Thanks To CDC Cutbacks, 13 Texas Nonprofits Lose Millions In HIV Outreach Funding
Gulf Coast is hardest hit: The CEO of a Houston-area nonprofit estimated that six organizations in the area are losing a total of about $2 million in funds.
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🌵 Somebody Finally Wandered Into the Restaurant
Gina Hinojosa is within striking distance of Greg Abbott. Plus: Bo French, and a No. 1 Longhorns team.
🚍 Under the bus, again
💥 Greetings, my queer stars, Welcome back to Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏, your biweekly newsletter about life in queer Texas … where the ground is always shifting under our feet and this time we can't blame fracking. 💚 Want this as a newsletter as soon as it's published? Sign up
🎨 The Passive-Aggressive Power of Oil Paint
Howdy gang, it’s Brian Gaar with The Barbed Wire. And welcome back to Texas, where the courts have become a judicial choose-your-own-adventure, Greg Abbott is having second thoughts about the surveillance-camera empire his state helped build, Tarrant County is cutting polling places, and Texas is
Trans Teen From Rural Texas Forces High School to Change Transphobic Dress Code
With help from the ACLU of Texas, Groesbeck ISD agreed to drop a dress code that targeted transgender students.
Greg Abbott Is Obsessed with Feet
Our government here in Texas had a busy week finding new things to be mad about
Can You Still Buy Weed? And Other Texas Questions
Hey y'all, it's Brian Gaar with The Barbed Wire. And good morning to everyone who woke up wondering: Can I still buy weed? Is my salad trying to kill me? Is the power grid about to be eaten by AI? Is Ken Paxton actually losing? And
Texas’ First Nonbinary City Council Member Wants To Make Denton More Affordable, Equitable and Safe
As a seasoned community organizer, George Ferrie is part of a wave of millennials elected with a mandate for change, and they’ve got a detailed plan for making their city better.
Three Senate Debates Scheduled, Paxton Hasn't Confirmed
Three televised debates in the Texas U.S. Senate race now have dates, venues, and broadcast partners. Democrat James Talarico has accepted all three. Republican Ken Paxton has not confirmed any of them. * Sept. 22, 8 p.m. CT — Rio Grande Valley (NBC/Telemundo/Hearst) * Oct. 6, 8 p.m.
✨ Dreaming of a world full of ‘wonderful things’
How can we hang onto art that brings us queer joy?
Weed Whiplash
As of July 31, Texas bans hemp products built on Delta 8, Delta 10, THC-P and THC-A flower — now Schedule 1 controlled substances. Possession is a state jail felony: 180 days to two years, plus fines up to $10,000. Shops that keep selling can lose their hemp
Ken Paxton Would Like a Word (But Not That One)
The AG walked out of his own press conference. Plus: new witness statements challenge ICE's account of a Houston shooting, and Canada quarantines Texas livestock.
Interview With a Lone Star Vampire: Caleb De Casper Is Reborn In Darkness
No Longer a ‘Good Boy,’ Caleb De Casper is back with a darker, more grown up sound and a stronger sense of self.
☎️ The Voter-Fraud Tip Line Comes for Its Founder
Paxton's own voting address is under scrutiny, the Bible's headed to Texas classrooms, ICE kills a man in Houston, Democrats float $1,500 checks — and flesh-eating flies enter the feral-hog debate.
🫠 The Transformative Power of Being Weird
🏳️🌈 My dear queer stars, congrats on making it through Pride Month, and welcome back to Big & Bright 🌈 ⭐ 👏! I hope you’ve rehydrated and recovered. Pride may be over, but the discourse never stops, because some folks seemed determined to reheat a very old discussion… ✋ Hold up, before we go
Meet the ‘Weird Moms’ of Fort Worth Who Embrace Diversity, Acceptance & Joy in North Texas
From meet and greets with local candidates to the “Weird Mom Prom,” this Fort Worth nonprofit is building community and changing perceptions about the kinds of people who live in the DFW metroplex.
Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy, a heated Senate race, one missing giraffe🦒
Howdy y’all, it’s Brian Gaar with The Barbed Wire. Welcome back to Texas, which continues to be the only state capable of producing all of these headlines at the same time. Nearly a year after the deadly Hill Country floods, Camp Mystic is filing for bankruptcy, and the
Healthcare for Trans Veterans Was Already Bad, And Under Trump It’s Getting Worse
Under policies adopted last year, the VA now refuses to support newly transitioned veterans. Even accessing routine healthcare can be a challenge.
Flesh-Eating Worms, Hemp Chaos, and a Blue Texas?
Democrats think they might finally flip Texas, state officials are fighting over flesh-eating worms, hemp retailers are once again trying to determine whether their businesses exist in a legal dimension, and Texas Tech is embroiled in a controversy.
👀 Pride, like no one is watching
Happy Pride, queer stars. On celebrating loudly, the Queerbomb march, and why the move is to blast the haters with bubbles and keep being you.
Ken Paxton, ‘Champion for the Unborn,’ Would Have Let Our Babies Die. We Know Firsthand.
In March 2023, we became two of the first women to sue Texas over its abortion bans. While pregnant with twins, we’d each learned that one of our twins had severe complications that were threatening the lives of the other — and our own. Yet, we were denied potentially live-
🗣️The Texans Who Refused To Shut Up
This week’s stories are about the Texans who built communities, whether that meant opening Black-owned bookstores during a racial reckoning or organizing queer mutual aid in Dallas, decades before Stonewall.
📚 Learning from queer history...
Your Aunt/Uncle Kit has more deep thoughts for you, alongside the latest in Texas LGBTQ news.
Black-Owned Bookstores in Texas Bring Communities Together. They’re Also Harassed and Vandalized.
Fort Worth sisters Donna and Donya Craddock refer to 2020 as “the unicorn year.” There was the COVID-19 shutdown, but there was also something more — a death that prompted a period of racial reckoning. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered on camera by a white police officer