Blythe del Kuzio

A new report from ProPublica has identified 59 people arrested or charged over the last year and a half in a wave of disruptions at school board meetings across the country, many involving threats of violence. Just one protestor has served jail time: a college student supporting transgender rights.  Related Stories Alt-right Proud Boys are targeting Juneteenth this year, expert warns “The Proud Boys Whisperer” says that they are planning to appropriate the celebration of the end of slavery. Once routine meetings overseeing local school curriculums are now ideological battlegrounds, often dissolving into chaos and acrimony as conservative activists flout decorum, spread misinformation, and employ obscure, often questionable procedural tactics to advance their agenda. Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you. How one conservative retiree, Eric Jensen, ended up pinned to the floor by three security guards...

Paramore singer Hayley Williams took a swipe at supporters of Republican presidential hopeful and Ron DeSantis recently, making her distaste for the anti-LGBTQ+ Florida governor abundantly clear. On Saturday, Paramore took the stage at the Adjacent Music Festival in Atlantic City. During a break between songs, Williams took a moment to get very real about her views on DeSantis, who announced his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination last week in a disastrous Twitter Spaces conversation with the platform’s owner, Elon Musk. Related Stories Ron DeSantis is a fascist But he will ultimately fail – bigly. Video posted on Twitter by a Paramore fan captured the moment.   Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you. “I’ll be happy to tell you, I’m very f**king comfortable talking politics,” Williams told the crowd. “If you vote for Ron DeSantis, you’re f**king dead to me,” she continued, as the cr...

MSNBC correspondent Jen Psaki likes to laugh at presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as much as the next guy. In a recent segment, the former White House press secretary acknowledged how easy it is to mock someone who seems to constantly humiliate himself in public – from allegedly eating pudding with his fingers to his silly white rain boots to his botched presidential campaign announcement that left listeners waiting through 26 minutes of tech delays. Related Stories Ron DeSantis is a fascist But he will ultimately fail – bigly. “We could all spend the remainder of the Republican primary talking about awkward DeSantis moments,” Psaki said. “There will be more, but here’s the thing, none of that, nor his apparent failure to launch on Wednesday night, should detract from what he’s actually saying.” Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you. She pointed out that overshadowed by his disast...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) favorite rapper – Forgiato Blow – has a new song out protesting Target for selling Pride merchandise, and Greene shared the bizarre video on Twitter. The video for the song “Boycott Target” (featuring fellow conservative rappers Jimmy Levy, Nick Nittoli, and Stoney Dudebro) opens with a shot of Blow wearing a basketball jersey and shorts with the letters “USA” emblazoned on both, drawing attention to his crotch as Jimmy Levy pushes him in a red Target shopping cart while carrying Pride-themed bottles of Stella Rosa. Related Stories Marjorie Taylor Greene says it’s OK for her boyfriend to do drag after railing against it for years Despite her longstanding hatred of men wearing women’s clothes, she was “literally lol’ing” at her boyfriend doing drag. And then the video, which appears to have been at least partly shot in a Target store, gets weirder. Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care ...

On the heels of news that the Proud Boys are planning disruptive protests during the Pride month of June , the counter-extremist expert Samantha Kutner warns us that the alt-right group is specifically targeting Juneteenth celebrations as well. In an attempt to appropriate the federal holiday celebrating the end of slavery, the Proud Boys are organizing their own event on June 17th, expanding their vitriol to not just LGBTQ discrimination but also white supremacy. Related Stories Proud Boys left bloodied in clash outside NYC Drag Story Hour One man was arrested protesting the event hosted by NY Attorney General Letitia James. “They target everyone who doesn’t belong to their in-group,” Kutner explained to LGBTQ Nation in a recent interview. “Their extremism is framed as an assertion of their masculinity, anything that is a perceived threat to that is a target.” Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you. Kut...

Right-wing “ex-trans” pundit Oli London has accused the building-block toy company LEGO of pushing “gender ideology onto its young consumers” because a recent LEGO ad shows queer families enjoying LGBTQ+-themed builds. LEGO’s ad highlights the “A to Z of Awesome,” an exhibition of queer-inclusive LEGO creations constructed by LGBTQ+ people. The company invited LGBTQ+ families to explore an exhibition of the builds, and the ad shows those families and their children enjoying the rainbow-colored creations and playing with LEGO blocks. Related Stories White person who said he was a nonbinary “Korean girl” attacks trans people on Fox News He got 18 operations to look “Korean” and changed his pronouns to “Them/they/kor/ean.” Now he says it’s because “the alpha straight male is being eroded.” “There was a couple I saw that represented our family,” one parent says in the ad. “For my children to see something that’s aimed at them, they haven’t had that experience before — ...

The North Face became the latest company attacked by the right for advertising to LGBTQ+ people for Pride Month, but unlike some other giant corporations, they are standing by their brand partner and issued a statement supporting LGBTQ+ equality. Conservatives – including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) – were outraged last week that the outdoors-themed drag queen Pattie Gonia made a video announcing The North Face’s “Summer of Pride” event on Instagram, part of a brand partnership. The video didn’t include any nudity, sex, or coarse language, but that didn’t stop the right from getting angry at it. Related Stories Heroic Target employees kick out anti-LGBTQ+ bigot complaining about “Satanic” Pride gear When asked if she supports Satanism and “Pride propaganda,” the employee nods and says she supports “both.” “Big name brands sexually targeting children makes me want to buy all generic brand clothing now,” Greene wrote in response to the...

This past February, something special happened. For the first time in the 44-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the majority of trade unions and notable social activists inside the country published a charter that demanded basic rights that, in their words, need to be addressed immediately. One of their demands was “The immediate and unquestionable removal of all forms of the discriminatory structure against sexual minorities and people with gender-nonconforming identities. Recognizing LGBTQAI+ rights and decriminalizing them.” Related Stories Anything’s better than hell: How queer Iranians & anti-LGBTQ+ rebels became part of the same uprising “Death to the oppressor” is easy to chant, but what does it mean when everyone is a danger? A country that often vilifies, or at best ignores, the LGBTQ+ community now boldly included their rights in this important charter. LGBTQ+ rights are more often being brought up by right-leaning oppositional groups outside...

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) has signed an education bill that includes several anti-LGBTQ+ policies. S.F. 496 bans instruction on LGBTQ+ identities through sixth grade and requires schools to out trans youth to their parents. It also bans all books containing sex acts from school classrooms and libraries, which will undoubtedly lead to the banning of several LGBTQ+ books. Related Stories Iowa students stage “We Say Gay” walkouts across the state A wave of anti-LGBTQ+ proposals is sweeping through the Iowa legislature. And despite the fact that Iowa has already banned gender-affirming care for trans youth, the bill explicitly establishes that parents and guardians have “the fundamental, constitutionally protected right, to make decisions affecting [their] child, including decisions related to the minor child’s medical care….” Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you. The section clarifies that it does not a...

A Trump campaign official tweeted a picture of out Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg in uniform from when he served in the U.S. Navy Reserve in an effort to mock Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ‘s (R) military service. The attacks between DeSantis’s and Trump’s teams are heating up, and Trump campaign aide Liz Harrington tweeted a Fox News clip where she attacked DeSantis. Related Stories Donald Trump implies that Ron DeSantis might be gay “Or possibly a man!” Trump said about DeSantis’s hypothetical sexual misconduct. “Ron ‘Dee-Santis has run for 4 different offices in the past 7 years,” she wrote. “That’s not someone who’s in it for the country, it’s someone who’s in it for himself.” Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you. DeSantis campaign spokesperson Christina Pushaw – yes, that Christina Pushaw – responded with a picture of DeSantis from when he served in the U.S. Navy Reserve, the idea being t...