Gay Democratic Group Threatening Boycott Over Allen West
A gay Democratic political group in Florida is threatening a boycott of members of a business group if they don’t rescind an invitation to Rep. Allen West to speak to the group. The Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus has told the Wilton Manors Business Association that it must un-invite West, or it will begin a boycott of their local business organization and call for its leader’s resignation.
Michael Rajner, legislative director of the Florida gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender group, which is affiliated with the National Stonewall Democrats, one week ago issued a statement, after West’s congressional email outburst, that his group “vehemently denounces Tea Party extremist Allen West.”
Rajner, who says the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus has “[a]pproximately 13 chapters throughout the state of Florida,” today told The New Civil Rights Movement, “Several businesses have already dropped out of the Wilton Manors Business Association and several others have sent a strong message to the association’s president objecting to West’s appearance,” adding, “Whether or not a boycott will actually happen remains to be seen.”
“It was important for us to bring attention for the LGBT community to support businesses that help advance equality and social justice for all people,” Rajner added. “Wilton Manors is well known for businesses that support many of the LGBT-communities efforts and often donate to worthy causes.”
According to a report in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Rep. West sent the Wilton Manors Business Association a letter stating, “I am concerned about individuals or organizations that would call upon a boycott and try to hurt hard-working small business owners only because an association wants to be better informed on business related issues that are taking place in Washington, D.C.”
The letter also states that Rep. West was not very pleased the business association changed the format from a closed meeting to a meeting open to the public. Evidently, it has been changed back to a closed meeting.
“The August 8 meeting is closed to the public which prevents struggling community members from participating, some whom have been fired because of the lack of anti-discrimination laws in the workplace,” Rajner said. “We already know how West feels about gays and lesbians in the military. Paraphrasing his words, an individual can change their ‘sexual preference.’ West clearly doesn’t understand the issue of sexual orientation and is most likely someone who falls right in line with the Bachman’s and reparative therapy.”
“West wants to talk about businesses but doesn’t want to talk about the workers,” Rajner added.
But Rajner is undeterred. “West and the president of the association have their own Tea Party agenda that leaves social justice at the back door. The fact that the president of the association will not even permit that kind of dialogue is concerning.”
The boycott threat has gotten the local area talking. City Commissioner Julie Carson says Congressman Allen West is welcome in Wilton Manors, but residents in her city “know that Allen West’s anti-gay, misogynist, and disreputable rhetoric have no place in proper civil or political discourse.”
Earlier this month, just one day before the Allen West – Debbie Wasserman Schultz feud, West wrote on the tea Party blog, Red State, “when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool.â€
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For more Allen West lunacy, read:
Rep. Allen West Sees Obama Supporters As “A Threat To The Gene Poolâ€
Allen West: “Gay Marriage Is An Oxymoron,†Will Destroy Society
Allen West: Gays Can Change But “Unless I’m Michael Jackson, I Can’t Change My Colorâ€
Allen West: “China Is In Control Of The Panama Canal,†One Of Many Falsehoods
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
