see unified Democratic control of the federal government in this moment, and they wonder why we havent passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act after the largest protest movement in generations a few summers ago. They wonder how it could be that we couldnt get Build Back Better through the House last fall when weve got a majority in the Senate, the majority in the House, and a president of the United States who is moderate yet proposed that legislation. This is why we need people like me to continue to give people hope that there are folks within the House Democratic Caucus and within the broader Democratic Party who get what is at stake and what we need to be fighting for in this moment. Not folks like Dan Goldman who think Donald Trump started all of our problems and that all of our problems will go away once hes out of the picture.

I ran for Congress last cycle because I knew firsthand based on my upbringing and based on being an openly gay Black man in America that we had a lot of problems in this country even before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016. For me, policy is personal.

So you think there is too much focus on Donald Trump?As I said during the last debate, the Republican Party was an anti-democratic, racist party long before the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Donald Trump didnt happen overnight. Voters in the modern-day Republican Party were prepared to vote for a figure like Donald Trump and are prepared to reelect him in 2024, despite all of the evidence of his criminality and mismanagement of our economy during his first presidency.

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Mondaire Jones on the Need to Meet Progressive Expectations - New York Magazine

The Manly Sea Eagles rainbow jersey saga represents the new progressive Holy Trinity of diversity, inclusion, and equality with a steep social penalty for failing to toe the line.

Anyone declining to affirm this new godhead, even if remaining neutral, find themselves denounced as heretics and subjected to public shaming. Progressives claim to promote tolerance but hypocritically exclude those with different views or beliefs, including those who do not actively demonstrate allegiance to progressive orthodoxy.

Identity politics has been weaponised to divide the believers from the non-believers and manufacture divisions that create unnecessary polarisation within society.

The Australia of today is accepting, open-minded, and very far from the bastion of homophobia and transphobia that fringe rainbow activists would have you believe. In 2017, over 60 per cent of the population (myself included) voted in a plebiscite to approve changes to the Marriage Act 1961allowing same-sex couples to marry. Same-sex couples now enjoy equal rights with heterosexual couples under the law, and many Australians have celebrated the joy of seeing loved ones able to marry their same-sex partners.

People with same-sex orientation are protected from discrimination under an array of federal and state laws. They also enjoy significant funding and support from all levels of government in addition to the private sector contributions.

Prominent LGBTQ+ charity ACON receives over $12 million annually from the New South Wales Minister for Health to promote their agenda, with an additional $12 million earmarked earlier this year specifically for the New South Wales LGBTQ+ Health Strategy including gender-affirming care. The City of Sydney is hosting World Pride in 2023, assisted by a generous grant of $500,000 from Lord Mayor Clover Moore. The annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (that has its roots in 1978 when gays and lesbians were shamefully subjected to police brutality and arrested on Oxford St simply for protesting for equal rights under the law) is now a fully corporatised, sponsored, family-friendly televised event that is attended by politicians, businesses, and government departments. During Pride Month, the Sydney CBD and Town Hall are festooned with the ever-more inclusive Progress flag. On Transgender Day of Remembrance, New South Wales Police fly the trans flag over their headquarters for a week. The taxpayer-funded ABC also has an entire platform, ABC Queer,dedicated to LGBTQ+ issues.

The battle for LGB rights has been won with the achievement of equality under the law, yet fringe activists operating under the ever-expanding LGBTQ+ rainbow umbrella are acting as if we are back in the dark ages of the 1970s when being gay or lesbian meant you could lose your job, be shunned by your community, excommunicated from your faith, denied healthcare or housing, lose custody of your children, be arrested, bashed, or even murdered.

Activist groups needed to pivot their ideology to continue to justify their oppression status, bloated taxpayer-funded budgets, and generous remuneration packages for professional activists.

Adding the T, I, Q, A, and thepluswas a stroke of marketing genius as it created new oppressed minorities to fight for. The legacy sympathy of the general public was capitalised upon, meaning that the previous acceptance of ordinary Australians for the legacy movement was no longer enough. Fringe activists using the rainbow as a cultural sword have morphed into an aggressive and retaliatory movement that denounces anyone as transphobes, homophobes, or bigots if they do not actively demonstrate allegiance to their ideological zealotry.

The demands of the LGBTQ+ movement know no bounds and they wield an inordinate amount of power in both public and private institutions through Diversity and Inclusion programs.

In New South Wales, ACON uses their Pride in Diversity program to lobby for ubiquitous influence within organisations, corporations, and government departments. Organisations that have signed up to the scheme are ranked on ACONs Australian Workplace Equality Indexwith trophies handed out at a glittering annual awards night.Points are earned for the index by the implementation of policies and procedures detailed in a lengthy compliance form that embeds an LGBTQ+ centric worldview.

Sport is not immune from this activism. ACONs Pride in Sport program, launched in October 2020, saw the NRL sign on as one of the nine major sporting codes to get involved. This has resulted in the prioritisation of LGBTQ+ activism about above all other minority groups. It has also had the unexpected consequence (from the publics perspective) of removing sex as the basis for sporting categories while granting access to facilities and resources on the basis of a self-declared gender identity. Women and girls are no longer assured of female-only teams, competitions, or change rooms.

Ian Roberts is an NRL champion who had the courage to come out in the 1990s when the gay community was still suffering the aftershocks of the AIDS epidemic. It was a tumultuous time for Roberts, exacting a personal toll with some players and sections of the media refusing to accept him. Roberts was recently used as the spokesperson for the Manly Sea Eagles Pride jersey announcement. Reportedly, it was an initiative of the marketing department where the shock announcement was foisted on players without consultation and, apparently, without the knowledge or consensus of the Sea Eagles players, the teams board, or major sponsors.

This tale should come as no surprise to those who are familiar with themodus operandifor institutional capture by Pride activists. Policies and campaigns are deliberately negotiated by stealth to avoid scrutiny or criticism, then presented as a fait accompli a common tactic used to prevent the involvement of other stakeholders who may object. Arguably, little or no consideration is given to other minority groups.

There is no suggestion that the Manly Sea Eagles marketing department was lobbied by ACONs Pride in Sport, but Roberts was a spokesperson for the Pride in Sport launch in 2020 when nine major Australian sporting codes, including the NRL, announced policies displacing biological sex as the characteristic for sporting categories in favour of self-declared gender identity.

Australia is a liberal democracy, and people are free to hold beliefs and practise religion without interference by the state, even if that includes offending those who believe in the LGBTQ+ orthodoxy.

Professor Peter Kurti said:

Religious discrimination bills that were presented in the last Parliament were not about upholding the right to religious freedom but rather provided an anti-discrimination framework that would protect religious people from discriminatory practises in public life.

Kurti added:

In a modern society such as ours, such legislation really should not be necessary, however, Christians are being singled out for attack and vulnerable to discrimination.

Other religious practises do not attract the same opprobrium when their followers make decisions based on the tenets of their faith. AFLW player Haneen Zreika, for example, did not attract the same level of vitriol when she declined to wear the Pride jersey due to her Muslim beliefs earlier this year.

According to professor Jioji Ravulo, the practise of the Christian religion in Pasifika culture is intertwined and indivisible from family and community. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, same-sex relationships were not shamed or othered, but regarded as an expression of connecting socially and relationally with others. The notion of fear and shame about homosexuality was imported into Pasifika culture by the colonisation of the West.

Kat Karena, a Maori woman of Rangitne and Ngti Kahungunu, Lesbian, and founder of LGB Defence said:

With many Polynesians, Christianity is a major part of family life and culture. If these Pacific Islanders choose family life and culture over sports, its their right of choice. It seems strange to me that Westerners are quick to cast slurs on those of a Polynesian culture who have had a longer history acceptance of homosexuality, than they.

Karena went on to add:

And it wasnt so long ago, it was the waving of the crosses and demands by their forefathers to kowtow. Nothings changed, now people are waving rainbow symbols instead of crosses and behind all of it is still about compliance over choice. I know that NRL signed up to ACONs Pride In Sports compliance audit. Under that rainbow audit most club players and members arent aware that public marketing of LGBQTIA is not a choice, as well as allowing males in womens changing rooms is not a choice for clubs, allowing me in womens sports, celebrating the many days of LGBQTIA, are not choices either under that audit. As a gay woman those are my reasons to reject Pride in Sports rainbow agenda, its not good for women, culture, or freedom of choice.

To their credit, Manly coach Des Hasler and the Manly Sea Eagles acknowledged that they had made a mistake in being insensitive to the culture and religion of the Manly Seven, although it came too late for the games against St George Illawarra Dragons, where the benching of those key players resulted in a 20-6 loss.

Australians overwhelmingly support LGB rights and are entirely comfortable with people of same-sex orientations, but the forced teaming of LGB with the T and the mandatory demonstrations of allegiance are creating a backlash. It is no longer possible to accept the existence of difference in our multicultural society. The Pride flag has morphed from representing gays and lesbians into a catchall Progressive banner which now includes self-declared Woke identities trans, queer, intersex, asexual, questioning, two-spirit, and any of the multitude of gender identities to be found in social media bios or on Tik Tok.

Rainbow activists profess to represent the most vulnerable and oppressed. Yet the refusal of the Manly Seven Pasifika men of faith to acquiesce to activist demands drew abuse, and they were sidelined. The hopes of Sea Eagles fans may have been dashed for the season, demonstrating to us all that LGBTQ+ activists are not the exemplars of diversity, inclusion, and equality that they claim to be. Rather, they are nothing more than authoritarians draped in rainbows and glitter.

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The progressive Holy Trinity is far from divine - The Spectator Australia