Jonesboro Public Library Hires New Director After LGBT Controversy
On Feb. 3, the Jonesboro Sun reported that the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library Board hired Vanessa Adams to serve as the library’s new executive director. The decision comes after the library’s previous executive director and assistant director resigned late last year. The Jonesboro Public Library made headlines multiple times in recent months over controversial material in the library’s children’s section.
In June, the library placed a large selection of pro-LGBT material in its children’s library area. One mother noted that the picture books showed very young children identifying with different sexual orientations. The publishers’ age range for these books reportedly was as young as four years old.
In October, a Fort Smith attorney and a former library board member filed a lawsuit alleging that the library board’s Sensitive Content Subcommittee violated Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act. The lawsuit alleged that the subcommittee met after learning that “several books in the library’s children’s section contain nudity, sexual conduct and graphic images of various sexual acts,” but failed to properly advertise the subcommittee meeting to the public ahead of time as required by state law. Because the meeting was not advertised, parents and families did not know that the subcommittee was meeting to discuss the presence of sexually-explicit material in the children’s library — meaning they did not have an opportunity to make their voices heard about the graphic material.
Following the controversy, the Jonesboro Sun reports that the Jonesboro Public Library’s executive director and assistant director submitted their resignations late last year, citing “the surrounding uproar following the gay pride display as the reason for their departures.” (familycouncil.org)
Olympics Hit Record Low Ratings
The television ratings for the Beijing Olympics have hit a record low as people around the world are boycotting the Genocide Games. Friday’s Opening Ceremony drew just 16 million viewers for NBC across TV and streaming — a record low, and 43% lower than the viewership for 2018’s Winter Games in South Korea, according to Yahoo Sports.
It is a record low for the Opening Ceremony (20.1 million for 1988 in Calgary was the previous record). That was a whopping 43% below the 2018 Games in South Korea that notched 28.3 million viewers despite also dealing with a less than advantageous Asian time zone for American audiences.
Sara Fischer at the website Axios places part of the blame on empty stadiums due to incredibly strict COVID protocols, since having fans in the stands makes the Olympic Games more fun to watch live. But Yahoo says genocide is to blame and the blatant propaganda of having a persecuted minority light the Olympic flame.
Numerous countries, including the United States, are staging a “diplomatic boycott” of these games due to what they say is China’s active campaign of genocide against the Uyghurs, a minority ethnic group of mostly Muslims in the far northwest part of the country. China denies the charge but has also banned United Nations human rights officials from entering the region.
It ended with China using cross country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang, who the state run media said has Uyghur heritage, as one of the cauldron lighters. It was a clear counter to the claims of genocide — see, look at this smiling, celebrated Uyghur. It was a disturbing and dispiriting moment, a young athlete and an iconic moment in every Olympics used as a propaganda prop to cover up a campaign of slavery, torture, forced abortions and internment in reeducation camps. It did nothing to build good feelings toward the competition. As such, rather than a celebration, this feels, and looks, like a grind of hardship, isolation and suspicion. (lifenews.com)
Court Overturns $135K Fine for Christian Bakery, Upholds Ruling
An Oregon appeals court told a state agency Wednesday to reconsider its order for a Christian couple to pay $135,000 in damages for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding on grounds that the state’s actions did “not reflect… neutrality toward religion.” However, the panel upheld its earlier ruling that their bakery violated state law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Aaron and Melissa Klein, who owned Sweetcakes by Melissa in Gresham, have engaged in years of litigation over an Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) order punishing them for refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.
In a decision Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon maintained that the Kleins unlawfully discriminated by refusing to make a cake for the wedding of Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer in 2013. However, the panel reversed the order requiring the couple to pay $135,000 in damages.
In the refusal to bake the cake for the wedding ceremony, Aaron Klein cited his religious beliefs and a verse from Leviticus. The Bowman-Cryers filed a complaint with BOLI, which ruled that the Kleins had violated Oregon’s accommodations statute barring discrimination based on sexual orientation. As a result of the BOLI ruling against them, the Kleins were fined $135,000 in damages and they chose to close the bakery.
The Kleins appealed the BOLI order to the Oregon Court of Appeals in 2016. After the Oregon court upheld the order, they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018. In June 2019, the Supreme Court issued an order vacating the ruling against the Kleins and sent the case back to the state court of appeals. The nation’s high court cited its 2018 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
In Masterpiece, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that Colorado Civil Rights Commission showed an unconstitutional anti-religious animus toward Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop when it punished him for refusing to make a cake for a gay wedding. (christianpost.com)
South Dakota Bans Men From Competing in as “Trans Athletes”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has signed a bill into law that, among other things, prohibits men who self-identify as female from competing in women’s sports. Noem signed Senate Bill 46, also known as “An Act to protect fairness in women’s sports” into law on Thursday, having been overwhelmingly passed in the House and Senate. At the official signing ceremony, Noem explained that she believed the new law would give women and girls “a level playing field” in athletic competitions in South Dakota.
The South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union denounced the bill’s passage, claiming that it was discriminatory against trans-identified individuals.
In March 2021, Noem issued a style and form veto of a similar bill passed by state legislators, arguing that parts of the proposed legislation needed revisions. Recently, several state legislatures have debated bills aimed at barring men who self-identify as female from participating in sports designated for women and girls. (christianpost.com)
