Little Gay Billy's BIG Gay Newsapalooza
I'm here, I'm queer, and I brung ya some LGBTQ news with yer plant-based beer. The good and the bad. Let's go…
Bad: Because of the blizzard of Republican anti-trans bills—over 100 of them with 44 specifically targeting trans youth—racing through state legislatures across the country, some parents of trans youth are moving away…or preparing to. As one mom says, "Even if everything gets defeated or repealed, the spirit behind them is still here."
Good: Two-thirds of Americans—including "majorities of every political ideology, from liberal to conservative, and every age group"—are against those bills. Funny, though, how the media never tut-tuts Republican lawmakers about making sure their bills have "bipartisanship" support.
Continued...
Bad: One of the bills—#1646 in Texas—would actually brand as child abuse the act of parents supporting their trans kids. The punishment could include both jail time and removing the child from the home. Said 10-year-old Kai Shappley at a hearing: “I do not like spending my free time asking adults to make good choices. Texas legislators have been attacking me since Pre-K. I am in fourth grade now. It makes me sad that some politicians would use trans kids like me to get votes from people who hate just because I exist." She is now, of course, getting death threats for speaking out. A fourth grader.
Good: President Biden is nominating Shawn Skelly, who made history as the first openly-trans person to be nominated to a post by a U.S. president (Obama), as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness. And openly-lesbian Sue Fulton will be nominated as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
Good: U.S. Embassies and diplomatic offices have been given the green light to fly the pride flag again. And just a hunch, but I think we'll also see this again for the first time in four years when Pride Month starts in June:
Bad: Caitlyn Jenner. Another bored celebrity who thinks California would be a neat-o playground to romp on for awhile as governator. See also: unqualified New York City mayor wannabe Andrew Yang, whose campaign is going over with the LGBTQ community like a lead balloon.
Good: The Public Religion Research Institute found that people across major religious groups support LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections by a factor of 3-to-1. (Even 78 percent of Mormons are on board.) The poll throws cold water on the Republican lie that the Equality Act—passed in the House and waiting for Joe Manchin to decide if it gets a vote or not—doesn't have bipartisan support.
That’s a bit of the haps in LGBTQ Land. And now, our feature presentation...
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Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Note: To access bonus C&J Points on your smartphone, simply wave it over this code:
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If it doesn’t load within five years, call tech support and give 'em an earful because that's just ridiculous.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til President Biden's 100th day in office: 3
Percent of 18 to 29-year-olds surveyed by the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School who approve of President Biden, the highest ever: 59%
Their approval of Democrats in Congress and Republicans in Congress, respectively: 52%, 28%
Percent of 18-29 Americans who were optimistic about the future in 2017 and 2021, respectively: 31%, 56%
Minimum percent by which President Biden has pledged to slash carbon emissions by 2030: 50%
Increase in new home sales in March, the biggest jump since the mid-2000s: 21%
First-time jobless claims last week, a pandemic-era low: 547,000
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Puppy Pic of the Day: In synch…
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CHEERS to having a warm body at an important helm again. Here's a fun fact to store in your noggin for when you play your next game of Trivial Pursuit—Twenty-Teens Edition: the United States went without a director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 2017 to 2021. Trump forwarded some nominees, but unfortunately the Senate didn’t have the votes to confirm—[checks notes]—Spongebob Squarepants or "That guy in the lab coat in Sharknado III." So it's with great relief that President Biden has nominated a guy to watch our oceans and atmospherics who has all the right credentials…mainly because current Oregon State University professor of oceanography Rick Spinrad was there before under President Obama. Among those happy with his triumphant return: the environmental lawyers at EarthJustice:
“The American people need accurate, real-time information about their climate now more than ever. NOAA keeps our climate science and technology cutting-edge and responsive to the public’s needs, and it is the Biden Administration’s job to restore Americans’ trust in this pivotal agency. Dr. Spinrad has spent decades building our understanding of oceans, climate, and weather forecasting.
We are grateful that NOAA is in such capable and experienced hands. Throughout his career, Dr. Spinrad has dedicated himself to producing high-caliber science and has won Presidential and Civilian Service awards. His scientific vision and acumen will be essential to pursuing NOAA’s priorities and rebuilding NOAA’s reputation at home and abroad.”
Given the current conditions of our oceans and atmosphere, the first thing Dr. Spinrad will be tasked with focusing on is everything.
CHEERS and JEERS to another week on Planet Covid. First the good news on the pandemic front: Johnson & Johnson was given the green light to continue producing its vaccine, so that little mystery has been solved by Sherlock CDC. Now on to our unpleasant weekly task of checking of the latest coronavirus numbers for the historical record, courtesy of the tote board of woe. Worldwide now: over 149 million cases (with India in particular getting hammered) and our domestic death toll is now equal to the entire state of Wyoming:
1 year ago: 987,000 confirmed cases. 55,000 deaths
6 months ago: 13.6 million confirmed cases. 273,000 deaths
3 months ago: 26 million confirmed cases. 427,000 deaths
This morning: 33 million confirmed cases. 587,000 deaths
I know it's callous and cruel to talk about something as loathsome as "bragging rights" when it comes to a killer pandemic, so of course that's what I'm going to do now. Turns out that, nationwide, opposition to the vaccine is among the lowest in all of New England's six states, and the percent of residents getting vaccinated is among the highest in all of New England's six states. Thus explaining our new summer tourism slogan: New England—Come Vacation With Us If You Want To Live!
CHEERS to Coretta Scott King. Today is the 94th birthday of the late Mrs. MLK, Jr.:
Her remarkable partnership with Dr. King resulted not only in four children, who became dedicated to carrying forward their parent’s work, but also in a life devoted to the highest values of human dignity in service to social change.
Mrs. King traveled throughout the world speaking out on behalf of racial and economic justice, women’s and children’s rights, gay and lesbian dignity, religious freedom, the needs of the poor and homeless, full-employment, health care, educational opportunities, nuclear disarmament and environmental justice. She lent her support to pro-democracy movements world-wide and consulted with many world leaders, including Corazon Aquino, Kenneth Kaunda, and Nelson Mandela.
Said Mrs. King: "Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated." I guess that explains why I see so many Trump cultists walking around on crutches these days.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to flying the unfriendly, low-gravity, low-density skies. NASA took its helicopter Ingenuity for another spin over the weekend, putting it through new maneuvers and setting a distance record. Naturally, there are skeptics who believe the machine is actually a Martian device being tested to help Joe Biden steal the 2024 election. To put that claim to rest, here's official footage of the entire voyage. See if you notice anything familiar:
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See that? It came back with lottery tickets and smokes, but forgot the milk. Definitely created by humans.
CHEERS to the cigar-chomper who saved the Union. Happy 199th birthday to “#18” Ulysses S. Grant, the larger-than-life general who helped win the Civil War and then spent 8 shaky years as a crony-loving president. But at least he had this going for him, which I love quoting every chance I get (from the book Rating the Presidents):
[H]e kept his own religious values and practice to himself. In the larger view for the country, he believed in a strict separation of church and state, stating in his seventh annual message to Congress: "Declare church and state forever separate and distinct; but each free within their proper spheres."
Pay your respects here. He's buried in someone's tomb…I forget whose.
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Ten years ago in C&J: April 27, 2011
CHEERS to a new shiny object to chase. President Obama released the Holy Grail of the birthers yesterday: his long-form birth certificate. And, confronted with the reality that they were now going to have to actually get a life, they dove headfirst back into the crazy pool:
"It would be a big mistake for everyone to jump to a conclusion now based on the release of this document, which raises as many questions than it answers.”
We completely agree. There's something fishy about this. It’s all too easy. I suspect Obama released this long-form birth certificate because he's sitting on an even longer-form birth certificate that we don’t know about yet—and I bet it's a hundred pages long and proves he's a Kenyan Muslim Socialist thumb-sucking tollbooth operator from Hoboken who hates America so much that when the red phone rings he sends it to the answering machine so he can continue plotting ways to eliminate America's grandmas. Get on it, fwoopy-hair musty-smelling rich guy! (What's his name again?)
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And just one more…
CHEERS to swearing in class. Can't let today go by without noting one of the most awesome exchanges in senate committee hearing history. On April 27, 2010, during a grilling of Goldman Sachs executives, now-former Senator Carl Levin—still with us at 86 and just out with his autobiography—enshrined a new catchphrase into our national lexicon while quoting an internal email: "Boy, that was one shitty deal!" Relive the squirming of this bankster worm:
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Goldman Sachs made billions out of that scheme, by the way. And, if memory serves, all we commoners got out of it was a new catchphrase that’s fun to say but worth about as much as a condo next to Chernobyl reactor #4. Now that’s a shitty deal.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
Bill in Portland Maine's kiddie pool is a threat to democracy! Or something!
—Tommy Christopher
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