As major deals happen this offseason, our reporters will grade both GMs.

Jerome H. Powell, whose term does not expire until May, has argued that the central bank can afford to be patient about cutting interest rates amid uncertainty about the economic outlook.

Mr. Combss lead lawyer made a final appeal to the jury, arguing in often sarcastic tones that the governments evidence contradicted its case against the hip-hop mogul.

A district court judge had blocked President Trumps proclamation barring international students from attending the university.

Students at the Kennedy School of Government can study online or finish their degrees at the University of Toronto.

President Trumps megabill makes many Republicans uncomfortable, but that probably wont stop it from becoming law.

I want one in every room. READ MORE...

To celebrate The Ultimatum: Queer Love Season 2, Netflix and Frameline took over SFs first womens sports bar for a night of reality TV, Pride magic, and community vibes.Netflix brought the drama and the community to San Franciscos Castro district this week with a special Pride Month screening of The Ultimatum: Queer Love Season 2 at Rikkis, the citys first womens sports bar. Co-hosted with Frameline Film Festival, the event delivered free bites, a few surprises, and the kind of chaotic queer romance reality TV fans live for.And yes Lexi Goldberg from The Ultimatum: Queer Love Season 1 even made a guest appearance, showing love to the new cast and the local community.We are a womens sports bar, and queer women cannot be disconnected from womens sports, said Danielle Thoe, co-owner of Rikkis. So to see queer, female, and non-binary representation in mainstream media as a part of things that are as silly and fun as reality TV is important. It means theres acceptance and inclusion in the broader media landscape throughout.Rikkis: Born From the SidelinesDanielle co-founded the bar with Sara Yergovich, her former teammate on the San Francisco Spikes LGBTQ+ soccer team. Danielle and I just really wanted somewhere to watch womens sports reliably, Sara shared. Where we could just go and know it was going to be on. And we kind of realized that no one else is going to do it if we didnt.The event held special significance, as it came just weeks after the bars Pride Month grand opening. To be able to have an event during Pride Week with Frameline, Sara added, means that we can engage with the community in a way that we wouldnt have already been able to. Its really cool.First Impressions: Drama, Dating, and Queer Love RealnessGuests came dressed in cocktail chic, sipped on themed drinks, and gave instant reactions to the new season. Drama, Shelby (she/her) and Alice (she/her) said in unison. I only really believe that two couples are genuine, Shelby added with a laugh.As one guest noted during the screening, If youre going on the show and you have to issue something an ultimatum thats kind of a tough spot to be in. Maybe its important for them to break up.Queer Dating Wisdom, Straight From the BarstoolsWhen asked for dating advice, Sara kept it short and powerful: Show up and keep showing up.Another attendee chimed in with her own love-life origin story: Join a queer sports league. I met my girlfriend through gay dodgeball and were in love, and thats beautiful.Netflix + Community = A Win for Queer JoyWith a full house at 2223 Market St., this wasnt just a premiere it was a celebration of queer representation, local business, and chosen family. As Danielle said, Its been an awesome packed night full of all the drama and love and tension youd expect from The Ultimatum. So its been fun.Catch the Drama at HomeThe Ultimatum: Queer Love Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix. New episodes drop weekly through June:Week 1 (May 24): Episodes 14Week 2 (May 31): Episodes 58Week 3 (June 7): Episodes 910So if youre ready to scream at the screen (again), the queer love chaos is just a click away.Source

Brentford have rejected an overall package worth 62.5 million ($85.7 million) for Bryan Mbeumo from Manchester United, sources told ESPN.

The 39-year-old risks the possibility of further damaging the credibility of the last name made famous by his father, Julio Sr.

Also, U.Va.s president resigned under pressure from the Trump administration. Heres the latest at the end of Friday.

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Naz Reid intends to sign a five-year, $125 million contract to remain with the Timberwolves, sources told ESPN.

The ruling left unsettled the question of whether children born to immigrants without full legal status in the United States are entitled to automatic citizenship. So what happens now?

Nearly half the citizens of the tiny Pacific Island nation have already applied in a lottery for Australian visas amid an existential threat from global warming and sea-level rise.

The woman had minor cuts to her left foot and leg after being bitten on Wednesday. She was transported to a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, officials said.

The departure of the five-term lawmaker from Nebraska enhances Democrats chances of picking up a seat in the narrowly divided House.

The ruling completed a clean sweep for the handful of law firms that took the risk of fighting the Trump administration in court, rather than accepting punitive conditions.

BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff responded to a woman's allegations that he raped, strangled and bit her in 2023, calling them "ridiculous and bizarre."

Nick Martinez took a no-hit bid into the ninth inning before allowing pinch-hitter Elias Daz's double and Spencer Steer hit three home runs, leading the Reds over the Padres 8-1 on Friday night.

Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte said a fan in Chicago who brought him to tears during a game against the White Sox this week shouted that he messaged his late mother the previous night.

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Charlotte FC and USMNT striker Patrick Agyemang is closing in on a transfer to Derby County for a fee of $7 million, sources confirmed to ESPN.

Two-time Ballon d'Or winner and Spain national team star Aitana Bonmat has been hospitalized with viral meningitis just six days before the start of the Euro 2025.

The genre known as Boys Love, stories written mostly by and for straight women, has been in the authorities sights for years.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbans party enacted the ban, trying to create a dilemma for the opposition leader. Now it is the government that faces a tough choice.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed a budget bill on Friday that depends in part on rolling back those benefits to help close a $12 billion deficit.

The vote against the measure was mostly along party lines, with Republicans opposing it and Democrats almost unanimously in favor.

The court tied the hands of judges at a time when Congress has been cowed and internal executive branch constraints have been steamrolled.

The jurors will begin deliberating on Monday. The music mogul has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

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Mass immigration arrests have led to overcrowding in detention facilities, with reports of unsanitary and inhumane conditions.

Iranian authorities are sweeping up hundreds of people deemed suspected spies or infiltrators. Some worry the campaign could become a broader crackdown on political opponents and minorities.

England won the Women's Euros in 2022 and will attempt to retain it this summer, but before the fun gets started, let's run through the tournament's memorable moments.

The Democratic mayoral hopeful promises free child care, a $30 minimum wage and a massive tax hike on the citys corporations. But much is not within a mayors control.

Trump schools the Ayatollah on the fine art of truth telling.

Im going to tell you how the people in charge of my country made the truth a crime.

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A procession of marchers honored prominent figures killed during the 12-day war with Israel.

The over-the-top party in the photogenic Italian city mixed Hollywood, Silicon Valley and political overtones.

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Welcome back to the Abstract!Heres some of the most intriguing studies I came across this week: Well lead with a nostalgic trip down memory laneso far down the lane, in fact, that well end up in the Suns infancy 4.6 billion years ago. Most of us didnt have to deal with supernovas exploding in our faces as babies, but thats the kind of environment that might have greeted our newborn star. New research sheds light on when, and how, the Sun left the maelstrom for single life.Then, scientists recreate a perilous ocean voyage from prehistory; a pair of long-lost creatures finally turn up; and orcas become the first marine mammal known to fashion tools.When the Sun declared independenceZwart, Simon Portegies and Huang, Shuo. Oort cloud ecology III. The Suns departure from the parent star cluster shortly after the giant planets formed. Astronomy & Astrophysics.The Sun was not always a loner. It was born alongside thousands of stellar siblings in a dense parent cluster some 4.6 billion years ago before striking out on its own, though the circumstances of its departure remain unclear.Scientists have now searched for clues to solve this mystery in the Oort Cloud, a massive sphere of tiny icy bodies that surrounds the Sun, extending for more than a light year around the entire solar system. The cloud is thought to have been formed by the four giant planetsJupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptuneas they migrated through space, scattering debris to the outer reaches of the solar system where it remains adrift to this day.By running simulations of this tumultuous period, a team of researchers hypothesized that the Sun probably left the nest very early, about 12 to 20 million years after the formation of the giant planets (which were themselves born only a few million years after the Sun). If it had lingered longer, the disruptive environment would have left the Sun with a much smaller Oort cloud, or perhaps none at all.The outer region of the Oort cloud (estimated to be roughly the same mass as Earth) is best explained by the assumption that the Sun left the nest within 20 [million years] after the giant planets formed and migrated, said authors Simon Portegies Zwart of Leiden University and Shuo Huang of Tsinghua University.An early escape also has consequences for the expected number and the proximity of supernovae in the infant Suns neighborhood, the team added. The first supernova typically happens between 8 and 10 [million years] after the clusters birth.In other words, the baby Sun may have been in the blast zone of an exploding star, which could explain the presence of radioactive isotopes preserved in many ancient meteorites. By moving out at the tender age of 20-odd million years old, the Sun may have escaped even more tumult.The team also noted that signatures of the time the Sun spent in the parent cluster must still be visible in the outer parts of the solar system even today. Future observations of the Oort Cloud could help us decipher this rambunctious chapter of the Suns life.A voyage 30,000 years in the makingChang, Yu-Lin et al.Traversing the Kuroshio: Paleolithic migration across one of the worlds strongest ocean currents. Science Advances.Kaifu, Yousuke et al. Paleolithic seafaring in East Asia: An experimental test of the dugout canoe hypothesis. Science Advances.About 30,000 years ago, humans living in prehistoric Taiwan managed to cross about 100 miles of treacherous ocean to colonize the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, including Okinawa. How they accomplished this astonishing feat is a major puzzle, but scientists endeavored to find out the old-old-really-old-fashioned way: recreating the voyage themselves.Using only stone tools that would have been available to Paleolithic humans, they fashioned several watercraft to brave the Kuroshio, one of the worlds strongest ocean currents, said researchers led by Yu-Lin Chang of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in one of two studies about the project out this week.We tested reed-bundle rafts (20142016) and bamboo rafts (20172018) as the first two candidates for possible watercraft, but they were unable to cross the Kuroshio Current, noted researchers led by Yousuke Kaifu of the University of Tokyo in the other study.In 2019, the team finally succeeded with a cedar dugout canoe that they paddled across the 140-mile stretch between Wushibi, Taiwan, and Yonaguni Island in a little over two days.The team in their dugout canoe. Image: 2025 Kaifu et al. CC-By-NDThe results showed that travel across this sea would have been possible on both the modern and Late Pleistocene oceans if a dugout canoe was used with a suitable departure place and paddling strategy, Chang and colleagues concluded.Museums: the worlds biggest lost-and-found boxesSims, Megan et al. Rediscovered lost holotypes of two Paleogene mammals, a Neogene bird, and other published specimens from an orphaned collection. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.Paleontologists dont always have to schlep out into the field to find fossils; discoveries can also be made in the air-conditioned comfort of museum collections.Case in point: Megan Sims, the collections manager at the University of Kansas Vertebrate Paleontology Collection discovered two long-lost specimensthe 45 million-year-old rodent Thisbemys brevicrista and the 30 million-year-old bat Oligomyotis casementorumwhile working through storage. Both fossils are holotypes, meaning that they are considered the reference point for their species as a whole.The rediscovery of the two holotypes that were presumed lost, T. brevicrista and O. casementorum, are reported below, said researchers led by Sims. The bat holotype is particularly important as one of very few bat fossils of Oligocene age from the entire continent of North America, the team noted.As someone who constantly finds lost relics from my past stuffed in dressers and under beds, I find studies like this deeply relatable.A peek inside the orca spaWeiss, Michael et al. Manufacture and use of allogrooming tools by wild killer whales. Current Biology.Orcas fashion tools out of kelp that they then use to groom each other, according to scientists who observed this behavior in a population of resident killer whales (Orcinus orca ater). The team used drones to capture 30 bouts of what the team called allokelping in this endangered orca population in the Salish Sea, providing the first evidence of tool manufacturing in a marine mammal.We observed whales fashioning short lengths of bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) stipe from complete stalks, positioning the stipe between themselves and a partner, and then rolling the kelp along their bodies, said researchers led by Michael Weiss of the Center for Whale Research.We hypothesize that allokelping is a cultural behavior unique to southern resident killer whales. Future work should investigate if and how allokelping is learned, and whether it occurs in other killer whale societies.Thanks for reading! Well be off next weekend for the Fourth of July holiday. May your next two weeks be as restorative as an orca massage.

Subscribe nowOn June 18, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld Tennessees ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The 6-3 ruling is expected to have a broad impact as 24 other states have already enacted similar laws, which bar puberty blockers, hormone therapy (HRT) and gender transition surgeries for trans youth.As of 2024, 46% of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered suicide, and many advocates say this is in part because of their inability to access gender-affirming care.Uncloseted Media wanted to pass the microphone to the kids and young adults who could be directly affected by SCOTUS decision. So we called up Romana, Zavier, Ray, Dylan and Samuelwho are all receiving some form of gender-affirming careto get their reaction to the decision.Subscribe for accountability journalism.Watch the full interview above or read the transcript here:Spencer: Hi everyone, I am here with five trans kids and young adults from across the United States. Guys, thank you so much for speaking with me and Uncloseted Media today.All: Thank you for having us.Spencer: Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 in a landmark case that prohibits health care providers [and] doctors from administering gender-affirming care to minors. That includes puberty blockers and HRT. I want to know, where were you guys when you heard the news and what was your reaction to that?Samuel: So I've been following this case since November. I think the ruling's ridiculous. I think it'll kill kids.Spencer: When you say this ruling is going to kill kids, that is a really bold statement. Why do you say that?Samuel: It's a bold statement. The care that enables so many people to live their lives. I think taking that possibility away from people who need it is incredibly cruel and short-sighted.Romana: I felt disgusted, especially since I think [its] just from [the] hate. And I know people who gender-affirming care has saved the life of as teenagers. And I think every kid should be able to have that. And also, this ruling makes me scared that a state might try to ban trans care for adults.Spencer: It could be a slippery slope.Romana: Yeah, definitely.Spencer: When you think about your future as a trans person without the care, what does that look like for you? Why is that so devastating?Dylan: Because there's not one.Samuel: Yeah.Spencer: Unpack that a little bit more. Why? Like, why do you think there is not one?Photo courtesy of Dylan Brandt.Dylan: Personally, now that I have had [testosterone] for almost five years, there would be no way that I would be able to lose everything that I have worked so hard for... And go back to living a life that was not me.Spencer: Would you compare it to, like, if I were being forced to live as a woman every single day? Is it the exact same thing to you?Dylan: Absolutely. I mean, if you were forced to be living [as] a woman and you, that was not something that you wanted? Absolutely.Samuel: I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. When I was younger, it almost killed me then. I couldn't do it now. I think they'd have to kill me to force me to stop transitioning because it saved my life. I think living as myself, living as Sam, as a man, is so integral to who I am. For somebody to even try to force me to stop that would include stopping me entirely, if that makes sense.Spencer: Okay, let's talk about Donald Trump. Trump has tasked several federal agencies to police and ultimately stop gender-affirming care for minors, which he has equated to child abuse and child sexual mutilation. He's also falsely stated that kids are going to school and coming back with sex changes. I wanna know, as a trans kid, what would you say if you could talk to President Trump right now?Ray: It's kind of painful to hear the same argument that he pulls out of his asshole every single time just because he wants to weaponize the fact that we're a marginalized community and people are afraid of us because they don't understand so his tactic to basically throw people off is to make us look like we're indoctrinating kids. We're coming back from school with surgeries. Which, by the way, you don't just go to school and be like, Ah, yes, I would like a surgery please.Subscribe nowSpencer: Do you guys feel sometimes like you're being used by adults as political pawns?Ray: All the time!Dylan: Yeah, I have been fighting this fight for so long that I'm not even necessarily surprised by what's said anymore. I think that if I could say something directly to Trump, it wouldn't be very nice. Because at this point I'm done being nice. At this point I'm just mad, because it has gotten to a point where they're toying with people's lives. They are toying with people's lives making us look like monsters for their political gain. Because if they have people on their side that think that we are everything that they say they are, people are gonna believe em.Spencer: Especially when most Americans have never even met a trans person before.Dylan: Absolutely.Spencer: And trans people represent, as far as we know, less than one percent of the overall population.Romana: I feel like a political pawn, because there's so much talk about trans people and so much legislation passed around it and it just feels like we're being used as a scapegoat and just someone to put the blame on and hate on in society. If I could say something to President Trump, I would proudly say something like, Just leave us alone.Photo courtesy of Romana. Spencer: It's hard for me to square away why [Trump] would make trans issues the number one platform of [his] campaign when it's such a small percentage of the population. It doesn't really make sense mathematically.Samuel: I think to your point, it's exactly because it's a small area of the population. For a lot of these politicians, the hate is real. But to some extent, it's like we are the issue they can use right now because we're such a small community that we're targetable. It's the small size of the transgender community and the lack of education that the general public has that is what drives being able to target this group.Spencer: I think there's a lot of misinformation in the United States about what gender-affirming health care actually is. So tell me what gender-affirming health care means to you and how did you make the decision to get on it?Dylan: It took me a really long time to realize or to put words to how I was feeling. And once I did, I spoke with my primary doctor who referred me to the gender spectrum clinic in Little Rock. And I went, had my first appointment with them. And that was a six-month process where you meet with those doctors multiple times. You have to be in therapy. You have to get a psychiatric evaluation to make sure that you are doing this for the right reason. And when I tell people that they're like, Oh! I didn't know that. I didn't know that there was a process, and I [would say], Yeah, I'm not just walking in and saying, Hey can I have it? And then with my top surgery too. I had to have been in therapy. I had to get letters of recommendation. I had to get it signed off, basically, by multiple people. Gender-affirming care, to me, is hope. I graduated last year, and I never thought that I would make it to graduation, and the only reason that I did is because of my gender-affirming care. I've been on testosterone for almost five years, and even up until four years ago I was just so unhappy with the way that I looked, with the way I felt. I didn't want to go out, I didn't want to go do anything, and now I do.Sam: I think I resonate with everything Dylan said, from the length of the process to the sort of life-saving benefits. I don't think I would have made it to 18 without starting care at 14 when I did. I was just so uncomfortable, but the process is long. I think it was two years because my parents weren't really sure about care at first.Spencer: I think one of the critiques a lot of adults in this country have on gender-affirming care is that there are irreversible impacts, right? And for things like testosterone, like there are things like facial hair, for example, that you can't fully go back on, right? Was that decision hard to make when you know that sometimes there will be elements of this that could be not completely reversible?Photo courtesy of Samuel.Sam: I can see why it would be a hard decision for a lot of people and I think in some ways that's like why there's so many safety checks and it's also why maybe my parents were so. You know, like...Spencer: Cautious?Sam: Nervous, yeah. Especially because they were like, oh, you know my daughter now, you're no longer my daughter and that was a huge adjustment. But for me, as long as I've been out, I've known that this is what I wanted to do. Like once I had the language to be able to say, Yeah, I'm trans, and knew that that was the path I wanted to go down. So in the end, after considering everything, it wasn't really a hard decision.Spencer: And Zavier, you are 11. A lot younger than everyone else on this panel, and it sounds like you are taking blockers, which to any Americans watching are completely reversible and have been given to cisgender girls for things like precocious puberty for decades. Zavier, what does gender-affirming care mean to you?Photo courtesy of Zavier.Zavier: Well, when I was 3 years old, I came out and I was wanting to be trans. Once I got older, my parents, they put me on blockers and let me take medicine for it.Spencer: A lot of people, adults particularly, would say, how could a kid ever know at 3 that they're trans? What would you say to that? How did you know?Zavier: I just saw people. I just thought about wanting to be trans and I've wanted to be trans ever since.Spencer: And you've always felt like a boy?Zavier: Yeah.Spencer: And Ray, how about you? When did you kind of know you were trans or start having feelings that you could be trans and what's the process for you been like to get on gender-affirming care?Ray: I've known since I was like 6, 7-ish. I've always wanted to be the dad, always wanted to be a king. I didn't want to be a queen, none of that. It took about seven to eight months of doctors visits. First we had to make sure my mental health was good. So they prescribed me like Strattera and other types of medicines to help elevate my levels and stuff. And then they eventually put me on testosterone.Spencer: And how has that been for you, the transformation? Has that felt good?Ray Oh, I feel like myself now, finally! I feel like everybody in this call or this meeting feels like themself after they finally take their hormones.Subscribe nowSpencer: So for me, a cisgender gay boy growing up, I'd want to wear my mom's clothes and kind of act like a girl and do different things that would tap into my femininity. But there's never been a question that I could be a trans woman, right? What do you think is the difference between how you guys feel versus how I feel about wanting to explore my gender?Dylan: So in my house, I've had both. You know, my brother is a 17-year-old gay man. And when he was little, he did. He put on my dresses and my mom's high heels and boots and everything. And so we had that, and then we had me. From the time I could dress myself wanting strictly jeans and t-shirts, and nobody was allowed to touch my hair. And there is so much of a difference. My brother was exploring that, and I don't want to say exploring that as in a hobby, and I was exploring it more as a lifestyle. That sounds wrong to me. But that's the best way I can explain it.Spencer: A big difference could be comparing it to some gay guys [who] like to dress up in drag on Halloween. You want Halloween to be every single day for the rest of your life.Dylan: My entire life, yes, yes.Spencer: Take me more into your mind about the feelings of wellness, of health, if you are able to live as your gender identity.Photo courtesy of Dylan.Dylan: The validation started the moment I cut my hair off. I mean, from that moment, I opened the door for somebody. It was, Thank you, sir. We went out to eat with my mom, me and my brother. What do you boys want? I mean it was right off the bat. And that's honestly what made me realize that's who I was supposed to be, because it made me feel so good. I mean, even to this day, somebody calling me sir or any form of male affirmation, anything, makes me feel so good. Just knowing that these random people in the deep south have no clue who they're talking to. And if they did, their reaction would be way different. But the fact that these country hicks in the Deep South, who I know voted for Trump, are calling me sir or bub or anything? Makes me feel so good about myself knowing that they have no idea.Subscribe nowSpencer: And Zavier, how about you? You're the youngest, why is it important for you to transition at such a young age?Zavier: When I was growing up and people would call me a girl, I would just not feel like I was a girl. And when they said that I would just be like, No, inside my head.Spencer: And do you play on the boys sports teams and do you use the boys bathroom?Zavier: I do use the boys bathroom and my parents are signing me up for kickboxing.Spencer: Love it, that's super cool, yeah. And you feel great since you've transitioned. Is there ever any regret or feeling like, I wanna go back to living as a girl? No? And that would be the case for everyone here is my sense, right? No regret, no sense of de-transitioning, anything like that, yeah? Do you guys find that when you meet people and actually have conversations with them about who you are and why you need this care, hearts and minds are changed, does that help?Sam: Yeah.Spencer: You're shaking your heads. Yeah, go ahead.Dylan: [In my] School, everybody knew, I live in a small town. It wasn't a secret. Even the 60 Minutes episode, I mean, you have no idea how many people watched that and came to me and said, I am so sorry. I never thought about it the way that you put it. I didn't understand until I watched that. Like there were so many people in my school and work that [60 Minutes] truly changed the way that they thought about the transgender community. People have this pre-idea of what the transgender community is. And it's just not, at all, how it actually is. And you don't know that until you speak with somebody that is living it.Spencer: And to your point on misinformation, I mean, if you turn on Fox News, which is the most watched cable news channel in this country right now, misinformation is rampant.There are comparisons that gender-affirming care is literally just bottom surgeries or so-called general mutilation. What do you think those media portrayals of trans kids and gender-affirming care for trans kids does to the mindset of Americans as they see you guys?Dylan: They see that people are talking about giving 7-year-olds bottom surgery at school. Yeah, that could be scary to somebody that doesn't understand. You see that, and your brain automatically goes to, Oh, that's not right. They can't do that. That's not right.Spencer: But thats not happening.Dylan: That's not happening, absolutely. But, you see that as somebody that doesn't know for sure that that's not happening. And I mean, yeah, I don't blame them for being like, Oh, we have to stop this. But it's that misinformation of people saying, Oh this is happening when it's not. So they're scaring people for no reason.Romana: I definitely agree that they make it sound really scary. And I've met people who've thought that way. I think the news really paints trans children especially as victims of being trans, which isn't true. Or like, you're being groomed into it, which doesn't happen.Spencer: Zavier, as an 11-year-old, have you even had conversations about surgeries or anything like that?Zavier: The answer is no, because I'm only 11 years old, and I started the blockers about a year ago. So, since I'm 11 years old and you usually get surgeries at like 17 or 18, maybe. Nobodys talked about it to me. Because if I change my mind, which I probably won't, it's in like six, seven years.Spencer: Right, and you started on blockers because it gives you more time to delay puberty so you can still give yourself time to make up your mind. Right? And that's something that I'm assuming you're exploring with your family and your doctor to decide what's best for you, is that right?Zavier: Yeah.Spencer: Ray, is it okay if I speak about the experience we had in South Carolina?Ray: Yeah.Spencer: Okay, well, we came to film an episode on conservative-minded dads. May your dad rest in peace, I know he passed away, and I'm so sorry about that. When we were filming with your dad, who was a military veteran, who was kind of a redneckcan I say that? From Georgia. I remember him saying to me, This is completely against Republican ideology, get the government the hell out of my child's doctor's office. Do you guys have anything to say about why it's all Republicans coming after trans health care when it really is completely opposite to how conservatives see government intervention in family health care and parents rights?Ray: Republicans are really bad at realizing that everything is not their business. We have HIPAA for a reason. They don't seem to grasp the concept that they don't to be in everybody's lives. They feel like they have to protect these children, even though they're not really protecting them.Spencer: Is it fair to say that like gender-affirming care can be complicated and it can be nuanced and we need to have conversations about nuance by this but it's tough to have those when you have people just attacking, attacking, attacking?Samuel: Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's medicine and all medicine is complex. Doctors and patients and their families are more qualified than politicians.Photo courtesy of Ray.Ray: Politicians, they don't have like a degree in anything to be able to say, Oh, this is bad. Like they've never done the research. They do not have a qualification. Until I see them have an MD, they don't have any qualifications to say anything. And I do believe research should be done. I mean, everything has so many different symptoms for every different person. I believe research is very important.Dylan: Lawmakers don't need to be involved in my doctor visits. They have no right. They have no knowledge. I just They've got a lane and they should stay in it.If objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:Donate to Uncloseted MediaSubscribe now

Here are this weeks most popular positive stories, with some fun social media posts tossed in too. Like seeing uplifting content like this?Sign up for our Good News email.This weeks Good News roundup has lots of love and romance, and for good reason: Its the 10th anniversary of the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide! In fact, we have an entire special edition dedicated to it check it out!And if you want even more good news, did you know the number of out LGBTQ+ elected officials has tripled since 2017? Have you heard about Brooklyns new drag school thats teaching gender expression as a form of resistance? And how about the fierce team of trans women thats working to fight every anti-LGBTQ+ bill in the nation? Thats right were marching with Pride straight through June and into July, folks. Hold your heads up high! Heres an early depiction of pansies from queer cinema history Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today View this post on Instagram A post shared by Turner Classic Movies (@tcm) Eight years in & this couple is still madly in love: He says I am a handsome guy!Eric Crossley & Elcides Flores hit a home run when they met through a personals ad.Drag Race finalist Lexi Love announces engagement with heartwarming photosThe category is wedding glam realness, as Love and fianc Jay Groff announced their plan to tie the knot. This queer family has three loving dads & no theyre not a throupleThey want the world to know that family is whatever you want it to be. Sister Boom Book explains it all View this post on Instagram A post shared by professor of bay areaology (@bay_area_nostalgia)This couple has marched for LGBTQ+ rights for over 40 years. Theyve got no plans to stop fighting.The married couple says they have the younger generations backs in their own march for equality. Modern Family star Aubrey Anderson-Emmons comes out as bisexual using iconic moment from the showThe actress who played Lily is ready to celebrate Pride Month. How marriage equality gave trans people another expected freedom tooBefore Obergefell, this couple spent years trapped in matrimony. Now, the landmark ruling has become pivotal for trans rights in more ways than one.Gay comedian Paul Lyndes balloon outfit pops onscreen! View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Broadway Enthusiast (@broadwayfocus) Queer educators unveil 10 new LGBTQ+ lessons for California public schoolsIts utterly transformativeand truly history-making. Delaware is now a sanctuary state for gender-affirming care in move to protect privacy & dignityOne advocate said the move shows what happens when people with lived experience are trusted to help shape policy.Community center marks 10 years of Obergefell with 10 queer weddingsThe centers CEO described the event as an affirmation of both love and the power of activism. Lets all take Divines advice and go relax View this post on Instagram A post shared by Queer Cinema Archive (@queer.cinema.archive) From our sibling sites:QUEERTY: Dean DeBlois, the queer director behind How To Train Your Dragon, has a message for fansOUTSPORTS: LGBTQ Sports Hall of Fame recognizes Billy Bean and his impact on baseball with major awardINTO: More makeup looks to finish out Pride strongGAYCITIES: The softball league that increased lesbian visibility and started a stereotype