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Published by The Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Tis the season, apparently. Pre-Thanksgiving travelers who clogged the busy Gate D10 at Seattle-Tacoma International were shocked — although maybe slightly less shocked than they would have been five years ago — to see a young-adult male passenger abruptly throw up a Nazi salute and begin a barely comprehensible antisemitic rant. “Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil!” the man shouted, as fellow travelers either shook their heads or flipped on their iPhones. “Race war!” Airport police arrested the man, later identified as Nicholas Edward Letney, before he could board the Dallas-bound flight. As he was drag… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet Pat Boone, now 88, went from being a major teen idol, pop star and actor during the 1950s and 1960s to being a far-right conspiracy theorist and an outspoken ally of the Christian Right and far-right White evangelical fundamentalists. The Jacksonville, Florida native supported former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020, but now, following the 2022 midterms, Boone is hoping that Trump won’t be the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee. During an interview with the Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove published on November 29, Boone said, “If Trump were to ask my advice, I would ask him not to run…. I d… Read More View the full article

Published by DPA Twitter is not in a good place right now. Many users, nervous about the platform's free speech policy, the company's loss of key staff and a rise in fake accounts, are switching to the next best thing, Mastodon. Should you join them? Zacharie Scheurer/dpa Twitter is about to implode. Or maybe not? It’s anything but clear what fate awaits Twitter in the coming weeks and months. In any case, the company is in a rough spot after it lost numerous critical employees in a mass cull. Twitter’s sales revenue meanwhile appears to be at risk after Elon Musk’s blue tick policy backfired and prompted a shower of “verified” fake accounts, such as a genuine-looking Pepsi account tweeting that Coke is better. Many users, fearing that Twitter will soon become a safe haven for far-right trolls and misinformation under Musk’s free speech policy, have since found their way onto Mastodon. Mastowhat? Mastodon, once a lesser-known social media platform used mostly by tech nerds, has been put in the spotlight during Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter. Picture the exact same kind of platform as Twitter, only fewer ads, fewer algorithms, and, alas, much fewer users. Once you get past a little jargon at the beginning, it’s not difficult to get up and running. Here’s how it works and what it can do. What’s with the name? Mastodons were primitive, elephant-like animals that became extinct around 10,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age. That’s why you won’t see phrases like “tweet” from the so-called “bird app”. On Mastodon, you “toot.” The idea for the name came from Eugen Rochko, who founded Mastodon in 2016 and has been developing it ever since, free of advertising and tracking. The entire software development is financed by donations. What can Mastodon do? Mastodon shares the same basic features as Twitter. You can follow others and see their posts, which are called toots, not tweets. Just like on Twitter, you post short texts with attached pictures, videos, audio or polls. You can also limit who can see your tweets – ahem, toots. The same goes for direct messages, hashtags and trending topics. You can also retweet other toots, only that here it’s called “boosting”. Like on Twitter, you can secure your account by adding two-factor authentication to your login, meaning you need to confirm logins on new devices. Is it better than Twitter? You’ll have to decide that for yourself, of course, but advocates say there are two major benefits over Twitter – a timeline that isn’t reordered by algorithms like on Twitter and a decentralised network that isn’t controlled by one company. First of all, your start page is where you can find posts from all the people or organisations you follow in chronological order. Mastodon strictly adheres to chronology. That means there are real timelines, unlike Twitter’s re-ordering of tweets as determined by algorithms designed to increase your interaction. “Your home feed should be filled with what matters to you most, not what a corporation thinks you should see,” reads the mission statement on the Mastodon page. Secondly, Mastodon is also a decentralised social network, connected and powered by open source, free software. Whether it’s for an organisation or a private user, anyone who wants to can run an independent Mastodon server. These are called “instances” and each one exists independently of other instances. That means that control is not in the hands of one company – or one “free speech absolutist” billionaire oligarch – but in the hands of those who wants to participate on running the server. It helps to know this before you sign up, since you’ll need to pick an instance for your account. Many – but not all – instances focus on a topic of interest, be it LGBTQ+ issues, cloud computing or just a particular country or city. Once you have signed up to an instance, you’ll be able to see a feed of what everyone on that instance is tooting in the “local” view. The “federation” view, on the other hand, broadens your perspective to all toots from all servers. Like the start page, the local and federation views are also organised as timelines. Those leaving Twitter, meanwhile, may argue that it’s biggest advantage is that it’s not Twitter, a company recently decimated by tech tycoon Elon Musk in an effort to secure profitability, measures that some fear have undermined the company’s long-term stability. Meanwhile, Musk’s push for free speech and amnesty for banned users, combined with a chaotic roll-out of blue ticks for cash, followed by fake accounts spoofing companies and celebrities, has worried many long-time users about a surge in far-right content and fake posts. And is anything worse than on Twitter? There’s no denying that Mastodon doesn’t come anywhere close to the scale of Twitter, and the vast majority of major celebrities and media organizations on Twitter have yet to make the jump. While Mastodon does have many of the same features, the switch feels somewhat like moving from a buzzing city like New York to a small town in a different country. While the absence of algorithm-based feed of toots has its benefits, it can make for rather dull scrolling depending on what accounts you follow. One media account tooting a dozen or so stories can quickly clog your feed and drown out other potentially interesting toots you may have missed earlier in the day. At the same time, social media nerds and news junkies may find themselves missing Tweetdeck, the advanced version of Twitter. Ok I’m interested. Which server/instance should I sign up to? First of all, it’s important to know that no matter which one you choose, you’ll always be able to see content on all the other servers and interact with all the other users. That’s the purpose of the “federation” view. However, every server operator can block other servers. And it can set rules that then apply to the users of its own server. So it makes sense to look for a community with which you can perhaps not only identify thematically, but whose moderation suits you overall. Are there server directories? Yes, a server directory can be found on the official Mastodon page. It only contains servers that consistently commit to moderating against racism, sexism and transphobia (https://joinmastodon.org/de/covenant). Another possible starting point for your own Mastodon account is the page “Instances.social”, which currently lists more than 3,700 servers worldwide. If you answer a few questions, you will be shown a list of servers that might suit you. Although you can register directly with many servers, there are also instances where you first have to request an invitation, which no longer accept new members or which are basically closed. Wait, what if I later find a community I like better? No problem. You can have several accounts on different Mastodon servers at the same time. You can also move an existing account with your followers to a new account on another server at any time. Instructions can be found directly in the account settings or in the Mastodon documentation. In the settings under “Import and Export” you can also download the other data categories (except media) in CSV format, such as lists or bookmarks. And not only to import them into the new account when you plan to move. Regular backups are also a good idea in case the instance on which you are logged in is unexpectedly switched off. All data categories including media storage can be downloaded once a week as an archive. So I’ve found the right instance – now what? Selecting the server was already half the battle. Now you have to hit “Create account” on the page of your preferred instance, accept the respective server rules, enter an email address and specify both a display name and profile name (preceded by @). The user name is extended with the name of the community domain so that communication and searches are possible across server boundaries (example: @[email protected]). What are my first steps as a new user? After registering, you’ll need to complete your profile (picture, background, interests) and adjust notifications and privacy settings in the settings. For example, you can set it so that followers can only follow you after approval. You can also specify that your own posts do not go into the public timeline by default. Nevertheless, when writing a post, you always have the option to make a different setting for this post individually using the lock symbol. How can I find my Twitter contacts on Mastodon? There are services like Fedifinder or Debirdify that can analyse your Twitter profile to see which contacts are also on Mastodon. This information is available as a list that can also be saved in CSV format and then imported into Mastodon. If you plan on staying on Twitter for the time being, then it’s not a bad idea to change your username to your Mastodon profile name. That way, every time you tweet, your followers see that you’re on Mastodon and know how to find you. For it to work, you need to enter the profile name and community domain, eg. “@[email protected]”, not just “@profilname”. Are there also apps? Yes. In addition to the web app and the official apps for Android and iOS, which have been available since April 2022, there are various third-party apps for different platforms and operating systems. View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega The mother of the Colorado Springs’ Club Q shooting suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, was arrested for disorderly conduct — on the same night that her son allegelly stole the lives of five innocent people and injured more than a dozen, RadarOnline.com has learned. Laura Vopel, 45, was taken into custody on November 20 at her apartment, just hours after the deaths at the gay club. mega According to police, Vopel’s arrest occurred around 3:30 AM at her Union Boulevard apartment in Colorado Springs. Authorities claim the 45-year-old became combative and loud as she was warned “multiple times” about her behavior, which included screaming. mega After failed to keep her voice down despite warnings, police attempted to arrest Vopel. Upon doing so, officers claim Vopel “became physically combative by physically resisting officers.” Once police were able to apprehend Vopel, she was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The charges are a misdemeanor and an “unclassified petty offense.” A neighbor of Vopel, who wished to remain anonymous, told CBS News that they previously heard shouting coming from inside or in the vicinity of Vopel’s apartment. Vopel’s arrest, on the same night that her non-binary son was taken into custody in connection to the mass shooting, would not be the first time Vopel was placed in handcuffs. mega Just as Aldrich’s biological dad has a troubled past, so does the suspected shooter’s mother. Vopel’s records showed that the Colorado Springs woman had been arrested for an arson charge in Bexar County. The arson charge was eventually dropped to a lesser level and Vopel only served five years of probation in August 2013. The mother’s record also included three outstanding warrants for her arrest in California. Vopel was not booked into jail over the recent incident on November 20, however, she is expected to appear for a summons for the arrest incident on January 25. View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Shocking details have emerged regarding the “hellish” and “inhumane” conditions Brittney Griner is set to face in the Russian penal colony where she will serve her nine-year prison sentence, RadarOnline.com has learned. The startling development comes as the United States continues to work with Russia in an effort to bring the 32-year-old imprisoned WNBA star home. Mega The new details also come just a few short weeks after Griner’s sentencing appeal was denied, meaning the convicted basketball player is set to be transferred to IK-2 – an infamous Russian penal colony described by many as one of the worst prisons in the nation. According to Daily Mail, IK-2 is located roughly 270 miles southeast of Moscow in Mordovia – a federal subject of Russia. IK-2 has been described as “inhumane” with inmates there allegedly forced to live and work under “slavery-like” conditions. Even more concerning are reports Griner is expected to face both racist and homophobic discrimination at the penal colony by not only the prison’s guards but also by Griner’s fellow inmates. Those who have served time at IK-2 in the past described the penal colony as almost completely lacking in medical care while prisoners are forced to work 16-hour and 17-hour days inside “rat-infested” sweatshops. Prisoners are also reportedly only allowed four hours of sleep each night. Mega One former prisoner, Veronika Krass, claimed a sign reading “Welcome to Hell” greets new inmates being transferred to IK-2 and that “beatings and torture are common” at the infamous Russian penal colony. As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Nadya Tolokonnikova – a member of the Russian punk rock and protest band P—y Riot – was arrested in 2012 and forced to serve two years in IK-14, a similar penal colony located only seven minutes from IK-2. According to Tolokonnikova, she was “terrified” after learning Griner was transferred to IK-2 because of its “terrible conditions” and the “human rights abuses” performed on prisoners on a daily basis. “I’m terrified that Brittney Griner was moved to IK-2,” the P—y Riot member said last week. “It’s one of the harshest colonies — it is literally the harshest colony in the whole Russian prison system.” Mega “I was protesting terrible conditions in my penal colony,” she continued. “But I know every single chief official who works at IK-2, and I know exactly what human rights abuses they perform on a daily basis and the kind of torture they use against prisoners.” Despite reports of the “hellish” conditions awaiting Griner at IK-2, a representative for the WNBA star said Griner is trying her best to stay strong amid the latest developments. “Despite the fact she is alone and now nearing her ninth month in detention separated from her loved ones, she is trying to stay strong,” Griner’s representative said. As RadarOnline.com reported, Griner was first arrested in February in Moscow after she was allegedly found with vape cartridges containing less than one gram of marijuana oil in her luggage. After pleading guilty to the charges against her in August, Griner was sentenced to 9.5 years in Russian prison. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Elon Musk says Apple has “mostly stopped advertising on Twitter”. The Tesla billionaire, 51, also asked on the platform: “Do they hate free speech in America?” after a string of big-name bands pulled out of their partnerships with the company after he acquired it for $44 billion. According to non-profit watchdog Media Matters, 50 of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers, which have spent around $2 billion since the start of 2020, have halted advertising on the site in recent weeks, including Chevrolet, Ford, Jeep, Kraft, Coca Cola, Chanel, CNN, Heineken, and Kellogg’s. It comes amid worries over Elon’s plans to give users increased “free speech”, which has seen ex-US president Donald Trump’s banned account restored. In the first full week under Elon’s ownership of Twitter, the Center for Countering Digital Hate claimed the use of racist, homophobic, transphobic and anti-Semitic slurs soared after he took over on October 27. There is also controversy after Elon fired around 50 per cent of Twitter’s 7,500-strong workforce after he bought up the firm in October. And he has sparked concern by warning remaining workers they must be willing to work “long hours at high intensity”. A spokesperson for Kellogg’s said earlier this month it was halting its ads as it wanted to “monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend”. View the full article

Published by Euronews (English) After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rio de Janeiro’s LGBTQ+ Pride marched through the streets, attracting a multi-coloured sea of people on Sunday. The theme of the 27th edition of the parade was “Courage to be happy,” emphasizing the strength of the LGBTQ+ community. Performers staged a re-enactment of the election results with a duo dressed as Brazil’s president and his wife, Jair Bolsonaro and Michele Bolsonaro, playing recordings of Bolsonaro dismissing the COVID-19 pandemic and homophobic quotes. Read More View the full article

Published by DPA Security members take care of a streaker with a tee-shirt of superman saying save Ukraine and rainbow flag during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group H soccer match between Portugal and Uruguay at Lusail Stadium. Virginie Lefour/BELGA/dpa An unknown person holding a rainbow flag invaded the pitch during the World Cup match between Portugal and Uruguay in Qatar on Monday. The game had to be interrupted for a few minutes. Despite efforts from World Cup broadcasters to avoid showing the action, it was possible to briefly see someone running across the pitch with the flag, which is a symbol of the LGBT community. Photos published on social media also showed that the front of the pitch invader shirt read “Save Ukraine” and the back read “Respect For Iranian Women.” Same-sex relationships are illegal in Qatar, and the World Cup hosts have been widely criticized for its handling of the LGBTQ+ community, among other things. Earlier in the tournament, a group of nations planned to wear a multi-coloured One Love captain armband in a sign for equality and diversity, but backed down after football governing body FIFA threatened financial and sporting sanctions. A streaker with the rainbow flag and political messages about Ukraine and Iran on the T-shirt runs across the lawn during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group H soccer match between Portugal and Uruguay at Lusail Stadium. Tom Weller/dpa A streaker with the rainbow flag and political messages about Ukraine and Iran on the T-shirt runs across the lawn during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group H soccer match between Portugal and Uruguay at Lusail Stadium. Tom Weller/dpa View the full article

Published by AlterNet Donald Trump‘s dinner earlier this week with antisemite Kanye West and holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes may also have included two other right-wingers, hinted at by the former president himself. After Axios‘ reporting confirmed that Fuentes had in fact had dinner with Trump, Trump issued a statement saying, “Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about.” But later, on Friday afternoon via his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote a defense of the dinner with an expanded guest list. READ MORE: Tr… Read More View the full article

Published by The Moscow Times Transgender and non-binary people in Russia have faced rising harassment and physical abuse since the start of the war in Ukraine, activists say, as the Kremlin doubles down on an ideology of “traditional values” in the face of international isolation. In particular, the country’s mobilization campaign has led to transgender women still officially classified as men facing conscription into the historically transphobic Armed Forces. The first weeks of the war were psychological “hell,” according to Nastya, a 35-year-old Russian transgender woman who requested anonymity. “If they had announced m… Read More View the full article

Published by The Street By Luc Olinga Tensions between the CEO of Twitter and Apple and Alphabet, the app’s distributors, are rising. Elon Musk is preparing for an almost inevitable showdown with Apple (AAPL) – Get Free Report and Alphabet (GOOGL) – Get Free Report, the parent company of Google. The billionaire CEO of Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report, who completed the acquisition of Twitter on October 27 at a hefty price of $44 billion, was quick to reshape the platform in his image. He wants it to be innovative and provocative, molding it into the place where everything is said and decided. To achieve this, the Techn… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Sir Elton John will support his sons if they follow him into the music industry. The 75-year-old singer has Zachary, 11 and Elijah, nine, with his husband David Furnish, and Elton has promised to support his kids in whatever careers they choose. He told E! News: “They are still so young, so not entirely sure [what they want to do]. But of course, whatever their dreams and ambitions are, my husband David and I will fully support them.” Elton recently finished the American leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, and he’s now looking forward to spending more time with his kids. He said: “I am of course looking forward to spending more time with my sons. “I am also looking forward to being able to dedicate more of my time to other projects, like the Elton John AIDS Foundation.” Meanwhile, earlier this year, Elton revealed that he was stopped from adopting a Ukrainian orphan because of his sexuality. The award-winning star and his husband tried to adopt a child from an orphanage that they visited. The ‘Rocket Man’ hitmaker shared: “I was carrying this little boy around for hours. We had a press conference at the end and they said ‘You seem very fond of this little boy. Would you think of adopting him?’ and I went ‘I’d actually love to!’ “Of course, not thinking about social media, it went around the world straight away. It was ‘Elton John wants to adopt two children.'” But ultimately, Elton and David weren’t allowed to adopt the boy. He said: “Because I was gay I wasn’t allowed to anyway. “After that happened, David said, ‘Well, what do you think about having kids?’ I always said no but this little boy was telling me something. He was saying ‘C’mon you can be a dad,’ and that’s when we decided to have children, because of this little boy in Ukraine.” View the full article

Published by uInterview.com Madonna uploaded a photo on Instagram of herself posing in a fitted corset, celebrating the new edition of her Sex coffee table book. The seven-time Grammy winner, 64, showcased her fit physique to promote the upcoming exhibition from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4. “I’d like to put you in a trance. …………… YSL presents. SEX-Re-Release Miami Nov 29- Dec 4,” she wrote in the caption. The book was first published in 1992. While attracting controversy and backlash at the time, its social and cultural impact endures today, especially among LGBTQ people. Now, 30 years after its debut, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Droi… Read More View the full article

Published by PopCrush While most people donate their organs and bodies to science after death, Cara Delevingne took it a step further and donated her orgasm to science. The Only Murders In The Building star wanted to scientifically study the orgasm and body chemistry to discover the “gender climax gap,” a theory as to why men are more likely to have an orgasm during sex than women. The results will be featured in a BBC six-part special, Planet Sex With Cara Delevingne on BBC3 on Thursday (Dec. 1) at 10 PM local time. So how exactly did doctors measure her orgasm? She gave samples of her blood before and after reach… Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News The Senate is unlikely to pass a ban on assault weapons despite growing calls for tougher gun laws in the wake of the Colorado Springs massacre, a top lawmaker said Sunday. Not enough senators support the proposed ban to make it law, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I’m glad that President Biden is going to be pushing us to take a vote on an assault weapons ban,” he said. “The House has already passed it. It’s sitting in front of the Senate. Does it have 60 votes in the Senate right now? Probably not.” The horrifying Nov. 19 killing spree at a LGBTQ bar in Colorado… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Cara Delevingne’s struggles with her sexuality left her feeling suicidal. The 30-year-old model-and-actress – who identifies as queer and gender fluid – worried she was “abnormal” when she was questioning her own identity but is “so glad” she didn’t take her own life because she’s now in a position to help and support other young people who are in the same state of confusion as she was. She said: “I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. I had a lot of internalised homophobia and shame. I thought that I was abnormal. “I thought about ending my life, like I had multiple times, and I’m so glad I didn’t because if I can help any other kid that means the world to me. “It means the world to that little queer kid I was. Or I am.” The ‘Suicide Squad’ actress previously declared herself to be bisexual, and then pansexual, but she’s now settled on queer. Speaking on her new documentary ‘Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne’, she said: “I kind of started as bisexual, and then I was pansexual. I felt like ‘I don’t know what letter I am! “Queer felt fluid and free. It didn’t put too much pressure on anything I was deciding to be… Sexuality is definitely a spectrum, and I feel like mine wavers, but I’m definitely more on the side of women. I like having sex with men, I just don’t date them.” While Cara is “proud to be a woman”, she doesn’t want to “sit in a box” and admitted she enjoys “dressing up as a man and being a ‘he'” too. She said on the show: “I am a ‘she’ right now. But I also like dressing up as a man and being a ‘he’. You don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself about what you are, who you are. Whether it’s masculine and feminine, it’s just who I am… “The constructs and binaries that are given are stupid. I’m proud to be a woman, but I don’t have to sit in a box. “I’m definitely genderfluid. I love playing with what we’ve been given as those gender constructs. Being super femme, being super masc, mixing it all up in one big cauldron.” View the full article

Published by Raw Story The Texas Family Project debuted this summer with a donation page powered by National Republican Senatorial Party’s fundraising platform WinRed with the aim to be “the most powerful force in Austin.” Its mission? To “expose attacks on children’s innocence” and send “boots on the ground” and a “political cavalry of pro-family forces” to protect those kids. It identified the major menace against kids as …drag queen storytimes. And so it launched a Drag Queen Alert System. Whenever and wherever Texans hear there’s a drag queen event near them, they can fill out the online form on the website of… Read More View the full article

Published by NJ.com “Gaslighting” — mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year. Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in the curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year. The gaslighting was pervasive. “It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) – After the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Florida, the owners of New York City gay bar C’mon Everybody hired more security staff, and the LGBT landmark Stonewall Inn ran active-shooter safety drills with its bartenders. Those bars and other LGBT spaces around the country are again weighing how to keep their staff and patrons safe after a gunman killed five people and injured 17 more at an LGBT club in Colorado Springs. Many worry that physical security measures can only go so far, and that staunching a surge of inflammatory anti-LGBT rhetoric is a better tactic. The Club Q attack, which is being investigated as a hate crime, has compounded the fear and anger of a community already confronting a wave of Republican legislation directed at transgender youth and gay Americans, and what they say is a related rise in threats and violence against its members. “It’s really tiring for the gay community that time and time again we have to come up with the solutions for problems that other people make,” said Jonathan Hamilt, executive director of Drag Queen Story Hour, a nonprofit group that organizes drag performers reading books to children in 45 states that has been repeatedly targeted and threatened this year. “We want to gather and dance, and people want to shoot and kill us,” Hamilt said. “Why is there so much that is being asked of us?” Just hours before the attack at Club Q in Colorado Springs, someone threw a brick through the window of gay bar Vers in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City for the fourth time this month, according to police. Erik Bottcher, the city council member representing Hell’s Kitchen, has joined other officials over the last week to warn that one or more people are drugging and robbing gay men in the neighborhood. In response to those attacks and the Colorado shooting, the Anti-Violence Project, a non-profit group founded in 1980 after a spate of attacks on gay men, plans to hold a safety event at a Hell’s Kitchen gay bar on Wednesday night. Volunteers will talk with staff and patrons about ways to heighten vigilance in bars, on hook-up and dating apps, and with partners at home. The attack on the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando six years ago, during which a man shot dead 49 people, forced many bars to review their security plans. “It was definitely an eye-opening moment,” said Eric Sosa, co-owner of C’mon Everybody and Good Judy in New York City. “We started having security onsite seven days a week.” He recently switched to using what he described as a queer-owned security firm, which he felt was better placed to hire the sort of “firm but caring” bouncers his patrons would want to meet at the door. But as queer venues grapple with safety, several LGBT activists and club owners said no amount of security personnel or technology would protect them from the anti-LGBT rhetoric they blame for stoking such violence. Several Republican-controlled states have proposed or passed laws that ban teachers from discussing sexual orientation with younger students or criminalize doctors who perform certain medical interventions for transgender minors. In Florida, supporters of the new law restricting teachers said it was designed to keep them from talking about topics young kids were not ready to process. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has said he is trying to protect children from abuse by prohibiting many types of gender-affirming medical care for minors. Stacy Lentz, a co-owner of Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 riots that catalyzed the gay liberation movement, echoed others in the industry in saying venues are reaching the limits of what physical defenses can achieve. “You’re not going to stop a man with an AR-15 who really wants to come in. They’ll just shoot the security guard and that’s it, right?” she said. “We’ve got to work, really work to get the far right to tone down this rhetoric. Hate shouldn’t be a political strategy.” Steven Raimo, a drag artist who has performed as Veronika Electronika in Nashville, Tennessee, for two decades, has given up organizing in-person Drag Queen Reading Hour events, saying it is too dangerous because of the threat of protesters, some armed with guns. A state senator in Tennessee has introduced a bill that would criminalize drag performances in the presence of children. Raimo still performs for adults, including a drag bingo night he was hosting on Tuesday at a Nashville gay bar. “The idea of a safe space really doesn’t exist,” Raimo said. “You can have as many armed security guards as you like, but it doesn’t guarantee a safe space and it doesn’t guarantee the lives of everyone in that room will continue.” Read more: With books and jewels, drag queens teach children tolerance From school boards to statehouses, conservative Moms for Liberty push to grow influence (Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Lisa Shumaker) View the full article