The Colorado GOP was criticized for an inflammatory email with the subject line “God Hates Pride” and a video titled “God Hates Flags” that vilifies Pride Month and portrays the LGBTQ+ community with longstanding false tropes, ABC News noted. The email suggested that the LGBTQ+ community is “godless” and aims to “harm our children.” The email, sent to party members, stoked criticism from several local Republican politicians, including Valdamar Archuleta—a gay man running to be the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in Denver; he then rejected the endorsement he earned from the state party just one day prior. In addition, a spokesperson for gay Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called the email “ridiculous.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that a school district in Massachusetts was within its rights to ban a student’s “There Are Only Two Genders” T-shirt, as protecting LGBTQ+ students from harassment trumped free-speech considerations, according to The Advocate. “In following the lead of other courts that have grappled with similar cases, we emphasize that in many realms of public life one must bear the risk of being subjected to messages that are demeaning of race, sex, religion or sexual orientation, even when those messages are highly disparaging of those characteristics,” Chief Judge David J. Barron wrote. Initially, the T-shirt-wearing student (whose situation prompted a couple other classmates to wear the T-shirt) and his parents filed suit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, alleging violation of his First Amendment rights to free speech.
Dastan Kasmamytov asked boyfriend Christian Vettermann to marry him on the snowy summit of the highest mountain peak in North America—Alaska’s Mount Denali, Outsports noted. Kasmamytov is the founder of “Pink Summits”—a campaign providing LGBTQ+ visibility in the global fight for human rights through epic climbs. It was the sixth of nine summits in the campaign challenge overall, spanning all the continents. Born in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, Kasmamytov became an activist a decade ago after speaking out against police brutality against LGBTQ+ people in his homeland. Vettermann is a mountaineer and judge from Germany.
Since starting the Drag Defense Fund in April 2023, drag icon RuPaul and her popular television franchise have raised more than $2 million in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union, Drag Race producer World of Wonder and MTV, LGBTQ Nation noted. More than 500 bills in the last year alone were introduced to roll back LGBTQ+ rights, including bans on drag performance in states like Tennessee and Kentucky. “Drag has a long history in the queer community as not only a source of joy and creativity but as a source of power,” Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project, said in a statement.
San Francisco supervisors unanimously and officially designated the city as a sanctuary for transgender and other gender-nonconforming individuals, The Bay Area Reporter noted. The supervisors voted 11-0 to adopt a resolution authored by gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman declaring “San Francisco a sanctuary city and a place of safety for TGNCI2S people and providers of gender affirming care.” (The acronym also includes intersex and two-spirit people.) Suzanne Ford—a trans woman who is executive director of the city’s LGBT Pride committee—had approached Mandelman with the idea for the resolution after seeing Sacramento declare itself a transgender sanctuary city in March and learning West Hollywood had done so last year.
On June 13, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone—meaning the commonly used drug can remain widely available, NBC News reported. The court found that the group of anti-abortion physicians who questioned the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions making it easier to access the pill did not have legal standing to sue. President Joe Biden said in a statement that, despite the ruling, “the fight for reproductive freedom continues” in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling two years ago that overturned abortion rights landmark Roe v. Wade.
In a tribute to the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a directive for all United States and State of Florida flags to be flown at half-staff on June 12, according to Parkland Talk. This date marks the eighth anniversary of the devastating terrorist attack that took the lives of 49 individuals and wounded 53 others. The horrific event, which unfolded on June 12, 2016, at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, stands as one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
The man accused of fatally shooting Philadelphia journalist Josh Kruger last October pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, according to The Advocate. Robert Davis, 20, was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison for the murder charge as well as one to two years for a separate incident of carrying a firearm without a license. Kruger, 39, was shot and killed in his home in the South Philadelphia neighborhood of Point Breeze on Oct. 2, 2023. Court documents revealed police found Davis and Kruger had an “intimate/sexual relationship.”
An affordable housing complex for LGBTQ+ seniors is slated to open in Pittsburgh next year, LGBTQ Nation noted, citing the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Presbyterian SeniorCare Network—Western Pennsylvania’s largest aging services provider—is leading the project, which is scheduled to open in fall 2025. The 48-unit Mosaic Apartments will be the second community of its kind in the state, housing low-income LGBTQ+ people 62 and older on land donated from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the University of Pittsburgh and the Dialysis Clinic, Inc., in the city’s Oakland neighborhood.
In Oregon, the Newberg-Dundee Police Department was called to the Newberg Public Library after an anti-LGBTQ+ incident occurred, per the Los Angeles Blade. No one was injured and it was initially investigated as a vandalism complaint. However, uniformed officers referred the case to Newberg-Dundee detectives after there were “concerns that the suspect possibly had a biased intent because a pride flag was displayed directly behind the vandalized window.” After a thorough investigation, detectives were able to identify the suspect to be a juvenile who acted alone.
In New York, retired firefighter and decorated U.S. Army veteran Col. Edward Thomas Ryan, 85, came out in his own obituary, saying he could “rest in peace” now that his “secret is known,” according to PinkNews. Ryan came out in an obituary published in the Albany Times Union. After his achievements were listed, Ryan stated, “I must tell you one more thing. I was gay all my life: through grade school, through high school, college, through life. I’m sorry for not having the courage to come out as gay. I was afraid of being ostracized, by family, friends and co-workers. Seeing how people like me were treated, I just could not do it. Now that my secret is known, I’ll forever rest in peace.” Ryan also stated, “I was in a loving and caring relationship with Paul Cavagnaro of North Greenbush. He was the love of my life. We had 25 great years together. Paul died in 1994 from a medical procedure gone wrong. I’ll be buried next to Paul.”
NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced the appointment of Ronald Porcelli as the director of the NYC Unity Project, a citywide program focused on LGBTQ youth, Gay City News reported. Adams also shifted oversight of the city’s Family Acceptance of LGBTQ+ Youth Services to the Unity Project. “Ronald Porcelli is a true public servant who leads with their lived experience to make a difference in the lives of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers,” Adams said in a written statement. “Porcelli worked their way up the NYC Unity Project, starting as a senior advisor to now become its director, growing and learning at every step of the way.”
Buddy’s and KIKI—a pair of neighboring LGBTQ+ bars in Houston’s Montrose community—have both closed during Pride Month, according to Houston Public Media. The bars’ owner called an emergency staff meeting on June 4 to inform workers they would not be receiving the paychecks they were expecting that day because the business could not afford to issue them. Buddy’s and KIKI—which opened in 2019 and 2022, respectively—have remained closed since. It was unclear if ongoing litigation and associated expenses were a factor in the bars’ closures.
A street sign honoring a pillar of D.C.’s LGBTQ+ community was erected in honor of restaurateur Annie Kaylor, NBC Washington noted. “Annie’s Way,” says the sign installed in front of Annie’s Paramount Steak House on 17th Street NW. The sign went up more than a decade after the D.C. Council and former Mayor Vincent Gray first approved the designation; the installation was stuck in limbo for years, in part because Annie’s moved locations by a block-and-a-half. Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse has a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community in the District, particularly during times of rampant discrimination.
Also in D.C., the pro-LGBTQ+ nonprofit Cherry Fund filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court charging entertainment venue Republiq Hall with abruptly and improperly cancelling Cherry Fund’s reservation to rent the hall for an April 6 event expected to draw 2,000 paid guests, per The Washington Blade. The event was to be one of several circuit dance parties Cherry Fund produces as part of its annual Cherry weekend, which has raised several million dollars for LGBTQ+-related organizations since those events began in 1996.
To signify the work necessary to protect LGBTQ+ North Carolina residents, Equality North Carolina hosted an advocacy day calling on lawmakers to protect LGBTQ+ rights, according to Star News Online. State Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, a member of the LGBTQ community, said there is nothing good happening for queer people inside the legislature right now, stating, “When I got here, I found that, in fact, there was a culture war happening” about “marginalizing people for political gain.”
In California, the North County LGBTQ Resource Center is moving into a larger area, per 10News. The center has been operating out of its current 2,200-square-foot space on Mission Avenue for eight years; however, the center plans to move into a new space on Apple Street that’s nearly 20,000 square feet later this year. Founder/Executive Director Max Disposti said the new building will have more office and community space, with the larger facility allowing for more in-person therapy sessions.
Jewish organizations expressed anger after the San Francisco Pride Parade denied there would be an Israeli float at the event but welcomed pro-Palestinian groups to participate, according to The Jerusalem Post. “SF Pride values the contributions of Jewish queer individuals in advocating for peace and acknowledge their enduring efforts. SF Pride is careful not to conflate Jewish groups and Jewish people living in America with the state of Israel,” the pride parade organizers said in a statement. The Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council urged SF Pride to clarify that “everyone, including LGBTQ+ Israelis, are welcome at Pride.”
The Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush Avenue reportedly has a gay sex club in the basement of a local outpost of a well-known supermarket chain, Page Six noted. Sources in the Slope—the domain of people such as former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, rapper Foxy Brown, and actors Steve Buscemi and John Turturro—say the regular event is known as Pickle’s Playhouse. A veteran of the event, billed online as “the largest private play party in the U.S. for SUPER HOT young guys,” said that instead of grabbing a cart on the way in, guests at Pickle’s place check their clothes at the door (except their shoes, which everyone is required to keep on their feet at all times, apparently).
Queer|Art—the national organization connecting and uplifting generations of LGBTQ+ artists—announced the new mentors for the 2025 Queer|Art|Mentorship (QAM) program cycle, per a press release. The six mentors are interdisciplinary and conceptual artist Ken Gonzales-Day; writer and transformative justice worker Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha; actor/writer Erin Market; sculptor/performance artist Young Joon Kwak; director/screenwriter Andrew Ahn; and film and media consultant Tabitha Jackson. They join returning mentors fiber artist Liz Collins, author Stacy Szymaszek, interdisciplinary visual artist Chitra Ganesh, best-selling author Alexander Chee and director/screenwriter Fredéric Tcheng. (There’s also interdisciplinary choreographer Raja Feather Kelly, a previous fellow-turned-mentor. Applications are open through July 31st; learn more at www.queer-art.org/mentorship.
The post NATIONAL Colorado GOP, T-shirt case, mountaintop proposal, RuPaul appeared first on Windy City Times.