Gay Men To That!!

Image Via Texas Governor's Office How is this 2024 and Texas is still acting like it's the 1950's! When you have nothing but hate and grievance to offer, this is what happens!! Via Advocate : A joint ACLU of Texas and Equality Texas press release notes that after a record-breaking legislative session in the state—with more than 140 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed—Texans are now struggling with a collection of new laws that eliminate medical freedom for trans youth, censor school libraries, ban trans athletes from participating in collegiate sports, end DEI practices at public universities, threaten drag performances, and undermine local governments’ already limited power. According to the press release, these laws are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of LGBTQ+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors.

  Granbury Independent School District Superintendent Jeremy Glenn (Left)  In a continued attack on the LGBTQ community, the state of Texas is leading the charge.  Via The Texas Tribune: In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart. “I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said, according to a recording of the Jan. 10 meeting obtained and verified by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Glenn explained that Granbury, the largest city in a county where 81% of residents voted for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is “very, very conservative.” He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, ...

Okay. I think we may have another self-loathing closet case spending too much time and energy on what he thought was gay activity in a public park.  From Queerty.com: A former Maryland teacher has been arrested for allegedly assaulting men he believed were gay in a park in DC. Michael Thomas Pruden, 48, sprayed the men with a “chemical irritant” according to authorities. Some news reports say it was pepper-spray. The attacks, on five men, happened between April 2018 and March 2021 in Meridian Hill Park, aka Malcolm X Park. The park is a known cruising site for men after dark. On two of the occasions, Pruden, who was formerly a fourth-grade teacher at an elementary school, pretended to be a ​​United States Park Police officer. He gave police-style directives and shined a flashlight in the faces of the men, before spraying them. He was arrested yesterday by the FBI in Norfolk, Virginia. We have previously reported on studies showing that homophobic men have a greater tendency to be c...

Once again, don't believe a thing that Donald Trump says. The testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson has been corroborated by a DC cop.  From CNN: A Washington, DC, police officer has corroborated to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, details regarding a heated exchange former President Donald Trump had with his Secret Service detail when he was told he could not go to the US Capitol after his rally, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. The officer with the Metropolitan Police Department was in the motorcade with the Secret Service for Trump on January 6 and recounted what was seen to committee investigators, according to the source. Read the full article. 

President Biden, showing his anger that the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe V Wade, signed an executive order that strengthened Federal protections for reproductive healthcare.  Via Yahoo News: WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court decision overturning the right to an abortion was an exercise in "raw political power" and signed an executive order on Friday to help protect access to services to terminate pregnancies. Biden, a Democrat, has been under pressure from his own party to take action after the landmark decision last month to overturn Roe v Wade, which upended roughly 50 years of protections for women's reproductive rights. The president's powers are constrained because U.S. states can make laws restricting abortion and access to medication, and the executive order is expected to have a limited impact. "What we're witnessing wasn't a constitutional judgment, it was an exercise in raw political power," Bid...

If you're old enough to remember when the news of a "gay cancer" started circulating in the early 1980's, you may get a bit of PTSD from the latest news about Monkeypox spreading among clusters of gay men. It is always concerning that minority communities will be ostracized due to ignorance and fear.  From The New York Times: This weekend marks the end of Pride month, as cities across the country host events to celebrate the L.G.B.T.Q. community. It is also a fraught moment in public health: A global outbreak of monkeypox is causing concern, with many of the cases clustered around men who have sex with men. Experts are now trying to strike a delicate balance, warning people who may be at higher risk, without stigmatizing a community that has often been scapegoated for health scares in the past. The first thing is wondering how did this virus, that has been circulating in Africa for many years, end up being spread in gay communities? What likely happened in this case i...

File this one under "No Kidding"!! We all know the difficulties of being LGBTQ in an oppressive society. For me, knowing that I am not alone in my anxiety is kind of "soothing" for lack of a better word.  According to the Census Bureau:  Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adults have consistently reported higher rates of symptoms of both anxiety and depression amid the coronavirus pandemic than non-LGBT adults, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The results were the same regardless of the period in question: LGBT adults ages 18 and older reported roughly twice the rate of mental health challenges as non-LGBT adults (Figures 1a and 1b). Another interesting point in the study is the mental health of LGBT adults who are raising children. Throughout the time series, LGBT adults living in households with children were more likely than adults (regardless of LGBT status) in other types of households to report anxiety symptoms. Dealing with homophobia plus ...

It's official. The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade.    No one was surprised by this because of the leaked draft but it still feels like a gut punch!  Additionally, in Justice Thomas' concurring opinion, he says that the court should revisit Marriage Equality. 

Unless you been under a rock, you must have noticed the many news stories about how conservative Republicans have been attacking the LGBTQ community. They have either proposed or passed hundreds of State bills, attempting to roll back Gay and Trans rights all over the Country. So has Charles Blow , in a scathing New York Times Editorial titled "The G.O.P. Tries to Build a Gay Ghetto" . From the article : This past weekend, the Republican Party in Texas voted on an outrageous platform that not only denies the results of the 2020 presidential election, but also rejects gay marriage and seeks to “protect” minors until they turn 17 against “predatory sexual behaviors,” such as drag queens reading stories aloud to children.   Drag queens are predators, trans women are a threat and gay marriage is a violation of the “natural order”: This is all part of the widening and re-energized attack by Republicans on L.G.B.T.Q. people and culture in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling...

After all the violence and carnage of the last 4 years, it's only logical to hold him accountable. Via ABC News: With his impeachment trial set to begin this week, a narrow majority of Americans say they support the Senate convicting former President Donald Trump and barring him from holding federal office again, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday. Compared to public attitudes in the early days of his first impeachment trial, support for the Senate convicting Trump is higher now. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll published in late January 2020, when the first trial was ongoing but before senators had voted, 47% of Americans said the Senate should vote to remove Trump from office and 49% said he should not be removed. But in this latest poll, 56% of Americans say Trump should be convicted and barred from holding office again, and 43% say he should not be. The new poll was conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel. Read the ...

Via Out.com: President Joe Biden has signed a historic memorandum on the worldwide protection of LGBTQ+ rights. The Hill reported White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden would announce the memo later today from a State Department appearance. “It reflects his deep commitment to these issues both here in the United States and everywhere around the world,” Sullivan told reporters ahead of the announcement. “The United States will speak out and act on behalf of these rights as we go.” In the official announcement, Biden spoke of all of his State Department directives. He mentioned the memo itself briefly. "And to further repair our moral leadership, I'm also issuing a Presidential memo to agencies to reinvigorate our leadership on the LGBTQI issues, and do it internationally," he said to reporters. "You know, we'll ensure diplomacy and foreign assistance are working to promote the rights of those individuals included by combatting criminalizati...

Photo by: Laura Roberts/Laura Roberts/Invision/AP This is a pretty big deal, because he is the only openly gay artist signed to a major country label!!  Via CNN: T.J. Osborne, the lead vocalist of Brothers Osborne, the band he formed with his brother John Osborne, has publicly shared for the first time that he is gay. The "Stay a Little Longer," singer tells Time that while his close-knit Nashviile community knew for years, he is now ready to tell the world. "I'm very comfortable being gay," Osborne told the publication, adding, "I find myself being guarded for not wanting to talk about something that I personally don't have a problem with. That feels so strange." He added that he knows some fans will ask why he needed to come out, saying: "People will ask, 'Why does this even need to be talked about?' and personally, I agree with that.' But for me to show up at an awards show with a man would be jaw-dropping to people. It wouldn...

  Another LGBTQ first with the Biden Administration! Elections do matter and do have consequences! In this case for the better!! Via Huffington Post: The Senate on Tuesday confirmed former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to lead the Transportation Department, making him the first openly gay person confirmed to a Cabinet seat. The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor was confirmed 86-13 in the upper chamber. Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the first openly bisexual U.S. senator, announced the vote.  “I’m honored and humbled by today’s vote in the Senate ― and ready to get to work,” Buttigeig tweeted later Tuesday. LGBTQ rights advocates cheered Buttigieg’s historic confirmation. “This confirmation breaks through a barrier that has existed for too long, where LGBTQ identity served as an impediment to nomination or confirmation at the highest level of government,” Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said in a statement. Richard Grenell, who briefly se...

Via Los Angeles Times We have a serious problem with a large group of Americans who have fallen prey to conspiracy theories. They are largely right wing Trump supporters and they have been fed a huge diet of lies and, what would seem obviously ridiculous conspiracy theories. And yet, here we are!!  Via Raw Story: Political science expert Brian Klaas, in a Washington Post op-ed published on January 25, lays out some reasons why it is so difficult to "deprogram" Americans who have embraced far-right political cults and outlandish conspiracy theories. "There is no doubt: the United States has a serious problem with pathological political delusions," Klaas warns. "So, do we have any hope of deprogramming the millions of Americans who are devoted to dangerous lunacy? Don't hold your breath….. Once people have gone far enough down the rabbit hole of conspiratorial thinking, it can be nearly impossible to get them back out." Klaas goes on to list some reasons...

Photo credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Another good move from Biden on reversing Trump's terrible policy!!  Via Politico: President Joe Biden repealed the ban on transgender troops serving in the military on Monday, rolling back an order from former President Donald Trump that shocked Pentagon leaders and kick-started years of legal trouble for the administration. The change in policy, the latest of Biden’s moves to undo Trump’s orders, was announced by the White House before the ceremonial swearing in of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Read the full article here.

41 years old with no underlying conditions.  From The New Orleans Times Picayune: Congressman-elect Luke Letlow died Tuesday evening from complications with COVID-19, shaking the Louisiana political world weeks after his election to represent Louisiana's 5th District in Congress as the state's youngest U.S. representative.  Letlow, 41, died at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport from “complications from COVID-19,” his spokesman, Andrew Bautsch, said in a statement. Letlow was admitted to a Monroe hospital with COVID-19 symptoms on Dec. 19th before being transferred to the Shreveport hospital and moving to the intensive care unit on Dec. 23rd. Letlow is survived by his wife, Julie Barnhill Letlow, and two young children, Bautsch said. Read the full article here.

Photo via The Verge This is what Zuckerberg was trying to avoid when he favored conservative posters.  Via New York Times: WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states accused Facebook on Wednesday of becoming a social media monopoly by buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition, and said the deals that turned the social network into a behemoth should be unwound. Federal and state regulators, who have been investigating the company for over 18 months, said in separate lawsuits that Facebook’s purchases, especially Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion two years later, eliminated competition that could have one day challenged the company’s dominance. Since those deals, Instagram and WhatsApp have skyrocketed in popularity, giving Facebook control over three of the world’s most popular social media and messaging apps. The applications have helped catapult Facebook from a company started in a college dorm room 16 years ago to an i...

  If you ever needed a reason to mask up and make sure you don't get COVID, here it is, guys!!  Via Cleveland Clinic: The study found a correlation between COVID-19 survivors and erectile dysfunction (ED). The research points to three factors that can lead to the potential onset of ED in men who have had the virus: Vascular effects. Erectile function is a predictor of heart disease, so we know that the vascular system and reproductive system are connected. We also know that COVID-19 can cause hyperinflammation throughout the body, especially in the heart and surrounding muscles. Blood supply to the penis can become blocked or narrowed as a result of a new or worsened vascular condition caused by the virus. Psychological impact. Sexual activity is closely associated with mental health. The stress, anxiety and depression caused by the virus and pandemic can be linked to sexual dysfunction and poor mood. Overall health deterioration. ED is typically a symptom of an underlying pro...

It's like they are hard wired to make all the wrong decisions with this pandemic, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans!!  Via New York Times: Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. government additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, according to people familiar with the matter. Now Pfizer may not be able provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries, they said. As the administration scrambles to try to purchase more doses of the vaccine, President Trump plans on Tuesday to sign an executive order “to ensure that United States government prioritizes getting the vaccine to American citizens before sending it to other nations,” according to a draft statement and a White House official, though it was not immediately clear what force the president’s executive order would carry. Read the full story here.  

  Via CBS News: Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a challenge brought by Oregon parents to a school district's policy allowing transgender students to use bathroom facilities that match their gender identity. The dispute was brought by a group of parents who argued the policy enacted by Dallas School District No. 2 in Dallas, Oregon, and left in place by lower courts violated other students' privacy rights. The policy was created after a transgender boy sought to use the boy's bathroom and locker room at his high school until he graduated. The school district allowed the student to do so over the objections of some parents. Read the full story here.