Joe.My.God. LGBT News

NBC News reports: Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., defended tech billionaire Elon Musk at a town hall Monday night at which he was grilled about DOGe’ss cost-cutting measures and the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity initiatives and its approach to the Israel-Hamas war. After a man in the audience shouted that Donalds ought to read a particular book, Donalds fired …

Wired reports: Starting today, Bluesky is rolling out a new verification system, complete with the familiar blue check marks popularized by Twitter. The social platform, which has experienced rapid growth since it opened to the public in early 2024, formerly relied on an unconventional self-verification system where users could “authenticate” themselves by including custom domains in their web handles. Now …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis’ funeral has been set for Saturday at 10 a.m. local time in St. Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals. Cardinals met at the Vatican to schedule Pope Francis’ funeral and burial, planning the conclave to elect his successor and make other decisions about running the Catholic Church …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is set to cancel tens of millions of dollars in grants to scientists studying environmental hazards faced by children in rural America, among other health issues, according to internal emails written by senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency. The planned cancellation of the research grants, which were awarded to scientists outside …

The Mississippi Free Press reports: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has declared April 2025 as Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi, keeping alive a 32-year-old tradition that began in 1993.  A member of the Rankin Greys, a Sons of Confederate Veterans camp based in Florence, Mississippi, announced the proclamation in a post in the organization’s Facebook group on April 18. The SCV …

Deadline Hollywood reports: The Fyre Festival, the infamous music event founded by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule that was explored in two separate documentaries, is getting a new life as a music streaming service. Deadline understands that Shawn Rech, who co-founded the TruBlue streaming service with former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, has acquired some of the IP …

From the Liberty Counsel: Do Americans have equal rights, or do LGBTQ “rights” supersede everyone else’s rights? That’s a central question in the Kim Davis case. Liberty Counsel has filed with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the court for an “en banc” review of Kim Davis’ case, meaning that we are asking ALL the judges to weigh in …

Gothamist reports: The Trump administration on Monday threatened to withhold federal funding for New York City highway projects if the MTA continues to ignore an order from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to shut down Manhattan’s congestion pricing tolls. In a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, Duffy outlined a plan for the Federal Highway Administration to hold up money and …

The Washington Post reports: Representatives of the U.S. DOGE Service have received permission to access a highly sensitive Justice Department system that contains information including the addresses and case histories of millions of legal and undocumented immigrants. The system is used to store records of immigrants who have interacted with the U.S. immigration system, detailing their name, any addresses, previous …

Mother Jones reports: For the past six years, Gavin Wax has held court as the president of the New York Young Republican Club, a group he helped turn from a small, stodgy establishment outfit into “a vanguard of the Trump movement,” as he said last year. Under his leadership, the club has moved far to the right. It’s hosted events …