Spain’s parliament recently passed a bill that makes it easier for people to change their legal gender.
The bill allows people older than 16 to legally change their gender without medical supervision or a judge’s approval. It removes the previous requirements that applicants provide a doctor’s diagnosis of gender dysphoria and additional proof that they have lived as their gender identity and undergone hormone treatment for the past two years.
The bill requires minors below the age of 13 to still get a judge’s authorization before legally changing their gender. Minors below the age of 16 will still need parental or legal guardian approval before being allowed to change their gender.
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The bill also bans conversion therapy, promotes LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections, and calls for additional efforts to improve trans women’s lives.
It passed the parliament in a 188-150 vote and is now headed to the country’s Senate where it’s expected to pass.
While the bill was sponsored by the far-left Unidas Podemos (United We Can) party, Conservative party members said they worried that the bill would give legal cover for trans individuals who wanted to assault cisgender women in bathrooms and other facilities.
However, Spain’s Equality Minister Irene Montero threw water on these worries, saying, “No man needs to impersonate women to rape women, to sexually assault women. Trans people do not put us (cis) women at risk.”
“It is wage inequality, women’s care burden, and sexist male aggressors that put as at risk,” she added.
During the parliament’s vote, dozens of trans rights activists gathered in front of the building to listen to the debate on their phones, the Edge Media Network reported. Other trans activists viewed the legislative session from the parliament’s public gallery.
After the law passed, activists outside cheered and hugged each other while some burned blue, white, and pink smoke flares, mimicking the colors of the transgender movement, Reuters reported.
“We are making progress on rights as a country,” Montero said during the pre-vote debate. “We want all LGBTI people to be able to be themselves, without closets.”
Spain began allowing trans people to change their gender identity on official documents starting in 2006, but first required proof of gender-affirming surgeries. In July 2019, Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to prevent people under the age of 18 from changing their legal gender.
Out gay Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) has admitted lying to voters about some parts of his resume, but didn’t address other alleged falsehoods in his backstory. He also said he wouldn’t give up his seat even though Democrats have said that he should.
“My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” he said on Monday, according to the New York Post, adding, “I am not a criminal… This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”
Among the falsehoods he fessed up to is the fact that he never graduated from Baruch College. “I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he said. “I own up to that … We do stupid things in life.”
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He also admitted that he never worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. He now claims that, while working as vice president for a company called Link Bridge, he helped make “capital introductions” between clients and investors who were at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
“I will be clearer about that,” he said. “It was stated poorly.”
Indeed, his campaign website had “poorly” stated that he “began working at Citigroup as an associate and quickly advanced to become an associate asset manager in the real asset division of the firm.” Link Bridge didn’t respond to media requests for clarification.
He also admitted that he was indeed married to a woman from 2012 until they divorced in 2017. He had told USA Today in October that he had “never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade.”
He didn’t mention his ex-wife ever during his two election bids. “I’m very much gay,” he said on Monday. “I’m OK with my sexuality. People change. I’m one of those people who change.”
The publication The Daily Beast failed to find a marriage record for Santos to the man he currently refers to as his husband.
When asked about why he doesn’t reside at the Queens, New York address in his district where he was registered to vote, the Post reported, “Santos also admitted to lying when he claimed that he owned 13 different properties, saying he now resides at his sister’s place in Huntington but is looking to purchase his own place.”
He also threw his own dead grandmother under the bus when asked about the claim that his grandparents escaped the Nazi Holocaust. Genealogical records threw doubt on this claim, suggesting they might have resided in Brazil rather than having fled from Europe. He now says the claim came from his deceased grandmother’s stories.
Even though he has previously identified as a nonobservant Jew in the past, he now says that he never claimed he was Jewish (but rather Jew-ish), noting that his grandmother told him that she converted from Judaism to Catholicism.
He also explained his claim that he lost four employees in the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting. The New York Times found that none of the shooting’s 49 victims seemed to be associated with any of his businesses. He now says that, at the time of their deaths, the four “employees” were in the process of being hired for his company (which he didn’t name) when they died in the shooting. He provided no additional information to back up his claim.
Numerous discrepancies in Santos’ past remain. No records seem to back up his claim that his mother escaped the south tower of the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. No records seem to back up his claim that he founded a charity called Friends of Pets nor that he attended New York University.
The New York Times also noted that, even though he denied ever having cashed stolen checks in Brazil, he didn’t explain why Brazilian court records alleged otherwise. Nor did he explain how he was able to lend himself $700,000 to his congressional campaign despite owing landlords and creditors thousands in the past.
Democrats like outgoing House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and upcoming House Democratic Minority Leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries (NY) have said that Santos isn’t fit to serve in Congress and should resign.
“George Santos should resign as congressman-elect,” tweeted Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). “If he refuses, Congress should expel him. He should also be investigated by authorities. Just about every aspect of his life appears to be a lie.”
“George Santos admits his life story is a complete fabrication,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). “His pitiful confession should not distract us from concerns about possible criminality and corruption.”
However, Santos has refused and Republican Congress members have stayed silent about his falsehoods. In fact, the Post cited an “unnamed senior GOP leadership aide” who said that Republicans joked about all of Santos’ discrepancies.
“As far as questions about George in general, that was always something that was brought up whenever we talked about this race,” the aide told the Post. “It was a running joke at a certain point. This is the second time he’s run and these issues we assumed would be worked out by the voters.”
Nevertheless, New York State Attorney General Tish James is reportedly looking into whether Santos broke any laws through his past claims.
Finding a safe and supportive environment to age in place has become increasingly possible in recent years in traditionally friendly enclaves. San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Provincetown, MA, are some of the towns and cities where older adults can continue to live their best lives in the gayborhood.
For many, though, a planned community is the preferred destination. A growing number are built and run with LGBTQ retirees in mind. Still, with an estimated 2.7 million people in that group, supply dedicated to this population segment has a long way to go to catch up with demand.
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Here’s a list of 10 communities at the leading edge of serving LGBTQ retirees. From high-rises to log cabins, like-minded neighbors can also find comfortable living from coast to coast – and on the golf course.
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If you’re looking for a resort-like community with a continuum of care, Fountaingrove Lodge is ideal. Amenities on the 10-acre campus in Santa Rosa, CA, include golf, fine dining, a comprehensive wellness program featuring fitness instruction, and, as residents age, in-home continued care services. A memory center program for residents with cognitive impairment related to Alzheimer’s or dementia eases the burden of care for loved ones.
In California, Palm Springs is already a mecca, so it makes sense that the desert oasis would be home to a first-class assisted living community for finding your chosen family. The development has 24 units and comes with the features you’d expect such as chef-prepared meals and an on-site nurse. It also offers multiple levels of medical care.
Life at the John C. Anderson Apartments in Philadelphia, located in the middle of the city’s gayborhood, centers around the 6000 sqft garden courtyard maintained by building residents. Built in 2014 with community input, the modern, airy complex features 67 affordable one-bedroom apartments with ceramic-tiled baths, wall-to-wall carpeting, and sun-filled, open floor plans, plus a community room adjacent to the courtyard for events, and retail shops serving senior needs on the ground floor, including a convenient coffee spot.
Options for lesbian-only communities are few, but this Ft. Myers retirement village is a popular choice. The site features 278 home and RV lots on 50 acres, many overlooking two women-made freshwater lakes. Amenities include a clubhouse with pool, fitness center, hot tub, billiards room, library, clay room with kiln, card room, “a really great dance floor” and a wide variety of art programs, plus tennis, pickleball, shuffleboard, and bocce courts.
This 165-acre gated community started as an entirely queer development but has welcomed straight allies in growing numbers. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northwestern North Carolina, the forested community features 28 log-cabin homes and 78 lots available to build on; major development was stalled in the last recession. The tranquil setting, which includes a mountain stream and plenty of wildlife, is the development’s most-prized amenity.
Just 30 minutes outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, Birds of a Feather is a 140-acre gated community founded in 2004. The independent living compound is designed for aging in place, with up to 3 acres ready for building either a custom home or one of several plans designed by architects for the community.
Fifteen miles from Portland, OR., you’ll find Rainbow Vista, an apartment development geared toward active seniors. Studios and one-bedrooms come with a kitchenette, with prices ranging up to $1,245 per month. The communal facilities include a large event space, a video theatre, an exercise room, a game room with a pool table, and a music room.
For those not into snowbirding south for retirement, this modern apartment complex in Cleveland, Ohio, offers city living in affordably priced one and two-bedroom apartments, plus amenities like a fitness center and community room. Conveniently located close to transit, shopping, and parks. It’s the first LGBTQ-friendly senior housing complex in the state.
Chicago’s Town Hall Apartments, located in the North Halsted gay district, comprises two buildings: a historic former police station and a colorful new six-story building next door featuring 79 units dedicated to affordable senior housing. Studio and one-bedroom apartments offer sweeping city views; a senior center provides programs, services, and a full-time social worker. Outside, a sprawling, second-floor rooftop terrace is a popular destination, while the community Rainbow Room features event programming. The building also has a fitness and computer area. 60 percent of residents are LGBTQ older adults.
Located on 15 acres in Durham, North Carolina, Village Hearth is a first-of-its-kind cohousing community that includes 28 single-story, fully equipped cottages with open floor plans, skylights, vaulted ceilings, and hardwood floors. The main complex features a common house with a gourmet kitchen, plus exercise, game, and craft rooms.
A transgender member of the Asheville City Board of Education has resigned after a months-long campaign of harassment by a representative of a national hate group.
Peyton O’Conner announced her resignation from the board on Monday night, effective immediately.
Ronald Gates, a self-described pastor and “ambassador” for the Arizona-based hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, started showing up at Asheville City Board of Education meetings in October, hectoring the board with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, denouncing critical race theory, and misgendering board member O’Conner.
“Mr. Gates is a fascist whose hatred and fear-mongering have no place within the Asheville City School’s community,” O’Conner wrote in her letter of resignation to the board. “He is dragging a well-funded group of fascists into our town in order to claim his own 15 minutes of fame. His views are ignorant, disgusting, and vile.”
O’Conner was appointed to the seat in March 2021 by the Asheville City Council to fill a term ending in 2024.
O’Conner’s resignation follows a board meeting at which she ripped up a letter transmitted by Gates that demanded “parents, school board members, and local clergy be informed if teachers plan to allow ‘indoctrination teaching’ in the school system.”
Alliance Defending Freedom identifies itself as a “legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, parental rights, and God’s design for marriage and family.” The Southern Poverty Law Center describes it as a “hate group.” ADF has joined with like-minded organizations in Europe in support of forced sterilization of transgender individuals.
When Gates took the mic for public comment, he repeatedly misgendered O’Conner, despite rebukes from the board chair. O’Conner interjected: “Mr. Gates, I would ask that you refrain from bigotry and hate speech. That is not my gender.”
Gates went on: “We should be focusing on reading, writing, math, and history, true history, instead of sexual immorality or indoctrination or CRT. As I shared, the submittal of the information, it was submitted before the board, respectfully, and the individual that took time to rip up that information is not known, as you reflect it, as ‘Miss.’ I will say ‘Mr.’ if the blood was drawn XY, which is a male.”
Board members can be heard repeating “no,” and Gates is gaveled out of order and told to yield his time. The pastor and his supporters were escorted from the room by security, as Gates continued his rant.
“The ADF has a playbook,” O’Conner wrote in her resignation letter. “Essentially, Mr. Gates will continue attacking until he is censured in a way that allows him (with the assistance of the ADF) to create a lawsuit and turn our district into the circus and s**t show that he and the ADF desire. This isn’t a guess, the ADF makes no attempt to hide its tactics. It’s a group with 1.6 million followers, they are looking for their next opportunity for their next Fox News press blitz.”
Asheville is one of the most progressive cities in the southeast. According to the last U.S. Census, the Asheville area has 83% more LGBTQ+ people than the typical American city or town. In 2021, the city council unanimously passed one of the country’s most sweeping anti-discrimination ordinances, protecting residents based on sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and several other classes.
A Seattle-area pub was hit by gunfire yesterday, days before a scheduled drag queen story hour and bingo night.
The Brewmaster’s Taproom in Renton, Washington, just south of Seattle, was hit a single gunshot to their front window in a drive-by shooting around noon on Wednesday. The pub’s monthly Drag Queen Storytime and Rainbow Bingo events will go on as planned on Saturday.
Brewmaster’s owner Marley Rall told LGBTQ Nation she was working at home when she got a text from an employee at the coffee stand next door to the pub. “They just texted me and said, ‘Hey, I just watched this.’”
Rall said the assailant had removed the license plates from the car and was wearing a mask and gloves.
Rall posted to Facebook: “So just an update for everyone. Our taproom was shot at today around noon. We believe it has to do with the people who are upset about our Drag Queen Story Time. We would like you to know we are still going to have drag queen storytime. But we also want to be transparent with parents. Renton PD is aware and has set up cameras.”
“Hatred isn’t pretty,” one commenter posted. “Hang in there. A lot of us will be there to support you! Grateful for your inclusion of all people.” Rall, who lives with her husband in Renton, calls herself a staunch ally of the LGBTQ+ community.
The shooting comes after plans for a protest at the event by right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ groups came to light. “We are aware of the chatter and threats,” Rall wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday. “Every month we get emails and phone calls about our Drag Queen Story Time. Never have we had issues, but this time feels different.”
The single gunshot came from a silver four-door sedan hours later.
Rall said she noticed unusual activity on the tap room’s Facebook page Monday night. “I get a notification,” Rall said, and a woman “had posted on our newsletter, ‘This is fucking disgusting,’ and ‘You’re fucking groomers and you’re pedophiles,’ and then had scrolled through our Facebook page to go find another post from the month before, specifically for our drag queen storytime and bingo.”
Rall was also made aware of a protest flyer originating with right-wing group Wake Up WA State that had spread across social media and was shared by advocacy group LGBTQIA+ Renton and a local councilwoman. Calls for protest also made their way to Reddit, where one poster suggested shooting up a transformer to deprive Brewmasters of power during the event.
“So I screenshot it and send it to the city,” Rall says. “This is a thing and somebody clearly wants to replicate what was going on in North Carolina.” She was referring to a
Following the shooting Wednesday, Wake Up WA State scrubbed their Facebook account of any reference to the event.
“Wake Up WA State is shutting its pages down at least for now,” wrote group organizer Justine Andrina. “We talked about it a lot and made this decision because the people running the groups are putting themselves at risk at this point and the benefit is outweighing the risks [sic].”
A deleted post archived by a Brewmaster supporter illustrated Wake Up WA State’s role in the protest and purported cancellation.
Andrina shared: “Per the organizer holding the protest: ‘Based on some recent developments we’ve decided to pull the plug on Saturday. Someone took a shot at the bar today.’ I don’t know if it was a false flag or a patriot who got too hotheaded. Either way, it now seems like a major security issue and since children will be present, we made the decision to cancel. If you are able to make a note of that on Wake Up WA FB, it would be appreciated. Thanks.”
“Whoever did this to Brewmasters,” Andrina wrote, “you’re sick in the head.”
Rall says both her parents lost family in the Holocaust, and they made sure she could recite the poem First They Came.
“Just because it doesn’t personally impact you, one day, you’re going to turn around and nobody’s going to be there, because it will,” she said. “This is about keeping everybody safe, and making sure that everybody continues to feel comfortable coming out and being their authentic self.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) has launched an online form encouraging state residents to report the “taxpayer-subsided sexualization of children” by librarians, their supervisors, teachers, school board members, and district superintendents.
“Librarians and teachers are neither empowering nor liberating our children by connecting them with books that contain extremely graphic sexual content that is far from age appropriate for young audiences,” the form, entitled “Protect Minors,” reads.
“If this type of taxpayer-subsided sexualization of children has impacted you or your family, tell us about it.”
Now, Landry is following a political attack strategy successfully used to help win elections for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). The attack involves outraging and mobilizing voters against a bogeyman of LGBTQ+ teachers and allies who they allege threaten the innocence of school children. These attacks have led conservative parents to angrily confront school board members, issue threats against educators, and interfere with educators’ abilities to actually teach children anything.
Similar attacks by Republican politicians, conservative school boards, and so-called “parents’ rights” groups have dramatically escalated attempts to ban “controversial” books from school. The attacks accuse LGBTQ+-inclusive and anti-racist school content of being a “woke” form of “indoctrination” that’s “inappropriate” for and “sexualizes kids.”
In actuality, most of the LGBTQ+ books targeted by these groups contain content that isn’t sexually explicit. The free-speech organization PEN America said the true goal of these book bans is to eliminate any student discussions around sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Those who are advocating on this issue are within their rights, their freedom of assembly, mobilization, using their voices…But when the end goal is censorship, as a free expression organization, it’s our obligation to call that out and to point out that even the use of legitimate tactics of expression can sometimes lead to a spurious and speech-defeating result,” Suzanne Nossel, chief executive officer of PEN America, said in a statement criticizing the book bans.
Lynette Meija, co-founder of the activist group Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship, criticized Landry’s online reporting form in a statement.
“A policy that turns neighbors into Stasi-era informants, reporting on their child’s school librarian, should terrify everyone,” Meija wrote, referencing the East Germany secret police who used Nazi methods to create a fearful atmosphere in which citizens reported one another for allegedly trying to undermine government power.
“Our educational professionals work incredibly hard every day to ensure the safety of our kids,” Meija added, according to Vice News.
Amanda Jones, a 2021 School Librarian of the Year awardee who lives in Louisiana, told the publication, “Louisiana has so many actual problems like poverty and an opioid crisis, but Attorney General Jeff Landry chooses to focus on the nonexistent issue of supposed pornography in schools and libraries…Educators and librarians are not giving children pornography.”
During heated arguments at the Supreme Court yesterday in the case of 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis – about a web designer who doesn’t want to make websites for same-sex couples – Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared angry and even suggested that a Colorado baker had been forced into a “reeducation training program” after he discriminated against a gay couple.
The case is about a web designer named Lori Smith, who says that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law might make her make websites for same-sex couples even though she wants to make them only for opposite-sex couples. Her complaint, which cites the Bible as well as caselaw, says that she “believes that God is calling her to promote and celebrate His design for marriage… between one man and one woman only.”
She is suing over the same law that Colorado baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop violated several years ago when he refused to sell a cake to a same-sex couple because he believed they would serve it at a wedding, something he said was against his sincerely held religious beliefs.
In that case, Phillips was ordered to “additional remedial measures, including ‘comprehensive staff training on the Public Accommodations section,’” or training about the state’s anti-discrimination law.
Gorsuch called it a “reeducation program,” language likely used to reference internment camps set up by 20th-century dictatorships to silence dissent. States require training on the law in numerous cases, including education about road laws to get a driver’s license or parenting classes in child custody cases, and usually it’s not referred to as a “reeducation program.”
“Mr. Phillips did go through a reeducation training program, pursuant to Colorado law, did he not, Mr. [Colorado Solicitor General Eric] Olson?” Gorsuch asked.
“He went through a process that ensured he was familiar with…” Olson started to answer.
“It was a reeducation program, right?” Gorsuch pressed.
“It was not a ‘reeducation program,’” Olson said.
“What do you call it?” Gorsuch asked.
“It was a process to make sure he was familiar with Colorado law,” Olson said calmly.
“Some might be excused for calling that a ‘reeducation program,’” Gorsuch snapped back.
“Astounding that Gorsuch, a Supreme Court Justice, refers to Colorado giving courses on following civil rights law as ‘reeducation training,’” Adam Cohen of Lawyers for Good Government tweeted. “Like being taught not to discriminate against LGBTQ is the same as being sent to a gulag for protesting communism in the Soviet Union.”
Russian libraries are removing LGBTQ+-themed books from their shelves after the country’s President Vladimir Putin signed a law yesterday expanding the prohibition on LGBTQ+ “propaganda.”
The newly signed law effectively outlaws any public expression of LGBTQ+ life in Russia by banning “any action or the spreading of any information that is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality in public, online, or in films, books or advertising,” Reuters reported.
Four Moscow libraries have already taken action in the wake of the new law, according to Russian media. The libraries reportedly received a list of authors whose books they needed to make completely unavailable on shelves and online. The books include any with LGBTQ+ content, and based on another new law, any authors considered “foreign agents” or who criticize the war in Ukraine.
Putin first signed a law banning so-called “gay propaganda” in Russia in June 2013. The law ostensibly sought to “protect children” from any “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships,” as stated in the law’s text. The new law extends the restrictions to not just children but Russians of all ages.
The law has mostly been used to silence LGBTQ+ activist organizations, events, websites, and media, as well as to break up families and harass teachers. It has also been roundly condemned by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as civil rights activists around the world.
These critics say the updated law will further endanger the lives of Russia’s LGBTQ+ population, which has already suffered increased harassment, violence, and hostility in recent years.
The new law comes as conservatives in the United States are advancing a similar push for schools to remove LGBTQ+ content from their libraries.
Across the country, parents and politicians are petitioning school boards and proposing laws to severely limit the type of content kids can access at school. In some states, laws have been proposed that would criminalize librarians and other school staff if they don’t remove certain books from the shelves.
Conservatives have claimed these books are inappropriate or even pornographic and that parents deserve more control over what their children can access, even though many people in these towns have argued that books with similar heterosexual scenes don’t face the same scrutiny. In many cases, their fights have been successful.
Jere Chang’s talented and gifted students in Atlanta, Georgia are growing up in a world very different from the one she grew up in.
When she was a student during the 1980s, she and her queer peers largely stayed closeted, trying to fit in to avoid being bullied or outed. There wasn’t much LGBTQ+ representation in the media. Instead, she constantly heard about how people like her were “abominations” who “live in sin.”
She worried that her own family might disown her if she ever came out, and she never imagined she’d be able to live authentically as a lesbian.
“We lived in fear yet strived to live our most authentic self,” she says, noting that many queers took refuge in Pride events or clubs and bars to express themselves freely.
But as she aged, the world changed around her: She saw more LGBTQ+ characters appearing in books, film, and TV, more transgender people embracing their identities, and more folks using language recognizing gender-neutral individuals.
She eventually came out to her mother — who said she’d love her no matter what — and gradually came out at work. She later married the woman she loves, something made possible nationwide by the 2015 Supreme Court decision. Now, they’re raising two great kids together.
So much has changed for the better for her and other queer people, and the upcoming generation gives her even more hope.
“I have faith that the young folks are creating a much more loving and accepting world,” she says.
“In turn,” she adds, “I believe that young folks can learn from the older generation because we can relate to their experiences of coming out and/or not feeling accepted.”
Chang knows that the brave generations of LGBTQ+ activists who rose up at Stonewall and elsewhere helped pave the way for herself and other queers to live openly and happily. But “there’s still much work to be done,” she notes, at home and abroad.
She observes that it’s dangerous to live as an out queer person in certain countries. In the U.S., her queer elders face financial, social, and health challenges as they enter their senior years. She encourages others to honor them by donating, volunteering, advocating, and educating on their behalf.
This humane kindness isn’t just evident in her classroom. It also shines through the short, funny videos she shares with over a million followers on social media.
She smiles warmly while poking gentle fun at common teachers’ experiences and her students’ clever observations. Her relaxed friendliness and glow make her seem like a supportive teacher, one who is both a testament to the generations who came before her and a possible inspiration to the generations who will follow.
“I hope to make a difference for the folks who changed the course of history,” she says.
“I hope the younger generation continues the fight to create an all-inclusive society,” she adds, “regardless of gender, love, and identity.”
In that world, no student would feel afraid of coming out. They might not need to come out in the first place — that’s a world Chang longs for, and she’s planting the seeds for its future growth.
Texas Family Project — an anti-LGBTQ organization that wants to stop “the Left” from “indoctrinating kids,” “confusing children about changing their gender,” and “undermining parents’ ability to protect their children’s innocence” — has launched Defend Our Kids Texas, a website where people can report live drag queen performances.
“Our mission is to expose attacks on our children’s innocence by uncovering and highlighting the left’s public displays of sexual degeneracy,” the website reads.
The site’s lead face is Sara Gonzalez, a host for the conservative broadcast Blaze TV. Gonzales has called drag performers “pedophiles,” directed her social media followers to shut down drag performances in the state, and lied about performances just to whip up public outrage against them.
“Gonzales is teaming up with Texas Family Project… to expose the depravity of the left and fight for sound public policy to Defend Texas Kids,” the site proclaims.
The site uses right-wing rhetoric characterizing drag shows as an effort to “sexualize children” or “groom” them for rape. Even the site’s name is provocative, as the only reason Texas parents would need to “defend” their kids would be if someone were threatening their safety.
Such claims of drag queens “threatening” kids have led armed protestors and violent threats to be deployed against venues hosting all-ages drag shows as well as against bookstores, libraries, and other venues hosting drag queen story hours. The rhetoric is especially concerning since a mass shooter recently killed five and injured 18 while attacking a Colorado Springs drag bar.
While appearing last month on the show of bigoted Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Gonzales called drag events a form of “child abuse.” She also shared a video of a drag performance in Texas where a queen lip-synched to a song with explicit sexual lyrics. Gonzales claimed the event was all-ages, but she lied.
According to Raw Story, the venue advertised the event online with a disclaimer stating, “If you would not allow your children to see a rated R movie or watch TV-MA programming, this is not the event for them.”
During her appearance on his show, Carlson said that drag shows are “sexualizing children” and are “a huge moral crime that nobody should accept.”
Gonzales also recently lead a protest against a transgender story time at Patchouli Joe’s, a bookstore in the university town of Denton, Texas. The bookstore hosted a transgender individual who read three children’s books about gender to commemorate the last day of National Transgender Awareness Week.
The Texas Family Project encouraged its followers to “protest against this disgusting attempt to normalize and celebrate… something that leaves kids physically disfigured, sterilized, and traumatized for the rest of their lives.” It also called the event “abusive.”
During the event, Gonzales stalked the bookstore’s aisles, recording video of the storytime. When a security officer kicked her out, she continued recording and screamed to the audience, “This is child abuse! Child abuse! You should all have your children taken from you.”
Supporters of the event invited armed guards from a local roller derby team and the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club to protect its audience members. Gonzales identified these people as “antifa,” a word meaning anti-fascists. Police also attended to keep protestors from disturbing the book reading.
Two days after the event, Stein attended a Denton city council meeting and screamed about the bookstore “indoctrinating children to become transgender.”
