Cheers to "homosexual activities!"
10s across the board!
Hooray for Pose getting nominated for outstanding drama and for Billy Porter being nominated for outstanding lead actor in a drama. (MJ Rodriguez and Indya Moore were robbed!) Porter is the first openly gay black man to ever be nominated for an Emmy! If you aren’t watching this show, you’re missing out on amazing, inclusive, and authentic queer television. Last week’s episode in particular was incredibly moving.
Let’s get to the rest of the news!
A special LGBTQ asylum exemption?
This week Trump rolled back asylum rights, requiring that people stay out of the United States while applying for asylum (a pretty clear violation of international human rights, no?). This morning the Washington Examiner (an LGBTQ-unfriendly publication) reported that an exemption will be made for LGBTQ refugees. On its face, that kind of sounds good, until you realize why.
It turns out that Mexico won’t take LGBTQ refugees back because they’re at greater risk for harm. And if they get harmed, that’ll weaken the administration’s ability to legally defend their new bad policy.
So where does that leave LGBTQ refugees? Well, the Trump administration had already weakened protections for them last year by ruling out asylum claims for those fleeing domestic and gang violence. They had also recently directed Border Patrol officers to conduct “credible fear interviews,” despite not being trained to understand what LGBTQ persecution looks like. And now, because they’re afraid of exploitation, they’ll be even more skeptical of LGBTQ persecution claims, but will leave LGBTQ people detained while their claims are considered. And we know several trans women have already died in custody.
It kind of leaves LGBTQ people feeling like nobody wants us and nobody cares about giving us a chance at a life free of persecution. That’s the Trump administration in a nutshell, I guess.
There was something very half-way about this Iowa way of treatment
A former state official in Iowa has been awarded $1.5 million for having been discriminated against by former Gov. Terry Branstad — who now serves as Trump’s ambassador to China. Former Iowa’s Workers Compensation Commissioner Chris Godfrey sued way back in 2012, alleging that because he was gay, Branstad had twice asked him to resign and also cut his pay in half when he refused to do so. After a six-week trial, a jury agreed that the discrimination had taken place.
A sad outcome in bullying case
Disappointing news out of New York City today, where 19-year-old Abel Cedeno was found guilty on first-degree charges of manslaughter and assault. Cedeno had used a knife to defend himself in 2017 from two bullies who had harassed him for his sexuality for some time, killing one and seriously wounding the other. It was a tragic incident as it was, but now Cedeno faces up to 25 years in prison.
I’m by no means defending the severity of Cedeno’s actions, but it’s another reminder that LGBTQ young people, like young people of color, are particularly vulnerable to the school-to-prison pipeline. They’re more likely to be the victims of bullying, less likely to be protected from that bullying, and then more likely to be punished for attempting to protect themselves.
Focus on the “defect”
Remember Focus on the Family? They’re very much still around and peddling anti-LGBTQ rejection. Check out this speech from president Jim Daly, in which he explains that gay people deserve to be brought into this world in spite of their “defect.” He made these remarks literally an hour before openly gay Gov. Jared Polis (D) spoke on the same stage:
Yeah, the rhetoric over at Focus hasn’t improved much.
The legitimacy of queer people is “political”
The city of Reading, Pennsylvania was ready to have a little ceremony raising the Pride flag above city hall, but at the last minute, Mayor Wally Scott canceled it. He decided that the flag represents a “political movement” and it would be against city policy to fly it. The decision has cast a shadow over the city’s Pride celebration this coming weekend, and even Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor chimed in urging Scott to rethink his bigoted decision.
We’re destroying TV and winning awards for it
John Merrill (R) is Alabama’s secretary of state and he’s also running for the U.S. Senate, and he’s just a little concerned that “homosexual activities” on television are destroying Americans’ “moral core.” Maybe he accidentally watched that Arthur episode Alabama Public Television refused to air? He wants to know why there aren’t more shows “based on biblical foundations.” Or, given how many queer Emmy nominations there were today, maybe he just doesn’t know what good television is.
The ol’ gay pedophile trope rears its ugly head
For decades, anti-LGBTQ conservatives have tried to argue that queer people are out to abuse, harm, recruit, corrupt, or somehow otherwise destroy kids’ lives. And despite how much progress the movement has made, these ugly old chestnuts just don’t go away.
Today there were two different stories of conservatives arguing queer people are trying to normalize pedophilia. In case you’ve come this far with doubts, that’s not true. And these claims sound sillier than ever:
Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel (of Kim Davis) fame believes the “Q” in LGBTQ represents a spectrum that includes “minor-attracted individuals” (it doesn’t).
Matthew Hanley argue at LifeSiteNews that pedophilia is being “normalized” (it’s not) and at The Catholic Thing that we’re going to add the “P” to LGBTQ (we’re not). (HT: David Cary Hart.)
(Also, “The Catholic Thing?”)
Almost a Pride in Russia
Russia almost got its first Pride parade in Strezhevoy, but the mayor apparently got “cold feet.” He cited laws that ban informing children about “unconventional sexual relationships” and that ban “gay propaganda.” The status quo for queer people isn’t really improving there, unsurprisingly.
A Note about Turing
Alan Turing’s codebreaking machine helped win World War II, but for the crime of his homosexuality he was punished with castration and later committed suicide. While it’s far too late to have saved his life, the Bank of England will be honoring his brilliant heroism by putting his face on a new £50 Note.
People across the UK will carry in their wallets the face of a gay man who helped save the world form tyranny!
Thanks as always for reading! I dare you to find one friend who you can convince to also sign up for this newsletter! Tell them how great it is!
Until next time, stay platinum!