Everybody’s Business

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Out Apple CEO schmoozed at White House ‘Melania’ screening hours after ICE killed Alex Pretti

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Tim Cook, the gay CEO of Apple, made an obsequious appearance at the White House on Saturday night to join Trump loyalists for a screening of the First Lady’s new feature-length documentary, Melania. The black-tie event saw Cook, champagne in hand, celebrating the moment with the movie’s disgraced director, one-time box-office draw Brett Ratner, who was ostracized by Hollywood following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct in 2017. Cook’s appearance at the premiere was a particularly disappointing sight for the LGBTQ+ Apple users who are appalled by recent events in Minneapolis. The screening took place the same day that intensive care nurse Alex […]

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Fearing The Cult, Publishers Pull Back On LGBTQ Books

The Hill reports: President Trump’s return to office has fueled the grassroots forces that have driven a spike in LGBTQ book bans in recent years, creating a notable chill in the market for queer stories, according to authors and others in the publishing industry. “This is the first year in like a decade that I’ve had [rejection] responses from editors specifically citing that it’s difficult to place queer books in stores, and they’re being selective about acquiring queer stories,” said Rebecca Podos, a senior literary agent at Neighborhood Literary and young adult and adult novelist. Industry professionals and authors fear that this […]

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Trans people could remove ‘deadname’ from Gmail address under new changes

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Trans people could be able to update their email address with their new name under an upcoming Gmail update. The world’s largest email provider is reportedly rolling out a new function which will allow users to update their “gmail.com” addresses. The email service, operated by Google, currently forbids users with a Gmail handle from changing their email address. However, according to the blog 9 to 5 Google, an updated section to its support page suggests developers are “gradually rolling out” a change which will allow addresses to be changes. The new section, which is currently only present on Google’s Hindi support pages, […]

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TikTok allegedly monitoring users’ Grindr activity, digital rights group claims

An internet privacy group is accusing TikTok of violating international law by tracking its users’ Grindr data. European digital rights group NOYB filed a complaint against the social media platform, as well as Grindr and digital marketing company AppsFlyer, over claims they breached online privacy laws by tracking user’s inter-app activities. The Austria-based organisation alleged to the country’s Data Protection Authority on Wednesday (16 December) that TikTok was violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and risked exposing its customer’s sensitive data. It claimed TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, and Grindr shared sensitive user data, which AppsFlyer allegedly facilitated. […]

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Delta Failing Their Employees by Restricting Access to PREP Drugs

In violation of the ACA preventive services coverage requirement, Delta Air Lines, which has 100,000 employees in the United States, is only covering daily oral generic PrEP to prevent HIV without prior authorization.  Contrary to the ACA, it is refusing to cover the full array of PrEP drugs specifically required by the United States Preventative Services Task Force (“UPSTF”) without access restrictions in its employee health plan. In recent months, the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute has reached out to Delta officials after employees received notice that Delta would no longer cover a branded oral PrEP drug. Delta’s Chief Health and Wellness Officer responded initially that the notices […]

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BOYCOTT: Apple removes two gay dating apps in China to comply with government order

Apple said it has removed two popular gay dating apps from its app store in China, in compliance with an order from the country’s cyberspace regulator, stoking fears within the country’s LGBTQ community. The same-sex dating and social apps Blued and Finka suddenly became unavailable to download on iOS devices over the weekend, while users of Android devices can still download them from their official websites. Apple said the removal was “based on an order” from the Cyberspace Administration of China but didn’t elaborate on what the order was about. “We follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” an Apple spokesperson said […]

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Elon Musk debuts far-right, anti-trans clone of Wikipedia called “Grokipedia”

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Elon Musk, CEO of the social media platform X, ex-Trump confidant, and founder of xAI, announced the launch of “Grokipedia” version 0.1 this week. The supposed competitor to the long-standing nonprofit website Wikipedia is AI-generated, and users have already flagged multiple pages that push far-right myths, including anti-LGBTQ+ disinformation. “Wikipedia’s knowledge is – and always will be – human,” a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, told The Verge. “Through open collaboration and consensus, people from all backgrounds build a neutral, living record of human understanding – one that reflects our diversity and collective curiosity. This human-created knowledge is […]

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What – or who – is behind the troubling and sinister rise in fake LGBTQ+ news on Facebook?

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Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb refused to wear a rainbow armband during a game, Olympian Mollie O’Callaghan pledged to no longer compete if trans swimmer Lia Thomas is allowed to, and singer Sam Smith took issue with conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel, as two individuals, using they/them pronouns.  You might have seen these divisive posts on Facebook, you might even have been outraged by them or shared them, but they’re not real – they are anti-LGBTQ+ disinformation falsely framed as legitimate news content.  You only need to make a cursory Google search to see the claims can be […]

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Meta’s New Anti-Bias Advisor Is Spreading MAGA Lies

The Guardian reports: A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests. Robby Starbuck, 36, of Nashville, was appointed in August as an adviser by Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other tech platforms – in an August lawsuit settlement. Since his appointment, Starbuck has baselessly claimed that individual shooters in the US were motivated by leftist ideology, described faith-based protest groups as communists, and without evidence tied Democratic lawmakers to murders. Starbuck has long pushed vaccine […]

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How Meta’s New Rules Are Putting LGBTQ People in Danger

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Robby Starbuck has built his reputation by attacking LGBTQ inclusion. He’s created a documentary called “The War on Children,” where he promotes the debunked conspiracy theory that suggests pesticides are turning your kids gay. He’s argued that Democrats are pro-trans because they want to allow men to follow women and girls in bathrooms. And he’s said that it’s “grooming for adults to have kids carry trans flags at a soccer game.” But in the last year, Starbuck has become notorious as a key face of America’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) movement, leading boycott campaigns on social media. He’s successfully pressured corporations, including Tractor Supply, John Deere and Harley-Davidson, […]

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