Welcome to Third Cultured – a foreign policy and LGBTQIA+ politics newsletter – published by yours truly, Kyle Borland. My goal is to highlight the unique role Queer people play in the politics of the United States and the world-at-large.
Third Cultured is available to all but, as Austin Kleon says, "This newsletter is free, but not cheap.” If you’re able, support my writing by becoming a paid subscriber!
I’ll have more to write in the next edition, but I’m still processing the past week.
Stay safe and get vaccinated, beautiful people. Thanks for reading.
Roll Tide,
Kyle (@kgborland)
PS – Here are some stories worth your time.
50 Years in 50 Weeks: 1988's joy amid loss (Bay Area Reporter)
1,000,000 doses of US COVID vaccines went to waste since December (NYTimes)
3.05 billion base pairs and 19,969 protein-coding genes make up Our DNA (Axios)
A Moving Memoir Chronicles a Queer Coming-of-Age in Midland (Texas Observer)
A Texas Judge Just Blocked Nationwide Protections for Trans Health Care (them.)
American Shoppers Are a Nightmare (The Atlantic)
American Voters Are More Likely to Say They Won’t Vote for an LGBTQ+ Candidate (them.)
An open letter to DaBaby (GLAAD)
Comment: My favorite response to DaBaby’s debacle is other rappers going out of their way to let the gays know where they stand. You love to see it.
Ancient Greece and Rome Are Hot in Animation Right Now. Here’s Why (Hyperallergic)
Argentina Formally Recognizes Nonbinary People, a Latin American First (NYTimes)
Batman’s Robin comes out as bisexual in comic’s latest LGBT push (Washington Examiner)
Beyoncé's Evolution (Harper’s Bazaar)
Bin Laden’s Catastrophic Success (Foreign Affairs)
The 9/11 attack turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory for al Qaeda. The group shattered in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban regime’s collapse, and most of its top leaders were either killed or captured. The rest sought refuge in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, an autonomous area bordering Afghanistan. Hiding became a way of life for them. Their communications reveal that for the rest of bin Laden’s life, the al Qaeda organization never recovered the ability to launch attacks abroad. (The group did carry out attacks in November 2002 in Kenya but was able to do so only because the operatives tasked with planning them had been dispatched to East Africa in late 2000 and early 2001, before everything fell apart for al Qaeda in Afghanistan.) By 2014, bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, found himself more preoccupied with delegitimizing the Islamic State (or ISIS), the jihadi group that eventually overtook al Qaeda, than with rallying Muslims against American hegemony. Still, it is impossible to look back at the past two decades and not be struck by the degree to which a small band of extremists led by a charismatic outlaw managed to influence global politics. Bin Laden did change the world—just not in the ways that he wanted.
Census data shows LGBT Americans hit harder by economic, food insecurity amid pandemic (The Hill)
Everything That Will Follow A Taliban Victory Is Still A Part of America's War (Forever Wars)
Facebook Is Partnering With a Notoriously Anti-Gay Megachurch (them.)
Five years after infamous 'bathroom bill,' Charlotte passes LGBTQ protections (NBC News)
For the LGBTQ+ Community, Fashion Has Always Been “Genderless” (W Magazine)
Gay man, parents beaten in horrible D.C. hate attack (Queerty)
Ghana's president in tight spot over anti-LGBT law (France24)
Here’s Why China Could Be Sucked Into the ‘Graveyard of Empires’ (Daily Beast)
How the Philippines Were Crucial to the Making of American Empire (Jacobin)
Hungary orders booksellers to cover up kid’s books with LGBT themes (The Hill)
I Got Ghosted. Big Time (Hola Papi)
I'm Gay and I Love National Parks: Here's My Guide for LGBTQIA+ Visitors (thrillist)
James Hormel, First Ever Openly Gay U.S. Ambassador, Has Died (SFist)
Laurel Hubbard becomes first openly trans woman to compete at Olympics (Axios)
Why it matters: The presence of trans and nonbinary athletes at this year's Games has been celebrated by LGBTQ+ rights advocates, but stirred controversy among critics, who argue trans women have an unfair advantage even after taking hormones to lower their testosterone.
The big picture: Hubbard failed to successfully complete any of her three lifts in the snatch portion of the event. She made a heart sign with her hands after her third lift and mouthed "thank you," making history even as she excited the Olympics early.
Comment: Those who are against trans people in sports are not only hateful but indisputably stupid people. (Related: Trans athletes see the Tokyo Games as a watershed moment)
Legal U.S. marijuana is pouring into Mexico. It’s pricey, popular and has names such as ‘Bubba Kush.’ (Washington Post)
LGBTQ Adults Are Facing Hunger At Almost Twice The Rate As Others, New Data Shows (NPR)
‘Lynchings in Mississippi never stopped’ (Washington Post)
Minorities struggle for headway in the legal weed business (PBS NewsHour)
Nation’s Largest L.G.B.T.Q. Advocacy Group in Turmoil Over Cuomo Ties (NYT)
National LGBTQ Redistricting Project; ‘We Belong Together’ (LA Blade)
Define the LGBTQ community as a “community of interest” for redistricting – much like many other vulnerable populations – so the interests and well-being of LGBTQ people are emphasized during the map-making process.
Identify and advocate for concentrations of LGBTQ people using population data, locations of LGBTQ neighborhoods and businesses, memberships in LGBTQ organizations, and even reports of anti-LGBTQ crime, among other tools.
Olympics’ brilliant, brave ‘Team LGBT+’ athletes won more medals (32) than Canada and Brazil (Pink News)
Pace of Taliban advance quickens as militants overrun three major cities in a single day (Washington Post)
Pray Away Lays Bare Conversion Therapy’s Cruel History (them.)
Protecting LGBT People from Hate Crimes in Ukraine (Council of Europe)
Queer kids in Mississippi deserve heroes, representation in curriculum (Clarion Ledger)
Remember Your First Queer Crush? (Advocate)
The Establishment Is the Establishment for a Reason (The Discourse)
The LGBTQ generational wealth gap (LA Blade)
The outing of a priest shines light on the power — and partisanship — of Catholic media in the U.S. (Nieman Lab)
The Return of the Taliban (New Yorker)
There is a conceit that today’s Taliban is different from the Taliban of 2001. This is certainly an idea that some senior Taliban officials have sought to propagate in recent years. Facts on the ground suggest otherwise. They claim to have moved on from their old alliance with Al Qaeda, for instance, but over the years they have partnered with other jihadist groups operating, as they have done, out of sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan, such as the Haqqani network, which is responsible for scores of suicide bombings and so-called complex attacks—involving gunmen and suicide bombers acting in tandem—and for causing hundreds of civilian deaths.
The Taliban have rendered Afghanistan unworkable as a country; unworkable, that is, without them. And the truth is that they were never really beaten. They merely did what guerrillas do in order to survive: they melted away in the face of overwhelming force, regrouped and restored themselves to fighting strength, and returned to battle. Here they are.
The Unknown Unknowns of Empire (Foreign Exchanges)
U.S. Olympic Diver Was Adopted from Orphanage at 18 Months by Single Gay Dad: 'An Amazing Journey' (People)
West Hollywood leaders release plans for drag laureate post(Bay Area Reporter)
What Do You Do with a Billion Grams of Surplus Weed? (The Walrus)
What Started As the Gay AirBnB Has Since Evolved into a Leading LGBTQ Travel Platform (Triple Pundit)
Where America’s developed areas are growing: ‘Way off into the horizon’ (WaPo)
Why should the church reach out to L.G.B.T.Q. people? Some shocking statistics can answer that. (America Magazine)
You Cannot Argue With Cori Bush’s Results (The Discourse)