new

Cindy Pokezwinski #conspiracy deseret.com

By Deseret News, Cindy Pokezwinski, For the Deseret News

As the mother of a teenage boy with autism, I wish to comment on the recent letters about a link between autism and childhood vaccinations.

It is true the Centers for Disease Control, American Medical Association, Augmentative and Alternative Communication and many scientists and doctors have stated that: 1) There is no link between autism and vaccinations (specifically the mumps, measles, rubella vaccine), 2) the mercury preservative has been removed and it is not the cause and 3) the author of the first study done to reach this conclusion has been sanctioned in the United Kingdom — and yet the incidence of autism continues to increase.

Perhaps it is time to listen to those of us that are in the trenches and living with autism every day.

My son was a typically developing toddler. He met his milestones (walking, talking, etc.) early or on time. He received his first MMR at 19 months of age. The change in him was almost immediate. He did not regress in development, but his social skills became extremely compromised. Noises became unbearable.

Utah Parents #conspiracy #dunning-kruger #elitist #pratt #transphobia deseret.com

After a girl beat their daughters in sports, Utah parents triggered investigation into whether she was transgender

After one competitor “outclassed” the rest of the field in a girls’ state-level competition last year, the parents of the competitors who placed second and third lodged a complaint with the Utah High School Activities Association calling into question the winner’s gender.

David Spatafore, the UHSAA’s legislative representative, addressing the Utah Legislature’s Education Interim Committee on Wednesday, said the association — without informing the student or family members about the inquiry — asked the student’s school to investigate.

The school examined the student’s enrollment records.

“The school went back to kindergarten and she’d always been a female,” he said.

He told committee members about the events in response to their questions of whether the UHSAA, which sanctions and oversees high school activities, receives such complaints and how they are handled.

Spatafore said the association has received other complaints, some that said “that female athlete doesn’t look feminine enough.”

Four unnamed Jehovah's Witness Elders of Roy, in Utah #fundie deseret.com

The Utah Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case alleging male leaders of a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Roy forced a 15-year-old girl to listen to a recording of a man raping her in 2008.

Lower courts found the church is not liable for the incident under protections of the First Amendment.
[…]
The woman sued the four elders, the Roy church and the religion’s national organization, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, in Oden’s 2nd District Court in 2016. She alleges she cried, shook visibly and pleaded for them to stop as they played the recording intermittently over the course of at least four hours in 2008. Their goal was to extract a confession that she had voluntarily engaged in sex outside of marriage, her attorneys contend.

She alleges she was 14 years old when the man, a fellow Jehovah’s Witness, 18, bullied her increasingly and began sexually assaulting her in December 2007. She alleges he raped her several times and provided her congregation’s leaders a recording of one instance.

She sought out counseling and medical treatment as she dealt with anxiety, nightmares and poor performance in school, her attorneys say.