'Republicans slip in an anti-LGBTQ 'religious freedom' clause into funding bill' & other Mon/Tue news briefs

Republicans quietly slip 'religious freedom' clause into funding bill - Always with the bullshit from the GOP: 

House Republicans have inserted anti-LGBTQ language into a $66 billion must-pass funding bill for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, effectively granting civil immunity under federal law to individuals and organizations that discriminate against same-sex couples—by citing a religious or moral belief that marriage should be limited to one man and one woman. It also bans the federal government from taking a range of actions against those who hold and act on anti-same-sex marriage beliefs. 

Judge blocks administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders - Meanwhile, Trump loses another one.

He threatened educators for flying Pride flags. Now he’s paying the price. - Throw the book at him! 

Southern Baptists target porn, sports betting, same-sex marriage and 'willful childlessness' - While ignoring their sex abuse scandals, of course.

Nancy Pelosi honors those lost to AIDS epidemic with Gay Men's Chorus of D.C. during WorldPride - We will never forget.

Video - Gay Coded Movie Villains from Golden Age Hollywood

 

I wasn't going to post anything but when I saw this video, I couldn't resist. Those who followed my long-running, now defunct Friday feature Know Your LGBT History are aware of my passion for old films and television shows which showed positive (and negative) portrayals of LGBTQ people. The above video falls into that category.

From the YouTube site Golden Age History:

In the glimmering shadows of Golden Age Hollywood, where the glitz of the silver screen often masked darker truths, a surprising number of villains emerged with a complex, coded identity. These characters, shrouded in ambiguity and subtext, offered a glimpse into a world where queerness was hinted at but rarely acknowledged, leaving audiences to decipher the hidden meanings behind their chilling performances. Today, we’ll explore the gayest villains of Golden Age Hollywood films, unearthing the layers of repression and desire that fueled their menacing personas. From Hitchcock’s psychological thrillers to the sharp wit of noir classics, these characters not only challenged societal norms but also created a legacy that resonates with modern viewers. Prepare to uncover the secrets behind these iconic antagonists and the subtext that made them unforgettable.

 I've only got one complaint. The video spotlights Addison DeWitt from the movie All About Eve as a coded gay character. However, Eve Harrington (one of the movie's leading characters) would have been a better choice. Several hints were given about her being lesbian (the scene with her roommate and another scene at the end featuring the young lady who snuck into her hotel room.)

Hate group claims that LGBTQ people have billions of dollars devoted to recruiting children.

 I don't mean to sound jaded, but I bristle whenever I hear one of my LGBTQ folks say something like "It's 2025! I can't believe people say or believe (choose your anti-LGBTQ claim or slur) anymore. I thought we were over that."

As appealing as it is to dream of a world where certain ugly smears aren't believed or certain ugly slurs aren't said, that dream isn't ever going to be a reality. Hatred motivated by fear and ignorance will always be with us. It's never going away and nothing we can do or say will change that.

For example, this is what the bigots were saying about LGBTQ people - specifically gay men - in the 1980s:

Fast forward to 2025 and read this email which I received from anti-LGBTQ hate group the American Family Association:

The pro-homosexual, pro-transgender mafia won’t stop coming after America’s kids and grandkids. 

 Ten years ago this month, the Obergefell Supreme Court decision unleashed a satanic breakout in the sexual war against America and Christianity. 

 Five judicial tyrants in Washington, D.C., forced homosexual marriage on every square inch of America. The effect has been a national nightmare—and we can’t seem to wake up.

 The Obergefell decision led to the Bostock decision, which elevated the mental disorder of transgenderism to the status of a civil right. If you “discriminate” against a man who thinks he is a woman, radical lawyers and prosecutors can come after you! 

 But the ultimate target has been children. 

 The cultural explosion led to the spread of Drag Queen Story Hour . . . men in girls’ sports and bathrooms . . . the pharmaceutical and surgical sexual mutilation of children . . . and an epidemic of sex crimes.

The nightmare is still happening. Yes, the Trump administration is pushing back. Praise God! But candidly, it won’t be enough without grassroots action.

 As I write this, schools near San Diego are zealously enforcing a California state law that mandates tampons in boys’ restrooms in every elementary school. The tampons in grade school boys’ bathrooms are required by the “Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021.”

 Parents are crying out . . . to no avail. These could be your kids or grandkids! This insanity is damaging the minds of children as young as kindergarten, mentally molesting them. 

 The larger goal is to hijack their bodies for sexual perversion by creating a culture with no sexual boundaries.

 In Texas, with five million students, a massive school district is calling a girl a “boy”—against the parents’ explicit desire. 

 LGBTQ radicals won’t stop. They are spiritually driven. Plus, they have billions of dollars and influence in the media. Rogue judges in local, state, and federal courts favor their cause. And they have declared, “We want your children!”

Lawd! That's a big ole ball of crazy right there. A lot of this doesn't need refuting because:

A. It rightfully comes across as completely insane to folks with good sense.

B. The folks who would believe this madness obviously don't have good sense, so attempting to refute it for their benefit is a waste of time.

But there is one thing I would like to touch on because it's nagging the hell out of me.

 Just when did the LGBTQ community get billions of dollars? AFA didn't say "thousands" or "millions" or even "one billion." According to the AFA, we've got BILLIONS and all devoted to "recruiting children." Well, that's not practical, particularly when I thought we are also jailing Christians and whatever else AFA and groups like it accuse us of doing. 

My point is as much as we wish it were so, homophobia, transphobia, and all other types of hatred aren't going away. Hatred always changes by adapting to suit whatever fear or resentment is out there. AFA used to smear just gay men. Now it has widened its net of nuttiness to rope in trans people, while still claiming that our pursuit of equality is a conspiracy to snare children - a conspiracy it also claims involves courts and judges.

But while we can't make hatred go away, we can hinder it as much as we can by calling it out, not letting it stop us from getting our hearts desire, and in this case - laughing at the inanity it entails.

Short film gives simple and exact understanding about what Pride is all about

 Pride Month 2025 is here, and I expect it to be a busy month for both good and reasons. I could go into a blog post about LGBTQ American history or remind folks that this particular Pride Month will probably be difficult times because the enemies of our equality feel empowered by the Trump Administration.

We've got plenty of time for that. 

Right now, I am posting the above video as a reminder of why not only Pride Month but the LGBTQ struggle for equality, health, and self-determination are important. I've posted the video before and will probably do so many times in the future because it's one of my favorites.

It makes the point better than any commentary I could write. Two young boys are going on a date to a school dance. Just like heterosexual couples do. Nothing spooky or sexual, just two young kids enjoying a school function in each other's company. 

And there isn't a thing wrong with it. Granted, there will be some folks who will screech about "sexualizing" or "grooming" even though there is nothing resembling any of these things in this video. But when you ignore the screeching and just pay attention to the message of the film, you get a simple but exact understanding about what Pride is all about.

It's about the right to function without any fears of having to deal reprisals from ignorant people, whether that function is getting married, obtaining employment, building a family and raising kids, or even simply going to a school dance with someone you like.

Hell, it's about being able to walk down any street in America without being hassled or physically attacked because someone doesn't like to see you holding hands with your partner, or the way you walk or what you're wearing.

It's about the right to be. To exist on your terms and not the religious or stereotypical terms of other people, the vast majority not even knowing you and not caring to either. It's about going through the scary rites of life without your fears being compounded by someone who can't stand your existence. Basically, it's about the ability to decide what you will do in your life and not someone else deciding for you.

 It's about being a human being.

Trans man gets detained after using women's restroom, proving insanity of 'bathroom bills'

Luca Strobel

GLAAD award-winning substacker Erin Reed is exactly who I am talking about when I say that our community need to support independent LGBTQ journalists.

 As a gay black man, I am doubly aware of how this country's mainstream media ignores our communities while pandering to what they call "the mainstream America." They won't ever admit it, but most often than not, their definition of "mainstream America" are white heterosexuals.

As such, incidents like the one below get ignored. Luca Strobel, a 25-year-old trans man in South Carolina, was using the bathroom based upon his assigned at birth gender (which some states have laws demanding that trans people do) in Charleston, SC. He ended up being accosted and detained because of his appearance as a man.

 “They're looking over the top of the stall at me without my clothes on,” Strobel said in the video. “They can fully see me naked other than me having my shirt on, and they just start screaming that there's ‘a man’ in here.”

 He said the owner and employee ejected him and his friend from the bar—grabbing and pushing them out as they reportedly called Strobel anti-trans slurs. The police were waiting at the door, Strobel said. The officer cuffed him “so tight that I can't even feel my fingers,” Strobel said. “I still have a bruise on my knuckle.” 

Meanwhile, his arresting officer allegedly kept calling him a “little girl.” “We didn't get booked, but we did get cuffed, and when we got to the station, we were asking a bunch of questions that they refused to answer,” Strobel said. “They just kept saying, ‘Take it up in court, take it up in court, take it up in court.’” 

. . . There is no state law in South Carolina preventing a trans man (or any man) from using the women’s room in public accommodations, such as a bar. However, there has been an avalanche of anti-trans bills nationwide seeking such mandates, including in South Carolina, where lawmakers enacted a version of this policy targeting schools in 2024, and re-introduced it in 2025. 

 In other words, Strobel was using the bathroom that many conservative lawmakers and anti-trans pundits want to force him to use—and he got arrested anyway, seemingly because of the panic surrounding gendered bathrooms. This kind of harassment is no stranger to trans and gender nonconforming people—in April, a trans girl in Florida was arrested for using the women’s bathroom in an act of protest against that state’s anti-trans bathroom bill. She washed her hands in the sink before being escorted out by police. 

In February, cisgender lesbian in Arizona made headlines after documenting her own experience having police interrogate her gender while she was using a women’s restroom.

Go to Erin Reed's substack, Erin in the Morning, for the full story and information on how you can support her work.

When these bathroom bills were passed while hysteria about trans people using public bathrooms spread, there were warnings that an added consequence would be people getting verbally and physically accosted simply because they don't fit physical stereotypes of what men and women are supposed to look like. 

And now here we are.

'SCOTUS rejects appeal of student wanting to wear 'only two genders' t-shirt at school' & other Tue/Wed news briefs

Supreme Court rejects appeal of Massachusetts student who wanted to wear ‘only two genders’ T-shirt  - "On Tuesday, the justices left in place a federal appeals court ruling that said it would not second-guess the decision of educators in Middleborough, Massachusetts, to not allow the T-shirt to be worn in a school environment because of a negative impact on transgender and gender-nonconforming students."   Let's be clear.  The t-shirt was a way of baiting trans students and the case itself was pushed to chip away at LGBTQ rights and safety. Both attempts failed.

Right-wing justices decry limits to speech — that they 'helped make possible' - Both Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented in the above case. The irony is how they ruled in the past against student speech put down the groundwork for how the court decided in this case. Way to go, guys. I thank you and . . . well actually I don't. 

 Donald Trump's anti-LGBTQ+ cabinet: An in-depth look - They do NOT like us.

Today we must honor the trans troops who are fighting a war waged by their own country - Hell yeah!

Utah Republicans ignore study supporting gender-affirming care for trans youth. It's research they demanded - One guess why. 

EU countries ‘alarmed’ over Hungary’s worsening anti-LGBTQ crackdown - Every country should be. The crackdown in itself is bad. But there are some folks here in America who have express support for it. 

Trump's 'Big Bowl of Bullsh!t Bill' would ban Medicaid and Obamacare from funding trans healthcare care & wreak havoc on the poor

Editor's note - EARLY Thursday morning, the House of Representatives passed what Trump calls his "Big, Beautiful Bill" by one vote. What is should be called is the "Big Bowl of Bullshit Bill." Now it goes to the Senate and I suspect there will be major changes made. Regardless, this bill is a disaster on many levels and not just to the LGBTQ community. A lot of Americans are going to be hurt, while the wealthiest Americans are going to reap benefits. The news briefs below explain how this bill would generate a lot of pain for not only LGBTQ people but the country in general.

Trump’s ‘One, big, beautiful bill’ would ban care for transgender people on Medicaid and Obamacare - Federally funded gender-affirming care would be banned. And for all trans Americans, not just trans kids. I can just hear the nonsense about "It's not banning healthcare for trans people. it's simply saying that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for it." That explanation only underscores the ignorance this country has when it comes to gender-affirming care, which is a legitimate medical issue and should be covered under Medicaid and Obamacare. Any attempt to undermine federal funding comes from a place of malice. 

Republicans pass ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ banning federally funded gender-affirming care for trans people - This article from the Advocate gives more details. It also includes the following:

 The bill would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and deliver billions in new spending for immigration enforcement and the Pentagon. But it does so at a steep human cost: The Congressional Budget Office estimates 13.7 million people will lose health coverage. LGBTQ+ people — especially those living with HIV, people of color, and low-income families — are among the hardest hit. 

And:

Below are articles which point out the overall chaos this bill would cause the country. Kamala Harris and so many others warned Americans last year about this, but they didn't listen. It sadly goes to show that you can warn people about disaster until you wear yourself out, but they won't listen until they get hit with the disaster. Then they expect someone else to save them from what they themselves could have prevented in the first place.

Here Are the Worst Things in Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill 

"This Is A Sad Day For America" — MAGA Supporters Have A LOT To Say About Trump's "Big, Beautiful" Tax Bill, And It's Not What I Was Expecting

Social Media Tells Ugly Truth About Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill'