The US is Now a Christian Fascist Theocracy
#137
Welcome to Third Cultured, a newsletter covering all things queer and techno-politics 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
Links, Quotes & Things
Opinion Essay
Pride month has come to a close.
Although it was a month of radical joy as Pride parades returned to NYC and San Francisco for the first time since 2019, it was darkened by attacks on the LGBTQ+ community all over the country and terrible rulings from SCOTUS, including:
and further eroding freedom from religion (formerly known as “the Separation Between Church and State”).
The Right doesn’t even have to present facts to the Court at this point – they can outright lie about the facts of the case and still get the ruling they seek!
Unfortunately, the Christian Fascists have no intention of stopping at Roe. They’re already plotting to criminalize women who leave Forced Birth states to get abortions. Clarence Thomas went even farther in plain English in his concurring opinion: “we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold (birth control), Lawrence (sodomy), and Obergefell (same-sex marriage).”
None of us are safe from the relentlessness of zealots. Norway suffered a Pulse-like shooting hours before its Pride parade, killing two and injuring 21, which led to the early cancellation of the rest of its festival. That said, in true Queer fashion, an impromptu march took place any ways to honor the victims and to show that we will never hide again.
It shouldn’t need to be said, but of course it was carried about by a religion extremist. Whether it’s a Christian Fascist or an Islamist terrorist – radicalized monotheists remain the greatest threat to LGBTQ+ people all around the world.
In Texas, where the Attorney General has already signaled his intention to defend sodomy laws and tear down marriage equality, the state GOP declared in its 2022 platform that “homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice.” They even went so far as to ban the Log Cabin Republicans – or as I and the GOP like to call them “self-hating bank accounts” (looking at you Peter Thiel) – from the Texas GOP convention.
However, the most demoralizing part of the current moment is the predictably feckless response from Joe Biden and the Democrats. They are incapable of meeting the moment even while they control two branches of government (albeit by a razor thin margin…not that that ever holds the Right back). Even the Republicans are shocked at how absent the Democrats are in response to the gutting of Roe.
It is long past time that any logic or reason should be applied to the intentions of Christian Fascists. When they say they intend to do something – listen to them. Don’t rationalize it away because the truth makes you uncomfortable or scares you. They are attacking us from every angle, everywhere, all at once:
Proud Boys storming drag story hours in the Bay Area and around the country,
[The flashmob at a South Bend, IN library] is the fourth reported incident this month of Proud Boys members disrupting children’s events at libraries. Over the weekend, pro-LGBTQ counter-protesters created a human shield to block a group protesting an event at a library in Texas, while in Nevada a Proud Boys member reportedly armed with a gun disrupted a Drag Queen Story Hour event. Earlier this month, members of the hate group, which has been designated a terrorist organization in Canada and New Zealand, stormed a Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Lorenzo Library in California and another Pride Story Time event in Wilmington, North Carolina, reportedly with the support of local police.
proposing bans of drag shows in the presence of minors (which anyone with common sense can see will lead to criminalizing public Queerness in all forms in due time),
GOP candidates calling Hitler “the kind of leader we need today,”
and investigating Texan parents of transgender children who receive gender-affirming care.
This is, unfortunately, only the beginning. I hope during this incredibly hard month for our community, and our nation, that you were able to find some joy and rejuvenation. I’ve been running on fumes all month but the high holy week of Pride fed my soul, being around so many resilient and strong Queer people was exactly what I needed as we weather this tempest. It is going to take every single one of us to make it through. We’ll need interstate mutual aid networks to support those of us in Christian Fascist states, and those of us in Blue States will need to muster the resources to maintain those communication and supply lines.
Take care yourselves and your people. We need you for what comes next.
As always, thanks for reading, beautiful people.
Kyle (@kgborland)
Links, Quotes & Gay Shit
25 rainbow-flag waving companies donated $13 million to anti-gay politicians since 2021 (Popular Information)
71% of Americans Approve of Same-Sex Marriage – A New High (Gallup)
Comment: And yet, just like abortion, the Right will take it away soon.
Advancing LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development (USAID)
Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws/Violence in the US and around the world
70% of LGBTQ Americans surveyed said discrimination toward the community has increased within the last two year (USA Today)
Best and worst states for LGBTQ folks? Divide worsens after 'Don't Say Gay,' report says (Out Leadership)
Gay Man in His 60s Severely Injured in Homophobic Attack (Advocate)
Gay man stabbed to death because he wanted to use the men’s bathroom. He was just 24 (Pink News)
Gay man’s wrist slashed to the bone at start of Pride Month in horrifying attack (LGBTQ Nation)
Japan: Osaka court rules ban on same-sex marriage constitutional (BBC)
Life As An LGBT Person In Central Asia (RadioFreeEurope)
Pride month marred by rising anti-LGBTQ hate (The Hill)
Proud Boys flashmob library’s family Pride event as terrorized staff frantically cancels event (LGBTQ Nation)
SF Gay Man Shot In Apparent Hate-Crime Incident In SoMa (SFist)
The Long, Sordid History of the Gay Conspiracy Theory Today’s right-wing campaign against “groomers” is America’s latest moral panic. (NYMag)
Turkish police release 400 activists detained during Istanbul Pride march (France 24)
White supremacy's rigid views on gender and sexuality (CNN, Washington Post)
Why are white nationalist groups targeting LGBTQ groups? (NPR)
These groups see gay rights, immigration, interracial contact, and especially the birth of interracial children, feminism as all being a problem because they believe that those things will undermine the white birthrate. And that means that for these activists, they see those as apocalyptic threats that are somewhat interchangeable in a larger project of protecting and preserving whiteness itself and advocating for a antidemocratic, white ethno-state, which is what they're doing.
At Nepal’s Pride Parade, A Unique Vision of Queer Resistance (Vogue)
Biden signs new LGBT executive order amid a raft of bills targeting trans youth (Them)
Censorship of Queer People and Culture
Christians are checking out all LGBTQ books at libraries as part of a “Hide the Pride” campaign (LGBTQ Nation)
Florida teachers told to hide their same-sex spouses due to “Don’t Say Gay” and are now required to report to parents if a student says they are not straight, must use pronouns assigned at birth (WFTV)
Kentucky’s 2022 Teacher of the Year quitting over anti-gay discrimination (The Hill)
LGBT flag sparks controversy in Gulf (AL Monitor)
Virginia Politicians Sue ONI Press and Maia Kobabe over Gender Queer (Book Riot)
Hiding My Sexuality to Preserve My Life in the Nigerian Church (Xtra)
How Gayness Changed During My Lifetime (The Nation)
I Feel Like a Fake Gay (Hola Papi)
In the end, though, I think you should worry less about whether you’re “gay enough” and more about doing gay stuff you enjoy. Cogito ergo gay, as prominent flamer René Descartes once said. No one here has the power to take your gay card away, and even if they did, honestly doing unlicensed gay stuff is kind of chic. Very classical. Very Sappho.
Community isn’t something you are, it’s something you engage in. It’s like a house where you find people you like and people you don’t, people who are similar to you and people who are different, where you have certain obligations to each other in good times and bad, where you will be frustrated and delighted, helped and hurt.
‘Like a bridge that connects us’: Pride parade comes to Bangkok amid new hope for LGBT rights (The Guardian)
Polish court abolishes 4 “LGBT-free zones” citing EU treaty (LGBTQ Nation)
Queer Animals Are Everywhere. Science Is Finally Catching On. (Washington Post)
Queer Landmarks Are Everywhere—and This Group Is Working to Keep Them In Plain Sight (Architectural Digest)
scriabin at pride: i accidentally did something lgbtq (sweater weather)
My friend made a joke like, “I feel like I either need to transition tomorrow or when I’m eighty. No in-between.”
That struck me as a painful truth. That the erosion of your liberty and your autonomy—even the implication of the erosion of your autonomy—is really the erosion of your entitlement to a leisurely middle-ground. The ability to take your time. That you get forced into either having to rush or forestall your self-expression until some dreamy, distant often forever-receding horizon of the future.
Stonewall Was an Anti-Police Riot and ACT UP Was an Anti-Corporate Public Menace (Tom + Lorenzo)
The Stonewall of the South That History Forgot (Smithsonian)