For the refused-to-be-canceled crowd, it was a headline to celebrate. “The NCAA threatened states over anti-transgender bills,” the big print of The Washington Post read. “But the games went on.”
It was the surest sign in a post-Georgia, Coke-boycotting world that fed-up conservatives were the newest force to be reckoned with. It’s also the most recent evidence—out of piles of examples—that the right side may be winning the woke wars.
For the far left, the retreat of a major sports league is a public defeat that it can’t seem to reconcile. After 2016, when the NCAA was the most powerful leverage liberals had in states like North Carolina, they’d begun to count on these hardcore allies to help them beat back local attacks on their often dangerous LGBT agenda.
It worked until recently, when Americans—sick of being force-fed transgender politics—suddenly decided to take the momentum from their stand on election reform and start applying it across the board. Their unofficial mantra—refuse to be intimidated—began working.
Suddenly, the tough talk about retaliation from corporations and other organizations were being exposed for what they were: empty threats from big-mouthed bullies.
Just two months ago, the NCAA had promised to boycott states that protected girls sports or banned gender experimentation on minors. That all fell apart just a few weeks later, when so many states had passed conservative legislation that the league finally realized it had nowhere to go. Suddenly, tournaments that weren’t supposed to be awarded to places like Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee got the news that they would still be hosts after all.
GLAAD and other LGBT groups, who are used to these leagues’ blind allegiance, have been hysterical ever since. They’ve accused the NCAA of “going back on its word” to choose locations that were “safe, healthy, and free of discrimination.”
Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David had even harsher words, insisting that the “NCAA should be ashamed of themselves for violating their own policy … ” Their “failure to take action here,” he went on, “means that they are part of the problem.”
Internally, the hand-wringing at places like the Human Rights Campaign has to be even worse. For years, the LGBT crowd has relied on scare tactics to move its agenda forward since it’s always lacked broad public support. If the NCAA won’t do its bidding, then the damage—especially now, as the demand for these bills keeps growing—is severe.
In a letter from far-left activists to the NCAA, Athlete Ally asks, “What changed?” One thing did, The Washington Times points out: the states that are passing these laws “are no longer outliers.”
In Florida, the latest state to protect girls sports, the threat from the NCAA more than backfired. Instead of frightening leaders away, it motivated conservatives to pass a bill even faster.
The governor told one news anchor that he remembers the day the letter from the sports league was issued. “I called the speaker of the House in Florida and said, ‘Did you hear what they said?’” And he replied, “Now we’ve definitely got to get this done.” There, as in other states, the rally cry seemed to be, “We’ll show them!”
And to the delight of commonsense Americans all across this country, they have. Last week in Louisiana, despite the governor’s warnings, the Legislature passed another bill to save girls sports by bipartisan, veto-proof majorities: 29-6 in the Senate and 78-17 in the House.
Then, in a major punch to the left’s gut, Oklahoma—one of the few states that was openly worried about the NCAA’s threat—realized the league was bluffing, went back to the drawing board, and passed its proposal out of the House.
When Oklahoma state Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, realized that the NCAA was scheduling tournaments in states with policies based on biology, he said, “I kind of laughed.” LGBT activists were appalled. “It was really scary to know that so many lawmakers in Oklahoma [saw] this as a reversal to the NCAA’s earlier statement,” one said. “That had been the only thing that persuaded folks [to back off these] girls sports bills.”
When the NCAA announced that Florida would host a softball championship this spring, Republicans could barely contain their glee. “I guess the NCAA boycott of Florida is over after two weeks,” state Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater, tweeted. “Go Knights!”
The news for conservatives was even sweeter when the state’s bill became law on the first day of LGBT Pride Month. Turns out, the tug of the left may be strong, but so is the $730 million in revenue from the Southeastern Conference.
Our influence as red states, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, pointed out, is bigger than we think. “Will they even be able to have sports events anymore in the United States [if they boycott us]? I don’t think so.”
In the end, Beth Stelzer, president of Save Women’s Sports, says, most of these states would have moved forward even if it did cost them a few collegiate events. They, like the majority of Americans, had already made up their minds: “We need to do the right thing and stand up for females. People over profits. Facts over feelings.”
Who would have thought at the start of this legislative season that protecting girls sports would be the issue that separated the leaders who had courage and the leaders who are cowards? But it did.
Originally published in Tony Perkins’ “Washington Update,” which is written with the aid of Family Research Council senior writers.
‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us
Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.
For the last few months, NOQ Report, Conservative Playbook, and the American Conservative Movement have appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.
It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. Both of our YouTube accounts were banned. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Medium canceled us. Apple canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.
The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancellation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.
The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects, including death. One of our stories about the Johnson & Johnson “vaccine” causing blood clots was “fact-checked” and removed one day before the government hit the brakes on it. These questions and news items are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting canceled.
There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ, CP, and ACM readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are pacing to be short by about $3700 per month in order to maintain operations.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies.
During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we’d like to be completely free from them. That doesn’t mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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