Florida’s “Summer of Freedom,” Project 2025, and Other Horrors

Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.

This is my second-to-last LGBTQ+ newsletter before Pride Month (colloquially known as “June”) begins, and there are myriad actions being taken to make celebrating Pride more difficult and thus, even more essential. This newsletter is going to be the usual run-through of the most recent LGBTQ+-related news, and next week’s newsletter will focus on getting us prepared for Pride Month.

With that, let’s get to it.

More of the Latest

🏳️‍🌈 There’s been a lot of discussion about conversion therapy over the last few years. However, what is often missing from those conversations and soundbites is a focus on the larger psychiatric industry and its “dark anti-LGBTQ+ history” that led to the discredited practice in the first place. (The Majority Report)

🏳️‍🌈 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared this summer a “Summer of Freedom” in his state. To that end, he is making sure bridges are lit up red, white, and blue starting Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day, ensuring that they will *not* be lit up rainbow in honor of Pride Month this June. (Assigned Media)

🏳️‍🌈 As I have written in previous newsletters, the far-right GOP manifesto, “Project 2025,” is a cause for grave concern. The Bitchuation Room examines this “policy bible” and explores the implications for democracy, LGBTQ+ rights, the climate, and abortion should Donald Trump win in November and it come to pass.

🏳️‍🌈 In Ohio, LGBTQ+ community members and their allies in Broadview Heights have been facing harassment and threats of violence after their mayor, Sam Alai, agreed to co-sponsor a Pride event on city property without the approval of city council. (The Buckeye Flame)

🏳️‍🌈 Biden made changes to Title IX, aiming to provide more anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students. In response, “26 GOP-led states” are suing his administration, led by their Republican Attorneys General. (Virginia Mercury) The Nation takes a deeper look at the Republican Attorney General Association (RAGA), of which these AGs are a part.

🏳️‍🌈 The Louisiana passed HB 122, “which limits discussion of gender and sexuality in public schools.” Republican Gov. Jeff Landry is “expected to sign it into law.” (Louisiana Illuminator)

🏳️‍🌈 Historian Jules Gill-Peterson’s new book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, examines the roots of trans misogyny. (The Nation)

🏳️‍🌈 From Assigned Media, yet another sport restricts trans participation:

World Sailing’s new restrictions on transgender competitors include specific  measured hormone levels for at least 12 months prior to competing but, most concerning, stipulate that the competitor has never undergone ‘Tanner Stage 2’ puberty. Stage 2 of the Tanner scale for sexual maturity is reached at a very young age, sometimes as early as 11 years old, and the gender-affirming care that would prevent a transgender child from experiencing unwanted natal puberty is being heavily restricted, and sometimes flat-out banned, by right-wing legislators across the world.

Positives

🏳️‍🌈 In Ohio, the Supreme Court continued its temporary restraining order against a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors, allowing for such care to continue. (Ohio Capital Journal)

🏳️‍🌈 An intimate photo essay explores trans and queer identity through Appalachian and Christian iconography. (100 Days in Appalachia)

🏳️‍🌈 YES! Magazine provides an actionable plan for “centering queer self care” in the 2024 election cycle.

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Thank you for being here, and thank you for your diligent, informed, and independent news consumption. Remember to hold each other. I’ll see you in two weeks.

The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.

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