The AggreGAYtor: September 16

Russia backs down, labor steps up, and tranimals break loose, as your AggreGAYtor inappropriately appropriates transgressive gender expectation boundaries.

The Good

• Members of the Texas Congress, including local favorite Eddie Rodriguez, have taken notice of the Texas National Guard’s discriminatory stance on benefits for married same-sex couples, and are taking action.

• The AFL-CIO is speaking out for transgender workers, and against the prison-industrial complex.

• A Canadian trans girl faces bullying and discrimination every time she visits her grandma in Palm Springs… and they’re fighting back.

• Russian officials may be backing down, at least while the Olympic spotlight is on them, but sorry, Sochi, Cher’s already onto you, and she’s not into it.

• Gay Mormons chose to be born today to lead the LDS Church toward tolerance. No word yet on gay Mormons born over the last century.

The Bad

• Rupert Everett compares being gay in Russia today to pre-Stonewall U.S.A.

• Anti-gay Russian activists are resorting to rape as a tactic in the war on gays. See also: Rape is not a result of overabundant sexual desire; it is violent act of domination.

• Canada’s LGBTQ youth face similar rates of homelessness as here in the U.S.

The Fugly

• Detroit’s unelected mayor-by-Republican-fiat has decided to send the city a message by initiating a city-wide blackout.

It Came from the Tubes