Back2Stonewall

On this day in 1956, WRCA-TV (now WNBC) aired an award-winning weekly panel discussion program called “The Open Mind”. The program, hosted by Richard Heffner, was not only well ahead of its time when it first went on the air in May 1956, it is still an acclaimed syndicated program on American Public Television, Heffner and The Open Mind hosted the first televised discussion on the East Coast on homosexuality.

Happy Hour is just a little earlier today. God I love day drinking. Former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020 election in the runup to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump appeared for his arraignment in a federal courthouse in Washington, just blocks away from where his supporters stormed the Capitol to try to keep him in power.

World swimming’s governing body (FINA) has adopted a new “gender inclusion policy” on Sunday that only permits swimmers who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women’s events. The organization also proposed an “open competition category.” The World Professional Association for Transgender Health just lowered its recommended minimum age for starting gender transition hormone treatment to 14 and some surgeries to 15 or 17. But 12 is unheard of and basically shuts out all trans competitors.

To add to the Malaria warning, giant meningitis spreading snails, and all around HATE now Florida has LEPORSY! Florida is at the forefront of the outbreak, with nearly one-fifth of all leprosy cases in the US originating from the state, the CDC says. The disease is caused by a bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae, which can attack the nerves, causing a loss of sensation in the affected areas. Untreated, leprosy can also cause blindness, ulcers, disfigurements, and more.

Another day. Another Trump indictment.

On August 2, 1969, just a little over one month after the Stonewall Riots the newly formed Gay Liberation Front took to the streets of Midtown Manhattan and participated in a rally and march to demand the release of political prisoners and members of the Armed Forces who were being held in military stockades.

Witnesses told investigators that the group of young Muslims had told Sibley and his group that their voguing dance was offensive to their religion. A 28-year-old professional dancer was stabbed to death at a Brooklyn gas station Saturday night in an incident that police are investigating as a homophobic hate crime.

Perry wants to ensure that Josiah “Jonty” Robinson’s killer is caught. Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry best known for his “Madea” franchise is offering a reward of $100,000 to anyone who has information about the killing of a Black gay man in Grenada. Perry posted earlier this week that Josiah “Jonty” Robinson, 24, was “like a son” to Perry’s friend Yvette Noel-Schure, the celebrity publicist.

July 29, 1905: Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953-1961), is born in Jonkoping, Sweden. Hammarskjold will die in a plane crash in what was then the Belgian Congo under mysterious circumstances in 1961. Secretary General Hammarskjold is the first SG to die while holding office. President John F Kennedy referred to him as “The greatest statesman of our century,” and he was posthumously awarded the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1955, the Illinois General Assembly inaugurated the gargantuan task of overhauling its criminal code. Since its last major revision in 1874, the code had accumulated a patchwork of conflicting and confusing statues, some of which made no sense in the 20th century. Horse thieves, for example, were punished with a minimum penalty of three years in prison, but the maximum penalty for auto theft was only one year.