Apologies for my absence. I was trying and failing to WFH in San Francisco.
While I was there, I spent one of my lunch breaks on an LGBTQ+ history tour around SF’s Castro neighborhood. So here’s a past and current lowdown on LGBTQ+ rights, informed by Kathy’s LGBTQ Castro Tours and my past reporting.
San Francisco was gay from the start. Have you ever seen pirates with one earring? It means they’re gay.
Pirates docked their ships on the shores of SF and abandoned them for the Gold Rush.
Harvey Milk was the United States’ first out and gay man politician after he was elected San Francisco supervisor. Before his eventual assassination, he was dubbed the unofficial “Mayor of Castro.” He lived there, he ran on supporting the queer Castro community there, and I think he died there.
Before this tour, I knew Milk as the SF politician who outed (without his consent) a former bodyguard from the Midwest who had saved a U.S. President and basically ruined the guy’s life.
The bodyguard had been accosted by press after saving the president from an attempted assassination but wanted to remain a private individual. Milk, a major advocate for coming out of the closet, publicly outed him as gay. This poor guy was shunned by his family but also his fellow gays and friends in SF because (likely dealing with internalized homophobia but also as a private person) he didn’t want to become a political pawn. He died alone.
Not legal advice — don’t out people unless it’s safe for them and they tell you it’s OK. Also, don’t trust politicians.
Speaking of politicians, Reagan was kind of the worst. He was from California, was a former actor and consulted a Cali psychic before he made all his major policy decisions, yet he flat-out ignored the AIDS crisis. Countless gay men died because the U.S. administration failed to take steps to treat people and work toward a cure.
Just like monkeypox, AIDS isn’t a gay disease. Just because the gays can party better than anyone else doesn’t mean anyone can blame them for disease spread. The CDC (and the media!) pigeonholes gay men for conditions that simply spread from breathing closely near other people (monkeypox) or exchange of bodily fluids (AIDS).
Also, the Red Cross still doesn’t allow men to donate blood if they have sex with men or lived through the AIDS crisis even if they’ve been tested negative for conditions, but this is a whole other can of worms.
A young Nancy Pelosi was the first politician to introduce federal funding that finally addressed the AIDS crisis. She and maybe a third of Congress or more really should consider retiring right now, but she had such a hot girl era when she did this.
Before Pelosi came in clutch, lesbians were the ones helping gay men with AIDS when no one else would.
Hospitals wouldn’t take patients with AIDS because there was a fear that it spread through physical touch (it doesn’t). Lesbians collected the supplies needed to try and treat their gay friends. To recognize their support, the GLBT alphabet maphia reorganized into LGBT.
Oh, fun fact! Gay sex was illegal in Texas until 2003. Listen to this More Perfect podcast episode, “The Imperfect Plaintiffs,” about the case that overturned this law.
Super interesting. This podcast made me consider law school before I realized I’m more into writing about the law. And now I’m a legal news reporter. Wild.
TL;DR the two men weren’t even having sex, they were literally just chilling on an apartment couch. One of their exes called the cops on them, and the cops just came in and arrested them (literally their reaction/testimony was, “MY EYES!” but they weren’t having sex).
So what’s the gay agenda, class? I think queer people just want to live.
But the straighties simply can’t leave ‘em alone!
Gay marriage was legalized in the United States on June 26, 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned by the GOP supermajority in the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, it also overturned the right to privacy that Roe outlined. Thanks for packing the court, Mitch McConnell!
The right to privacy underpins the right to gay marriage, the right for tenants to not have to be married or related to each other (OMG, they were roommates!), the right for married couples to use condoms … the list goes on.
The court opinion that overturned Roe also left an unopened question of these other rights being overturned.
After the draft of the opinion (written by Justice Sam Alito) was leaked, a gay lawyer I know eloped in case he and his husband won’t be able to before their ceremony date next year.
(Speaking of marriage, does anyone know a lawyer with prenup advice? Please contact me)
You know what else happened during Pride Month this year? A trans boy who had been denied access to the Blue Springs School District men’s restroom and lockers as a student had won in the Missouri Supreme Court, but Jackson County said he didn’t have enough evidence to claim sex discrimination. The judge tossed the $4.175M verdict in favor of the child.
It’s possible the case isn’t over, and likely will clarify the Missouri Human Rights Act in the process. MHRA doesn’t specifically ban discrimination based on sex orientation or gender identity.
In gay divorce cases, one or both parties are going to make arguments that are anti-civil rights. For instance, the Missouri case of a non-biological mother gaining custody of their child during divorce proceedings.
The bio mom didn’t want her to gain custody and claimed that the statute explicitly stated that a FATHER could get custody but not a gay non-bio mom. On appeal last year the judges were like, the non-bio mom is basically a dad, duh, and she got joint custody of the kid.
RE: Housing discrimination
U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order interpreting a U.S. Supreme Court opinion to mean that gender discrimination includes trans people.
By the way, does queer sound like a dirty word to you? Congratulations, you’re probably straight — or, sadly, you don’t know the modern lingo of your people.
Anyway, HUD issued guidance implementing that executive order to housing, basically saying that people can’t be denied housing because they have newly minted he/him, she/her or they/them pronouns.
A private Christian Missouri university tried to claim that this prevented it from ignoring students’ requests to be housed with people who match their gender if they happen to be trans, because their code of conduct requires stone he/hims and she/hers only, no they/thems or trans people just trying to survive a second puberty while in college (literally they are just existing, yet the straights are mad).
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was like, stop embarrassing yourself, lowkey you’re being dramatic, trans people don’t even apply to your school because of your reputation so you’re talking about a hypothetical that probably doesn’t exist, come back when a student is actively trying to do this. It was, shall we say, a dressing down.
I used a lot of queer lingo. Feel free to look it up as you read.
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