Tulsi Gabbard says Biden cabinet based on 'geneticist principles embodied by Hitler'

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
February 26, 2023

Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, photo by AFGE 

Former Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard stunned a far-right Fox News host Friday night, falsely claiming President Joe Biden has chosen his cabinet members based solely on factors of "genetics" and "race" – while comparing Biden to Hitler.

In a segment attacking President Biden's cabinet, as The Daily Beast reported, Gabbard, a Fox News contributor, suggested he was "proud" to be "hiring people, selecting people...based on genetics, race, based on your blood, your genes. And where do we see that connection? Well, these are the very same geneticist core principles embodied by Nazism and Adolf Hitler."

President Biden put together one of the most qualified Cabinets in history. He also promised his Cabinet, unlike his predecessor's, would be as diverse as America itself.

"President Biden’s proposed cabinet would be the most diverse in U.S. history," The New York Times reported one day after his inauguration, "comprising more women and people of color than any cabinet before it — which, in many ways, fulfills Mr. Biden’s campaign promise to select a team that 'looks like America' and modernizes the predominantly male, white institution."

“'Building a diverse team will lead to better outcomes and more effective solutions to address the urgent crises facing our nation,' he said in a speech in December when announcing some of his cabinet nominees."

The Times also pointed to some "notable firsts" in Biden's Cabinet:

"In addition to the barrier-breaking Vice President Kamala Harris, there will be America’s first female Treasury secretary (Janet Yellen), its first openly gay secretary (Pete Buttigieg, for the Department of Transportation), its first Native American secretary (Deb Haaland, for the Department of the Interior), the first woman to serve as director of national intelligence (Avril Haines) and the first immigrant to lead the Department of Homeland Security (Alejandro Mayorkas), to name just a few."

Gabbard shared with Fox News host Jesse Watters her theory that "what we're seeing here is [Democrats'] philosophy, identity politics. And this is one of the main reasons why I left the Democratic Party because you seeing how their agenda of identity politics is directly undermining the traditional Democratic values that were expressed so beautifully and clearly, by Dr. Martin Luther King, that we should judge each other not based on the color of our skin, but based on our character."

It's demonstrably false to claim President Biden considered only diversity factors to build his Cabinet, which is comprised of people with tremendous experience and accomplishments. A look at their extensive biographies exposes Gabbard's claim as false.

Watch Gabbard below or at this link.

Trump is taking advantage of the Ohio disaster in a way that’s eerily reminiscent of 2016

Conservative dog-whistling about how white people in red states are pariahs was a tactic that helped Trump win a presidential election

Tayo Bero
Thu 23 Feb 2023 

As residents of East Palestine, Ohio struggle to pick up the pieces after a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals was derailed there nearly two weeks ago, rightwing media has seized on this moment to launch baseless conspiracies about why the government’s response has been so poor.

According to them, the Biden administration has abandoned East Palestine because the people living there are white, poor and working class.

“East Palestine is overwhelmingly white and it’s politically conservative. More than 70% of the voters in the surrounding counties supported Donald Trump in the last election. That shouldn’t be relevant but as you’re about to hear it pretty much is,” Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson said ominously on his show.

Donald Trump, being no doubt well-practised in how to capitalize on the grievances of the marginalized, took the chance to visit East Palestine on Wednesday and to commiserate with its residents about the Biden administration’s “betrayal” of them.

It’s the kind of political rabble-rousing that’s become typical in the aftermath of any American disaster. But the race and class-baiting happening here is also eerily reminiscent of the Republican party’s poor-white-victim strategy of 2016.

Back then, conservative dog-whistling about how white people in red states are pariahs in their own country who need to beef up their political muscle in order to ensure their own survival was a tactic that helped Trump win a presidential election. And I’m ruefully reminded of that period as I watch him and his supporters take advantage of East Palestine the same way.

But democrats aren’t taking this lying down. “Congressional Republicans and former Trump administration officials owe East Palestine an apology for selling them out to rail industry lobbyists when they dismantled Obama-Biden rail safety protections,” said the White House deputy press secretary, Andrew Bates, following Trump’s Wednesday visit.


And even as both administrations lob blame for what happened back and forth, it’s important to remember that the derailment is a symbol of much larger problems, ones that go far beyond the partisan quarelling we’re watching play out. As Greg Sargent notes in the Washington Post, this is really about “profit-driven rail companies underinvesting in safety [and] lobbyists weakening rail regulation”.

Look, there’s no doubt the people of East Palestine have a lot to be upset about. The government completely dropped the ball both in protecting them from an incident like this, and in responding to it after the fact.

Labour advocacy groups say this could have been prevented had it not been for weakened regulatory standards and cost-cutting measures by railroad companies (which occurred under both Democrats and Republicans) that have left staff stretched thin. The controlled burning of some chemicals following the derailment – a decision made by authorities to avoid a massive explosion – has also been a point of contention for residents, thousands of whom had to evacuate, and are still unclear about just how dangerous the fallout from this is going to be. And then to add insult to injury in their eyes, Biden has yet to come into town, but was just in Ukraine commemorating the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country, something the East Palestine mayor called a “slap in the face”.

Still, what’s clear is that the derailment and its repercussions have way more to do with decades of federal government disinvestment in small, poor communities like East Palestine, than anything to do with race.

And, Carlson’s suggestion on his show that places like Philadelphia and Detroit are “favored cities,” and that Black Americans are the “favored poor,” is laughable when you take even a cursory look at what’s happening in cities with a significant Black population like Flint, Atlanta and Chicago.

The people of East Palestine should be able to move on from this without being used as pawns in an endless political battle.

Tayo Bero is a Guardian US contributing writer

Hundreds protest new proposed election law in Baghdad

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

Protesters they wave Iraqi flags during protest against planned changes in electoral law, near the Iraq's parliament in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Baghdad to voice their dissent against a draft elections law that would increase the size of the country's electoral districts. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Baghdad on Monday to denounce a draft elections law that would increase the size of the country’s electoral districts, potentially undermining independent candidates.

The current legislation, under which the 2021 election was held, breaks up each of the country’s 18 provinces into several electoral districts. The law, which was a key demand of mass anti-government protests that kicked off in late 2019, was seen as giving independent candidates a better chance at winning.

Last week, Parliament debated the draft, which would return Iraq to having one electoral district per governorate. Independent lawmakers who objected to the proposal, walked out of the session, which ended early due to losing its quorum.

The Parliament was set to discuss the proposed law again in its session on Monday, but lawmakers voted to postpone the discussion until Saturday.

The return to a single district per province is backed by the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-backed parties that forms the majority bloc in the current parliament, and which brought Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to power last year.


Monday’s protests took place as heavy security forces surrounded the Parliament and closed off Joumhouriya Bridge on the Tigris River that leads to the government areas of the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Maryland Gov. Moore testifies for faster minimum wage boost

By BRIAN WITTE

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Comptroller Brooke Lierman listen during a panel discussion with business owners on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023 in Annapolis, Md., about Moore's proposal to accelerate an increase of the state's minimum wage to $15 in October, instead of waiting until 2025 and indexing future increases annually to inflation. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pushed lawmakers on Monday to increase the minimum wage to $15 this year — instead of waiting until 2025 — and allow annual increases that are tied to the cost of living.

Part of the measure that would tie future increases to the Consumer Price Index beginning in 2025 is coming under particular scrutiny. During a panel discussion with some business leaders who support the Democratic governor’s proposal, Moore acknowledged the challenge of persuading lawmakers to support it.

“Now, we know this is going to be a fight. We know this is not going to be simple. We know that this is going to take some convincing,” Moore, a Democrat, said. He noted some other states, including ones controlled by Republicans, already have moved to add automatic cost of living adjustments to minimum wage increases.

Eighteen states have approved automatic increases tied to some type of index, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“They’ve adopted indexing already because their household income will keep pace with inflation and, importantly, businesses will get predictability,” Moore told the House Economic Matters Committee. “Index increases in wages are smaller. Business owners know when they are coming, and they can plan around them." 

The bill would increase the minimum wage to $15 in October, instead of Jan. 1, 2025, for businesses with 15 or more employees.

Maryland’s minimum wage went up to $13.25 in January. Under a law approved in 2019, it’s scheduled to reach $14 on Jan. 1.

Moore’s plan includes a hedge “against severe economic turmoil” by including a 5% cap on indexing, he told lawmakers. Also, the Maryland Board of Public Works can temporarily pause increases if necessary.

“But make no mistake, without indexing Maryland families will fall further and further behind over time,” Moore said.

Still, Republicans expressed wariness at the indexing component, which they are concerned could hurt businesses.

Del. Jesse Pippy, a Republican who is the House minority whip, questioned whether the measure would cause prospective employers to question whether they would want to come to Maryland.

“I think we have the same goals, but I’m concerned, I think with some of my colleagues here, that the indexing of the minimum wage could make it less attractive for an employer to want to be here, to want to do business here,” Pippy said.

Melvin Thompson, who represents the Restaurant Association of Maryland, said laws that increase costs of labor affect the restaurant industry disproportionately.

“Accelerating the phase in of Maryland’s $15 minimum wage will place additional burdens on restaurants and make it harder to fully recover from the pandemic on top of higher food and product prices due to inflation and ongoing supply chain issues,” Thompson said.

The indexing proposal was initially considered in 2019 in Maryland, when lawmakers approved phasing in increases over several years, but it was not included in the legislation that passed.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, told reporters last week that “indexing is a tough issue.”

“I think that something will move forward, but I don’t think it will look the same way as it was introduced,” Ferguson said of the bill, adding that lawmakers are “trying to figure out a way forward that makes sense for both employers and employees.”

Maryland is one of 30 states with a minimum wage above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.

TikTok banned on all Canadian government mobile devices


By ROB GILLIES

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers questions at an announcement in Mississauga, Ontario, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. Canada announced Monday it is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app. Trudeau said it might be a first step to further action. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is at right. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)


TORONTO (AP) — Canada announced Monday it is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting widening worries from Western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it might be a first step to further action.

“I suspect that as government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones many Canadians from business to private individuals will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices,” Trudeau said.

The European Union’s executive branch said last week it has temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure.

The EU’s action follows similar moves in the U.S., where more than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices.

Last week, Canada’s federal privacy watchdog and its provincial counterparts in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec announced an investigation to delve into whether the app complies with Canadian privacy legislation.

TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to collect data on Western users or push pro-China narratives and misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020

TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and America over security and data privacy amid worries that the app could be used to promote pro-Beijing views or sweep up users’ information. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer chips.

Canadian Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said the federal government will also block the app from being downloaded on official devices in the future.

Fortier said in statement the Chief Information Officer of Canada determined that it “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”

The app will be removed from Canadian government issued phones on Tuesday.

“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone,” Fortier said.

“While the risks of using this application are clear, we have no evidence at this point that government information has been compromised.”

Recent media reports have also raised concerns about potential Chinese interference in recent Canadian elections, prompting opposition parties to call for a public inquiry into alleged foreign election interference.

“It’s curious that the Government of Canada has moved to block TikTok on government-issued devices—without citing any specific security concern or contacting us with questions—only after similar bans were introduced in the EU and the US,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a email.

The company is always available to discuss the privacy and security of Canadians, the statement said. “Singling out TikTok in this way does nothing to achieve that shared goal,” the email said. “All it does is prevent officials from reaching the public on a platform loved by millions of Canadians.”

Legacy of Wounded Knee occupation lives on 50 years later

By KALLE BENALLIE, 

INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY

Madonna Thunder Hawk, 83, sits in her home near Rapid City, S.D., on Feb. 9, 2023. She was one of the four women medics during the occupation of Wounded Knee, which started on Feb. 27, 1973 and ended May 8, 1973. “I would crawl out there every night, and we’d just be out there in case anybody got hit,” she recalls. (Kalle Benallie/Indian Country Today via AP)


WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. (AP) — Madonna Thunder Hawk remembers the firefights.

As a medic during the occupation of Wounded Knee in early 1973, Thunder Hawk was stationed nightly in a frontline bunker in the combat zone between Native American activists and U.S. government agents in South Dakota.

“I would crawl out there every night, and we’d just be out there in case anybody got hit,” said Thunder Hawk, of the Oohenumpa band of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, one of four women assigned to the bunkers.

Memories of the Wounded Knee occupation — one in a string of protests from 1969 to 1973 that pushed the American Indian Movement to the forefront of Native activism — still run deep within people like Thunder Hawk who were there.

Thunder Hawk, now 83, is careful about what she says today about AIM and the occupation, but she can’t forget that tribal elders in 1973 had been raised by grandparents who still remembered the 1890 slaughter of hundreds of Lakota people at Wounded Knee by U.S. soldiers.

“That’s how close we are to our history,” she told ICT recently. “So anything that goes on, anything we do, even today with the land-back issue, all of that is just a continuation. It’s nothing new.”

Other feelings linger, too, over the tensions that emerged in Lakota communities after Wounded Knee and the virtual destruction of the small community. Many still don’t want to talk about it.

But the legacy of activism lives on among those who have followed in their footsteps, including the new generations of Native people who turned out at Standing Rock beginning in 2016 for the pipeline protests.

“For me, it’s important to acknowledge the generation before us — to acknowledge their risk,” said Nick Tilsen, founder of NDN Collective and a leader in the Standing Rock protests, whose parents were AIM activists. “It’s important for us to honor them. It’s important for us to thank them.”

Akim D. Reinhardt, who wrote the book, “Ruling Pine Ridge: Oglala Lakota Politics from the IRA to Wounded Knee,” said the AIM protests had powerful social and cultural impacts.

“Collectively, they helped establish a sense of the permanence of Red Power in much the way that Black Power had for African Americans, a permanent legacy,” said Reinhardt, a history professor at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

“It was the cultural legacy that racism isn’t OK and people don’t need to be quiet and accept it anymore,” he said. “That it’s OK to be proud of who you are.”

A series of events in South Dakota in recent days recognized the 50th anniversary of the occupation, including powwows, a documentary film showing and a special honor for the women of Wounded Knee.

___

“THUNDERBOLT’ OF PROTEST

The occupation began on the night of Feb. 27, 1973, when a group of warriors led by Oklahoma AIM leader Carter Camp, who was Ponca, moved into the small town of Wounded Knee. The group took over the trading post and established a base of operations along with AIM leaders Russell Means, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe; Dennis Banks, who was Ojibwe; and Clyde Bellecourt, of the White Earth Nation.

Within days, hundreds of activists had joined them for what became a 71-day standoff with the U.S. government and other law enforcement.

It was the fourth protest in as many years for AIM. The organization formed in the late 1960s and drew international attention with the occupation of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay from 1969-1971. In 1972, the Trail of Broken Treaties brought a cross-country caravan of hundreds of Indigenous activists to Washington, D.C., where they occupied the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters for six days.

Then, on Feb. 6, 1973, AIM members and others gathered at the courthouse in Custer County, South Dakota, to protest the killing of Wesley Bad Heart Bull, who was Oglala Lakota, and the lenient sentences given to some perpetrators of violence against Native Americans. When they were denied access into the courthouse, the protest turned violent, with the burning of the local chamber of commerce and other buildings.

Three weeks later, AIM leaders took over Wounded Knee.

“It had been waiting to happen for generations,” said Kevin McKiernan, who covered the Wounded Knee occupation as a journalist in his late 20s and who later directed the 2019 documentary film, “From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock.”

“If you look at it as a storm, the storm had been building through abuse, land theft, genocide, religious intoleration, for generations and generations,” he said. “The storm built up, and built up and built up. The American Indian Movement was simply the thunderbolt.”

The takeover at Wounded Knee grew out of a dispute with Oglala Sioux tribal leader Richard Wilson but also put a spotlight on demands that the U.S. government uphold its treaty obligations to the Lakota people.

By March 8, the occupation leaders had declared the Wounded Knee territory to be the Independent Oglala Nation, granting citizenship papers to those who wanted them and demanding recognition as a sovereign nation.

The standoff was often violent, and supplies became scarce within the occupied territory as the U.S. government worked to cut off support for those behind the lines. Discussions were ongoing throughout much of the occupation, with several government officials working with AIM leaders to try and resolve the issues.

The siege finally ended on May 8 with an agreement to disarm and to further discuss the treaty obligations. By then, at least three people had been killed and more than a dozen wounded, according to reports.

Two Native men died. Frank Clearwater, identified as Cherokee and Apache, was shot on April 17, 1973, and died eight days later. Lawrence “Buddy” Lamont, who was Oglala Lakota, was shot and killed on April 26, 1973.

Another man, Black activist Ray Robinson, who had been working with the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization, went missing during the siege. The FBI confirmed in 2014 that he had died at Wounded Knee, but his body was never recovered. A U.S. marshal who was shot and paralyzed died many years later.

Camp was later convicted of abducting and beating four postal inspectors during the occupation and served three years in federal prison. Banks and Means were indicted on charges related to the events, but their cases were dismissed by a federal court for prosecutorial misconduct.

Today, the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark identifies the site of the 1890 massacre, most of which is now under joint ownership of the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes.

The tribes agreed in 2022 to purchase 40 acres that included the area where most of the carnage took place in 1890, the ravine where victims fled and the area where the trading post was located.

The purchase, from a descendant of the original owners of the trading post, included a covenant requiring the land to be preserved as a sacred site and memorial without commercial development.

And though internal tensions emerged in the AIM organization in the years after the Wounded Knee occupation, AIM continues to operate throughout the U.S. in tribal communities and urban areas.

In recent years, members participated in the Standing Rock protests and have persisted in pushing for the release from prison of former AIM leader Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder despite inconsistencies in the evidence in the deaths of two FBI agents during a shootout in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

___

A NEW GENERATION

Tilsen, now president and chief executive of NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization centered around building Indigenous power, traces the roots of his activism to Wounded Knee.

His parents, JoAnn Tall and Mark Tilsen, met at Wounded Knee, and he praises the women of the movement who sustained the traditional matriarchal system during the occupation.

“I grew up in the American Indian Movement,” said Tilsen, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. “It wasn’t a question about what you were fighting for. You were raised up in it. In fact, if you didn’t fight, you weren’t going to live.”

Tilsen credits AIM and others for most of the rights Native Americans have today, including the ability to operate casinos and tribal colleges, enter into contracts with the federal government to oversee schools and other services, and religious freedom.

He said the movement showed the world that tribes were sovereign nations and their treaties were being violated. And when AIM and spiritual leaders such as Henry Crow Dog, Leonard Crow Dog and Matthew King joined the fight, it became intergenerational.

“It became a spiritual revolution,” he said. “It also became a fight that was about human rights. It became a fight that was about where Indigenous people aren’t just within the political system of America, but within the broader context of the system; of the world.”

Tilsen appreciates that his parents were willing to participate in an armed revolution to achieve one of their dreams of establishing KILI radio station, known as the “Voice of the Lakota Nation,” which began operating in 1983 as the first Indigenous-owned radio station in the United States.

The Dakota Access Pipeline protest in 2016 became a defining moment for him and his brother. They had wondered, he said, what would be their Wounded Knee?

“What made it so powerful and what made it different was that you actually had grassroots organizers and revolutionaries and official tribal governments coming together, too,” Tilsen said. “I think that Standing Rock in particular actually reached way further than Wounded Knee because of how the issue was framed around ‘water is life.’”

Alex Fire Thunder, deputy director of the Lakota Language Consortium, said the occupation of Wounded Knee and other activism helped revitalize Indigenous languages and cultures. His mother was too young to have participated in the occupation but he said she remembered visits from AIM members in the community.

“The whole point of AIM, the American Indian Movement, was to bring back a sense of pride in our culture,” Fire Thunder, Oglala Lakota, told ICT.

___

FUTURE GENERATIONS

For Thunder Hawk, the issues became her lifelong work rather than momentary activism.

She joined AIM in 1968 and participated in the occupation at Alcatraz, the BIA headquarters, the Custer County Courthouse and Wounded Knee, as well as the Standing Rock pipeline protest in 2016.

She said work being done today by a new generation is a continuation of the work her ancestors did.

“That’s why we were successful in Indian Country, because we were a movement of families,” she said. “It wasn’t just an age group, a bunch of young people carrying on.”

She hopes her legacy will live on, that her great-great-grandchildren will see not just a photo of her but know what she sounded like and the person she seemed to be.

It’s something that she can’t have when she looks at a photo of her paternal great-grandparents.

“Hopefully that’s what my descendants will see, you know?” she said. “And with the technology nowadays, they can press a button, maybe, and it’ll come up.”

Frank Star Comes Out, the current president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, also believes it’s time for the previous generation’s work to be recognized.

Some of his family members strongly supported AIM, including his mother and father. He said it’s important to fight for his people, who survived genocide.

“That’s why I support AIM, not only on a family level,” he said. “I have a lot of pride in who I am as a Lakota. … Times (have) changed. Now I’m using my leadership to help our people rise, to give them a voice. And I believe that’s important for Indian Country.”

___

ICT producer Stewart Huntington, based in Colorado, contributed to this report.

AP WAS THERE: The occupation at Wounded Knee


By TERRY DEVINE

1 of 20
 A man holds up a rifle in Wounded Knee, S.D., in February 1973. On Feb. 27, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement took over the town, starting a 71-day occupation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. 

(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

EDITOR’S NOTE — On Feb. 27, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement took over the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, starting a 71-day occupation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The standoff with the federal government grew out of turmoil within the Oglala Sioux Tribe as well as a protest of the federal government’s treatment of Native Americans. It became violent at times, and two Native American men were killed.

The siege left a lasting impact on members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the future of Native American activism.

On the 50th anniversary of the start of the occupation, The Associated Press is republishing this 1973 story by reporter Terry Devine, in the language and style used by journalists of the era.

Russell Means is pictured in Wounded Knee, S.D., in February 1973. Means, an American Indian Movement leader, said they were well armed. “We have high-powered rifles, shotguns, explosives and 14 hand grenades." (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

___

WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. (Feb. 28, 1973) — Militant Indians who took over this small town continued to hold 11 hostages Wednesday after one exchange of gunfire and unsuccessful attempts at negotiations, authorities said.

Gunshots were exchanged between the Indians and federal marshals earlier in the day, according to a Bureau of Indian Affairs official, but there were no reports of injuries.

An FBI spokesman said there were 11 hostages, ranging in age from 12 to 82.

John McCardy, an FBI agent at the scene, said attempts had been made to reach agreement on release of the hostages. However, he said, “At this time, there have been no meaningful negotiations.”

The Indians, who were demanding to see two U.S. senators concerning a list of demands, repeated earlier assurances that the hostages would not be harmed.

Spokesmen for the Indians also said a cease-fire had been arranged with the FBI.

Dick Wilson, president of the Oglala Sioux tribe that lives on the reservation, issued a statement accusing American Indian Movement members of “mob rule” and trying to “overthrow the tribal government.”

Wilson, 38, said the takeover of the historic community should be regarded as a criminal act and the demonstrating Indians should be “held responsible and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The brief flurry of shots had come when a car carrying several Indians from Wounded Knee stopped about half a mile from a roadblock set up by the marshals, the FBI spokesman said.

He said the Indians, whose leaders said they were well-armed, emerged from the car firing rifles at the officers, and the marshals returned fire.

Indian leaders said there was other gunfire when Indians warned off cars that came too close to the village. Federal officers at the scene refused to discuss the shots and say whether they were returned. Another FBI official said only the Indians fired.

Marshals had personnel vehicles equipped with machine guns transported to Pine Ridge, 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Wounded Knee, Wednesday, but the marshals declined to say if the vehicles would be taken to the site of the demonstration.

Spokesmen for the Indians said the occupying force had grown from 200 when the trouble started to 400 by Wednesday.

The takeover of the community, site of a bloody battle between the U.S. Cavalry and Sioux in 1890, began at about 10 p.m. EST on Tuesday. By the middle of the afternoon Wednesday, an FBI spokesman in Washington said, “The Indians are in charge of the town, hostages are there, roadblocks are up, the demands are the same.”

Clyde Bellecourt, of Minneapolis, a leader of the American Indian Movement, said the exchange of gunfire occurred when Indians fired warning shots over cars that came within a quarter of a mile of the village of about 100. He said federal marshals returned the fire.

Carter Camp, of Ponca City, Oklahoma, a national coordinator of AIM, said warning shots were fired by Indians at a low-flying airplane, but claimed it was not hit. Camp said the cease-fire was agreed upon before 2 p.m. EST.

Camp said the hostages would not be hurt unless authorities — who had surrounded the village — came too close.




- American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks leans into the casket of an AIM member killed by U.S. marshals in Wounded Knee, S.D., in February 1973. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

The Indians — including members of AIM and of the Oglala Sioux tribe — held nine members of one family and a Roman Catholic priest. They demanded that Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, of Massachusetts, and J.W. Fulbright, of Arkansas, both Democrats, come to the 2,500-square mile (6,475-square kilometers) Pine Ridge reservation to discuss the Indians’ grievances.

The trouble allegedly started when the Indians broke into a trading post in the town 140 miles (225 kilometers) southeast of Rapid City and armed themselves with weapons and supplies. Their demands included an investigation of the dealings of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs with the Oglala Sioux. They also sought an ouster of the current leaders, including Richard Wilson, tribal chairman, who has feuded with AIM members in the past.

Bellecourt and Russell Means, another AIM leader, said the Indians were well armed. “We have high-powered rifles, shotguns, explosives and 14 hand grenades,” Means said.

“The government has two choices: either they attack and wipe us out like they did in 1890, or they negotiate our reasonable demands.”

Wounded Knee was the site of the last major confrontation between Indians and whites in the campaign to settle the West. More than 200 Indian women, children and old men were massacred on Dec. 29, 1890, by troops of the 7th Cavalry. That was the regiment led by Gen. George Custer that was annihilated 14 years before at the battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana.

 A child stands in front of sayings written on a wall during the occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., by members of the American Indian Movement in 1973. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

Memories of Wounded Knee reflect mixed legacy after 50 years

By STEVE KARNOWSKI

1 Dwain Camp of Ponca City, Okla. speaks Friday, Nov. 16, 2007 in Oklahoma City, during the Oklahoma Indians Survival Walk and Remembrance Ceremony near the state Capitol. Camp, a member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, was in California when his younger brother, Carter, called to say he and other leaders of the American Indian Movement took a group of activists into Wounded Knee in 1973. “He was telling me they were in a hell of a fight,” Camp, now 85, recalled. “I heard the gunfire and that was all I needed. I went up there and stayed for the duration of the standoff.” 

(Jaconna Aguirre/The Oklahoman via AP, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tensions that had been smoldering on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota flared up 50 years ago Monday, when activists from the American Indian Movement took over the town of Wounded Knee.

In the view of the protesters, Oglala Sioux tribal chairman Dick Wilson was in cahoots with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal authorities, and used threats of violence to intimidate his critics. But the 71-day occupation quickly morphed into an outpouring of anger with the federal government over decades of broken treaties, the theft of ancestral lands, forced assimilation and other injustices dating back centuries.

Two Native Americans died in the fighting, and a U.S. marshal was left paralyzed.

Wounded Knee had already been seared into history as the site of an 1890 massacre by U.S. Army cavalry troops in one of the last major military operations against Native Americans on the northern plains. Accounts vary, but the massacre left around 300 Lakota dead — including children, women and older people. Congress apologized in 1990.

Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the occupation, The Associated Press reached out to people who were at Wounded Knee or involved from a distance to hear their stories.

DWAIN CAMP

Dwain Camp, a member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, was in California when his younger brother, Carter, called to say he and other leaders of the American Indian Movement took a group of activists into Wounded Knee.

“He was telling me they were in a hell of a fight,” Camp, now 85, recalled. “I heard the gunfire and that was all I needed. I went up there and stayed for the duration of the standoff.”

Their brother, Craig, a Vietnam veteran, also joined them. Camp said the rifles and shotguns the occupiers took from the trading post in town were no match for the weapons and armored vehicles the feds had.

“We were going to make it very expensive should they go ahead and roll in,” Camp said. “It didn’t come to that, thank goodness.”

Camp remembers the occupation with pride as “a very vital time” that changed his life. He said he experienced “the freest feeling that I could ever imagine.” He met AIM leaders who became famous, including Dennis Banks,Clyde Bellecourt and Russell Means. It was also a spiritual awakening for many occupiers and visitors, he said, with sweat lodge ceremonies providing a chance for prayer and learning about their traditions.

And it helped change the way Native Americans across the country saw themselves, Camp said.

“The Native people of this land after Wounded Knee, they had like a surge of new pride in being Native people,” he said.

Camp said the takeover was a catalyst for policy changes that had been “unimaginable” before, including the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, to name a few. And it provided a focus for his own activism.

“After we left Wounded Knee, it became paramount that protecting Mother Earth was our foremost issue,” he said. “Since that period of time, we’ve learned that we’ve got to teach our kids our true history.”

Camp sees the fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline — which drew thousands of Indigenous people and supporters to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017 — as a continuation of the resurgence fueled by Wounded Knee.

“We’re not the subjugated and disenfranchised people that we were,” he said. “Wounded Knee was an important beginning of that. And because we’re a resilient people, it’s something we take a lot of pride in.”

Camp said he wished he could return to Pine Ridge for the 50th anniversary observances, but traveling isn’t easy at his age. Instead, he plans to get together with his surviving brother, Craig, who lives near him in Ponca. They’ll burn some of the sacred sage that family members bring back every year from South Dakota.



JIM HUGGINS

FBI Special Agent Jim Huggins was on the other side of the roadblocks. He was one of several agents from the Denver FBI office who went to Wounded Knee to back up their colleagues.

“It was a dangerous situation,” recalled Huggins, 83, who’s retired and lives in Frankfort, Kentucky. “The people that took over the town of Wounded Knee were a group of militants, mostly out of Minneapolis. ... They were dedicated members of the American Indian Movement and were very anti-FBI.”

Huggins said there was often an exchange of gunfire between the two sides.

“Every time you were out on the roadblocks, you could anticipate a shot coming your way,” he said. “You could hear them whizz by pretty close sometimes. ... It seemed like every night just after sunset a few shots would ring our in our direction.”
MORE ON WOUNDED KNEE ANNIVERSARY– AP WAS THERE: The occupation at Wounded Knee

Unlike Camp, Huggins doesn’t think much good came out of the occupation.

“I think it was totally unnecessary on their part,” he said. “I base that on interviewing several Native Americans who lived for years on the reservation. They were totally against the takeover.”

And Huggins believes the ongoing tensions between AIM and authorities led to the killings of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation two years later, one of whom was a good friend of his. AIM activist Leonard Peltier maintains he was wrongly convicted in their deaths, but successive presidents have denied requests for clemency.

—-

PHIL HOGEN

Phil Hogen was chief of staff to new U.S. Rep. James Abdnor, whose district included the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, when the occupation began just a few weeks after they moved to Washington.

“We were sort of on the front page of the Washington Post for 71 days while this was going on,” Hogen recalled. He said Abdnor “did not look kindly on that disruption. He was all for resolving differences.” But he said they worked hard to try to find a resolution, consulting with the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Hogen, 77, who lives off the reservation in Black Hawk, South Dakota, now has mixed, but mostly negative, views on the occupation.

“It was regrettable in many respects,” he said. “That is, the disruption of government, the confrontation, the loss of lives. I don’t know that all of those wounds have yet healed. But at the end of the day there was a greater awareness of American Indian/Native American concerns and injustices they had been exposed to.”

As a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Hogen said he could identify with some of their concerns.

“But it didn’t start out from my perspective as a national confrontation, rather a national confrontation looking for a place to happen,” he said. Tribal leader Wilson “sometimes ruled with an iron hand, but sometimes on Pine Ridge that was necessary.”

Hogen went on to serve as U.S. attorney for South Dakota under President Ronald Reagan.

If any lasting good came out of the occupation of Wounded Knee, Hogen said, it was that it “reminded the whole country about what a tragedy the original massacre was, and how those concerns or wounds were probably never appropriately addressed. It probably steered some resources toward solving some of those problems. ... But it left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people, so it cut both ways.”

Hogen said it’s also unfortunate that relatively little has been done with the massacre site, which was mostly private land until last fall.

“It’s the site of a national tragedy, and its regrettable that it isn’t better memorialized there than it is,” he said.

—-

JIM MONE

Jim Mone had been a photographer with The Associated Press in Minneapolis for about 3 1/2 months when he was sent to cover the takeover. He packed a couple hundred pounds of equipment — including photo transmitters, a complete darkroom and a bulk pack of black-and-white film — and got on a flight to Rapid City, South Dakota.

The closest available motel room was in the town of Martin, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Wounded Knee. He set up his darkroom in the bathroom and mixed his chemicals. His editor soon arrived and said, “Let’s go to Wounded Knee.”

But that wasn’t easy. The FBI and AIM had erected roadblocks. So they took backroads to get as close as they could, ditching their car about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away, and started walking. Soon they came upon surprised AIM members who let them keep going.

“They were courteous enough to tell us how much farther we had to go,” said Mone, 79, of of the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington.

Entering Wounded Knee, they saw a ransacked church where activists and journalists had gathered — and men with rifles. But Mone said he developed good relations with AIM leaders in the seven weeks he was there.

“They knew they needed the media, so I don’t think any media people got hurt,” he said. “You could get inches away from them, and photograph them. They treated us quite well and respectfully.”

The most worrying moments, he said, included firefights when he could see tracer bullets overhead, and a when a jet buzzed the town just a few hundred feet overhead.

To get an edge on his competition, Mone said, he practically crawled into a packed tipi where AIM activists and federal authorities smoked a peace pipe to mark the deal to end the occupation. He developed his film using equipment in his trunk before driving back to his motel, where he used a bulky transmitter connected to his room phone to send in the key picture, which Mone said was used by The New York Times the next day.

Mone said the atmosphere as the deal was signed was courteous, tense and businesslike all at once, and he believed that the fact the final negotiations were conducted in a tipi was “a sign of respect to the Native Americans.”

Retired Associated Press Photographer Jim Mone sits with prints of his photos taken from his coverage at Wounded Knee, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, in Bloomington, Minn. On Feb. 27, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement took over the town of Wounded Knee, starting a 71-day occupation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Mone was there to capture images of the standoff as it stretched into weeks. 

(AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Mexican president disparages pro-democracy demonstrators

SAYS THE MAN WITH AN ELF ON THE SHELF

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during the North America Summit, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Jan. 10, 2023. Obrador said on Feb. 23, 2023 that he'll sign a new bill into law that will cut funding to the country’s electoral agency. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president lashed out Monday against demonstrators opposed to his plan to cut election funding, belittling their concerns about threats to democracy and dashing any hopes that he would try to ease rising political tensions.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador seemed to revel in the conflict, hurling insults at the tens of thousands of people who demonstrated over the weekend in Mexico City’s main plaza, calling them thieves and allies of drug traffickers.

“There was an increase in the number of pick pockets stealing wallets here in the Zocalo, but what do you want, with so many white-collar criminals in one place?” López Obrador said at his daily morning press briefing.

At the root of the conflict are plans by López Obrador, which were approved last week by Mexico’s Senate, to cut salaries and funding for local election offices, and scale back training for citizens who operate and oversee polling stations. The changes would also reduce sanctions for candidates who fail to report campaign spending.

López Obrador denies the reforms are a threat to democracy and says criticism is elitist. He argues that the funds should be redirected to helping the poor.

Riffing on the protesters’ slogan “Don’t touch the INE (National Electoral Institute),” López Obrador said their slogans were “Don’t touch corruption,” “Don’t touch privileges,” “Don’t touch the Narco Government.”

“They don’t care about democracy, what they want is to continue with the oligarchy, the rule of the rich,” the president said.

Demonstrators say the electoral law changes approved last week threaten democracy and could mark a return to past practices of vote manipulation. Few at Sunday’s demonstration had any kind words for López Obrador, either.

“The path he is taking is toward socialism, communism,” said Fernando Gutierrez, 55, a small businessman. “That’s obvious, from the aid going to Cuba,” Gutierrez said. López Obrador has imported coronavirus vaccines, medical workers and stone railway ballast from Cuba, but has shown little taste for socialist policies at home.

Sunday’s demonstrators were clad mostly in white and pink — the color of the National Electoral Institute — and shouted slogans like “Don’t Touch my Vote!” Like a similar but somewhat larger protest on Nov. 13, the demonstrators appeared somewhat more affluent than those at the average demonstration.

The heated nature of the debate drew attention from the U.S. government.

“Today, in Mexico, we see a great debate on electoral reforms that are testing the independence of electoral and judicial institutions,” Brian A. Nichols, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs, wrote in his Twitter account. “The United States supports independent, well-resourced electoral institutions that strengthen democratic processes and the rule of law.”

López Obrador said last Thursday that he’ll sign the changes into law, even though he expects court challenges. Many at Sunday’s protest expressed hope that Mexico’s Supreme Court would overturn some of the changes.

Lorenzo Cordova, the head of the National Electoral Institute, has said the reforms “seek to cut thousands of people who work every day to guarantee trustworthy elections, something that will of course pose a risk for future elections.”

The president has pushed back against the judiciary, as well as regulatory and oversight agencies, raising fears among some that he is seeking to reinstitute the practices of the old PRI party, which bent the rules to retain Mexico’s presidency for 70 years until its defeat in the 2000 elections.

Tyler Mattiace, who researches the Americas for Human Rights Watch, said it was “disappointing” that López Obrador decided to make major changes at the one part of Mexican democracy that is clearly working.

Vote counts have become much more reliable since the national electoral institute was founded in the 1990s, and the agency certified López Obrador’s own victory in 2018 elections.

“It is worrisome that all this comes just before the 2024 elections, in a context in which the president has shown very little tolerance for those who don’t agree with him,” said Mattiace.

Elections in Mexico are expensive by international standards, in part because almost all legal campaign financing is, by law, supplied by the government. The electoral institute also issues the secure voter ID cards that are the most commonly accepted form of identification in Mexico, and oversees balloting in the remote and often dangerous corners of the country.

López Obrador remains highly popular in Mexico, with approval ratings of around 60%. While he cannot run for reelection, his Morena party is favored in next year’s national elections and the opposition is in disarray.

Part of his popular appeal comes from railing against high-paid government bureaucrats, and he has been angered by the fact that some top electoral officials are paid more than the president. But López Obrador has also openly criticized oversight and regulatory agencies, the courts and congress.

The opposition, tarnished by corruption scandals, has struggled to compete with the president’s popular spending and handout programs.

Rubén Salazar, the director of the Etellekt Consultores firm, said there is “a lack of leadership in the opposition to mount a defense of all these institutions like the INE and the Supreme Court.”

FORTEAN PHENOMENA

Mexican president posts photo of what he claims is an elf
Feb 28 2023

AP
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shared the post on social media, saying "everything is mystical."

Mexico’s president posted a photo on his social media accounts showing what he said appeared to be a mythological woodland spirit similar to an elf.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not seem to be joking when he posted the photo of an “Aluxe,” a mischievous woodland spirit in Mayan folklore.

López Obrador wrote the photo “was taken three days ago by an engineer, it appears to be an aluxe," adding “everything is mystical.”

The nighttime photo shows a tree with a branch forming what looks like a halo of hair, and what may be stars forming the figure’s eyes.

López Obrador has long expressed reverence for indigenous cultures and beliefs.

Engineers and workers are in the Yucatan peninsula, constructing a tourist train that is the president's pet project.

According to traditional Mayan belief, “Aluxes” are small, mischievous creatures that inhabit forests and fields and are prone to playing tricks on people, like hiding things. Some people leave small offerings to appease them.



The ancient Mayan civilisation reached its height from 300 AD to 900 AD on the Yucatan Peninsula and in adjacent parts of Central America, but the Mayas’ descendants continue to live on the peninsula.

Many continue speaking the Mayan language and wearing traditional clothing, while also conserving traditional foods, crops, religion and medicine practices, despite the conquest of the region by the Spanish between 1527 and 1546.

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Protesters in Mexico demonstrate against new election law

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Mexico on Sunday to oppose changes to the National Election Institute.

 Photo by Madla Hartz/EPA-EFE

Feb. 27 (UPI) -- More than 100,000 Mexican residents crowded the Zocalo plaza near the presidential palace in Mexico City to protest changes to the National Election Institute they charge would weaken the agency.

President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has complained that the NEI has become too big and unaccountable. The protests on Sunday opposed his remedy, which seeks to cut its budget and staff to the tune of $150 million annually.

Some, though, see the NEI that has allowed Mexico to avoid one-party rule for decades after elections have been accused of being tainted the years before. They see the agency as being the backstop of Mexico turning into Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro continues to serve after what many experts have seen as a disputed election.

Many of the protesters wrote pink, the official color of the agency, during Sunday's protest.

"This is our last hope," former opposition Mexican legislator Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, told The New York Times. "We want to defend the court's autonomy so it can declare these laws unconstitutional."

Critics have alleged the effort to weaken the NEI is a ploy by Obrador, who is not allowed to seek re-election under Mexico's constitution, to remain in power.

His party currently holds a majority in Congress and many governor's offices and is expected to maintain its hold in the nation's upcoming elections.

Obrador said, though, that the protesters are trying to turn the clock back when Mexican elections could not be trusted as a true reflection of voters.

"They're going to show up because there are vested, corrupt interests that want to return to power to continue stealing," Obrador said at a news conference before the rally. "So don't try to say 'it's that we care about democracy.' It's that democracy is being damaged."

Mass protest planned against Mexico electoral overhaul

Critics of the legislation are holding marches in Mexico City and other major cities as the contentious shake-up appears poised to go before the Mexican Supreme Court.

"Normally presidents try to have governability and stability for their succession, but the president is creating uncertainty," says opposition politician. (Reuters)

Mexico's opposition plans a mass protest against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's drive to shrink the independent electoral authority, arguing the changes threaten democracy - an accusation he vigorously denies.

Mexico's Congress last week approved a major overhaul of the National Electoral Institute (INE), which Lopez Obrador has repeatedly attacked as corrupt and inefficient.

Critics of the legislation, which will slash the INE's budget and staff, are holding marches on Sunday in Mexico City and other major cities as the contentious shake-up appears poised to go before the Mexican Supreme Court.

The INE and its predecessor played a key role in creating a pluralistic democracy that in 2000 ended decades of one-party rule, according to many political analysts.

Fernando Belaunzaran, an opposition politician helping to organise the protests, said the changes weakened the electoral system and increased the risk of disputes clouding the 2024 elections when Lopez Obrador's successor will be chosen.

"Normally presidents try to have governability and stability for their succession, but the president is creating uncertainty," said Belaunzaran. "He's playing with fire."

Mexican presidents may only serve a single six-year term.

Lopez Obrador, a 69-year-old leftist who contends he was robbed of the presidency twice before he finally romped to a crushing victory in the 2018 election, argues the INE is too expensive and biased in favour of his opponents.

The institute denies this.

'Anti-democratic'

According to the INE, the president's overhaul violates the constitution, curbs the institute's independence and eliminates thousands of jobs dedicated to safeguarding the electoral process, making it harder to hold free and fair elections.

Lopez Obrador has also weakened other autonomous bodies that check his power on the grounds that they are a drain on the public purse and hostile to his political project. He says his INE shake-up will save $150 million a year.

This week he called the INE "anti-democratic" and a tool of the ruling elite, accusing it of fomenting electoral fraud.

Polls show the president's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), which in just a few years has become the dominant force in Mexico, is a strong favourite to win the 2024 election.

Critics of the INE overhaul argue Lopez Obrador is not confident MORENA can retain power without interference in the electoral process. He denies this.

Belaunzaran and his fellow demonstrators aim to fill Mexico City's central Zocalo square, which abuts the presidential palace and is freighted with political significance.

Trans people face ‘horrifying’ rhetoric at statehouses

By ANDREW DeMILLO

today

Gwendolyn Herzig speaks to a reporter at Park West Pharmacy in Little Rock, Arkansas on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. Herzig, who is transgender, was asked about her genitalia by an Arkansas lawmaker when she testified about a bill restricting gender affirming care for minors. The question is an example of the rhetoric transgender people are facing at statehouses as they speak out against new bills targeting their rights. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — It was pharmacist Gwendolyn Herzig’s first time testifying before a legislative committee when she spoke to several Arkansas lawmakers in a packed hearing room this month about a bill restricting gender-affirming care for minors.

Herzig, who is transgender, spoke out against the legislation and told the panel that one of the biggest obstacles trans people face is a lack of empathy. Only a few minutes later, a Republican lawmaker asked her an inappropriate question about her genitalia.

“It was horrifying,” she said.

The exchange, which was livestreamed on the Legislature’s website and has since been widely shared on social media, is an example of the type of demeaning questions and rhetoric that transgender people meet when they show up to statehouses to testify against new bills targeting their rights.

In South Dakota, a lawmaker invoked “furries” — people who dress up as animals — when talking about gender-affirming care. In Montana, a legislator compared parents supporting their children in finding treatment to asking doctors to carry out medically assisted suicide.

Advocates worry that increasingly hostile rhetoric about transgender people could have a chilling effect on those who want to speak out against new restrictions and could do lasting damage to a community of trans youth that is already marginalized.

“I feel like that’s what they’re trying to do, to keep us from coming and exercising this right that we have,” said Rumba Yambu, executive director of Intransitive, an advocacy and support group for transgender people in Arkansas. “Because who wants to go and be asked about their genitalia in front of a bunch of strangers? Especially strangers in power.”

So far this year, at least 150 bills targeting transgender people have been introduced, which is the highest in a single year, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Bans on gender-affirming care for minors have already been enacted this year in South Dakota and Utah, and Republican governors in Tennessee and Mississippi are expected to sign similar bans into law. Arkansas and Alabama have bans that were temporarily blocked by federal judges.

The push has included efforts in some states to restrict gender-affirming care for adults and proposed bans on drag shows that opponents have warned would also discriminate against transgender people.

Herzig came to the state Capitol to testify against a bill attempting to reinstate Arkansas’ ban on gender-affirming care for minors by making it easier to file malpractice lawsuits against providers. In her testimony, Herzig talked about working with transgender patients who are on hormone replacement therapy.

“Bills like SB199 are designed to hinder, not help, Arkansans by creating barriers to evidence-driven health care they deserve under the guise of helping the young and innocent,” she said, later saying a vote for the bill was “unpatriotic, and casts doubts on our own health and research institutions who have worked through health care fields to improve the lives of Americans.”

During follow-up questions, Republican Sen. Matt McKee asked Herzig if she is transgender.

When she said yes, he asked: “Do you have a penis?”

The question was met with jeers and audible gasps in the packed committee room.

“That’s horrible,” Herzig responded, telling McKee that asking her such a question was inappropriate and noting she was testifying as a health care professional.

“I had never been so publicly humiliated in my life,” Herzig told The Associated Press in an interview days later.

McKee did not respond to an email or phone call, but defended his question in a written statement.

“As a father of 4 daughters, I will do everything in my power to protect my children and the children of Arkansas, especially from the woke mob who intend to push their agenda and beliefs down our throats and destroy our families,” McKee’s statement said.

The idea of protecting children by withholding medical care is undermined by health experts, who have said minors with gender dysphoria who do not receive appropriate care face dramatically increased risk of suicide and serious depression.

McKee’s questions were similar in tone to those posed to Debi Jackson’s teen Avery, who is transgender and nonbinary, when they testified before Missouri legislators last year about a proposal to ban trans girls and women from participating on sports teams matching their gender identity.

During the hearing, a lawmaker asked Avery if they were “gonna go through the procedure.” Since that exchange, Jackson said Avery hasn’t wanted to testify again before the Legislature.

“It’s this same idea that in any of these discussions about trans people just being treated with basic dignity and respect, legislators want to reduce them to one body part,” Jackson said. “They miss the entirety of the human being sitting in front of them having a conversation.”

Advocates say the rhetoric surrounding these proposed bans further exacerbates an already treacherous environment for transgender people, their families and medical providers. Children’s hospitals around the country have faced an uptick of harassment and threats of violence for providing gender-confirming care.

Though she said she’s received an outcry of support since her testimony, Herzig said she and the pharmacy she owns have also gotten hateful emails and calls.

People opposed to gender-affirming care for minors argue that children are too young to make decisions about their futures, sometimes comparing such treatments to child abuse. That’s despite medical experts saying the care is safe when administered properly.

Nearly every major medical group, including the American Medical Association, has opposed the bans on such care for minors.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year ordered the state’s child welfare agency to investigate reports of gender-affirming care for kids as abuse, but a judge has since blocked those investigations.

Amber Briggle, the mother of a transgender teenager in Texas whose family was investigated after Abbott’s order, said she gets frustrated when speaking before lawmakers in her state who she thinks already have made up their minds on the issue. But Briggle said she plans on returning to Texas’ Capitol this year and that Herzig’s encounter motivates her even more to show up and speak out.

“They should not have to fight this alone,” Briggle said of transgender people testifying in statehouses. “They should know they have loving, supporting allies in their corner.”

Herzig said she probably would not have testified had she known she was going to be asked about her genitalia.

“I felt like I was pretty much prepared for any combative question,” she said. “Except that.”