A Blitz in America
There's a planned attack on the separation of church and state.
Apropos of nothing, let’s start the week off with some background music:
Onto today’s LGBTQ news!
DeVos divides
My colleagues at the Center for American Progress have a new report out highlighting the way that LGBTQ students who file discrimination complaints have been severely underserved by the Department of Education under Trump. It’s not surprising, but it is disturbing to see the disparity so apparent in how actual complaints have been handled.
Christian Nationalism is creeping up on you
If you haven’t heard of Project Blitz, that’s by design. This campaign from a group of extremely conservative Christians is trying to slowing introduce Christian nationalism into our state laws, with the goal of building up to anti-LGBTQ “religious freedom” laws. A coalition of LGBTQ and secular groups have a tracking project called Blitz Watch, but this year has already seen a lot of progress for Project Blitz.
These laws include adding “In God We Trust” to license plates, plastering schools with “In God We Trust,” and introducing “Bible literacy” classes. This year, South Dakota, Florida, and Kentucky are all adding the endorsement of monotheistic religion to their classrooms, and another bill is pending in Missouri. Normalizing these religious displays, the campaign hopes, will make it easier to justify all the excuses they want to write into the law allowing them to use their religion to discriminate.
A Republican litmus test
Republicans in Virginia met over the weekend to discuss whether to censure Congressman Denver Riggleman (R) for “failing to uphold the Republican Party platform.” What did he do? He officiated a same-sex couple’s wedding. It seems the GOP is modeling its homophobic enforcement mechanisms after the Catholic Church!
Gender reveal regrets
Personally, I think “gender reveal parties” are the height of heterosexual nonsense — especially for how absurd they can be and how often they fail as a result. Well Jenna Karvunidis, the original “inventor” of the fad, now regrets her role in making gender reveals so popular, thanks in part to what she’s learned about gender from her own child.
Who cares what gender the baby is? I did at the time because we didn't live in 2019 and didn't know what we know now - that assigning focus on gender at birth leaves out so much of their potential and talents that have nothing to do with what's between their legs.
PLOT TWIST, the world's first gender-reveal party baby is a girl who wears suits!
LGBTQ persistence in Poland
LGBTQ activists in Poland are not being deterred by right-wing extremists. Following the violent backlash of protesters at last week’s Pride march in Baiłystok, a thousand people took to the streets of Warsaw in support of LGBTQ equality. LGBTQ acceptance is becoming a top political issue in the country, with the conservatives in power trying to rally around demonizing the queer community.
Homophobes in the country, meanwhile, are already planning their next anti-Pride attack.
Believe refugees!
Countries regularly apply too much skepticism to LGBTQ people fleeing persecution in their home countries. That was the case for one gay Ugandan woman who was denied asylum in the United Kingdom six years ago. She now has a child as a result of being gang raped after she was sent back to Uganda. The High Court has ruled that the woman’s deportation was unlawful, meaning she has a second chance to find refuge in the UK.
Oliver Stone gaslights
A week after lauding Russia’s law against “gay propaganda” as “sensible,” filmmaker Oliver Stone is insisting that neither he nor President Vladimir Putin are “anti-gay/LGBTQ.” That same law has now been used to rip apart a family, because the government argues that the adoption agency that allowed two dads to raise kids together didn’t properly protect those kids from “propaganda.”
Mystery marriage photos
Back in 1957, a same-sex couple in Philadelphia held a marriage ceremony, but when they took their photos to get developed, the drug store owner refused to return them because they were “inappropriate.” Now the photos have turned up 60 years later, and folks are trying to figure out who the lovely couple is!
‘Til death do us part
Alfredo Garcia III is in hospice care, facing his last days as he struggles with both stage IV liver cancer and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His last wish was to marry the love of his life, Erwin Sigueroa. Watch their touching bedside ceremony:
The wrong gay to call the right kind of gay
Anybody who thinks there’s a proper way to express one’s sexuality is probably harboring some homophobia, even if they’re gay themselves. That’s incredibly apparent in a meme some are sharing distinguishing between “gay people I respect” and “gay people I do not respect.”
The meme is sexist and homophobic, but it also chose the wrong spokesperson for the supposed “normal human being” kind of gay person. The image is that of gay Australian rugby player Simon Dunn, and he was none too happy about the meme’s message.
A finale and a first
The Disney Channel’s tween drama Andi Mack has come to an end, but not before one more big first for the network. After featuring the first coming out of a character earlier this year, the show ended with another magical moment: the Disney Channel’s first same-sex couple.
Out on a musical
Amazon Prime’s Transparent offered a groundbreaking glimpse into how a transgender woman’s transition later in life impacted her family. With Jeffrey Tambor off the show after all the gross sexual harassment allegations against him, the show is finishing with a musical finale to show how the family adjusts to Moppa’s death. I can’t wait to see Judith Light slay!
Until next time, stay platinum!
(Betsy DeVos photo credit: Flickr/Gage Skidmore.)