President Donald Trump was accused of trying to orally rape a 13- to 14-year-old girl who then bit his genitals, according to an unproven allegation contained among the 3.5 million pages of investigatory files connected to deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, released today by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The accusation, which allegedly occurred 35 years ago, was made secondhand by a friend of the accuser and then relayed from an unknown contact to the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force in New York. The accusation was never proven to be true, but it’s still one of several shocking allegations made against Trump in the DOJ’s latest file release.

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Another allegation said that Trump held “calendar girls” parties at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein would bring in children, and he and Trump would use their fingers to test their vaginal tightness. The accuser also said Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump were present at these alleged parties — but yet again, this claim was never proven to be true.

The DOJ has previously said that its newly released files contain “untrue and sensationalist claims” against Trump. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said federal investigators cannot investigate many of the allegations made to the FBI about Trump and Epstein because many of the allegations were anonymous and relied on second-hand information, and thus, “not something that can be really investigated.” 

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.

It’s the second week of Pride Month, and we’ve got a great mixed bag of rainbow-colored goodies for you to enjoy in this week’s Good News Roundup! Some of them are even reader submissions for our heartwarming Pride in Pictures series — check ’em out!

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And oh goodness, did you hear about the activist & designer Qween Jean who made trans history with a recent Tony win? How about the reality TV star who recently came out as a lesbian in a Pride Month post? And did you see the jaw-dropping 1,000-foot Pride banners that kicked off this city’s Pride weekend?

He-Man & his pals wish you a Happy Pride Month!

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A trans man donated eggs to his sister & shared the incredible moment he first held his nephew

“It felt more like a calling than a choice.”

Federal judge blocks Trump’s attempt to send 14 trans women to men’s prisons

“This decision reaffirms a bedrock constitutional principle: the government cannot … simply look the other way.”

This photojournalist usually shot crime scenes. But he took this “joyful” picture of 1978 Pride.

“A very large man dressed in full leather offered that he would ‘throw me in the Hudson River’ if I took that photograph….”

We got you a fun new pet to celebrate!

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“C’mon, gays. Happy Pride!” Madonna kicked off Pride Month with free Times Square concert

“A very large man dressed in full leather offered that he would ‘throw me in the Hudson River’ if I took that photograph….”

This 81-year-old nun is helping Catholic parents affirm their trans kids

“They have to realize it is not about them, it’s about their child,” she said.

Cara Delevingne says she’s a “proud lesbian” after rejecting labels in the past

“If I can help any other kid, that means the world to me.”

And now for a heartwarming celebrity makeover!

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Fox host rages at mindblowing videos of LGBTQ+ people dancing

“These people have no joy. All of those celebrations look awesome!”

She came out at age 11.5 in her military family. Her supportive parents took her to Pride.

“If we allow the younger generation to teach us how to be better humans, maybe the future isn’t as bleak as it seems.”

Two nuns hated each other when they first met in a convent. Then they gave it all up & fell in love.

“If there is a cupid in the world, ours was God.”

Now, let the whimsical laughter of The Great Fairy send you off!

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From our sibling sites:

• QUEERTY: Haters tried to ruin this queer couple’s joyful baby announcement but failed miserably
• OUTSPORTS: Time picked the 100 most influential people in sports. These LGBTQ stars made the cut.
• GAYCITIES: Everything you need to know about the unauthorized ‘Heated Rivalry’ musical
• INTO: What your birth month says about you, according to the data

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British-Jewish journalist Jonathan Sacerdoti authored an article entitled, “Bombing Iran is the perfect way to celebrate Pride.” While the article’s title has since been changed to, “Bombing Iran’s evil regime is a point of Pride for Israel”, in it he praises Israel’s missile strikes against “the homophobic tyrannical theocratic regime in Iran.” Numerous web commenters have condemned the article.

“Sure, gay rights weren’t their primary war concern, but it still seems a fitting way to inject some true meaning back into the now-hollow Pride movement,” Sacerdoti writes, having earlier written (in the same article) that, “Gay Pride has become a tiresome and hollow celebration of ultra-sexualized behavior in public places… a counter-productive circus of debauchery … now almost completely devoid of any meaningful ideological principle.” He also laments that Pride month observances last the entire month.

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He then recounts Iran’s hardline religious laws which deny LGBTQ+ people legal due process and punish them with whippings (and even death) as well as anal rape in prisons.

“So while the Tel Aviv pride parade hasn’t yet been officially canceled, I for one can see no better replacement for the traditional drug-fueled display of sexual vulgarity than the continued thrashing of the horrific Iranian regime,” Sacerdoti concludes. “I’m not sure the Gays for Palestine or [gay Jewish-British Green Party leader] Zack Polanski’s Islamist-aligned go-go dancers will agree, but this seems a far more meaningful way to stand up for non-heteronormative rights.”

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One commenter on Bluesky, Caio Almendra, called the article an example of “pinkwashing.” The term can refer to “an instance or practice of acknowledging and promoting the civil liberties of the LGBTQ+ community, but superficially, as a ploy to divert attention from allegiances and activities that are in fact hostile to such liberties.”

Pinkwashing is sometimes associated with “homonationalism,” when people cite Muslim-majority countries’ anti-LGBTQ+ policies as a pretext for racism, Islamophobia, and violence against Muslims.

Another Bluesky commenter, Ben Kafir, called Sacerdoti “someone who thinks pride should be celebrated by bombing more school children.” The comment may refer to the February 28 U.S. military strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ Elementary School, which killed 156 civilians, including 120 schoolchildren.

Fellow Bluesky user, Scott Dagostino, called The Spectator “a homophobic rag begging for hate-click attention.” Dagostino noted that the publication recently published another article entitled, “The tyranny of Pride is coming to an end.”

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David Hockney, the pioneering gay artist best known for his portraits of male desire in mid-century settings, has died. He was 88. His cause of death is not yet publicly known.

The British artist, who, along with compatriots Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud, was uncompromising in his depictions of gay love, devoted his 60-year, transatlantic career to centering the human figure, beginning in an era of abstraction that made it anything but fashionable.

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Hockney’s death comes nine months after a career-honoring retrospective of 400 of his works at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, the largest of his career. Even with his health failing, Hockney continued to paint.

“I just go on with my work,” he told The New York Times before the show opened last April. “When I come back from Paris, I’m going to carry on painting.”

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Hockney lived in Los Angeles for many years, a location that inspired a break with his British contemporaries’ sometimes claustrophobic, always interior depictions of their subjects. The self-described “English Los Angeleno” soaked his canvases in color and light, in exultant portraits that welcomed viewers in. Sun-splashed pools became a favorite motif.

For a time, Hockney’s iconic Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was the most expensive painting sold by a living artist, when it earned $90.3 million at auction in 2018. The 1972 work depicts Hockney poolside with his then-lover and muse Peter Schlesinger, who appeared in several of the artist’s paintings.

A trip to New York City in 1961 was Hockney’s first to the United States.

Inspired by the visit, he produced a gay take on British painter William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, transforming the young man at the center of the 18th-century morality tale into a still-libertine, but liberated 20th-century New Yorker, drinking in gay bars and cruising runners in Central Park. The casually abstracted but realistic figure set the painter’s style for a lifetime.

Hockney soon found a personal look to match the vibrant colors of his canvases; he was well-known for his colorful, eye-catching wardrobe, owlish glasses, and a mop of bleached blonde that Andy Warhol’s wigs would envy. Admirer Keith Haring later took Hockney’s cue for distinctive frames associated with an artist’s style.

Over decades of prodigious output, Hockney experimented with many forms of portraiture and later landscape, in photography, collage, and immersive stage design for ballet, theatre, and opera. He embraced digital art forms, as well, with the appearance of computer graphics programs in 1985, and working on an iPad late into his career.

Hockney was also a champion of LGBTQ+ rights. A traveling exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London was put in jeopardy in 1988 when he threatened to withdraw paintings he owned in the show to protest anti-gay legislation in the British Parliament. The measure was defeated, and the exhibition went on.

The young artist came out at 23 while studying painting at the Royal College of Art in London, seven years before the U.K. decriminalized homosexual acts in 1967. Hockney is survived by his longtime partner and former assistant, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, and his brothers Philip and John.

In an interview with the Times in 2001, he summed up his life and style.

“I prefer living in color,” Hockney said.

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Ten years after the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub, survivors, family and friends of the 49 victims are gathering in Orlando to honor the dead.

Several events around the city will pay tribute to those lost in what was then the largest mass shooting in American history. 58 clubgoers at the Latin-themed night during Pride Month were injured in the massacre, many of them severely. Others still suffer the emotional fallout.

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“I’ve been crying all day,” out Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan told the Orlando Herald-Tribune. Sheehan was on-site at Pulse as the tragedy unfolded and helped lead the city’s response in the aftermath.

Brandon Wolf, a survivor and advocate following the tragedy, lamented “ten years of missing faces at birthday parties, empty seats at dinner tables, and voicemails never returned.”

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Now senior communications director at Equality Florida, Wolf said missteps honoring the victims and the current hateful political climate have only added to the tragedy.

“But one thing has not changed: the strength of our community to, in the face of hate, shine brighter and bolder than before,” he said.

Orlandoans will come together to remember at several memorials today and through June.

First United Methodist Church will commemorate the victims at the 2026 Pulse Remembrance Ceremony, featuring the Orlando Gay Chorus and more musical performances by local artists, a presentation by Orlando Poet Laureate Camara Gaither, and a candlelight ceremony and reading of the 49 names. 

City Hall Plaza in Orlando will host a prayer ribbon memorial exhibition through June 14. Ten years ago, Jay Critchley and a group of fellow Provincetown artists sent colorful ribbons inscribed with each victim’s name to Orlando. 49 black ribbons honor the dead on the tenth anniversary of the shooting.

An exhibition at the Terrace Gallery in Orlando features 49 portraits honoring those who died at Pulse. For Created in Community: Portraits of Pulse, artist Jeff Sonksen provided a kind of paint-by-numbers start for each picture, which family and friends completed.  

Orlando City Commissioner Sheehan was instrumental in organizing an on-site blood donation drive as the Pulse nightclub shooting unfolded. That life-saving effort is honored and repeated at the Day of Remembrance Blood Drive at City Hall on Friday. Donors can reserve a spot with the local blood donation organization, OneBlood.

The future Pulse Memorial site will be lit in rainbow colors overnight through June 15.  

On Saturday, the Human Rights Campaign and Equality Florida will lead a panel discussion called 10 Years Since Pulse: Honor Them With Action Memorial Panel, featuring Equality Florida’s Wolf and out Florida state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D). The panel looks back, and forward, to talk about ways to honor the victims with action. The event is at 10 a.m. June 13 at a private location. Register at mobilize.us.

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Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg slammed Donald Trump for saying that he loves inflation.

“We have a president and a White House that clearly don’t care,” Buttigieg said in a video posted to social media.

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Buttigieg was referring to comments Trump made on Wednesday in the Oval Office when he was asked about the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), which showed an annualized rate for May of 4.2%, higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target and higher than it has been in three years.

“No, I love it, the numbers are great,” Trump told a reporter who asked him about rising inflation. “You know what I really love? I love the inflation.”

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Democrats have attacked Trump for those comments, saying that they show that he likely doesn’t care about the cost of living for people who are not himself. Hillary Clinton compared Trump to Marie Antoinette.

Buttigeig pointed out that the U.S. wholesale inflation rate is even worse at an annualized rate of 6.5% for May, up from 4.3% in March and the highest it has been since 2022.

Trump, Buttigieg said, is “focused on things like building a new ballroom and shielding the president’s family from ever having their taxes audited” instead of lowering the cost of living, even though it was the number one promise that got him into office.”

Buttigieg said that the current increase is a result of Trump’s war on Iran.

He then said that this shows how important it is for people to vote in the midterm elections later this year and get involved in the election.

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A state judge in Maine agreed on Thursday that “Protect Girls’ Sports,” an anti-transgender activist group, tried to get a referendum on sports participation on the ballot this fall but failed to collect enough valid signatures.

Earlier this year, Protect Girls’ Sports, a campaign that was bankrolled by out-of-state billionaire Richard Uihlein, submitted 79,692 signatures — well over the 67,682 required to qualify — to get a measure on the ballot this fall that would ban trans kids from participating in school sports.

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But Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) ruled in May that, because 12,542 of those signatures were possibly fraudulent, Protect Girls’ Sports did not succeed in obtaining enough signatures.

Now, Superior Court Justice Deborah Cashman has affirmed Bellows’ decision and rejected the anti-trans campaign’s appeals. Cashman’s 13-page decision focuses on the technical claims and even notes that there was “substantially more evidence of circulator wrongdoing than what the Secretary ultimately chose to rely on upon making her Revised Determination.”

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Bellows threw out some of the signatures because the collectors didn’t witness the signing (as required by state law). Others were invalidated because the signatures did not match the voters’ signatures on voter registries, because the signatories signed more than once, because the signers weren’t registered voters, or because the signatures were forgeries. Collectors were paid $3 to $4 per signature.

“The rules are in place to make sure that when a question goes on the ballot, that voters can trust that it qualified fair and square,” David Farmer of the Campaign for Free and Fair Schools told Maine Public Radio. “And in this case, it did not. They took some shortcuts and got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.”

Protect Girls’ Sports said in a statement that they would continue to appeal the decision.

“The committee remains confident in the challenges it raised to the Secretary’s decision and will seek review by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court,” the statement said.

The ballot measure would’ve defined a student’s sex as “a biological status as male or female recorded at birth on the person’s original birth certificate,” effectively ending any legal recognition of trans students, not just in the cases of restrooms and sports.

The measure also would’ve carved trans students out of legal protections enshrined in the Maine Human Rights Act (a statewide anti-discrimination law), and would’ve allowed cisgender students to sue any school that allowed trans students to use sex-segregated school spaces alongside them.

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During a press event at the Oval Office on Thursday, Donald Trump claimed that there are six states that are taking people’s children and forcing them to transition, leaving people wondering if Trump was lying or if he had lost his mind, since this is not happening anywhere.

“No men in women’s sports,” he said in the middle of his long, rambling response to a question about the SAVE America Act, which would restrict voter access. “We are talking about saving America. No men in women’s sports. Another one, very popular. I think it is 99-to-1… They say it is 80/20, I think it is 99-to-1.”

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“And we have no mutilization of your children for transgender purposes. You see, transgender mutilization of your children? Does that sound good with you?” he asked someone standing behind him, who said, “Not at all.”

“Where your child leaves your house, and they take your child from you, in some cases… Think of it, in six states, they take the child and do what they want to do. What they do is, is- I don’t even want to talk about it! No transgender mutilization of your children.”

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Another reporter then asked a question about U.S. intelligence staffing.

In the replies, people questioned Trump’s mental health, while others thought that he was lucid but just lying about the states stealing children to forcibly transition them. People also called him out for not knowing the word “mutilation.”

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Bud Light has gone from sponsoring Pride events in major U.S. cities to sponsoring the Trump administration’s UFC cage match on the White House lawn.

Three years after a one-off Instagram video partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney sparked a MAGA boycott, the brand’s logo will appear alongside those of Dodge Ram, Morgan & Morgan, Corona Extra, and Polymarket in the massive temporary arena constructed on the White House’s South Lawn, where the UFC Freedom 250 event will take place on June 14, the Associated Press reports.

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The sponsorship appears to be Bud Light’s latest effort to win back anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives after the 2023 boycott, which cost its parent company, Anheuser-Busch, around $1.4 billion in North American revenue and knocked the brand out of its long-held position as the best-selling beer in America, according to CBS.

In the immediate aftermath of the Mulvaney controversy, CEO Brendan Whitworth released a statement essentially apologizing for the partnership, saying that Anheuser-Busch “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.” And in 2024, the company’s European branch CEO, Jason Warner, claimed that the brand would “stay in our lane“ and avoid controversial issues.

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But it appears that “controversial issues” may have been code for LGBTQ+ sponsorships. Last year, Anheuser-Busch ended its partnerships with several major U.S. cities’ Pride events, including San Francisco Pride and Pride St. Louis.

In 2024, Bud Light partnered with comedian Shane Gillis, who lost a job at Saturday Night Live over his use of racial and anti-gay slurs.

In April, the brand announced a new partnership with UFC, sponsoring the mixed martial arts promotion company’s “Bud Light UFC Summer Series.” Notably, UFC CEO Dana White is a Trump ally, and the president has closely aligned his personal brand with the UFC. The president reportedly bought between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of stock in UFC’s parent company, TKO Holding Group, in May, according to the New York Times.

Marketed as part of the administration’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday, the June 14 UFC Freedom 250 event has drawn criticism for coinciding with the president’s 80th birthday rather than the July 4 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. One Washington lobbyist told NBC News this week that sponsorships for the event are seen as a way to curry favor with the president. Paramount+, whose parent company, Paramount Skydance, is seeking FTC approval for its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, will stream the event live. And The Independent notes that the Trump family is also directly profiting from UFC Freedom 250 memorabilia.

A lawsuit filed earlier this month by the Public Integrity Project seeks to block the event, describing it as “a corrupt scheme to hand the White House South Lawn and Lincoln Memorial to a private, for-profit sports promoter in violation of federal law.”

“This is a profoundly corrupt scheme to enrich the President and his friends,” Public Integrity Project founder Brendan Ballou said in a June 6 statement. “If this fight is allowed to proceed, it will be only the beginning, and our national monuments will become little more than branding opportunities for the rich and well-connected.”

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Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) signed a proclamation on June 3 designating this month as “Marriage and Family Month.” His proclamation makes his state just the latest among several red states that have recently tried to give Pride Month a conservative and anti-LGBTQ+ rebranding.

“The nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children, is God’s design for the family structure and has been the foundation of every society since the creation of the world,” Pillen’s proclamation reads.

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The proclamation’s signing ceremony was attended by Nate Grasz, executive director of the anti-LGBTQ+ Nebraska Family Alliance (NFA). Grasz praised the proclamation, stating, “At a time when other states and cultural trends are celebrating ‘Pride,’ this proclamation sends a powerful message that marriage still matters because mothers and fathers matter and children deserve both whenever possible,” Grasz said. “Nebraska isn’t following the culture—we’re leading with truth. 

In his statement praising the proclamation, Grasz also mentioned Them Before Us, a campaign to end marriage equality in the U.S. supported by a coalition of 47 anti-LGBTQ+ organizations.

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No fewer than five red states have designated Pride Month as some sort of “family” month: Alabama has called June “Strong Families Month,” Florida called it “Faith and Family Month,” and Indiana and Tennessee have called it “Nuclear Family Month.” All the proclamations use anti-LGBTQ+ dog whistles, saying that the best families are those with a mother and a father raising their own “biological” children.

Sam Petto, communications director for the ACLU of Nebraska, said in a statement, “The governor has been very clear that he’s got one particular view on what an acceptable family is. And families with two moms and two dads don’t fit that picture. I’d say none of this comes as a surprise to queer Nebraskans and their loved ones.”

“The partners who were involved with it are very purposefully pitting it against Pride,” he said. “It certainly invites skepticism – any claim that it’s not an intentional slight or that the timing isn’t purposeful.”

“Queer and trans Nebraskans live in every corner of the state. All kinds of families should be accepted, recognized, and celebrated,” he added. “There’s no good reason to draw a line between some and others, as the governor did with his proclamation.”

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It’s finally that time of year, when we celebrate “Straight Pride!” And frankly, it’s about time. For centuries, heterosexual people have been oppressed, marginalized, and forced to live in the shadows of a ruthlessly queer-dominated world. It’s time we address this glaring inequality and finally celebrate the joy, the triumph, and the beautifully beige aesthetic of being straight.

First, let’s brush up on our straight history. Even before the 1960s, heterosexual people were routinely targeted, harassed, and arrested just for holding hands in public.

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Hold on, my editor is whispering in my ear. Correction: That was actually homosexual people. My mistake! But I’m sure if we dig deep enough into the archives, we’ll find a time when straight people were persecuted for their orientation. No? Nothing in the database? Huh.

Well, no matter! Straight people should still be able to celebrate the brave act of being exactly what society expects them to be. What’s not to celebrate? Imagine the sheer courage it takes to embrace an attraction to the opposite sex without a single fear of societal retaliation. It’s not like heterosexuality has been the default setting since, well, the dawn of human civilization. They deserve a parade! Sure, heterosexuals make up the vast majority of the population, but this is the modern era – everyone gets a participation trophy.

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The big straight coming out

I’ll never forget the day my sister finally came out to our parents. Lord, what an emotional roller coaster. She had confided in me weeks prior, trembling as she asked if Mom and Dad would still love her. I kept reassuring her: “It’s going to be okay. They’re progressive. They’ll accept you.”

When the moment arrived, she sat on the couch, clutching a shredded tissue in her shaking hands, took a deep breath, and confessed that she was… straight. Mom immediately burst into tears. Dad gasped. But they both jumped up to embrace her, whispering, “No matter what the outside world thinks, you are our baby, and you are perfectly, statistically normal.” I was beaming with pride.

The fight for representation

It’s just exhausting seeing how lopsided our culture is in favor of the LGBTQ+ community. Those poor, sweet straights are practically invisible. You never see them in movies, and they are certainly never depicted as representing the “normal” way of living. When was the last time you saw a jewelry commercial featuring a man and a woman? Or a sitcom centered around a husband and wife? Almost never!

It’s completely unfair that straight people don’t have a designated month to look at a billboard and think, “Wow, it’s okay to be me.”

Consider the global crisis: Right now, there are nearly 70 countries where being heterosexual is literally illegal, and in several, it carries the death penalty!

Editor’s Note: Apologies again, I read the chart upside down. It is actually illegal to be homosexual in those countries. In fact, heterosexuality is legally protected and culturally enforced in 100% of the world.

But still! That doesn’t mean straight people feel like they have the entire weight of global law, religion, and history reinforcing their lifestyle. Right?

The legislative onslaught

Let’s talk about the political climate. As we speak, there are over 500 anti-heterosexual bills moving through the U.S. legislature. Over 500! These hetero-haters are doing everything in their power to deny basic rights, ban straight couples from adopting, dictate which bathrooms they can use, and ensure that bakers don’t have to bake them a frickin’ wedding cake. They’ve even passed “Don’t Say Straight” bills in schools!

Well shoot. I’m looking at the script again. It turns out I got it backward one more time. It’s actually the LGBTQ+ community facing those bills. My bad.

Look, at the end of the day, I just don’t think it’s fair. Yes, my research has revealed that heterosexuals are the overwhelming majority. And yes, science confirms that society is already built entirely around the heterosexual lifestyle. But if they don’t get a parade for successfully doing the bare minimum required to propagate the species, then what was this all for?

I mean, who doesn’t want to live in a world where expecting parents literally risk their lives skydiving out of planes or detonating pipe bombs in public parks just to announce a baby’s gender? That is peak hetero culture, and it deserves a grand stage.

And let’s face it: Isn’t the traditional rainbow a bit… loud? It’s overdone. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue… It’s total sensory overload. It’s time to tamp those colors way down and bring back the true spectrum: The Rainbow of Beige.

Imagine the majesty

The palette: A breathtaking sea of khaki, tan, eggshell, cream, and maybe a daring splash of navy blue if someone’s feeling spicy.

The uniform: An endless horizon of cargo shorts. So many pockets, yet nothing of substance inside them. Paired exclusively with New Balance sneakers and polo shirts tucked in just a little too tight.

The atmosphere: Completely and deliciously low-stakes. There will be absolutely no glitter. Glitter gets into everything; it stays in your carpet for years and, quite frankly, requires too much cleanup. Instead, the floats will be showered in eco-friendly, biodegradable sawdust.

Instead of booming techno music that shakes your ribcage, the parade will feature a steady, comforting playlist of mid-tempo 70s yacht rock and the gentle hum of lawnmowers. The floats won’t be extravagant; they’ll just be highly functional pickup trucks towing sensible mid-sized sedans.

Is a straight parade really too much to ask for? It’s safe. It’s muted. It will be wrapped up by 4:00 PM sharp so everyone can get home, check their 401(k), and beat the dinner rush at the local chain restaurant. Straight people have had a really rough time in life. Not only do they deserve a straight pride, but let’s face it, that is a lifestyle worth celebrating.

Shaley Howard is the author of “Excuse Me, Sir! Memoir of a Butch,” which received the IPPY Silver Award for excellence and Next Generation Indie Finalist Award for LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction. She’s also a small-business owner and activist in Portland, Oregon.

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Over seven years and thousands of tossed balls, “Play Catch With a Dad” has become a ubiquitous part of Pride celebrations everywhere.

John Piermatteo started the sessions in 2019 in his hometown of York, Pennsylvania, at their Unity Fest, inspired in part by “Free Mom Hugs.” Now Piermatteo is joined by scores of dads — most of them straight like him — at as many Pride events across the country. The latest are Pride Nights at MLB games.

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After a Pride Night at Wrigley Field in Chicago last year, the group was invited to play catch at ten Major League games this June, from New York to San Francisco.

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Last week, “Dad” Rabbi Randy Flesher joined “catchling” Clara Dawson on the field at Busch Stadium in St. Louis for a session at the Cardinals Pride Night. After that warm-up, Clara even got to throw out the first pitch.

She might have been good luck; the Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-3.

Clara’s star turn — her name filled the Jumbotron looming over right field as she walked to the mound — followed the same simple game of catch that had Dads and catchlings alike sharing tears on turf at Pride celebrations coast-to-coast.

“You did not adequately prepare me for how many people were going to be crying in my arms,” a new Dad volunteer told Piermatteo at the end of one catch-filled day.

Dan Selzer is another Dad recruited by Piermatteo to play catch, who now coordinates other volunteers in Illinois. He shares one of his favorite catch encounters.

“Last year at Pride, I played catch with a participant who (by my guesstimate) was in his late 20s or early 30s,” Selzer recalls. “Like with all catchlings, we tossed the ball back and forth a few times, and then I offered a Dad hug, and told him I loved him and was proud of him. He became a little weepy, then the hug ended, and he went on his way.”

“Ten to fifteen minutes after this interaction, I was at the front of our tent trying to interest more participants to play. I happened to look back at the Dads to see if we had room at that moment for another catchling, and I noticed my earlier one standing behind the tent and a little off to the side. He caught my eye and motioned me over. When I stepped out, he grabbed me in a huge bear hug and lifted me off the ground.”

“Mind you, I’m 5’5”, and this individual was well over 6’ tall.”

“He told me that no one had ever, in his entire life, told him that they were proud of him. We cried on each other’s shoulders for a minute or two, and then he released me. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t tearing up just telling you about this experience.”

Piermatteo says that kind of reaction is common, and the interactions between catchling and Dad can have a profound, lasting effect on kids who may have missed out on an affirming father. Last year’s MLB game session is an example.

“The Chicago Pride Festival in 2025 took place a week after Pride Night at Wrigley Field,” Piermatteo recalls. “Early on that Saturday, a young man was passing by our booth and shouted to his friends, ‘That’s my Dad! That’s the Dad I was telling you about!’ He then ran over and gave me a big hug.”

“What we have learned is that for us Dads, these encounters might last a few minutes, and then we are on to the next kiddo. But for the members of the community that engage us, those few minutes mean so much more.”

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Republicans are making accusations of being gay, trans, or just not masculine enough, the central issue in the Senate race in Texas this year, accusing state Rep. and Democratic candidate James Talarico of being too light in his loafers because he supports trans people’s rights and because he is, according to Republicans, a secret vegan.

Earlier this week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined in the attacks on Talarico and said, “If you were making a list of 1,000 adjectives to describe this guy, ‘masculine’ would not be one of them.”

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MS NOW host Jen Psaki asked Talarico about Cruz’s statement, pointing out that the gender bullying is also an attack on LGBTQ+ people generally.

(Talarico himself is straight and cisgender and is not a vegan.)

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Talarico talked about his father and said that he used to mow the neighbor’s lawn because that neighbor was an elderly widow. “Because that’s what a man does,” Talarico said.

“Here’s what real men don’t do,” Talarico continued. “They don’t lie and cheat their way through life. They don’t sell their soul to the highest bidder. They don’t steal from other people in order to enrich themselves.”

These comments were likely directed at his opponent in the Senate race, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has faced numerous corruption allegations for decades.

“Real men serve others, weak men serve themselves. And so I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man. I don’t think Paxton or Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.”

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Maryland District Court Judge Julie Rubin has denied a request to turn a challenge against one of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) requests for trans youth’s private health information into a class action lawsuit, which would have allowed the case to quash the subpoenas seeking private health records nationwide.

Trans advocates are fighting the DOJ’s campaign of subpoenas, which they say is an effort to end gender-affirming care through “fear.”

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“This is pure intimidation,” said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR), who represented the families in the case. “This administration has targeted this very small group of families, families with transgender kids. This administration does not like transgender people. They want to stop this healthcare, and they are abusing their power to literally try to intimidate and harass doctors and parents in order to further that political goal.”

The motion was brought by 11 families, represented by lawyers from NCLR and GLAD Law, and Judge Rubin’s decision was released after a hearing on Tuesday.

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The class-action lawsuit was an attempt to consolidate the litigation resulting from the over 20 administrative subpoenas issued by the DOJ. Hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors have been pressured to release extensive details about their providers, patients, and any treatments. That has now escalated with the DOJ seeking court orders to enforce the subpoenas and empaneling a grand jury to issue criminal subpoenas.

As it stands, every subpoena must be challenged in court individually, putting pressure on families, hospitals, and advocacy groups to play subpoena whack-a-mole to protect patient data. The movants – those filing the motion – asserted that “absent classwide protection, DOJ will continue extracting transgender minors’ private health information hospital by hospital, faster than any individual can move to quash.” A similar motion for a narrower class certification focused on New York hospitals is pending in a different court.

Had the class been certified, it would have meant that the subpoenas issued nationwide could be quashed without individual cases and without the risk of inconsistent rulings.

Judge Rubin, while denying class certification, showed sympathy for the movants and is one of the multiple judges who already quashed a DOJ subpoena earlier this year, specifically the one targeting Children’s National Hospital (CNH) in D.C. She ruled that the subpoena represented “overreach untethered to any lawful purpose.”

The DOJ claimed in the Tuesday hearing that the subpoenas were “part of a nationwide investigation into the off-label use of puberty blockers and hormones for minors.” However, it is worth noting that prescribing medication off-label is not a crime and is commonly done when, for example, aspirin is prescribed to help reduce the risks of heart attacks and strokes. The DOJ also argued that the judge could not grant the certification because “there is no precedent for a single district to exercise nationwide supervision over the department’s subpoenas.”

Ultimately, the judge’s denial of certification turned on a technical question of whether certain statutes were applicable. “The question then is whether Rule 23, and the class action vehicle, is applicable here,” Judge Rubin wrote in her decision. “The court is not persuaded that it is.”

The judge seemed to agree that there was a need for some sort of relief, as shown by her previous decision to quash the DOJ’s subpoena, but had to stop short of certifying the class. “Movants’ request for class treatment is simply an ill fit for the matter before the court and the relief they seek. The court will therefore deny the Motion to the extent it seeks class certification.”

Minter noted during his appeal for the certification that “this happens to be about this specific group of families, but this could be any family in any state targeted for any reason (because) this administration decides it doesn’t like something and it’s against a particular type of health care.”

There was still a win for the movants in this case as, while the class certification was denied, Rubin did reaffirm the decision to quash the DOJ’s subpoena to CNH without mincing words, saying, “The Government seeks to fulfill its policy agenda through compliance born of fear. Moreover, in the view of the court, the CNH Subpoena is the classic impermissible fishing expedition.”

In those individual cases against subpoenas, the plaintiffs have repeatedly succeeded in having the DOJ’s subpoenas quashed when taking them to court. Most recently, a federal judge has temporarily blocked all California hospitals from producing documents in response to DOJ criminal subpoenas. California is currently reviewing Assembly Bill 1930, which was filed in response to these subpoenas and would prevent California hospitals from releasing information in response to them.

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