(image via Instagram)Some news items you might have missed:
• Louisiana Illuminator: Southern Decadence, advertised as the largest LGBTQ+ festival held annually in the Deep South, is scheduled for Labor Day weekend (Sept. 1-5) in New Orleans. It typically attracts 100,000 to 300,000 participants. Health officials fear it could become a monkeypox superspreader event.
With limited monkeypox vaccine, the Southern Decadence festival in New Orleans is raising concerns, but the federal government has resisted calls from Louisiana health officials to provide more vaccine https://t.co/fV6Lv6gDuD via @JSODonoghue #lalege #lagov
— Melinda Deslatte (@MelindaDeslatte) August 4, 2022
• The Guardian: A small-town library is at risk of shutting down after residents of Jamestown, Michigan, voted to defund it rather than tolerate certain LGBTQ+-themed books. The move harms not just readers but residents who use the facility for wifi connections.
• Axios: Attorneys general from 16 states have filed an amicus brief opposing Florida’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, arguing it lacks educational merit and harms students and teachers.
16 states sue to block Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” lawhttps://t.co/Go5eLKcUa6
— Axios (@axios) August 4, 2022
• The Advocate: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán fired up the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday saying, in part, the world needs “less drag queens, and more Chuck Norris.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán fired up the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference with a speech heavy on anti-LGBTQ+ and Christian right rhetoric. https://t.co/FBaZIwtqXG
— The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag) August 5, 2022
• Kenneth-in-the-212: Check out Kenneth’s weekly round-up of the what’s what in LGBTQ publications like drag queen supreme Nina West on the cover of Between The Lines.
• Law and Crime: Ricky Willden, 41, who unleashed a can of chemical spray on police officers guarding the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been sentenced to two years behind bars.
• Justice Department: Thomas Patrick Connally, Jr., 57, has been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for making numerous, gruesome death threats to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
In a July ’21 email to #TonyFauci @NIH Thomas Patrick Connally Jr. wrote, “I will slaughter your entire family. You will pay with your children’s blood for your crimes.”
It was neither the 1st, nor last of his threats to the #COVID19 advisor to #POTUS .https://t.co/ledlDiBVPY— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 5, 2022