“There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re just built different. Like a Ferrari,” said my cardiologist during my latest visit. 

I laughed. 

He went on to explain my test results and elaborate on his analogy. But first he asked me a question I thought was completely unrelated. 

“Are you an anxious person? 

“No doubt about it,” I answered. 

At times, in my average day-to-day life I felt like I had just run a marathon and my heart was racing. When I started taking my health more seriously and got on a consistent schedule with yoga, I noticed that my heart always felt like it was jumping out of my chest. No matter what emotions I was feeling or what external or environmental factors were involved, I always felt like I was riding on an adrenaline rush. It was hard to focus on the meditative type of yoga because I always felt my heart pounding in my ears and chest. 

The first stop in my journey for answers was my primary care physician who said my strong heart palpitations might just be anxiety, referring to the type of anxiety that starts with thoughts that often spiral out of control, triggering a body response such as elevated heart rate, sweating and a number of other responses. 

I shrugged off her response about anxiety because I thought for sure that wasn’t it–I felt in control of my thoughts. 

She referred me to cardiology just to make sure there were no abnormalities a simple electro-cardiogram couldn’t catch. After multiple cardiologist visits, I was given a heart monitor that tracked my heart rate for a specific amount of time. The cardiologist read the results of the heart monitor and said there wasn’t really anything to worry about. Something the heart monitor caught during the five-day period that I wore it, was a consistently elevated heart rate. 

The cardiologist elaborated on his car-heart analogy.

“You’re a Ferrari and I’m a Honda Civic,” he said. “We both start here (motioning at a start line for a race) and when we accelerate, I stay here and you’re way over there.” 

Hearing him compare me to a Ferrari, while he compared himself to a Honda Civic, was the peak of my visit. 

He said that my accelerated heart rate was probably causing me to feel anxious because from the moment I awaken–I’m racing. An overproduction of adrenaline starts to build up and the reaction is then felt throughout my entire body. 

Things started to make more sense.

The hyperactivity I struggled with as a child and was diagnosed and treated as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder–was that actually a misdiagnosis because in reality I just have an elevated heart rate, causing an overproduction of adrenaline? 

This ‘diagnosis’ suddenly made me realize why most of my young adult years felt like a constant disaster. I have a lethal combination of a wonderfully hyperactive mind and an overproduction of adrenaline building up in my body. No wonder I always felt tired.

After reading the results of my exam, the cardiologist prescribed blood pressure medication–something that made me feel like I had suddenly aged 50 years. 

The way he explained the medication and the way that I made sense of it, was that he was laying out speed bumps so this Ferrari can go the speed limit. 

“It’s going to make you feel better,” he said. 

In my head, I thought “Did this man just prescribe me with literal chill pills?” 

Yes, he did. 

At that moment, I heard my mom’s voice in my head always saying: “Ay tú, siempre bien acelerada.” Which roughly translates to: ‘you’re always racing for everything.’ 

If a lack of patience is hereditary or a learned behavior, I definitely got it from my mom. My biggest self-identified character flaws are my lack of patience and need to be in control of things I feel like others just don’t do fast or well enough–enter my job as editor. 

In 2023, I started seeing a psychiatrist regularly. At first, it was to deal with a painful break-up and the self-doubt, depression, suicidal thoughts and financial instability that came with the situation. Then, it turned into a long journey of identifying and facing the childhood trauma I carried on my shoulders. I knew I had to if I wanted to better the relationships in my life. 

This has been quite a journey of undiagnosed anxiety. I know for a fact it’s cost me a good amount of relationships and friendships. 

Though I started off with a low dose for the medication, I immediately felt a difference. 

The world seemed quiet for once. Like the noise I was somehow experiencing, was suddenly turned off. I realized I was no longer hearing my heart rate pounding in my ears. 

At the psychiatrist, I explained to her the new medication I started taking and she said it made sense that I experienced anxiety. According to her, it was the type of anxiety that starts in the body, with that overproduction of adrenaline and it works its way to the top, where it begins to affect my thoughts. 

It’s a bottom-up versus top-down approach to emotion generation. The way that my psychiatrist described it, is that bottom-up emotion generation

At the psychiatrist, I explained to her the new medication I was prescribed and she said it sounded like what I was experiencing, sort of aligned with bottom-up emotion generation versus top-down. 

According to an article on the subject, “bottom-up emotions are immediate, ingrained responses to a stimulus–such as an instant feeling of fear in response to a car pulling out in front of us. Top-down emotions are more conscious responses to the way we think about a situation–such as a feeling of anxiety after deciding that we didn’t study hard enough for a test.

The instant response to stress is based off adrenaline. The overproduction of adrenaline from these responses causes the physiological response of a very accelerated heart rate and thus, the feeling of some sort of urgency–at all times.

I thought about something she had also said to me a few months back when we had some of our first conversations about anxiety and pre-historic human beings. If I had been an early human, she says, I would have had a better chance at survival because of that ability to sense danger. She said I would have better chances than, let’s say a less sophisticated primate who is able to stare at a leaf for an extended period of time and not sense the tiger lunging toward them at full speed, ready for its afternoon snack.

In short, the medication I’m now on, and a vigorous cardio routine will balance me out and release the overproduction of stress and adrenaline my body stores naturally.

There is no one way to treat anxiety and there is certainly no one way to experience emotions, or the psychosomatic responses that happen as a result of stress and anxiety.

This is your reminder to listen to your body.

Feb. 23 marks three years since Russia began its full-scale attack on my home country, Ukraine. I haven’t been in Ukraine for more than 10 years, and I spent almost all those years in LGBTQ activism.

I was barely an adult when my family left my hometown, Donetsk, after the declaration of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic by Russian  puppet separatists in 2014.

So many things have changed since then—my school friend was barely able to escape the Mariupol bombings together with two little children. Small cities in the Donetsk region that were barely known to outsiders and were places of my father’s business trips turned into battlefields frequently mentioned in international news. And all my queer acquaintances except for one left Ukraine.

This revealed how the world has shifted into globalization and how LGBTQ rights are used as bargaining chips in political debates, and now the fate of LGBTQ Ukrainians is partly dependent on the U.S.

Because Russian officials were using LGBTQ people as a symbol of everything “immoral” and “Western,” they used LGBTQ people in their war propaganda both against the U.S. and against Ukraine. For example, the leader of the state-supported Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, stated in 2022 that the war in Ukraine happened because “people in Donetsk do not want Gay Prides” as a justification for the war, and that the gay Prides are the ultimate test that the Americans and the West are using to find out whether Ukrainians are ready to abandon “Russian traditional values.”

But when I asked a transgender person, L., who was living in Donetsk between 2014 and 2022, they explained that they do not face transphobic challenges that many queer people face in Russia, and the younger generation in Donetsk was pretty much LGBTQ friendly. Even Russian puppet forces didn’t care much about LGBTQ people back in those days.

A majority 58% of Ukrainians hold neutral or positive attributes toward their LGBTQ citizens, according to recent polling.

The LGBTQ phobia wasn’t something that the Donetsk people were willing to protect with their lives; it was something that Russians used in their propaganda war to justify the invasion and killing of Ukrainian civilians, including children.

For a long time, Russia labelled LGBTQ organizations as “Western agents” and used anti-American rhetoric in their homophobic propaganda.

But there was actual help that the Ukrainian LGBTQ community received from the U.S., not because of some kind of conspiracy, but because of humanitarian reasons, because Russian state propaganda and the Soviet anti-LGBTQ legacy made it hard for LGBTQ Ukrainians to find financial support for community activism.

On the anniversary of the war, I spoke with Igor, a Ukrainian lawyer born in Donetsk, political analyst, and expert on the American-Ukrainian relationship, currently based in Vienna, about how MAGA and the current American political situation influence LGBTQ people in war-torn Ukraine.

“U.S. support, particularly through USAID and other grant programs, has been essential to sustaining services for LGBTQ individuals in Ukraine” Ihor explained. “Without it, many of these services—like specialized shelters, emergency housing, HIV counseling, and psychological support—would disappear. For instance, shelters in cities like Dnipro and Chernivtsi that offer safe places for LGBTQ people escaping war zones exist largely thanks to international donor funding.

USAID has backed public outreach and education initiatives aimed at fostering open dialogue on LGBTQ issues, which in turn helps combat anti-LGBTQ propaganda. If USAID’s programs were dismantled, we would see an immediate and severe impact: safe spaces could close, mental health support could end, and marginalized groups would be left even more vulnerable. Essentially, the destruction of this aid framework would roll back critical progress and expose the LGBTQ community to greater risks with fewer avenues for help.

To compensate for these losses, pro-LGBTQ NGOs would need to seek alternative funding sources from private donors—such as the Open Society Foundations—or EU-based donors. However, it remains uncertain whether those sources can fully replace the scale and consistency of current USAID-backed programs. Essentially, the destruction of this aid framework would roll back critical progress and expose the LGBTQ community to greater risks with fewer avenues for help.”

At the same time, LGBTQ people in Ukraine are now facing much more grave danger because of current American politics.

President Donald Trump told reporters that it is unlikely that Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, hinting that Ukraine needs to sacrifice the Crimea and Donbas regions—including my hometown, Donetsk. This plan was also promoted by the American delegation at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 14-16.

Meanwhile, situations with LGBTQ rights in Donetsk worsened. For example, my attempt to find open LGBTQ people in Russian-controlled Donetsk for one of my articles ended with a comment from my bisexual non-binary friend Roman, who told me that LGBTQ people in Donetsk are now avoiding getting in contact with outsiders because they are scared of “fake dates,” when thugs or occupational security forces pretend to be LGBTQ-friendly journalists, physiologists, or potential partners to lure a queer person into a trap. LGBTQ people in Donetsk couldn’t speak openly about their sexual orientation and gender identity.

“In occupied areas like Kherson and Crimea, Russian authorities have specifically targeted LGBTQ+ individuals,” explained Ihor, and a Trump deal could make everything even worse, making it permanent. “The MAGA approach to Russia-Ukraine relations under Trump poses significant risks to Ukraine’s LGBTQ community. If MAGA policies lead to territorial concessions or normalization of Russian control over parts of Ukraine, LGBTQ individuals in those areas would face severe repression under Russian law. Russia’s “gay propaganda” laws criminalize public expressions of LGBTQ identity and advocacy. In previously occupied regions like Crimea and Donbas, there have been documented cases of violence, arrests, and forced disappearances targeting LGBTQ individuals under Russian rule”

Indeed, it’s true. For example, the Russian-occupied Chechnya, an official Russian administration government ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, is hunting LGBTQ people as part of a mass-terror campaign.

Chechnya has always been a quite conservative region compared to Western Europe; sexuality and gender identity wasn’t something that was widely discussed in independent Chechnya after the Soviet Union collapsed, before Russia attacked the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1994. It was a private and family matter, but after 400 years of Chechen anti-colonial fighting, Russians decided to break resistance by destroying the whole idea of a private life. Only after Russia got Chechnya under its control, a mass-terror campaign against LGBTQ people began, and sometimes even non-LGBTQ people were framed as “gay,” tortured, and killed.

The Russian administration in Chechnya was actively hunting dissidents and even their relatives, or just accidental young men who could be framed as terrorist supporters, separatists or spies for better “crime detection” statistics or to be sent to the war in Ukraine as a “Russian” cannon fodder.

The same could happen not just with LGBTQ Ukrainians, but with any open-minded and independently thinking Ukrainians in Donbas and Crimea if Ukraine is forced by the United States to sacrifice territories.

It is possible that it’s up to Americans now to stop their government and to help Ukrainian LGBTQ people save themselves from persecution and extermination.

by Eric Restivo (@ericcrestivo)

The Super Bowl LIX halftime show took place on February 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. It featured Pulitzer prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar as the headline performer, with guest appearances from R&B artist SZA, actor Samuel L. Jackson, tennis player Serena Williams, and DJ and record producer Mustard. The reviews were mixed but not for the right or should I say “white” reasons.

Lamar’s performance was dripping in subtle messages and not-so-subtle camera angles and featured an entire company of Black excellence, from his background dancers to highlights like Serena Williams doing a crip walk during “Not Like Us.”

Samuel L. Jackson appeared multiple times as Uncle Sam and it was for good reason, providing proof with his statements in between song sets of the obvious political and cultural divide we are facing. Lamar’s dancers, all Black men and women, featured a fit of red, white, and blue, which created a moving picture of the American flag. The choreography was seamless, subtle, and tight, with Lamar in the middle of his dancers showing even more of the blatant rebuttal of our nation. Surely, this went over many people’s heads, but it was an obvious ‘f*** you’ moment shared on the largest stage of the night earning 133 million viewers worldwide.

Not to mention, President Trump was in attendance. Kendrick topped off his performance with his well-known Drake diss track (hence Serena Williams – Drake’s ex) and even took time to stare into the camera while stating the rapper’s name “Drake” with a bright, bushy-tailed smile.

A moment everyone is still talking about occurred when the majority of the crowd in the Superdome repeated back the lyric “A MINOR” when referencing rapper Drake – a moment that went viral on every social media platform available.

Many Americans–mostly white–had complaints about Lamar’s 13-minute performance, saying it lacked production value, big energy, and not enough diversity within the rap genre.

Choosing to create a negative narrative as opposed to focusing on the fact that this was a first, and hopefully not last, for the Superbowl Halftime show featuring the rap genre.

Some say it was obvious and some say it was the worst thing to ever hit our television screens. Regardless of the mixed reviews, it has been over a week and we are still talking about the performance at the same volume as we were a week ago.

Did I pass the vibe check?

How does one even attempt to give an honest review of a new TV show executive-produced by the late Norman Lear – a pioneer in entertainment – also starring Laverne Cox, a trailblazer for trans representation? Given the current political climate towards the queer community, approaching Clean Slate should be done with kid gloves. Still, the show struggles to find its footing and generally misfires.

The show, now streaming on Prime, was originally pitched to Lear by comedian and co-star of Clean Slate, George Wallace as a Sanford & Sons reboot. Lear told him to go back to the drawing board and come back with something new. Ultimately, Wallace, together with Laverne Cox and Dan Ewen, created a show that is a throwback to the family sitcom era and to Lear’s earlier shows like All in the Family and The Jeffersons.

What’s missing here is a live audience and a stage.

The writing doesn’t seem to get that. One-liners fall flat, and preachy character orations clunk away with their heavy-handedness. Some of the actors are able to make something of a dated and unimaginative script, and some do not. Some of the jokes and situations are very stale, we’ve heard and seen them before. Though new to the scene, this show does not seem fresh, which is odd for a Lear project. We wish Clean Slate was as fast-paced and fun as the show’s trailer.

Always one to push the envelope, Lear’s projects have addressed class, racism, abortion, women’s rights and queer issues, many times way before mainstream audiences were prepared to discuss them. In Clean Slate, trans and gay issues are in the spotlight.

Laverne Cox’s Desiree returns to her small hometown in Alabama and surprises her father, Wallace’s Henry Slate, after being gone for 17 years. Not only does she surprise her father by coming back, but she also surprises him by showing uo as his daughter and not the son he knew.

Having lost her money running an art gallery in New York, she moves back in with her father to figure out her next steps. The show centers on the bond she creates with her father and the friendships she builds in small-town living, including the family that works for Henry’s car wash, her best friend Louis who is dealing with being in the closet, Louis’ mother, and the local church community.

Ultimately, she also connects with the local queer contingent. The usual themes and situations you would expect unfold. Henry must also now get used to using different pronouns with his daughter and having to put money into a pronoun jar each time he makes a mistake. He helps Desiree deal with her relationship to church and spirituality, when the local pastor shuns her new identity and she falls in love with the town’s hot guy.

Even with these storylines, the proceedings seem unimaginative and dated. At times, it seems like the show is an after-school special and not a progressive comedy. Henry and almost all of the small town embrace Desiree’s new identity with vigor and understanding which – although optimistic and hopeful – seems improbable in small town living in the South. The whole affair just comes across as saccharin in its sweetness.

Wallace as Henry Slate is charming and a great choice to help lead this story. He handles many of the cheezy lines with sincerity that makes it almost work. He is a gentle giant as a character, and quickly becomes lovable, even with his many missteps of grappling with the queer community. He loves his child unconditionally and would do anything for her, which is very believable from the get-go. D.K. Uzoukwu as the closeted Louis plays his role with sincerity and is a very welcome fresh face to big-time TV.

He plays the balance of presentational comedy and character honesty very well. Jay Wilkison as Mack – the town’s bad boy turned loving single father – really handles the material deftly and adds some much-needed craft to make the script and situations seem plausible. He’s also not hard on the eyes. Stealing practically every scene she is in is TV veteran Telma Hopkins, most known for her role in Family Matters, as Louis’ mom. She understands the nuance of sitcoms, single-camera closeups, and just the right amount of presentational acting to make it work. She is a delight to watch. We just want to hang out with her and gossip on the porch.  

We know Laverne Cox is a talented actor. She made history as the first trans actor to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy for her role in Orange Is the New Black. Oddly and we feel guilty by even writing it, but she misses the mark the most in Clean Slate.

She doesn’t seem to understand the material and comedic moments are overdone. Her emotional moments just don’t ring true. She seems to be overacting which, along with a weak script, doesn’t anchor the show properly. But, she is a consummate actor. What was it? The direction? The writing? Her performance just doesn’t cut it.

Here’s the thing.

All that being said, the show does have a lot of heart. But it seems lost, trying to find its footing, as to what it wants to be. A sitcom? A dra-medy? It does not succeed in any of those genres, but as a queer person watching the show, it is touching just because of its existence.

A comedy show led by trans and queer storylines is so much needed right now and just knowing this show is part of the Lear legacy, makes it that much more important.

Should we blindly support queer content just because it is out there? No.

Should we support the efforts and mission of a show? Yes.

And we also love the fact that this is a show the whole family can watch and discuss, which holds a lot of weight. There is a lot to explore if the show gets a season 2 and we do hope it is renewed so it has a chance to find its footing with stronger direction and writing.

Clean Slate season 1 is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

REACH LA, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization aimed at working with youth of color, is stepping up their prevention resources during Black History Month to support the LGBTQ+ community of color. 

Though today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, REACH LA works year-round to provide resources to their community members. 

This month, the organization is amplifying its mission to support Black LGBTQ+ youth by offering free HIV testing and care throughout February, offering a $25 gift card as incentive to get tested. This and all of REACH LA’s efforts are geared toward assisting the marginalized Black and Latin American communities by reducing stigma, increasing education and assisting community members with resources. 

The QTBIPOC community is especially vulnerable to political and personal attacks. As we head into the next four years under a hostile administration whose goal is to erase queer and trans people, there will be continued attacks on federal funding and on any other front possible. 

“This year, it is especially vital, more than ever, to amplify and commemorate National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. At REACH LA, we are currently engaging with individuals and partnerships while navigating through dire and uncertain times where HIV/AIDS awareness prevention efforts, access, and visibility have been under attack and restricted,” said Jeremiah Givens, chief marketing and communications officer at REACH LA. 

It is important to spotlight the intersection between health equity, Black LGBTQ+ empowerment and community-based solutions during Black History Month and every other month throughout the year and especially during this particularly vulnerable time. 

As one of eight CDC PACT Program Partners, REACH LA celebrates National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day with a Positive Living Campaign in collaboration with the CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together initiative. The campaign highlights the resilience of individuals living with HIV and works to raise awareness and foster community support.

To learn more about resources, visit their website or stop in for testing, support and other resources. The organization’s doors are open Monday through Friday, from 11 AM to 7 PM for free, on-site HIV testing and assistance with accessing PREP and PEP, linkage to care and free mental health therapy. 

Following Trump’s executive order, healthcare facilities like the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles have paused the initiation of gender-affirming treatments and St. John’s Community Health is unable to access the rest of a $4 million dollar grant to continue providing services for trans and nonbinary people. 

The Children’s Hospital of LA has been known as a refuge from discrimination in a country that has set forth many restrictions for trans healthcare and other barriers for equitable access to life-saving services. 

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez (CD-13) released a statement regarding their move to pause surgeries and hormone replacement therapy. 

“In Los Angeles, we won’t abandon our most vulnerable communities when they need us most. Instead of caving to Trump’s threats, we must come together, mobilize resources, and ensure every child continues to receive the care they need,” said Soto-Martinez. “We urge Children’s Hospital LA to take a stand against these hateful and illegal policies – and work with the city to ensure this critical care can continue.”

St. John’s was the first healthcare provider which reported service impacts as a result of Trump’s executive orders. On Monday, they reported that the CDC terminated a federal grant that started in 2022 through the CDC’s HIV prevention program. The grant allowed St. John’s to operate a program for transgender adults that included life-saving resources like health education, substance abuse treatment, food stamps, HIV testing and connections for social service programs. 

St. John’s released a statement regarding the loss of funding, stating that they believe the revocation of the fund is in direct violation of both the law and the court of order which restored federal funding after the temporary freeze.

Other top leaders in California have also responded, reminding California hospitals and federally-funded healthcare providers that they have an ongoing obligation under California’s anti-discrimination laws to continue providing care. 

California leaders support transgender youth to live as their authentic selves and they have issued reminders and notices of the state’s obligation to continue supporting patients. 

“We will not let the President turn back the clock or deter us from upholding California values. I understand that the President’s executive order on gender affirming care has created some confusion,” said Att. General Bonta in a statement. “Let me be clear: California law has not changed, and hospitals and clinics have a legal obligation to provide equal access to healthcare services.”

Attorney General Bonta joined 14 other Democratic General Attorneys nationwide in defense of trans youth. Late January, Att. General Bonta and 22 other state attorneys general filed suit in federal district court to halt the federal government’s illegal efforts to freeze $3 trillion in vital federal funding. 

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado stepped in to say that she stands with trans, gender diverse and intersex patients who rely on these life-saving resources.

“Everyone deserves the chance to be their most authentic selves free of persecution. Gender-affirming care is health care. To those who have had their healthcare disrupted: I stand with you. I see you. I will fight for you,” said Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, CD-14. 

If Trump were to cut federal funding to all organizations and agencies that provide gender-affirming care and promote ‘gender ideology’ as his executive order puts it, then over 220,000 trans, gender nonconforming and intersex adults in California alone are at risk of losing access to gender-affirming care and having to engage in legal battles to obtain life-saving treatments.

On Monday, Feb. 10 from 7pm to 9pm, friends and colleagues of Troy Masters will gather at The Abbey in West Hollywood to celebrate his life and legacy as founder of the Los Angeles Blade. 

Masters was a resident of WeHo and he was a deeply respected and well-known person for his work in the LGBTQ+ community and coverage of queer issues in Los Angeles and New York City. In the years he was a journalist, he built a network of people that truly stood behind the work he felt passionately about. 

The celebration will feature guest speakers who worked closely with Masters s Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath, senior contributing writer for the LA Blade Karen Ocamb, CEO of the Trans Latin@ Coalition Bamby Salcedo and co-owner of the Washington Blade Kevin Naff. 

Master’s work and legacy go as far back as the late 1980s where he got his first taste of activism working as an ad representative for the gay and lesbian activism publication, Outweek. 

According to the obituary written by his close colleague Ocamb, the publication only lasted 18 months before founder, record producer and ACT UP supporter Bill Chafin passed away due to AIDS. The magazine was the first glossy gay and lesbian magazine published in New York City featuring news, culture, and events during a time where the AIDS Second Wave was peaking and Masters felt like he had to step in to speak up for the issues that were not only affecting his community, but also contributing to a higher death toll during the epidemic. 

He successfully launched the bi-weekly newspaper Lesbian and Gay New York, which ran from 1994 to 2002 and then re-launched it as Gay City News. After many other career moves and a move across the country to Los Angeles in 2015, he found himself at a work place that included voices who were openly supportive of Trump and his policies. 

This gave him the kick he needed and he gathered the tools to establish what is now the Los Angeles Blade, SoCal’s LGBTQ+ News Source. In short, Masters was a caring advocate for his communities and his tireless work brought together many LGBTQ+ community members. 

Now is the time to celebrate not only his life-worth of accomplishments, but to honor and more importantly, carry on his legacy. 

The Abbey will be providing small bites and the Trans Corus of L.A will honor Masters with a performance.

Please join us on Monday, Feb. 10 from 7pm to 9pm to honor Troy Masters. RSVP at the Eventbrite link here.

MEXICO CITY — Then-President Donald Trump on July 16, 2018, defended Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference that took place in Helsinki after they met. I watched it happen on live television while I was on assignment in Mexico City. This disgusting spectacle prompted me to write an op-ed about how the U.S. no longer stood for human rights around the world.

I am once again on assignment in Mexico City, 15 days after Trump returned to the White House. He is doing everything possible to ensure the U.S. will no longer stand for human rights — around the world and in our own country — and basic decency.

Trump’s executive orders have, among other things, threatened the lives of an untold number of LGBTQ+ people around the world who depend upon U.S. foreign aid to survive. These directives have systematically erased transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans. Trump has also antagonized Mexico, Canada, and other U.S. allies with his ridiculous tariff threats.

One may have naively thought that Trump would have shown an ounce of decency with his response to last week’s tragic midair collision near Reagan National Airport. Trump instead suggested, without evidence, that previous administrations’ diversity, equity, and inclusion policies could have caused it.

I thankfully did not watch Trump the comments and defense of them. I did, however, have a very undiplomatic response when I read them while I was at a coffee shop near my hotel in Tijuana.

“Shut the fuck up,” I said out loud.

I wrote after Trump defended Putin in Helsinki that American exceptionalism, however flawed, “teaches us the U.S. is the land of opportunity where people can build a better life for themselves and for their families.”

“Trump has turned his back on these ideals,” I concluded. “He has also proven himself to be a danger, not only to his country but to the world as a whole.”

History is sadly repeating itself.

The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Scott Bessent, President Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, in a rare bipartisan vote of 68-29.

Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager, becomes the first openly gay, Senate-confirmed Republican Cabinet member. He’s also the highest-ranking out gay government official ever, as Treasury Secretary is fifth in the line of presidential succession. 

It’s hard to make sense of the disconnect here: On one hand Trump makes history with a senior gay appointment; on the other, he launches cruel attacks on the transgender community on day one. 

The Republican-led House last week passed a bill that would prohibit schools that receive federal education funding from allowing trans students to play girls’ and womens’ sports. Trump, meanwhile, has already banned Pride flags at U.S. embassies and eliminated the X gender marker on passports and other government documents. Trump’s executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” would prohibit the federal government from recognizing people and populations whose birth sex does not match their gender identity. Additionally, the order directs the attorney general to allow “people to refuse to use a transgender or nonbinary person’s correct pronouns, and to claim a right to use single-sex bathrooms and other spaces based on sex assigned at birth at any workplace covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and federally funded spaces.”

Then on Monday, he issued an executive order banning transgender service members, a move that would impact more than 15,000 brave trans people serving in the military.

So far, Bessent is silent on those attacks. Trump likes his queer people gay, white, cis, rich, and obedient. Bessent has defended Trump’s self-serving tax cut plan for the wealthiest Americans as well as his misguided and destructive tariff obsession. 

Kelley J. Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, released a statement about Bessent’s nomination.

“We need pro-equality LGBTQ+ nominees and LGBTQ+ people at all levels of government. The LGBTQ+ community is counting on openly LGBTQ+ nominees like Scott Bessent to step up for the community,” Robinson wrote. “HRC has a long history of working across the aisle to advance equality and this appointment may be an opportunity to continue.”

We have entered a dangerous time that will require many of us to make decisions about how to respond to these attacks, not just on trans people, but immigrants who are already being arrested and deported in cities across the country. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is making plans for how the city will operate in the event he is arrested and jailed for refusing to cooperate with these immigrant raids. That’s what courage looks like. 

Will Bessent find his backbone and work to convince his boss that the anti-trans hysteria must end? Does he have a trans person in his life who might inform his views? Trans people are human beings, fellow Americans, and family and friends and they deserve respect from their government. They deserve an advocate in the White House who sees their humanity and can articulate it while standing up to the powerful bigots in Trump’s orbit. I hope HRC’s Robinson is right and Bessent will find the courage to stand up for the full spectrum of the LGBTQ community but we haven’t seen any evidence of that yet. 

It’s not just senior gay officials who need to stand up; many of us will likely face a decision to resist or comply with the unconstitutional actions of this administration. Too many former progressive allies have already folded like cheap tents — including MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. We must look to the example of Mayor Scott and others who are refusing to capitulate to this madness. I hope Scott Bessent finds his voice and advocates for a more compassionate approach to trans humanity. 

Kevin Naff is editor of the Washington Blade. Reach him at [email protected].

What do Snoop Dogg and Caitlyn Jenner have in common? No, this isn’t the setup for a bad joke — it’s a tragic reality. They’ve become poster children for the misguided belief that cozying up to power structures that openly despise them will somehow buy them a permanent seat at the table — or at least a pat on the head from the same people pulling the strings. Spoiler alert: it won’t.

Take Caitlyn Jenner, for example. She’s been an active Trump supporter and continues to actively work to push legislation that threatens her very existence. While she’s off applauding his presidential win, the ink is barely dry on his executive orders mandating she be referred to by her dead name.

Rather than taking a stand against these policies, she’s leaned into her wealth and privilege, banking on it to shield her from the harm those same policies inflict on the trans community. Why? Because she’s rich and insulated from the struggles and discrimination most trans people face. She can retreat to her Malibu mansion and comfortably tune out everyone else’s reality.  Because as long as Trump is coming up with ways to keep her rich — that’s all that really matters.  

Newsflash: privilege isn’t bulletproof and proximity to power doesn’t erase the hate aimed in her direction.

Then there’s Snoop Dogg and his ilk, rappers who once stood as cultural titans now bending over backward to cozy up to the Trump tax bracket.  After years of using the community to build their stacks, they are perfectly content to throw the same people who put them in their comfy tax bracket under the bus for a front-row seat at a table that was never built for them. They’ve swapped authenticity and influence for the illusion of inclusion, all while pretending the check is worth it.  It’s not–they know it, we know it.  It’s the reason at the domino table we say, “All ain’t good money.”

What they don’t seem to realize — or flat-out refuse to — is that their proximity to whiteness (in the case of Snoop and company) or wealth and privilege (in Caitlyn’s case) doesn’t shield them from the systems they claim to have transcended. Those systems will gladly facilitate (and celebrate) their selling out while continuing to dehumanize and disenfranchise the very communities they come from and should be fighting for. It’s not respect they’re earning — it’s betrayal.  

It’s not just disappointing — it’s dangerous when public figures like Snoop Dogg or Caitlyn Jenner trade their influence for proximity to power, they’re not just letting down their communities — they are actively legitimizing the systems that harm them. They are showing the next generation that progress is negotiable, everyone can be bought, and that fighting for equity can take a back seat to personal gain. 

There’s a gut-punch of disappointment we feel after building up people like Snoop, only to watch them back systems that harm their own. And the pity for someone like Caitlyn, who thinks her money outweighs her self-respect. We need to hold folks accountable — mark this date on your calendar. So when these celebs inevitably flip-flop and come crawling back for the community’s support — be it a new album, reality television series, film — whatever — we remember, decline the call, and leave them on read.

Selling out isn’t just a choice for them — it’s become their brand.

Singing the hook to Chris Brown’s Loyal, “Aww, these h*es ain’t loyal.”

A member of hip-hop generation, Jasmyne Cannick is based in Los Angeles and is an award-winning journalist and political commentator who speaks and writes to challenge, critique, and hold the culture accountable.