Boots: a closeted teen Marine in the 90s

 

Netflix has released the first trailer for its upcoming show Boots, which centers on the life of a closeted teen Marine.

"It’s 1990, you’re fresh out of high school and not sure what to do with your life, so, obviously, you follow your buddy blindly into the US Marine Corps... What could go wrong?" reads the trailer's caption on YouTube.

Based on the memoir The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White, Boots follows a closeted teen named Cameron Cope (Miles Heizer) who, along with his best friend, joins the Marines. The series is set in the 1990s, when being openly gay in the military was illegal.

Boots debuts on Netflix on October 9. Watch the trailer below:

A trans soldier’s brave battle against Trump

 

From The New Republic:

Nicolas Talbott stood at attention, fists tight to his trouser seams, avoiding the eyeballs of the first sergeant asking why he’d joined the Army. “I’m here because I’m transgender,” he sounded off. “And I want to prove that people like me can do this. And frankly, can do it better than some of the people standing around me right now.”

Afterward, the other 64 trainees huddled around him in an “incredible moment of camaraderie” that Talbott says brought them together as a unit. After basic training, he would be selected as an honor graduate and earn his commission this year as a second lieutenant, 17 days before his commander in chief, Donald Trump, issued a January 27 executive order banning transgender people from military service. 

The following day, Talbott became lead plaintiff in Talbott v. Trump (now v. USA), the first of two cases challenging the policy headed to the Supreme Court.

Read more here.

Dutch parliament agrees to ban gay conversion

 

The Dutch parliament has voted to criminalize so-called ‘conversion therapy’ in a victory for LGBTQ people in The Netherlands.

The new bill marks a significant step forward in protecting LGBTQ individuals from harmful and discredited interventions.

Conversion therapy incorporates various physically, emotionally and psychologically abusive methods to attempt to change someone’s gender and/or sexuality. This can include berating or beating, being forced to pray as a form of healing, and “corrective rape”.

The criminalization covers therapies involving electric shocks and faith healing practices, and it would be punishable to ‘systematically’ and ‘intrusively’ try to change someone’s gender and/or sexuality. 

However, simple conversations, such as between a religious leader and a believer, about trying not to be LGBTQ will not be criminalized under the new law.

“Love does not need to be cured,” said parliament member Wieke Paulusma. “With this law, we protect vulnerable people from harmful practices that endanger their health and safety. This is a choice for freedom, equality, and human dignity.”

Well done!!!

Trump Administration must restore public health web pages related to DEI and gender identity under court settlement

 

Trump Administration must restore more than 100 health and science datasets and webpages that federal agencies wiped earlier this year, resolving a lawsuit filed by the Washington State Medical Association.

The settlement requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to recover any information it deleted from government websites since January, which mainly includes guidance around LGBTQ health, trans youth, pregnancy and reproductive care, vaccines, opioid-use treatment, and racism in health care, among other topics. 

Federal agencies began to remove the webpages following two of Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive orders on gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Won't be erased!!!

Florida gay bar defiants DeSantis' removal of rainbow crosswalks

 

A gay bar in St. Petersburg, Florida, has responded to the removal of rainbow crosswalks across the state, ordered by the Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.

In line with a new ban on “non-compliant pavement surface markings”, DeSantis Administration has written to local cities in recent weeks demanding they remove rainbow crosswalks, included the rainbow crosswalk beside the site of Pulse nightclub in Orlando, in memorial to those who were murdered at the venue in 2016.

As a reaction, the St. Petersburg gay bar Cocktail St. Pete has decided to refresh its window decals. If DeSantis wants rainbows removed from the streets of Florida, this bar is fighting back, its windows are ablaze with rainbows.

On Instagram, the bar said, “Last night the state painted over the Pulse Memorial Crosswalk! We will not stand by and be erased!!! Next week we will install new graphics across the front of our building putting our PRIDE on display. We are proud and will not fight quietly.”

Won't be erased by DeSantis!!!