🏳️🌈 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…
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A special thanks to Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action for underwriting our first sponsored vertical and our newsletter. All essays, reporting, and analysis will remain, as always, editorially independent.
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📰 Thanks to two recent newspaper editorials, we’re partying like it’s 1990. Yes, it’s time yet again for certain cisgender male gays to reject association with the LGBTQ+ rainbow and insist that “the queer kids” are the problem, rather than the politicians attacking our rights. Needless to say, there’s been an intense pushback against this retrograde call for assimilation during Pride month. As if safety could ever come by rejecting those of us who don’t fit in; our most committed enemies will never accept us, regardless of how ‘normal’ we act.
👩 I couldn’t help but reflect on this while writing about the “Weird Moms Club” of Fort Worth for The Barbed Wire. In contrast, here’s a group that understands that embracing our oddness can, paradoxically, be the key to finding common ground. Similarly, since the concept of reclaiming “queerness” was born, folks who’ve embraced that label understood that, through celebrating our differences from the mainstream, we can create a protective umbrella of celebratory LGBTQ+ culture that embraces everyone that’s part of the alphabet soup. In fact, rather than trying to assimilate and be normal, now’s the time to queer up even more, and to group up. I believe building tight-knit communities is the most vital response to the myriad crises we face, from anti-trans laws to climate collapse.
👗 So read on to learn about the ‘Weird Moms’ and their upcoming prom, plus all the latest from LGBTQ+ Texas and beyond…
Steers & Queers 🐂
What we’re writing and reading in Texas.
🐘 Texas Republicans released a new party platform calling for bans on trans teachers and transgender healthcare for anyone under the age of 26. Remember, they test these views in places like Texas before bringing them to the rest of the country.
🚄 Advocate profiled a terrified public transit rider, forced to share the D.C. subway with hundreds of white supremacists from Patriot Front, the group with ties to North Texas that marched in Washington over July 4th weekend. Especially when bigots feel emboldened to once again march on our streets, it's vital that we find ways to protect each other.
👮♀️ According to Jacob Ogles at Advocate, the FBI is claiming credit for preventing a mass shooting at Lubbock Pride, which took place without incident on June 27. A New Mexico man was arrested for allegedly posting threats on the Facebook page of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, although it’s unclear whether he also had concrete plans to commit violence.
🧊 Lex McMenamin wrote about how charges against the Prairieland anti-ICE protesters, who collectively face nearly a half century in prison, disproportionately targeted transgender activists. Read more and learn how to support the defendants on their homepage.
🏳️⚧️ Rose Daphnee, a 19-year-old transgender woman, spoke powerfully at Houston Pride, offering a fiery reminder that there is no Pride without trans people.
⚽ Forget FIFA, this is Fabulous: Gwen Howerton, culture reporter at Chron.com, profiled Space City Pride FC, an inclusive club in Houston that celebrates queer and trans soccer enthusiasts’ love of the game.
⌛ Gwen also introduced Chron’s feature on the 250 most influential Texans with some musings on the outsize influence of Texas on national politics. Among the list’s luminaries is Phyllis Frye, the first openly transgender judge appointed to serve in the U.S.
🌈 Somewhere over the Texas rainbows … Ayden Runnels at the Texas Tribune closed out Pride Month with this comprehensive overview of how Texas cities have responded to the removal of rainbow crosswalks, from murals to lighting to sidewalks and stairs.
Stars & Stripes 🇺🇸
What’s happening in the rest of the gayborhood.
⚾ The United States Supreme Court upheld state-level bans on transgender athletes in sports, in what has been called a heartbreaking ruling. While it’s tempting (and accurate) to point out that these bans inevitably affect more than just trans people, let’s not overlook the fact that this is part of a concerted effort by the political right-wing to erase trans people from public life. We need cis allies to stand up for us, more than ever.
🏢 Orion Rummler, LGBTQ+ Reporter at The 19th, reported that an alphabet soup of government agencies are currently attacking gender-affirming healthcare as the Feds weaponize government oversight in unprecedented and deeply troubling new ways.
🍎 It’s up to you, New York: After previously announcing the creation of a public health clinic for transgender adults, NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged to spend $15 million on improving access for trans youth.
♿️ LGBTQ+ Pride Month is over, but July is Disability Pride Month, marking the anniversary of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. It's a good time to learn the history of the Gang of 19 and other heroes of the movement. Reminder: some studies show queer and trans people are more likely to be disabled than the rest of the population (and a rising tide lifts all boats).
Bright & Buzzy📱
Memes and more.
🐈⬛️ Queer history: Formed this month, in 1973: the Lavender Panthers.
🎤 Comedian Marcello Hernandez explains why “regardless of the race, all gay people are Latino.”
🦈 A shark with an instruction manual.
Shameless Merch Plug 🧢
💦 Queer life in Texas doesn’t quit just because Pride Month is over. Know what else is nonstop this time of year? The heat ☀️🥵! Unlike other rainbow swag, our Texas Pride steel water bottle is free of corporate branding and holds 17 ounces of hydration.
Reach out if you have tips, story ideas, or if you just want to be a little weird, together. (kit@thebarbedwire.com).
🌈 Stay big, bright, and bold,
Kit (They/Them) 💖
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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.
Eight years ago, a moment of humor shared between two women blossomed into a movement for weirdos in North Texas.
In 2018, Haley Ballenger had just moved to Fort Worth from Houston, where her husband had family ties and deep roots but she didn’t know anyone. Casting about for a new social circle, the mother of two joined a book club and hit it off with another mom there like herself.
“We were joking one night,” Ballenger recalled. “Yeah, we're not regular moms, we're cool moms. We were like, yeah, we've got piercings and we've got tattoos and we say bad words. We're not even cool moms, we're weird moms – and it just stuck, right?”
