The MT DOT lowered the interstate speed limit thro Bozeman today, from 75 to 65. The replies confirmed my belief that many Montanans would never survive outside #Montana. 😆

So I compiled The Best Of public comments, just for your entertainment. Let's start w/ Mr. Emoji: Didn't take long to blame Biden:

Christian moms calling me a "groomer" is the ultimate irony. 😆
#exvangelical #queermom You know where I and thousands of other kids were groomed, abused, sexually assaulted, manipulated, controlled, brainwashed, beaten, & silenced? Yeah it wasn't Pride parades or drag story hours.

It was in your fucking churches.

At the hearing for SB99, the anti trans bill. Room is full, we are sitting in the gallery which is filling up.

#mtleg Senator Fuller opening with his propaganda against trans kids.

I didn't know who Andrew Tate was but my 12yo son did.

Parents, they're coming for your boys. They market misogyny and racism to cishet white boys, in a package that seems appealing. Talk to your kids, have hard conversations. It's important. Thankfully my son said he didn't watch Tate's stuff, it "sounded dumb" to him. Said his friends talk about Tate a lot though. Friends who are also 12 and 13yo boys. Listening to a dude equate dominating women with manliness. Pay attention.

As someone who lived in generational poverty almost my entire life & now works with low income folks, I have some thoughts on the popularity of "financial literacy" programs. First, everyone who runs these programs means well. They are passionate, empathetic, inspirational, caring people who don't get paid enough for the good they do for our communities. Financial literacy is likely 1 of a dozen services they provide for any number of organizations.

Our billionaire governor is citing a supposed worker shortage as the reason to pull the right out from under people & get rid of extra UI benefits & he is SO FULL of bullshit.
#mtpol The unemployment rate here is 3.8%, close to half of the US unemployment rate.

We. Are. Working. Some of us more than 1 job.

We DO have a worker shortage but it has NOTHING to do with the GOP narrative that says no one wants to work.

Vaccine hesitancy is highest in church people. I heard a pastor in NPR talk about how his Stagg has been fighting that. They organized all their health care workers & church leadership to conduct education & help the other members see that people they know & trust are provax. Which I thought was really brilliant. This pastor recognized that his members needed to get their heads out of the propaganda & connect with folks in their church they trust to see how important vaccines are. He led by example too.

I know now why thinking, science-minded people have been so frustrated with & even hostile to antivaxxers. And I'm so sorry for being the one who didn't listen to their frustration in my lack of community-mindedness. But being angry at them won't change their minds. Telling the truth needs to keep happening. Don't sugar-coat the fact that they are to blame for pandemics not easing, for the rest of us to keep suffering. But being hostile will not help. It might help you feel better about what you can't control, but it won't change them.

I'm seeing a lot of MT Dems soul searching on "what we did wrong", how we can do better, where we need to go from here. There are a lot of good ideas. But I've yet to see what is likely the most important piece of this puzzle: evangelical christianity. #mtpol People keep saying how on earth did so many vote for the guy that thinks the earth is 6k yrs old & Noah lived to 600?!

The answer is actually pretty simple: they also believe that.

I'd love the @washingtonpost to shut up about the rich white flight to Montana & instead cover our increasing homelessness & how wages increased 23% but housing costs 71%. Maybe talk about how that rich white flight is pricing families out of housing & onto the streets. My family has 2 average incomes & if our landlord ever kicks us out, we will have to leave our home of 11 years, the only home our kids have known. We don't qualify for a mortgage here.

If the words "I am compelled to speak the truth to you" are followed by:

"You are in sin."
"You are going to hell."
"You are grieving God."
"Your life will be beset with struggles if you reject God"
"God will never allow you to get away with these choices against him."..... "You wouldn't be suffering from mental and physical health issues if you would come back to God."
"Your orientation will send you to hell."
"Loving that person will send you to hell."
"Accepting your children's orientation and gender will send them to hell."
...........

I live in the fastest growing school district in MT. We are trying to pass a bond the next 2 weeks to build two more schools cuz our schools can't hold everyone. You know who is actively campaigning to tank our bonds? HOMESCHOOLERS. #ExposeChristianHomeschooling You know who is helping them? THE FUCKING CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. They are actively posting on social media and trying to stop people from voting for our bond. #ExposeChristianSchools

Abortion has historically always been part of contraception. It's only been recently that we've been able to separate the two, creating categories. Women have been using abortifacients for as long as there have been women. It's in all the earliest writings on women's health. Do you think "moon tea" is an invention of George Martin? Since humanity became agricultural, women have known which herbs cause miscarriages & have used them to bring on menses.

Once upon a time, I was a worship leader at a local church, after having been in music ministry since I was 15. I had helped transform their music ministry with my gifts and time

Then they kicked me out. And that was how I became #Exvangelical. It wasn't originally voluntary. We had been at this church for 3 years after moving here. We were active, part of a small group we "did life with". 3 kids in the children's ministry. I was the pianist and a vocalist, alternated leading worship with the other leader, a man. We were happy, they were our family.

It's #montana history lesson time! This is gonna be quite the thread so pull up a chair and have a sit down.

It's time to talk about the history of the KKK in Montana. This is a piece of the cultural puzzle that is Montana. The re-vamped KKK came to Montana in 1921 to recruit white, American-born, protestant male Montanan. More than 5100 Montanans joined the Klan during the 20's. It started in Harlowtown in 1921, and established headquarters in Livingston in 1923.

"we can't whistle at women now? women are too sensitive these days. They think a compliment = sexual assault."
Actual comments I've seen lately.
So allow me to educate you, men-who-say-these-things. I'll pretend for a moment that you actually care to understand. When you whistle at me while I'm walking down the street or otherwise going about my business, my flight-or-fight stress response instantly kicks in. I have no idea if you're the guy that will get mad I ignore you, follow me down the street yelling at me, or worse.

Let me tell you some of the things I heard growing up in off-grid/fundamentalist/anarchist/sovereign/homeschooling circles. Let me tell you things said and taught and believed by good Christian homeschooling families. Disclaimer: these are not necessarily all beliefs that my family ever held, but they were held in sincerity by friends, church members, teachers, and various members of the homeschooling community in which I was raised.
CW for ALL the awful things.

Do not try to out-bible an apostate #exvangelical. Not only were we trained in scripture from babyhood, we walked away from it because we studied it more thoroughly than you. In several languages. With historical context. And when you meet an ex-cult member ex-fundamentalist who happens to still be a Christian, remember: they pulled out of extreme brainwashing using the very Bible you're trying to use against them. They've questioned their biases more than you can count. You can't win this.