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2/12/2017 4:54 pm  #1


Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

No one in the anti-cyberbullying world has heard from her. Not even Monica Lewinsky.

STEPHANIE MENCIMERFEB. 7, 2017 6:00 AM

On November 3, Melania Trump gave a rare speech on the campaign trail for her husband, Donald. At the end of the speech, she made an announcement: If her husband were elected, she would focus on combating cyberbullying from the White House. "We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other," she said. "We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media. It will be one of the main focuses of my work if I'm privileged enough to become your first lady."

The announcement was met with derision by people who noted that her husband was perhaps the world's most prominent cyberbully. Lady Gaga tweeted at Melania directly:

 Follow
 xoxo, Joanne ✔ @ladygaga
.@MELANIATRUMP to say u will stand for "anti-bullying" is hypocrisy. Your husband is 1 of the most notorious bullies we have ever witnessed.

Three months later, Melania Trump is indeed first lady. But what of her pledge to take up cyberbullying? Mother Jones contacted a wide range of organizations and individuals who work on cyberbullying, and not a single one of them reported being contacted by Trump or anyone in the Donald Trump administration.

"No one has reached out to us as of yet," says Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and a professor at Florida Atlantic University. "People are posting unsolicited editorials in our space, asking Melania to do this or do that in an open letter on various sites, but her and her team have not reached out to us or anyone we know. And it's a pretty small circle of experts, so you'd think we'd have heard by now."

Not even Monica Lewinsky, who broke a decade of public silence in 2014 to become an anti-bullying advocate, has heard from the new first lady. Lewinsky might seem an obvious partner for Melania, given her history with President Trump's campaign opponent. Lewinsky has even spoken up to defend Melania and Donald Trump's son, 10-year-old Barron, from social-media trolls. But no one in the Trump administration has reached out to Lewinsky, according to someone who works with her on the issue. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Melania Trump's cyberbullying campaign seemed ill-fated from the start. Over the past 20 years, anti-bullying efforts have largely been driven by advocates for LGBT youth, who are disproportionately represented among victims of bullying. The role of LGBT groups in anti-bullying campaigns has resulted in a widespread backlash against these campaigns among right-wing evangelicals, a large voting bloc that supported Donald Trump in the election. Religious right advocates see efforts to combat bullying as another way of spreading the "homosexual agenda."

In 2009, President Barack Obama tapped Kevin Jennings to become the "anti-bullying czar" at the Department of Education. Jennings is a former teacher who founded one of the first efforts to reduce bullying against LGBT kids, called the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). When Obama appointed him, Fox News and other conservative groups viciously attacked Jennings, claiming that he had condoned child molestation and spent his career teaching children how to perform sexual acts. The Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group that has supported Trump, launched a "Stop Kevin Jennings" campaign. Among those who joined was Mike Pence, then a congressman from Indiana and now vice president. He was one of more than 50 House Republicans who wrote to Obama demanding that Jennings be removed from the post, claiming that "Mr. Jennings has played an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America's schools."

Right-wing evangelicals see efforts to combat bullying as just another way of spreading the "homosexual agenda."
Given the religious right's hostility to anti-bullying efforts, it's not clear who might help the new first lady promote her cause. One of the most prominent anti-bullying advocates is Lady Gaga, who started the Born This Way Foundation. Susan Swearer, a psychology professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and co-director of the Bullying Research Network, serves on the board of Born This Way. She says that neither she nor the singer has heard from the first lady.

Several advocates in the anti-bullying community say they would be eager to work with Melania Trump. "I certainly would, as I do not want us to go backward or lose any momentum that we have gained in the last two decades," says Dorothy Espelage, a psychology professor at the University of Florida and a prominent anti-bullying crusader.

But it's unlikely that the White House will encourage Trump to forge a prominent alliance with any group that recognizes the unique issues faced by LGBT youth. "It is hard to know what Melania is even thinking or who is advising her," Espelage says. "I wonder myself the extent to which she will take the 'gendered' lens, which is really needed to prevent bullying as a precursor to sexual harassment, homophobic name-calling, and teen dating violence." 


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
 

2/12/2017 6:52 pm  #2


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

It ain't gonna happen.  It was a nice and noble cause for a First Lady to champion, but it ain't gonna happen.

 

2/12/2017 7:50 pm  #3


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

The left is in full attack so she probably got bullied off the internet? Sounds like it could be a reasonable guess.


 “We hold these truths to be self-evident,”  former vice president Biden said during a campaign event in Texas on Monday. "All men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.”

 
 

2/12/2017 8:33 pm  #4


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

Common Sense wrote:

The left is in full attack so she probably got bullied off the internet? Sounds like it could be a reasonable guess.

That makes no sense at all.
What ever happened to her promise to confront cyberbullying?
You aren't seriously suggesting that a person with the level of protection Melania enjoys is scared of internet trolls?
Come now. Even you can come up with a better story than that.


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

2/12/2017 8:34 pm  #5


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

Just Fred wrote:

It ain't gonna happen.  It was a nice and noble cause for a First Lady to champion, but it ain't gonna happen.

I hear it's the lefts fault. 


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

2/12/2017 10:34 pm  #6


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

Common Sense wrote:

The left is in full attack so she probably got bullied off the internet? Sounds like it could be a reasonable guess.

You kind of have to be posting something to be bullied off. 

I have not see or heard a peep out of her. 

It certainly was and still is a noble cause, I hope she sticks with it as time progresses. 

 


"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
 
 

2/13/2017 5:38 am  #7


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

tennyson wrote:

Common Sense wrote:

The left is in full attack so she probably got bullied off the internet? Sounds like it could be a reasonable guess.

You kind of have to be posting something to be bullied off. 

I have not see or heard a peep out of her. 

 

Well, he's got you there, common.
The reasoning is sound.
The logic unassailable.

Care to try something else?
Like maybe she never intended to do this. Like, since most first ladies have a cause, she felt compelled to say something, anything, whether she meant it or not? 

Nah, couldn't be that. 
How about, her computer is broken. Yea. Hillary and Obama took her computer to Kenya and broke it.
There ya go. 

Last edited by Goose (2/13/2017 5:40 am)


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

2/13/2017 8:21 am  #8


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

I think Donald told her in a tweet to go back to NYC, take care of Baron, pose pretty when next to him, stay off social media, and otherwise sit down and shut up . . . You know, kinda like Rule XIX.

And Melania complied.

 

4/06/2017 9:31 am  #9


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

Goose wrote:

Common Sense wrote:

The left is in full attack so she probably got bullied off the internet? Sounds like it could be a reasonable guess.

That makes no sense at all.
What ever happened to her promise to confront cyberbullying?
You aren't seriously suggesting that a person with the level of protection Melania enjoys is scared of internet trolls?
Come now. Even you can come up with a better story than that.

Exactly, that would be ALL THE MORE reason to pursue it ! 
 


"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
 
 

4/06/2017 1:59 pm  #10


Re: Whatever Happened to Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Campaign?

tennyson wrote:

Goose wrote:

Common Sense wrote:

The left is in full attack so she probably got bullied off the internet? Sounds like it could be a reasonable guess.

That makes no sense at all.
What ever happened to her promise to confront cyberbullying?
You aren't seriously suggesting that a person with the level of protection Melania enjoys is scared of internet trolls?
Come now. Even you can come up with a better story than that.

Exactly, that would be ALL THE MORE reason to pursue it ! 
 

It's been about 8 weeks since Common made this rather strange allegation.
I haven't seen him, or anybody else for that matter, present any evidence whatsoever that Melania was driven from her pledge to fight cyberbullying by the left, or anyone else.
This article from February is the last reference to Melania's "mission" that I could find.

Face it Common, it was just some BS that her handlers told her to say.


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

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