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How are they doing it with the primary teachers?
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We haven’t heard anything about this in our ward.
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Church's Policy on Surrogacy - Looking for Input
Analytics replied to smac97's topic in General Discussions
And I've been telling you that I don't think we need bathroom laws for the same general reason that we don't need laws about litter boxes in public schools. I've said over and over that if you prove to me there is a need for a law, we can discuss what that law should look like. But I remain unconvinced there is a need. I'm not going to design a law until you demonstrate a law is needed. Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence. The general pattern of your "propositions" is to start with a deliberately provocative quote, interpret it in the most hostile way possible, and then replace the nuances with dogmatism. e.g. "Parental caution is abuse or bigotry." I asked ChatGPT to redline your proposed ideologies for accuracy and this is what it came up with. But even with the redlines I question the accuracy, because these are still the issues that you curated and don't necessarily represent what is important to them. I asked GPT 6 Pro to synthesis what transgender organizations actually want and what they actually believe. Here is what it came up with: For my part, I disagree with #14, presuming that the individual is the one choosing for themselves to pursue "conversion practices aimed at curing or suppressing their identities." If somebody wants to take the path for themselves, I think they should have that right. Otherwise, i pretty-much agree with all of this. I realize this is merely what they are advocating for and doesn't represent the underlying "load bearing principles" that drive these things. So, here is my list of the underlying load bearing principles: I generally agree with those, too. -
Isaiah’s "Denial" Verses, Incomparability and the Divine Council
GoCeltics replied to Pyreaux's topic in General Discussions
No, but from a non-Christian view, it’s logical that literal offspring of a literal God are literally Gods. That would include Satan, also an offspring of God and brother to Jesus. If God really is an exalted human from another world, then his offspring are also human. - Today
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This appears to be permanent
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How long will it take to teach teachers to adjust to the 25 minute schedule ?
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And youth teachers /RS and Priesthood miss SS.
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Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
webbles replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
I believe the 3 year period just affects the type of relief available. Dehlin couldn't be forced to change the name from Mormon Stories as that name existed longer than 3 years. But they could get an injunction to never use the color blue or light rays. And they still could get an injunction to require a verbal disclaimer. So, comments from earlier than 3 years that shows confusion is probably still ok to be used. And any element that existed across the boundary (like the name) is still available to be included in the confusion calculation. And the rebranding could be used as evidence of intentional confusion. I believe Dehlin where he said he didn't intend confusion, but he didn't do the rebrand himself. He had hired some designers to do it and they might have intentionally mimic'ed the church's trade dress. And if that is found during the discovery phase, that would be treated as intentional confusion. -
I am confused. Are you saying some teachers will miss teacher training? added: I think I get it. SS teacher training preempts RS for SS teachers once a month.
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Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
Calm replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
So you said the rebranding 3 years ago becomes the relevant material. So only comments by Dehlin or others after the rebranding matter? Why wouldn’t elements still present in the rebranding matter since the effect is likely cumulative? -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
Calm replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
If that is all he said about it, it’s accurate imo that he doesn’t state he thought it was put out by the Church. Doesn’t state he didn’t think that either. Its vague, therefore imo it’s not supportive of confusing with the Church website. Dehlin’s response seems to show he intended confusion even if not his primary motivation for the design, but exactly what type of confusion (church affiliation or faithfulness of the site could both be inferred from what little was said) does not appear to be specified by him either. Will be interesting to see what the judge says. From what you have posted, this specific evidence doesn’t seem very strong to me. -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
webbles replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
I thought more about this and I think that if the judge ignores this evidence (because of the lie, mischaracterization, etc) it weakens the church's arguments a bit. In their response to the motion to dismiss, they bring up intentional confusion in 2 places. The first is on whether this should be motion should be subject to Rogers. An intentional confusion is automatically not subject to Rogers and that would automatically fail the motion to dismiss. Since this is the church's only evidence at this stage (they say they have more but don't provide any), the judge would have to look at other factors on whether this should be subject to Rogers or not. I do think the church still has a pretty good argument even without intentional confusion. But it removes that automatic win. The second is on laches. This is where the church has a weak point. They waited 20 years to bring this up. Technically, Lanham Act infringement has no time window, but long waits usually are dismissed. But an intentional confusion bypasses that. So it wouldn't matter if it was 20 years or 100 years. Without this intentional confusion, the church's best argument is probably that Mormon Stories changed their branding 3 years ago and that is when they started to trigger confusion. But that means that everything before 3 years ago is no longer part of this lawsuit, including the name Mormon Stories. So the lawsuit would continue, but it would be a smaller lawsuit. -
Changed in September, we meet during second hour. Since I teach GD I miss RS. It used to be quarterly, now according to “changes in the Sunday schedule” section of LDS.org, under “common questions, “ it indicates monthly teacher training. I mean you gotta dig to find it but apparently our new SS president did her digging and now here we are. And she stated today she is not gonna let this die. I just wondered if we are the only ones. I suspect it might even be a typo since it’s not updated accordingly in the handbook itself.
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Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
Notatbm replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
Thanks.. I have not read the ms response yet. You are right.. we will see -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
webbles replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
And this is the subtitles from what the person actually said on the podcast (so you don't have to actually listen to it): -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
webbles replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
The quote from the church's lawyer is the response to the motion to dismiss. And it says (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.utd.163775/gov.uscourts.utd.163775.71.0.pdf, page 2): Dehlin's lawyer noticed this and responded in their response to the response (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.utd.163775/gov.uscourts.utd.163775.73.0.pdf, page 1): And RFM made the video based on this information. So, it is already in the suit and we'll see what the judge thinks. I'm not sure that it will have much of an impact at this point since this is an attempt to show that the confusion was intentional (by quoting Dehlin's "admission") but intention is not a requirement for the likelihood of confusion. -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
Notatbm replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
See response to smac. You can listen to the three min clip yourself. -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
Notatbm replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
This is from the church’s filing reference the confusion of a listener: “The Church will prove that many have, in fact, been confused by Defendants’ infringement of the Church’s intellectual property. They encounter Mormon Stories and begin to consume its content believing it contains Church-affiliated material, only to discover it is not what they were seeking. And this is intentional. In a 2022 Mormon Stories episode, a guest tells Mr. Dehlin he began listening because he believed Mormon Stories was Church-affiliated. Mr. Dehlin responds: “That was not why I named it that,” but then confesses, “Okay, maybe it was a little bit why I named it that.“ if you listen to the episode ( about 13 min mark on linked video. Runs about three min) you will see he definitely did not say what the church lawyers claimed in the filing. -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
Calm replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
Please summarize what it claims for those of us who don’t watch videos usually or don’t have the patience to in this case. Added: I don’t know how I missed smac’s post as it appeared to my brain I was at the end of the thread. -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
Notatbm replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
The filing to the court itself cites statements that were never made in the ms episode they were discussing. in my non-lawyer mind I don’t think submitting evidence that doesn’t match what the listener ( the one who was confused) actually said is a good idea because it will be found out. If it was a simple mistake then it would naturally lead one to believe perhaps the lawyer is incompetent… or just dishonest. the listener in question never mentioned anything about thinking the ms episode was produced or owned or affiliated with the church. He stated he thought it would be a faithful or faith promoting (don’t recall exact what he said- it’s on the video I linked) and was disappointed it wasn’t a faithful episode. Did you listen to it? If so what do you think about what the listener said vs what the church submitted in its filing? It definitely does not match. Does filing statements with the court that are not true help the church’s case? I don’t see how it can. Certainly doesn’t hurt ms. -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
smac97 replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
These hyperbolic AI-generates splash images are really getting old. A Grok summary of this episode (from the auto-generated transcript) : "They also say 'soon discovered it wasn’t what they were seeking” undercuts lasting confusion: listeners figure it out quickly." In other words, some folks were confused initially. Not sure how this helps MS. Thanks, -Smac -
Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
webbles replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
Confusion is grounds for a Lanham Act lawsuit. But it has to be confusion around a trademark (either registered or unregistered). The Church/Dehlin lawsuit includes both Lanham Act confusion, Lanham Act trademark infringement, and copyright infringement. -
Church's Policy on Surrogacy - Looking for Input
smac97 replied to smac97's topic in General Discussions
Okay. The "intentionally a little bit blurry" comes across - quite strongly, in my view - as evasive and vague, as effectively impossible to apply, as motte-and-bailey. I was in a hearing last week in which the judge was rendering a decision on a motion for summary judgment I had filed. The opposing attorney, David, had filed an opposing memorandum that either dodged many of the points of law I was making or only addressed them vaguely and obliquely. The most acute example was a question about David's first cause of action (I represent the defendant), seeking a judgment that my client, when he foreclosed on the plaintiff's house, violated the law by failing to send a "Notice of Default" to the plaintiff. This is indisputably a requirement of the nonjudicial foreclosure process in Utah, but the obligation to send it rests with the foreclosure trustee (not my client). In fact, my client is statutorily prohibited from doing what the trustee is obligated to do. At the hearing the judge asked David: "About that first cause of action, you aren't claiming that the defendant was the foreclosure trustee, correct?" David didn't talk for about 15 seconds, but then said "No, we're not." The judge then said "And the duty to send a Notice of Default to the property owner is the duty of the trustee, right?" Another pregnant pause, even longer, then David said "That is correct." The judge did not ask the next obvious question: "So the first cause of action necessarily fails, doesn't it? The defendant can't be held liable for not sending a Notice of Default when he had no obligation to do so, right?" The judge did, however, dismiss the first cause of action a few minutes later. David did what you have been refusing to do for months now: answer questions directly and candidly. Of course, he had an obligation to do so, and you do not. I have been asking for weeks and weeks how you would propose to differentiate which men can legally access women's bathrooms and which cannot. I have also been asking for "limiting principles" to your proposal. I have also been asking you to acknowledge that your proposal, in enacted, would result in de facto and/or de jure eradication of sex-segregated spaces. Huh. ChatGPT doesn't seem to actually address the propositions. "Proposition 1: Gender identity is real, innate, and authoritative. A person’s stated identity is the primary fact about whether they are a man, woman, both, or neither." Do you agree or disagree with Proposition 1? Is gender identity "real, innate and authoritative?" Do you agree or disagree that "[a] person’s stated identity is the primary fact about whether they are a man, woman, both, or neither?" What do you mean by "sex recorded at birth?" If a person is a man by biological sex, but is a "woman" by "gender identity," is that person a man or a woman? "Proposition 2: Identity is sex (or replaces sex for social/legal purposes). “Trans women are women” / “trans men are men” is treated as a literal truth, not a courtesy or a political slogan." What does "recognize transgender people socially" mean? Do you agree or disagree that "trans women are women" is a "literal truth?" "Proposition 3: Self-identification is sufficient. No medical diagnosis, surgery, hormones, or even consistent presentation is required for the identity to be valid." Do you agree or disagree that a man who "self-identifies" as a woman means he is a woman, regardless of "medical diagnosis, surgery, hormones, or even consistent presentation?" "Proposition 4: Denial of the identity is a denial of the person. Disagreeing with the identity claim is framed as saying the person 'doesn’t exist,' not as disputing a proposition." Do you agree that if Person A denies that Person B, a man who "identifies" as a woman, actually is a woman, Person A is denying the "existence" of Person B? "Proposition 5: Sex is a spectrum, a social construct, or at least not a strict binary relevant to policy. Chromosomes, gametes, and reproductive anatomy are treated as crude, incomplete, or bigoted ways to classify people." So is sex a "spectrum" or a "binary?" How many sexes are there? "Proposition 6: 'Assigned sex at birth' is the preferred description of sex, implying a bureaucratic label rather than an observed reproductive category." Do you agree or disagree that "assigned sex at birth" implies "a bureaucratic label rather than an observed reproductive category." Do you think a doctor "assigns" a sex to a newborn or "observes" it? "Proposition 7: Preferred pronouns and names are morally mandatory. Using sex-based pronouns is 'misgendering'; using a prior name is 'deadnaming.' Both are treated as harms comparable to slurs." Do you agree or disagree that using sex-based pronouns is "misgendering?" Do you agree or disagree that using sex-based pronouns is "comparable to slurs?" "Proposition 8: There is no polite way to state the sex distinction. 'Biological male/female,' 'natal sex,' and similar terms are often classified as hate speech or dogwhistles." Do you agree or disagree that using terms like "biological male" or "natal sex" are "hate speech or dogwhistles?" "Proposition 9: Gender dysphoria is validated by affirmation, not primarily explored as a possible misattribution of other distress. 'Watchful waiting' or exploratory therapy is frequently labeled conversion therapy. Do you agree or disagree that "gender dysphoria is validated by affirmation?" "Proposition 10: Medical transition (blockers, hormones, surgery) is healthcare, and withholding it is violence. Access is framed as lifesaving; gatekeeping is framed as cruelty." Do you agree or disagree that withholding medical transition is "violence?" Do you agree or disagree that medical transition is "lifesaving?" Do you agree or disagree that "gatekeeping" medical transition is "cruelty?" "Proposition 11: Minors can have a stable, knowable transgender identity that justifies social and often medical transition. Parental or clinical caution is cast as abuse or bigotry." Do you agree or disagree that "{m}inors {} have a stable, knowable transgender identity that justifies social and often medical transition?" Do you agree or disagree that "{p}arental or clinical caution {regarding pediatric medical transition procedures} is ... abuse or bigotry?" "Proposition 13: Single-sex spaces, sports, prisons, and shelters must follow identity, not sex. Exclusion of males who identify as women is discrimination." Do you agree or disagree that "Single-sex spaces, sports, prisons, and shelters must follow identity, not sex?" Do you agree or disagree that excluding males "who identify as women" from these spaces "discrimination?" "Proposition 14: Any line among 'trans women' is itself bigotry. Distinguishing social-only from medically transitioned, or pre-op from post-op, is 'transmedicalism' or 'dividing the community.'" Do you agree or disagree that differentiating trans women in any way (medically-transitioned versus non-medically-transitioned, etc.) is "bigotry?" "Proposition 16: Questions are a form of harm. Asking for definitions ('what is a woman?'), evidence, or tradeoffs is treated as bad-faith or as endangering trans people." Do you agree or disagree that "{a}sking for definitions ('what is a woman?')" is "bad-faith?" As "endangering trans people?" "Proposition 17: Opposition is explained as animus. The admissible motives are hatred, disgust, or religion; safety, fairness, child protection, and definitional accuracy are discounted." Hoo, boy. This sure would be nice to see, as you have in my recollection been a non-stop member of the bucket brigade drawing water from the "Bigot!" well. Haven't seen it. "Proposition 19: Conflicts with women’s rights and gay rights are denied or inverted. Sex-based rights are reframed as bigotry; same-sex attraction is pressured toward 'attraction to gender identity.'" Do you agree or disagree that "sex-based rights" are "bigotry?" Thanks, -Smac -
What is different about this from the prior monthly teacher training?
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Trademark infringement case against Open Stories Foundation
Notatbm replied to Calm's topic in General Discussions
If this is accurate, it looks like church lawyers lied in their filing against Mormon Stories:
