free speech: Last News

ruling, Rosenthal found that the Queer Empowerment Council, which organizes the event, was likely to succeed in proving the ban violates the First Amendment. Rosenthal’s ruling comes after the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents passed a resolution in February banning drag performances from all 11 state university campuses on the grounds that drag — specifically, the idea of biological male performers dressing as women — is allegedly offensive and demeaning to women, “inconsistent” with the university’s core values, and creates a “hostile environment” for women in violation of federal law.The Queer Empowerment Council sued the university, arguing that the ban violates students’ and performers’ First Amendment rights and engaged in censorship or viewpoint discrimination against those who either do not find drag offensive or don’t hold socially conservative political beliefs.Rosenthal, a George H.W.

deluge of virtue-signaling moves taken by Meta to placate conservatives as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.Last week, CEO Zuckerberg announced that Meta would eliminate its third-party fact-checking system and replace it with a user-based “Community Notes” feature similar to the model employed by X.Meta also overhauled its “Hateful Conduct” policy, carving out a host of exemptions that allow certain types of bias-motivated attacks directed at specific groups, including the LGBTQ community, under the guise of promoting “free speech” on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.When The Intercept wrote about the confusing and seemingly contradictory guidelines for determining what types of content are allowed or prohibited on its platforms, Meta locked access to company policies and training materials, which had previously been publicly accessible.Last Friday, Meta went a step further, announcing it would end diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. It eliminated its chief diversity officer role, ended its goals calling for certain numbers of women and minorities to be hired, and said it would no longer prioritize minority-owned businesses when hiring vendors.Additionally, Meta reportedly deleted nonbinary and transgender themes from its Messenger chat app, which allows users to customize the app’s colors and wallpaper, as reported by 404 Media.

lower court’s ruling that the AEA was an unconstitutional infringement on performers’ First Amendment rights.The judges also lifted an injunction that prohibited local authorities in Shelby County — which encompasses the city of Memphis and its suburbs — from enforcing the law Writing for the court, Nalbandian found that the Memphis-based LGBTQ theater company, Friends of George’s (FOG), lacked legal standing to sue over the law, because its “drag-centric performances, comedy sketches, and plays” did not meet specific criteria under Tennessee law to be considered “harmful to minors.”As a result, he argued, the theater company failed to prove it was at risk of potential future prosecution and lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.Nalbandian and Siler declined to address whether the law’s content violated the First Amendment.But Circuit Judge Andre Mathis, a Biden appointee, noted in a dissenting opinion that the majority’s ruling conflicts with both past 6th Circuit precedent, as well as Supreme Court precedent.Mathis argued that Friends of George’s had standing to sue because the content of their skits might be considered “adult-oriented performances.”And because the theater where the troupe performs does not distinguish between adult and child ticket holders, and does not card all patrons, a handful of minors could end up seeing the shows — thus violating the law, and making the theater company subject to prosecution.Mathis found that the AEA is not simply a “time, place, or manner restriction” that might otherwise be considered reasonable, but rather a content-based restriction targeting shows that lawmakers may personally deem offensive or objectionable — a clear violation of the First Amendment.Tennessee Attorney

who’s worked with everyone from Lil Wayne to Gucci Mane has been ordered to submit his future songs to a judge before release to make sure they match his “goals of rehabilitation.”BG, a k a Christopher Dorsey, of Louisiana, was arrested in March after performing in Las Vegas with rapper Boosie, also a convicted felon, the Guardian reported.Prosecutors said BG’s appearance violated the 43-year-old “Bling Bling’’ rapper’s terms of supervised release on previous gun charges because he is supposed to “refrain from … associating unnecessarily with’’ felons.BG, short for “Baby Gangsta,’’ also shouldn’t have been publicly espousing lyrics touting two men who are serving life behind bars for several murders in a drug- and gang-tied case because they are “inconsistent with the goals of rehabilitation,” the prosecutors said, according to the outlet.The hip-hopper — who was a teen when he started recording with Cash Money Records’ Hot Boys group along with rappers Wayne and Juvenile — was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2012 after being caught with three guns in his car, two of which were stolen.Since getting out of prison last year, he recorded the album “Choppers & Bricks” with Grammy nominee Mane, also an ex-con felon.Federal Judge Susie Morgan issued Friday’s order forcing BG to submit future lyrics to her after ruling that prosecutors had “legitimate’’ concerns about him falling off the rehabilitation route.The rapper’s lawyers had argued that the move constituted “unconstitutional prior restraint of free speech.”The judge also said the hip-hopper has to request to work with felons before he does so.BG has about another year and a half of supervised release stemming from the gun conviction.

first-ever PrideFest, last year at the Public Square, a parcel of city-owned property at the center of the town. Approximately 200 people attended the event, held without disruption.PrideFest’s organizers, the Patoka Valley AIDS Community Action Group, expected it would be green-lit this year and filed an application in November 2023 to hold it on September 7, 2024.

Miami Herald that “[p]reparations for a suit in federal court are well underway.”“My civil liberties are not up for debate,” he said of his intention to not only sue Miami Beach Gay Pride, but the city of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County, which are co-sponsoring the Pride parade.Kent Harrison Robbins, an attorney for Basabe, wrote to Horwich warning him that excluding Basabe from participating in the parade “would be willfully, knowingly, and intentionally abridging his First Amendment right to free speech and to peaceably assembly on a public street.”“Legal precedents from the federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have ruled that a concern that there may be physical opposition to [Basabe] is not a legal justification for violating his speech and assembly rights,” Robbins wrote in the letter. “Basabe must be allowed to participate in The Pride Parade and he must be notified immediately through my offices that he will be allowed to do so without any impediments.”Robbins argued that because city and county jurisdictions are among the sponsors of the parade, it doesn’t constitute a private event that would allow for Basabe’s exclusion.

TheWrap, the 57-year-old Lemon has agreed to a separation deal for approximately $24.5 million, the equivalent he would have earned for serving out the remainder of his final contract, which was set to expire three-and-a-half years after he was pulled from the airwaves.In April 2023, Lemon, who was featured on Metro Weekly’s coverin 2016, announced on X that he had learned from his agent — and not from the network, for which he had worked for 17 years — that he had been terminated. He said he was never given any indication that the network was considering letting him go.

makes it easier to remove books from libraries that are deemed to have “sexual” content or are considered “inappropriate” for minors.One of the books removed from shelves was And Tango Makes Three, a children’s story based on real-life events about a same-sex penguin couple that hatches an egg together and raises its chick.The book was recently banned by Lake County Public Schools in central Florida, only to be returned to shelves after the book’s authors filed a lawsuit.While Lake County has permitted Tango to return to shelves, the overall law still allows for other titles with LGBTQ themes or characters to be restricted, and the authors’ lawsuit has been transferred to U.S.

AB 1078, passed the Assembly in May by a 61-17 margin, and the Senate last week by a 31-9 margin. Under the bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Corey Jackson (D-Moreno), school boards will be financially penalized if they vote to ban books or educational materials related to Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, and LGBTQ topics — provided those topics are part of the school’s approved curriculum, reports Los Angeles-based CW affiliate KTLA.The bill was sparked by a controversy in the Temecula Valley Unified School District, in which the board’s conservative members rejected an elementary school social studies curriculum over supplemental materials that mentioned Harvey Milk as the state’s first openly gay elected official, with the board president dubbing the former San Francisco Supervisor a “pedophile.”State officials blasted the board and threatened legal actions and fines, prompting the board to backtrack and adopt the approved state curriculum.

signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year, prohibits businesses from hosting performances that feature nudity — real or simulated — or contain sexually-tinged content, as well as shows with any simulation or representation of sexual acts or the use of accessories that “exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics,” such as prosthetic breasts.Establishments that violate the law can be fined $10,000 per occurrence, while performers found in violation can face up to a year in jail, a fine of $4,000, or both.

according to court documents. “You lying, disgusting, disgraceful, motherfucking f****t…. piece of shit.

giving cancel culture a huge heckle offstage. “Most of the people on social media with these [negative] opinions aren’t even real people …They’re trying to strip us of the very thing that makes our country special: the freedom of speech.”Recently, Marlon used comedy to address the senseless violence and brawl at an Alabama dock which caught the nation’s attention. It’s something he spoke in detail about on this week’s episode – along with negative reaction to his own commentary on the incident.“I think social media messed up socializing and we’ve got to get back to laughing and finding reasons to laugh and stop being so damn sensitive,” he said.

internal and external protests by LGBTQ employees and their allies — to the “Don’t Say Gay” law. “State leaders have not been subtle about their reasons for government intervention,” the company writes in the lawsuit. “They have proudly declared that Disney deserves this fate because of what Disney said.