Today is Day of Silence at many schools across the US, at least at those with the courage to ignore Trump's threats against DEI and against the lgbtq community. On this day, many students and teachers take a vow of silence in solidarity with lgbtq people throughout the world who are silenced by homophobic and transphobic laws, threats and violence, and to help educate their peers about homophobia and transphobia.

I am proud to say that scores of my students (both gay and straight) participated today by wearing stickers and, in many cases, remaining silent for the entire morning.

Covid is no worse than the flu?

I know, I have now led dozens of posts over the past few years with this sarcastic question. But now, with the pandemic officially declared over by the politicians and the majority of the public behaving as though Covid19 is no longer a threat, it seems particularly apropos in light of the reasons for declaring the pandemic over: to get people back to work and back to consuming. Yet, as the data from this study show, Long Covid has had an enormous negative impact on the income and quality of life for millions of Americans, particularly the poor and working class, and particularly for African Americans and women.

*Nearly 1 in 7 working-age adults in the U.S. had experienced Long Covid by the end of 2023
*Socially disadvantaged adults were 152% more likely to suffer from Long Covid
*Groups with higher risk for Long Covid include being Black, LGBTQ, Hispanic, Female, or low income
*In 2022, people with Long Covid lost $211 billion in wages
*In 2023, people with Long Covid lost $218 billion in wages

One reason for the disproportionate effect of Long Covid on marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC and poor people, is that these groups suffer disproportionately from chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone, Cortisol, due to the stress caused by racism, sexism, homophobia, and poverty. Elevated Cortisol levels are also associated with increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, as well as impaired immune function.

For a really good documentary on the Social Determinants of Health and the relationship between racism and poverty on stress/cortisol levels and negative health outcomes, please see the Unnatural Causes video series

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/studies-1-7-us-working-age-adults-report-long-covid-heaviest-burden-poor

Kristin Du Mez, Gene Weingarten, and John Ismay report on the 381 books that Trump-Hegseth have removed from the Naval Academy Library in a purge of books by and focusing on Black authors, women, LGBTQ people, etc.

For those of us looking for good books to read, a valuable list….

#Trump #Hegseth #DEI #racism #misogyny #homophobia #education #libraries

https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/problem-protest-insult-dog

https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/the-whitewash

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/us/politics/naval-academy-dei-books-removed.html

https://www.europesays.com/1946753/ Hungarians protest Pride ban; Budapest mayor promises LGBTQ+ support #budapest #DonaldTrump #hír #homophobia #hungary #Magyarország #pride #Russia #UnitedNations #ViktorOrbán #VladimirPutin #world

“A surge of grant cancellations hit researchers focused on the health of gay, lesbian and #transgender people last week, as the Trump administration continues to target what it describes as ideologically driven science.”

Trump administration cancels at least 68 grants focused on #LGBTQIA+ health questions — CNN https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/24/health/lgbtq-grants-canceled/index.html

"We want you to know that this doesn’t take away the incredible times we’ve had together. Remember that year we featured a single attractive white gay couple chastely holding hands in one of our ads? It was you and us against the world."

From McSweeney's satirical response to the real news that San Francisco #Pride lost $300k in sponsorships: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/we-regret-to-inform-you-we-will-no-longer-sponsor-your-pride-parade

Today in Labor History March 25, 1957: U.S. Customs seized copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" on obscenity grounds. Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and City Lights manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were arrested on obscenity charges for publishing and distributing the poem. Howl was inspired, in part, by a terrifying peyote vision Ginsberg had in which the façade of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, in San Francisco, appeared as the monstrous face of a child-eating demon. The obscenity charges stemmed from homophobic responses to his explicit references to homosexuality. Ginsberg’s first experience with LSD, as well as Kerouac’s and Burroughs’s, was with acid provided by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson, one-time husband of and long-time collaborator with Margaret Mead. You can read more about Bateson and Mead’s early experimentation with, and promotion of, psychedelics (and their collaboration with the CIA) in the recent book, “Tripping on Utopia.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #poetry #howl #lgbtq #allenginsburg #homophobia #lawrenceferlinghetti #citylights #obscenity #censorship #bannedbooks #kerouac #williamburoughs #lsd #peyote #margaretmead #gregorybateson #psycheldelics #books #writer #author #poet @bookstadon

Today in Labor History March 22, 1972: U.S. Congress sent the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification. It failed. And to this day, women earn 84% of what men do. One of the exceptions is public education, where teachers’ unions have fought and won the right to collectively bargain salaries based on years of experience, not gender. The first ERA was introduced to Congress in 1923. The 1972 had wide bipartisan support, including by presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter, and seemed destined to pass. However, Phyllis Schlafly mobilized conservative women against the amendment, arguing that it would disadvantage housewives, make them eligible for the draft and cause divorcees to lose custody of their children. This killed the ERA in the 1970s. From 2017-2020, several states have ratified the ERA. However, it is uncertain whether these ratifications are legal, since they occurred after the deadlines. Schlafly went on to become a major player in the anti-abortion and anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ rights movements.

Trump says that the phrase "All Men Are Equal" is correct but incomplete.

It should be read in full as, "All White Men Are Equal, Above All Others".

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/19/nx-s1-5317567/federal-websites-lgbtq-diversity-erased

#nonce is two separate nouns:

Nonce (1) means: The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose.
(Etymology 1 is inherited from Middle English nonse, nones.)

Nonce (2, in Britain and Ireland) means: A sex offender, especially one who perpetrates against children.
(Etymology 2 is dated 1975, in British criminal slang.) French equivalent: #pointeur

More: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nonce