House GOP Humiliates Itself as Red States Ramp Up Attacks
#155
Welcome to Third Cultured, a newsletter about Queer people in diplomacy, politics, and war from the perspective of Kyle Borland (he/they). My goal is to highlight all the ways today is different (and not so) from yesterday.
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This edition:
Opinion Essay
A List of LGBTQ+ Wins
Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate, Laws & Violence Around the World
Extra Links, Quotes & Gay Shit
Opinion Essay
The House Republicans might be frozen by their own incompetence after 11 votes for Speaker – the most since 1821 – but Red State governments are already on a tear in 2023, particularly against trans adults and kids.
Many of the latest moves are in the states that are already the worst places to be trans in the US – Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Alabama, and Texas – but it’s by no means exclusive to those areas. Anti-trans zealots are even harassing a Cishet cancer survivor who had her breasts removed while they use the bathroom!
A Florida School's Transphobic Bathroom Policy Was Upheld by a Federal Appeals Court (them)
"Don't Say Gay": Florida schools purge library books with LGBTQ characters (Popular Information)
Governor-elect Sarah Huckabee picks anti-LGBTQ Ed Secretary (LA Blade)
Health care for transgender adults becomes new target in 2023 legislative session (19th News)
Kentucky Bill Would Declare Emergency Over Trans Kids In Bathrooms (Erin in the Morning)
Oklahoma Could Force Trans People Under 26 Years Old To Detransition Medically (Erin in the Morning)
South Carolina bills would restrict transgender care after MUSC halts hormonal therapy for kids (The State)
As we all already know, there is no scientific or rational basis to these attacks against trans people. No matter how many times they bring the topic up, there is nothing there but shallow bigotry they slurped down through Facebook and Fox News.
All GOP accusations are the height of oppositions.
Just last night, a staffer from Herschel Walker’s campaign accused CPAC’s lead organizer Matt Schlapp of “sustained and unwanted and unsolicited” sexual contact. AKA one of the most prominent conservatives in politics is groping and fondling male campaign staff while they push anti-LGBTQ+ policies and support our demonization. Not to mention the fraud that the GOP deserves in George Santos, who they only supported in order to have a gay face push their planned anti-LGBTQ+ legislation through the House. Now they won’t even look at him on the floor!
It’s important to remember while we watch the GOP-controlled House accomplish next to nothing over the next two years that the Queer folks in deep Red States are living through an onslaught that won’t stop. These state legislatures, especially where the GOP has a trifecta, are experimenting with what kind of targeted fascism the American masses will find palatable and then pushing it even farther. They’ve been trying different laws for 7+ years now and they know attacking trans people on the margins is a winner with the average American. That’s not to say the average person is passionately anti-trans but they don’t view laws targeting trans people for the fascist canary in the coal mine that we know it to be.
Stay vigilant and healthy, beautiful people.
As always, thanks for reading.
Kyle (@kgborland)
PS – Like the sections below, I’ll try and rotate the focus of my opinion essays on wins and setbacks this year. As I said at the end of 2022, we are making progress, too. That’s what they’re so mad about! So, I’m going to try and promote wins more in 2023.
A List of LGBTQ+ Wins
1st gay rights Supreme Court case happened in 1958 (Q Voice News)
California is now a sanctuary state for transgender kids (Mercury News)
Comment: SF’s State Senator Scott Wiener was the primary sponsor. Proud to represented by one of, if not, the most prolific LGBTQ+ legislator in the US.
California Supreme Court welcomes 1st queer woman (Bay Area Reporter)
Couple awarded almost $150,000 after severe anti-gay bullying at the restaurant where they worked (LGBTQ Nation)
Florida man arrested by FBI admits to posting threat to shoot gay people (LGBTQ Nation)
Holocaust survivor and ‘proud gay man’ shares inspirational coming out story: ‘It was beyond liberating’ (PinkNews)
How the monkeypox outbreak revealed the path for vanquishing viruses (WashPost)
LGBTQ asylum and refugee organizations get a boost (LGBTQ Nation)
LGBTQ Seniors Find More Inclusive Retirement Living (Wall Street Journal)
Netanyahu rebukes far-right ally for anti-LGBTQ comments (WashPost)
Netanyahu said that Struck’s remarks “are unacceptable to me and to members of Likud,” and that the coalition agreement “does not allow discrimination against LGBTQ or harming their right to receive services like all other Israeli citizens.”
As the controversy continued to rage, he later issued a second videotaped statement saying he “completely rejects” Struck’s remarks.
“In the country that I will lead, there will be no situation where a person, whether he is LGBT, Arab or ultra-Orthodox or any other person, will enter a hotel and not receive service, enter a doctor and not receive service,” he said.
New gay Congressman Robert Garcia will be sworn in on a comic book (LGBTQ Nation)
New LGBTQ laws take effect January 1 in California (Bay Area Reporter)
Newsom names out judges to California courts (Bay Area Reporter)
Oxford English Dictionary added 18 new LGBTQ-related words in 2022 (Mashable)
Pabllo Vittar a beacon of hope at Lula’s inauguration (QNews)
Pope Benedict XVI’s era of queer bashing finally comes to an end with his death (LGBTQ Nation)
The number of married same-sex couples in the U.S. is at an all-time high (LGBTQ Nation)
Tunisia court drops case against LGBTQ rights activist (AfricaNews)
When the Gay Kingdom of The Coral Sea put queer sovereignty on the map (LGBTQ Nation)
White House sees light at the end of the Mpox tunnel (Politico)
Zooey Zephyr, Montana’s First Trans Lawmaker, Has Officially Been Sworn In (them)
Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate, Laws & Violence Around the World
2021 was supposed to be the 'worst year' for LGBTQ rights — then came 2022 (NBC News)
Chaya Raichik appears to have trespassed at the Capitol (Extremism and Disinformation Research)
Defining ‘woman’ battle heads to states amid new wave of LGBTQ bills (Politico)
DeSantis Offered Libs Of TikTok The Governor's Mansion Guesthouse - More Revealed In Hate-Filled Interview (Erin in the Morning, LGBTQ Nation)
Indonesian Mayor declares city ‘anti-LGBTQ+’ because he saw gay couples on New Year’s Eve (Pink News)
Indonesia's sexual minorities must prepare for legal battles (Nikkei Asia)
Indonesian soldiers jailed for having gay sex as anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown continues (LGBTQ Nation)
LGBTQ Americans Are 9 Times More Likely To Be Victimized By Hate Crime (SheThePeople)
Most LGBTQ Youth Can’t Access Mental Health Care. How Schools Can Help (EdWeek)
Russia’s Media Regulator Granted Powers to Block all LGBT Sites (Moscow Times)
The savage Christmas murder that rocked a Louisiana gay bar (LGBTQ Nation)
Trans woman sues CA university over alleged bias (Bay Area Reporter)
Extra Links, Quotes & Gay Shit
A Brief History of American Socialism (LitHub)
Book Bans in US Prisons Undermine Rehabilitation (New Lines Magazine)
Did 1970's 'The Boys in the Band' Help or Hinder the Gay Community? (Collider)
Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story has been adapted as a graphic novel & we have an exclusive excerpt (LGBTQ Nation)
How These Young, HIV-Positive Gay Men Found Each Other (HIV Plus Mag)
How TikTok Became a Diplomatic Crisis (The New York Times Magazine)
In 2022, LGBTQ books told new stories and experimented with form (NBC News)
Mirrorglass: How Jan. 6 Brought Frontier Violence to the Heart of U.S. Power (The Intercept)
“Somebody Somewhere” and the Value of Small Town Representation (Vogue)
The Best Queer TV and Movie Moments of 2022 (Daily Beast)
The NFL's moral collapse (Popular Information)
This Essay Collection is a Luminous Exploration of Queer Indigeneity (them)
Tinder in the trenches: How war has changed love and sex in Ukraine (WashPost)