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- With Fewer Protections and More Paperwork, LGBTQ+ Americans Face a Medicaid Coverage Cliff

- NFL Quarterback Caleb Williams Keeps Pissing Off Conservatives by … Painting His Nails?

- Gay Exorcism Survivor Receives Five-Figure Settlement From U.K. Church

- Trump Is Shutting Down 988’s LGBTQ+ Services. These Hotlines Can Still Help

- Gabby Windey Will Bring Her Zany Wisdom to Yacht-Based Reality Show ‘Love Overboard’

- Trump Is Threatening Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. Their Decades-Long Feud, Explained

- Stonewall Monument Website Quietly Cuts the Word “Bisexual” After Already Axing “Transgender”

- Even Pro-Israel Congressman Ritchie Torres Admits Zohran Mamdani Made Some Points

- All Things Go Releases Jack Antonoff-Produced Maren Morris Song to Benefit LGBTQ+ Youth

- Ts Madison’s Comments About Nonbinary Identity, Explained

- The DOJ Is Investigating Clinics That Serve Trans Youth for “Healthcare Fraud”

- Grandpa Battling Stage Four Cancer Fined $16k Over Pro-Trans Rights Protest

- In Face of Trans Athlete Threats, California Refuses to Bow Down to Linda McMahon

- Pope Leo Signals Catholic Church Will Continue One of Francis’ Biggest LGBTQ+ Reforms

- Why the Executive Producers of ‘Drag Race’ Sponsored Small-Town Prides From Georgia to New Hampshire

- Why JT Won’t Stop Supporting Trans Rights: Politicians “Just Can’t Mind They Damn Business”

NEWS | JUL 15, 2025, 4:14 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

With Fewer Protections and More Paperwork, LGBTQ+ Americans Face a Medicaid Coverage Cliff

LGBTQ+ adults are twice as likely to use Medicaid as their main insurance. Trump’s new tax law could create insurmountable hurdles for their health care.

Leigh Vogel/Getty Images

This story originally appeared on The 19th.

Millions of Americans are expected to lose health care coverage through President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful” tax and spending law — and LGBTQ+ Americans, who rely heavily on social services due to high rates of poverty and disability, are among those who will be most impacted. Experts say that widespread loss of health care, coupled with rising discrimination and fewer workplace protections, will create a worst-case scenario for LGBTQ+ rights.

“These support programs are being cut amid an increased environment of hostility towards LGBTQ+ people,” said Brad Sears, distinguished scholar of law and policy at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. “We’re really seeing this coming together … of different pressures that are going to lead to poverty and unemployment among LGBTQ+ people.”

The law issues extensive cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — two programs designed for low-income and disabled Americans that many LGBTQ+ people need to survive. LGBTQ+ adults are twice as likely as non-LGBTQ+ adults to use Medicaid as their main insurance, according to the Williams Institute, and are more likely to experience food insecurity and rely on SNAP benefits. Medicaid is also the primary insurance for Americans living with HIV.

Medicaid cuts will profoundly impact disabled LGBTQ+ adults and those with low incomes, according to a recent Williams Institute report, as well as those raising children. People of color, transgender adults, and cisgender lesbian and bisexual women will be especially impacted.

“It’s a sort of death by a thousand cuts,” said Katie Keith, director of the center for health policy and the law at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown Law.

The law attaches more documentation and a work requirement to Medicaid, while putting more costs on hospitals when patients don’t have insurance and can’t pay. People will lose coverage altogether or have less comprehensive coverage, Keith said.

The law, which goes into effect next December, cuts federal spending on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 11.8 million Americans will lose health care coverage over the next decade due to the law’s Medicaid cuts. Roughly 1.8 million LGBTQ+ adults use Medicaid as their primary health insurance, including more than 1.2 million lesbian and bisexual women, per the Williams Institute.

The law creates an 80-hours-a-month work requirement in order to access Medicaid — although recipients can volunteer for 80 hours a month instead or enroll in at least a part-time education program. These requirements go into effect in early 2027. Exceptions are granted to disabled adults, pregnant women — the law only refers to women, leaving out pregnant trans men or nonbinary people —  and parents of young children, but experts say it’s unclear how meaningful these exceptions will be and whether patients are aware of them.

“The Congressional Budget Office has really pinpointed work requirements as what’s going to lead to disenrollment,” Sears said. “The red tape, the bureaucracy, disenrolls people who would otherwise be eligible.”

Medicaid recipients will now have to file paperwork every six months to prove that they are working or volunteering for 80 hours a month, or to request an exemption, said Lindsey Dawson, director of LGBTQ health policy at KFF. These requirements, which have never been issued on a national level before, are expected to dramatically reduce Medicaid enrollment, she said. If someone is already navigating difficult circumstances, like an unstable living situation or surviving on minimal income, they probably won’t be able to keep up with additional paperwork.

The 19th spoke with several LGBTQ+ people on Medicaid who doubt that work requirement exceptions for disabled people and parents will help them keep their coverage, even though they qualify for now. They still expect to lose their health care due to the burdens of this new paperwork, or because of how much money hospitals are expected to lose under this new law.

“Why does it have to be like this? It really feels overwhelming, because it doesn’t seem like it should be this hard to make sure that people can go to the doctor,” said Frankie Brletich, a 30-year-old nonbinary person living in Philadelphia.

They know how hard it can be to navigate the red tape of health insurance, prescriptions and doctor’s visits as a disabled person. They expect these new Medicaid work requirements to make it worse, and to ultimately discourage disabled people from seeking out coverage altogether. Under Trump’s new tax law, Brletich has been worried about losing the Medicaid coverage that took them so long to get.

They have been unable to work for over a year, as they experience chronic fatigue, chronic pain and have a history of mental illness. They applied for Medicaid in December when they left their job and didn’t get approved until March this year. In the meantime, they were uninsured. They ran out of psychiatric medications as well as their testosterone prescription, leaving them in a depressive state as their mental health declined. As they left their employer-sponsored private insurance and switched to Medicaid, they had to deal with pharmacy mishaps, change medical providers and get a new therapist.

Soon, they will face even more red tape to access the Medicaid coverage that they sorely need. Meanwhile, they are working with a lawyer to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance, which sends monthly payments to people with a disability that hinders their ability to work. The first time they applied for SSDI, they were denied. They’re appealing that decision.

Although Trump’s new tax and spending law includes exceptions for disabled Americans in its work or volunteer requirements, the law puts the burden of accessing those exceptions onto disabled people like Brletich.

“There’s still the administrative burden of paperwork that is then put on to me to re-up every time and to constantly prove that I am ‘still disabled,’” they said.

The Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ+ policy, estimates that between three to five million LGBTQ+ people in the United States have disabilities, including 2 in 5 transgender adults. This group faces steep barriers to health care access, due to medical discrimination and lower rates of health insurance. LGBTQ+ people are also more likely to experience mental health conditions that impact daily life, compared to the general population.

Although these Medicaid cuts will harm many Americans, Keith is especially concerned about how it will impact transgender people, since health care access for this group is being threatened on multiple fronts. Starting in 2026, insurance sold on the individual and small-group marketplace will no longer cover gender-affirming care, which is expected to raise costs overall. In Congress, Republican lawmakers had planned to prohibit Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care for transgender adults and minors altogether, but that provision was dropped in the final version of the spending bill.

“Any time you are fraying the social safety net, as they are doing here, you are inevitably going to hard vulnerable populations, including transgender communities,” Keith said.

Another Medicaid recipient in Washington state told The 19th that she believes carve-outs for work exceptions will still be a significant barrier for disabled Americans. She asked to remain anonymous due to prior experiences receiving death threats for her advocacy as a trans woman.

“If you have a significant disability or multiple disabilities, if somebody cuts you off of your health care and then sends you a letter saying, ‘By the way, there’s this administrative process by which you can get back on’ — it is the people with disabilities that are going to be least able to navigate that system, including me,” she said.

As a disabled woman in her mid-50s with an annual income of about $8,000, she would not be able to see a doctor without Medicaid. She enrolled in Apple Health, the expanded Medicaid program in Washington, in January. Until that point, it had been almost five years since she had had health insurance or seen a doctor.

Due to a combination of factors — depression, severe social anxiety, and chronic pain — applying was too difficult. And she couldn’t see a doctor without insurance, because paying out of pocket was just not possible. So she avoided medical care, and also largely avoided leaving the house. If she loses coverage again, it may take her another four years to re-enroll, she said; that’s how long it took her to navigate the process the first time.

Costs for states to run their Medicaid programs are also expected to rise, Dawson said, as the new law effectively decreases the revenue that states can generate from their programs. Some states may have to shrink their Medicaid programs if they can’t afford to run it under the new law.

“We have not historically seen changes to our health care system that would result in coverage losses like this before,” she said. “It’s really a significant rollback in federal support for health coverage, and I think states will be faced with tough choices.”

Considering the scope of these cuts, Cassidy Vare, a Philadelphia resident who relies on Medicaid coverage for her and her two children, is not feeling confident about the future of health care in Pennsylvania. Since her children are 13 and 5 years old, and she’s currently attending school, she should be exempt from the law’s strict work requirements. Regardless, she is terrified of losing care. Hospitals in the state are expected to lose about $4.5 billion per year over the next decade because of Medicaid cuts, per a local news outlet.

“We have some time to figure out what we’re going to do next, but … a year from now looks kind of scary,” she said. Without Medicaid, Vare would need to drop out of her master’s program to get a job with health insurance — which would disrupt her plan to secure a more stable and high-paying career for her family.

Vare, as well as other Medicaid recipients that The 19th spoke with, had no knowledge of any exemptions for parents in her situation written into the new law until The 19th informed her about it. From her perspective, health care is being taken away, and her family’s future is at stake.

“It looks like Medicaid is going away, even if they’re pretending that it’s still going to exist,” she said. “I don’t know whether my state will be able to cover my insurance or not.”

These fears are not unfounded, Dawson from KFF said. State Medicaid programs may change, and people are expected to lose coverage on a large scale. That said, anyone eligible for Medicaid coverage under the new law should pursue that access however they can, she said.

“When you hear that the federal government itself expects 12 million people to lose insurance coverage, it’s hard not to imagine what will happen if you’re one of those individuals,” she said.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/lgbtq-americans-medicaid-cuts-coverage-challenges on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 15, 2025, 12:30 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

NFL Quarterback Caleb Williams Keeps Pissing Off Conservatives by … Painting His Nails?

Do homophobic trolls have nothing better to do?

Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images

Because they seemingly have nothing else to do, conservatives are once again having a meltdown over Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams painting his nails. On Monday, Williams took to Instagram to share a carousel of photos, many of them from a wedding he had recently attended. Yet many right-wingers zeroed in on one innocuous detail: he was sporting bright blue nail polish.

That was enough to send trolls into a full-blown uproar on X. “I’m sorry but Caleb Williams has to like men…,” one X user wrote alongside photos of Williams showing off his new nails while taking a mirror selfie and wearing a rose in his hair.

Another person added: “After 59 years, is it too late to switch my support to the Minnesota Vikings?”

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Williams, who is currently dating production designer Alina Thyregod, hasn’t spoken publicly about his sexuality. He previously opened up about painting his nails to honor his mom, former nail technician Dayna Price.

“It started, I would say, three years ago,” Williams said during a 2023 USC Athletics interview, when he was playing for the California school’s highly ranked team, the Trojans. “It was my last year of high school. My mom does nails. Let’s just start it off there. She’s done it my whole life. It’s just kind of always been around me. Nobody else does it. I just kinda like to do new things.”

This isn’t the first time that conservatives have freaked out over the player’s nails. In 2024, they kicked up a fuss about a video of Williams — who was the presumptive first NFL Draft pick at the time — sporting pink nail polish, lip gloss, and a pink phone case. Former NFL wide receiver Cole Beasley was among his detractors, prompting NFL Network host Kyle Brandt to come to his defense in a five-minute segment.

“I get genuinely annoyed… because there’s a big old dollop of homophobia on top of [those] comments,” Brandt said at the time. “You know what’s the weirdest thing about Caleb? That he’s gonna be a Bears quarterback who is actually good.”

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Regardless of why Williams chooses to sport nail polish, it’s pretty ironic that in a sport where painting your face in a team’s colors to watch grown men in tights tackle each other, a few simple coats of polish are enough to threaten some viewers’ fragile masculinity. Of course, this backlash is just the latest instance of right-wingers having meltdowns over the NFL: Remember when they embraced conspiracy theories about how Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s relationship is actually a Democratic marketing scheme?

Williams isn’t the only professional male athlete who loves a good nail polish moment. In May, Sixers guard Jard McCain launched a nail polish line in collaboration with beauty brand Sally Hansen.

If you believe in sports superstitions like many longtime fans, there’s good reason for Williams to stick to nail polish. As OutSports noted in December, the Chicago Bears were 4-3 when he painted his nails. When he stopped painting them halfway through the season, they lost seven straight games. Really, it’s just good sportsmanship at this point!

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/caleb-williams-nfl-chicago-bears-fingernail-painting-conservative-backlash on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 15, 2025, 11:02 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Gay Exorcism Survivor Receives Five-Figure Settlement From His U.K. Church

Matthew Drapper described the experience as “something out of a horror movie.”

Instagram/@mattdrapps

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A Church of England parish has paid damages to a gay man who underwent an exorcism meant to purge him of the “demons of homosexuality.” According to The Times, this is the first known case in which a survivor of conversion therapy has received compensation in the U.K.

In 2014, while volunteering at St. Thomas Philadelphia, an Anglican-Baptist congregation in Sheffield, 37-year-old Matthew Drapper was invited to an “Encounter God Weekend,” where he was told that a local married couple who were prayer leaders would perform an exorcism to rid him of the “sexual impurity” that had allowed demons to enter his body.

“Looking back, it seems like something out of a horror movie — for someone to be standing over you saying they can see the demons leaving your body is quite terrifying,” Drapper told The Times. “But when you are deeply tied into the church, as I was at that time, it is easy to believe anything they tell you.”

Drapper said that afterward, he became depressed and considered taking his own life. After allegedly being forced to step down from volunteering with the church’s student leadership team for saying that he was considering dating as a gay man, he ultimately left the church in 2016. In 2019, Drapper made a formal complaint about the exorcism, requesting an apology from St. Thomas Philadelphia.

Although the parish initially claimed that there was no evidence supporting Drapper’s claim, they eventually commissioned the British children’s charity Barnardo’s to independently investigate the case in 2022.

In November 2023, Barnardo’s investigators concluded in their review that it was a “supported fact” that the prayer session Drapper was subjected to was “in our view a form of exorcism… administered with the intention of changing his sexual identity.”

“We have accepted the outcomes of the first investigation and are saddened that one of our community was not cared for in the way we would have liked,” St. Thomas Philadelphia said in a statement following the review’s publication, per The Guardian. “We sincerely apologised to them for this.”

Drapper proceeded to make a legal claim against St. Thomas Philadelphia, which resulted in a five-figure out-of-court settlement. His lawyer, Richard Scorer, told The Times that, “as far as I am aware, this is the first ever payment of damages in respect of harm caused by conversion or exorcism practices.”

“It demonstrates that churches which engage in these abhorrent homophobic practices may face legal claims and damages awards, and I hope it will encourage churches to ban such practices entirely,” Scorer added.

Although the U.K. government has floated plans to ban conversion therapy since 2018 — when former Prime Minister Theresa May first announced plans to do so — such legislation still hasn’t come to fruition.

The British LGBTQ+ organization Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition condemned the government’s delay in implementing a ban in a May statement, writing, “Stop the delay and deliver the promise. It’s been seven years since a ban was first pledged, yet LGBTQ+ people are still being subjected to degrading, abusive practices while the government dithers.”

In the meantime, Drapper told The Times that he and several other conversion therapy survivors are launching a website encouraging others to share their stories.

“You imagine this kind of practice to be outdated, but it has been revived in recent decades and is often referred to as ‘power healing,’” he said. “I know around 20 people who have been through it, but I suspected there are many, many more.”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/gay-exorcism-survivor-uk-church-court-settlement-matthew-drapper on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | SAMANTHA RIEDEL | JUL 14, 2025, 3:10 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Trump Is Shutting Down 988’s LGBTQ+ Services. These Hotlines Can Still Help

If you’re an LGBTQ+ person experiencing a mental health crisis, there are resources you can use to get support.

The Gender Spectrum Collection

It’s official: The 988 LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program will close its doors on July 17, shuttering a major suicide prevention service for LGBTQ+ young people in the U.S. — but if you’re in crisis, that doesn’t mean you’re alone.

Five years after 988 was officially made the national suicide prevention hotline, and three years after 988 launched its LGBTQ+ youth-specific service in collaboration with The Trevor Project, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will no longer offer targeted services for LGBTQ+ young people, as Trevor Project representatives confirmed last month. The news came on the heels of reports that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sought to eliminate funding for the program altogether, borne out by the Trump administration’s budget proposals earlier this year. (In the wake of that news, misinformation circulated online claiming that Canada had opened its suicide hotline to U.S. callers; that number was actually the Canadian number for the Trans Lifeline.)

The Specialized Services program drew some criticism during its three years in operation, in part because 988 operators are required to call police or other emergency services in some scenarios without a caller’s consent — which activists say impairs community safety and can lead to the incarceration of people who are already struggling with their mental health. Still, 988’s LGBTQ+ counselors were a major part of the overall attempt to reduce LGBTQ+ suicidality in the U.S., and — although the more general 988 hotline remains active — the abrupt shuttering of that service will send shockwaves nationwide, as competent and informed care becomes that much harder to access.

If you’re an LGBTQ+ person experiencing a mental health crisis, it’s important to know that you still have people on your side, and there are resources you can use to get support. Below, we’ve listed a few of the largest U.S. hotlines with LGBTQ+-specific services and operators that were operational at time of writing. If you’re in need of material support, you may be able to access it through one of the organizations we’ve highlighted in our previous roundup of mental health and mutual aid resources.

We keep us safe — and that goes for you, too.

Trans Lifeline: US (877) 565-8860 / CAN (877) 330-6366

The first national crisis hotline specifically for trans people with a volunteer staff of trans and nonbinary operators, Trans Lifeline is active Mondays through Fridays from 1-9 p.m. Eastern time. Call volumes are often high, and the organization recommends calling multiple times if you are unable to get through. Operators will never call the police without a caller’s consent.

The Trevor Project: (866) 488-7386

Although the organization’s partnership with the 988 hotline is ending, the Trevor Project’s hotline for LGBTQ+ young people ages 13-24 is still active round-the-clock, as it has been since 1998. Those in need can also text 678678 from any SMS service or use the organization’s online chat platform to speak with a counselor.

LGBT National Help Center Hotlines

The LGBT National Help Center runs multiple phone lines for LGBTQ+ people with differing needs, each open from 2-11 p.m. Eastern time Monday through Friday and 12-5 p.m. on Saturdays. Operators do not call police or rescue services without callers’ consent, but will provide emergency numbers upon request.

LGBT National Hotline: (888) 843-4564

LGBT National Youth Talkline: (800) 246-7743

LGBT National Senior Hotline: (888) 234-7243

LGBT National Coming Out Support Hotline: (888) 688-5428

NYC Anti-Violence Project: (212) 714-1141

Founded in the 1980s in response to street violence against gay men, AVP’s in-person services — such as free legal counseling for LGBTQ+ survivors of violence and immigrants — are mainly limited to New York City residents, but the organization also offers a phone line for those who have experienced or witnessed violence and who need immediate crisis counseling and/or safety planning. Service providers may also call to request help with an LGBTQ+ client who has experienced violence or is living with HIV/AIDS. Phones are answered 24/7 in both English and Spanish.

Call Blackline: (800) 604-5841

Blackline is a peer support line designed for Black, Black LGBTQI, Brown, Native and Muslim communities, per its FAQ, and handles crises related to “negative consumer, police, and vigilante contact” across the U.S. Blackline also collects information about such interactions to share with local community organizers.

DeQH: (908) 367-3374

DeQH is the first support line in the U.S. for South Asian LGBTQ+ people, serving callers who are “lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, questioning, intersex, transgender, gender non-binary, genderqueer, pansexual, kothi, hijra, and beyond.” The line has a limited window of availability, however, accepting calls on Thursdays and Sundays from 8-10 p.m. Eastern time; outside of those hours, would-be callers who aren’t in immediate crisis are asked to get in touch through an online contact form.

SAGE x HearMe

Sadly, SAGE’s phone hotline specifically for LGBTQ+ elders is closed as of 2024. The organization has since partnered with HearMe, a peer support app that advertises “exclusive, round-the-clock access to culturally competent, empathetic LGBTQ+ and allied listeners” with knowledge of LGBTQ+ aging concerns and issues. SAGE recommends signing up through their website rather than downloading the app directly through Google Play or the iOS App Store.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/suicide-hotline-lgbtq-youth-shutting-down-alternatives on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 14, 2025, 1:40 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

The Lesbian Gods Have Answered Our Prayers and Given Gabby Windey a TV Show

The queen of one-liners is “setting sail” as the host of Hulu’s latest reality dating show.

Disney/Andrea Miconi

Lesbian “hopecore” queen Gabby Windey is finally getting to host a TV show, in a development we’ve long been praying for.

On Monday, Deadline announced that the Traitors winner would be the inaugural host for the Hulu show Love Overboard. Announced in March, the reality dating concept is being executive produced by Alex Cooper, host of the premier straight women’s podcast Call Her Daddy. (Notably, Chappell Roan appeared on the megapopular pod earlier this year, making this Cooper’s second collab with an iconic lesbian in 2025. What does it all mean?)

According to the show’s logline, Love Overboard takes place “aboard the ultimate luxury yacht, where sexy singles are ready to mix and mingle… and find love.” The “twist” to the game isn’t spelled out explicitly, but the logline hints that “gaining access to the yacht’s extravagant amenities won’t be so simple.”

“As the journey unfolds, romance ignites; alliances form; and hearts are shattered,” the logline reads. “In the end, only one couple will reign supreme. Who will rise to the top, and who will be left stranded?”

Windey also posted a reel to Instagram to announce that she’ll be hosting the show. “We’re setting sail with Hulu’s newest reality show,” she says before trotting exaggeratedly across the boat for a beat too long. “And I’m your host! Let’s make some waves.”

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The gig is something of a full-circle moment for Windey, who first rose to fame when she competed on season 26 of The Bachelor and co-starred in season 19 of The Bachelorette. After coming out as a lesbian in 2023 and marrying comedian Robby Hoffman in 2024, hosting a dating show produced by Alex Cooper makes total sense for her, as far as “lesbians infiltrating iconic heterosexual institutions” goes.

Beyond that though, anyone who’s watched Windey on any of her numerous reality TV appearances knows that the choice also makes sense because she’s a hilarious genius. She has a very singular way with words — you need only to watch a clip from her podcast, or even better, one of the aforementioned Gabby Windey “hopecore” edits, to understand that she is equal parts unhinged and wise, and seemingly at the drop of a hat. Especially given how many of her one-liners tend to revolve around hating men, we can’t wait to see what zingers will come from her hosting a (presumably straight) reality dating show, though we can always hope for queer shenanigans.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/gabby-windey-love-overboard-host-alex-cooper-hulu-reality-show on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

POLITICS | JUL 14, 2025, 10:41 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Trump Is Threatening Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. Their Decades-Long Feud, Explained

The president’s threat is the latest in a long line of personal attacks he has directed at the former View co-host.

Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images

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On Sunday, Emmy-winning television host and actor Rosie O’Donnell clapped back at Donald Trump on Instagram after the president threatened to revoke her citizenship. In a post on Truth Social on July 12, Trump called O’Donnell a “threat to humanity,” prompting O’Donnell to goad the thin-skinned commander-in-chief in a social media post of her own the following day.

Alongside a picture of Trump with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in his jail cell in 2019, O’Donnell wrote on Instagram, “Hey donald – you’re rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours.”

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She added, “I’m everything you fear: a loud woman/ a queer woman/ a mother who tells the truth/ an american who got out of the country b4 u set it ablaze.”

Finally, after calling Trump “everything that is wrong with America,” she concluded, “I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”

What is the history between O’Donnell and Trump?

The And Just Like That … guest star’s Instagram post is the latest in, as she points out, a decades-long standoff between herself and the real estate mogul turned politician. As O’Donnelll noted in her Instagram post, the feud between the two began almost two decades ago, when O’Donnell poked fun at Trump while hosting a December 2006 episode of The View.

During a discussion about the Miss USA pageant, which Trump owned at the time, O’Donnell imitated Trump by flipping her hair over to mock a combover, later calling him a “snake-oil salesman.”

Multiple times, O’Donnell said she “didn’t enjoy him” and then mentioned that he went bankrupt. “This is not a self-made man,” O’Donnell added.

Trump fired back at O’Donnell later that day in People, calling her a “woman out of control” and calling her a “loser.”

“Rosie will rue the words she said,” he said. “I’ll most likely sue her for making those false statements – and it’ll be fun. Rosie’s a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie.”

The bad blood continued to boil between the two, with Trump even taking a moment out of his day to insult O’Donnell shortly after she announced her engagement to Michelle Rounds in December 2011.

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“I feel sorry for Rosie’s new partner in love whose parents are devastated at the thought of their daughter being with @Rosie–a true loser,” Trump wrote on Twitter at the time.

The two then traded small social media jabs for years, almost exclusively initiated by Trump. He tweeted about her weight-loss surgery, and even mentioned her for no reason while trying to attack Cher, among other petty barbs.

OK, but what did Trump say about O’Donnell during the 2016 presidential campaign?

Trump notably made explicit mention of O’Donnell twice during his first presidential campaign. In 2015, while debating other candidates for the Republican nomination, debate host Megyn Kelly asked Trump about his misogynistic views on women, including his many references to women as “dogs,” “pigs,” and “animals.” Trump downplayed his language by saying he had only used those terms to refer to O’Donnell, invoking laughter from the audience.

Later, in September 2016, when Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton once again brought up his comments about women, Trump once again falsely maintained that he had only used such language about O’Donnell.“Rosie O’Donnell, I said very tough things to her and I think everyone would agree that she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her,” Trump said.

Can Trump revoke O’Donnell’s citizenship?

Amid a rise in ICE-led immigration raids, which have detained U.S. citizens and people with no criminal records, Trump has resorted to leveraging nativist and anti-immigrant sentiment against many of his political enemies. Not only has he threatened to revoke O’Donnell’s citizenship, he has threatened to deport former DOGE head Elon Musk and questioned the citizenship of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

Citizenship is guaranteed to people born in America via the 14th amendment and the president does not have the power to strip it away. However, the Trump administration has already tried several times to weaken the 14th amendment, specifically by issuing an executive order in January trying to end birthright citizenship for people born to undocumented immigrants or living in the United States on visas. Though the Supreme Court ruled in June that injunctions in individual cases on the subject cannot be extended nationally, it did leave the door open for more legal challenges to Trump’s order.

Generally, Trump’s second term has been an exercise in expanding and consolidating executive power, while weakening judicial and congressional authority. While O’Donnell left the United States behind and moved to Ireland in March with her nonbinary child Clay, such a move doesn’t Trump can revoke her U.S. citizenship, though O’Donnell is free to voluntarily renounce it, as many people have since the 2024 election.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/rosie-odonnell-donald-trump-feud-citizenship-threats-explained on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 11, 2025, 12:33 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

After Axing the Word “Transgender,” Stonewall Monument Website Quietly Cuts “Bisexual” Too

Erin Reed reports the “.gov” removed several mentions of bisexuality in favor of “gays and lesbians” or “the Stonewall community.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 30: People stand outside Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center during the 2024 NYC Pride March on June 30, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)Noam Galai/Getty Images

The Stonewall National Monument website seemingly erased most mentions of bisexuality from its website right before Pride month. This comes after the site erased all mentions of trans people from the same “.gov” earlier this year.

The changes appear to have been made on May 27, according to the website itself, which notes the date that each page was last updated. But they largely went unnoticed until independent journalist Erin Reed reported on them on Thursday in a post on her Substack. As of July 11, the homepage on the website, which is run by the National Parks Service (NPS), reads, “Before the 1960s, almost everything about living authentically as a gay or lesbian person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.”

But a version of the homepage from May 26, accessed via Wayback Machine, reveals a previous version of that same statement: “Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.”

Similarly, the “history and culture” page on the website was also updated to remove references to bisexuality on May 27. Where an archived version of the page from May 26 uses the acronym “LGB” numerous times, the most recent version of the page says “gay and lesbian,” and even uses the euphemism “the Stonewall community” in one instance. However, the “virtual fence exhibit” page on the website, which was updated on May 13, still uses the “LGB” acronym, as does the education page. (Though only time will tell how long those mentions will stay.)

As previously reported by Them, these changes come after NPS removed most mentions of trans people from the Stonewall National Monument website in February.

In June, the NPS also told activist Steve Love Menendez, who has been installing hundreds of Pride flags at the monument annually since 2017, that he should only install rainbow flags this year, and that they would not be covering the cost of trans or progress Pride flags, as they had done since 2023. (Visitors brought their own trans flags to place at the monument anyway.)

Though it’s unconfirmed whether the Trump administration is directly responsible for these changes, they are in line with the anti-trans executive orders that the President issued earlier this year, which sought to redefine gender as binary and determined at birth on all federal websites, among other anti-DEI efforts.

In a statement emailed to Them, Stacy Lentz, the co-founder and CEO of The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, took care to note that neither the bar itself nor its affiliated charity are associated with NPS. “That said, we find it deeply troubling that any government agency would erase bisexual people from their public-facing materials,” she said. “Stonewall has always welcomed and celebrated the full spectrum of our community — and that will never change.”

Kurt Kelly, owner of the Stonewall Inn, told Them, “The erasure of bisexual people from federal websites is not just a digital oversight — it’s a deliberate act of invisibility that harms an already marginalized part of our LGBTQ+ community.”

“We must unite as a community to always fight to ensure every identity under our rainbow is seen, heard, and protected. Bi visibility matters. Lives depend on it,” he added. “The fact they continue to do this on the Stonewall National Monument website is even more troubling knowing what Stonewall means to our community around the globe. “

Them has reached out to the National Parks Service for comment.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/stonewall-bisexuals on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 11, 2025, 11:54 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Even Ritchie Torres Admits Zohran Mamdani Made Some Points on NYC's Affordability Crisis

The pro-Israel Congressman offered commentary on the success of pro-Palestine socialist's mayoral primary win.

Gay Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres offered commentary on the success of socialist Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral primary win following reports that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) want to primary him.

Earlier this week, CNN reported that the NYC chapter of the DSA is considering running primary challengers against Torres, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Reps. Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, and Yvette Clarke.

Torres responded to the report during a July 10 CNN appearance, saying that he and his colleagues in the New York Congressional delegation “do not care about the Democratic Socialists of America.”

“We’re focused on defeating Congressional Republicans in the midterms and making Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker of the House and reversing the catastrophic consequences of the Republican reconciliation bill,” he continued. “We could care less about Mickey Mouse primary challenges.”

When conservative pundit and CNN political contributor Scott Jennings pushed Torres to state why believes the DSA want to primary him, Torres replied, “I think they’re targeting me because I’m pro-Israel.”

However, while appearing on CNN, Torres acknowledged that the pro-Palestine mayoral candidate “did not run on Israel” but on “affordability.” Mamdani’s campaign platform includes plans to triple New York City’s creation of “publicly subsidized, permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stablized homes,” with a goal of constructing 200,000 units over the next decade.

“The fact is there is a generation of young voters who are struggling with the crushing cost of housing and higher education and healthcare, and who wanna hear candidates speak to their anxieties about the affordability crisis,” Torres said. “So that, to me, is the greatest lesson learned [from Mamdani’s primary win], is that we as Democrats have to create an agenda that speaks to the affordability crisis.”

Though Torres has previously declined to endorse Mamdani, he has previously said he's committed to working with him as the Democratic nominee. This is significant as Torres has been called the “loudest” House supporter of Israel by Politico, and is a noted conduit and beneficiary of donations from the Pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.

Last June, he came under fire after members of ACT UP NY removed a flag from Fire Island’s Trailblazers Park that honored Torres and replaced it with a flag paying homage to the late trans activist Cecilia Gentili (who was also a pro-Palestine advocate). ACT UP NY cited Torres’ record on Israel as one reason for removing the flag. According to Politico, the Congressman has faced criticism from some of his progressive constituents for “focusing too much on Israel, and not on his district, the poorest in the country.”

In a tweet responding to news of his flag being taken down, Torres labeled ACT UP NY as “anti-Israel activists.”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/zohran-mamdani-ritchie-torres on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 11, 2025, 10:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

EXCLUSIVE: All Things Go Releases Jack Antonoff-Produced Maren Morris Song to Benefit LGBTQ+ Youth

Fresh off the festival's upcoming benefit compilation album, other featured artists will include Kesha, Orville Peck, and Hudson Mohawke.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MAY 30: Maren Morris performs at OUTLOUD Music Festival At 2025 WeHo Pride on May 30, 2025 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/FilmMagic)Chelsea Guglielmino

All Things Go, the beloved music festival that stays giving the gays everything they want, is releasing the second song off of its forthcoming benefit compilation album, and this one comes from queer country artist Maren Morris and legendary producer Jack Antonoff.

“Welcome to the End,” now available for streaming, “is a song about the mental sacrifices you’ll make to achieve your dream,” as Morris told Them. “It’s not a straight or pretty path to get there, but your own resilience can surprise you,” she added, expressing her gratitude that the song will benefit The Ally Coalition. The organization was founded by Antonoff and his sister, the designer Rachel Antonoff, in 2013, and works to support LGBTQ+ youth and the organizations that serve them. Per Morris, one of the organization’s current initiatives is working “to help integrate recording studios into LGBTQ+ youth shelters.”

Providing such creative resources, beyond the bare minimum of what is needed for survival, can make a huge difference in the lives of LGBTQ+ youth who might not otherwise be able to access them. “Welcome to the End” is a perfect example of the kind of catharsis that can come from making music. It’s no cheery, twee mental health anthem though — well, you might think it’s twee at first from the lullaby-like intro. But then Morris sings, “Welcome to the end where you can come and lose some friends / We need your words, we need your brain / We can pay you for your pain.”

Similarly, the compilation’s first single “Jesus and John Wayne,” a collaboration between googly eyes, Joy Oladokun and Allison Ponthier, doesn’t try to paper over the often painful experience of coming out. Just like Morris, all three of those musicians work within the country and folk genres, which haven’t always been as friendly to queer people as they seemingly are now — an inner conflict that’s addressed on the song itself.

And we can certainly look forward to more queer songwriting that’s a little more nuanced and complex from the rest of the compilation, which will be released in full this fall. Other featured artists will include Kesha, Orville Peck, Medium Build, Emei, Maude Latour, Tayla Parx, Hudson Mohawke and more, as Them is able to exclusively reveal. In addition to being available for streaming, people will also be able to buy a limited edition vinyl, with preorder information coming soon.

Considering that certain other music festivals have come under fire for their ties to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, it’s nice to see a festival that is not only intentionally dedicated to diverse lineups, but also goes the extra mile and supports LGBTQ+ youth. You can catch some of the artists featured on the compilation at All Things Go this fall.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/all-things-go-marren-morris-jack-antonoff on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 10, 2025, 5:47 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Ts Madison’s Comments About Nonbinary Identity, Explained

After comments she made on her podcast Outlaws, Madison faced criticism as well sincere dialogue.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 20: Ts Madison attends Bring Back My Girls "RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 16 at RuPaul's DragCon Los Angeles 2024 at Los Angeles Convention Center on July 20, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/WireImage)Chelsea Guglielmino

For those who are longtime fans and listeners of Ts Madison, they know that the social media personality and podcast host has no trouble speaking her mind. And while some of her statements have landed her in hot water in the past, the reality is that Madison is always ready to have a conversation about it, even when she is faced with blatant transphobia.

Madison faced criticism in the past week over comments she made about nonbinary identity on her hit podcast Outlaws with Ts Madison, with some viewers feeling that Madison was invalidating and insensitive toward nonbinary people, while others felt some of her points resonated even if the language was at times inaccurate.

What did Ts Madison say about nonbinary people?

While speaking to RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 4 winner Monét X Change on a July 1 episode of her podcast Outlaws, Madison shared a story about getting into an argument with a nonbinary person. In recapping the conversation, Madison questioned the inclusion of nonbinary identity under the trans umbrella with some perceived technicalities.

“Binary means adhering to male and female,” Madison said. “If you’re transitioning from male to female or female to male, you’re going to one other area of the binary. But if you’re nonbinary, you’re not adhering to either of the codes. So, how are you trans?”

“But you’re still transitioning to a different …” X Change began answering.

“To where, though?” Madison questioned. “Where is it going? Again, I’m not invalidating anyone’s identity, but where is it going? You get on a plane, you take off, I know I want to land in Womanville. Or you get on a plane, you take off, I know I want to land in Manville. You get on a plane, you take off, ‘I don’t give a damn where I land.’”

When Monét noted that some people might want to land or “get gas” in Nonbinaryville, Madison asked, “Is that trans?” When Monét suggested that it is transitioning, or going “across,” as the prefix trans suggests, Madison repeated the question, “Where?”

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What did people say in response to Madison’s comments?

Some viewers took umbrage with Madison’s questioning of “where” nonbinary people might be going when they transition. In her anecdote on Outlaws about her conversation with the nonbinary person, she says that she was even called “ignorant.” However, several people responded to Madison’s questions with sincere and heartfelt explanations about their own gender identity.

“Many of us are transitioning to radical elsewheres that our current binary gender system cannot hold,” one person wrote in the comments. “For some that’s complete androgyny, for others that’s femme but not a woman or masc but not a man, for some that’s fluid and changing, and for others that’s something completely separate from the confines of gender all together.”

“NB ppl are not the same gender they were assigned at birth, which is what being trans is all about,” wrote Dragula season six winner Asia Consent. “I get why TSM may want a differentiation between binary trans individuals vs non binary peeps. But honestly there's really no point. Gender is a construct, the world is burning, and we got bigger fish to fry at the moment.”

Pose actress Angelica Ross also commented on the video of the conversation between Madison and Monét.

“I know it seems like it but transness is not defined by the binary, it exists in complete defiance that states that trans is an on going journey with stops, destinations and detours that you ultimately get to decide for yourself,” Ross said. “But non-binary is also under the umbrella of ‘trans.’”

Several nonbinary people in the comments also resonated with Madison’s argument and said that, while nonbinary people are trans, there are nonbinary people who decidedly self-determine that they are not. Others shared that many nonbinary people have different lived experiences than other trans people, especially trans women and trans women of color such as Madison.

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Why are people mad about Ts Madison’s comments?

While some people responded to Madison in earnest, some commenters took this as an invitation to bash nonbinary people, which Madison did not do. And, some people did explain to Madison that by asking “Where?” she was applying a similar rubric toward nonbinary people’s gender that has been levied against trans people.

“When you joke, ‘where’ it presents the same dismissiveness that trans women/men have faced on this journey of educating the masses,” one person wrote. “I get that it is difficult to understand/agree with what you don’t know. But when thinking of how invalidated you have felt in the past, it should invoke more grace in your learning process as well.”

What did Madison say after the initial comments and has her view changed?

On July 3, two days after the interview with Monét X Change hit the internet, Madison shared some conversations she had had with people on social media who were upset with some of her comments on the show.

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In response, Madison wrote, “I’d like a lot you you to understand and this is no excuse but it’s a crucial piece. I’m BLACK we didn’t grow up with non of this stuff,” she said. “However I’m black and progressive and willing to learn and is learning. I’m not your enemy…… but don’t play this shit with me like I’m harming you.”

That same day, Madison had a conversation with Ross about nonbinary identity on social media that she labeled “The Non Binary Factor.”

“You have always prefaced things by saying ‘I’m learning,' you're not coming out swinging and saying ‘This is just what it is and I don’t care what you think about it,” Ross said early in the conversation. “So I don’t know why the girls are coming at you like that.”

Ross also spoke about the conversation between Madison and Monét.

“I loved the conversation,” Ross said. “I thought it was honest, I thought it was challenging, and I loved seeing your arc of ‘I get it.’”

Madison admits at that point what she didn’t understand and how her view has changed.

“What I didn’t understand is how nonbinary and trans are under the same umbrella,” Madison said. “I didn’t understand it at that point.”

Riffing off of Madison, Ross added that she, too, at one point had trouble understanding the term, especially when her castmate Indya Moore came out as nonbinary.

She added, “Here’s the gag. I, after even having surgery and doing all these things, feel so free in identifying as nonbinary. I am in no way trying to measure up to that measuring stick that women are still trying to measure up to.”

What did Ts Madison say about nonbinary people to Bob the Drag Queen?

On the following episode of Outlaws, which was released July 8 and featured Bob the Drag Queen, Madison once again invoked nonbinary people, but this time in the same breath as trans people while talking about the particularly virulent strain of transphobia and queerphobia taking place in America right now.

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“We’re faggots,” Madison said. “Do you know the country that we live in? We live in the United States of America during the Trump administration. It ain’t but two of us. We’re back to two things: dykes and faggots.”

She added, “There’s nothing in between. All this nonbinary, trans … you have to know the hard truths of what’s going on now.” After Bob the Drag Queen creates a scenario where a police officer might try to identify Madison as a “faggot” rather than a trans woman, Madison says that she understands that the complexities of gender do not matter to those in power. “To them, to the wicked world that we’re in right now it ain’t but two things going on.”

Knowing that Madison had recently gotten flack, many people in the comments, including Ross, jumped to defend her by saying that she was right to say that nonbinary and trans people are specifically vulnerable to attacks from the right.

“She trying to tell y’all to THEM its only but two options,” Ross said. “Absolute facts.”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/ts-madison-nonbinary-trans on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 10, 2025, 2:27 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

The DOJ Is Investigating Clinics That Serve Trans Youth for “Healthcare Fraud”

The Justice Department said it had issued “nearly 20” subpoenas to clinics that provide gender-affirming care.

Pam Bondi, US attorney general, speaks during a press conference in the James S. Brady Briefing Room at the White House, on June 27, 2025, in Washington D.C., following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limits the application of birthright citizenship. (Photo by Mehmet Eser / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by MEHMET ESER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)MEHMET ESER/Getty Images

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The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) has issued “nearly 20” subpoenas regarding “transgender investigations” to clinics that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, the agency announced during a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hearing this week which featured numerous anti-transgender speakers.

The DOJ investigations allege “healthcare fraud, false statements, and more” are occurring at the clinics, which were not named in a three-sentence press release on Wednesday. Attorney General Pam Bondi accused clinics and doctors of having “mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology” in the release, specifically referring to “gender ideology,” the Republican Party’s propagandistic terminology for trans people.

DOJ Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle announced the subpoenas at an FTC hearing titled “The Dangers of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Minors” on Wednesday, where he was one of dozens of speakers — many of whom were prominent anti-trans activists. The hearing was openly hostile to gender-affirming care providers, alleging in its official description that doctors and clinics regularly engaged in “unfair or deceptive trade practices” by making “false or unsupported claims” about the efficacy of gender-affirming medical care.

The vast majority of professional medical organizations endorse gender-affirming care, but Republicans have sought to discredit those endorsements and scientific evidence for such care, most recently through a Health and Human Services “report” that repeatedly cited junk science and tacitly endorsed trans conversion therapy. The Trump administration received a major boon in that campaign last month in the Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Skrmetti, which allowed a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth to remain in place.

“Instead of working to protect Americans' privacy, today the FTC is hosting what amounts to an anti-trans rally,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden wrote on Bluesky on Wednesday. “Nobody is more obsessed with controlling the private decisions of the American people than Republicans.”

Wednesday’s FTC hearing was a veritable red carpet of anti-trans activists, several of whom openly denigrated the concept of being trans at all. One such speaker was Michelle Cretella, a conversion therapy advocate and former president of the anti-trans American College of Pediatrics (ACPeds), who falsely claimed during the hearing that gender-affirming care is “a cash cow for big pharma” and said that gender dysphoria as a diagnosis was a “foundational [medical] fraud.” (As the medical news outlet StatNews noted, testosterone and estrogen are often administered through generic drugs which have low profit margins — which hasn’t stopped people like Cretella or Vice President J.D. Vance from claiming otherwise.)

Other speakers at the FTC hearing included Michael Laidlaw, an anti-trans doctor who helped establish a Florida ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth in 2022; Leor Sapir, a fellow at conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute who lauded Trump’s executive order opposing gender-affirming care as “the beginning of the end”; Jamie Reed, the “whistleblower” who made since-debunked claims alleging unethical conduct at a Missouri clinic in 2023 (and who is now executive director of the anti-trans “LGB Courage Coalition”); and Erin Friday, president of the U.S. chapter of anti-trans activist group Our Duty, who once alleged that her child was “indoctrinated by her public school” to identify as trans and was “taught how to dissociate from her body” in a 2023 letter supporting a North Dakota ban on gender affirming care.

Among the FTC commissioners speaking at the hearing was Mark Meador, himself a former visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said during his opening remarks that the agency would issue “public request for information on the various topics we discussed today” in the next week, with a 60-day period for public comment.

Ferguson, who took over the FTC in January, opened an investigation in May against the progressive media watchdog Media Matters for America (MMFA) for allegedly facilitating an advertiser boycott of Elon Musk’s X platform, after the billionaire (and former Trump ally) bought and rebranded Twitter in 2022. The FTC has claimed that such a boycott constitutes “unlawful collusion, but MMFA filed suit in June to block the investigation, which it called “retaliatory.” In a press release announcing the lawsuit, MMFA representatives said the FTC under Trump is “completely politicized and free from its usual checks and balances.”

“If the Trump administration is allowed to use this unlawful investigation to punish legitimate reporting on behalf of a political ally, then there is nothing to stop it from targeting anyone who stands up and exercises their rights,” MMFA chairman and president Angelo Carusone said in June.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/department-of-justice-subpeonas-trans-affirming-care-youth on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 10, 2025, 11:20 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Grandpa Battling Stage Four Cancer Fined $16k Over Pro-Trans Rights Protest

James Lantz used super glue to affix his hand to a railing in the Pennsylvania state Senate’s visitors’ gallery.

Lisa Lake/Getty Images for Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission

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A 64-year-old activist known online as “Angry Gay Grandpa” must pay nearly $17,000 in damages and fines after he glued himself to a railing in the Pennsylvania Senate last year to protest Republican apathy over transgender youth suicides.

James Lantz pleaded guilty to criminal mischief this week for his April 2024 protest, in which he used super glue to affix his hand to a railing in the state Senate’s visitors’ gallery, PennLive reported. Lantz was said to have thrown fliers and shouted specifically at then-Sen. Ryan Aument over several bills the Republican lawmaker had sponsored targeting LGBTQ+ youth, such as a bill that would have banned trans girls from girls’ school sports.

Lantz — who is also battling stage four cancer — protested as part of an ongoing campaign to draw attention to suicides of trans youth in Lancaster County, PA, one that’s centered on a two-minute “micro-movie” for trans suicide prevention titled “Not Losing You.” Lantz says that his protest was sparked by the deaths of five young trans people in Lancaster County in the span of 18 months, and that he partly blames Republican legislators who have sponsored anti-trans laws.

“Trans youth are a minority within a minority, and having five trans youth suicides in one county in an 18-month period is really extremely rare,” Lantz, told CBS affiliate WHP-TV this week.

As a result of his guilty plea, Lantz was ordered to pay a $200 court fine and $16,575 for damage to the Senate chamber: $3,775 for glue removal, $11,250 for carpet replacement, and $1,550 in “wood trim finishes repair,” according to a breakdown of costs obtained by PennLive. Senate sources said last year that the cost of Lantz’s protest was estimated at just $1,000. Lantz told PennLive this week that he viewed the fines as “politically punitive and grossly inflated.”

“They chose to ignore five trans youth. But they didn’t choose to ignore the chair and glue I spilled on it,” Lantz said in court, per PennLive. He added in comments to the outlet that Aument, through his legislation, had “licensed and encouraged bigotry, hate and bullying against a very small group of transgender and nonbinary kids.”

Last year, a study conducted by the LGBTQ+ suicide prevention nonprofit The Trevor Project found that rates of attempted youth suicide rose significantly in states that had passed anti-trans laws. Nine in ten LGBTQ+ young people in the U.S. say that politics have negatively affected their mental health, according to another Trevor Project survey conducted in 2023. In recent months, the Trump Administration has sought to roll back suicide prevention programs and initiatives specifically for LGBTQ+ youth, such as the 988 hotline’s LGBTQ+ service.

If you or a loved one are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/james-lantz-angry-gay-grandpa-pennsylvania-protest-fine on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

POLITICS | JUL 9, 2025, 2:33 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

In Face of Trans Athlete Threats, California Refuses to Bow Down to Linda McMahon

The Trump administration is suing the state over its refusal to bar trans athletes from women’s sports.

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The Trump administration has filed suit against the California Department of Education (CDE) and California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), after both organizations refused to sign a resolution barring transgender athletes from women’s sports.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, alleging that the CIF — the nonprofit organization which governs academic sports leagues in California — and the CDE have committed “illegal sex discrimination” in violation of Title IX by allowing trans girls to compete alongside cis girls in school sports. California law mandates that students be allowed to compete in teams consistent with their gender identity for over a decade, following a 2013 amendment to the state education code.

This week’s lawsuit comes after months of sabre-rattling from the administration over trans student athletes, which kicked off in earnest in February when Trump officials began investigating California and several other states for alleged Title IX violations. The administration has threatened to withhold federal funding for states that allow trans girls to compete in K-12 and college women’s sports, and successfully pushed the University of Pennsylvania to sign a resolution agreement last week that ended the school’s trans-inclusive sports policies and stripped trans former swimmer Lia Thomas of all records and titles.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon declared that both CDE and CIF were also in violation of Title IX last month, announcing that she would seek a similar resolution agreement, under which California would agree to stop enforcing the 2013 law; “restore” all “misappropriated” athletic records to cis athletes; and send written apologies to cis athletes. But both agencies have refused to sign the proposal, according to McMahon, who posted what appear to be screenshots of the responses on Elon Musk’s X on Monday.

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“The CDE respectfully disagrees with [the Office of Civil Rights’] analysis, and it will not sign the Proposed Resolution Agreement,” wrote CDE General Counsel Len Garfinkel, according to McMahon. “[T]he CIF concurs with the response of the CDE,” wrote CIF General Counsel Diane Marshall-Freeman the same day. “Consequently, the CIF will not be signing the proposed resolution agreement.”

In its lawsuit, the administration asked the court to issue a permanent injunction barring all CIF member schools from allowing trans women and girls to compete in women’s sports, and to “compensate female athletes who have been denied equal athletic opportunities due to Defendants’ violations, including correcting past athletics records.” The suit also repeatedly misgenders five specific trans high school athletes — several of which can easily be identified by details in the suit, though they are not named — as “boy[s]” and “male[s],” echoing the language of the recent anti-trans “report” from Robert F. Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services. (The Department of Justice press release announcing the suit further claims that trans-inclusive sports constitute “reckless endangerment” of cis girls, a false claim that is not made in the suit itself but which Trump himself promoted in his joint address to Congress in March.)

California officials have delivered mixed messages about their intentions regarding trans athletes in the past several months, following years of escalating tensions across the state. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, previously signed (some) laws protecting trans rights, but has made statements referring to trans women athletes as “deeply unfair” to cis women — statements that have given ammunition to the Trump administration, which referenced Newsom’s words in this week’s lawsuit to support the assertion that California had violated Title IX. In May, the CIF itself sparked further controversy by introducing a “pilot entry process” which allowed cis athletes to qualify for a track and field competition as though a trans competitor had not qualified (although the athlete in question was still allowed to compete). Newsom released a statement at the time saying he was “encouraged” by the pilot process, though it’s still unclear whether the program will be more widely implemented in California.

Last month, administration officials began moving to block federal education funds to California over the alleged Title IX violations, reminiscent of Trump’s so-far unsuccessful feud with Maine Gov. Janet Mills. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond accused the administration of “illegally impounding billions of dollars appropriated by Congress” in a statement late last month.

“The Administration is punishing children when states refuse to cater to Trump’s political ideology,” Thurmond wrote. “This illegal action will harm students starting now; it cannot stand!”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/california-trans-athletes-linda-mc-mahon-refusal on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 9, 2025, 11:22 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Pope Leo Signals Catholic Church Will Continue One of Francis’ Biggest LGBTQ+ Reforms

Francis introduced the policy in 2023.

Gennari/Vatican Pool - Corbis/Getty Images

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The Catholic Church will continue to allow blessings for same-sex couples — but not recognition for their unions as “marriages” — under Pope Leo XIV, a Vatican official said this week, continuing a precedent set by the late Pope Francis.

Francis declared in 2023 that Catholic priests may offer blessings to same-sex couples on a “case-by-case” basis, though he still maintained that the Church could not accept such unions as “marriages,” and those blessings would not constitute marriage rites. Last week, in comments to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, Victor Manuel Fernández — the Vatican’s Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — said he believed Leo would keep Francis’ declaration intact without changes.

“I don't think so,” Fernández said, when asked if Leo would halt blessings for gay couples. “The Declaration will remain.”

Leo has swiftly emerged as a successor to Francis’ largely progressive legacy since ascending to the papacy earlier this year, including his predecessor’s reluctance to fully embrace LGBTQ+ reforms. During his first meeting with the Vatican diplomatic corps in May, Leo stated that “harmonious and peaceful civil societies” should be built by “investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman.” In a 2012 address to the Synod of New Evangelization, Leo (then Rev. Robert Prevost of Chicago) spoke out against Western media’s trend toward spreading “sympathy” for the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families.”

Fiducia Supplicans, the declaration that allowed priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples, states that such blessings may be offered specifically to those who “recogniz[e] themselves to be destitute and in need of [God’s] help [and] do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit,” per the National Catholic Register. But any such rites which “could create confusion between what constitutes marriage — which is the ‘exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children’ — and what contradicts it are inadmissible,” the declaration continues.

In May, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg said the new doctrine would likely remain in place under Leo, as it would be “very difficult for the teaching to be removed.”

“Fiducia Supplicans is a document of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, therefore an official act of the Church,” Hollerich told Italian newspaper La Stampa, according to a translation from New Ways Ministry. “It could be readapted, but not annulled,” he added.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/pope-leo-francis-same-sex-blessings-policy on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 9, 2025, 10:40 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Why the Executive Producers of Drag Race Sponsored Small-Town Prides From Georgia to New Hampshire

“Big cities already get a lot of attention.”

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

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World of Wonder (WOW) may be the entertainment behemoth responsible for the ever-expanding RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise. But during a year in which many corporate sponsors have turned their backs on LGBTQ+ people, the production company is funding local pride celebrations around the country.

On Wednesday, USA TODAY published an interview with WOW co-founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, discussing the pair’s advocacy. This year, the company sponsored Pride events in Augusta, Georgia; Buffalo Grove, Illinois; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. As Bailey told USA TODAY, “Big cities already get a lot of attention. But local communities, that’s where people really need to feel supported.” He added that “many people at World of Wonder have ties to these towns” as well. Barbato added that the company’s sponsorship served as “a reminder that these parades are just as meaningful, if not more.”

“These towns are where values are shaped,” he told the publication. “Love, tolerance, non-judgment – those start at home.”

It’s an exceedingly common narrative that LGBTQ+ people must leave their small towns and suburbs for big cities. But as Bailey and Barbato pointed out in their interview, size doesn’t always matter. When asked about whether they thought a sponsorship from WOW would draw tourists to smaller Prides, Barbato emphasized the importance of connection. “If anything, I hope more people travel to these small towns to experience that kind of community,” he said. “When one community is under threat, we all are. Pride is celebration, but also a reminder that we must keep showing up. For ourselves, and for each other.”

To illustrate the connection that smaller Prides can engender, Bailey shared an anecdote about his experience at the Buffalo Grove Pride Parade. He met a mom who runs a greeting card program for LGBTQ+ people who aren’t supported by their families, and signed up to help. “That kind of connection – that’s what local Pride can offer,” he said.

The pair also urged other companies to follow in their footsteps, with Bailey pointing to this year’s Budapest Pride. Though Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing party passed a law to officially ban Pride in March, an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets in what organizers said was the largest LGBTQ+ Pride event in the country’s history, per NPR. “That same spirit of resistance is needed here,” Bailey told USA Today. “This is not the time to run and hide.”

Corporations have steadily been withdrawing their support for diversity initiatives over the past several years, as right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has gained more and more mainstream footing. But 2025 seemed to mark a sea change, with Pride organizers in major cities — like San Francisco and New York — reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorship losses.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/fenton-bailey-randy-barbato-world-of-wonder-small-town-pride-america on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

NEWS | JUL 9, 2025, 9:16 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Why JT Won’t Stop Supporting Trans Rights: Politicians “Just Can’t Mind They Damn Business”

“I just wanted to ‘be about it,’” JT told Vogue.

Courtesy of Team JT

This story originally appeared on Vogue.

Pride month may be over, but for many of us — including JT, rapper and certified “city Cinderella” — the party is just getting started.

JT spent the month of June, in her words, “being about it.” Meaning, engaging with the LGBTQ+ community in meaningful ways. She was the headlining act for New York City Pride this year — pretty fab — but before she got onstage in custom Luar, she made sure to give back.

The rapper partnered with Mother, Daughter, Holy Spirit (MDHS), a grassroots fundraiser in support of the Trans Justice Funding Project led by co-organizers Bobbi Salvör Menuez and John Mollett, to make an exclusive t-shirt. She joins a group of certified fashion darlings including Chloë Sevigny and Aimee Lou Wood, who have also created a custom tee in support of the project (and yes, they’re still available to shop now). Additionally, you can shop the closets of other fashion glitteratti, from Richie Shazam and Julia Fox to Hari Nef and Tommy Dorfman, on the MDHS site.

“I just wanted to ‘be about it,’” shared JT via email about deciding to partner with MDHS. “You know a lot of people talk about it,” supporting the community, that is, “[but] I wanted to give back for real and show my love and unwavering support to the beautiful trans women and men in a time where a lot of politicians and people seem to just can’t mind they damn business.” JT worked with Shazam, her creative director, who oversaw the production of the tee with artwork by Melia’s Dolls and conceptualized her performance on the rooftop of Pier 17 on June 28.

“JT’s vision was clear,” shared Shazam. “She wanted people to feel something when they experienced her music live. The JT experience is a one-of-a-kind fantasy — equal parts joy, intensity, and passion. It’s about taking up space unapologetically, about being loud, being seen, and embracing the full power of community.”

The show honored the legacy of American gay liberation activist Marsha P. Johnson and featured a reading by Tourmaline from her just-released biography of Johnson, Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson.

Below, snapshots from JT's “about it” New York City Pride.

- Courtesy of Team JT

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JT at Climax Books for the launch of her MDHS t-shirt.

- Courtesy of Team JT

2/20

- Courtesy of Team JT

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“Pride is important to me because [of who] my friends and supporters are! Which is majority LGBT! They are the most vibrant, bold and strong group of people, who wouldn’t wanna be a part? It’s lit! I feel so loved & safe around the gays.”

- Courtesy of Team JT

4/20

The front of the tee.

- Courtesy of Team JT

5/20

The back!

- Courtesy of Team JT

6/20

- Courtesy of Team JT

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- Courtesy of Team JT

8/20

Richie Shazam

- Courtesy of Team JT

9/20

“I was soooo excited and honored [when they asked me to headline], and also nervous if I was gonna sale tickets lmao. Pier 17 roof not small! But they showed up and out honey, it was unbelievable!”

- Courtesy of Team JT

10/20

- Courtesy of Team JT

11/20

In custom Luar styled by Briana Andalore.

- Courtesy of Team JT

12/20

The crowd!

- Courtesy of Team JT

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- Courtesy of Team JT

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Tourmaline

- Courtesy of Team JT

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- Courtesy of Team JT

16/20

In a look by A'kai Littlejohn.

- Courtesy of Team JT

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Richie Shazam

- Courtesy of Team JT

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- Courtesy of Team JT

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- Courtesy of Team JT

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“I just love to level up time after time and we did just that! It was poppers poppin’”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/gallery/jt-trans-rights on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

Answers & Advice

- What Does It Mean To Be Nonbinary?

ANSWERS & ADVICE | JUL 15, 2025, 9:22 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

What Does It Mean To Be Nonbinary?

What is the history of nonbinary folks? What are the differences between genderqueer, gender fluid, and enby people? We’ve got you covered.

People are holding a big non-Binary Pride Flag, during the celebration of the Pride walk in Amsterdam, on July 30th, 2022. (Photo by Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images)NurPhoto/Getty Images

Being nonbinary can mean many things to many different people. For me, it’s that expansiveness that makes the term so beautiful.

My version of being nonbinary has looked and felt many different ways throughout my transition. Since coming out in 2016, I’ve gone through several different iterations of presentation and internal experiences of my gender. One thing that has remained consistent for me is the broad umbrella I use to encompass all of myself: I am nonbinary. And the longer I’ve been out, the more people I’ve met people who feel similarly about their gender.

That might be because nonbinary folks have become more visible over the last decade, from celebrities like Janelle Monáe to characters on TV shows, like Che Diaz on And Just Like That…. But with increased visibility in a society built on rigid gender categories, some nonbinary people might feel pressure to define exactly what it means to be “nonbinary.” In my experience, these social pressures lead to narrow definitions of the term, designed to appease those still clinging to the binary. But we shouldn’t limit what “nonbinary” means.

Broadly speaking, it is an umbrella term, which at its most simple definition means someone whose gender can’t be categorized as “man” or “woman.” However, there are innumerable ways one can be nonbinary, and nonbinary people don’t have to look or act alike to embody the term. Within the umbrella of nonbinary genders, genderqueer people, Two-Spirit folks, genderfluid friends, and more all have a home.

While nonbinary hasn’t always been the term we’ve called ourselves, gender-expansive people have always been here. To read more about how to tell whether you’re nonbinary, where the term originates, and the nuanced differences between different nonbinary genders, keep on scrolling.

Am I nonbinary?

No two nonbinary people experience gender in the same way, which can make it difficult to find one definitive answer to questions like “am I nonbinary?” While the term itself is relatively straightforward — it generally refers to people who fall outside of the binary gender categories of men or women — everyone’s personal experience of gender is different, and there are nuances within such a broad term. It’s important to remember that nonbinary people are not a monolith, and we come in all types of presentations, bodies, and personal experience with our genders.

Nonbinary identities can include a vast spectrum of experiences, including being genderfluid, genderqueer, and agender, as well as traditional gender variant identities specific to indigenous communities, like Two-Spirit people. For example, a genderqueer person may also be nonbinary, but not all nonbinary people are genderqueer.

Broadly speaking, if you find yourself not resonating with traditional ideas of womanhood or manhood, then you might be nonbinary. At its core, being nonbinary just means existing between, beyond, and outside of the gender binary, all depending on what feels right to you.

What is the history of nonbinary people in the U.S.?

The term “nonbinary” itself came into use in the 1980s and 1990s, as transgender organizers attempted to find language to describe the wide array of people whose identity broke away from the gendered expectations of society. Terms like “genderqueer” and “genderfluid” also emerged during this time to touch on these vast but interconnected experiences with gender. But those experiences long predate the coining of this specific language.

Before European colonizers reached the Americas, gender-expansive people across Turtle Island were revered in their communities, often holding important roles related to care and spirituality. But beginning in the 1500s, Europeans systematically persecuted gender-expansive people across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. This made it dangerous for Two-Spirit people — an umbrella term for gender-expansive Indigenous people in the Americas with specific roles in their communities — across Turtle Island to practice their traditions in the open, as was the case for many other gender-expansive Indigenous people around the globe as they experienced colonization.

The U.S. colonies of the 1600s were peppered with examples of people being publicly out in ways we might deem “nonbinary” today, such as The Public Universal Friend, a widely-known genderless preacher instrumental in the Great First Awakening. Yet being gender variant in any way was still largely penalized by Puritan law. This demonized gender variance of any kind, making it difficult to find community, safety, or even language to describe the experience.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, gender-expansive communities like New York City’s ballroom scene and drag pageants formed across the U.S. out of necessity, using different words to encapsulate their lived experiences. While these communities didn’t understand themselves to be nonbinary or trans by modern terms, they were marginalized and publicly hated for breaking cisgender, heteronormative standards of gender. Many of those communities have persisted to this day.

It’s important to note that similarly long histories of gender-expansiveness can be found all around the globe. Nonbinary genders have existed for as long as recorded history. While there has been increased mainstream media attention on nonbinary folks in the last decade, it’s ahistorical to think nonbinary people are anything new just because the term itself is of relatively recent vintage. From Qariwarmi people in Indigenous Andean communities to the Mudoko Dako of Northern Uganda to the Hijra of India, gender-expansive people with pre-colonial gender roles continue to preserve and practice their traditions today, despite centuries of colonial oppression.

Is there a difference between being nonbinary and being genderfluid, genderqueer, or otherwise?

Because words are constantly evolving, it may be difficult to stay up to date on the differences between nonbinary, genderfluid, genderqueer, and other gender-expansive identities. The short answer is that because the terms are fluid, their definitions often vary from person to person. Being genderfluid, genderqueer, or otherwise is different for each person — the best thing you can do is educate yourself on the forms of identity you are curious about, desire to engage with, or are considering for as your own.

Rather than getting caught up in the nitty gritty of exact definitions, do some reading. Listen to other people describe their genders. Remember that, like queer and trans identities more broadly, these terms are fluid. Some people may be genderfluid and nonbinary. Some may be genderfluid and nonbinary but not genderqueer. And some people may use different terms to describe themselves over time. It’s all based on individual experiences and what terms resonate personally for folks.

What does it mean to be genderqueer?

“Genderqueer” is another umbrella term that is used to refer to people with genders beyond the traditional binary. Broadly speaking, the term refers to someone who does not follow binary gender expectations. Some people use it interchangeably with nonbinary or as a more specific subcategory of identity under the nonbinary umbrella, however, not all genderqueer people are nonbinary.

Every genderqueer person’s definition of the term depends on their personal experience of gender. Some genderqueer people have one gender, some have multiple genders, and some have no gender at all. Like nonbinary people, the ways genderqueer folks experience the world are vast.

What does it mean to be genderfluid?

“Genderfluid” refers to folks who feel fluid in their gender (or genders) over time, whether that be days, weeks, or years. In the same vein as “nonbinary,” the term genderfluid can refer to a variety of presentations and experiences with gender. Some genderfluid people are also trans, some genderfluid people are also nonbinary, and some genderfluid people may also be men and women. The fluidity ultimately refers to someone’s gender shifting over time and having experiences from across the binary and beyond it.

Like genderqueer, the term broadly came about in queer and trans spaces in the 1990s. Since its birth, representation has grown for genderfluid people over the last decade, as celebrities like The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey have come out and spoken about their genderfluid identity openly.

Are nonbinary people trans?

The term “transgender” has expanded in the last several decades to include gender-nonconforming people, nonbinary folks, and other genders beyond the binary in a formal way. Trans communities have, however, historically included gender nonconforming people, even before we all became consolidated under the same umbrella term.

Contemporary understandings of trans identity and the modern medicalization of transness have caused intracommunal rifts and ahistorical assertions of who is and isn't trans, employing rigid definitions of gender and transition to exclude nonbinary people from the umbrella. Where there are nonbinary people who might not identify with the trans label, nonbinary people have, are, and always will be part of trans spaces, regardless of the arbitrary rules people place on the spectrum of transness.

Why do some people think nonbinary people aren't trans?

As nonbinary people have gained visibility and legibility, people have found more ways to describe and sometimes ridicule gender nonconforming people through harmful stereotypes. For example, “Sock,” a fictitious archetype of blue-haired nonbinary person who evades doing household chores by blaming their neurodivergence and trauma, began as a community meme in 2019 to poke fun at dysfunction in queer communal housing. Lately, however, as anti-trans sentiment has broadly grown thanks to efforts by the conservative right, “Sock” has evolved into a way for people to dig at nonbinary people and neurodivergent trans people in ways that are actually invalidating and transphobic.

Memes aside, “Sock’s” growing cultural pervasiveness points to a real underlying sentiment against nonbinary people related to validity. The implication is that “Sock” isn’t just annoying because they won’t do dishes; “Sock’s” very identity as a nonbinary person is a continuation of a victim mentality rather than an expression of their actual feelings of transness. This idea that Sock’s very nonbinary identity is invalid stems from intracommunal conflict in trans communities about who “counts” as trans and who is “faking” for their benefit. Popularized in the 2010s on platforms like Tumblr,  transmedicalism is a school of thought that asserts that in order for a person to be considered valid in their transness, they have to seek out medical transition and experience some type of bodily gender dysphoria. While plenty of nonbinary do seek out medical transition of some sort, some truscum — a popular term to describe transmedicalists — also assert that nonbinary identity is a stepping stone on the way to a medical transition.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/what-does-it-mean-to-be-nonbinary on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

Entertainment

- Lee Pace Joins ‘Practical Magic 2’ Alongside More Announced Cast

- 'Wicked' Press Tour Announces Its Biggest Stop Yet: A Televised Live Special

- Billie Eilish Says Israel’s Plan to Relocate All Palestinians in Gaza Is “Horrifying”

ENTERTAINMENT | ABBY MONTEIL | JUL 11, 2025, 12:47 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Lee Pace Joins Practical Magic 2 Alongside More Announced Cast

Choosing to believe that he’s Gillian’s bisexual warlock boyfriend.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 29: Lee Pace celebrates the Global Premiere of "Foundation" Season 2 at Soho House on June 29, 2023 in London, England. The second season of "Foundation" premieres globally on Apple TV+ on Friday, July 14, 2023. (Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images for Apple TV+)Dave Benett/Getty Images

Today in gay millennial wish fulfillment: gay actor Lee Pace has officially joined the cast of the highly-anticipated Practical Magic sequel.

The original 1998 film starred Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gillian Owens, two witch sisters who find themselves battling a curse that threatens their chances of finding true love. Although the movie received decidedly mixed reviews upon its release, it’s become a beloved classic thanks to its campy magical hijinks, iconic cast, and themes of feminist revenge fantasy It doesn’t hurt that Sally’s closing monologue about the importance of falling in love whenever you can has become a viral TikTok audio so heavily associated with cozy fall content that it puts “Christian Girl Autumn” to shame.

Although Pace’s role is being kept under wraps, that doesn’t mean it’s too soon to speculate. Most of the dudes in the original movie are romantic interests (or adversaries) for Sally and Gillian, from Gillian’s reanimated abusive boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Visnjic) to Sally’s new boyfriend, state investigator and top-tier copaganda character Gary (Aidan Quinn). The actor’s turns in the Hobbit movies and the Apple sci-fi show Foundation have proven that he’s more than capable of playing a supernatural hunk. For now, I’m choosing to believe that he’s Gillian’s bisexual warlock boyfriend.

Pace isn’t the only newcomer to the Practical Magic family. Joey King will play Sally’s daughter, while Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña, and Solly McLeod have also been tapped to play undisclosed roles.

“Twenty-five years ago, Sally, Gillian, Aunt Jet, and Aunt Franny flew off the pages of Alice Hoffman’s beloved novel and into theaters around the world, and we are thrilled to bring the Owens family back to the big screen with Joey, Lee, Maisie, Solly, and Xolo joining the next chapter in our story,” the Practical Magic 2 team said in a July 11 statement to Deadline. “The enduring affection for these characters has been our inspiration to deliver the next installment in the Owens’ story to new fans, and those who’ve been with us since the beginning.”

One of the most enduring quotes from the original Practical Magic notes that “there’s a little witch in all of us.” Hopefully, the addition of Pace means that there can be a slutty little queer warlock in all of us, too.

Practical Magic 2 hits theaters on September 18, 2026.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/lee-pace-practical-magic on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

ENTERTAINMENT | JUL 10, 2025, 10:36 AM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

The Wicked Press Tour, Which Never Died, Is Officially Back

The film just announced its biggest promotional stop yet.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - APRIL 02: Ariana Grande (L) and Cynthia Erivo walk onstage to promote the upcoming film "Wicked: For Good" at the Universal Pictures and Focus Features presentation during CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on April 02, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Are you ready to hold space for the Wicked press tour part two?

A televised live special honoring Wicked will air on NBC on November 6, two weeks before the sequel Wicked: For Good hits theaters, per Variety. Stars — and Oscar nominees — Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will host the program, which will include performances of songs from the first movie and, according to a press release, “maybe, just maybe, a little bit from the upcoming film.”

Those who miss the live presentation will be able to catch the pink-and-green fanfare next day on Peacock.

Though the release promises several guest stars, no specific names have yet to be announced. But, given that Jonathan Bailey is a major part of the franchise, it’d be nice to see his slutty little glasses make an appearance.

The announcement of the special means, of course, that the Wicked: For Good press tour is in full swing. The last go-around brought a veritable Grimmerie’s worth of memes to the internet, most famously the “holding space” meme from an interview with Out magazine journalist Tracey Gilchrist wherein Grande delicately grasped Erivo’s finger.

It was not all magic, though. In the run-up to the film, memes about the characters did inspire some backlash from the stars, especially when Erivo caught wind that people once again started inquiring as to whether Elphaba’s genitalia was green.

Though the Wicked press tour is back in full swing, the reality is that it never really left. In the time between the 2025 Academy Awards — when Wicked won in two categories from ten nominations, including a victory for Paul Tazewell, the first Black man to win an Oscar for costume design — its stars never really receded from public view. Just recently, Entertainment Weekly invited Erivo to name her favorite vocal performances of all time. The session went viral when Erivo chose “The Thong Song” as one of them.

Erivo and Grande also recently showed up as guest judges on the 10th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars in a Wicked-themed challenge.

Though the Wicked press tour is far from over, each of its stars have already announced upcoming projects. Erivo will play 23 roles in a West End adaptation of Dracula, while Grande will star opposite Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro in the upcoming Meet the Parents four-quel.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/wicked-part-two-special on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

MUSIC | JAMES FACTORA | JUL 9, 2025, 12:41 PM EDT | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Billie Eilish Says Israel’s Plan to Relocate All Palestinians in Gaza Is “Horrifying”

This isn’t the first time that Eilish has expressed support for the people of Gaza.

Sarah Morris/WireImage via Getty Images

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Billie Eilish has spoken out about Israel’s recently announced plan to relocate the Palestinian population in Gaza into a camp, calling it “horrifying.”

The singer shared two videos and an article to her Instagram story on Tuesday. One was a repost of a video and an article from BBC News, which outlined Israel defense minister Israel Katz’s Monday announcement about the relocation plan. Per the BBC, Katz plans to initially move 600,000 Palestinians into a “humanitarian city” established in Rafah, which the news organization noted has been reduced to “ruins.” (An August 2024 report from investigative Netherlands-based journalism outlet Bellingcat found that nearly 44% of buildings in the city had been damaged or destroyed, due to months of Israeli aerial bombardment, per NBC News.)

Eventually, Katz said he aims to move all 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza into the so-called “humanitarian city.” Per the BBC, everyone would be screened before entry for potential associations with Hamas, and people will not be allowed to leave. The BBC also quoted Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, who told The Guardian that Katz’s plan amounts to “an operational crime against humanity,” adding that “it is all about population transfer to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outside the strip.”

Instagram/@billieeilish

Instagram/@billieeilish

On her Instagram Story, Eilish wrote the word “horrifying” alongside her repost of the BBC video. She also shared a video from food blogger Hamada Sho, shared by grassroots aid organization Watermelon Relief, showing him on a water truck. Though Sho came to internet fame for his videos in which he cooks for Gazan children in refugee camps, he noted in his caption, “It’s been almost impossible for me to cook for the kids lately so I’m doing my best to deliver clean water every day instead to areas that most aid groups cannot reach especially along the coast of Gaza.”

“These places are often forgotten while most relief efforts focus on the big camps. But people here are in danger,” Sho wrote. “The water is unsanitary and unsafe. Kids are getting sick. Pregnant women have no access to clean drinking water.” In her Story repost of Sho’s video, Eilish wrote, “thank you to all the heroes out there.”

Prior to Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, many Palestinians living in the occupied territory lacked access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation due to Israel’s restrictions on construction materials, as UNICEF reported in 2017. The situation has only worsened since the outbreak of war last year; in July 2024, Oxfam published a report claiming that Israel has used water as a “weapon of war,” having systematically destroyed water facilities and reduced the amount of water available in Gaza by 94% since the start of the war. More recently, the United Nations’ humanitarian office, OCHA, issued a warning on Tuesday that Israeli blockades on fuel and humanitarian aid, in place since March, have led to a “critical point,” with water systems “on the brink.”

This isn’t the first time that Eilish has expressed support for the people of Gaza. The musician previously wore an Artists4Ceasefire pin on the 2024 Oscars red carpet. According to the organization, the pin “symbolizes collective support for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the release of all of the hostages and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.” But her Instagram story marks perhaps the singer’s most explicit public statement on Palestine to date.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/billie-eilish-israel-relocation-plan-palestinians-statement on Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM EDT.

Table of Contents

Them.: 2025 Jul 15

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Billie Eilish Says Israel’s Plan to Relocate All Palestinians in Gaza Is “Horrifying”