Jinkx Monsoon decries drag show bans
RuPaul's Drag Race star Jinkx Monsoon has continued to denounce Republicans' attempts to restrict drag performances, as she did on Friday last week on MSNBC. She evoked notions of American values of equality, and the idea that social progress has marched on in spite of everything.

"What I want to say to the people trying to oppress my community right now is look at what's happened every time you've tried to oppress a community in America," Monsoon told Stephanie Ruhle. "You tried to oppress women; women got the vote. You tried to oppress people of color; we're not accepting that anymore.

"We're not accepting that some citizens just have to sit on the outside and be the outliers of our society, because that's not what this country was supposedly founded on."

Monsoon also railed against the pervasive dogma of natural law: "We have been conditioned to believe that there is a 'right' and 'wrong' way to do things and that there's a 'natural' and 'unnatural' way to do things. Imagine how infuriating that would be if you spent your whole life following the rules and then you were told those rules don't actually exist."

As for advice to Queer people in light of the rise of anti-LGBTQ legislation, Monsoon said, "We need you with us to keep fighting for our freedoms and liberties and equalities, and if you have to move to a more metropolitan area until the rest of the country catches up, you know, do what it takes to keep yourself safe and find your community so that you can live your live truthfully and unapologetically."

Kentucky GOP rushes gender-affirming care ban
On Thursday last week, shouts filled the Senate chamber in Frankfort as Kentucky lawmakers passed by overwhelming majority a measure that would ban gender-affirming care for minors. The bill had seemingly stalled the day before, but a GOP supermajority propelled it to passage.

From there, the bill went to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, whose likely veto is unlikely to hold up. Still, he had this to say about the measure:

"The other thing I believe is every child is a child of God, every single one, and that we know from all the statistics that this type of bill will lead to an increase in teen suicides in Kentucky. I can tell you, I will never be able to support a bill that's going to lead to increased suicides."

Beshear also said that the legislation infringes on parents' and guardians' rights to make "very personal" medical decisions with the guidance of their doctors, amounting to "big government stepping in and imposing its will" on families.

Jerry Miller, a Republican who once served in the House, essentially told lawmakers that there were bigger fish to fry.

"This bill condemns vulnerable children to an even more difficult life than they've already been born into. Please don't let a parent's right to protect their children be collateral damage in the culture wars."