United States Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced that police are investigating a number of posters displayed on Georgetown University’s campus that appear to be recruiting students for a leftist gun club linked to violence.
“I am aware of the appalling posters that were displayed on Georgetown’s campus today,” McMahon wrote in a post to the social media platform X on Sept. 24.
The flyers found around the Jesuit campus advertise for students to “Join the John Brown Gun Club,” a left-wing and “anti-fascist” extremist group that first formed in Kansas. The network of clubs around the country takes its name from the 19th-century abolitionist John Brown.
One of the flyers makes references to words allegedly written on a shell casing by Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin, Tyler Robinson. The poster reads: “Hey fascist! Catch!” It further advertised itself as “the only political group that celebrates when Nazis die.”
According to a number of social media posts, the flyers are hung near dormitories and on campus activity boards. Some posters call on prospective members to “do something more than symbolic resistance” and provide a scannable QR code that takes users to a document to sign up for the club.
“Georgetown University has no tolerance for calls for violence or threats to the university,” a spokesperson for the school told CNA. “The flyers have been removed and the university is investigating this incident and working to ensure the safety of our community.”
McMahon said the department spoke to Georgetown staff about the posters and police are now investigating.
“At a moment like this, Georgetown has to determine what it stands for as an institution,” McMahon wrote in the social media post. “[Education Department] officials have spoken to Georgetown administrators, who made the decision to remove the flyers.”
“Campus police are investigating the incident and will deploy resources to protect students as necessary. Allowing violent rhetoric to fester on our nation’s campuses without consequences is dangerous. It must be condemned by institutional leaders.”
“I am grateful to those who spoke out against this and made noise about the posters on campus — you made a difference. There is power in speaking up to reveal these hateful ideologies that have incited deadly violence,” McMahon said. “Keep fighting for good!”
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Denver Newsroom, Mar 22, 2022 / 17:10 pm (CNA).
Michigan officials tried to bar funds for Catholic child placement agencies. Instead, they are paying at least $800,000 in legal fees in settling two agencies’ successful F… […]
Paula Scanlan, a women’s sports activist and former teammate of trans-identifying athlete Lia Thomas on the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team, speaks to a crowd about her story. Originally only speaking out anonymously, Scanlan has since gone public about the emotional impact of having to share a locker room with a biological male had on her as a sexual assault survivor. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Independent Women’s Forum
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 19, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX regulations to offer protection of transgender individuals in women’s sports, educational programs, and school bathrooms has been blocked in half of the states in the country.
The new rule is currently blocked in 26 states as a coalition of states and conservative groups are fighting the rule in court.
Yet, for many of the country’s most populous states — such as California, New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania — the rule took effect on Aug. 1. This means that the measure is impacting Americans in many of the country’s largest population centers.
Christiana Kiefer, senior counsel at one of these groups, the Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA that “the Biden-Harris administration’s radical attempt to redefine sex in Title IX turns back the clock on women’s opportunities, erodes student privacy, and threatens women’s sports.”
“Policies that deny biological truth create real victims — particularly impacting the dignity and safety of women and girls,” Kiefer said. “We are hopeful that the courts will ultimately rule to protect privacy and safety, free speech, and fairness in sports.”
What is the new rule?
In April, the Biden Department of Education redefined the prohibition on sex discrimination in education, enshrined in the 1972 Title IX provisions, to include discrimination based on a person’s “gender identity.”
The new guidelines prohibit any policy and practice that “prevents a person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity.” Schools that do not comply risk having their federal funding cut off.
According to May Mailman, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC), the rule means that any male can now assert that he has been discriminated against based on gender identity and claim a right to use a women’s space.
As IWLC director, Mailman said she has seen the personal impact that forcing schools to allow biological men into women’s sports and private spaces has had on young women. Ultimately, she believes the new rule amounts to “the elimination of women’s spaces.”
“You have Paula Scanlan, who’s an IWF [Independent Women’s Forum] ambassador, she was forced to undress before a fully intact male 18 times a week. And she suffered through it, but how many women would do it? Certainly not all. So, women are going to remove themselves from circumstances that require them to be naked or to do really private activities like urinating in front of males,” Mailman explained.
Scanlan is a women’s sports activist and former teammate of trans-identifying athlete Lia Thomas on the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team. Originally only speaking out anonymously, Scanlan has since gone public about the emotional impact of having to share a locker room with a biological male had on her as a sexual assault survivor.
“That is the opposite of what Title IX was created to do, which is to give women opportunities. So, what you’re going to see is Title IX actually being flipped on its head. Women are going to remove themselves from educational programs like sports because it requires such indecency.”
Where is the rule in effect?
A slate of Republican-led states has challenged the rule in court, many arguing that it violates their state laws. As a result, the Biden administration’s changes are currently blocked in 26 states.
The Independent Women’s Forum has published an interactive map showing which states have successfully blocked the rule and in which states it is currently active. The map also shows which states have pending litigation on the rule. Credit: Image courtesy of Independent Women’s Forum.
The Biden Title IX changes are currently blocked in most of the South and Midwest, including Texas, Florida, and Ohio. Because of a Kansas lawsuit that was joined by several other states and conservative organizations, the rule has been blocked in over 3,800 individual schools across the country.
However, the blocks in these states are only considered “preliminary injunctions,” meaning they are temporary, pending further review in the courts. Because of this, the rule could eventually take effect in any of the 26 states where it is currently blocked.
The Biden administration’s Title IX change has already taken effect in 24 states, primarily in Western and Northeastern coastal states, as well as the Great Lakes region.
“It seems like half the country, but it’s actually more than half the country because if you think about population, this is California, this is New York, so for a huge portion of the population, they are now under the Biden regime, where male and female spaces are no longer protected in education programs,” Mailman said.
“In those schools, the Biden administration can absolutely go after a school if it does not police pronouns, if it has male and female locker rooms, if it has male and female bathrooms, if it has male and female scholarships … it affects all education programs that accept federal money.”
What’s next?
On Friday the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously denied the Biden administration’s request to partially enforce the new rule in several states where it has been blocked. Mailman explained in a video posted to social media that while the decision does not change much right now it does signal the Supreme Court may agree that Biden’s changes to Title IX are unconstitutional.
Ultimately, Mailman believes the fate of this rule depends in large part on the presidential election. If elected to the White House, Mailman said that a Kamala Harris administration is “absolutely going to take it further.”
“Judges are something that the president has a huge say in because they nominate them. You can’t be a judge if you don’t have the president,” she said. “So, the types of judges that Kamala Harris is going to put on the courts are the types of judges who are going to say that absolutely, Title IX is some gender identity law, even though it’s not.”
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4 Comments
At Georgetown you can get a Ph.D. in Advanced Antifa Act-up.
Remarkable how the violent Left, opposed to human nature, natural law, religious freedom, the right to speak now brand those who hold to these values as Nazis. That the Leftist fanatics are liberators.
It’s Marxism taken to extremes. As murderous and prohibitive of our humanness as were the 1917 Bolsheviks. If this movement isn’t quelled we may be witnessing the start of a similar revolution in America. A major impediment to reasoned compromise is their refusal to dialogue indicated in the Kirk murder.
With threats of Left Wing violence, it might be interesting to see if some Republicans might be agreeable to gun control regarding transgenders, illegal aliens and members of Antifa?
The NRA might be absolutist on the 2nd Amendment, but I suspect some Republicans might consider red flag laws with some groups.
At Georgetown you can get a Ph.D. in Advanced Antifa Act-up.
Of course Georgetown is a cesspool, and Barack Obama is its only god.
Remarkable how the violent Left, opposed to human nature, natural law, religious freedom, the right to speak now brand those who hold to these values as Nazis. That the Leftist fanatics are liberators.
It’s Marxism taken to extremes. As murderous and prohibitive of our humanness as were the 1917 Bolsheviks. If this movement isn’t quelled we may be witnessing the start of a similar revolution in America. A major impediment to reasoned compromise is their refusal to dialogue indicated in the Kirk murder.
With threats of Left Wing violence, it might be interesting to see if some Republicans might be agreeable to gun control regarding transgenders, illegal aliens and members of Antifa?
The NRA might be absolutist on the 2nd Amendment, but I suspect some Republicans might consider red flag laws with some groups.