Manipulative Activists + A Lying Media = HB1557
They Have to Write Bills like HB 1557 Because Well-Funded Activist Groups Are Manipulative Extortionists and The Legacy Media Outlets Are Liars - and many in the public don't seem to really care.
As a citizen in this country and I’m righteously angry, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t mince words.
I’m angry because Florida Bill HB 1557 even had to be written at all. In general, I’m not a fan of legislating every detail of our lives and it’s my belief that legislation is invoked too often as it is. The types of bills are usually vague, broad and are loaded with opportunities for unintended consequences. Open public discourse that results in a consensus agreed upon by majority public opinion is the way to go, if possible. In fact, I’d argue that Bill 1557, the Parents Rights in Education bill, is actually not a well-written piece of legislation.
But Well-Funded Activists Groups and the Legacy Media have all but stolen our right to open public discourse in the past few years, with Politicians shuffling right behind. Everyday citizens with no ties to activist groups or media outlets are simply trying to live our lives. We don’t have massive budgets to play ideological warfare on social media 24 hours a day, and we know that the Legacy Media is basically our enemy at this point, so when we would like to have a voice, we turn to our elected officials for help. I’ve been told this is the ‘democratic process’ our federal elected officials keep saying is so important we save, you’d think going through our elected officials for whom we vote to represent us would be a perfectly appropriate response when we have no recourse otherwise. After all, the Well-Paid Activist Groups do it all the time; constantly, I’ve discovered. It just seems they just take great offense when us deplorables regular people are attempt to do the same.
At this point, Well-Funded Activists Groups and the Legacy Media are attempting to steal our ability to do this, too. Before I get too ahead of myself, let’s define what I mean by Well-Funded Activists Groups.
Well-Funded Activists Groups
The scope of the activism industry in the U.S. is so large, it is difficult to know where to even begin quantifying how much scope and influence it has. There are activism groups ranging from climate change, to racial justice, to LGBTQ, to religious, to lobbyists for big oil and on and on. I was quite surprised to learn from this article in The Nation that the non-profit industry has “ballooned into the third largest employer in the country.” A book that does far more research than I could ever hope to complete on the subject entitled The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex states that “as a trillion-dollar industry, the US non-profit sector is one of the world's largest economies.”
One thing is for sure - this industry as a whole has run amok. The origins of running amok comes most directly comes from the Malay amuck, more or less meaning “attacking furiously” or “attacking with uncontrollable rage” Yes. This is exactly what is happening in our society right now - our society is being viscously and incessantly attacked by the Well Funded Activist Industry. It’s gotten so bad that in March 2022, GLAAD issued a press release stating “GLAAD to grade film studios on political donations, public advocacy and global LGBTQ content in annual Studio Responsibility Index after corporate inaction around anti-LGBTQ legislation in Florida and other states.” You read that correctly - not even Hollywood is doing enough advocacy on the part of the LGBTQ community, according to the opinion of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation group, so they’ve decided to resort to what is in effect, a shakedown and extortion of the industry.
In the online description of the The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, it describes the book’s aims in this manner:
“The Revolution Will Not Be Funded gathers essays by radical activists, educators, and non-profit staff from around the globe who critically rethink the long-term consequences of what they call the "non-profit industrial complex." Drawing on their own experiences, the contributors track the history of non-profits and provide strategies to transform and work outside them. Urgent and visionary, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded presents a biting critique of the quietly devastating role the non-profit industrial complex plays in managing dissent.”
We can all agree that the Activists I’m referring to in the article’s byline are not the parent or volunteer working for the Booster Club or PTA, or even the lone parent at a school board meeting looking to change the school’s homework policy for their 4th grader. That type of person, the everyday parent looking to make a better world at their local school for their child, probably has only a smidgeon of an idea of the scope of the Well-Funded Activists Groups they are going up against when they suggest that their local legislator might need to step in with a bill to help them maintain their rights, It’s name becomes the Parents Right in Education bill, thinking that no one could possibly find a logical way to disagree that parents should have rights in their child’s education.
What regular parents know is that in March 2020, they began hearing the lessons taught to their children while they were home during the pandemic, while simultaneously having more time to do research what’s going on in other parts of the country. What they learned between 2020 and 2021 is what Discovery.com calls The Radical Reshaping of K-12 Public Education (Part 1): Gender Redefinition & Self-Selection. They begin seeing stories shared online like this one from the Epoch Times, in which teachers leaked an aggressive new strategy put forth to the legislator by the The California Teachers Association that lobbied for students as young as 12 to be able to receive hormone therapy without a parent’s consent. California already has laws in place that allow students to receive an abortion without a parent’s consent, as well as laws that restricted a teacher from sharing a child’s gender identity without a child’s consent.
The citizens of Florida wanted their lawmakers to do something about this aggressive campaigning to destroy their authority over their own kids, so they did. They named it the Parents Rights in Education bill and it began going through the voting process in November 2021. Almost immediately, the bill received a nickname falsely labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This nickname was completely dishonest from the get-go, a total falsehood that is not a reflection of the bill itself, but the nickname went viral on social media and eventually exploded in the news. Anytime someone reported on the bill, the headline opened with something to the effect of What is in the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” Bill? (I guess the “No Promo Homo” catchphrase that the non-profit group Equality Texas tried to get going wasn’t quite as catchy).
Where does messaging like this start? While I can’t say for certain I’ve found a ‘ground-zero’ starting point, I did find a website called Movement Advancement Project. This website tracks legislation in all 50 states and cross references the legislation through a Democracy Map.
According to a report on the website titled 2021 National LGBTQI Movement Report; A Financial Overview of Leading Organizations in the LGBTQI Movement:
“Across 39 participating organizations, a combined 2020 revenue totaled $398.5 million, exceeding combined 2020 expenses ($303.8 million) by roughly $95 million—a dramatically higher differential than in previous years.”
This website contains intricately woven pieces of data with easy-to-use infographics that allow users to get snapshots of all types of policies that affect the LGBTQI Community. Under the “Equality Maps” tab, there is a chart listed with all 50 states with three categories: LGBTQ-Inclusive Curricular Standards, Parental Opt-Out Laws, and Don’t Say Gay Laws, which the site defines as “policies that restrict teachers and staff from even talking about LGBTQ issues and people.”
“Don’t Say Gay” Laws or Regulations: These policies restrict school teachers and staff from discussing LGBTQ issues and people. These polices are written to bar such discussion within sex education programming, but they are often vaguely written and can be misapplied by schools to limit discussion and inclusion of LGBTQ people and issues in other parts of the curriculum, school events and programs, and even extracurricular activities.”
“These policies restrict school teachers and staff from discussing LGBTQ issues and people.” One piece of messaging I’ve heard tied to this legislation is this hypothetical situation: “If as student asks me about my weekend and I’m trans, I won’t be able to tell them anything because I would not be able to mention my partner whom I spent my weekend with.” This is, of course, a false flag based on a good story; there’s nothing in the bill that comes close to restricting this type of situation. The actual bill states:
“Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Technically, whether it was the intention on the part of the lawmakers or not, this bill prohibits ANY discussion of sexual orientation in grades K-3, which includes heterosexual or homosexual orientation. Not missing an opportunity, the Well-Funded Activist Groups wanted the public to immediately assume this was a bill aimed at the LGBTQ community specifically and have been successful in convincing the public as such.
As I read through more of the information on the site, it became obvious this group is not interested in honesty or truth-telling, even to its’ own audience. They lay out Best Practice Messaging guides called “The Art and Science of Framing an Issue” and “Communications Campaign Best Practices.” There’s no doubt these instruction manuals are highly effective, however, there’s not one reference in any of their messaging that encourages honesty with the public when communicating what is in a bill or piece of legislation. In fact, there wasn’t a single time when referencing Florida Bill HB 1557on their website that they called the bill by its actual title.
Their messaging, which is mostly centered on communicating with their allies in the community, repeatedly uses manipulated terminology as a tactic throughout its’ literature. As an example, in the guide Transgender Youth Participation in Sports, a sentence states “anti-LGBTQ opponents have been introducing legislation seeking to ban transgender youth from participating in K-12 school sports.” This statement is inaccurate and intentionally misleading. By the guide’s title, the issue at hand is “transgender youth,” not lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer youth. The issue of transgender youth competing in sports has everything to do with allowing sports to remain as competitive and equitable as possible by not giving one person a natural advantage over other competitors; the LGBQ around the T is completely irrelevant to every national discussion I’ve seen on the issue. There’s not one article I’ve read that refers to a child’s sexual orientation in regards to competing in sports. By repeatedly grouping the LGBTQ community together on every issue in the public eye and in marketing campaigns, this group seeks to vilify anyone who opposes policies that the Activist Groups want to push through as “anti-LGBTQ” to the community as a whole.
This word manipulation is also used repeatedly by framing every bill that isn’t actively pro-LGBTQ as anti-LGBTQ. Even legislation or policies that aren’t as pro-LGTBQ as they would like to see are labeled anti-LGBTQ, or on their Democracy Table, are given a “negative law” rating. One tracker on this site are laws where parents can opt-out of LGBTQ-Inclusive Curricula; this is given a negative score on their tracker.
“Parental Opt-Out of LGBTQ-Inclusive Curricula: The laws require parents to be notified in advance of any LGBTQ-inclusive curricula and allow parents to opt their children out of these classes. These laws build on existing state laws about parental notification and opt-out for sex education, but the LGBTQ opt-out laws are distinct because they require parental notification and opt-out for any LGBTQ or sexuality-related content, regardless of whether or not the content is in the context of sex education.”
This tactic is not given enough scrutiny. By keeping the community united in the public eye, the 39 activist organizations and their budget of $398 million get to remain in tact, fighting for the “same causes.” What would happen to that $398 million if the T was separated ideologically from the LBG? How much of the funding would remain with the transgender activists and how much would go with the gay and lesbian activists? How much do those individuals have in common with each other, in terms of social justice causes? And how much do the lesbian, gay and bisexual communities (not the Well-Funded Activist Groups) feel as though they still need such aggressive, continued activism?
In the last few years, there has been a louder discussion about just that. An article in Quillette titled It's Time for 'LGB' and 'T' to Go Their Separate Ways. The article states:
“After the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide in the landmark 2015 decision Obergefell v. Hodges, many believed the fight for gay rights would begin to wind down. Yet that didn’t happen. Instead, the LGBT-advocacy sector simply redirected its available staff, fundraising and rhetoric to other projects. I know this because I saw this happen, both as a university student, gay man and equal-rights advocate….Gays, lesbians and bisexuals all have something obvious in common: same-sex attraction. This is an alternative sexual orientation that, to some extent at least, shapes our experiences and alters our life outcomes. We typically identify with our biological sex—and in fact, sometimes have spent many years feeling trapped by it. To be gay is to understand that sex is set at birth. My sexual attraction, likewise, is based on hard-wired factors beyond my control.”
I’ve wondered how actual people within the LGTBQ community feel about the manner in which these Well-Funded Activist Groups are representing them in the public eye. The aggressive tactics of these groups is increasing and there seems to be no brakes on the activism train. Almost all of the hyper-aggressive tactics I’ve seen deployed come from the transgender lobbyists and activists to advance the causes of the transgender community, however it’s always framed in name of “LGBTQ rights.” Part of the escalation of aggression includes actively seeking to break the bonds between parental authority and their child. For example, this article in the Spectator from 2019 identifies a legal document that provides the framework to completely usurp parent’s rights with their children and bypass the ire of public critique by being maliciously sneaky.
“So the question again: how did organisations with small budgets and limited resources achieve such stunning success, not just in the UK but elsewhere? Well, thanks to the legal website Roll On Friday, I have now seen a document that helps answer that question.
The document is the work of Dentons, which says it is the world’s biggest law firm; the Thomson Reuters Foundation, an arm of the old media giant that appears dedicated to identity politics of various sorts; and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Youth & Student Organisation (IGLYO). Both Dentons and the Thomson Reuters Foundation note that the document does not necessarily reflect their views.
The report is called 'Only adults? Good practices in legal gender recognition for youth'. Its purpose is to help trans groups in several countries bring about changes in the law to allow children to legally change their gender, without adult approval and without needing the approval of any authorities. 'We hope this report will be a powerful tool for activists and NGOs [non-governmental organizations] working to advance the rights of trans youth across Europe and beyond,' says the foreword.”
How are we supposed to look at the Well-Funded Activist Groups, in this case the Well Funded Trans Activist Groups, and come away with any other conclusion than they hate parents and the democratic process and don’t feel beholden to either one of them? To have a civilized society, there must be some foundation of truth that is accepted by the majority. In the United States, the rights of the parent over their child in all decisions regarding their health, education and upbringing was paramount, finite and universally accepted. That was until about two years ago; now we are suddenly seeing nefarious groups and radical activists challenging that ideal with veracity. In the past few months, articles like this one in the Washington Post begin to show up; these articles are seething with contempt for the parental authority of their child’s education. The article elicits a ridiculous comparison between parents trying to maintain authority over their child in 2022 with white segregationists decrying desegregation during the Civil Rights Era.
Which leads to the dishonesty of our Legacy Media.
The Legacy Media
I am loathe to continue referring to them with such a kind label as Legacy Media. Michael Malice refers to them as The Cathedral. I prefer the Media Industrial Complex. But for the purposes of this entry, I’ll generously use the Legacy Media. This group of news affiliates throughout the country are some of the oldest organizations in the country and over the last 6-7 years have relaxed ethical standards of journalism (that’s a very generous way of putting it). Some of them have thrown ethical and honest journalism out altogether in favor of hiring activists masquerading as journalists that have taken over news rooms. In this video, New York Times Magazine chief national correspondent Mark Leibovich “talks about his new book 'This Town,' which presents a blistering, penetrating and controversial look at Washington's incestuous 'media industrial complex.'“ The term media industrial complex goes back even as far as President Dwight David Eisenhower when he warned of them in his farewell address.
Just the Headlines…..
A cursory Google search in early 2022 for “Parents Rights in Education Bill” would lead to articles headlined with the bill’s falsely labeled nickname “Don’t Say Gay.” But if a regular person didn’t know what the real title of the bill was, they’d probably search “Don’t Say Gay” to find out, only to be assaulted with numerous headlines, misleading journalism and intentionally incomplete reporting. The false headlining is, in itself, a lie that many journalists don’t even bother to clear up in the articles themselves. I’ve found numerous articles that never refer to the bill by its’ legal name, the Parents Rights in Education Bill; the journalists either refer to it as the Don’t Say Gay bill or just vaguely as “the bill.” Often, the authors of the pieces use the word “so-called” to describe the title “Don’t Say Gay,” as though they themselves weren’t the ones who started referring to it using that terminology. They refer to the bill as “controversial by its’ critics,” while not clarifying who the critics are. (After all, it would be a bit awkward if the journalists writing the stories themselves had to refer to themselves as the critics while trying to make the reader think there’s many more critics than their actually are) While decrying the bill’s vague wording, they themselves lie or mislead using vague references in their reporting, and the article’s are frequently written from an opinion perspective without the news outlet labeling the article “opinion.”
An Associated Press Article titled ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passes in Florida, goes to governor doesn’t ever use the accurate title when referencing the bill, nor does it link to the actual copy of the bill throughout the entire article. The author does link to three other AP news articles when attempting to substantiate its claims, a tactic that many news outlets resort to frequently and that is too often overlooked by readers. This article is not labeled “opinion.”
This article in Time magazine titled Florida Just Passed The "Don't Say Gay" Bill. Here’s What It Means for Kids also never links to the actual bill nor references its’ correct title. This article written under the “Politics: LGBTQ” section of the paper is not labeled “Opinion.”
This article from NBC News contains the headline “Don’t Say Gay’ bill: Florida Senate passes controversial LGBTQ school measure.” While the article does reference the actual title once, it never links to the actual bill; it’s under the “Out Politics and Policy” section of the website and isn’t labeled “Opinion.”
This ABC News Segment shared on YouTube is titled Florida’s controversial 'Don’t Say Gay' bill advances. There’s not a link to the actual bill in the video’s description, something that many of the 1,700 commenters observed, nor is there a reference to the accurate title of the bill itself.
Human Rights Watch’s article is headlined Florida Advances 'Don’t Say Gay' Bill; while the article does link to the bill itself, it never refers to the bill with its’ actual title.
This CBS News article goes further in its’ headline by asserting another lie: Florida advances "Don't Say Gay" bill that would bar LGBTQ discussions in schools. This bill does no such thing.
In this USA Today article, 'Don't Say Gay' bill raises concerns among Florida LGBTQ community and allies, the premise of the article is the vague wording of the bill, while simultaneously never referring to the bill’s real name once, nor does it link to the bill for reference.
This article in Variety titled Florida House Passes ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill never refers to the bill’s actual name and the bill is not linked in the article. The article does link to several tweets by politicians and one by actress Kerry Washington.
Bess Levin of Vanity Fair takes the headline one step further FLORIDA’S BIGOTED “DON’T SAY GAY” BILL IS ON ITS WAY TO BECOMING LAW and then goes on a highly opinionated rant about the bill. The article is not labeled “op-ed” or “opinion.”
Michael Daly of the Daily Beast writes an article headlined Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Is as Vicious as It Sounds: Cruel and Unusual which doesn’t refer to the accurate title or link to the bill once.
Global Health Now headlines their article The Deleterious Impact of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill without a mention of the bill’s actual name.
The New York Daily News titled their article Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, seen as anti-LGBTQ, passes in state House, and never once refers to the actual title or links to the bill.
This Newsweek article headlined Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill Amendment That Would Out Kids Withdrawn goes so far as to make the claim “Some groups have even claimed that the "Don't Say Gay" bill, amendment or not, can create a dangerous environment akin to a surveillance state.” There’s no reference to the bill’s actual title or a link to the legislation.
The New York Times breaks down the bill in an article headlined What Does ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Actually Say? and the article begins with a lie: “Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is expected to sign House Bill 1557, a proposed law that supporters call the “Parental Rights in Education” bill and opponents refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.” Supporters don’t call it the Parental Rights in Education Bill, that is the legal name of the bill. It then quotes the bill’s K-3 restriction and immediately lies again: “The impact is clear enough: Instruction on gender and sexuality would be constrained in all grades. But its language is vague and subject to interpretation.”
Forbes magazine does a decent job with the reporting, despite the headline Controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Passed By Florida House. To contrast the reporting from the previous articles, Forbes 1) steers clear of editorializing, 2) refers to the actual title of the bill and links to the legislation in the article, 3) identifies the bill’s specific critics, 4) shows the number of votes the bill received, 5) shows both sides of the issue clearly and without opinion and 6) shows public polling to show how the public feels about it.
Everyone should understand how the public is affected by this type of manipulative wording that is so much of our journalism and how often they invoke it when reporting on subjects they themselves are passionate about. They are given carte-blanche to write these articles that aren’t put through editorial or ethical rigor, they aren’t fact-checked prior to publishing and aren’t labeled as “opinion” the majority of the time.
That’s because these outlets don’t actually care if the articles are factual, they care if they are effective in manipulating public opinion. The only moral code that Well-Funded Activists Groups adhere to is the Code of Their Efficacy in Manipulating Public Opinion.
When you see the articles laid out like this, one after another, it becomes easier to see how much these organizations band together for a cause, uniting their narrative for or against that cause, repeating it over and over and over again, until the public thinks exactly how they want the public to think.
In this particular case, it was highly effective because the public so readily went along with the narrative without bothering to read a single word of the legislation themselves. They didn’t let a little detail like not having read the bill get in the way of regurgitating the Activists and the Cathedral’s narrative.
They sent out the call to unite and Say Gay. Their call was heeded.
'Say Gay' Billboards Launch Across Country Opposing Anti-LGBTQ Bills
Kate McKinnon Says GAY GAY GAY in Response to Homophobic Florida Bill
In rebuke of Florida bill, Oscars hosts are feeling ‘gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay’
Oscar Isaac exclaims ‘gay, gay, gay…’ to decry Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill
Hundreds of students hold 'We Say Gay' rally in NYC to denounce Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' bill
Say Gay rally pushes back against controversial Florida bill
Only an incredibly effective manipulation and propaganda campaign could get this much traction against a bill protecting parental rights in education. The last link starts out: “Community leaders and activists are pushing back against the Parental Rights in Education bill, more commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, after it was approved by the Florida House.”
Where Does That Leave Us?
The public, parents specifically, need to acknowledge and accept that we are being manipulated and lied to daily by activists and journalists who have no concern whatsoever for what their nefarious activism is doing to our society. They don’t even care what their activism is doing to the trans or LGBQ community and how it’s harming their public image as a group. They don’t care what permanent harm their activism is doing to minor children. They don’t care what harm they do to anyone’s professional life or livelihood. They don’t care how many companies they have to destroy, how many protests they have to organize or how much money they have to spend to be effective in changing and maintaining public opinion to do what they want, when they want, while feeling entitled to reap no negative consequences. They don’t care how much they have to lie in their cause’s name or how much they have to exploit others to get what they want.
What is it they want?
They want the money to keep flowing in, at all costs. No activism means no donations, no corporate sponsorships, no $400 million annual budgets. They’ll keep this activism going, not because it protects the LGBTQ community but because it protects themselves and their paychecks.
We should demand ethical integrity from our media institutions or stop subscribing.
We should stop cowering to the whims of exploitative activists every time they throw a fit.
We should understand that no matter what we do or do not do, they will find a way to call us all the hateful names in the book. No matter how much of an ally you are today, you can and most likely will be an enemy tomorrow. So we might as well go down fighting for the kids.