The Current Situation.
Defining a non-partisan approach.
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The current situation.
I am aware of the current situation. I haven’t figured out entirely how I am going to write this newsletter in the current situation. I haven’t entirely made sense of the current situation either.
The newsletter’s name is, The Gay Agenda, and so I am going to be Gay centric and focus on Gay issues. I am going to report on things as they affect Gays.
The current situation is the most volatile and turbulent I have seen in my life, and I grew up in the 1950s and 60s. Partisanship is really intense. People are very emotional. I think the situation is very unstable.
I don’t feel secure. I feel that with the radical things happening now, maybe there might be some calamity with the economy. When tariffs were threatened with Columbia, I went to bed planning on going to the store in the morning and buying enough coffee for a year, but there was no tariff threat when I woke up. I see the economy as a powerful complicated machine with lots of interlocking parts. It is possible with that with some intervention there is a risk that its operation might be dislocated.
I also fear civil disorder and security issues given the intensity of the conflict. I don’t know if some armed right-wing groups will go after the Gay community. Or maybe none of this will happen. I don’ know.
I want to report what is happening factually without partisan bias. When you read my newsletter, you will get the information without it being filtered. I am not going to withhold information and keep my readers in the dark.
If I am seen as partisan, then I don’t think my investigative findings or reporting will be credible.
I do have serious concerns about what might happen. I am monitoring the Evangelicals and they are thinking that their anti-Gay programs have a very good chance under Trump.
There are contrary indicators also about Trump and Gays that seem favorable. I am going to report them also, not because it is fair, but because, again, this newsletter reports what is happening.
I am not sure why a lot of the health information for HIV disappeared from white house pages.
My reporting policy will be to focus on and report the facts from a Gay centric perspective and not a political partisan perspective.
This isn’t a centrist newsletter either. I will report my findings and if all my reports look bad for one side, that is too bad, for them.
I am going to also try to see what can be done for Gays in the current situation. This is going to be somewhat experimental.
So the following are my assessments, concerns, thoughts.
[1] Security
Historians tend write history like it was obvious what was going to happen and the people who didn’t see the calamity coming were fools. The actual situation is that instead, those who see calamity coming are perceived to be fools and alarmists right up until the calamity.
I was in Houston, Texas when a hurricane hit. Right up to about 24 hours before co-workers were laughing at me, and then when it was a certainty, there was mass panic buying at store.
When Covid hit and there was panic buying of toilet paper in Hong Kong and I started shopping for things here in Dallas. I got negative feedback, but in a few weeks the shelves at Walmart were bare.
I think things could be disrupted and also there could be civil disorder.
What people need to consider is their physical security, economic security, and food security. People need to have personal tear gas, and own a gun.
How is this a Gay issue?
(1) Gays are less likely to have family support. (2) Many of the charities have families as a first priority. (3) Many charities are operated by homophobic Christian groups. (4) In finding a job you can face discrimination. (5) Some employers will layoff those without children first.
There are anti-Gay groups which might want to get violent. Though these Truth Social members weren’t typical, there are some people like this out there.
Click on images to go to report.
[2] Gay Marriage & Gay rights
I am seeing the Christian right thinking that they have the opportunity to reverse Gay liberation. I saw this morning a report from a right-wing Christian newsletter writer that he feels that the atmosphere has changed regarding Gay marriage and he points out that support for Gay marriage is dropping.
Evangelicals and other conservative Christians are talking about going after Gay marriage. Oklahoma Baptist Univ. Professor O. Alan Noble feels that they can go after Gay marriage.
I see that the current LGBTQXYZ+ trans agenda besides having contributed to the defeat of the Democrats in the election, has done damage to the public’s support of Gay rights. They see all issues mashed together which is the intent of our initialism establishment, the LGBTQXYZ+, that is using LGBTQ+ to force team the individual letters. The consequence is that they reject respecting the rights of Gays.
Surely having elected Trump, the Evangelicals will feel that they should expect support on both transgender issues and Gay rights issues. I am not saying Trump will do it, but it will be interesting to see what happens.
[3] Gay health.
I think the medical ideas of RFK Jr. are just crazy. I have been urging people to catch up with their vaccinations while they still can. They say they won’t keep people from getting vaccinations, but they might change the government policies of what is recommended and then your insurance won’t cover it.
I did a report on his ideas earlier.
The support for AIDS patients might stop and we will see a lot of Gays die.
[4] Gay art and censorship.
Right now the worst problems of censorship of Gay art and Gay activities is Facebook, not X. On X there isn’t censorship. Also, Bluesky is good for Gay art.
It is feminist groups targeting OnlyFans and sex on X. It was Verizon that wrecked Tumblr.
That doesn’t mean that the religious right won’t target online Gay art and Gay activities. Texas Attorney General is going after Porn Hub. After they shutdown access to online porn, they might go after Grindr and online resources for Gays. I discussed it in one of the weekly newsletters. Who knows how the Trump justice department sees these issues.
https://edwardhsebesta.substack.com/p/20240318-grindr-shut-down-gengardeners
In Texas the definition of porn can be very elastic and wide. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth was visited by Fort Worth police and four pictures were taken off the wall. Click on the image to go to the report.
[4] Positive indications.
Trump has appointed three Gay persons to very high positions. That is a positive sign, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Trump administration over all won’t have a bad effect on Gays.
In monitoring multiple postings about these Gay Trump nominations and confirmations on Truth Social, I am not finding more than a couple homophobic responses out of hundreds and hundreds of enthusiastic positive comments praising the appointment. As some Gay Republicans have point out, “Evidently we aren’t going to be marched to the death camps just yet.”
Trump did remove all the anti-Gay language from the 2024 Republican Party platform much to the complaint of Evangelicals.
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2024/republican-platform-trump-changes/
Some Christians are upset that Trump isn’t the anti-Gay candidate they wanted also complaining about the 2024 Republican Party platform.
Christian Post, Aug. 3, 2024, “If you will vote Trump, know that GOP is not God's party,” by Michael Brown. He currently is no longer a figure in Evangelical Christianity due to a sex scandal. What these Party platform changes mean, what the impact will be, we won’t know until we see what the Trump administration will do.
Some quotes.
Already in 2016, a featured speaker at the RNC was gay billionaire Peter Thiel, a personal friend of Trump, who said, “Of course, every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.” (He said this to applause.)
He added, “I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform, but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline. And nobody in this race is being honest about it, except Donald Trump.”
And:
Today, Republicans like Thiel don’t need to worry about differing with the party platform. All affirmation of God-ordained marriage has been removed from the GOP platform along with all opposition to same-sex “marriage.”
That’s why the headline to an op-ed on Newsweek by Brad Polumbo proclaimed, “Trump's New GOP Platform Is a Massive Win for LGBT Americans.”
https://www.christianpost.com/voices/if-you-will-vote-trump-know-that-gop-is-not-gods-party.html
[5] No free passes.
If what someone or some group did was injurious to Gays, I am going to report on it as something that was injurious to Gays.
If I think Robert F. Kennedy is injurious to Gay health, I am going to say so. If I find a Democrat working with homophobes, I am going to point that out. I won’t care about the 876 excuses and rationalizations, I just won’t, given for whatever it is.
My agenda is the Gay Agenda. Gays can have other agendas also, but they can’t expect that they can’t expect that their other agendas will prevent reporting on the Gay Agenda.
[6] Transgender people.
Transgender people have been in Gay places since before I was born and I expect they will always be there. I am concerned that due to excessive demands and ultraism by some trans people, I emphasize some, transgender people will be rejected and their legitimate rights as human beings will be not be respected.
What I object to is transmen claiming to be Gay and who started to lecture and tell the Gay community who is Gay and how Gays should act and thought stealth was acceptable. There was trans commentary on Gold Star Gays, which really showed their arrogance. They thought the Gay community should be structured around their needs.
Also, the name calling was bad. Our sexual desires are not fetishes. The assertion that Gay men should have sex with vaginas, such as in the notorious video, “Pussy for Gay Men,” by Davy Wavy. Click on the image to go to the report.
I resented the appropriation of Gay history.
It is homosexual and not homogender.
On the other hand I am not wanting to throw them all out into utter darkness.
I believe in L + G + B + T, which I mean that we have separate agendas and we will be working as allies in different groups and it is contingent on specific shared interests. Also, I think that there needs to be accommodation and not unilateral demands.
Though I think it is good that Trump has put an end to medical intervention with minors, and is keeping men out of women’s locker rooms, I also have to reflect that it happened not through dialog and discussion, but through the political process in which some people had to be winners and others losers.
Maybe I am naïve and that is how things are in real life. The consequence is that some people are all in for the extreme elements of trans ideology as part of their political identity as anti-Trumpers.
[7] Democrats, LGBTQXYZ & Transgender issues, and Gays.
This headline in the New York Times I think says it all about the Democratic Party.
New York Times, Feb. 2, 2025, “We have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump. “
I tend to agree. I think some people in the establishment are trying to kick some sense into them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/us/politics/democrats-trump.html
I think the Gay community is somewhat on their own since it seems that the Democrats are lost at sea and totally out of power. They have managed to lose the White House, the U.S. Senate, U.S. House and the Supreme Court.
I do notice that Pete Buttigieg has dropped pronouns from his X account though which I think is an indicator of where the Democrats are headed. Buttigieg wants to communicate that he is supportive of the Democrats’ new direction.
This Newsweek article wants to assure you that though Buttigieg has dropped his pronouns he is still a true blue anti-Trumper.
https://www.newsweek.com/pete-buttigieg-removed-pronouns-bio-what-we-know-2024104
The LGBTQXYZ+ media and leadership has doubled down on their commitment to the plus ultra elements of a certain trans ideology. Absolutely no thought is given to the idea that parents were not going to accept swinging dicks in their daughter’s school locker room or that having men in women’s sports was going to be seen as unfair. There is just the screaming of arguments that are not valid.
There is denial that the support of trans ultraism is the reason for the Democrats defeat.
The LGBTQXYZ+ media and leadership are thinking that they need to scream even louder. The thing is that they went in so far into the extreme elements of trans ideology and they purged out all dissenters in really obnoxious ways, that they have backed themselves into a corner with no way out. They risk losing control.
The LGBTQXYZ+ thought they would always have control of the government through the Democratic Party to browbeat dissenters. Now they watch the Trump administration rule against puberty blockers and surgery on minors.
I think that there are young Gay people who are saved from being damaged by the so-called gender affirming care.
The LGBTQXYZ watch corporations drop LGBTQ+ programs. Surely, they notice Pete Buttigieg dropping his pronouns.
[8] The history of psychology with its reoccurring follies.
The history of psychology is about one crackpot fad after another and pseudoscientific claims going back into the 19th century.
I went to U.C. Berkeley and got a M.S. in Chem. Eng. I became a Principal Eng. I have always been interested in science and I am a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I am also a historian with published university press books.
Over the years I have come across one after another debacle in the history of psychology. So when people refer to WPATH as being credible, because some group says it is, it isn’t to me.
Yet when they come out with some new absurd thing, it goes unchallenged until it becomes a severe problem, and then it is dealt with.
We need to be very critical that the follies of psychology don’t drive our agenda.
[9] An agenda not restrained by sentimental pieties.
I think a lot of the movement has been entrapped with lots of sentimental feelings. It has been restrained by the agenda of others.
I want to have a Gay Agenda with sharp teeth and about the needs of Gays.
I want to see homophobia crushed globally. I think it can be done, but our obstacle is that we aren’t willing to get tough dealing with homophobia. We aren’t willing to adopt tactics if it conflicts with one or another special interest.
I want to identify which forces power the homophobic agenda and think of strategies to bring them down, and strategies outside the political parties.
[10] Texas and Red States.
Trump might not be pushing some agendas, but he also might permit local agendas.
Things here in Texas are getting crazy. Whereas under a Democratic administration the Justice Department would intervene and stop things, there is no branch of the federal government now to stop a state which is doing outrageous things. Click on “Dallas Gay Liberation” for news about Texas.
[11] Going forward and opportunities.
I want to continue to work on Gay community things I was working on before.
I am going to report on developments in a non-partisan way.
I am going to be very concerned about the welfare of the Gay community.
I am also going to explore and experiment on how The Gay Agenda can be advanced in the current environment.
There are the three letters I sent to Trump about failings of the Biden administration which were very negative for the Gay community. It is a long shot, but it there is a positive outcome for any of them, it will be a big benefit for the Gay community. Also, it starts a record of what the Trump has or hasn’t done for the Gay community.
Conclusion
If you want a newsletter that is going to report what happens unconstrained by a partisan agenda, this newsletter is for you.
If you want a newsletter that tells you what you want to hear, this isn’t your newsletter. I will likely write stuff that I later will disagree with.
My agenda is to go in swinging for the Gays.
