#queer youth assemble

[queeryouthautonomy]

It's time to fight back!

LGBTQ+ folks and allies, our rights are under attack. The ACLU, which tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the nation, has identified over 400 bills currently making their way through state Congresses and Senates. We must stand together against these horrific policies for the good of all queer people.

On March 31st, 2023, Queer Youth Assemble is planning protests across the nation to center youth voices and allow all queer people and allies to make their displeasure known.

Join us at marches in over 30 states (with more joining up every day!) as well as Washington DC. Turn up in large enough numbers so that legislators know that we will not stand for this.

Read and sign our List of Demands!

Find a march near you! Tumblr masterpost of marches can be found here!

Donate (we are raising money for transportation, organizing expenses, free masks, and ASL interpreters!)

Follow this page for updates and to see state marches featured.

To learn more, send an ask here or email march@queeryouthassemble.org!

Find us on Instagram and Tiktok—@queeryouthassemble!

[queeryouthassemble]

[ID: A light red rectangle takes up the top third of a square post, with a heading reading "We, The Youth, Dissent" in large, black, bold lettering. Below it in small black text reads "Queer Youth Assemble is coordinating a nationwide protest of the recent Supreme Court rulings, which have blocked debt relief, prohibited affirmative action, and weakened anti-discrimination protections for queer people nationwide. Join us at a demonstration near you!". The bottom two thirds of the square is taken up by a light pink background. Inside is a light red graphic of a state map of the United States, with location markers in Washington, Idaho, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post, with a large, black, and bold heading that reads "What are we protesting?". Below this is a rounded light red square with smaller black text that reads "The Supreme Court has recently targeted areas of our everyday lives that impact our finances, education, and our freedom of self-expression. With the rulings impacting student debt relief, lgbtqia+ rights, and affirmative action, we have had enough. Queer Youth Assemble has created Youth Dissent as a way to highlight the impact of these recent Supreme Court rulings especially on minority groups within the lgbtqia+ community. The intersectionality of these rulings is too large to ignore and we the youth, dissent." End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with part of a light red state map of the United States taking up the left third of the post. There are three location markers in different states. The location marker in Massachusetts has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Boston, MA". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "8/4 from 12-3 PM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Boston Common, by Brewer Fountain, near the corner of Park and Tremont Streets". The location marker in Pennsylvania has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Scranton, PA". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "7/29 from 2-4:30 PM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Demonstration beginning at 310 Mifflin Street, ending at 800 Linden Street". The location marker in Washington DC has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "District of Colombia. Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "7/19 from 10-11:30 AM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Outside the Supreme Court of the United States, First Street NE between East Capitol Street and Maryland Avenue". End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with part of a light red state map of the United States taking up the left third of the post. There is a location marker in Georgia and South Carolina. The location marker in Georgia has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Atlanta, GA". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "8/26 from 10-11:45 AM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Outside the Georgia State Capitol building, Capitol Sq SW, Atlanta, GA 30334". The location marker in South Carolina has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Colombia, SC". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "8/5 from 1 - 2:30 PM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Outside the South Carolina State Capitol, North Ground Steps, 1100 Gervais Street". End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with part of a light red state map of the United States taking up most of the space. There is a location marker in Illinois, Kentucky, and, Oklahoma. On top of the map is a light pink rounded rectangle. Bold, black, all-caps text reads "Springfield, IL", with smaller bold black text reading "TBA" below it. Below this, bold, black, all-caps text reads "Frankfurt, KY", with smaller bold black text reading "7/29 from 5-7 PM" below it. Below this smaller black text reads "Outside the Kentucky State Capitol building, 700 Capital Ave, Frankfort, KY 40601". Below this, bold, black, all-caps text reads "Oklahoma City, OK", with smaller bold black text reading "7/22 from 2-5 PM" below it. Below this smaller black text reads "Outside the Oklahoma State Capitol Building, 2300 N Lincoln Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73105". End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with part of a light red state map of the United States taking up the right half of the post. There is a location marker in Washington and Idaho. The location marker in Washington has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Seattle, WA". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "TBA", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Volunteer Park Amphitheater, 1139-1157 Volunteer Park Rd, Seattle, WA 98102". The location marker in Idaho has text beside it in bold, all-caps lettering which reads "Boise, ID". Below it, slightly smaller black text reads "7/31 from 12-4 PM", and below that there is smaller black text which reads "Outside the Idaho State Capitol Building, 700 W Jefferson St, Boise, ID 83702". End ID.]

[ID: A light pink square post with a black, all-caps, bold heading which reads "Don't see a protest near you?". Below this is a light red rounded square with smaller black text within it, reading "Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements about protests near you! If you are interested in organizing a demonstration in your state, please feel free to contact us at youthdissent@queeryouthassemble.org We have a complete guide to organizing your own demonstration coming out soon!". End ID.]

[youthdissent]

[ID: A light red square post with a centered, black, bold, all-caps heading at the top that reads "Take action against the Supreme Court with queer and trans youth at a protest near you!" in all caps. In the bottom left corner is a pink text bubble with black body text inside that reads "Swipe to learn about four upcoming We, the Youth, Dissent protests!". To the right are two people. One is tan with brown and blue short curly hair, and the other is pale with a blue curly mullet. They are holding a sign that says "Stand against racism" in all-caps black lettering. End ID.]

[ID: A light red square post with a black, bold, all-caps heading at the top that reads "Join us in San Diego, CA and Colombia, SC". Below this in a centered pink rounded rectangle is smaller black body text that reads "San Diego, CA Waterfront Park/City Hall, 8/5 @ 12-2PM, connorl@queeryouthassemble.org". After a space there is more black body text that reads "Columbia, SC State Capitol - North Grounds, 8/5 @ 1-2:30PM, faithc@queeryouthassemble.org". End ID.]

[ID: A light red square post with a black, bold, all-caps heading at the top that reads "Join us in Atlanta, GA and Austin, TX". Below this in a centered pink rounded rectangle is smaller black body text that reads "Atlanta, GA - State Capitol - 8/26 @ 10:00 AM - faithc@queeryouthassemble.org". After a space there is more black body text that reads "Austin, TX - State Capitol - 9/23@ 6:00 PM - faithc@queeryouthassemble.org". End ID.]

[itgetsbetter]

🏳️‍🌈🏳���‍⚧️ INTRODUCING: Our LGBTQ+ Youth Voices class of 2024! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

These are some amazinggg LGBTQ+ youth who are already making our world a better place through their activism, art, music, and storytelling.

Some new faces this round plus some familiar ones! Meet them here.

PLUS while we're at it, take a look at everything (like...a mind-blowing amount of things) that last year's class accomplished, like:

Speaking at the rally at NYC Pride

Being guests on podcasts

Speaking on panels and at conferences on behalf of LGBTQ+ youth

Creating art, zines, and music together

Streaming on Twitch and making TikToks

Getting to meet each other in LA!

See all of their accomplishments here! Truly gives ya hope that youth are making things better. :')

Can't wait to see what the new class has in storeee.

[faithsactivism]

HEY YALL!!!!!!

I’m causing some ✨chaos✨ behind the scenes rn with @queeryouthassemble so I’ll keep you posted on when you can get involved :)) should be within the next few days

Follow @youthdissent for more updates too!!!

[aydintariq]

A Vow To Organize

This statement, written by me and signed by activists and organizers from across the United States, feels like an apt thing to share in the wake of everything going on.

"On Tuesday, November 5th, Donald Trump was reelected as the 47th President of the United States of America. Many of us hoped to see Kamala Harris become the first female President. Many of us woke up Wednesday feeling sad, upset, or let down. Many of us fought to propel her into office.

The President-elect ran on a campaign built from fear. He relied on promises about the persecution of LGBTQ+ people, dangerous mass-scale deportations, failed trickle-down economic policy, climate denial, and foreign diplomacy that jeopardizes the sovereignty and safety of the citizens of Ukraine and Gaza.

In the face of that, we have an important message. To the women in America—we love you. To the LGBTQ+ folk in America—we love you. To the people of color and the marginalized in America—we love you. Let our words stand as a deep and unwavering hug of warmth and safety to always protect our communities from hate and violence. Let our voices sing the song of justice and unity.

As youth activists and leaders from across the country, we represent the future of America. Democracy chose a candidate whose Project 2025 blueprint echoes the dark hallmarks of fascism.

Today, and everyday, we, the young people, vow to never let hate overcome the bedrocks of our American freedoms.

To all the young people, we must keep fighting, keep organizing, and keep leading—because in times of darkness, where the deck of hate seems stacked against us, we still have our wall of love. What makes us special is we recognize that the principles of America are built on hope. And with hope, anything is possible.

We are proud to be Americans, but we are going to fight for an America that is proud to have us in it.

Signed with love, unity, and hope,

Aydin Tariq; Activist, Policy Writer

Esmée Silverman; Founder, Queer Youth Assemble

Ava Sunders; Students Demand Action

Grace Varughese; Students Demand Action

Reem Khalifa; Students Demand Action

Faith “Scout” Cardillo; Founder, Bulletproof Pride

James Crocker; Democratic Strategist

Jay’Shun Mathews; Founder, Black Youth Empowerment Network

Nahom Sisay; Community Organizer, United Nations Youth Advisor

Zadyn Grey; Head of Programs, Queer Youth Assemble

Vienna Cavazos; Queer Youth Activist

Laney Heggemeyer; Students Demand Action

Nessa Bleill; Students Demand Action

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … February 3

Francis Douglas (R) with his brother Alfred

1867 – Francis Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig (d.1894) was a Scottish nobleman and politician, the eldest son of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry.

He was educated at Harrow School and later served as a private secretary to the Liberal politician and Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, Lord Rosebery. Thanks to Rosebery's patronage, on 22 June 1893 he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Kelhead, of Kelhead in the County of Dumfries. This provided him with a seat in the House of Lords.

Drumlanrig's father served in Parliament from 1872 to 1880 as a representative peer, but in 1880 he refused, as an atheist, to take the religious oath of allegiance to the Queen. He was not allowed to take his seat and was never again chosen as representative peer by the Scottish nobles. His son's accession to Parliament as the 1st Baron Kelhead precipitated a bitter dispute between them and also between Queensberry and Lord Rosebery, who became Prime Minister in 1894.

In October 1894, eighteen months after his ennoblement, Drumlanrig died in what may have been a hunting accident or suicide. He was unmarried and his younger brother Lord Percy Douglas became heir to his father's titles.

It was speculated at the time, and evidence suggests that Drumlanrig may have had a homosexual relationship with Rosebery, and further, that Queensberry had threatened to expose the Prime Minister's supposed proclivities if his government did not vigorously prosecute Oscar Wilde in the affair stemming from Wilde's relationship with Francis Douglas's younger brother Lord Alfred Douglas. Rosebery was, by most accounts, happily married until the death of his wife in 1890, though gossip that Rosebery was homosexual or bisexual was indeed widespread. Queensberry believed that, as he phrased it to Lord Alfred in a letter, 'Snob Queers like Rosebery' had corrupted his sons, and held the Prime Minister indirectly responsible for Drumlanrig's death.

 Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas

1874 – Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France. (d.1946); Like the cubist paintings she knew so well, Gertrude Stein was multi-faceted, complicated and occasionally impenetrable. So much as been written about her it is difficult to know exactly what to make of this extraordinary woman, whose long and happy life with Alice B. Toklas she once summed up by writing,

"I love my love with a p because she is peculiar."

In her youth in Baltimore, Stein met Claribel Cone and Etta Cone, who held Saturday evening salons which she would later emulate in Paris. The Cones shared an appreciation for art and conversation about it, and modeled a domestic division of labor that Stein would replicate in her relationship with Alice B. Toklas.

In 1903, Stein moved to Paris, where she spent the rest of her life. From 1903 to 1914 she lived there with her brother Leo Stein, an art critic. It was during this period that she became well-known. Much of Gertrude Stein's fame derives from a private modern art gallery she assembled, from 1904 to 1913, with her brother. While living in Paris, Gertrude began writing for publication. Her earliest writings were mainly retellings of her college experiences. Her first critically acclaimed publication was Three Lives.

Stein met her life partner Alice B. Toklas on September 8, 1907, on Toklas' first day in Paris, at Sarah and Michael Stein's apartment. Soon they were traveling Europe together, and eventually living together. During the 1920s, the salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus, with walls covered by avant-garde paintings, attracted many of the great writers of the time, including Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Thornton Wilder, and Sherwood Anderson. While she has been credited with inventing the term "Lost Generation" for some of these expatriate American writers, at least three versions of the story that led to the phrase are on record, two by Ernest Hemingway and one by Gertrude Stein.

Was she a genius, a fraud, a bitch, a saint, over-rated, under-rated or a little of each? What she was more than anything else was honest, scrupulously so, perhaps the most honest writer of her time. Her early fiction, Q.E.D. and Three Lives, offers us the first realistic portrait of Lesbianism in the English language that is not veiled in misty metaphor or drowned in sickly sentiment. The very act of creating these books required an heroic courage that is inconceivable today. What she risked in breaking new ground, in writing about a subject scarcely known, no less understood, was the creation of works destined to cause shock and be called "ugly." As she later wrote in her inimitable style, "...When you make a thing, it is so complicated making it that it is bound to be ugly, but those that do it after you they don't have to worry about making it and they can make it pretty, and so everyone can like it when the others make it."

Other books include Tender Buttons and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Her essay "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" is one of the first homosexual revelation stories to be published. The work evinces Stein's growing involvement with a homosexual community, though it is based on lesbian partners Maud Hunt Squire and Ethel Mars. The work contains the word "gay" over one hundred times, perhaps the first published use of the word "gay" in reference to same-sex relationships and those who have them, and, thus, uninformed readers missed the lesbian content.

Gertrude Stein was a first. We keep her memory with a g. Because she was so gay.

1927 – Kenneth Anger, American Underground Filmmaker, born (d.2023); One of America's first openly Gay filmmakers, and certainly the first whose work addressed homosexuality in an undisguised, self-implicating manner, Kenneth Anger occupies an important place in the history of experimental filmmaking. His role in rendering Gay culture visible within American cinema, commercial or otherwise, is impossible to overestimate.

In 1947, Anger gained instant notoriety with Fireworks, a homoerotic nightmare/reverie in which a muscle-bound sailor enjoys posing for the protagonist's (Anger's) delectation, but then, with four others, bashes the youth in a public restroom. Despite the horrific scenario, the ending suggests redemption with milky fluid spattering Anger's body, a sympathetic sailor's crotch spewing white sparks from a Roman candle, and Anger resurrected, wearing a flaming Christmas tree headdress.

Some early Anger works never made it to the controversial screening stage because negatives were confiscated and destroyed by self-policing labs to which he had sent film for processing. Conversely, other viewers were overly appreciative of Anger's eroticism, pirating and showing his films in nightclubs during an era when Gay porn was largely unavailable.

Similarly, the pervasiveness of iconic Gay imagery in Anger's work, such as the leather-clad bikers of Scorpio Rising (1963), often caused his films to be grossly oversimplified as depictions of homosexual "pathology," rather than understood as critiques of American mass culture, particularly as it was propagated by Hollywood movies and the rock-and-roll music that Anger used for his soundtracks in pioneering ways, critically anticipating the music-video genre.

In unfinished film projects such as Puce Moment (1949), with its close-up sequence of women's gowns, and Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965), in which a youth caresses a hot-rod with a powder puff, Anger inventories American culture's most fetishized objects, evoking a profoundly camp sensibility. Elsewhere, in Eaux d'artifice (1953), whatever Gay content does exist—Anger cites Ronald Firbank's novel Valmouth as inspiration and has likened the fountain imagery to sexual water-sports—is subordinate to the film's elegant visual abstractions.

Although Fireworks and Scorpio Rising had earned him a reputation as an underground Gay filmmaker, through the late 1960s and 1970s, Anger's films expressed less specifically Gay content. His longtime fascination with the writings of occultist Aleister Crowley, which had imparted a dark, ritualistic atmosphere to even his earliest films, propelled works such as Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) and Lucifer Rising (1973). Collaborative projects with Mick Jagger and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page recalled Anger's earlier professional engagements with Jean Cocteau, Anaïs Nin, and other iconoclasts, but the results fell short of Anger's expectations and, indeed, abilities.

Through the 1980s, Anger became known to a broader public through the film adaptation of his lurid book Hollywood Babylon (1958), which chronicled scandals of the film industry. Hollywood Babylon is, in essence, a counter-accusation of indecency and intemperance against America's self-righteous film establishment, an institution that at mid-century was so fearful of scandal that only underground filmmakers risked depicting overtly sexual content and exploring radical cinematic forms.

1938 – Emile Griffith (d.2013) was a former boxer who was the first fighter from the U.S. Virgin Islands ever to become a world champion. He is perhaps best known for his controversial third fight with Benny Paret in 1962 for the welterweight world championship. Griffith later won the world middleweight title and claimed an early version of the junior middleweight world championship, a claim that has not been universally recognized although some consider Griffith a three-division champion fighter.

Griffith as a youth never dreamed of becoming a boxer and was discovered by accident. As a teen he was working at a hat factory on a steamy day when his boss the factory owner agreed to Griffith's request to work shirtless. When the owner, a former amateur boxer, noticed his frame he took Griffith to trainer Gil Clancy's gym. Griffith won the 1958 New York Golden Gloves 147 lb Open Championship. He turned professional in 1958.

The infamous Emile Griffith/Benny Paret fight, which was nationally televised by ABC, took place on March 24, 1962 at Madison Square Garden. In the sixth round Paret nearly knocked out Griffith with a multi punch combination but Griffith was saved by the bell. After the round his trainer Gil Clancy got into his face and told him "when you go inside I want you to keep punching until Paret holds you or the referee breaks you! But you keep punching until he does that!". In round 12 Griffith knocked Paret unconscious yet Paret stood, still propped up against the ropes while Griffith struck Paret repeatedly over the next several seconds before referee Ruby Goldstein stopped the fight. Paret never regained consciousness, and he died ten days later.

Sports Illustrated reported in its April 18, 2005, edition that Griffith's rage may have been fueled by an anti-gay slur directed at him by Paret during the weigh-in. Paret called his opponent a maricón, the Spanish equivalent of "faggot"; Griffith nearly went after him on the spot and had to be restrained. The media at the time either ignored the slur or used euphemisms such as "anti-man". The 2005 article pointed out that it would have been career suicide for an athlete or any other celebrity during the 1960s to admit that he was gay.

Griffith reportedly felt great guilt over Paret's death, and suffered nightmares about Paret for 40 years.

After retiring from boxing, Griffith worked as a corrections officer at the Secaucus, New Jersey Juvenile Detention Facility.

In 1992, Griffith was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York City street, after leaving a gay bar near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He was in the hospital for four months after the assault. It was not clear whether the violence was motivated by hatred of gays.

Griffith was quoted in Sports Illustrated as saying "I like men and women both. But I don't like that word: homosexual, gay or faggot. I don't know what I am. I love men and women the same, but if you ask me which is better... I like women."

Griffith died July 23, 2013, at a care facility in Hempstead, New York. In his final years, he required full-time care and suffered from dementia pugilistica. His adopted son, Luis Rodrigo Griffith, was his primary caregiver

1950 – Ron Woodroof (d.1992) was an American who created what would become known as the Dallas Buyers Club in March 1988. Contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the 1980s, he created the group as part of his efforts to find and distribute drugs to treat HIV at a time when the disease was poorly understood.

He sued the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over a ban on a drug he was using.

Woodroof was born in Dallas, Texas. His first marriage was to Mary Etta Pybus on June 28, 1969, in Dallas; and they had a daughter born in 1970. They divorced in 1972. On May 6, 1972, he married Rory S. Flynn in Dallas. They divorced in 1973. He then married Brenda Shari Robin on October, 1982, in Lubbock. They divorced on March 4, 1986, after he was diagnosed with HIV.

He had a mercurial personality. One reporter writes that "Woodroof took guns to his doctor’s office, prompting Dr. Steven Pounders to 'fire him as a patient.'" Woodroof later sent the doctor roses, and the doctor took him back.

Some of his friends told reporters he was gay or bisexual. Accounts differ on whether he made homophobic comments. Reporter and screenwriter Craig Borten has said Woodroof was "as racist and homophobic as they come" while friends reportedly claim the opposite.

Seven years following his diagnosis of HIV, Ron Woodroof died on September 12, 1992 from pneumonia brought on by AIDS. Woodroof's final years became the basis of the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club. He was portrayed in the film by Matthew McConaughey, who was critically acclaimed for his performance and won many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor.

1956 – Nathan Lane, (né Joseph Lane) is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and his voice work in The Lion King and Stuart Little. In 2006, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

When he was 21 and told his mother he was Gay, her reply was: "I'd rather you were dead." Lane shot back: "I knew you'd understand".

His professional association with his close friend the playwright Terrence McNally includes roles in Lips Together, Teeth Apart, The Lisbon Traviata, Bad Habits, Love! Valor! Compassion!, and Dedication.

Lane, who came out publicly after the death of Matthew Shepard, jokingly describes himself as "one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades." When he was asked once by a reporter whether he was Gay, rather than providing a blunt yes-or-no answer, he famously declared, "I'm 40, single and work a lot in the musical theater. You do the math."

He has been a long-time board member of and fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, and he has been honored by The Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and The Trevor Project for his work in the Gay community. Lane resides in New York City with his long-time partner, producer Devlin Elliott. Nathan and Devlin married in November 2015.

1969 – Paul Babeu is the elected sheriff of Pinal County in the U.S. state of Arizona. First voted into office in 2008 by defeating the Democratic incumbent, Babeu became the first Republican Sheriff elected in the history of Pinal County. He has received national media attention for speaking out against illegal immigration, the unsecured U.S. border with Mexico, and Operation Fast and Furious gun smuggling facilitated by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In October 2011, Babeu announced the formation of an exploratory committee to run for U.S. Congress, but later decided against running. Babeu won reelection to a second term as sheriff on November 6, 2012.

In February 2012, Babeu was accused of threats of deportation by a Mexican man who described himself as a former boyfriend of Babeu. A spokesman for Babeu denied the allegation and described them as "sensationalist". The spokesman confirmed that Babeu would continue to run for U.S. Congress.

The day after the story broke, Babeu, then a surrogate for Mitt Romney's campaign, officially acknowledged his sexuality but denied the charges. Babeu claimed his sexual orientation was the only factual statement from the allegations. Later, in May, he told openly gay journalist Don Lemon he wants to provide a bridge between the GOP and LGBT communities. He later won reelection as Sheriff of Maricopa County Pinal County by a large margin.

1976 – Daniel Allen Cox is a Canadian author and screenwriter. Shuck, his debut novel about a New York City hustler, was a Lambda Literary Award and a ReLit Award finalist

Cox is a former Jehovah's Witness and model/actor in gay pornography. From 2008 to 2011, he wrote the column "Fingerprinted" for Capital Xtra! in Ottawa, Ontario. He is openly gay.

Krakow Melt, the second novel by Cox, about Polish pyromaniacs who fight homophobia, was released in 2010 and was excerpted in the US-based national gay and lesbian newsmagazine The Advocate. In 2011, Istanbul-based publisher Altikirkbes acquired Turkish-language rights to the novel for an underground literature imprint featuring Lydia Lunch. The novel was nominated for the ReLit Award, the Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction. Cox's third novel, Basement of Wolves, was released in 2012.

In a cover interview for Xtra!, the author revealed a collaboration with Bruce LaBruce on the screenplay for the director's film, Gerontophilia. Cox's script One Shut Night was named one of five finalists in the 2013 NYC PictureStart Film Festival short screenplay contest, with the announcement of a stage reading directed by Peter Kelley.

Tattoo This Madness In, his novella about LGBT Jehovah’s Witnesses who use Smurf tattoos to rebel against their faith, was nominated for a 2007 Expozine Alternative Press Award.

2014 – Don Franco (b.1923), a lifelong gay activist, died on this date. He was 90.

At approximately 1:30am on Saturday, Dec 9, 1978, Toronto police stormed the Barracks, a small bathhouse focusing on BDSM. They tore the place apart and arrested 26 men, including Franco. In response, Franco joined the newly formed Right to Privacy Committee and helped organize a series of public demonstrations, which resulted in the police getting fewer guilty pleas than they would have liked.  But that wasn’t the end of it. A police sergeant then took it upon himself to call various Toronto schools and give them the names of the six school teachers arrested in relation to the Barracks raid, including Franco’s. Franco enlisted the help of minister Brent Hawkes, who called for the sergeant to be disciplined. The teachers’ union also stood by Franco and the Toronto Board of Education chairperson, Fiona Nelson, issued a statement in support of Franco.

Still that wasn’t the end of it. Franco had a makeshift dungeon off the bedroom of his home and regularly advertised for partners in The Body Politic. A policeman, posing as a potential partner, responded to his ad, came over and arrested Franco during an initial conversation. Six more officers then burst in and confiscated several garbage bags full of Franco’s belongings. In a possible attempt to target Franco, they were trying to stretch the law concerning “common bawdyhouses” to include his apartment.

Franco was close to retirement and worried that a conviction might lead to losing his pension. He didn’t back down, and dozens of hearings later he was acquitted of the charge. He retired with full pension. His was an important early victory in the struggle for gay rights.

In a time when the fight for rights was savage, Franco was involved with just about every protest, group or movement. He was connected to varying degrees with AIDS Action Now, the Ontario Coalition for Gay Rights, the Campaign for Equal Families and the NDP, just to name a few. He got little credit for the work that he did and didn’t profit from his good deeds, but he is one of a select group of people who were involved in almost the entire history of the fight for gay rights in Canada.

His strength and passion seem to have pervaded other aspects of his life as well. He taught in high schools for approximately 40 years and was one of those rare teachers whose students, even years later, would come back to visit and thank for his contribution to their lives.

[the-cimmerians]

a storytime story. Not my story, it's my friend's, but she doesn't go here so I'm sharing for her. We'll call her Mara. Mara is a high-femme, lovely queer girl from a wealthy family in the southern US, but when I met her she'd been living in California for many years, chugging through her postgraduate education in Women's Studies. She rarely went home, because being at home was always a bit of a fraught experience: not unendurable (because to most heteronormative casual viewers the radiant queerness of a high-femme is pretty much indistinguishable from a quirky beauty queen waiting for the right football quarterback to sweep her off her feet), but still--not the most fun. Yet every once in a while, Mara would have a fit of 'dutiful daughter'-itis, and go home to mend some fences and keep some peace.

Mara's mother had often asked her to come with her to philanthropic events, but Mara had always said no. On this trip, however, Mara's mother had purchased a full table as an event sponsor, and she cajoled Mara into going with her. For those of you who haven't ever attended such an event, they are all different, and yet terrifyingly all the same (and I say this not as an attendee, but as an event-runner for various nonprofits; an event-runner who, fair warning, hates everything about these events, and this part of nonprofit work). There is some form of lower-calorie food (chicken or fish on greens with a very light citrus-fruit dressing is de rigeur, along with some sort of fruit-based airy parfait served in the smallest and most elegant glasses imaginable for dessert), usually an emcee (occasionally entertaining, but always inoffensive to the assembled guests), sometimes speakers (high-profile or famous women on a local or national level depending on the 'get' of the organization in question, or extremely well-spoken young people or teens for youth-serving organizations--with the youth in question being very carefully coached), and an 'ask'--the fundraising portion of the event, where the wealthy attendees compete with the rest of their friends and enemies in the social scene to be the most gracious and beneficent person in the room.

And there is gossip. So much gossip.

Poor Mara knew enough to expect some of this (mostly due to listening to me complain bitterly about how awful these events are), but there were aspects for which she was completely unprepared. Her mother had filled her sponsorship table with all of her closest friends, and the 'social hour' before the event started in earnest was a haze of white wine and a constant stream of excessively perfumed women dressed in full southern socialite chic, coming by the table to air-kiss cheeks and say how it's been ages since they've seen each other and what a darling ensemble, where on earth did you get it? and who does your hair now?--you must tell me, it's simply scrumptious--you look incredible, we really must do lunch some time soon--

...and the moment the woman or women in question moved on, the table, as a whole, in excited, urgent-whispered voices, would drag the everloving fuck out of every single lady they'd just been gushing over.

"Did you see how botched her last lift was? I hardly recognized her--I'm surprised she recognized me, with her eyes yanked back like that--" "so terrible, but she did go to the cheapest surgeon in town--husband has money troubles, you know--"

"Didn't expect to see her here, but I suppose you have to go somewhere to show off that large a collection of paste jewels--" "oh, stop, you wicked girl! But you're right, of course--and she gives herself such airs, like we don't all know--"

"Poor dear looks exhausted--apparently keeping up with her pool boy isn't easy at her age--" "Can't say that I blame her; that Carlos, have you seen him? Of course, she's hardly his only client. I've been dying for a pool, but my Henry just won't--"

"Quite a plucky little attitude for someone whose husband just left her for his twenty-two year old secretary--" "And after she put him through college and law school--I heard she's not even going to get to keep the house. She really should have sprung for a better lawyer--"

"I can't believe she still thinks she can fit into that dress, with all the weight she's packed on--" "Truly grotesque--just ghastly! Seems like last summer at the fat farm didn't do her as much good as one would have hoped--"

::giggle:: ::giggle:: ::giggle::

Mara was horrified, sitting there with a bland, polite smile frozen on her face, with her white gloves and vintage pillbox hat and charming little clutch bag, her seamed stockings and her kitten heels and her classic red lipstick and pin-curls (because in true unquenchable femme spirit, she had taken this occasion as an opportunity for dress-up, an opportunity for fun and play and sexy whimsy--a Gene-Tierney-does-pin-up-girl kind of vibe), utterly unable to see how to extricate herself from this terrible situation.

Another woman glided away from the table, coyly waving heavily-beringed fingers. "Yes, Darling," Mara's mother said, coyly waving back. "See you soon! Kiss-kiss! Love to Laurent!" She sat down and hissed to the cabal at the table: "Ha! Her husband just gave her an STD."

The woman to Mara's left leaned forward excitedly. "Really? Two-door or four-door?--wait, if it was the latest Aston Martin, I'm going to literally perish of envy--"

And that was the tipping point--Mara fled. Walked until she found a suitably divey coffee shop. Had a coffee and a slice of peach pie, and flirted with a soft Butch waitress until the world seemed less dire.

[just-a-queer-fanboy]

Petition against KOSA.

More information under the cut.

This bill hides behind the facade of protecting children on the internet. However, the way it intends to do so is through censoring content such as queer resources, sex education, and with how our government is going, may censor activist content about what is going on in places like Palestine or Congo.

Learn more:

One idea proposed is making it required for most websites to require government ID (ex: drivers license) to make an account. Combined with the many bills framing drag, trans rights, or queer resources as child sexual abuse, queer people online could be wrongfully prosecuted under the basis of being child predators.

Not only is this bill harmful and immoral, it is straight up unconstitutional.

The first amendment of the US constitution grants all citizens the freedom of speech, freedom to petition, freedom of the press, and freedom to assembly. It also grants freedom of religious practice, but that doesn't appear to be affected by this bill from what I know.

This bill completely violates our granted right to the freedom of speech, petition, press, and assembly. This is a thinly veiled censorship bill under the guise of protecting children.

As this bill coincides with the suppression of free palestine protests and activism, anti boycott laws, anti queer bills and laws, and the introduction of project 2025, the United Statres continues to descend into censorship and white supremacy.

US CITIZENS: CALL YOUR LAWMAKERS AND TELL THEM YOU OPPOSE KOSA. FOR SOME OF US, IT IS OUR ONLY FORM OF ACTIVISM.

I know I typically don't make my own posts on large political issues, but as I live in the US, I am closer to the issue and can do more.

[queeryouthautonomy]

Ways to get involved with the movement:

Attend your local March for Queer and Trans Youth Autonomy on 3/31 (find your nearest march here)

Donate—visit our website or find us on Venmo/Paypal/Cashapp (@queeryouthassemble); we are fundraising for poster and first aid supplies, to pay speakers/interpreters, and transportation costs :)

If you can directly donate services or materials, please reach out to march@queeryouthassemble.org!

Be a marshal in DC—apply here!

Organize a walkout at your school

[queeryouthassemble]

Join QYA's Let Trans Athletes Play Movement!

Send us an ask or see our website for more information :)

[ID: Six illustrated people stand over a beige box. Blue and pink words in large all-caps text inside thee box read "Let Trans Athletes Play" with smaller white all-caps text reading "Visit queeryouthassemble.org to learn more." People are of diverse heights, races, and clothing. One is using a wheelchair, and one holds a progress pride flag, others hold sports equipment. The background has various sports balls and pucks. End ID.]

[ID: Four illustrated people stand facing one another at the bottom-center of the page. They are of diverse heights, races, and clothing, and some hold different sports equipment. Three people are standing, and one is using a wheelchair. Three lines of all-caps text above the people read "This is a nationwide movement to end transgender sports bans by playing sports." End ID.]

[ID: Black text fills the page, reading "As transgender athletes, we have been forced into silence over an issue that affects us personally: our participation in sports. There are some who believe that simply being transgender creates an unfair advantage, others who say that is not the case, and many who do not know what to think. While opinions are divided, what is a fact is that transgender athletes are being unfairly discriminated against through these bills. That is why throughout the summer, we are inviting everyone, regardless of your identity, to play sports with us at Let Trans Athletes Play events across the country." In the bottom right corner, a small illustrated femme person sits with a skateboard in their lap. End ID.]

[ID: Black all-caps text covers the top half of the page. It is a quote from QYA volunteer and athlete Xander Grey, who uses he/him pronouns. Text reads "I've been told I can't compete because I refuse to wear a female swimsuit. It would be amazing to be a part of a community that celebrates and uplifts me rather than refuses to let me compete. I've been so many firsts in my community and I hate having all that pressure put on me. For once, I'd like to be a part of a bigger first." In the bottom left corner, three people of varying heights, races, and clothing face each other. One is using a wheelchair, while the other two stand. Two people hold sports equipment. End ID.]

[ID: Large white all-caps text at the top of the page reads "LTAP Overview." Below, there are four quadrants, each with an illustration. In the top-left, three people of varying heights, races, and clothing face each other. One is using a wheelchair, while the other two stand. Two people hold sports equipment. Below them is the word "sports." In the bottom-left there is a person with blue hair holding a sign that says "I love being trans." Below them is the word "protests." In the top-right, a person with purple hair holds some toys. Below them says "games." In the bottom-right, a person with red hair holds a pamphlet that has a trans flag and binder drawing on it. Below them says "learning." End ID.]

[ID: Large all-caps white text at top of page reads "get involved." Two smaller white all-caps subtitled read "host an event" and "attend an event." Smaller black text below "host an event" reads "We're looking for organizers and organizations to host Let Trans Athletes Play events across the country this summer! Visit our website (queeryouthassemble.org) to learn how," and text below "attend an event" reads "Regardless of if you're an athlete, non-athlete, transgender, or cisgender, we encourage you to attend an event near you. There's something for everyone, regardless of athletic ability!" End ID.]

[ID: Black all-caps text covers the top half of the page. It is a quote from QYA art consultant and former athlete Jesse Young-Paulson, who uses they/he pronouns. Text reads "Even considering the competitive nature of the games, being able to see other people like me on the field was a moment of radical inclusion and visibility—the type of visibility where you don’t feel hypervisible, but seen for yourself and part of a queer sports community." At the bottom of the page are five people, of diverse heights, races, and clothing. One person has visible top surgery scars, and holds a ball. Another person holds a progress pride flag. End ID.]

[youthdissent]

[ID: A yellow square post with a light yellow rounded rectangle taking up the top two thirds, with large, black, bold, all-caps text that reads "California! join queer and trans youth in protesting the Supreme Court". In the bottom right corner there is smaller bold black text that reads "Join us in San Diego, CA." Non-bold black text below this reads "at the San Diego Waterfront Park/City Hall on August 9th from 12:00-2:00PM PST!". In the bottom left corner is a drawing of a person with light tan skin and mid-length green curly hair using a wheelchair and holding a progress flag. End ID.]

[ID: A yellow square post with a light yellow rounded square in the middle that takes up most of the post. Inside there is a heading in all-caps, bold, black text that reads "We, The Youth, Dissent". Below this is smaller black text which reads "The Supreme Court has recently targeted areas of our everyday lives that impact our finances, education, and our freedom of self-expression. With the rulings impacting student debt relief, lgbtqia+ rights, and affirmative action, we have had enough. Queer Youth Assemble has created Youth Dissent as a way to highlight the impact of these recent Supreme Court rulings especially on minority groups within the lgbtqia+ community. The intersectionality of these rulings is too large to ignore and we the youth, dissent." End ID.]

[ID: A yellow square post with a light yellow rounded square in the middle that takes up most of the post. Inside there is a heading in all-caps, bold, black text that reads "What should I bring?". Below this is smaller black text which reads "Here's a quick list of things you might want to bring with you to your upcoming demonstration. Keep an eye out for our resource guides on organizing and protesting coming out this week!" Below this there is a list of checkboxes in slightly smaller text whose items include, "Necessary medications, Water & Small snacks, State ID, cash & coins, Fully charged cell phone, Hand sanitizer & a mask, Hat & sunscreen, Our printable "Know Your Rights" & "In Case of Emergency" cards*, A sign". Below this is smaller text which reads "*These are available on our site alongside printable pages to cut and distribute at your demonstration!" End ID.]

[ID: A dark yellow square post with a light yellow rounded square in the middle that takes up most of the post. Inside there is a heading in all-caps, bold, black text that reads "Find a protest near you". Below this is smaller black text that reads "Please reach out to us at connorl@queeryouthassemble.org if you have any questions! Organizing and Protesting resource guides available in our bio now! Check out our page and website to stay up to date on our latest demonstration announcements.". Below this is smaller, centered text that reads "Currently featuring.... Atlanta, San Diego, Seattle, and much more!" End ID.]

[transformationsproject]

Today’s Legislative Updates February 26, 2025

Trans rights are still under attack in the United States. Please visit our website linked below to learn about your state and contact your reps. Here's a thread of today's updates:

Bathroom bills deny access to public restrooms by gender or trans identity. 

They increase danger without making anyone any safer and have even prompted attacks on cis and trans people alike. Many national health and anti-sexual assault organizations oppose these bills.

Old Bills:

Wyoming gave bill HB0072 its second Senate reading yesterday and sent it to a final vote in the second chamber.

Idaho gave bill H0264 its second House reading yesterday and sent it for a third.

Missouri passed bill SB212 through its committee yesterday and sent it to the Senate floor.

Healthcare bills go against professional and scientific consensus that gender-affirming care saves lives. Denying access will cause harm.

Providers are faced with criminal charges, parents are threatened with child abuse charges, and intersex children are typically exempted.

Old Bills:

New Hampshire bill HB377 has a hearing on 3/3 at 9:30am in Legislative Office Building 306-308 in the House Health, Human Services & Elderly Affairs Committee.

North Dakota passed bill HB1430 through the House yesterday and sent it to the Senate.

Educational Censorship and Student Suppression bills force schools to misgender or deadname students, ban instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, and make schools alert parents if they suspect a child is trans.

They remove life-saving affirmation and support for trans youth. 

Old Bills:

Montana passed bill SB299 through its committee yesterday and sent it to the Senate floor.

Iowa passed bill SF8 through its committee yesterday and sent it to the Senate floor.

Iowa passed bill SF335 through its subcommittee yesterday and sent it to the Senate Education Committee.

Wyoming gave bill SF0103 its second House reading yesterday and sent it to a final vote in the second chamber.

Trans Erasure bills create legal definitions of terms like “sex” designed to exclude or erase trans identity and insert them into various laws. This can have many different effects, depending on what laws are affected.

They can force a male or female designation based on sex assigned at birth.

Some target anti-discrimination statutes, legally empowering trans discrimination. 

Old Bills:

Montana bill SB437 has a hearing on 3/4 at 7am in Room 303 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Iowa passed bill SF418 through its committee today and sent it to the Senate floor.

New Hampshire bill HB148 has a hearing on 3/3 at 10am in Legislative Office Building 206-208 in the House Judiciary Committee.

Digital Censorship Bills describe any legislation that potentially targets Queer and Trans media/material for removal. 

They typically do this by using vague and broad definitions of "Obscene" or "Harmful to Minors" and then banning such content from being accessible to minors, which often either removes the material entirely or requires age verification methods in order to view. 

This includes online censorship bills, library book bans, and other such legislation.

New Bills:

Nevada introduced online censorship bill AB294 today and sent it to the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee.

Old Bills:

New Hampshire bill HB293 has a hearing on 3/3 at 10am in Legislative Office Building 206-208 in the House Judiciary Committee.

North Dakota sent bill SB2307 to the House Judiciary Committee yesterday.

Most sports bills force schools to designate teams by sex assigned at birth. 

They are often one-sided and ban trans girls from playing on teams consistent with their gender identity.

Some egregious bills even force invasive genital examinations on student athletes.

Old Bills:

Utah passed bill HB0424 through the House yesterday and sent it to the Senate.

In other bills that either fit multiple categories or stand on their own, we have:

New Bills:

Montana introduced bill HB734 yesterday and sent it to the House Education Committee. This bill is a ban on menstrual products in boys’ bathrooms in schools.

Old Bills:

Kansas sent bill HB2311 to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee today.

It's not too late to stop these and other hateful anti-trans bills from passing into law. YOU can go to http://transformationsproject.org/ to learn more and contact your representatives!

[faithsactivism]

When in doubt, I’m causing some shit somewhere 🥰

@youthdissent is in full swing!!!!

[grison-in-space]

Via a conversation on Metafilter about the state of Florida's decision to crush its public institutions, a person I think is particularly wise left a comment about the state of the legislature on higher education in Wisconsin.

The situation in Florida is atrocious, but it's important to be aware of how widespread this movement on the part of MAGA politicians to ban all academic and support programs related to gender, race/ethnicity, and sexuality is. I'm a professor in the Wisconsin state university system, where, in addition to my regular fulltime work in my home department I direct the LGBTQ+ Studies Program (a more-than-halftime job I have done for many years in return for zero additional salary, or summer funds, or course buyout, or any other compensation...).

This summer, the Wisconsin state legislature, gerrymandered into permanent Republican control, voted to ban all DEI programs in the state university system, and cut $32 million from the university budget, which it stated was amount of "taxpayer money being wasted on divisive indoctrination efforts" (to paraphrase Assembly Speaker Robin Vos). This comes after years of successive budget cuts and a ten-year tuition freeze and years of faculty and staff taking pay cuts in the form of "furloughs" through which we were expected to just keep working. The situation is now somewhat improved in that Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, vetoed the DEI ban, but he cannot restore the funding. Anyway: a few days after the legislative vote to ban DEI , I was giving a talk about the range of state bills attacking trans youth and adults, and there was a Democratic state legislator on the panel. When we were introducing ourselves and I told her I directed the LGBTQ+ Studies Program, she said, "Oh, but that's no longer legal. Well, unless Evers vetoes the ban; we'll see."

After doing some blinking, I responded by explaining the difference between DEI programs and academic programs. DEI programs provide student support services, which is deemed administrative work, in contrast to academic programs. The LGBTQ+ Resource Center and the LGBTQ+ Studies Program at my university are both vital and important. But the resource center organizes support groups and social activities for students, while the academic program teaches classes and sponsors academic talks. Academic programs are not part of the DEI system--and the very same legislature that voted for the DEI ban had spent years prior threatening sanctions against students and faculty for supposedly not sufficiently respecting the absolute value of free speech in academia. Legislators presented instructors as censorious ideologues, students as snowflakes in love with a victim narrative, and the legislature as the champion of teaching and discussing all ideas freely.

The image of DEI programs presented by Republican legislators is some kind of kink fantasy, in which cis straight white men are forced to prostrate themselves, declare themselves to be bad and deserving of punishment, and lick the boots of students who are trans and queer, of color and feminist. The reality is that university DEI programs are providing mental health services and tutoring and social support to college students, at a time when their levels of mental health challenges are very high. They have zero to do with the kink humiliation fantasy, they really are about inclusion, and it is ludicrous and cruel to cut social support to marginalized college students.

But even if the state ban were not vetoed, a DEI ban does not dismantle programs like Gender Studies or African and African Diaspora Studies or LGBTQ+ Studies, because they are academic programs, I explained to the Democratic legislator. But from her response, it was clear that not only did Republican Wisconsin legislators think they'd banned all academic programs examining race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and who knows what else (disability studies? Jewish studies and Islamic studies?), but that the Democratic legislators seemed to believe so as well.

The flip from "we are the party of free speech!" to "we are the party that bans books and entire academic disciplines!" happened with dizzying speed. But take it from me as a trans person--these legislative attacks can burst across the country in the space of months, shifting the landscape radically. The thing about the MAGA movement is that it is made up of people who believe that the situation is desperate, the American project is on the verge of failure, and the time has come to destroy or be destroyed. Most Americans, including non-MAGA Republicans, want to see the culture war cool down and Americans get along, but MAGA-sorts want it to go hot. And I have to admit some despair about what to do about this, because of the unpersuadability of this group. Take a look at Question 39 from this CBS/YouGov poll of Iowa voters last week, and what percentage of Republican voters there believe they are being lied to by various parties. The percentage of MAGA voters who said they said they believed they were being told the truth by Trump was 71%, in comparison to 63% for friends and family, 56% for conservative news sources, and 42% for religious leaders. Only 32% of Iowa Republicans generally believed they were told the truth by medical scientists. (The figures for Joe Biden and "liberal media" were 10% and 8% respectively.)

It is hard to persuade people with facts and logic and calls for empathy when they think you are a liar attacking their great leader with whom 99% say they identify. What we have to do is persuade others to stand up. And I don't want to be doomy, but my experience with resisting transphobic legislation and action causes me a lot of concern. It's not just "the face-eating leopards won't eat my face" problem. The fact is, frankly, that a lot of institutions and people are craven. This past year I was in a working group with medical and social scientists advising the HHS about creating guidelines for research with intersex and transgender populations, and then Libs of TikTok spread lies about hospitals supposedly performing "sex changes" on little kids, and several children's hospitals received bomb threats--and suddenly most of the medical researchers working with trans youth were pulled from the working group by the hospitals they were affiliated with. Hospital administrators are shutting down research on trans youth and clinics serving trans youth, rather than having the backs of threatened doctors and patients, handing a victory to the face-eating leopards who growled at them.

My conclusion is that we need to focus energy on teaching people who have not dealt with serious bullying before how to stand up to bullies. For people like concerned parents considering attending school board meetings to oppose book bans, we could teach basic mutual aid strategies, like forming a supportive group to attend together. But what we are to do about people like college administrators and corporate executives who would like to do the right thing for students and employees, but not as much as they'd like to avoid offending a wealthy donor or receiving negative conservative media attention. . . that's a big question to me.

I have left my own longer comment in the wider thread.

(If you also like longform, thoughtful text conversation, this is my regular plug for Metafilter as a platform. If you DM me an email address, I can send you an invitation link for a free account.)

[firealder2005]

hey all - I don't normally do this but if you want to stop this bill this is an easy way to sign the petition. the current next goal is 35,000 signatures and they are currently at 29,887.

Real quick and easy to do, I promise! I've been skimming the news about this for a bit and finally gotten around to signing.

What I put down as my comment if you're unsure what to talk about:

As a content creator, KOSA is my enemy. As a teenager, KOSA is my enemy. As an older sister, KOSA is my enemy. As a queer citizen, KOSA is my enemy.

I have Zero desire for my sister to have to give out her own personal information just to use the internet. That SHOULD NOT be happening, let alone CONSIDERED.

We. Deserve. Privacy. Should I say it louder?

WE DESERVE PRIVACY! What we do on the internet is OUR business, no one else's - and certainly not the government's! You have no business knowing what sites I frequent, the people I communicate and connect with!

You have no right to censor our voices. That is a DIRECT VIOLATION of the Constitution. It is a DIRECT VIOLATION of the VERY FIRST AMENDMENT!

Do I need to cite it for you?

"The First Amendment…protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." (https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-constitution/#:~:text=The%20First%20Amendment%20provides%20that,the%20right%20to%20bear%20arms.)

Taken directly from the White House website^

Communication is how we connect with others! In-person and online! I only have one close friend in-person, but I have many online friends who I converse with on the daily because of our shared interests! Because of the content we create!

KOSA will DENY US this connection! KOSA will DEPRIVE US of forming these relationships! It's BECAUSE of these people that I create content! KOSA will prevent me from doing what I love!

Censorship is NEVER the answer. Censor ONLY HURTS US. Doesn't matter WHO we are - queer, POC, ect - we all have a RIGHT to privacy, and this bill will INFRINGE on that right!

If you REALLY care about us, the youth, the next generation? You wouldn't vote for KOSA.

It's as simple as that.

-------

Mention the things that mean a lot to you. Mention how KOSA will endanger queer youth. Talk about how it will prevent you from creating and sharing the content you've been making.