 I'm Keith Gosland. I'm Ann Charles. And I'm Linda Quinlan, and welcome to All Things LGBTQ. It is February 9th, 2021, and we are in Montpelier-Vermont, which is unceded Indigenous land. So welcome to the show. And to start off with, I want to acknowledge that February has been designated Black History Month. And it's your birthday month. It's been designated Black History Month. But here's the first of a two-part question. Why February? And then, who was the first black elected public official in the U.S.? And at least one of you, I'm hoping, knows this. I might know that. Okay. So under events, you know, final plug that the LGBTQI Alliance Alliance Town Hall forums are continuing on February 18th is the Forum on Aging. On the 23rd is Racial Justice, which should be very interesting. And then on Town Meeting Day, March 2nd is the statewide caucus. Also be looking at the Pride Center's events page momentum. Their next coffee and chat is on the 21st. And again, that's co-sponsored with Rainbow Umbrella. It's a virtual event. Don't have to get out of your jammies. Not that many of us do these days. Also be looking at Queer Connect. And if you saw the interview, you know there's changes happening and then out in the open. Wanted to do an acknowledgement that we have been promoting the benefit Vermont Pride Theater at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph. What I didn't appreciate is that was their farewell performance. That after 10 years, they're closing down the Pride Festival. I have also heard though that they're shifting their focus from gay LGBT concerns to other concerns. So it will be a social concerns issued festival, not necessarily LGBTQ plus. Right. Okay. That was not part of the release that they sent to me. This is an anecdotal point. Sometimes and knows. I also want to talk about Marial. The Superior Court of Quebec has invalidated several articles of the Civil Code of Quebec that discriminated against trans and non-binary people. However, there is still some debate about minors changing their name and getting parental permission. And the reason the judge said that they didn't rule on that is because there may be other concerns other than just being designated as non-binary or transgender. I just may be wanting to irritate my parents. Not that any of us would do that. So maybe Linda has this later on, but the CDC is saying that the LGBT plus community and we don't have data. I do. So what we will be looking at is putting greater pressure on our Vermont Department of Health of what are you going to do in response to this. And Lisa Miller, if the name sounds familiar, because over the last four years, we've talked about the Lisa Miller Janet Jenkins custody case where they were in Virginia. They came to Vermont to enter into a civil union. Lisa had a daughter by virtue of alternative insemination. They separated. Lisa returned to Virginia. Oh, I'm no longer a lesbian. She was born again. Well, I was going to say, and there was custody, visitation issues back and forth. And finally, a Vermont judge gave Janet custody because Lisa refused to honor the visitation, at which point the community of faith moved her to New York, to Canada, and then they believe Nicaragua. Well, Lisa has turned herself in and is now sitting, excuse me, in a federal penitentiary in Miami, waiting to be extradited to New York, which is her last place prior to disappearing to face kidnapping charges. Why did she turn herself in? It didn't say, but there was a little addendum that the daughter Isabella is now 18. So it may be I no longer need to protect my child. And so on to you, Ann, because you're going to take me to far distant places. Poland. And there's a Poland story. A lot of special time for it. They've missed you. But let's start with Russia. There's mixed news from Russia. A Russian court once again insists that a transgender woman can keep the printing job she was fired from after her gender change. And the reason they fired her was that they don't allow women printers. But the government has backed her up. But on the flip side, they have revealed their homophobic tendencies because they returned to escaped gay men to the Chechen police. They had escaped to another part of Russia. And, you know, I heard I've been listening to a lot of human rights panels. And Rainbow Railroad says that rather than leave the country, refugees would rather be relocated to another part of the country. But in this case, they're being sent back to Chechnya. China has had an interesting internet development. New internet rules are going to silence Chinese voices. And, you know, the government, the media is state-owned, but all these other social media venues have sprung up and have lots of followers. But because of the difficulty with the revelation about that doctor in Wuhan, the Chinese government is cracking down and says you have to have a license to have a social media account, which means you can't advertise any LGBT events and there's a lot of anxiety in China about that. In Bulgaria, a child is at risk of statelessness. And I saw that. It's just bizarre. Isn't it? It's just very strange. And let me tell you a little more about it. I have all this China information. But in Bulgaria, same sex marriages and same sex registered partnerships are not recognized. I'd like to remind you that in her State of the Union 2020 address, President Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU, said if you're a parent in one country, you are a parent in every country. But that doesn't apply to Bulgaria, apparently. One mother is from Bulgaria and the other is Gibraltar born Jane Jones. They're the mothers of Sarah. And under current Spanish law, Sarah cannot acquire Spanish citizenship because neither parent is a Spanish citizen. She was denied British citizenship because Jane was born in Gibraltar of British descent. So currently, she's stateless. So I'm hoping Bulgaria will respond positively to their suit. Bermuda could set the stage for the Cayman Islands. They're hearing, the Primate Council is hearing their suit this week. And then again, and then next week, the Cayman Islands is coming up. And I'd like to show you a picture again of Shantel Day and Vicky Baden Bush, who are the plaintiffs of the litigants in the Cayman Islands. So that's all pending. Is that a British overseas territory? Yes. And I have another story from Belize that Belize, because it doesn't have same-sex marriage, LGBT couples are losing out on food distribution and on all the laws that marriage gives you. So they have kids, they can't, the other spouse can't take care, become the child's guardian. So I have a picture now before you of one of the plaintiffs, an activist, Felicia, something Salazar, Derecia Castillo Salazar, and she's head of a circle of LGBTQ families and they're agitating to change for same-sex marriage recognition or some other kind of legal recognition to diminish the burden of the pandemic. In Albania, South Korea has changed its law, its definition of families because they're having a population shortage. So they're offering incentives to have kids and so forth, but only to heterosexuals. So LGBTQ potential parents forget it. Exactly. Similarly, same-sex partnerships aren't recognized in Albania. So there's a call to expand the family code there. In Germany, a couple of fights for the rights of LGBT families and once this is in southern Germany. Doesn't Germany have national laws? But in this case, two women are fighting to be recognized as the mothers of their daughter because the second mother, who's not the biological mother, has to file to get custody. Yes, exactly. Because in the case of heterosexual married couples, fathers automatically become the guardian, not so with LGBT people. The current regulation is primarily at the expense of children in queer families. So she has only one mother and can't, you know, she gets sick too bad, this child, Sarah. Now, these are stories I'm going to talk more about in my segment. Norway is finding Grindr for $11.7 million over privacy breaches. They just sell the information to advertisers, anybody. And, you know, put Grindr users at risk and out them, and that doesn't really require much more coverage. But Norway has joined with Iceland and Liechtenstein to cancel a grant to a Polish LGBT zone, LGBT free zone, I always say that. And I'll talk more about that. Two men are caned 77 times for having sex in Indonesia's Ache Province. I'll talk more about that. And I will show you a clip of the strong ones. Los Huirtes, a 2019 Chilean film that you can watch for $4.99 if you Google it. But I'll tell you more about that. And to wrap it up, stories I'm not going to get to, 185 LGBTQ German actors stage a mass coming out and call for more on-screen diversity. And they all talk about how people said, look, don't come out, you're going to ruin your career. And you know Babylon Berlin? That's the bad guy. I love that show. Well, Samuel Udo is his name. And he was part of this group. I'm impressed they got 185. Yeah. And so in Venezuela, prison sentences have been ordered for five NGO workers in an HIV clinic. It's called Asul Positivo. And the government just rated the clinic and the rest of five people. And there were charges of misusing in Venezuela. So that's causing alarm. Now I have a picture of Britain's first openly lesbian MP, Maureen Calakoun. Calakoun. She dies at 92, but the picture's one. You know, she was a lot younger. She was elected in the 70s. And interestingly, she was working, she was a feminist. And she was working on a particular bill with a woman. And all of a sudden, the light dawned. And she left her husband and her kids and moved in with babs. And they have been lovers for many years. So she was voted out of office, but remained politically active for the rest of her life. And finally, Australian survivors welcome Victorian conversion practices law. Finally, conversion therapy has been outlawed in Victoria, Australia. So that's it from me for the moment. President Biden signs a foreign memo putting you asked at the forefront of global LGBTQ rights. People in the LGBT community are more vulnerable to COVID, the CDC warns, and seem to be susceptible to more severe symptoms. The LGBT community experiences more health disparities than their stray counterparts, partly due to sexual stigma and discrimination. And 31 anti-trans bills have been filed in 20 states. I'll have more about that. Mississippi Governor Tate Reed goes on an anti-trans tirade over Biden's pro-LGBTQ protections. Pete Buttigieg selects a gay Indigenous aviation expert to work in his transportation department. We'll have a little more about that. And then former Vice President Mike Penchill, I'll be really surprised by this, has been hired by anti-LGBT group, the Heritage Foundation. I'm shocked. How'd you shocked? He worked for them when he was Vice President. However, not officially as he was not on their payroll at the time. Well, at least not that we know of. A black transgender woman who shot to death in Mississippi, Bianca Muffin Banks of Jackson, Mississippi, was fatally, she was 30, and she was fatally shot in her apartment. Her murder is considered a hate crime officials believe at this time. Color Purple actress is fired for her homophobic statements, and C.A. Umba is suing the theater and former agent after being fired from the lead role in the Color Purple. But the theater lawyers argue that she wouldn't have played the lead anyway. She was fired from the revival when past homophobics remarks, she made surface. I remember hearing about that a while ago. Yeah, but now she's suing. So it's an ongoing suit. She must still be suing. Yeah. There were 13 senators that voted against Pete Buttigieg's confirmation. Some of them were, and you'll be surprised at this too. I didn't name them all, but Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, Marco Rubio, Josh Holly, Tim Scott, and they are, at least from my point of view, the most famous of the 13. QAnon Congresswoman wants to ban Pride Flag as a hate Americans flag at embassies. Yep. You guessed it right. Guess who it was? Marjorie Taylor Greene. Why are we giving her such air? I know. Pennsylvania Dapper, Lieutenant Governor, has gave flag battle. John Faderman fights for flying rainbow flags. We'll have more than that. I love him. I know. He's great, isn't he? COVID takes the life of beloved LGBTQ activist, common Vazquez. The Puerto Rican born, Vazquez, empowered her community from coast to coast. They spent time in San Francisco where she was the founding director of the Women's Building and helped to establish the lavender youth recreation and information center. She died of COVID and she was 72. Vazquez. Yes, Vazquez. Thank you. You're always there on the ready. For the first time ever, three national LGBTQ organizations will have Black leaders. I'll have more about that. And for the last part of this segment, there are 14 films are being shown at the Sundance Film Festival 2021 that have LGBTQ appearances. The films that I've listed and you can go to Sundance and see all 14, but I have the world to come. We're all going to the World's Fair, together, together, passing to name a few. So go look on Sundance. They have 14. I think that should be very fun to watch. Well, may I add? Yeah. There's another film at Sundance about Paulie Murray, that legendary African-American activist. I think it's called My Name is Paulie Murray. And I've been trying to figure out how to see it. It's on Amazon Vimeo, and I would love to see it. But it's not part of Sundance, is it? Yeah, it is. Well, I was going to ask if Sundance was a virtual event, and could we just log on to watch it? Because it's a Sunday. I looked, and I didn't see it on there. I know. Maybe because it's on the Amazon Vimeo now. Yeah. Maybe you can rent it from there. Maybe you can rent it from Amazon or just pay. I don't know, because I heard that if you sign up for a free trial, you can never get off it. Well, you can get off it, but it's, you know, they don't make it easy. But anyway, good. Anyway, it's a wonderful film. I love to see it. Keith. So you'll be surprised if I'm going to talk about Vermont politics. Yeah. So the first thing is, this is a story that's still being developed, and it's about the Bright Leadership Institute, and we were talking a bit before we started taping, because the news reporting on this has been inconsistent. There was $100,000 grant that was given from the Northfield Savings Bank, and it's to encourage people to become involved in the public political process to run for office to give them training and financial support. And this is where I said, you know, it's still a work in progress, because there's some of the reporting that indicates that it's for the BIPOC communities, women within the BIPOCs community, the BIPOCs communities, and the LGBTQ plus communities. And some of the people who are involved in this are names that are very familiar to us. Former Representative Kaya Morris, State Senator Keisha Ram, the former Vermont chair of the NAACP Tabitha Mohr, former Representative Nadir Hashim, and one of our favorites, Arshad Hasan. So I've reached out to them saying, can you please tell me more about what it is that you are truly intending this new institute to do? And my guess is, Keisha Ram was involved in the founding of the merge, so they're looking at doing training and helping people get set up. So Jess, as an aside, the members of the liaison team for the LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont have had several meetings this month already with, you know, the monthly meeting with the office of the governor. Had a meeting with Susanna Davis, the racial equity office for the state of Vermont, which was a very interesting conversation about where we overlap and not allowing the sort of white dominance to separate us into silos because we have greater strength together. But because of her demands, we're only going to be meeting on a quarterly basis, because she don't got time. And the other meeting was with Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray. And this was the first sort of getting to know you. And Rachel would be pleased to know that she has a commitment for funding and outreach abroad ban. And at the end of the meeting, the Lieutenant Governor said, could we please meet on a monthly basis to talk about what were the issues we were encountering, the things that were going on for which she could either be supportive or really needed to be aware. You know, I think I've been hearing about broadband for like 10 years now. You have. You have. So in the legislature, some of the things we're going to be following is this Thursday, which is like two days after we're taping, is the first committee hearing on H-128, which would impose a ban on defenses based on victim identity. So this is the Trangay Panics Defense. Taylor Small is one of the co-sponsors. And what Taylor had been told at the beginning of the session was don't, you know, don't really look at introducing anything that's not COVID related while judiciary is taking this right up. However, there is a compliment bill in the Senate S-58, which is a short bill that says you cannot use a Trangay Panic Defense period. That's the entire bill. What's interesting, however, is the two sponsors. One is Senator McCormick from Windsor County. The other is Senator Brock from Franklin County, who may be the Republican leader in the House. So that was very interesting. Representative Rachelson of Burlington has introduced H-192. This would create a public school bill of rights for transgender and gender non-conforming students. She introduced it last year. The Education Committee didn't take it up. Really quickly, Senator Harding from Addison County introduced a bill that will be of interest to people here in Montpelier, S-63. This would prohibit schools from hiring school resource officers. And what she said in her press release was schools have already spent over $2 million on the student resource officers. Schools that have resource officers have 3.5 times the number of arrests and students of color are 5.4 times more likely than white students to be charged. And then for our friends here, H-177, Kitts Miller and Hooper have again introduced a bill to amend the charter change for voting. Remember that? That's coming up again. And this is for you, Linda. The Vermont Department of Public Safety, they're creating 190 Wi-Fi hotspots around the state. There's going to be one outside of Montpelier City Hall available all hours from the courtyard or the parking lot adjacent to the building. No password required and you'll find it under Montpelier hotspot. It's going to be cold. Yeah, but if it's in the parking lot, you could sit in your car. You could drive your kid to So back to you. Well, let me talk about a headline I overlooked that dovetails with Linda's story. Putrajaya is a place in it's near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and they have said they oppose U.S. President Biden's global pro-LGBT initiative. So they want to put themselves on the record. But it's sort of interesting because this opponent says that he opposes LGBT people but he supports because they are those lifestyles he calls them are not recognized by the Muslim faith but he supports intersex people because they are not prohibited by the Muslim faith. So that's interesting. We've been reduced to a lifestyle. Let's talk about Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, the defenders of freedom. They canceled this major grant to Poland's Carpathian Mountains after a region passed a resolution against LGBT ideology. Norway said on Tuesday the decision to pull out of the 8.4 million Zlati which is 2.25 million dollars, culture and natural heritage project which is largely funded by European countries signals growing international pressure on Poland over its homophobic stance. The grant was withdrawn in September but the decision only came to light on Tuesday and I for one was happy to read about it. When a Polish LGBT activist published it on his website he published some correspondence about it by adopting a resolution explicitly referring to LGBT or LGBT ideology. The lead partner discriminates against an identifiable group of persons a Norwegian official wrote referring to the southeastern Polish region of Podkar Pasi. It would not fund any of that nearly 100, this is Norway, of nearly 100 Polish municipalities that have issued LGBT free resolutions which the European Union has condemned as humanity free zones. Podkar or Pakiqi, at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, I think it's Carpathian, I look at the pronunciation and Carpathian. That sounds right. Carpathian Mountains is a popular holiday destination for hikers but they passed in 2019 a resolution expressing opposition to the promotion and affirmation of the ideology of the so-called LGBT movements. So-called. Yeah, in another letter published online Poland's Minister of Funds and Regional Policy said the LGBT free zones do not discriminate against anyone on the basis of any personal features. They do not entail any legal consequences or only opinions and do not affect rights and obligations of the residents. So there we go. In Turkey- We know nothing. I'm telling you, in Turkey, but the European Union seems to be onto this, onto them. In Turkey, the University, Bogazizi, which I think is right, has appointed a rector and students are up in arms about it because the rector is affiliated with the PK party of Erdogan, the right-wing head of government. So they began protesting and four students put up some artwork that resulted in their arrest but the artwork reportedly depicted LGBT rainbow symbols alongside an image of an Islamic site. Istanbul's Governor's Office said the artwork was an ugly attack that mocked religious beliefs. The Interior Minister tweeted that the students were deviance, drawing in angry response from activists and once again homosexuality is legal in modern Turkey's history but official opposition to the LGBT community has grown in recent years. Yeah, they've had some big backlash there. It was getting towards a more- It was becoming more secular. Yeah, more modern. Turkey. But the Istanbul Pride March was banned for five years in a row up to 2019 and then they couldn't do it in 2020 because of COVID. Public opinion is generally conservative and the LGBT community has reported widespread discrimination and harassment. And I looked for copies of this artwork but I couldn't find any. It depicted the LGBT rainbow symbols alongside the Kaaba, the building at the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the most sacred site in Islam. There was also an image of the Sa Shama Haran, a popular Middle Eastern mythical creature, half-woman and half-snake. The chief advisor to Erdogan said neither freedom of expression nor the right to protest could defend the artwork. Adding the act would receive the punishment it deserves before the law. I'm worried for these artists. The Interior Minister who said said the LGBT, the four deviants who committed the disrespect were detained. Some social media called this hate speech and called for the tweet to be deleted, but conservative and pro-government social media users also condemned many, condemned the students. So this rector is Mele Bulu who the demonstrators believe has close links to the Erdogan AK party. And he says he's not going to resign. And protests are swelling and people are getting arrested and it's a bad situation in Turkey. Now let me just talk about this caning if I could. Two men in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province were publicly caned each 77 times Thursday after neighbors reported them to the Islamic Religious Police for having sex. They rented a room and a neighbor informed on them burst into the room and discovered them having sex. Dozens of people witnessed the caning in the city park. This is the third time that Aceh, the only province in Indonesia to practice Sharia law, has caned people for homosexuality since Islamic law was implemented in 2015. The men were aged our age 27 and 29. They were arrested in November. A Sharia court last month sentenced each man to 80 strokes, but they only got 77 because they were merciful. No, because they spent time in prison. Well, I was going to ask if there was a significance to the number of strokes. I mean, was that, is the number of strokes, well no, are the number of strokes indicative of what's viewed as being the severity of the crime? Or is there a, because it's based on religious law, is there something within the religious tradition that dictates? You steal bread, you get 30. If you're gay, you get 80. I mean, well, I know. Yeah, okay. Well, let me, I have more. I don't, this doesn't answer your question, but I have more details. Four other people received 17 strokes for extramarital relations and 40 strokes for drinking alcohol. The Sharia law code allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses, including gay sex. Painting is also punishment for adultery, gambling, drinking, and for women who wear tight clothes and men who skip Friday prayers. So it's Sharia law codes. Can you imagine? With the exception of Aceh, homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but the country's local file LGBT community has been under siege for the last, for the past years. And now before my segment ends, I'd like to introduce you to the strong ones. Here's the plot. Lucas travels to the town of Nabla in southern Chile to visit his sister Carolina before departing to Montreal, where he's received a scholarship for postgraduate studies. In Nabla, Lucas befriends and falls in love with Antonio, a fisherman and part-time actor for historical reenactments of the capture of Valdivia's fortresses. And Valdivia is where it's filmed and it's famous for its fortresses. So let's take a look at the strong ones. How was the trip? Good. When do you have a ticket? On the 23rd. Hello. Hello. Do you need help? Well... Have you seen the sea? Yes. A couple of days. I didn't come here for a couple of days. I thought I was out. That's better. Good clip? Yeah. I'd like to see it. I know. $4.99, go online. So I have more, but I think I should defer. That's all the clips you have, right? That's my only clip. That's your only clip. Okay. Well, I'll continue that. Oh, please. And you know, I know if I run out of stories, you'll have. I have. You have walked right now. Many. Just supplement. There's a Native American couple redefining cultural norms in photos. Tomás Camelo, a Maya, took a portrait of a couple kissing while wearing colorful regalia. The couple are Nevada-based dancers Adrienne Stevens and Sean Snyder. They were visiting a reservation to dance in the Vita Wasipi. Excuse me. Powwow. Stevens is a Native Yute ancestry, and Snyder is Southern Yute and Navajo. They are two-spirited couple that have been together for seven years. It's not biological spiritual, Stevens says. My aunties recognized me as two-spirited before I did myself. And here are two pictures. One is a picture of them kissing in these beautiful regalia. And then there's a picture of one of the men dancing. So, gay Asian American Andrean Tam defeats proud boy Nicholas Oakes in Hawaii legislature. Staten Island man is arrested for harassing a gay couple in their own house. Clifford Hamill was arrested on February 3rd. He marched right into their house and spewed anti-LGBTQ floors, kicked their front door, and issued direct threats. So, I heard about that. Charming. Isn't it? There is a petition to rescue children from the American Girl Doll. Do you know about this? No. The aunts. They have lesbian aunties. Yes. Again, one million moms, which probably consists of one. Jumped on the bandwagon against the American Girl Doll, saying, conservative parents are outraged. What is the American girl doll? It must be like a Barbie doll. Why is it that I'm the only one here who knows that an American Girl Doll is- Is it the porcelain ones? No, it's not porcelain. But it's- It's like a Barbie, right? Well, but it's larger. It's for a younger audience. And there's a whole series of them depicting themes and events and yeah. No kidding. I had no idea. I'm here for you. But I'm not sharing my Barbies. I knew it was like some kind of a doll thing, but- There's a whole series, huh? Oh, yeah. It's a collector culty thing that rivals Barbies. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, Barbies- I'm sure one of the lesbian aunties come in. Well, they're part of- They introduce them. Of the American Family Doll. Well, are there auntie dolls? They're auntie dolls. Yeah, they're aunties who are lesbian. Who are part of the American- Doll series. So it's a whole series of dolls. Yeah. Yes. So now there's aunties. Oh, very interesting. Elliot Page and his wife, Emma Portnore, have announced that they are divorcing. The divorce comes two months after Elliot comes out as transgender. Golden Globe nominations feature LGBTQ representation. And some of them are Schitt's Creek. You know, I tried watching that series. I don't know. Maybe I didn't watch enough. The Golden Globes are going to be broadcast on February 28th. Yeah. I'm thinking of watching. Including Best Musical Netflix Ratchet for Best TV series. That was just too close for me to watch. I love that. Bose, the flight attendant, which I didn't see. And the United States versus Billie Holiday. So those are a couple of them. You showed a clip of that. I did. I did. Let me see if I can get back to the beginning here. Wait a minute. Well, there is a controversy because James Corden, I guess, was nominated. And, you know, as a heterosexual playing and being an aunt. Some of the gay community is. Oh, I know. Up in arms. For the first time ever, three national LGBTQ organizations will have Black leaders. The National LGBTQ Task Force. The Human Rights Campaign. And the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Kiara Johnson of the National LGBTQ Task Force. Alfonso David of the Human Rights Campaign. And Imani Rupert Gordon for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. So that is good news, don't you think? Okay. And, oh, the governor. We'll talk a little bit about the DAPRA Lieutenant Governor. Oh, John Federman. I love him. I see him on CNN and MSNBC all the time. And isn't he the one that said he the only fraud he found was two people who tried to vote for their mothers for Trump. Something like that. In Pennsylvania, right? Yes. And he said, you know, he's waiting for his million dollars that was promised to anybody. Oh, right, right. But who could prove fraud? By Texas, who said if you could find fraud, they'd give you a million dollars. Well, he found fraud and they haven't yet to receive the money. So anyway, that's him. So John Federman fights for flying rainbow colors. The State Department of General Services said it removed the flags because of provision in the budget bill passed by the Republican controlled legislature. The flags don't qualify under the law to be displayed at the Capitol. Federman said he'll stop flying the flags when recreational marijuana is legalized. And gay and transgender rights become protected under the law. To use state resources during a time of such upheaval to worry about two flags that I have hanging from my balcony seems odd, he said. The Lieutenant Governor said he's not angry at the state workers who removed the flags because they're caught in the middle of a political dispute. He already put the flags back up once this week. But they were taken down. And then he put them up again. And the spokeswoman said he'll probably put them, keep putting them up again on Monday. He might run for Senate, isn't that? He might run for Senator. Yeah. Of Pennsylvania. Yeah, and he would be really good, I think. Yeah. He's been, I mean, didn't the legislature expel him or refuse to let him in? Yeah. He's got an outlaw. He is indeed. And then I just want to talk a little bit for a few seconds about the 31 trans bills filed in 20 states. So the GOP targets school children nationwide. Georgia Representative Philip Singleton, Republican, filed a bill that makes the state 17th in the nation to consider a bill that would not allow trans girls and women to compete in school sports. And women have to play according to their agenda. Idaho passed two anti-trans law bills during the pandemic and is now getting sued for both. Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, and Texas are all considering bills. That would ban trans girls and women from school sports. Arizona, if the bill passes, prescribes puberty blockers to a trans patient would be committing a class two felony and any doctor could spend up to 12 years in prison. So this is backlash against Biden's national... Well, it's been going on for, you know, the whole... Well, I think we need to do a little homework to determine what is the umbrella that the Bostock decision will render if it's only those positions within the federal government or if you receive federal funding or if it's more overarching than that. Because I know sports is one of the places where Title IX comes up frequently. And I also think, you know, it's like, I guess when you do like public surveys or something, it's like, you know, 70% of the population doesn't really care about LGBTQ issues. You know, they're, you know, and so the Republicans need some place to go. And so this is a convenient target for them to go after transgender people. I just like to tell them that trainers left the station friends. And they always go for youth because it's where they see us as being vulnerable. Because in the back of everyone's minds, it's, you know, it's the queer people who are the predators. We have to protect our children when it's the straight, white, cisgendered men that you really need to be worrying about. Yes. And we have trivia, don't we? Yes, we do. Can I make a guess before? Okay. Well, the first is February is Black History Month. Yeah, I don't know that. So how did they land on February? And you know part of the answer. We do. Yeah, you do. Yeah, Ann's like, I do. I know February. It might have to do with birthdays. Martin Luther King's birthday? It might have to do with birthdays. As in Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, which is why you should... I shouldn't have known that. And here's the third birthday. And it was the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday when the NAACP was founded. Wow, I didn't know that. Specifically on his birthday. Now the other is who was the first Black elected public official in the US? Shirley Chisholm? Was straight. Adam Clayton Powell was straight. And a homophobe, I was just reading. Wait a minute, say that again. Who was the first Black elected public official in the US? That mayor from Boston? No, Senator from Boston, no. It might have been 1989 in Albany, New York, that New York connection, the common council, which is the city council, Keith St. John, which was not someone I knew, but it was that New York connection. I didn't know that, no. So who was the first openly LGBTQ Black elected official in Vermont? Oh, God. We may still be waiting. I know, that's a stumper. We may still be waiting. A trick question. He has a trick question. I know it. Well, the one thing I didn't say is the Bright Institute, they picked the name Bright to recognize Louvinia Bright, who was the first woman of color elected to the Vermont legislature. Wow. Which is where the, you know, is this for BIPOC women who are running for office comes in, because it was an affirmation of Louvinia was our first, and it wasn't until Kaya was elected that she was the second. So we don't have a good track record. And, you know, like I was just reading, I think somewhere from Montague or maybe about a woman who is African American, who is leaving Bennington area and her farm, because there's so much racism and she's having a really hard time. I saw a headline that people of color are losing. Right. At Rutland, in particular, Bennington was Kaya Morris. And what year was that Bright elected? That was in the late 80s, late 80s, early 90s, because she was one of the sponsors on the gay rights bill. She got the intersectionality of race and other social classes. So Vermont has a lot of work to do, I think, still when it comes to race. It's why they've got us. And with that, I'm going to say, keep on going, keep on resisting.