About four hours before the Central Bucks School District passed a new library policy in July, local high school junior Lily Freeman warned a crowd of about 100 what would follow. The policy, passed by a 6-3 vote, targeted books with explicit or implied depictions of...
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The day the book banners lost in Pennsylvania’s culture wars
If you ban it, they will come. For the better part of an hour Saturday, dozens of teenagers and their parents snaked around the towering stacks of tomes inside Kutztown’s Firefly Books and sometimes spilled onto the sidewalks of this quaint Berks County college town —...
Abortion Pill Battle Threatens to Further Box In GOP
“It’s up to politicians to put it front and center in terms of the stakes of the campaign,” said Katie Paris, founder of Red Wine and Blue, a group that seeks to turn out the vote among suburban women. “I think any candidate who chooses to do that in 2024 is going to...
Ron DeSantis speaks at conservative conference in Harrisburg
Parents and teachers from Florida and Pennsylvania said they stand opposed to DeSantis' politics, namely his tailoring of Florida’s school curriculum and book bans. “These children will be our future and if they don't know the true history and they are oppressed and...
At ‘visibility rally’ members of trans community call for equality and safety in schools, workplace
Transgender people across Pennsylvania and the nation have in recent months been the target of some of the fiercest pushback and civil rights restrictions, but on Friday, Rhea Morningstar was in a celebratory mood. “We are here to celebrate,” said Morningstar, a...
Granddaughter of former US Sen. Helms to address reproductive rights during virtual event
The granddaughter of former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms is speaking out for reproductive rights. Ellen Gaddy is set to speak Thursday night, March 30, during a virtual event hosted by the group Red, Wine & Blue. The group works to organize the suburban women's vote,...
Why We Must Defend Against the GOP Plan to Destroy Public Education
Our public schools shouldn't be pawns for politicians' ambitions. Or defunded and destroyed by ideologues. We are at a crossroads: Fear and division, or hope and opportunity. A great nation does not fear people being educated. Read more at Common Dreams
GOP bill to limit topics of discussion in public schools wins state House approval
A controversial bill that would restrict how the state’s public school teachers discuss race, gender and sexuality was approved by the state House by a 68-49 party line vote on Wednesday, and is now headed to the state Senate. Several Democrats from the state’s urban...
Transgender youth: ‘Forced outing’ bills make schools unsafe
When Renee Sekel’s nonbinary teenager first requested a different name on their Christmas stocking, she responded with “absolutely not” in what she now considers “the wrong reaction.” The mother of three and local activist in Cary, North Carolina, said she took about...
Backers of reproductive rights amendment to Ohio’s constitution start gathering signatures
Groups that want to put a proposal before voters this fall to enshrine abortion into the Ohio constitution took their petition signature gathering efforts for a “trial run" this weekend, knowing they have a short timeline to make the ballot. And they say it was a...
Recent Posts
Do This: Sacred Politics and the Threat of Christian Nationalism
Well that didn’t take long! We’re already seeing the influence that Christian Nationalism has on President Donald Trump now that he is back in office. Two of his first actions were to begin the mass deportation of immigrants and to issue an executive order that denies...
Watch This: Sacred Politics and the Threat of Christian Nationalism
Christian Nationalists, who are mostly white evangelicals, are a shrinking minority in our population.1 They are desperate to maintain the political power that white Christian men have historically had in American society. They resent the social progress that has...
Read This: Sacred Politics and the Threat of Christian Nationalism
One of the biggest threats to American democracy, especially as Donald Trump returns to the presidency, is the influence of Christian Nationalism. We took a deep dive into the movement with our limited series podcast, Sacred Politics, so let’s take a look at what we...
We want to hear from you!
Happy New Year! Or, maybe you’re feeling something other than happy about 2025? We get it. We’re all still feeling and thinking a lot of things about what lies ahead this year, so we really want to hear from you. It’s time for our annual Community Survey! Everything...
Do This: We Got This! Because We’ve Got Each Other.
Historians like Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder agree, one of the ways we protect democracy is to maintain a strong community of people that stand up to the threats of extremism together. That’s exactly what Red Wine & Blue does. We help suburban women...