Opinions

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This is why it’s okay to be angry at anyone who voted for Trump

I have a message to anyone who voted for Donald Trump, particularly those who thought he’d lower their food and gas bills, or those who questioned whether Kamala Harris was a good candidate: your stupidity is revolting. You deserve all the tyranny that is about to befall you — and unfortunately, the rest of us who heeded the waterfall of warnings about Trump and voted for Harris.  I’m laughing about how obtuse Trump voters were about him “lowering prices” while telling them about increasing tariffs. Practically every economist in the world warned that prices would rise if Trump imposed new tariffs. Mark Cuban told me the same […]

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Trump’s pardoning of insurrectionists will turbocharge trans violence

Since coming into office, Trump and his Republican allies have moved swiftly to enact their shared radical agenda-one that centers around a mass political upheaval of our democracy and institutions with the goal of authoritarian control. In that context, Trump’s pardon of 1,500 January 6th insurrectionists and right-wing paramilitary leaders Enrico Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes have set free insurgents who posed the single largest threat to democracy in the U.S. since 1861. Their get-out jail-free card wasn’t just about Trump appeasing his voters. It set loose the shock troops to force the MAGA agenda on the country through extralegal means and solidify the GOP alliance with these extremists at […]

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I work at NIH. The fear among staff is palpable.

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The science world is in disarray. In just the last 10 days, the Trump administration has paused external communication and most travel for staffers within the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); froze NIH grant review panels—and therefore, new funding; and instructed employees across the federal government to report their colleagues for attempting to “disguise” DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—programs, sparking confusion. International HIV/AIDS aid was also put on hold, and then reinstated, at least in part. The result, researchers say, has been a chilling […]

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BLACK HISTORY MONTH: The stories of Black queer people with HIV cannot be told in statistics

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HIV has never been just a statistic for me. It has never been a distant concern or a nameless condition existing in the abstract like it is for so many. It has never been something that merely existed as a plotline in a movie. It has never been an unseen boogeyman used as a scare tactic. It has always been real, personal, tangible, and deeply rooted in my life as a Black, sexually fluid man living in the Bible Belt.  My earliest encounter with HIV would shape my entire life. At a young age during the early 2000s, I watched […]

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Trump’s definitions of “male” and “female” are nonsense science with staggering ramifications

A few hours after taking the Oath of Office on Monday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order purporting to redefine “male” and “female” by fiat. The order, with the cumbersome title “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” instructs all executive agencies—including those governing education, health, housing, and employment—to use new definitions of “male” and “female” in every aspect of their work: (d)  “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell. (e)  “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small […]

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For Anita Bryant, there will be no orange juice in hell

I know you’re not supposed to say anything bad about the dead; however, when Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson died, I broke decorum, and with Anita Bryant’s death I shall do the same. When I heard that she died, all I could think about was that Satan himself greeted her with a pie in the face upon her entrance to hell. Bryant was once celebrated as a singer and beauty queen, but those of us who are old enough remember her, nightmarishly, as a vehement anti-LGBTQ+ activist in the 1970s. She went on a horrible antigay crusade that inflicted significant harm on countless people and left an indelible […]

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As HHS secretary, RFK Jr. would be a direct threat to LGBTQ+ health

Among Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, it’s hard to choose who is the most dangerous to LGBTQ+ rights. But it’s easy to pick out who is the most dangerous to LGBTQ+ health: Robert Kennedy Jr. As the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kennedy has the potential to make literal life-and-death decisions about the nation’s health. But his crackpot ideas are a direct threat to the very issues that can matter most to the LGBTQ+ community.  Much has been made of Kennedy’s conspiracy-ridden, fringe beliefs. He believes that vaccines cause autism, even though abundant evidence has shown no […]

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Was America ever really made for you and me?

Throughout my 78 years of life, I have felt inspired by the insightful lyrics and melodies of one of my cultural heroes: U.S. folk music singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, whose themes include labor rights and organizing, socialism, anti-fascism, and anti-racism. Guthrie was born and raised by middle-class parents in Okemah, Oklahoma. He first married at age 19, but he left his wife and three children at the beginning of the Midwest dust storms that signaled the Dust Bowl period. He joined the thousands of Okies who migrated to California looking for employment. Over the course of his life, he married three times and fathered eight children. He succumbed to Huntington’s […]

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Trans people are entering a new chapter of resistance. We are ready.

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Many of us have watched with alarm as trans people have been increasingly targeted by extremists – culminating in Donald Trump’s hateful presidential campaign.  Trans people deserve full, authentic, and healthy lives, not to be attacked by anti-trans politicians who are trying to distract and divide us.  Now, we are entering a new chapter of resistance, and we are ready. Having already lived through a Trump presidency, we know firsthand the devastating impact a second term could have on our rights, our safety, and our future. Many in the LGBTQ+ community, particularly trans people and their families, are understandably feeling […]

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We’re going to get through this together

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Here are this week’s most popular positive stories, with some fun social media posts tossed in too. Like seeing uplifting content like this? Sign up for our Good News email. It has been a hard week, and while we’re more committed now than ever to sharing empowering, uplifting stories, we wanted to offer some compassion and encouragement too: It’s an emotional time, and it’s good (and vital) to express our feelings, both alone and with others. Remember, nearly 70 million others also voted for progress, equality and decency — and we’re heading into the future with them. Throughout history, we’ve needed […]

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