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Feb 15 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: Anti-LGBTQ activists from Massachusetts and California are planning to crowd a meeting in Ridgeland, Mississippi, tonight to demand the defunding of the local library unless it agrees to ban LGBTQ+ books from its shelves.

From @nickjudin: mississippifreepress.org/20842/anti-lgb…
MassResistance, an SPLC-designated hate group, is calling for “support for the Mayor & Aldermen against the abusive LGBT material which the Madison County libraries have permitted.”

The mayor is withholding $110,000 unless the library removes LGBTQ books.
mississippifreepress.org/20842/anti-lgb…
"The local as well as national press need to know that the residents are standing with the mayor & the aldermen against the encroaching sexual perversion which has become all too pervasive in public libraries," says California right-winger Arthur Schaper
mississippifreepress.org/20842/anti-lgb…
Since @nickjudin first reported that Ridgeland's mayor was withholding $110,000 in funding for the local library over its inclusion of LGBTQ+ materials, people from all around the country have donated more than $110,000 to support the library.
mississippifreepress.org/20068/ridgelan…
To keep up with this story, be sure to follow reporter @nickjudin and @MSFreePress. You can support our journalism with a one-time or recurring donation at mfp.ms/donate.
Nick Judin is live-tweeting from tonight's meeting over funding for the Ridgeland Library. Follow him @nickjudin and in the thread below:

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More from @ashtonpittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 16
NEW: Phelps Dunbar attorney Cal Wells took responsibility for first complaining about LGBTQ books in the Ridgeland Library.

"I was shocked. I saw ‘Love is Love’ … ‘Queer Christian Survival.’ ... All I saw was books that had one agenda."

From @NickJudin:mississippifreepress.org/20917/ridgelan…
Attorney Carl Wells said he wanted the librarians who erected the LGBTQ+ book display brought before a judge.

“I want those people in a courtroom under oath. Did you have an agenda?”
mississippifreepress.org/20917/ridgelan…
“I keep hearing the word diverse,” Wells ranted. “Where’s the book on Amelia Earhart? Where’s the book on Teddy Roosevelt?”

“In the biography section,” fired back a former librarian from the Ridgeland Public Library in the audience.
mississippifreepress.org/20917/ridgelan…
Read 7 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 12
Horrific: At 37-weeks pregnant, Vivian Hathorn called 911 when her car's accelerator stuck at 90 mph.

A white Brookhaven officer arrived, drew a gun, pulled her out, pushed her to the ground on her stomach & handcuffed her.

Hathorn went into early labor.mississippifreepress.org/20757/brookhav…
From Lawanda Dickens: "African American Police Chief Kenny Collins says that his town, Brookhaven, Miss., does not have a race problem. ... Chief Collins supported Officer Jackson, who faced no disciplinary action and still remains on the police force."mississippifreepress.org/20757/brookhav…
This #MFPVoices piece comes in the wake of reporting on D'Monterrio Gibson, the Black FedEx driver who was making deliveries in Brookhaven when he alleges two white men chased him and one began shooting at his delivery vehicle.mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Read 6 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 11
NEW: After a national outcry, FedEx has reinstated pay for a Black FedEx driver who alleges that two white men chased and shot at him while he was making deliveries.

FedEx had put D'Monterrio Gibson on unpaid leave after he refused to return to the route.mississippifreepress.org/20765/fedex-re…
Gibson's attorney said yesterday that FedEx had "voluntarily offered to pay for his counseling... but he also has to live,” @KayodeCrown reports. “...He’s gone without a paycheck for over a week now, and they need to do the right thing by him.”
mississippifreepress.org/20765/fedex-re…
Today, Gibson's attorney says FedEx "has finally checked on D’Monterrio Gibson and has reinstated his pay retroactive to January 31st."

"He will get paid for last week today! Thanks for calling them out for their insensitivity across the country!"
mississippifreepress.org/20765/fedex-re…
Read 10 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 9
NEW: Lilly Ledbetter and the Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable are warning that two equal pay bills advancing in the Mississippi Legislature risk actually widening wage disparities for women if they become law. 1/ #MSLeg
mississippifreepress.org/20598/equal-pa…
Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable State Lead Cassandra Welchlin says the House's Equal Pay Act would codify into law a systemic form of wage discrimination by allowing employers to pay women less than men based on their salary history from past jobs. 2/mississippifreepress.org/20598/equal-pa…
Welchlin: “The other thing in her bill is that it is based on the ‘continuity of employment history.’That means it would be OK to pay a woman less than a man for the same job because she took time off work to care for her baby or a sick family member." 3/
mississippifreepress.org/20598/equal-pa…
Read 15 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 5
NEW: D'Monterrio Gibson, a Black FedEx driver, says he was delivering packages in Brookhaven, Mississippi, when a white man in a pickup truck tried to block him in and another allegedly began firing bullets into his delivery truck.
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Gibson: "As I’m leaving the driveway, he starts driving in the grass trying to cut me off. My instincts kick in, I swerve around him, and I start hitting the grass trying to get out of the neighborhood because I don’t know what his intentions are."
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Gibson: “There’s another guy standing in the middle of the street pointing a gun at my windows... . I hide behind the steering wheel, and I swerve around him as well. As I swerve around him, he starts firing shots into my vehicle.”
mississippifreepress.org/20519/black-fe…
Read 28 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Feb 3
THREAD: Thousands of Mississippians will soon be able to access medical marijuana after Gov. Reeves reluctantly signed a limited bill into law despite.

But many Mississippians—including those with any mental illness other than PTSD—will be left out. 1/
mississippifreepress.org/20395/gov-reev…
Under the medical marijuana law voters approved in 2020, doctors would've had discretion to treat patients with medical marijuana for an illness if they believed it'd help.

But the Mississippi Supreme Court struck the voter-approved law down in 2021. 2/mississippifreepress.org/12703/democrac…
The more restrictive bill Mississippi lawmakers drafted that Gov. Reeves signed only allows medical marijuana treatment for 28 qualifying illnesses, though @MSDH can add others.

No personality disorders or mental illnesses other than PTSD qualify. 3/mississippifreepress.org/20395/gov-reev…
Read 10 tweets

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