The AggreGAYtor: August 13

The Sochi scandal continues, bad ideas abound, and horror strikes Jamaica, as your AggreGAYtor puts a squirt of frosting down her throat before she takes her medication.

The Good

• Social Security begins recognizing same-sex marriages in the wake of the DOMA ruling.

• The IOC is pushing for clarification on Russia’s pledge of non-enforcement (which they haven’t actually made) regarding anti-gay laws at the Sochi Winter Olympics. President Obama tells queer athletes to go for the gold.

• Transgender students in California now have full legal protection to use the bathroom and play sports.

• A Chicago activist group is starting a campaign with a better set of targets than boycotts of Russian products: they’re going after Olympic sponsor McDonald's.

• Bernice King may not be the enemy, but she’s wrong, she’s using the same hedges as racists and homophobes, and she could benefit from understanding the consequences of her public position.

The Bad

• A Jamaica teen has been has been beaten, stabbed, shot, and run over with a car; his family would not claim the body. The crime: dressing as a woman.

• African (and Russian, and, yes, American) LGBTQ movements are still marred by colonialism, paternalism, and Western/white supremacy.

The Uncategorizable

• There’s a black gay Republican running for Mark Strama’s seat, who apparently thinks second amendment remedies are appropriate tools to end sexual assault and gay-bashing. His opponent, an out lesbian, prefers to focus on "issues such as mass transit, the cost of higher education, women's health, and affordable housing and land use."

The Fugly

• The African American Clergy Coalition, a group that regularly lobbies against LGBTQ equality, has accused our movement of racism and of “buying” black legislators, and lied about our stance on Trayvon Martin.

• Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of Senator Ted Cruz, has some very vivid ideas about socialism, Obama, and queer theory.

It Came from the Tubes

• It’s Fantasy!