Catching up, Looking ahead
A week's worth of LGBTQ news in one newsletter!
Hello there! First, the elephant in the room. ThinkProgress shut down today and I was laid off. I shared a few thoughts on Twitter, and may share more later, but I’m not going to say any more for now. This newsletter will continue though!
Technically I was still on vacation today, but my OCD was getting the best of me and I couldn’t wait to sort through everything and catch up on all the news I very intentionally ignored while I was relaxing with friends and doing touristy stuff. (Trump used a sharpie to make it look like Dorian would hit Alabama? Oy.) So that’s why you’re getting an issue today!
Also, welcome to everyone who found the newsletter this week via Queerty, Out, or Throwing Shade!
Thank you to everyone who took my survey! The quick takeaways are: You want me to be more editorial, you want me to help you better understand why stories are significant, and you want me to give a little bit more context for stories in case you aren’t all caught up on them. So… be myself and help you better understand things? I can work with that!
For today’s issue, however, I’m going to try to rapid-fire catch us up on all the LGBTQ news we missed while I was away, so the summaries are going to be super short. Just click through to the links to learn more! Let’s do this!
Straight Pride Updates
First, an update to my coverage from this weekend. In my Straight Pride reflection, I made two points: that I believed the police were largely responsible for initiating the violent conflicts and that the system seemed rigged against the counterprotesters supporting LGBTQ equality. There are updates on both of these points and frankly, things are getting even more bizarre.
One eagle-eyed Twitter user reviewed videos from last week and was able to identify one very well paid officer who was personally responsible for instigating much of the violence with counterprotesters, in particular because of his rampant, haphazard use of pepper spray on the crowd.
Meanwhile, Boston Municipal Court Judge Richard J. Sinnott has taken it upon himself to punish the 36 arrested counterprotesters, even though District Attorney Rachael Rollins sought to drop charges in most cases. First, Sinnott held a defense attorney in contempt for citing case law to explain to him why he was interfering with prosecutorial discretion. Then he denied most of Rollins’ motions to dismiss charges — even for protesters with no criminal records arrested on nonviolent charges.
Rollins called Sinnott’s actions “unprecedented and outrageous” and “an unconstitutional abuse of his power," and she has filed an emergency petition with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to overturn his ruling. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is now calling for an “independent investigation” into police interactions during the protest, while the police union is quite happy with the judge’s decisions.
Separately, Boston City Council President Andrea Campbell has expressed concerns both with how the police acted and with the permitting process that allowed hate to walk down the street — at great taxpayer expense — in the first place.
What a mess, and the people who preached hate in the street can just wipe their hands of most of it. Our system is flawed way more than we acknowledge.
Alright, onto all the other LGBTQ news from the past week.
Must-reads!
Katelyn Burns tells you everything you need to know about anti-trans “feminists” (aka TERFs)!
Read why Kristina Olson, who researches transgender kids, was named a MacArthur Genius.
Former conversion therapist McKrae Game recently came out as gay and denounced his harmful past work.
National News
House Democrats are hoping to block HUD from allowing anti-trans discrimination in homeless shelters.
HIV activists protested CDC director Robert Redfield at an AIDS conference, complaining about how weak the administration’s anti-HIV plan is.
The White House (once again) tried to claim Vice President Pence isn’t a homophobe because during his visit to Ireland (where he was not very welcome), he had lunch with Ireland’s (gay) prime minister. Mayor Pete’s husband shot down this nonsense:
I’ve sat at tables with people who would gladly deny me the right to marry, who openly support conversion therapy, and who adamantly believe being gay is a choice. Doesn’t mean they’re any less homophobic because we shared a meal. https://t.co/cECWvnFUUVFor all of you who still think our @VP is anti-gay, I point you to his and the @SecondLady’s schedule tomorrow where they will join Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar and his partner Dr. Matthew Barrett for lunch in Ireland. 🇮🇪 @merrionstreet https://t.co/Cj5kMpln0U
Judd Deere @JuddPDeere45Iceland then also welcomed Pence with rainbow flags.
Court News
A federal magistrate recommended dismissal of an Alliance Defending Freedom complaint on behalf of a university professor in Ohio who insisted he had a First Amendment right to misgender his trans students. Nice try, hate group!
The Liberty Counsel is continuing to try to overturn local bans on conversion therapy, this time in Tampa.
The Gloucester County School Board in Virginia has officially appealed a recent decision in alumnus Gavin Grimm’s favor, continuing to argue that its bathroom segregation policies are not transphobic. (They are.)
Campaign News
In addition to GLAAD’s forum in Iowa, HRC and CNN are also going to host a 2020 LGBTQ forum in California.
Here’s NCTE’s latest interview with a Democratic primary candidate, Julián Castro, about trans issues:
State/Local Stories
Congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is the latest to demand answers as to why U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu has not been prosecuting hate crime cases in DC.
Norman has become the first city in Oklahoma to pass LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections.
An Indiana school sent home a 13-year-old student for wearing a shirt that read, “Why be racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic when you could just be quiet?”
A Mississippi wedding venue cited its religious beliefs for discriminating against same-sex couples — and interracial couples; it only apologized for the latter.
Though sodomy laws were deemed unconstitutional 15 years ago, Louisiana continues to use its law to target sex workers.
At a high school in California, four students with MAGA flags barged into a GSA meeting and started shouting slurs at the queer and allied students gathered there.
Watch this 12-year-old ask his Kansas city council why discrimination should be allowed against his family simply because he has two moms.
The city council in Ypsilanti, Michigan voted to take down its LGBTQ flags and Black Lives Matter banners in case someone tries to put up a Confederate flag and they run into a free speech problem.
A West Virginia county’s massive HIV outbreak has been linked to the opioid epidemic.
The Las Vegas LGBTQ Center was vandalized with the word “FAG” just months after an arson fire.
Professors at the University of Kansas are calling on the school to reverse its upgraded relationship with Chick-fil-A, describing the anti-LGBTQ chain as a “bastion of bigotry.”
What conservatives were up to
Several anti-LGBTQ folks are already using that study showing a genetic component to sexuality to justify conversion therapy.
The New Orleans Saints’ Drew Brees apparently has a long history of working with the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family, but he claims he didn’t know they were so bigoted. Riiiiight.
Drag Queen Story Hour continues to rile conservatives, like Michael Brown, who thinks Jezebel is seducing children, and the Family Research Council, which prayed the events wouldn’t groom children for predation.
A couple of well-known bigots have a new anti-LGBTQ outlet with videos asking, “What would you say?” in response to basic respect for LGBTQ people.
In a similar case to the one lost in Ohio, the Heritage Foundation is upset a Florida teacher was disciplined for misgendering one of her trans students.
International Stories
A Canadian appeals court has ruled against a father who tried to block his teenage son’s transition surgery.
Northern Ireland’s former health minister doesn’t think television — specifically Strictly Come Dancing — should show same-sex couples before 9 PM because it would raise “challenging” questions for kids.
Bermuda held its first-ever Pride Parade and over 6000 people came!
The Philippines’ Supreme Court tossed a case calling for marriage equality.
Longtime Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe, who was super homophobic, died at age 95.
Researchers in Spain have discovered a second genetic mutation that can resist HIV.
A new study shows that fathers in same-sex relationships around the world receive less parental leave than other couples.
Protesters held a “cluck off” demonstration to object to the opening of the first Chick-fil-A in Toronto.
Culture Stories
Actress Kristen Stewart has apparently been warned to keep her sexuality closeted for the sake of her career.
Remember when actor Isaiah Washington was fired from Grey’s Anatomy for using an anti-gay slur? Well, he’s now a Trump supporter.
Kevin Hart is still homophobic/dumb, as he revealed in an interview with the newly out Lil Nas X. Pete Buttigieg thinks Hart doth protest too much.
“SonicFox,” the gamer who recently did a marathon stream to raise money for The Trevor Project, came out as non-binary.
A drag show for performers with down syndrome and other disabilities is back on after a previous venue pulled out of the event.
Other Fun Stuff
You can now buy a “bi chair” if you have trouble sitting straight.
This cute IKEA commercial made in partnership with National Geographic features a same-sex couple:
The Daily Show’s solution to gun violence? Make guns gay:
Whew! That was a lot? Do you feel caught up? I do! And now I can devote a bit more attention to this newsletter, so who knows what I’ll come up with? I welcome your ideas for what you want to see here.
Until next time, stay platinum!