Five out of 26 recipients of this years MacArthur Fellowship award sometimes referred to as the genius grant are LGBTQ+ identified and, of those, four are either Black or people of color.The fellowship will award each recipient $800,000, paid in quarterly installments over five years. But more importantly, the honor elevates their work into the public eye and gives them valuable time to continue pursuing work work in line with the philanthropist foundations goal of building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. Related Steve Silberman, gay science writer who helped humanize autism, dead at 66 His 2015 book Neurotribes affirmed autism as a widespread form of neurodivergence that deserves greater social compassion. Here are the five queer recipients of the 2024 MacArthur Fellowship award: Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Justin Vivian Bond performer A longtime cabaret performer, Bond gained notoriety during the height of the AIDS epidemic as their drag alter-ego Kiki DuRane. Their chaotic and inspired performances (sometimes through the musical duo of Kiki and Herb) combine raw emotion and historic commentary in playful, passionate ways that inspire emotion and a punk rock sense of rebellion.The transgender performer has appeared onscreen in queer director John Cameron Mitchells Shortbus, for example and in nightclub stages and concert halls worldwide. Her memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.I have always thought of cabaret as a form of political resistance. I think cabaret, at its best, is beautiful, powerful music, she said. Creating beauty in the face of beauty or hate is a very very powerful thing. It allows you to be beautiful, have a rich inner life and to express that outwardly. Jericho Brown poetPoet is my first identity, the gay-identified poet says. I feel as much a poet as I am black. I feel as much a poet as I am Southern. I feel like I cant help it. I feel like its in my veins its in my blood.Browns poetry collections examine Black masculinity, spirituality, family, sexuality, and racial identity through old and contemporary musical and poetic forms, including pop, jazz, blues, and even the ghazal, an old Arabic poetic structure.He developed a unique poetry structure known as a duplex, and his collections have addressed suffering and broader injustices such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, mass incarceration, and community trauma in ways that unite, inspire, and startle readers souls. Poems are meant to be difficult, and their difficulty is that they take that which is tender and that which is violent, and they put them side by side, so that we better see and understand ourselves, Brown said. I also think my poems are ultimately about the human condition, he continued, and the human condition is a condition of loneliness. And if you understand that everyone experiences that, then loneliness can indeed become a way to get to love, a way to get to joy, a way to get to celebration. And poems allow for that in a way that no other art can.Juan Felipe Herrera poet Herrera is a gay-identified experimental trilingual poet, visual artist and educator. He incorporates imagery and ideas from Chicano, Mexican and Latin American cultures to help provide an education that most people never receive, he says.Im interested in peace, in non-violence, in embracing those that are suffering: the plight of migrants, the suffering of farm workers, of being deported, the violence that we are facing in the United States, he said. I must write about it, because I want to heal that.He has over 50 years experience in exploring, performing, and educating communities of all kinds.My true goal is to be kind and to write for the benefit of others and to end violence, he said. If we want joy in our lives, a poem can bring that about in not only our lives, but in the lives of others. Lets live in a world of poetry: billions of words, all yours. So grab some, sprinkle them on a paper, throw some colors in there, and welcome poetry to your life. Shamel Pitts choreographerAlthough Pitts, a queer-identified choreographer, was trained as a classical dancer in ballet and modern dance, he has since become famous for creating multidisciplinary performances that incorporate unique lighting, projection, electronic music, fashion, and other technical elements through an Afro-futuristic lens.He founded Tribe, a multidisciplinary Brooklyn-based Arts Collective, where he works alongside other artists to reimagine a future in which we thrive as black and brown people, in which our bodies are rendered spaces of regeneration and potential and connection and community.I love dance because of its power and capacity to communicate beyond verbal language, theres a lot of poetry in motion, he said, adding that his training has mostly been based in Gaga, a style that has a lot to do with listening to the body before we tell it what to do.There is the possibility to connect to many different things at the same time, he said. When people encounter my work, I would love for them to experience the power of dance and collaboration and proclaim the pleasure and liberation through and beyond our bodies. Alice Wong disability justice activistDisability is so much more than pain, trauma and tragedy, Wong, the renowned queer writer and editor, says. Theres creativity, adaptation and talent that comes from living in a non-disabled world.In 2014, she founded theDisability Visibility Project(DVP) to amplify the unfiltered voices of disabled people while examining their experiences through intersectional lenses. She has since built a media platform that includes podcasts, videos, educational outreach and collaboration efforts with other community organizations, and also collections of essays from disabled writers.As a writer and editor, I address the lack of disabled voices in publishing, journalism and popular culture, and illustrate the systemic ableism that renders disabled people as disposable burdens and objects of pity, she said. Storytelling is a powerful form of resistance. It leaves evidence that we were here in a society that devalues, excludes and eliminates us. The systemic ableism that I and millions of us face every day tells us that we dont matter, that our lives are too expensive and not worth saving, she continued. I want to change the way people think about disability from something one-dimensional and negative to something more complex and nuanced. Theres such diversity, joy and abundance in the lived disabled experience. We are multitudes.By telling my story and amplifying the stories of others, cultural change can happen, she added, and collectively, we can build a world centered on Justice, access and care.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Five out of 26 recipients of this years MacArthur Fellowship award sometimes referred to as the genius grant are LGBTQ+ identified and, of those, four are either Black or people of color.The fellowship will award each recipient $800,000, paid in quarterly installments over five years. But more importantly, the honor elevates their work into the public eye and gives them valuable time to continue pursuing work work in line with the philanthropist foundations goal of building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. Related Steve Silberman, gay science writer who helped humanize autism, dead at 66 His 2015 book Neurotribes affirmed autism as a widespread form of neurodivergence that deserves greater social compassion. Here are the five queer recipients of the 2024 MacArthur Fellowship award: Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Justin Vivian Bond performer A longtime cabaret performer, Bond gained notoriety during the height of the AIDS epidemic as their drag alter-ego Kiki DuRane. Their chaotic and inspired performances (sometimes through the musical duo of Kiki and Herb) combine raw emotion and historic commentary in playful, passionate ways that inspire emotion and a punk rock sense of rebellion.The transgender performer has appeared onscreen in queer director John Cameron Mitchells Shortbus, for example and in nightclub stages and concert halls worldwide. Her memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.I have always thought of cabaret as a form of political resistance. I think cabaret, at its best, is beautiful, powerful music, she said. Creating beauty in the face of beauty or hate is a very very powerful thing. It allows you to be beautiful, have a rich inner life and to express that outwardly. Jericho Brown poetPoet is my first identity, the gay-identified poet says. I feel as much a poet as I am black. I feel as much a poet as I am Southern. I feel like I cant help it. I feel like its in my veins its in my blood.Browns poetry collections examine Black masculinity, spirituality, family, sexuality, and racial identity through old and contemporary musical and poetic forms, including pop, jazz, blues, and even the ghazal, an old Arabic poetic structure.He developed a unique poetry structure known as a duplex, and his collections have addressed suffering and broader injustices such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, mass incarceration, and community trauma in ways that unite, inspire, and startle readers souls. Poems are meant to be difficult, and their difficulty is that they take that which is tender and that which is violent, and they put them side by side, so that we better see and understand ourselves, Brown said. I also think my poems are ultimately about the human condition, he continued, and the human condition is a condition of loneliness. And if you understand that everyone experiences that, then loneliness can indeed become a way to get to love, a way to get to joy, a way to get to celebration. And poems allow for that in a way that no other art can.Juan Felipe Herrera poet Herrera is a gay-identified experimental trilingual poet, visual artist and educator. He incorporates imagery and ideas from Chicano, Mexican and Latin American cultures to help provide an education that most people never receive, he says.Im interested in peace, in non-violence, in embracing those that are suffering: the plight of migrants, the suffering of farm workers, of being deported, the violence that we are facing in the United States, he said. I must write about it, because I want to heal that.He has over 50 years experience in exploring, performing, and educating communities of all kinds.My true goal is to be kind and to write for the benefit of others and to end violence, he said. If we want joy in our lives, a poem can bring that about in not only our lives, but in the lives of others. Lets live in a world of poetry: billions of words, all yours. So grab some, sprinkle them on a paper, throw some colors in there, and welcome poetry to your life. Shamel Pitts choreographerAlthough Pitts, a queer-identified choreographer, was trained as a classical dancer in ballet and modern dance, he has since become famous for creating multidisciplinary performances that incorporate unique lighting, projection, electronic music, fashion, and other technical elements through an Afro-futuristic lens.He founded Tribe, a multidisciplinary Brooklyn-based Arts Collective, where he works alongside other artists to reimagine a future in which we thrive as black and brown people, in which our bodies are rendered spaces of regeneration and potential and connection and community.I love dance because of its power and capacity to communicate beyond verbal language, theres a lot of poetry in motion, he said, adding that his training has mostly been based in Gaga, a style that has a lot to do with listening to the body before we tell it what to do.There is the possibility to connect to many different things at the same time, he said. When people encounter my work, I would love for them to experience the power of dance and collaboration and proclaim the pleasure and liberation through and beyond our bodies. Alice Wong disability justice activistDisability is so much more than pain, trauma and tragedy, Wong, the renowned queer writer and editor, says. Theres creativity, adaptation and talent that comes from living in a non-disabled world.In 2014, she founded theDisability Visibility Project(DVP) to amplify the unfiltered voices of disabled people while examining their experiences through intersectional lenses. She has since built a media platform that includes podcasts, videos, educational outreach and collaboration efforts with other community organizations, and also collections of essays from disabled writers.As a writer and editor, I address the lack of disabled voices in publishing, journalism and popular culture, and illustrate the systemic ableism that renders disabled people as disposable burdens and objects of pity, she said. Storytelling is a powerful form of resistance. It leaves evidence that we were here in a society that devalues, excludes and eliminates us. The systemic ableism that I and millions of us face every day tells us that we dont matter, that our lives are too expensive and not worth saving, she continued. I want to change the way people think about disability from something one-dimensional and negative to something more complex and nuanced. Theres such diversity, joy and abundance in the lived disabled experience. We are multitudes.By telling my story and amplifying the stories of others, cultural change can happen, she added, and collectively, we can build a world centered on Justice, access and care.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Drew Barrymore and Chlo Sevigny are reliving a sexy moment they shared in the '90s, and we are SEATED!On October 2, the 49-year-old Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story actress appeared on an episode of the Drew Barrymore Show where the host reminisced about the time the two '90s It girls locked lips in a hotel bathroom when they were young."We had a really amazing hang time at the Sunset Marquis Hotel. We were getting together, we had a long dinner, wewere talking about a story that I'm so passionate about, which ended up becoming a film that Chlo was not only in but got nominated for an Academy Award for called Boys Don't Cry. That was a bond for us," Barrymore said, according to People.Then the 49-year-old daytime talk show host admitted she wanted "to turn our intimate fun moment in the Sunset Marquis into a trivia question for someone." Sevigny was a good sport and played along, replying, "We should! We're entertainers!" before helping Barrymore pick a woman in the studio audience to play the game. "So Chloe and I shared something in a bathroom that night and if you can get it right we'd love for you to win $500 because that would be fun," Barrymore explained before increasing the total to $1,000."We shared something in the bathroom in the '90s. What was it?" she asked before giving lipstick, toilet paper, and a kiss as the possible answers.After the audience member picked lipstick, Barrymore responded, "Well, it did involve lipstick. Sevigny started laughing, adding, "It was the '90s!" "It was the '90s. It was a kiss," Barrymore said between giggles. "We were very free and just having the best time and it was just the sexiest, cutest."Even though the audience member got the answer wrong, Barrymore still gave her the $1000 and suggested she "Go out and buy a bunch of lipsticks, okay?"So let us get this straight: at the height of Sevigny and Barrymore's '90s It girl status, the two shared a lesbian kiss? How have we gone decades without knowing this?! We are SWOONING!

October is LGBTQ+ History Month, as it has been ever since its inception in 1994. Its a time to come together and honor the history of our community, to remember our struggles, and to celebrate the achievements we have made thus far.Like everything LGBTQ+ History Month had a starting point, it didnt just happen out of nowhere in 1994. It was started by a Missouri teacher named Rodney Wilson, and without him October would simply not be the same! Keep reading to find out who he is, why this month is so important, and what else hes been up to ever since LGBTQ+ History Month started.Who is Rodney Wilson?Rodney Wilson is widely credited as the founder of LGBTQ+ History Month, which initially started as Gay History Month back in 1994. His upbringing in Missouri as a fundamentalist Christian led to his eventual calling as a teacher, where he wrestled with his internal sexuality and did everything he could to research what it meant to be gay.He first came out publicly while teaching a history class lesson about the Holocaust in 1994 at Mehlville High School in a suburban area of St. Louis. This made him the first K-12 teacher in the state to do so. He was inspired by Black History Month and Womens History Month, to create Gay History Month.Why is it in October?LGBTQ+ History Month and Pride Month arent the same thing, even though it may seem otherwise. Pride happens during June, when most schools are out on vacation, and everyone is out celebrating summer. Pride is also a time for adult members of the community to let loose and have fun. It's a time to celebrate who we are and how far we've come now that we're allowed to be more open in society (for the most part, anyway.)On the flip side, LGBTQ+ History Month happens during October because it correlates with the academic calendar, and most schools are in session. Additionally, National Coming Out Day is on October 11 because of the first and second LGBTQ+ Marches on Washington in 1979 and 1987, so it also has historical significance within the community. The month is geared toward actual education on events like The Stonewall Uprising and to mark our incredible progress since then.How did Wilson publicize LGBTQ+ History Month?In 1994, Wilson wrote a letter to the Missouri Historical Society about Lesbian and Gay History Month, wherein he detailed the importance of learning about gay history. Subsequently, the University of Missouri-St. Louis became the first college in the United States to hold a Gay History Month function, which Wilson helped organize.In 1995, Newsweek gave it the first national mention after an endorsement from the National Education Association. That led to immediate backlash, particularly from the Concern Women of America group who feared what teaching gay history would accomplish. After the backlash from conservative parents over the same things they complain about these days ie endangering youth by teaching gay history Wilson sought endorsements from other educational outlets. It gained some momentum in the mid-to-late '90s, but lost steam until the Equality Forum created LGBTHistoryMonth.com in 2006.Why is this month important? What does it do for the LGBTQ+ community?Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month is important for the community because it highlights achievements and accomplishments within the community and helps give a broader education about what it means to be queer as a whole. Events like Pride tend to get shrouded in the topic of sex, which puts off a lot of more conservative people and doesn't help progress the conversation forward.Having a month dedicated to the positive impact queer members of the community play in society as a whole is vital to people outside of the community understanding who we are, what we've been through, what we're capable of, and why it's so important to stop doing things that attempt to write us out of both the present day and history.What other notable achievements does Wilson have?Wilson was the subject of a documentary called Taboo Teaching: A Profile of Missouri Teacher Rodney Wilson. It interviews him, friends, coworkers, and students, and dives deep into not only his role in creating LGBTQ+ History Month but also the profound impact it's had worldwide. It also explores the pushback he received.Where is Rodney Wilson now?See on InstagramThis year marks the 30th anniversary of LGBTQ+ History Month, and Wilson has done a lot in his time since being a 29-year-old high school teacher in 1994. Most of his work continues to push toward advocacy, and a lot of his focus remains on his home state of Missouri. He's had a lot of global success with LGBTQ+ History Month, which is celebrated by over 20 countries worldwide -- though not all of them celebrate it in October.In his push for advocacy, Wilson also posts a lot on his social media about the importance of voting, and has been singing the praises of Kamala Harris ever since she became the Democratic nominee.

Drew Barrymore and Chlo Sevigny are reliving a sexy moment they shared in the '90s, and we are SEATED!On October 2, the 49-year-old Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story actress appeared on an episode of the Drew Barrymore Show where the host reminisced about the time the two '90s It girls locked lips in a hotel bathroom when they were young."We had a really amazing hang time at the Sunset Marquis Hotel. We were getting together, we had a long dinner, wewere talking about a story that I'm so passionate about, which ended up becoming a film that Chlo was not only in but got nominated for an Academy Award for called Boys Don't Cry. That was a bond for us," Barrymore said, according to People.Then the 49-year-old daytime talk show host admitted she wanted "to turn our intimate fun moment in the Sunset Marquis into a trivia question for someone." Sevigny was a good sport and played along, replying, "We should! We're entertainers!" before helping Barrymore pick a woman in the studio audience to play the game. "So Chloe and I shared something in a bathroom that night and if you can get it right we'd love for you to win $500 because that would be fun," Barrymore explained before increasing the total to $1,000."We shared something in the bathroom in the '90s. What was it?" she asked before giving lipstick, toilet paper, and a kiss as the possible answers.After the audience member picked lipstick, Barrymore responded, "Well, it did involve lipstick. Sevigny started laughing, adding, "It was the '90s!" "It was the '90s. It was a kiss," Barrymore said between giggles. "We were very free and just having the best time and it was just the sexiest, cutest."Even though the audience member got the answer wrong, Barrymore still gave her the $1000 and suggested she "Go out and buy a bunch of lipsticks, okay?"So let us get this straight: at the height of Sevigny and Barrymore's '90s It girl status, the two shared a lesbian kiss? How have we gone decades without knowing this?! We are SWOONING!

Grab your champagne flutes! The Real Housewives of Potomac is back.After the drama of last season resulted in both Candiace Dillard-Bassett and Robyn Dixon exiting the show, season nine is serving as a new starting point for all of the ladies.Even though Dr. Wendy Osefo and Gizelle Bryant have feuded for a few years, the two are hoping to bury the hatchet as they celebrate Osefo's 40th birthday."There were some efforts made by some parties and there were discussions had. This is years worth of history between her and I. There was growth from both parties and I think you guys will enjoy seeing that," Osefo tells PRIDE. See on Instagram While Osefo and Bryant's newfound friendship may be a bit of a surprise, nobody anticipated Karen Huger to talk poorly about Osefo behind her back. The trailer for the upcoming season teased a potential fallout between the two ladies."It definitely made me sad. We still have to get to the bottom of it. I was very much taken aback by it. I do have some questions, but right now, I'm just situated in a place where that was hurtful."We're already counting down the days until the reunion!The Real Housewives of Potomac premieres Sunday night on Bravo. To see the full interview with Dr. Wendy Osefo, check out the video at the top of the page.

From all outside appearances, Drag Race season 11 winner Yvie Oddly is living her best life. She's constantly touring, making podcast appearances, and this past summer, she released her memoir and dropped a new single. But all of this outward success is disguising the fact that the drag queen is struggling.In a new video, Oddly posted today on Instagram, she opened up about how she's been going through such a difficult time that she's "scared to even create anymore."Sitting in front of the camera without the barrier of her drag persona, Oddly cried, her voice quivered, and her face crumpled as she admitted, "I've had a really rough year. I've had a really rough year, and it's fine. It's ok to let people know that, and it doesn't make me weak. It doesn't make me a failure, and I'm so scared."See on InstagramOddly, who also appears on All Stars 7, admitted that she's "worked so hard to project this image of like everything's going ok, that everything's fine," but said she's struggling to pay her bills and keep up with her relationships, which is particularly scary because everything in her life, her art, money, and social media are all "so intertwined."But then Oddly started to pull herself together and said that over the last year, she's been "trying to do the small things to piece my life back together," including simple tasks like organizing her closet and more complex projects like "strengthening" her relationships and "telling even the ugly truths."The 31-year-old drag queen ended her raw and heartfelt video by telling her fans that while she's having a hard time, she's also happy. "I made this video to let you know that I haven't been ok and that I am scared, and that I'm also happy, that I'm living in the moment, that I'm experiencing things. I want this to be a way for me to get back to making art and address you all more often, so I am going to focus on making art, and I'm excited to share it with you," she said.Oddlys friends and supporters took to the comment section under the video to offer support and send well wishes, including fellow Drag Race star Bob the Drag Queen, who wrote, It can really be tough. I feel you sis. Been a crazy year tbh.We wish Yvie all the best and can't wait to see her art when she's ready to share it again!

From all outside appearances, Drag Race season 11 winner Yvie Oddly is living her best life. She's constantly touring, making podcast appearances, and this past summer, she released her memoir and dropped a new single. But all of this outward success is disguising the fact that the drag queen is struggling.In a new video, Oddly posted today on Instagram, she opened up about how she's been going through such a difficult time that she's "scared to even create anymore."Sitting in front of the camera without the barrier of her drag persona, Oddly cried, her voice quivered, and her face crumpled as she admitted, "I've had a really rough year. I've had a really rough year, and it's fine. It's ok to let people know that, and it doesn't make me weak. It doesn't make me a failure, and I'm so scared."See on InstagramOddly, who also appears on All Stars 7, admitted that she's "worked so hard to project this image of like everything's going ok, that everything's fine," but said she's struggling to pay her bills and keep up with her relationships, which is particularly scary because everything in her life, her art, money, and social media are all "so intertwined."But then Oddly started to pull herself together and said that over the last year, she's been "trying to do the small things to piece my life back together," including simple tasks like organizing her closet and more complex projects like "strengthening" her relationships and "telling even the ugly truths."The 31-year-old drag queen ended her raw and heartfelt video by telling her fans that while she's having a hard time, she's also happy. "I made this video to let you know that I haven't been ok and that I am scared, and that I'm also happy, that I'm living in the moment, that I'm experiencing things. I want this to be a way for me to get back to making art and address you all more often, so I am going to focus on making art, and I'm excited to share it with you," she said.Oddlys friends and supporters took to the comment section under the video to offer support and send well wishes, including fellow Drag Race star Bob the Drag Queen, who wrote, It can really be tough. I feel you sis. Been a crazy year tbh.We wish Yvie all the best and can't wait to see her art when she's ready to share it again!

From all outside appearances, Drag Race season 11 winner Yvie Oddly is living her best life. She's constantly touring, making podcast appearances, and this past summer, she released her memoir and dropped a new single. But all of this outward success is disguising the fact that the drag queen is struggling.In a new video, Oddly posted today on Instagram, she opened up about how she's been going through such a difficult time that she's "scared to even create anymore."Sitting in front of the camera without the barrier of her drag persona, Oddly cried, her voice quivered, and her face crumpled as she admitted, "I've had a really rough year. I've had a really rough year, and it's fine. It's ok to let people know that, and it doesn't make me weak. It doesn't make me a failure, and I'm so scared."See on InstagramOddly, who also appears on All Stars 7, admitted that she's "worked so hard to project this image of like everything's going ok, that everything's fine," but said she's struggling to pay her bills and keep up with her relationships, which is particularly scary because everything in her life, her art, money, and social media are all "so intertwined."But then Oddly started to pull herself together and said that over the last year, she's been "trying to do the small things to piece my life back together," including simple tasks like organizing her closet and more complex projects like "strengthening" her relationships and "telling even the ugly truths."The 31-year-old drag queen ended her raw and heartfelt video by telling her fans that while she's having a hard time, she's also happy. "I made this video to let you know that I haven't been ok and that I am scared, and that I'm also happy, that I'm living in the moment, that I'm experiencing things. I want this to be a way for me to get back to making art and address you all more often, so I am going to focus on making art, and I'm excited to share it with you," she said.Oddlys friends and supporters took to the comment section under the video to offer support and send well wishes, including fellow Drag Race star Bob the Drag Queen, who wrote, It can really be tough. I feel you sis. Been a crazy year tbh.We wish Yvie all the best and can't wait to see her art when she's ready to share it again!

Four out of 26 recipients of this years MacArthur Fellowship award sometimes referred to as the genius grant are LGBTQ+ identified and, of those, two are Black and one is of Asian ethnicity.The fellowship will award each recipient $800,000, paid in quarterly installments over five years. But more importantly, the honor elevates their work into the public eye and gives them valuable time to continue pursuing their work in line with the philanthropist foundations larger goal of building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. Related Steve Silberman, gay science writer who helped humanize autism, dead at 66 His 2015 book Neurotribes affirmed autism as a widespread form of neurodivergence that deserves greater social compassion. Here are the four queer recipients of the 2024 MacArthur Fellowship award: Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Justin Vivian Bond performer A longtime cabaret performer, Bond gained notoriety during the height of the AIDS epidemic as their drag alter-ego Kiki DuRane. Their chaotic and inspired performances (sometimes through the musical duo of Kiki and Herb) combine raw emotion and historic commentary in playful, passionate ways that inspire emotion and a punk rock sense of rebellion.The transgender performer has appeared onscreen in queer director John Cameron Mitchells Shortbus, for example and in nightclub stages and concert halls worldwide. Her memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.I have always thought of cabaret as a form of political resistance. I think cabaret, at its best, is beautiful, powerful music, she said. Creating beauty in the face of beauty or hate is a very very powerful thing. It allows you to be beautiful, have a rich inner life and to express that outwardly. Jericho Brown poetPoet is my first identity, the gay-identified poet says. I feel as much a poet as I am black. I feel as much a poet as I am Southern. I feel like I cant help it. I feel like its in my veins its in my blood.Browns poetry collections examine Black masculinity, spirituality, family, sexuality, and racial identity through old and contemporary musical and poetic forms, including pop, jazz, blues, and even the ghazal, an old Arabic poetic structure.He developed a unique poetry structure known as a duplex, and his collections have addressed suffering and broader injustices such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, mass incarceration, and community trauma in ways that unite, inspire, and startle readers souls. Poems are meant to be difficult, and their difficulty is that they take that which is tender and that which is violent, and they put them side by side, so that we better see and understand ourselves, Brown said. I also think my poems are ultimately about the human condition, he continued, and the human condition is a condition of loneliness. And if you understand that everyone experiences that, then loneliness can indeed become a way to get to love, a way to get to joy, a way to get to celebration. And poems allow for that in a way that no other art can. Shamel Pitts choreographerAlthough Pitts, a queer-identified choreographer, was trained as a classical dancer in ballet and modern dance, he has since become famous for creating multidisciplinary performances that incorporate unique lighting, projection, electronic music, fashion, and other technical elements through an Afro-futuristic lens.He founded Tribe, a multidisciplinary Brooklyn-based Arts Collective, where he works alongside other artists to reimagine a future in which we thrive as black and brown people, in which our bodies are rendered spaces of regeneration and potential and connection and community.I love dance because of its power and capacity to communicate beyond verbal language, theres a lot of poetry in motion, he said, adding that his training has mostly been based in Gaga, a style that has a lot to do with listening to the body before we tell it what to do.There is the possibility to connect to many different things at the same time, he said. When people encounter my work, I would love for them to experience the power of dance and collaboration and proclaim the pleasure and liberation through and beyond our bodies. Alice Wong disability justice activistDisability is so much more than pain, trauma and tragedy, Wong, the renowned queer writer and editor, says. Theres creativity, adaptation and talent that comes from living in a non-disabled world.In 2014, she founded theDisability Visibility Project(DVP) to amplify the unfiltered voices of disabled people while examining their experiences through intersectional lenses. She has since built a media platform that includes podcasts, videos, educational outreach and collaboration efforts with other community organizations, and also collections of essays from disabled writers.As a writer and editor, I address the lack of disabled voices in publishing, journalism and popular culture, and illustrate the systemic ableism that renders disabled people as disposable burdens and objects of pity, she said. Storytelling is a powerful form of resistance. It leaves evidence that we were here in a society that devalues, excludes and eliminates us. The systemic ableism that I and millions of us face every day tells us that we dont matter, that our lives are too expensive and not worth saving, she continued. I want to change the way people think about disability from something one-dimensional and negative to something more complex and nuanced. Theres such diversity, joy and abundance in the lived disabled experience. We are multitudes.By telling my story and amplifying the stories of others, cultural change can happen, she added, and collectively, we can build a world centered on Justice, access and care.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Four out of 26 recipients of this years MacArthur Fellowship award sometimes referred to as the genius grant are LGBTQ+ identified and, of those, two are Black and one is of Asian ethnicity.The fellowship will award each recipient $800,000, paid in quarterly installments over five years. But more importantly, the honor elevates their work into the public eye and gives them valuable time to continue pursuing their work in line with the philanthropist foundations larger goal of building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. Related Steve Silberman, gay science writer who helped humanize autism, dead at 66 His 2015 book Neurotribes affirmed autism as a widespread form of neurodivergence that deserves greater social compassion. Here are the four queer recipients of the 2024 MacArthur Fellowship award: Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Justin Vivian Bond performer A longtime cabaret performer, Bond gained notoriety during the height of the AIDS epidemic as their drag alter-ego Kiki DuRane. Their chaotic and inspired performances (sometimes through the musical duo of Kiki and Herb) combine raw emotion and historic commentary in playful, passionate ways that inspire emotion and a punk rock sense of rebellion.The transgender performer has appeared onscreen in queer director John Cameron Mitchells Shortbus, for example and in nightclub stages and concert halls worldwide. Her memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.I have always thought of cabaret as a form of political resistance. I think cabaret, at its best, is beautiful, powerful music, she said. Creating beauty in the face of beauty or hate is a very very powerful thing. It allows you to be beautiful, have a rich inner life and to express that outwardly. Jericho Brown poetPoet is my first identity, the gay-identified poet says. I feel as much a poet as I am black. I feel as much a poet as I am Southern. I feel like I cant help it. I feel like its in my veins its in my blood.Browns poetry collections examine Black masculinity, spirituality, family, sexuality, and racial identity through old and contemporary musical and poetic forms, including pop, jazz, blues, and even the ghazal, an old Arabic poetic structure.He developed a unique poetry structure known as a duplex, and his collections have addressed suffering and broader injustices such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, mass incarceration, and community trauma in ways that unite, inspire, and startle readers souls. Poems are meant to be difficult, and their difficulty is that they take that which is tender and that which is violent, and they put them side by side, so that we better see and understand ourselves, Brown said. I also think my poems are ultimately about the human condition, he continued, and the human condition is a condition of loneliness. And if you understand that everyone experiences that, then loneliness can indeed become a way to get to love, a way to get to joy, a way to get to celebration. And poems allow for that in a way that no other art can. Shamel Pitts choreographerAlthough Pitts, a queer-identified choreographer, was trained as a classical dancer in ballet and modern dance, he has since become famous for creating multidisciplinary performances that incorporate unique lighting, projection, electronic music, fashion, and other technical elements through an Afro-futuristic lens.He founded Tribe, a multidisciplinary Brooklyn-based Arts Collective, where he works alongside other artists to reimagine a future in which we thrive as black and brown people, in which our bodies are rendered spaces of regeneration and potential and connection and community.I love dance because of its power and capacity to communicate beyond verbal language, theres a lot of poetry in motion, he said, adding that his training has mostly been based in Gaga, a style that has a lot to do with listening to the body before we tell it what to do.There is the possibility to connect to many different things at the same time, he said. When people encounter my work, I would love for them to experience the power of dance and collaboration and proclaim the pleasure and liberation through and beyond our bodies. Alice Wong disability justice activistDisability is so much more than pain, trauma and tragedy, Wong, the renowned queer writer and editor, says. Theres creativity, adaptation and talent that comes from living in a non-disabled world.In 2014, she founded theDisability Visibility Project(DVP) to amplify the unfiltered voices of disabled people while examining their experiences through intersectional lenses. She has since built a media platform that includes podcasts, videos, educational outreach and collaboration efforts with other community organizations, and also collections of essays from disabled writers.As a writer and editor, I address the lack of disabled voices in publishing, journalism and popular culture, and illustrate the systemic ableism that renders disabled people as disposable burdens and objects of pity, she said. Storytelling is a powerful form of resistance. It leaves evidence that we were here in a society that devalues, excludes and eliminates us. The systemic ableism that I and millions of us face every day tells us that we dont matter, that our lives are too expensive and not worth saving, she continued. I want to change the way people think about disability from something one-dimensional and negative to something more complex and nuanced. Theres such diversity, joy and abundance in the lived disabled experience. We are multitudes.By telling my story and amplifying the stories of others, cultural change can happen, she added, and collectively, we can build a world centered on Justice, access and care.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

MAGA social media influencers are spreading a lie from a parody account on X claiming that gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is HIV-positive. While nothing substantiates this claim, right-wingers have begun recirculating it to make sexually explicit, homophobic attacks. In response, his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, urged his own social media followers to keep working to elect the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. Related Russia hired anti-LGBTQ+ rightwingers to push propaganda to U.S. audiences The Department of Justice revealed that Tenet Media was mostly funded buy Russian state media. It regularly platforms anti-LGBTQ+ broadcasters. The lie originated from an October 1 post by the X account Breaking 911. The post simply read, BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg reveals that he is HIV-positive. The post didnt link to or mention any sources. The accounts bio says, The king of the gays. Parody artist. If you fell for my bait, you owe me eight dollars. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The post has since been reshared from the account at least 795 times and viewed over 1 million times as of Thursday evening. The account has since posted other false headlines, including ones that former President Donald Trumps wife filed for divorce, the Pope resigned, and that Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz was accused of sexual assault. None of these claims are true. BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg reveals that he is HIV-positive. pic.twitter.com/KDzxlIpDN7 Breaking 911 (@Breaking911OnX) October 1, 2024The accounts Buttigieg post was also shared by Stew Peters, a right-wing influencer who has over a million and a half followers across various platforms. The Anti-Defamation Leaguedescribes Peters as an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who regularly promotes anti-LGBTQ+ and white supremacist beliefs on his show and social media and has engaged in Holocaust denial. He is currently being sued for claiming that a gay father raped his own children. Peters post repeating the lie about Buttigieg has been shared over 3,900 times. Today I saw a MAGA pundit credulously share a post about Sec. Pete having HIV. 500k views, gay political strategist Tim Miller noted in an X post about viral right-wing misinformation on social media. My husbands HS friend shared an [artificial intelligence-generated] pic of Trump wading thru the water doing hurricane relief and asked why media wasnt covering. Pretty concerning view into MAGA info space pre-election.Chasten Buttigieg reposted Millers message on X and commented, This is not how you win hearts and minds. Stay the course, folks. Keep telling your stories, having the hard conversations, and knocking doors. Theyve got lies, weve got momentum. This is not how you win hearts and minds. Stay the course, folks. Keep telling your stories, having the hard conversations, and knocking doors. Theyve got lies, weve got momentum. https://t.co/cj0Vvert2y Chasten Glezman Buttigieg (@Chasten) October 2, 2024While theres nothing defamatory or shameful about living with HIV, 85% of Americans believe stigma persists around the disease. Anti-HIV stigma treats HIV-positive people as dangerous and sexually promiscuous. This stigma is perpetuated by HIV criminalization laws, a lack of HIV-positive characters on TV, and a lack of health education that leaves people unsure about how the disease is transmitted, GLAAD reported.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

MAGA social media influencers are spreading a lie from a parody account on X claiming that gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is HIV-positive. While nothing substantiates this claim, right-wingers have begun recirculating it to make sexually explicit, homophobic attacks. In response, his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, urged his own social media followers to keep working to elect the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. Related Russia hired anti-LGBTQ+ rightwingers to push propaganda to U.S. audiences The Department of Justice revealed that Tenet Media was mostly funded buy Russian state media. It regularly platforms anti-LGBTQ+ broadcasters. The lie originated from an October 1 post by the X account Breaking 911. The post simply read, BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg reveals that he is HIV-positive. The post didnt link to or mention any sources. The accounts bio says, The king of the gays. Parody artist. If you fell for my bait, you owe me eight dollars. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The post has since been reshared from the account at least 795 times and viewed over 1 million times as of Thursday evening. The account has since posted other false headlines, including ones that former President Donald Trumps wife filed for divorce, the Pope resigned, and that Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz was accused of sexual assault. None of these claims are true. BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg reveals that he is HIV-positive. pic.twitter.com/KDzxlIpDN7 Breaking 911 (@Breaking911OnX) October 1, 2024The accounts Buttigieg post was also shared by Stew Peters, a right-wing influencer who has over a million and a half followers across various platforms. The Anti-Defamation Leaguedescribes Peters as an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who regularly promotes anti-LGBTQ+ and white supremacist beliefs on his show and social media and has engaged in Holocaust denial. He is currently being sued for claiming that a gay father raped his own children. Peters post repeating the lie about Buttigieg has been shared over 3,900 times. Today I saw a MAGA pundit credulously share a post about Sec. Pete having HIV. 500k views, gay political strategist Tim Miller noted in an X post about viral right-wing misinformation on social media. My husbands HS friend shared an [artificial intelligence-generated] pic of Trump wading thru the water doing hurricane relief and asked why media wasnt covering. Pretty concerning view into MAGA info space pre-election.Chasten Buttigieg reposted Millers message on X and commented, This is not how you win hearts and minds. Stay the course, folks. Keep telling your stories, having the hard conversations, and knocking doors. Theyve got lies, weve got momentum. This is not how you win hearts and minds. Stay the course, folks. Keep telling your stories, having the hard conversations, and knocking doors. Theyve got lies, weve got momentum. https://t.co/cj0Vvert2y Chasten Glezman Buttigieg (@Chasten) October 2, 2024While theres nothing defamatory or shameful about living with HIV, 85% of Americans believe stigma persists around the disease. Anti-HIV stigma treats HIV-positive people as dangerous and sexually promiscuous. This stigma is perpetuated by HIV criminalization laws, a lack of HIV-positive characters on TV, and a lack of health education that leaves people unsure about how the disease is transmitted, GLAAD reported.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Out CNN host Anderson Cooper could barely talk after he was left bewildered by a video in which Melania Trump promoted her book and claimed that she supports reproductive freedom. Thats the weirdest promo Ive ever seen, Cooper said. Related Melania Trump called out for defending nude photo shoots while Republicans want to ban books The former first lady did sexual photos with another woman that involved kissing and BDSM gear. He was referring to a video released by Melania Trump to promote her memoirs, due out next week, entitled Melania. In the book, she defends the right to an abortion, even as she has spent the last several years campaigning for Republicans to win elections and roll back abortion rights. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government, she wrote in her book.In a video promoting the book, she went even further. Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard, she said in the grayscale video as manic stringed instruments played and only half her face was lit. Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth.What does My body, my choice really mean?Cooper played the clip on CNN and then had a hard time continuing. Sorry, its the first time Ive seen that, he said. Thats the weirdest promo Ive ever seen. Like, the lighting Sorry, Ive written four books, Ive never seen a promo like that. I- Sorry, this Wow. "That's the weirdest promo I've ever seen." Anderson Cooper after seeing Melania's ad on abortion pic.twitter.com/6f4kjuW5Ix Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) October 4, 2024Melania Trump is Donald Trumps current wife, and she helped him campaign in his previous two presidential runs. His successful 2016 campaign led to him being able to put three far-right justices on the Supreme Court, who promptly helped overturn Roe v. Wade and ended the federal right to an abortion in the U.S. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Colton Underwood is finally a proud papa!On Monday, the former professional football player and Bachelor star shared an Instagram post featuring a photo of himself and husband Jordan C. Brown, a political strategist, with their newborn son. Related Colton Underwood was almost unable to have kids, but his son will be born soon Colton had a low sperm count. Heres how he and his husband overcame that difficult to become fathers-to-be. Our world is a million times better with you in it, Underwood wrote in the posts caption, adding the infants full name, Bishop Colton Brown-Underwood, and date of birth, September 26, 2024. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today View this post on Instagram A post shared by Colton Brown-Underwood (@coltonunderwood)Baby Bishops arrival follows a fertility journey that involved surrogacy and Underwoods own struggle with low sperm count, which the reality TV star has talked openly about both in the media and on his podcast, Daddyhood.When we first went in [to our fertility clinic], we went in sort of skipping, holding hands, all happy, Underwood told Parents earlier this year. We were going to give our sample and freeze our spermday one of starting our familyand I got my sperm results back, and I had four sperm. Three of them were dead. One was barely moving in my sample. It was one of those things where [I was basically] considered technically infertile. I was like, This sucks. This is hard.But following a six-month process that involved Underwood getting off testosterone supplements, working out less, not using his hot tub or sauna, and taking morning walks, both he and Brown were able to fertilize several frozen embryos. In May, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child via surrogate. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Colton Brown-Underwood (@coltonunderwood)Following Mondays birth announcement, Underwood fielded questions from fans and followers about baby Bishop in his Instagram stories. We were obsessed with B names and Bishop was the very first name we loved, he responded to one question about how he and Brown chose their sons name. We also looked up the meaning, he added. It means overseer and that solidified it.Another fan asked how fatherhood is going so far. The craziest/best feeling ever, Underwood replied. Im so full of joy and happiness. My proudest role ever.Underwood also wrote that the couples German shepherd, Zooka, has embraced her role as protector.Any cry, burp, or snort, shes all over it checking on him, he wrote. Their other dog, Scout, on the other hand, is a tad jealous/unsure.On Wednesday, Underwood also shared a post from CNY Fertility celebrating California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signing a bill that requires insurance companies in the state to cover IVF treatment while also expanding coverage of such treatment to include LGBTQ+ families. NEW: California will now require insurance companies to cover fertility treatments including IVF.Were also expanding coverage to include LGBTQ families.While the @GOP try to strip away access, were expanding it.It's simple: everyone who wants to should be able to start Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 29, 2024This is incredible, Underwood wrote. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

After years of planning, nearly $200,000 in loans, and just one month in business, Brandon Davis' bar now sits in ruin. Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.Day Trip, a cocktail lounge and event space, opened on August 22 in Asheville, North Carolina, fulfilling a dream held by Davis and his husband, Davie, to create an "inclusive, queer-owned safe space and meetup spot for the community." The two even had plans to expand by opening a connected coffee shop on Wednesday, October 2.Now, after just 31 days in business, the space Davis and his husband worked so hard to curate looks "like a scene out of an apocalypse movie.""The building is destroyed," Davis tells The Advocate. "Everything that we bought for the business is either gone, broken, or covered in sewage and mud." Courtesy of Brandon DavisDavis says he could hardly process the "unbelievable" scene when Hurricane Helene finally passed and he was able to leave his home to survey the damage done to his brand-new business. "To walk into a place that my husband and I have poured our hearts and soul and money and resources and all of our time into ... seeing it all covered in mud and ripped apart was a gut punch," he says.Davis and his employees, some of whom were freshly hired and scheduled to begin working at the coffee shop Wednesday, are now without a means to support themselves. Davis also says he and his husband personally put "$190,000 worth of loans into the business" while they "didn't have any income," leaving them with credit card bills to pay off, but without their projected profits for the next two years.In an even more cruel twist of fate, Davis says he and his husband had no choice but to purchase a new vehicle just a week before the storm after their previous car suddenly died. "We now have a car loan. We can't pay our mortgage," he says. "We can't pay three credit cards, a personal loan for each of us." Courtesy of Brandon DavisAs cellphone service and internet remains spotty in Asheville, Davis says he has not yet been able to contact his insurance holders, so he doesn't yet know how much of the losses will be covered. The process is also "really confusing and new" to the couple as "brand-new business owners who've never had to deal with insurance before, or a natural disaster."Instead of the events Day Trip had scheduled, including "fundraising for the local queer community, dog adoptions, [and] a trash cleanup" along a nearby river "scheduled for next week," Davis' family and employees are now trying to figure out where they will take their next shower."We definitely need that trash cleanup now," Davis says. "It's crazy to think that a week ago I was scheduling all these events, and now the business isn't even there."Over 200 people in the southeastern United States were killed in Hurricane Helene, according to the most recent estimates, including nearly 100 in North Carolina. Over one million are still without power. In Asheville, Davis says "there's no running water," and the "latest that I've heard is it will be over a month before we'll have safe running water again." Residents are currently "using buckets of water from the creek to wash our toilets." Courtesy of Brandon DavisDespite the "unbelievable" loss, Davis still considers himself one of the lucky ones. He says that his "staff is all safe, my little brother who lives with me and my husband is safe, and my pets are safe." While his house is without power or running water, and the street it's on is "inaccessible," it still stands. "We may have lost our business, our livelihood, and any type of financial security, but we consider ourselves very lucky because so many people have lost their homes or their lives," Davis says. "There's power lines [and] telephone poles down, wires everywhere in the street, trees on houses. But our house is safe."As the community recovers, Davis says his "immediate concern" is "to be able to give the employees money for food and gas," and help supplement the income they would have otherwise had. He has a GoFundMe for Day Trip's eventual rebuilding efforts, but donations via his Venmo, @Brandondavis227, will immediately and "directly help us pay our bills and for food."In order to rebuild someday, Davis says they must "find a new location," since "we obviously can't rebuild where we were, and even if we could, that would be a bad decision on our part, seeing as these storms are just going to keep getting worse." Courtesy of Brandon DavisWhat's helped Davis persist through the "soul-crushing" loss is seeing the outpouring of "love and kindness from not only the queer community internationally, but from small business owners.""The main thing that I think we need is we just need people following our story, but people also following the devastation around us, because so many people are in need right now," he says, adding, "I know I need to focus on my family and trying to rebuild our livelihood, but I don't want to be insensitive to anybody who has lost more than we have.Davis stresses that what communities in Asheville need now is "water, food, baby formula, menstrual hygiene products, and just baby wipes for cleanliness." Several organizations providing resources to the devastated communities are also in need of donations. Despite their losses, Davis and his husband haven't been deterred. "Day Trip 2.0" will be "come back stronger," he says, and will "be better than we ever could have imagined." "If anything, it's made us even more determined to create an inclusive, safe space and cocktail bar of our dreams," Davis says. "And we know in our hearts that we not only need to rebuild, but we want to rebuild." Courtesy of Brandon Davis

A school district in south-central Pennsylvania is drawing much criticism for a plan to put windows in its gender-inclusive restrooms.The board at South Western School District in Hanover approved the move after consultation with the Independence Law Center, a right-wing legal nonprofit affiliated with the equally right-wing Pennsylvania Family Institute. The legal group, based in Harrisburg, Pa., has been working to influence policy in several school districts in the state, Pennsylvania newspaperThe Patriot-News reports.Board President Matthew Gelazela told the paper that the windows would allow a view only into the nonprivate areas of the restrooms, not the stalls. But critics still say its an invasion of students privacy and specifically targets transgender and nonbinary students.As Southwestern School District engages in renovating multiuser restroom facilities, it has an interest in opening a view into the non private area of those facilities in similar fashion to what has existed for years in our elementary schools, Gelazela said in an emailed statement to The Patriot-News and its website, PennLive.com. In making the area outside of stalls more viewable, we are better able to monitor for a multitude of prohibited activities such as any possible vaping, drug use, bullying or absenteeism.Our students should not consider the space outside of our stalls as private within the multiuser restrooms, he continued. Our current policy states In any facility in a District school that is for use based on Gender Identity, in which a person may be in a state of undress in the presence of others, school personnel shall provide private changing areas for use. Areas between our stalls and sinks in multiuser restrooms are not private changing areas under that policy.There is no view into those private stall spaces from outside of the restrooms, he added.The Advocate has sought further comment from Gelazela after being referred to him by Superintendent Jay H. Burkhart but has yet to receive a response. Its unclear how many restrooms will be affected or when the work will begin. The board has allocated $8,700 for the project.This has been a progression of policies that have been provided to the school district by the Independence Law Center, Eric Stiles, executive director of the Rainbow Rose Center, an LGBTQ+ group in York, Pa., told The Patriot-News.They are providing all this input into how they need to address, for lack of a better term, the scare they are going through over LGBTQI+ folks, Stiles said. Theyve done book banning and not using pronouns and outing students to their parents, and now this latest attempt is these bathroom windows that really call into concern the safety of students.Indeed, the South Western board has adopted policies allowing parents to censor or ban books, allowing teachers to ignore students chosen pronouns, and requiring teachers to inform parents if a student wishes to be known by a different name or pronoun than those on their official records.Placing windows in the restrooms is going to have a silencing effect, Stiles said. It increases the danger for them in trying to use the bathroom. I know from reports that they are trying to increase oversight of the wash area. Thats what they are saying. What they really want is to ensure they have the right students in the right bathroom.Its kind of eeky, Vic Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, told The Patriot-News. Lets be clear, this isnt into the stalls. It strikes me as kind of creepy, but Im not aware of any law. That doesnt mean there isnt one out there.An editorial in the York Dispatch called the window installation creepy and weird and part of a quest to punish LGBTQ+ kids. Some parents have complained about it and said it will make their children uncomfortable in the restrooms.Several far-right members have recently been elected to the board, and Gelazela was elevated to his post after previously serving as the boards most vocal bomb-thrower, the Dispatch notes. He has been a proponent of book bans, among other things, the paper reports.The book bans and other policies being enacted at South Western are part of an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ people, the editorial says. The window project, it concludes, is an invasion of privacy and a waste of taxpayer dollars.As for the Independence Law Center and the Pennsylvania Family Institute, they claim theyre not anti-LGBTQ+ and are simply advocates for the First Amendment, including religious freedom, and are advising school boards only when asked. The groups have opposed the inclusion of transgender girls in girls sports, however, and have advocated for policies making it harder for students to use their preferred pronouns as well as restricting access to certain books. Theyre also strongly against abortion rights.In some cases folks do try to couch it in that language, the language of fairness, but very often when you listen to the public comments of the people who support these polices, theyre pretty blatantly targeting certain communities of students, Alex Domingos of the ACLU of Pennsylvania told The Patriot-News in an earlier story. The ACLU cofounded the Pennsylvanians for Welcoming and Inclusive Schools coalition to counter the religious right groups.Were seeing how these policies are being replicated, Domingos added. It doesnt appear as if this is based off things that are actually happening in schools, its the same policies being shopped around to districts with alarming speed.

This coming year, the Supreme Court will consider four cases focused on transgender rights. Their outcome could affect all Americans because they essentially determine whether federal civil rights law protects everyone regardless of sex or gender. While the cases challenge bans on gender-affirming care and drag performances as well as anti-discrimination protections in schools and workplaces, the courts rulings could impact everyones civil rights and liberties, according to Gabriel Arkles, co-interim Legal Director for Advocates for Trans Equality. The high courts ruling could also determine the constitutionality of laws restricting reproductive rights, book bans, harassment, and employer healthcare coverage. Related The Supreme Court was the top issue you wanted Kamala Harris to talk about more in this weeks poll Over half of you, the readers of LGBTQ Nation, picked the Supreme Court as the top issue that the Harris-Walz campaign should be talking about more. The courts are facing crucial decisions about the unprecedented rash of anti-trans laws, and these rulings will determine whether constitutional guarantees like equal protection under the law will be upheld for trans and gender-nonconforming people, or if governments will be allowed to persecute us, Arkles said on a press call discussing the cases, their legal arguments, and their potential impact on all Americans. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today No matter what happens in the court, trans people are not going away, Arkles said. We are going to find ways to support each other. We are going to find ways to survive. We are going to find ways to thrive, and we are going to find ways to push for change.Here are details of all four cases and Arkles assessment of their larger significance for civil equality. U.S. v. Skrmetti Gender-affirming bans treat cis & trans kids unequallyThe Gender Spectrum CollectionWhile this case questions the constitutionality of bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth, its outcome could have an immense impact on other laws, such as ones banning trans athletes from playing sports or laws preventing trans people from receiving government documents that accurately reflect their gender identity, Arkles said. Currently, 26 states have laws restricting gender-affirming care, and six of those states make the provision of such care a felony.This case concerns Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville and their 15-year-old transgender daughter, as well as two other anonymous families affected by Tennessees 2023 gender-affirming care ban,S.B. 1. The law required all trans minors receiving gender-affirming care in the state to de-transition by last April and restricts all gender-affirming care for trans minors henceforth, imposing civil penalties on any doctors who provide such care.The plaintiffs argue that the law bans best-practice medical care for trans youth, violating the 14th Amendments Equal Protection Clause, which promises equal application of laws among all citizens. The medical care prohibited by the Tennessee law has safely been provided to cisgender minors for decades without government interference. It was incredibly painful watching my child struggle before we were able to get her the life-saving healthcare she needed. We have a confident, happy daughter now, who is free to be herself and she is thriving, said plaintiff Samantha Williams. I am so afraid of what this law will mean for her. We dont want to leave Tennessee, but this legislation would force us to either routinely leave our state to get our daughter the medical care she desperately needs or to uproot our entire lives and leave Tennessee altogether. No family should have to make this kind of choice.The plaintiffs in the case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. The defendants are Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and his staff. The case will likely be argued in December or January, and a ruling will be issued in June or early July 2025. Surprisingly, nearly 200 Democrats and Republicans have written amicus briefs asking the Supreme Court to rule against the ban. Woodlands Pride v. Paxton Drag bans violate free speechRicardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK Brigitte Bandit left testifies against SB 12, SB 1601 as Valerie DeBill Kelsi Beaver waits to also opposes the bill in the senate chambers on Thursday, March 23, 2023. The Senate State Affairs committee is taking up controversial bills SB 12, SB 1601 which is an anti-drag show bill, and several criminal justice bills.This case challenges Texass ban on drag performance, a law that holds performers and venues criminally liable for performing drag in the presence of a minor. The law prohibits performances in whicha male performer [is] exhibiting as a female, or a female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience.It calls such performances sexually oriented and fines performers and venues $10,000 if they allow a minor to view them.The plaintiffs include Houston Pride organizer The Woodlands Pride, Abilene Pride Alliance, Extragrams, LLC, 360 Queen Entertainment LLC, and drag artist Brigitte Bandit. They say the law seeks to erase LGBTQ+ visibility from public life and is so broadly written that it would threaten all types of theatrical and artistic performances, leaving legal enforcers to decide what is or is not sexually oriented or sexually explicit.These [free-speech claims are against Texas ban are] rock solid, and you dont need to be sympathetic to trans people in particular to see it, Arkles said. You cant ban a type of performance because you dont like the message it sends about gender without violating the free speech clause, Arkles said. An outcome [against the ban] would be a ray of hope for all trans people, gender-nonconforming people, and drag performers who, right now, are afraid of singing, dancing, speaking, performing, or expressing themselves in any other way in public. Tennessee v. Cardona Schools cant discriminate against LGBTQ+ studentsShutterstockIn April 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued an amendment to existing Title IX regulations prohibiting federally funded schools from instituting any discriminatory policies or harassment against students on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, or pregnancy. While the regulations didnt address sports, they did say that schools cant deny trans students access to gendered facilities matching their gender identity (such as bathrooms and locker rooms), cant deliberately misgender or dead-name students, and cant censor books that reflect LGBTQ+ identities. Schools that violate the regulations risk federal lawsuits, DOE investigations, and possible loss of federal funding. The regulations relied on the Supreme Courts 2020Bostock v. Clayton Countydecision, which said that laws forbidding sex-based discrimination include sexual orientation and gender identity. However, Republican attorneys general in 26 states successfully sued to stop the rules from being enforced.The safety and well-being of many 1,000s of trans students hang in the balance, and again, a narrow Title IX reading harms everyone, Arkles said. Weve particularly seen women and girls of color who are not trans getting harassed as if they were trans. So really, what we need here for the courts to say these laws do protect everyone, and theres no form of sex discrimination that is that is still legal. Lange v. Houston County, Georgia Employer health plans cant refuse gender-affirming careTransgender Legal Defense and Education Fund Anna LangeAnna Lange a transgender deputy who has worked at the Houston County, Georgia Sheriffs Office since 2006 was denied equal medical care when, in 2019, her employer refused to cover her gender-affirming care under its health insurance, even though the insurance company (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield) said it would cover the procedure.Lange sued, saying that the denial of coverage constituted unlawful discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, as well as other federal and state equal protection clauses. Her case later cited the Supreme Courts 2020Bostock v. Clayton Countydecision, which forbids discrimination based on gender identity. The county spent $1.2 dollars in legal fees to avoid paying for the deputys $10,000 surgery and so far, the county has repeatedly lost its case.In 2022, a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgiaruledin Langes favor, and, in May 2024, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in her favor as well. The latter victory marked the first that a federal appellate court affirmed that it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against trans people in an employee health plan. Its absolutely not possible to deprive a worker of health benefits because the care they need is related to them being transgender, without discriminating against them for being transgender, Arkles said. We already know from the Supreme Court that that violates federal law.A ruling against Lange would be a real setback to healthcare access for trans people and would have implications for all women, all LGBTQ+ people, and anyone who relies on civil rights law to protect them from discrimination in the workplace, Arkles said. Such a ruling would say that differential treatment is allowed based on a very narrow and strained reading of the law, they added.Many business and government entities have voluntarily complied with these laws, and some would want to do the right thing and treat trans people at work fairly, even if they werent legally required to do so, Arkles added. But there have been some that have been fighting as tooth and nail, trying to get courts to approve of the ways they want to discriminate against our communities.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

This coming year, the Supreme Court will consider four cases focused on transgender rights. Their outcome could affect all Americans because they essentially determine whether federal civil rights law protects everyone regardless of sex or gender. While the cases challenge bans on gender-affirming care and drag performances as well as anti-discrimination protections in schools and workplaces, the courts rulings could impact everyones civil rights and liberties, according to Gabriel Arkles, co-interim Legal Director for Advocates for Trans Equality. The high courts ruling could also determine the constitutionality of laws restricting reproductive rights, book bans, harassment, and employer healthcare coverage. Related The Supreme Court was the top issue you wanted Kamala Harris to talk about more in this weeks poll Over half of you, the readers of LGBTQ Nation, picked the Supreme Court as the top issue that the Harris-Walz campaign should be talking about more. The courts are facing crucial decisions about the unprecedented rash of anti-trans laws, and these rulings will determine whether constitutional guarantees like equal protection under the law will be upheld for trans and gender-nonconforming people, or if governments will be allowed to persecute us, Arkles said on a press call discussing the cases, their legal arguments, and their potential impact on all Americans. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today No matter what happens in the court, trans people are not going away, Arkles said. We are going to find ways to support each other. We are going to find ways to survive. We are going to find ways to thrive, and we are going to find ways to push for change.Here are details of all four cases and Arkles assessment of their larger significance for civil equality. U.S. v. Skrmetti Gender-affirming bans treat cis & trans kids unequallyThe Gender Spectrum CollectionWhile this case questions the constitutionality of bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth, its outcome could have an immense impact on other laws, such as ones banning trans athletes from playing sports or laws preventing trans people from receiving government documents that accurately reflect their gender identity, Arkles said. Currently, 26 states have laws restricting gender-affirming care, and six of those states make the provision of such care a felony.This case concerns Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville and their 15-year-old transgender daughter, as well as two other anonymous families affected by Tennessees 2023 gender-affirming care ban,S.B. 1. The law required all trans minors receiving gender-affirming care in the state to de-transition by last April and restricts all gender-affirming care for trans minors henceforth, imposing civil penalties on any doctors who provide such care.The plaintiffs argue that the law bans best-practice medical care for trans youth, violating the 14th Amendments Equal Protection Clause, which promises equal application of laws among all citizens. The medical care prohibited by the Tennessee law has safely been provided to cisgender minors for decades without government interference. It was incredibly painful watching my child struggle before we were able to get her the life-saving healthcare she needed. We have a confident, happy daughter now, who is free to be herself and she is thriving, said plaintiff Samantha Williams. I am so afraid of what this law will mean for her. We dont want to leave Tennessee, but this legislation would force us to either routinely leave our state to get our daughter the medical care she desperately needs or to uproot our entire lives and leave Tennessee altogether. No family should have to make this kind of choice.The plaintiffs in the case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. The defendants are Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and his staff. The case will likely be argued in December or January, and a ruling will be issued in June or early July 2025. Surprisingly, nearly 200 Democrats and Republicans have written amicus briefs asking the Supreme Court to rule against the ban. Woodlands Pride v. Paxton Drag bans violate free speechRicardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK Brigitte Bandit left testifies against SB 12, SB 1601 as Valerie DeBill Kelsi Beaver waits to also opposes the bill in the senate chambers on Thursday, March 23, 2023. The Senate State Affairs committee is taking up controversial bills SB 12, SB 1601 which is an anti-drag show bill, and several criminal justice bills.This case challenges Texass ban on drag performance, a law that holds performers and venues criminally liable for performing drag in the presence of a minor. The law prohibits performances in whicha male performer [is] exhibiting as a female, or a female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience.It calls such performances sexually oriented and fines performers and venues $10,000 if they allow a minor to view them.The plaintiffs include Houston Pride organizer The Woodlands Pride, Abilene Pride Alliance, Extragrams, LLC, 360 Queen Entertainment LLC, and drag artist Brigitte Bandit. They say the law seeks to erase LGBTQ+ visibility from public life and is so broadly written that it would threaten all types of theatrical and artistic performances, leaving legal enforcers to decide what is or is not sexually oriented or sexually explicit.These [free-speech claims are against Texas ban are] rock solid, and you dont need to be sympathetic to trans people in particular to see it, Arkles said. You cant ban a type of performance because you dont like the message it sends about gender without violating the free speech clause, Arkles said. An outcome [against the ban] would be a ray of hope for all trans people, gender-nonconforming people, and drag performers who, right now, are afraid of singing, dancing, speaking, performing, or expressing themselves in any other way in public. Tennessee v. Cardona Schools cant discriminate against LGBTQ+ studentsShutterstockIn April 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued an amendment to existing Title IX regulations prohibiting federally funded schools from instituting any discriminatory policies or harassment against students on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, or pregnancy. While the regulations didnt address sports, they did say that schools cant deny trans students access to gendered facilities matching their gender identity (such as bathrooms and locker rooms), cant deliberately misgender or dead-name students, and cant censor books that reflect LGBTQ+ identities. Schools that violate the regulations risk federal lawsuits, DOE investigations, and possible loss of federal funding. The regulations relied on the Supreme Courts 2020Bostock v. Clayton Countydecision, which said that laws forbidding sex-based discrimination include sexual orientation and gender identity. However, Republican attorneys general in 26 states successfully sued to stop the rules from being enforced.The safety and well-being of many 1,000s of trans students hang in the balance, and again, a narrow Title IX reading harms everyone, Arkles said. Weve particularly seen women and girls of color who are not trans getting harassed as if they were trans. So really, what we need here for the courts to say these laws do protect everyone, and theres no form of sex discrimination that is that is still legal. Lange v. Houston County, Georgia Employer health plans cant refuse gender-affirming careTransgender Legal Defense and Education Fund Anna LangeAnna Lange a transgender deputy who has worked at the Houston County, Georgia Sheriffs Office since 2006 was denied equal medical care when, in 2019, her employer refused to cover her gender-affirming care under its health insurance, even though the insurance company (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield) said it would cover the procedure.Lange sued, saying that the denial of coverage constituted unlawful discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, as well as other federal and state equal protection clauses. Her case later cited the Supreme Courts 2020Bostock v. Clayton Countydecision, which forbids discrimination based on gender identity. The county spent $1.2 dollars in legal fees to avoid paying for the deputys $10,000 surgery and so far, the county has repeatedly lost its case.In 2022, a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgiaruledin Langes favor, and, in May 2024, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in her favor as well. The latter victory marked the first that a federal appellate court affirmed that it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against trans people in an employee health plan. Its absolutely not possible to deprive a worker of health benefits because the care they need is related to them being transgender, without discriminating against them for being transgender, Arkles said. We already know from the Supreme Court that that violates federal law.A ruling against Lange would be a real setback to healthcare access for trans people and would have implications for all women, all LGBTQ+ people, and anyone who relies on civil rights law to protect them from discrimination in the workplace, Arkles said. Such a ruling would say that differential treatment is allowed based on a very narrow and strained reading of the law, they added.Many business and government entities have voluntarily complied with these laws, and some would want to do the right thing and treat trans people at work fairly, even if they werent legally required to do so, Arkles added. But there have been some that have been fighting as tooth and nail, trying to get courts to approve of the ways they want to discriminate against our communities.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

During a huge reproductive rights protest she attended as a student, Marianna Anaya looked around and had an epiphany.As a young person, she thought that creating legislation around such a controversial issue should be simple: If everyone working on the issue would just look at what the data and research supported, then the legislative solution should be apparent. Related Were experiencing a renaissance of queer Hispanics in film and it could save lives Hispanics have always been underrepresented on-screen, queer Hispanics even moreso but thats changing for the better. But, she told LGBTQ Nation, I saw that best practice wasnt always what got passed, which really led me into this curiosity for politics. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today We didnt necessarily have to protest policy, she remembers thinking, if we were the people in charge of making it.That realization set the young, gay Latina activist on a path running to represent District 18 in New Mexicos state House. The district is located in Albuquerque and is mostly white even though the states population is mostly people of Latinx descent.Anaya is one of several LGBTQ+ state Latinx and Hispanic politicians in southwestern states whose constituents identities dont always match their own. These politicians have to balance the values of their lived experiences with the needs of their states residents, presenting a unique challenge, especially during an election year when race and other identities become highly politicized. District 18s Latinx community is a key demographic for Anaya to win, just as it is for many candidates in the 2024 presidential election. However, the ethnic group is not a monolith.Latinx and Hispanics have typically supported Democrats in previous decades, but more Latinx people are voting Republican, receptive to former President Donald Trumps message about restricting immigration and his appeals to family values among a largely Catholic constituency. Ironically, the better off Latinx Americans are economically, the further they move away from a Democratic Party that continues to champion their basic human rights and integration into U.S. society.Those facts are a consideration for both Anaya, in safely blue New Mexico, and two other candidates that LGBTQ Nation spoke to from Arizona, a key swing state in the presidential election. In Arizona, appeals to Latinx voters of could make the difference between a win or a loss for Trump and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. In Arizona, high turnout is expected for both presidential tickets along with a referendum on abortion access and a contentious U.S. Senate race between Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) and MAGA Republican Kari Lake, who denied President Joe Bidens win in 2020 as well as the results of her own, losing run for governor in 2022. All 90 of Arizonas state legislative seats are up for grabs as well, threatening Republican control as Dems seek to flip at least one chamber.Donald Trump won Arizona in 2016 by 2.5%, while the state flipped for Biden in 2020 by just 0.3%. Next door, New Mexico voted Democrat in four of the last six presidential elections; Trump lost both his races there by nearly 10 points. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Representative Lorena Austin (@lorenaaustinaz)Along with Anaya, LGBTQ Nation spoke with Arizona state Rep. Lorena Austin, running for reelection from the Tempe area, and Arizona Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, the second-ranking Democrat in the Arizona House seeking a second term from Phoenix. The politicians discussed the diverse political landscapes theyre navigating in their campaigns, and how they incorporate their intersecting identities as Latinx and LGBTQ+ candidates.All three politicians adamantly believe they can equitably represent constituents who dont share their sexual and ethnic identities, maybe even feel a little indignant at the implication they possibly wouldnt.Absolutely, answered New Mexicos Anaya, a 34-year-old community organizer in her native Albuquerque who identifies as lesbian. Among her constituents, just over half are white and about 35% are Latinx. I ran as a very out individual and worked on a lot of LGBTQ policy issues before, she said, noting that she helped organize efforts to repeal the states 1969 abortion ban and also to protect abortion and gender-affirming care.When I talked to constituents in my district, she continued, what they were really concerned about was who was able to get the job done. For them, seeing that I had a history of being able to help pass even some of the toughest, or most controversial, legislation, I think really gave them a sense of security that I was able to walk in on day one and carry the torch.Arizonas De Los Santos, 30, who grew up gay in a first-generation, working-class Mexican American household, agreed 100% that he could serve all of his Phoenix constituents, saying the proof is in the polls. We saw that in 2022, when I came in first in a six-way primary, and then came in first again in the general election, he said. Ive served for two years, and my constituents gave me my first report card this year in the primary, and again, I came in first. So, if we take the vote as my report card, it seems like theyre happy with the work that Im doing.That report card showed that De Los Santos bested his primary opponent in his majority-white district by almost 11 points. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Representative Oscar De Los Santos (@oscarforaz)While hes running to represent all of his constituents, De Los Santos said his intersecting identities give him a unique lens on legislation and the ability to ask, How does this affect Latinos? How does this affect LGBT people? Because sometimes inadvertently and sometimes on purpose, bias is written into legislation that other people may not see, he said.For Austin, 36, a former educator who identifies as genderqueer and nonbinary and who represents another majority-white district in the Arizona House, questions about identity go beyond the rainbow and ethnic background.Being queer is just like and you probably hear this a lot but its just one part of my identity, right? Were so intersectional as people. So Im not just queer, Im also a farmer, an educator, right? Im the granddaughter of farm workers. My parents were active in social movements, they said. The duality of being raised in a conservative Catholic family by parents who worked in the Chicano movement has allowed them to look at their constituents concerns from different perspectives, they said.But, Austin added, I think being queer in general does give you a broad experience of hardship and acceptance, but also working hard and working on yourself and navigating difficult situations It brings a relatable quality to a community.Anayas upbringing, too, has been foundational to how she interacts with her constituents. Raised in Albuquerque by a matriarchy of eight aunts, including her mother and grandmother, family has really shaped who I am and the values that I carry with me, she said. Foremost among those values is respect.My grandmother was actually a Republican, Anaya recalled. She was your typical New Mexican, multi-generational grandmother, and I feel like my grandma maybe had just as many intersecting identities as I do.Respect especially matters, she said, when dealing with hot-button topics like immigration. When people are talking about immigration, it gets so divisive and so racist, she said. But I think about my grandma, and I think about our neighborhood, and I think about the fact that when we were having dinners, my grandma would make enough for everybody in the neighborhood. She would never say, These people cant come. We always made room for other people. These are values that I live out every single day in policy. They were values that we learned at a kitchen table.But MAGA Republicans dont always share those values. Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) continue to demonize immigrants legal and undocumented alike as criminals and rapists. Lately, theyve lied about Black Haitians eating Ohio housepets, while acolytes like Kari Lake in Arizona tow their party line, citing a racist replacement theory plot hatched by Democrats to justify shutting down the U.S border.I knock a lot of doors where we have families of mixed status, and also really, really hard-working families that own small businesses, and theyre both greatly affected by the immigration policies that happen or dont happen, said Austin, who earned a degree in U.S. and Mexican Regional Immigration Policy and graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University in their district of Tempe.A really important part of her job as a representative, Austin said, is to explain to people whats currently happening. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Representative Lorena Austin (@lorenaaustinaz)Austin pointed to Proposition 314, a referendum to reboot Arizonas notorious show me your papers law of 2010, which required law enforcement to ask for immigration documents from people they had reasonable suspicion of being undocumented. The law was partially upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, but lower courts in Arizona blocked it. In 2016, the state settled with immigrants rights groups and announced that it would no longer enforce the provision.For people in our community, it was such an indelible stain that was left around our state, and to imagine that that has an opportunity to come back and be codified into law is really alarming, Austin said.For De Los Santos who earned a political science degree from the University of Southern California as a Truman scholar before earning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University the value of hard work has been a motivating force. My parents came to this country from Mexico in the 1970s with basically the shirts on their backs and busted their asses off in this country, he said. They worked in factories and on farms, picking citrus sometimes for pennies a bushel. And everything that they have, that our family had, was never handed to them. It was won through extremely hard work.He said thats why its disappointing when I come in here and I see Republicans in the legislature more concerned with pleasing the corporations and the special interests and not working-class families like mine.Among the many issues in voters minds this election season, the three candidates constituents share an overlapping list of those theyre most concerned about: education, the high cost of housing, and immigration policy. Anaya, with a degree in education from the University of California in Los Angeles, has been addressing her soon-to-be constituents concerns about New Mexicos education system for years. The stakes were clearly defined, she said, by a district court ruling in 2018 which found that her state was providing an unequal and inequitable education to bilingual, bicultural, native, and indigenous communities.For me, this is something that I hold close to my heart, Anaya said, because, for one, I was a graduate of our public schools, through and through. The public schools that I went to, I love. They raised me, and they were actually the schools that made me believe that I could be more. So I have a big sense of compassion for our public schools.And two, its actually my background. I got my degree in race and ethnic studies and education, and that was actually where I first entered the policy world.Now, with more political and organizing experience under her belt, she said that even though the data is clear, how thats translated into policy is another question altogether. Shell find out soon enough the first-time candidate is running unopposed in the November general election. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marianna Anaya (@mariannafornm)De Los Santoss constituents talk to him most about the high cost of housing in Phoenix. There, a shortage of available homes, ballooning rents, Wall Street landlords and greed have conspired to deny many of his constituents housing security.We are seeing corporations come in and buy a vast number of homes on the market, he explained, and what theyre doing is, theyre turning around and renting them out at exorbitant rates, which does two things: one, obviously it jacks up the cost of rent, not just for that family, but increases the cost of rent for everybody else. Number two, though, they are robbing an Arizona family of the opportunity to own their own home and build generational wealth.That is a problem confronting everybody in this district, he said.His constituents are also facing an issue specific to LGBTQ+ people in housing and a host of other areas: discrimination.De Los Santos is the prime sponsor of House legislation to prohibit discrimination based on gender and sexual identity in housing, public educational institutions, employment, and public accommodations. So far, the Republican majority has refused to bring it up for a vote. The young legislator said his lens on this issue was focused while studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he earned a masters degree in Christian social ethics in 2020.For far too long, religion has been used as a cudgel and a weapon against LGBT people, and what my training in seminary and in theology has shown me is that LGBT people are a blessing. We are made just like everybody else, in and as the image of God, and are therefore owed dignity and respect, and in the political arena, owed fundamental freedoms and rights, he said.When I talk about non-discrimination protections: yes, Im talking about it because I think thats what the American Constitution owes us. Yes, Im talking about it because I think that is the moral and ethical and right thing to do. But I also fundamentally believe that, from a theological perspective, if we believe in the dignity and equality of every single human being on this planet, there is a strong theological basis for that kind of legislation. That focus on human dignity was a common theme among all three candidates, embracing and elevating their intersecting identities.What we know is that folks who are either marginalized because of their LGBTQ identity or marginalized because of their ethnic background when we fix problems for them, we fix problems for everyone, said Anaya.What the election comes down to is not necessarily our identity, said De Los Santos. Its about our values. Putting the working class over corporations, ensuring reproductive freedom for women and not making politicians the decision-makers over womens bodies, making sure that were bringing down the cost of housing and health care. Those are the things that Im fighting for.People need to understand how we got here and how we can proceed in a way that is humane and helpful, said Austin. When I entered the legislature, I really think some people wanted me to be the thing that they perceived about queer people, and then that didnt happen, right? Like, Im not shoving a rainbow in your face. I just do the work.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

During a huge reproductive rights protest she attended as a student, Marianna Anaya looked around and had an epiphany.As a young person, she thought that creating legislation around such a controversial issue should be simple: If everyone working on the issue would just look at what the data and research supported, then the legislative solution should be apparent. Related Were experiencing a renaissance of queer Hispanics in film and it could save lives Hispanics have always been underrepresented on-screen, queer Hispanics even moreso but thats changing for the better. But, she told LGBTQ Nation, I saw that best practice wasnt always what got passed, which really led me into this curiosity for politics. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today We didnt necessarily have to protest policy, she remembers thinking, if we were the people in charge of making it.That realization set the young, gay Latina activist on a path running to represent District 18 in New Mexicos state House. The district is located in Albuquerque and is mostly white even though the states population is mostly people of Latinx descent.Anaya is one of several LGBTQ+ state Latinx and Hispanic politicians in southwestern states whose constituents identities dont always match their own. These politicians have to balance the values of their lived experiences with the needs of their states residents, presenting a unique challenge, especially during an election year when race and other identities become highly politicized. District 18s Latinx community is a key demographic for Anaya to win, just as it is for many candidates in the 2024 presidential election. However, the ethnic group is not a monolith.Latinx and Hispanics have typically supported Democrats in previous decades, but more Latinx people are voting Republican, receptive to former President Donald Trumps message about restricting immigration and his appeals to family values among a largely Catholic constituency. Ironically, the better off Latinx Americans are economically, the further they move away from a Democratic Party that continues to champion their basic human rights and integration into U.S. society.Those facts are a consideration for both Anaya, in safely blue New Mexico, and two other candidates that LGBTQ Nation spoke to from Arizona, a key swing state in the presidential election. In Arizona, appeals to Latinx voters of could make the difference between a win or a loss for Trump and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. In Arizona, high turnout is expected for both presidential tickets along with a referendum on abortion access and a contentious U.S. Senate race between Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) and MAGA Republican Kari Lake, who denied President Joe Bidens win in 2020 as well as the results of her own, losing run for governor in 2022. All 90 of Arizonas state legislative seats are up for grabs as well, threatening Republican control as Dems seek to flip at least one chamber.Donald Trump won Arizona in 2016 by 2.5%, while the state flipped for Biden in 2020 by just 0.3%. Next door, New Mexico voted Democrat in four of the last six presidential elections; Trump lost both his races there by nearly 10 points. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Representative Lorena Austin (@lorenaaustinaz)Along with Anaya, LGBTQ Nation spoke with Arizona state Rep. Lorena Austin, running for reelection from the Tempe area, and Arizona Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, the second-ranking Democrat in the Arizona House seeking a second term from Phoenix. The politicians discussed the diverse political landscapes theyre navigating in their campaigns, and how they incorporate their intersecting identities as Latinx and LGBTQ+ candidates.All three politicians adamantly believe they can equitably represent constituents who dont share their sexual and ethnic identities, maybe even feel a little indignant at the implication they possibly wouldnt.Absolutely, answered New Mexicos Anaya, a 34-year-old community organizer in her native Albuquerque who identifies as lesbian. Among her constituents, just over half are white and about 35% are Latinx. I ran as a very out individual and worked on a lot of LGBTQ policy issues before, she said, noting that she helped organize efforts to repeal the states 1969 abortion ban and also to protect abortion and gender-affirming care.When I talked to constituents in my district, she continued, what they were really concerned about was who was able to get the job done. For them, seeing that I had a history of being able to help pass even some of the toughest, or most controversial, legislation, I think really gave them a sense of security that I was able to walk in on day one and carry the torch.Arizonas De Los Santos, 30, who grew up gay in a first-generation, working-class Mexican American household, agreed 100% that he could serve all of his Phoenix constituents, saying the proof is in the polls. We saw that in 2022, when I came in first in a six-way primary, and then came in first again in the general election, he said. Ive served for two years, and my constituents gave me my first report card this year in the primary, and again, I came in first. So, if we take the vote as my report card, it seems like theyre happy with the work that Im doing.That report card showed that De Los Santos bested his primary opponent in his majority-white district by almost 11 points. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Representative Oscar De Los Santos (@oscarforaz)While hes running to represent all of his constituents, De Los Santos said his intersecting identities give him a unique lens on legislation and the ability to ask, How does this affect Latinos? How does this affect LGBT people? Because sometimes inadvertently and sometimes on purpose, bias is written into legislation that other people may not see, he said.For Austin, 36, a former educator who identifies as genderqueer and nonbinary and who represents another majority-white district in the Arizona House, questions about identity go beyond the rainbow and ethnic background.Being queer is just like and you probably hear this a lot but its just one part of my identity, right? Were so intersectional as people. So Im not just queer, Im also a farmer, an educator, right? Im the granddaughter of farm workers. My parents were active in social movements, they said. The duality of being raised in a conservative Catholic family by parents who worked in the Chicano movement has allowed them to look at their constituents concerns from different perspectives, they said.But, Austin added, I think being queer in general does give you a broad experience of hardship and acceptance, but also working hard and working on yourself and navigating difficult situations It brings a relatable quality to a community.Anayas upbringing, too, has been foundational to how she interacts with her constituents. Raised in Albuquerque by a matriarchy of eight aunts, including her mother and grandmother, family has really shaped who I am and the values that I carry with me, she said. Foremost among those values is respect.My grandmother was actually a Republican, Anaya recalled. She was your typical New Mexican, multi-generational grandmother, and I feel like my grandma maybe had just as many intersecting identities as I do.Respect especially matters, she said, when dealing with hot-button topics like immigration. When people are talking about immigration, it gets so divisive and so racist, she said. But I think about my grandma, and I think about our neighborhood, and I think about the fact that when we were having dinners, my grandma would make enough for everybody in the neighborhood. She would never say, These people cant come. We always made room for other people. These are values that I live out every single day in policy. They were values that we learned at a kitchen table.But MAGA Republicans dont always share those values. Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) continue to demonize immigrants legal and undocumented alike as criminals and rapists. Lately, theyve lied about Black Haitians eating Ohio housepets, while acolytes like Kari Lake in Arizona tow their party line, citing a racist replacement theory plot hatched by Democrats to justify shutting down the U.S border.I knock a lot of doors where we have families of mixed status, and also really, really hard-working families that own small businesses, and theyre both greatly affected by the immigration policies that happen or dont happen, said Austin, who earned a degree in U.S. and Mexican Regional Immigration Policy and graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University in their district of Tempe.A really important part of her job as a representative, Austin said, is to explain to people whats currently happening. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Representative Lorena Austin (@lorenaaustinaz)Austin pointed to Proposition 314, a referendum to reboot Arizonas notorious show me your papers law of 2010, which required law enforcement to ask for immigration documents from people they had reasonable suspicion of being undocumented. The law was partially upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, but lower courts in Arizona blocked it. In 2016, the state settled with immigrants rights groups and announced that it would no longer enforce the provision.For people in our community, it was such an indelible stain that was left around our state, and to imagine that that has an opportunity to come back and be codified into law is really alarming, Austin said.For De Los Santos who earned a political science degree from the University of Southern California as a Truman scholar before earning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University the value of hard work has been a motivating force. My parents came to this country from Mexico in the 1970s with basically the shirts on their backs and busted their asses off in this country, he said. They worked in factories and on farms, picking citrus sometimes for pennies a bushel. And everything that they have, that our family had, was never handed to them. It was won through extremely hard work.He said thats why its disappointing when I come in here and I see Republicans in the legislature more concerned with pleasing the corporations and the special interests and not working-class families like mine.Among the many issues in voters minds this election season, the three candidates constituents share an overlapping list of those theyre most concerned about: education, the high cost of housing, and immigration policy. Anaya, with a degree in education from the University of California in Los Angeles, has been addressing her soon-to-be constituents concerns about New Mexicos education system for years. The stakes were clearly defined, she said, by a district court ruling in 2018 which found that her state was providing an unequal and inequitable education to bilingual, bicultural, native, and indigenous communities.For me, this is something that I hold close to my heart, Anaya said, because, for one, I was a graduate of our public schools, through and through. The public schools that I went to, I love. They raised me, and they were actually the schools that made me believe that I could be more. So I have a big sense of compassion for our public schools.And two, its actually my background. I got my degree in race and ethnic studies and education, and that was actually where I first entered the policy world.Now, with more political and organizing experience under her belt, she said that even though the data is clear, how thats translated into policy is another question altogether. Shell find out soon enough the first-time candidate is running unopposed in the November general election. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marianna Anaya (@mariannafornm)De Los Santoss constituents talk to him most about the high cost of housing in Phoenix. There, a shortage of available homes, ballooning rents, Wall Street landlords and greed have conspired to deny many of his constituents housing security.We are seeing corporations come in and buy a vast number of homes on the market, he explained, and what theyre doing is, theyre turning around and renting them out at exorbitant rates, which does two things: one, obviously it jacks up the cost of rent, not just for that family, but increases the cost of rent for everybody else. Number two, though, they are robbing an Arizona family of the opportunity to own their own home and build generational wealth.That is a problem confronting everybody in this district, he said.His constituents are also facing an issue specific to LGBTQ+ people in housing and a host of other areas: discrimination.De Los Santos is the prime sponsor of House legislation to prohibit discrimination based on gender and sexual identity in housing, public educational institutions, employment, and public accommodations. So far, the Republican majority has refused to bring it up for a vote. The young legislator said his lens on this issue was focused while studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he earned a masters degree in Christian social ethics in 2020.For far too long, religion has been used as a cudgel and a weapon against LGBT people, and what my training in seminary and in theology has shown me is that LGBT people are a blessing. We are made just like everybody else, in and as the image of God, and are therefore owed dignity and respect, and in the political arena, owed fundamental freedoms and rights, he said.When I talk about non-discrimination protections: yes, Im talking about it because I think thats what the American Constitution owes us. Yes, Im talking about it because I think that is the moral and ethical and right thing to do. But I also fundamentally believe that, from a theological perspective, if we believe in the dignity and equality of every single human being on this planet, there is a strong theological basis for that kind of legislation. That focus on human dignity was a common theme among all three candidates, embracing and elevating their intersecting identities.What we know is that folks who are either marginalized because of their LGBTQ identity or marginalized because of their ethnic background when we fix problems for them, we fix problems for everyone, said Anaya.What the election comes down to is not necessarily our identity, said De Los Santos. Its about our values. Putting the working class over corporations, ensuring reproductive freedom for women and not making politicians the decision-makers over womens bodies, making sure that were bringing down the cost of housing and health care. Those are the things that Im fighting for.People need to understand how we got here and how we can proceed in a way that is humane and helpful, said Austin. When I entered the legislature, I really think some people wanted me to be the thing that they perceived about queer people, and then that didnt happen, right? Like, Im not shoving a rainbow in your face. I just do the work.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

In census data released Thursday in Scotland, there were a number of interesting findings about LGBTQ+ and gender identity, the trans population in Scotland, and religion.One fascinating nugget, revealed later online, mingled all three data points: JK Rowlings religion is now officially her opposition to trans equality. Related JK Rowlings family begged her to shut up about trans people She says she just needed to out herself as anti-trans. The notoriously anti-trans Scotswoman and author of the Harry Potter book series identified herself on the Scottish census as a believer in biology, a cut-and-paste protest whipped up by the transphobic scolds at For Women Scotland, a gender-critical organization whose sole mission is to make life miserable for trans people in the sovereign U.K. state. Global perspectives delivered right to your inbox Our newsletter bridges borders to bring you LGBTQ+ news from around the world. Subscribe to our Newsletter today 2,883 respondents in Scotland a country with a population of around five and a half million wrote believer in biology as their religion. I was one of those people, Rowling revealed. I was one of those people. https://t.co/gFe5gGVMwX J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 3, 2024For Women Scotlands protest followed a judges ruling around the Scottish census in 2020 that people should be able to record their sex based on biological sex, sex recognized by law, or self-identified (lived) sex as at the date of the census.Rowlings hostility toward the trans community is well known. The 59-year-old author has spent years denying the existence of trans women in particular and has made a habit of misgendering them. Shes on the record as willing to go to prison over the freedom to do so.In one indication of her anti-trans mania, she denied trans people were persecuted under the Nazi regime during the Holocaust, a thoroughly documented fact.In one ironic plot twist in her post-Harry Potter career, Rowling began writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith in 2013, erasing her own cisgender female identity. No one has tried to outlaw that particular transition. In addition to the trans-obsessed biology believers, the census recorded that 51.1 percent of Scots now have no religion, a jump of 15 percent since the last country-wide canvass in 2011. Among those with a religious affiliation, members of the Church of Scotland made up 20.4 percent.According to the census, about 184,000 people over 16 in Scotland identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, while close to 20,000 people described themselves as transgender or as having a trans history, about 0.44 percent of the countrys total population.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

In census data released Thursday in Scotland, there were a number of interesting findings about LGBTQ+ and gender identity, the trans population in Scotland, and religion.One fascinating nugget, revealed later online, mingled all three data points: JK Rowlings religion is now officially her opposition to trans equality. Related JK Rowlings family begged her to shut up about trans people She says she just needed to out herself as anti-trans. The notoriously anti-trans Scotswoman and author of the Harry Potter book series identified herself on the Scottish census as a believer in biology, a cut-and-paste protest whipped up by the transphobic scolds at For Women Scotland, a gender-critical organization whose sole mission is to make life miserable for trans people in the sovereign U.K. state. Global perspectives delivered right to your inbox Our newsletter bridges borders to bring you LGBTQ+ news from around the world. Subscribe to our Newsletter today 2,883 respondents in Scotland a country with a population of around five and a half million wrote believer in biology as their religion. I was one of those people, Rowling revealed. I was one of those people. https://t.co/gFe5gGVMwX J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 3, 2024For Women Scotlands protest followed a judges ruling around the Scottish census in 2020 that people should be able to record their sex based on biological sex, sex recognized by law, or self-identified (lived) sex as at the date of the census.Rowlings hostility toward the trans community is well known. The 59-year-old author has spent years denying the existence of trans women in particular and has made a habit of misgendering them. Shes on the record as willing to go to prison over the freedom to do so.In one indication of her anti-trans mania, she denied trans people were persecuted under the Nazi regime during the Holocaust, a thoroughly documented fact.In one ironic plot twist in her post-Harry Potter career, Rowling began writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith in 2013, erasing her own cisgender female identity. No one has tried to outlaw that particular transition. In addition to the trans-obsessed biology believers, the census recorded that 51.1 percent of Scots now have no religion, a jump of 15 percent since the last country-wide canvass in 2011. Among those with a religious affiliation, members of the Church of Scotland made up 20.4 percent.According to the census, about 184,000 people over 16 in Scotland identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, while close to 20,000 people described themselves as transgender or as having a trans history, about 0.44 percent of the countrys total population.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Is Troye Sivan...switching teams??The "Rush" singer recently posted a TikTok bemoaning the state of his relationship status, and giving the ladies just a modicum of hope."Lately, I've been getting TikToks from girls who, I don't know, I guess think I'm hot," he said. "And I'm considering it. Because I still don't have a boyfriend. And it's been a fucking long time."@troyesivanWe can tryThere's something oddly entertaining about flipping the script like this. We've all seen straight women joke that they'll just try out dating women because they're so tired of men. And we know it doesn't work that way, as sexuality isn't something you can just switch on and off at will. (Not to be confused with bisexual realizations, which are, of course, absolutely valid.)But while it certainly seems like Sivan is just having a laugh here, fans are happy to play along. (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) That said, sexuality is a spectrum! And if this leads to Sivan exploring and discovering he hovers somewhere closer to the center than originally thought, all the more power to him. (@) "So...maybe it is time to switch. Give it a go, you know what I mean?" he continued. "Let's try this together. I can't promise anything. I don't know what I'm doing. But... hmm, maybe... I don't know. We can try."

If you missed out on the 33rd annual Dinah Shore Weekend in Palm Springs, let me tell you Christmas came early this year, and it was everything! The Margaritaville Resort transformed into the ultimate Sapphic paradise, radiating high vibes, fierce energy, and pure, unapologetic love. You could feel the magic in the air from the moment you stepped into the glittering pool parties and onto the fabulous red carpet!The weekend was packed with unforgettable performances from some of our favorite LGBTQ+ icons, from the sultry sounds of Lauren Jauregui (formerly of Fifth Harmony!) to the electric vibes of Iniko, Lauren Sanderson, Jet the 3rd, Whitney Peyton, King Mala, Chloe Star, Show Relle and Lucy & La Mer. Whether you were singing along with the crowd or dancing under the desert sun, every beat made it clear: Sapphic love was in full bloom.And lets not forget the killer DJ sets that had us all vibing! DJ P Nasty, DJ Les Ortiz, DJ Tatiana, DJ MO, DJ KG Fresh, DJ Alex D, and DJ Christy Lawrence kept the beats rolling and the energy soaring, making sure no one left the dance floor. Each set hit harder than the last, amplifying the high vibrations all around. Theres no place like The Dinah when it comes to turning up and turning out for the LGBTQ+ community!Hosting this epic weekend was none other than Rose Garcia from 'The Real L Word,' who kept the fun alive with her fierce attitude and larger-than-life charisma. Between her and the stunning lineup of talent, it was impossible not to feel like you were part of something special.And of course, we owe it all to the visionary behind itThe Dinahs founder and creator, Mariah Hanson. Year after year, Mariah brings the community together in the most unforgettable way, and this year was no different. She never disappoints, and we are so thankful for her tireless dedication to making The Dinah the iconic event it is today.Whether you were soaking up the sun poolside or tearing it up on the dance floor, this years Dinah left us all basking in Sapphic joy and a renewed sense of community. As we look forward to 2025, lets carry the spirit of love and togetherness throughout the year. Mark your calendars for September 24th-28th. Hotel rooms and tickets go on sale on March 1st, 2025. Start planning, because once youve experienced The Dinah, theres no going back.20 Pics From Dinah Shore 2023 That Are The Sapphic Pool Party Of Our Dreams

Its that time of year again! No, not Spooky Season, although it is. No, not the start of fall, even though it is that, too. No, its officially Jocktober once again, and we are PUMPED!This sinfully sexy holiday is a month-long celebration of the jockstrap that sexy style of underwear that somehow manages to look hot on everyone. I mean, how can you go wrong with underwear that shows off your cakes in the back and bulge in the front?To celebrate this auspicious month, men across the internet are posting steamy pics of themselves decked out in jocks on Instagram, and we love seeing our feed full of half-naked men is making us so thirsty. We know Thanksgiving is technically the holiday where we give thanks, but we are very thankful for Jocktober. And the wonderful thing about this holiday is that not only does it give us an excuse to check out what everyone looks like in our fave style of undies, but its also a chance to see a wide diversity of body types because Jocktober doesnt discriminate and we love it for that!See on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on InstagramSee on Instagram

Earlier this week, we at LGBTQ Nation asked you how youre planning to vote this November, and the results of our reader poll are in.The top two responses were in-person voting (41%) and mail-in voting (38%). Both of these answers were far more popular than the alternative, which was using a ballot drop box (14%). While 5% of readers responded that they are not able to vote in this coming election, fewer than 2% said that they were making the choice to abstain. Related Your favorite Kamala Harris debate quote was about Donald Trumps threat to democracy Trump claimed that he actually won the 2020 election. Harris was ready to respond to that. The results are not surprising. LGBTQ Nation readers are civic-minded, so not many would choose not to vote in the election. Many states also ban or restrict ballot dropboxes, especially in the South. LGBTQ Nation Reader poll results, week of Sept. 30Meanwhile, mail-in voting has become more widely available since the 1980s. In 2022, 32% of voters used a mail-in ballot, according to MITs Election Data + Science Lab.While mail-in voting briefly surpassed in-person voting on Election Day in 2020 due to the lockdowns and people choosing to limit interactions with others, when early in-person voting is counted, going in person to the polls has been the most popular way to vote in every election and will likely be the most popular means of voting in this election for Americans in general.And, with that, we would like to remind readers to make sure that theyre registered to vote. Well have another reader poll next week at the Equality for All Election News Center. Your Vote is a step toward Equality for All Make sure youre ready to vote!

Earlier this week, we at LGBTQ Nation asked you how youre planning to vote this November, and the results of our reader poll are in.The top two responses were in-person voting (41%) and mail-in voting (38%). Both of these answers were far more popular than the alternative, which was using a ballot drop box (14%). While 5% of readers responded that they are not able to vote in this coming election, fewer than 2% said that they were making the choice to abstain. Related Your favorite Kamala Harris debate quote was about Donald Trumps threat to democracy Trump claimed that he actually won the 2020 election. Harris was ready to respond to that. The results are not surprising. LGBTQ Nation readers are civic-minded, so not many would choose not to vote in the election. Many states also ban or restrict ballot dropboxes, especially in the South. LGBTQ Nation Reader poll results, week of Sept. 30Meanwhile, mail-in voting has become more widely available since the 1980s. In 2022, 32% of voters used a mail-in ballot, according to MITs Election Data + Science Lab.While mail-in voting briefly surpassed in-person voting on Election Day in 2020 due to the lockdowns and people choosing to limit interactions with others, when early in-person voting is counted, going in person to the polls has been the most popular way to vote in every election and will likely be the most popular means of voting in this election for Americans in general.And, with that, we would like to remind readers to make sure that theyre registered to vote. Well have another reader poll next week at the Equality for All Election News Center. Your Vote is a step toward Equality for All Make sure youre ready to vote!

Real Housewives of Orange County star Shannon Beador is firing back after Joel Kim Booster dragged her online.For those just tuning into the drama, the two recently finished shooting a Real Housewives spin-off series called Love Hotel, with Booster hosting. After the show wrapped, he went off on Instagram Stories, calling Beador a "pathetic drunk" and claiming she treated others on the show "like they are subhuman."Yikes.According to fans, he also went on Instagram Live to say that she "humiliates the crew, was hideous to him and that at the wrap party just a few hours ago she was terrible to someone he really loves." (@) (@) But days later, Beador is claiming to be shocked by his accusations."I really don't know what it's about, because an hour earlier that night, before the wrap party, he had tears in his eyes. And he said, 'I'm so happy for you,'" she recalled during Shannon and Vicki Live! on Thursday. "He trashed my daughters. He said that he hopes that I suffer. He said that he feels sorry for [ex-boyfriend] John Janssen," she continued. "He says that I'm nothing but a pathetic drunk. And it's really going to look silly for him because he had nothing but love for me the entire time." (@) Fan loyalties have been divided as they try to figure out which account of events to believe. Some feel that Booster likely made some valid points based on previous behavior they've seen or heard about from Beador, while others are questioning whether misogyny is at play here.And Gretchen Rossi pointed out something else a lot of people have been saying in the wake of Booster's comments."That is so unprofessional of him to do as a host of a show," she said.And what the truth is beyond that, we may never know.

Lauren Boebert is refunding over $67,000 in donations after Italian Olympic boxer Angela Carini rejected her anti-transgender fundraising efforts. The right-wing representative launched the campaign on GiveSendGo following Carini's loss to Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who conservatives were falsely claiming is a transgender woman. Boebert aimed to raise $196,000, equal to Italys gold medal prize money, to make up for the reward "stolen" from Carini. The campaign had raised just $67,000 as of mid August. However, Boebert said this week that the platform will be returning the donations after Carini's team directly declined them. After my team heard from Angelas coach, we were informed that she didnt want to continue with what has been a difficult chapter in her life, Boebert wrote on Twitter/X. While she appreciated the support by so many, she decided not to accept the funds. GiveSendGo refunded the contributions late last week as a result."Carini's early withdrawal from her match against Khelif, after which she publicly lamented about her opponent's strength, manufactured outrage among conservatives, who latched on to unsubstantiated claims that Khelif has XY chromosomes and was born male, despite hailing from a country where it is illegal to identify as transgender and transition.The boxer supposedly failed a gender eligibility test in 2023 under the International Boxing Association, which was later banned from Olympic participation for corruption. Khelif was disqualified from the IBA only after beating Russian athlete Azalia Amineva in a tournament, prompting the organization's Russian president, who brought in Russian state-owned money to sponsor the organization, to ban her.After Carini's comments and the subsequent outrage, a spokesperson for the IOC emphasized in a statement that Khelif "was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport."This is not a transgender case. There has been some confusion that somehow its a man fighting a woman," they said. "This is just not the case, scientifically. On that, there is consensus. Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman. I think we need to kind of get that out.Carini soon after issued an apology "to [Khelif] and everyone else," telling Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport: " I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.Despite this, Boebert insisted on hosting the fundraising campaign until Carini's explicit rejection, after which the conservative continued to falsely refer to Khelif as a person with XY chromosomes" in her post online, still fallaciously decrying that she "was allowed to compete against actual, biological women in the Olympics." Khelif, who went on to win the gold medal, has since filed a criminal complaint against some of the most vocal public figures who targeted her, including J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk, accusing them of acts of aggravated cyber harassment.

A small-town candidate forum in Idaho this week went off the rails when a sitting state senator screamed at a Native American participant, Why dont you go back to where you came from?!The outburst, following an earlier threat against his Democratic opponent, came from the current state Sen. Dan Foreman (R), a retired cop well known for his rabid Christian nationalist ideology and simmering anger issues. And about an hour into the forum, both were on display when the candidates were asked whether or not they thought there was discrimination in the state. Related Idaho bar celebrates Heterosexual Awesomeness Month with free beer for straight men A Christian, conservative, Constitution supporter is holding the opposite of Pride Month at his Boise bar but it still sounds pretty gay. Trish Carter-Goodheart, a Democratic House candidate whos a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, responded by saying racism and discrimination are real problems in Idaho, referring to the presence of white supremacist enclaves in the north of the state, which Foreman represents, according to a statement she released after the forum. Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024 Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today After Carter-Goodheart spoke, Foreman stood up and began to yell, saying: Im so sick and tired of this liberal bullshit! Why dont you go back to where you came from?!The meltdown was shared by Carter-Goodheart in her statement and corroborated by Julia Parker, Foremans Democratic opponent, and Mayor Rose Norris of Kendrick, where the event was held.Racist comments like this one that were directed at me have no place in our community, Carter-Goodheart told the Idaho Statesman. Intolerance is unacceptable.This is our land, she added. Were never planning on leaving; this is where our ancestors are buried.Earlier in the evening, Foreman directed his ire at Parker after she criticized his record as senator. She better not do it again, Foreman said, glaring. Asked by Parker if he meant the comment as a threat, he replied, You heard me.The former cop abruptly left the forum after lashing out at tribe member Carter-Goodheart.But Foremans blowup didnt end there.In a Facebook post following the event, he claimed he had been race-baited into his outburst, goaded by Carter-Goodheart. The online tirade continued with Foreman labeling abortion murder, gender-affirming care for transgender people as sick and demonically influenced, and homosexuality as an abomination.Does the democrat party challenge the Word of God? Foreman hissed in the post. Yes, every person in our state and nation has equal rights under the constitution. That is a good thing. But there are no designer or special rights associated with ones sexual behavior sorry democrats and other lefties.In 2018, Foreman screamed at a group of students from the University of Idaho when they tried to talk to him about sex education and birth control.A few months earlier, the North Idaho Republican was caught on tape yelling at a man at the Latah County Fair. He told him to go straight to hell.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Ashley Darby always keeps it real.The Real Housewives of Potomac is gearing up for its ninth season and the departures of Candiace Dillard Bassett and Robyn Dixon are shifting the dynamics between the ladies.In fact, Darby promises some must-watch TV as the women go head-to-head during an explosive argument at Dr. Wendy Osefo's birthday."The subject matter was very tense. There had been some remnants that had trickled over from what happened in the previous season and that was sort of like a pimple that popped. Wait until you see that whole scene. There was so much emotion," Darby tells PRIDE. See on Instagram Speaking of heightened emotion, Darby is spilling the tea on drama that happened off-camera on another show she just wrapped... Love Hotel.The new Bravo spin-off follows four single ladies from The Real Housewives universe as they try and find their soulmate. Joel Kim Booster serves as the host, but everything wasn't so lovely behind the scenes.Once filming wrapped on the debut season, Booster went on a social media tirade against RHOC star Shannon Beador and slammed her for being a 'pathetic drunk' and even said he 'hopes she suffers.' "That actually came out the day that we were leaving. That caught everybody by surprise. It was quite shocking. I give Joel props. He did a great job on the show, as you'll see, but that was quite surprising. It caught all of us completely out of left field."Beador has since responded as well. "I really don't know what it's about, because an hour earlier that night, before the wrap party, he had tears in his eyes. And he said, 'I'm so happy for you,'" she recalled during Shannon and Vicki Live! on Thursday."He trashed my daughters. He said that he hopes that I suffer. He said that he feels sorry for [ex-boyfriend] John Janssen," she continued. "He says that I'm nothing but a pathetic drunk. And it's really going to look silly for him because he had nothing but love for me the entire time."The Real Housewives of Potomac premieres Sunday night on Bravo. To see the full interview with Ashley Darby, check out the video at the top of the page.

If you missed out on the 33rd annual Dinah Shore Weekend in Palm Springs, let me tell you Christmas came early this year, and it was everything! The Margaritaville Resort transformed into the ultimate Sapphic paradise, radiating high vibes, fierce energy, and pure, unapologetic love. You could feel the magic in the air from the moment you stepped into the glittering pool parties and onto the fabulous red carpet!The weekend was packed with unforgettable performances from some of our favorite LGBTQ+ icons, from the sultry sounds of Lauren Jauregui (formerly of Fifth Harmony!) to the electric vibes of Iniko, Lauren Sanderson, Jet the 3rd, Whitney Peyton, King Mala, Chloe Star, Show Relle and Lucy & La Mer. Whether you were singing along with the crowd or dancing under the desert sun, every beat made it clear: Sapphic love was in full bloom.And lets not forget the killer DJ sets that had us all vibing! DJ P Nasty, DJ Les Ortiz, DJ Tatiana, DJ MO, DJ KG Fresh, DJ Alex D, and DJ Christy Lawrence kept the beats rolling and the energy soaring, making sure no one left the dance floor. Each set hit harder than the last, amplifying the high vibrations all around. Theres no place like The Dinah when it comes to turning up and turning out for the LGBTQ+ community!Hosting this epic weekend was none other than Rose Garcia from 'The Real L Word,' who kept the fun alive with her fierce attitude and larger-than-life charisma. Between her and the stunning lineup of talent, it was impossible not to feel like you were part of something special.And of course, we owe it all to the visionary behind itThe Dinahs founder and creator, Mariah Hanson. Year after year, Mariah brings the community together in the most unforgettable way, and this year was no different. She never disappoints, and we are so thankful for her tireless dedication to making The Dinah the iconic event it is today.Whether you were soaking up the sun poolside or tearing it up on the dance floor, this years Dinah left us all basking in Sapphic joy and a renewed sense of community. As we look forward to 2025, lets carry the spirit of love and togetherness throughout the year. Mark your calendars for September 24th-28th. Hotel rooms and tickets go on sale on March 1st, 2025. Start planning, because once youve experienced The Dinah, theres no going back.20 Pics From Dinah Shore 2023 That Are The Sapphic Pool Party Of Our Dreams

Theres a breathtaking episode in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story that consists of a single 33-minute shot of the camera closing in on actor Cooper Koch as Erik detailing the abuse he endured from his father and brother to his defense attorney Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor). In the episode titled The Hurt Man, written by Ian Brennan, Abramsons voice can be heard questioning him while the viewer only sees her from the back. That is, until the camera pushes in so close that shes out of the frame entirely and only Kochs Erik speaks directly to the camera, and by extension, the viewer.This season of Ryan Murphys anthology series Monsters has received criticism for taking liberties with and exploiting the true story of the brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menndez (Javier Bardem and Chlo Sevigny in the series), in 1989. The true story offers a jumping-off place for the series to delve into serious topics around homophobia, HIV and AIDS stigma, cycles of abuse, the limitations of the justice system to fully arrive at a truth, and celebrity. The process of getting ready to do ['The Hurt Man' episode] was really just reading that script over and over and over again. I read it every day, and I tried to just really get all of those memories so specific and detailed so that when I was going to recount them, it was real for me, Koch tells Out. The series tells the story of the Menndez murder from multiple perspectives over nine episodes, giving voice to the brothers, their parents, and even Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane), the writer whose daughter Dominique Dunne was murdered in 1982 and who wrote prolifically about the Menndez case. There has been plenty of online discussion about how the shows incestuous scenes between the brothers that appear to be a call-out to the famed murderous Papin sisters, who became the subject of gay author Jean Genets 1947 play The Maids. At one point, the brothers are seen holding a book about incestuous, murderous siblings.While detailing cycles of abuse in The Hurt Man at the hands of his brother and father and his complicit mother, and the grandparents who allegedly abused Jose and Kitty, Erik explains that hes engaged in a rewarding physical relationship with another boy but admits he doesnt understand his sexual identity because of what was done to him by the abuse he suffered.In terms of not knowing who he was or this boy that he speaks on at the end of the episode, I really think it's in there to present whats called traumatic reenactment, which is when youve been through sexual abuse or really any kind of abuse and you keep going back to something thats similar or familiar to you as a way to heal or cope, Koch says. I think having that in there proves and further supports their claim that they were in fact sexually abused. And I hope that after that episode, people really sympathize with him and believe his story. Chloe Sevigny and Javier Bardem in Monsters: They Lyle and Erik Menendez StoryCourtesy of Netflix Another social ill, institutionalized toxic masculinity, fuels Bardems, at turns, charming and terrifying Jose.I think it comes with the time where the educational pattern that these people had and where a man is a man and you cannot express any emotion and you cant share your weakness. And of course all that stupidity that comes with it, and that creates so much harm around him, Bardem says. There's still something in our education [of men] that is so wrong, and I think Jose Menndez is an example of that.As for Kitty, who admits to hating her sons in a fiery episode, Sevigny sees her character as a product of a time that included stifling gender roles, and so her admission of failing to love her children is all the more shocking.I think Kitty was jealous of her sons, of the attention that they got from her husband. I think she has a lot of very old-fashioned values and really played into gender roles and was also threatened by them and their physicality. I think that she was very unhappy in her life and her marriage, very unfulfilled, and turned to drugs and alcohol, Sevigny says. A lot of women during parenthood have different stages of it where it can be very confusing and disruptive and disturbing even, especially when you have sons that youre scared of in her case, or at least in the story that we're telling in her case, she adds. I think a lot of women don't admit that even postpartum is very hard for people to talk about. I know a lot of women in my life that had a really hard time connecting with their children. And I think it's just something that people don't address. Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez StoryCourtesy of Netflix Graynors strong, successful Abramson is a counterpoint to Kittys succumbing to gender roles in the series.She was a woman of her time where the most frustrating thing somebody could say to her was calling her a female attorney. She was coming [up] of an age and was a feminist in her own [way] without wanting to carry the card In that way, Graynor says. She was sort of like, Im here because Im a good lawyer. And yet I think that it comes up in the show. People then and people now, and certainly in our world, still have a really hard time with powerful, outspoken women.In another powerful scene describing abuse, Nicholas Alexander Chavezs Lyle breaks down on the stand, only to flip into what appears to be a kind of sociopathy once the judge and jury are out of the picture. He boasts about his performance on the stand to a woman hes dating from prison.There is evidence to support that. Lyle Menndez essentially, after he gave his testimony in the first trial, said something to the effect of, I can't believe that I snowed them, Chavez says.Part of Chavezs work in playing the character was to find those places of empathy.It was important to me to do a lot of work on why he behaved so erratically and impulsively at times. And I think it stemmed from being a really, really deeply hurt and wounded child underneath. I think that he felt a tremendous amount of pressure to lead his brother through this. And as part of leading his brother through this, mimicked many of the behaviors of his own father, which is why my performance became so much clearer once Javier Bardem came into the picture, Chavez says. Because I think that Lyle Menndez is first and foremost his father's son, and I was really grateful for the scenes where you really get a chance to see Lyle's inner child and the place of hurt that he comes from, and maybe gives some sort of insight into why he behaves the way that he does in the other episodes.Watch Outs interviews with Koch and Chavez and Bardem and Sevigny in the video above. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is streaming on Netflix.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case of an Ohio woman who says she faced workplace discrimination over her heterosexual identity. The case may be the first of its kind. It examines the lengths members of majority groups must go to prove that they were discriminated against by minority groups.Marlean Ames worked for 20 years at the Ohio Department of Youth Services, a state agency that oversees the confinement and rehabilitation of juvenile felony offenders. In 2014, she was promoted to serve as the administrator of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), a 2003 federal law that seeks to track and end sexual assaults in all detainment facilities. Related These 4 trans-related Supreme Court cases affect everyones future civil rights While the cases focus on drag bans and trans protections, they address larger issues of free speech and civil rights. In 2017, a gay woman named Ginine Trim became Ames new supervisor. In December 2018, Trim gave Ames a performance evaluation that said Ames mostly met all of her job expectations and had an opportunity to improve in three areas. Then, in April 2019, Ames applied and interviewed to become the Departments Bureau Chief of Quality she didnt get the job. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today One month later, the agencys Human Resources department called Ames into a meeting where they terminated her role as PREA administrator and demoted her to her former role, reducing her pay from $47.22 an hour to $28.40 an hour, court documents allege. The agencys director and assistant director who oversaw Ames demotion are both heterosexual, and at different times, they provided different reasons for her demotion. Once, they mentioned that her position was an at-will role whose work could be terminated at any time; another time, they said that they wanted a worker who would regularly exceed (rather than just meet) the jobs expectations.The following December, the department hired Alexander Stojsavljevic, a 25-year-old gay man, for the PREA administrator position and chose Yolanda Frierson, a gay woman, as its Bureau Chief of Quality. Ames filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and then filed a lawsuit. Both a district court and the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against Ames. Ames claimed that she had faced discrimination based on her sexual orientation, something banned by Title VII after the Supreme Courts 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision. The decision ruled that workplace discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity are forms of sex-based discrimination.However, in its summary judgment, the district court said Ames had failed to prove that she was a member of a protected class of people who have historically been discriminated against for their personal characteristics. The court also said Ames failed to substantiate background circumstances proving that LGBTQ+ people had made the decisions against her or that they had discriminated against other heterosexual workers before in the past.Ames herself acknowledged that the agencys heterosexual director and assistant director made the decision to hire the gay man who took the Bureau Chief of Quality position. The larger question at issue according to Raymond Kethledge, a district court judge who disagreed with the legal reasoning in his colleagues decision is whether its fair for Ames to have to prove background circumstances to support the suspicion that the [department was] that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority.Twice in one year, the Department promoted an arguably less-qualified gay employee in a manner adverse to Ames; and in promoting one of those employees, Yolanda Frierson, the Department circumvented its own internal procedures because Frierson lacked the minimum qualifications for the job, Kethledge wrote.Kethledge argued that if Ames had been treated similarly for her race, the court wouldve considered that enough to substantiate her discrimination claim.Our court and some others have construed this same [background circumstances] provision to impose different burdens on different plaintiffs based on their membership in different demographic groups, Kethledge wrote. Nearly every circuit [court] has addressed this issue one way or another. Perhaps the Supreme Court will soon do so as well.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case of an Ohio woman who says she faced workplace discrimination over her heterosexual identity. The case may be the first of its kind. It examines the lengths members of majority groups must go to prove that they were discriminated against by minority groups.Marlean Ames worked for 20 years at the Ohio Department of Youth Services, a state agency that oversees the confinement and rehabilitation of juvenile felony offenders. In 2014, she was promoted to serve as the administrator of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), a 2003 federal law that seeks to track and end sexual assaults in all detainment facilities. Related These 4 trans-related Supreme Court cases affect everyones future civil rights While the cases focus on drag bans and trans protections, they address larger issues of free speech and civil rights. In 2017, a gay woman named Ginine Trim became Ames new supervisor. In December 2018, Trim gave Ames a performance evaluation that said Ames mostly met all of her job expectations and had an opportunity to improve in three areas. Then, in April 2019, Ames applied and interviewed to become the Departments Bureau Chief of Quality she didnt get the job. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today One month later, the agencys Human Resources department called Ames into a meeting where they terminated her role as PREA administrator and demoted her to her former role, reducing her pay from $47.22 an hour to $28.40 an hour, court documents allege. The agencys director and assistant director who oversaw Ames demotion are both heterosexual, and at different times, they provided different reasons for her demotion. Once, they mentioned that her position was an at-will role whose work could be terminated at any time; another time, they said that they wanted a worker who would regularly exceed (rather than just meet) the jobs expectations.The following December, the department hired Alexander Stojsavljevic, a 25-year-old gay man, for the PREA administrator position and chose Yolanda Frierson, a gay woman, as its Bureau Chief of Quality. Ames filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and then filed a lawsuit. Both a district court and the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against Ames. Ames claimed that she had faced discrimination based on her sexual orientation, something banned by Title VII after the Supreme Courts 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision. The decision ruled that workplace discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity are forms of sex-based discrimination.However, in its summary judgment, the district court said Ames had failed to prove that she was a member of a protected class of people who have historically been discriminated against for their personal characteristics. The court also said Ames failed to substantiate background circumstances proving that LGBTQ+ people had made the decisions against her or that they had discriminated against other heterosexual workers before in the past.Ames herself acknowledged that the agencys heterosexual director and assistant director made the decision to hire the gay man who took the Bureau Chief of Quality position. The larger question at issue according to Raymond Kethledge, a district court judge who disagreed with the legal reasoning in his colleagues decision is whether its fair for Ames to have to prove background circumstances to support the suspicion that the [department was] that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority.Twice in one year, the Department promoted an arguably less-qualified gay employee in a manner adverse to Ames; and in promoting one of those employees, Yolanda Frierson, the Department circumvented its own internal procedures because Frierson lacked the minimum qualifications for the job, Kethledge wrote.Kethledge argued that if Ames had been treated similarly for her race, the court wouldve considered that enough to substantiate her discrimination claim.Our court and some others have construed this same [background circumstances] provision to impose different burdens on different plaintiffs based on their membership in different demographic groups, Kethledge wrote. Nearly every circuit [court] has addressed this issue one way or another. Perhaps the Supreme Court will soon do so as well.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

It's a tenant of BDSM culture to not "yuck anyone else's yum," which is to say you shouldn't hate on other people's kinks just because they're not yours or you don't get them.BDSM is an initialism short for "Bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism" with the latter half also standing for "submission/Dominance." But just like learning not to yuck anyone's yum when it comes to food, it's easier to do when you hear why it is other people are into something. If you're not into BDSM, what the community would lovingly refer to as "vanilla", it might be hard to wrap your head around just why someone would choose to beTwo different online communities tried to delve into just that. Users posted on the AskReddit and askpsychology subreddits both had users inquire about why people are into BDSM. Here's why those in the subculture enjoy it in their own words.See on InstagramUser @Heathen33 said, "I enjoy it because even as a submissive it gives me a sense of control and since my relationship is a long term one it gives me reasons to trust because I have a lot of trust issues from past relationships and had no control in them even over what happened to myself.See on InstagramUser @Onctech said, "To be completely honest, no study or psychologist has ever come up with a strong, definitive explanation. To me, that means that there are likely multiple, completely unrelated causes or attributes that simply lead to a common preference. I'll offer one study that I believe illustrates this well: Murray A. Straus, a famous sociologist who specialized in the study of child abuse, conducted a study where respondents to a survey gave information about having been punished as children with "non-abusive" spanking (i.e. legal in the US), and their adult enjoyment of BDSM. He found a very high correlation between spanking children and them growing up to like BDSM, so there appears to be some causal link. However, a not-insignificant chunk of his sample endorsed liking BDSM, but had zero history of spanking, which means that it cannot possibly be a complete explanation."See on InstagramUser @Illustrious_Bend3111 said, "I enjoy bdsm and I have no clue why to be honest. It just feels right I guess Im really into submission and bondage parts and it might be just because of childhood stuff or something."See on InstagramUser @Optimal_Agent_8372 said, "This is simple. Because people love play on power in all aspects of life."See on InstagramUser @Albimau said, "I try very hard to have a lot of control in my life and there is something about being submissive in the bedroom that is foreign and exciting, in a way. I wouldn't live the lifestyle that goes with it, but just the intimate part of it can really be fun."See on InstagramUser @GoodSon123 said, "It's like video games but in real life."See on InstagramUser @SpankSpankBaby69 said, "Its a release. Ive been in the BDSM scene for a little under 6 months now and Ive never felt more balanced and free. The people are totally chill too. We meet for coffee, dinner, and other numerous activities (its not always about sex you know). Were a group of freaky people who promote safety and self awareness first."See on InstagramUser @FreySF said, "For many reasons. It allows feeling very vulnerable and open to a partner, and that being ok. It can have a wide range of different experiences. It can be silly, intense, unique, sensual. Also, I just like the sensations. On another note, there's a great bdsm community out there. Meetups happen in every major metro area and many small ones too. Everything from workshops, casual get togethers at restaurants, weekend conferences, to play parties. I've made a ton of great friends through the community. And there is a real focus on consent within the community. I also enjoy organizing events and helping people find like minded folk and let go of shame or isolation when they realize they don't always have to hide how they feel and what they like. That they can make friends and find romantic partners with the same desires. I've also seen the community do a lot of good raising money for charity. If you'd like some books to read, here's my groups book list: https://soj.org/resources/suggested-reading/"See on InstagramUser @DuraluminGG said, "I have been into BDSM for about 15 years. I'm a switch, and a BDSM nerd. The immediate answer would be : people who are vanilla only, why? A more elaborate answer is that BDSM is an old word that became an umbrella term for describing a pletora of things. I think that almost everyone has some kink or fetish, most people are just inhibited to express, or try. It's not just spanking or whips. If I remember correctly, research says that at least 1 person every 6 has unexpressed sexual fantasy about S/M (sadomasochism) or D/s (Domination/submission). The BDSM community (especially the new generation) is very open about getting to know yourself, talking about sexuality, fetish acceptance, safety, consent, psychology of sex ecc. Mostly, it's like, the moment you start thinking, talking, studying about sex, you discover that saying you are not interested in BDSM is about like saying that you're not interested in pizza. Pizza is so varied that chances are that there is some kind of pizza out there thay you will like" See on InstagramUser @Neither994 said, "I did a test not so long ago just for fun and it helped me understand a lot of the whole thing & mostly myself. It goes beyond ropes and gags. While I do not get off from leather, wax or petplay (to mention some) I really enjoy the physical struggle and the fight for power between the participants. The test put me as someone with "Brat" tendencies, I like defying authority of someone who claims to be in control over me. I like getting rough, submitted and ofc getting aftercare later. I like bruises, marks the feeling of muscular ache. For me is not a lifestyle. I'm not becoming anyone's slave, or maid nor I am being submissive or bratty the whole time. Is just a mood when getting it on. If me and my partner are vibing, why not do it"

Transgender and nonbinary youth in the U.S. are usually receiving support from their parents or guardians, but they suffer disproportionately from bullying in school, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.The findings are from the foundations 2024 Report on the Experiences of Parents of Transgender and Non-Binary Children, which highlights the struggles trans youth continue to face despite increased parental support, released Thursday along with its first Supporting Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Expansive Children guide, created by the foundations Parents for Transgender Equality National Council. The foundation is the educational arm of HRC.More than 92 percent of parents surveyed were supportive of their childs trans identity, notes the report, which features data collected in collaboration with the University of Florida and University of Arizona from nearly 1,500 parents and caregivers of trans and nonbinary youth aged 18 and under.But the situation was not so good at school. Fifty-five percent of parents said their child had been bullied at school in the past year. Only 26.2 percent had a gender support plan for their child at school. However, of those who did, more than 90 percent said the support plan was very or somewhat helpful. About one in five parents chose their childs school or district based on policies regarding LGBTQ+ students. But about one in five also reported that their childs school was not supportive when it came to restroom use, and a third cited lack of support for locker room use.And despite parental support, many trans and nonbinary children have experienced mental health challenges. Of the parents surveyed, 39.6 percent said their child had been diagnosed with depression, and 49.4 percent said the child was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Sixteen percent said their child had been hospitalized for mental health needs, and among those parents, 33 percent said it was related to their gender identity. Parents and caregivers had challenges too, with about 20 percent screening positive for moderate or severe depression.The parents surveyed are seeking appropriate health care for their trans and nonbinary children, but some are finding barriers here. Ninety-five percent said their child saw at least one doctor in the prior year who knew the child was trans and that the doctor treated them with respect. However, 24 percent said they had to teach a doctor or health care provider about trans people to receive appropriate care; 5.1 percent had a doctor refuse to give their child trans-related and/or gender-affirming care; 21.6 percent had changed providers at some point due to mistreatment, lack of competency, or other reasons related to gender-affirming care; and 25.1 percent experienced at least one barrier to accessing gender-affirming care for their child.Children are coming out as trans or nonbinary at a young age, the survey notes. On average, parents and caregivers said their child shared their gender identity with them around 11 years old and over half shared their identity before the age of 13.The report indicates that parents and children are engaging in advocacy. Half of parents have written to or called their political representatives regarding trans issues, and 17 percent said their child has spoken publicly about these issues.Still, more than half of parents said they need more resources to help their children, and the new guide is designed to provide those. This guide is exactly the tool I needed years ago when my daughter was searching for the words to tell us who she was, Parents for Transgender Equality National Council member Keisha Bell said in a press release. The guide highlights the nuances of what it means to care for a trans or nonbinary child while also providing guidance to those who are unsure of how to navigate this transition. From helping find an appropriate clinician to providing detailed steps that help support your childs needs, this guide provides the resources needed to ensure the trans and nonbinary youth in your life feel seen and understood.Parents have made a great deal of progress towards supporting trans youth, while the schools and systems of care around them are often falling short, added Shoshana Goldberg, director of public education and research at the HRC Foundation. By taking simple actions like meeting with the school principal and counselor, connecting with trans-affirming local and online communities, and advocating for their child in health care settings, parents can go a long way towards promoting better outcomes for the trans and nonbinary youth in their lives.

It's a tenant of BDSM culture to not "yuck anyone else's yum," which is to say you shouldn't hate on other people's kinks just because they're not yours or you don't get them.BDSM is an initialism short for "Bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism" with the latter half also standing for "submission/Dominance." But just like learning not to yuck anyone's yum when it comes to food, it's easier to do when you hear why it is other people are into something. If you're not into BDSM, what the community would lovingly refer to as "vanilla", it might be hard to wrap your head around just why someone would choose to beTwo different online communities tried to delve into just that. Users posted on the AskReddit and askpsychology subreddits both had users inquire about why people are into BDSM. Here's why those in the subculture enjoy it in their own words.See on InstagramUser @Heathen33 said, "I enjoy it because even as a submissive it gives me a sense of control and since my relationship is a long term one it gives me reasons to trust because I have a lot of trust issues from past relationships and had no control in them even over what happened to myself.See on InstagramUser @Onctech said, "To be completely honest, no study or psychologist has ever come up with a strong, definitive explanation. To me, that means that there are likely multiple, completely unrelated causes or attributes that simply lead to a common preference. I'll offer one study that I believe illustrates this well: Murray A. Straus, a famous sociologist who specialized in the study of child abuse, conducted a study where respondents to a survey gave information about having been punished as children with "non-abusive" spanking (i.e. legal in the US), and their adult enjoyment of BDSM. He found a very high correlation between spanking children and them growing up to like BDSM, so there appears to be some causal link. However, a not-insignificant chunk of his sample endorsed liking BDSM, but had zero history of spanking, which means that it cannot possibly be a complete explanation."See on InstagramUser @Illustrious_Bend3111 said, "I enjoy bdsm and I have no clue why to be honest. It just feels right I guess Im really into submission and bondage parts and it might be just because of childhood stuff or something."See on InstagramUser @Optimal_Agent_8372 said, "This is simple. Because people love play on power in all aspects of life."See on InstagramUser @Albimau said, "I try very hard to have a lot of control in my life and there is something about being submissive in the bedroom that is foreign and exciting, in a way. I wouldn't live the lifestyle that goes with it, but just the intimate part of it can really be fun."See on InstagramUser @GoodSon123 said, "It's like video games but in real life."See on InstagramUser @SpankSpankBaby69 said, "Its a release. Ive been in the BDSM scene for a little under 6 months now and Ive never felt more balanced and free. The people are totally chill too. We meet for coffee, dinner, and other numerous activities (its not always about sex you know). Were a group of freaky people who promote safety and self awareness first."See on InstagramUser @FreySF said, "For many reasons. It allows feeling very vulnerable and open to a partner, and that being ok. It can have a wide range of different experiences. It can be silly, intense, unique, sensual. Also, I just like the sensations. On another note, there's a great bdsm community out there. Meetups happen in every major metro area and many small ones too. Everything from workshops, casual get togethers at restaurants, weekend conferences, to play parties. I've made a ton of great friends through the community. And there is a real focus on consent within the community. I also enjoy organizing events and helping people find like minded folk and let go of shame or isolation when they realize they don't always have to hide how they feel and what they like. That they can make friends and find romantic partners with the same desires. I've also seen the community do a lot of good raising money for charity. If you'd like some books to read, here's my groups book list: https://soj.org/resources/suggested-reading/"See on InstagramUser @DuraluminGG said, "I have been into BDSM for about 15 years. I'm a switch, and a BDSM nerd. The immediate answer would be : people who are vanilla only, why? A more elaborate answer is that BDSM is an old word that became an umbrella term for describing a pletora of things. I think that almost everyone has some kink or fetish, most people are just inhibited to express, or try. It's not just spanking or whips. If I remember correctly, research says that at least 1 person every 6 has unexpressed sexual fantasy about S/M (sadomasochism) or D/s (Domination/submission). The BDSM community (especially the new generation) is very open about getting to know yourself, talking about sexuality, fetish acceptance, safety, consent, psychology of sex ecc. Mostly, it's like, the moment you start thinking, talking, studying about sex, you discover that saying you are not interested in BDSM is about like saying that you're not interested in pizza. Pizza is so varied that chances are that there is some kind of pizza out there thay you will like" See on InstagramUser @Neither994 said, "I did a test not so long ago just for fun and it helped me understand a lot of the whole thing & mostly myself. It goes beyond ropes and gags. While I do not get off from leather, wax or petplay (to mention some) I really enjoy the physical struggle and the fight for power between the participants. The test put me as someone with "Brat" tendencies, I like defying authority of someone who claims to be in control over me. I like getting rough, submitted and ofc getting aftercare later. I like bruises, marks the feeling of muscular ache. For me is not a lifestyle. I'm not becoming anyone's slave, or maid nor I am being submissive or bratty the whole time. Is just a mood when getting it on. If me and my partner are vibing, why not do it"

Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that member states must recognize legal documents from other countries that reflect a persons changed name and gender identity, regardless of the member states own laws on changing ones name and identity.This decision comes in light of a Romanian transgender man, Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi, who moved to the United Kingdom when the island country was still a member of the European Union (EU). Mirzarafie-Ahi had legally changed his gender identity and name while in the United Kingdom. He attempted to use his newly changed U.K. documents to receive an altered birth certificate from Romania. However, the country did not recognize his altered name and identity, leading him to sue Romania in the CJEU. Related Czech Republics high court rules against forced surgeries for trans people The surgeries used to make trans people unable to have kids. The court called the procedures a violation of human dignity. Romania argued that the name and gender change violated their laws, and that, since the United Kingdom was no longer a member of the EU, any changes within that country do not need to be recognized by Romania under its obligations to other EU member nations. Global perspectives delivered right to your inbox Our newsletter bridges borders to bring you LGBTQ+ news from around the world. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The court, however, argued that Romanias reasoning would unlawfully restrict EU citizens freedom of movement and residence between different countries.Additionally, the court argued that Romanias policy would put an undue burden on individuals like Mirzarafie-Ahi, who would then have to be known as two different names and genders in different countries, creating legislative hurdles as they attempt to prove their identity. The court said such policies would restrict the right to establish details of their identity as individual human beings, which includes the right of transsexual people to personal development and physical and moral integrity and to respect for and recognition of their sexual identity.The court also ruled that the status of the United Kingdoms departure from the European Union is irrelevant, as individuals are still within their rights during the United Kingdoms transition period while departing from the EU. When exercising his freedom of movement and residence in the United Kingdom, before the withdrawal of that Member State from the European Union and before the end of the transition period, respectively, he may rely, against that Member State of origin, on the rights pertaining to that status, says the court.Mirzarafie-Ahi told The Washington Post that this really is quite amazing, especially in light of his past experiences with Romania. When traveling to the country, he would often run into issues with border control, who would press him on the differences between his passport information and his actual appearance. They would ask invasive questions relating to what surgeries he had received and what his genitals were like. Romania refused to update his passport.Now, however, he can openly state that he is from Romania.This decision reflects a similar case from 2018, where the CJEU ruled that member states have to recognize same-sex marriages from other countries, even if they themselves do not allow such unions. The courts ruling faced immense pushback from more conservative EU countries like Bulgaria which argued that the ruling would restrict their individual rights. The same may be argued by EU member states now, says Catherine Barnard, an expert in EU law at the University of Cambridge. Of course, to liberals, its a good thing, to use the courts to push Romania to become more progressive, but if youre more conservative or hostile to the EU, you can say, How dare the EU interfere with things that go to the heart of our beliefs, Barnard told The Washington Post.Mirzarafie-Ahis legal counsel, human rights lawyer Iustina Ionescu, said in a statement, Todays verdict has shown us that trans people are equal citizens of the European Union. When you have rebuilt a life in another part of the European Union because you are not welcome in your own country, it is normal to ask to be treated with dignity when interacting with the authorities in your home country. Marie-Hlne Ludwig, senior strategic litigator with the LGBTQ+ rights organization ILGA-Europe, said in a statement, Todays ruling confirms that without mutual recognition of legal gender recognition from one Member State to another, the right to freedom of movement and residence is not guaranteed for trans people in the EU. It is a great victory that shows the power of strategic litigation in the EU.This judgement will have an immensely positive impact, increasing legal protection for all trans people in the EU, all the more as certain EU countries like Romania still do not provide a legal framework for legal gender recognition conforming with European Court of Human Rights standards, Ludwig added.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that member states must recognize legal documents from other countries that reflect a persons changed name and gender identity, regardless of the member states own laws on changing ones name and identity.This decision comes in light of a Romanian transgender man, Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi, who moved to the United Kingdom when the island country was still a member of the European Union (EU). Mirzarafie-Ahi had legally changed his gender identity and name while in the United Kingdom. He attempted to use his newly changed U.K. documents to receive an altered birth certificate from Romania. However, the country did not recognize his altered name and identity, leading him to sue Romania in the CJEU. Related Czech Republics high court rules against forced surgeries for trans people The surgeries used to make trans people unable to have kids. The court called the procedures a violation of human dignity. Romania argued that the name and gender change violated their laws, and that, since the United Kingdom was no longer a member of the EU, any changes within that country do not need to be recognized by Romania under its obligations to other EU member nations. Global perspectives delivered right to your inbox Our newsletter bridges borders to bring you LGBTQ+ news from around the world. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The court, however, argued that Romanias reasoning would unlawfully restrict EU citizens freedom of movement and residence between different countries.Additionally, the court argued that Romanias policy would put an undue burden on individuals like Mirzarafie-Ahi, who would then have to be known as two different names and genders in different countries, creating legislative hurdles as they attempt to prove their identity. The court said such policies would restrict the right to establish details of their identity as individual human beings, which includes the right of transsexual people to personal development and physical and moral integrity and to respect for and recognition of their sexual identity.The court also ruled that the status of the United Kingdoms departure from the European Union is irrelevant, as individuals are still within their rights during the United Kingdoms transition period while departing from the EU. When exercising his freedom of movement and residence in the United Kingdom, before the withdrawal of that Member State from the European Union and before the end of the transition period, respectively, he may rely, against that Member State of origin, on the rights pertaining to that status, says the court.Mirzarafie-Ahi told The Washington Post that this really is quite amazing, especially in light of his past experiences with Romania. When traveling to the country, he would often run into issues with border control, who would press him on the differences between his passport information and his actual appearance. They would ask invasive questions relating to what surgeries he had received and what his genitals were like. Romania refused to update his passport.Now, however, he can openly state that he is from Romania.This decision reflects a similar case from 2018, where the CJEU ruled that member states have to recognize same-sex marriages from other countries, even if they themselves do not allow such unions. The courts ruling faced immense pushback from more conservative EU countries like Bulgaria which argued that the ruling would restrict their individual rights. The same may be argued by EU member states now, says Catherine Barnard, an expert in EU law at the University of Cambridge. Of course, to liberals, its a good thing, to use the courts to push Romania to become more progressive, but if youre more conservative or hostile to the EU, you can say, How dare the EU interfere with things that go to the heart of our beliefs, Barnard told The Washington Post.Mirzarafie-Ahis legal counsel, human rights lawyer Iustina Ionescu, said in a statement, Todays verdict has shown us that trans people are equal citizens of the European Union. When you have rebuilt a life in another part of the European Union because you are not welcome in your own country, it is normal to ask to be treated with dignity when interacting with the authorities in your home country. Marie-Hlne Ludwig, senior strategic litigator with the LGBTQ+ rights organization ILGA-Europe, said in a statement, Todays ruling confirms that without mutual recognition of legal gender recognition from one Member State to another, the right to freedom of movement and residence is not guaranteed for trans people in the EU. It is a great victory that shows the power of strategic litigation in the EU.This judgement will have an immensely positive impact, increasing legal protection for all trans people in the EU, all the more as certain EU countries like Romania still do not provide a legal framework for legal gender recognition conforming with European Court of Human Rights standards, Ludwig added.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Time to take out your tiaras!It's official, The Princess Diaries has a new chapter coming! The third installment of Disneys Princess Diaries franchise is in the works. Deadline reported the film's announcement on Friday, with star Anne Hathaway sharing the news via social media.See on InstagramBased on the popular book series by Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries tells the story of Amelia (with Hathaway making her movie debut in the role), a Californian teenager who learns from her royal grandmother, Clarisse (played by the phenomenal Julie Andrews), that she is a princess of Genoviaa tiny nation between France and Spain. With her trusted friend Lily (Heather Matarazzo) and her grandmothers trusted security, Joe (Hctor Elizondo), by her side, Amelia is taught the art of royal etiquette. From how to sit to dining, dance, along with a stylish transformation, we see Amelia through her teenage angst and "princess lessons" as she prepares to one day sit on the throne.In The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Amelia learns she can only be queen if she finds a husband within a month, otherwise, the throne goes to Lord Devereaux (Chris Pine). After a round of clumsy mishaps, *spoilers* Amelia does fall appear to fall in love with Devereaux in the end.But does she find her happy ending?No details yet on what royal hijinx Amelia will get into in the third installment, but, rest assured, Im already practicing my royal waves and curtsies in anticipation! The two films were directed by the late Garry Marshall, who passed in 2016. Adele Lim, best known for screenwriting Crazy Rich Asians and made her directorial debut with Joy Ride, will now sit in the directors chair.The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2 are available to stream on Disney+.

At long last, Heartstopper returns for its third season, and with it comes many changes in the lives of its young (soon-to-be-actual) lovers, Nick and Charlie. While theyve only aged about a year since we first met them, the actors who portray them, Kit Connor and Joe Locke, respectively, have grown and matured significantly, as Connor is quick to point out. Were all a little bit more experienced, and were generally another year older and slightly, slightly, slightly, wiser.. and that hopefully sort of comes across in our performances, he jokes to PRIDE. Yes, theyre older, but being on a hit show that blossomed into booming careers in TV, film, and stage is not only life-altering, but naturally it would make one grow up quickly. All of that maturity, all of that experience, all of that personal reflection, is something Locke says hes channeled into his performance this season. Weve all changed a lot since the first season came out, you know, because of the show and as people as well. Were aging faster than Nick and Charlie were initially. Theyre, like, only a year older than they were when we first met them, Locke tells PRIDE. Ive gone from feeling very parallel to Charlie to almost feeling like an older figure looking down on him now, which is a strange dynamic shift I didnt quite expect.The timing could not be better, as season three explores increasingly mature themes that the actors feel more prepared to take on this time around. We have grown and matured slightly faster than the characters, Connor notes thoughtfully, it also means that we have brought a certain level of maturity in our performances and obviously we look a lot different every time we come back, he adds with a wry smile.Yeah... in a weird way, its like sending your kids off into the wild. Its weird, adds Locke. Perhaps Conner is just referring to how quickly theyve grown up in front of us or maybe its a nod to the fact that Connor is seemingly embracing his twunk era. Whatever the case may be, one thing is clear, and its that both actors feel more at ease and comfortable in their roles, and their chemistry both on screen and off is sweet and palpable. Its thanks in part to how close the cast gets to be during shooting.When asked about their favorite moments while filming this year, Locke cant pin it down to just one. The whole filming experience, he says. We all live in the same apartment block. We all have dinner with each other every night. So it sort of becomes like one big, long trip together, which is really nice. I think going into this season, we were already so close so that only got stronger throughout the shooting period.It also meant that some of the biggest moments theyve experienced this year happened while they were together. I was there when Joe got the call that he was going to be in Sweeney Todd, and that was really special, recalls Connor. [During season twos filming] we were there when you found out that you were going to be in Marvel. Weve all kind of experienced each others careers blooming...weve all kind of been there to see each other grow.Speaking of Marvel, Locke is currently starring in the delightfully queer (and just plain delightful) Agatha All Along, a role determined Marvel-hater Charlie Spring would scoff at and does repeatedly with a running gag about his lack of appreciation for all things superhero. Has that gotten back to the brass at Marvel? Locke says at least one person on the Agatha team is aware: showrunner Jac Schaeffer. I remember when Jac watched season two and saw the Marvel joke she sent me a text saying that she laughed out loud because she loved it. Really funny, he recalls. Nicks love of Marvel and Charlies teasing destain is just one of those quirks that makes Nick and Charlie so fully realized and human. That humanity and the complexity of it is on full display in season three. This time around, we see Charlie and Nicks relationship evolve and grow both emotionally and physically, including in the much-anticipated love scene, as the boys (and other couples) romance and connection naturally progress. Anytime the fullness of queer love is presented with such thoughtfulness, nuance, and tenderness, its a win for queer representation. We love queer joy however, what continues to make Heartstopper such an incredible series is how well it navigates the delicate balance of showing that, while also depicting the struggles that many young queer people face, whether it be bullying, forced outing, familial estrangement, or, in the case of Charlie this season, a struggle with body image that has continued to escalate.In the second season, it became increasingly clear that Charlie is struggling with his relationship with food, a battle that is all too familiar for queer folks of all ages. This season, the series delves even deeper into both how those difficulties manifest in his life and the underlying trauma that led to them. Charlies mental health storyline is definitely a tricky one to do, says Locke. We all wanted to do it with the most respect and authenticity possible. And its a really hard thing to talk about, but a very necessary thing to do, and you can never please everyone, but I really hope that we have managed to do it with the most respect.On the flip side, we see the impact that can have on the loved ones around him, including, of course, Nick. Hes just really there to try to support Charlie and be there for him. He wants to try and just protect them from any danger in the world and anything that might sort of pose him [harm] or cause him pain, Connor explains. Thats a very human, very familiar feeling for a lot of people. So I was thinking back to my own life and then you when youre concerned about someone that you love.At its core, Heartstopper is a series about empathy, imperfection, acceptance, love and sometimes the pain that comes with all of those things. Yes, its also wish fulfillment for all those queer kids out there who crave that sweeping high school romance, and queer adults who remember that time with an aching nostalgia. But its also a promise of a future where a story like Charlie and Nicks wouldnt feel so revelatory. I could just be the incredibly sweet and well-done coming of age and first love tale that it is. Until that day, season three is a great reminder of why we are so grateful it exists at all.Heartstopper season three is streaming now on Netflix. Watch PRIDE's full interview with Kit Connor and Joe Locke below.

It's time to make the yuletide gay!Taylor Frey and Kyle Dean Massey have teamed up yet again for a gay holiday rom-com, but this time around, they're being their true authentic selves.Fans of the handsome hubbies have seen them play queer characters in Hallmark and Lifetime films, but the couple decided to take their new film The Holiday Exchange into their own hands."[This film] is a little bit of a twist on The Holiday, which is one of my personal favorites. It turns out, selling a gay Christmas movie can be really tricky. The holiday market is somehow just reserved for straight people and straight storylines and that's really frustrating," Frey tells PRIDE. See on Instagram Although LGBTQ+ representation has certainly improved throughout the years, there's a level of realness that's often missing or suppressed in mainstream films."I wanted to speak truly to the gay experience. This was a really empowering venture for us to do it our way. We weren't making this film for Lifetime. This was not something for Hallmark. It was just important for us to make sure that another gay holiday-themed film was coming out this year," Frey explains.Hallmark and Lifetime movies are also known for being quite cheesy, so Frey and Massey wanted to showcase real LGBTQ+ love in this movie, which includes more spicy content that's typically never seen on the conservative networks."Some of the dialogue might be a little bit spicy. There might be a couple scenes where Taylor is in a certain level of undress, which everyone enjoyed at the screening," Massey jokes."And that was modest! The kisses... they're real kisses," Frey adds. "There's a lot of kissing and it's real. There's drool and there's sloppiness. No shame on Hallmark or Lifetime, but it's a peck and that's enough. I don't want to play by those rules anymore."Sadly, The Holiday Exchange serves as one of the only new LGBTQ+ films to premiere during the holiday season this year, which is a drastic dip in queer representation.Frey wants to make sure young gay people still have something to watch so they can feel seen and less alone."If I had seen this as a boy, that would have made a huge difference for me in a Mormon household. It just was not available to me, so if this seeps into a house or two that might need it, that would be a job well done," Frey says.The Holiday Exchange is streaming now on Peacock, Prime Video, and Tubi. To see the full interview with Taylor Frey and Kyle Dean Massey, check out the video at the top of the page. - YouTube youtu.be

Competing on Drag Race usually catapults queens to stardom, but it turns out some queens have family members who are even more famous! From politicians to singers to baseball royalty, these reality TV queens have family members who have been making headlines for years.Alexis Michelle is Lisa Loeb's cousinAlexis Michelle may have rocketed to fame on season 7 of Drag Race, but her cousin, singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb, has been famous for decades. She's most well known for her hit song "Stay (I Missed You)" from the Reality Bites soundtrack if you were a '90s teen, you remember her because you've seen the quintessential Gen X film a million times.Honey Davenport is Lee Daniels' cousinDrag Race season 11 star Honey Davenport is the cousin of famed Hollywood filmmaker Lee Daniels, who is best known for directing Precious, The Deliverance, and the Halle Berry movie Monsters Ball. RuPaul is Corey Booker's cousinDrag icon and Mother RuPaul is world famous for her creating and hosting RuPauls Drag Race, but her politically minded cousin makes headlines all of the time, too. RuPaul is the cousin of one of the more progressive members of the U.S. Senate, Democrat Cory Booker (N.J.).Tayce is the daughter of Roger RadixDrag Race season two star Tayce is related to queer culture royalty! Tayces dad is none other than Wham! bassist Roger Radix. Tayce has said that her parents have always been supportive of her drag and music career, which makes sense considering he was part of a band fronted by an out gay man who frequently wrote songs about his sexuality. Kelly Mantle is the niece of Mickey MantleEven if you know absolutely nothing about baseball, youve likely heard of Drag Race season 6 star Kelly Mantles uncle since his name is basically synonymous with Americas pastime. The comedy queen is the niece of famous New York Yankee superstar Mickey Mantle, who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time.Raja is the niece of HamkaRaja, who won the third season of Drag Race, is the niece of famous Indonesian philosopher, writer, politician, and journalist Hamka. He was a prolific Islamic writer who penned 84 books and is considered to be an Indonesian National Hero.Plasma is Bill Ratliff's grandsonDrag Race season 16 queen Plasma is the grandson of well-known Republican lawmaker Bill Ratliff, who was the Lieutenant Gov. of Texas and a member of the Texas State Senate. Plasmas uncle Bennett Ratliff is also a famous Republican, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, currently serving as a Planning and Zoning Commissioner in Plano, Texas.Monica Beverly Hillz is Rima Mellal's cousinMonica Beverly Hillz and her cousin Rima Mellal are both famous for appearing on reality TV. While Monica competed in the fifth season of Drag Race and All Stars 8, her cousin was in Bad Girls Clubs ninth season in Mexico and then came back for season 13.Milk is Tom Kenny's cousinMilk, who competed in Drag Race season 6 and All Stars 3, is Tom Kenny's cousin. You may not know his name, but you definitely know his voice! Kenny voices the titular SpongeBob SquarePants, as well as Heffer Wolfe in Rocko's Modern Life, Ice King in Adventure Time, and Dog in CatDog, just to name a few.

Nehellenia says there has been some big Drag Race drama brewing behind the scenes, and now she's spilling the tea!In the main part of the episode, Nehellenia finally got her win in the makeover challenge, but in Untucked after judges' critiques, Kween Kong had some pretty tough critiques of her own for the Drag Race Italia star. "You could have blended the beard or maybe shaped the jawline a little bit," Kween told Nehellenia's makeover partner Pythia in the episode. She went on to talk about how she didn't think the two queens met the challenge and was confused as to why they were on top. "I don't mean to be a btch, but am I looking at the same thing," Kween said.Nehellenia opened up on Instagram Live about what went down. The queen alleged that in footage that wasn't aired, Alyssa defended her, despite saying, "I'm staying the hell up out of this" in a talking head during the episode.@dragjournalsNot half of the global allstars cast wanting Kween disqualified for bullying #dragqueen #drag #dragrace #rpdr #lipsyncforyourlife #dragcon #rpdruk #rupaul #rupaulsdragrace #nehellenia #trixieandkatya #trixiemattel #sashacolby #allstars9 #bobthedragqueen #globalallstarsOn.IG Live, Nehellenia said that even more happened that didn't make it in the episode. She explained that the comments from Kween got so bad that all the other girls wanted her off the show, and Nehellenia admitted that she told production that Kween "needs to be disqualified for that." And told her followers that this episode of Untucked was the only time all season she used the word "bully."Then, when a follower asked how long the fight was between Alyssa and Kween since it wasn't aired, Nehellenia said she couldn't say for sure because she didn't have a watch but described it as "very long."On the other hand, fellow competitor Soa De Muse also went on Live to explain that Kween wasnt being a bully; shes just more blunt than the European competitors are used to and said that people needed to settle down because its just a TV show. from rupaulsdragraceMaybe we'll never know the whole story! But one thing is for sure, Global All Stars is giving early seasons drama! But more importantly, no matter what you think happened or who you agree with, don't be a bully and stay out of these queens' DMs!

Here are this weeks most popular positive stories, with some fun social media posts tossed in too. Like seeing uplifting content like this?Sign up for our Good News email.Happy Saturday, everybody! This week has been full of small surprises, warm fuzzies, and unexpected comforts and were happy to share them with you as your weekend gets off to a fun and relaxing start.This jaw-dropping hoop routine is a real Thriller View this post on Instagram A post shared by Common (@common.entertainment) Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today These 4 queer visionaries each just won $800,000 as MacArthur Award recipientsIf youve never heard of the MacArthur genius grant, its kind of a big deal: You cant apply for it you can only be chosen, and the award gives recipients five years to pursue their creative passions. About 15% of this years 26 award recipients were LGBTQ+ identified. The group includes a legendary cabaret performer, a mindblowing choreographer, and an editor who is bringing disabled peoples experiences to the masses.And talking about inspiring creatives, check outthese 7 queer Latinx artists who were honored on stamps, these7 drag queens who most influenced American culture, and thislong-term gay couple who captured hearts by re-creating some of their old photos together. Judge says no to dads ridiculous demand about flags in kids classroomsNathan Feldman wanted $3 million after he wasnt allowed to display something silly in public schools what a rube! Haters tried to ruin a Pride festival. Fierce townsfolk shut them down.Some uninvited guests tried to crash the party. What happened next surprised and delighted the local LGBTQ+ community.Rollerblading Spiderman is serving some serious slayage in Libson View this post on Instagram A post shared by Epic Skate (@epicskaterink) This beautiful, inspiring film is changing hearts & minds before Election DayComedian Will Ferrell wanted people to have important discussions in their living rooms about befriending the trans community. LGBTQ+ History Month is celebrated around the world. It all started with one man & a dream.The founder of LGBTQ+ History Month reflects on 30 years of celebrating queer stories.Rebel Wilson marries her wife in beautiful destination wedding in ItalyI thought I was searching for a Disney Prince but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess. Anyone can be dazzling, with the right hairdresser View this post on Instagram A post shared by Devon Poole (@itsdevonpoole) California scores a major win for LGBTQ+ & free speech advocatesReading is fundamental, diversity is beautiful, and the states libraries just got some major protections to ensure they serve their communities well.These barbers gave free gender-affirming haircuts to LGBTQ+ youth for bodily autonomyNo appointment necessary, just walk in! the announcement on social media read. Flamingo dads dazzle zoo-goers by sweetly caring for adorable newborn chickAnd theres video with people going Awwwww! as the new family bonds. This trans dudes supportive mom is making us smile View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aaron Tiago de Aguiar (@aaron.deaguiar)From our sibling sites:OUTSPORTS:Here are 6 out athletes marking milestone anniversaries in 2024GAYCITIES:NC gay bar destroyed in floods was only open 32 days. People are rallying to support the owners.QUEERTY:Noahs Arc creator Patrik-Ian Polk & other Black creators break new ground at the Queer Voices: NYC Film FestINTO:This fan theory about a Simpsons character has trans folks jumping for joy

After seven years of delay and a mistrial, the killers of a gay photographer in San Franciscos Twin Peaks area were found guilty of first-degree murder and now await sentencing in December.Fantasy Decuir and Lamonte Mims, both 27, were convicted in the robbery and death of Edward French, a 71-year-old photographer who had gone to the scenic hilltop vista to capture sunrise photos. Related Police finally arrest sexual partner suspected in gay doctors grisly 2023 murder About 15 months ago, Dr. Devon Hoover was found shot twice in the head and hidden in his own attic. Decuir was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances, second-degree robbery, and intentional use of a firearm causing death, according to a statement from San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. Mims was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances and intentional use of a firearm. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The victim was ripped from the lives of his friends and family by this callous killing over a camera, said AssistantDistrict Attorney Aaron Laycook.According to evidence and witness testimony presented at trial, French had gone to Twin Peaks early on the morning of July 16, 2017 to take pictures with his new Canon Mark III camera. Video surveillance revealed Decuir and Mims approaching French and robbing him at gunpoint.When Mims struggled to pull the camera away from French, Decuir shot him through the heart and right lung. As he lay bleeding on the ground, Mims grabbed the bag from French and kicked him, prosecutors said.The jurys verdict holds Ms. Decuir and Mr. Mims accountable for the cold-blooded murder of an elder in our community doing what he loved to do the morning he was killed in 2017, Jenkins said following the conviction. A mistrial was declared in 2023 after Decuir and Mims first appeared before a jury, which failed to reach a unanimous verdict.In that trial, the defense claimed that Decuir was in a state of unconsciousness when she shot French due to extreme pain from sickle cell disease and the large amounts of opiates prescribed and administered to her to relieve it, defense attorneystold The Bay Area Reporter.The killers defense team also argued that Decuir had a low IQ and a lack of adaptive functioning.Just hours after the murder, Decuir and Mims tried to sell Frenchs camera downtown on Market Street, a location that would been in his field of view from where he was killed on Twin Peaks.Twelve days later, Decuir and Mims robbed two tourists at gunpoint, stealing their camera and credit cards. This robbery led to the pairs apprehension for Frenchs murder. At the conclusion of the first trial last year, Brian Higginbotham paid tribute to his deceased partner.Ed was amazing. He was born and raised here in San Francisco. He was Mr. San Francisco, the nicest person. He loved the city he took pictures for a living that showed how beautiful San Francisco is, and filmed commercials, and to be up there on that Sunday morning, for this to happen and for there to be no consequences so far I could almost start crying here, Higginbotham said. Well get justice.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

After surviving two apparent assassination attempts,Donald Trumpand his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), are blaming Democrats (specifically Joe Biden and Kamala Harris) and pundits for stoking the flames of violence against him by their repeated claims that Trump is a threat to democracy and by pundits assessment that he and the Heritage Foundations Project 2025 plan is a recipe for fascism.On the right-wing side of the dictatorial strongmans political spectrum, we find the philosophy and practice of fascism. While deployed as an epithet by some, fascism developed as a form of radical authoritarian nationalism in early 20th-century Europe in response to left-wing liberalism and Marxism. Related Donald Trump slammed for refusing to pull endorsement of black Nazi Mark Robinson Extreme birds of a feather. While fascist elements have always been ingrained in U.S. political systems even before the term was coined fascism is now the ruling party with Donald J. Trump as its leader. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today Political scientist, Lawrence Britt,enumerates14 characteristics of fascism as the following:1. Powerful and continuing nationalism2. Disdain for the recognition of human rights3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats [of the countrys problems] as a unifying cause4. Rampant sexism5. Supremacy of the military6. Controlled mass media7. Obsession with national security8. Religion and government are intertwined9. Corporate power is protected10. Labor power is suppressed11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts12. Obsession with crime and punishment13. Rampant cronyism and corruption14. Fraudulent electionsWhile many governmental leaders and candidates for public office may push for some of these tactics while remaining outside the definition of fascist, their cumulative effect increases depending on the severity of and the degree to which they initiate these measures.So, lets look at Donald Trumps words, actions, and policy initiatives through the lens of Lawrence Britts tenets of fascism. All the ways that Trump marks the checkboxes for fascism:1. Powerful and continuing nationalism: Appeals to nationalism with talk of isolationism, building walls, and sh**hole countries presented in the guise of popularism, feeding on peoples fears and prejudices, which has resulted in the segregation of people and nations from one another, and threats and dangers of violence. He attacks and suggests separating from long-established alliances like NATO while having obsessive admiration for tyrannical dictators like Putin, Orban, and Kim. CHECK!2. Disdain for the recognition of human rights: Threats to and rollbacks of many of the rights and protections minoritized peoples have tirelessly fought for over the past decades: reproductive rights, voting rights, citizenship rights, human rights, anti-torture guarantees, immigrant rights, rights of unreasonable search and seizure, rights of assembly, disability rights, freedom of religion, transgender rights, marriage equality and equal protection under the 14thAmendment of the Constitution. CHECK!3.Identification of enemies/scapegoats [of the countrys problems] as a unifying cause by singling outalready disenfranchised identity groups as the internal and external enemies of the United States: Muslims and anyone from Muslim-majority countries, Mexicans and all Latinx people, urban thugs, the press, Haitians, Somalis, LGBTQ+ people, Drag Queens, George Soros (representing an alleged world Jewish financial and political conspiracy), Democrats, Mike Pence, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Kamala Harris, the ACLU, most Democrats, etc. CHECK! 4.Rampant sexismand toxic misogynistic utterances and allegations, primarily against women of color, state prosecutors, and legislators opposing the Republican Partys political agenda. Add to that credible charges by several women reaching historic proportions and convictions for sexual harassment. Robbing people the right to control their bodies by stacking the Supreme Court with justices who reversed Roe v. Wade CHECK!5. Supremacy of the military: Promises to enlarge and improve our failing military and fire generals whom Trump knows more than about ISIS, and his apparent lack of knowledge about or fear of nuclear weapons.Supremacy of the military by perennially proposing exponentially high increases in the budget for the Pentagon. Employing the military for civil projects, like stationing service members on the southern border to engage in duties not directly specified for the military, and even considering instituting martial law rather than leaving the White House after the new president had been inaugurated CHECK! 6.Controlled mass media: Threats to employ libel laws to sue the crooked and lying media (Lgenpresse, lying press popularized by the German Nazis to silence opposition), banning books and other school curricular materials like Critical Race Theory and any discussions related to the truth presented age-appropriately about some of the hard history of the United States, discussions of LGBTQ+ topics, and topics of gender all in the name of supposedly protecting parental rights CHECK! 7. Obsession with national security: Continual cries against Islamic jihadist terrorists and immigrants released from mental asylums and prisons as the major threats to our nation, thereby targeting U.S. Muslims, Latinx people, and Haitians in increased calls for a national registry, arrests, separation from their children, and surveillance to track their movements CHECK!8.Religion and government are intertwinedthrough a tight network of Christian nationalists using selected passages from the Christian Testament as justification for its right-wing stands, attendance at several Christian prayer vigils, and the former presidents appearances atconservative-right Christian conferences and universities like Liberty University, with calls to Make America Great Again giving the subliminal dog-whistle message of making America white and Protestant again CHECK!9.Corporate power is protected. Increased deregulation of the energy and corporate business sectors with massive tax cuts and other financial incentives.Oneof the very first actions of my administration was to impose a two-for-one rule on new federal regulations. We ordered that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated, Trump said in early 2017. CHECK! 10.Labor power is suppressedwith anti-labor actions to reduce the rights of workers to organize and negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Plans to privatize entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps (SNAP Benefits), and the Affordable Care Act, advocacy for the abolition of a national minimum wage, non-payment of overtime, and other neo-liberal actions CHECK! 11.Disdain for intellectuals and the artswith resentment and attacks on the political, media, and intellectual elites to the point of instigating scorn and harassment against the so-called Washington liberal elite. Making demands for an apology from the cast of the Broadway show, Hamilton: An American Musical, for voicing concerns over a Trump presidency with Vice President Mike Pence in attendance.12.Obsession with crime and punishmentwith calls for law and order involving draconian (and possibly unconstitutional) measures of torture and surveillance against groups like Black Lives Matter and antifa, but certainly not toward what Trump referred to as the patriots of January 6, 2021 who stormed the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Antagonism and intimidation toward the ongoing investigations around Trumps alleged payment of an adult video star with campaign funds, his large cache of classified documents he stored at his seaside Florida resort, and his possible involvement in the January 6thinsurrection, which some in the Republican Party define as a legal First Amendment protest CHECK! 13.Rampant cronyism and corruptionwhile in and out of office. Increasing deployment of his adult children and son-in-law as close trusted political operatives who meet with visiting diplomats and travel to foreign capitals to negotiate political and business deals. Add to that, continuously unresolved conflict-of-interest issues and emoluments breeches between his position as president and his worldwide business interests, with so many probes into corruption that they have all become a common occurrence CHECK!14. Fraudulent elections assisted by the Republican Party and the Supreme Court gutting the 1965 Voting Rights law, which has resulted in voter suppression campaigns effectively reducing the number of polling stations in primarily minoritized racial communities and the limiting of days and times for pre-election-day voting. Additionally, another fascist ruler, Russian President Vladimir Putin, weighed-in on Trumps side to sway the presidential election in their (Putin & Trumps) favor. Despite claimingelectionsfraud when he lost the 2020 election, no such fraud has been found in the states by any court.Is the United States still considered a democracy?As the attack in our nations capital in January 2021 attests, alongside the precipitous rise and deployment to the center of Republican Party politics of right wing extremist armed paramilitary militia groups like the Proud Boys, The Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, and other Neo-Nazi, fascist, patriarchal Christian white supremacist groups that developed with ever-increasing speed following the deadly standoff at Waco, Texas, in 1993 against the Branch Davidian cult we can now ask to what extent is the United States considered a democracy.This is democracys most challenging hour since Fort Sumter, arguedHistorian John Meacham, invoking the battle that kicked off the U.S. Civil War in 1861.in her book How Civil Wars Start, Barbara F. Walter, U.S. political scientist and Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, warns: We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe. No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline or headed toward war, but, she writes, if you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in Americayou would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely. And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory.Indeed, the United States has already gone through what the CIA identifies as the first two phases of insurgency: 1. The pre-insurgency phase, and 2. The incipient conflict phase, and only time will tell whether the final phase is fully activated. The open insurgency phase, began with the sacking of the Capitol by Donald Trumps supporters on January 6, 2021.Things deteriorated so dramatically under Trump, in fact, that the United States no longer technically qualifies as a democracy. Citing the Center for Systemic Peaces Polity data set the one the CIA task force has found to be most reliable in predicting instability and violence Walter writes that the United States is now an anocracy,somewhere between a democracy and an autocratic state.U.S. democracy had received the Polity indexs top score of 10, or close to it, for much of its history. But in the five years of Trumps candidacy and administration, it tumbled precipitously into the anocracy zone. By the end of Trumps presidency, the U.S. score had fallen to a 5, making the country a partial democracy for the first time since 1800.We are no longer the worlds oldest continuous democracy, Walter writes. That honor is now held by Switzerland, followed by New Zealand, and then Canada. We are no longer a peer to nations like Canada, Costa Rica, and Japan, which are all rated a +10 on the Polity index.Dropping five points in five years greatly increases the risk of civil war. A partial democracy is three times as likely to experience civil war as a full democracy, Walter states. A country standing on this threshold as America is now at +5 can easily be pushed toward conflict through a combination of bad governance and increasingly undemocratic measures that further weaken its institutions.Others have reached similar findings. The Stockholm-basedInternational Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistanceputs the United States on a list of backsliding democraciesin a report in November 2021.The United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, the report said. We are on the doorstep of the open insurgency stage of civil conflict, and Walter writes that once countries cross that threshold, as the CIA predicts, sustained violence as increasingly active extremists launch attacks that involve terrorism and guerrilla warfare including assassinations and ambushes.Benjamin Franklin was one of the nations founders who attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to draft our now-famous founding document. At the age of 81, though a perennial optimist, he had no illusions and thought it impossible to expect any group of people, no matter how wise or brilliant, to create a perfect production.Even with all its faults, however, Franklin believed that this Constitution was far superior to any alternative that could possibly emerge. He had a warning, though. As the story is told, when departing the Constitutional Convention, a group of citizens approached Franklin and asked him what kind of government had the delegates created?His response: A republic, if you can keep it.The time has long-since passed that we can compare the fascist direction the world took during the 1920s through the 1940s with the direction the United States and many other countries are taking today.Have we learned anything from history?Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

A Virginia man charged with attacking men he believed to be gay while posing as a police officer has been acquitted.On September 27, a U.S. District Court jury in Washington D.C. found 50-year-old Michael Thomas Pruden not guilty on five counts of assault on federal land, one count of impersonating a federal officer, and a hate crimes sentencing designation, the Washington Blade reported. Related Fake cop allegedly attacked gay & bi men with a chemical Michael Thomas Pruden allegedly shined a light into his victims eyes, shouted police style orders at them, then attacked with a chemical. According to a federal indictment handed down in June 2022, Pruden frequented D.C.s Meridian Hill Park which is reportedly a well-known cruising spot for men seeking sex with other men after nightfall on multiple occasions. Federal prosecutors believe that Pruden sought out men who were cruising other men and approached them with a flashlight that he shined in their faces while giving them police-style commands, and spraying them with a chemical irritant. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Pruden was arrested in July 2022 and charged with attacking five men in the same manner. Victims testified that Pruden identified himself as either a police officer or a park security guard, The Blade reported.Prosecutors argued that each of the victims who testified at trial had identified Pruden as their attacker when presented with an array of photos that included pictures of other men.However, Prudens lead attorney Alexis Morgan Gardner argued that Pruden had been misidentified by the victims who testified, noting that Pruden himself is a gay man who frequented Meridian Hill Park. Gardner argued that the victims testimony conflicted with their statements to police and FBI agents. But prosecutors noted that the victims statements were made two years prior and any inconsistencies in their testimony did not change the overall evidence in the case.This is the second time Pruden has been acquitted of a similar crime. In September 2021, he was found not guilty by a jury in Virginia in a separate case in which prosecutors said he attacked two men in Alexandrias Daingerfield Island Park, pepper-spraying both and hitting one in the head with a stick after shouting Im a cop and pretending to talk into a police radio. Court records reportedly indicate the Daingerfield Island Park attack occurred five days before the fifth victim in the Meridian Hill Park case was assaulted. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.