I Didn't Say It ...

Will Ganss, out ABC producer and Good Morning America correspondent, condemning his hometown in Texas for considering revoking anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people:

"What I know to be true because I grew up in Arlington, Texas, is that every person deserves to feel safe, no matter who they love or what their preferences might be. In fourth grade, I got my ass absolutely kicked during a game of football at recess, and I ran immediately to my elementary school library because my librarian made sure that I knew that there was a safe space for me there. I'm still in touch with my elementary school music teacher because she cares about my success and safety and happiness as a human being. These are Arlington, Texas values. Arlington is a community that is filled with faith and filled with compassion and, yes, filled with queer people. I know because I am a person who is faith-filled and compassionate and queer, so before the vote on November 18, I would encourage you to reach out to your city council members, to your mayor and let them know how you feel about this. Y'all know I don't post a lot of stuff like this, but the younger version of me needs this version of me to say something."

Spot on. Good on Ganss for speaking up and out.

The Arlington City Council will vote on a revised ordinance November 18, which would remove “gender identity and expression” and “sexual orientation” as protected characteristics. The vote comes after the council temporarily suspended the clause in September due to threats from Cankles’ Regime.

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Mark Pocan, out Democrat Representative from Wisconsin, blasts Cankles’ trade war and his misguided priorities:

“Of course it’s going to hurt us. You can’t throw tariffs around indiscriminately and then not negotiate because you’re mad about a pushback from one of the countries that you’re having a trade war with. People are paying too much for groceries, for durable goods; inflation is up from September, all because of Trump’s tariff taxes on all of us. It does have a negative effect on Americans, and it has a negative effect on Canadians. The president needs to be more mature and go back to negotiations. He’d be better off if he just took away this irresponsible use of tariffs since Congress is supposed to have that responsibility. And let’s get back to helping lower the cost for Americans.”

Get back to helping ALL Americans, not just the grifters and con artists and dog killers and rapists and heroin addicts.

All those elected people work for We The People and we need to remember that we have the power to change this but we have to get up, stand up, speak up and VOTE!

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Charlie Angus, former Member of Canda’s House Oof Commons, on Cankles AI sh*t-show:

“This is a guy who showed an AI video of himself dumping diarrheas on his own citizens. So the fact that he’s freaking out because we showed a video that just had Ronald Reagan speaking shows  he’s not trustworthy.”

He’s a narcissistic child; a clueless moron.

Not trustworthy? He’s a criminal, a rapist, a racist and ….

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Letitia James, New York’s indicted attorney general, spoke at a campaign rally for mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, and did not mention the name of the President but took him on nonetheless:

“I will not bow, I will not break, I will not bend, I will not capitulate. I will not give in. I will not give up. You come for me, you gotta come through all of us. I won’t give up and I won’t give in. So we have no time to linger and focus on pettiness and revenge. We’ve gotta press on, press forward, continue the journey, claim the victory … and so I fear no man.”

Of all the things Cankles most fears it a woman of color standing up to him, and James is doing all of that and I stand with her every step of the way.

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Ariana Grande, actor and singer, speaking to The Cult:

“I want to check in with [his] voters. I have one very genuine question: it's been 250 days. Now that immigrants have been violently torn from their families and communities have been destroyed, now that trans people have been blamed for virtually everything and live in fear, now that free speech is on the brink of collapse for us all—has your life gotten better? Have your groceries gotten cheaper? Has your health insurance premium gone done? Has your work/life balance improved? Can you take a vacation yet? Are you happier? Has the widespread suffering of others paid off for you in the way he promised it would or are you still waiting?"

Good on Grande for speaking out; she has a sizable social media presence and her standing up and resisting could reach a whole new audience … younger people who are the future of America.

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Erik Bottcher, out New York City Councilman, running for the seat of retiring Congressman Jerry Nadler, and raising nearly $700,000 in campaign funds in his first 24 hours:

“This congressional district has a proud tradition of representatives who’ve fought for LGBTQ+ rights, from Bella Abzug to Jerry Nadler, but we’ve never actually had one of our own at the table. And there’s an old saying, ‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.’ Our community is under attack in terrifying ways, and it’s time to take the gloves off. I love my country, and right now it’s being torn apart by [Cankles] and his neo-fascist forces. This is the moment for all Americans, especially those of us in public service, to stand up and fight back. I’m out in the community day and night, every day of the week. People want real representation. They want to know and feel connected to the people who speak for them. That’s been at the heart of my work in City Council District 3, and it’s exactly what I’d bring to the 12th District if I run. I’ve spent my life serving my community, and serving in Congress would be one of the highest honors imaginable.”

This historic, grassroots-driven achievement marks the biggest first-day total in New York State history and one of the biggest nationwide. Bottcher is one of the city’s most visible LGBTQ+ officials and a rising star in Democratic politics.

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The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same …

This week openly gay Congressman Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, posted a story to Twitter—I refuse to call it X—that emphasized just how different things were for LGBTQ+ people not even three decades ago … and how much the same things are today.

Pocan has a framed pair of rubber gloves in his office due to an incident that occurred in 1995, when he and 49 other out gay elected officials were invited to the White House:

“While serving alongside now-Senator Tammy Baldwin on the Dane County Board of Supervisors in 1995, we were invited to the Clinton White House for a celebration of openly gay elected officials.

We headed to Washington and after some sightseeing, finally got to take a tour of the White House. As we came through the metal detectors, we noticed the security personnel wearing rubber gloves.

This took place shortly after the Oklahoma City Bombing, so we assumed security was taking extra precautions to protect themselves from increased radiation.

Not thinking much of it, we continued through the afternoon of meetings where we ultimately discovered the real reason for the gloves.

The security officials were wearing gloves out of fear that they would contract AIDS from one of the openly gay elected officials visiting the White House.

In 1995, there was still a lot of ignorance surrounding the AIDS epidemic and LGBTQI+ individuals on a larger scale.

Later that evening, Vice President Gore made a point to come around and shake all of our hands, demonstrating that this was not the official position of the Clinton White House.

A few weeks later, I received a signed letter from the president apologizing for what we had encountered at the entrance.

It’s been more than 25 years since that historic meeting of out elected officials at the White House. I held onto the invitation and the apology letter — neither of which said the word “gay” — and still have them framed in my office with a pair of those rubber gloves.

This year as we celebrate LGBTQI+ History Month, I look at them and remember how much progress we’ve made and the work we still have to do.

Whether it’s a pair of gloves, or a slew of educational gag orders seeking to ban conversations on sexual orientation and gender identities, our work to protect LGBTQI+ individuals will not be done until equality is finally and fully realized.”

The Washington Post reported on the incident in 1995 and noted that Secret Service Director Eljay Bowron regretted the “unfortunate actions” of the Secret Service agents, saying it was “not the policy of the Secret Service to wear gloves merely based on known sexual preference,” and promised a “special training session directed specifically at these matters.”

Refusing to touch people in normal and socially accepted ways has long been one of the many microaggressions faced by LGBTQ+ people, whose bodies have often been labeled disgusting or toxic. More than half of the LGBTQ+ respondents to a 2009 Lambda Legal survey on medical discrimination said that they had experienced microaggressions in a medical setting that included, among others, “health care professionals refusing to touch them or using excessive precautions.”

Sidenote: back in the 1990s Carlos was trying to get life insurance and took a physical as part of the process. His doctor called him and told him he needed to come in for a talk. Carlos arrived at the office, the last appointment for the day, and the nurse talked to him from behind the glass partition—he thought it was because the office was closing. He sat and waited to see the doctor and when he was finally called in he sat across the desk from his doctor scarcely looked at him and said:

“I’m sorry, Mr. Harris, you have AIDS and there’s nothing I can do for you.”

And that was it; nothing can be done for you. Carlos got up and left the office while a nurse came in with gloves to clean the chair he sat in, the part of the desk he touched. In the waiting room a nurse was cleaning the doorknobs and the counter and where he sat while waiting to see the doctor.

On the upside, Carlos instantly found a doctor who deals with HIV and was prescribed medications; after we moved to South Carolina, he found a doctor here who is managing his HIV. He is, and has been, undetectable for thirty-plus years.

And these Don’t Say Gay laws and anti-trans laws and banning drag laws are still doing that today, making us feel like we don’t belong, like we are somehow dirty and dangerous and riddled with disease and not worthy of being touched.

The march goes on …

LGBTQ Nation