Author | Lightnews

Adam Rhodes @byadamrhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Love to see this article in @thebuckeyeflame.com about the ways growing anti-LGBTQ+ hostility is impacting longstanding events in our community — and reporting that doesn't shy away from the important role kink, leather and fetish organizations play. (this doesn't just impact queer people!)

Columbus or Bust: Amidst feelings of betrayal and hope, Cleveland’s Leather Annual Weekend (CLAW) leaves its namesake city

CLAW announced that the 2026 event was moving after they were unable to book a contract with any Cleveland-area hotels or venues.

thebuckeyeflame.com

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Adam Rhodes @byadamrhodes.bsky.social · 18d

NBC was one of the best legacy outlets covering LGBTQ+ issues. Their coverage for YEARS has been award-winning, landmark work. Shame, shame, shame. It's just disgusting.

Adam Rhodes @byadamrhodes.bsky.social · 18d

Shame on NBC for this indefensible decision. When these communities need rigorous journalism now more than ever, NBC is abandoning them. Horrific to do this at the same time ICE continues to escalate its racist attacks and after months/years of historic rollbacks in civil rights for queer people.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 20d

NBC News has reportedly eliminated its NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT teams

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Adam Rhodes @byadamrhodes.bsky.social · 18d

Shame on NBC for this indefensible decision. When these communities need rigorous journalism now more than ever, NBC is abandoning them. Horrific to do this at the same time ICE continues to escalate its racist attacks and after months/years of historic rollbacks in civil rights for queer people.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 20d

NBC News has reportedly eliminated its NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT teams

NBC News’ 150 Layoffs Gut Black, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ Diversity Teams

The cuts affected teams across the NBC News operation and came as the network no longer needed to support two different news operations. MSNBC has begun growing its own newsroom, hiring swaths of tale...

www.thewrap.com

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Adam Rhodes @byadamrhodes.bsky.social · 18d

i am her she is me

Soren Spicknall @sorenspicknall.bsky.social · 18d

I don't get how people can dislike opossums. They're afraid of everybody, they look like a stuffed animal version of themselves, and they have zero grace. Perfect creatures.

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Orion Rummler @oriion.bsky.social · 18d

The Trump administration says it wants to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation.

Well, they're not doing that, experts and advocates say. They're actually making it harder to protect kids from mutilation.

New reporting from @jazzmyth.bsky.social and myself

Anti-trans policies aren't preventing genital mutilation — they're disrupting efforts to stop it

The bipartisan movement against female genital mutilation and cutting is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

19thnews.org

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Adam Rhodes @byadamrhodes.bsky.social · 18d

thank you so so much!

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Reposted by Adam Rhodes

Mike De Socio @mikedesocio.com · 18d

Bravo, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social, for this excellent piece in @xtramagazine.com about why queer community still needs places for public sex. (Because, well, it’s not just about sex. It’s about so much more).

The queer community still needs places for public sex | Xtra Magazine

Sex party promoters, kink community leaders and educators refuse to shy away from the more explicit aspects of the queer experience

xtramagazine.com

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Reposted by Adam Rhodes

Shannon Heffernan @shannonheffernan.bsky.social · 29d

It’s not even 10 a.m., and so much has unfolded in Chicago:

– Illinois sues Trump over the National Guard deployment

– Mayor Brandon Johnson bans city property use for immigration enforcement

– Journalists and protesters sue the feds over Broadview violence

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 29d

JUST IN: Chicago journalistsa re suing DHS and ICE over force used against reporters:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social · 29d

Not to be a pedant but Bari Weiss was a junior editor who occasionally wrote opinion pieces in the opinion section, not a columnist.

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Christopher Wiggins @cwnewser.bsky.social · 29d

Bari Weiss keeps failing up.

www.advocate.com/news/bari-we...

Anti-trans queer journalist Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News

The announcement comes as Paramount Skydance buys her independent media company for $150 million.

www.advocate.com

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Reposted by Adam Rhodes

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 29d

BREAKING: Illinois has filed suit to block Trump's deployment of the military to Chicago.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Xtra @xtramagazine.com · Oct 1

Our 11-part Taking Space series spotlighting LGBTQ2S+ gathering spaces is live! Read about the activist history of queer bookstores, the new wave of women's sports bars and the power of queer archives from writers @byadamrhodes.bsky.social, @evecable.bsky.social, @ainopihlak.bsky.social and more.

Taking Space | Xtra Magazine

Taking Space explores how LGBTQ2S+ gathering spaces shape queer and trans lives, how we use them and why they matter.

xtramagazine.com

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Reposted by Adam Rhodes

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · Sep 30

It feels both that nothing is shocking, but it’s still important to go through the motions of acting like it is because otherwise where are we left.

Bolts @boltsmag.org · Sep 29

As federal agents marched in Chicago this weekend, a top U.S. Border Patrol official told a WBEZ reporter that one of the factors in who agents are arresting is “the particular characteristics of an individual, how they look.”

Feds march into downtown Chicago; top border agent says people are arrested based on ‘how they look’

U.S. Border Patrol agents wearing tactical gear and carrying long guns made arrests in downtown Chicago and the River North neighborhood Sunday. “This is not making anybody safer — it’s a show of intimidation," Gov. JB Pritzker said.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · Sep 28

For @truthout.org yesterday I wrote about how the government's lies about tylenol and autism reminds me a lot of the government's lies about trans people.

truthout.org/articles/ant...

Anti-Trans Policy Deserves Same Scrutiny as Trump’s Tylenol Disinformation

As a trans journalist, I see corporate media outlets as inconsistent in their treatment of right-wing disinformation.

truthout.org

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Reposted by Adam Rhodes

Orion Rummler @oriion.bsky.social · Sep 29

new @byadamrhodes.bsky.social just dropped ..... leather daddy slap fight, anyone?

Chicagoans mull possibility of two ‘Eagle’ bars - Windy City Times

Chicago may soon have not one but two Eagle leather bars, reigniting legacy, debate and excitement in the city’s LGBTQ+ community.

windycitytimes.com

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Adam Rhodes @byadamrhodes.bsky.social · Sep 29

I love that my beat is LGBTQ+ rights and also leather daddy drama?

Chicagoans mull possibility of two ‘Eagle’ bars - Windy City Times

Chicago may soon have not one but two Eagle leather bars, reigniting legacy, debate and excitement in the city’s LGBTQ+ community.

windycitytimes.com

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Reposted by Adam Rhodes

NPR @npr.org · Sep 22

Less than a week after it was taken off the air under pressure from the Trump administration, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" will return to late night on Tuesday, ABC parent company Disney confirmed.

Jimmy Kimmel will be back on air on Tuesday, Disney says

The late night comic was suspended last week under pressure from the Trump administration after comments about Charlie Kirk's killing.

n.pr

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Adam Rhodes @byadamrhodes.bsky.social · Sep 18

It was a nice break from *gestures everywhere* to report on some really successful and groundbreaking activism around HIV criminal laws around the country. It's not every day I get to report good news about bipartisan compromise on public health issues. prismreports.org/2025/09/17/h...

As some states repeal HIV criminalization, activists keep momentum

North Dakota and Maryland are the latest states to repeal laws that make it a crime to expose someone to HIV without their knowledge

prismreports.org

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Reposted by Adam Rhodes

Prism @prismreports.org · Sep 17

After some states repeal HIV criminalization, activists hope to continue momentum, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports. North Dakota & Maryland became the fourth & fifth states to completely repeal laws that make it a crime to expose someone to HIV without their knowledge.

As some states repeal HIV criminalization, activists keep momentum

North Dakota and Maryland are the latest states to repeal laws that make it a crime to expose someone to HIV without their knowledge

prismreports.org

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Reposted by Adam Rhodes

Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · Sep 16

Ta-Nehasi Coates is doing a lot of things with this essay, but one of the most important is fearlessly using examples of anti-trans hate to describe Charlie Kirk's politics.

The contrast between his choices and those of other writers for major legacy outlets is revealing.

Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause

By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

www.vanityfair.com

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · Sep 16

customs and border patrol looks to be gearing up for an active day in elgin—with armored trucks, pickups, suvs, and a helicopter flying overhead.

before dawn, agents reportedly raided a house on a residential street near elgin fresh market.

two armored trucks drive down a residential street. a man in camp holding a rifle looks on.

a customs and border patrol pickup truck driving on a residential street

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shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · Sep 16

during cbp's early-morning propaganda raid in elgin today, agents briefly detained a u.s. citizen along with 3 other people.

masked agents broke down their front door and smashed a glass patio door.

the photos in this @chicagotribune.com story are jarring:

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/16/e...

a broken front door lies inside a person's living room. splinters of wood can been seen on the floor next to the door.

a person in jeans and a t-shirt climbs through a broken glass patio door

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The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · Sep 16

The TRiiBE is partnering with indie investigative newsroom @unraveledpress.com and alt-weekly @chicagoreader.com to document confirmed sightings of ICE and other federal agents in the Chicago area.

thetriibe.com/2025/09/live...

LIVE: Head of LA ICE raids arrives in Chicago, Trump revives talk of sending National Guard troops • The TRiiBE

Here’s a roundup of ICE, federal agent sightings across the Chicago area today, Sept. 16.

thetriibe.com

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