Daniel Villarreal

During a 1971 Cinco De Mayo event at the Los Angeles gay bar The Closet, Richard Adams (a Filipino-American citizen) met Tony Sullivan (an Australian immigrant). The two began dating and fell in love. But because Sullivan entered the U.S. under a tourist visa, he wasn’t legally allowed to stay long-term. So, in 1975, in Boulder, Colorado, the two men married. At the time, Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex issued six same-sex marriage licenses with the local state attorney’s understanding that, because the state’s marriage law only specified “any two persons,” it didn’t explicitly forbid same-sex unions. State Attorney General J.D. […]

Throughout Ali’s childhood in Iraq, he was repeatedly bullied by students and teachers for what he described as his feminine behavior. During his pre-teen and teenage years, men sexually assaulted him, but he couldn’t report it to the police for fear that he’d be thrown into jail for years since Iraq has criminalized homosexuality. Ali was afraid to come out or talk about these assaults to his family. Although he wasn’t sure if his father knew he was gay, his dad knew other LGBTQ+ people from his travels abroad for work. His father used to tell him, “One day, we’re […]

Immigration narratives in politics and media mostly focus on the southern border, with the current U.S. president evoking racist images of Mexican gang members invading, South American cartels smuggling drugs, and Black immigrants eating cats and dogs in the United States. These narratives are, in a word, bullshit. At various times, majorities of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. didn’t cross the southern border, they overstayed their visas. Most fentanyl brought into the U.S. was smuggled in by U.S. citizens. Immigrants commit crimes at a much lower rate than U.S. citizens. And as for cats and dogs, the vice president and others have admitted that the story is […]

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has appeared at least four times on the Reformation Red Pill podcast, a far-right podcast hosted by Joshua Haymes, an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist who was also a former pastor at the church that Hegseth attends, The Guardian reported.  The publication noted that Haymes wants to execute adulterers and people who have abortions, that he seemingly called for the deaths of LGBTQ+ Pride marchers, and also considers liberalism a greater threat to the nation than neo-Nazism. Haymes is aligned with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a Christian Nationalist denomination that believes the United States should be subject to biblical law, and […]

Ohio State Republicans have introduced numerous anti-LGBTQ+ bills during this legislative session, including one that would out LGBTQ+ students to their parents if they receive any related counseling, a bill requiring transgender politicians to list their deadnames on public records, a law restricting trans students’ ability to use preferred names and pronouns in schools, and a ban on drag (even though federal courts have blocked similar laws for violating free speech rights). State Democrats have also introduced legislation to enshrine LGBTQ+ non-discrimination protections as well as a ban on so-called conversion therapy into law. None of the bills have received hearings so […]