Trump admin pushes national 4-H youth organization to withdraw policy welcoming LGBT members

[mahatmakanejeeves]

David Fahrenthold Retweeted

The Trump administration pushed the national 4-H youth organization to withdraw a controversial policy welcoming LGBT members — a move that helped lead to the ouster of Iowa's top 4-H leader earlier this year, a Des Moines Register investigation has found.

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DJT may have signed off on the act but guarantee the idea came from Pence. Mr Radical Christian Extremist

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EXCLUSIVE: How Trump administration pressure to dump 4-H's LGBT policy led to Iowa leader's firing

Courtney Crowder and Jason Clayworth, Des Moines Register Published 7:00 a.m. CT Nov. 18, 2018 | Updated 10:34 a.m. CT Nov. 19, 2018

The Trump administration pushed the national 4-H youth organization to withdraw a controversial policy welcoming LGBT members — a move that helped lead to the ouster of Iowa's top 4-H leader earlier this year, a Des Moines Register investigation found.

The international youth organization, with more than 6 million members, introduced the new guidance to ensure LGBT members felt protected by their local 4-H program. The document and their attempts to broaden membership in the LGBT community was a smaller part of a larger, multi-year effort to modernize the federally authorized group. ... Several states posted the national guidance on their websites, including Iowa, where it prompted fierce opposition from conservatives and some evangelical groups.

"The current focus of this campaign may be Iowa, but the values and vision of the entire Cooperative Extension are under attack," Andy Turner, director of the New York 4-H program, wrote in an email to John-Paul Chaisson-Cárdenas, Iowa's top 4-H leader, last April.

Within days of the LGBT guidance's publication, Heidi Green, then-chief of staff for U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, requested that it be rescinded, Sonny Ramaswamy, then-director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the federal department that administers 4-H, told the Register. ... Afterward, a NIFA communications manager sent an "urgent" email to at least two states — Iowa and New York — urging the 4-H organizations there to remove the LGBT guidance from their websites, the Register found.

The subsequent decision to take down the policy set off a firestorm this spring that engulfed 4-H programs in at least eight states — including Iowa, Idaho, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia and New York. ... And it eventually precipitated the firing of Iowa 4-H director John-Paul Chaisson-Cárdenas, a fierce advocate of the LGBT policy, the Register found after conducting extensive interviews and examining more than 500 pages of state and federal communications.
....

Related documents, including:

• Key documents associated with this project.
• An alert sent last week by Iowa State University that instructs 4-H officials how to respond to questions about the Register's investigation.

[shenmue]

1. What a fucking asshole

[Initech]

2. It's like he purposefully tries to find ways to be a dick.

[RKP5637]

4. Damn I hate this fucken asshole! He's a disgusting POS in every manner possible. n/t

[Runningdawg]

5. I was recently part of an online discussion on this subject

That discussion contained many current leaders and past members, such as myself. Not a single one said they would change anything they were doing. Trump/Pence made a few more brownie points with the bible thumpers, but that will be the end of it.