NATIONAL Trans officials, marriage equality, Karl Schmid, Pelosi, Buttigieg Video below by Windy City Times staff 2022-12-04
This article shared 1454 times since Sun Dec 4, 2022
Once all of the newly elected officials are seated, there will be nine transgender state legislators (up from eight this year) and nine non-binary state legislators across the country, NBC News noted, citing The Victory Institute. One of those new legislators will be New Hampshire's James Roesener, a Democrat, who became the first transgender man elected to a state legislature in the United States. Unfortunately, there are at least 340 anti-LGBTQ bills that have been proposed in state legislatures across the country, with more than 140 targeting trans rights specifically, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
The U.S. Senate voted 61-36 to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which will write marriage equality and interracial marriage into federal law—maintaining it even if the Supreme Court overturns its 2015 ruling that established equal marriage rights nationwide, according to Out. The bill has already been passed by the House of Representatives, but the Senate added an amendment to it aimed at protecting religious freedom, so the new version needs to be voted on by the House before it can go to President Joe Biden for his expected signature.
ABC News reporter and HIV-positive advocate Karl Schmid presented an eye-catching video message for World AIDS Day, Out noted. In a message for +Life, Schmid strips down to the nude to talk about the importance of ending the stigma many people around the world living with HIV/AIDS still face. "Stigma, fear, and miseducation often cause people to avoid knowing their HIV status," +Life's mission statement for The HIVe Pledge reads. "But getting an HIV test is simple and, in many places, free. Even so, many people avoid the test because they fear the unknown if the result comes back positive." The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJD5SG8Cxno.
The HBO Original documentary film Pelosi in the House will debut Tuesday, Dec. 13, a press release noted. In her 14th documentary for HBO, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi offers a candid, behind-the-scenes chronicle of the life of her mother and outgoing Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, through her career milestones leading up to the inauguration of President Joseph Biden in January 2021.
Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, responded to a remark from Fox News host Tucker Carlson about his husband's delay in coming out as openly gay, Metro Weekly noted. Carlson criticized Pete Buttigieg for emphasizing the LGBTQ+ angle of the recent mass shooting in Colorado Springs in a recent tweet, in which the secretary referred to a "pattern" of violence directed against members of the LGBTQ community. "[Carlson's] kind of rhetoric is easy. It's so easy to attack people and to go on your talk show and fire people up about something that's not actually happening," Chasten told anchor Don Lemon on CNN This Morning.
In support of the Nov. 28 recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Health and Human Services (HHS), CDC will adopt "mpox" as the term used to refer to monkeypox disease, according to an open letter from the CDC. According to the WHO's best practices, new disease names should be given with the aim to minimize the unnecessary negative impact of names on trade, travel, tourism, or animal welfare, and avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.
Justice Therese Stewart of San Francisco was confirmed as the first lesbian presiding justice on a California appellate court, according to the Bay Area Reporter. She doubles the number of LGBTQ+ justices presiding over a division of one of the state's six appellate courts. A judicial review body confirmed Stewart as presiding justice of the 1st District Court of Appeal's Division Two after hearing testimony from the justice and several witnesses on Nov. 30. Gov. Gavin Newsom had nominated Stewart for the post in October.
Sam Brinton—deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy—is accused of allegedly taking a Vera Bradley suitcase valued at $2,325 from the luggage carousel at the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport, according to Metro Weekly. Brinton, who identifies as nonbinary, had traveled from Washington, D.C. to Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 16, according to a complaint filed in Hennepin County's 4th Judicial District Court.
For a second consecutive year, openly gay NFL player Carl Nassib has chosen to support The Trevor Project for the "My Cause My Cleats" initiative from the league, Out noted. This is an annual initiative where the NFL asks players to show their love for causes and organizations that they're passionate about. Nassib, who plays with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has cleats that have been personalized with The Trevor Project's logo and aesthetic, and he will be wearing these personalized cleats on Monday Night Football on Dec. 5 when his team takes on the New Orleans Saints.
Eli Erlick, a trans activist and founder of Trans Student Educational Resources, launched a fundraising campaign in support of her suit again far-right commentator Blaire White for defamation, according to a press release. According to the statement, earlier this year, Erlick revealed political commentator Matt Walsh was "luring trans people into a fake documentary." The interviews became the basis of his film What Is a Woman? In retaliation, Walsh accused Erlick of sending gender-affirming hormones to children, leading Blaire White to produce the video on Erlick. A video by Jessie Gender about Walsh's work—called "The Anti-Trans Disinformation Pipeline"—is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cya2IyZmZOQ&t=73s.
A Minneapolis man was arrested and charged with felonies after allegedly pulling out a gun and threatening staff at a historic gay bar in the city, per Metro Weekly. Hennepin County prosecutors say Conell Walter Harris, 30, entered 19 Bar, the oldest continuously operating LGBTQ+ bar in Minneapolis. When asked to leave after becoming upset after being asked to leave, Harris allegedly pulled out a gun, held it in his hand, and said, "I ain't going nowhere," according to local media outlet KAKE. He then returned and was playing pool when officers arrested him and reportedly recovered a .45 caliber Glock on him.
And Atlanta Police Department Homeland Security detectives said Atlanta resident Chase Staub posted a series of threats about LGBTQ+ bars in various videos, per Metro Weekly. Police said they were alerted to the social media posts by employees of the LGBTQ bar The Heretic Atlanta, who reported on Nov. 23 that "they observed threatening remarks made towards their establishment on social media." Staub faces charges of terroristic threats and acts as well as disorderly conduct, although he has since been released on bond.
After a year leading the world's first LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce, Terry Beswick has left the Golden Gate Business Association and struck out on his own as a consultant for small businesses and nonprofits, according to the Bay Area Reporter. For the time being, "the board will assume leadership responsibilities on behalf of the chamber," according to a statement on the organization's website.
Workers at a football stadium were tricked into displaying a photo of an adult video performer during their moment meant to honor military members, according to Queerty. During the Minnesota Vikings' football game against the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 20, the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis displayed images of soldiers on their Jumbotron screen as part of the stadium's "Salute to Soldiers." However, one prankster Twitter user, @kylerulz4h, posted, "This is my cousin Joel who served in the Army," while posting an image of adult performer Johnny Sins (aka Steven Wolfe) in a military outfit.
"Gaslighting"—being misleading or deceitful—is Merriam-Webster's word of the year, The Chicago Tribune noted. Interestingly, there wasn't a single event that caused significant spikes, as it usually happens with the chosen word of the year. Some of the other words/phrases in the top 10 included "oligarch," "omicron," "queen consort," "LGBTQIA" and "cancel culture."
The Pantone Color Institute has deemed 2023 the year of magenta—specifically, Viva Magenta 18-750, according to NPR. The institute described the hue as "a shade rooted in nature descending from the red family and expressive of a new signal of strength." The Pantone Color Institute was founded two decades after the color company and has been championing colors of the year since cerulean blue in 2000.
