Cheryl King hosts this extravaganza of burlesque, song and dance, sketches, comedy, and more. Also appearing: Velvet Thorn, Martin Gilbertson, Shannon DeJong, Alia Beeton, Serena Elize Flores, Noah Sternhill and Blue. PLUS another Dirty Limericks Contest! Bring your own original limerick. The audience votes on the best one. Top three win a prize! (Prizes graciously donated by Secrets Boutique in Santa Rosa).
Adult-oriented material, for those 18+. Parental guidance is suggested.
Montana became the latest state to ban or restrict gender-affirming medical care for transgender kids Friday when its Republican governor signed legislation that exiled transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr told fellow lawmakers would leave “blood” on their hands.
Montana is one of at least 15 states with laws to ban such care despite protests from the families of transgender youth that the care is essential.
Debate over Montana’s bill drew national attention after Republicans punished Zephyr for her remarks, saying her words were personally offensive. House Speaker Matt Regier refused to let Zephyr speak on the House floor until she apologized. She has not.
Zephyr decried the bill’s signing, saying “it is unconscionable to deprive Montanans of the care that we need.”
“I know that this is an unconstitutional bill. It is as cruel as it is unconstitutional. And it will go down in the courts,” Zephyr said. To trans youth she added: “There’s an understandable inclination towards despair in these moments, but know that we are going to win and until then, lean on community, because we will have one another’s backs.”
On Monday, Zephyr had stood defiantly on the House floor with her microphone raised as protesters shouted “Let her speak,” disrupting House proceedings for at least 30 minutes. Zephyr was then banned from the House and its gallery and voted on bills from a bench in the hallway outside the House on Thursday and Friday.
Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Montana have said they would file a court challenge against the ban, which is set to take effect on Oct. 1, starting a five-month clock in which Montana youth can try to find a way to work around the ban or to transition off of hormone treatment.
“This bill is an overly broad blanket ban that takes decisions that should be made by families and physicians and puts them in the hands of politicians,” the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics has said.
Gov. Greg Gianforte signaled his willingness to sign the bill on April 17 when he offered some amendments to make it clear that public funds could not be used to pay for hormone blockers, cross-sex hormones or surgical procedures.
The bill “protects Montana children from permanent, life-altering medical procedures until they are adults, mature enough to make such serious decisions,” Gianforte wrote in his letter accompanying the amendments.
Debate over the amendments led Zephyr to admonish supporters the following day. House Majority Leader Sue Vinton said Zephyr’s language was “entirely inappropriate, disrespectful and uncalled for.”
The Montana Freedom Caucus deliberately misgendered Zephyr, using male pronouns in a letter saying she should be censured. After Monday’s protest, the caucus said she should be further disciplined.
Under the new law, health professionals who provide care banned by the measure could have their medical licenses suspended for at least a year. They could also be sued in the 25 years following a banned procedure if a patient suffers physical, psychological, emotional or physiological harm. Physicians could not hold malpractice insurance against such lawsuits. The law also prohibits public property and employees from being involved in gender-affirming treatment.
During hours of emotional committee hearings, opponents testified that hormone treatments, and in some cases, surgery, are evidence-based care, supported by numerous medical associations and can be life-saving for someone with gender dysphoria — the clinically significant distress or impairment caused by feeling that one’s gender identity does not match one’s biological sex.
Parents of transgender children testified that the bill infringed on their parental rights to seek medical care for their children.
Opponents also noted that treatments such as puberty-blockers and breast-reduction surgery would still be legal for minors who are not suffering from gender dysphoria, a difference they argue is unconstitutional.
In the letter to legislative leaders accompanying his proposed amendments, Gianforte said he met with transgender residents, understands that their struggles are real and said Montanans who struggle with gender identity deserve love, compassion and respect.
“That’s not what trans Montanans need from you,” Zephyr said as the House considered his amendments. “We need access to the medical care that saves our lives.”
This was the second legislative session in which Sen. John Fuller brought the bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender children. In 2021, when he was a member of the House, he brought a bill to ban surgical and hormone treatments for transgender children, which was voted down. He brought a second bill to ban surgical treatments which was also rejected. He was successful in 2021 in passing a bill to ban transgender females from participating in girls and women’s sports. The part of the bill that applied to colleges was ruled unconstitutional.
LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya face the threat of deportation if proposed anti-homosexuality laws are passed in parliament.
Homosexuality is already illegal in Kenya, but the the Family Protection Bill 2023 would expand upon these laws, meaning LGBTQ+ people would face life sentences for simply identifying as themselves.
If passed, the bill would impose a jail term of no less than five years on people found guilty of assembling, picketing, promoting or supporting LGBTQ-specific activities.
This would be dire not only for Kenyans, but refugees as well. The proposed bill would also allow for “the expulsion of refugees and asylum seekers” who identify as LGBTQ+.
Kenya is home to half a million refugees in camps across the country from Kakuma and Dadaab, according to Washington Blade. Refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya are mainly from Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, countries that have endured war, famine and economic instability.
Prior to this bill, Kenya was the only country in the region accepting refugee and asylum seekers without asking about their sexuality.
Recently, however, there have been increased attacks against LGBTQ+ people in the camps, especially in Kakuma, Kenya’s largest camp.
Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. (Getty Images)
A report conducted by the Organisation for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) found that 83 per cent of LGBTQ+ refugees at Kakuma experienced physical violence due to their sexual orientation, with 26 per cent reporting sexual assault.
The report includes the horrific experience of a trans refugee living in the camps, who shared that they were forced to have sex with a woman.
“They forced me to have sex with the lady. They then lectured me on the need to get married and have children of my own. They left me traumatized. Two days later they asked the lady to come and stay with me as my wife.
“That is when I escaped from the block and moved to live with a friend in an area far from my allocated shelter. I did not report the incident since I was afraid the police would equally stigmatise me for who I am.”
There are currently 300 LGBTQ+ refugees in Kakuma who have started an online petition, pleading with the Kenyan government to stamp out discrimination and address the mistreatment they’ve been dealing with in the camps.
The petition reads: “As refugees who have sought safety and refuge from conflict and persecution, we should not have to endure further suffering and discrimination within the confines of the camp. Yet, this is the reality for many of us.
“We are subjected to brutal attacks and physical violence from fellow refugees who hold homophobic views, leaving us with deep wounds and scars that often result in physical disability. Some of our community members have even lost their lives in these attacks.”
The proposed bill will only worsen their lives and leave them with nowhere to go.
President of Kenya William Ruto, however, slammed this ruling and said: “It is not possible for our country Kenya to allow same-sex marriages … It will happen in other countries but not in Kenya.”
Anti-homosexuality laws have increased across the African continent as more countries introduce oppressive laws that target LGBTQ+ people.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, an extreme right-winger who has called LGBTQ+ people “filth,” is seeking the 2024 Republican nomination for governor.
Robinson announced his candidacy Saturday. In North Carolina, the governor and lieutenant governor run separately, not as a slate. Robinson will face North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell in the Republican primary, while the likely Democratic nominee is Josh Stein, currently the state’s attorney general. Current Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, cannot run again due to term limits.
Robinson held a rally at Ace Speedway and also released a video, in which he said, “I don’t care about the zip code you live in, the size of your paycheck, whether you’re Black, white, straight, or gay.” However, his record belies that statement.
Speaking at a North Carolina church in June 2021, he said, “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth.”
He added, “And yes, I called it filth, and if you don’t like that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you.”
In November of that year, in another church appearance, he said straight couples are superior to same-sex ones because they can potentially reproduce sexually. He equated LGBTQ+ people with “what the cows leave behind” as well as “maggots” and “flies.”
Just last month, he told a church congregation, “Makes me sick every time I see it, when I pass a church that flies that rainbow flag, which is a direct, a direct spit in the face of God almighty,” The American Independentreports. He also said, “God formed me because he knew there was going to be a time when God’s learning was going to be intolerable to the wicked, when children were going to be dragged down to go see the drag show, when pornography was going to be presented to our children in schools.”
His anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric goes back years. In January 2017, he posted on Facebook calling Michelle Obama “he” and “an anti-American, abortion and gay marriage supporting, liberal leftist elitist and I’ll be glad when he takes his boyfriend and leaves the White House.”
He also has made many anti-choice, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and pro-gun comments, and he has put down his fellow Black Americans. He has said a woman’s body ceases to be her own when she is pregnant. He has called survivors of the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., “silly little immature media prosti-tots” for their activism on behalf of gun control.
On Facebook, he said of the movie Black Panther, “It is absolutely AMAZING to me that people who know so little about their true history and REFUSE to acknowledge the pure sorry state of their current condition can get so excited about a fictional ‘hero’ created by an agnostic Jew [Stan Lee] and put to film by satanic marxist. How can this trash, that was only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets, invoke any pride?”
About reparations for slavery, he said in 2021, “Nobody owes you anything for slavery. If you want to tell the truth about it, it is you who owes. Why do you owe? Because somebody in those fields took strikes for you! … Somebody had to walk through Jim Crow for you! Somebody fought wars and died for you!”
Democrats reacted swiftly to Robinson’s announcement. “Mark Robinson is an extremist who has built a legacy of division by spewing hate toward the LGBTQ community, disrespecting women, putting culture wars ahead of classrooms, and pushing to ban abortion with no exceptions,” said a statement from Anderson Clayton, the North Carolina Democratic Party chair, broadcaster WRAL reports. “We need a Governor who will expand opportunities for working families and uphold our fundamental rights — not a dangerous politician whose reckless policies would kill jobs and threaten North Carolinians’ future.”
Republican activist Jonathan Felts predicted Robinson would win the primary over Folwell, who is also an opponent of LGBTQ+ rights and abortion rights. “The short answer is that Robinson’s going to win the primary,” Felts told WRAL. “The longer answer is Dale Folwell’s a great public servant, but I just don’t see a pathway for him to be able to get his message out there.”
GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is updating findings to the first comprehensive count and analysis of increased threats, protests and violent action against drag events nationwide. An additional 25 incidents were documented in 2023 as of April 25, according to data gathered by GLAAD in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
Findings
GLAAD found 166 incidents of anti-LGBTQ protests and threats targeting drag events since early 2022, with a sharp uptick beginning in Pride season 2022 and continuing through the midterm election cycle. False rhetoric was deployed against performers in campaign ads for the 2022 midterm elections, and rhetoric escalated to violence including the firebombing of a Tulsa donut shop that had hosted a drag event in October 2022. Equality Texasdocumented additional targeted events throughout the year, including an armed demonstration and confrontation in San Antonio.
Participation in anti-drag incidents in 2023 has included the Proud Boys, white supremacists, and religious extremists. ADL has tracked at least seven events where members of known extremist groups showed up.
2023 Incidents
04/08/23—Cottonwood, AZ—At least 10 members of the Proud Boys, some in tactical vests and face masks, protested a sold-out Arizona Pride Tour drag event. LINK
04/05/23—Pasco, WA—Extremists protest an all-ages Disney-themed drag show. LINK
04/01/23—Chardon, OH—White nationalist organization the Patriot Front among protesters at a drag brunch at a bar. LINK
04/01/23—Chesterland, OH—White nationalist organization the Patriot Front among protesters at a Drag Queen Story Hour at a church. LINK
03/31/23—Chardon, OH—Drag-friendly church firebombed by neo-Nazi. LINK
03/26/23—Indianapolis, IN—Indy Reads bookstore temporarily closed following a bomb threat targeted the store’s monthly Drag Story Hour. LINK
03/26/23—Louisville, KY—Protestors and a bomb threat targeting a Drag Queen Story Time show forced the evacuation of a building. The same event faced online threats from a neo-Nazi group. LINK
03/24/23—Chesterland, OH—The Community Church of Chesterland, which plans to host a Drag Story Hour next Saturday, said its sign and building were vandalized by molotov cocktails Friday night, and that Proud Boys were sending online notices encouraging protests. LINK
03/22/23—Prestonburg, KY—An all-ages drag show was canceled after organizers and supporters said they faced online threats of armed protest. LINK
03/22/23—Tuscon, AZ—Bookmans Northwest location postponed its Drag Story Hour after a campaign by The Bridge Christian Church to get the event canceled; the Proud Boys offered the church “extra security.” LINK
03/11/23—Wadsworth, OH—Protest at “Rock-n-Roll Humanist Drag Queen Story Hour” in Memorial Park. Two people were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after melees involving pepper spray, the violent use of a flag pole as a weapon, and a protester who pointed an object that looks like a gun at a crowd. LINK.
03/09/23—New York City—Anti-drag panel discussion at a New York Young Republican Club event featuring Roger Stone and Red Scare podcast hosts Dasha Nekrasova and Anna Khachiyan. LINK
03/08/23—Royal Oak, MI—A small protest over Drag Queen Story Hour being held at the lesbian-owned Sidetrack Bookshop was met with a significantly larger group of pro-equality counter protesters. LINK
02/25/23—Lakewood, TX—Anti-LGBTQ protesters gathered outside a drag queen brunch at BuzzBrews. The groups held signs reading “stop grooming children,” “defend traditional values,” and “drag the queens out of town.” LINK.
02/24/23—New York, NY—Anti-LGBTQ protesters showed up at Jackson Heights Library to disrupt a Drag Story Hour event. LINK.
02/22/23—New York, NY—Anti-LGBTQ protesters assembled outside of the Queens Public Library to disrupt a Drag Story Hour event. LINK.
02/19/23—Tempe, AZ—A coffee shop closed down after receiving a bomb threat during their Drag Queen Story Hour. LGBTQ-owned Brick Road Coffee was the target of heavy online harassment after the event caught the attention of the Proud Boys. The bomb threat was sent over the internet. Police confirmed Proud Boys were “in the area” at the time of the event. LINK
02/18/23—Silver Spring, MD—A drag queen story hour at Loyalty Books was targeted by members of the far-right group the Proud Boys. Protesters reportedly used anti-LGBTQ slurs, including false allegations of grooming, and “graphic accusations.” LINK
02/03/23—Orlando, FL— Florida Gov. DeSantis’s administration filed a complaint against the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation over a showing of Nina West’s “A Drag Queen Christmas” in December 2022. The complaint alleges that the show violated state law for allowing a person to “commit lewd or lascivious exhibition” in the presence of a minor and seeks to revoke the foundation’s liquor license. LINK
01/31/23—St. Louis, MO—Urban Fort, a play place for children with a cafe for adults has rescheduled and relocated its book reading event for kids with Drag performers due to death threats. LINK
01/28/23—Princeton, TX—Texas Family Project protests drag show at Deffibaugh Community Center. LINK
01/21/23—Cokeville, TN—Extremists in white masks stood across from Hix Farm Brewery, held a Nazi flag, and chanted homophobic slurs. They carried signs, reading “Why do they want an audience of children?”—despite the event being open only to those 18 years of age or older. LINK.
01/20/23—Salt Lake City, UT—Proud Boy members protest an all-ages drag show outside Tea Zaanti, a local wine and tea shop. LINK
01/14/23—Taunton, MA—People in masks protested outside and inside the Taunton Public Library at a Drag Queen Story Hour. LINK
01/14/23—Dallas, TX—Protect Texas Kids (PTK) protested outside a BuzzBrews Kitchen’s Lakewood location drag show. LINK
Anti-Drag Legislation 2023
GLAAD is tracking legislative proposals in 14 states (as of April 2023) that aim to restrict or ban drag, including Tennessee’s SB0003 which has been signed into law (it’s currently under a temporary restraining order by a U.S. federal judge). In many cases, extremist politicians pointed to local drag events as the motivation for new legislation that would ban public drag performances such as those that take place at Pride festivals, ban minors from observing drag performers, including library events such as Drag Story Hour, or reclassify venues that host drag performances as “adult” or “adult cabaret” venues.
ARIZONA
SB1026—Would restrict the “use of state monies prohibited for drag shows targeting minors.”
SB1028— Would not allow drag performances in public spaces.
SB1030—Would define establishments that host drag shows as “adult-oriented businesses”
IDAHO
H0231—Would not allow drag performances in public spaces.
H0265—Would not allow drag performances in public spaces.
KANSAS
SB201—Would ban the expenditure of state moneys for the production or performance of drag shows for which minors are the primary audience.
KENTUCKY
SB115—Would reclassify any establishment that hosts drag shows as an “adult-oriented business,” and would ban them within a thousand feet of schools, parks, or homes.
MISSOURI
SB429—Would criminalize drag shows where minors are present
HB498—Would criminalize drag shows where minors are present
HB494—Creates the offense of engaging in an adult cabaret performance, including drag
MONTANA
HB359—Would prohibit minors from attending drag shows
MINNESOTA
HF1903—Would classify drag performances a “adult entertainment”
SG933— Would classify drag performances a “adult entertainment”
NEBRASKA
KB371—Would prohibit an individual under nineteen years of age or under twenty-one years of age from being present at a drag show as prescribed
TENNESSEE
HB0009/SB0003—Criminalizes drag performances in public. Passed into law but is under a temporary restraining order issued by a U.S. District Court judge
SB0841—Would classify all drag performances as “adult cabaret”
HB708— Would classify venues that host drag performances as “sexually-oriented” businesses
HB643—Would classify venues that host drag performances as “sexually-oriented” businesses
WEST VIRGINIA
HB3176—Would prohibit drag shows from being performed in front of minors and to prohibit people from dressing in drag when reading aloud during story time in schools.
The 2022 analysis found here included states with the highest number of drag events targeted by protests and threats:
Texas (20)
North Carolina (10)
Illinois (8)
Tennessee (6)
California (6)
Georgia (5)
While many of the incidents were reported in smaller cities and towns in the South and Midwest, a number also took place in areas with higher LGBTQ populations and LGBTQ-inclusive communities.
A number of the drag events targeted by threats and protests in person were first targeted by right-wing media outlets like Fox News and the Daily Wire, and social media accounts like LibsOfTikTok. The outlets and accounts often misrepresented what would occur at upcoming drag events, spinning them as harmful to children, and protests or threats would follow. A Media Matters report from June 2022 found that Fox News had devoted more hours to targeting drag queens and transgender people than to coverage of the January 6 insurrection hearings.
A Media Matters analysis in November found that disturbing misinformation about drag had ramped up on Fox News and the Daily Wire in the weeks before the Tulsa firebombing, with Tucker Carlson falsely claiming that drag queens “want to sexualize children,” and the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh calling on police to “break down the doors” of LGBTQ clubs and arrest drag queens. Sometimes the targeting came full-circle, with right-wing media hyping up negative attention ahead of an event and continuing afterward. In June 2022, LibsOfTikTok targeted the Couer D’Alene, Idaho “Pride In The Park” (where 31 anti-LGBTQ protesters were arrested, see tweet below) ahead of the event, saying that a “family friendly drag dance party” was being promoted by the Idaho Satanic Temple. Afterward, the account shared a doctored video of a drag performer that spread misinformation and falsely alleged indecent exposure during the performance, which led the drag performer to file a lawsuit in September. The LibsOfTikTok account was briefly suspended by Twitter in September after news reports connected its posts to bomb threats made against children’s hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth, but the account was reinstated.
A number of 2022 incidents involved violence or weapons. Extremist groups like the Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and local white supremacist chapters were involved in several incidents.
In Tulsa, OK, this October, security video captured a person smashing the windows of a donut shop before lighting a Molotov cocktail and firebombing the storefront.
A bomb threat was emailed to a local news station in South Carolina, claiming several bombs were planted at a restaurant hosting drag brunch and threatening to kill performers and attendees.
About 50 members of the Proud Boys extremist group armed with long guns and in helmets, full face masks and flak jackets protested Drag Story Hour at a church in Ohio.
Neo-Nazis with swastikas and transphobic signs at a Pflugerville, TX, restaurant hosting a drag brunch.
Armed protestors, raising hands in Nazi salutes, disrupt a drag bingo fundraiser in Katy, TX.
Alleged Proud Boys disrupt multiple LGBTQ-inclusive events in Arlington, TX, blocking the sidewalk, falsely claiming attendees were “pedophiles.” Extremist protesters with a history of recording and photographing children without consent protest drag performances at a restaurant in Houston.
San Antonio concert venue cancels upcoming drag shows for the year, citing threats against performers and staff. In Eugene, OR, this October, protesters carried semiautomatic rifles and threw rocks and smoke bombs.
In the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, IL, in September, a public library canceled a drag bingo event after receiving a threatening letter that included a bullet and the phrase “more to come.”
In Memphis, Tennessee, in September, local leaders said Proud Boys were among thearmed protesters that showed up to a drag event at the Museum of Science and Industry, forcing the event’s last-minute cancellation.
In Sparks, NV, in June, children at the town library ran for safety from a Proud Boysprotester carrying a gun.
In Couer d’Alene, ID, in June, police arrested 31 Patriot Front members who had traveled from ten different states armed with riot gear and smoke grenades to protest a Pride event that had been targeted by LibsOfTikTok online.
Mendocino County Pride Celebration will be held in Hopland this year!
Saturday we will shut down Center Street between Hopland Tap & Thatcher Hotel. The Street Party begins at 1pm with music, food, art, beer & wine. This is a chance to connect with the LGBTQIA+ community and allies. This is a family-friendly event and all ages are welcome. A $5 donation will go towards the event and our beneficiary The Ford Street Project.
A drag show will follow at Hopland Tap from 6-8pm. There is no cover and the restaurant will also be open for dinner service.
Sunday join us for Drag Brunch at Thatcher Hotel. This will also be a family-friendly show and we will have a local drag competition with winners chosen by the audience. This is from 11-1pm.
We are so excited to get the community together and celebrate our queer community and the inclusivity of Mendocino County & Beyond!
Fox News taking Tucker Carlson off the air means that one of the loudest anti-trans voices in US media falls silent – for now. But his anti-LGBTQ+ legacy will continue to reverberate.
Carlson was Fox News’ top-rated and most-watched host, and he’s been credited with setting the agenda for US conservatives from coast to coast.
Night after night, millions tuned in to watch Carlson rant and paint a dystopian picture of a US where conservatives are under attack from the encroaching ‘woke’ left.
Over the years his eponymous show aired, he raged against the LGBTQ+ community, embraced racist conspiracy theories and pushed an increasingly far-right agenda on his viewers.
His departure from the network came as a shock to many. In a terse statement released Monday (24 April), Fox News said it and Carlson agreed to “part ways” effective immediately. It’s been reported that the decision was made by Fox chair Rupert Murdoch.
It means that Carlson made his final appearance, apparently unknowingly, on Friday, bringing to a quiet close an era of right-wing hate and ‘radicalisation’.
It said he “worked to radicalise the Republican party in the direction of its most dangerous, authoritarian elements”.
“Carlson has been the face of the network since at least the 2020 election, with executives counting on his personal connection to viewers to keep them coming back as former president Donald Trump receded from the national stage,” Media Matters added.
“He used that opportunity to focus the network (and through it, the GOP) on his own particular obsessions, like the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, anti-trans invective and support for authoritarian regimes in Russia and Hungary.”
Tucker Carlson was at the forefront of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and attacks on trans rights
Among Carlson’s most vehemently pursued talking points was the idea that white, cisgender, heterosexual people are under attack in the US. It’s a common bigoted topic pushed by the right-wing to abuse anyone who deviates from their perceived norm.
Fast forward to 2020, he took to the air to call the Black Lives Matter protests an “insidious” attempt to “challenge Western civilisation itself”. He also called workplace anti-bias training “poison” and reverse racism.
Tucker Carlson has also been at the forefront of the modern attack on gender-affirming healthcare by the right-wing.
Over the years he appeared on Fox News, Carlson hosted a lengthy list of anti-trans guests, who espoused hateful talking points. He’s also devoted hearty chunks of his on-air career to personally attacking the lives of trans people.
In 2021, he hosted a guest who falsely suggested gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth allows people to “basically molest and abuse children”. Carlson agreed before falsely characterising such medical treatment as “genital mutilation”.
He depicted healthcare officials providing gender-affirming care as “criminals” and said Boston Children’s Hospital was “playing the victim” after it received bomb threats over such care.
Tucker Carlson used mass shootings to attack drag queens and trans people
Amid right-wing attacks against drag, Tucker Carlson said on Fox News that kid-friendly drag events were attempts to “indoctrinate and sexualise children”. In another segment, he claimed it’s “not that unfair” to accuse drag queens of “being creepy with kids”.
He also blasted what he described as the “sexualisation” of children by teachers and urged parents to “fight back” against discussions of LGBTQ+ issues in schools.
The host falsely claimed on his Fox News show that the school shooting “happened because of a deranged and demonic ideology that is infesting this country with the encouragement of people like Joe Biden”.
He also labelled trans people as the “natural enemy” of Christianity as he alleged that the “trans movement is targeting Christians”.
Tucker Carlson characterised the trans community as the “natural enemy” of Christianity in the wake of the Nashville school shooting. (Fox News)
What will happen to Tucker Carlson after his Fox News exit?
Once O’Reilly stepped away for good from the mic, his name, reputation and sway in the right-wing crowd faded into obscurity. Carlson may face a similar fate.
It also came just a short while after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5m. The lawsuit centred on Fox airing false claims that the presidential election was stolen after former president Donald Trump’s 2020 loss.
Filings in the case featured a lengthy list of messages from Carlson disparaging the media group’s news division and management, revealed his feelings about Trump and demonstrated his scepticism of the ‘stolen election’ conspiracy theory.
The commissioner for The Council of Europe’s Human Rights is urging politicians in Slovakia to vote against proposed legislation that would effectively prevent trans people from having their gender legally recognised.
The bill, set to have its second reading next month, proposes only allowing someone to change their gender marking if they can prove, via genetic testing, it had been incorrectly determined.
In a letter to the Slovakia parliament, dated 19 April but released publically on 25 April, commissioner Dunja Mijatović said she was concerned that the bill would “effectively” mean trans men and women’s genders would not be legally recognised and “lead to human rights regression”.
She said it was “in conflict” with the Slovak Republic’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
It “should have triggered a process of addressing long-standing concerns about intolerance towards LGBTI people”, she said.
“However, I am disappointed that no discernible progress has been made, and that the human rights of LGBTI people in the Slovak Republic appear to be more, rather than less, at risk.”
Mijatović also used the letter to highlight issues relating to the rights of same-sex couples and hate incidents towards queer people.
Rights for same-sex couples in the Slovak Republic fell short of European Court of Human Rights case law, she said, noting, specifically, that the current legal framework did not grant same-sex couples “adequate recognition and protection of their relationship”.
She went further and urged that human rights of queer people be protected.
“These include ensuring that gender identity and sex characteristics are explicitly recognised as protected characteristics in hate-crime legislation, and included as aggravating circumstances when offences are committed on those grounds.”
Mijatović also recommended raising societal awareness and acceptance of sexual orientation and gender identity, noting parliamentarians had downplayed links between hate crimes and the wider Slovakia society and political sphere.
The Slovak Republic is not the only European country facing condemnation for its laws in relation to LGBTQ+ people.
As more LGBTQ+ people marry and have families, they’re welcoming a growing number of nonbinary, gender-neutral, and gender-expansive relatives. But the titles used for relatives tend to be old-fashioned and heavily gendered. If someone has nonbinary elders or children, for example, they may find themselves unsure about the best gender-neutral family terms for “uncle” and “aunt” or respectful gender-neutral words for “niece” and “nephew.”
However, there are gender-neutral family terms for every branch in one’s family tree. Though some of the labels are instantly familiar and understandable — like “parent” or “sibling” — others may seem newer and less familiar — like “moppa” or “pibling.”
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People even make up new, unique terms for nonbinary and gender-neutral family members all the time to help describe the unique relationships they have with their relatives.
While some of the newer family terms below may require a bit of explanation so others can understand them, using these terms regularly will help normalize them, making them more widely accepted in the mainstream. (There’s also a complete list of gender-neutral pronouns to help make nonbinary people feel welcome at any occasion — though some people use “rolling pronouns” too.)
Let’s explore some of the most adopted ways to ungender various family member labels below:
Mother /Mom / Father / Dad
Naturally, “parent” and “guardian” are the most commonly understood terms for someone with legal or parental rights to a child. Many of the words in this section, however, are less common and more endearing, leaning even into affectionate “child-speak.”
Bapa: Uses the “b” from nonbinary with soft “a” vowel sounds
Bibi: Uses the “b” from nonbinary and hard “i” vowel sounds
Dida: Combines the hard “i” and soft “a” vowel sounds
Nibi: Uses the “b” from non-binary and “i” vowel sounds (either hard or soft)
Nini: Uses the “n” from non-binary and hard “i” vowel sounds
Maddy / Moddy / Muddy: Combines “mommy / mummy” and “daddy”
MaiMai: uses a hard “a” vowel sound
Mombo: Combines “mom” and the hard “o” vowel sound
Moppa: Combines “mommy” and “poppa” (popularized by the transgender TV series Transparent)
Zaza: Uses soft “a” vowel sounds
Sister/Brother
Sibling/Sib: short for “sibling”
Sibster/Sibter: a mixture of “sibling” and “sister” with a hard “b” sound
Daughter/Son
Most of the terms in this section are more commonly understood.
Child
Offspring
Kid/Kiddo
Oldest: referring to one’s eldest child
Youngest: referring to one’s most recently born child
Spawn: a humorous term, usually applied to underwater creatures
Aunt/Uncle
The gender-neutral terms for “uncle” and “aunt” either combine the two words or use affectionate “child-speak” nicknames.
Pibling: a mixture of “parent’s sibling”
Auncle: a mixture of “aunt” and “uncle” (though make sure to emphasize the “au” vowel sound)
Titi: a mixture of the Spanish words for “aunt” (tia) and “uncle” (tio) — though “titi” is Spanish is similar to “auntie”
Zizi: a mixture of the Italian words for “aunt” (zia) and “uncle” (zio) — though “zizi” is also French child slang for “penis”
Unty/Unitie: a mixture of “uncle” and “auntie”
Niece/Nephew
Gender-neutral terms for “niece” and “nephew” tend to combine the words or acknowledge the child’s relationship to one’s own sibling.
“Grandparent” and “grandchild” are the most commonly used nonbinary terms for these relatives, but some people use the less common nonbinary slang terms for parents or aunts and uncles to designate grand-relations (like “zaza,” “bibi,” or “titi.”
Godmother/Godfather/Goddaughter/Godson
“Godparent” and “godchild” are the most commonly used nonbinary terms for these relatives.
“Betrothed” is an old-fashioned word that means a person that one is engaged to marry. However, some of the terms for girlfriend/boyfriend listed above may also work.
Wife / Husband
“Spouse” and the somewhat disparaging “ball and chain” are both gender-neutral terms that can refer to one’s married partner. However, some of the terms for girlfriend/boyfriend listed above may also work.
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Gender-Neutral Family Terms Are Here to Stay
Gender-neutral family terms are becoming increasingly popular as a way to break down traditional gender roles and create a more inclusive language for families of all kinds.
By introducing gender-neutral terms such as “parent” instead of “mother” or “father,” families can avoid unnecessary assumptions about their structure and foster an environment of respect and understanding. This doesn’t just apply to the queer world.
With the growing recognition of the importance of gender equality, it is likely that the evolution and use of gender-neutral family terms will continue to be embraced in the years to come.
