“I do not want any kind of rainbow display especially in this month.” Imagine hating the idea of diversity so much that any kind of rainbow offends you. These people won’t stop until the entire world is gray.
Man, these people are gonna be unhinged once they find out a rainbow is our visible light spectrum and that we technically see it everywhere. The kicker is that “God” put it there.
Oh boy are they unhinged.
“Give it back”. Apparently god isn’t powerful enough to take it back himself. Weirdest game of keep away ever.
The likely conclusion is that God is perfectly fine with how it is but they aren’t ready to admit that the plan of the eldritch entity they believe in may go beyond their idiocy
When your political project is ‘make everyone as miserable as I am’, whining about every goddamn thing is actually a kind of praxis.
You should see the comments on instagram reels whenever a teacher posts something and there’s a rainbow in the background, like just a rainbow on the wall in a kindergarten class or something, so many people absolutely fucking lose their minds and spew the most vile shit at these teachers, it’s bizarre.
Why are they able to so quickly swarm and find these posts?
Hate is a powerful motivator 
That’s how social media works. All it takes is one person to find it and post it to their network.
Cool, so why is it exclusively that the right are able to dominate these posts instead of having a more nuanced or mixed discussions. Are they just more commonly held opinions or is it something else.
Because when normal people with critical thinking skills see a rainbow in the back of a classroom, we don’t even register it. It’s not political to us at all. It’s just a wall decoration. So why would we hone in on it? Most of us probably don’t even “see” it.
Any sign of a rainbow at all is triggering to those who lack critical thinking skills. They latch onto it and start screaming about the LGBTQ+ agenda. And they spread it to their base to fill the hate tank and get them all riled up.
Meanwhile the rest of us are like “There was a rainbow on the wall…?”
Usually when I see a rainbow it’s just “oh cool! A rainbow! :D” and then I go on with my day, if it’s a lgbtqia+ flag or something I may say that I like their (item the flag is on) but that’s it. It boggles my mind to think someone sees something as innocent as a rainbow and thinks that it’s something malicious and not just the person who put it up thinking it’s cool
It’s not because the commenters are politically conservative or have commonly held views; it’s because they’re part of organized hate groups.
What sort of a nuanced discussion are you envisioning here, and are you envisioning that in response to bigoted comments or in an attempt to drown those comments out?
It’s because outrage is a strong motivator. That’s why posts that stoke outrage are so popular on social media.
Because it is the right that’s conditioned to see things as black and white, and that values members falling in line with what they do or do not support.
Combine that with the dunning-kruger effect, and they are extremely confident that their very simplified view of the world is right, and they shout it from the rooftops.
💀
They don’t have a life + they are on instagram
They won’t stop until all the LGBTQ people (and Jews, people of color, etc) are dead.
These people won’t stop until the entire world is
graywhite.FTFY.
“I do not want any kind of rainbow display especially in this month. We have a conservative town and as a library do not need to make political statements (see Target and Budlight as negative examples). I certainly do not want the library to promote LGBTQ agendas.”
Ah, and removing them is not a political statement?
Remember, it’s only “political” when it’s something they don’t like.
Wrong reply…
Well yeah, there are only two sexualities: straight and political ^/s
Tell them it’s to celebrate the receding flood waters and God’s promise to never do it again.
That should shut them up.
No, then they’ll just blame it on
[takes deep breath]
“THE JOOOOOOOOOOOZ!!!1!1!!”
To the quoted hate-filled fuck: Existing without being persecuted isn’t a goddamn agenda you piece of shit. The only agenda I see here is your fascist one. Try keeping your shit to yourself and learn to let people be instead of trying to stamp them out, ignorant fuckstick.
I’m sure they would also happily attempt elimination of neurodivergent people.
Maybe but they also might just do away with all psychiatric treatments, who needs “happy pills” for depression when you can just praise the Lord?
I think they want to replace psychiatry with exorcism.
Back to the sanatoriums but this time with more Jesus
Praise the Lord and pasd the Ammunition!
Well that’s the next step.
Indeed. No question about that at all.
I am old enough to remember the rainbow colors being a secret way for the community to find each other. We’d put a small rainbow on our cars, or other places and people of our community knew what that meant.
Now that we are more out of the closet, hateful bigots know what the rainbow flag means too. This is an expected downside to our communities progress. But we will never go back in the closet.
I’m a straight biological male and love rainbows. Colours are pretty! Not sure why anyone would get upset about rainbows. You know, the NATURALLY occurring thing?
Such a depressing world.
Bingo. As a Pink Floyd fan I remember seeing bigots complain about the gay “rainbow” with the anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon.
I use to have a tee shirt that said “Which one’s Pink?” And non Pink Floyd fans thinking it was a gay reference instead of a song lyric asking who is Pink Floyd".
Not the only reason by any stretch, but Christians love to claim that no one else can use rainbows because of that myth where their god used one to apologize for one of his many mass genocides.
You know they get upset at all kinds of Science shit that’s for liberals and nerds. Rainbows are no different.
Another cis straight male here btw. Rainbows are awesome in more ways than one. And how could you be a sensible person and not be an ally to those who would prefer not to be oppressed for stupid reasons?
I want a way to signal to people, sorry I’m freaking weird and apologies in advance for my awkwardness.
I’ve always loved the infinity symbol, got it engraved on a ring for my partner over a decade ago.
I also love badges.
Considering finding an enamel rainbow infinity badge online - and if someone mistakes me as queer, I don’t mind, I’m an ally and a bit bi anyway.
Bigots get way too hung up on symbols.
I like to think of symbols as positive things - either covert ways to communicate with like minded people in an unfortunately negative environment, or ways to show pride in something if the symbol is widely recognised.
When that pride is something includes infringement on the rights of others, then we have a problem.
Otherwise, yay, go wild.
Yes, officer, I’ve had a few drinks - why do you ask?
I think a lot of the bigots out there with a religious background have been conditioned to put a LOT into simple symbols.
When you accidentally discriminate against the “wrong” minority
No, no, they disciminate against them as well. 2 birds, 1 stone.
I don’t understand how having a rainbow nearby isn’t protected by 1st amendment rights.
Now make it a swastika
Whataboutism at it’s finest folks
Why?
Because….edgy.
Because pick a different political symbol that you dont agree with and reevaluate the situation
Thing that stand for inclusion is a bit different than a symbol of a regime that was famous for genocide…
Someone didn’t read the article. I’m just gonna go full bore at the get go. Be very careful how you use your frozen peaches son, cuz you’re actually posting in a .de instance with rules against promoting nazism.
Which you aren’t doing yet, of course. And you won’t. Will you.
Probably because that’s not how the first amendment works.
IANAL but, if it’s a publicly owned and operated library, and someone acting on behalf of the government fired these people for some sort of protected speech (which isn’t always just talking/writing) then I’m pretty sure that’s a 1a violation.
Though I could use some clarity on any distinction between a persons own speech, and speech that could be seen as that of the library.
Would you like to explain it?
I’m guessing https://xkcd.com/1357/
These fucking morons don’t even know what they’re banning… Really teaching everyone how important education really is, and why they don’t want people educated.
LGBTQ people existing is not political, it is a fact. And I am sure even in that conservative town there are LGBTQ people who would want to read books about them or books to help them. Yea, helping other LGBTQ people is the gay agenda.
Agenda of tolerance. “Oh nOoOoOoo sOo sCaRY!!!1!”
So much for not wanting to have negative press, now some random guy in Ohio even hates the place
Imagine being so afraid of The Big Gay that you fire two people for being part of another community that uses boldly colored stripes in their logo, a community that literally has a documented statistical preference for bold primary colors and patterns. Imagine your hate being so enormous that it can’t hit just one group of vulnerable minority children.
EDIT: Imagine posting before your caffeine kicks in and having to fix three different typos.
EDIT: Imagine posting before your caffeine kicks in and having to fix three different typos.
I don’t have to imagine anything at all to know what this is. Imagine having this experience most days!
Most days I don’t do anything before my caffeine and meds kick in x_x
Even if the symbol was a Pride display, they should be suing.
So this is the Sterling Free Public Library that did this? The library at this website here?
https://sterling.scklslibrary.info/
I wonder what would happen if these ignorant bigots faced a proverbial shit storm of backlash from across the country every time they tried to pull hateful shit like this?
They’d close the library as a fuck you.
“Look at all this hate mail the library is receiving! Proof that no one likes books.”
On June 22, Splitter, a temporary summer library employee, complained about the display to Lancaster, saying she found the “gay Pride” symbol offensive and going into “an anti-LGBT diatribe” even though Lancaster explained that the infinity symbol represented neurodiversity and autism.
I have to wonder if this person saw the rainbow and applied for a temp position just to complain.
Where are all the people who say “if you don’t like it just get another job” when this happens. Especially if you’re a temp and you could literally walk across the street and get another job.
Ugh I live close to this town. It’s only like a four hour drive.
They’re suing.
I hope they win. If the basis for their firing was the presumption that they were gay (hint: being gay is a protected class, you can’t fire someone for being gay), this would be an open-and-shut case of employment discrimination.
But if it’s all a big dumb misunderstanding and they’re not gay (and not part of that particular protected class) but they’re still fired over it, let me remind you that being autistic is a never-ending ordeal of being misunderstood, often mixed with a sense of justice that could be characterized as white-hot.
…or at least, my sense of justice about this might be in the range of over-wrought, or just blazing.
Shit, is firing someone because they’re autistic not also an open-an-shut case of employment discrimination?
If not, I think we need some reform.
Being autistic is a protected class
They just don’t hire you for not being charismatic or some other stupid reason.
They could argue it was over the displaying of “political” symbology, and not for the perceived sexuality of the employees.
They could argue it was over the displaying of “political” symbology, and not for the perceived sexuality of the employees.
They could, but the article quotes text messages from the lawsuit that very strongly indicate it was explicitly about perceived ‘gay pride’ being the kind of “political” they don’t want:
On June 22, Splitter, a temporary summer library employee, complained about the display to Lancaster, saying she found the “gay Pride” symbol offensive and going into “an anti-LGBT diatribe” even though Lancaster explained that the infinity symbol represented neurodiversity and autism.
Splitter then complained about the display to Michelle Miller, vice chair of the library board. Miller reportedly told Lancaster that she could get her fellow board members to have Lancaster take down the display.
“I am totally fine with diversity of skin color display, just not represented with rainbow colors,” Miller texted Wheeler, the director, according to the lawsuit. “I do not want any kind of rainbow display especially in this month. We have a conservative town and as a library do not need to make political statements (see Target and Budlight as negative examples). I certainly do not want the library to promote LGBTQ agendas.”
From context, not only did the plaintiffs explain that the rainbow-infinity is an autism symbol, they also went so far as to take down the display to seek guidance on how to change it- and even after those accommodations they were fired. But at least they put their intent to discriminate in text messages that would be discoverable at trial
