The “Puto!” chant is back.

Weeks before the World Cup descends on North America, the enthusiastic homophobic slur, chanted by Mexico soccer fans at their opponents, is making a comeback at stadiums in the co-host country, despite FIFA sanctions and a campaign by Mexican soccer officials to rid the expression from the “beautiful game.”

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That effort has been tough.

After a lull in recent years, the chant was heard loudly last month at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca, Latin America’s largest stadium, during a friendly game between El Tri, Mexico’s national team, and Portugal. It reared its head again in April at the same venue in a CONCACAF Champions Cup match between Club America and Nashville SC. Play was suspended twice in each match due to the slurs.

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Mexico fans invoke the derisive chant during goal kicks taken by the opposing goalkeeper, typically when Mexico is on the verge of losing. Fans start with a rising yell, “Ehhhhh…!” as the goalie approaches the ball, and then punctuate it with “Puto!” on the kick.

“Puto” translates literally to “prostitute,” but is commonly used as a gay slur insulting the target’s manhood.

The chant went viral at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and was heard at both competitions in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

In 2021, FIFA forced Mexico to play Jamaica in an empty Estadio Azteca following the chant’s appearance during Olympic qualifying matches against the Dominican Republic and the U.S. at Guadalajara. The same punishment was levied in 2022 for two World Cup qualifiers after the chant was heard again in matches against Honduras and Canada. 

The chant is said to have emerged at Guadalajara stadium in 2003.

Now soccer officials are bracing for the slur’s reappearance as Mexico co-hosts the World Cup with Canada and the United States. The competition opens on June 11 with Mexico against South Africa, in the very same stadium where the chant has been heard recently: Estadio Azteca.

“Sustained efforts have been made for years to eradicate this type of expression, with awareness campaigns and measures in stadiums, and while there has been progress, we are aware that isolated incidents still persist,” Mexican Federation President Ivar Sisniega told the Associated Press this week.

“We understand that it often arises as a manifestation of frustration or annoyance from the fan, but that doesn’t make it acceptable, and we must continue working to change that behavior,” Sisniega said.

The chant’s reemergence at the opening match would be a national embarrassment for the co-host country, with billions of fans watching.

A winning performance by El Tri, then, may be the only way they avoid it.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has appointed Black lesbian librarian and archivist Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz as commissioner of the city’s Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS).

Advocate describes DORIS, which oversees municipal archives, records administration, and the library, and as “one of the city’s most consequential but often overlooked agencies” that is “central to how the city preserves its history and responds to public requests for government information.”

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“We have such a rich New York City history when it comes to Stonewall in particular,” she told The Advocate, referencing the Trump administration’s attempt to erase transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument last year.

She also said she is excited about the role because she’s looking for “a Mamdani experience,” which will be filled with appointees with backgrounds in public service and grassroots organizing.

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On her personal website, Smith-Cruz emphasizes her queerness, writing that it “permeates.”

“When is the work not queer?” she asks.

In a statement following her appointment, Smith-Cruz called it “an absolute honor” to take on a role in the Mamdani administration, “which feels to be a moment in NYC political history of great importance and collective endeavor.”

“Providing access to government records, documents and data is our municipal responsibility,” she continued. “Embracing and preserving a comprehensive imprint of NYC histories, as representative of our many communities, is the mission of DORIS that I aim to uphold.”

“After 20 years working across academic libraries, public libraries, library schools and with institutional and community-based chives, as Commissioner I intend to ensure an informed citizenry… together, we can continue to work toward robust and complete information dissemination, while also honoring the multiple histories of all New Yorkers.”

Among many other experiences, Smith-Cruz spent almost 20 years as coordinator for the Lesbian Herstory Archives and also served as the Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at NYU Division of Libraries. She was most recently dean of the Barnard College Library.

“During her time at Barnard, Shawn Smith-Cruz helped advance transparent, equitable access to information,”  said Laura Ann Rosenbury, President of Barnard College, in a statement, “and we are excited to see her continue this important work on behalf of New York City.”

Mamdani has made LGBTQ+ representation a priority in his administration. In March, he unveiled a new Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, headed by Taylor Brown, the first openly transgender person to lead a city agency.

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When there are threats against trans rights and the climate feels so inhospitable to the very existence of marginalized communities, it can be easy for people to retreat to safe choices. Groups might argue that it’s best to hold on to something that feels secure and solid rather than draw attention by fighting for those most under attack.

But what might be claimed as small acts of safe defiance against the regime are simply complicity in disguise. We need to be fighting this endless attack on trans rights, not questioning how much we can step back with the idea that we might fight to win rights back later.

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Safe choices are what we’re seeing right now, from non-profits to the entertainment sector on a global scale. And they’ll be the death of us all.

A major LGBTQ+ charity in the United Kingdom, Stonewall, recently announced Kezia Dugdale as its new chair. With trans rights under attack by right-wing populist groups globally, it was a time for Stonewall to make a stand and help to fight back.

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Instead, Dugdale has taken the safe choice. She talked about how scary it is to be a lesbian right now, raised concerns that the right to same-sex marriage might legitimately come under attack. And she suggested we need to be less divisive and take a step back from trans rights, going as far as to express sympathy for noted anti-trans activist JK Rowling while praising her extensively. (She has since apologized for not criticizing Rowling’s behavior.)

Being less combative on trans rights might get Stonewall some credibility with Rowling and the LGB Alliance. That will come at the cost of sacrificing trans rights and the people those rights protect. Presumably, Dugdale thinks that backing down on trans rights will make it easier to spend that credibility on protecting equal marriage. But we’ve seen in the United States that once you back down on trans girls in school sports, it’s all just a walk down the road to the suggestion that marriage equality should be on the chopping block, too.

But non-profits like Stonewall aren’t alone in these safe choices that amount to backing down in the face of fascism. Media giants have been all too happy to make a safe choice instead of fighting back against the Trump administration, the anti-trans movement, and threats from the FCC. Often, without those bodies actually needed to take any action to force compliance.

Last year, Paramount happily canceled Stephen Colbert’s Late Show for “purely financial reasons” because Trump didn’t like Colbert, and Paramount wanted their merger with Skydance approved. Trump’s FCC chair (and co-author of Project 2025), Brendan Carr, then threatened ABC (owned by Disney) into pulling Jimmy Kimmel from the air after he said things Trump didn’t like. And then, in February, the FCC tried to stop Colbert from having a Democratic Senate candidate on his show.

Paramount and ABC/Disney were making safe choices. They were protecting their own investments and their own ability to make content by allowing Trump to dictate what went too far. Naturally, giving Trump that leeway is going to encourage his administration to move that line for what they think is acceptable, and free speech and other rights will be the worse for it.

Colbert and his team, to their credit, did push back when their network wouldn’t. While the network told them they couldn’t show even a picture of James Talarico on the show, they still interviewed him and directed people to watch it on YouTube, meaning it got millions of views, likely more than it would have if the FCC hadn’t threatened him. Of course, the possible consequences for Colbert, whose show ends in four weeks, are limited, but it was still the right call to push back while so many others chose safe options.

But after all of that, the FCC is still working to move that line. Republicans have been excited to be mad about trans and wider LGBTQ+ content in kids’ shows. Now, Brendan Carr has announced an inquiry into TV rating systems, with the suggestion that they should flag the inclusion of trans and non-binary characters of “the discussion or promotion of gender identity themes.” This would place the basic existence of trans people in a show on par with violence and drug use in warnings at the start of a show.

Carr’s move is the sort of thing that has come into play because networks and media companies have accommodated him with safe choices in the past. And, in all likelihood, we’ll see more safe choices in response.

Rather than have shows rated differently, companies are going to cut trans and nonbinary representation entirely. A new system won’t even need to go into effect; the announcement of intent will be enough. And trans kids will stop seeing themselves represented. And then it will be other marginalized identities that follow, including the rest of the LGBTQ+ community.

We already know that Disney will back away from LGBTQ+ representation in the face of a stiff breeze. They removed a same-sex kiss from Lightyear because of political grandstanding. They also cut a trans storyline from the show Win or Lose just because Trump won the election on an anti-trans platform. This announcement from Carr will be enough for Disney to have discussions next week and contemplate some safer choices.

Even Tucker Carlson and other old MAGA pundits are making safe choices, working to distance themselves from Trump while he slowly burns his brand and destroys the movement. But that’s not a move to champion a better way or help others. It’s saving themselves with another safe choice.

People have always made these safe choices. Executives have been happier to back a sequel or a reboot than put their money on bringing in something new. Politicians have called for incremental change on issues like climate change, where we don’t have time to waste. But these safe choices are so much more visible right now. These choices are being made in the face of the stripping away of basic rights from human beings.

Those safe choices are born out of good intentions, a desire not to rock the boat. But it will go from losing representation in media, to losing gender-affirming care across the board, and they’ll keep pushing us down the road until we’re talking about the women’s right to vote—the right-wing tradwife movement is proof that they’re already eyeing that one.

Ultimately, you have to ask: who are these choices safe for?

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A once-beloved lesbian bar in Denver, Colorado – the only one in the city – has officially closed after a controversy surrounding donations to keep the establishment open.

Pearl co-owner Dom Garcia wrote on April 11 that they were blindsided by the bar’s first announcement that it was closing. “I didn’t approve this,” Garcia reportedly said on Instagram at the time. “I own 37.5% of the business. I am the main shareholder. I’m the founder of the business.”

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Garcia then launched a GoFundMe to save the bar without consulting bar staff or the co-owners who announced the closure. The fundraiser was a smashing success, raising over $83,000 in one weekend. But what started as a feel-good story of community support began to unravel into a messy controversy after a group of Pearl shift leads posted a lengthy letter about their lack of knowledge about the GoFundMe until it was too late.

“The vagueness of the allocation of funds as well as lack of an actual plan to get us through Pride were the exact reasons that we wanted to hold off until we knew where we stood as a business.”

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“The staff came together and decided unanimously that we could not in good conscience accept these GoFundMe funds with the likely chance of ending up in the exact same position in three months… We have reported the fundraiser as fraudulent and encourage you all to do so as well.”

The staff members cited mismanagement of funds, accountability issues, and a lack of trust between owners and staff as issues that had plagued the business, which had been open for only a little over a year.

“We want to formally apologize to the community for how this was handled and how everyone was taken advantage of… Hopefully, this outcry for BIPOC, trans, and sapphic safe spaces can wake up some other queer establishments and cause them to open their doors to these communities. So many folks are often overlooked, and these spaces should be easier to come by.”

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Garcia reportedly denied allegations that the fundraiser was fraudulent but assured donors they would nonetheless be refunded and that the bar would indeed close.

“It’s not what I had envisioned when I opened the space,” Garcia said, according to Denverite. “I have had multiple people tell me that my own staff has mistreated members of our community, trans men saying that they’re not queer enough, they’re not lesbian enough, they’re not part of the community, that they aren’t welcome in the space. I’ll take the blame myself. I think me stepping back truly was the fall of the Pearl when I was there.”

Garcia had stepped away from their active role in the bar to take care of their mental health, leaving co-owners Jonathan Mora and Christy Rivera in charge, as well as the original co-founder, Ashlee Cassity.

When announcing the donations would be refunded, Garcia did acknowledge that the Pearl had been dug into a deep financial hole, and that even the $83,000 raised would not have kept the bar afloat for that long.

“I am ashamed of what has transpired in the recent week and think that needs to be discussed when we think of The Pearl’s memory as well as all the good this space has done for our community,” Maya Blasingame, who often patronized The Pearl, told PBS. “To those who have tarnished the memory of this location, karma always comes back around, and you should do everything you can to apologize to all the many people your actions have hurt.”

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After decades of slow progress toward embracing the LGBTQ+ community, elders in the Mormon Church on Tuesday appointed apostle Dallin H. Oaks, a former justice on the Utah Supreme Court and staunch opponent of marriage equality, to be its next president.

Oaks, 93, succeeds Russell M. Nelson, whom he served as first counselor. Nelson died in September at age 101. Succession criteria among church leadership all but guaranteed the nonagenarian’s ascension to the top post.

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“I accept with humility the responsibility that God has placed upon me,” Oaks said in brief remarks in Salt Lake City.

In 1984, Oaks, a lawyer by training, authored a confidential memo on “the interests at stake in the proposed legalization of so-called homosexual marriages,” a document that guided the Church of Latter-day Saints’ opposition to marriage equality for decades to come.

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“Homosexual ‘marriages’ would be a devilish perversion of the procreative purposes of God and the earth life He has granted His children,” Oaks wrote.

“One generation of homosexual ‘marriages’ would depopulate a nation, and, if sufficiently widespread, would extinguish its people,” he added. “Our marriage laws should not abet national suicide.”

Oaks penned the memo the same year he joined the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the church’s second-highest leadership body.

The church spent millions in opposition to the marriage equality movement, including a successful effort to pass a ban on same-sex marriage in California in 2008.

Oaks has described homosexuality as an ephemeral “affliction.”

“The good news for somebody who is struggling with same-gender attraction is this,” he said: “It is that ‘I’m not stuck with it forever.’ It’s just now.” 

“Same-gender attraction did not exist in the pre-earth life” and “neither will it exist in the next life,” Oaks claimed in a 2006 church interview.

In 2022, however, religious freedom trumped opposition to marriage equality when both Oaks and the Mormon Church came out in support of the Respect for Marriage Act, the law codifying the recognition of same-sex marriages performed in any state by other states and the federal government. 

Religious freedom protections in the bill drew the church’s backing.

“We believe this approach is the way forward,” the church said. “As we work together to preserve the principles and practices of religious freedom together with the rights of LGBTQ individuals, much can be accomplished to heal relationships and foster greater understanding.”

At the same time, anti-LGBTQ+ opponents of the bill cited the threat of “pedophilic marriage” and “polygamous marriages” if it became law.

Polygamy, or “plural marriage”, was officially banned in the Mormon Church in 1890, but the practice still persists.

Jeff Bennion, co-founder of the Gender Harmony Institute, a “holistic” conversion therapy practice in Utah that addresses gender-related distress, said Oaks’s appointment inspired both “joy and excitement” and “anxiety” and “frustration” in the church.

He described Oaks’s tenure as “a ministry of law and love.”

“Throughout his academic, professional, and religious pursuits, President Oaks has wrestled with the same paradox he invites us to confront: how to combine uncompromising truth with unconstrained love. In his many addresses on Love and Law, he insists that divine commandments and divine compassion are not enemies.

“‘We must be soft on people,’ he said once, ‘but firm on principles.’”

In 1970, Oaks was tapped by the church to lead Brigham Young University.

In a speech in 2021, he denied that electroshock treatments and vomit aversion were used at the school as a form of conversion therapy during his tenure.

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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.

Welcome back to your weekly Good News Roundup! This week is a mixed bag with courts and Pete Buttigieg standing up for queer people, a trove of great LGBTQ+-inclusive children’s books, and even legendary actress Meryl Streep giving her queer fans some love.

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Let this helpful goat inspire you with his words of wisdom

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EU court rules against Hungary’s LGBTQ+ media ban: Repeal it or possibly face fines

This is the first time that an EU court found that a member state violated one of its founding values.

Teacher suspended for supporting trans athlete gets reinstated after allies fight back

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Pete Buttigieg explains why speaking out is so important with moving story about his kids

“I want to make sure we have a very good answer by the time they’re old enough to ask that question.”

Ummm… someone call the babysitter and hire them full-time

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Dems pass “profound” law to protect trans kids who change their names

Testimony showed how dangerous it was for records of trans kids’ name changes to be easily searchable.

Meryl Streep praises queer fans & fashionistas: ‘Would we have anything without gay people?’

The iconic, award-winning actress has long been an LGBTQ+ ally and an inspiration with her many roles as unapologetically powerful women.

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The queer Gen Z internet sensation talks misinformation, LGBTQ issues under Trump and the impact billionaires are having on mainstream media.

People are strange…

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These 10 oft-banned LGBTQ+ children’s books teach powerful lessons of love, community, & identity

As book bans rise, many LGBTQ+ children’s books are being removed from schools. Here are frequently banned titles every child should read.

Pete Buttigieg reassures woman in tears over fear of where anti-trans politics will go

“That you are there for them could be everything, so don’t feel it doesn’t make a difference.”

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The judge stood up for the law and the rights of trans kids nationwide!

Mom has a freakout… sorta…

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From our sibling sites:

• QUEERTY: Rep. Angie Craig rattles right-wingers with a cute pic to mark Lesbian Visibility Week
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All of Trump, Hegseth, Vance, and Johnson’s Christian references and posturing in their battle with Pope Leo XIV are fakakta (the Yiddish term for “messed up,” “ridiculous,” “defective”) and prove the following points, at the very least:

• That they misuse and misinterpret Christian scripture to justify their actions in their war with Iran.
  
• That they are incapable of either winning a debate with or shutting down challenges on theological grounds with this Pope.
  
• That they are tapping into their filled-to-the-brim societal pool of Christian privilege.
  
• That they are exploiting the Christian hegemonic climate that has previously oversaturated the religious, political, social, and economic environments of the United States of America.

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Christian hegemony & Christian privilege in the U.S.

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Social theorist, Gunnar Myrdal, traveled throughout the United States during the late 1940s examining U.S. society following World War II, and he discovered a grave contradiction or inconsistency, which he termed “an American dilemma.”

He found a country, founded on an overriding commitment to democracy, liberty, freedom, human dignity, and egalitarian values, coexisting alongside deep-seated patterns of racial discrimination, privileging white people while subordinating people of color.

While racism most certainly remains, this contradiction has been powerfully reframed for contemporary consideration by religious scholar, Diana Eck,

“The new American dilemma is real religious pluralism, and it poses challenges to America’s Christian churches that are as difficult and divisive as those of race. Today, the invocation of a Christian America takes on a new set of tensions as our population of Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist neighbors grows. The ideal of a Christian America stands in contradiction to the spirit, if not the letter, of America’s foundational principle of religious freedom,” Eck wrote.

Alexis de Tocqueville, French political scientist and diplomat, traveled across the United States for nine months between 1831 and 1832, conducting research for his epic work, Democracy in America.

He was astounded to find a certain paradox: on one hand, he observed that the United States promoted itself around the world as a country separating religion and government, where religious freedom and tolerance were among its defining tenets, but on the other hand, he witnessed that: “There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.”

He answered this apparent contradiction by proposing that in this country with no officially sanctioned government religion, denominations were compelled to compete with one another and promote themselves in order to attract and keep parishioners, thereby making religion even stronger.

While the government was not supporting Christian denominations and churches, per se, Tocqueville said religion should be considered as the first of the U.S government’s political institutions since he observed the enormous influence churches had on the political process.

Though he favored U.S. style democracy, he found its major limitation to be in its stifling of independent thought and independent beliefs. In a country that promoted the notion that the majority rules, this effectively silenced minorities by what Tocqueville termed the “tyranny of the majority.”

This is a crucial point because in a democracy, without specific guarantees of minority rights, there is a danger of religious domination or tyranny over religious minorities and non-believers. The majority, in religious matters, have historically been adherents to mainline Protestant Christian denominations, which often imposed their values and standards upon those who believed otherwise.

So, how was this initiated, maintained, and strengthened. The concept of “hegemony,” according to Antonio Gramsci, describes the ways in which the dominant ruling group successfully disseminate its particular form of social reality and social vision in such a manner as to be accepted as common sense, as “normal,” as universal and as representing part of the natural order, even at times by those who are marginalized, disempowered, or rendered invisible by it.

This is the case with Christians in general and predominantly mainline Protestants in a U.S. context, even though only an estimated 30% of the world’s inhabitants define as Christian.

According to Weinbaum, “[H]egemony is a means for social control, not through overt force, but rather through covert tactics, dictating society’s norms.”

This religious hegemony maintains the marginality of already marginalized religions, faiths, and spiritual communities.

A form of hegemony is “Christian hegemony,” which I define as the overarching system of advantages bestowed on Christians. It is the institutionalization of a Christian norm or standard, which establishes and perpetuates the notion that all people are or should be Christian, thereby privileging Christians and Christianity, and excluding the needs, concerns, ethnic and religious cultural practices, and life experiences of people who are not Christian.

Often overt, though at times subtle, Christian hegemony is oppression by intent and design, but also it comes in the form of neglect, omission, erasure, and distortion. 

In the service of hegemony is what is termed “discourse,” which includes the ideas, written expressions, theoretical foundations, and language of the dominant culture. These are implanted within networks of social and political control, described by gay philosopher Michel Foucault as “regimes of truth,” which function to legitimize what can be said, who has the authority to speak and be heard, and what is authorized as true or as the truth. 

The concept of oppression, then, constitutes more than the cruel and repressive actions of individuals upon others. It often involves an overarching system of differentials of social power and privilege by dominant groups over subordinated groups based on ascribed social identities or social group status.

And this is not merely the case in societies ruled by coercive or tyrannical leaders, but also occurs even within the day-to-day practices of contemporary democratic societies according to Iris Marion Young. 

Christian Privilege

As the old saying goes, the fish is the last to see or even feel the water because it is so pervasive, and therefore, the fish unquestioningly swims in it as a pre-existing norm. Often, those beings situated outside the confines of the water can, in effect, perceive the water’s existence with its edges, depths, surfaces, consistencies, and reflections.

By analogy, what many (most likely the majority) within our society consider as “normal” and appropriate, upon critical reflection are perceived by many as (re)enforcements of mainline Christian standards and what is referred to as “Christian privilege,” though presented in presumably secularized forms, and as such, are reminders that the United States is, indeed, not and never has been the inclusive and welcoming land of freedom, justice, and equality that it often purports to be.

And what can be the effects on students in our classrooms and in the larger society from ethnic and religious traditions other than mainline Christian? This can have very serious implications on individuals’ sense of self and on their identity development, for they begin to view themselves through the lens of the dominant group.

When this occurs, victims of marginalization and systematic oppression are susceptible to the effects of internalized oppression, whereby they internalize, consciously or unconsciously, attitudes of inferiority or “otherness.”

According to Suzanne Lipsky, this internalization, created by oppression from the outside, plays itself out where it has seemed “safe” to do so in two primary places: 1) on members of their own group, and 2) upon themselves.

In the case of religious minorities, this can result in low self-esteem, shame, depression, prejudiced attitudes towards members of their own religious community, and even conversion to the dominant religion. 

Based on Peggy McIntosh’s pioneering investigations of white and male privilege, we can, by analogy, understand Christian privilege as constituting a seemingly invisible, unearned, and largely unacknowledged array of benefits accorded to Christians, with which they often unconsciously walk through life as if effortlessly carrying a knapsack tossed over their shoulders.

This system of benefits confers dominance on Christians while subordinating members of other faith communities as well as non-believers. These systemic inequities are pervasive throughout society. They are encoded into the individual’s consciousness and woven into the very fabric of our social institutions, resulting in a stratified social order privileging dominant groups while restricting and disempowering subordinate groups.

As Clark et al assert, the fact remains that all Christians benefit from Christian privilege regardless of the way they express themselves as Christians in the same way that all White people benefit from White privilege.

But this is not monolithic, for as there is a spectrum of Christian denominations and traditions, so too is there a hierarchy or continuum of Christian privilege based on 1) historical factors, 2) numbers of practitioners, and 3) degrees of social power.

In this regard, in a United States context, though the gap in privilege between Christian denominations is apparently shrinking, white, mainline Protestant denominations may still have some greater degrees of Christian privilege, relative to some minority Christian denominations, for example, African American, Latinx, Asian American churches, Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Eastern and Greek Orthodox, adherents to Christian Science and to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and still in some quarters, to Catholics. 

By “unpacking” the knapsack of privilege — whether it be Christian, white, male, heterosexual, cisgender, owning class, temporarily able-bodied, English as first-language speakers, and native-born U.S. citizens, adults, and others — is to become aware and to develop critical consciousness of its existence and how it impacts the daily lives of both those with and those without this privilege.

So, while Trump, Hegseth, Vance, and Johnson have received some criticism in their attempts to knock out the Pope, many are enthralled by the spectacle in the context of an overall colonized Christian hegemonic world.

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Donald Trump’s lesbian niece, Mary Trump, accused the president’s spiritual advisor, Florida-based televangelist scammer Paula White-Cain for repeatedly and blasphemously comparing him to Jesus and God, saying that it serves mostly to boost his ego, manipulate their followers, and silence criticism while making White-Cain and Trump richer in the process.

“I don’t think ‘blasphemy’ is a strong enough word to describe White-Cain’s comparison of a corrupt heathen like Donald Trump to Christians’ Lord and Savior,” Mary Trump wrote in a recent post, referring to White-Cain’s recent comparison of Trump to Jesus as well as her statement that saying no to Trump is like saying no to God.

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“The white evangelical excuse for their support of Donald—that he is but an imperfect vessel anointed by their god to help them achieve their political goals, is wearing thin especially with a snake-oil salesman like White-Cain trying to turn Donald into some kind of Christ-like martyr,” Mary Trump continued.

Mary Trump noted that White-Cain has participated in a laying on of hands upon the president in the Oval Office, publicly performs prayers “extolling his divine virtues,” performs “exorcisms,” and also “speaks in tongues.”

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“Paula White-Cain should either be in prison for being a snake-oil-selling grifter or in a psych ward, but instead of being a reviled figure who is forced to exist on the periphery, she’s actually a very powerful person in our government,” Trump’s relative continued.

Trump’s niece said that White-Cain built her career preaching the prosperity gospel, which resonates with Donald because he and his siblings grew up exposed to the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale, the author of the best-selling The Power of Positive Thinking, a classic 1952 self-help book that tells readers they can have a happier, more successful life by using faith, optimism, and practical techniques to overcome negativity, worry, and self-doubt.

Calling Peale an early preacher of the proto-prosperity gospel, Mary Trump said Peale was also “a charlatan whose doctrine proclaimed that you need only self-confidence to prosper in the way God wants you to, which confirmed a belief that Trump’s father already had: that he was rich because he deserved to be.

White-Cain “helps perpetuate the notion that wealth and righteousness are equivalent,” Mary Trump wrote, by conflating “political victory with divine mandate, and loyalty to Donald with loyalty to God.

Mary Trump noted that White-Cain ‘s IRS filings show that White-Cain made $166,000 in total income and paid herself $143,000 in compensation, but also made $80 million through her television ministry.

“[Those who make the] blasphemous and absurd comparison [of Trump to God] know exactly what they’re doing,” Mary Trump wrote. “Their rhetoric confirms Donald’s own delusions that he is a unique historical figure. It bolsters his dangerous notion not simply that he’s at the center of the universe, but that he is the universe.”

“In the process, it’s making them very rich at the expense of the vulnerable and deluded people who listen to them,” Mary Trump concluded.

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Madison Sheahan, the now-former Trump administration official who served as the deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from March 2025 to last January, allegedly seduced a teenage girl who worked under her, The Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

The relationship reportedly began in 2020 when Sheahan was 23 and a senior official with the Ohio Republican Party. Her alleged lover was a 19-year-old woman working as her junior staffer. The staffer, who has not been publicly identified, now calls the relationship toxic, volatile, and controlling.

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Once, on November 29, 2020, when the staffer sent Sheahan a picture herself dressed in black jeans and a tight-fitting black bodysuit before going out for a night of fun in Atlanta, Georgia, Sheahan allegedly freaked out over the phone.

“She lost it on me,” the former staffer said. “It went from her saying, ‘Have fun, have a great night,’ to, ‘What the f**k, you’re not gonna f**king go. Are you actually f**king serious? I’m not gonna talk to you again.’” When the staffer called her later, Sheahan reportedly yelled that the staffer planned on cheating on her with a man; another source said they overheard the phone conversation.

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“This is why I don’t like to date people who aren’t gay,” Sheahan allegedly told the young woman. Sheahan was the staffer’s first same-sex relationship.

The staffer said, “I think a lot of the problems with our relationship was that she’s not comfortable in her own skin. It’s okay to be gay… but I don’t think that’s something she has accepted.”

Sheahan worked as now-former Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s executive director during Noem’s governorship in South Dakota and became ICE deputy director in March 2025.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official told The Daily Mail that, while serving at ICE, Sheahan regularly targeted female staffers who she saw as “disloyal,” and tried to get them fired, sometimes verbally abusing her own staff and threatening to “rip their faces off” while claiming that she had Noem’s full support.

“She’d always try to be the alpha in the room. There could never be a stronger woman. Madison was intimidated by strong women,” the source said.

Sheahan’s political adviser, Bob Pudachik, told The Daily Mail, “As the Ohio campaign manager, I can speak with authority that no such relationship existed. Madison was not and has never been in a relationship with a subordinate.”

Sheahan left ICE in January to run for Congress in Ohio.

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Philadelphia women’s sports bar Marsha’s, named for the pioneering Stonewall rioter Marsha P. Johnson, is in turmoil after two fired Black staffers alleged transphobia and misogyny at the bar in the city’s queer-friendly Queen Village.

Black and queer owner Chivonn Anderson has denied the allegations.

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Marsha’s former Black and trans manager and bartender Olivia Rhodes went public on socials with the charges after she was abruptly terminated last week, claiming the bar quickly developed a bad reputation among marginalized staffers upon opening in September, Philadelphia Gay News reports.

“Marsha’s may claim to be a queer safe space, but it is nothing like that,” Rhodes asserted in an Instagram post. She said Anderson called the police on her when she questioned why she was being fired.

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Rhodes accused the bar’s general manager, Rylan Murphy, a white trans man, of creating a hostile work environment by disparaging women and staffers of color. Rhodes quoted Murphy as saying women and nonbinary employees were “overly emotional” and should be replaced with men, because the bar needs “more testosterone.” Murphy hired male employees in the aftermath, Rhodes said.

Rhodes alleged in her video that management commented derisively about Black music that she played in the bar, calling Megan Thee Stallion “ghetto” and “too Black” for Marsha’s, while suggesting white artists to feature instead.

When Rhodes questioned a lack of representation on staff, Murphy tore into her for half an hour over the issue, she said. A week later she was fired, despite a glowing performance review just a month earlier.

Termination paperwork claims she was fired “due to a continued misalignment with the company’s operating practices and standards.”

“See you in court losers!!!!” Rhodes said in another Instagram post.

Hundreds of comments from patrons, current and former employees, and events partners backing up Rhodes’ claims forced Anderson to launch an “independent review” of the bar.

“We know that trust is built through action, and we are committed to earning that back” Anderson said in a statement just seven months after opening Marsha’s.

Rhodes’ firing followed another abrupt termination just five days earlier. Seisha Mason, a biracial bisexual woman, said she was continually treated poorly by management and endured retaliation for saying so. Mason filed a complaint with Philadelphia’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after Anderson allegedly ghosted her following her dismissal.

A Reddit user claiming to be a current employee described a host of workplace culture issues at the bar, with allegations that Marsha’s head chef repeatedly misgendered staff, and accusations that manager Murphy is a “hothead” who has “blown up at employees and event organizers.”

Late pay, problems with tip outs, and outright wage theft were reported by others responding to fired manager Rhodes’ accusations. Marsha’s was also subject to massive raid by Philadelphia police in March after reports of the bar operating without proper permits and serving alcohol to minors, WPVI reported.

“We are committed — I am committed — to regaining your trust,” Anderson said in her own video posted to Instagram following Rhodes’ comments.

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Out gay Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) asked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a Friday morning congressional hearing whether he would insist that President Donald Trump take a test to prove his mental fitness and emotional stability. Kennedy refused.

“Millions of Americans are questioning this president’s mental fitness, his emotional stability, and whether he can carry out the duties of his office. Do you share their concerns about his mental health?” Takano asked Kennedy during a hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee about the budget of Kennedy’s department.

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To illustrate his point, Takano pointed out that on April 7, Trump wrote, “A whole civilization will die tonight,” in comments that Takano and others described as “calling for the eradication of an entire civilization.”

Takano then told Kennedy that, five days later, Trump repeatedly posted on his Truth Social microblogging network from 9 p.m. at night until 5 a.m. the next morning, including “an unhinged attack on Pope Leo, claiming Pope Leo was weak on crime” and posting an image of himself as Jesus Christ (though Trump later deleted the image and disingenuously claimed that it had depicted himself as a “doctor”).

“Mr. Secretary, people across the country and around the world were deeply offended by this blasphemous image,” Takano told Kennedy. “Millions of Americans are questioning this president’s mental fitness, his emotional stability, and whether he can carry out the duties of his office. Do you share their concerns about his mental health?”

When Kennedy tried to respond by commenting on Trump’s rhetoric, Takano noted that Kennedy refused to answer the question and concluded that Kennedy doesn’t share others’ concerns about Trump’s mental health.

Takano then continued, “We are a nation at war, Mr. Secretary. We need a leader that we know has full command of his mental faculties and is emotionally stable as he sends uniformed American men and women into harm’s way. Millions of Americans are now wondering if this president is delusional and thinks he is Jesus Christ. Mr. Secretary, given everything that I’ve shown you today, will you insist that President Trump undergo an assessment of his mental fitness and his emotional stability?”

“Absolutely not,” Kennedy answered, saying, “There hasn’t been a president who is more sane.” 

“Thank you, Mr. Secretary,” Takano replied. “I remind you that under the 25th Amendment, you have a duty to remove a president who is physically or mentally unable to discharge his responsibilities under the Constitution. It’s your duty. You took an oath to the Constitution, not to President Trump.” 

Takano isn’t the first person to publicly worry about Trump’s mental state.

Dr. Vin Gupta, a medical analyst for MS NOW, wrote of Trump, “Erratic. Can’t finish sentences. Often confused. Illogical train of thought. Word-finding difficulties. Developing and worsening gradually over time. The President is exhibiting all the signs of dementia.”

Dr. Gupta is far from the only medical professional sounding the alarm on Trump’s potential cognitive decline.

Dr. John Gartner, a former professor at John Hopkins Medical School and a psychologist and psychiatrist, said in February that Trump “used to be quite physically coordinated, and now he can barely walk a straight line” and “if you look at tapes of him in the 1980s, he was actually quite articulate… Now he has trouble completing a sentence, a thought, and sometimes even a word.”

In November of last year, Donald Trump’s clinical psychologist niece, Mary Trump, explained the signs that her uncle is in treatment for dementia or a stroke.

She noted that Donald Trump took a cognitive exam while receiving an MRI for unspecified reasons during a physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in January 2018. While he reportedly achieved a perfect score of 30, MRIs are a non-invasive imaging technique often used to assess brain activity, cognitive function, and even injury and abnormalities in the brain or the nervous system.

“Once again, we have Donald bragging about the results not just of the MRI, which indeed he aced, but also the cognitive assessment,” she said. “Donald Trump is not a well man. We need to continue to focus on the ways in which he is deteriorating cognitively, psychologically, emotionally, and intellectually.”

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Four women are accusing out Salt Lake City Council Member Eva Lopez Chavez of sexual assault. Lopez Chavez is running for Congress as a Democrat in Utah’s newly created First Congressional District.

The women include associates from her political career who all have or recently held jobs in politics. Each of them told their story to the Salt Lake Tribune, which was able to confirm some of the details.

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Lopez Chavez denies all wrongdoing and says she is “shocked by the allegations” and is “ready to submit to a polygraph test regarding these various allegations if requested.”

Lopez Chavez has been particularly critical of state Sen. Nate Blouin (D), one of her rivals in the congressional race, for posts he made between 2009 and 2015 that she says “trivialize[d]” sexual assault. Her alleged victims say that she is in no position to talk about the victims of sexual assault.

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One of the accusers is fellow Salt Lake City Council Member Victoria Petro. She says that she attended a wedding in September 2022 where Lopez Chavez was also a guest. She told the Salt Lake Tribune that Lopez Chavez grabbed her by the throat and “pushed me back against a pillar” and said, “The only reason I still f**k men is because a woman hasn’t shown me what I really want.”

Petro said that she pushed Lopez Chavez away and left. She said she later told Council Chair Alejandro Puy about the alleged attack, which he confirmed to the Salt Lake Tribune. Petro also said that Lopez Chavez once told her to stop telling her story to people, but that she responded that Lopez Chavez “shouldn’t have given me a story to tell. It’s my story.”

Lopez Chavez’s lawyer, Greg Skordas, says that Petro’s story is false and pointed to pictures showing Petro having a good time at the wedding and “smiling and laughing with others, including Eva” as proof that she is lying.

State Sen. Jen Plumb (D) says that Lopez Chavez also pushed her against a wall and grabbed her buttocks. She “got up in my face and said in my ear, ‘You’re sure you’re straight?’” Plumb said. “I just pushed her away. Come on. Knock it off.”

She said she didn’t tell anyone at the time, but is now coming forward because she thought about how she would react if someone did that to her daughter. Skordas denies that the encounter occurred.

State Rep. Hoang Nguyen (D) says she was giving Lopez Chavez a ride after a campaign event in 2022 when Lopez Chavez told her to pull over. “Next thing I know, she has leaned over, and she’s on top of me, holding my shoulders down,” Nguyen said.

“I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And she said, ‘Kiss me,’” she continued.

“She said, ‘I’m not going to get off you until you kiss me.’ I gave her a peck, and she got off.”

Nguyen told a friend about the alleged attack, which the Salt Lake Tribune confirmed with the friend. Skordas denied the allegations again, pointing to text messages between the women that were “friendly” and did not discuss any “inappropriate” conduct.

Campaign worker Maggie Regier is the fourth accuser, and they said that Lopez Chavez was being “flirty” with them at a Human Rights Campaign event in 2019. They tried to get away from Lopez Chavez, but she pulled Regier into a corner and pinned them against the wall. Another person walking by pulled them apart, saying, “Leave Maggie alone.”

Regier said they told their campaign supervisor, who also confirmed that Regier told him about it at the time. Regier also posted about Lopez Chavez’s actions on social media when she ran for city council in 2023.

Skordas also denied these accusations, saying that the two “played and laughed” at the 2019 event but that there was no “unwanted contact.”

“I need to be direct: The reports and firsthand accounts of Council member Eva Lopez Chavez’s past behavior cannot be dismissed or minimized,” Puy, the council chair, told the Salt Lake Tribune. “Based on my own firsthand knowledge and the experience of some of my colleagues on the council, they do not describe an isolated incident. They suggest a pattern of conduct that has affected colleagues in our own council, myself, and many others in our community, and has shaped our working environment.”

Lopez Chavez released a statement saying that she wants “a fair and independent investigation” and promised to participate in it, while denying wrongdoing.

The Utah Supreme Court ruled against the state in 2024 in a challenge to its congressional map, sending the case back to a lower court, which ordered the state to redraw its map. The previous map divided the Salt Lake City metro area between the state’s four congressional districts to dilute Democratic votes and ensure that all four members of the state’s congressional delegation were Republicans.

The First Congressional District in the new map is more likely to vote for a Democrat. People living in the new district’s boundaries voted 60-37 in favor of Kamala Harris in 2024.

Primaries in Utah are scheduled for June 23. There are at least 10 candidates in the district’s Democratic primary, according to Ballotpedia, including out state Sen. and marriage equality activist Derek Kitchen.

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Comedian Jaclyn Lore-Edwards grew up with two moms and a twin brother. On social media, she regales followers with the trials and tribulations of growing up with two moms (sometimes joined by her brother, Nick).

The videos lovingly rail on the parents the way any child would, and in doing so, make it clear how much love and gratitude Lore-Edwards has for growing up the way she did.

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In one video, Lore-Edwards and her brother joke that they were “victimized by their moms” because they only had “health foods” in the house.

“When you have two moms who are eating nothing but nuts and ingredients, you go hungry,” she joked.

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She also joked that their “bones were feeble” because their moms did not give them dairy milk.

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In another video, they explain that everything they wore “had to have a purpose” and that “it was all function,” like cargo shorts and rolling backpacks, to avoid scoliosis.

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But another video, overlain with text that declares, “Things about being raised by gay parents that would send conservatives into a coma,” Lore-Edwards praises her parents for how much freedom they gave her in expressing herself without gender constraints.

“Me and my brother were allowed to express ourselves whatever way we wanted,” she said. “We could dress however we wanted, we could ask to be called whatever we wanted to be called. I could get the boys’ kids meal, he could get the girls’ kids meal, they didn’t care.”

She then told a story about one summer when she dressed like a boy every single day and demanded to be called Jack. At the end of the summer, her parents asked her if she really felt like a boy, and she laughed, saying it was just her summer identity.

“If you think about it, that was actually pretty ahead of my time,” she joked. “That was pretty they/them of me if I do say so myself.”

She concluded, “My parents knew we were just figuring it out and we were going to become who we were going to become either way, whether they try to repress it or not.”

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Lore-Edwards also answered frequently asked questions she gets about having two moms, and also told the story of how her moms spoke to her about her conception using a donor.

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The downstream effects of the Supreme Court’s Skrmetti decision last year, affirming Tennessee’s ban on gender care for trans youth, continue to surface. In March, a U.S. appeals court ruling upheld a West Virginia ban on Medicaid funds for gender-affirming care for all ages, based on the Supreme Court’s reasoning.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision that had reversed West Virginia’s ban, Michigan Advance reports. The lower court ruled that the state’s ban was discriminatory.

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Like the Supreme Court, the 4th Circuit judges wrote that West Virginia’s policy applies only to certain procedures, contending it doesn’t target a protected class.

“It is not irrational for a legislature to encourage citizens ‘to appreciate their sex’ and not ‘become disdainful of their sex’ by refusing to fund experimental procedures that may have the opposite effect,” the three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision. “The Supreme Court’s decision in Skrmetti forecloses any argument to the contrary.”

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The plaintiffs in the case are seeking a rehearing by the full panel.

While the Supreme Court majority in Skrmetti characterized the decision as a straightforward matter of state authority over medical practice, divorced from arguments around transgender identity, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrissey (R) was explicit in connecting the two as he applauded the ruling.

“Today’s ruling makes clear that states have the authority to set reasonable limits within taxpayer-funded healthcare programs,” Gov. Morrisey said in March. “That principle matters as we continue defending common-sense laws that guide our country, protect women’s sports, and preserve safe spaces.”

Eleven states have enacted bans on Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care for trans people of all ages, with at least seven facing lawsuits, according to Reuters. The 4th Circuit decision puts the challenges to those laws in doubt.

Carmel Shachar, assistant clinical professor of law and faculty director of Harvard Law School’s Health Law and Policy Clinic, called the West Virginia ruling “a significant early case in the post-Skrmetti landscape.”

The ruling “is definitely influential,” she said, adding it’s “a sign of which way the wind is blowing right now when it comes to state policies.”

In Oklahoma, lawmakers advancing a ban even broader than West Virginia’s have that wind at their back following the 4th Circuit ruling.

Their legislation would prohibit Medicaid funds from covering adult gender-affirming care, and also bar public money from being used by any organization or individual to pay for gender transition.

That means that even a trans person with private medical insurance would be barred from gender-affirming care in a state-funded hospital. The bill passed 11-2 through a House oversight committee last week, after already being approved by the state Senate.

In August, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit cited Skrmetti in its decision to reject a challenge to Oklahoma’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth.

Oklahoma’s new bill is just the latest example of the ways Republicans are exploiting the Supreme Court’s ruling that gender-affirming care bans aren’t discriminatory. The West Virginia decision only helps advance an anti-trans agenda, said Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights.

“It invites states to come up with creative ways to discriminate against other groups of people and disguise it as just regulation of medical care,” Minter said. “It’s dangerous when the law and the courts refuse to recognize that type of blatant discrimination.”

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An English court on Thursday convicted 43-year-old Adam Hall of deliberately inflicting grievous bodily harm by transmitting HIV to five young men, a 15-year-old boy, and a 17-year-old boy, and of raping four of those individuals. Hall will now serve a 23-year minimum of a life-long prison sentence.

During the four-month trial, which began in November and ended in March, police officers described Hall as an “arrogant and dismissive,” “callous, calculating sexual predator” who was diagnosed with HIV in 2010 but showed no remorse targeting younger, sexually inexperienced men he met in bars or on Grindr from 2016 to 2023, The Guardian reported.

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“He actually suggested that some of the victims wanted him to pass HIV on to them, which absolutely was not the case,” said Northumbria police officer Emma Smith, who interviewed Hall and testified at his trial. His victims only discovered his HIV status after learning on their own that they had been infected.

Prosecutors said Hall conducted a “campaign” to harm men across the United Kingdom, including in County Durham, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Manchester, and London, PinkNews reported. Legal authorities are also convinced that Hall may have harmed other victims and are asking them to speak out so that he may continue to be held accountable.

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One of Hall’s rape victims, a 15-year-old, told the BBC that Hall met him through a dating app and never told him about his HIV status or his lack of medication treatment to keep the virus untransmittable.

“Why?” the victim said, “What was the reason? What possessed you to do what you did? Not just to me, but to everyone else that you’ve done it to, what did you gain out of it?”

Another victim said, “The whole thing is so unfair, he knew he was infected, and he thought he could get away with infecting me, that he was immune from any consequences. He didn’t even give me the option to take any pre- or post-HIV exposure treatment.”

The victim said some of his closest friends stopped inviting him to their houses after he was diagnosed with HIV. Another said that their own family now fears them for having the virus, even though it’s not easily transmitted without sexual intercourse.

Another victim said that Hall raped him when he was asleep, and yet another victim said that, because of Hall, he has been “left a shell of who I was” and forced to take HIV suppression medications for the rest of his life.

Overall, the victims said that Hall had “violated” them, leaving them with lifelong conditions and trauma, the BBC reported. Judge Edward Bindloss said Hall had been “selfish” and taken his victims’ futures away.

Jurors deliberated for almost 43 hours before deciding to convict Hall.

Police said Hall’s conviction marks the second time that someone has been convicted for intentional transmission of HIV in England. The law requires prosecutors to prove that the defendant knew they had HIV, didn’t disclose it, and deliberately transmitted it. The law gives convicted people a maximum prison sentence of five years for each person they were found guilty of infecting, according to the Terrence Higgins Trust.

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