Gay Republicans will gaslight you
But they had to gaslight themselves first.
I hope everyone who celebrated Pride had a great time! Just FYI, there are plenty of cities that have their Pride celebrations later in the year, so there’s no reason you have to give up on the rainbows just because it’s July 1. Or you can begin celebrating LGBTQ Wrath Month! I’ll be keeping you well-informed about what to be wrathful about!
Rather than send you down rabbit holes of various World Pride pic roundups, I want to share just one pic that stood out to me, because it was a reminder of the vital activism at the heart of Pride:
Also, here’s Lady Gaga speaking at Stonewall. Who doesn’t love Lady Gaga?
And just to interrupt a different kind of stereotype, check out how much love Muslim Twitter had for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for participating in Pride!
No, the fight for gay rights is not over
The Atlantic had the nerve to publish a trashy screed Friday by a gay, cis, white conservative who seems to think that everything’s fine, there’s nothing left to fight for, and we’ll never backslide. Maybe he should subscribe to my newsletter! I was furious at how ignorant a take it was — particularly how dismissive of transgender concerns he was — so I’m not going to link, but here’s my pal Daniel Villareal’s response, and I’m sure there are more responses to come. Keep an eye out for this dangerous narrative!
Trump has a gay spokesperson
On the topic of smug gay Republicans, BuzzFeed’s Dominic Holden profiles Judd Deere, Trump’s openly gay deputy press secretary. As Dominic explains, Deere believes the fact that he has his job in the White House “proves the president likes LGBTQ people (despite a litany of policies and positions that target them in workplaces, hospitals, shops, homeless shelters, and more).” As you’d expect from someone in Trump’s press shop, he excels at gaslighting:
Deere’s defense of Trump on LGBTQ rights — like many gay Republicans’ — rests on a vivid conviction: None of the president’s stances are actually discriminatory.
The transgender military ban? A matter of troop combat readiness. Policies to protect religious health care workers who deny services? That merely preserves conscience rights. Arguing that a Christian baker can refuse a wedding cake to a gay couple?
“Yeah, that's fine,” said Deere, who said the baker would have sold the couple a cake for any other purpose. “I'll just go find another cake shop that will.”
It’s hard to tell if people like Deere pitifully believe what they’re saying or if they’re just conservatives who willingly sacrificed their souls for political gain, but neither explanation makes their claims the least bit credible.
A reprieve from health care discrimination
Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced a new rule that would grant “conscience protections” to religious health care providers who don’t want to perform certain services — a massive license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, women, and others. It was immediately met by several major lawsuits, and this week HHS announced it would delay implementing the rule for four more months (until November) to respond to the lawsuits.
“We don’t do gay at Nivea”
The ad agency FCB is parting ways with body-care company Nivea after the company reportedly rejected an ad showing two men’s hands touching and with one ad exec claiming, “We don’t do gay at Nivea.” A spokesman for parent manufacturer Beiersdorf said that this is “the right time for a new beginning in Nivea’s brand management and creative work,” and that the allegations “do not reflect the values of Beiersdorf, Nivea, and our employees worldwide.”
Still, I think I’m going to look elsewhere for my lotion needs. After all, two years ago Nivea tried the slogan “white is purity,” so I’m really not sure what their values are, but I don’t think they’re good.
Transgender denial of care
The most common story of transgender health care denial usually involves a religious hospital refusing to provide procedures it would otherwise provide to cisgender people. But a trans nurse in Massachusetts, Alexander Pangborn, has now filed suit because CareOne Management — which oversees the hospice facility where he works — lists “sex change” as an exclusion on its employees’ health benefit plans. This company was arbitrarily just like, “Yeah, we’re not going to pay for our trans employees’ medically necessary health needs.”
Putting Buttigieg on edge
How significant would a gay, white president be for trans people of color? On Friday, a group of activists confronted Mayor Pete Buttigieg to find out. During the conversation, they asked what he would propose to address police violence and whether he would hire trans people, especially black trans women, to work in his campaign. He didn’t have any immediate answers, but he was supportive of their interests:
One thing I’m very mindful of is that I couldn’t be doing this if people hadn’t fought for me before I was born — some of them Black, some of them trans, people whose lived experiences were totally different than mine. But we’ve got to be lifting each other up. If you’re going to press me on doing a better job of lifting people up, I welcome that challenge.
Buttigieg was officially endorsed Friday by the Victory Fund, which helps elect LGBTQ candidates for office. He is the first presidential candidate the organization has ever endorsed. Buttigieg also reported raising nearly $25 million in the second quarter.
Illinois takes steps to protect trans students
It’s so easy to forget how inconsistent LGBTQ people are protected from state-to-state, but the patchwork quilt just got an extra tile in Illinois. Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has ordered the creation of a task force to study how to protect transgender students, including how to make schools more welcoming and inclusive. Hopefully the resulting recommendations will go far to compensate for how Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration have completely abandoned trans students.
Caitlyn Jenner protects transgender students too
Ever since she apologized for her past support of Trump, Caitlyn Jenner has stayed away from the spotlight. Her foundation, however, is continuing to support trans rights, funding research and advocacy to improve the lives of trans people. This week, she presented a transgender student with a $25,000 check to subsidize his education. Because of Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military, Map Pesqueira lost the ROTC scholarship that was going to help cover the costs of his last three years at UT Austin. He had separately raised $27,000 through a GoFundMe.
More violent threats over Drag Queen Story Hour
The latest round of threats appeared to target drag queen story hour events being hosted Friday and Saturday by the Carnegie Library and Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. The events were canceled as a safety measure, but the Library assures that the event will be back, having hosted many successful drag queen story hours in the past. In other words, they weren’t too persuaded by the 16,000-signature petition urging the program’s cancellation. “We have never let bullying or intimidation alter the way we serve the community,” said library spokeswoman Suzanne Thinnes.
Today in ridiculous conservative outrage
If you’ve never read The Federalist (run by Meghan McCain’s husband Ben Domenech), you’re probably better off. It’s a site full of absurdly nasty views, including almost-daily attacks on transgender people. But sometimes the attacks are so absurd and petty they’re good for a laugh.
Today, The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann lashed out at Oreos for issuing a special “Oreo for everyone” Pride packaging in the colors of the transgender flag that includes an “Ask me my pronouns” button. Pullmann accused the cookie company of deploying “Orwellian language” and “taking sides in the culture war” against people like her who reject the legitimacy of transgender identities.
I think it’s a pretty damn cool campaign as far as corporate Pride promotion goes:
Way back in 2012, Oreo actually made national news for posting an image on social media of an Oreo with six layers of cream filling in the Pride flag colors. That just shows how far we’ve come in terms of adjusting to corporations supporting Pride! If you missed it, Oreo resurrected that meme last year but with multiple images representing the various queer subgroups’ flags:
Lil Nas X wants you to listen closely
So, I’ll confess I don’t really know who Lil Nas X is; before writing this, I’d never heard of “Old Town Road” or the related “YeeHaw challenge” on TikTok. But over the weekend, he appeared to come out as not-heterosexual (it was a bit ambiguous, so could be gay or bi)! I’ll be curious to see how this is received in the hip-hop community, where LGBTQ visibility still feels a bit exceptional, but I have no doubt he’ll inspire a lot of young people. (Click through the tweet for a clip from one of this songs, which he encourages folks to listen to “closely.”)
Now that’s a coming out
Another viral coming out this weekend was from NYC high school senior and aspiring actor Mason Bleu, who came out as bi during his valedictorian speech. The crowd went wild with support. Give it a watch:
Thanks for sticking around to week 2 of this newsletter! Do you have a friend who likes LGBTQ news as much as you do? Why not tell them about Fording the River Styx, and then you’ll have someone to talk to about all the stories you find here!
Until next time, stay platinum!