Goose, a new gay dating app that launched last month, is using AI-generated Instagram “friends” to recruit members to the Grindr alternative, reporting from Wired alleges.

“On one hand, I’m flattered that I’m their target audience,” Ryan Cheam, a PR professional and a mark in the fake friends’ campaign, says. “But the need to essentially bait gay guys into signing up feels really sketchy.”

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Goose is the creation of model-influencer Derek Chadwick and former BeReal growth and community manager David Aliagas. The free app—described by one X user as “basically Pokémon Ho” for its Grindr-alternative appeal to gay men who want to build lasting relationships—has risen to #4 in the Apple App Store’s free lifestyle downloads category, and is now ranked 33rd in lifestyle app downloads globally, according to Wired. 

The app launched on June 25.

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Part of that demand may be attributable to a fake friends campaign deployed to recruit gay men. Multiple account holders on Instagram have been tagging eligible gays to their Stories or direct messaging them. But these account holders turned out to be AI-generated sock puppets, Wired reports.

The publication identified several accounts with AI-generated profile avatars who had reached out to prospective members with identical pitches.

The Instagram Close Friends Story for @ miles.sumrall is one example. The account includes a pic of “Miles,” with a mop of curly dark hair and trimmed mustache, grinning as he floats on water. “You’re receiving this because you’re exactly the type of person we’re building this for,” the caption says of the Goose app, with an exclusive invite code for the “members only community.”

Same goes for @danielmmulugeta, another cute, dark-haired “influencer” trawling for members with the exact same language. Both accounts were created weeks ahead of the app’s launch, and both have fewer than 10 posts, along with a high following-to-follower ratio—all signs of a potential fake account.

Using AI Image Detector software and Google Gemini’s SynthID, both profiles’ avatars  and other images were determined to be AI-generated. 

X user @pspthe2nd called out the fakes, in a post alleging Goose “use[s] AI models to promote fake interest.” But Wired has uncovered more.

PR professional Cheam heard from one of the allegedly fake AI Instagram accounts.

Cheam said he first noticed @alistaircrombbie, another PR flak supposedly representing an art gallery, a few weeks ago.

“I thought he was just a normal gay guy,” he said. Then Cheam got a direct message (DM) inviting him to join the “curated network of guys” at Goose, along with the same invite code shared with other marks.

Another fake friend hit up marketing professional Dalton Bauer, who got a DM from a user named @lucalepkowski.

“Hey! Okay this might feel random but felt you’d be interested :),” “Luca” messaged, sharing the same invite code.

Like “Miles” and “Daniel,” “most or all” of “Alistair” and “Luca’s” profile photos were generated using Google AI, Wired found. All four of those accounts have been disabled since Wired broke the story.

Their reporting uncovered more than two dozen similar accounts, many of which, spookily, frequently comment on one another’s photos with identical heart and fire emojis.

How automated the accounts are hasn’t been determined. Human “ambassadors” are likely behind some or all of them. As well as new members, app creator Chadwick has been recruiting staff to help manage various unspecified social media accounts.

“Need some help w my new app and you know I always give priority access to these opportunities to my OGs [original gangsters] here :)” Chadwick posted in June, listing details for an “ambassador role.”

Rob Freund, an advertising and e-commerce attorney, told Wired that using fake accounts to recruit members crosses a deceptive business practices line.

“If you are creating fake accounts for people who promote a product and explicitly creating a bunch of fake accounts that look like they are users of a product or a service to drive attention or sales to that product or service, that activity is very obviously unlawful under FTC [Federal Trade Commission] guidelines,” Freund said, regardless of whether or not the app is free.

Chadwick’s partner Aliagas posted another call for applicants for an “ambassador role” for his “new app” three weeks ago.

“We are going big :-),” he said.

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Jerusalem’s LGBTQ+ community is mourning the closure of the city’s only gay bar, which bid farewell to patrons at the end of June.

Video Pub has been a haven for LGBTQ+ Israelis and tourists for the past 14 years, but its owner, Avi Goldberger, believes it’s no longer needed.

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“People are making a big deal out of it,” Goldberger told The Times of Israel. “But you don’t need bars anymore that are just for gay people; most bars are open to everyone.”

He added he doesn’t believe a place like Video Pub is needed in Jerusalem anymore, between the lack of tourism fueled by wars and the pandemic, and the overall increased acceptance of LGBTQ+ people.

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But patrons disagree.

“This place is a home,” 31-year-old Ido Zangen told Haaretz, adding, “It’s a safety net that I’m not sure is going to exist now.”

Another patron, a Palestinian woman who chose to remain anonymous, said she has always felt accepted at Video Pub despite being from Palestine. “It was a safe space for me,” she said. “Here, they get you.”

Her girlfriend, Mimi, added that in conservative Jerusalem, Video Pub was a place where homophobia was not a concern.

A 28-year-old woman named Hani, who defines herself as ex-religious, also spoke about finding her chosen family at Video Pub.

“There was no such thing as me being non-straight, not marrying a man and not having children. Here I discovered the light that exists in Jerusalem. It’s a place where you can let out energy without shame or guilt, as a community.”

Hagai Kerner, an anthropologist who wrote about Video Pub as part of his master’s thesis on queer Jerusalem, said the bar “has cultural and symbolic significance.”

“It’s a pretty small room, in which you see the entire city – its history, its people, the places where it exists as a bubble and permits a kind of liberation for the many people who need it.”

Kerner said the bar is special for its rich diversity, which is “perhaps a result of a lack of choice, and therefore this place necessarily contains more – because everyone ultimately needs to coexist in the same place.” He said the bar’s closure makes him fear “there won’t be another place that allows for this thing.”

“There are populations that need this defined, safe place to explore and feel liberated in a city that can be wonderful but also difficult. A place where queer visibility is perhaps not a given, and where it sometimes gets comments and even violence.”

Video Pub’s owner, Goldberger, currently owns two other bars in the city with two partners. He told The Times of Israel that HaTaklit Bar and The Cassette are “totally open to everyone, friendly to everyone.”

“I get that people are sad, a lot of people loved the place and visited there and were connected to it,” he said. “But we open bars all the time.” He said he and his partners will be transforming the Video Pub space into something new.

“We’ve been doing this for 30 years and will keep doing it. You have to be optimistic,” he said.

But those who have found a home in Video Pub are struggling to see the bright side. Former Video Pub bartender, Sky, told Haaretz she has been going to the bar since the first day it opened.

“Video isn’t just a bar. It’s a place to meet people you can identify with, to feel for the first time in your life that you can be yourself, to say what you want and dance how you want – to just be a free person, and that’s not easy in this city. I can’t imagine Jerusalem without this place.”

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MAGA infighting erupted at Turning Point USA’s America Fest in Phoenix, Arizona, as conservative broadcaster Ben Shapiro blasted Candace Owens for spreading conspiracy theories about the murder of Turning Point’s founder Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson for platforming neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, and Steve Bannon for aiding the president’s poor handling of files related to convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“The conservative movement is in serious danger… from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” Shapiro said, according to Politico.

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Elsewhere, both ex-gay provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos said that Fuentes is gay and MAGA broadcaster Benny Johnson “gets trashed and has sex with young boys in the latter’s hotel rooms at Turning Point conferences, leaving his wife weeping in the arms of other men downstairs amid the AIPAC leaflets and trestle tables,” gay journalist Michaelangelo Signorile noted.

“One of the most distinctive things about the right wing in this country is its homosexual overtones,” Yiannopoulos said while speaking to MAGA podcaster Tim Pool. “Benny Johnson posts pictures of his children every two days—it’s weird. And everybody knows what went on with Benny Johnson in those lobbies and those hotel rooms at SAS [Student Action Summit, at Turning Point USA]. Everybody knows.”

Yiannopoulos also told Pool that he thinks Kirk was gay too and was planning to divorce his wife, Erika Kirk, who delivered the opening address at Turning Point USA’s America Fest.

Why are so many lesbians big fans of Heated Rivalry, the steamy TV series filled with gay male sex scenes?

Is it because the series is based on novels that were written by female author Rachel Reid and reflect a woman’s sensibility, as some have suggested?

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During a recent episode of the weekly Las Culturistas podcast, hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers and their guest culture consultant, writer and filmmaker John Waters, had some other ideas.

“Did you watch Heated Rivalry?” Yang asked Waters about the gay hockey romance show that debuted last fall on HBO Max and the Canadian streaming service Crave. “That I feel like is appealing mostly to women.”

“It is, which is amazing to me,” Waters replied. “I’ve always heard, and I asked butch lesbians if this is true and they said yes, that butch lesbians like to watch gay men’s porn. I don’t get why.”

 “My therapist is a lesbian,” Rogers said. “She, every session, without fail, brings up Heated Rivalry to the point where I’m therapizing her. I keep being like, ‘So you’ve brought it up again.’”

“They’re not supposed to bring up their personal life,” said Waters, who convenes “Group Therapy” sessions for superfans after his spoken-word performances. “You should get your money back.”

“She always relates in an interesting way,” Rogers said. “She is a lesbian who’s into Heated Rivalry.”

“But that’s not hardcore,” Waters said. “That’s softcore. They’re going to watch it. And I asked [butch lesbians] why and they said they want to have the big d**ks themselves and imagine it. I guess. I don’t know if that’s true.”

“Penis envy?” Yang wondered. “That’s a form of penis envy.”

“Size envy,” Waters suggested.

“I think it has to do with safety, to be honest with you,” Rogers said. “I think it has to do with watching, like, a love and a sex that has nothing to do with you and therefore it’s kind of like, ‘I feel detached from it and it’s kind of nice.’ I think that’s why so many women are fanatical about Heated Rivalry. Not to say that gay men aren’t, but it’s different…There’s like a passion towards the show [on the part of many women viewers.]”

“Good. It’s a new audience they didn’t count on,” Waters said. “I bet the test screenings didn’t predict that.”

Penis envy and the porn-viewing habits of butch lesbians were just two of the subjects that came up for discussion when Waters, who is gay, joined the hosts of Las Culturistas for an hour-long chat shortly after his 80^th birthday on April 22.

Las Culturistas translates from Spanish to English as “The Culturists” or “The Culture Lovers.” Since they launched their podcast in 2016, Yang and Rogers have invited a wide range of guests to weigh in on the latest news and trends in pop culture.

This was the first visit for Waters—dubbed “the Pope of Trash” by queer author William Burroughs—and he didn’t hold back on quips and commentary about current events, movies and other subjects. In the process, he lived up to his reputation for being a master storyteller with his patented mix of wisdom and humor. He’s given numerous interviews lately, but this one covered more ground than most.

• About his 80^th birthday: “My God, it was so overhyped. People were yelling ‘Happy Birthday!’ to me on the subway. Strangers.”

• Epstein Island: “People have said to me: ‘Did you ever go to Jeffrey Epstein’s [island]?’ What would I do there? P**sy Island? I would be hiding under a desk. No, I didn’t go there.”

• Melania Trump’s movie and a missed opportunity: “Why did not drag queens go to the Melania documentary dressed as her and shout out stuff like Rocky Horror? Wouldn’t that have been the most hilarious protest?”

• Changing a flat tire: “If I had to change a flat tire or die, I’d have to die. If I had to open the hood of my car or die, I’d have to die.”

• Operating TV remotes: “It’s so hard to turn on the TV that I have to have three assistants there to help me or I’ll be duct taped to my bed…I yearn for three channels, rabbit ears, and tin foil.” 

• Getting his first-ever poem published in a national magazine at 80 (a poem entitled “Catch” in The Atlantic): “Now I’m officially a beatnik!”

Under the two-on-one format, Yang and Rogers set up their guest with topics to discuss and Waters took it from there. Yang called Waters “my favorite director, ever.” The conversation ricocheted from subject to subject, the way Waters does at his spoken-word performances.

But he wasn’t an expert on everything.Although he wrote a book of essays entitled Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder, Waters admitted he’s a little hazy about one subject—the difference between furries and plushies.

“Aren’t plushies lesbians?” he asked. “I’m not sure. I don’t get that… I went to Plushie Night accidentally once in the Eagle in Baltimore and it was mostly lesbians.”

The standard definition is that furries are people who identify strongly with an animal, either a real one or an imagined species, and integrate this connection into their daily lives. People in the furry community may dress up and roleplay as anthropomorphic characters, a practice called suiting or fursuiting.  

‘Plushie’ literally means stuffed animal, and the word has been used to describe people who collect stuffed animals or have a strong attachment to stuffed animals. In furry culture, a furry is sometimes referred to as a plushie if they are especially innocent or young in personality or appearance.

Under these definitions, neither of these identities is inherently sexual; it’s not a matter of gender or orientation. Part of the appeal of suiting, furries say, is that when they’re in character wearing a suit, they’ve created or chosen to express who they are, and they aren’t being judged for their human characteristics. Others don’t know their race or age or gender or body type. They’re free to act as their ‘fursonas,’ and that may or may not involve sexual activity. Many say this is a freer form of self-expression than when they’re not dressed up.

In any case, Waters said, he’s not into it.

“You can be whatever you want,” he said. But “who wants to get dressed up like a f**king stuffed animal and have sex?… It’s too hot.”

“It’s so warm, yeah,” Rogers said. “But then I think probably something else takes over in the brain that it’s satisfying where you don’t think about how it’s hot. You only think about how it’s satisfying.”

Waters isn’t a fan of adult babies either.

“Adult babies, lock those f**kers up!” he said.“If you’re sitting in a bouncy chair at 60 weighing 200 pounds, lock them up! I ain’t marching for them.”

Other sex-related discussion topics included S&M, bears, and whether Japan has any Eagle leather bars.

“There’s a very specific subculture of bears in Japan,” Yang said, authoritatively. “They have Eagles. They have multiple Eagle locations.”

“Well, the Eagle’s everywhere,” Waters said. “There’s just not a young person ever in one. Because S&M does look stupid on young people.” 

Waters noted that his movies have done well in Japan, especially Pecker, which starred a young Edward Furlong.

“Pecker was a huge hit because they love Eddie Furlong,” he said. “They love hairless, androgynous men.”

He passed on some dating advice.

“A them told me that when you go home with somebody now, you don’t know what you’re going to get,” he said. “They said, whatever it is, it’s politically correct to call it a ‘bonus hole.’”

As might be expected with the writer and director of 16 movies, much of the talk was about Waters’ film career and the movie industry in general. Here’s Waters on:

• Getting praise and adulation: “I built a career on bad reviews. Now when I get good ones, I’m shocked. I take them with no irony…. I don’t feel like Janis Joplin when she went back to her high school reunion after she was famous and people were still mean to her.”

• The state of movie criticism: In the past, “bad reviews mattered. Today, it doesn’t really hurt you that much. Critics don’t have the power they used to.”

• His audiences: “My audiences, if it’s in Iowa or New York, they’re the same. They’re smart. They dress well. They’ve seen every movie. Because you don’t have to go anywhere anymore. You can stay where you are and make it better.”

• Hairspray getting a PG rating: “I was shocked, just because it was Divine and I. And then New Life [the distributor] at the time was shocked too. They wanted me to put the word ‘s**t’ in so it would get a PG-13 at least. I said, ‘No. Let’s keep it. That’s the shock. That it is PG’…I think it would get a G today.”

• The message of Hairspray: “Tracy [Turnblad] stands for anybody ever that was hassled for being different in any kind of way, who takes what they were hassled by, exaggerates it, and wins. That’s all you can do. If they use something against you, own it, grab it, say, ‘Yes I am,’ and then make it work.”

• Landing Johnny Depp for Cry-Baby: “I went to him because I knew he was like Justin Bieber at the time. He was on the cover of every teen magazine but he hated that image. [I said,] ‘Stick with us. We’ll get rid of that.’ And we did.”

• Profit participation: ”Hairspray was a hit for real. Cry-Baby was definitely not…I’ve never gotten profit participation from Cry-Baby or Serial Mom. They’ve never broken even. But they cost a lot of money.”

• Calling a movie a ‘cult classic’ or a ‘future cult classic’: “A cult classic is the worst thing you can say when you’re trying to get financing [for a movie]. That means five smart people liked it and it lost money… ’Future cult classic’ means it bombed… and you can’t make a cult movie happen.”

• Does he have filmmaker proteges? (Yang called them ‘filth proteges’): “Sure. I mean, there’s young people that don’t imitate me. The ones that do, I don’t like it. I don’t like the work. They’re just trying to be shocking without being funny or witty.  But there’s certainly young filmmakers that surprise me. They’re mostly French, like Gaspar Noé and Bruno Dumont… I loved Eddington. I loved ‘Sirat’…There’s still great movies out there, definitely.”

• Turning six screenplays into audio books and providing the voice for every character: “I play every role in all six movies, and I had to yell, ‘Do my balls, Mama.’ I’d look over at the technician thinking, ‘Jesus, I hope they were prepared for this.’ Because when you’re reading your own book and it’s dirty, it’s more mortifying. It sounds filthier when you read it out loud than when you write it or read it.”

• The kind-heartedness of his movies and why he hasn’t been cancelled: “I made fun of things I loved my whole life, not that I hated, and maybe that’s why…I started by making fun of myself by calling my films ‘trash epics’ and everything.”

• What an intimacy coordinator would say if Waters were filming the last scene of Pink Flamingos today, with Divine eating dog droppings: “I always imagine: Do you mind eating s**t? Is that OK?”  

• The autographed merch he sells at his spoken-word shows: “Have you seen the c** rags? The John Waters c** rags? I’m the only celebrity c** rag!”

Waters touched on some of the subjects he talks about in his spoken-word shows, such as fashion etiquette, being politically correct, and learning the rules of good taste from his parents.

“I was drilled good taste,” he said. “You have to learn those rules to make fun of bad taste, and so I thank my parents for that. My mother thought you should die if you wore white shoes after Labor Day. I’m still right wing on that…They were very opinionated and they taught me what was right and wrong, and I’m not sorry they did. I still use a lot of the stuff that they taught me.”

Waters said his parents were “horrified by the movies I made right up to the end, but they supported me doing it, which is amazing. And my parents had a happy 70-year marriage, so I give them great credit.” 

“What do you think of the people who are still debating what ‘camp’ is now?” Rogers asked Waters.

“That they’re old queens” and “the last movie they saw [starred] Rita Hayworth,” Waters said.

“I don’t know anybody that would say the word camp,” he continued. “That word was over after Susan Sontag wrote about it. It was like sitting in an antique store under a Tiffany lampshade talking about a Betty Grable movie. Then it became, I don’t know, trash. Then it became filth. Now it’s just American humor. It’s just funny.”

In another life, “I would have been a hacker,” Waters said. “Except they have bad clothes. They have poor posture. They’re just hunched over the computer.”

A big problem for hackers, he said, is that they can’t express themselves through fashion.

“There’s no rebellion look for a hacker because you’ve got to blend in,” he said. “The dark web, you don’t dress for it.”

Waters said he still goes to heavy metal shows and recently saw Nine Inch Nails in Los Angeles.

These days, “I’m always the oldest person” at a heavy metal show, he said. “Ever since William Burroughs died, I’m the oldest person at these events.”

Why does he go?

“I just like looking at the audience at all these shows,” he said.  “I just like to look at the kids…I just think they look great and they’re having fun…I just like to see the energy of it…I hate old people my age who say, ‘We had more fun’ [when they were young].’ No, you didn’t. You just don’t know what’s going on.” 

One place Waters doesn’t go is the baths.

“Can you picture me in the baths?” he asked. “I’ve never gone to the baths in my life. Walking around in a towel is not how I do well.”

Waters shared stories about people he has met and one he still wants to meet.

Not long ago, he said, he attended a “big fancy dinner” that honored Patricia Hearst, the publishing heiress whowas kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and took part in its armed bank robbery.

The SLA was a far-left militant organization active between 1973 and 1975. Hearst later appeared in five of Waters’ movies: Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Pecker, Cecil B. Demented, and A Dirty Shame.

Waters recalled a conversation he had with a guest seated at Hearst’s table at the fancy dinner.

“I said, ‘How do you know Patricia?’ and he said, ‘Well, she robbed the HiberniaBank which I owned.’ And he paid $5,000 to have dinner with her!”

The filmmaker defended Hearst, saying she didn’t plan the robbery.

“When she was in the SLA, I mean, she didn’t think it up,” he said. “She didn’t know where the bank was. But still, it’s amazing how things change.”

At another point in the conversation, Waters praised Hearst’s work as an actress, especially when her character in Serial Mom, Juror No. 8, gets bashed in the head with a telephone receiver by Kathleen Turner’s character because she wore white shoes after Labor Day.

“Patty really takes that hit well,” Waters said. “Even Kathleen said, ‘Better than any stunt woman I’ve ever worked with.’”

Waters said the only gun he ever shot was a machine gun.

“A biker, a straight biker I know, took me in his Cadillac limousine, broken down thing, and we shot machine guns in the woods, and it was fun,” Waters said.

“Your first gun was a machine gun?” Yang asked.

“Only gun,” Waters said. “With a real biker too, a straight guy I knew…He invited me.”

No sex was involved, Waters added.

“It wasn’t like that. He’s in one of my movies. He’s in Desperate Living. He plays Eater. He has the line, ‘You can suck my royal hemorrhoids, you fat pig.’ That’s his only line in the movie.”

Waters knows his limitations when it comes to guns.

“I’ll shoot myself in my leg if I had a gun,” he said.

Yang asked Waters about the use of guns in his movies.

In Pink Flamingos, “that gun that Divine shoots is a real gun with real bullets in it that the unit photographer happened to own,” Waters said.

Filming in the early 1970s, his crew didn’t take precautions the way crews do today, he admitted.

“We had no safety people. We’re lucky, you know. I mean, there was nobody standing in front of [Divine] when he shot it…Pistol safety was not one of his top things at the time,” Waters said.

At one point, the talk about bank robbers and gun-shooting appeared to mystify Yang.

“How do you find these bank robbers?” he asked Waters. “Do they come to you?”

Asked who he’d like to meet that he hasn’t already, Waters said he’s met “almost every famous person I ever want to meet” because he’s been around so long. The names he dropped ranged from Lily Tomlin and Lana Turner to Norman Mailer and Robert Motherwell.

“I’m not bragging but, just, I’ve been doing this,” he said. “I’m 80 years old. I’ve been doing it for 50 years. And that’s thrilling. It’s exciting. And they like to meet you too. It’s fun.”

In some cases, Waters said, he’ll mention in a show or book that he’d like to meet someone and it gets back to that person and they contact him.

For example, he recalled, “in one of my books, I said I wanted to meet [Lana Turner], and her hairdresser read it and showed her, and she called me.”

Waters also raved in a spoken-word performance about the gay country singer Orville Peck and the singer contacted him. Peck later put Waters in his “Legends Never Die” video, asked him to host two of his Rodeo concerts, and welcomed him backstage when he played The Emcee in ‘Cabaret’ on Broadway.

One holdout so far, Waters said, is Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III), the white rapper who has a reputation for being homophobic because of some of his lyrics. Waters has talked in his shows about wanting to meet him.

“I’ve always said the only person left I want to meet is Eminem and he still hasn’t called me and I’ve said it for two years,” Waters lamented.

“What do you think is his deal?” Rogers asked.

“I’m all for him. Maybe he’s better than me,” Waters said.

“I highly doubt that,” Rogers said.  

Despite what some people may think, “he’s not homophobic,” Waters said. “He gave Elton John and David [Furnish]for their wedding matching gold cock rings. He’s not homophobic.”

“Is that part of the fascination for you?” Yang asked.

“No, I just like his record,” Waters said. “And I used to go to this redneck bar in Baltimore where… white guys dressed like black rappers hung out. And every time I walked in, they’d play ‘Puke’ by Eminem as a tribute to me.”

Some young people have been turned off by Eminem’s lyrics, Rogers said.

“I think as young gays, hearing him on the radio say things like ‘f**got’ and… stuff like that, I think it bothered us because we had our guards up,” he said.

“It didn’t bother me,” Waters said. “I thought it was like he was just causing trouble like we did… It was just, a white person being a rapper was so new and people hadn’t seen that…It was over the edge but, no, I always liked him.”

“You love something or someone who chafes something,” Yang suggested.

“Who does something first and changes how we think about things, which he did do,” Waters agreed.

Yang said he thought he and Rogers might be able to bring the two together, after the podcast is out. “I think we can make it happen… if Eminem’s people are getting this,” he said.

“Sing ‘Puke’ to me, please,” Waters kiddingly pleaded Eminem.

In addition to the celebrities he’s met, “I have great friends that are not famous,” Waters said. “My closest friends are not famous and I’ve had for 50 years. And I don’t trust people that don’t have old friends.”

But staying in touch with friends requires effort – and just being online doesn’t count, Waters said.

“You have to work at it,” he said. “You have to go out. You have to get your hair done. You have to see them in person. You have to go to their house…To be a real friend is work.”

Waters is also careful about what he says in public. 

“I don’t tell dirt about people that don’t want it. No. I never do. I never say mean things about people,” he said. “I learned a long time ago, because then I sit next to them at a dinner…I’ve had to sit next to critics who gave me terrible reviews. They’re uptight too. They don’t want to sit next to me at dinner. It’s an irresponsible host that put you there.”

“Or it was a devious host that was doing what they want to do,” Rogers said.

As for his personal life: “nobody knows,” Waters said. “I mean, I don’t hide it. But none of the boyfriends I have want to be in the press.”

At the end of every podcast, Yang and Rogers ask guests to take one minute and air their grievances in a segment called “I Don’t Think So, Honey.” It’s a chance for them and their guests to get something off their chests.

For this podcast, Rogers complained about the difficulty of buying products at CVS and Walgreen’s because more and more items are kept in locked cases. Yang compared Fire Island to Provincetown and said which resort he prefers.

Here’s what Waters said irks him about modern life:

I can’t stand the way some people talk. I hate it when actors use the word ‘journey.’ That’s not a f**king journey, winning the Spirit Award. Escaping from Ukraine is. I hate airlines when they say your flight is [cancelled] because of weather. There’s always weather. You mean bad weather. Or when the MPA [Motion Picture Association] says ‘Rated X for language.’ There’s always language. Are you talking about a silent film? I hate actors who say they’re humble: “Well, go down to the S&M bar and shut up and get smacked around.” I hate when people say “surreal.” If you’re talking about Dali, all right. Not some boring thing in your daily life. I hate it when weathermen say ‘wind chill’ and ‘heat index.’ That’s bulls**t words. I hate when gay people say, “This is my lover.” Who are you, Lady Chatterley? I hate it also when gay people say to me, “Hey, girl,” that I don’t know. “Excuse me, do I look like a girl? I guess I failed getting dressed this morning.” And people say, “Are you a top or a bottom?” It’s not a political party—I’m independent. And worst of all, when people say, “Can I take your ‘pitcher’?” No, my ‘pitcher’ is home with Kool-Aid in it. 

“How long would you have to know someone for them to call you ‘girl’?” Yang asked Waters.

“Never,” he answered.

Before his rant, Waters mentioned one goal he’d still like to achieve.

“When am I going to host Saturday Night Live?” he asked Yang, who left the show last December after seven-plus years. Yang started as a writer in 2018, became a featured player in 2019 and was promoted to repertory status before Season 47.

 “That would be genius,” Rogers said.

“You would be wonderful,” Yang agreed.

“I could write a good one with the crew,” Waters said, referring to the fact that SNL guest hosts collaborate with the cast and staff writers to come up with sketches for the show. “It’s the only time I could ever write with somebody else.”

“Oh my gosh. I’ll come back for that,” Yang said. “I would love that.”

The Criterion Collection recently released 4K digital restorations of two of Waters’ films, Desperate Living (1977) and Hairspray (1988). His next appearances include: Hosting the Mosswood Meltdown festival in Oakland, California, July 18-19; and performing his spoken-word show, John Waters: Going to Extremes, at Provincetown (Mass.) Town Hall on July 23 and the Ice Palace on New York’s Fire Island on July 25.

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A pastor in Kentucky is defending a skit he staged at the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Lexington, which featured teen boys armed with assault rifles “shooting” another parishioner to cheers from children and their parents.

He’s blaming the controversy on Satan.

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“What the actual f**k,” said one commenter on TikTok, where the clip has gone viral.

The occasion was Vacation Bible School at Mt. Olivet, a regular summer feature of Baptist and other Christian denominations, particularly in the U.S. South.

The clip shows young men with realistic-looking assault weapons, dressed in green fatigues like Army troops, approaching steps leading to the church’s altar, where another young man dressed in black is splayed. Then the teens start “shooting.”

Young children in the chapel scream with delight.

Encouraging the kids is Mt. Olivet Pastor Dewayne Walker, who explained in a later post to Facebook that the boy on the steps represented “sin” and the “Devil.”

Walker leads a chorus of children and parents shouting, “Take him out! Blow him up! Take him out! Blow him up!”

Exactly what the children thought was happening is impossible to say, other than it was what they were witnessing: teenagers wielding assault rifles and repeatedly “shooting” a victim writhing on the altar steps.

The boys then drag their victim out a side door, where they will presumably “blow him up.”

Who shot the video and posted it remains a mystery.

In his video statement after the clip went viral, Walker called the controversy a “firestorm,” and admitted that he was, “quite frankly, befuddled.”  

“We make church a fun place, a happy place. A place where we hate sin, but we love the sinner. A place where we exalt Jesus, and we hate the Devil,” he said., “I think you’d be in agreement that we shouldn’t love the Devil. I think we’re all in agreement that there’s such a thing as spiritual warfare.”

The pastor explained that the church has “had this ‘evil against good’ in our vacation Bible school the last several years. We’ve had the Commandos for Christ that have the Gospel Gun. It’s the answer for the Devil: the gospel and the word of God. It’s the answer. The clip you saw was simply killing the Devil.”

“If you had been here, you’d have saw the ‘building up’ to that point. That boy, they had it coming to him all week long. They’ve been sowing mischief, and we’d be having a good time, and that’s what the Devil does, friend. He’s trying to infiltrate our homes. He’s trying to infiltrate our government. He’s trying to infiltrate everything. He’s a bad customer,” he explained.

“And how this thing has gotten blown up to the point now,” he continued. “People have called me and said, ‘Preacher, they’re saying this is killing people that don’t believe like us.’ All I can say is, ‘Where did that come from?’

“It’s a character called the Devil,” he said.

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During a heated hearing before the Congressional House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, three Democratic governors – Kathy Hochul of New York, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, and Tim Walz of Minnesota – answered questions about their states’ sanctuary policies for immigrants.

In one tense exchange, Pritzker told off Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for claiming that the LA immigration protests constitute an insurrection.

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“I find it hard to believe that you’re lecturing us about peaceful protest,” he said. “Look at what happened, January 6, here at the Capitol. The attack on our democracy, that is an insurrection.”

Bobert wouldn’t hear it, continuously speaking over him and emphasizing her belief that Americans exercising their constitutional right to protest is somehow an insurrection, while storming the Capitol to change the results of a free and fair election is not.

“You don’t understand what insurrection is,” Pritzker said, “when people are trying to overturn an election here at the Congress – You were here, they were attacking you by the way.”

“You’re the one condoning pardoning of people who attacked police right here at our Capitol.”

Many on X praised Pritzker for standing his ground and mocked Boebert for thinking she could outsmart him.

Here are this week’s most popular positive stories, with some fun social media posts tossed in too. Like seeing uplifting content like this?  Sign up for our Good News email.

You thought Pride Month was over? Well, guess again, because this week’s Good News Roundup has all sorts of Pride-related headlines, a handful of major court victories, and even some empowering stories of LGBTQ+ love and bravery!

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And talking about inspiring stories, did you hear about the woman who wasn’t looking for love when she swiped right for the very first time but found it anyway? How about the founder of Flags for Good who said that says no one loves flags like LGBTQ+ people do? And check out this heartwarming story about a couple who got engaged at Pride Run finish line. Yes, our Pride keep shining through, darlings!

Pride Month is literally over, but…

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Court issues major blow to DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE Act” & calls it “a breathtaking assertion of power”

“If the First Amendment offers any boundary of protection at all for public university classrooms, this statute crosses it.”

Gov. signs 3 trans rights bills into law & then marches in Pride parade that afternoon

“We are a few steps closer to a state where all can live their lives without fear of hate,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D).

“Many signs of hope”: Tens of thousands gather for first Budapest Pride March since Orbán’s ousting

“Everyone is just so much more uplifted,” said one Pride-goer.

Well, that’s one way to celebrate your gender transition…

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Federal judge shuts down Trump admin’s attempt to get its hands on trans kids’ medical records

The judge cited Trump’s attempts “to identify, to demonize, and ultimately to eradicate an entire population of transgender people.”

“He was unafraid”: A gay man’s quest to live as openly as his younger self

“We all need to have a safe place to be ourselves without worrying about what others think about us.”

Trans service members challenging military ban score major victory

A judge ruled that their case, Talbott v USA, could proceed as a class action lawsuit.

Let’s take a quick stroll for our mental health, eh?

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“I was made trans for a reason”: The creator of the trans Pride flag on the emblem’s enduring power

“People really took to it. So, if they really took to it, then that was the design that needed to be made.”

New photo exhibit celebrating queer veterans brings healing & unity: “It’s really been just a joy”

“For the first time, I spoke about my service and myself being gay,” said one subject of the show. “And the response so far has just been incredible.”

New Jersey becomes latest blue state to pass health care shield law for trans care & IVF

The new legislation defends the legally-protected healthcare, which also includes reproductive health procedures.

Celebrate the rest of your weekend with the Friends of Dorothy!

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From our sibling sites:

• QUEERTY: The viral tale of two male pilots getting down in the cockpit is way too good to be true
• OUTSPORTS: Out pro wrestler Marco Mayur and boyfriend bring home Gay Games gold
• GAYCITIES: 12 photos from the 4th of July ‘Drag Derby’ at Provincetown’s Crown and Anchor
• INTO: 7 ways small businesses can support the LGBTQ+ community year-round

Vice President J.D. Vance tried to joke about former President Joe Biden in front of soldiers at the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach on July 1. It didn’t go well for Vance—literally no one laughed.

During his speech, Vance told the troops he was having a mental debate about whether to joke about Biden falling up and down the stairs of Air Force One, the plane used to fly the president and administration members safely around the country. His partisan joke was met with awkward silence from the crowd of service members.

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“You know what I’m thinking as I’m coming down the steps is, ‘Don’t fall and bust your a** in front of you and all these cameras because they would never let me live that one down,'” Vance said.

“You know, the previous president—I’m trying to be nonpartisan. You ever see these old cartoons where you got the angel on the shoulder and the devil on the shoulder? Well, because I’m speaking to all of you … I’ve got the angel on my shoulder saying, ‘JD, don’t be partisan. We’re gonna make this nonpartisan.’ And then I’ve got the devil on my shoulder who wants to talk about every time that Joe Biden fell up or down the stairs, and the media didn’t care about that,” Vance said.

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No one laughed as he nervously continued his speech.

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The Idaho-based nonprofit Trans Affirm has released an “Inclusive Bathroom Map” to help trans people in the state find safe restrooms as they live under what advocates have called “the most extreme anti-transgender bathroom ban in the nation.”

Gov. Brad Little (R) signed the law in March, but it did not take effect until July 1. In response, Trans Affirm has shared its crowdsourced map of inclusive bathrooms, for which community members reportedly submitted hundreds of ideas.

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“It is already a confusing law as it is,” Trans Affirm board member Scar Rulien told the Idaho Capital Sun. “And it can be scary for transgender people, who identify as one gender, to use the bathroom that is of the gender that they don’t identify as… It can pose a risk to their safety.”

The map is easy to navigate and includes information on places with gender neutral/private restrooms, restrooms that are gendered but inclusive, and also locations where members of the community have reported concern. The organization describes it as a “live, ever evolving resource that continues to grow alongside our community.”

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“The Idaho Safe Bathroom List was created because our communities need practical tools, not just conversations,” Trans Affirm states on its website. “We wanted to build a resource made by Idahoans, for Idahoans, that increases access to information, strengthens community knowledge sharing, and helps people feel more prepared when moving through public spaces.”

The state’s bathroom law makes it illegal for anyone to “knowingly and willfully” use a sex-segregated restroom that doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth; it applies to government-owned buildings and places of public accommodation (that is, any space or business open to the general public).

A first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison, a second offense within five years is a felony punishable with up to five years in prison, and a fourth offense triggers the state’s persistent violator statute and, thus, punishments up to life in prison.

Trans independent journalist Erin Reed noted that the state’s count of offenses will include any prior convictions for violating other states’ anti-trans restroom laws; as such, an offender could face enhanced penalties in Idaho if they violated a similar law elsewhere.

Both the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association and the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police opposed the law, with the latter organization’s President Bryan Lovell warning that “there is no clear or reasonable way” for police officers to enforce it “without engaging in questioning or investigative actions that could be viewed as invasive and inappropriate.”

A judge has granted a partial preliminary injunction against the law, which, for the time being, allows trans people “to use single-user restrooms consistent with their gender identity and multi-user restrooms when a single-user restroom is not available (including when it is occupied),” as the ACLU of Idaho explained.

“The only time the restroom portion of the law can be enforced is when a trans person uses a multi-user restroom when a single-user restroom is available on the same floor,” the organization added. “This means trans Idahoans will have access to gender-aligned restrooms when out in public.”

Despite the block, Trans Affirm emphasized that trans people in the state are riddled with fear and uncertainty and desperate for resources like its inclusive bathroom map.

“At Trans Affirm, we believe community care matters,” it stated. “There is not always an institution, policy, or system stepping in to reduce harm in moments like these.”

“There isn’t anyone who will swoop in and save us from bigotry and anti trans legislation. We have to be here for our communities. And this is how we can.”

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A gay and virulently anti-transgender candidate for Congress in Wyoming is suing over accusations that he’s a pedophile, charges lobbed by other, virulently anti-gay Republicans.

Reid Rasner, a Trump loyalist who has spent $1.2 million of his own money on multiple campaigns for office in the state, says, “I’ve never experienced anything like this in my entire life.”  

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The first charge, lodged on social media from a Republican in Iowa, accused Rasner of pedophilia based on “multiple social media posts and news articles” alleging “serious sexual misconduct,” according to an affidavit from the man whom Rasner brought the suit against. The Iowan didn’t specify what those posts or articles were.   

Rasner is pursuing a second case against a former GOP Wyoming state senator, whom he said spread rumors about Rasner conducting sexual misconduct with children.

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Rasner says former state legislator Austin “Kit” Jennings started a “whisper campaign” against him as he ran for the U.S. Senate seat against Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso in 2024, and that the effort “continues to this day,” Cowboy State Daily reports.

“Everyone told me: Don’t file lawsuits,” Rasner told Semafor in an interview. “I should have filed them on Day One.”

Rasner says his current campaign was undermined as well when his Republican rival in the primary, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray (R), made a point of sharing Rasner’s sexual orientation with respondents in a May poll, with a question including the fact that Rasner had “married his gay husband in New York.” Voter support for Rasner dropped in the aftermath, Rasner claims.

In one instance, Rasner responded using transgender animus to attack Gray in their congressional fight. In a campaign video, he earned viral attention for pretending to kick Gray out of a women’s bathroom.

He’s also lashed out in the aftermath of the child sex abuse rumors with a video declaration online endorsing “the ultimate punishment” for “anyone convicted of pedophilia.”

Ross Hemminger, the president of Log Cabin Republicans, praised the candidate for suing, saying he thought Republicans had moved past discriminatory rhetoric against gay men like him.

“I am surprised, because Reid is a very, very conservative person,” he said. “Policy-wise, he probably outflanks most people who hold office in Wyoming.”

Following the rumors, Rasner told Semafor he was shocked he’d been barred from a primary debate sponsored by Wyoming Family Alliance, a far-right “parents rights” organization officially opposed to same-sex marriage.

Rasner has called gender -affirming care for trans youth “child abuse” and has said that parents who allow it should “lose their parental rights.” Apparently, those MAGA bona fides, along with his call for the death penalty for pedophiles, weren’t enough to satisfy the group.

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Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was rushed to a hospital on a stretcher last month, according to new information reported by CNN, including video.

A neighbor said that emergency responders arrived due to a report of an unconscious person in the McConnell home. They opened the door at around 8:30 a.m. on June 14. Capitol Police blocked the entire street, and there were two ambulances and a fire truck.

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Video of the incident shows emergency responders rolling a stretcher with a person on it to the ambulance, but the person’s face isn’t visible.

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The neighbor asked officers what was going on, and all they told them was that there was a “medical emergency.” They then asked if it was McConnell who had the emergency, and the officers reportedly responded that they wouldn’t have blocked the street for just anyone.

The neighbor said that someone else saw the person on the stretcher’s face, and it said that it was McConnell, but that other person’s identity isn’t known.

“He’s in a stretcher, and he’s in some sort like orange foam looking blanket type thing,” the neighbor who talked to CNN said, pointing out that McConnell’s feet weren’t covered by a blanket and they were “not moving.”

“One of my neighbors is like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s Mitch, I saw his face,'” they continued.

“In a situation where perhaps time is of the essence, there seems to be a little bit more urgency, but there was no urgency here,” they added.

McConnell hasn’t been seen in public since then. When he was first hospitalized, a spokesperson for the senator said that he had been admitted to the hospital and “is receiving excellent care,” without providing any details of what put McConnell in the hospital.

His long hospitalization has fueled speculation that he’s dead and that his death is being hidden as part of a scheme to prevent his state’s Democratic governor from appointing a temporary replacement.

Several Republicans have claimed to have spoken with McConnell in the past month, including CNN pundit Scott Jennings. Jennings was widely mocked when he posted on social media that he “spoke with my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible.”

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Kris Cravens-Hutton and her husband, Dave Hutton, made headlines with the “maximalist” Pride Month display in front of their Detroit home. The large, rainbow-colored display of allyship even gained the couple a visit from pro-LGBTQ+ Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D).

The straight couple’s display includes a 40-foot arch of rainbow-colored flowers stretching over their home’s entrance, a trans-inclusive Progress Pride flag, and large foam white letters covering three-fourths of the couple’s historic Detroit home, which spell out “Detroit, Pride, Peace, Love, Dance, Hugs, Resist!”

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She even posted a video of Gov. Moore visiting the display. As he emerges from his car, he says, “Oh my goodness! I love it! … This is amazing! I need this in Maryland!” She explained that she typically puts the decorations up on Memorial Day weekend (at the end of May) and puts them away on July 4 weekend.

“Dave and I have a debt to the Pride community,” she tells the governor. “They were there at a time of my life when I needed friends, and they were there for me, so we’re paying back.”

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She wrote via Instagram, “It was an absolute joy to welcome Governor Wes Moore of Maryland to our little corner of the world. He was nearby for an event and stopped by afterwards. He brought the joy, and kindness, and answers to all my questions about taking care of veterans, data centers, and how he lives the Army motto of ‘Leave no one behind.'”

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Cravens-Hutton laughingly told The Detroit Free Press that a drive-by heckler told them to take down their Pride flag (while overlooking all of their other large Pride decorations).

She told the publication, “I think [we decided to start decorating like this because of the president] coming back into power and the sense that our Pride community was really under threat. So we kind of picked up a little more steam last year, and last year’s theme was ‘The First Pride was a riot.’ And then we just escalated this year, in part because I’m a maximalist. And the other part is, there are over 520 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation floating around our country. If there’s a time to get loud and be visible, especially as a straight couple, it’s now. It’s now.”

“I think where we go from here is recognizing that Pride doesn’t end in June,” she continued. “It’s an ongoing year-long thing. Just because we’re all waving our flags and we’ll take our decorations down … now is when we start to lean into the real work” which, according to her, involves electing progressive politicians to help stop anti-LGBTQ legislation and protect queer-inclusive civil liberties.

In a follow-up video, she responded to a troll who said, “Good luck getting those rainbow folks to fight a war for you.” She said that LGBTQ+ people have been fighting on military front lines since before America even became a country.

“Come on now,” she said. “Do better. Be better. Read a book. Learn your history.”

Her husband added, “To the Pride community who served on and off the battlefield with Kris and I, thanks for your service.”

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has a new excuse for why Donald Trump’s hands are bruised again.

People have been noticing for the past year that Trump’s hands are often bruised when he appears in public, wondering whether this is a symptom of a larger medical issue. Leavitt has offered multiple explanations in the past for his bruises, including that he “shakes [Americans’] hands on a daily basis more than any other president in history” and that he has “chronic venous insufficiency,” which Leavitt described as a benign condition.

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And Trump’s doctor, Dr. Sean Barbabella, said last month that the bruising is a result of the large dose of aspirin that Trump takes daily, which, according to at least one medical professor, is usually prescribed in the aftermath of a stroke.

The bruises were even more pronounced this week during Trump’s visit to Davos, Switzerland, and were visible on his left hand, even though it’s usually his right hand that has had them. People on social media are sharing images of those bruises.

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“He’s literally rotting,” New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote.

Leavitt has a new explanation for the bruising: Trump had an accident.

“At the Board of Peace event today in Davos, President Trump hit his hand on the corner of the signing table, causing it to bruise,” she said in a statement.

Another White House official said that all the aspirin Trump is taking makes him susceptible to bruising.

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Republicans in Colorado nominated Victor Marx, a Marine veteran, culture warrior, and lately a mercenary who claims he single-handedly ordered a strike on ISIS, as their nominee for governor, according to projections by the AP and CNN.

The election was held a week ago Tuesday, but it took over a week to count enough votes to call the election, which happened last night.

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Marx’s own Republican rivals in the race described him as “a fraud.” Both said they wouldn’t endorse him if he won.

Following the projection, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who captured the Democratic nomination for governor, called Marx ” a threat to our state’s values and our future” who practices “a politics of deception, demonization, and distraction.”

While the vote provides Marx a platform through November, it’s unlikely he’ll prevail; deep-blue Colorado hasn’t elected a Republican governor in a generation. The current governor, out Democrat Jared Polis, is term-limited.

Among Marx’s most outrageous claims: he was forced to kill a man when he was seven years old.

Cloaked in a gimlet-eyed, affable presentation, Marx has promoted an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda from the pulpit and on the campaign trail, condemning trans girls in sports, “biological males” in locker rooms, and telling gay and trans Coloradoans, “You believe the lie” of gender ideology.

“In a culture of gender fluidity, I decided to settle the issue from the Creator’s point of view. There are only two. It’s that simple,” he posted to his large social media following.

“‘Male and female. He created them and blessed them,'” Marx quoted from Scripture. “Now let’s all protect our children.”

In remarks at his election night party on June 30, Marx called his campaign “nothing shy of beyond incredible.”

“This is a battle of good and evil. This isn’t so much parties anymore,” he said.

In 2021, Marx posted an interview with a conversion therapy advocate to his YouTube channel, where he claimed that he became homophobic because he “was abused by, you know, males” and said that “maybe I should” be attracted to men, but that he was “restored” by God and solved his “sexual weirdness.” He then claimed that people can turn straight if they “really commit your way to the Lord.”

An outlier at the start of the race, Marx overtook his opponents with a campaign that provided one outrageous and viral claim after another, garnering widespread attention, if not respect.

A ministry leader and martial arts enthusiast — he practices “Cajun Karate,” he says — Marx describes himself as a “high-risk humanitarian” in his supposed role as leader of an anti-human trafficking nonprofit. Marx has claimed he’s rescued thousands of kidnapped women and girls, and personally called in an airstrike on ISIS. He hasn’t provided any evidence to back up those extravagant claims or others.

In his role as a minister, Marx says he’s “set people free” from “demonic oppression” hundreds of times in exorcism-like prayer rituals — in person and over the phone.

The sheer critical mass of Marx’s outrageous claims was evident in a question posed by a reporter in the single primary debate he participated in, accompanied by his Doberman Pincher on stage.

“You claim that you’ve been all around the world, armed to the teeth, rescuing women and children from captivity; that you’ve stopped human smugglers at the Mexico border and made them pay a price; that you, as a civilian, called in a U.S. military airstrike that killed 70 ISIS fighters; that you were the first American into Gaza during the war with Israel, that you’ve done 150 high-risk missions, and every one has been a success. You told me last week that it’s all true, and that you don’t need to prove it to anyone. But you’re talking to voters now. How should voters decide whether you’ve lived one of the most extraordinary lives in human history, or whether you’re a liar and a fraud?

“I can’t help it if I’ve had an extraordinary life,” Marx responded. “I’m an ordinary fella, starting from my childhood all the way to now, me standing up on a stage running for governor.”

Turning to his khaki-clad dog, Marx said, “Reagan, I said I was going to talk about you.”

“She was in Syria and Iraq,” Marx told the reporter. “So is she lying, too?”

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Anti-LGBTQ+ Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) argued that people should vote against state Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D) because he can’t lift weights.

“He’s a lightweight,” the 76-year-old said of Talarico. “He’s a 90-pound weakling. He couldn’t lift a 10-pound weight in the gym if he helped it.”

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Republicans have been repeatedly insulting Talarico’s masculinity, calling him secretly gay despite having a girlfriend, saying that he is a transgender woman, and posting AI-generated images of him in women’s clothes. Republicans have spent months saying that Talarico is himself “ transitioning to a woman,” that he’s “ too low-T for Texas,” and that he is  lying about his relationship with his girlfriend, in part because of his past support for trans rights while serving as a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

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Patrick himself has a long history of attacking male politicians’ masculinity. In 2019, Patrick said that then-Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke was “so light in the loafers he floats off the ground at times.” “Light in the loafers” is an expression that means someone is gay.

“You know, he flaps his arms around a lot. He’s a lightweight,” Patrick continued.

Patrick, who has been in his current position for over a decade, has waged several campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights. In 2014, he tweeted, “MARRIAGE= ONE MAN & ONE MAN. Enough of these activist judges,” in reaction to a federal court ruling in favor of marriage equality in Texas. He later deleted the tweet and clarified that he meant “one man & one woman.”

In 2016, just after the Pulse nightclub shooting – in which a gunman entered an LGBTQ+ nightclub and killed 49 people – Patrick posted a message to social media that said, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” He later deleted the tweet.

In the late 2010s, he waged a campaign against federal guidance on how to treat trans students equally in schools and tried to get Texas to pass a bathroom bill to ban trans people from using restrooms associated with their gender.

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