Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church

[Scooter]

Maryland probe finds 158 abusive priests, over 600 victims

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — An investigation by Maryland’s attorney general identified 158 Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore who have been accused of sexually and physically abusing more than 600 victims over the past 80 years, according to court records filed Thursday.

Attorney General Brian Frosh announced that his office has completed a 463-page report on the investigation, which began in 2019. He filed a motion in Baltimore Circuit Court to make the report public. Court permission is required because the report contains information from grand jury subpoenas. It’s unclear when the court will make a decision.

“For decades, survivors reported sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests and for decades the Church covered up the abuse rather than holding the abusers accountable and protecting its congregations,” according to the court filing. “The Archdiocese of Baltimore was no exception.”

The report, titled “Clergy Abuse in Maryland,” identifies 115 priests who were prosecuted for sex abuse and/or identified publicly by the archdiocese as having been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse. It also includes an additional 43 priests accused of sexual abuse but not identified publicly by the archdiocese, the court filing said.

“The Report summarizes the sexual abuse and physical torture perpetrated by all 158 priests and the Archdiocese’s response to that abuse,” the court filing said.

In a letter released Thursday evening, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore apologized “to the victim-survivors who were harmed by a minister of the Church and who were harmed by those who failed to protect them, who failed to respond to them with care and compassion and who failed to hold abusers accountable for their sinful and criminal behavior.”

“Upon reading today’s motion, we feel renewed shame, deep remorse and heartfelt sympathy, most especially to those who suffered from the actions of representatives of the very Church entrusted with their spiritual and physical well-being,” Lori wrote.

David Lorenz, the Maryland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, described the news of the report and numbers of victims as “absolutely horrendous.”

“Once again, the church has lied about the number of abusive priests,” Lorenz said in a statement. “Many parishes were dumping grounds for predators, some housed almost ten. It is very clear that nobody was safe. Sadly, it is no different than any diocese or secular report in the country.”

While the court filing noted that more than 600 victims were identified, it also said “there are almost certainly hundreds more, as the Department of Justice’s Annual Crime Victimization Report has demonstrated that most incidents of sexual assault go unreported.”

Both boys and girls were abused, according to the court filing, with ages ranging from preschool through young adulthood.

“Although no parish was safe, some congregations and schools were assigned multiple abusive priests, and a few had more than one sexually abusive priest at the same time,” the court filing said. “One congregation was assigned eleven sexually abusive priests over 40 years.”

The sexual abuse was so pervasive, the court filing said, that victims were sometimes reporting sexual abuse to priests who were perpetrators themselves.

The investigation also revealed that the archdiocese failed to report many allegations of sexual abuse, conduct adequate investigations of alleged abuse, remove abusers from the ministry or restrict their access to children.

“Instead, it went to great lengths to keep the abuse secret,” the court filing said. “While the Archdiocese reported a large number of allegations to police, especially in later years, for decades it worked to ensure that the perpetrators would not face justice.”

In the court filing, Frosh argues that “publicly airing the transgressions of the Church is critical to holding people and institutions accountable and improving the way sexual abuse allegations are handled going forward.”

“More importantly, it is vital to protecting children an the entire community,” the filing said.

The court filing also noted that of the 43 priests that have not been publicly identified or prosecuted, 30 have died.

“For those priests that have died, this additional secrecy interest is less compelling,” the filing said.

The attorney general’s office redacted all identifying information for for the 13 living church officials who have been accused of sexual abuse but who have not been listed as credibly accused by the archdiocese and who have not been prosecuted.

In 2019, Frosh launched a criminal investigation of child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests and other employees of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Hundreds of thousands of documents dating back to the 1940s were produced in response to grand jury subpoenas.

As part of its investigation, the attorney general’s office created an email address and telephone hotline for people to report information. Over 300 hundred people contacted the office, and investigators interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses.

[Bicycle Bill]

Unless you were trying to prove that there are sinners among the clergy regardless of denomination, I can't understand the need for your carpet bombing of the thread.  If that was the case, it still wasn't necessary.  I don't think any of us here ever flat-out denied the fact.

And if you were trying to point out that homosexuals or transvestites were getting a bum rap because there are pedophiles among the straight population as well, I don't think anyone here ever denied that either.  On the other hand, I don't think any of them have formed a 'straight' version of NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association ... one of the cringiest organization names I've ever run across) — so you should be able to understand how someone could easily slot all gays into that pigeonhole.

-"BB"-

[Joe Guy]

Drag Queen attacks multiple children at Drag Queen Story Hour

During Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) at a performance in San Francisco a drag queen pulled out an AR-15 style rifle and forced children in the room to "shut up and listen to me!". According to an unidentified parent of one of the targeted children, the drag queen, known as Calamity Jane, was telling a story called, "Romeo and Romeo" when some of the children got bored and started playing with their Lego sets.

The drag queen pulled her AR-15 style firearm out of the back of her dress, pointed it at the children and told all parents to take the Lego toys and leave the room until she lets them know that DOSH is over.

Police were called, surrounded and quickly entered the building and shot and killed Calamity Jane. She was later identified as a member of The Proud Boys. After a thorough investigation, it was later discovered that many of The Proud Boys are actually women and/or transsexuals. DOSH will continue but now performers will be required to undergo a rigorous background check to eliminate any association with The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Boogaloo Bois or other so-called Patriotic groups, due to the discovery of militant drag queen sects within these groups.

The Proud Boys and other so-called Patriot Groups were contacted and declined to comment on the incident.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Drama queen story hour

[BoSoxGal]

Except as usual the peaceable LGBTQIA folks are just minding their own business when some psycho right wing fanatic comes into their space and slaughters them.

On Transgender Remembrance Day no less.

[Scooter]

They believe they have permission to do it. Because we are all "groomers" now. Just by our very existence. And so we deserve to be killed. That is the narrative being pushed the Republican Party and their "Christian" co-conspirators.

[MajGenl.Meade]

What happened in Colorado is appalling, absolutely wrong. I think "psycho" is only too accurate - this individual had previously been reported by his own mother for threatening to attack her.

I don't know the political wishes of psychos, except to presume they are extreme and illegal. Awful as it is, I'm more worried about the non-psychos who help create the background approbation for hate.

[BoSoxGal]

The kid’s grandad is a MAGAt legislator so I’m guessing he got plenty of education on hating others from his family and sorry, in America in my experience and observation if it’s a Christian upbringing it’s got lots of hate on the menu. Colorado Springs is a very conservative, evangelical judgy/hatey Christian community known as America’s Christian Mecca.


It’s noteworthy that this hate crime (which cops won’t yet call a hate crime <eyeroll>) was met with the heroism of LGBTQIA patrons who ran toward the gunman and tackled him, ending the carnage before he got his load off. Imagine if those dozens and dozens of bullet proof vested and armed cops in Uvalde had balls like gay men do!

[MajGenl.Meade]

The kid’s grandad is a MAGAt legislator

That's the kind of non-psycho (in the sense of physically violent) actor I mean. They set up the low low approval bar for the real killers.

[BoSoxGal]

Here’s an excerpt from a story about the shooter:

As investigators attempted to piece together what led to the tragedy, on Sunday it also emerged how last June, Aldrich, had been accused of threatening to blow up his mother's home with a makeshift bomb.

Luckily his mother, Laura, was able to escape and alerted police while driving to safety away from her Colorado Springs home.

Officers found Aldrich who was seen walking out on the street about one mile from the house. He ignored police orders and managed to evade the arrest.

There was finally a stand-off between police officers and the bomb squad at the home before Aldrich walked out and surrendered after an hour of negotiations.

When the bomb squad went into the residence they were unable to find any explosives.

He was arrested and charged with two felony menacing charges after the police had to evacuate all the residents within quarter mile radius of the home, leading to the entire neighborhood having to be evacuated.

The charges were later dropped and the records were sealed.

This stuff happened just a little over a year ago and for some reason he wasn’t prosecuted and his record was sealed - at 21 years of age I can’t imagine how the prosecutor justified that and I sure hope s/he loses the job at the next election having made such an egregious decision about how to handle a citizen threatening violence and refusing to cooperate with law enforcement.

Of course if the kid had been black or Latino he likely wouldn’t have survived his refusal to cooperate with cops in that first instance a year ago, and 30 people wouldn’t be dead or struggling with high velocity gunshot wounds which they will be healing from forever.

Young white men in America are the most dangerous people in our society.

[Scooter]

There are certainly going to be questions asked, because Colorado has red flag laws that should have been come into play, and may have prevented this MAGAt spawn from having access to firearms.

[Scooter]

Polygamist Mormon ‘Prophet’ Had Sex With His Underage Wives’ Father, FBI Says

Samuel Bateman, a self-proclaimed “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, had 20 wives, many of whom were under the age of 15, according to an FBI investigation. Bateman drank wine and had sex with a male follower, Moroni Johnson, in a motel room in Lincoln, Nebraska, in front of his underage wives, new court documents show, some of whom were Johnson’s own daughters. The FBI said the women and girls were required to stand naked and watch the “binding of brothers.” Bateman also forced his wives to have sex with other male followers, the documents say. He maintained that he was acting under instructions from “Heavenly Father,” and told the girls that had “sacrificed their virtue for the Lord.” Eight underage girls said to be Bateman’s wives were found at a Spokane Air BnB last Thursday, according to the Spokesman-Review. They had previously run away from children’s homes in Arizona where they were placed following Bateman’s arrest in August on charges of child endangerment.

[Scooter]

[Bicycle Bill]

If the text accompanying the above picture is true....   Mind.  Completely.  Blown.

(...although it does call the question of why British troops were getting ready to perform a drag show.  Gob or any of our other friends from across the pond, feel free to weigh in on this.)

-"BB"-

[ex-khobar Andy]

I pulled that from a reddit thread. More pictures and story here.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Thinking back to those days of the 50s and early 60s, holiday camps (ho ho) such as Butlins and Pontins . . . I remember that one of the semi-compulsory evening entertainments was "Topsy Turvy" night. All the women were to dress as men - all the men as women - for a dinner and dance. Even the staff had to join in the "fancy dress"

[Scooter]

Still not a drag queen.

Illinois pastor charged with two counts of grooming

MT. VERNON, Ill. (BP) – A pastor from McLeansboro, Ill., was arrested Jan. 5 on two counts of grooming minors for sexual purposes. Garrett Biggerstaff was charged after a four-month investigation that included the seizure of his electronic devices and collection of evidence at his home. A juvenile first reported the claims to Benton police. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department led the investigation which produced evidence to support a second charge. Biggerstaff was taken into custody and booked at the Jefferson County Jail. His bond was set for $150,000.

Biggerstaff, 28, was employed by the Spring Garden Consolidated Community School District in Ina, Ill., at the time, but he resigned when the investigation became public in November. He was also the pastor of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Fairfield. The church suspended Biggerstaff immediately and he has not returned to the pulpit. Following his arrest, Biggerstaff offered the church his resignation, which was accepted in a church business meeting on Jan. 8.

[Joe Guy]

His name is Biggerstaff?

I have no comment.

[MajGenl.Meade]

At least he changed his first name to Garret from Gotta

[Bicycle Bill]

Maybe that's his middle name.

-"BB"-