By Ann Rostow—
Words Fail Him
I was going to lead off with some analysis of a High Court case coming up next year that will decide whether a Catholic school may take part in Colorado’s Universal Preschool program while they discriminate against LGBT kids and their parents. But then I went through some headlines from The Advocate and found a montage of right-wing pundits slamming Joe Biden for getting an ice cream cone while, by implication, totally ignoring the responsibilities of the presidency. There must have been a dozen clips of really outraged talking heads pointing out that no one gets ice cream in December, that Biden must be senile, that he clearly has too much time on his hands and, as mentioned, that he couldn’t care less about the problems facing the United States. It was Obama’s tan suit all over again.
But then I saw some Trump clips, including one about Venezuela where he seemed to forget the word “earthquake.” He rambled about the, uh, horrible thing that happened there with the moving of the earth, and tried a few other simplistic efforts before finally saying something like, “I guess they call it an earthquake,” as if introducing an arcane scientific term. No one covered this! Well, maybe someone did, but we’ve seen months and months of dementia on full display and Republican commentators avoid the subject. The man cannot produce more than a limited handful of words at any given time, yet no one from the conservative media gives a flying fig.
As for the reason I wound up on the ice cream videos, it’s because I clicked on a piece about JD Vance on The Joe Rogan Experience, where JD accused Biden of eating ice cream cones in a suggestive manner. Vance went on to comment about how he never wants to be seen eating a corn dog in public. Even Joe couldn’t follow these bizarre impressions, saying he sees nothing strange about eating corn dogs or bananas or other items that Vance seems to find excessively provocative.
This brings me to my final thought. I have an ongoing difference of opinion with my wife, who longs for the end of the Trump era, the sooner the better. I, on the other hand, want Trump to finish his full term. Two more years of this shambolic government, run by a man with the mental capacity of a basset hound, should leave us in good shape to win the presidency in 2028, and it should also spell the end of Vance’s near-term relevance. From what I gather, Vance is worse than Trump in a number of respects. He’s a conspiracy theorist, a Christian nationalist (or close to it), and a human ball of ambition. He has a smarmy manner, and, if he’s given a one or two-year head start on the presidency, who knows what would happen in 2028?
Gender Bending, Hegseth Style
Now we can move to Colorado. Or not! I’m moving on to testosterone. A week or so ago, I happened to read a fairly long article about the nuances of testosterone, which is most useful in fathering children, but harmful to fertility if taken in excess. Interestingly, men who become fathers have lower testosterone, as it is (I think I recall) something of a barrier to child rearing itself. Also, Navy SEALS and other elite soldiers have lower testosterone as their bodies react to intense physical effort, pain, and stress.
I’m not sure, because, if I now google “testosterone,” that article is gone—supplanted by the many other reports of Pete Hegseth’s comic book plan to check older men in uniform for low T.
Readers, where do we start? The absurdity of the most anti-transgender administration in history suggesting we fool around with sex hormones? The juxtaposition of the two young Latina servicewomen who were just killed in the Iran war with Hegseth’s disdain for women and people of color? The lookmaxxing trend, which Hegseth seems to echo and that has its roots in the incel community? (I think one of those guys just died of something. Will check!) The homoeroticism of the whole Hegseth performance as Secretary of Defense? The impracticality of testing roughly 500,000 men with a single blood draw that, by itself, won’t deliver a clear medical result?
According to Hegseth and company, no one will be required to boost their testosterone, but treatment will be available to any man who tests on the low side. Testosterone declines naturally as you reach 30, but I assume some of the guys won’t be happy unless their T hits the bell on the top of the pole.
Okay, the lookmaxxer was Connor Murphy, 32, an influencer with 2.7 million followers on YouTube and Instagram. He died in Thailand on July 7, 2026, after acting erratically, jumping into a lake, swimming for a few minutes, becoming exhausted, and drowning. He had two unused syringes and some pills in his bag, according to People. Oh, and his rented villa was covered in black and yellow paint, which his girlfriend said appeared overnight. It’s sad. Murphy looked like Pete Hegseth’s dream soldier and I’ll bet the man’s T was as high as he seemed to be when he went all Jackson Pollock on the walls of someone else’s property.
Before we bid adieu to this subject, The Advocate recently reported that Judge Ana Reyes, who is running one of two transgender military cases, formally asked the Defense Department to explain the double standard they seem to have demonstrated with their new High T program. It’s worth reading all six points that Judge Reyes now wants briefed by Hegseth:
“(1) medical guidelines associated with routine screening for testosterone deficiency in the general population and in individuals with symptoms and signs of testosterone deficiency;
(2) medical guidelines for monitoring the administration of TRT;
(3) the similarities and differences in administering TRT, both medically and logistically, for trans men compared to other service members, including cis individuals;
(4) the medical costs associated with screening for testosterone deficiency and providing TRT to service members who do not identify as trans;
(5) the Department’s basis for treating trans men and other service members differently between this new policy and the Military Ban; and
(6) any other information or clarification the parties wish to present on this topic.”
I love this judge.
A Matter of Time
Getting back to the Supreme Court, I was one of those people who thought Sam Alito might resign after this term ended at the end of June, allowing Trump and the current Senate to replace him with a youthful version of himself. Veteran Court watcher Nina Totenberg accidentally announced his resignation in a mistaken post that suggested she too expected him to take advantage of the timing. Alito is 76, so the rumors made sense, and actually Clarence Thomas is 78, so he seems in a good position to resign as well. We all saw what happened as Ginsburg decided to roll the dice on terminal cancer when Obama was in office, and almost made it to the Biden years. Emphasis on almost.
Yet it seems as if both these men are reluctant to disrobe. Some might say that it doesn’t matter, since they would both be replaced by conservatives. But it’s hard to imagine two worse justices. Whoever comes next will almost certainly be an improvement, although you never know what horror might appear when Trump and company scrape the bottoms of the barrels. At least next year, a chastened Senate would possibly hold the president to some account. We can still pray for an actual Democratic majority, which would change the picture even more.
I mentioned that next year we’ll see yet another religious freedom case out of Colorado, where the state’s civil rights law has taken a licking from this Court multiple times. As usual, there’s a gay angle, with the Archdiocese of Denver claiming that its 34 preschools are being denied access to Colorado’s Universal Preschool program. Why? Well, it’s because Colorado requires participating schools to abide by the state’s laws against discrimination, which include sexual orientation.
The case also involves Employment Division v Smith, Justice Scalia’s 1990 opinion that said you cannot claim religious discrimination under a neutral law of general applicability. Indeed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit relied on this precedent in ruling for Colorado’s right to impose civil rights conditions on its program participants.
The Diocese asked the Court to consider three questions in its petition. The Court accepted questions one and two (which I’m not getting into for now), but significantly rejected question three, which asked whether Employment Division v Smith should be overruled. It’s significant because conservatives are not shy about their disdain for Employment Division v Smith, which they accuse of using vague terms and making life tough for religious actors. In a 2021 case, Fulton v City of Philadelphia, the Court nearly overruled Employment Division v Smith, but were stopped short by Justice Barrett, who pointed out that there was no replacement in law for its usefulness. In that case, Catholic Charities wanted to offer foster care services but refused to consider GLBT foster parents, and so were denied access under city law. The Court ruled for Catholic Charities, but based their decision on the idea that discriminatory exceptions had been made for other groups, ergo Philadelphia could not block the Catholics. If I recall correctly, the other exemptions were completely different, like matching foster kids with parents of their race or something sensible that had nothing to do with prejudice.
That’s enough of that. I’ll be interested in the outcome here, but I have no illusions. The majority will find an “exception” that allowed some school somewhere to do something wholly unrelated and that will open the door for another Catholic victory.
Pot Pourri
What else is new, you might ask? There’s a gay male thriller on Prime called In the Grey that got lousy reviews. Why mention it? Because I read an article that said it was much better than the reviews. Do we have time to watch things that may or may not be better than their bad press? We each have to decide for ourselves.
Much is being made of rapist Andrew Tate’s effeminate attire during his recent arrest. Tate wore a purple blouse, black capri pants, and flat black shoes that drew all sorts of titters and jitters from the manosphere he supposedly represents. I didn’t read the full list of his horrible behaviors. Thank the lord Trump didn’t prevent him and his nasty brother from being extradited to the U.K. to face charges.
I guess there’s a gay Republican Florida representative, Fabian Basabe, who finds himself owing nearly half a million bucks in damages to two former staffers who sued him for sexual harassment. This ham hock decided to defend himself in civil court and will pay a price for that hubris. Why do some people have such a low esteem for lawyers that they think they’d do a better job? This guy didn’t go to law school. He was a reality TV personality, for God’s sake, which brings me to another question: Why do people think politics should be handled by “non politicians?” It’s hard, tedious work, if done right, and experience and relationships are critical.
And, speaking of politicians, I see here that Hunter Biden joined the podcast I’ve Had It and railed against closeted gay men who use homophobia to cover their internal anxieties. He name checked Mike Johnson for having a Grindr account, which is unfortunately unproven. But then he described Johnson’s “accountability partnership” with his son, who was a teenager in 2023 when Johnson confessed the two of them monitored each other’s porn consumption using software called “Covenant Eye.”
I mean think about it. Vance and his creepy sexual imagination, Johnson having to rein himself back from porn addiction and enlisting his young son as a spotter? What’s wrong with these paradigms of Christian masculinity?
Lastly, did you read about the coffee shop in Spokane that posted a sign outside reading “Trans women are retarded men.” What the hell? The 2nd Base Espresso took it down, and posted “Calm Your Tits,” while spouting off about the First Amendment as if a Constitutional ban on government interference with speech prevents a business from public criticism. The offensive comment doesn’t even make sense!
GLBT Fortnight in Review
Published on July 30, 2026
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