White supremacy → homophobia
Intolerance breeds intolerance, as two different stories today demonstrate.
Thanks to the two of you who kindly and privately pointed out the egregious typo in Friday’s email. It was bound to happen sooner or later! But no one unsubscribed over it, so I appreciate how forgiving y’all are. (And I’m honestly just pleased anybody’s reading this daily labor of love.)
Here’s today’s LGBTQ news:
Equi-knocked down a peg
As planned, Stephen Ross held his Trump fundraiser Friday night, raising more than $13 million for the reelection campaign. Trump was actually there, and used a fake Japanese accent to recount his conversations with Shinzo Abe, including asking the Prime Minister if kamikaze pilots — like his father — were drunk or on drugs. Because of course he did.
The backlash against Equinox and Soul Cycle, as well as other companies Ross is a major investor in, has continued. A protest of about 100 people rallied in front of the Equinox location in West Hollywood Friday evening, with chants against Trump.
Meanwhile, Equinox has been trying to do damage control inside the company, but even their employees have not been inspired.
And as Joseph Osmundson points out at them, Equinox was already “built as a monument to classism and corrupt body politics.”
Intersectional hate
Several recent stories serve as reminders that racial intolerance and anti-LGBTQ intolerance often go hand-in-hand.
First, there was the story of Conor Climo of Las Vegas, who was arrested last week for having an unregistered firearm and materials to make explosives. Climo was communicating with a white supremacist extremist organization and had plans to attack both a synagogue and a gay bar.
Then there was a man in Palm Springs who entered a barber shop Thursday shouting both racist and anti-gay slurs. He brandished a knife, but was brought down by police before he could hurt anybody.
It’s a reminder of how far we’ve backslid, and how vulnerable LGBTQ people are right now.
Good guys with guns can lose them at orgies
One of the common arguments in defense of loose gun laws is that many gun owners are not dangerous or irresponsible with their guns. Leave it to big, gay, anonymous orgy to prove that theory wrong. A 63-year-old retired corrections officer in Florida held an “open house party,” and at some point his 9mm handgun was stolen from his nightstand by one of the 20-some guests who were “encouraged to come and go as they pleased.”
Illinois for young and old
Two new laws will make Illinois a more inclusive for queer people of all ages. One law will ensure that LGBTQ people are included in school history curriculums, while the other helps protect LGBTQ older adults, as well as older adults living with HIV.
Baptist college suspends student for transitioning
Welch College, a Free Will Baptist school in Tennessee, evicted and suspended transgender student Yanna Awtrey for getting top surgery as part of his transition. The school deemed his trans identity a “sexual perversion.”
The “gay = pedophile” trope never dies
Justin Carroll is running to be the first ever openly gay Town Justice of Clinton, New York. This week, he was attacked by a flier that used a dogwhistle to suggest that his sexuality made him a threat to kids. This nonsense just won’t go away.
Discrimination doesn’t pay
A Virginia restaurant is on the hook for $40,000 to resolve a lawsuit from a gay server who was repeatedly harassed by the other employees. He’ll split the amount with his friend, who was also harassed by association. If you’re ever in Gainesville, Virginia, maybe take your business somewhere other than El Tio Tex-Mex Grill.
An Australian newspaper’s [mis]gender section
The Australian has added a “gender issues” section to its website, but that is not a good thing. The page is full of all kinds of junk science about transgender people!
The paper is facing a huge backlash.
A red card for homophobia
The Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake has fired head coach Mike Petke. Petke had received “the steepest sanctions ever levied against an MLS coach” for his homophobic language, and the team ultimately decided to part ways permanently.
Another gay penguin family…?
The Berlin Zoo has a pair of penguins who long to be dads, Skipper and Ping. They kept trying to hatch rocks and such in hopes they could have a chick of their own. But now the zoo has given them a real egg of their own — and if it’s actually fertilized (they don’t know) — it’ll hatch next month.
Penguins explain it so simply We all just want families of our own!
Until next time, stay platinum!
(Night stand photo credit: Flickr/JAGwired.)