Girl Expelled from Christian School after Picture with a Rainbow Birthday Cake

A Kentucky high school student was expelled from a Christian school after administrators saw a photo of the girl from her 15th birthday wearing a rainbow sweater posing next to a rainbow cake, according to the girl’s mother.

From the school: “On occasion, the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home may be counter or in opposition to the Biblical lifestyle the school teaches,” the handbooks states. “This includes, but is not limited to, sexual immorality, homosexual orientation, or the inability to support Biblical standards of right and wrong.”

Evangelical Christians like those in this school support Donald Trump. Supposedly Trump is their idea of Biblical standards of right and wrong. People on top of hierarchies are clueless and judgemental about anyone they want to force down their hierarchies on which they place themselves on top.

https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/diversity-inclusion/478382-student-expelled-from-christian-school-after?fbclid=IwAR0mkqp_y6w8wvMGOPKZeqnkk8szkdnaUc1K5p5CSwvXhroTT1L1_cS7rDs

Tennessee Passes Bill to Discriminate Against LGBT Couples in Adoption

In a measure endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission,  Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation allowing Volunteer State adoption agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex parents.

The bill was opposed by LGBTQ rights groups, including the Tennessee Equality Project and the national group Lambda Legal.

“This bill would give a special license to faith-based child welfare agencies funded with taxpayers dollars to discriminate in foster care and adoption against parents who are trying to provide a loving home to children in need,” Currey Cook, counsel and director for Lambda Legal’s Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project said.

“This bill would children in foster care in Tennessee a much-needed family simply because agencies want to put their beliefs above the best of interests of the children,” Cook added.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/478295-tennessee-lawmakers-pass-bill-allowing-adoption-agencies-to-refuse-to?fbclid=IwAR0P6-duxfCeBvHTslTt5xpHKUYNVGR1rEuYZOIQ2vGaTg7tRENhH6tIzx8

Teacher of the Year Kneels at College Football Championship Game

Minnesota’s top teacher said her students were on her mind when she decided to kneel during the national anthem while being honored at Monday night’s college football championship game.

The state’s 2019 “Teacher of the Year” Kelly Holstine took a knee while being recognized on the Louisiana State University field along with the other honored teachers. 

Standing with them was Donald Trump.

“I just decided that it felt like the right thing to do, to have a very respectful protest,” Holstine told The Hill. “It’s really Martin Luther King Jr. says it best: ‘Nobody's free until we're all free.’”

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/478520-minnesota-teacher-of-the-year-kneels-during-college-football?fbclid=IwAR1pOsYCCDkotINc40z9uSNRlxN1g5jHbGqBlxnmo_2BTJxU0YAMgk65XVA

Matt Gay, NFL Player, to Wear Anti-Bullying Cleats

Matt Gay is a professional football player and a kicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This week he will wear antibullying cleats Sunday in the team's match against the Indianapolis Colts.

The sartorial activism is tied to a National Football League campaign, My Cause, My Cleats, in which players, for one game each year, decorate their shoes in a manner that links them to a cause.

Gay's advocacy for antibullying efforts is inspired by his youth in Utah, where he was bullied due to the "gay" association of his last name. “I got bullied and teased all the time for my last name and things like that."

https://www.advocate.com/sports/2019/12/06/nfl-player-matt-gay-harassed-name-will-wear-antibullying-cleats?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sports&fbclid=IwAR1aYr8Twk6QmLD-HML-py49ewi8DVkJZfsOPJz7hqQnF2P64wkdoipDzuM

Megan Rapinoe Urges Male Soccer Players to Get Involved with Racism and Sexism

U.S. women's national team captain Megan Rapinoe has urged male superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to do more to tackle issues such as racism and sexism in modern football.

Rapinoe, 34, was presented the Ballon d'Or award, the female version on Monday after winning the World Cup, Golden Boot, and Golden Ball in July.

Rapinoe challenged Ronaldo, Messi and Ibrahimovic to follow her lead and be more active against problems in the sport.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usaw/story/4005760/megan-rapinoe-calls-on-lionel-messi-cristiano-ronaldo-to-help-in-fight-for-equality

The DeVos Family is Heavily Invested in the Student Loan Industry

People on the top of our hierarchies who have much more than their share work hard to make sure it stays that way.

Billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos this week proposed handing over the federal government's $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio to a "stand-alone government corporation," a move observers condemned as a corrupt ploy to strip the next president of the ability to cancel student loan debt.

"This very much appears to be a Betsy DeVos scheme to block the next president from unilaterally forgiving federal student debt, which she is well aware a president could do without Congress," The Intercept's Ryan Grim wrote in a series of tweets late Wednesday. "The DeVos family is heavily invested in the student loan industry and this is just flat-out corruption."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/05/flat-out-corruption-devos-accused-scheming-stop-next-president-canceling-student?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3CdkM7gj56n-PvMMWIBmO8MINzrX1gFdL9Kv9aZfCBq-OBTp63y3WSASs

Church Shows Holy Family as Caged Separately

Karen Clark Ristine, a senior minister at the Claremont United Methodist Church, posted on Facebook figures depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph could be seen placed in cages in the nativity scene. 

Ristine described the Holy Family as “the most well-known refugee family in the world” in the post on Saturday.

“Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center,” she continued, adding: “In the Claremont United Methodist Church nativity scene this Christmas, the Holy Family takes the place of the thousands of nameless families separated at our borders.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/473608-california-church-depicts-holy-family-in-cages-as-family?fbclid=IwAR2b-nrr4Vwl9DUV_jdgIau86eJ3pDFYKqsH8MpE-g79Dgg3Sk11G2Q6qRA