Category: Gender studies

Closing out Pride Month here in our Florida neighborhood

by philg

Just a few more minutes of Pride and there won’t be any 2SLGBTQQIA+ holidays until Nonbinary Awareness Week begins in 13 days.

Here’s a typical celebration in our neighborhood: “Congratulations to Rice-Bound Britton”.

Separately, does it make sense to congratulate Bitton for choosing a $100,000/year school, even one that absurdly claims to be “ranked as a best value in higher education”? If Britton got into Rice she surely would have qualified for the Bright Futures scholarship, thus cutting University of Florida tuition to $0 from $6700/year. She probably would have qualified for the Benacquisto Scholarship, which also pays for housing, food, textbooks, fees, etc. Rice is ranked #17 by US News while University of Florida is ranked #30. Rice ranks higher, but is it $400,000 higher? ChatGPT, asked which school has the better climate: “For a typical August–May school year, I’d pick Gainesville, FL as the better climate overall, especially for kids and outdoor life. Houston has milder winters, but Gainesville has a more pleasant fall–spring stretch, cooler nights, less big-city heat-island effect, and a less flood-prone feel.” I personally love the art museums of Houston, but can’t remember seeing college kids in them. Air quality is, of course, much better in Gainesville since Floridians don’t spend all of their time and energy refining petroleum.

ChatGPT says that UF is stronger than Rice for undergraduates in some areas, including nuclear engineering (maybe now that we’ve surrendered to the Iranians they will send their future bomb developers to UF?), pre-vet, anything agricultural (AI-proof?), accounting, real estate/construction/development (AI-proof?), education, pre-health other than pre-med, materials engineering, etc. In a lot of engineering disciplines, our AI overlord says that the schools are close, but presumably Rice is less of a herd experience.

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Pride Games in the New York Times; Dubai and Pride at Shake Shack

by philg

Word games this month in the New York Times:

Shake Shack, Palm Beach Gardens, promotes “Pride” and “Dubai” (Arabic-inspired script) simultaneously:

Dubai follows Sharia law and, in theory, people with too much Pride could be executed, but more likely “under Article 409 of the UAE Federal Crimes and Penalties Law, consensual same-sex relations are criminalized with prison sentences starting at six months.”

Canada also combines Pride and Islamic rule:

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Do public health considerations prevent Minneapolitans from bringing toy poodles with them to the bathhouse?

by philg

I hope that everyone enjoyed the Iran v. Egypt Pride Day soccer match yesterday in Seattle.

“Minneapolis City Council votes to repeal ban on adult bathhouses, sex venues” (state-sponsored public NPR):

Adult bathhouses are community spaces that were historically frequented by gay men in the 1970s and ‘80s where people could engage in sexual activity or relax after going out to bars. They were banned in Minneapolis in 1988 during the AIDS epidemic.

The ban was for public health reasons due to a mistaken association between men having sex with 50 new male friends and contracting HIV/coming down with AIDS. Thanks to Science, the ban has been repealed.

In order to protect public health, a member of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community cannot legally bring a poodle-in-a-bag into a restaurant.

What does Science say about whether a toy-poodle-in-a-bag can be brought into a bathhouse? Is that a risk to public health?

Let’s ask AI to tell us what the financial stakes have been. Asked “What has been the total cost of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, over all of the years since it started, to the U.S. taxpayer in 2026 dollars?” ChatGPT answers:

A reasonable order-of-magnitude answer is about $1.25–$1.3 trillion in 2026 dollars in federal taxpayer spending from FY1981 through FY2026. … A rough allowance for state Medicaid shares and other nonfederal public spending would likely push the total to around $1.35–$1.45 trillion in 2026 dollars

Grok:

Roughly $1 trillion or more in nominal (unadjusted) dollars through ~2025/2026, likely $1.2–1.5+ trillion when adjusted to 2026 dollars. … This is direct government spending; it excludes private insurance, out-of-pocket, lost productivity, or indirect economic impacts (some older studies estimated broader burdens in the tens to hundreds of billions for specific periods). … Exact figures require summing detailed yearly tables from KFF/CRS/HHS (available in their reports), but the scale is clearly in the trillions when fully adjusted and projected.

I don’t see how the inflation adjustment can be correct. If $1 trillion nominal has been spent starting in the 1980s then the 2026 dollar figure should be higher. Spending $1 in 1981 is equivalent to spending $3.85 today (offiial CPI).

Loosely related…

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Intersection of Islam and 2SLGBTQQIA+ Pride in Port Angeles, Washington

by philg

Today is the Pride Match in Seattle, which “features a globally controversial matchup between Iran and Egypt, two countries where homosexuality is heavily criminalized. Despite objections from both nations’ football associations, FIFA is permitting rainbow flags and human rights displays inside the stadium.” (Google AI, citing The Atlantic)

Where else do Islam and Pride intersect in Washington State? Port Angeles, Washington. This was where would-be jihadist Ahmed Ressam was arrested on December 14, 1999 after Customs agent Diana Dean became suspicious of “Benni Noris”. The Algerian who had been enriching Canada had more than 100 lbs. of explosives in his rented Chrysler, intending to blow up LAX (for anyone who has been forced to travel through LAX it is tough to know where one’s sympathies should be in this situation).

The town is situated up against the Olympic Mountains:

What would the noble Islamic migrant have seen if he got off the ferry from Victoria, B.C. today? No huge sign or even small plaque at immigration or at the ferry honoring agent Diana Dean, despite the fact that she likely saved hundreds of American lives:

If Mr. Ressam had walked into the local office of the Democratic Party he would have been welcomed in Arabic:

At the front door, the Democrats specifically say that immigration/customs agents such as Diana Dean, Port Angeles’s greatest hero, aren’t welcome:

Context for the above:

Ahmed Ressam would have learned from the Democrats that the whole idea of borders is illegitimate:

Ressam was actually ordered deported from Canada due to his career as a criminal there, but because he refused to assist in his deportation by providing a passport he was allowed to stay in Canada indefinitely. (He is now living at taxpayer expense here in the U.S.) He could have learned this effective strategy from the Port Angeles Democrats (“Do Not Carry Any Documents From The Country Where You Were Born”):

Ressam could have drawn inspiration from RBG: “Fight for the thing you care about” (in Ressam’s case, Islam and Al-Qaeda).

Ressam would have been invited by the Democrats, and by at least half of the other downtown storefronts, to attend the June 14 “Pride on the Pier” festival:

What else would the noble Ressam have seen inside this office?

In the pantheon of resistance heroes, Jew-hater Martin Niemöller, who later become disillusioned with the Nazi Party for which he voted three times, is featured.

Strolling down the street…

What’s in the bookstore window?

(the front door had some more invitations to Pride events and Queerville)

Generally speaking, the town’s storefronts were examples of Rainbow-first Retail, in which the sacred Rainbow Flag must be passed by every customer.

Would would Ahmed Ressam have been enjoying as a snack after his ferry ride, but for Diana Dean’s interference? The “New Zealand-style” ice cream shop next to the ferry offers a Rainbow Sundae and a Pride Float:

How about some reading? The second downtown bookstore had a reasonably rich selection:

That’s it for Port Angeles!

Practical Tourism advice: it’s tough to plan a trip to the northern part of Olympic National Park more than a day in advance if you’re hoping to get up to Hurricane Ridge and actually see anything. There are some decent rainforest walks, though, even when the ride is covered in clouds.

We stayed at Olympic Lodge by Ayres, which might be the best hotel in town. Unfortunately, the WiFi is throttled to 10 Mbits under the best of circumstances and, therefore, it might not be practical to get a lot of work done while waiting days for the weather to clear.

Readers: Who enjoyed the Pride soccer game between Iran and Egypt?

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Father’s Day at the New York Times

by philg

The latest from the Scientists, “To My Daughter, My Gender Was Never Complicated”.

The daughter is named “Elliot”, which in no conceivable way could encourage her to think that maybe her sex was incorrectly assigned at birth:

(Also, how was a child produced if there aren’t any Y chromosomes anywhere among the people who call themselves “parents”?)

Science is passed down to the younger generation:

A question that any American father might be asked, “How long did you have breasts for, Dad?”

Happy Father’s Day once again. I hope that none of the dads reading this blog are experiencing any pain or irritation from their breasts/bra today.

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Sitka, Alaska Public Library

by philg

What do the taxpayers of Sitka, Alaska get at their local public libary? Here’s a report from a May 2026 visit.

(Alaska has no state income, estate, or sales tax, but residents of Sitka pay property tax and also a sales tax of 6 percent (summer) or 5 percent (winter).)

It’s a beautiful waterfront building with awesome-by-pathetic-US-standards free WiFI:

A bulletin board with community announcements greets visitors:

(The Juneteeth celebration will likely resemble an Ibram Xolani Kendi (born Ibram Henry Rogers) book club because we didn’t see a single African American local or visitor during our day in Sitka. Even the Labrador Retriever who protected us from brown bears on the Totem Trail was yellow rather than Black (the Lab’s owner appeared to be white).)

Featured books by the front door:

A featured book in the kids’ section:

(So far the locals don’t seem to have followed the leader into wearing hijab.)

Here’s a book that was flagged as new in the kids’ section. It says “Inspired by the childhood of Dolores Huerta”. Ms. Huerta was recently featured in the New York Times, e.g., with “‘We’re Just Seen as Sex Objects’: Dolores Huerta’s Years in the U.F.W.” (“The co-founder of the United Farm Workers talked about her relationship with Cesar Chavez, and the night he raped her.”) and “Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years”.

The library loans out gear and games:

The teen section reminds kids in Alaska that climate change will ruin their lives unless they follow the lead of Indian-born environmental journalist Meera Subramanian and become climate activists. (Thought experiment: Suppose that both Phoenix, Arizona and Sitka, Alaska became 10 degrees warmer. Would that make real estate in Sitka more valuable or less valuable?)

The book could perhaps use an update. Climate Change Alarmists now demand cheap oil and complain about gas prices being, in nominal dollars, nearly as high as they were in 2022, but the book praises those who obstructed the Dakota Access Pipeline. The book celebrates Tonopah-style concentrated solar power, apparently disagreeing with Popular Mechanics that “The $1 Billion Solar Plant Is an Obsolete, Expensive Flop” (2020). See also “Solar plant on I-15 near its end, shutting off in 2026, officials say” (2025) regarding the Ivanpah dream.

Teens are also reminded that “the perfect family” does not include any white people:

Circling back to the adult section, some books that the librarians chose to feature:

The book on “How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City” is interesting. The New York Times tells us that Black New Yorkers haven’t been replaced by Asians and the Latinx. It is just that New York City now has fewer Black residents and more Asian/Latinx immigrant residents (e.g., see “Why Black Families Are Leaving New York, and What It Means for the City” (2023)). The book explains that the non-replacement of Blacks by Latinx has “saved” cities.

If you’re in Sitka, don’t forget that Rainbow Storytime (pre-K through 5th grade), from the above poster of Pride events, is happening today at 10:30 am Alaska time. Storytime raises a question. The library is funded by taxpayers and, therefore, we have to assume that the majority of taxpayers support whatever the library does. Outside of San Francisco or Massachusetts, though, how many of us have heard a parent say “I am taking my child to the Rainbow Storytime at the library now”?

Speaking of Massachusetts, it seems that the Boston Public Library is hosting 19 drag queen story hours this month. Here are a couple of examples tagged for children of various ages:

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Playing with Pride in Florida

by philg

Happy Pride [the “Month” is silent] again.

Here’s a Florida-based hockey team that claims to be “Playing with Pride”:

But wouldn’t the players have to be some flavor of 2SLGBTQQIA+ in order to “play WITH Pride”? If they’re cisgender heterosexual then perhaps they can play while celebrating others’ pride. Should waving a rainbow flag entitle a person with boring conventional sexuality to don the mantle of Pride?

Note that the hockey season is over now so the Florida Panthers and other NHL teams claimed to be “Playing with Pride” a few months early. Gemini:

As of March 2026, there are no active NHL players, including those on the Florida Panthers roster, who are publicly out as gay. While the league hosts annual Pride nights and supports LGBTQ+ initiatives, no player currently on an NHL roster has publicly identified as gay.

In case the above tweet is memory-holed:

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Happy Pride

by philg

As we kick off Pride 2026, let’s look back a few months to the “Predators” going Full Rainbow:

Science tells us that there is no correlation between spending every night at the bathhouse and contracting monkeypox. Nonetheless, “Boston health officials to offer residents mpox vaccines at Pride event, amid uptick in cases” (state-sponsored WBUR):

The city will offer mpox vaccinations at the City Hall Pride flag-raising ceremony at on June 1 at 1 p.m.

Let’s shift to the other coast… For children in Ketchikan, Alaska who want to get an early start on the 2SLGBTQQIA+ lifestyle, the local bookstore was set up for them (photos from May 29, 2026):

Rainbow: A First Book of Pride is for “Preschool – Kindergarten”.

The town is less than 1% Black and the percentage of 2SLGBTQQIA+ is unclear, but the bookstore offers a book featuring at least some people at the intersection of Black and 2SLGBTQQIA+:

Example: Marsha P. Johnson. From Wikipedia:

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Johnson wore women’s clothing for the first time when she was five years old. After graduating from high school, she moved to Manhattan, where she regularly spent time on 42nd Street in Times Square, working at the local Childs Restaurants and supplementing her income through begging and sex work. … After the beginning of the AIDS pandemic in New York in 1980, she cared for her friends who were dying of AIDS and engaged in AIDS-related activism. She disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1992, with her body being found floating in the Hudson River on July 6. While police initially ruled her death a suicide, many speculate that she was either murdered, chased into the water, or fell in accidentally. She was 46.

Related:

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The Righteous of Lincoln, MA celebrate homosexuality on Eid al-Adha

by philg

Today is Eid al-Adha, a “U.S. Holiday” according to Apple:

How do progressive Democrats choose to celebrate what Google AI says is “the second and holiest of the two main Islamic festivals”? They’ll be getting an early start on Pride because #OneFullMonthIsNotEnough (friend’s photo; he moved to Florida a year ago and is putting the finishing touches on unloading his house in Maskachusetts):

Note also that irrigation is limited to one day per week because, in what should be the wettest time of year, they’re already running out of water. (What do people with postgraduate credentials do in response to running out of a resource such as water? Promote accelerated population growth via low-skill immigration.)

What does ChatGPT say about this scheduling?

I asked for a clarification and received “my earlier “some are LGBTQ themselves” was about identity and lived reality, not a claim that orthodox Islamic law permits male-male sex.”

Asked if there is an “Islamic law” that isn’t orthodox and that does permit male-male sex, ChatGPT responds by citing a handful of individual writers who offered personal opinions on the subject, not proposed or adopted “laws” in any jurisdiction.

Boston by contrast (from the mayor at https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1GW7HVCExF/?mibextid=wwXIfr):

From the governor, celebrated for being a lesbian by state-sponsored PBS:

AOC fights the patriarchy by wearing hijab:

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