A series of anti-LGBTQ+ riders attached to several large spending bills in Congress were removed from the bill to fund the Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services, the latest draft of which was published yesterday. Democrats are claiming credit for having successfully worked to remove them.

The riders – which would have banned all federal funding from supporting gender-affirming care at any age, banned colleges and universities from letting trans people participate in sports or other activities, and banned K-12 schools from taking measures to support trans kids like letting them use the restroom of their gender – were attached to the $224 billion Fiscal Year 2026 Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies funding bill late last year.

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Independent journalist Erin Reed reports that the riders (or provisions in a funding bill unrelated to funding agencies) have been removed from the latest draft, which must be passed by January 30 to keep the government fully funded.

“The bills are strikingly clean,” Reed wrote. “Now, the package has been released—and for the moment, transgender people can breathe again.”

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Congressional Democrats are claiming credit for removing those provisions.

“Rep. McBride works closely with her colleagues every day to defend the rights of all her constituents, including LGBTQ people across Delaware,” a spokesperson for out Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) told Reed. “She was proud to work relentlessly with her colleagues in ensuring these funding bills did not include anti-LGBTQ provisions. It takes strong allies in leadership and on committees to rein in the worst excesses of this Republican trifecta, Rep. McBride remains grateful to Ranking Members [Rep. Rosa] DeLauro, [Sen. Patty] Murray, and Democratic leadership for prioritizing the removal of these harmful riders.”

“This latest funding package continues Congress’s forceful rejection of extreme cuts to federal programs proposed by [the president],” said House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) in a statement. “Where the White House attempted to eliminate entire programs, we chose to increase their funding. Where the Administration proposed slashing resources, we chose to sustain funding at current levels.”

According to DeLauro’s summary of the bill, it will also increase funding for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program and more than double funding for HHS’s minority HIV/AIDS Initiative.

Bills to fund the Departments of Homeland Security; Defense; Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development were also released yesterday. The bills altogether represent $1.2 trillion in federal funding.

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During a nearly two-hour stint at the podium in the White House Briefing Room, Donald Trump claimed a bystander who was present during the killing of Renee Nicole Good was a “professional agitator” because her yelling was too good.

Trump opened the briefing by sharing photographs of immigrants in Minnesota who he said had been charged with crimes. He held up their photos on flyers that were headed in bold, “Minnesota Worst of Worst.”

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He then accused anti-ICE protestors of being paid before he brought up Good. He didn’t use her name, instead referring to her as “the woman.”

“When the woman was shot, and I felt terribly about that, and I understand both sides of it, but when she was shot, there was another woman that was screaming, ‘Shame, shame, shame, shame’… So loud, like a professional opera singer, she was so loud. And so professional,” he said.

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“She wasn’t a woman that was hurt like, ‘Oh, my heart’s injured.’ She was a professional. ‘Shame, shame!’ she’s screaming, ‘Shame, shame!’ I said, that’s not a normal person. That’s a professional. These are professional agitators and professional people that want to see our country do badly. But that’s not happening ’cause we have the hottest country anywhere in the world despite this stuff.”

Viral video footage from Good’s death shows ICE officer Jonathan Ross lethally shooting the 37-year-old queer mother of three as she tried to drive her car away from ICE agents telling her to “get out of the f**king car” so they could apprehend her. Ross could then be heard calling her a “f**king b**ch” before fleeing the scene.

But according to Trump, the real villain was the woman shouting “shame,” not the agent who shot Good three times in the face.

Trump often claims that liberal protestors are “professional agitators” to discredit them, not as a statement of fact. Last week, he accused Good, herself, of being one. He referred to her wife, Becca Good, as her “friend” and said that they were both “highly disrespectful of law enforcement.”

“They were harassing, they were following for days and for hours, and I think frankly, they were professional agitators. And I’d like to find out- We are going to find out who’s paying for it, with their brand-new signs and all their [inaudible],” Trump said. There is no reason to believe that the Goods were paid for anything related to what happened.

Trump also posted on Truth Social after the killing and called Good “very disorderly,” saying that she “viciously ran over the ICE Officer,” which contradicts multiple videos shot of the interaction.

After his comment on Good’s death at the press briefing, Trump went back to sharing photos of alleged immigrant criminals, claiming his administration is expelling thousands of dangerous people from Minneapolis. In reality, ICE agents have been violently snatching Hispanic people at will, regardless of citizenship status, criminal history, or anything else.

Last week, for example, ICE agents rammed the vehicle of Christina Rank, a teacher for special needs students at Concord Education Center Middle School, then broke her window to pull her out of the vehicle, and took her into custody (leaving her car unattended), according to Bring Me The News. Rank’s mother said she wasn’t allowed to speak with her daughter, nor was she told why she was apprehended — ICE released her twelve hours after her arrest.

Out Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) has compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Nazis. She is part of a small group of Congress members who plan to introduce an impeachment resolution against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, who has called Good a “domestic terrorist.”

While DHS claims that ICE agents use aggressive tactics against people who stalk and obstruct their law enforcement activities, Craig said, “I don’t think any city in America, or any state in America has ever seen this type of lawless behavior by federal law enforcement.”

“Every American should be outraged. Every Minnesotan should be outraged, and at the same time, we should continue to peacefully protest what’s happening,” Craig told Cabrera. “I’ve never seen such an out-of-control agency.”

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Out CNN anchor Anderson Cooper was stunned by a New York Times report that found Donald Trump’s personal wealth has grown by over $1.4 billion since he took office for the second time.

The estimate by the Times editorial board included earnings from cryptocurrency investments, licensing of Trump’s name, Amazon’s documentary on the first lady, and overseas real estate ventures.

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“It is staggering,” Cooper said while speaking to Times investigative reporter Russ Buettner.

“It’s absolutely shocking,” Buettner agreed.

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“This amount is really greater than the sum total of everything he made from his inheritance, from being on The Apprentice, and from all the licensing deals while he was on The Apprentice.”

“And this is just the first year,” Cooper pointed out. “They’re open for business.”

Cryptocurrency investments, Buettner said, have been the Trump family’s biggest earners, estimating the Trumps have raked in about $800 million from those investments this year alone.

Buettner also pointed out the many conflicts of interest related to these earnings. “The cryptocurrency money comes to them anonymously… most of it comes from overseas entities.” He pointed out that a big deal with the United Arab Emirates utilized a Trump cryptocurrency to pay for a $2 billion investment.

“It was brand new and struggling and unproven, and they did that, that will put about 80 to 100 million dollars a year in the pockets of the Trumps.”

He said that after that, within a few weeks, Trump overturned a policy that “had long rejected the UAE’s pleas to get AI computer chips from us because they were thought to be too close to China.”

“He just did away with that,” Buettner said, “and then pardoned the fellow who was on the other end of the deal.”

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Every time an extremist politician attacks a transgender kid to score political points, they are counting on silence. They expect no one to fight back. They assume cruelty will go unanswered.

They’re wrong.

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Transgender Americans make up roughly one percent of the U.S. population, yet in a moment defined by economic anxiety and political dysfunction, the trans community, especially kids, has been turned into a punching bag by extremist politicians. In 2025 alone, more than 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures. These are coordinated attempts to legislate fear, erase dignity, and villainize trans people out of public life.

Elected officials who claim to believe in the sanctity of human life – in freedom, in liberty, and in justice for all – continue to deny transgender Americans basic freedoms and rights. And the consequences are deadly. Between November 2023 and November 2024, at least 36 transgender and gender-expansive people were killed. Half of them were Black trans women. Further, transgender youth report significantly increased rates of depression and suicidality compared to their cisgender peers. These attacks are not abstract cultural debates; they are creating a measurable crisis in people’s lives. 

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That crisis is why we decided to fight back.

I am part of a team of political strategists who launched Fight for Our Rights PAC to defeat anti-LGBTQ+ bullies where it hurts them most: at the ballot box. This organization seeks to defeat candidates who proudly run on transphobic hate – those who sponsor bans on gender-affirming care, who push so-called “parents’ rights” bills designed to isolate trans kids, and who use their platforms to demean and dehumanize people simply trying to live. 

This is a moral fight, and it goes beyond transphobia. We know that those who seek to remove what little protections the transgender community has secured will not stop there. These same factions are already setting their sights on marriage equality and beyond, but our strategy is working.

In 2025, Republicans spent millions of dollars on anti-trans ads. The Republican gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, Winsome Earle-Sears, spent a whopping 57% of her entire media budget on them.

The attack lines were familiar: fearmongering about bathrooms, sports, and kids who just want to exist. And voters rejected it. Every one of the six bullies on the ballots we targeted in Virginia and New Jersey – including Mark Earley Jr., uno, Nancy Muñoz, and Michele Matsikoudis – lost and were replaced by equality supporters. Voters in those states sent a clear message: They want leaders who protect kids, not politicians who pick on them.

From the beginning, we deliberately chose not to center our campaigns on trans people as a political debate. Extremist politicians want that fight. They flood the airwaves with fear because they believe it will distract voters from their own records. We refused to help them do that.

Instead, we focused on accountability. Voters consistently prioritized affordability, health care, and economic security over culture-war attacks, even in races saturated with anti-trans messaging. Many of the lawmakers attacking trans kids had long voting records that were deeply out of step with their districts. By focusing on those records, we kept the conversation on leadership, competence, and the issues voters face every day.

We showed voters the full record. In Virginia, that meant exposing lawmakers who sided with Big Pharma to keep prescription drug prices high, voted against paid family and medical leave, and pushed extreme abortion bans with no exceptions. In New Jersey, it meant holding candidates accountable for aligning with far-right agendas while ignoring local priorities. Once voters saw that pattern, the culture-war rhetoric lost its power.

These victories were not accidents, but rather the results of disciplined strategy: anticipating attacks, testing messaging, responding clearly and immediately, and then turning the conversation back to what voters actually care about – safety, the economy, stability, and freedom. 

While too many candidates still freeze or fumble when asked about trans people, our allies showed what courage looks like: refusing to take the bait, refusing to backpedal, and refusing to let extremists define the narrative. That is how you beat bullies.

And to the young trans people reading this: You are not alone.

There are adults across this country waking up every morning determined to make life safer for you. We are fighting for your dignity, your joy, your future. This fight is unfortunately far from over, but we will not stop.

Chris Cormier Maggiano, President and Founder of Cormier & Company, advises funders, issue advocates, and movement leaders to achieve their policy, political, and philanthropic goals. As a donor advisor and political strategist, Chris specializes in the intersection of progressive public policy, national campaigns, and funder engagement. Chris serves on the board of the Movement Advancement Project and lives in New York City with his husband, daughter, and squirrel-obsessed Pointer Hound, Easton. Chris holds a bachelor’s in architecture from Carnegie Mellon University and is an avid New England sports fan.

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Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mocked current Treasury Secretary and former hedge fund manager Scott Bessent for his casual suggestion that retirees own dozens of houses.

Bessent, whose estimated net worth is in the hundreds of millions, was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, talking with Fox host Maria Bartiromo about how the administration will protect “mom and pop” landlords from large investment groups.

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“Someone, maybe your parents for their retirement have bought 5, 10, 12 homes,” Bessent said, describing those “mom and pop” landlords.

Good news for the forgotten man. The mom and pop real estate investor who has purchased 12 homes can breathe easy, the Treasury Secretary is looking out for you. https://t.co/3y0O5oLpMA

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) January 20, 2026

Buttigieg brought up how Republicans in the Senate aren’t passing legislation to extend tax credits for certain health care plans into the new year, which means that many people will see their premiums increase dramatically. He suggested that the president could push Senate Republicans to vote for such legislation, but has not yet done so.

“Again, the president could dramatically lower health insurance premiums TODAY with one phone call to Senate leadership, but he refuses. Meanwhile, at Davos….” Buttigieg wrote on social media, sharing the video of Bessent.

Again, the president could dramatically lower health insurance premiums TODAY with one phone call to Senate leadership, but he refuses. Meanwhile, at Davos….

— Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) 2026-01-20T19:52:54.542Z

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, around 65% of Americans own at least one home. According to the National Association of Home Builders, an estimated 4.6% of homes in the U.S. are second homes.

A Somali American woman who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 because she thought he would only attack LGBTQ+ people – and not people like her – now regrets voting for the GOP for the first time in her life.

“I feel as though the weapon I built is coming to kill me and my people,” clothing store owner Sahra Sharif told the Minnesota Reformer, explaining that she voted for Trump because he was “against the LGBTQ agenda.”

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The mall her business is in gets few customers, and she only opens her store for several hours a day, hoping to earn enough to pay the rent, as Minneapolis is overrun with ICE agents who have taken to detaining any person of color they find in public alone.

“In my family, people rarely go outside unless it’s absolutely necessary; and if anyone does, it is considered a reckless thing to do,” she said. Several of her family members have been arrested in the ICE raids, including her son, who was deported to Somalia. Sharif herself is a U.S. citizen.

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“Would you believe if I told you I voted for this man?” Sharif said. She then recounted how that happened. She didn’t vote in the past, but in 2024, she was visited by some volunteers for the Trump-Vance campaign who told her that “Trump would be good for business and against the LGBTQ agenda.”

“I was immediately hooked,” Sharif said, and she voted for Trump.

But now she has regrets.

“I never thought the man I put in office would come for my family, make me financially struggle, and cause me so much fear that I carry my passport when I go to the bathroom,” she said.

While Trump has expressed contempt for numerous immigrant groups, perhaps none has been the target of his disdain more than Somali Americans recently. This past December, he ranted at a Cabinet meeting about Somali Americans – and Somali American Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in particular – calling them “garbage.”

“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said. “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

“These are people who do nothing but complain,” he complained. “They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing… When they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but b**ch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

In a White House press briefing yesterday, Trump talked at length about how Somali people are bad.

“They all ought to get the hell out of here, they’re bad for our country,” he said.

He said that ICE has “bad public relations people” because they aren’t doing enough to make Americans dislike Somali people. He held up binders labeled “ACCOMPLISHMENTS,” and many of them that he read were just attacks on the Somali American population. He repeated exaggerated claims about Somali people committing fraud and even repeated racist tropes about Somali people having innately low IQs.

“Nineteen billion dollars at a minimum is missing in Minnesota, given to a large degree by Somalians. They’ve taken it,” he said. ”Somalians, can you imagine? And they don’t do it — a lot of very low IQ people. They don’t do it. Other people work it out and they get them money and they go out and buy Mercedes Benzes.” 

Also on Tuesday, Trump shared a video on social media of a podcaster who claimed that Somali people “have an average IQ of 68,” a claim that Muslim American organizations have condemned as racist.

One 2024 Bayan Research Center survey of Somali Americans nationwide found that 23% planned to vote for Trump, while 55% planned to vote for Kamala Harris.

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Following a trip to Denmark, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) highlighted the dangerous effects of President Donald Trump’s threats to invade Greenland.

As the Washington Blade reports, over the weekend, McBride — the first out transgender person to serve in Congress — was one of 11 members of Congress who traveled to Copenhagen, where, as she told MeidasTouch this week, she met with the leaders of Greenland and other European countries.

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In a statement, McBride noted that the purpose of the bipartisan delegation — which included Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE.), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), as well as Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Don Bacon (R-NE), and Sarah Jacobs (D-CA) — was meant “to reaffirm our support in Congress for our NATO ally, Denmark,” according to the Blade.

“At this critical juncture for our countries, our message was clear as members of Congress: we value the U.S.-Denmark partnership, the NATO alliance, and the right of Greenlanders to self-determination,” McBride wrote in a Sunday Facebook post.

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The trip came as Trump ramped up his calls for the U.S. to take control of Greenland. In recent weeks, the president has signaled his willingness to use military force to annex the Danish territory.

Over the weekend, PBS News reported on a leaked text exchange with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in which Trump said he “no longer feel[s] an obligation to think purely of Peace” since he was not awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, while reiterating his claims that Denmark cannot protect Greenland from Russia and China. (Støre confirmed the message on Monday.)

As The New York Times notes, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also suggested during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press that the U.S. could take Greenland by force.

However, according to the Times, Pentagon officials said Tuesday that they have not been instructed to plan an invasion. And while he continued to demand control of Greenland during his Wednesday speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said the U.S. would not take the territory by force, the Times reports.

But in her interview with MeidasTouch, McBride highlighted the effects Trump’s bluster has already had, nonetheless.

“What people here at home have to understand is, it’s easy to turn on the news and look at all of this and just dismiss it as political games and traditional Trump saber rattling,” she told the outlet. “[But] this is existential for the people of Greenland, for the people of Denmark. The fear is palpable. Kids are not sleeping in Greenland because of their fear that the United States will invade. This mere discussion is having an effect.”

McBride: This is existential for the people of Greenland and Denmark. Kids are not sleeping in Greenland because of their fear that the U.S. will invade. pic.twitter.com/2UTd6O27Pz

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 21, 2026

Indeed, amid Trump’s threats, Denmark and eight other U.S. NATO allies — including Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, and the U.K. — deployed troops to Greenland over the weekend. Trump retaliated by threatening to impose steep tariffs on the countries, leading global markets to plummet on Tuesday.

McBride added that Trump’s manufactured crisis is also tarnishing the U.S.’s reputation.

“Denmark historically has had some of the most pro-American sentiment among the public there. That has dropped from above 80 percent to single digits because of this administration’s reckless, cruel, and frankly stupid — as our Republican colleagues have said — stupid approach to trying to seize Greenland,” she said, likely referring to Tillis’s recent speech from the Senate floor.   

McBride: Denmark historically has had some of the most pro-American public sentiment. That has dropped from above 80% to single digits because of this administration’s reckless, cruel, and frankly—

Jacobs: Stupid.

McBride: Stupid approach. pic.twitter.com/DzvEaCE4a1

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 21, 2026

“There is nothing that we could seek economically or militarily that Greenland and Denmark are not willing to provide us if we simply ask,” McBride said. “There is no reason for us to seize Greenland and doing so would fundamentally undermine our NATO alliance, which has been the greatest force for peace and security for 80 years.”

McBride also refuted Trump’s recent claim on Truth Social that NATO would not come to the United States’ aid if we were attacked.

“That is not only untrue, it is historically inaccurate,” she told MeidasTouch. “The only time that Article 5, our collective defense, has been invoked by NATO is after 9/11 in defense of the United States. And do you know which country in Europe lost more people per capita than the United States in Afghanistan in defense of under NATO – was Denmark.”

McBride: The president said that NATO would not be there for us if we were attacked. The only time Article 5 has been invoked was after 9/11, in defense of the U.S. Do you know which country in Europe lost more people per capita than the U.S.? Denmark. pic.twitter.com/KORfGWZQXM

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 21, 2026

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A 28-year-old Indianapolis woman will plead guilty after threatening to kill anti-trans Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).

Shayla Addison has been charged with two counts of Influencing a Federal Official by Threat after sending multiple texts to Mace’s campaign number that included threats like, “Come outside b**ch we’ll kill you” and “Tread lightly,” according to a press release from the Southern District of Indiana U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

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“By sending the messages, Addison intended to retaliate against Victim 1 on account of Victim 1’s performance of official duties,” the release explains.

Addison also emailed Mace, saying, “We will kill you and blow that whole building up b**ch come outside,” and wrote threatening comments on her Instagram such as, “I hope you got mace… cause you gone need it” and “Shut up h** I’ll kill you.” Addison made all of the threats on the same day, according to the release.

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The release did not name the lawmaker, but the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported that text message screenshots shared by a Mace spokesperson matched the quotes from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Court records examined by the Gazette found that Addison has agreed to plead guilty. She faces up to 10 years in federal prison, though officials have reportedly agreed to recommend a sentence on the “low end” of that.

Mace recently lamented having to adjust her life due to the many threats she gets. “I’m not able to move around freely anymore, and it’s troubling, but that’s the world that we live in,” she said, adding, “We all have the right to have our viewpoints, but we don’t have the right to bring harm to somebody.”

“I have had to change everything about the way that I live,” Mace continued. “I basically live in hiding… I can’t run errands. Life is just different, and it’s difficult.”

She then declared, “No one should live in fear because of their political or religious beliefs.”

Mace, however, has made it clear she does not believe transgender people have the same right to live without fear or threat. The self-described “proud transphobe” has built her political brand around vicious anti-trans rhetoric, including publicly bullying her trans colleague, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE).

She also lobbed transphobic slurs at a student, shouted these slurs during a speech and a House committee meeting, publicly bullied a trans influencer, was booed when discussing a trans activist’s genitals at a public talk, targeted two universities in her state for offering more than two gender options on certain student forms, referred to McBride as “it” and “a man” in a TV news appearance, and called trans people “mentally ill” (even though trans identity isn’t considered a mental illness by any major medical or psychological association).

Mace has called trans people “the most egregious, most vile, violent people on earth,” adding, “They are mentally ill and should be in a straitjacket with a hard-steel lock on it.”

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Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in Western China and the country’s fourth largest city, has for years been referred to as “Gaydu” by Chinese millennials wise to the cosmopolitan city’s reputation as China’s “gay capital”.

Recent detentions are evidence that the government’s tolerance for Chengdu’s notoriety as a gay hub is fraying.

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Two Chinese men who allegedly produced and shared an AI-manipulated photo of two “gay pandas” from Chengdu — known as China’s “panda capital”, as well — have been detained, the Washington Post reports.

Chinese officials call the arrests part of a crackdown on attempts to “maliciously associate” gayness with certain Chinese cities.

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The detainees, 29 and 33 years old, are accused of posting the satirical photo as a news report on social media, using an official government report as the source. It showed one male panda mounting another, with a caption that read, “Chengdu: Two male Sichuan giant pandas successfully mate for the first time without intervention.”

Local police said in a statement that the two suspects were detained and their social media accounts suspended. They accused the men of “spreading… fake news” that “triggered a flood of misinterpretations, disrupted the order of cyberspace, and caused adverse social impact.”

The arrests follow at least two other similar detentions addressing activity that allegedly tarnishes municipalities with a gay reputation.

A 25-year-old man from Sichuan was detained last week for posting multiple videos that “insinuated” men in Chengdu lack masculinity and “stigmatized the male population in Chengdu,” according to a statement from the Chengdu Public Security Bureau issued January 17.

A 23-year-old man from the Eastern province of Shandong, known on social media for his street interviews queerbaiting male pedestrians and subway passengers for clicks, was also apprehended, according to state media reports.

“Homosexuality is not universally accepted in China, but we cannot say being gay or claiming to be gay is wrong,” said Wang Xuetang, a lawyer with J. Tongue Law Office in Shenzhen, just outside Hong Kong.

China officially dropped homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 2001.

Authorities appear to be trying to erase Chengdu’s unofficial queer capital status by other means, he said.

The Chengdu cases were defined as “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a vaguely defined criminal offense that has often been used to control speech and deter dissent, Wang explained.

“This case has been described as a stigmatization of Chengdu, because many netizens joked that homosexuality is so widespread in the city that even pandas there turned gay.”

The real danger, he said, “is in the police drawing conclusions from online reactions — not strictly from the content of the posts — as evidence for offenses.”  

China has exerted slow and steady pressure on the LGBTQ+ community in the last several years, while stopping short of the draconian measures of other authoritarian regimes, like Russia. The moves coincide with Xi Jinping’s ascension to power in 2015.

Last year, the country’s main internet regulator and censorship authority ordered Apple to remove two popular gay dating apps from its App Store in China, including Blued, with an estimated 56 million users. In September, government censors used AI to turn a gay couple straight in the Dave Franco thriller Together.

Two years ago, authorities launched a campaign aimed at erasing the popular “danmei”, or Boys’ Love, erotic fiction genre, with the detention of hundreds of writers, most of them young women. They’ve been accused of “producing and distributing obscene material” under China’s pornography law, which targets “explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sexual perversions.”

In 2023, Chinese authorities shut down one of the last, most visible signs of LGBTQ+ activism in China: the LGBT Center in Beijing.

“There used to be a vibrant gay scene in Chengdu, and LGBTQ people there were highly visible and welcomed,” said Kenneth Cheung, a Hong Kong-based activist and founder of LGBTQ+ rights group Rainbow China, which has been banned from organizing in the country.

“Now,” he said, “that culture increasingly faces challenges.”

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Ellen DeGeneres is suffering the MAGA-fueled consequences of publicly condemning the death of Renee Good, the unarmed protester shot at point-blank range by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis two weeks ago.

DeGeneres, 67, took to Instagram on Sunday in support of Becca Good, Renee Good’s wife, reposting her statement following her wife’s killing.

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“Renee was made of sunshine,” Good said, before adding, “We had whistles. They had guns.”

“I’m so sad, and so angry, and so worried,” DeGeneres posted along with Good’s words.

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The responses were cruel out of the gate.

“Obey the law. It’s just that simple. .”

“Whistles? Try a deadly weapon behind the wheel. RiP charlie Kirk.”

“Spare with the wrongness and sadness of what happened to this woman when SHE could’ve avoided it!”

The MAGA mind hive’s message for DeGeneres?

“Take a seat Ellen.”

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A post shared by Ellen DeGeneres (@ellendegeneres)

From the moment the shooting occurred, the Trump administration excoriated Good as a “deranged lunatic” bent on a “radical left” agenda to impede ICE in their immigration roundup. “She brought it on herself” was the drumbeat from the White House about Good’s death, ignoring the fact that protesting is not a capital offense.

Trump’s mildly softened tone on the killing after learning that Good’s father is a MAGA supporter only heightened a sense of helplessness in Minneapolis over a capricious authoritarian’s grip on the city.

The avalanche of hate in Ellen’s replies seems to mostly be coming from women, if their handles are any indication. That fact is at odds with polling in the aftermath of the shooting, which shows 61% of women believe the shooting was unjustified, compared with 30% who thought it was.

A majority of all respondents, 53%, say the shooting was unjustified, while a remarkable 82% of respondents said they’d watched a video of the killing.

The poll on January 13 was taken before analysis of video recorded by Ross revealed him saying “f**king bitch” after shooting Good in the head.

DeGeneres uploaded a second post to Instagram that day, an obviously sincere and emotional video expressing her concern for the citizens of Minneapolis, even as she made it — in part — about herself.

“I am so sorry for what is happening in Minneapolis and our country, really, but specifically Minneapolis right now because it’s where I shot my last standup special and everybody there couldn’t have been more lovely,” she said. “I shot it there because they say it’s the happiest city in America. And I found that to be true.”

Added the comedian, “So my thoughts and my prayers are going out to everyone, and I’m proud of everyone who’s protesting peacefully, and I am sorry for anyone who has been hurt, just for protesting, for doing what you should be doing.”

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A post shared by Ellen DeGeneres (@ellendegeneres)

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