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And here’s the defendant’s account of the facts<\/a> (which is considerably more detail than the account in the plaintiffs’ Complaint<\/a>):<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n I was a classroom teacher in Kentucky from 2013 through 2022, and was the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year. I am openly gay and left teaching due to the discrimination that I faced in the school system, including ultimately being publicly accused of “grooming” children simply because I advised a student-run LGBTQ+ group, “Open Light.”<\/p>\n I now work at the University of Kentucky, where I am finishing a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Kentucky. I am also an author and have published poetry. My recent book, Gay Poems for Red States, a memoir in narrative poetry, was published by the University Press of Kentucky. Among other awards, it has been named Stonewall Award Winner, a 2024 Rainbow Award Book, and a Book Riot Best Book of 2023….<\/p>\n When I saw [a] message from “Kit Hart, American Girl,” I looked at her X profile and saw that she was a chapter chair of the Moms for Liberty group. Based on news reports, I am familiar with that group and its recent controversies.<\/p>\n After I was served a copy of the Complaint in this case in Kentucky, I “locked” my Tweet that is the subject of the claims in this case, so that it is no longer visible to the public. As of today, a total of 134 people in the entire world had viewed the Tweet, according to analytics on the X platform. Only 14 of those people “engaged” with it, which means they were interested enough to see the entire chain and replies.<\/p>\n Attached as Exhibit B is a true and correct copy of selected Tweets by “Kit Hart, American Girl,” that I identified that labeled LGBTQ+ individuals and supporters as “groomers” or similar terms.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Harts sued for libel and invasion of privacy, and Tuesday’s decision by Judge Julie Rubin (D. Md.) in Hart v. Carver<\/a><\/em> … held that the court in Maryland had no jurisdiction over defendant. (Remember, the lawyer’s true superpower is the power to make every case a case about procedure.)\u00a0The case has now been transferred to the Eastern District of Kentucky, where presumably some day it might reach a merits determination.<\/p>\n UPDATE: Commenter JoeFromtheBronx notes that the “lesbian threesome” may be a reference to a real controversy involving a Moms for Liberty cofounder (though\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>Hart herself). From Newsweek (Thomas Kika)<\/a> in Dec. 2023:<\/p>\n Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler’s admission to having a sexual relationship with the woman\u00a0accusing her husband of rape\u00a0<\/a>has sparked backlash online Saturday, with many labeling the Florida political leader a hypocrite.<\/p>\n Bridget Ziegler’s husband, Christian Ziegler, is\u00a0the head of the Florida Republican Party<\/a> and is currently embroiled in a sexual assault investigation. On Friday, it was reported that an unnamed woman claiming to be a friend of the Zieglers filed a report with the Sarasota Police in early October claiming that Christian Ziegler had come to her apartment and raped her, after a planned threesome between the victim and the couple fell through after Bridget Ziegler became busy at the last minute….<\/p>\n As revealed in recently released court documents, Bridget Ziegler was interviewed by investigators in early November, confirming that she, her husband, and the victim had been friends and had engaged in a consensual sexual encounter roughly a year prior to the assault that the victim now alleges….<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The post "Secret Lesbian Sex Threesomes" Libel Lawsuit Against Kentucky 2022 Teacher of the Year<\/a> appeared first on Reason.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s the exchange, from defendant’s declaration in Hart v. Carver (D. Md.): And here’s the defendant’s account of the facts (which is considerably more detail than the account in the plaintiffs’ Complaint): I was a classroom teacher in Kentucky from 2013 through 2022, and was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[19,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106129"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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