Not the gay games yet

At least 43 out LGB athletes are competing at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics. This is the largest LGB contingent in Winter Games history. Team USA includes eight out athletes, roughly 3 percent of the delegation. Showing that stereotypes can match reality, women make up the majority, with 34 out athletes compared to nine men. What stereotypes do you ask? Twenty-two out women compete in ice hockey. Six out men compete in figure skating. Other represented sports include alpine and freestyle skiing (five athletes), speed skating (four), skeleton (two), and one each in snowboarding, curling, and biathlon. At least 13 countries have an out player on the team, according to Outsports. Here’s a list of all out athletes, compiled by Outsports: outsports.com/olympics/team-lgbtq/ .

Don Lemon in legal squeeze

A federal judge in Minneapolis wouldn’t allow charges against Don Lemon for his involvement with an anti-ICE demonstration in a church. The US Justice Department believed Lemon was a protest leader and not acting as a journalist, so it found other legal venues to bring charges. Lemon was arrested while covering another semi-criminal event, the Grammy Awards. Also arrested was Georgia Fort, an independent journalist. In this media-crazed age, she surrendered to federal agents while live-streaming on Facebook Live. Minnesota has seen weeks of protests over the deaths of protesters by DHS agents in Minneapolis. The disruption came about because the anti-ICE activists believed the church was led by an ICE officer, so they invaded the church with Lemon and Fort. Several of the non-journalists were charged under the federal FACE Act. The FACE Act was used by a previous administration to arrest protesters praying on sidewalks in front of abortion clinics. Lemon was on CNN and was one of the first out Black anchors on national cable news. He came out publicly in his 2011 memoir Transparent, and has been in a biracial marriage with a NYC real estate agent since 2024.

Fired for speaking up

Even a lesbian who is a good consumer‑fraud attorney needs to watch their mouth. Glenna Goldis was dismissed from the New York Attorney General’s Office after publicly criticizing what she described as the risks of pediatric transgender medical therapy. Goldis had worked in the office’s consumer frauds bureau since 2022, focusing on protecting low‑income New Yorkers. But over the past two years, she increasingly voiced concerns — on her personal blog and in public forums — about medical practices involving puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries for minors. According to Goldis, tensions intensified as she published essays questioning the scientific claims made by major medical organizations and as she sought permission to speak at a Federal Trade Commission workshop on the topic. Supervisors warned her that her commentary could violate the office’s “outside activities” policy, which restricts employees from publicly addressing matters related to the agency’s work without prior approval. Goldis maintains that her speech was constitutionally protected. She says internal pressure intensified after she challenged statements made in agency press releases and court filings. After refusing to stop her public commentary, Goldis was terminated and barred from the premises. She argues her firing expresses a broader unwillingness within Democratic political circles to debate pediatric transgender medicine.

Lawsuit forces Florida to pony up HIV Funds

The Florida Department of Health is temporarily reversing its cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program after a lawsuit accused officials of illegally slashing the program without proper rule‑making. The agency now says it will pursue the formal regulatory process before attempting any reductions, a move that keeps medication flowing to low‑income Floridians — for now. Florida officials claim a looming budget deficit of $120 million was the reason for the proposed cut. The lawsuit never went to trial, but the threat got the decision changed. ADAP currently serves more than 30,000 people earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. The proposed cuts would drop eligibility to 130 percent, eliminating access for over half of enrollees. Critics say the state’s budget crisis is manufactured. “We have the damn money,” Florida State Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said. “They were able to spend $500 million building Alligator Alcatraz with no bid contracts. We are still in a state of emergency for almost two and a half years. They can put the money in the coffers. They’re choosing not to.”

Gay Cheerleaders

Jeremy Greer has been called one of the NFL’s most viral cheerleaders. The 26‑year‑old New England Patriots cheer person performed at the Super Bowl this year. Greer, who uses he/they pronouns, shot to national attention after a jubilant sideline dance during the Patriots’ January 10 playoff win over the Los Angeles Chargers racked up millions of views across social platforms. Growing up in Texas, Greer never imagined an NFL cheerleading career was possible. That changed when he discovered Driss Dallahi, who, along with Steven Sonntag, became one of the first men to join the Patriots’ cheer squad in 2019. Dallahi, who is gay and now manages the Patriots’ cheerleaders, said he hopes Greer’s visibility inspires young people the same way. Male cheerleaders have become increasingly common in the league since Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies broke the Super Bowl barrier with the Los Angeles Rams in 2019. OutSports now counts 71 men on NFL cheer squads. A backlash followed the Minnesota Vikings’ addition of its first male cheerleaders last year being a little too non-binary during cheer routines for some NFL fans and commentators. But Greer and Dallahi say the support they receive — and the chance to be role models — far outweighs the noise.

Dumbledore casting caused ‘vague hurt’

John Lithgow’s non‑binary Jimpa co‑star Aud Mason‑Hyde says the actor’s decision to join the upcoming Harry Potter series felt “vaguely hurtful” and “difficult,” given J.K. Rowling’s history of comments about transgender women competing in women’s sports or being in women’s prisons or other women-only spaces in Scotland. A relative unknown, Mason‑Hyde, who appears opposite Lithgow (who has 150 screen appearances to his credit, the first of which was as a transgender character, Roberta, in The World According to Garp in the 1980s) in the new drama, praised him as “a beautiful human” and said their on‑set experience made the news especially disorienting. “I never felt invalidated or questioned or doubted in my identity or in my transness by him,” they told OUT. Lithgow, they said, was consistently warm, supportive, and generous — which made his choice to play Dumbledore “a strange decision” that left them “disconcerted.” Still, Mason‑Hyde emphasized that the casting does not diminish the bond they formed or the work they created together. “He’s making this decision after we made and premiered the film. It can’t take away from what we had, the time we spent together, and the beautiful work he does in this movie — and how authentically he played the role.” No word of any reaction from Lithgow or Rowling when this was written.

Bad Ballot News: Oregon initiative withdrawn

LGBT civil rights organizers have withdrawn their amendment to the Oregon Constitution to protect same‑sex marriage, transgender people, and abortion rights. The coalition behind Initiative Petition 33 offered no public explanation, but recent reporting shows the campaign spent $1.3 million while collecting fewer than 8% of the signatures needed by July to qualify for the November ballot. Equal Rights Oregon said that “after thoughtful consideration,” it had made the “difficult decision” to halt the Equal Rights for All measure. The proposal would have added a constitutional guarantee that equal rights “shall not be denied or abridged” based on pregnancy and related health decisions, gender identity, or sexual orientation, including the right to marry. The initiative drew support from major civil rights groups — including the ACLU of Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon, Planned Parenthood Action of Oregon, and the Latino Network — as well as labor unions such as the AFL‑CIO and SEIU Local 503. But signature‑gathering lagged: Willamette Week reported the campaign had submitted just 12,194 signatures since May 2025, far short of the 156,231 required. Polling shows Oregonians broadly support abortion rights and same‑sex marriage but remain divided on transgender surgical and pharmaceutical procedures for minors, a dynamic analysts say may have complicated the campaign’s path.

Good Ballot News: Virginia outs marriage inequality

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed legislation sending several proposed constitutional amendments to voters, including a measure to remove the state’s 2006 ban on same‑sex marriage from the Virginia Constitution. Although the ban has been unenforceable since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, advocates argue that leaving it in place is discriminatory and could become consequential if federal protections were ever overturned. Spanberger said the amendment would ensure that “Virginia families know that here… it is not just a Supreme Court decision that protects them, but also our state constitution.” LGBT issues dominated the 2025 gubernatorial race, with Republican Winsome Earle‑Sears running ads attacking Spanberger on transgender rights. Equality Virginia praised the ballot measure, calling it a long‑overdue step toward fully protecting marriage equality in the commonwealth. Thirty states, Utah among them, currently have marriage inequality provisions in state statute or the state constitution. Should Obergefell be “sent back to the states” as some Supreme Court Justices say it should, marriage inequality could become the law of the land in 30 states, again.

Gay Days, Orlando, Pauses

For more than three decades, Gay Days Orlando has served as a rolling, red‑shirted celebration of queer visibility that grew from a grassroots park outing into one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ travel events. This week, organizers announced a pause. In a statement Sunday, Gay Days said it will not hold its June 4–7, 2026 event, citing the political climate, changes to its host‑hotel agreement, the loss of key sponsors, and more extensive challenges facing LGBT events nationwide. These factors, they said, made it “impossible to deliver the experience our community deserves. This is a pause — not an ending,” organizers wrote, promising a more sustainable return. They encouraged visitors to still wear red and gather at the parks on June 6, honoring a tradition that began in 1991 and helped cement visibility in Orlando.

BTW: the intrepid QSaltLake has just announced another iteration of the Annual Q Day at Lagoon in Farmington, Utah. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor the Bark of the Eagle Forum stays these party-hungry people.