Category: Racism

LGBTQ+ news

Poland finally repealed the country’s last “LGBT-free” zone

The zones backfired, drawing widespread condemnation and economic consequences for the east European country.

Ten years after the far-right Law and Justice Party was elected to power in Poland, and two years after their defeat in national elections, a last vestige of the party’s state-sanctioned anti-LGBTQ+ policies has finally been eliminated.

On Thursday, a council in the southeastern Polish town of Łańcut officially abolished the country’s last remaining ‘LGBT-free’ resolution.

UK

Gay, lesbian and bi people at greater risk of self-harm and suicide, new figures show

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/04/10/suicide-ideation-gay-lesbian-bisexual/

Gay, lesbian and bisexual people are twice as likely as their straight peers to attempt suicide or have thoughts of taking their own life, new figures have revealed.

Requests to remove books from library shelves are on the rise in the UK, as the influence of pressure groups behind book bans in the US crosses the Atlantic, according to those working in the sector.

Most of the UK challenges appear to come from individuals or small groups, unlike in the US, where 72% of demands to censor books last year were brought forward by organised groups, according to the American Library Association earlier this week.

However, evidence suggests that the work of US action groups is reaching UK libraries too. Alison Hicks, an associate professor in library and information studies at UCL, interviewed 10 UK-based school librarians who had experienced book challenges. One “spoke of finding propaganda from one of these groups left on her desk”, while another “was directly targeted by one of these groups”. Respondents “also spoke of being trolled by US pressure groups on social media, for example when responding to free book giveaways”.

The types of books targeted may also differ. “Almost all the UK attacks reported in my study centred on LGBTQ+ materials, while US attacks appear to target material related to race, ethnicity and social justice as well as LGBTQ+ issues,” said Hicks.

This supports the findings of an Index on Censorship survey last year, in which 28 of 53 librarians polled reported that they had been asked to remove books from library shelves, many of which were LGBTQ+ titles. In more than half of those cases, books were taken off shelves.

Tennessee county sued for banning books without even reading them

They’re accused of just using an anti-LGBTQ+ organization’s book ban list to deny students access to tomes like Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.”

The plaintiffs in this case are three families, who wish to remain anonymous, of two freshmen and a senior who will attend a Rutherford County school next year. Joining in on the lawsuit is PEN America, a nonprofit freedom of expression advocacy group for writers. Thirty-two writers in the organization have seen 53 of their books included in the ban.

Trump DOJ Ordered ICE to Invade Homes Without Search Warrant

The Justice Department quietly authorized immigration agents to seize power in arresting people under the Alien Enemies Act—no warrant required.

https://newrepublic.com/post/194440/donald-trump-restores-foreign-students-visas-legal-losses

The Justice Department quietly invoked the Alien Enemies act last month to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents the power to conduct warrantless searches of people’s homes as long as they suspect them to be an “alien enemy.” USA Today obtained the memo that contained this order on Friday.

In the memo, the Justice Department defined an “alien enemy” as anyone who is 14 years of age or older, not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, a citizen of Venezuela, and “a member of the hostile enemy Tren de Aragua,” per the Alien Enemy Validation Guide, a document that has already been slammed by immigration experts.

The broad definition has already resulted in the apprehension and deportation of more than 200 men to El Salvador who just happened to have tattoos, like gay makeup artist Andry José Hernández Romero.

This type of order will likely lead to more indiscriminate arrests and wanton racial profiling. The memo, which is from March 14, is another massive departure from the U.S. immigration norms.

White House Confirms Trump Is Exploring Ways To ‘Deport’ U.S. Citizens

The administration could try removing American citizens if it identifies a pathway it can claim to be legal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that President Donald Trump is exploring legal pathways to “deport” U.S. citizens to El Salvador, where the administration has already arranged to house deported immigrants in a prison known for its human rights abuses. (Watch the video, above.)

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he “love[s]” the idea of removing U.S. citizens, adding that it would be an “honor” to send them to El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele — an eager partner in Trump’s schemes.

“I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,” Trump wrote. “Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!”

Shocking report reveals HIV deaths will explode due to Trump’s foreign aid cuts

Nearly 500,000 children could die from AIDS by 2030 without PEPFAR funding.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/04/shocking-report-reveals-hiv-deaths-will-explode-due-to-trumps-foreign-aid-cuts/

Nearly half a million children could die from AIDS-related causes by 2030 without restoration of PEPFAR programs cut by the Trump administration, a new study published in the Lancet reveals.

The new health policy analysis estimates that one million children could become infected with HIV and nearly half a million could die from AIDS by 2030. Additionally, 2.8 million children could experience orphanhood in sub-Saharan Africa (because their parents died from preventable HIV-related illnesses) if the PEPFAR funding isn’t restored.

A study released by UNAIDS in March showed an uptick in new HIV infections has already started as local HIV prevention programs funded by PEPFAR have been thrown into chaos.

Men who have sex with men, girls, and young women between the ages of 15 and 24 not pregnant or breastfeeding, and sex workers and people who inject drugs “can not” be offered PrEP during the pause or “until further notice,” Trump administration officials wrote.

 

some news articles I wanted to post but had no time to do it.

HHS Plans to Cut the National Suicide Hotline’s Program for LGBTQ Youth

HHS Plans to Cut the National Suicide Hotline’s Program for LGBTQ Youth

Hegseth shared detailed military plans in second Signal chat that included his wife and brother

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/20/politics/hegseth-second-signal-chat-military-plans/index.html

DOGE Visits National Gallery of Art to Discuss Museum’s Legal Status

The move is the latest from Elon Musk’s unofficial cost-cutting agency to exert influence beyond traditional federal agencies.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-18/washington-dc-national-gallery-of-art-gets-a-visit-from-doge

Trump’s D.C. U.S. attorney pick appeared on Russian state media over 150 times

Nominee Ed Martin did not initially disclose his RT and Sputnik appearances from 2016 to 2024 to the Senate. The State Department has said the networks act like arms of Russian intelligence.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/04/16/ed-martin-rt-sputnik-usattorney/

‘Whole generation of kids is damaged’: RFK Jr. takes MAHA on the road

“I just couldn’t nod my head enough,” an Indiana weight loss coach said after watching Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speak.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/15/rfk-mehmet-oz-maha-indiana-00291821

Leader of Colorado’s Libertarian Party calls man anti-gay slurs in Facebook exchange

Messages through official account responded to criticism of party’s social media postings, relevance

Leader of Colorado’s Libertarian Party calls man anti-gay slurs in Facebook exchange

The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies—and Their Mothers

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/the-tactics-elon-musk-uses-to-manage-his-legion-of-babies-and-their-mothers/ar-AA1CZEkq

RFK Jr. contradicts CDC on causes of autism

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/16/kennedy-cdc-autism-rates

Starmer told UK must repeal hate speech laws to protect LGBT+ people or lose Trump trade deal

‘Good chance’ of agreement, says JD Vance – but a source close to the administration says his concerns over Britain’s hate speech laws ‘are still a red line’

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-jd-vance-trade-deal-free-speech-b2733806.html

New England man, a US citizen, says border agents detained him for hours

https://www.wmur.com/article/new-england-us-citizen-border-detained-41525/64492295

The Real Reason El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele Cozied Up to Trump

The self-described “coolest dictator” has big secrets to hide, according to one journalist who spoke to Al Letson.

The Real Reason El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele Cozied Up to Trump

US ‘demands control’ from Ukraine of key pipeline carrying Russian gas

Senior Kyiv economist describes latest position of Trump administration in talks as ‘colonial-type’ bullying

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/12/us-demands-control-from-ukraine-of-key-pipeline-carrying-russian-gas

Australian with working visa detained and deported on returning to US from sister’s memorial

Man who says he had previously left and re-entered the country multiple times alleges border officials called him ‘retarded’ and boasted ‘Trump is back in town’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/11/australian-with-us-working-visa-detained-insulted-deported

‘We are flying blind’: RFK Jr.’s cuts halt data collection on abortion, cancer, HIV and more

Fired workers and outside experts say the cuts leave the nation more vulnerable to health threats.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/13/abortions-cancer-in-firefighters-and-super-gonorrhea-rfk-jr-s-cuts-halt-data-collection-00284828

For the First Time, Artificial Intelligence Is Being Used at a Nuclear Power Plant

Some lawmakers think additional guardrails are needed for future uses. For now, the facility will use AI to comply with regulations.

BLACKPRESSUSA UPDATE COMING SOON – The Smithsonian PURGE: Trump Team Removes Artifacts of Black Resistance

BLACKPRESSUSA UPDATE COMING SOON – The Smithsonian PURGE: Trump Team Removes Artifacts of Black Resistance

The racism in this tRump administration is incredible.  They are desperate to remove anything positive done by people who are not white cis straight males.  They want nothing that shows women or brown / black people.  They want segregation back.    They want subservient women who have to do as a male tells them.  They are desperate to have a white straight cis male dominated society.  The adminstartion is full of white supramcists who believe that teaching the true history, that telling people the truth is “… improper ideology”.   Hugs

Attorney Lindsey Halligan is reportedly consulting Vice President JD Vance to “remove improper ideology” from Smithsonian properties. According to a recent Washington Post article, Halligan told Trump the Smithsonian needs “changing,” and he has since ordered her to act.

Critics warn: it’s not just history being erased—it’s identity.

 

Greensboro lunch counter exhibit

April Ryan

BLACKPRESSUSA UPDATE COMING SOON – The Smithsonian PURGE: Trump Team Removes Artifacts of Black Resistance

Critics warn: it’s not just history being erased—it’s identity.

 
Greensboro lunch counter exhibit

1960 Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in display

 

By April D. Ryan
Washington Bureau Chief

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE – Black Press USA has learned that Trump officials are sending back exhibit items to their rightful owners and dismantling them—starting with the 1960 Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in exhibit.

“This president is a master of distraction and is destroying what it took 250 years to build. Here’s another distraction in his quest for attention. Another failure of his first 100 days,” said North Carolina Rep. Alma Adams, responding to efforts to physically remove the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth’s lunch counter exhibit from the National Museum of African American History and Culture—affectionately known as the “Blacksonian.”

The exhibit features portions of the original lunch counter and highlights the story of four Black male students from North Carolina A&T who were brutally attacked after sitting at the whites-only counter Feb. 1, 1960. When denied service, the students refused to leave. Their defiance ignited a wave of lunch counter sit-ins across the South and became a major flashpoint in the Civil Rights Movement.

Adams added, “We are long past the time when you can erase history—anyone’s history. You can take down exhibits, close buildings, take down websites, ban books, and try to change history, but we are long past that point. We will never forget!”

Black Press USA has also obtained a letter from Dr. Amos Brown, long-standing civil rights leader and pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco—also known as the home church of former Vice President Kamala Harris.

The letter notifies Dr. Brown that the museum is returning a Bible and George W. Williams’s History of the Negro Race in America, 1618-1880, one of the first books on racism in the U.S. Black Press USA has obtained emails from April 10 and 15, 2025, confirming the transfer.

The excerpt obtained by Black Press USA reads:

Dear Reverend Brown,
“I wanted to alert you that the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will be returning your Bible and book we borrowed for our exhibition, Segregation.” (Email to Dr. Amos Brown)

These artifacts have been on display since the museum’s opening in September 2016. Dr. Brown has confirmed he will accept their return.

For Dr. Amos Brown, the artifacts meant something.

“Those two books and the summary of my civil rights activism and my picture right there next to Medgar Evers, John Lewis, and Fred Shuttlesworth in the desegregation of civil rights exhibit… That book [History of the Negro Race in America] inspired me before there were even African studies published. In my home, in that 3rd Street Baptist Church, we studied that book. The Bible—that’s my father’s Bible and the Bible I used in the Civil Rights Movement. When we went on demonstrations, we always had the Bible.”

While civil rights leaders are seeing their history returned behind the scenes, other actors are influencing the future of national memory.

Attorney Lindsey Halligan is reportedly consulting Vice President JD Vance to “remove improper ideology” from Smithsonian properties. According to a recent Washington Post article, Halligan told Trump the Smithsonian needs “changing,” and he has since ordered her to act.

Halligan stated, “I would say that improper ideology would be weaponizing history. We don’t need to overemphasize the negative to teach people that certain aspects of our nation’s history may have been bad.” That overemphasis, she argued, “just makes us grow further and further apart.”

Emails from April 10 and 152025

New Mexico judge and wife arrested for hiding an alleged Venezuelan gang member in their house

https://www.msn.com/en-us/crime/general/new-mexico-judge-and-wife-arrested-for-hiding-an-alleged-venezuelan-gang-member-in-their-house/ar-AA1DCdVU

These people are not undocumented.  They had immigration papers.  Plus the  Tren de Aragua gang do not have common tattoos nor hand signals.  So everything the government claims is again suspect and wrong.  I offer the quotes below.  They had papers saying this person is not subject to removal but ICE took them anyway.   Hugs

 

“Let me be as crystal clear as possible,” Cano wrote in his resignation, obtained by KOAT. “The very first time I ever heard that the boys could possibly have any association with Tren de Aragua was when I was informed of that by [the] agents on the day of the raid.”

He added that each of the men had immigration paperwork that suggested that they were not subject to removal. “Their papers stated in the upper right-hand corner, ‘This Person is Not Subject to Removal.’ They each had a specific court date regarding their asylum hearing,” Cano stated.

Story by Kelly Rissman
 • 23h

Immigration authorities raided a former New Mexico judge’s home, where they accused him of harboring an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member, and took him into custody.

Former Dona Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano, 67, and his wife, Nancy Cano, 68, were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcementx Thursday after a tipster claimed that undocumented migrants associated with the Venezuelan gang were staying at their home. The couple has been charged with tampering with evidence, jail records show.

The investigation began in January 2025 after ICE received an anonymous tip that “an illegal alien from Venezuela and a suspected member of a criminal gang, was residing with other illegal aliens in the United States” at the judge’s home in Las Cruces and was in possession of firearms, according to court filings.

Two search warrants were executed at the Canos’ home on February 28, during which authorities seized four guns and took three immigrants into custody, documents say.

The judge resigned in March after federal authorities accused the couple of housing an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, at their home.

A former New Mexico judge, Joel Cano, and his wife, Nancy Cano, were arrested after ICE accused them of harboring members of a Venezuelan gang (Dona Ana County Jail)

“Let me be as crystal clear as possible,” Cano wrote in his resignation, obtained by KOAT. “The very first time I ever heard that the boys could possibly have any association with Tren de Aragua was when I was informed of that by [the] agents on the day of the raid.”

He added that each of the men had immigration paperwork that suggested that they were not subject to removal. “Their papers stated in the upper right-hand corner, ‘This Person is Not Subject to Removal.’ They each had a specific court date regarding their asylum hearing,” Cano stated.

He continued: “I have three grandkids that I love dearly. Their ages are 15, 8 and 6. There is no way in the world that I would have allowed my grandkids to have any contact with the boys if I had sensed danger.”

Ortego-Lopez installed a glass door for Nancy Cano in late 2023, according to court documents. He continued doing a few jobs for her in 2024 and after he was evicted from his apartment in April 2024, she offered him a stay in their “casita,” a small house on their property. There, Ortego-Lopez was given access to guns, the filing says.

Ortega-Lopez allegedly posted photos of himself on social media holding guns. Agents also looked at the social media accounts of the other undocumented immigrants staying at the judge’s house that suggests “clear indicators” of association with the Venezuelan gang.

“These indicators included tattoos, clothing apparel and displaying hand gestures,” the government wrote.

Nancy Cano has been accused of witness tampering after she allegedly let Venezuelan gang members live in a ‘casita’ on her property (Dona Ana County Jail)

President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly relied on tattoos to identify alleged gang members. ICE has been apparently relying on a scorecard — the “Alien Enemies Act Validation Guide” — to determine whether Venezuelan immigrants are eligible for deportation, ACLU lawyers have said. If migrants reach a score of eight points or higher, they are “validated as members” of the Tren de Aragua gang, the guide states. Tattoos are worth four points.

Last month, the administration sent three planes carrying dozens of Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador after the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law.

The president’s order states that “all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of [Tren de Aragua], are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.” The ACLU sued administration officials over their use of the Alien Enemies Act and a judge issued a temporary restraining order barring the migrants from being deported. Still, the planes flew to El Salvador; the judge this month said he found “probable cause” to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt.

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the Trump administration has the authority to deport migrants under the centuries-old act but also ordered that the government provide detainees an opportunity to contest their removals in court districts nearest to the detention centers where they are being held.

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

Peace & Justice History For 4/26

April 26, 1954
The Geneva Conference began for the purpose of bringing to an end the conflicts in Korea and Indochina. This followed the defeat of the French in Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu. France had been trying to reassert colonial control over Indochina following World War II.
The conferees included Cambodia, France, Laos, the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Soviet Union, Vietnam, the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
As a result, Vietnam was temporarily partitioned pending elections on reunification to be held in 1956; those elections were never held.
April 26, 1966

Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales
Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales founded the Crusade for Justice, a Chicano activist group, in Denver, Colorado, and marked his departure from the Democratic Party. It was the beginning of a nationalist strategy for the attainment of Chicano civil rights.
Read more
video  Democracy Now
April 26, 1968
A national student strike against the Vietnam war enlisted as many as one million high school and college students across the U.S.
April 26, 1986
A major accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine near the border with Belarus, both then part of the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere. Only after Swedish authorities reported the fallout over their country 1385 km away (860 miles), did Soviet authorities reluctantly admit that an accident had occurred.
During a fire that burned for 10 days, 190 tons of toxic materials were expelled into the atmosphere (3% of the reactor core). Winds blew 70% of the radioactive material into neighboring Belarus.

The explosion at Chernobyl was the world’s largest-scale nuclear accident. Approximately 134 power-station workers were exposed to extremely high doses of radiation directly after the accident. About 31 of these people died within 3 months. Another 25,000 “liquidators”—Soviet soldiers and firefighters who were involved in clean-up operations — have died since the incident of diseases such as lung cancer, leukemia, and cardiovascular disease.
400,000 were evacuated and over 2,000 towns and villages were bulldozed to the ground in areas considered permanently contaminated.
Deaths and illnesses directly attributable to radiation exposure continue.
“Chernobyl is a global environment event of a new kind. It is characterized by the presence of thousands of environmental refugees, long-term contamination of land, water and air, and possibly irreparable damage to ecosystems.”
– Christine K. Durbak, Chairwoman of the World Information Transfer, New York
Chernobyl for Kids
April 26, 1998

Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera
Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, a leading human rights activist in Guatemala, was bludgeoned to death two days after a report he had compiled was made public. The report blamed the U.S.-backed Guatemalan military government and its agencies for atrocities committed during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war.
About Bishop Gerardi’s murder  (Democracy Now)

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryapril.htm#april26

2 In 5 Corporations Scaling Back LGBTQ Pride Engagement Amid Trump Administration Pressure, Survey Finds

https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/04/24/2-in-5-corporations-scaling-back-lgbtq-pride-engagement-amid-trump-administration-pressure-survey-finds/

This is why I keep saying we must be vocal and show our displeasure with companies that pull back out of fear.  We must voice it also with our money.  I used to shop Target, but until they reverse their polices I won’t spend a dime in any of their stores.  I know you can search and there are websites that show pro-LGBTQ+ stores and those who betrayed the LGBTQ+.  But the right learned from the protests and tactics used by the LGBTQ+ in the past.  We were vocal, we were loud, we worked both behind the scenes with companies and we made it clear we have disposable money to shop.  A lot of gay people still do.  Hugs

Conor Murray

Forbes Staff
Murray is a Forbes news reporter covering entertainment trends.

 

Nearly two-fifths of corporations plan on scaling back engagement for LGBTQ Pride Month this June, an uptick from the same survey last year, while another two-fifths said their support would remain unchanged, according to a survey of corporate executives by Gravity Research, as some LGBTQ Pride organizations nationwide report fewer corporate sponsorships than past years.

Key Facts

Of the 49 executives surveyed from Fortune 1000 companies, those who said they were pulling back on Pride support cited pressure from conservative activists and President Donald Trump, who has signed executive orders gutting diversity, equity and inclusion and targeting the transgender community.

Of the 39% of companies who said they would reduce Pride Month engagement this year, 43% said they would reduce external shows of support, which includes having a visual presence at or financially sponsoring Pride marches, offering a Pride merchandise line, updating social media branding and partnering with influencers for Pride-themed sponsorships.

Fewer respondents, 19%, said their decreased engagement for Pride would be internal, including internal communication with employees about commitments to equality and offering employee resource groups.

About 41% of the companies surveyed said their support for Pride will remain unchanged this year, while the rest responded “don’t know” or “haven’t decided.”

Last year just 9% of companies told Gravity Research last year they would alter their Pride Month engagement plans.

Crucial Quote

Gravity Research president Luke Hartig told Forbes the survey “reveals just how dramatically the cultural and political tides have turned,” stating two-fifths of companies scaling back Pride Month engagement “would’ve been unthinkable just five years ago.” Hartig said, though, “most are holding firm internally, continuing to show up for LGBTQ+ employees and allies via events, partnerships with ERGs, and reiterating workplace inclusion.”

What Did Corporate Leaders Say About Reducing Pride Month Engagement?

One corporate leader told Gravity Research their company would reduce their acknowledgement of Pride Month on social media to “minimize public visibility that could trigger attention.” An unnamed corporate executive at a Fortune 500 consumer staples company told Gravity Research it has “reduced risk across all heritage month events” by “focusing internally and doing what’s right for our people and not necessarily shouting to the world about it.” Some executives told Gravity Research they are preparing talking points in response to their Pride Month activities, including one financial executive, who said their company has provided HR employees with prepared responses for employees who question its Pride Month support. The financial executive also said their company is planning to take a “more conservative approach to how we are acknowledging Pride month on our social media channels.”

Surprising Fact

Business-to-consumer companies (71%) are more likely than business-to-business companies (53%) to prepare for Pride Month-related backlash, Gravity Research reported, which it says shows “increased public pressure and threat of consumer backlash.”

Which Pride Organizations Have Lost Corporate Sponsors?

Some of the United States’ biggest Pride organizations have said corporate sponsors pulled back financial support this year. Anheuser-Busch, the alcoholic beverage company that battled a wave of conservative backlash in 2023 over a partnership between Bud Light and transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, declined to support St. Louis Pride in 2025 after more than 30 years of sponsorship, St. Louis Pride said in an Instagram post. San Francisco Pride organizers told Forbes Anheuser-Busch also declined to support the organization this year, as did previous sponsors Comcast and alcoholic beverage company Diageo, representing a loss of $200,000 in corporate sponsorship funding. Pride Houston’s board of directors told Forbes some corporate sponsors reduced support by as much as 75%, totaling $100,000 in lost funds. Chris Piedmont, media director for NYC Pride, told Forbes some corporate sponsors have scaled back budgets, though he did not name specific companies. The loss of funding has led some organizations to turn to crowdfunding, including St. Louis Pride and Twin Cities Pride in Minnesota, which cut ties with Target after the company walked back its diversity, equity and inclusion measures in January.

Key Background

Some companies have faced backlash among conservative activists in recent years for their support for LGBTQ pride, notably Bud Light, which lost its spot as the top beer in the United States after facing a consumer boycott over its partnership with Mulvaney. Within about a month of the Bud Light boycott, which began in April 2023, Bud Light’s sales were down 26% compared to the year prior. Other companies that faced online attacks and boycotts included Nike, which also partnered with Mulvaney in 2023, and Target, which sparked outrage for selling a swimsuit marketed for trans women. In response to backlash, Target removed some of its LGBTQ pride items from stores. Target has faced renewed boycotts in recent weeks after it joined a wave of companies walking back diversity, equity and inclusion standards, angering critics who viewed the company as a longtime LGBTQ ally. Target’s foot traffic in stores has been down year-over-year for 11 straight weeks, beginning with the week after it dropped DEI commitments in January, Retail Brew reported.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan arrested by federal authorities at Courthouse

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/breaking/2025/04/25/milwaukee-county-judge-hannah-dugan-arrested-by-feds-at-courthouse/83270885007/

The judge was to be arraigned that day.  Under federal procedures, she would likely appear in U.S. District Court on the day of the arrest.  Instead she was sent to an ICE detention facility and denied her due process rights.  This is not legal nor right.   They refused her rights to due process.  She is a citizen.  Hugs

Portrait of Daniel BiceDaniel Bice

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested April 25 by federal authorities who are investigating whether she tried to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest after he appeared in her courtroom last week, officials confirmed.

Brady McCarron, spokesman for U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C., confirmed Dugan was arrested at about 8 a.m. at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and is in federal custody. Under federal procedures, she would likely appear in U.S. District Court on the day of the arrest.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X about the arrest. He later deleted the post.

“Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction — after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week,” Patel wrote. “We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest.”

A screenshot of a since-deleted April 25 tweet by FBI Director Kash Patel
A screenshot of a since-deleted April 25 tweet by FBI Director Kash Patel

Multiple Milwaukee County judges confirmed that the arrest took place at the courthouse. Chief Judge Carl Ashley confirmed the incident in an email to courthouse officials.

Officials have not yet identified the defendant whom she is accused of assisting, but it appears to be Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican immigrant facing three misdemeanor battery counts. He was in Dugan’s courtroom on April 18 for a pre-trial conference.

Flores-Ruiz, 30, is listed as being in ICE custody at Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau, according to the federal online detainee locator system.

Sources have told the Journal Sentinel that ICE officials arrived in Dugan’s courtroom on the morning of April 18. When they went to the chief judge’s office, Dugan directed the defendant and his attorney to a side door in the courtroom, directed them down a private hallway and into the public area on the 6th floor.

Last week’s arrest marked at least the third time in recent months that federal immigration agents have come to the courthouse with arrest warrants. In March and early April, two people were arrested by ICE officials in the hallways of the courthouse.

This is a breaking story and was updated with new information. More updates are coming.

Recent Yet Historic Marches, & More, in Peace & Justice History for 4/25

April 25, 1945
Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco for the United Nations Conference on International Organization. Over the next two months they would negotiate the principles and structure of the United Nations.
Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt had just died and had been working on his speech to the conference: “The work, my friends, is peace; more than an end of this war—an end to the beginning of all wars . . . As we go forward toward the greatest contribution that any generation of human beings can make in this world—the contribution of lasting peace—I ask you to keep up your faith . . . .”
April 25, 1969

The Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and 100 others were arrested while picketing a Charleston, South Carolina, hospital to support unionization by its workers.
Read more about Reverend Ralph David Abernathy 
April 25, 1974
A peaceful uprising by both the army and civilians, known as the Carnation Revolution (Revolução dos Cravos), ended 48 years of fascism in Portugal. People holding red carnations urged soldiers not to resist the overthrow and many placed the flowers in the muzzles of their rifles. The regime killed four before giving in to the popular resistance.
 
Lisbon demonstration ’74
Read more about the Carnation Revolution 
April 25, 1983
Women in Canberra, Australia, laid a wreath to remember women of all countries raped during wartime.
April 25, 1987
Tens of thousands marched on Washington, D.C. to demand an end to U.S.-sponsored and -supported wars in Central America.
April 25, 1993
Nearly one million marched for homosexual rights and liberation in Washington, D.C.

Health Care Rally at April 25, 1993

The AIDS quilt on display as part of the event.

April 25, 2004

The March for Women’s Lives drew a record 1.15 million people to Washington, D.C. The marchers wanted to protect legal and safe access to reproductive services including abortion, birth control and emergency contraception.
Organized by a coalition that included the National Organization for Women (NOW), Black Women’s Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and Planned Parenthood, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The March for Women’s Lives was the largest protest in U.S. history.
Read more 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryapril.htm#april25

Showing your ignorance with confidence.

Harvard 2025 and the University of Munich 1933

I want to thank brucedesertrat who sent me the link to this substack article.  I enjoy learning about history but sadly this hits home too deeply.  It is so close it is scary.  Hugs.

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https://davidwfitzsimmons.substack.com/p/harvard-2025-and-the-university-of?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1360838&post_id=161410082&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ko4d&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

David W Fitzsimmons
Apr 17, 2025

Today President Trump is threatening to pull funds if Harvard does not comply with his demands for the school to shape it’s curricula to favor Trumpism. Harvard has refused to caved to Trump’s fascist demands which clearly violate free speech.

“The University will not surrender its independence or its constitutional rights,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber

The seizure of power by the MAGA Republicans in 2025, led by Donald Trump, brought far-reaching changes to American Universities. Some caved, some obeyed in advance.

The seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, led by Adolph Hitler, brought far-reaching changes to German Universities. All caved. All obeyed in advance.

There is a parallel in German history for this American moment when books are banned, educational institutions are battered and a brutal and barbaric anti-intellectual ethos is on the rise.

A timeline of the Nazification of Munich University

1933

Hitler demands The University of Munich restructure its curriculum in accordance with the new ruling ideology of Nazism.

Trump demands Harvard University restructure its curriculum in accordance with the new ruling ideology of Trumpism. Abandon DEI. Police your students and faculty for viewpoint “diversity”.

Those faculty members who are not Nazi sympathizers are dismissed.

Trump’s letter calls for political undesirables to be gone.

The numbers of Jews admitted to university are restricted.

Munich University is the site of book burnings led by pro-Nazi students.

With the passage of these laws, the Nazis attempted to root out any opposition to their ideology that remain in German higher education.

Trump wants all of America’s Universities to root out anti-Trumpist thought, to be citadels of Trumpism, to employ MAGA professors who will teach American students how Trumpism will make America and her institutions of higher learning great again.

1941

Munich University appoints of Walther Wüst, an Aryan ideologue, Führer-Rektor of the University. By this time the Nazification of Munich University is complete. The once prestigious Munich University employs an all Nazi faculty.

1943

Sophie Scholl, a student attending Munich University, is guillotined for distributing anti-Nazi broadsides on campus.

Under President Trump students are deported or “disappeared”. I can safely assume an American student will be martyred for resisting fascism here in our nation in t he months ahead.

Hitler visiting the University of Munich

Here is a harrowing account of the Nazification of Frankfurt University witnessed by young Austrian economist named Peter Drucker:

Frankfurt was the first university the Nazis tackled, precisely because it was the most self-confidently liberal of major German universities, with a faculty that prided itself on its allegiance to scholarship, freedom of conscience, and democracy. The Nazis knew that control of Frankfurt University would mean control of German academia. And so did everyone at the university.

Above all, Frankfurt had a science faculty distinguished both by its scholarship and by its liberal convictions; and outstanding among the Frankfurt scientists was a biochemist-physiologist of Nobel-Prize caliber and impeccable liberal credentials. When the appointment of a Nazi commissar was announced . . . and every teacher and graduate assistant at the university was summoned to a faculty meeting to hear this new master, everybody knew that a trial of strength was at hand. I had never before attended a faculty meeting, but I did attend this one.

The new Nazi commissar wasted no time on the amenities. He immediately announced that Jews would be forbidden to enter university premises and would be dismissed without salary on March 15; this was something that no one had thought possible despite the Nazis’ loud antisemitism. Then he launched into a tirade of abuse, filth, and four-letter words such as had been heard rarely even in the barracks and never before in academia. . . . [He] pointed his finger at one department chairman after another and said, “You either do what I tell you or we’ll put you into a concentration camp.” There was silence when he finished; everybody waited for the distinguished biochemist-physiologist. The great liberal got up, cleared his throat, and said, “Very interesting, Mr. Commissar, and in some respects very illuminating: but one point I didn’t get too clearly. Will there be more money for research in physiology?”

The meeting broke up shortly thereafter with the commissar assuring the scholars that indeed there would be plenty of money for “racially pure science.” A few of the professors had the courage to walk out with their Jewish colleagues, but most kept a safe distance from these who only a few hours earlier had been their close friends. I went out sick unto death—and I knew that I was going to leave Germany within forty-eight hours.

The Nazis attacked academic dissent with lethal cruelty

Some went to nearby Dachau. Some, such as our heroic young student Sophie, were beheaded.

Sophie Scholl, photographed by the Gestapo

Here is the text of the pamphlet that cost Munich University student Sophie Scholl her life. Her haunting critique of Hitler resonates eerily with the familiar critiques of our current leader:

Fellow Students!

Shaken, our people faces the downfall of our men of Stalingrad. Three hundred thirty thousand German men have been senselessly and irresponsibly rushed into death and ruin by the brilliant strategy of the man who served as a private in the Great War. Führer, we thank you!

It is festering in the German people: Do we want to continue entrusting the fate of our armies to a dilettante? Do we want to sacrifice the rest of our young Germans to the base, power-seeking instincts of a Party clique? Nevermore.

The day of reckoning has come, our German youth’s reckoning with the most abhorrent tyranny that our people has ever endured. In the name of all young Germans, we demand that Adolf Hitler’s State return to us our personal freedom, the German’s most valuable possession, which he has cheated us out of in the most disgraceful way.

We have grown up in a State where every free expression of opinion has been ruthlessly gagged. The HJ, SA, and SS have tried to make us uniform, to revolutionize us, to narcotize us in the most fruitful educational years of our lives. “Ideological training” was the name given to the despicable method of stifling our budding independent thought and self-esteem in a haze of empty phrases. A “Führerauslese”1 of a kind as fiendish and at the same time as narrow-minded as one can possibly imagine, grooming its future Party bosses at Ordensburgen [special educational centers for Party cadres] to become godless, shameless, and unscrupulous exploiters and cutthroats, to become blind, mindless followers of the Führer. We “brain-workers” were exactly right for becoming the cudgel of this new ruling class. Front-line soldiers are disciplined like schoolboys by student leaders and would-be Gauleiter; Gauleiter, with prurient jests, assault the honor of female students. German female students at the university in Munich have given a dignified reply to the insult to their honor, and German male students have intervened and stood their ground on behalf of their female classmates. That is a first step toward gaining our right to free self-determination, without which intellectual values cannot be created. We are grateful to our brave fellow students, female and male, who have led the way by setting this shining example!

For us, there is only one watchword: Fight against the Party! Get out of the Party formations, in which the goal is to keep us politically muzzled! Get out of the lecture rooms of the SS Unter- or Oberführer and the Party bootlickers! True scholarly activities and genuine intellectual freedom are at stake! No threat of any kind can frighten us, not even the closing of our universities. Each of us must fight for our future, our freedom and honor in a body politic that is aware of its moral responsibility.

Freedom and honor! For ten long years, Hitler and his comrades have squeezed these two magnificent German words and made them loathsome, have banged on them and twisted them as only dilettantes can, dilettantes who cast the highest values of a nation before swine. They have sufficiently demonstrated what freedom and honor mean to them during ten years of the destruction of all physical and intellectual freedom, of all moral substance in the German people. Even the dumbest German’s eyes have been opened by the dreadful blood bath which they have brought about everywhere in Europe and continue to bring about each day. The German name will remain forever disgraced unless German youth stand up at last, engage simultaneously in revenge and expiation, smash their tormentors, and bring about a new intellectual and spiritual Europe.

Students! The German people is watching us! It expects us, as in 1813 with the breaking of Napoleon’s domination, now also in 1943 to break the domination of National Socialist terror through the power of the mind.

Berezina and Stalingrad blaze in the East; the dead of Stalingrad implore us!

“Fresh on, my people, the flame signals are smoking!”2

Our people is rising up against the enslavement of Europe by National Socialism, in a new, trustful breakthrough of freedom and honor!

As you read her courageous words consider how and why a regime would loathe and fear such a voice for liberty.

Now is the time to stand with all who see Trump for the terrifying tyrant he is.

Now is the time to stand with all educators and students who courageously stand against this tyranny.

Now is the time to join Thomas Jefferson in swearing “upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Now is the time to stand with Harvard University.

Now is the time to stand with all educators and educational institutions threatened by MAGA fascism.

 

REFERENCES:

Higher education in Nazi Germany

Controlling Universities

Higher education in Nazi Germany

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