Category: LGBTQ+ / Gay / Trans / Gender
Florida Attorney General declares war on “A Drag Queen Christmas” show
A Sunday Read On Monday
Just not that into ewes: ‘gay sheep’ escape slaughter and take over a New York catwalk
I ram what I ram: Michael Stücke, the co-founder of Rainbow Wool, a company that produces wool from ‘gay sheep’ saved from slaughter, with his flock in Germany. Photograph: Steve Marais for Rainbow Wool
Designer Michael Schmidt’s 36-piece collection was made from the wool of rams who have shown same-sex attraction
Julia Carrie WongFri 5 Dec 2025 10.00 ESTShare
When a ram tips its head back, curls its upper lip, and takes a deep breath – what is known in the world of animal husbandry as a “flehmen response” – it is often a sign of arousal. Sheep have a small sensory organ located above the roof of the mouth, and the flehmen response helps to flood it with any sex pheromones wafting about.
Usually, rams flehmen when they encounter ewes during the mating period, according to Michael Stücke, a farmer with 30 years of experience raising sheep in Westphalia, Germany. But on Stücke’s farm, the rams flehmen “all the time”.
“They do this all the time, because they find each other attractive,” said Stücke of his 35 male sheep. “They’re cuddling. They’re showing signs of affection. They’re jumping on each other. It’s undeniable that they’re attracted to each other.”
Stücke is the proud shepherd of the world’s first and probably only flock of gay rams. Though researchers have found that as many as 8% of male sheep are “male-oriented”, homosexuality is viewed disfavorably by most farmers, who expect rams to perform a breeding function. Rams who refuse to breed are often slaughtered for meat, and it was during a discussion of this harsh reality with Stücke’s friend and business partner Nadia Leytes that the idea for Rainbow Wool was born: “What can we do to not send all of them to the slaughterhouse?”
“My heart beats for the weak and oppressed in general,” Stücke told the Guardian, with Leytes translating. “I am gay myself and know the prejudices and obstacles that come with being a gay man, especially in the agricultural business.”
Rainbow Wool’s solution has been to buy gay rams directly from breeders, outbidding the price they might receive from a slaughterhouse, and keep them for their wool. The flock now numbers 35, and the farm has a waiting list. Individual sheep can be named and sponsored – they include a Bentheimer landschaf named Wolli Wonka, a Shropshire named Prince Wolliam, and Jean Woll Gaultier – and the wool is processed by a mill in Spain. All profits are donated to LGBTQ+ charities in Germany. “A couple of sheep [have been] saved but also a couple of people,” Leytes said, noting that their donations have supported relocating people living in countries where being gay is illegal.
Correctly identifying a sheep’s sexual orientation can be tricky. “Everybody can just say: ‘Hey I have a gay ram,’” Stücke said, “but what we’re doing is observing their behavior.”
“Some rams basically jump on everything, whether it’s female or male,” he added. “That would not qualify as being a gay ram. That would qualify as being a dominant. But if a ram consistently refuses to mate with a female sheep, this is the sign that you know he prefers other rams.”
Stücke’s flock burst on to the fashion scene last month when they provided the raw material for a knitwear collection designed by Chrome Hearts collaborator Michael Schmidt and sponsored by the gay dating app Grindr. Schmidt sent 36 looks down a New York City catwalk, all knit or crocheted from the wool of Stücke’s gay sheep. Each look represented a male archetype, starting with Adam sans Eve and including a pool boy, sailor, pizza delivery boy, plumber and leather daddy.
Models wait backstage at Michael Schmidt’s presentation of I Wool Survive at Manhattan’s Altman Building. Photograph: Oliver Halfin
“I really wanted to lean into the gay,” Schmidt told the New York Times. “I view it as an art project. It’s selling an idea more than a collection of clothing, and the idea it’s selling is that homosexuality is not only part of the human condition, but of the animal world. That puts the lie to this concept that being gay is a choice. It’s part of nature.”
The naturalness of homosexuality as demonstrated by the gayness of sheep has been a subject of media fascination for decades, thanks in large part to Charles Roselli, a professor of biochemistry at Oregon Health and Science University. Roselli’s research into how sex hormones affect brain development is the source of the statistic about one in 12 rams being gay. (there is MORE on the page; it’s quite intriguing)
If You Hate Gay or Trans People, You’re Suspect | Christopher Titus (Doomed To Repeat)
And Now, Tig Notaro-
I enjoy Tig Notaro’s talent. Especially when she shares it for worthy causes.
Alabama taxpayers are funding Christian textbooks that lie to children
Mmm. Pie.
81-Year-Old Wins “Best Technique” at a San Francisco Lesbian Pie-Eating Contest
Babs wrote that her victory was “proving once and for all that experience matters.”
Proving that there is no age limit to good tongue skills, an 81-year-old woman who competed in a San Francisco lesbian pie-eating contest won Best Technique, per viral social media videos about the event.
Babs Daitch, who joined a crush of pie-eating lesbians in the contest on November 23, posted about her entering the contest, and subsequent title-winning performance, on her social media channels. Though she could not claim the overall victory — a woman named Jenn won, per the Bay Area Reporter — she did win “Best Technique,” per her own social media accounts. She wrote that her victory was “proving once and for all that experience matters.”
One video, posted on Friday, featured Daitch being cheered on by the crowd. Her response: sticking her tongue out in between her middle and index fingers. The clip has garnered over 40,000 views since it hit the internet. (snip-MORE on the page)
A Coupla Comics For Fun
Police are more likely to mistreat LGBTQ+ people, a disturbing new study finds
Faefyx Collington (They/Them)November 18, 2025, 1:00 pm ESTShutterstock
LGBTQ+ people are significantly more likely to stopped, harassed, and even falsely accused by the police than non-LGBTQ+ people, according to a new study released by the Williams Institute. As a result, LGBTQ+ people are less likely to contact the police when they need support, the study notes.
“Participants in these studies have described being stopped for no reason, encountering hostile treatment when police discovered they were transgender, and having officers assume they were engaging in sex work or other illegal activities,” the report explains, detailing some of its qualitative research. “Participants in several studies shared that they have concerns related to their LGBTQ identity about contacting the police or that they avoid police in order to avoid negative interactions.”
The Williams Institute study analyzed 25 years of research on interactions between the LGBTQ+ community and police. The data came from surveys, incident reports, government investigations, qualitative research, court cases, and anecdotal reports.
The findings might not be astonishing to those familiar with LGBTQ+ history, most notably the police raids that led to the Stonewall Riots. While decades have passed since crimes explicitly targeted LGBTQ+ social behaviors, the report suggests that changes only run so deep and notes that it was only 2003 when the Supreme Court ruled sodomy laws as unconstitutional.
The Williams Institute study analyzed 25 years of research on interactions between the LGBTQ+ community and police. The data came from surveys, incident reports, government investigations, qualitative research, court cases, and anecdotal reports.
The findings might not be astonishing to those familiar with LGBTQ+ history, most notably the police raids that led to the Stonewall Riots. While decades have passed since crimes explicitly targeted LGBTQ+ social behaviors, the report suggests that changes only run so deep and notes that it was only 2003 when the Supreme Court ruled sodomy laws as unconstitutional.
Just as the censorious Hays Code from the 1930s to ’60s still defines aspects of modern media, past criminalization of LGBTQ+ identities has created an environment where discrimination and harassment are common.
“The history of criminalization and related tensions between law enforcement and LGBTQ communities have legacies that extend to the present day,” the report acknowledges. The authors also note the new waves of anti-trans laws, pointing to the fact that “Recent years have seen a rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation, with many of these new laws imposing criminal penalties.”
The analysis of survey data revealed that as well as being more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, and held in custody, LGBTQ+ people were also more likely to report verbal, physical, and sexual harassment and assault at the hands of law enforcement.
The study’s lead author, Joshua Arrayales, a law fellow at the Williams Institute, released a statement noting that all of this meant that LGBTQ+ people were less likely to report crimes, and that affects future data.
“Reporting crimes is essential for accurate crime statistics, proper allocation of crime prevention resources, and support services that address the unique needs of LGBTQ survivors,” Arrayales said.
As previous data already suggested that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be crime victims, this research supports the idea that many crimes against queer people go unreported.
While LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be stopped by police, face harassment, and avoid contacting law enforcement as a result, the statistical differences grow for specific groups. People who are part of other marginalized groups reported higher incidence rates; one study showed that 46% of trans people said they’d avoid contacting the police if they were the victim of a crime.
The study also found that these interactions often had a lasting impact. A “growing body of research” suggests that there are “associations between police violence and harassment and binge drinking, stress, depression, and other negative health outcomes.”
The Williams Institute study also provides action items for improving the current situation: “(1) legal and policy reform, (2) enhanced accountability and representation within law enforcement agencies, (3) community engagement and support, and (4) continuous data collection and evaluation of these initiatives.”
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People Helping People
A Lesbian bar in New York City. A sapphic society in the South. Food insecurity is high in queer communities. And this holiday season, LGBTQ+ groups are stepping in.
Images from NYC Queers 4 Food Justice’s Nov. 6, 2025 food pantry event at Ginger’s in Brooklyn, New York. Images Courtesy of NYC Queers 4 Food Justice
By Nov. 6, 2025, hunger was in the headlines and on the streets. SNAP benefits had just expired in the government shutdown, and cupboards were running bare for millions of Americans. That night, Ginger’s, Brooklyn’s oldest lesbian bar, hosted an event organized by NYC Queers 4 Food Justice to distribute food, Covid-19 tests, Narcan, tampons, and more.
With Ginger’s usual Thursday karaoke night as backdrop, some 70 bar-goers perused the venue’s back room.
Some came out with Lululemon-donated tote bags filled with cans of soup, loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter, packs of period pads sponsored by sexual wellness company LOLA, and bushels of apples, potatoes, or greens from a local Hudson Valley farm.
Paper proof of hunger was not required. Ginger’s bouncer did not check SNAP benefits or EBT cards at the door; as usual, scanning IDs to make sure attendees were at least 21.
The government has since reopened, but the government-driven food insecurity and economic upheaval remains for many—especially with food-centric gatherings like Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas ahead. This holiday season, LGBTQ+ groups—like NYC Queers 4 Food Justice in New York, Peach City Sapphics in Atlanta, the Brave Space Alliance in Chicago, and the Okra Project, which operates nationwide—are supplying their communities with much-needed essentials.
An ‘inspiring’ turnout
NYC Queers 4 Food Justice was started by two community-minded New Yorkers, Kadie Radics, 29, and London Dejarnette, 24, in October 2025. In anticipation of federal SNAP cuts, Radics—the director of supportive housing at the mental health nonprofit Fountain House—sought help from queer groups to get a food distribution event off the ground, including the lesbian social club Butch Monthly.
Dejarnette, a program coordinator at a nonprofit working to end student food insecurity, answered Radics’ call-out. They’d never met, but within a month, they’d planned and scheduled the first NYC Queers 4 Food Justice event: Nov. 6 at Ginger’s.
“When I walked into that space on Thursday, every single butch or masc in there was ready to work and just wanted to know what they could do,” recalled Dejarnette.
“The turnout that we had, and also the turnout of first-time food pantry-goers, I think, was really telling,” they added. Dejarnette found it “really inspiring to see that these people, who have been needing food assistance for a really long time [but] have not felt comfortable” getting help from a trusted source.
NYC Queers 4 Food Justice’s inaugural event at Ginger’s fed dozens of people and raised more than $5,000 in donations, Radics said. On Nov. 19, the group raised more than $1,000 at Cubbyhole, a lesbian bar in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood.
“We want our food to be reaching people who need it most, because the people that need it most are the ones that have been left in the dust by the federal government,” Dejarnette said. “What we ultimately want to do is utilize this organizing power that queer people have had for generations.”
On hunger’s ‘edge’
The need for food is on the rise everywhere in the U.S.
A years-long affordability crisis has grown acute. The longest federal shutdown in U.S. history worsened chronic food insecurity.
Approximately 42 million Americans depend on monthly SNAP benefits, and the average recipient receives $187 a month, or about $6 a day. Halting those electronic payments created a ripple effect that hurt childhood nutrition and student learning, distressed family budgets, and sapped grocery stores of shoppers.
SNAP “was supposed to just be a supplemental resource, but because we are so deep in a food emergency, it has become a lifeline for so many Americans,” said Dejarnette, who has run food pantry and redistribution programs since college.
The government reopened on Nov. 13, but some SNAP recipients may have to reapply to the program to have their benefits reinstated, further delaying food access.
Queer communities may be feeling that pressure more acutely. Research suggests queer adults are more likely than others to experience food insecurity. Nationwide, 1 in 4 queer adults between 18 and 44 years old rely on SNAP benefits to access food.
Socioeconomic gaps are highest in the Midwest, where 35 percent of queer people make less than $24,000 per year, according to the University of California, Los Angeles’ Williams Institute which studies sexual orientation and gender identity law and policy. For non-LGBT people in the region, it’s 24 percent. The income gap between LGBT and non-LGBT residents of Rocky Mountain states is similar.
Queer people in the South, which is home to the largest LGBTQ+ population of any U.S. region, face higher rates of discrimination, poverty, and homelessness. In Georgia, for example, 26 percent of LGBT people are food insecure compared to 17 percent of people who don’t identify as queer.
In Atlanta, a group called Peach City Sapphics is trying to spotlight the particular food needs of queer people in some of Georgia’s biggest cities who are struggling to pay their bills, find housing and transportation.
“Queer people get pushed to the edge fastest because the safety net is already thin,” Peach City Sapphics organizer Ciara Peebles said in a written statement to Rewire News Group.
Many members of the southern LGBTQ+ community don’t have “supportive families,” she explained, so “when benefits get pulled back, the consequences are immediate.”
Peach City Sapphics—which hosts not only mutual aid events but also community book swaps, reality TV watch parties, and crafting nights—saw the government shutdown hit its community in Atlanta and Athens hard.
“Food pantries were already stretched, but now the demand is constant. People are showing up earlier, lines are longer, and we’re seeing folks who’ve never had to ask for help before,” Peebles wrote. “Going into the holidays without those benefits has made things a lot harder—people are literally choosing between groceries, bills, and gas. There’s just no cushion anymore.”
Households across the country are making these kinds of difficult decisions. And queer organizations in cities across the country are stepping in to help.
In Chicago, the Brave Space Alliance is partnering with a network of local organizations as part of a Community Resource Day, offering free clothing, baby essentials, social services, and more. And nationwide, the Okra Project has launched a number of mutual aid funds to help Black trans folks meet their basic needs.
‘It felt safe’
Many people who need help may feel uncomfortable asking for or receiving aid, including those in the queer community, according to NYC Queers 4 Food Justice.
That’s why having queer-run food programs with few restrictions—like not asking for ID or requiring online signup in advance—is so important, said Dejarnette, who said they grew up on food benefit programs, including SNAP.
“I had been aware that there were food pantries and options like that, but I didn’t think they were for me,” said Pierce Bartman, 24, who juggles multiple jobs, from social media and photography to restaurant work.
“I think part of that is ego. Part of that is worrying that someone else needs it more than me.”
But when Bartman went to Ginger’s in early November, seeing so many familiar faces put them at ease.
“My friends were the ones handing me the rice, and my friends were the ones organizing the event, and it was at my favorite bar,” Bartman said. “It felt safe.”
Bartman left with enough food to last the rest of the month.
“We will always take care of one another,” Radics said, of the LGBTQ+ community. “There’s just something about that inherent oppression as a queer person, where we just have this shared understanding of love and consideration.”
Scottie's Playtime 