- April 2023
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Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Today the House passed a bill banning transgender girls and women from competing in female school athletics. Every Republican voted for the "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act," while every Democrat voted against this culture-war gift to conservatives.
Yesterday the Florida Board of Education voted to expand the state's Don't Say Gay law. The ban on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity that had applied to kindergarden through third grade will now extend clear up to senior year in high school.
But don't despair! On Monday an openly gay congressman announced that he's running for re-election.
Okay, the congressman was George Santos.
I'll allow you 15 minutes of despair.
- March 2023
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Image: FacebookFormer Florida lawmaker Joseph Harding pleaded guilty this week to obtaining COVID-19 relief funds fraudulently.
Harding was a lead sponsor of Florida's Don't Say Gay legislation.
The conservative Republican assumed the role of morality arbiter while stealing money.
How do people such as this physically survive? It seems like the internal dissonance would be enough to cause parts of themselves just to fall off now and then.
- January 2023
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2022 brought the LGBTQ community some emphatic highs and lows.
The lows included Brittney Griner's arrest in Russia, Florida's Don't Say Gay law, a blizzard of anti-trans legislation across the nation, violence and threatened violence against drag events and Prides, and the murders at Club Q in Colorado.
The highs included the Biden administration securing Griner's release, the electoral rainbow wave, and the passing of the Respect for Marriage Act.
As to George Santos, the recent discovery that the apparently gay congressman-elect is a serial fabulist belongs in the category of the year's lows.
Or the year's low comedy. Take your pick.
- August 2022
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Image by Dari Oberholster from Pixabay In Grand Island, Neb., the school year ended with a bang. Make that a stomp.
The final issue of the year of the Northwest High School student newspaper, the Viking Saga, included a story on how Pride month came to be, and an editorial opposing Florida's Don't Say Gay law. Three days later, school administrators shut down the 54-year-old publication. Though officials aren't being transparent about the reason, one school district employee wrote in an email that it was "because the school board and superintendent are unhappy with the last issue's editorial content."
These Nebraska officials feel as warmly toward a free press as Vladimir Putin.
The local newspaper, The Grand Island Independent, is doggedly pursuing the story. It ran a photo of two of the Viking Saga's former staffers, one of whom is transgender, holding a Progress Pride flag outside their high school.
That picture and the saga of the Saga underscored for me that, no matter how heavy-handed Nebraska school administrators—and Florida legislators—get these days, they've already lost. If queer youth, supported by allies, are out in rural America, they won't go back.
The genie is out of the bottle. And he's fabulous.
The officials, on the other hand, are putzes.
- May 2022
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Image: FacebookAfter 19 seasons, the final episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" aired today. DeGeneres spoke of how attitudes toward LGBTQ people have changed in that period.
"Twenty years ago when we were trying to sell the show, no one thought that this would work," said the out lesbian. "Not because it was a different kind of show, but because I was different."
She recalled, "When we started the show, I couldn't say 'gay' on the show."
Over in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis observed, "That was such a fine tradition we nostalgia-loving Floridians decided to resurrect it."
- April 2022
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Image by waldryano from Pixabay
On his daily show, televangelist and felon Jim Bakker mentioned Florida's Don't Say Gay law, and went on to claim that, when it comes to controversial social issues, preachers aren't "going to be able to preach much longer, because they'll shoot us in the pulpit. They will kill us in our pulpits. You don't believe me? They're already doing it."
I missed the memo. I went to church today and didn't give my minister so much as a noogie.
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Image: FacebookRon DeSantis wants to punish Disney for opposing his "Don't Say Gay" bill, even though Disney is the largest taxpayer in central Florida. I guess if things go South, the state will just have to rely more on taxes Trump sends over from Mar-a-lago. Ha. Haha. HaHAhahahahaaHAAAAAAA!Bette MidlerSource: Twitter -
Image: Pexels
Loud. Proud. Still allowed.
One of the ad campaign slogans announced by New York City Mayor Eric Adams aimed at convincing Florida queers to move to the Big Apple
Source: The Guardian
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Image by DONT SELL MY ARTWORK AS IS from Pixabay On this April Fools' Day, choose which of the following is a hoax:
—Fox News has signed Caitlyn Jenner to be a contributor.
—Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claims to be working on a federal Don't Say Gay bill.
—A Nebraska state senator declared schools are placing litter boxes in bathrooms for children who self-identify as cats.
Think you know which is balderdash? The answer is . . . none! Each statement is true.
With realities like these, April Fools' Day kind of loses its luster.
- March 2022
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Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Between Jessica Chastain's speech combining Tammy Faye and LGBTQ rights, Ariana DeBose and Lady Gaga and Liza, tonight's Oscars will never be mentioned in a Florida classroom. Bless them all.Paul RudnickSource: Twitter -
Image: FacebookBefore signing the Don't Say Gay bill yesterday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, "We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination."
He was surrounded by young children in their charter-school uniforms . . . and cheered on by Pat Boone, Ozzie and Harriet, Robert E. Lee and Protestant Jesus.
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Image: Facebook
LGBTQA Disney employees staged a walkout today to protest the company's silence on Florida's Don't Say Gay bill.
Snow White and Mary Poppins used the occasion to announce their engagement.
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