Here is an update on the bill.
Despite all of your tremendous efforts, and the efforts of our conservation partners, the Senate just voted 27-22 to pass HB1565 (PN4258). The bill will now go to the House for concurrence.
Senator Baker and Brubaker spoke in support of 1565, while Senators Dinniman, Rafferty, and Ferlo spoke in opposition to the bill.
While the outcome is certainly not what we want, it is better than the original bill that would have just removed the riparian buffer requirement, period. It is apparent that the amendments adopted over the past few weeks, particularly those made in the Senate Environmental Resources & Energy Committee, were in response to concerns we raised about vagueness of bill language and the effectiveness of buffers. So thank you for sending that message to Senators!
I will let you know what happens in the House tomorrow. Regardless, our work on this issue—i.e. protecting buffers–is certainly not done. DEP will very likely be developing regulations next year, and there will be opportunities for public input. It will be important for TU to weigh in on those regulations, to ensure that as protective as the law will allow.
Again, thank you all for your efforts!
I have heard from many folks over the last few days who have asked why this bill is bad. If interested parties are able to remove or decrease riparian buffers as they see fit then what is the point of having riparian buffers in the first place? I understand we are in tough economic times and we need to encourage development but you would think that would encourage folks to also conserve our resources even more than ever before.
I received an email late this morning regarding this dangerous bill we have been following for the last few weeks. If you haven't figured this out by now let me fill you in on how our political process works in Pa (and in the rest of the nation for that matter). The last legislative session of the year is quickly approaching. This is the time of the year when a lot of questionable legislation makes through the law-making process because it "must" be voted on by the end of the year.
Thank you so much for your efforts to contact Senators on House Bill 1565. It's clear from this week's action on the bill that they are definitely listening to our concerns! That being said, there still one major core concern that has not been addressed—the removal of the requirement to maintain existing riparian buffers in HQ/EV watersheds.
(1) Clarified that the replacement buffer must occur along special protection waters within the same drainage list (according to chapter 93). This does not mean that the replacement buffer has to be installed on the same stream. As you know each drainage list is unique and can encompass significant acreage and multiple counties. While TU asked for "drainage" to be clarified and this amendment does that, we are still not pleased that the replacement buffer does not have to be on the same stream because one stream will always be losing the benefits of the buffer.
(2) Tried to strengthen practices that can be used instead of a buffer, by requiring the alternatives used to be "collectively…substantially equivalent to a riparian buffer…" This recognizes that riparian buffers are the most effective management tool.
Bottom line: the amended bill still allows for existing riparian buffers to be destroyed in the headwater streams—potentially trout streams.
Because of a glitch in the legislative printing office yesterday, no action was taken yesterday on the amended bill, which is now known as HB1565 (P.N.4258). That gives us an extra day to make sure our voices are heard!
Although the amendments clarified the bill and made slight improvements, we are still opposed to the bill because it fails to require maintenance of existing riparian buffers in high quality and exceptional value watersheds.
We currently have a system that requires riparian buffers, but allows for flexibility through waivers and exemptions. If there is an issue with delays in the waiver process, let's look for an administrative fix rather try to legislatively fix the problem and as a result allow for existing buffers to be destroyed.
Stress that there are no equivalents to a riparian buffer—these are the best and most effective management tool for protecting streams and we need to protect our best streams (EV and HQ).
I will send you an update after today's session.
Thanks for all you do for trout!


text:
Amazon bestseller book compares Trans to pretending to be a walrus
Walsh is a prominent podcast host at The Daily Wire, a right-wing media outlet cesspool of bigotry & hatred which targets the LGBTQ community
Special to the LA Blade
Graphic courtesy of Media Matters for America
By Alex Paterson | WASHINGTON – The bestselling "LGBTQ+ Book" on Amazon is Johnny the Walrus — a hateful picture book by The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh that compares the gender identities of trans youth to a young boy who imagines he is a walrus. Amazon mislabeled the book into its LGBTQ+ Books section and, as a result, is promoting harmful anti-trans views to its consumers interested in LGBTQ stories.
Walsh is a prominent podcast host at The Daily Wire, a right-wing media outlet and a cesspool of bigotry and hatred which frequently targets the LGBTQ community. Walsh himself has a long record of espousing extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, including falsely comparing best practice medical care for trans youth to "molestation and rape" and calling doctors who serve trans youth "pedophiles" — and now he has used Amazon's mislabeling to claim he is an "LGBT author" and "one of the leading LGBT voices in the country."
Johnny the Walrus is a gross misrepresentation of the experiences of trans youth
Johnny the Walrus is an anti-trans allegory that compares a child imagining that he is a walrus to society affirming and accepting trans youth, including by providing lifesaving, best practice medical care when kids go through puberty. In reality, research shows that transgender youth are best able to succeed when their teachers and families accept and affirm their gender identity, which has been proven to reduce their risk of experiencing depression, homelessness, and suicidal ideation.
The description for the children's board book claims that it is about "a little boy with a big imagination" named Johnny who "forced to make a decision between the little boy he is and the things he pretends to be." The book depicts Johnny first pretending to be a walrus by using wood spoons as tusks and socks as fins, then going through the process of trying to become a walrus by eating worms, putting on gray makeup, and visiting a doctor who offers a "simple procedure" to cut his "feet into fins!"
Notably, Amazon has faced backlash for selling anti-trans books in the past. The company continues to sell the book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by anti-trans author Abigail Shrier, even though Amazon employees filed an internal complaint in April claiming that the book violates the company's policy against selling books "that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness."
Johnny the Walrus's position atop Amazon's bestselling LGBTQ books list comes at a time when right-wing advocates and Republican officials are seeking to ban LGBTQ books in schools. These critics have targeted LGBTQ books for their so-called "sexually explicit" material, including falsely claiming that one promoted pedophilia.
On Fox News, Walsh gloated that he is "an LGBT author" and "one of the leading LGBT voices right now according to Amazon"
During the December 7 edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle, Walsh promoted his book and stated that Amazon "did this on their own. They listed it as an LGBT book." He also noted that his book is "the top-selling LGBT book. So I'm an LGBT author" and "one of the leading LGBT voices in the country right now according to Amazon, and I embrace that."
MATT WALSH (THE DAILY WIRE): I think people are buying the book because we need a little bit of sanity in our culture and especially in children's books. I mean any parent, –I'm a parent myself, and we know that if you go to the children's section at Barnes & Noble's, you look at all the titles, and it's like being at an antifa rally or something with all the, just the left-wing propaganda. And to have something that's a response to that I think is resonating with people. And by the way, I should mention that Amazon, they did this on their own. They listed it as an LGBT book, and right now, currently, for the last few days I've had the top-selling — not just one of the top-selling books on Amazon, but one of the top-selling, or the top-selling LGBT book. So I'm an LGBT author, and I'm, you know, I think one of the leading LGBT voices in the country right now according to Amazon, and I embrace that.
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): The children's book publishing industry — again, most parents, they don't give a lot of thought to it. But from the books that are assigned, and I can say this from junior high to high school, elementary school, what kids have available in their school curriculum and at reading hour at your public library, so much of it is just — it's never going to withstand the test of time, and that's putting it charitably
WALSH: Yeah, and a lot of it — when we're looking at indoctrination, a lot of it, there's a lot of the racial indoctrination — anti-racist baby, you now, critical race theory, that kind of thing. But so much of it is gender ideology being foisted on kids at very young ages. Gender ideology is so absurd that they realize that if they want to convince people of it, they have to get to them when they're very, very young and they're not able to distinguish between fantasy and reality and make these kinds of common-sense judgments. And that's why it's so important for them to brainwash the kids early. And it's why it's important to protect our kids from that brainwashing.
Numerous other right-wing media outlets have promoted Walsh's anti-trans picture book. The Daily Wire has hyped the book and bragged about its labeling as an LGBT book in several articles and videos, including a video of Walsh reading the book to a group of children. The outlet is also selling Johnny the Walrus t-shirts.
Alex Paterson is a researcher for the LGBTQ program at Media Matters, where he has worked since 2019. Alex holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Montana State University and has a background in LGBTQ advocacy, including previous work at the National LGBTQ Task Force and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The preceding article was previously published by Media Matters for America and is republished by permission.
Related Topics:Amazonanti-LGBTQ bullyinganti-LGBTQ discriminationanti-LGBTQ harassmentanti-LGBTQ hate groupsanti-LGBTQ policiesanti-trans author Abigail Shrieranti-transgenderDaily WirefeaturedFoxFox & FriendsFox NewsHate and Extremismhate speechhomophobiaMatt WalshMedia Matters for AmericaThe Matt Walsh Showtransphobia
Fox News pushes to ban LGBTQ books, lies that they "promote pedophilia"
Joe Rogan: COVID-19 misinfo, right-wing myths, & anti-trans rhetoric
Virginia lawmaker introduces anti-Trans bathroom legislation
Research/Study
Tech companies failing to stop dangerous conversion therapy disinfo
According to the report, "rainbow-washing" particularly aims at the trans community for conversion to cisgender identities
Zachary Jarrell
Max Huskins/Los Angeles Blade graphic
MONTGOMERY, Al. – Anti-LGBTQ groups "easily" spread dangerous disinformation online about the so-called conversion therapy as tech companies fail to de-platform such content, especially in non-English languages, according to two reports from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE).
The reports detail that even though conversion therapy is a widely condemned practice, content related it is "distressingly easy" to find through simple searches on various platforms.
Though searches in English yielded problematic results, GPAHE found that non-English languages, especially Swahili in Kenya, led to much more anti-LGBTQ disinformation.
"Tech companies say they have taken steps to ban harmful content related to conversion therapy, but they have to do more, especially in non-English languages," said Wendy Via, president and co-founder of GPAHE and co-author of the report.
The group's research took place in English and Spanish in the U.S., English in Ireland and Australia, German in Germany, Spanish in Colombia, and English and Swahili in Kenya.
Conversion therapy has been condemned by dozens of medical and psychological organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA), which also supports a nationwide ban on conversion therapy.
According to the Williams Institute, LGB people who have undergone conversion therapy are almost twice as likely to attempt suicide.
Conversion therapy is banned for minors and sometimes adults in seven countries: Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Germany, Malta, France and Taiwan. Both France and Canada outlawed the debunked practice just last month.
The U.S. has no nationwide ban, but conversion therapy is outlawed in 20 states and more than 100 municipalities in the nation. Partial bans also exist in Mexico, Australia, and Spain.
"Until online searches lead people to only authoritative information about the dangers of conversion therapy, tech companies are complicit in spreading anti-LGBTQ+ hate and disinformation that causes mental and physical harm for individuals, and furthers societal harm," said Via.
Generally, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and, to some extent, YouTube have taken steps to curtail conversion therapy information, according to GPAHE's first report "Conversion Therapy Online: The Ecosystem." When the group searched the term "conversion therapy" on these platforms, they mostly found trustworthy information, except in Swahili.
However, in comparing social media platforms, the group found that YouTube's search mechanism returns disinformation and propaganda more frequently than Facebook or Twitter. GPAHE also said the platform is "rife" with pro-conversion therapy material.
"On YouTube, we point viewers to authoritative sources like the Trevor Project for conversion therapy related searches and remove hateful and harassing content against the LGBTQ+ community that violates our policies," Elena Hernandez, a YouTube spokesperson told the Blade in an email.
YouTube also provided a listing on background of the platform's policies:
Per our hate speech policy, we remove content promoting violence or hatred against protected individuals or groups, including the LGBTQ+ community. For example, content promoting conversion therapy violates this policy and will be removed
In Q3 of 2021, we removed over 44,000 channels, over 114,000 videos, and over 50 million comments for violation of our policy on hate speech.
Per our harassment policy, we also remove content that features prolonged name calling or malicious insults based on their intrinsic attributes, including sexual orientation or gender identity.
In Q3 of 2021, we removed over 70,000 channels, over 283,000 videos, and over 157 million channels for harassment & cyberbullying.
Additionally, our hate and harassment policies include penalties for creators who repeatedly brush up against the line, including removal from the YouTube Partner Program.
Our Community Guidelines apply globally in every country we operate. More than 20,000 people around the world, including many with non-English language expertise, work to detect, review and remove content that violates our policies.
We publish video removals by country in our quarterly Transparency Report – based on the IP address of the channel when a video was uploaded. This isn't an exact indication of language, but can be used as a loose proxy to demonstrate that we vigorously enforce our policies around the globe, including on non-English content.
Note that within the top 10 countries for videos removed, the vast majority are non-English speaking, for example Vietnam, India, and Brazil.
Our systems are trained to raise authoritative sources, like news organizations and experts, in search results, recommendations, and information panels for certain sensitive topics. We're always working to expand and improve these.
For example, searches about "conversion therapy" and "reparative therapy" surface an information panel linking to The Trevor Project.
The company has come under fire in the past for policies surrounding conversion therapy. In 2019, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) revoked its enforcement of Google over an app tied to conversion therapy. At the time, other major companies – like Apple and Amazon – removed the app.
Google eventually removed the app. "After consulting with outside advocacy groups, reviewing our policies, and making sure we had a thorough understanding of the app and its relation to conversion therapy, we've decided to remove it from the Play Store, consistent with other app stores," the company said in a statement to Axios.
Though initial search mechanisms generally didn't lead researchers to conversion therapy providers, Facebook and Twitter's algorithms did lead users down a dangerous conversion therapy "rabbit hole" once they found a provider, the report found.
The Blade could not reach Meta (Facebook) and Twitter for comment.
Last year, a Reuters report detailed how even though Facebook banned conversion therapy, the debunked practice continued to thrive in Arabic.
"Facebook led me to conversion therapy, and I'm not alone," said Omar, an Egyptian man who turned to Facebook when he began feeling sexually attracted to other men. He requested Reuters use only his first name because he has not yet come out to his family.
Though GPAHE's report did not study Arabic languages, it did find that languages other than English yielded more harmful search results.
In all languages and countries, GPAHE found that search results from Microsoft's Bing and Amazon's Silk and Alexa were "significantly less authoritative."
"These companies are rarely, if ever, challenged on their search algorithms despite serving hundreds of millions of people worldwide," the release said.
GPAHE suggested that Bing and Silk create search algorithms that surface authoritative information. In addition, Amazon should remove conversion therapy providers from the Smile program, the group said.
Both Microsoft and Amazon did not immediately return requests for comment.
Amazon has had a checkered past with anti-LGBTQ content, especially on its web store. However, the company did stop selling books prompting conversion therapy in 2019.
"It's time for the major internet and social media companies to wake up to their role in promoting harmful practices and disinformation," the report read. "Conversion therapy is dangerous. If someone is searching for this material on any internet platform, they should only find authoritative results that document the therapy's harms."
The group also found a "highly problematic" difference between results in English and Swahili in Kenya. Search results in English led to a mix of trustworthy and false information, while results in Swahil lead to material that disparages and mocks LGBTQ+ people and calls conversion therapy repuatable.
"Even the Wikipedia page in Swahili in Kenya is filled with hateful disinformation," a GPAHE press release read.
German search results yielded mostly accurate information about conversion therapy. The group said this was likely due to Germany's conversion therapy ban and strict hate speech laws.
"Unlike what GPAHE found in most other countries and languages, Google searches in German for various conversion therapy terms came up almost entirely with authoritative results," the report read.
However, the group did find one exception in searching "reintegrative therapie." The search term populated reintegrativethereapy.com, a conversion therapy provider, in all of the first four results. But mostly trustworthy information follows.
Using terms such as "reintegrative therapy" or "unwanted same-sex attraction" is a common way for conversion therapy providers and proponests to evade safeguards and prompt their content. According to the GPAHE report, such search terms led almost exclusively to unauthoritative and harmful disinformation.
GPAHE suggested that tech companies incorporate the terms "same-sex attraction" and "reintegrative therapy" into the algorithms to increase reliable and safe results.
Another method conversion therapy supporters use is hiding behind a so-called religious imperative or claiming that they are protecting kids, the report said.
"As conversion therapy providers constantly rebrand their malicious efforts and introduce new terms, tech companies need to keep up to protect their users," said Via.
GPAHE has sent its report to tech companies and will follow up with each over the coming months.
GPAHE added that it "hopes that the report will help tech platforms flag or ban harmful material and serve as an additional authoritative resource for those who search for these organizations or conversion therapy information in general."
Many of the world's most surfaced conversion therapy providers were detailed in the group's second report, "Conversion Therapy Online: The Players." GPAHE specifically laid out 25 organizations and their "sophisticated and extensive" online presence.
The report found that these providers are interconnected and are essentially composed of three major networks: the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity, Core Issues Trust and Exodus Global Alliance.
These groups have moved into the space, rebranding in a process known as "rainbow-washing," where they claim to be "friends of the LGBTQ+ community" and feature "younger, hipper, more diverse faces," according to GPAHE. The groups say they are "victimized by modern society," co-opting the "language of the LGBTQ+ rights movement to assert liberation for what they call the X-LGBT community."
According to the report, "rainbow-washing" particularly aims at the trans community for conversion to cisgender identities.
"In recent years, proposed bans on conversion therapy have motivated providers to organize and up their legislative and litigation games," the report read. "Their activities are bolstered and promoted by powerful social conservative organizations and relatively new X-LGBT groups, such as the Changed Movement, in various countries."
Of the 25 groups named by GPAHE, 13 were based in the U.S., the most of any country. The states they were located in included Utah, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Kentucky, California, Missouri, Connecticut, Tennessee and Michigan.
Other top conversion therapy organizations were located in Northern Ireland, Brasil, Mexico, Germany, England, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway. Others did not have a specific location listed.
In addition to websites, many of the groups were also on Facebook. Some of the anti-LGBTQ organizations were also on Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.
"Getting rid of this harmful material online is an important step toward creating a society where LGBTQ+ people are accepted and loved and nobody feels like they want or need to change who they are," said Heidi Beirich, report co-author and co-founder of GPAHE. "No more hate. That's the overall goal."
Catholic church seeks to avoid legal responsibility by suggesting victim of horrific sexual abuse by priest is gay
Photo licensed from Adobe Stock
By James Finn | BIELSKO-ZYWIEC, Poland – My headline is neither satire nor hyperbole, its literal truthfulness sheds much light on the harm of traditionalist-Christian sexual teachings. When Roman Catholic Bishop Roman Pindel first met with Janusz Szymik, the bishop expressed compassion for the man repeatedly raped as an altar boy by a priest in the Polish diocese of Bielsko-Żywiec, which Pindel heads.
What the bishop did next shocked and angered Janusz, in the process illustrating how the Roman Catholic hierarchy's condemnation of LGBTQ people can blind them to the difference between healthy consensual sex and rape.
First, the story of a boy raped by a priest
Janusz, who is now 48 year old, was an altar boy of 12 in 1980s Poland when his priest and confessor (who has been named only as Jan W. due to Polish privacy law) began sexually abusing him. The "relationship" continued for years, with the priest often meeting the boy off Church property, taking him on outings, buying him gifts, and molesting him.
Janusz first reported the abuse in 2015, later giving testimony against the priest in a Church tribunal that ended with his rapist being barred from public ministry for five years, though not removed from the priesthood. He is living "in isolation" for the same five-year period, which is set to end sometime this year.
The priest did not face criminal punishment, reportedly due to Polish statute of limitation restrictions.
Janusz recently filed a civil suit against the Bielsko-Żywiec diocese. He says he was motivated by the Church trial's lenient sentence, the probability that restrictions on his rapist's public ministry would soon be lifted, his strong suspicion that he was not the only victim, and his fears Jan W might victimize more children in the future.
Bishop Pindel's response was to suggest Janusz was gay and had enjoyed being molested
NotesFromPoland and the Polish Onet news portal have published details of a response the Bishop Pindel's diocese sent to the civil court overseeing the case:
The diocese wants the court to hear "evidence from an expert sexologist on the determination of the claimant's sexual preferences, in particular determination of the claimant's sexual orientation."
The diocese wants the victim questioned about his "relationship" with the priest, including him "showing pleasure in maintaining an intimate relationship with Jan W." and even "deriving benefits," including "material benefits."
The diocese told the court it "denies that the relationship was based on enslavement or incapacitation; on the contrary: it was voluntary and based on mutual benefits."
Any sexual contact (if any) that took place off Church property is not the legal responsibility of the diocese.
The diocese proposes to the court that the priest's testimony during clerical proceedings should be taken as credible over the victim's, that the court should presume sexual contact began when Janusz was 16 rather than 12 as he claims.
Compassion morphs into accusations of lying and prostitution
The compassion Bishop Pindel initially offered Janusz morphed into something far darker. The bishop filed documents in open court dismissing Janusz as a liar and (implicitly) a prostitute who in his late teens took material advantage of a priest. In a nation where being gay is highly stigmatized and socially damaging, the bishop asked the court to order a psychological evaluation to determine if Janusz is gay.
After Onet and other media raised the alarm, the diocese apologized in a public statement, according to ABC News: "We apologize to Janusz and to all who have been scandalized," reads the statement, specifying that the diocese response to the lawsuit should not have included questions about the victim's sexuality or have suggested that he drew pleasure from contact with the priest.
The statement did not include an apology for implications that Janusz lied about being 12 years old when the priest began sexually abusing him. The statement did not retract the diocese position that the priest's actions off Church property were not the Church's legal responsibility.
Janusz Szymik – pictured above as a child
None of this is unusual. Traditionalist Catholics are often blinded by dogma.
To their credit, some Polish bishops have spoken out strongly against Bishop Pindel, pressuring him to apologize, but this case begs close examination. First, the wording of the Pindel's apology, for those not familiar with Roman Catholic language, is highly suspect. He apologized for "scandalizing" people, not for his actions alone. This may seem like a trivial distinction, but it's critical.
Scandal, in Catholic teaching, is a "sin" defined as an act that "leads people to move away from Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers us." Scandal in its most straightforward Catholic sense might consist of a respected Catholic leader claiming Church teachings are wrong. As an illustration, many Catholic bishops in the U.S. accuse President Biden of the sin of scandal because he politically supports the right of women to choose abortion.
In a more nuanced sense, however, scandal is often defined as truthful statements that lead people away from the Church. So when Bishop Pindel apologizes because people have been "scandalized," he sidesteps. Does he believe his statements and actions were wrong on their own? That's impossible to know.
When any sex outside heterosexual marriage is a grave sin, moral recognition of abusive sexuality can evaporate
Let's talk about moral distinctions in a minute. First, some background. Catholic dogma holds that gay people commit acts of "grave depravity" when we have sex with our partners, no matter how loving, committed, or healthy our relationships may be. Dogma holds that we are "intrinsically disordered," or in alternate language, "ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil."
Catholic bishops in Poland aggressively promote those teachings, cooperating hand-in-glove with the right-wing Law and Justice Party as it passes laws to deny common civil liberties to LGBTQ people and encourages cities and political regions to declare themselves "LGBT Free Zones."
Catholic bishops in Poland frequently indulge in incendiary language against transgender and gay people, even equating calls for equality with the oppression Poles experienced under Cold War Soviet domination. In 2019, riots broke out againt LGBTQ Pride parades, with observers in Poland and around the world blaming much of the violence on Church incitement. In the aftermath of the violence, the Church's most prominent bishops doubled down on fiery language. Bishops even spoke up in support of an Ikea employee fired for posting on a company intranet that the Bible calls for LGBTQ people to be put to death.
Consent and rape lose meaning when gay people are evil by definition
Here's the key to this whole mess: When you see gay people as being intrinsically evil, consent and love can fail to hold meaning. I'm reminded of a huge Italian scandal a few years ago that started out when teenage seminarians (candidates for the Catholic priesthood) complained that some of the adults who ran their residential school were sexually abusing them.
The boys who complained of the abuse ranged in age from 12 to 17, and their complaints were credible enough to prompt a major investigation, the results of which I read a few years ago. Without bogging down in detail, the investigation quickly expanded from an effort to identify and punish adults who abused children into a wide dragnet for gay priests. Most of the report's pages focused on priests who had consual sex with other priests and even on boys who consensually experimented with other boys, some of whom were severely punished. Consent was rarely mentioned in the report. The inability of children to consent to adults was largely overlooked.
The underage victims of abuse were not exactly forgotten, but they got very short shrift as the Church ran in circles screaming and shouting about gay priests breaking their celibacy vows.
The Catholic priests who ran the investigation seemed almost incapable of morally distinguishing between consensual sex and coercive molestation.
Bishop Roman Pindel in Poland seems to be stuck in a similar moral paradigm
It's fine that he apologized, but his initial positions are illuminating and disturbing. In his mind, apparently, if Janusz really was gay, and if he enjoyed some of his sexual experiences or other experiences with the priest Jan W, then the two them are on an equal moral footing, both intrinsically disordered people committing acts of grave depravity for which they are equally culpable.
The bishop doesn't talk about consent or the inability of a child or adolescent to consent to a powerful adult. He doesn't accept responsibility for a priest in his diocese abusing a child, because in his mind, the sin that counts most here is the sin of homosexuality.
He's blinded at least partially to the real crime, because of Church dogma that teaches that sexual love between two people of the same sex can never be positive and healthy. Why worry about consent when it's all grave depravity anyway?
Meanwhile, Janusz's biggest concerns are unaddressed.
His rapist got a slap on the wrist. Other victims are still out there. Children may continue to be at risk when Jan W's suspension ends in coming months. The Bishop of Bielsko-Żywiec has demonstrated little to no concern about any of that, apparently owing to Church culture and teachings.
The Church is wrong. We LGBTQ people are not evil, are not disordered , and do not commit acts of grave depravity.
The Church's error leads them not only to wrong LGBTQ people but often to fail to grapple with real sexual abuse.
James Finn is a former Air Force intelligence analyst, long-time LGBTQ activist, an alumnus of Queer Nation and Act Up NY, a frequent columnist for the LA Blade, a contributor to other LGBTQ news outlets, and an "agented" but unpublished novelist. Send questions, comments, and story ideas to [email protected]
The preceding article was previously published by Prism & Pen– Amplifying LGBTQ voices through the art of storytelling and is republished by permission.
Fox News leads hate campaign against trans college swimmer Lia Thomas
Fox figures repeatedly deadnamed and misgendered Thomas and used the story to attack gender-affirming health care
Graphic via Andrea Austria / Media Matters
By Mia Gingerich & Alex Paterson | WASHINGTON – As part of its campaign to vilify transgender athletes in order to malign the trans community as a whole, Fox News has obsessively covered University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas.
From December 3 through January 12, the network aired 32 segments on Thomas' swim career. Throughout Fox's coverage of the story, hosts and guests spewed dehumanizing rhetoric about Thomas and went so far as to assert that "this is like everyone has taken a crazy pill and no one wants to admit that this is wrong."
During an early December swim meet, Thomas came in first place in the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, and 1,650-yard freestyle races, setting conference records in each event. Thomas' performance drew the ire of conservative pundits intent on framing her success as symptomatic of the purportedly unfair advantage trans women have when competing in women's sports.
Thomas has exceeded the rules of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which require her to be on testosterone suppressants for at least a year prior to competing, and has the support of the Ivy League conference and her school.
Nevertheless, Fox News relentlessly framed Thomas' participation as a dire threat to women's sports – even when she did not win. During a January 8 swim meet, Thomas placed sixth in the 100-yard freestyle with Iszac Henig placing first (Henig is a trans man competing on the women's team as he has put off hormone replacement therapy for now.)
Fox News has an extensive history of spewing anti-trans rhetoric and in recent years has focused that hate toward individual trans athletes. In 2021, the network aired more segments on trans athletes in just the first three months of the year than it had in the previous two years combined.
Fox News has aired 32 segments discussing Lia Thomas since December 3
From December 3, when Fox first mentioned her after she won a swim race, through January 12, Fox News aired 32 segments that discussed Thomas' swim career. Key findings include:
(In accordance with the Trans Journalists Association style guide, Media Matters has replaced Thomas' deadname and pronouns in the quotes below.)
Fox's so-called "straight news" programs aired 9 segments about Thomas, accounting for over one-fourth of the total segments. The remaining 23 segments were from its opinion programs.
Fox & Friends and its weekend counterparts as well as Fox & Friends First, the network's weekday early morning show, together aired the most segments (12) about Thomas. America's Newsroom With Bill Hemmer & Dana Perino aired the second-most segments on the topic (9), followed by The Ingraham Angle (4), and Tucker Carlson Tonight (3).
Fox News figures repeatedly deadnamed and misgendered Thomas. Deadnaming and misgendering are forms of harassment that involve using a trans person's prior name against their wishes or referring to them as the incorrect gender. Misidentifying trans people goes against best practice journalistic standards.
Lawyers and clients from the extreme anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom appeared on Fox News during three of the segments about Thomas. During the December 14 edition of The Ingraham Angle, ADF lawyer Christiana Holcomb misgendered trans athletes and fearmongered that "woke ideologues are silencing women like these University of Pennsylvania athletes for saying no to men in their sports."
Fox's coverage of the story was rife with anti-trans hate and dehumanizing rhetoric about Thomas. On January 9, a day after Thomas placed sixth in the 100-yard freestyle, right-wing pundit Buck Sexton decried the impacts of "the trans agenda" on women's sports and lamented, "We now in the news business are all using female pronouns for males as just a matter of course. I don't know why we have conceded that either." On that same day, Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy misgendered Thomas and claimed, "Everybody sitting there in the stands is participating in this lie. Lia is not a woman."
Fox hosts and guests also used the story to fuel broader anti-trans attacks, including lying about best-practice health care and promoting conversion therapy. During a January 11 Fox & Friends segment, right-wing writer Cynthia Millen lied that "statistics have shown that if a teenager with gender dysphoria is allowed to work through it with proper therapy, they end up not wanting to transition when they are adult." Millen also falsely claimed that gender affirming health care "involves mutilation of the body." Fox dubiously referred to Millen as a mere "former USA Swimming official" even though she is also a writer for the website Catholic Stand, where she has documented extreme views on reproductive health care, same-sex couples, and critical race theory.
In reality, gender-affirming medical care for trans people is accepted as a safe, effective, and lifesaving treatment that is widely supported by medical professionals and yields clear mental health benefits.
On the December 7 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson brought on Kara Dansky from the anti-trans organization Women's Human Rights Campaign. Dansky argued against federal protection for trans students along with trans inclusion in women's restrooms and prisons, even going on to argue against the word transgender itself, saying, "Republicans are holding the line on material reality. All of that goes out the window when you use the word like transgender. It just doesn't exist, and I'm begging viewers to stop using it."
Right-wing media are leveraging the story to fuel broader anti-trans attacks
Fox hosts were not alone in exploiting Thomas' story to push transphobic talking points. Conservative radio host Clay Travis tweeted out an article on Thomas from his website OutKick.com that deadnamed her and claimed the NCAA's policy on trans athletes was to tell "biological women … to suck it up and deal with it." Travis also appeared numerous times on Fox News to comment on the story and argue against trans inclusion in sports.
Right-wing print and online outlets struck a similarly antagonistic tone, including Townhall, the New York Post, and the Washington Examiner. The Examiner ran an online piece titled "Liberals paving the way to turn women's swimming into more men's swimming," in which writer Christopher Tremoglie claimed that "in the wake of this transgender destruction, collegiate females are the collateral damage."
Other right-wing cable networks also saw the story as an opportunity to elicit anger in their base, with Newsmax's Chris Salcedo saying on his show that Thomas competing was a "new form of political correctness being pushed exclusively by socialist Democrats." One America News Network host Dan Ball said of Thomas' participation, "Speaking of things that just aren't right, like a grown man trying to have sex with teenagers, … how about a real biological man beating women, all women, in their own sporting events? That's not right either."
Far from hollow attacks, this sort of rhetoric goes hand-in-hand with legislative efforts by conservative lawmakers to pass further restrictions on the rights of trans youth, with trans student participation in sports a key target. After 2021 saw a historic number of bills targeting trans kids introduced in state legislatures, the threat remains high as 25 bills specifically targeting trans student athletes are currently being considered in state legislatures across the country.
A recent poll from the Trevor Project shows how this new reality can impact the lives of trans youth, with 85% of transgender and non-binary youth saying debates around these bills have negatively impacted their mental health. As long as right-wing media continue to capitalize on stories like Lia Thomas', manufacturing outrage with misinformation and hate, trans children will remain casualties in Fox News' culture war.
Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms "Lia Thomas," "Leah Thomas," or "gender" or any variation of the term "trans" within close proximity of any of the terms "Penn," "UPenn," or "NCAA" or any variation of the word "swim" from 4 a.m. EST December 3, 2021, through midnight January 12, 2022.
We included segments, which we defined as instances when Lia Thomas was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion about Thomas. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multi-topic segment discussed Thomas with one another. We did not include mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker mentioned Thomas without another speaker engaging with the comment, or teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about Thomas scheduled to air later in the broadcast.
We split Fox programs into "news" and "opinion" sides. We defined "news" programs as those with anchors, such as Bret Baier or Shannon Bream, while we defined "opinion" programs as those with hosts, such as Tucker Carlson or Laura Ingraham, at the helm. We used the designations from each anchor or host's author page on FoxNews.com. We also considered the format of the program; we defined those using a panel format, such as Outnumbered and The Five, as opinion programs.
Mia Gingerich is a researcher at Media Matters. She has a bachelor's degree in politics and government from Northern Arizona University and has previously worked in rural organizing and local media.
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Religious Extremism/Anti-LGBTQ+ Activism1 day ago
Los Angeles County1 day ago

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Boys stabbed and slashed in 30 person brawl
Two teenagers have knife wounds after they were involved in a fight involving 20 to 30 people near the Lyon Square Flats in Tilehurst on Wednesday evening.
One of the boys, who are both 16, has a stab injury in his shoulder blade the other has a cut on his buttocks after the incident at around 6.30pm.
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of assault and remains in custody. A 17-year-old was arrested on suspicion of assault, affray and possession of an offensive weapon and has been released on bail until Thursday, December 15.
The fight is thought to have broken out after an altercation between two groups of youths aged between 15 and 19.
Det Sgt Ashley Hannibal said: "These boys were lucky not to have been more seriously injured.
"I am keen to hear from any witnesses who were not involved in the altercation or the subsequent fight."
If you have information you can call police on 101, the non-emergency hotline, or the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.


Amateur historians will love reading all about one of Britain's most famous prime ministers. In this biography, Dr Christopher Catherwood uses archived photographs, interviews and speech notes to bring both the private and public lives of Winston Churchill to light. This eye-opening book shows him at his lowest points as well as his highest and most powerful, giving readers a well-rounded representation of this amazing leader.
These walking guides are perfect for any keen rambler. The books are sold individually so if you know your dad's planning a trip you can grab him the walking guide for wherever he'd heading to. The range of guides include: Dorset, The Peak District, The Cotswolds, Brecon Beacons & South Wales, West Yorkshire, Devon, Cornwall, Snowdonia & South Wales, The Lake District and Sussex & South Downs.
Perfect for anyone who enjoys a little bit of DIY in their spare time. This book will help your dad to understand how to use and look after his tools correctly, with over 800 photographs and illustrations and handy step-by-step guides. From hammers and spades, to chisels, they'll be creating masterpieces in no time.
This shockingly violent but extremely addictive thriller is the fast-paced read every fiction fan needs in their lives. It's 1973 and a teenager has just shot a woman dead on a street in Glasgow before turning the gun on himself. Harry McCoy is determined to find out why. But, his investigation is not going to be easy as he about to head into a dark pit of secret societies and conspiracies.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist rower and dedicated dad of three, Alex Gregory shares some of the things he loves to do with his children when he's not busy working hard. He has an adventure for every occasion and time slot, from half an hour after-school to an overnight experience, so your family will have no excuse not to get involved.
The Hairy Bikers' are back and this time they're sharing the delights of classic home-cooking. In this book, they share savoury classics, like the perfect prawn cocktail and a herb-stuffed shoulder of lamb, as well as puddings like the jam roly poly. Any foodie would jump at the chance to test out one of these recipes.
If your dad is a natural gardener or wants to try something new, why not suggest he takes up gardening. Growing your own fruit and veg at home is so rewarding, and with the help from this book he will be green fingered in no-time. It also gives step-by-step advice on how to sow, plant and harvest to get the best results all year round.
Space fan dads will love learning all about our planet's history, from the big bang to what could be in store for us in the future with this informative guide. The cosmos can be accessible to anyone, even the dads who only like the idea of space, but aren't sure on the logistics. The book even includes a timeline on how we came to be here.
If your dad enjoys a walk down the beaten track to find something new, that most people have never seen before, then this could be the perfect present for him this Father's Day. Dixie Wills takes a look at Britain's smallest treasures, from castles, cathedrals, pubs, museums and stately homes. He believes that although these places may be small they are a lot of fun.
If your dad complains about not being able to sleep at night, then you should tell him to give this book a try. It has no claims to be fun or interesting, in fact it will actually bore you sleep. Filled with pointless knowledge about train gauges and roundabouts, this book is guaranteed to send your dad to sleep this Father's Day.
If you can't find anything you think he'll love, take a look through the rest of our website to find some more brilliant options, including captivating fiction, fascinating science and history books and more. And, if you can't find a book he'd like, we do have a great range of gifts on our site too so you might just find the ideal thing for him there.


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Reclamation & Reuse
In January 1995, a Water Reclamation and Reuse Evaluation was completed by the City's engineering consultants. With the goal of recommending an option that would satisfy the environmental policies and rules of the state while being cost effective for the City, the evaluation identified a 2-phase approach for reuse of reclaimed water. Reclaiming Our Resource
In March 1995, the City Commission approved the Reuse Project which would involve construction of Rapid Infiltration Basins (RIBs) in Phase I for 100% disposal of treated effluent. A public access irrigation would be developed in Phase II & Phase III with the RIBs being used to dispose of excess water during periods of low irrigation demands.
To meet the requirements for renewal of its wastewater treatment plant operating permit, the City constructed Reuse Phase I, a Rapid-Rate Land Application System utilizing a series of RIBs on high sandy land east of US 27, south of Lake Belle. The treated effluent is pumped from a pumping station at the Sam P. Robinson Reclaimed Water Treatment Plant located on Henry Street through a 20" Force Main approximately 14,000 feet to RIBs site. The reuse water flows into the RIBS at a low pressure (5 to 10 psi) which allows flow into the RIBs with little erosion. Reuse Phase I was fully operational in August 1998.
Reuse Phase II involves Slow-Rate Land Application Systems for public access irrigation and consists of building a 2 million gallon storage tank and a pump building with pumps at the RIBs site and improvements at the Sam P. Robinson Reclaimed Water Treatment Plant to provide Class I Reliability which is required by DEP for public access. The pumps and building are necessary to increase the low pressure at which the reuse water arrives at the site. Phase III completes the project with the laying of transmission lines to distribute reclaimed water to the end users.
To fund the $3.4 million project, the City has obtained a $1.4 million grant from SWFWMD and low interest loans from the DEP State Revolving Fund (SRF). A condition of the SWFWMD grant requires the City to beneficially reuse 250,000 gallons per day of reclaimed water. Further, the City views reuse of reclaimed water as an environmentally and economically sound policy to conserve our water supply, particularly during this current period of drought conditions.
In order to accomplish our goals for beneficial reuse and water conservation, the City will supply reclaimed water to irrigate lawns and landscaping at the Longleaf Business Park, the soccer/multi-purpose field on Hunt Brothers Rd, the Lake Wales Country Club, and residential developments south of State Road 60.
Application for Service
Lifeline Program Application (PDF)
Fats, Oils, & Grease Program
State Revolving Fund (SRF) Projects
Right of Way (ROW) Permit


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Straight Outta Milwaukee Basketball T Shirt comes on a Forest Green 100% cotton tshirt. Straight Outta Milwaukee Basketball T Shirt is available in a number of styles and sizes. This Basketball tshirt ships via USPS.


text:
Redistricting in America, Part Two: The Dark Red Greater South
The Outlook in AL, AR, KY, LA, MS, OK, SC, TN, & WV
By Kyle Kondik and J. Miles ColemanIn: 2022 HousePosted July 29, 2021
Dear Readers: This is the second part of our multi-part series on congressional redistricting. Part One provided a national overview. We will cover additional regions in the coming weeks.
— Republicans dominate redistricting in a number of small-to-medium-sized states in the Deep South and Greater Appalachia.
— The GOP also already holds the lion's share of seats in these states, but they may be able to squeeze a bit more out of them.
— Democrats are hoping the courts could help them salvage an extra seat or two out of these states, while Republicans may aggressively target, most notably, Rep. Jim Cooper (D, TN-5) in Nashville.
Redistricting in America, Part Two
In 1989, newly-minted Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater, fresh off a career-defining victory as President George H. W. Bush's 1988 campaign manager, addressed the Republican Governors Association. For a political operative who was best known for launching emotionally-charged attacks on opponents, he spent much of his address emphasizing something that, as he put it, was not a "gut issue" to most voters: redistricting.
Atwater argued that if Republicans could win more seats in state legislatures, they'd be in a position to get fairer congressional maps — given a "level playing field," Republicans would have some chance of picking Democrats' then-34-year lock on the House of Representatives. "If Democrats want votes, Atwater said, "then let them earn votes, not draw them."
To Atwater's disappointment, Democrats held serve in the 1990 elections. As a result, with redistricting taking place the next year, Republicans only controlled all the levers of redistricting in states covering a paltry five districts. Democrats controlled the drawing of 172, with the remainder in states with divided government, an alternative form of redistricting, or just a single, at-large seat. The Republicans' problems were most pronounced in the South, where Democrats retained total control in most places. Though Democrats lost control of the House later that decade, they still came up with some durable gerrymanders.
Nowadays, it is Democrats who wish that the redistricting playing field was more level, especially in Atwater's native South.
This is the second part of our multi-part Crystal Ball series on congressional redistricting. This week, we'll be looking at a number of states in the Greater South that voted for Donald Trump by at least double-digit margins. Those are Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
These states help illustrate how much has changed in the region since Atwater gave that speech roughly three decades ago: Back then, Democrats controlled every state legislative chamber in these nine states; today, Republicans control all of them. However, Republicans did end up catching some breaks in redistricting even back then, thanks to changes made to the federal Voting Rights Act in 1982, which the Bush-era Justice Department used to force the creation of several majority-minority districts across the South. The creation of these districts sometimes had the effect of consolidating heavily Democratic Black voters, which then made surrounding districts whiter and more Republican. As we'll note in the state-by-state previews, Democrats are at such a low ebb in these states that they would love to squeeze a few more substantially diverse districts out of them, but that very well may not happen. (As we noted last week, this is also the first redistricting cycle since the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, so many Southern states and other jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination won't need to obtain federal preclearance for redistricting.)
These nine states will have 50 combined House seats in the next Congress, or 11% of the 435 total. Even taking into account the loss of one of their three current seats in West Virginia, Republicans control 43 of these states' districts, and they are better positioned than the Democrats to gain in the region through redistricting this cycle.
What follows is a state-by-state analysis of each state. As part of each state's description, we include the number of seats each state is slated to have in the 2020s, the current party breakdown in each state, and the breakdown of each state's delegation elected in 2012 after the last decade's redistricting process (as a point of comparison to show how the delegation has changed, or not changed, over the course of the decade). We also list the districts that are most overpopulated and most underpopulated, based on the American Community Survey estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau through 2019 as compiled by the website Redistricting and You from the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Remember, though, these are only estimates. The actual census data that will be used to draw districts won't be out until Aug. 16, and it will be in a format that will in all likelihood take at least several days for political professionals and analysts to put into a usable form. Finally, we list which party controls redistricting, and which party controlled redistricting in the last redistricting round.
Number of seats: 7 (no change from 2010s)
Party breakdown in 2012: 6-1 R
Current party breakdown: 6-1 R
Most overpopulated district: AL-5 (Huntsville, Northern Alabama)
Most underpopulated district: AL-7 (Black Belt, Birmingham-Montgomery-Tuscaloosa)
Who controls redistricting: Republicans
2012 control: Republicans
The 2012 Alabama map was perhaps one of the nation's most understatedly durable gerrymanders. Going into the redistricting process, the Republicans — who had just won control of the state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction — aimed to lock in their gains from 2010. Though the Democrats were down to holding just one of the state's seven seats, they had held — or made serious attempts at — three other districts during the last decade. Two Republican freshmen were strengthened: then-Rep. Martha Roby (R, AL-2), who had narrowly ousted a Democrat in 2010, saw several Black precincts in Montgomery removed from her Wiregrass-area district, while Rep. Mo Brooks (R, AL-5), up in northern Alabama, lost a few historically Yellow Dog counties (Lawrence and Colbert), and took in more reliably GOP Morgan County. Finally, Rep. Mike Rogers (R, AL-3), who was held to just a 7% win in 2008, relinquished most of his holdings in Montgomery County in favor of picking up heavily GOP St. Clair County.
As a result of the Republican map, and the state's overall trends, 139 of the 140 congressional races that Alabama saw over the course of the decade ended up as double-digit blowouts, with the one exception being an odd case: in 2016, a Republican write-in candidate took 9% of the vote in AL-2, holding Roby to a 49%-41% win. In the one instance where the state did see a competitive statewide race, the districts behaved just as the GOP mappers would have liked: in the 2017 Senate special election, when now-former Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) beat Republican Roy Moore, a horribly damaged candidate, Jones took nearly 80% in the Black-majority AL-7, but came up short in every other district — had the previous decade's map been in place, Jones would have claimed two additional seats.
One dynamic that helped Republicans in 2012, which will probably aid them again, is that the state's most underpopulated district is the heavily Democratic AL-7. While about three-quarters of the district's population comes from a trio of urban counties (Jefferson, which contains the city of Birmingham, as well as Montgomery and Tuscaloosa), it includes much of the state's portion of the Black Belt — and the rural counties there are losing population. So, to pick up population, it seems likely AL-7 will have to expand further into the Birmingham and Montgomery areas, which should help insulate Republicans in adjacent districts.
The state's quickest-growing district is the northern AL-5, which is now open, as Brooks is running for Senate. Huntsville, the anchor of the district, may actually now be the largest city in the state — its government facilities, specifically the Redstone Arsenal, have drawn high-tech jobs to the area. A quick fix that Republicans may like would be transferring some Democratic precincts in Florence to the neighboring AL-4 — the 4th is now the reddest district in the country based on the 2020 presidential results, and can easily afford to take in bluer turf. Democrats would love for a court to force the drawing of a second majority-Black or Black-voter-influence district, but that does not strike us as particularly likely. Some projections prior to the release of the 2020 census reapportionment numbers suggested that Alabama was likelier than not going to lose a seat, but that did not come to pass; had that happened, Republicans would likely have lost a seat because the Voting Rights Act would have protected Democrats in AL-7.
So this is all to say that, given the population and partisan trends in Alabama, Republicans should have little trouble drawing a similar 6-1 map for the next decade.
Most overpopulated district: AR-3 (Northwest Arkansas)
Most underpopulated district: AR-4 (Southern Arkansas)
2012 control: Democrats
Of all the current congressional maps in place, Arkansas' is probably the closest thing we have to a dummymander. For the first decade of the 2000s, Democrats held three of Arkansas' four House seats, with the sole Republican, now-Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), representing the ancestrally GOP northwestern corner of the state. Then, ahead of the 2010 election cycle, two entrenched Democrats announced their retirement — in what turned out to be banner GOP year, those seats went on to flip. The good news for Democrats that year was that their third member, then-Rep. Mike Ross (D, AR-4) was not a top GOP target, and, helped by then-Gov. Mike Beebe's (D-AR) popularity, they kept the legislative trifecta.
As legislative Democrats unveiled drafts of congressional plans in 2011, it was clear that they intended to preserve the basic contours of the existing map, with the goal of winning back a 3-1 advantage in the delegation. The problem, though, was that by then, a pro-Republican trend was obvious, so such a split would likely be unsustainable: in 2008, John McCain improved 10% over George W. Bush's 2004 showing in Arkansas, with many rural counties shifting 20% or more to McCain. Democrats could have linked Little Rock to some heavily Black counties on the Mississippi Delta, which would have given them one reasonably firm district — with Black residents making up just 16% of the state population, a majority-minority seat is not required in Arkansas. When redrawing AR-4, Democrats deferred to the wishes of Ross, but, in something of an about-face, Ross ended up announcing his retirement.
Democrats ended up passing a plan where all four districts would have still given McCain easy majorities. If the political fault lines of the early 2000s still shaped voting habits, Arkansas would likely still have three Blue Dogs and one Republican in Congress. Instead, the state continued its rightward trek in 2012: The three incumbent Republicans were reelected, and, without Ross' incumbency, AR-4 flipped red. Republicans also gained control of the state legislature that year, and have since increased their majorities. So now, holding the pen themselves, Arkansas Republicans are in a curious position: given their monopoly on the delegation, preserving something like the current Democratic-drawn map would probably suit them just fine.
The state's fastest-growing district is AR-3 (where Wal-Mart is headquartered), while Little Rock's AR-2 also saw growth over the past decade. The two primarily rural districts, AR-1 and AR-4, will have to expand. The shifting border between districts 3 and 4 sums up the state's population trends well: in 1970, AR-3 stopped just short of the Louisiana border to the south — as the slow-growing 4th has expanded over the past decades, it now comes north, close to the Missouri line.
National Democrats were not the only group frustrated by Arkansas redistricting in 2011 — to the chagrin of political analysts, the legislature departed from tradition in that they split several counties between districts (election breakdowns for whole-county districts are easier to tabulate). Iowa and West Virginia are now the only two states with more than one district to feature whole county districts.
Most overpopulated district: KY-6 (Greater Lexington)
Most underpopulated district: KY-5 (Eastern Kentucky)
2012 control: Split
The emcee at the 2013 Kentucky Democratic Party's Wendell Ford Dinner asked speakers to be brief. So Rep. John Yarmuth (D, KY-3) started his remarks thusly: "I can be really brief tonight and just say Mitch McConnell sucks."
McConnell, the Senate minority leader who at one time served in a county-level office in Louisville's Jefferson County, and Yarmuth, who represents Louisville in the House, are longtime antagonists. But McConnell, often the target of Yarmuth's ire, may end up helping to prolong Yarmuth's time in the House.
Yarmuth's KY-3 is the only Democratic district in Kentucky. It's not hard to imagine a hypothetical 6-0 Republican map in Kentucky that chops up Louisville. While Joe Biden carried KY-3 by 22 points, Donald Trump easily won the rest of the state. His smallest congressional district victory was by nine points in the Lexington-based KY-6, held by Rep. Andy Barr (R), who won by a bigger margin than Trump and held off a well-funded challenge from Amy McGrath (D) in 2018 (McGrath would go on to lose to McConnell in a 2020 rout). Trump won the remaining four districts by at least 30 points apiece, and his victory in eastern Kentucky's KY-5, held by long-time Rep. Hal Rogers (R), was his second-best congressional district in the entire country, behind only the aforementioned AL-4 (based on numbers from Daily Kos Elections).
But "McConnell has made it known to mapmakers that he feels Yarmuth's seat should remain intact, according to people familiar with those conversations," Politico reported earlier this month. He is joined in this by other members of Kentucky's congressional delegation, who probably don't want to see their districts radically changed in order to crack Jefferson County and eliminate Yarmuth's seat and/or are concerned about a court battle. McConnell may also not want to see his hometown sliced up in redistricting, even if failing to do so allows his rival, Yarmuth, to continue in office (Yarmuth does have a progressive primary challenger as well).
Ultimately, Republicans in the state legislature will decide, although the opinion of the congressional delegation likely will have some bearing on what they do. Even though Kentucky has a Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, the Republican-controlled legislature can override his vetoes with a simple majority vote, so this is a Republican-run state when it comes to redistricting.
It may be that not much changes on the Kentucky congressional map, which would be in keeping with what happened after 2000 and 2010 redistricting. Republicans could solidify their 5-1 hold on the map by strengthening GOP numbers in Barr's district, although he may not necessarily need too much help given that he survived in 2018.
Most overpopulated district: LA-1 (Suburban New Orleans)
Most underpopulated district: LA-5 (Northern Louisiana)
Who controls redistricting: Split
For Louisiana Republicans, the 2011 redistricting process was what the Washington Post described as a "cruel mistress." In the early years of the 2000s, Louisiana was seeing stagnant population growth — then, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, displacing thousands of residents. Though Louisiana may still have lost representation in the 2010 census anyway (the state has not seen truly robust population growth since the 1970s), the storm's impact made downsizing an inevitability. In the state's congressional delegation, Republicans, who could claim a state governmental trifecta in the state for the first time since Reconstruction, held all but one seat: the state's Black-majority 2nd District, which was protected by the Voting Rights Act. As a result, a Republican-leaning seat would need to be cut.
Ultimately, then-freshman Rep. Jeff Landry (R, LA-3), a Tea Party conservative who is now the state's attorney general, was thrown into a district that favored four-term Rep. Charles Boustany (R, LA-7), an ally of then-Speaker John Boehner (R, OH-8). Boustany ultimately won an intraparty runoff in the new seat by a 61%-39% margin.
One lesson of the Boustany/Landry showdown that will probably be relevant this cycle is that, though party loyalties matter, the first goal of most politicians is self-preservation. During redistricting negotiations, the Lafayette-based Boustany would not relinquish Calcasieu Parish (Lake Charles). This was, geographically, the parish farthest away from Landry's LA-3, so as long as Boustany retained Calcasieu, any new version of his district would likely include much familiar turf. When it looked like some legislative Republicans had other ideas, Boustany threatened to help Democrats pass a plan, though his fellow partisans eventually appeased him.
This cycle, with the state retaining six districts, congressional downsizing won't generate any redistricting-related drama. Instead, the main source of conflict may come from the governor's chair: Louisiana is the only state in this group where a Democratic governor might be able to sustain a veto of a GOP-passed map. Though he could well end up signing off on what the legislature comes up with, many Democrats have urged Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-LA) to insist that a second Black-majority seat be drawn. As the state is roughly one-third Black, Democrats argue that two minority-influence seats would better reflect the state's population. Republicans are just short of a supermajority in the legislature — if Edwards vetoes one of their maps, GOP legislators would need help from a few non-Republicans in the state House to override him. If Edwards and the Republicans can't agree on a plan, the process will get kicked to the courts, where Edwards (and Democrats) could make the case for more favorable maps.
Map 1 shows a minimal change plan, and then a potential plan with two Black-majority districts.
Map 1: Hypothetical Louisiana redistricting maps
The image on the left is basically indistinguishable from the current plan. The delegation's newest member, Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, has the slowest-growing district, so her LA-5 expands its holding in what is known as the state's Florida Parishes, at the expense of LA-6, which retains its Baton Rouge-area orientation.
After the 2010 census, LA-2, which had long been a New Orleans-area seat, was the least populous district in the country — as many of its low-income neighborhoods bore the brunt of Hurricane Katrina's flooding, its population was down to fewer than 500,000 residents by the end of the decade. To retain its Black-majority status, LA-2 followed the Mississippi River up to Baton Rouge, where it takes most of the state capital's minority-heavy precincts. As New Orleans has repopulated since 2010, LA-2 sheds a few western precincts, but sees little change. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise's LA-1 likewise loses a few peripheral precincts, but its focus is still the wealthy New Orleans suburbs, and it holds some swaths of coastal wetlands.
On the right image, a second Black-majority seat is added, running from Baton Rouge up to Shreveport. Though Louisiana had a district with a similar purpose in the early 1990s, the proposed new map is considerably more compact — in fact, this draft only splits seven parishes, down from the current plan's 15. LA-2, which is knocked down to 53% Black (the existing district is just over 60% Black), would have still given President Biden 68% in 2020, as white New Orleans liberals often vote with minorities for Democrats. But the new LA-4, which has more of a rural component, would be a racially polarized seat: though it should usually lean Democratic, Biden received 55% in this 54% Black seat. In this scenario, Reps. Letlow and Mike Johnson (R, LA-4) would likely run in the new LA-5, or one may retire.
Though a minimum change map seems the more likely outcome, Republicans would, at worst, retain a 4-2 edge in the Louisiana delegation.
Most overpopulated district: MS-4 (Gulf coast)
Most underpopulated district: MS-2 (Jackson/Delta)
Mississippi, with its four districts, may be one of the more uneventful redistrictings of this cycle. In 2011, with a Republican state Senate and a Democratic state House, legislators couldn't agree on a plan. When a panel of three federal judges stepped in, they produced a plan largely similar to the existing map. Though Republicans control the process this cycle, there may likewise be little appetite for major changes.
To start, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson's 2nd District is protected by the Voting Rights Act. Two-thirds Black by composition, it includes much of the Delta region, and almost all of Jackson's Hinds County. Due to population losses in the rural areas, MS-2 will need to pick up about 50,000 residents; reaching further down the Louisiana border to take in the trio of Adams, Franklin, and Wilkinson counties would basically accomplish this, along with some minor tweaks in the Jackson area.
Assuming the changes to MS-2 are minimal, the other three districts should be fairly straightforward. The most overpopulated district is MS-4, which has seen an influx of residents to its Gulf Coast communities. MS-4 routinely gives Republican presidential nominees close to 70% of the vote.
Moving north, MS-3 is a wide swath of central Mississippi. Rankin County, a solidly red county that includes parts of suburban Jackson, is MS-3's most populous county, though it only accounts for 20% of the district population — the balance comes from about 20 counties that are generally more rural.
Lastly, MS-1 is essentially coterminous with the northeastern corner of the state. Though MS-1 is the state's second most Republican district (after MS-4), some of its counties are exhibiting divergent trends. Though DeSoto County, which borders Memphis, TN and is growing more suburban, still gave Trump 61% last year, it saw a 10% swing to Biden — the largest shift, in either direction, in the state. A few miles to the east, Benton County, which is 35% Black, was a rare county that flipped from McCain in 2008 to Obama in 2012. That Trump then carried it by double-digits in both 2016 and 2020 shows the struggles that Democrats have faced in parts of the post-Obama South.
While it's possible to draw two majority-minority districts in Mississippi, any reasonably clean iterations of such districts would only be slightly above 50% Black. Given the highly polarized racial patterns in Mississippi, in a bad year for Democrats, the minority-backed candidate may not be guaranteed victory. It is also questionable whether Thompson would be on board with taking on a significantly more competitive seat, and the Republicans who control the process wouldn't want to do that anyway.
Most overpopulated district: OK-5 (Oklahoma City)
Most underpopulated district: OK-2 (Eastern Oklahoma)
Only two of Oklahoma's five seats changed hands over the last decade, but they are emblematic of national trends: namely, Democratic problems in rural districts they used to win, and Republican problems in urban/suburban districts that used to be more Republican than they are now.
In post-2010 redistricting, the Republicans who controlled the process made only small changes to the state's five districts. That included then-Rep. Dan Boren's (D) OK-2, which covers eastern Oklahoma, including the state's southeast corner along the Texas and Arkansas borders, a region called "Little Dixie." Boren's family connections — his father, David, served as governor and U.S. senator — as well as a lingering ancestral Democratic tradition in his district allowed him to win easily even in 2010, despite the district voting for John McCain in 2008 by a two-to-one margin. But Boren, at just age 37, retired in 2011, just a few months after the new map came out, and Republicans easily won OK-2 in all five elections held under the post-2010 map.
Meanwhile, Republicans' urban/suburban problems under Donald Trump became so bad in 2018 that they lost the Oklahoma City-based OK-5 in what was perhaps the Democrats' most surprising victory that year. Kendra Horn (D), helped by a late infusion of cash from Michael Bloomberg, seemed to catch then-Rep. Steve Russell (R) by surprise.
But now-Rep. Stephanie Bice (R, OK-5) restored Republican order in the district, beating Horn by four points. Still, there is a clear Democratic trend in the district: Mitt Romney won it by 18 points, but that margin fell to 14 for Donald Trump in 2016 and just five in 2020. So one would assume that Republicans, who control redistricting, will attempt to modify OK-5 to prevent it from falling into Democratic hands this decade.
The current OK-5 contains most, but not all, of Oklahoma City's Oklahoma County, which came within about a point of voting for Biden. That the county stuck with Trump meant that, for the fifth straight presidential election, Republicans won every county in Oklahoma. Trump won every other district in the state by at least 20 points or more, so it wouldn't be hard to strengthen the GOP in OK-5 at the expense of some surrounding areas.
Most overpopulated district: SC-1 (Charleston suburbs)
Most underpopulated district: SC-6 (Charleston/Columbia/Black Belt)
Since the 1990 census, either of the Carolinas has gained a district: after two consecutive rounds, 1990 and 2000, of adding seats, North Carolina remained stagnant at 13 districts after 2010 (but the state is adding a 14th seat for the 2020s), while South Carolina jumped from 6 to 7 last decade. The question of the new seat's placement led to a more dramatic redistricting than usual in South Carolina, despite total Republican control of the process. Essentially, while the state House placed the new 7th seat in the Pee Dee River Basin, the state Senate plan placed it south of Charleston. The result was a compromise that tracked closer to the House plan, and legislators had the goal of a 6-1 Republican delegation.
For most of the decade, the map worked as intended. The 1st District, which hugs coastal communities around Charleston, was the only district to see partisan turnover. In 2018, when pro-Trump Republicans in the 1st District primaried out Rep. Mark Sanford (a former governor who had also represented SC-1 in the 1990s), Democrats snagged the seat with Joe Cunningham. In 2020, though Trump's margin dropped from 53%-41% to 52%-46%, Cunningham narrowly lost to now-Rep. Nancy Mace. While Mace initially showed some of Sanford's independence, she has since seemed more of a mainstream Republican.
In any case, Mace may benefit from the state's population trends: her SC-1, the most populated district, is adjacent to SC-6, the least populated. The 6th District has sent now-Democratic Majority Whip Jim Clyburn to Congress ever since it became a Black-majority seat, in 1992, and it will need to pick up tens of thousands of residents. The 6th could easily grab some Democratic-leaning Charleston precincts in SC-1, which would push the latter seat a few points to the right.
Though both seats are currently held by Republicans, a similar tradeoff could take place between districts 3 and 4 in Upstate South Carolina. SC-4, which is the Greenville-Spartanburg area, has gotten smaller (geographically) over the last several decades, and it could simply transfer more of its Greenville County precincts to SC-3, a rural seat which needs to gain population.
The districts in between Lowcountry and Upstate may not see many changes: all three are already within two percentage points of the ideal district population and each is reliably red, although the 2nd, held by Rep. Joe Wilson (R), could perhaps be strengthened as it became a little less Republican over the course of the decade.
Most overpopulated district: TN-4 (South-Central Tennessee)
Most underpopulated district: TN-9 (Memphis)
Going into the 2011 redistricting process, Republicans were riding high in Tennessee. In 2010, they picked up the governorship and turned a 5-4 Democratic majority in the congressional delegation to a solid 7-2 GOP advantage. Importantly, the three seats that Republicans gained seemed solid: they'd all given McCain double-digit wins in 2008, and the GOP freshmen were replacing entrenched Democrats, whose appeal would be hard for future Democratic challengers to replicate.
So with Republicans' existing edge in the delegation, the 2011 redistricting in Tennessee was in large part driven by incumbent, not partisan, considerations. For example, then-Rep. Diane Black (R, TN-6) won her 2010 primary with a 31% plurality — it was not surprising when Rutherford County, where her two main primary opponents fared well, was removed from the district.
Though Tennessee Republicans ended up passing a map that preserved their comfortable 7-2 advantage, more aggressive options were considered. While Memphis' TN-9 is heavily Black (radically altering it would have surely result in court challenges), Nashville's TN-5, which is white-majority, emerged as a possible target. Currently, the three districts that surround TN-5 are all ruby red (each gave Trump at least 67% in 2020), so it would not be hard to dilute Democratic votes in Nashville by splitting them up among several districts.
In Map 2, Davidson County is split among four districts — the most Democratic of these seats is TN-5, which would have given Trump 57% both times he was on the general election ballot. We used the Cumberland River, which bisects Nashville, as something of a natural guide, but the are many ways to crack the county.
Map 2: Hypothetical pro-Republican gerrymander of Tennessee
One reason why Republicans didn't attempt an 8-1 map in 2011 may have been TN-5's incumbent. Rep. Jim Cooper (D, TN-5), a moderate Democrat who has represented the Nashville area since 2002, used to hold a rural seat earlier in his career, where he was reelected easily in the 1980s and early 1990s. Given Cooper's record in non-metropolitan parts of the state, it was feasible that he'd hold on in a redder district. But rural Tennessee has continued to shift rightward, and even the strongest statewide Democrats have struggled to find much crossover appeal there. Our sources on both sides of the aisle believe that Cooper is in serious danger of seeing his district broken apart, allowing Republicans to likely net an extra seat in Tennessee.
From a demographic perspective, many of the state's fast-growing counties form a crescent around Nashville: Sumner and Wilson counties are in TN-6, Rutherford was moved into TN-4 for 2012, and Williamson County, the state's wealthiest and most college-educated county, has been in TN-7 since 2002. A decade ago, those four counties had 720,000 residents, or just over the population of a single district — they now claim 860,000 residents, which is 115,000 over the ideal district population. On the other extreme, TN-9 has seen the slowest growth, and needs to add roughly 60,000 people — it will likely pick up some suburban Memphis precincts from TN-8, but it should still be around 65% Black. TN-8, which takes in West Tennessee, was amenable to Democrats 15 years ago, but is now a safely red seat, and it probably won't change as much as the Nashville-area districts.
The only two counties east of the Nashville area where Joe Biden cracked even 40% of the vote were Knox (Knoxville) and Hamilton (Chattanooga); they anchor TN-2 and TN-3, respectively. While those counties have seen some pro-Democratic trends, both districts contain a handful of deeply red rural counties, so Republicans should feel secure in each. Finally, TN-1 will likely see minimal changes — it's been nestled in the northeastern corner of the state for essentially the state's entire history and last elected a Democrat in 1878.
Number of seats: 2 (down 1 from 2010s)
Most overpopulated district: WV-2 (Charleston/Eastern Panhandle)
Most underpopulated district: WV-3 (Southern coalfields)
In 1952, when voters in a Charleston-area district first sent Robert Byrd to Congress, he was part of the state's six-member House delegation. Six years later, Byrd made the jump to the Senate, where he'd serve for more than half a century. While Byrd used his clout to steer resources to the state, demographic trends have not been kind to West Virginia: today, some counties in the state's southern coalfields claim less than half of their 1950 populations.
At the start of the next Congress, the Mountain State will be down to just two seats in the House. Even worse for Republicans, who have full control of state government for the first census since the Hoover Administration, is that one of their own members will have to go — they hold all three of the state's seats.
Though Democrats, who had a government trifecta in 2011, considered some creative plans last cycle, they ultimately took a minimal change approach. In what was dubbed the "Mason County flip," just one county on the entire map changed districts (Mason County was moved out of WV-2 and into WV-3).
West Virginia has always kept counties whole. In a ruling that defined the state's 2011 redistricting outcome, the U.S. Supreme Court maintained that, in the interest of keeping counties whole, a greater-than desirable population deviation between districts is permissible. There are several combinations of whole counties that could produce two districts.
Since 1992, the most awkward district on the map has undoubtedly been the 2nd District, which includes both the Charleston metro area and the Eastern Panhandle. As the Washington, D.C. suburbs have spilled into the panhandle, the two extremes of WV-2 have become increasingly dissimilar.
An obvious fix would be to essentially split WV-2 in two. WV-2's panhandle could easily be given to WV-1, which is based in Morgantown and includes the state's Northern Panhandle, while Charleston's Kanawha County would be grouped with the southern coalfields, which make up the current WV-3.
Though Rep. Alex Mooney (R, WV-2) has a base in the Eastern Panhandle (before his time in Congress, he served in Maryland's legislature) and would probably prefer an east-west configuration, the state's cultural, and political, lines seem to fall on more of a north-against-south axis.
Regardless of which Republicans are bunked together, West Virginia is so red these days that virtually any two districts there would both vote safely Republican.
In this Republican-dominated group of states, the GOP could get even stronger, most likely by the dismantling of Democratic-held TN-5 in Nashville. Other than that, the GOP could shore up some of the seats that got more competitive over the course of the last decade, like OK-5 and SC-1. Squeezing a second seat out of Louisiana through Gov. Edwards' veto pen and/or court action is probably the Democrats' best chance to get a new seat in these states next year. It seems possible that whatever the outcome in these seats are in 2022 could last the entire decade given the region's overall lack of competitiveness, but, of course, political trends could upset some of the maps there.
Notes on the State of Politics: July 28, 2021
Notes on the State of Politics: August 4, 2021


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