Tag: Human Rights

Sad, Indeed.

Gay MAGA Complain About Getting Banned From Gay Bars by God

Sad! Read on Substack

Dear Humans,

BEHOLD! Gay Republicans are finding out they cannot wear the red hat of hatred in LGBTQ+ nightclubs.

1. Gay Bar Bans Bigots

Last week, Badlands, a beloved LGBTQ+ nightclub in Sacramento, posted this heavenly announcement:

“Moving forward, MAGA-related attire will not be allowed in the venue. This decision is not about banning political beliefs — it is about ensuring that Badlands remains a space where our community feels comfortable and supported.”

That’s not censorship. That’s community care. And this is not the first bar to make the news for banning MAGA, either. Last week a bar in Indianapolis went viral for kicking out one of these bigots.

2. “What the Heck? Let’s See What Happens”

Steven Bourassa, the idiotic Trump supporter whose actions inspired the bar to make the change, told local news station KCRA:

“I’ve never worn a red [Make America Great Again] hat to the gay bars before. I said, ‘What the heck? Let’s see what happens.’ We were having drinks and hanging out, and it was a pleasant time. So I was really impressed. And I complimented security on the good job they did.”

What didst this imbecile think wouldst happen?!?

This is not a prank show. This is real life. And you’re not the main character.

Steven Bourassa.

3. “It’s About Bullying”

“This decision is not based upon protecting our community,” said Preston Romero, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Sacramento.
“It’s about bullying and singling out one particular political ideology. And we believe that that’s unfair.”

WHAT HEINOUS HYPOCRISY!!! Because when trans kids are banned from sports, queer teachers are forced back into the closet, and drag queens are treated like criminals—they don’t say ONE DAMN WORD.

But when a gay bar sets a boundary to protect its patrons from symbols of literal hatred? Suddenly it’s bullying? Give God a damn break!

Preston Romero, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Sacramento.

4. God’s Final Word

And after all the hypocritical outrage, Bourassa says he’ll still go to Badlands but he’ll just leave the hat at home.

“I didn’t have any problems,” he said. “I’ll still go back… but I’ll leave the hat at home now.”

This man got banned, agreed with the ban, and is going right back.

REJOICE, everyone! We finally found the thing that can break the MAGA cult…and apparently it’s gay sex.

5. We’re Fighting Back And It’s Working

This isn’t just a moment, it’s momentum.

And it’s building everywhere you look.

People are fighting back everywhere.

Here’s how we fight:

  • Keep people engaged & informed with truth, hope and laughter.
  • Rally thousands of voices to push back against fascism.
  • Build an independent platform where truth can’t be silenced.

And it’s working.

📈 LOOK AT THIS: (snip-go look. The clicks help God [the Substack.])

A Thing About Which I Feel Strongly;

the post along with the comments beneath it are important to read. There are ways to make our directions to our government known. Even if a person can’t show up, a person can send a pizza or some cold drinks to a group who’s out speaking out. We can each do a thing. Meanwhile, please read Tengrain’s post, and the comments, as they’re important to know.

Flood the Zone or Death By A Thousand Cuts

Peace & Justice History for 3/23

March 23, 1918
The trial of 101 Wobblies (members of the Industrial Workers of the World or IWW) began in Chicago, for opposition to World War I. In September 1917, 165 IWW members were arrested for conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes. The trial lasted five months, the longest criminal trial in American history at the time.The jury found them all guilty. The judge sentenced IWW leader “Big Bill” Haywood and 14 others to 20 years in prison; 33 were given 10 years, the rest shorter sentences. They were fined a total of $2,500,000 and the IWW was shattered as a result. Haywood jumped bail and fled to the Soviet Union, where he remained until his death 10 years later.

“Big Bill” Haywood
Read more 
March 23, 1942

The U.S. government began moving all those of Japanese ancestry, including some native-born U.S. citizens (known as nisei), from their west coast homes to indefinite imprisonment in detention centers, beginning with Manzanar in California which eventually held more than 10,000 Americans.
Located on 60,000 acres west of Los Angeles, it is now a national historic site; only 3 of the original 800 buildings remain.
Gallery of photos and other materials about Manzanar 
March 23, 1961
Army Major Lawrence Robert Bailey was the first recorded American to be held as a prisoner of war in Southeast Asia. One of eight crew members of a C-47 surveillance aircraft shot down over Laos, Bailey was held by the Pathet Lao for 17 months, losing one-third of his body weight (down to 53 kg, or 117 lbs) during that time. The other occupants of the plane are presumed to have died in the crash; Bailey always wore a parachute.
March 23, 1984

USS Queenfish nuclear submarine student die-in outside the U.S. Consulate.
One thousand boats, known informally as the Auckland Harbour Peace Squadron, demonstrated against arrival of the nuclear submarine, U.S.S. Queenfish in New Zealand.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march23

Peace & Justice History for 3/22

March 22, 1933
The Nazi German concentration camp at Dachau was opened, the first of many such camps built for the incarceration and extermination of those considered unfit: Jews, Polish Catholics, Communists, the Roma (frequently referred to as Gypsies), the “work-shy,” homosexuals, the “hereditary asocial,” and those with mental and/or physical handicaps.

The gate to Dachau “Work will make you free”
Over 200,000 prisoners were registered at Dachau, nearly all of whom died there.
The early days of Dachau 
March 22, 1956
Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was convicted of organizing an allegedly illegal boycott by black passengers of buses in Montgomery, Alabama. He was fined $500 but when his lawyers indicated his intent to appeal, the sentence was changed to 386 days of imprisonment.
Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott 
March 22, 1965
3,200 civil rights demonstrators, led by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and under protection of a federalized National Guard, began a third attempt at a week-long march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol at Montgomery in support of voting rights for black Americans.

Marchers on their way to Montgomery
A week before, the march had been violently stopped before leaving Selma. People from all over the country arrived to support the effort for enfranchisement of African Americans in the South whose right to vote had been systematically denied.
From Selma to Montgomery: An Introduction to the 1965 Marches – Lesson Plan
March 22, 1974

The Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (ERA) was passed by both houses of Congress with two-thirds majorities. The amendment, to give women full equality under law, was ratified by the legislatures of only 35 states, short of the required three-quarters of the 50 states, and thus never became law.
Detailed history of the Equal Rights Amendment 
March 22, 1980
30,000 marched in Washington, DC against re-introduction of draft registration.
  Denise Levertov’s lines from her poem,
“A Speech for Antidraft Rally, D.C., March 22, 1980″”…Let our different dream,
and more than dream, our acts
of constructive refusal generate
struggle. And love. We must dare to win
not wars, but a future
in which to live.”
The entire poem (pdf) 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march22

Snarky News About The SnarkMistress Herself-

Karoline Leavitt’s Briefing Blunder Accidentally Undoes Key Trump Policy, Sparks Mockery Online

Lee Moran Thu, March 20, 2025 at 2:02 AM CDT 1 min read

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt faced mockery on Wednesday after another apparent slipup during a press briefing.

Leavitt stated that President Donald Trump is “committed to passing a big reconciliation package later this year,” which includes “ending no taxes on tips.”

Leavitt says Trump is committed to "ending no taxes on tips"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-03-19T17:30:01.137Z

(or https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lkqpjjvszu2r , just in case. It’s worth the click.-A.)

Critics quickly seized on the phrase, interpreting it as an accidental double negative that contradicted Trump’s 2024 election campaign promise to nix taxes on tips. Trump has yet to implement the policy.

Leavitt on Monday drew similar mockery after she accidentally claimed the Department of Justice will focus on “fighting law and order” when “fighting for law and order” was likely what she meant.

(Or https://x.com/atrupar/status/1902412161777070590 snip-see story post for embedded replies. )

Trans Rights Readathon Today (3/21)

Found it on SBTB; I get emails from BookRiot, but didn’t receive this one as of Thursday night.

The 2025 Trans Rights Readathon Starts March 21st!

The 2025 Trans Rights Readathon Starts March 21st!

The third annual Trans Rights Readathon starts March 21st and ends on March 31st, Trans Day of Visibility. Here’s how to participate!

Danika Ellis Mar 18, 2025

We’re approaching the third Trans Rights Readathon! It’s an annual call to action that coincides with Trans Day of Visibility on March 31st, and it aims to uplift, amplify, and support trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and Two-Spirit authors. It takes place from March 21st through the 31st, and this year, there are five core prompts to complete, as well as a list of bonus prompts.

The five core prompts for the 2025 Trans Rights Readathon are Transmasc and Trans Man Rep; Transfemme and Trans Woman Rep; Nonbinary, Agender, Genderqueer, and Other Gender Expansive Rep; Intersectional Trans+ Rep Outside Your Own Experience; and 2Spirit, Indigiqueer and Indigenous Gender Expansive Rep.

If you’d like some recommendations for these prompts, as well as the many bonus prompts, you can find the reading challenge on Storygraph, where users have added suggestions for each. Just be sure to vet these, since anyone can add a title.

The Storygraph description also adds more context to the reading challenge, including making sure not to out authors or interrogate authors about their gender identity: “If information isn’t available in an author’s bio, social media, or on their website, they don’t owe it to you. In an era when people’s identities are being used to target them, please be mindful that we want to CELEBRATE these stories and support authors while keeping each other safe.”

a person facing away from the camera holding a trans pride flag behind them
image via Canva

Each prompt also has more information, including that books in the 2Spirit, Indigiqueer, and Indigenous Gender Expansive Rep category may not be trans, so to be mindful about language when discussing these books: “2Spirit, Indigiqueer, and other non-Western Third Genders exist outside of Western concepts of gender and sexuality, and an author who identifies as 2S may not identify as trans.”

Another great resource for the challenge is the Trans Rights Readathon Instagram. They have posts about the readathon itself, including how to participate: by reading trans books, reviewing and discussing them online (using the tags TransRightsReadathon and #TRR2025), and monetarily supporting the trans community (including donating to mutual aid funds).

They also have posts recommending books for each of the prompts. These are vetted by the organizers, so they’re more reliable than the Storygraph suggestions.

Leading up to and during the readathon, I’ll be sharing trans book recommendations. Let me know in the comments if there’s anything in particular you’d like suggestions for!

As a bonus for All Access members, below is a list of 27 new LGBTQ books out this week.

27 New Queer Books Out This Week: March 18, 2025

Here are 27 of the most exciting new LGBTQ books out this week, including Passing Through a Prairie Country by Dennis E. Staples and Beyond Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy by Talia Mae Bettcher.

Exclusive content for All Access members continues below. Become a member for $6 a month or $60 a year to get community features and access to exclusive content across all 20+ Book Riot newsletters.

Peace & Justice History for 3/21

March 21, 1937
On Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter), the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico was to march in Ponce (city on the southern coast of the island) in support of Puerto Rican independence. They were also protesting the imprisonment of Albizu Campos, leader of the Party and the lawyer for the sugarcane workers who had led a general strike.The colonial military governor, Blanton Winship (a Georgian who had been Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army), revoked the parade permit at the last minute. Nationalists insisted on marching regardless and, surrounded by the well armed police, were fired upon as they began. Whoever fired the first shot, 18 Nationalists and 2 policemen died. 200 others, Nationalists and bystanders, were injured, 150 arrested. This incident is known as Masacre de Ponce, or “The Ponce Massacre.”

Families of those who died in the Ponce Massacre
A history of Puerto Rico 
The Ponce massacre remembered 
March 21, 1960
South African police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators in the black township of Sharpeville near Johannesburg. The demonstrators were protesting the establishment of apartheid pass laws which restricted movement of non-whites.

In Sharpeville itself, 69 were killed and 176 wounded when police fired on the crowd, 63 of them shot in the back. In the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, protests broke out in Cape Town and elsewhere, and there were further casualties. Overall, 13,000 were jailed.
The organizer, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, head of the Pan-Africanist Congress, had written to the police commissioner, notifying him of the plans, and had said at a press conference, “I have appealed to the African people to make sure that this campaign is conducted in a spirit of absolute nonviolence, and I am quite certain they will heed my call.” 
The Sharpeville Massacre and its significance in South African history 
March 21, 1990
The Plowshares Two damaged a U.S. F-111 bomber in Upper Heyford, England. This was the first plowshares action in Britain.
The details of this and other Plowshares actions of the time 
March 21, 2003
The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa was released. The commission was led by the Reverend Desmond Tutu, a bishop in the Anglican Church, the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, and Nobel Peace Prize winner for his efforts to bring peace and justice to all South Africans.

.Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu
The Commission was charged with investigating and providing “as complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes and extent of gross violations of human rights” under the racial separatist apartheid regime from 1960 until the inauguration of Nelson Mandela in 1994, South Africa’s first black president.
But the Commission sought to go beyond truth-finding to promote national unity and reconciliation, to facilitate the granting of amnesty to those who made full factual disclosure, to restore the human and civil dignity of victims by providing them an opportunity to tell their own stories, and to make recommendations to the president on measures to prevent future human rights violations.
Reverand Tutu concluded in his foreword to the report, “Quite improbably, we as South Africans have become a beacon of hope to others locked in deadly conflict that peace, that a just resolution, is possible. If it could happen in South Africa, then it can certainly happen anywhere else. Such is the exquisite divine sense of humour.”
The complete report of the Commission 
March 21, 2008
More than 300 people participated in an annual Good Friday peace action at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, organized by Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CARES). The lab is a key participant in the design of all weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The Alameda County Sheriff arrested 91 of the protesters. CARES Executive Director Marylia Kelley said, “The emphasis is on nonviolence and rejecting violence.”
The organization behind the action 
March 21, 2011
An estimated 14 million Egyptians voted in an essentially problem-free election. 77% voted to endorse a process that would bring elections for parliament within six months and a presidential election later.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march21

Peace & Justice History for 3/20

March 20, 1815
Switzerland was declared neutral by the great powers of Europe at the Vienna Congress following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. The confederation of 22 cantons (member states) had its current borders established with its neighbors France, Germany, Austria and Italy.
Switzerland’s history 
March 20, 1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s influential novel about slavery, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, was first published in book form by J.P. Jewett of Boston. The text had previously been serialized in the anti-slavery newspaper, the National Era.
10,000 copies were sold in the first week, 300,000 within the first year. The many different editions published in Europe sold an aggregate of one million copies in
the first year.
It was the second best-selling book of the 19th century after the Bible.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was soon published in dozens of languages.

 
How Harriet Beecher Stowe was Inspired to Write Uncle Tom’s Cabin 
March 20, 1983 
In Australia 150,000 (1% of population) demonstrated in anti-nuclear rallies. 

Sydney anti-uranium protest. April 7, 1979
Australia’s anti-nuclear movement: a short history  
March 20, 1998
Despite the efforts of thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators, a train hauling 60 tons of nuclear waste arrived in the north German town of Ahaus from Walheim in the south. Twice the train was stopped by protestors chained to the tracks; 300 were arrested with police using water cannon in response to rocks and sticks being thrown at them.
The size of the security deployment, outnumbering the protestors ten to one, necessitated the postponing of ten days of football (soccer) matches.
A similar shipment the previous year provoked several days of rioting.
March 20, 2010 5:32 PM GMT
The first day of spring (the vernal equinox) is the day for celebrating NoRuz [no-rooz], the Persian New Year.
More on NoRuz and other Persian celebrations 
March 20, 2011
The nuclear reactor crisis created in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami on the northeast coast of Japan began to spread health risks to the surrounding area. Elevated levels of radiation were found in spinach and milk in the nearby prefectures (counties). As a result of pumping seawater to keep the reactors cool after loss of electricity and damage wiped out all the cooling systems, radiation was found in the ocean waters.
Fukushima today 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march20

Peace & Justice History for 3/19

March 19, 1911
The first International Women’s Day was held in Germany, Austria, Denmark, and some other European countries. This date was chosen by German women because, on that date in 1848 the Prussian king, faced with an armed uprising, had promised many reforms, including an unfulfilled one of votes for women. A million leaflets calling for action on the right to vote were distributed throughout Germany.
March 19, 1963

The blacklisting of Pete Seeger (and other members of The Weavers) from the folk music television show “Hootenanny” prompted a boycott by 50 folk artists (The Kingston Trio, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary, among others).
Seeger had become a cultural hero through his outspoken and joyful commitment to the anti-war and civil rights movements, and helped popularize the anthemic “We Shall Overcome.”
Pete Seeger bio from Encyclopedia of the American Left 
Pete singing and talking about the music with Hugh Hefner on TV in the early ‘60s 
March 19, 1978
50,000 marched in Amsterdam to protest U.S. deployment of the neutron bomb in Europe. The neutron bomb was a tactical (artillery shell) enhanced-radiation weapon. It killed people with a neutron flux that penetrated armor but was effective only over a limited area, leaving little fallout or residual radiation. It did minimal damage, however, to physical structures.
More about the Neutron Bomb 
March 19, 2003
U.S. and coalition forces launched missiles and bombs at targets in Iraq including a “decapitation attack” aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other top members of the country’s leadership.


Baghdad, Iraq under attack
There were nearly 300,000 American, British and other troops at the border.
President George W. Bush warned Americans that the conflict “could be longer and more difficult than some predict.” He assured the nation that “this will not be a campaign of half-measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory.”
Read about the cost of this war 
March 19, 2011
In response to widespread peaceful demonstrations for political change in Syria, the government sealed off the city of Deraa. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad claimed his country would not be affected by the movement for more democracy across the Arab world that had already toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt. His regime was composed almost entirely of ethnic Allawites in a country more than 80% Sunni.
Mourners at the funerals for five shot dead by security forces in Deraa chanted, “God, Syria and freedom only.” Demonstrations had been held in at least five cities, including the capital of Damascus.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march19

Thanks, Republicans …

Rescind EO 14126 “Good Jobs” Executive Order