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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe

@prideatthepier.bsky.social

2.1K followers 190 following 1.2K posts

Educating, Connecting, and Empowering LGBTQ+ folks in Orange County, California to engage in our local politics. #followtheprideflag https://linktr.ee/prideatthepier

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 19d

Hey friends - we’ve been working extremely hard on efforts to protect queer lives in Orange County. But we’re struggling to do this work with our limited resources - and queer, trans lives are in extreme danger now more than ever.

Please help us protect our community.

Bit.ly/donatetopatp

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 1h

HB Mayor Pat Burns is gaining a reputation for his regular mockery of his constituents. We’re asking why this behavior is being allowed - especially as he is regularly violating the Brown Act.

@agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov are you watching these meetings?

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 12h

THAT PART THO

lucindamroch.bsky.social @lucindamroch.bsky.social · 12h

When she said “non-denominational” and the mayor had to correct her to say “non-partisan”, it was obvious that we were in for a “treat!”

Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 13h

The Unite 4 Freedom representative in HB tonight let loose an incredibly racist dog whistle in her presentation, talking about how “urban” Long Beach was so different from “beach” HB. (Huh??)

Chris Kluwe called out “that’s racist” - he’s not wrong - and Mayor Burns threatened to have him removed.

Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 15h

And now she’s talking about the difference between “beach and urban” environments, and how Huntington Beach should be careful of the urban people from Long Beach.

I got a warning from Pat Burns for calling out “that’s racist.”

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 14h

We will be announcing a virtual phone bank event for Prop 50 shortly ✌️

Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 15h

To be clear - AB 715 is not about opposing anti-Semitism (which we do oppose!)

AB 715 makes historically accurate education about Palestine illegal in CA public schools. This is blatant censorship.

You can’t claim to be supportive of ethnic studies and then exclude a whole people. It’s wrong.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 15h

In addition to his veto of AB 86 today Newsom also signed the censorship bill, AB 715.

This, despite the fact that AB 715 was opposed by every major educational association & labor union in CA, plus a coalition of 120+ racial justice, interfaith, civil rights, and human rights orgs, including us.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

Our team just buys bulk Tylenol at this point. Lol

Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

In case it’s not clear, we’re obviously deeply disappointed by Newsom’s reluctance to stand with the trans community. It’s telling.

LGBTQ Nation @lgbtqnation.com · 22h

Gavin Newsom vetoes gender education bill, declines to sign other trans protections - buff.ly/MTUAV85

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 Why are they lying, then?

Ask Justin Levitt, former Deputy Assistant AG who specializes in voter rights; "Sometimes the whole point is to whip up enough smoke that it seems like a fire".

The HB CC has been trying to fearmonger about our elections for years now. Apparently, they're not done.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 So, what audits HAVE been done? Well, a comprehensive audit of the November 2024 election in OC was done, and found NO evidence of any kind of fraud or interference. This audit resulted in a 25-page report from the OC Grand Jury. This audit was completed by an independent auditor.

U4F is lying.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 U4F also claimed that there were over 77K 'excess votes'. Actual audits have been done that don't reflect these numbers at all - they have a binding ledger of the # of participating voters that ties each data point to participating voter record.

NO audits or court records back up U4F's claims.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 The claim that over 5.5 M votes were "improperly counted" has no data to back it up. In normal audits (which HAVE been done), that looks like ballot-by-ballot audits, chain-of-custody logs, cross checks with voter intention, reconciliation of vote totals -

U4F has done none of this.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 First off, there's only 40 million people living in CA, and only 22 million of those people are registered voters. So U4F is claiming that almost HALF of the registered voters are actually fraudulent.

Let's make it very clear at the start - this alone shows how DEEPLY unserious these claims are.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 But what exactly ARE their claims? Well, let's dig into it.

Mayor Burns references these points from U4F in his resolution:

Over 9.5 Million material omissions in the voter database
Over 5.5 Million 'improperly counted' votes from 'ineligible or uncertain voters'
Over 77K excess votes

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 Here's a source about the evolution from NY Citizens Audit to United Sovereign Americans to Unite 4 Freedom - it's particularly damning, but there's many more.

www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how...

How United Sovereign Americans is Radicalizing an Anti-Voting Movement

Democracy Docket exposes how the right-wing legal group United Sovereign Americans is trying to disrupt the 2024 election.

www.democracydocket.com

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 United Sovereign Americans/ Unite 4 Freedom's entire strategy is based on data collected by volunteers across the country - the problem is that those volunteers aren't actually trained on what they're looking at.

This is why their claims of "100,000s of cases of fraud" are never backed up.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 Since New York AG Letitia James (yes, the one Trump hates) caught wind of it and sent them a cease-and-desist order.

Marly Hornik, the founder of NY Citizens Audit, then got in touch with Haury out here in SoCal. They worked together to found United Sovereign Americans, now Unite 4 Freedom.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 The group fraudulently posed as county board of elections staff and went door-to-door to interrogate residents in 13 different counties about their voter registration status. They intimidated voters, suggesting that they were committing crimes and voting fraudulently.

This didn't last long -

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 Where did United Sovereign Americans come from? Well, they were born out of the group NY Citizens Audit in 2022 - which, according to the journalists at Democracy Docket, "amounted to was a group of people that spread disinformation about mass voter fraud throughout the state of New York".

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 20h

🪡 Haury also recently featured in the film "Deep State Gangsters" - which he described as a "unique cinematic experience (that) pulls back the curtain on this shadowy world, featuring a captivating cast of characters and unveiling a bureaucratic machine bent on destroying dissent to preserve power".

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 21h

🪡 Haury said at a public event stating that he thinks "any Chinese nationalized citizen is a risk" in terms of voter fraud.

Cain ran and lose for Congress in West Virginia recently - his loss is suspected by some to be related to his belief that elections are not secure, despite zero evidence.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 21h

🪡 So who ARE these people?

Well, their co-founder/chairman Harry Haury has worked closely with Nate Cain as "forensic cybersecurity investigators", unsuccessfully suing over supposed voter fraud cases for election results they don't like.

Both have DEEP ties to the "Stop the Steal" movement.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 21h

🪡 Unite 4 Freedom, previously known as United Sovereign Americans, are pushers of the lie that the 2020 election was fraudulent. They've sued a number of states over claims of voter fraud - including Texas! - and lost every single one of their cases.

Their fans are mainly "Stop the Steal" folks.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 21h

🪡 Item 7 on the agenda is a presentation from Unite 4 Freedom. Unite 4 Freedom is expected to spend this time sharing misinformation about what they claim is rampant voter fraud - this is something they've done for years, despite there being absolutely no reputable sources that verify this story.

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Pride at the Pier 🏳️‍🌈🤝⚧️ he/she/they/xe @prideatthepier.bsky.social · 21h

🧵 At tonight's HB City Council meeting, agenda items 7 and 18 are connected to a far-right organization that spouts unverifiable voter fraud theories, currently under the name "Unite 4 Freedom".

Currently - because they change their name every time they face scrutiny.

Let's talk about it.

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