Laney Hawes
@laneyhawes.bsky.social
Close talker. Story teller. Co-Founder of Texas Freedom to Read Project. Wife to a very tall man. Mom to 4. Fighting the far-right in Tarrant County, Texas. Known on Twitter as: “Not just a mom, but a mouthy activist.”
Reposted by Laney Hawes
We know him!!!! 🤩🤩🤩
So proud of our cofounder, @frankstrong.bsky.social
So proud of our cofounder, @frankstrong.bsky.social
So, so honored to receive a National Intellectual Freedom Award from @ncte.org for fighting censorship. This is truly a highlight of my career.
November 23, 2025 at 3:48 AM
We know him!!!! 🤩🤩🤩
So proud of our cofounder, @frankstrong.bsky.social
So proud of our cofounder, @frankstrong.bsky.social
Loving that she hasn’t deleted this & it’s just over on Twitter thriving this week.
November 19, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Loving that she hasn’t deleted this & it’s just over on Twitter thriving this week.
Reposted by Laney Hawes
As a censorship scholar, I'm seen it all before so nothing truly surprises me. But this is still pretty amazing.
In this specific book in the kitty corn series their complaint is that the male unicorn has eyelashes and is pink (even though he’s not pink 🤔).
November 16, 2025 at 1:38 PM
As a censorship scholar, I'm seen it all before so nothing truly surprises me. But this is still pretty amazing.
Reposted by Laney Hawes
Both male and female horses have eyelashes. Unicorns don't exist so this can't be scientifically verified. Valiant use of taxpayer money to micromanage the acceptable eyelash representation of fictional animals.
This is what "parents rights" looks like in TX: 1 mother decides what 8,292 students don't get access to read b/c she thinks boy unicorns shouldn't be pink or have eyelashes. *side note: the unicorn isn't pink, but he does have eyelashes. And to TX legislators: your bad laws are harming our kids.
November 15, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Both male and female horses have eyelashes. Unicorns don't exist so this can't be scientifically verified. Valiant use of taxpayer money to micromanage the acceptable eyelash representation of fictional animals.
Reposted by Laney Hawes
What gets me the most in this story is the gall of this woman to think she gets to come in & make this decision for every child in the district. And Sen. Angela Paxton & Dan Patrick call this stuff a win for parents rights as if 1 parent didn’t just take away the “rights” of 8000 other parents.
We have the newest casualty of the “parents rights," movement in Texas! And we can thank Sen. Angela Paxton’s “parental rights” school library bill (SB 13) for keeping Texas kids safe from Pretty Perfect Kitty Corn in Southlake, TX (Carroll ISD). @shannonhale.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 3:11 AM
What gets me the most in this story is the gall of this woman to think she gets to come in & make this decision for every child in the district. And Sen. Angela Paxton & Dan Patrick call this stuff a win for parents rights as if 1 parent didn’t just take away the “rights” of 8000 other parents.
Reposted by Laney Hawes
Shannon Hale’s response to Unicorn Eyelashgate is 👩🍳💋 This situation demands the John Oliver treatment @lastweektonight.com
Both male and female horses have eyelashes. Unicorns don't exist so this can't be scientifically verified. Valiant use of taxpayer money to micromanage the acceptable eyelash representation of fictional animals.
This is what "parents rights" looks like in TX: 1 mother decides what 8,292 students don't get access to read b/c she thinks boy unicorns shouldn't be pink or have eyelashes. *side note: the unicorn isn't pink, but he does have eyelashes. And to TX legislators: your bad laws are harming our kids.
November 15, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Shannon Hale’s response to Unicorn Eyelashgate is 👩🍳💋 This situation demands the John Oliver treatment @lastweektonight.com
What gets me the most in this story is the gall of this woman to think she gets to come in & make this decision for every child in the district. And Sen. Angela Paxton & Dan Patrick call this stuff a win for parents rights as if 1 parent didn’t just take away the “rights” of 8000 other parents.
We have the newest casualty of the “parents rights," movement in Texas! And we can thank Sen. Angela Paxton’s “parental rights” school library bill (SB 13) for keeping Texas kids safe from Pretty Perfect Kitty Corn in Southlake, TX (Carroll ISD). @shannonhale.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 3:11 AM
What gets me the most in this story is the gall of this woman to think she gets to come in & make this decision for every child in the district. And Sen. Angela Paxton & Dan Patrick call this stuff a win for parents rights as if 1 parent didn’t just take away the “rights” of 8000 other parents.
Reposted by Laney Hawes
In Texas, a new law has redefined “parental rights” to mean that a single parent now has the right to remove a book from libraries district wide because the the story of a boy unicorn with eyelashes offends them.
We have the newest casualty of the “parents rights," movement in Texas! And we can thank Sen. Angela Paxton’s “parental rights” school library bill (SB 13) for keeping Texas kids safe from Pretty Perfect Kitty Corn in Southlake, TX (Carroll ISD). @shannonhale.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 2:37 AM
In Texas, a new law has redefined “parental rights” to mean that a single parent now has the right to remove a book from libraries district wide because the the story of a boy unicorn with eyelashes offends them.
Reposted by Laney Hawes
This thread is a MUST READ. Nothing I have read since 2021 better captures the complete insanity of the “parents rights” book-banning movement than the need to protect kids from unicorn eyelashes.
We have the newest casualty of the “parents rights," movement in Texas! And we can thank Sen. Angela Paxton’s “parental rights” school library bill (SB 13) for keeping Texas kids safe from Pretty Perfect Kitty Corn in Southlake, TX (Carroll ISD). @shannonhale.bsky.social
November 15, 2025 at 2:39 AM
This thread is a MUST READ. Nothing I have read since 2021 better captures the complete insanity of the “parents rights” book-banning movement than the need to protect kids from unicorn eyelashes.
Reposted by Laney Hawes
I once had a fight with my publisher's lawyer over what constitutes "fair use." He said reprinting 4 lines of a poem without the poet's explicit permission was too much. But AI gobbling up whole books now counts as "fair use." Something is definitely wrong with US copyright law.
Federal court says copyrighted books are fair use for AI training
Anthropic didn’t break the law when it trained its chatbot with copyrighted books, a judge said, but it must go to trial for allegedly using pirated books.
wapo.st
June 26, 2025 at 12:09 PM
I once had a fight with my publisher's lawyer over what constitutes "fair use." He said reprinting 4 lines of a poem without the poet's explicit permission was too much. But AI gobbling up whole books now counts as "fair use." Something is definitely wrong with US copyright law.
Hate, lies, & divisiveness couched comfortably between scripture & Jesus Christ seem to perfectly capture the essence of the MAGA movement in this country.💔😢
"Thou shalt not take the
name of the LORD thy God in vain." Exodus 20:7
"Thou shalt not take the
name of the LORD thy God in vain." Exodus 20:7
April 20, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Hate, lies, & divisiveness couched comfortably between scripture & Jesus Christ seem to perfectly capture the essence of the MAGA movement in this country.💔😢
"Thou shalt not take the
name of the LORD thy God in vain." Exodus 20:7
"Thou shalt not take the
name of the LORD thy God in vain." Exodus 20:7
Reposted by Laney Hawes
Lamar Consolidated ISD says an online article on Virginia has been removed due to “frontal nudity.”
Visit www.txftrp.org/censorship_t... to learn more.
Visit www.txftrp.org/censorship_t... to learn more.
Censorship Deep in the Heart of Texas: Even State Flags Aren't Safe
Lamar Consolidated ISD has removed a lesson on Virginia as a result of a local school board policy that prohibits depictions of "frontal nudity"
www.txftrp.org
April 15, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Lamar Consolidated ISD says an online article on Virginia has been removed due to “frontal nudity.”
Visit www.txftrp.org/censorship_t... to learn more.
Visit www.txftrp.org/censorship_t... to learn more.
I know Twitter is a cesspool, but hear me out, their burn tweets are unmatched. 🔥🔥🔥
March 24, 2025 at 8:14 PM
I know Twitter is a cesspool, but hear me out, their burn tweets are unmatched. 🔥🔥🔥
Reposted by Laney Hawes
Circling back on this…
March 24, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Circling back on this…
This is happening at every level of government. It’s in the play book of the far right.
The latest crazy just proves what we all know. They are discussing everything on Signal to avoid any discovery or FOIA or archival laws. So illegal but here we are.
March 24, 2025 at 8:05 PM
This is happening at every level of government. It’s in the play book of the far right.
These arrogant bumbling idiots. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
March 24, 2025 at 5:11 PM
These arrogant bumbling idiots. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Reposted by Laney Hawes
Join us in wishing the happiest of birthdays to our co-founder @laneyhawes.bsky.social!
🥳📚💙
🥳📚💙
March 21, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Join us in wishing the happiest of birthdays to our co-founder @laneyhawes.bsky.social!
🥳📚💙
🥳📚💙
Serious question to the suburban women Trump voters what do you think of this language? What do you think of threats to invade Greenland? And I don’t want to hear from the libertarian war mongering incel Russian troll accounts. Only real people with their names on their accounts.
March 24, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Serious question to the suburban women Trump voters what do you think of this language? What do you think of threats to invade Greenland? And I don’t want to hear from the libertarian war mongering incel Russian troll accounts. Only real people with their names on their accounts.
The censorship legislation on the horizon here in Texas is going to have wide sweeping and devastating consequences- many of which we likely don’t even realize yet.
"This could mean that if you want to put a little free library in your front yard, if you put the Color Purple or the Kite Runner and if a child gets it, you could be charged with a crime" — @laneyhawes.bsky.social of @txfreedomread.bsky.social
www.audacy.com/krld/news/st...
www.audacy.com/krld/news/st...
Groups lash out at proposed book-banning laws for Texas
A broad coalition of educational, civil rights, and literary advocacy organizations are banding together to sound the alarm over proposed legislation that would make access to books more difficult in ...
www.audacy.com
February 4, 2025 at 6:50 PM
The censorship legislation on the horizon here in Texas is going to have wide sweeping and devastating consequences- many of which we likely don’t even realize yet.
Reposted by Laney Hawes
If you're struggling financially due to government fuckery or for any reason really and you need infant formula talk to your pediatrician we can hook you up and don't like to ask questions.
January 28, 2025 at 9:07 PM
If you're struggling financially due to government fuckery or for any reason really and you need infant formula talk to your pediatrician we can hook you up and don't like to ask questions.
In case you’re wondering what the mommy MAHA movement looks like in suburban Texas- here it is. There are so many things going on in this interaction, I don’t even know where to start.
January 30, 2025 at 4:59 AM
In case you’re wondering what the mommy MAHA movement looks like in suburban Texas- here it is. There are so many things going on in this interaction, I don’t even know where to start.
Happy Inauguration Day from my Aldi here in Ft Worth Texas!
January 20, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Happy Inauguration Day from my Aldi here in Ft Worth Texas!
My sister worked in the Trump Whitehouse the first time around. (No she’s not a trumper- It’s a long story) But, he was never allowed out in the cold for longer than a few minutes. This is why the inauguration has to be indoors.
January 18, 2025 at 2:50 PM
My sister worked in the Trump Whitehouse the first time around. (No she’s not a trumper- It’s a long story) But, he was never allowed out in the cold for longer than a few minutes. This is why the inauguration has to be indoors.
Let’s talk about Meta’s new policies. I don’t want to live & think in an echo chamber. But I don’t want to live in a world where unfounded opinions & conspiracies are weighted equal to verified and/or science backed news & data. Is there a scenario where good comes from this or will meta become X?
January 7, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Let’s talk about Meta’s new policies. I don’t want to live & think in an echo chamber. But I don’t want to live in a world where unfounded opinions & conspiracies are weighted equal to verified and/or science backed news & data. Is there a scenario where good comes from this or will meta become X?