5/19/24

Well...yes, marriage equality has been good for the U.S. In fact, it's made the country better.

🥰 When marriage equality was but a dream, right-wingers alleged that somehow it would cheapen marriage. Twenty years after the first same-sex couples married in Massachusetts, a new study proclaims that’s not the case. “For LGBT individuals and same-sex couples, their children, and the general U.S. population, the benefits of access to legal marriage for same-sex couples are unambiguously positive,” says the study by the RAND Corp., a nonprofit research organization.

👏🏽 Researchers found that “when states legalized marriage for same-sex couples, the physical health of LGBT individuals in those states improved; state-level rates of syphilis, HIV, and AIDS fell significantly; same-sex households in those states experienced more-stable relationships, higher earnings, and higher rates of homeownership; and sexual orientation–motivated hate crimes and employment discrimination against LGBT individuals declined,” the study says. 🌈

🚨 In other news:

• More salacious details have emerged about the one-time Republican power couple, Christian and Bridget Ziegler. Bridget was one of the founders of Moms for Liberty, and Christian was chair of the Florida GOP. The Zieglers promoted "traditional" values, and supported Florida's "don't say gay" law. 👀
• Peggy Moore and Hope Wood, a prominent political activist couple in Northern California, were killed in a car crash May 10. Moore and Wood met and fell in love while campaigning for Barack Obama in 2008. They were married at Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif., July 29, 2013, a month after the fall of Proposition 8, which had blocked marriage equality in California. Rest in power.
• In an exclusive interview, Kansas City's LGBTQ Commission chair, Justice Horn, revealed why he decided to resign and what's next for the young advocate.

Onward and upward,

Alex Cooper

Lily Gladstone & Quinn Shephard on Under the Bridge's intersections, queer relationship

Darko Sikman/Hulu

Kansas City's ex-LGBTQ Commission chair Justice Horn opens up about why he resigned (exclusive)

Courtesy Justice Horn

These two transphobic Republican members of Congress admit to affair

Facebook @Representative Rich McCormick; @Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne

California political activist couple Peggy Moore and Hope Wood killed in car crash

Facebook @Peggy Moore

After yet another far-right controversy, how do we trust the Supreme Court with our rights?

Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)

Here are all the ways marriage equality has been 'unambiguously positive' for America

Shutterstock

Federal judges express doubts in appeal over transgender sorority member at University of Wyoming

Photo by Jimena Peck for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Do you have a news tip for us or know a story you think The Advocate should pursue? Get in touch. Email us at news@equalpride.com.