 I'm Susan Lloyd. Hi, I'm Keith Ghostlant and this is All Things LGBTQ. We are taping on Tuesday May 16th. All Things LGBTQ is produced at Orchid Media in Montpelier, Vermont, which we recognize as being unceded land. And you will notice that it's a slightly different configuration today. And that's because my two co-hosts might be in P-town celebrating a birthday. So, happy birthday Anne. And with that... All right, so I've got some headlines. The first one is don't say gay. I've seen t-shirts that say say gay. I think we need one of those. I've seen t-shirts that or take on that but are a little punchier. Yeah. Yeah. So, the Florida Senate passes a bill targeting pronoun preferences in school restricting teachers. The Florida Senate passed an expansion of the parental rights and education law in one of the most controversial education issues of the 2023 legislative session. So, we'll talk more about that. Yes, because other states are using their legislation as a prototype in their state, such as in New Hampshire. Exactly. On a more positive note, Chicago is about to have the gayest city council in the country. That's exciting. Lesbian, gay and bisexual, older people are now one-fifth of the city council and they represent all corners of the city. The new members show that there is LGBTQ life outside of Boystown, but it's not as much fun. So, we'll talk more about that. The tour of the Gila, a 27-year-old, won the fifth and final stage of the race and became the first transgender cyclist to triumph in an official UCI stage race and that was controversial. Yeah. George Santos, this just made me laugh. There's a litany of a description of George Santos, which includes accused puppy stealer, alleged check fraudster, alleged scam petty charity founder, fake private school student, fake MBA holder, fake volleyball champion, fake double knee replacement patient, fake Broadway producer, fake Wall Street tycoon, fake Jew, fake son of a 9-1-9-11 victim, fake grandson of a Holocaust refugee, fake employer of pulse massacre victims, fake Hannah Montana cast member, fake journalist, fake mugging victim, fake assassination attempt victim, accused campaign finance scamster and an actual former question mark drag queen. And last night, she declared that the LGBT community should divorce itself of anybody who isn't gay, lesbian or bisexual, wanting to kick out a couple of the letters. We'll talk more about that. A story from a Navy seal who says, I can't believe I fought for this bullshit. Can we swear? Absolutely. Somebody that killed Osama, helped kill Osama bin Laden, fumes over the Navy's decision to use a drag queen for their recruitment program. Now, I think that's smart. I mean, in the Navy, right, the village people, didn't they start that whole trend? We need somebody to accessorize those assets. Exactly. And then we have representative Zoe Zephyr. That sounds made up, but she's not transgender state lawmaker. Yes. Said that they were told Republicans on the house floor that they'd have blood on their hands for opposing gender affirming health care for kids was barred from returning to the house floor. They are a close friend of Taylor's mouth. Interesting. And then we had protesters evicted from the Texas Capitol as a clash between LGBTQ residents and GOP leaders escalated. What else? There's a Formula One racing star blasts Florida's anti-LGBTQ measures. So that's good. And then Montana lawmakers send the drag story hour ban to the governor. Boo. Does the governor want to do the presentation themselves? No, sadly no. But this, I thought this was interesting. You know, the whole controversy with Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light. So we know how the right feels about all of this quite clearly. But now the gay community has come out and Chicago bars are stopped, have stopped selling Bud Light because they don't feel like Bud Light went far enough and that they're backing off from taking the stand. So now you've got both the right. You can't win. You can't win. Basically, you just can't win. So there's a huge backlash over that. And then an 80s rock anthem was dropped as San Francisco's Pride theme after the singer's controversial tweet. So twisted sister, we're not going to take it. I sang that in a musical once. They kicked him out because he made some comments about transgender youth. So that's interesting. And then in our international stories, a study of gay men suggests that gonorrhea can be passed on through kissing. I saw that. Yeah, I don't know. I want more research. And then we're going to talk about, and I have a picture. I'll tell you later where we're going to put that in. But an artwork depicting Jesus surrounded by leather clad muscle daddies, displayed in a corridor of the European Parliament building, nice placement, has sent right wing EU officials into a red faced rage. And the picture is quite stunning. It looks like the male version of like a P.A. Tar or something with these leather daddies around them. So we'll talk more about that. Over to you. All right. Thank you. So we're going to start with trivia and an acknowledgement that nobody got it. And it just proves what an arts geek I am. Or how dumb the rest of us are. And that was kind of you're not to mention that. I'm not going there. But thank you for that. This is this week's trivia question. And keeping in mind that May is mental health awareness month. So keep that in the back of your mind. They are considered to have been the greatest dancer of the 20th century. At the age of nine, they were accepted to the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg. They choreographed classic ballets, the afternoon of the fawn, the bright of spring, and merry pranks. Merry pranks, I want to say. Some of their ballets were considered controversial due to their sexually suggestive themes. While considered dynamic on stage in their personal life, they were viewed as being unremarkable and withdrawn in conversation. They experienced mental health challenges due to the stresses of attempting to establish their own dance company. They were subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent approximately 30 years in and out of institutions. So stay tuned. And there will be a picture. Nice. What are you going to do? There we go. How do you compete with Leather Dad? So I just want to remind people again, and I will be saying it on future shows, June 25th, starting at 2 p.m. L.E. Long Theatre in St. Michael's is the memorial for Michael Hayes Marguerite LeMay. So put that on your calendar. An acknowledgement. Rainbow Umbrella stole carrying on women's discussion groups and the book discussion groups. I am on the distribution list for the women's discussion group and the conversations that the snippets that are being shared, this is a lively debate. And there's no guarantee on where people might land on issues. And it looks as though people are really exploring. Looking at old writings and putting them into current context and what is the implication and what more would we want to do? So I really appreciate them. And the rest of the event section, I'm merely going to talk about Pride Days here in Vermont because there's more than just one now. There's the Montpelier Pride Day, which is the weekend of June 3rd. There is going to be a performance by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. And the same as last year it is, they're highlighting LGBTQ plus composers. So this is solely queer works. There is going to be the festival on the Statehouse lawn, vendors, food. We're going to be there. We're all retiring. Because we care about your mental health. We do. And also during that weekend there is going to be a Pride Film Festival at the Savoy. And our friend Rachel is one of the people who is helping to coordinate that. But also on June 3rd, Essex is having a Pride Festival in the park. They're going to have a drag queen story hour. The Essex High School Cast of Rent is going to come and do performances. And I actually went to their production. These kids gave it everything they had. I will admit that I was in tears as were the people with me by the end of the performance. They were good. And the event is being hosted by Emoji Nightmare. And it also says they're doing a roller disco dance party. Oh, that could be dangerous. We could break the hat, Matt. On June 10th, the following weekend in Berry is they're baked with love in the park. Yes. They're going to be things happening games by the library just across the street from the park. And they're also sponsoring a drag queen story hour. Nice. So Rutland, not to be outdone, is doing their Pride Out Loud on June 17th. They're going to have vendor, speaker, music, drag performances, games, and a prom. Oh, yeah, I heard about that. That sounds really cool for all the people that didn't get to go to the prom and their youth. And not to be outdone by Rutland. Oh my gosh. Our friends from Babes and Bethel. Oh, love them. You know how I adore them. Yes, we do. The weekend of June 24th, they're going to do a masquerade ball. Oh, I know. That sounds fun. And that's an all ages event. Nice. There's also Gay Trivia. There is a picnic in the park. There's going to be a drag show. And I think I need to go just for this. They're going to have a parasol promenade. Oh, I can see that for you. Can't you? I can see that for you. And I'm going to have to have a hat. Yep. White River Junction on July 29th. And there's was the least amount of detail. They're having a parade. They're having vendors. They're having some kind of centralized event. And Bennington on June 24th. Somehow I miss them. They're doing a block party, a parade, and they're also doing a prom. And they've done a prom for several years. And it's inviting our youth saying you didn't go to, you don't get to go to your high school prom. And then, of course, there is the Burlington Pride event that will be happening September. September 10th is when the parade and festival, but they will have events all during the day. So we seem to have grown past just a singular event to, you got a backyard, put up some lights, some flags, invite over some friends. Yeah, it's an event. So it's back to you. And I'm told you have depressing stories. I think we both have depressing stories. All right, so back to the don't say gay. The Republican controlled Senate voted 27 to 12 along party lines in an effort to legislate away the gay. I'm still hung up on that thing. Last time I was here, somebody that was an ex gay, how are you an ex gay? I don't get that. So the last year's law barred instruction about orientation and identity from kindergarten through third grade, but now they've upped it to eighth grade. And I'm sorry, but I think in eighth grade we all had I think in third grade, some of us, Keith, some of us out of the womb had a sense of what was happening there. If you ask my mother's degree with that, yeah. So of course they say the bill, the people against the bill are saying that this marginalizes children, of course, and it's an insult to teachers, but they're actually changing the code of conduct for the teachers so that teachers can be written up and have a have their teaching certificates revoked if they violate this rule. And they fold in that we're groomers and that we are sexualizing education and prematurely presenting issues to our youth. And they're saying that you have to use the sex that's on their school records of birth, right? So there's no preference allowed in pronouns. I'm waiting for the first person from Vermont to move to Florida that has a gender X marker on their birth certificate. Yeah. We'll see what happens then. So in Chicago, the Gay City Council, a whole bunch of people, some Asian Americans, some black openly gay men, and they're all excited because there's going to be, there's nine of these aldermen who have helped elect this mayor and now the mayor's going to have some, there's going to be some payback to the community. So in the cycling world, this was interesting because they took a vote in the riders union and 90% of the folks in the union, professional women's cyclists opposed racing against transgender women. And the, in response to that, the cycling body said that they are basing their rules on the latest scientific knowledge. And what is tricky, of course, is that there's this whole thing about plasma, testosterone levels and how long you have to be on hormones. And so basically they're doubling the transition period to 24 months and saying that if you've been on hormones for two years, you are considered. You can compete. You can compete. You're considered. Because basically it is then a level playing field. The testosterone level. Exactly. So, but people are not happy. A lot of the women in the racing community are not happy about that. So let's see. We talked about George Santos wanting to kick the T's and the Q's out of the LGBTQ. I don't get that. The Navy Seal posted on Instagram that he was upset about the drag queen recruitment ad. And this, this was a program that ran from October of 2022 to March of 2023. It was designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wider range of candidates. I'm sure it did electronically. What's interesting is there were all these people that that fell in line and said, you know, we shouldn't do this. But then there was backlash. There were a couple people that said honor courage and commitment. I stand with the US Navy and their choice. And another person said, you can't believe that you fought to uphold the freedoms of citizens to be free to live however they choose. You did read the Constitution that you swore an oath to, didn't you? Or did you skip the turns and conditions? So he got some backlash from people saying the whole concept of the military is to protect the freedoms of our country. And that includes, oh, I don't know everybody. Not just the ones that you like. See, I think we should have a requirement that anyone elected to the US Congress has to pass, you know, a citizenship. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Do you know the Constitution? Yeah. Right. Because most citizens don't. So then back to Zoe Zephyr on April 24. Zephyr raised a microphone in defiance on the house floor as protesters in the gallery demanded she be allowed to speak. They refused to leave. Seven people were arrested on trespassing charges. And two days later, lawmakers voted along party lines to ouster from the floor for the remainder of the session. And I can see in the moment maybe even that seems not. They've gone even further. And it's a that sort of passive aggressive action. Zoe has been going to the state state house and standing outside the chamber so that they can still vote on bills. And there are benches outside. And the Republican women have been coming out and sitting on the benches. So she has no place to sit. Oh, so she has to stand through the entire session. That's ridiculous. But this this also happened. Somebody called, did you hear about this, a SWAT team to their house just to be a menace said that there was that there was some kind of criminal activity going on there. It's the growing trend. That's ridiculous. Okay. So back in the Texas Capitol, similar thing, hundreds of advocates showed up and they were many of them were arrested. Troopers physically restrained and handcuffed people took them off. They initially faced two misdemeanor charges charges of disrupting a public meeting and resisting arrest. Some of those charges were dropped. But there was a woman who testified that she wants to begin gender affirming care for her 10 year old daughter because she knew as most moms do their kid was actually in the wrong gender. They wanted they she testified against a bill that would ban sex change surgeries for minors. And she has this whole thing about they took took took her child to neurologists and specialists and couldn't figure out what's going on. And then like, duh, they're a boy. Oh, you. Oh, hello, Florida were never moving to Florida. Florida passes another bill that allows trans kids to be taken from their family. Oh, yeah, they've had that for a while. The measure will allow the state to take custody of a child that they've been subjected to or threatened with being subjected to gender affirming care. There is a section that says minors who have already begun transitioning will be allowed to continue. But their doctors have to tell them about the risks of gender affirming care. And patients will have to sign an informed consent form, which of course the ACLU has pointed out is illegal and contains misinformation. Republicans say that they are protecting the children. Instead, they're actually criminalizing LGBTQ people of all ages. Okay, so this race driver who's the only race driver of color in this F one one racing. He's he's British. And he spoke out while racing. He's he's travels around like that's really big in other countries. It's not as big here that formula one racing. Those are those those little cars that tip over, you know, scary to me. But he came forth and said that he races with a rainbow flag on his helmet. Yes, I like that. And of course, he had something to say when he was in Florida about DeSantis and what's going on there. And he said, it's not for me to decide something like this. But I've read about some of these decisions in the government here. And I don't agree with it. And I support and stand with the LGBT community. So it's kind of cool. He also dipped into the Roe v. Wade debate. So so he's got, he's got some people that are going to give him hard time. I'm sure it's because he has a fast car. It's true. He can drive away really quickly. So again, in Montana, there's a measure that's titled an act prohibiting minors from attending sexually oriented shows, drag shows, drag shows, specifically bars drag story our events, which is a popular national storytelling program. And this seems to just keep going and going this, this storyline. They confuse an evening adult drag show in a bar with drag queen story hours. Very drag queen story hour is drag queens reading children's books. Right. It's not the stand up runway kind of new, but no. So Chicago gay bars stopped selling Bud Light and other Anheuser-Busch beers after the brand backs down to anti-trans critics. The two bears tavern group, which owns four gay bars from uptown to Rogers Park was the first to drop Anheuser-Busch, posting on Instagram that it's abandonment of Mulvaney amid controversy shows how little Anheuser-Busch cares about the LGBTQIA plus community and in particular transgender people who have been under unrelenting attack in this country. They said they have to hold brands accountable if they take active steps against LGBTQ equality, visibility and safety. They will no longer sell Anheuser-Busch products, including Bud Light, Bush Light and Goose Island. Many took to social media to express transphobic outrage over the Mulvaney partnership, including Kid Rock. Do you see this? There was some country shooting four cases of Bud Light with a rifle. But Anheuser-Busch CEO Michael Dukaris addressed the controversy during a call with investors and just distanced the brand from Mulvaney. We need to clarify the facts that this was one can, one influencer, one post and not a campaign, which is what one of Trump's dorky children said. We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people, said Anheuser-Busch. How's that working out for you? And then we have a study of gay men in Australia. They found six studies suggest passionate kissing. I think we're not just third variety kissing now. Okay, you're going to the gonorrhea story. Yeah, I changed. Passionate kissing. Reinforcing the message that something I can't pronounce could be transmitted through kissing, may inform the development of approaches to prevent gonorrhea is what they said. Okay, so basically they're saying... I think it's tongue and saliva and those kinds of things. The passionate kissing, that's what it says. Okay. Passionate kissing. I may have to do some research. We may have to, yeah. Research, yeah. The study found that men with gonorrhea were more likely to have it in their throat than their penis. Oh, okay. And then I just appreciated this story so much. This is the artwork. So images by Swedish lesbian photographer Elizabeth Olsen are being displayed in a side corridor of the building in Brussels as part of a cultural exhibition hosted by left wing politicians from across Europe. Threats to close down the exhibition or remove photos deemed controversial have been made. Among the politicians voicing outrage was Maria Veronica Rossi from Italy's right wing populist Lega Nord party who told the Times, it represents Jesus surrounded by apostles dressed as sadomasochistic slaves. And we'll put a picture in right about here. All right. Yeah. Will Warren's act. Her colleague took to Facebook to slam the image with a caption alongside the photo that said, art? Question mark? No, just vulgarity. Many people have commented under Salvina's post condemning him with one stating shame on you responding to critics. Olsen said, I would say that there should be more understanding because there are a lot of pictures of Jesus with heterosexuals, millions, billions of paintings by famous artists. But this is just one picture showing him loving LGBTQ rights. And this picture should not scare people. That's that. We'll do a poll. Yeah. So we're going to start off talking about the food and drug administration who we have been people within the healthcare community and providers and queer healthcare advocates that blood donation. Yeah. Why are men who have sex with men being held to a different standard? And I remember in 1985 when the policy was put into place that if you had sex with just one other man, you were forever banned from donating blood. And it was only fairly recently that they started loosening it. Well, they've now decided to follow the lead of Canada and some of the European nations that it's not who you are. It's what you do and how you do it. Oh, so people going into donate blood now, they're not going to be asking about orientation, gender identity type issues to filter your out. They're going to ask you, okay, what have you done in the last three months with whom did you do it? How did you do it? Oh, totally based on practice. Oh my gosh. It's like, it's like knowing where the virus is based and acting according. And there we go. Science. Who would have thought science? So I'm going to spend the next part of this talking about what they did. And I mean, our legislature, they adjourned last Friday. There were some things they accomplished. And then I have a list of things that didn't make it to the finish line. But one of the things we need to keep in mind is that this is only the first year of a biennium. So if it didn't make it through both chambers this year, they can still take it up again in January. They don't have to start over again. So we've got one more year to make this happen. The first thing they did is, well, they kind of finally passed the budget, $8.5 billion. Wow. Yeah, they'll take a check. Yeah, there we go. However, as part of that budget, they didn't include extending the Motel Voucher program for our homeless community. That was really awful that day. Well, and without a plan. Well, the and the federal money runs out at the end of June. So all of those people who have been housed in motels, some of whom have health care conditions, mental health oversight, a lot of families, they're just going to be out on the street. And local organizations in the city of Burlington was debating it last night, are scrambling to figure out what to do. And there are a group of Democrats and the progressives who said, you know, the governor said he has issues with this bill. He may veto the budget without extension of that voucher program. We're not too sure. We're going to align with you and vote to override his veto. And they have enough support, right? And there's enough of them that they wouldn't get to their 100 in the house. And Montpelier's representatives, Connor Casey and McCann, are both very vocal saying without the voucher, we're not voting to override the veto. So thank you. However, the budget does include a process to support the child care initiative H217. And Let's Grow Kids said this is the most innovative program, an extensive program in the country to try and set up a network where there are child care providers statewide, they're oversight trained the whole bit. And the business community came out and forced supporting it. And their argument or their support was based on we need child care so our workers can come back to work. They should have just talked to us. Right. Come on. Okay. So their S 100 passed. And this was the bill looking at how do we promote housing and housing development. And they were looking at municipalities, some of the downtown. And this is where, you know, all of the public debate about municipal zoning came into impact. And they eased up on some of the act 250 restrictions. And the governor has indicated he is very much and supported this and thought maybe they could have even gone further because they've been some of the restrictions and requirement to get through the act 250 permitting process as an impediment to development. Because there are all of the environmental studies, there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration. Perhaps we should look at it again. And they got something through it is more than what they anticipated. Mental Health Awareness Month H 230. This is the bill about suicide prevention. And I'm watching very closely to see how the governor responds because a provision in this wreck, in addition to more education outreach funding is once you're approved for the purchase of a firearm, there's a 72 hour wait. So you pass the background check, you don't get the gun immediately, you have to wait 72 hours. And if you have minors or a vulnerable adult in your household, safe storage comes into play. And he said that while he supports and really likes the initiatives for the meant for the suicide prevention aspect, he doesn't know about the gun restrictions. So we're going to be watching it closely. And in the house, it passed by 106 to 34. So that's over the 100 needed to override a veto. And in the Senate, 21 to nine, that's a little closer, but still it's where it needs to be. And as people know, S five, which is the bill on climate control and fossil fuels and trying to do the study to determine how we can transition from fossil fuel to solar and heat pumps. And he vetoed it. And they overwrote it. Yes. So and there's a lot of misinformation that was put out there while this was debated. This bill cannot go into effect until the legislature takes it back up in 2025, reauthorizes it. And that's after there has been a study done on the economic impact on Vermonters, because some of the concern was I have an older home. I'm on a fixed income. I can't afford to do this. So this one just made me chuckle. So I put it in H four 70. This extends until 2025. The I'll take that cocktail to go. Yes. Apparently some people were pleased by find me a law I can get beyond. However, the Department of liquor and lottery have to do a study and report on the public health impact of takeout. I hope they would survey me. They might. And again, H 89 S 37, which we've talked about extensively, the shield laws were voted into were signed into law and the governor made a strong statement about preserving individual rights, individual choice and a strong statement supporting our transgender youth for the gender affirmation language in the bills. And again, how the bills were set up. H 89 was about protections for the providers. Another state couldn't subpoena you to come and testify. If you came from Texas for services, you and the provider here are both protected. S 37 is about the practice, ensuring that insurance covers them and that provide and that the services are available. And I was thankful that they separated them into two bills because otherwise they would have been so unwieldy. It never would have gotten through. S 135 and, you know, working in HR, you'll like this one. Do you know what this bill does? This is the bill that establishes a retirement plan for Vermonters who employers do not offer benefits. You can, you know, small business, they can't afford to. And I think I want shares for Montt or you and it's through the treasurer's office and Mike P check one of our friends. We march with him. Exactly. Heavily supported this. So and it will be through the treasurer's office. They're getting it set up. So access to to mutual funds and all that kind of stuff. Is that what we're talking about? They're setting up retirements. They must have a process. I think Mike has various options of how he wants to proceed. But that's great. The language is there. That's S three, which we really like and has been signed into law prohibits paramilitary training camps. Oh, I did see that. Yeah. And H 190, this removed the residency requirement for our death. I was going to ask you about that. I wrote about that. That's great. One of my neighbors was one of the people who chose death with dignity and really was working for this to happen. Nice. So the things that didn't make it across the finish line that we're going to be watching closely come January, they are waiting to deal with family and medical leave. I mean, with the other budget stuff that they were dealing with, they were like, this is just too much for us to take on paid, paid family medical. Sure. The concern is rights that could be really difficult for smaller businesses. Well, but also it's this is another one where it's going to create a small payroll tax and that you will be paying into the pot of money for a year before it is up and running because it needs to build the revenue to be able to run it. So and there have been varying. So the employer's responsibilities on the payroll tax side of the fence and then the state is going to get involved in dispersing those funds. Is that right? Yes. And as an employee, you will be contributing as well. Kind of like unemployment or FICA, some of those other things. I want to say it's one quarter of one percent, which is a fairly minimal do the math in your head. And this is this makes my head spin and I snap things. We have been trying for multiple sessions to try and amend the harassment and bullying statutes relative to our youth and schools. And every time and this year is no exception when we get close to being able to implement something. The school board association and the principal's association and, you know, the people who are preserving the institution come in and say, oh, we won't be able to get insured. Oh, well, we're already have model policies that we're following. Oh, that, you know, we can take care of this. Well, if you look at the behavioral risk survey, and if you talk to our youth, they're not taking care of it. And frequently their response has been, well, we're doing what we're required. I'm sorry. We need to change the law so that the requirements are think out. Many policies are outdated and don't even include reference to, well, no, no, no, no, no, that's not the issue. The issue is that the current standard is pervasive and severe. Well, which is such a high standard that which is most of these policies are subjective based on the person experiencing it. And do you think so? Yeah, that's been my experience. My written testimony to the education committee was, when are we going to put the best interest of our youth ahead of protecting our institutions? Well, it's not up for the it's not for the schools to decide what's pervasive. It's the person having that experience, right? You can't you can't say that this doesn't meet this threshold. This, well, they're under public accommodations. We need to pull it away from the school. Yeah. If I asked you to do an evaluation of Washington County mental health, how objective do you think you, yeah, it needs to be pulled away from the school investigating themselves. So, but the the other thing that didn't happen is about election reform. And there were various proposals and going through and looking at and part of it was talking about my running as both a progressive and a Democrat simultaneously. And when is that or is that not reasonable and looking at, you know, our voting regs and are there things that need to be tweaked? And the progressives had a very strong position that the Democratic leadership didn't like. So that's still hanging out there. So you're going to tell me some international news? Well, I think I did because I I've got a few international was Jesus with the leather daddies. That was in my goodness. And the the gonorrhea passionate kissing that was international. But I do have a couple more items. Okay. One was getting back to the um twisted sister now. I think this is ironic. Do you remember twisted? Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, now talk about a D Schneider. Yeah, this was somebody that, you know, essentially, the whole band. Exactly. They were like, kiss for goodness sake. So the relationship between the flamboyant rocker and the festival broke down after Snyder tweeted his support for a statement from kiss frontman, Paul Stanley, that's been widely panned as transphobic on Sunday. Stanley. So this is the guy from kiss tweeted out a lengthy statement that read in part with many children who have no real sense of sexuality or sexual experiences caught up in the fun of using pronouns and saying what they identify as some adults mistakenly confused teaching acceptance with normalizing and encouraging a situation that has been a struggle for those truly affected and have turned it into a sad and dangerous fad. The tweet drew a divisive response with many members of the right wing media praising Stanley for his stance. Others called the tweet out as anti trans and accused Stanley of mischaracterizing gender affirming care as a game. Others like offspring guitarist noodles pointed, who says the name noodles pointed out the irony of someone like Stanley who wore high heels makeup and teased hair, his whole career questioning gender affirming care on Monday. Dee Snyder weighed into the debate retweeting what Stanley said and said, you know what? There was a time where I felt pretty too. I'm glad my parents didn't jump to any rash conclusions. Well said. Whoa. Okay. Yeah. On March 27th, Sonny Sonny was a as a as a how old was Sonny? A youngster missed school and waited until late into the night to speak in front of a Texas House of Representatives committee as it considered HB 1686 which would ban puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and gender surgery for under 18s in the state. Bill's currently pending. If you pass this bill and we stay in Texas, I'd grow up looking like my dad. And that's a scary thought. She just makes me laugh. Oh, okay. I want to grow up looking like me. Nobody else. Just Sonny. Just me. I want to see pictures. Okay. Let's see if we can find a picture. I liked that. I liked that one. All right. Back to our leather daddy. I just can't stay away from this because you kind of cut me off. I mean, you gave me the little thing. Anyway, so I just want to finish that thought. Oh, I thought you were finished. Oh, well, I was trying to give you enough airtime, dear, dear Keith. So back to this, this exhibition, not exposition, that's different. The exhibition is going to run till the end of the week. It's only accessible to those working in the parliament or who are granted special accreditation to visit. I just think it's hilarious that she would put this in the House of Parliament. Olson, who's the artist frequently portrays LGBTQ plus people in her photography in 2019. The Church of Sweden decided to remove her LGBTQ inclusive altarpiece called Paradise after realizing that some of the imagery could be interpreted as anti-trans. At the time the church was criticized over the painting, which shows a trans woman in a tree holding a snake associated with Satan in the Bible. Back to, I know Anne is a fan of this Rex Walker. He's the first that was talking about the George Santos. So George Santos represents everything that has reduced the Republican Party to, at best, naked power mongers at any cost. This idea routinely floats around less repulsive corners of LGB landia as well. So he's back to the George Santos wanting to kick transgender folks out of the movement. And he said that you should just run your own movements. And you could insulate the LGBT community or LGB community from further spillover attacks. Let's see what I got here. So basically George Santos is saying that he wants to excommunicate the transgender question folks out of the community altogether. That's a growing, there's a growing movement that says that we should find your own letter. Well no, that we should, sexual orientation and gender identity are separate and distinct and they should be dealt with that way. We shouldn't combine them. So I mean I can see people wanting their own space, their own community, but part of the reason of coming together is to be inclusive of all communities and their strength and numbers and having that sense of support. Anyway, that's so because Ann keeps taking us to India. Yes. And they're debating about marriage and they've gone back and forth. The Supreme No, yes. The government says, you know, we can't be able to. But there's another issue that's come up. Do tell. And the LGBTQ plus groups are saying we don't have access to prep and that not only are we not being supplied with it, our medical providers don't even know what it is and they don't know how to prescribe it. So it's not covered under health insurance. It just doesn't exist at all. We're talking about India where you would be paying out of pocket and a piece of the story. And I looked at it and said, this can't be right. You would be paying about a tenth of your monthly salary just for the prep. Wow. You know, it's like the controversy with, you know, the cost of insulin here. And that there were people who were buying their diabetic supplies versus paying their rent. Well, in India, it's the same. It's like we have nobody advocating for us. We have no one promoting it. And are the doctors allowed to prescribe it? They don't know about it and they don't even have it. You know, it makes me wonder where we are not supplying prep to. But and the sort of backdrop to this, there are 38.4 million people worldwide who are HIV positive. India has the second largest caseload. Wow. So it's so we're also going to go to Korea. Oh, Seoul. Okay. Where, you know, the Seoul Queer Culture Festival submitted a permit and they wanted to use it. I was going to say how that turned out. They wanted to use, you know, the big open space, which they've used before. And they found out that they can't have their festival because Seoul City government issued a permit to CTS Cultural Foundation, an organization linked to local Christian broadcaster, CTS, which has vocally opposed homosexuality in the festival. So it's like, oh, we don't have to say no to you because we've already given the space and your dates to somebody else. That's sleazy. Even though we knew this was your annual festival. At the same time, every year, hence annual. Bingham. So and Sue sent this to me and it made me chuckle. Meanwhile, among the many unintended consequences, Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine has triggered is now another that will likely infuriate the homophobic leader. It is boosting support for gay rights in Ukraine. It's overlining. If Putin hates gays, we should support them, announced one of their lawmakers. And the lawmaker had previously served as an officer in the Soviet Navy. And he was in the Russian KGB, so it had greater impact and would be stored, would be carried by further. And this was the comment is that over 100 soldiers have so far come out as LGBTQ plus and thousands more are estimated to be serving. I think if the parliament were to vote on this today, it would fail. And it was, you know, promoting legalized marriage, civil unions, etc. But my feeling is the parliament is more supportive than our society because 56% of Ukrainians support same sex marriage. Wow. All right. And public support is growing. The government doesn't have an official position yet. But Zelensky listens to the public. Things may be changing. Didn't they set up camps, refugee camps for the LGBT community in Ukraine? Yes, because we couldn't go to Poland. Right. Because Poland had the queer free zones. So in the final really quickly is in Budapest, they had their conservative political action conference where the Hungarian president came out and said, you should be looking at us as a role model because look at all the anti-woke legislation we have been able to promote and that they have successfully banned the depiction of homosexuality or sex reassignment in public media targeting people under 18 and that any information on homosexuality has been forbidden in school sex education programs, films or advertisements accessible to minors, which means they don't exist. Weren't they one of the groups that was being considered for being kicked out of the EU because of their anti-gay policies? Oh, yes. Has that happened yet? No. Okay. Keep us posted. Keep us posted when that happens so we can do a field trip. So our trivia, they are considered to have been the greatest dancer of the 20th century. They helped choreograph classic ballets, the afternoon of the font, the rite of spring z' and Mary pranks. In and out of psychiatric institutions for over 30 years after a diagnosis of schizophrenia, this would be Vasyl Nijinsky who in the dance community is the idol. There in dance there is a phenomenon called a moment of suspension. If you watched Baryshnikov dance, when he would leap, there seemed to be just a moment where he just was suspended and just held there. Nijinsky is noted for just having this incredible moment of suspension. And he was also the lover of the founder of the ballet ruse, Sergei Diaglov, who was a prominent promoter in Europe during this time. So with that, remember we need to resist.