Blythe del Kuzio

Church of Christ chaplain Dahron Johnson, a transgender woman, gave the opening prayer before the Tennessee House of Representatives. Invited by a Democratic state legislator, she is the first trans person to address the body from the well. She may be the first trans person in the nation to give the opening prayer before a state legislative session. Related: Bishop Gene Robinson is on the road to sainthood & he knows it 20 years after he was consecrated, the Episcopal reverend has become a legend – and he’s still alive. Over 20 Republicans who were “running late” showed up as she finished speaking. They missed her pious call for legislators to listen to constituents from different backgrounds and represent everyone with thoughtfulness and humility. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. “You may be elected as a representative into the space, but you’re elected...

Following a year marked by an anti-LGBTQ+ boycott, Bud Light has partnered with comedian Shane Gillis, who is perhaps most widely known for losing a job at Saturday Night Live over his use of racial and anti-gay slurs. Gillis announced the partnership via Instagram on Tuesday. Related: Kid Rock compares Bud Light boycott to spanking a child in that there’s “nothing wrong” with it “There’s nothing wrong with giving a spanking, when a kid does something wrong,” he said of Bud Light, but now he said it’s time to drink the beer again. The deal seems to indicate Bud Light’s priorities and marketing strategy in the wake of its partnership last spring with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which led to widespread calls for a boycott of the beer brand from anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Back in September 2019, the long-running NBC ...

The newest member of the Oregon State Legislature says drag queens are pedophiles, children with autism are targeted for “transgenderism,” and “minor attracted persons” are coming for Oregon’s kids.   In a campaign blog post reported by the Oregon Capital Chronicle , newly-appointed Republican state Rep. Dwayne Yunker made the unfounded claims in his bid to unseat former state Rep. Lily Morgan (R), who resigned from the seat Yunker now occupies to become a city manager in the southern Oregon district. Yunker was challenging Morgan, who he accused of not being conservative enough, until she resigned and he was appointed to take her place. Related: Anti-LGBTQ+ hate pastor gives opening prayer in House of Representatives Jack Hibbs said that Satan created the “transgender agenda” and rallied the faithful to support conversion therapy. Yunker posted his claims last August, explaining a decision to boycott a Grants Pass City Council meeting that included a proclamation ...

The following is an excerpt from “A Family, Maybe: Two Dads, Two Babies, and the Court Cases That Brought Us Together” by Lane Igoudin. Chapter 1: Curbside Delivery It was on a hot, early summer afternoon, just before the breezes would begin blowing inland from the ocean that Jonathan shot me an irritated sideways glance. “Where is she? Didn’t she say ‘early in the morning?’ That was hours ago. What’s taking her so long?” Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Related: LGBTQ+ people are more likely to consider fostering kids. But one big barrier is stopping them. Because of this, thousands of children may be missing out on loving homes. A 6’3” athlete with the face of the Bridgerton lead, my partner Jon was lining up daisy-patterned onesies and burp cloths by the bassinet in the baby room. I’d heard him vacuuming this room earlier, and before that tidying up the...

In Seattle over the weekend, two gay bars were raided by a task force looking for “lewd conduct” by patrons and staff. Investigators discovered a bartender’s exposed nipple at one venue. Patrons wearing jock straps were observed at another. Related: Cop who crashed into gay bar threatened bystander in shocking new video The cop crashed into the bar. Then the arrests started. The raids – conducted by Seattle’s Joint Enforcement Team (JET), a coalition of Police and Fire departments, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) – and others, saw ten task force members enter The Cuff wielding flashlights at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, according to owner Joey Burgess. Several patrons left the bar, where the nipple was sighted, as the raid unfolded. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. The next night, two JET members entered the Eagle at around 11:30 p.m., owner Keit...

Out Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) is catching flak for spending around $210,000 of taxpayer money to travel on private jets since 2020, which is a lot more than her peers usually spend on the luxury. U.S. senators have annual budgets to fund their offices, and Sinema spending a large part of hers on charter flights is raising hackles about how she could have better spent that money to serve her constituents. Related: Republicans are now running ads to support Kyrsten Sinema’s campaign They’re trying to convince people that she’s “a liberal Democrat” even though she is literally not a Democrat. Examining public records, The Daily Beast found that she took at least 11 trips in private planes in the last four years. Five were in 2023, and she spent $116,000 on those flights. Almost all of the flights were for travel within the state of Arizona. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. ...

A Utah dad was banned from his high school-aged daughter’s future junior varsity basketball games after he became belligerent at a recent game, alleging that a player on the opposing team was transgender. Jeff Haney, a spokesperson for Canyons School District, told The Salt Lake Tribune that at a January 19 game, the dad “was vocally challenging the eligibility of the player based on his perception of the student-athlete’s gender.” Related: Utah Senate revises bathroom bill that threatened to throw trans people in jail The Senate spent days deciding just how anti-trans they wanted the law to be. The man, whose name has not been disclosed, reportedly confronted the principals of both his daughter’s school and the opposing school, who assured him that every player on the court, including the 17-year-old girl in question, had met the Utah High School Athletics Association’s eligibility requirements to play. The Utah High School Athletics Association (UHSAA) requires stud...

Here’s something you probably didn’t have on your 2024 bingo card: Ben Shapiro rapping on a song that made it to No. 1 on the iTunes charts. The far-right commentator and co-founder of The Daily Wire is featured on “Facts,” an anti-woke track released last week by Canadian rapper Tom MacDonald. A former professional wrestler, MacDonald was described by Vice in 2021 as “an unstoppable force of reactionary dumbness” who rose to prominence “by taking the undercooked platitudes of the Intellectual Dark Web and filtering them into songs with titles like ‘Fake Woke,’ ‘Cancelled,’ and ‘Snowflakes.’” Related: Ben Shapiro hated the “Barbie” movie so much he set his dolls on fire The conservative commentator’s 43-minute rant about the movie has the internet LOLing. “As a longtime devotee of rap, becoming a rapper was the natural next step in my career trajectory,” Shapiro, who has previously claimed that “rap isn’t music,” said in a press release Friday. “So, when Tom asked i...

A jury in New York City issued an $83.3 million judgment against Donald Trump for repeatedly defaming E. Jean Carroll, the woman he sexually assaulted – and Caroll has big plans for how to use the money. “I’d like to give the money to something Donald Trump hates,” she said in an appearance on Good Morning America. “If it will cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, perhaps a fund for the women who have been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump.” Related: The lawyer who helped give us marriage equality may be Donald Trump’s biggest problem Roberta Kaplan reminds voters Trump is a sexual assaulter just when he wanted to take an electoral victory lap. Carroll said that “the elation was so great” upon hearing the jury’s verdict. “It filled me up. It was almost painful.” Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in a departme...

A gay man with chronic back pain says a doctor blamed the ailment on the fact that he had sex with his husband. Quebec couple Drake Jensen and Michael Morin spoke with CTV News of Montreal about their traumatizing experience meeting a new family doctor. Right off the bat, Morin said the doctor first claimed – without examining him – that he had genital warts (known medically as condyloma), a sexually transmitted infection caused by HPV. The doctor’s reasoning was that Morin had previously had a skin tag removed from what CTV described as a “sensitive area.” Related: Clueless doctor tells lesbian couple to sleep with a man if they want a baby He has no idea how a lesbian couple could have a baby and even asked them if they know they need “human” sperm. Morin confirmed that he does not have genital warts and tried to get the doctor to focus on his husband’s chronic back pain, which he has dealt with for more than ten years. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our daily n...

The resurgence of anti-LGBTQ+ bills and draconian laws in Africa has led to a surge of homophobic attacks across the continent, further endangering LGBTQ+ people whose lives were already at risk. These anti-LGBTQ+ laws not only criminalize same-sex relationships but also systematically target LGBTQ+ activists. Steven Kabuye, a prominent Ugandan LGBTQ+ rights activist, was recently stabbed and left for dead outside his home by two men on a motorcycle who had been following him for a number of days. Graphic video footage shared on X shows Kabuye writhing in pain, a visible laceration stretched across his arm and a knife embedded in his abdomen.  Related: Uganda’s vicious anti-LGBTQ+ law could reverse decades of progress against AIDS in Africa One HIV-positive Ugandan likened the situation to “a modern-day genocide.”  Kabuye, an activist and editor of Coloured Voices Media Foundation-Truth to LGBTQ Uganda, was ambushed on his way to work. His helmet-wearing assai...