Bartlesville's Anti-Bullying Judge Issues PPO For LGBT Bullies: Silences Opposition Despite Visible Conflict of Interest
Trans-Tyranny: Bartlesville - Part 1 - January 27, 2023
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In this segment of Trans-Tyranny: Bartlesville:
Recap
Bartlesville Citizens Object to Obscene Public Performance and Petition for Restrictions
Pride Group Leader Lies to City Council About Content of Performances Despite Video Evidence
Those Exposing True Nature of Pride Event Performances Targeted by OKEQ
Local Reverend and OKEQ-Bartlesville Board Member Sets the Stage and Strategy for Silencing the Opposition
A Street Pastor’s Post About Biblical Marriage Sets the Strategy to Silence in Motion
Anti-Bullying Judge Signs PPO for Threatening OKEQ Bullies Despite Visible Conflict of Interest
Judge and OKEQ Have History of Partnership Around “Anti-Bullying”
Reverse Stalking: Bogus Protective Orders are About Silencing, Not Safety
Scripture as a Violent Threat: National Silencing Tactic Comes to Bartlesville
The V1SUT Vantage continues to follow the plight of Bartlesville, a small community in Northwest Oklahoma, as the culture of alternative sexualities seeks to redefine what is appropriate in the most public of spaces. This particular town’s struggle to protect the innocence of children is a case study all Americans should take interest in. Once one of the safest places in America to grow up, this Anytown, USA, finds the values that made it a place to raise well-adjusted children under full assault. Groups, individuals, funders and even churches similar to those who’ve spent years laying the groundwork for Bartlesville’s transformation are likely sowing the seeds of cultural change where your family resides, though few may be aware.
And don’t be misled. This battle is not about what many would wish Bartlesville’s citizens to see on the surface. Equal treatment, fairness, equality. It is the culmination of the longstanding efforts of an ideological network to reach into a small community and bend the founding and historical beliefs, norms of decency and will of its majority to submission. This multi-part series, Trans-Tyranny: Bartlesville, will dissect the anatomy of these small-town shakedowns, giving all communities an opportunity to get ahead of attempts to redefine concepts like family-friendly, adult sexuality and public indecency where they live.
What We Already Know About the Battle in Bartlesville
As previously reported, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, recently became yet another battleground in the much larger effort to replace family values across the heartland of America with something far less traditional.
From previous reporting:
The citizenry of Bartlesville stood up tall and strong against the overtly obscene, public drag performances that took place in Unity Square, the town’s most public, outdoor venue, as part of Oklahomans for Equality (OKEQ)-Bartlesville’s Pride event on September 10th, 2022. From previous reporting:
More than 2,000 citizens of Bartlesville signed a petition asking for the city to “Prohibit Adult Oriented Entertainment in a Public Space”. Given that we don’t allow minors in casinos, night clubs or exotic dance clubs, and those activities most certainly do not take place in an open, public environment, this petition seems like a reasonable request to grant.
Pride Group Leader Lies to City Council About Content of Performances Despite Video Evidence
On October 3rd, 2022, Morgan Lawrence-Hayes, now Executive Board President of OKEQ-Bartlesville, addressed the city council claiming:
“Oklahomans for Equality of Bartlesville agrees with the title of this petition ‘Prohibit Adult Oriented Entertainment in a Public Space’. We also do not want adult entertainment to take place in our public spaces. Fortunately, the pride event and drag performance did not include any form of adult entertainment. There are numerous photos and videos taken by attendees, including news outlets, and none of these support the version of the pride event and drag show that this petition alleges. Plainly stated, there was no nudity, no obscenity and no sexually suggestive performances.”
However, a widely viewed compilation video by a group called Warriors for Christ of just one of the event’s performances proved Lawrence-Hayes’ claims to be inaccurate.
Warning: The video below contains graphic content from a drag performance during the 2022 OKEQ-Bartlesville Pride event.
Those Exposing True Nature of Pride Event Performances Targeted by OKEQ
Following the release of the Warriors for Christ video showing a large, adult male lifting his skirt and grabbing his genitals in the presence of children, the pastor of that group came under fire on social media. Street pastors Richard Penkoski of Warriors for Christ and David Grisham of For God and Country were present at the September event, preaching on the sidewalk across from the Unity Square grounds. Both spoke before the Bartlesville City Council in November.
Grisham and Penkoski are each known for protesting through public preaching at similar events, and in recent years partnering in travel and efforts to expose the sexualization of children in schools, libraries and at drag performances.
Local Reverend and OKEQ-Bartlesville Board Member Sets the Stage and Strategy for Silencing the Opposition
Rev. Kelley Becker of Disciples Christian Church, who describes herself as “an outspoken ally of the LGBTQ community”, is a board member for OKEQ-Bartlesville and promoted and helped coordinate volunteers for the event through her church’s communication outlets.
As public outrage spread over the nature of the event’s performances, and prior to the first city council meeting addressing the issue in October, Becker played PR manager with a column in the Examiner-Enterprise. In a move straight from Saul Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals, Becker quickly attempts to steer the narrative away from what this conflict really is, a disagreement about public indecency and the need to restrict adult sexuality in public spaces, to a battle for the marginalized LGBT population to simply have the same access to public spaces as others.
“But don’t forget, if you want your Christian concerts, then your neighbors get to have their drag shows. That’s how freedom works. Public spaces are for all of us,” - Rev. Kelley Becker, Disciples Christian Church
Rev. Becker seems to think, or wishes for the public to think, that those backing the petition had asked to ban only LGBT citizens from any use of public spaces, when in reality, they asked city officials to prevent anyone using public spaces from grabbing their crotches in front of children. This is about what citizens do in public spaces, not who they are.
During Bartlesville’s November city council meeting, Becker expressed concern about the street pastors publicly reciting a very specific scripture (Matthew 18:6), claiming the recitation to be a physical threat to those embracing alternative sexualities.
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. - Matthew 18:6
A Street Pastor’s Post About Biblical Marriage Sets the Strategy to Silence in Motion
In response Becker’s claim that reciting God’s word constitutes a threat, Penkoski posted two scriptures and his opinion about Biblical marriage along with publicly available photos of Lawrence-Hayes’ wedding ceremony from the Bartlesville Disciples Christian Church’s online communications to his personal Facebook page. Lawrence-Hayes, who appears to have been following Penkoski’s profile, reiterated Becker’s claim that recitation of the scripture constituted a physical threat, this time to her family.
There’s a great deal packed into this post. Some would argue that Penkoski should not have utilized images of Lawrence-Hayes’ wedding. Others would argue that Lawrence-Hayes was quick to jump into the activist spotlight to publicly front OKEQ-Bartlesville, serving as its voice at a packed and heated city council meeting, and is now running from the heat that spotlight continues to bring.
It is interesting that Lawrence-Hayes aims at those who invited Penkoski from outside “our city”, when this publication has learned that some performers and funders for the OKEQ-Bartlesville Pride event, organized largely by Lawrence-Hayes, were brought in from other states. The event was widely promoted by OKEQ’s statewide entity, so it appears Lawrence-Hayes, whose organization is Tulsa-based and far reaching, believes only her side of this battle should be allowed help from outside of Bartlesville.
Lawrence-Hayes and several others directed their criticisms to Penkoski’s profile. The social media bantering escalated and culminated with the following direct threats against Penkoski, by post and later direct messaging, from one Tony Sadler of Owasso, who has since removed his profile:
Mr. Salder may have learned that this isn’t Penkoski’s first rodeo in the online harassment arena. In 2018, a court awarded Penkoski $10,000 related to a similar online exchange attacking his defense of Biblical marriage.
While each can decide whether they agree with Penkoski’s views about marriage, Lawrence-Hayes was following him online and chose to respond and escalate the difference of opinions, even commenting on his profile. Penkoski’s error was making it personal, giving Lawrence-Hayes the victim lane and allowing her to execute a favorite strategy of radical LGBT activists. She and her spouse immediately sought to silence Penkoski legally by requesting a protective order against him, restricting his ability to speak publicly or online about her or her efforts on behalf of OKEQ-Bartlesville. And she used an existing relationship with Bartlesville’s PPO granting, anti-bullying Judge Vaclaw to get the job done.
Anti-Bullying Judge Signs PPO for the Threatening OKEQ Bullies Despite Visible Conflict of Interest
Washington County Associate District Judge Russell Vaclaw was elected to the bench in 2006 and has run unopposed in every election since. Vaclaw presides over the county’s protective order docket and has been a crusader against cyber-bullying in Bartlesville for over a decade.
Since 2012, Vaclaw has spoken annually to nearly all Bartlesville High School and Junior High students, educating them about the legal consequences of what he calls online harassment and the legal tool of protective or restraining orders. He considers a young adolescent liking a “do you dislike so-and-so” post to be harassment and worthy of protection from the bench. While serious, ongoing and pervasive online harassment has resulted in significant harm in some cases, and should therefore be taken with the utmost seriousness, Vaclaw’s liberal definition of cyber-bullying and annual speeches to students about protective orders may be having unintended consequences for his community.
Nowhere in his presentation to high schoolers below does Vaclaw suggest putting down the cellphone and/or signing off of Facebook as a coping strategy for the unavoidable presence of teasing or adolescent meanness in every generation. Yet each of Vaclaw’s young audience members over the last decade knows that he grants protective orders for mean posts.
In his comments, Vaclaw admits to granting an order of protection simply after hearing a parent was involved, never listening to the other side of the issue. While his intensions appear honorable, Vaclaw has done little to build resilience or tolerance for differing opinions in his young audiences and has given many adolescent and activist minds a very powerful legal tool that is easily misused for purposes far removed from safety.
Vaclaw’s granting of protective orders to settle disputes between teenagers on social media also seems to be outside of the scope of Oklahoma’s statutes related to victim protections. Those statutes require a blood, romantic or residential relationship between parties and actual incidents of harm, physical stalking or direct harassment.
Judge and OKEQ-Bartlesville Have History of Partnership Around “Anti-Bullying”
As recently as 2019, Judge Vaclaw worked directly with Lawrence-Hayes and OKEQ-Bartlesville related to an anti-bullying seminar. On March 12, 2019, OKEQ-Bartlesville hosted a seminar on the topic for parents at a local bar and grill with Vaclaw as the primary speaker.
Posts on the OKEQ-Bartlesville Facebook page on the evening of the seminar show “most of the (OKEQ-Bartlesville) board and judge Vaclaw”. The photo includes the two petitioners (Morgan Lawrence and Sheena Hayes) in the request for a protective order against Richard Penkoski of Warriors for Christ. The photo also includes Rev. Becker, who set the premise for the order by claiming scripture as a personal threat to those embracing alternative sexualities.
During this series, you will come to know much more about the individuals in this photo, the other organizations they represent and what other parts they play in this battle for the heart of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
The ex-parte (one-sided) protective order was granted on November 22, 2022, and extended by Judge Vaclaw on December 12, 2022, without Penkoski’s presence or awareness of the order and it spite of the appearance of conflicts of interest on behalf of Judge Vaclaw.
Despite evidence that several representatives and supporters at OKEQ had been actively communicating on Penkoski’s personal social media page, no one was able to contact Penkoski to inform him of the order. Judge Vaclaw also deemed it necessary to place a social media gag order on Penkoski related to the plaintiffs. Penkoski cannot mention either on social media. Silencing accomplished.
Reverse Stalking: Bogus Protective Orders are About Silencing, Not Safety
An examination of the documents related to the protective order against Penkoski are also revealing. Since there is no relationship between the plaintiffs and defendant in this case, a prerequisite for protective orders under Oklahoma law, no accurate current address where he could be served was provided by the petitioners. Therefore, the plaintiffs appear to have cyber-stalked Penkoski, learned of his plan to preach outside an upcoming drag performance in Tulsa, and provided the information to Vaclaw’s court at the time of the order’s extension (see bottom note on order below).
When separately interviewed, both Penkoski and fellow street preacher Grisham stated that they have never met or spoken with either of the women who requested the protective order, making the granting of this order highly unusual, unless you’re in Washington County, and likely outside of state statutes. Penkoski said, to his knowledge, he’d only been in the same room with Lawrence-Hayes one time at the city council meeting when he and Grisham addressed the council separately during public comments. On that date, neither of the men report having interacted directly with either of the petitioners of the protective order.
Both Penkoski and Grisham report being present in Tulsa, on December 15th, when Penkoski was served related to the protective order by police officers outside the Drag Queen Christmas event listed by the petitioners as Penkoski’s predicted location on that evening. Both report that the officers waited until they had finished preaching against the presence of children at the adult-oriented event, serving Penkoski only after the pair had packed up their belongings and were leaving the location.
Now aware of the order, Penkoski will have an opportunity to state his case to the court on January 31st in the District Court of Washington County before Judge Vaclaw. This publication reached out to Judge Vaclaw through the county’s contact system with questions related to the protective order but has not yet received any response.
Scripture as a Violent Threat: National Tactic Comes to Bartlesville
The strategy of rewriting or reinterpreting scripture to exclude any condemnation of alternative sexualities has recently and very successfully worked to divide the Methodist, Lutheran and many other long-established Christian denominations. Rev. Kelley Becker’s Disciples Christian Church regularly promotes the idea that the Christian Bible is fluid and not the work of God.
After rewriting scripture, any mention of the version accepted for 2,000 years as the words of Christ and the writings of his disciples is then labeled a threat to or exclusion of the LGBT community. There is no tolerance for the sustained beliefs of traditional Christians.
The scriptures cited by Penkoski which triggered the protective order against him have consistently been distorted for activist purposes, including during the string of scandals related to sexual assaults on female students by a cross-dressing male within Loudoun County (VA) Public Schools. That situation has resulted in an ongoing, state empaneled special grand jury tasked with investigating school administrators and board members related to a cover-up of the assaults.
Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
These scriptures do not threaten or even suggest that Penkoski or any other human will physically hold those accountable who fail to protect children. They suggest that God will do so. Lawrence and Hayes did not file for a protective order against God. They filed against Penkoski because this order was never about safety. It was about silencing the opposition.
The local representatives of OKEQ-Bartlesville are just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for future parts of this series where we’ll go under the water’s surface to expose the juggernaut of systems and larger organizations supporting this cultural transformation in Bartlesville and beyond.
This judge appears to have done this same thing in multiple cases. This weakens the law for those who are truly in danger. The abuse of protection orders to silence critical thought in social media, online discussions, political protests, weakens the US Constitution. A petition should be started in Washington County to REMOVE Judge V. from the bench, he is a clear and present danger to basic freedoms of speech, association, press and religion. This Judge must go. Okla. Stat. tit. 30 § 101-108 (1989) creating a State Grand Jury to remove Judge V. in Washington County Oklahoma.
"I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet" - 1 Timothy 2:12. Maybe someone should stand up and quote this verse to Rev. Becker, so she can run and get a protective order against the Apostle Paul.