 |
| Image: Facebook |
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has established the first Mayor's Office for LGBTQIA+ Affairs. He put Taylor Brown in charge of it, making her the first openly transgender person to lead a NYC office.
"She's gonna make sure that everybody gonna be somebody," said Rosetta Ferguson, Brown's grandmother..jpg) |
| Image: Wikipedia |
Image: Gay City News
It was Gay City News that alerted the world a few days ago that the Trump administration had removed the large Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument.
Now GCN is reporting the flag has returned—thanks to a healthy dose of Stonewall-like defiance.
The removal of the rainbow flag, which had been installed during the Biden administration, provoked angry responses from lots of New York politicians. Some of them pledged to re-raise a flag yesterday afternoon.
They brought a Pride flag on a thin plastic flagpole and placed it next to the flagpole where the original flag had flown. The elected officials "walked away, leaving the audience groaning in disappointment."
Then several activists took it upon themselves to install a rainbow flag on the actual flagpole. It even landed a few inches above the American flag.
So, what happens now? Will these activists who channeled the spirit of Stonewall be arrested?
Will Trump use this as an excuse to invade New York City? Bulldoze Greenwich Village, call it New Greenland, and install Barron as potentate?
If Trump and his minions do choose to escalate the situation, I foresee not just another round of Stonewall Riots, but potentially another 1776. The fight against authoritarianism has to start somewhere, and wouldn't it just make sense in 2026 that queer people would lead?
After all, we've only recently been freed. Returning to the closet has all the appeal of being forced to watch "Melania."
Image: Wikipedia
President Obama designated the Stonewall National Monument in 2016, the first national monument dedicated to LGBTQ history. In the decade since, Pride flags have always flown at the famed Greenwich Village site.
Until yesterday.
The National Park Service took down the rainbow flag, and said today that it's only following recently issued Interior Department rules that reduce the flags that can be flown.
The park that celebrates the origin of Pride is forbidden from flying the Pride flag.
Beam me up, Scotty. I'd rather risk my molecules getting stuck in an eternal transporter malfunction than spend another minute in Donald Trump's United States of Cruelty.
This is just the administration's latest attack on the monument. A year ago, as part of the efforts to erase transgender people from federal websites, all references to trans and queer people on the monument's webpage disappeared.
The webpage memorializing the spot where trans women and drag queens fought back against police now refers only to "LGB" people. I was incensed then that the other initials were amputated, and the administration's latest move has made me even incensed-ier.
I'm even making up words.
If this pattern of rewriting history and contradicting reality continues, the "LGB" might well disappear. Stonewall will be turned on its head and become a monument to the need to let police terrorize any group the majority fears.
And they should wear masks while doing it, since police look so darn fetching in them.
 |
| Image: Facebook |
 |
| Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay |
It's Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we memorialize those lost to transphobic violence over the past year.
The trans flag was raised today at the New York State Capitol in Albany. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced landmarks across New York, ranging from 1 World Trade Center to Niagara Falls, will be lit up in pink, white, and light blue this evening.
Efforts like these stand in stark contrast to the federal government, which operates on the assumption that transgender people are a figment of our imagination.
At least 27 people died in the last year. You wouldn't believe how much blood figments can shed.
Image: Facebook
I couldn't make this up if I tried.
Here's what Donald Trump actually posted on Saturday: "Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!"
Trump and O'Donnell have feuded for years, two loud New York celebrities swiping at each other. Now free of restraints, Trump believes if he as president loathes someone then that person is "a threat to humanity." Come on. Vladimir Putin is a threat to humanity. Rosie O'Donnell isn't even a threat to Brooklyn.
I don't know which is scariest, Trump's thin skin, his ego, or his willful disregard of what a president can legally do. All of them add up to a person you wouldn't want serving as a crossing guard, let alone as leader of the free world.
O'Donnell responded by posting. "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 before you set it ablaze. You are everything that is wrong with America—and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it."
She also posted a picture of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, and I wonder whether the imbroglio Trump is in concerning Epstein is why he posted about O'Donnell, an attempt to divert his MAGA followers. So far, they're proving surprisingly undivertable.
O'Donnell concluded, "You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try, King Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan." I've never seen "Game of Thrones," but I know Joffrey is described as a "villainous child-king," and that perfectly sums up Trump in 2025. |
| Image: Facebook |
As expected, Donald Trump hasn't issued a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month.
Yet he's still managing to benefit financially from Pride, because the Log Cabin Republicans of New York City are holding a Pride party at Trump Tower. These gay GOP'ers, who suffer from too much money and too little conscience, want you to join them "for our biggest event of the year."
For $175, you can attend PrideRight at Trump Tower. It'll feature an open bar, hors d'oeuvres, and "special guests!" LGBTQ Nation guesses that might turn out to be Melania Trump, since she has a symbiotic relationship with the Log Cabin Republicans—she likes to get paid, and the group likes to pay her.
The date is June 28, when Pride will be in full swing in the Big Apple. That Trump not only refuses to bless Pride but is busily attacking transgender people and wiping out gay history means nothing to these folks, who live in a different universe, and I'm not talking about Staten Island.
May their canapés be burnt, the booze watered, the help surly. And may every queer New Yorker refuse to sleep with any of this bunch all weekend long.
Image: Facebook
The transgender flag still flies at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, but something else is missing.
On the National Park Service's Stonewall website, "LGBTQ" has turned into "LGB." Our community has suffered an amputation. Without benefit of anesthetic.
This can only be due to Donald Trump's spastic efforts to wipe out all evidence of trans people from the federal government. If you have another explanation . . . I ain't buying it.
Multiple ironies leap to mind. First, the site meant to memorialize the start of queer liberation now can't say the word "queer," at least not online. Second, the L's, the G's and the B's were also definite outcasts not long ago, but now have achieved enough standing that the government isn't aiming to make them disappear. Yet.
The third irony I see is that gay people often used to ignore the part played by transgender and gender non-conforming folks at Stonewall. The community largely clawed past the racism and classism and gave the likes of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera their due. Now we're watching them be disappeared again.
Some aren't having it. On X, New York's governor decried the sudden removal of trans and queer references as "just cruel and petty."
Protesters gathered yesterday at the Stonewall Inn. A transgender woman told CBS News, "I served in the military. I didn't say I had bone spurs to get out of it."
As far as I know, no bricks were thrown at the protest, just brickbats. And the politicians in attendance were for us, not against us. Things have changed a great deal since 1969. Which is precisely what scares many Americans, and part of what propelled Trump to victory.
We have our work cut out for us in 2025, to stop the reversal of what began in 1969. If you want to make a party out of it, wear 1969 fashion to the next protest. I didn't look good in it then—I was six—and I don't now, but I'm willing to take one for the team.
 |
| Image: Facebook |
After pleading guilty yesterday to aggravated identity theft and wire fraud charges, the gay former Republican congressman from New York acknowledged to reporters that he had "allowed ambition to cloud my judgment."
That's also a vast understatement, since Santos appears to have broken practically every campaign law, on top of creating an entirely fictional biography.
When he gets to prison, he'll have ample time to review his efforts to achieve grandiosity. Santos could've saved New York and the nation a lot of pain and expense if, instead of entering politics, he'd simply claimed to be the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas ll.
 |
| Image: Facebook |
But he announced this week on X that he's bowing out of the race. The openly gay Santos explained that he doesn't "want to split the ticket and be responsible for handing the house to Dems."
There's that selflessness for which the serial liar is so noted. He's making this decision for the good of the conservative movement, and certainly not because his campaign hasn't raised one red cent.
Santos signed off his post, "It’s only goodbye for now, I’ll be back."
He may be Brazilian, but I read that and heard an Austrian accent.
 |
| Image: Facebook |
Maybe I'm a tad paranoid, but are New York officials sure Suozzi is who he says he is, and not Santos in Democratic drag?
 |
| Image by Ðльвина Якубова from Pixabay |
In Iowa, 53 percent of White evangelical voters supported Trump. In New York, Trump's legal proceedings follow a trial last year in which a jury found he sexually assaulted Carroll.
That airplane of his is a miraculous machine. To get from Iowa to New York, it sliced though time, space and the Salvador Dali painting in which we're all living.
