Let your freak flag fly! Trump hates it.

Never underestimate the power of a symbol.

A lot of you are actually opening these emails! I’m really flattered. Maybe you’d like to go a step further and share this newsletter with your friends so they can sign up for it too?

First things first: Congrats to Alphonso David, a gay, black, immigrant refugee who was named as the newest president of the Human Rights Campaign. It’ll be interesting to see what his leadership of one of the largest LGBTQ advocacy organizations looks like!

Queeroes come in pairs

So many sites are using this historic Pride month as an opportunity to profile brilliant and important queer heroes, and it’s a shame that so many probably won’t receive the attention they’re due. Over at them you can find some neat profiles of “Queeroes” that are written in duos, even if the two individuals haven’t necessarily collaborated before.

The articles emphasize a theme that underlies the kind of advocacy the pair has done, such as how Kia LaBeija and Lyle Ashton deploy art, or how Kate Bornstein and Kay Ulanday Barrett deploy storytelling. It’s a neat way to conceptualize the various ways these forms of activism can be effective.

And the land we belong to is grand!

The Oklahoma Supreme Court today issued a ruling guaranteeing that same-sex parents are treated the same under the law as other parents.

If that sounds anachronistic, that’s because parental rights differ from state to state, and in the wake of the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision four years ago, each state has had to square things away in its own way. In some situations, it’s been a question of whether same-sex couples automatically have both parents’ names placed on a birth certificate. In the Oklahoma case, like several of the others, it involved a family separation and the non-biological parent fighting for custodial privileges. The Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed that biology alone should not define who is and is not a parent of a child.

For context of how piecemeal resolution of this issue has been, check out my previous coverage of similar cases in Hawaii, New York, Arizona, Maryland, and Mississippi.

Threatening libraries is conservatives’ fun new strategy

Today in conservative outrage about drag queens, kids, and libraries comes a story from Jacksonville, FL. The Jacksonville Public Library was going to hold a sold-out LGBTQ-inclusive prom for teens, who were encouraged to “come dressed inspired by your favorite book character — casual, formal, or in drag — whatever makes you feel great. Be you!” Some drag queens were going to be there too! Sounds fun, right?

But “Activist Mommy” Elizabeth Johnson was so pissed that “these perverts are going to come after children” that she organized a phone campaign against the library. The calls turned out to be so hateful that the library had to cancel the event because it didn’t believe it could provide enough “safety and security for everybody involved.”

I’m always amazed at the way conservatives invent the problem they claim they’re trying to fix. They’re supposedly so worried about the kids being around drag queens that they were willing to genuinely threaten the safety of the kids! Why do I suspect Johnson makes no apology for the tactics she inspires?

By the way, remember that fabulous young drag queen from Austin I mentioned yesterday? Fox News’ Laura Ingraham was content to give a platform to a guest who — no exaggeration — thinks the kid’s parents should be arrested for child abuse.

The Trump administration really hates Pride flags

You may have heard the recent story of how the Trump administration banned U.S. embassies from flying the Pride flag during Pride month. (Some have flown it anyway.) It turns out the administration has been upset about Pride flags before too.

Before President Obama left office, he designated the Stonewall Inn the first national monument for gay rights. In 2017, the National Park Service flew a Pride flag on the monument’s flagpole, prompting activists to celebrate the first time the flag had ever been permanently placed on federal land. This did not go over well with the Trump administration, as a 992-page cache of emails lays out.

In the end, they came up with a really bizarre solution just to circumvent that milestone: The federal government transferred ownership of the flagpole and the flag itself to New York City’s Parks Department, which then flew the flag. So the flagpole is now like a little Vatican, an island of city property surrounded by a federal monument.

I really can’t get over just how petty this is, and how fundamentally it undermines the whole point of recognizing the history of the LGBTQ movement with a federal monument. Trump has repeatedly defended statues commemorating a traitor who fought to defend slavery, but he can’t tolerate a flag celebrating a modern fight for civil rights? That tells you everything you need to know about this man and how he’s running our country.

One cool thing about the Stonewall National Monument is that its first park ranger is a military veteran who served in silence under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Check out this NBC Left Field profile of Jamie Adams:

Gamers for Gaymers

If you don’t spend a lot of time in the world of video games, you might not realize how toxic a place it can be. GamerGate highlighted the misogyny, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone there’s a lot of anti-LGBTQ sentiment entrenched there too. (Also, Pepe the Frog is everywhere.)

But here’s a really sweet story of one friend looking out for his gaming buddy who doesn’t even live in the same country. When Joel came out to his parents, they responded by rejecting them, telling him they’d be sending him to live with his grandma. His straight buddy Jordan decided to support his gaming pal the only way he knew how, spending hours to decorate the castle they’d build together in Minecraft with rainbow lights and banners.

He showed it off on Reddit, where it received a ton of praise and support, warming this gaymer’s heart and hopefully yours too.

A cheer team for transgender athletes

This newsletter is sure to regularly mention the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-LGBTQ hate group that tries to dismantle queer rights through the courts. Their latest target is a group of transgender student athletes in Connecticut. They argue that letting trans girls compete violates the rights of the cis girls who lose to them, causing them to miss out on opportunities for college scholarships. (In the wake of the Kyle Kashuv/Harvard nonsense, I can’t imagine that partnering with a hate group is a good look for college applications.)

Some of those transgender athletes responded by speaking out for themselves, and this week, a massive coalition announced they have their backs. The ACLU CT chapter, the New Haven Pride Center, and over a dozen other organizations issued a statement Monday:

Together, we reject unfounded fears about transgender athletes in our state and reject the suggestion that cisgender women and girls benefit from the exclusion of women and girls who happen to be transgender. Instead, we recognize that all women and girls are harmed when some are denied opportunities to participate in sports because of stereotypes and fear.

Opponents of trans rights (including TERFs) have tried to define their arguments as a form of feminism. As this fight escalates, it’ll become increasingly important that they very much do not speak for all feminists.

A model for us all

Aaron Philip is 18, black, transgender, a wheelchair user, and a model, and this month, she graces the cover of PAPER, a New York City fashion magazine. For the cover story, Naomi Campbell and Philp interview each other about their journeys into fashion. Check it out.

The littlest Pride

I mentioned yesterday I like small Pride celebrations, but this one takes the cake. At the LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Westchester, New York, they have recreations of parts of New York City, and lego NYC is also celebrating Pride. The model has two Pride floats and a Stonewall 50 billboard. Too cute!

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Until next time, stay platinum!

(Photo Credit: Reddit/Cultist101)