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You are here: Home / Archives for Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights

LGBTQ Rights

Open Thread: Closing Out Pride Month – Proudly!

by Anne Laurie|  June 29, 20258:49 am| 91 Comments

This post is in: LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

Ten years ago, love won. On this day in 2015, Obergefell v. Hodges guaranteed marriage equality across the U.S. The White House, lit in rainbow colors that night, became a powerful symbol of progress and pride that continues to shine today. ??????

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— Robin Kelly, Ph.D. (@robinlynnekelly.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 9:49 AM


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From commentor JCJ:

I am currently in Bangkok where Pride is much more celebrated. A large shopping and business complex near where I stay is called EmDistrict. Much more acknowledgement of Pride than I have seen in the US. Here are some pictures.

Open Thread: Closing Out Pride Month - Proudly!
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Open Thread: Closing Out Pride Month - Proudly! 1
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Open Thread: Closing Out Pride Month - Proudly! 2

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Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban

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— Phillip Ayoub (@payoub.bsky.social) June 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM


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Support at Dublin Pride today:

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— OleBiscuitBarrel.bsky.social (@olebiscuitbarrel.bsky.social) June 28, 2025 at 2:56 PM

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Pride in NYC ??????

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— wlkwerks.bsky.social (@wlkwerks.bsky.social) June 27, 2025 at 9:10 AM


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The Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., includes a section of graves of LGBTQ Americans. We take a pride month tour.

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— NPR (@npr.org) June 28, 2025 at 10:42 AM

NPR, “A D.C. cemetery’s ‘Gay Corner’ is a final resting place for trailblazing LGBTQ+ icons”:

In southeast Washington D.C. is a more-than two-century-old cemetery where members of Congress who died while in office are buried. It’s also home to a little-known final resting place for some trailblazing LGBTQ+ icons.

A group of about 20 visitors are quietly led down the oblong-shaped stone markers and squat sandstone blocks of Congressional Cemetery by docent Jeff Rollins, who volunteers for the non profit organization that helps manage the 35-acre cemetery…

As the group moves through the cemetery, Rollins notes the graves of Barbara Gittings, the mother of the modern gay rights movement; the founding father of the Harlem Renaissance Alain Locke; Ken Dresser, who designed Disney theme park parades and shows; and the grave of the man who created a stir when he became the first military member to come out publicly, Leonard Matlovich.

The granite grave is marked with American and pride flags; the headstone is piled high with stones and features pink triangles. The stone reads, ‘A Gay Vietnam Veteran.’ Below that: “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

Matlovich served in the Air Force and did three tours in Vietnam. He was awarded a bronze medal, received a Purple Heart, and was lauded for exemplary service.

Then, in 1975, he told his commanding officer he was gay. Shortly after, the Air Force honorably discharged him.

It was also around this time gay rights advocate Frank Kameny (who also has a memorial marker nearby, though he is not buried at Congressional) was looking for “perfect soldier” to test the military’s ban on gay servicemen. Kameny found that in Matlovich…

Open Thread: Closing Out Pride Month – Proudly!Post + Comments (91)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Take Our Wins

by Anne Laurie|  June 18, 20256:49 am| 257 Comments

This post is in: Dems Fighting Back, Foreign Affairs, LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

Jay Jones, a former Virginia delegate, wins Democratic nomination for the state’s attorney general.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) June 17, 2025 at 10:09 PM

BREAKING: Judge blocks the Trump administration from limiting passport sex markers for many transgender and nonbinary people.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) June 17, 2025 at 7:07 PM

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is lifting a curfew in downtown Los Angeles.
Her Tuesday announcement comes after she first imposed the curfew in response to protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) June 17, 2025 at 3:07 PM

The “No Kings” protest was a powerful showing of hope and mobilization against President Trump’s attacks on democracy. @jimacosta.bsky.social explains in conversation with Sen. @dougjones.bsky.social:

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— Center for American Progress (@americanprogress.bsky.social) June 17, 2025 at 5:09 PM

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— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) June 17, 2025 at 8:46 PM

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Take Our WinsPost + Comments (257)

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Pride

by Anne Laurie|  June 8, 20256:09 am| 84 Comments

This post is in: LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights

#Pride #AltPride

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— AltSSA (@altssa.altgov.info) June 2, 2025 at 7:48 PM


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To those complaining about Pride:
Stop killing us. Stop discriminating against us.
Let us live safely and freely, and then maybe we won’t need Pride anymore.

— Thomas Willett (@thomaswillett.bsky.social) June 3, 2025 at 3:01 AM


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Here's a small good thing you can do all month long.
Two, actually.
1. Like, share, and comment on any library post featuring Pride books or messaging that's positive. You can influence the algorithm for good.
2. Write a letter to your library board thanking the library for Pride displays.

— kelly jensen (@heykellyjensen.bsky.social) June 2, 2025 at 8:16 PM


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This image from HRC goes so hard

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— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) May 30, 2025 at 10:21 AM

?????? Happy Pride Month, friendos. Here's a spreadsheet roundup of Pride mods that can help you find some stuff to celebrate the occasion with. ??????
I'm hoping this resource will help people out! But they can be hard to find. Please repost so I can get even more mods on the list!!

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— a bunny of countless treasures (@quad-weave.etheirys.social) June 2, 2025 at 8:05 PM


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Happy Pride. Don't stop fighting.

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— Kasey Gifford (@kaseygifford.bsky.social) June 2, 2025 at 7:06 PM

Sunday Morning Open Thread: PridePost + Comments (84)

Open Thread: (Take) Pride Update

by Anne Laurie|  June 3, 20259:05 pm| 23 Comments

This post is in: LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Sports

Despite online outrage, the California state track meet was mostly just a track meet defector.com/despite-onli…

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— Defector (@defector.com) June 2, 2025 at 8:53 PM

The always insightful Diana Moskovitz, at Defector – “Despite Online Outrage, The California State Track Meet Was Mostly Just A Track Meet”:

Jurupa Valley High School’s AB Hernandez won first place in girls high jump and triple jump on Saturday night at the California Interscholastic Federation’s State Track & Field Championships. She also took second place in girls long jump, making it overall a great performance for the high school junior. After each win, Hernandez took the podium, received her medal, and smiled for photos along with her fellow competitors. She looked happy, because most people do after they win. As the sun sunk lower in the sky and the late afternoon turned into night, it would look to a casual observer watching on a livestream, which I did, like a typical high school track meet: The national anthem was played, there was a reminder about good sportsmanship, high school athletes competed in various disciplines, upcoming events were called out on the loudspeaker, and parents and friends cheered in the stands…

Though Hernandez has competed for years with the support of her local community, when two women began making noise online complaining about her being allowed to compete, they got a lot of attention and eventually caught Donald Trump’s eye. He issued a statement Tuesday about Hernandez, filled with inaccuracies, saying she was unbeatable (she has lost before) and had won everything (again, she has lost before). That same day, CIF issued its own statement, saying it would launch a pilot program to allow any cisgender female athlete who missed out on qualifying due to a transgender female athlete to compete anyway. Those new rules were also why on Saturday, every time Hernandez won a medal, she had to share the podium with someone else as a co-medalist.

The new rules also did nothing to assuage the people dead set on stopping Hernandez… Even though Hernandez had followed all the CIF rules in place, that did little to stop the anti-trans sentiments. On Friday, during qualifications, an airplane flew over the stadium carrying a banner that read “No boys in girls sports!”

The same reporter who got the video of the banner, Haley Sawyer, estimated the number of protestors there Friday at “roughly 10.”

You read that right—10. California is the largest state by population in the entire country with nearly 40 million people. Sure, some people have to work, some people are busy with childcare, or too frail to travel, or they’re students who have to study. But the math is the math. Out of a state with nearly 40 million people, just about 10 were so angry about Hernandez competing that they showed up at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis, Fresno County. That’s the same Fresno County that has an estimated population of more than 1 million, is nearly equidistant to the state’s two biggest metro areas, and is easily accessible by car…

What those railing against Hernandez know is that in today’s decentralized information ecosystem, anger online wins and so their yelling must be covered, even though few protestors came. Meanwhile, the single biggest source of complaints about discrimination to the U.S. Department of Education are from disabled students who said they had been denied help they needed or felt mistreated, not people complaining about trans athletes. Data also shows the biggest danger posed to all high school athletes, regardless of gender, is dying of sudden cardiac arrest, not competing against trans athletes. Having emergency action plans and installing AEDs in high schools would save more lives, but little is said about this online compared to the trans athlete furor.

Despite it all, the actual athletes seemed pretty chill and normal on Saturday as I monitored from the live stream and watched the press coverage roll in. They are athletes, after all, and they know how to block out noise. It’s all smiles in the Associated Press photos. Wilson High School senior Loren Webster, who came in first in the long jump, told the Times as much, saying, “It wasn’t any other person I was worried about. I knew what I was capable of. I can’t control the uncontrollable.” Long Beach Poly High School senior Jillene Wetteland, who also took first in the high jump, told the Chronicle, “I love both of the people I tied with.” And River City High School senior Brooke White, who came in second on the long jump, said to the same reporter that it was an honor to share her podium with Hernandez…

Open Thread: (Take) Pride UpdatePost + Comments (23)

Open Thread: Losers, Harassing High School Kids

by Anne Laurie|  May 30, 20254:23 pm| 80 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Sports

It's a great time to be a pathetic loser: defector.com/its-a-great-…

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— Defector (@defector.com) May 28, 2025 at 11:59 AM

Tom Ley, at Defector: [gift link]

Donald Trump released yet another deranged statement on Tuesday, demanding that a transgender high school student be barred from participating in the California state track and field championships, which are scheduled to be held this weekend in Clovis, Calif. The inane thoughts that make their way from Trump’s obviously diminished mind onto his Playskool social media platform should not demand the attention of any right-thinking Americans, and yet in this case the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) snapped to attention, rewriting its qualification rules in an attempt to appease those behind what’s become a national hate campaign directed at a 16-year-old high school student.

The student Trump was referring to in his post is named AB Hernandez. She is set to compete in the high jump, triple jump, and long jump at the state championships, and she has spent the past few months being harassed by a local group of bigots. This group is led by Sonja Shaw and Jessica Tapia, both members of the Save Girls Sports association. Shaw is currently running for California superintendent of public instruction, and Tapia was recently fired from her teaching position at Hernandez’s high school for refusing to respect trans and nonbinary students’ pronouns. At a qualification meet earlier this month, Tapia and Shaw led a group that spent hours heckling and harassing Hernandez as she competed.

Cerise Castle of Capital & Main has done a fantastic job covering this story, which has all the familiar beats: Hernandez has been on the track team for three years and never drew any attention until now; she finished first in triple jump, eighth in high jump, and third in long jump at the qualification meet; she has shown nothing but grace and maturity in the face of intense bigotry. “There’s nothing I can do about people’s actions, just focus on my own,” Hernandez told Castle. “I’m still a child, you’re an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person.”…

Here we are once again confronted by a central truth about the people who lead these anti-trans campaigns in sports, which is that although they are first and foremost hateful bigots, they are also huge fucking losers. Sports serves many valuable purposes: Creating a place where someone like Hernandez can find community, camaraderie, and comfort in her body is a big one, but so is teaching kids and young adults how to deal with failure. The freaks who make it their mission to antagonize Hernandez and other trans athletes always claim to be acting out of a duty to fairness. Anyone who has ever played or seriously engaged with sports knows, however, that “fairness” is often the first word out of the mouth of a loser. There is always, always something “unfair” for the loser to latch onto and turn into an excuse. Walk around any youth sports competition and you’ll hear plenty of them: That team has a kid who is too big and strong; the rich kids from one county over have access to better equipment; my kid would have won if he hadn’t rolled his ankle last week.

Sports will always, eventually, take something from you, and then it will leave enough space for you to convince yourself that your loss was unjust. What you get out of the experience often comes down to what you do with the impulse to fill that space. Years of cultural conditioning has taught athletes that it is best to ignore that impulse, to accept failure on its own terms and derive whatever lessons you can from it. But now we are faced with a growing chorus of hateful losers who want to reverse all of that conditioning, and in the process turn sports into something small and stupid. The lesson these people want to give to their children is that if circumstance places their athletic failure near the success of someone who belongs to a specifically marginalized group, they are free to huff and puff and stomp their feet until the President of the United States himself intervenes to validate their tantrum. The quicker these people get shoved into a locker, the better.

Open Thread: Losers, Harassing High School KidsPost + Comments (80)

Great Read: He’s throwing WorldPride in Trump’s backyard. Who’s with him?

by Anne Laurie|  May 26, 20251:01 pm| 47 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

He’s throwing WorldPride in Trump’s backyard. Who’s with him?
www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/…

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— The DC Homos (@dchomos.com) May 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM

From the Washington Post, He’s throwing WorldPride in Trump’s backyard. Who’s with him? [gift link]:

Ryan Bos has a huge party to pull off — or several parties, spanning weeks and involving road closures all over Washington, more than a hundred contracts, 25,200 reusable drink cups, a 1,000-foot long rainbow flag and Shakira.

Bos is the executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, which this year is in charge of planning and executing the festivities around WorldPride, which run through early June. It’s a huge feat of logistics, and that’s before you consider the politics: This year, the LGBTQ+ celebration is being held in the backyard of a government that has targeted transgender rights and made major cuts to HIV prevention programs. At the Kennedy Center, President Donald Trump has promised “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA”; the alliance relocated some events from the arts institution to other venues “to ensure our entire LGBTQ+ community will be welcome.” Some corporate allies have withdrawn their financial support or asked not to be explicitly associated with the celebration.

The party is still very much on. But it’s not clear how many people, welcome or not, will ultimately decide to take part…

Bos is throwing a parade; corporate America is walking a tightrope. In February, the consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, which has millions in contracts with the federal government, canceled its sponsorship of the celebration. Deloitte, Comcast and Darcars chose not to donate as they had in years past… A handful of other corporate sponsors are still contributing, Bos said, but covertly. As in, they don’t want to be named or have their logos displayed.

“It’s somewhat counter to Pride,” Bos said in his office after the staff meeting. “You know, we appreciate their financial contribution. Pride is about standing up and affirming and being visible.”…

There’s still enough money in the coffers for the organizers to have put together a full program with some big draws. Among the marquee events is a concert by Shakira on May 31 at Nationals Park, preceded by 30 minutes of programming about Pride. On June 6, Jennifer Lopez is set to take the stage at RFK Stadium for a ticketed music festival; Troye Sivan will do the same on June 7. The rainbow-festooned parade floats will wend their way down 14th Street toward the Capitol starting at 2 p.m. that day, and a Doechii concert on Pennsylvania Avenue will follow on June 8. Bos said he didn’t know yet whether uniformed police officers would be marching in the parade — a subject of contention at other Pride festivals in recent years — but he said it would be part of the discussion with law enforcement, adding that, as a community, “I think we have to keep an open mind about this conversation.”

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Celebrations planned by certain subcommunities are already underway, including trans pride, Latinx pride, Black pride, API pride for Asians and Pacific Islanders, “silver pride” for older people, and (a new addition) military pride. Other events include a human rights conference and a protest rally.

But some queer people may not have much of a desire to make themselves visible here, now. In October, the D.C. mayor’s office said it expected up to 3 million visitors. In March, a Capital Pride Alliance official estimated that 1.5 million would come. Earlier this month, Bos said he has “no clue” how many people to expect. “I’m hopeful that we’re still going to surpass the million mark,” he said. The alliance purchased hotel blocks, but as of last week, “the hotel bookings aren’t where we expected them to be,” Bos said…

The Human Rights Campaign has fielded hundreds of questions from prospective visitors, said Brandon Wolf, the organization’s national press secretary. Wolf, a survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, was at a fundraising dinner in South Florida a couple of months ago, where guests asked him about where to party but also about how to stay safe if they went to pro-LGBTQ+ demonstrations in Washington. Wolf says he has reassured people that organizers are working closely with local D.C. police, “which, as we know, is different than federal agents,” but also that “you’ve got to look at your own circumstance.”

Beyond the Beltway, in states where local governments are also enacting policies targeting LGBTQ+ people, “the vibe is a turn-towards-my-nearest-neighbor type of care,” says Zooey Zephyr, a Democratic state legislator in Montana. She’s heard about LGBTQ+ groups in Montana organizing Pride events there, or working with local clinics to make sure LGBTQ+ people have health care, but not as much about WorldPride. “I don’t think that will be the primary driver for our community.” (Zephyr might attend the WorldPride rally, but she will otherwise be preoccupied with a fellowship at Harvard.)

So will this still be fun? “I think we make everything fun,” Wolf says. “That’s just who we are, right?”

Bos says he understands that people need to evaluate their own risks when deciding to attend WorldPride, but “this is not the time to retreat.”…

Great Read: <em>He’s throwing WorldPride in Trump’s backyard. Who’s with him?</em>Post + Comments (47)

Political Wins Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  May 15, 202512:28 pm| 135 Comments

This post is in: Democratic Response to Trump 2.0, LGBTQ Rights, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

Winning Omaha mayor by 12… whoo boy. RIP Don Bacon.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 10:47 AM

Omaha's result comes weeks after a series of major losses in school board elections for conservatives who championed attacks on trans kids:

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— Taniel (@taniel.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 10:41 PM

And important to note the Dem ran against the Repubs for being anti-trans.

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 1:10 AM

Remember, claim that Dems are dumping on trans people is absolute bullshit, & fuck off to anyone who says they are. In House 2 Dems (from border districts in TX) voted for trans athlete bill & 204 voted no, then all 47 Sen Dems filibustered & killed it
Because it’s right, & bc it’s winning politics

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 12:34 AM

Political Wins Open ThreadPost + Comments (135)

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