Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Texas Senate approves ‘religious refusal’ adoption measure
May 22, 2017
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ Republican-controlled Senate approved a bill early Monday that allows publicly funded foster care and adoption agencies to refuse to place children with non-Christian, unmarried or gay prospective parents because of religious objections.
The “Freedom to Serve Children Act” received a late push in the Legislature ahead of the May 29 end of session. Conservatives have made creating exemptions for sincerely held religious beliefs a major theme this year, with lawmakers backed by the tea party movement inserting language protecting them in myriad bills, ranging from rules for practicing law to pharmacists.
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https://www.apnews.com/a536397e38554b83bc71a0cc37a084eb/Texas-Senate-approves-'religious-refusal'-adoption-measure


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Trump Supporters Have Built A Document With The Addresses And Phone Numbers Of Thousands Of Anti-Trump Activists
The document appears to contain the biographical information of thousands of people who signed a public petition from April condemning the Trump administration. Update: The organizers of the original petition have released a statement.
May 21, 2017 Updated on May 22, 2017
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UPDATE
May 22, 2017, at 4:28 a.m
Refusefacism.org [ https://refusefascism.org/ ] released a statement [ https://refusefascism.org/2017/05/21/no-fascist-trolls-will-not-stop-the-fight-against-the-trumppence-regime/ ] Sunday condemning the dox.
"It has come to our attention that a network of 'alt-right' fascists have, in the most cowardly and thuggish way, unleashed a campaign to dig into and publish everything they can find about the personal lives of the thousands of individuals who courageously and righteously signed the Call to Action issued by Refuse Fascism," they write. "In this same spirit, we will respond to this attack by exposing to the world the nature and danger posed by these fascist cowards, by defeating their attempts to destroy people’s lives, and by bringing forward even more people to stand up against the fascist regime to say: NO! We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America."
The website has not taken down the page listing every signatory of the petition.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/trump-supporters-have-built-a-document-with-the-addresses [with comments]


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‘Discrimination Sunday’: Texas rushes to pass transgender ‘bathroom bill’ and measure allowing bias in adoptions, foster care
May 22, 2017
As the Texas legislative session nears its official end, the state’s lieutenant governor is so set on passing a “bathroom bill” that he is threatening to hold the budget hostage and force a special session if he doesn’t get his way.
Sunday night, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s tactic seemed to be working.
The House passed a measure that would prohibit transgender students in public and charter schools from using a bathroom that matches their gender identity.
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And that’s not all Texas lawmakers did Sunday night. The Senate voted to advance another bill decried by LGBT advocates as discriminatory, a measure that would allow publicly funded foster care providers and adoption agencies to refuse to place children with non-Christian, unmarried or gay parents because of religious objections.
It was a frenzied night for Texas Democrats and civil rights groups, who fiercely protested both measures across social media into the early hours of the morning.
Equality Texas shared a tweet from one critic who summed up the day in one post: “Let’s just call today discrimination Sunday.”
In an act of protest, a small group of Democratic women legislators went to the men’s restroom [

Women Representatives in the Men Representatives' bathroom prior to debate re: bathrooms. #txlege @DonnaHowardTX @CeliaIsrael @GinaForAustin pic.twitter.com/WudlgzYSD4

— Victoria Neave (@Victoria4Texas) May 21, 2017

] just off the House floor before the debate.
House Republicans advanced the hotly debated “bathroom bill” as an amendment tacked on to a broader, otherwise unrelated public school bill regarding emergency operations plans.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/22/discrimination-sunday-texas-rushes-to-pass-transgender-bathroom-bill-and-measure-allowing-bias-in-adoptions-foster-care/ [with embedded video, and comments]