03/16/25

Hello there,

🚨 Transgender people who have served the United States in uniform in the military will no longer be treated with dignity at Veterans Affairs facilities. The Department of Veterans Affairs rescinded Directive 1341, a policy that for years ensured transgender, nonbinary, and intersex veterans received respectful, clinically appropriate health care.

💡 Those resolutions being proposed in state legislatures urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality aren’t happening organically. Instead, they’re the result of an orchestrated campaign by MassResistance, one of the most virulently anti-LGBTQ+ groups in existence. Here's what you need to know about the group.

🤔 The MAGA world seems to have discovered the virtue of diversity and inclusion after Vice President JD Vance’s arrival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night was met with a loud and sustained chorus of boos. But in a move no one saw coming, Kennedy Center interim President Richard Grenell—Trump’s handpicked culture warrior—responded by calling for “diversity and inclusion.” Yes, you read that right.

Onwards and upwards,

Alex Cooper

Editor-in-chief, Advocate.com

P.S. Support The Advocate's journalism. Find out how to contribute here.

Trump's VA rescinds policy treating transgender vets with dignity (exclusive)

Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock

Trump culture warrior Ric Grenell calls for ‘diversity & inclusion’ after JD Vance got booed at Kennedy Center

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; RozenskiP/Shutterstock

Wisconsin conservative admits he was wrong about his anti-trans beliefs — this was all it took

Michael Moloney/Shutterstock

Teen targeted by homophobic school board member now running for his job

Elizabeth Lewis for Mohonasen school board (provided photo via Times Union); Courtesy Mohonasen Central School District, communications office

Local residents call out North Carolina school board that banned LGBTQ+ trivia quiz

footage still via Cleveland County Schools

Queer Eye's Antoni Porowski finds there's 'No Taste Like Home'

Matt Monath for Out Magazine

Andy Beshear lambastes Gavin Newsom for hosting Steve Bannon on podcast

Newsom: Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock; Beshear: courtesy Andy Beshear

Who is MassResistance, the far-right group behind anti-marriage equality resolutions?

Angela Rowlings/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images