Blythe del Kuzio

Two Puerto Rican men pled guilty to assaulting Alexa Negrón Luciano, a transgender woman, just hours before she was murdered in 2020. On Monday, the Department of Justice announced that Jordany Rafael Laboy-Garcia and Christian Yamaurie Rivera-Otero pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit a hate crime and obstruction of justice in connection with the February 24, 2020, assault. A third suspect, Anthony Steven Lobos-Ruiz, previously pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime in connection with the same attack and has been sentenced to 33 months in prison. Related: Jimmy Fallon’s musical guest on “The Tonight Show” wore a shirt honoring a murdered trans woman The woman named on Bad Bunny’s shirt was brutally murdered on camera, after baseless accusations of ‘peeping’ in a women’s bathroom. Luciano’s death made headlines in 2020 after a video of her murder appeared on YouTube . The 27-year-old, who was experiencing homelessness, had been the target of ha...

What better way to open this week’s roundup of good news than sharing my favorite Hometown Hero? After being granted asylum in the US, Liaam Wilson now  runs a soup kitchen in Queens that caters to trans folks. Don’t forget, you still have a couple of days left to vote in the LGBTQ Nation Heroes 2023 awards . Here are this week’s most popular positive stories with some fun social media posts tossed in too. Like seeing uplifting content like this?  Sign up for our Good News email. Texas church defies government crackdown by blessing drag queens Their bold stand wasn’t met with love. But they’re not backing down. Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter In southern states, churches have become some of the queer community’s stanchest allies. A Texas church has launched a program to help pay for trans youth to get treatment out-of-state . A pastor with a gay son gave church leaders hell be...

Trans high school student Tristan Young has received an onslaught right-wing backlash after her peers at Kansas’s Oak Park High School voted to crown her homecoming queen. But Young won’t let the bigotry bring her down. She told The Kansas City Star that she’s not the kind of person to let people shut her down. Related: Never too late to change your life: Why my husband & I dropped everything to become traveling nomads Our lives are, in large part, what we make of them. And even if they’re not, I’m really glad my friends and I have at least acted like they are. “I like to stay strong. I don’t really buckle unless something is really wrong. Right now, what’s happening is people are trying to turn a joyous thing into something that I should regret. But it’s going to stay a joyous thing.” Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter “Jesus says ‘Love thy neighbor.’ Love everyone as the...

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) says that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is “in peril.” The 20-year-old African HIV prevention program is estimated to have saved over 25 million lives. Amid attacks from conservative groups and with a government shutdown looming this weekend, Congress is unlikely to reauthorize the widely hailed program, which was passed in 2003 by former President George W. Bush. Conservatives will allow PEPFAR to lapse on October 1. Related: George W. Bush says real “pro-life” Republicans wouldn’t defund his HIV program The program has saved over 25 million lives. Republicans want to kill it. Lee voiced her frustration during a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference earlier last week, the Washington Blade reported . Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter “This program is reauthorized every five years, b...

Welcome to the weekly  LGBTQ Nation  News Quiz. We’ve kept you up-to-date on politics, current events, and news from the LGBTQ+ community all week. Now, this is your chance to look back on what happened. We’ll be testing your knowledge with a series of questions taken from our headlines this past week. Try the quiz without looking up the answers or open another tab and use our search function to find the answers. (We won’t tell.) See how well you followed the LGBTQ+ news! Take this quiz on LGBTQNationy. source https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/09/try-this-weeks-lgbtq-nation-weekly-news-quiz/

When Jessie Sirivanchai stepped to the mic to address the board of the Cherry Creek School District, he didn’t hold back — and now his passionate defense of his little girl is making news all over Utah. Local parents tried to make his elementary-age daughter into some sort of threat to other kids if she was allowed to use the girls’ restroom at school. And her dad wasn’t having it. Related: Tommy had the perfect clapback when someone’s mom told him only girls can wear nail polish Tommy scored a touchdown at football practice. The opponent was someone else’s mom. While the internet has gone wild over Sirivanchai’s response, the local CBS station anchor misgendered Alison . Reminiscent of a Fox News piece, the chryon dubbed the story a “crisis in the classroom.” Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter In the outlet’s report, other parents tried to paint Fox Hollow Elementary School as ...

Carrie Prejean Boller and Megyn Kelly trashed Megan Rapinoe as the out women’s soccer star and activist retired from the sport. In July, the two-time World Cup champ announced her intention to retire at the end of the National Women’s Soccer League’s 2023 season. On Sunday, she played her last game with the team in Chicago, beating South Africa in a 2–0 match. Related: Megan Rapinoe slams Dave Chappelle & Martina Navratilova for transphobia “I see trans women as real women,” the two-time World Cup champ said. Boller joined Kelly on her SiriusXM show earlier this week, and the two took the opportunity to lob insults at Rapinoe . Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter “Here’s Megan Rapinoe on her last middle finger to the United States, which made her rich, which gave her a college scholarship, which gave her $7 million a year, reportedly, in endorsements and fees for playing socc...

A 25-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged with hate crimes, destruction of a place of worship, and multiple other vandalism charges in connection with the defacement of Pride displays in the city of Salem two weeks ago. Mohammed Saeed Rajab was arrested by Salem Police after an investigation into the graffiti, which was found throughout the historic Massachusetts town on September 13. Related: Out city councilwoman says someone vandalized her front porch in act of anti-LGBTQ+ hate Annalisa Perea has also faced vulgar remarks while holding her partner’s hand. Rajab targeted the Tabernacle Congregational Church, Pride flags at a local animal shelter and public park, and several rainbow-painted crosswalks, according to the Essex District Attorney’s office. Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter Graffiti on rainbow-painted doors at the “open and affirming” church read “Cancel LGB...

At a recent North Beach LGBTQ+ & Friends event at a Fort Lauderdale wine bar, an 89-year-old man approached John Mather. “He said, ‘You’ve made my life so difficult!’ I said, ‘What?’” Mather recalls. “And he said, ‘Now I have to choose where I’m gonna go every night of the week, because there’s so much going on!’ Then he said, ‘Seriously, you guys have changed my life.’” Related: Hometown Heroes Hometown Heroes come from all walks of life, live all over the country, and come from diverse backgrounds, working every day to make the world a better place for others – even if they aren’t making headlines for it. Mather and husband, Ryan Maloney, never intended to change lives when they started North Beach LGBTQ+ & Friends, a social group hosting events in the North Beach area of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Their intent, Mather explains, was simply to give their friends and neighbors in the area, which happens to be home to a sizeable population of older LGBTQ+ folks, ...

Comedian Jamie Campbell has BDE – Big Dad Energy. He’s not a father himself, but he’s got the do’s and don’ts down pat – including what he would do if his hypothetical kid announced that he liked pineapple on pizza. Related: Why do gay men talk like that? Science has an explanation, but what does Dolly Parton have to do with it? It’s a fraught topic in America (although the Hawaiian is the second most popular pizza in Mexico after pepperoni). Does pineapple belong on a pizza? Politicians around the world have weighed in: Icelandic president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson hates it and said he’d like to ban it. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, supports it, probably because the pie was invented in Ontario. Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter “You can tell a lot about society by the way they treat things that they don’t like but that also don’t really affect them in any way,” Campbell...

Dictionary.com has added eight LGBTQ+ terms to its latest official update . While some are well-known terms, like the verb “gay marry,” four of the terms describe specific types of romantic and sexual attractions, adding to our nuanced understanding of human identity. To make the website more inclusive, Dictionary.com also removed binary-gendered phrases through its pages, replacing “him or her” with “their” and “he or she” with “they.” Related: Dictionary.com just added several new LGBTQ+ words & also “grundle” You probably know what pinkwashing and queerbaiting are, but how about abrosexual and multisexual? The 566 newly added terms are largely taken from technology, climate change, and youth slang. However, the newer LGBTQ+-related terms reflect changing social awareness about trans identity, sexual fluidity, and intersex bodies. Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter Here ar...

Approximately 86% of all book bans across the nation have occurred in school districts with a local chapter of one of three anti-LGBTQ+ groups: Moms for Liberty, Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF), and Parents’ Rights in Education, according to a new report from the free speech organization PEN America . According to their report, the groups have used a variety of tactics, including the promotion of state laws and rhetoric against so-called “sexually explicit,” “harmful,” and “age-inappropriate” “porn in schools”; the taking over school boards; the enlisting of parents to threaten public pressure or civic penalties against school boards, educators, and librarians; and the filing of challenges to books, primarily those with racially- and queer-inclusive themes. Related: Appeals court allows Texas’ book ban to proceed without explanation State lawyers couldn’t even answer basic questions about how the law is supposed to work. Moms for Liberty now boasts  284 chapt...