 Hi, I'm Linda Krillin. And I'm Kim Ward. That would make me Keith Ghostland. And welcome to All Things LGBTQ. We are taping on Tuesday, on Monday, November 13th. It's a different day for us. Try and trip me up. And as we acknowledged, we film at Orca Media in Montpelio, Vermont, which we acknowledge is unceded indigenous land. Well, thank you, Keith. And I would like to tell everybody that Ann is improving and getting better every day. And hopefully, in the next two weeks, she'll be back. But we'll see. So I'm going to start with Philadelphia, a story from Philadelphia. A good one? Yes. Philadelphia is projected to elect its first openly city council member Tuesday, according to results from the Associated Press, making it the last major US city to do so. Philadelphia housing and civil rights attorney Ru Landru won her election after receiving the two-thirds votes in May's primary, all but assuring her victory in the general election. The LBGT community has been waiting to have a seat at the city council's table for a long time. And it's hard to believe that in 2023, we're just now getting a seat at the table. And that is from Landru who said that. Oh, and it's hard to believe about Philadelphia, though, you would think. Well, and as we talk beforehand, I'm going to report on the national scale of the elections, because that's not the only surprising things, because we had states that have never elected. And remembering Bob Crow, Long Beach Pride community, on our co-founder of the LGBT icon and memorial procession, and this is what was said at his procession, we are united by the common thread of humanity of love and the pursuit of more inclusive and passionate world, said Reverend Sunshine Day, Long Beach Pride, which organizes the city's annual Pride Parade and Festival bid farewell to local LGBTQ legend Bob Crow, who was the last surviving person who started this. He was the founder of this nonprofit with a procession and tribute ceremony on Saturday, November 11. And here's a picture of the procession. I'm stumbling over myself. I don't know why, but here we are. Christmas-themed horror movies have blown in the stable of the holiday season from classics like Black Christmas and Silent Deadly Night to more recent entries like Anna and the Apocalypse and Christmas Bloody Christmas. But finding one that is not just bloody, but also heartfelt and populated by LGBTQ people and character is almost impossible until now. Luckily for us, director Tyler McGuire, tragedy girls, and queer screenwriter Michael Kennedy Freaky created its a wonderful knife, a slasher twist on the classic Christmas movie told through a queer lens. So everybody look out for that. I don't know where it is, but. We'll find out. Yeah. And Massachusetts. See, this is when Anne would be googling to find out what's this meaning of service that, yeah. We could. Massachusetts representative Ayanna Presley took a firm stand on the House floor last Monday against Republican-led housing appropriation bill that admitted critical support for the pride on LGBT plus affordable housing initiative. The project, which aims to assist LGBTQ seniors in the Boston area, had $825,000 in federal funding removed by the GOP majority on the House Appropriations Committee. I oppose this legislation for the draconian cuts and dangerous provisions included in it, Presley said, condemning the exclusion as an ongoing oversight in the bill that she believes otherwise addresses critical funding priorities. The Congress will accuse her colleagues of hypocrisy saying, it would seem with my colleagues across the aisle that the word freedom is selectively applied. Alexian offices in several key US states have been besieged by a series of disturbing incidents involving suspicious letters, some containing the dangerous opioid fentanyl. This wave of threats reported by the Associated Press has affected states such as Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington. Disrupting ballot counting and raising grave concerns about the safety of election workers. In Washington, Seattle, CBS affiliate reports that counties including King, Pierce, Skagit, Spokane, and Snowhamnish were targeted post-election with these threatening letters leading to significant delays in ballot counting. The situation compelled the evacuation of several offices as highlighted by Prince County auditor Linda Farmer, reflecting the impact of the threats on the election process. So we have that to look forward to. We have that to look forward to. A recent protest against a drag story hour in Sanford featured Jared William Smith, a former US soldier with a neo-Nazi background. Smith's present at the event where drag performers read stories to children is part of a disturbing trend by far-right figures targeting LGBTQ events. Smith, who lives in South Carolina, was identified at the protest wearing a skull max and a shirt with Nazi symbols and references. His past includes charges of attempting to encourage the assassination of former president, presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, and advocating for arson against any anti-fascist procaster. Oh, did you hear the guy with the hat? You know, that was at the October 7th attack on the, you know, the one dressed like with tattoos. Oh, the shaman. The shaman, exactly. Guess what? He's running for office from prison as a Republican. What you can do. I just thought I'd. Oh, absolutely. Well, depending on the state and your individual, yeah. Oh, absolutely. So he's running. I think for a representative. Any more chipper news there? I know. This is a good one. OK. Tracy Chapman continues to make history with her 1988 hit, I can't believe it was that long ago, FASCAR. After winning Song of the Year at Wednesday's Country Music Awards, Chapman was not present during the telecast, which took place at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. The country star and the category's presenter, Sarah Evans, read a message on Chapman's behalf after announcing her as the winner. I'm sorry I couldn't join you all tonight. It's truly an honor for my song to be newly recognized after 35 years of its debut. Wow. Thank you to the CMA's end and special thanks to Luke Combs and to all the fans of FASCAR. So that was upbeat, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. And I'll do one last story for now. Oh, that was, wait a minute. This is, oh, I'm so confused now. Now she's out of order. Printed to side, out of order. Oh, printed to side. Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis accepted the Advocate Magazine's Advocate of the Year Award at the annual Out 100 Gala on Thursday. Out Magazine is the Advocate's sibling publication. Curtis has been unwavering champion for LGBTQ plus rights throughout her career and most recently offering unbridled encouragement for her daughter Ruby 26, who came out as trans in 2021. During her acceptance speech, Curtis talked about following example of her altruistic late mother film star Janet Lee and how she understands that her visible profile in life can lead to media exposure and attention to marginalized communities. So you go, Jamie. OK. Thank you, Jamie. I know. So we're going on to international news now. All right. So I also have some stories from the advocate. A man recently in Ireland was sentenced to two life sentences for the horrific murders of two gay men that he targeted on gay dating apps. The BBC and other outlets recently reported that. Police say the man had consensual sex with his victims before killing them, attacking them due to anti-gay bias. Yusuf Pallani, 23 of Sligo, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of Aidan Moffat, who is 42, and Michael Snea, 58. Both victims were found bound and suffering from dozens of stab wounds. Moffat was also decapitated, and his head was placed on the bed facing the door. Pallani also pleaded guilty to stabbing Anthony Burke, 50, and left him blind in one eye. Also, a gay man's grave was desecrated, and his body burned in Senegal recently. Oh, yes. I heard about that. The authorities have fast-tracked an investigation into what happened as human rights organizations condemned the act. The shocking incident in Senegal is under investigation. A video depicted a gay man's body being exhumed and burned. This alarming event occurred in the city of Kaulak, where individuals last week sought out a desecrated grave of a man buried the previous day as per the public prosecutor, according to agent France Press. Local media speculated that the man's sexual orientation drove the act, though this detail was not confirmed by the prosecutor, nor verified by AFP. The videos spread across social and local media show onlookers surrounding a large fire, capturing the grim scene on their photos. Senegal, where homosexual acts are deemed against in nature, quote, unquote, and punishable by imprisonment, has a history of homophobia. However, this act has struck a chord being seen by many as a blatant disrespect toward the deceased, according to AFP. The judiciary reacting to the barbarity of the act initiated an investigation on Sunday, this would have been this past Sunday, to identify and punish the perpetrators. AFP informed this by anonymous local police official reported that four individuals suspected to have orchestrated this act. They were arrested in Calwack on Monday, although rare there have been documented cases of body exhumation due to alleged homosexuality in Senegal from 2008 to 2009. United Nations Committee says it's deeply concerned about numerous US human and civil rights abuses in a new report, including the ongoing rise in state-level discrimination. Oops, I just went on to my next story. So that's my next story. So the Senegal story was there. And then the United Nation recently says it's deeply concerned about the US. On November 3, the UN Human Rights Committee, the HRC, concluded its review of the state of human rights in the US. The first such review held in nine years due to a pause from COVID-19 pandemic. The committee's report highlighted 29 different matters of concern in which the US continues to violate the UN's international covenant on civil and political rights, despite signing on to the document in 1992. In particular, the committee expressed concern over worsening discriminatory treatment that persons continue to face based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Although the report lauded some recent federal reforms like the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act, committee members expressed repeated concern over unchecked anti-LGBTQ plus discrimination by state governments, which is proliferated across the country in recent years. The report specifically called out laws that ban, and in some instances, criminalized gender-affirming health care for transgender persons and those that limit discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity issues in schools like Florida's non-infamous Don't Say Gay Law. And on a side note, I saw recently a story where a woman in a southern state, I think she might have been in Florida. She's an educator and in her church, what they've been doing is creating places where people can talk about things such as race, properly, gender issues. So there are some people combating this. The United States, they say, should adopt all measures necessary to ensure that state laws that discriminate against persons based on their sexual orientation and gender identity are repealed. The committee recommended that, adding that the Biden administration intensify its efforts to combat violence against and discrimination toward LGBTQ plus people. It also called on the US to improve its hate crime data collection and provide full reparation to victims and their families. It's interesting to think that we are in the news for internationally for doing just what we're worried about in other countries. And I don't know how many stories you want me to read first, but on a lighter note, Taiwan just held East Asia's largest ever Pride March. Almost 180,000 people filled the streets of Taipei. Well, that's right. This past weekend in what was reportedly East Asia's largest ever Pride Parade. Taiwan's 21st annual Pride March attracted an estimated 176,000 celebrants on October 28th, according to Taipei Times. Attendees both local international wave rainbow flags and sport their most glamorous costumes and drag, or in some cases, pop hoods and mesh tops. The event organizer, Taiwan Rainbow Civil Action Association, TRCAA, said this year's theme was recognizing the diversity of every person and respecting and accepting different gender identities. How big is Taiwan? It's not a big, it's not a big country. But isn't it densely populated? It's densely populated. It must be, but it's so small, I don't know. Absolutely, yeah. So Taiwan is a diverse country, but sometimes our understanding can be limited by binary thinking such as male and female. TRCAA spokesperson, Brian Craig, told Taiwan News, this dichotomy can marginalize or generate animosity between different groups. East Asia's reportedly largest ever Pride March, which increased its attendance from 120,000 last year, featured drag performances, a diversity themed coloring book station and a rainbow market. Nice. 120 vendors, the most in the event's history per the times. So there is some good news out there. Well, we should go there next year. Yeah. And I've got a few things I can talk about afterwards. I can't be on the plane that long. I'll hurt somebody. So I'm in the next segment going to be talking some about the election that just happened, positive gains, LGBT plus candidates, et cetera. So the trivia question, of course, is going to be related. So this was the first openly LGBTQ plus candidate that was elected to a state legislature in the US. Bonus points, if you know the year. And then the follow-up question for extra credit. Who was the first out-candidate elected to the Vermont legislature? Now we know that. So looking at events, Rainbow Umbrella, you have the women's discussion group and the book discussion group. That's right. Can go on the Facebook page, get information about. Just go to Rainbow Facebook page. It is also, and new book review is on there. Oh, very good. Nice. So looking at the Pride Center of Vermont, there are still no news about their candidate for executive director making an offer or any updates. But they have posted that they are starting up again, their Pride Disability Group. And this is in-person at the Pride Center. Okay. And the Pride Center until recently, we're doing most of the groups virtually. They weren't bringing people into the office. The first group meeting is gonna be on Thursday, November 30th, from 7 to 8.30 p.m. Hmm. Mark your calendars for this. December 1st, International World AIDS Day, the Pride Center in collaboration with the Savoy Theater are going to be showing United in Anger, a history of ACT UP, and there's gonna be a discussion following it. They're showing it at six o'clock at the Savoy. Tickets are at 9.75 for adults and 8.50 for seniors and youth. And I'm not gonna say which category we fall into. Youth. Outright Vermont, they're continuing to do their drop-in hours at the center in Burlington. They're doing the virtual Friday night groups, but they're also doing in-person groups in Burlington. And in Morrisville, the third Friday of each month at LaMoyle County Mental Health. That's great. And I just wanted to say that in that movie is our friend Ann Northrop and our friend Carla Jay, who are both in that film. So it's dynamite. Ann and I both saw it. We'll see it again. It'll be a celebration. And Ann Northrop takes no prisoners. No, she does not take prisoners. Social tinkering in Rutland, and we've referenced things that they've sponsored off and on. They're doing a promotion now and you can go onto their website, Facebook page, and you can buy merchandise. And the only reason I'm hyping this is that this is Christmas time or holiday season. No. Some of us celebrate the solstice. Remember that. There you go. No, this is their all our welcome here visibility promotion. You can get signs that said all our welcome here and put your business, put your community underneath it. You can get it on T-shirt. You can get it in all kinds of merchandise. This is their way to one increase visibility. And in the mission of social tinkering has always been we want to create true inclusion. Yeah. I just thought it was an interesting and innovative approach to. I'd have to make little exceptions though. All are welcome. All are welcome, but not you. The advice of legal counsel. We're not following up on. You bugged me last week. Yeah, there we go. So the final event that I'm gonna promote here. This, and this is a new entity. Frog Meadow Farm in Newfane, which is 10 miles outside of Brattaburl on December 2nd at 7 p.m. in collaboration with the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont. The Ladies of the Rainbow Drag Show in Benefit. Tickets are $25 a piece. You can purchase them online. And one of the reasons I might be promoting it is they may be featured in an upcoming interview on all things LGBTQ. So details are in the working look for it. They're an interesting, they're an interesting bed and breakfast. They build themselves as an oasis for men. So, and we'll talk more about it. So now you're gonna try and depress me. I am. Because a Florida teacher lost her job for asking to use gender and neutral courtesy title. Now the non-binary teacher has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that could challenge an expansion of state controversial don't say gay law. Physics teacher A.V. Vary told Florida Radio Station that Florida Virtual School fired them for encouraging students to use the title MX instead of another courtesy title. While Vary's principal did not object to the term immediately, he later said that it was not okay. And New Jersey has elected its first woman state legislator from the LBGT community. Do you have this one, Keith? Well, I've got the victory funds. These are the things that happened and why you should pay attention. And her name is Luanne Pepperpaw. What a great name. A lesbian. And she won a state assembly from the 11th district. So that's good news, right? The sweeping rejection of the conservative Moms for Liberty group across the United States. Voters turned away from candidates endorsed by the group in multiple school board races. The group known for its stance against LGBTQ educational materials and its advocacy for parental rights faced significant losses in states from Pennsylvania to Iowa. And a followup to that, and I won't include it in my portion, candidates that had been endorsed by them have dropped their endorsement from their campaign literature. Good. It's now official. Mississippi has elected its first out state legislator, Fabian Nelson. A black gay man had already won the Democratic primary runoff in House of Representatives. District 66 and had no opposition in Tuesday's general election, except for a writing campaign. But now he's won the general. The district is located in the Jackson-Medro area. I could have guessed that. Another one of our favorite U.S. Representative, Madri Taylor Greene. And her fellow Republicans in the U.S. House want to reduce Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg's salary to a dollar a year. And Greene is using homophobia to provoke the move, saying he's receiving awards for the way people have sex. Greene and outrageous right-winger from Georgia and a frequent critic of Buttigieg proposed an amendment to the spending bill that would cut his salary to that level and it passed on a vote Tuesday. The overall bill still awaits House vote. And it has no chance of passing in the Democratic Majority Senate, plus Joe Biden would never sign it, but Greene and her allies are simply out to make the point. And this is a not so good story, but like the others have been. We have to tell them too. Kendall Lava lies, 37, has pleaded guilty to the murder of Black transgender woman, Malaysia Booker in Dallas in 2019. And he was sentenced to 48 years in prison. Lyle's trial was set to begin Monday, but instead of going to trial, he entered a guilty plea in Dallas. Her death came a month after a mob attacked her over a minor traffic accident at an apartment complex in the city. So let's see what else we have here. Usually it's Anne with the international news that depresses me, but Linda's holding her own tonight. I know. Here's another good news story. Florida's first out elected official won a seventh term on the Orlando City Council. And to celebrate, she had a drag queen at her party in Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, who made history winning her council seat by in 2001. A resounding victory on Tuesday, she took 64.3% of the vote, beating challenger Katie Koch and Randy Ross according to unofficial final results. She's a static. And yes, I had a drag queen at my victory party, she said. The out lesbian leader held a celebration at Quantum Leap Winery in Orlando in an apparent thumbing, her nose to Florida's newly enacted drag show laws. Drag performer Darcy Stevens provided the entertainment. So, good for her. And this is not so, you know, but. A trial date has been set for the manicures of killing popular gay student at the University of Mississippi last year. Jimmy J. Lee 20 went missing from his student housing complex in Oxford early on the morning of July 8th, 2022. Police believe he was murdered, but the whereabouts of Lee's body remains unknown. Sheldon Timothy Harrington, a graduate of Ole Miss as the University of Mississippi is also known, was arrested in late July and now faces capital murder charges in this case. Prosecutor alleged Harrington strangle Lee to cover up this sexual relation and say they have more than enough evidence to convict Harrington without the body. And an Oregon man went on a week long crime spree against the LGBT community in Boise, Idaho, was sentenced to over four years in prison by a federal judge on Thursday. Matthew Allen Lehigh 31 received a sentence of 37 months in jail followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to June to one felony account of violating the Hate Crime Prevention Act and a second felony violation for vehicular assault on two women in 2022. Lehigh used his car to attack multiple people he received to be gay or allies and also admitted to destroying a pride flag. Are we feeling upbeat yet? No. This is, well, it's not really funny. It's kind of sad, but do you know why the Roman Empire fell? Because it was too gay. It was too gay. Yeah. And who said that? The new leader of the house. Mike Speaker, Mike Johnson said in a radio interview who was formerly part of a group that sought to convert homosexuals. He stated in the interview the fall the fall of the Roman Empire was not solely caused by depravity of society and the lack of morality but also by the rampant homosexual behavior that was happening in the Roman Empire. His wife says that he was put there by God and that God speaks to him and tells him that this is really bad stuff just being homosexual. They're both heavily involved in conversion therapy. Of course. No, I mean actively. No, yeah. I'm not surprised. And he also says it's behavior that can be changed because he's really into conversion therapy kind of stuff. And on a sad note, F.L. Bubba Copeland, one man he has in the small city of Smith Station in East Alabama. He was the mayor, a pastor and the owner of a local grocery store. He was also a husband and father. But in the days before Copeland took his life, the 49 year old was revealed to have another identity this time of a man who liked to dress up as women and write erotic fiction. On Wednesday, on a website previously owned by the conservative Alabama Police Institute wrote that Copeland used a string of social media accounts under a pseudonym. The outlet also included several photos of Copeland in women's clothing and makeup and the site said they were posted under the accounts. Two days later, Copeland killed himself. The Lee County Sheriff's Office said so. And then, do you remember the furies in DC? They were the early lesbian group who did a lot of political activism. They're turning their house that they used for that time in the early 70s as National Historic Landmine. All right. Yes. Good for them. And just lastly, a letter to President Joe Biden and Democratic Congressional leadership sent on Wednesday by 163 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Congressional Equality Caucus Chair, Mark Pocan, Democrat, Wisconsin, and the eight other openly LGBT co-chairs, objects to Republican members' efforts to hijack the appropriations process to restrict the rights of fundamental freedoms of LGBTQ people. With the November 17th funding deadline looming the letter argues, these members lack the votes and public support to pass their anti-LGBT agenda into law as standalone bills. So they're working to include in what needs to be passed now to keep the government open. So, all right. On that note, there is a, so in the tradition of bringing you polyamorous, polyamory, bisexual news. You keep giving us new names and educating us. That's right. We're ready. I'm taking notes. In the history of that, I'm bringing you a little more upbeat story today and that is that there is a new poly-CNM activist group that is revving up. They are called the Open, the Organization for Ethical Non-Monogamy. And they're on a roll. They were founded last year. They're showing lots of energy and capability and they are a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the polyamory and non-monogamy movement by advancing cultural acceptance, building political power and supporting non-monogamy as communities and leaders. Good for them. Yeah, its directors and staff have proven to be impressively competent and capable and we're looking forward to seeing more from them. Open has started hosting monthly online peer support circles for people without good poly discussion and support groups and it's published many useful brochures. So you can check them out online. Where are they based? We will, they are based in, that is a good question. I'm trying to get the rest of that to open up. I don't know. Okay. They're based here in the states. Maybe they're just an online group too. Yeah. I was gonna say they did. Then of course, don't ever read things on the computer because it freezes. But yeah, they are national but I think they are mostly online right now. Okay. Especially since they just started last year. But there is a bit of a story on biphobia from the London Independent that I have. Bisexual men don't just face prejudice from straight people. It's no surprise that few bisexual men are out of a closet whilst many groups celebrated Pride this year with big support and high visibility. Bisexuals had to fight hard just to get a spot in the London Pride Parade. With organizers putting the inclusion of big businesses such as Skittles ahead of ensuring all groups from the LGBTQ plus community were represented. As a bisexual man writing this article, the author says, I know the reality of buying visibility all too well. Despite living in London, I've never knowingly been in a room with even 10 other bisexual men around my age. Both gay and straight people have spent their time trying to convince me that I must really be gay. It's just a phase. It's just a phase and you're just experimenting. So there have been more stories in the news in London that this is still an issue. And a study by the Journal of Bisexuality suggested that bisexual people face just as much discrimination within the queer community as they do from straight people. Similarly, the Equality Network found that the highest amounts of biphobia experienced are within the LGBTQ plus communities and services unfortunately. So this article is really trying to update people and keep them in the loop that it's still happening decades upon decades of trying to release people from that prejudice. Think about our organizations and community centers, et cetera. Have we really created space? No. And that's been one of the biggest issues, polyamory as well as bisexuality or anyone who thinks, okay, I'm not gonna fit in this box. It's tricky for people. They don't know what to do with it. And so that is one thing. I have one other story. Here it is. It's about Hungary. Hungary fires the National Museum Director over LGBTQ plus content in their exhibit. So Hungary's cultural minister was fired for failing to comply with the contentious law that bans the display of LGBTQ plus content to minors. Budapest Hungary. So the cultural administrator is the one who did this. Lazzle L. Simon is the person who became the director of the museum after a five-year term in 2021. The firing came after Hungary's government determined in late October that five photos on display at the prestigious World Press Photo Exhibition violated the law restricting children's access to content that depicts homosexuality or gender change. The museum subsequently put a notice on its website and at the entrance of the World Press Photo Exhibition which showcases outstanding photojournalism that the collection was restricted to visitors over 18. Writing on his Facebook page, Monday, Simon, a member of Hungary's ruling Fidates party and a former secretary of state with the cultural ministry said that neither he nor the museum had deliberately violated the law. I take note of the decision, but I cannot accept it, Simon wrote. As a father of four and a grandparent, I firmly reject the idea that our children should be protected from me or from the institution I run. Photocrafts in question document a community of elderly LGBTQ plus people in the Philippines who have shared a home for decades and cared for each other as they age. The photo shows some community members dressed in drag and wearing makeup. Hungary's government, led by the nationalist prime minister, Victor Urban, has restricted the availability of materials that promote or depict homosexuality to minors in the media, including television, films, advertising, and literature. While the government insists that the law is designed to insulate children from what it calls sexual propaganda, it has prompted legal action from 15 countries in the European Union with the blocks commissioned president Ursula von der Leyen calling it a disgrace. And I would say that if someone's trying to protect people from sexual propaganda, they better stop talking about all sorts of things, including my wife, my husband, my children, my, my, my, my. So something that we will keep an eye on. Watch an advertisement on television and, excuse me, you don't think you're being... They're all sexual propaganda. They're all gender propaganda. And that's Trump's hero. Oh, yes. Oh, that's true. Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to make a curriculum about something I said about Poland last time we had a show, which was an era. Which was brought up by Ian, of course. Telling, you know, that I had said that the liberals had won the election. Actually, they won a majority of votes, but they still have to form a government. Oh, okay. And so the government has not been formed. And of course, the right is trying to organize the coalition so that they will still hold sway in Poland. So I just wanted to make that correction. Okay. Thank you. The last thing I've got is a list of some international days. Live national? So I'll give you an hour later. International celebration days. Okay. November days of note. Right. November 8th was Intersex Day of Remembrance. Okay. November 11th was Veterans Day, of course. November 13th to the 19th is Trans Awareness Week. So that starts today. Yes. November 20th is also a Trans Day of Remembrance. November 23rd of every year is Polyamory Day. And as you said, coming up December 1st, World AIDS Day. December 8th is Pansexual Pride Day. And December 10th is Human Rights Day. All right. Thank you. So on the polyamorous day, I should kiss everyone I meet. Kiss everyone you meet. All right. Kiss all the cooks. I'm game. And I've got the sign on the side of my oven. It has to be consensual. Correct. Yes. Okay. So coming into some local news. Burlington council member Joe McGee has announced that he will not be seeking re-election come town meeting day. And openly progressive, openly LGBTQ plus. He started serving in 2021. And part of what he said is, this wasn't an easy decision to opt not to re-elect. And he, to run for re-election, he has been actively involved in trying to deal with the police department and police reform and responsible. He said that the time commitment was difficult. And where they live in Burlington is an expensive rental market. So they may have to move outside the district. So he would no longer be eligible to be a representative. Jesus. And this was the statement that really got my attention. And you know, honestly, the divisiveness I think we're seeing nationally is also present here in Burlington. And so that becomes harder and harder to shoulder when trying to push for what some might call radical changes. But we may have the opportunity to find out more from council member McGee when he comes back to be interviewed. So, and he's excited about coming back. So Becca, she had a fundraiser in Burlington. And while the fundraiser was happening, there was a pro-Palestinian rally happening outside. And they had been trying repeatedly to connect with Becca. So they made their way into the fundraiser. I heard this. And initially the people who were there as the fundraiser tried to sing, chant, drown out the protesters. And eventually the staff from Becca's office went over and started talking with them. And then Becca finally spoke up. And what the pro-Palestinian protest was trying to get was Becca to change her position from calling for a humanitarian pause to a true ceasefire. Humanitarian pause isn't enough. It's what they're doing now. It's not working. We need more. And you need to stop giving military aid, right? So Becca finally acknowledged them and said, you have First Amendment rights in this country and you are absolutely entitled to say what is in your heart. My heart is with you, but I'm not elected as an activist or a member of the Knesset. I am a member of the US Congress and I have to make decisions that will actually make it better, but she has agreed to meet with them. And it's happening this week. So they're coming into her rally. She didn't ignore them. She didn't try to get them removed. She acknowledged you're here. You have the right to protest freedom of speech. Sure. I will listen to what you have to say. So, good going. The other Becca story, and it's Linda's favorite, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Yeah. Yes. Becca is the favorite story. All right, I'm gonna throw things. Becca had introduced a motion to censor her for her racist homophobic, transphobic, anti-Semitic remarch and dangerous conspiracy theories. And all of the rhetoric coming up to when the vote was supposed to happen was the Republicans need to go on record. Do you or do you not support her? Meaning, Marjorie Taylor Greene. But yet they say it didn't. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay. It's hard to hold our tongues. Sorry. Because they didn't. Becca withdrew her motion to censor Marjorie because the motion to censor representative Rashad Tab of Michigan, the only Palestinian, it failed. They brought it up for a vote. It didn't pass. And it was because people stood up and said, this is a First Amendment freedom of speech. So the Republicans weren't supporting Marjorie Taylor Greene's motion to censor this Muslim Palestinian legislator. Becca said, I'm pulling this off. There's nothing to gain here. So. But yeah, everyone thought they were going to censor her and it didn't happen. So that was. So schools, moms for liberty. Yeah, but. Our favorite group. Yeah. Vermont's largest school district, which is the Champlain Valley School District, Hinesburg, they buy unanimous vote of the school board just put in place the best transgender non-binary affirming policies in the state. You get to be identified according to what you want. You have access to all of what the school has to offer. Wow. If you're transgender, your gender, your identified gender identity allows you to participate in whatever the events are that align with that. That's great. Everyone's hoping that this is indeed going to become the standard and we keep moving. Yes. But another issue that's percolated. And I need to own that I'm sort of sitting in the middle of part of this. The anti-demit anti-deformation league is looking at bringing suit against Vermont. And it's our act one social equity policies. Okay. The bill we worked so hard to ensure that we're all included in the curriculum that we are represented fairly and accurately. And when we were debating the bill, there was a huge push from within the Jewish communities saying we don't agree with the language you're using to identify who we are. And they, and this was the language that we finally agreed upon. And it's ethnic groups would include non-dominant racial ethnic groups in the US, including people who are Benike, people from other indigenous groups, people of African Asian, Pacific Island, Chicano, Latinx, Middle Eastern descent, or, and this was the second category, groups that have been historically subject to persecution or genocide. The working group removed the term genocide. So it was only persecution. And the board of education is about to enact and what the anti-deformation league is saying is the working group really didn't have the authority to remove that language. And I'm looking for the language that, and rather than genocide, this was sort of the redefinition, a group whose members identify with each other based on certain criteria, including a common history, ancestry, culture, religion, national, social, or geographic origin, skin color language, and experiences of discrimination and social isolation. That doesn't come close to persecution or genocide. No. Why did they do that? Well, actually the work groups thought they were making it better. They truly thought they were making it more inclusive, and they missed the mark. I mean, we really did. So what the board of education is saying is there hasn't been a final decision, but before people continue to deluge them, the public comment section is over. There was an opportunity to respond and. That's done, yeah. But they're still looking at, okay, what are you gonna do here? So election day. And Linda's told you some of this. There were 128 openly LGBT plus candidates elected. That is a record. Yeah, that's great. So now the first question, and again, these were how it was framed from the Victory Fund, which supports endorses and helps to fund out candidates. Thank you for doing the copy for me. Will America elect more LGBT plus candidates than in any other odd number year? Yes. And they're calling it the rainbow wave. And they're still getting sort of the down races, councils, school boards, whatever. They think ultimately there's gonna be over 200. Wow, that'd be great. Danica Rome, in fact, did become the first out-trans state senator. Woo-hoo. Will LGBTQ candidates help decide a pro equality majority in the Virginia House? Guess why? No. Yes. Will New Jersey elect the first out LGBTQ plus woman to the state assembly in New Order reported? Yes, they did. Mississippi was one of two states that had never elected an out legislator. Louisiana is the other. Bingo. Yeah. Well, I knew you were gonna know that. You knew that, yeah. Rue as the first out LGBTQ plus person elected to the Philadelphia City Council, you already reported on that. And then it was school boards. And really looking at, I mean, we have been battered beyond belief. And you know what? We're getting it back. We're taking it back. And again, what you had started reporting on moms for liberty, their candidates didn't win. And the candidates that had been endorsed by them that still have some kind of campaign going on, they're running for something else, they've dropped moms for liberty endorsement from their materials. So. Good. We done good. So the answer to. What about the, did you get the women getting married in Vermont? I'm saving that for the next time. Okay. Because I, well. All right. Don't you think that maybe we should try to reach out to them to see if they'd like to be. Absolutely. The advocate had a story about a lesbian couple who came to Vermont because they wanted to hike the long trail in their wedding gowns to get married. And it was a featured article in the advocate. So I was going to see if there was some way we might be able to connect with them. But we're known for wedding gowns on the long trail. Who would have thought? So. I had at least one marriage on the long trail. I have no comment. So the first openly LGBTQ plus candidate elected to a state legislature, and they were out at the time, was Elaine Noble in Massachusetts. It was the 1974 election. She started serving in January of 1975. And she served for two terms. She represented the Fenway, Kenmore, and Back Bay districts. Oh my. Surprise. And in Vermont. And I always choke up. Our first openly LGBTQ plus member of the legislature was Ron Squires. And he was from Proctor around Browderboro. And he died before he started his second term from HIV and AIDS. And what I had shared before we started taping is, since his death, his mother Shirley has done a walk for life in his honor every year since. And she's raised over half a million dollars for the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont. So. Good. You Shirley and thank you Ron. So. With that. Then I guess we have to go forward and at every opportunity to resist.