6 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | NEWS
news The top national and world news since last issue you should know by Craig Ogan
George Santos, not gone, will not return The U. S. House of Representatives released its Ethics Committee Report on Republican New York Representative George Santo. Santos claims to be gay, though no one believes it, and had hoped this status might protect him from trouble. Do not look for his expulsion this Congress yet. Santos is part of a four-seat Republican majority, which gives them the speakership and committee chairs. After the report’s release, he announced he wouldn’t run for reelection, but who can believe a word out of his mouth? The ethics committee made a referral to the U. S. Department of Justice for actions the committee identified as criminal, including using campaign funds for personal purposes and filing false campaign reports. The committee found “a complex web of unlawful activity involving personal and business finances. Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
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New U. S. House Speaker The new Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives is being criticized for what is considered “anti-2SLGBTAIA activity” before his election to Congress. The Human Rights Campaign denounced the Speaker and those who voted for him. “The MAGA House majority has selected the most anti-equality Speaker in U.S. history by elevating Mike Johnson — this is a choice that will be a stain on the record of everyone who voted for him.” As an attorney for “pro-family groups,” he wrote editorials opposing eliminating legal restrictions on sodomy, were against marriage equality, and opined that “the homosexual lifestyle” was destructive to individuals, families, and society. In the Louisiana legislature, he introduced a “religious freedom” bill that was thought could legalize discrimination against married same-sex couples. In Congress, he introduced a version of the Florida law critics call “Don’t Say Gay.” In news interviews, he says marriage equality and non-discrimination are now the law of the land, and he has other priorities as House Speaker.
Time wounds all heels The former Florida lawmaker who sponsored the controversial law critics call “Don’t Say Gay” has been sent to prison for six months for wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements in connection with COVID-19 relief fund misuse. He got $150,000 from the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program by making false statements and then using the
money for personal expenses.
School book fairs The Scholastic Book Fair’s good intentions to create a separate category for books with LGBTQ+ themes and information met opposition, but not from “book banners.” Scholastic provides educational material for public schools and runs book fairs where students may browse the offerings in person or online. The problem? PEN America, a free speech group and partner of Scholastic, believes the separate catalog accommodates the “nefarious laws and local pressures” and makes them “an accessory to government censorship.” More than 30 states have legislation aiming to restrict certain books in schools, specifically ones that include LGBTQ+ topics and racial diversity. Red Wine & Blue, a political group of “liberal moms,” also started a petition against the separate book selection.
Florida drag restriction law blocked A U.S. Supreme Court and the Circuit Court of Appeals have upheld a decision that Florida cannot enforce the law barring businesses from allowing children to view live entertainment deemed inappropriate for young eyes. circuit court judge ruled the law “creates an unnecessary risk of chilling free speech.” Florida wanted to enforce the law while they appealed the ruling, and the court said, “No.” The Supreme Court ruled that there was no “reasonable probability” that the Court would eventually grant certiorari on the case. Orlando’s Hamburger Mary’s, which runs a “Drag Brunch” that allows children to attend with parents or
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December, 2023
guardians, challenged the law’s constitutionality.
Queers for Palestine, no tit for tat “Queers for Palestine” decry Israeli army activity in Gaza after the massacre by Hamas and the call for ‘decolonization” of Palestine. What do Palestinians think of the Queer support? Palestine ranks #190 out of 197 countries, according to HRC’s “LGBTQ+ Equality Index.” Homosexuality is punishable by death in Palestinian-controlled areas. Many gay Palestinians flee to Israel, which has quite liberal laws for a place, like Utah, established by adherents of a socially conservative religion. Islamic scholar Mohammed Saleem Ali said in a sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem that the Palestinian people will not allow a single homosexual to openly declare “his abomination,” and that they will not “allow a single homosexual on the land of Jerusalem and Palestine.”
Japan’s baby steps on gender change Japan’s top court found that some of a law governing gender marker changes was unconstitutional. That portion required a person changing gender markers to be sterilized. This brings Japan into line with the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations. The Court sent a second provision of the law requiring the genitals of the person wanting to change the marker to correspond to the sex they claim back to a lower court for deliberation. No changes in the genitalia requirement will leave Japan in line with Iran and some other Mid-East, Eastern European, and African countries’ laws.
