In February 2025, American designer Conner Ives closed his fall and winter show at London Fashion Week with a striking message — not spoken, but worn.

He walked the runway in a T-shirt reading “Protect the Dolls” a phrase that has since gone viral and ignited a wave of support for trans rights around the world. The shirt, now worn by celebrities and activists alike, has become more than a fashion statement — it’s a declaration of solidarity, a tribute to trans dignity and trans rights and a call to action.

“The night before the show, my team and I were sitting around throwing around slogans that we would put on a shirt, which led to Protect the Dolls,” explained Conner Ives in an interview with Trans Lifeline.

The phrase, simple yet powerful, was designed to cut through the noise.

“Maybe the reason that the catchphrase caught on,” said Ives. “Is that rather than coming in with testimonials or facts or percentages… this was maybe a way to simplify down the message to something that could just be said in three words.”

The word “doll” has deep roots in LGBTQ culture, tracing back to the 60s and 70s ballroom scene created by Black and Latino, trans and queer communities. In a world that routinely rejected them, calling each other “doll” was an act of affirmation — a way to celebrate beauty, softness and survival. The term of endearment became a symbol of sisterhood and resistance — a coded language of care in hostile environments. By calling each other dolls, we affirm our beauty, our care and our worth. Like the way societies throughout human civilization have treated cherished dolls — with love, nurture, and tenderness — the term has become a powerful emblem of resistance, sisterhood and self-love. 

Today, as trans rights face increasing attacks both in the U.S. and around the world, remembering this legacy feels more urgent than ever. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump, now in his second term, signed multiple executive orders severely restricting transgender rights. Meanwhile, in the U.K., the Supreme Court’s redefinition of “woman” has excluded trans women from key legal protections, marking a major setback for equality. As Ives reflected, “It feels like we are sometimes living in two alternate realities simultaneously… the alternate reality where we have the people that we choose around us, and then the one filled with political theater and hysteria.” In this climate, “Protect the Dolls” is more than a slogan — it’s a rallying cry to defend our rights, affirm our dignity and celebrate the communities we build together.

The shirt’s message and its impact have turned this moment into a cultural flashpoint. Celebrities across fashion, film, music, and social media have rallied around the design, turning their platforms into megaphones for its mission. Pedro Pascal wore it to his 50th birthday party alongside DJ Honey Dijon and again at the European premiere of “Thunderbolts (2025).”

Troye Sivan wore it on stage during Charli XCX’s Coachella 2025 set, where they performed “Talk Talk” together — a redux of their joint tour last year. He later posted a photo wearing the shirt alongside Lorde, Charli XCX and Billie Eilish, further cementing its status as an iconic fashion moment. Other high-profile supporters include Addison Rae, Tilda Swinton, Haider Ackermann, Emma Brooks, bbno$, Lisa Rinna and Camille Charriere — all of whom have proudly shared it on social media. Their posts have helped catapult the shirt into the global spotlight, transforming it into both a fundraiser and a visual rallying cry.

The shirt which sells for £75 (about $99 USD), is available through Ives’s website, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Trans Lifeline — a nonprofit organization run by and for trans people. Since its launch, over 5,000 shirts have been sold, helping to fund Trans Lifeline’s critical services, including its peer-led crisis hotline and its micro-grants program, which has already distributed over a million dollars directly to trans people.

“I think maybe what really sealed the deal for me was reading the quip somewhere where this is a trans-led U.S.-based charity benefiting trans people,” said Ives.

“I’m not the one picking up the phone helping these people or answering the phones. I think that was really why I wanted that to go where it was going,” he emphasized.

He also emphasized the importance of transparency: “When people say $100 for a T-shirt is a lot, we break down the costs for them. We show them how we’re using organic cotton, fair trade environments, reputable factories—and that over two-thirds of proceeds are going to charity.” Ives even encourages critics to take action however they can: “If the shirt isn’t accessible for you, we tell people: make your own, and donate whatever you can directly to Trans Lifeline.”

What started as a closing runway moment has become a movement. “It feels now like it’s turned into something bigger than just a T-shirt,” Ives reflected. “It’s become a universal concept that is for the people as well. We don’t own that phrase.” In fact, when asked about trademarking Protect the Dolls, Ives responded, “Honestly no, because it’s not mine to own.”

“Protect the Dolls” is more than a fashion statement — it’s a declaration of solidarity and a call to action. Every shirt worn is a stand against the forces that seek to erase us, a tangible investment in a future where trans people not only survive, but thrive. It’s a reminder that our lives, our joy, and our futures are worth fighting for.

Because in the face of systemic violence, we protect each other.
We protect the dolls.

Mas never meant to become a club promoter. He’s a broad man with a neat beard and twinkling eyes above a grin. After studying marketing and management in the U.S., he returned to the Middle East to help a Dubai company open luxury movie theaters across the region — including the first ever movie theater in Saudi Arabia. 

When Covid-19 hit, theaters shuttered and the Lebanese economy crashed. Banks locked people’s money and so, starting over with nothing, he returned to Los Angeles, where he crashed on a friend’s couch for three months.

Ingenuity makes strange bedfellows. When Micky’s in WeHo offered Mas a bartending gig, he pitched the idea of taking over their marketing campaigns instead. Months later, after helping to get the word out about all sorts of different events and evenings, the club asked him if he’d consider hosting a night.

Mas is interested in challenging assumptions in the West about sexuality in the Middle East by hosting this night in the gay-famous WeHo community.

At the time, Mas says, there were no events for the gay Middle Eastern community in L.A., which includes Arabs, Persians and Armenians. The only other gay, Middle Eastern-oriented club was Club Nur, which is now permanently closed.  So he thought of hosting his own.

 “I wanted to create a space for us to listen to our music,” said Mas. “A place for us to be homesick.”

As a new promoter, the club didn’t offer Mas a weekend, but rather a Wednesday night, which are notoriously difficult to sell. But the day gave Mas the name for his first foray into nightlife.

“They already call it hump day,” he said. 

The associations: camels and being horny. 

“Save a Camel, Hump a Habibi,” says the screen at the bar, over an image of a shirtless man surrounded by decorative lamps. “Habibi,” is a word in Arabic without an easy translation. The most direct is, “beloved,” or “my dear,” but the part that defies translation is how it means both “friend” and “lover.”

For the first Hump event, the team brought a real live camel to West Hollywood to stand out in front of Micky’s as a photo op. 

“To this day that’s what’s remembered,” he said. 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) got wind of what was happening and was not pleased — but Mas explains with an eye roll, that the camel was there for one hour, on an off night, with two trainers and was well looked after.

Mas then spoke about the club promotion politics of that night. 

“I was a closeted college student in Louisiana when 9/11 happened,” he said, sharing how his white American friends ran errands for him in the days following the attacks so he wouldn’t run the risk of harassment just for leaving the apartment. 

“I still get searched in every airport,” he laughed.

In 2008, he went on America’s Got Talent to perform belly dancing. During his audition, he told the panel that he was there to show the peaceful side of the Middle East and a producer came to him afterward, thanked him for his bravery, and told him that unfortunately they would have to cut his segment from the show for venturing into politics.

“People assume the West is better for gays, but that’s not always true,” he said. “The first experience of homophobia I remember, coming from Lebanon, was while my family was on vacation in Italy.”

“There were five gay clubs in Lebanon growing up,” said Mas. “They were more hidden than here, but they were there.” 

He recalls that in Dubai, gay parties happened all the time, but the addresses would be released last-minute to prevent them from being shut down — much like LA’s thriving queer warehouse party scene. People will always find a way.

“In Lebanon, growing up, there was not one type of music.” Lebanon is a crossroads of culture, and influences from Europe and the Middle East mingled freely. “You’d hear English, Spanish, French, and Turkish, even just in how people greeted each other in the street.” 

The mix of tunes at Hump parties reflects this vibrant music scene.

I attended Hump at Chapel at The Abbey in March, and the Persian holiday of Nowruz, the new year and start of spring. 

“Tonight we’re celebrating the Persian people,” said Mas enthusiastically.

His framework is based on the question: who is being celebrated? 

It’s a mixed crowd, and the music oscillates between American pop hits and Persian pop classics. “This one has 3 million Shazams,” exclaimed the similarly clueless white boy next to me when we look up the song that’s playing — which has inspired an eruption of passionate singing-along from the middle of the dance floor. My friend Ruben, who’s from Guatemala, twirls another man through classic Salsa steps, to the Persian beat. 

“I don’t know a word, but it still makes me move my hips,” he laughed. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find another friend, Ameed, working at the door. His social media feed is a continual anguished cry for his native Palestine, but here he sports a broad grin under his keffiyeh, welcoming people in.

“I never thought something like this could exist,” he said. “I was nervous my first time coming,” Ameed explains how coming out as gay to his family led him to take a step back from his own culture, even to see it as bad or bullying. “Every gay Arab guy has some sort of trauma,” he says. “But here I get to enjoy the parts of my culture I enjoy, while still feeling safe — and I get to meet other people in the same boat.”

When Mas talked about making a space “to be homesick,” I had taken it literally, imagining folks far from where they grew up longing for that homeland. Speaking with Ameed a new meaning dawns on me — the way we are homesick for parts of ourselves that we lose in coming out, or even just in growing up. West Hollywood nightlife is all about selling a fantasy. The fantasy here is of a self-aware person’s internal multitudes can be, even just for an evening, in harmony.

Sometimes that’s just a fantasy. Ameed, who says he works a boring, normal job, offered to staff the door after his last experience where he complimented a doorman on their keffiyeh, and the doorman didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Oh this? They just told me to put it on,” he said.

It’s always a fine line between celebration and appropriation. 

Reflecting on how that night was a model queer utopia, I wonder if there’d be enough actual gogos from the Middle East to staff a night like that. Probably not. 

The crowd is out in force by 11pm, but, classic Thursday, starts to thin after midnight. I was surprised by the number of women out, seemingly supporting the gay men in their lives. 

While Hump started as a part time endeavor, Mas’s production team now puts on a slew of gay nights at various bars, including Barbearians (think lots of fur and leather, a play on the erotics of “savagery”) as well as, Steam, a bathhouse-themed night in which guests are encouraged to wear only a towel at the bar. While not specifically Middle Eastern, these nights have the fingerprints of their progenitor, from the music played to, at Steam — a Hookah station where guests can smoke water pipes outdoors and send up smoke like the steam at a bathhouse.

These parties have grown, now touring other cities and even bringing a float to WeHo Pride complete with a flying carpet and gay influencers from Iran, Tunisia, and Iraq. Barbearians, now entering its second year, recently hosted its first Mr. Barbearian competition, which will send the winner, Dé Hanno, to represent the event at Mr. International Leather in Chicago. There’s also intercultural collaborations, like Yalla Papi, a Middle Eastern and Latino night that blends the music of both cultures. 

“Latinos move their hips side to side, Arabs move them up and down,” said Mas cheekily.

Mas stated that his goal is to foster a sense of cosmopolitanism and inclusivity. Hump and its progeny provide a safe space for queer Middle Eastern men and their allies to express their sexuality, but also create a meeting ground on their “home turf,” that challenges cultural conceptions both internally and externally.

Long Beach Pride 2025 will take place on May 17 and 18 at Marina Green Park, emphasizing focus on grassroots organizations and local community performers. 

“Long Beach Pride has always been more than just a festival—it’s a movement,” said Elsa Martinez, interim president of LB Pride. “This year, more than ever, we’re celebrating the strength, creativity, and unity of our local community.” 

Martinez also notes that all the ticket sales directly go toward funding on-the-ground resources. 

“As a nonprofit organization, every aspect of the Pride Festival—from ticket sales to vendor partnerships—directly funds our work in the community,” noted Martinez. “This is a festival with purpose.”

As LB Pride amps up for its 42nd annual celebration, the organization has stated that this year marks the return to the roots of Pride. LB Pride stated that they are committed to emphasizing what makes the local community so special and spotlighting local performers, musicians and entertainers. 

The organization has also stated that they are committed to ‘justice, inclusion, and the celebration of queer joy.’ 

“Our strength has always been our solidarity,” said Martinez. “This year’s festival is a reminder of what we can achieve when we lift each other up.”

This year, the main stage will feature a lineup of pop, Hip-hop and Latin talent. 

Performers include HYM the Rapper, George Michael Reborn Tribute, Tori Kay, Jewels Drag Show Extravaganza, Secret Service, Tiancho and music mixes by DJ BSelecta, DJ Icy Ice and DJ 360. 

For updates, tickets, and volunteer opportunities, please visit https://longbeachpride.com and follow @LongBeachPride on social media.

By John M. Erickson, West Hollywood City Councilmember

West Hollywood has always stood as a beacon for LGBTQ people, for the
marginalized—for anyone chasing a place to be safe, seen, and supported. But that
promise is slipping away. If people can’t afford to live here, then West Hollywood becomes a symbol, not a sanctuary.

The housing crisis gripping Southern California is particularly acute in LGBTQ communities. Whether it’s trans women of color pushed into homelessness, queer youth aging out of foster care, or seniors on fixed incomes being priced out of the very neighborhoods they helped shape—our inability to build enough housing is deepening the inequality we claim to fight against. Our failure to build enough housing is not just a policy gap—it’s a moral one.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s personal.

As a gay man and a progressive policymaker, I know what it means to live at the intersection of identity and action. I carry the legacy of those who fought for a seat at the table—and the duty to do more than just sit there. Right now, that means confronting a housing system that’s failing the very people we claim to protect.

When West Hollywood became a city in 1984, we inherited density. We had walkable
neighborhoods, apartment buildings, and a diverse housing stock. But we froze. For 40
years, our zoning has barely moved.

In the last 25 years, WeHo has actually decreased in population. Meanwhile the number
of Americans who identify as LGBTQ+ has more than tripled in that same amount of
time. We haven’t kept up with demand, and we haven’t met the needs of the vulnerable
communities we claim to champion.

That’s about to change.

On Monday, May 5th, I’m introducing a sweeping housing reform package aimed at one
thing: making it easier, faster, and cheaper to build homes in West Hollywood. Not just
luxury condos—homes people can actually live in. That means slashing red tape. Cutting delays. Dismantling outdated rules that stall projects and drive up rents.

This isn’t about bulldozing neighborhoods or silencing community voices. It’s about
fixing a broken system—one built for a different era and completely out of step with the
urgency of now. It’s time to stop confusing progressive branding with progressive
outcomes. We need real reform: faster processes, smarter regulations, and yes—political courage.

Will this fix everything overnight? No. But it will send a clear message: West Hollywood
isn’t just coasting on its values—we’re acting on them.

Housing justice is LGBTQ+ justice. It’s racial justice, economic justice, and generational
justice. We don’t get to call ourselves a queer haven if only the rich and lucky can live
here. The West Hollywood of the future must make room for drag artists, Trader Joe’s
cashiers, trans youth, longtime renters—and anyone else trying to build a life with
dignity.

A city that flies the Pride flag can’t stand by while its most vulnerable residents are
priced out and pushed out. We owe the next generation more than just slogans and
rainbows. Let’s leave them keys.

Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed support for LGBTQ suicide hotline measures for K-12 students in direct response to recent reports that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s., plans to cut funding for the national nonprofit that provides the resource to LGBTQ people.

“Cutting off kids’ access to help is indefensible. While the Trump administration walks away from its responsibility, California will continue to expand access to life-saving resources, because the life of every child — straight, gay, trans — is worth fighting for,” said Gov. Newsom. 

Assembly Bill 727, introduced by Assemblymember Mark González, would aim to facilitate pupil and student safety by requiring schools and institutions to have the telephone number and text line for a specified LGBTQ suicide hotline provided by The Trevor Project, that is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. 

Existing law that will be enforced July 1, 2025, requires a public or private school that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, and that issues pupil identification cards to have printed on the identification cards the number for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. 

This bill would additionally require the list of K-12 public schools and institutions to provide support to youth and their families who have been subjected to school-based discrimination, harassment, intimidation or bullying on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation or gender expression. 

Conservative organizations like the California Family Council are pushing back on this bill, stating that this bill is “forcing LGBTQ advocacy on every student ID — no exemptions for religious schools,” and saying it “undermines families.” 

A national 2024 survey by The Trevor Project on mental health of LGBTQ young people, reports that 1 in 10 young LGBTQ-indetifying people in the United States attempted suicide in 2023. Over a third of LGBTQ young people seriously considered suicide within the past year and that figure was even higher for trans and nonbinary-identifying youth, with that figure being  46%. 

The survey also found that half of LGBTQ youth who wanted mental health resources and care could not get them. Over 50% of survey respondents answered “a lot” when asked about how often recent politics negatively impact their well-being. 

The Trevor Project is one of the nonprofit organizations that is currently at high-risk for losing their funding under Trump’s budget cuts. 

The phone number to call for help is 1-866-488-7386 and the number to text for help is 678-678, or you can send them a message at the site link.

“Good Friday” set the stage for Saturday’s anti-Trump/MAGA “Hands Off” protests serving as a timely lead-in to binge-watching Alex Gibney’s two-part HBO political documentary, “The Dark Money Game” on Easter Sunday. In “Wealth of the Wicked,” nefarious Opus Dei —Svengali Leonard Leo strategically seduces politically disappointed Catholic Federalist Society billionaires into subsidizing a scheme to ‘pipeline’ malleable conservative judges to take over the Supreme Court and overturn reproductive rights.

A key victory for “Operation Higher Court” came in 2010 when SCOTUS ruled 5-4 in Citizens United v Federal Elec­tion Commis­sion, that corporations and unions have the same First Amendment free political speech rights as individuals—as long as their unlimited cash donations go to 501 c(4)’s or Super PAC slush funds and not directly to candidates.  Twelve years later, in 2022, they got their payoff with the overturning of Roe v Wade by Leo-promoted Catholic justices.

But Leo’s political conniving is not the only exploitation of moral corruption. The documentary exposes conservative Christians too.

Gibney’s anti-hero is a former rabid anti-abortion lobbyist named Rev. Robert Schenck. He tells of turning to a fellow conservative in Cleveland, Ohio after Trump won the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and asking: “Are we really going to do this? We’re going to choose this man who’s inimical to everything we believe?” The other evangelical replied: “I don’t care how bad he is. He’s going to get us the court we need.’”

Schenck explains the unholy alliance between Christian conservatives and Big Business. “Whenever you talked about government regulation, the argument was eventually —‘these same characters who control my business are going to start trying to control your church. So, it’s in your best interests that we defang this monster’— and that brought a lot of religious conservatives over.”

And there’s this: “We have a little aphorism built on a Bible verse: ‘The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous.’ So, yeah, let’s baptize the billionaires’ money. We can do that — and it eventually brought together this alliance.”

Schenck later reveals an intense epiphany that resulted in regret for how much harm he caused. Not so for Leo.

This is an excerpt from Gareth Gore’s comprehensive book Opus, for Rolling Stone Magazine:

“DURING THE DONALD TRUMP YEARS, conservatives — led by Leonard Leo — took control of the Supreme Court…. At one Federalist Society event, his good friend Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas jokingly referred to Leo as the third most powerful man in the world, presumably behind the pope and the president of the United States.”

On Monday morning, Pope Francis died. I liked this pope, compared to the others. I covered Creating Change during the AIDS crisis when author Paul Monette delivered his brilliant, scathing denouncement of the Catholic Church, then unexpectedly ripped up a portrait of Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI was just crotchety cruel. But Pope Francis —named for St. Francis of Assisi —had that big smile and genuinely seemed to care about migrants, the vulnerable and the marginalized — like us. He even used the word ‘gay’ instead of ‘homosexual.’

Pope Francis’ reply to a question about a Vatican “gay lobby” on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Rome made global news. “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will,” he said in 2013. “Who am I to judge? We shouldn’t marginalize people for this. They must be integrated into society.”

What did this mean? Welcoming inclusion into a family that officially considers us ‘intrinsically disordered?’

And then there was Pope Francis’ interaction with Juan Carlos Cruz — a whistleblower in Chile’s clerical sex abuse scandal.

“He said, ‘Look Juan Carlos, the pope loves you this way. God made you like this and he loves you,'” Cruz told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile the Catholic Church Catechism affirmed, “this inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial.”

Ergo, a behavioral choice.

Therein lies the problem.

LGBTQ people are seen largely as individuals with sinful same sex sexual ‘inclinations.’ So when the pontiff touted ‘the equal dignity of every human being,’ and rebuked Vice President JD Vance with the ‘Good Samaritan’ parable, whereby love “builds a fraternity open to all, without exception” — we are still the exception.

Francis was all also human — having to apologize at one point for using a gay slur. But what of the bigger things like, did he know about the Opus Dei takeover of the U.S. Supreme Court when he chastised Vance about deporting migrants? Did he know that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people last October, who allege they were victims of clergy sexual abuse? With a previous payment of $740 million, the total settlement payout will be more than $1.5 billion dollars. Is Leo chipping in to replenish that?

And it’s not over. Earlier this month, Downey Catholic priest Jaime Arriaga, 41, was charged with several counts of child sexual abuse which allegedly happened when he was serving as a transitional deacon at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.

Longtime U.K LGBTQ+ activist Peter Tatchell — who’s campaigned against Catholic homophobia for 58 years — says Pope Francis’ legacy is complicated.  

“I extend my condolences to Catholics worldwide on the passing of Pope Francis. While we often disagreed on issues of LGBTQ rights, I acknowledge his more compassionate tone towards sexual minorities. His recent moves to allow blessings for same-sex couples, albeit with limitations, signaled a small but significant shift in Church doctrine,” Tatchell said in a statement.

“However, for millions of LGBT+ people globally, the Catholic Church remains a force for discrimination and suffering. Under his leadership, the Vatican continued to oppose same-sex marriage and trans rights. Catholic bishops lobbied against the decriminalization of homosexuality in many parts of the world. The Vatican still upholds the homophobic edicts of the Catechism, which denounces the sexual expression of same-sex love as a ‘grave depravity’ and ‘intrinsically disordered.’ Francis’s legacy is, therefore, a mixed one — offering some progress, but leaving deep-rooted inequalities largely intact.

“The struggle for LGBT+ equality against a homophobic Church must continue. We urge the next Pope to go further—to end the Church’s support for discrimination, both within the faith and in the wider society.”

In today’s ever-fapping world, the intersection of sexual identity and content creation has become more complicated than ever. Irish content creator Andy Lee, cozily ranking in the top 0% of OnlyFans creators, with his furry physique and tatted up torso, is at the center of the conversation. A self-identifying hetero who rose to prominence during the Pandemic, Lee has amassed a girthy following of horny gays, likely because of the exclusive man-on-man content he has to offer. Yet, his success raises just as many eyebrows as it does trousers. Many question the authenticity of his content, sexual identity and whether or not straight men are overshadowing their openly gay peers.

Claiming to be straight only to then go pole-to-pole on camera, Lee is seen by a significant portion of the queer community to be guilty of queerbaiting (exploiting gay culture for profit). Others can’t help but wonder, is this slab of man-meat genuinely drawn to the physical (and perhaps emotional) experiences he has with men, despite identifying as a thorough(ly) bred breeder?

Lee’s OnlyFans career showcases the blurred, often contradictory nature of sexual identity. He enjoys sexual experiences with men but still identifies as straight, which challenges traditional labels like “gay” and “straight.” His content forces us to confront the nuanced lines of sexual identity, which are rarely ever clear-cut and often defy simple categorization.

The question of authenticity also hangs in the amyl nitrite-scented air. While Lee has said his career on OnlyFans has made him feel “wanted and loved” (and paid) by the gay community, many argue that his identity as a straight man undermines the emotional connection his audience thirsts for. Is his content less authentic due to its “no-homo” viewer discretion warning, or does his openness to explore other men’s bodies reflect the evolving, fluid nature of human sexuality?

This has led to several openly gay performers to claim that, well, “they’re taking our jobs.” They argue that by creating gay content for profit, straight men commodify gay experiences while avoiding the brunt of the stigma that accompanies being openly gay. But how valid is this criticism? In a consumer-driven adult content market, if people choose to engage with Lee’s content, are they unintentionally depriving the gay sex-working community?

And then there is the aspect of the gay gaze (did not stutter). Is it the allure of the forbidden nature of straight men giving into the carnal pleasures that another man has to offer? The taboo? The challenge? Or are they simply the proxy of the coach you had a crush on in high school, the hot trainer who you overheard has a girlfriend, or that college professor you once stood next to at the urinals only to find out for yourself just how extensive his curriculum was? For many, this particular brand of tension is a huge part of the turn-on.

This paradox is just one part of a broader cultural conversation about masculinity and sexual identity. Straight men in gay content can subvert traditional gender roles, while simultaneously reinforcing certain ideals of masculinity. In cases like Lee’s, when a straight man openly enjoys the physical pleasure of being with other men, it speaks to both the complexity and fluidity of sexual identity, and the inability of inflexible labels to accurately and respectfully encompass human desire.

Ultimately, the conversation around gay-for-pay creators like Andy Lee isn’t black and white, straight or gay. Although likely unintentional (let’s be real), these performers challenge existing ideas of identity, authenticity, and the commodification of desire. Whether Lee is queerbaiting, exploring his own sexuality, or just making stacks of cash, his presence in the adult content world invites folks to rethink how we define sexual identity today. Just something to think about next time you’re… enjoying content.

AJ Sloan is a writer, retired adult performer and clinical counseling graduate student. His work has been featured in Huffington Post and The Advocate and led his own weekly column for Fleshbot.

When a city passes the motion to make their city an LGBTQ sanctuary city, it means that city or state resources cannot be used to prosecute or punish LGBTQ people for seeking gender-affirming care, resources or government assistance. 

As many of us know, there are three major levels of government: local, state and federal. 

City motions set a precedent for the state, adding local representation on a small scale that hypothetically catches on and makes its way up the ladder to the state, then federal level. 

Though the Trump administration holds a lot of power on a federal level, states, cities and municipalities hold power on a level that is easier for local communities to change and control. If cities across the state begin passing motions to become LGBTQ sanctuary cities, the state then has to consider passing the motion to become a sanctuary state. If the majority of states consider themselves sanctuary states, it pushes the change on a national, or federal, level. 

At first glance, it seems like the move for a city to consider itself an LGBTQ sanctuary city is not a big deal because there is no financial flow in the motion and there are no special funds to be allocated. The only visible change is the new title the city gets to claim. However, passing motions in favor of LGBTQ rights, is crucial toward the longer and harder journey to attain rights on a national level. It is a far more nuanced issue than what it seems. 

If that same logic were to hold up when it comes to statewide decisions, then it could become easy to dismantle progress made on any level. 

The Advocate published an article in November when the City of Los Angeles unanimously passed the ordinance to become an LGBTQ sanctuary city. Passing the ordinance means that the city is now responsible for “shielding queer youth who travel to the city to receive gender-affirming care from prosecution, as well as preventing city resources from being used in immigration enforcement or assisting federal immigration officials.”

During the November 2024 election, Proposition 3 made it on the ballot and Californians had the choice of voting in favor or against the proposition that would only change the outdated language of the California state constitution, that until recently did not recognize same-sex or interracial marriages. To some, the change seemed meaningless, but on a statewide level, passing this proposition meant cementing the progress made on the protection of same-sex and interracial marriages. Though the proposition had no money flow in the matter, this important move signaled the support of the state in favor of LGBTQ rights on a state level. 

While California is already a sanctuary state, it is also crucial to recognize protections and rights in individual cities. During these unprecedented and uncertain times in LGBTQ history, it is more crucial than ever to push for these changes. 

When one city makes the move to become a sanctuary city, others follow and LGBTQ representation becomes more visible on a government level. 

In November, shortly after Trump was elected as the 47th president of the United States, Los Angeles declared itself an LGBTQ sanctuary city. 

Now, Long Beach has followed suit and has unanimously approved a resolution to make the city a transgender sanctuary city and officially recognize March 31 as Trans Day of Visibility. 

There are a growing number of LGBTQ sanctuary cities across the nation. In California, the list of cities includes San Francisco, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Los Angeles and most recently, Long Beach. 

Other cities, including Boston, Massachusetts; Olympia, Washington; Cambridge, Massachusetts and others across the nation have also recently declared their status in support of LGBTQ people.

This is not just a win – it is a small, but monumental stride toward progress, representation and protection. We need more cities to push motions to become sanctuaries for queer and transgender people as the current administration continues to use queer and trans people as political pawns in the chess game rigged for the alt-right. 

Do not let anyone bait you into a “both sides” argument on this topic. Trans people can confirm that we no longer live in a country where freedom of expression exists in the first place, so the point in and of itself is moot. Don’t waste your energy.  

But especially don’t be shamed by those who imagine themselves to be more enlightened than you as they make the tired false equivalence that MAGA is just another political ideology that deserves the same freedom of expression as liberal points of view. 

The owners of the Badlands Bar are keeping their patrons safe from terrorism. Yes, MAGA is a terrorist threat to the LGBTQ community. Oxford’s definition of terrorism is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” 

It’s too long a list for this article, so here’s a link to a running tally of the government’s actions against the LGBTQ community since Jan. 20.

It started, on Trump’s first day as president, with trans people being forcibly stripped of their very identity — and with it, all protections — under the law. This trend has continued, ominous drip after ominous drip of frequently illegal Executive Orders that dehumanize, disenfranchise and dismantle the basic rights and dignities of trans and queer Americans. If you’re following the Project 2025 playbook, as the federal government is, you’ll notice that ending marriage equality is quickly coming up on MAGAs To Do list. 

All of that—the bullying, the emotional and psychological abuse, the stripping of rights, the (eventual, inevitable) tearing apart of families—is violence, by definition. The anxiety you feel every day as an LGBTQ American? That’s intimidation. And that is why living under MAGA as an LGBTQ person means living in a terrorist state.

Perhaps the idea that MAGA perpetrates outright terrorism seems dramatic, especially for those who remember 9/11 and maybe we don’t need to add more drama to this historical moment.

Then let’s consider the terrorism of words and ideas. 

Stochastic terrorism, is a particularly nasty form of political expression, where those with cultural power spout hostile rhetoric about a group, creating a culture of hate that inevitably — but not directly — results in violence. When we talk about haters becoming emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric, this is the dangerous potential that absolutely does become reality.

The insidious part of stochastic terrorism is that there’s plausible deniability on the part of the instigators. Truly, who do we blame for the murder of Lauri Carleton in Lake Arrowhead, CA?

Do we blame the individual who shot her after he screamed epithets about the Pride flag she flew in front of her store? Or do we blame the talking heads and podcast hosts who were then spending untold airtime equating LGBTQ people with pedophilia and grooming? Or do we blame the governors who sought to ban the flying of Pride flags in public, for turning them — and all of us who fly them — into high-profile lightning rods for hate? Who should be charged in a court of law for this hateful crime?

If any comparison to terrorism still seems too far-fetched to you, even for MAGA, then let’s consider the term “gang.” 

Flip all the racist rhetoric you’ve passively absorbed about the kinds of people most likely to be in a gang, and consider Donald Trump, the current Republican Party, and MAGAs specifically as you read the following definitions of what a gang is.

According to the Department of Justice:

• Gangs adopt a group identity in order to create an atmosphere of fear or intimidation.  
• Gangs are typically organized upon racial, ethnic, or political lines and employ common names, slogans, symbols, hand signs, or style of clothing.
• The gang’s primary purpose is to engage in the use of violence or intimidation to enhance or preserve its power, reputation, or economic resources.  

If we hold MAGA to the DOJ’s gang standards it so easily fits into, perhaps we can more easily hold that most businesses explicitly bar gang symbols from their premises, often as an easily-enforcible safety measure, and consider the Badlands Bar owners’ actions in that context.

But if you’re still suspicious of any of this rhetoric, then all that’s left is to consider the reality of MAGAs actions, which owners of LGBTQ bars around the country experience on a regular basis.

On Feb. 22 at Scorpio, in Charlotte, NC: an exception made to a “no political affiliations of any kind” dress code, devolved into the individual making transphobic remarks at the entertainers during the drag show. He refused to leave when asked and became aggressive toward security, resulting in police intervention.

On March 14 at the Chatterbox Jazz Lounge in Indiana, MAGA hat-wearing patrons aggressively misgendered and harassed a bartender and were ejected. The video of the altercation went viral; the owner reports his bar has since received several threats of arson and bodily harm.

Four days after the video of that incident went viral, the Chatterbox Tavern in Tennessee received threatening emails and phone calls.

These incidents were flashpoints that reported, often by MAGAs claiming victimhood. Untold incidents go unreported due to intimidation or uninvestigated due to bias. According to GLAAD’s 2022-24 ALERT Desk Report, over 1,850 anti-LGBTQ incidents were reported across all 50 U.S. states. That’s more than 600 acts of vandalism, bomb and mass shooting threats, assaults, and cases of arson per year — nearly two per day. These incidents have resulted in at least 161 injuries and 21 deaths. The perpetrators — when apprehended or known — wore MAGA gear, screamed MAGA slogans, had shared MAGA rhetoric online, or were members of MAGA-associated groups like the Proud Boys, Q-Anon, Three Percenters, Libs of TikTok and Moms for Liberty. 

If after all of this — and the rest yet to come — you still believe that MAGA simply represents an opinion about a stance on taxes, individual liberties and the size of government, then this author will be the bigger person and acknowledge your identity as part of America’s inherent Diversity, wholeheartedly Include you as an Equal in this vast multiplicity to which we belong called America.

And then ask you, if it’s all directly equivalent: when will MAGA do the same for LGBTQ people? 

Of course you are free to wear your red hat and shirt wherever you please — your gang runs this place, after all. You’ll even be pardoned for violence you commit, like the Jan. 6 terrorists and your poster boy Kyle Rittenhouse. Don’t fret.

But don’t expect us not to protect our own just because we’re a bunch of queers. 

The author of this Op-Ed wishes to remain anonymous for safety reasons, given the nature of the issues discussed. Citations are linked to GLAAD’s expert resources, but this Op-Ed was not written by anyone affiliated with the organization.

One undeniable truth still stands: public sex acts of any kind are illegal, as in, against the law.

Another day, another endorphin-boosting pump at the gym.

Next stop: the steam room.

My circulation and lactic acid levels will thank me later. After a quick shower, I approach the steam room door and, to my surprise, I see a notice taped to it:

STEAM ROOM RULES
Guests entering must be dressed appropriately.
Workout shorts, swim attire, or towel ARE REQUIRED at all times.
Camera use is allowed ONLY within the STEAM ROOM AREA.

Initially, I was taken aback.

In an environment meant to offer a moment of relaxation before diving back into the chaos of the city, the last thing anyone needs is a dose of CCTV surveillance. My shock was brief, though, as I quickly realized why the gym had taken such a drastic step.

This issue isn’t unique to New York City or David Barton’s Gym U. After several closures and re-openings of their steam room, Crunch WeHo — another predominantly gay gym — has indefinitely closed its men’s steam room. I also learned that a Crunch location in Brooklyn has followed suit. I imagine both gyms now display similar notices warning that ‘inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated.’

As anyone who’s frequented a gym’s steam room in any major city knows, these spaces are no strangers to cruising. This isn’t a new phenomenon. For decades, gyms – and their locker rooms and amenities — have served as ground zero for gay cruising. If this surprises you, pick your jaw up off the floor and Google the meaning behind the village people’s 
Young Men’s Christian Association. You might feel a little awkward the next time it’s sung en masse at a sports game or (eye roll) an inauguration.

Many see cruising as part of a shared gay culture at these unofficially gay fitness clubs. However, the growing number of complaints to gym staff about these post-pump antics suggests otherwise. This raises the question: has the ‘inappropriate’ behavior in these spaces become so prevalent that closures and Orwellian surveillance are now the only solutions?

Years ago, same-sex sex was a criminal act and treated as such. Back then, sex became a form of protest for many gay men and others in the LGBTQ+ community. It was a way of saying, ‘We exist, we have the right to exist and we have the same right to get off as anyone else.’

Since then, both the LGBTQ+ community and the politics surrounding it have evolved. With more queer people adopting what many consider a heteronormative or family-oriented lifestyle, and with the rise of sex positivity, can we still view sex as a form of protest? On the other side of the three dollar bill, are those who are getting down in the dank dark of our steam rooms seeing this action as a way of preserving a tradition that they hold near, dear and queer?

This situation is a bit more layered than a simple ‘then and now’ generational shift. Over the decades, certain fitness centers in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have been recognized as gay spaces, with a loyal, predominantly gay clientele. However, now these gyms are distancing themselves from their LGBTQ+ identity — sometimes quite literally shedding their pride flags.

Now, they’re offering student discounts not to the City Universities of New York, but exclusively to NYU and PACE — targeting a younger, straighter and more affluent clientele. So, when ’23-year-old finance bro Bobby’ walks into the steam room to find two men in the middle of a vigorous forearm workout… Sorry Bobby.

It’s the ultimate risk that comes with sneaking in that last “spot” off the gym floor. Many folks who don’t partake turn a blind eye – or even offer a blasé wink when they walk into the steam room. Then there are those who would prefer a steam room where people’s hands remain in sight while their other bits do not. In today’s tense political climate, is it ending up on a list forbidding you to be within 500 feet of schools?

Ultimately, the steam room – a once cherished space with a sense of freedom and unspoken connection as palpable as its wafting clouds of moisture – has found itself to be a microcosm of the broader tensions both within the LGBTQ+ community and society. As gyms shift their focus to serve a broader, younger, more mainstream clientele, the future of steam rooms remains, well, unclear.

AJ Sloan is a writer, retired adult performer, and clinical counseling graduate student. His work has been featured in Huffington Post and The Advocate and led his own weekly column for Fleshbot.