LGBTQ+
The Election, the Olympics, and More of the Latest
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
By now, you’ve likely heard about Algerian Olympic Gold Medalist Imane Khelif
who, after taking her Italian opponent out with one punch, was accused of being
transgender. In a patriarchal world, it is evidently unfathomable that a
woman–an Olympian–could be strong enough and good enough at a...
by Liana DeMasi
4 min read
LGBTQ+
The Latest, Some Historical Context, and LGBTQ+ Joy
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter, and Happy Pride!
Since this month is about protest and pride, we have our work cut out for us. As
such, my introduction will be brief, so you can get the necessary updates and
then get back out there.
Before we begin, I had the pleasure of sitting down with queer, trans advocate
and lawyer,...
by Liana DeMasi
5 min read
LGBTQ+
It’s Pride Month
June 1 marks the first day of Pride, a month-long celebration of visibility and
joy that centers the LGBTQ+ experience in its many forms. What’s often lost in
the sea of rainbow and glitter
that-just-won’t-leave-no-matter-how-hard-you-scrub is the fact that Pride is
first and foremost a protest. To be visible; to exhibit pride in one's...
by Liana DeMasi
5 min read
LGBTQ+
Florida’s “Summer of Freedom,” Project 2025, and Other Horrors
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
This is my second-to-last LGBTQ+ newsletter before Pride Month (colloquially
known as “June”) begins, and there are myriad actions being taken to make
celebrating Pride more difficult and thus, even more essential. This newsletter
is going to be the usual run-through of the most recent...
by Liana DeMasi
3 min read
LGBTQ+
A Closer Look at Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric and Subsequent Violence
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
In my last newsletter, I spoke about Nex Benedict, their death, and how the
ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ discourse is a pressure cooker that brews the optimal
conditions for hate and violence. I want to dive a little deeper into those
connections this week, but I’d be remiss not to first mention...
by Liana DeMasi
5 min read
LGBTQ+
Nex Benedict, LGBTQ+ Youth, and More of the Latest
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
It’s been over a month since Oklahoma transgender teen, Nex Benedict, was
brutally assaulted by their classmates. This assault was neglected by school
officials, who sent them home with a 2-week suspension. On February 8th, their
death was in the days that followed, the medical examiner ruled...
by Liana DeMasi
5 min read
LGBTQ+
The Loss of a Legend & Pamela Paul Strikes Again
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
Last week, the LGBTQ+ community received devastating news that our beloved,
Cecilia Gentili, an actress, activist, and author, passed away. Many queer and
trans people, in New York City especially, considered Gentili as their chosen
family, as their mother. I had the pleasure of being in her...
by Liana DeMasi
4 min read
LGBTQ+
Welcoming in 2024 & Taking a Closer Look at Ohio
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter. And Happy New Year!
As I said in my last was a rough year for the LGBTQ+ community. Over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ were
introduced, most of which targeted trans folks. The continued politicization of
LGBTQ+ identities means that part of our lives are not ours. Instead, we are
spread thin, advocating for...
by Liana DeMasi
10 min read
LGBTQ+
The Last LGBTQ+ Newsletter Before 2024
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
I’m back! After a brief bout with COVID-19 that left me feeling quite foggy, I
couldn’t let the rest of the year go by without another LGBTQ+ newsletter–the
last for 2023. This year has seen tremendous setbacks for LGBTQ+ rights,
especially for the trans community, with over 500+ anti-LGBTQ+...
by Liana DeMasi
3 min read
LGBTQ+
Trans Day of Remembrance and the Latest LGBTQ+ News
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
Monday, November 20th, marked the 25th annual Trans Day of Remembrance. This
year, our hearts have been particularly heavy. This year, we mourn the 32 from us due to violence and year. (Florida Phoenix) These losses are made that much harder considering
the over 600+ anti-trans have been...
by Liana DeMasi
3 min read
LGBTQ+
Our New Extremist Speaker
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
On October 25th, the U.S. Congress finally chose a Speaker of the House: Mike
Johnson. In with The
Majority Report, writer/reporter Alex Sammon sums this decision up perfectly:
“Most of his Congressional colleagues don’t know much about him.” That is,
needless to say, alarming because it’s...
by Liana DeMasi
3 min read
LGBTQ+
On Oppression and the Anti-LGBTQ+ Movement
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
Like everyone, I have been ingesting quite a bit of news about the ongoing
conflict in Palestine and Israel. I believe, as we all should, in the safety and
freedom of all peoples and I vehemently condemn attacks on civilians. We must be
able to distinguish between Israelis and their government...
by Liana DeMasi
5 min read
LGBTQ+
The Body Politic Keeps the Score
Welcome back to OptOut’s LGBTQ+ Newsletter.
In what should come as no surprise, I want to start us off today with talking
about trauma. It’s crucial as LGBTQ+ folks–as marginalized folks in general–to
center and celebrate joy, especially in consideration of the striking and
palpable pain that comes with oppression and state-organized...
by Liana DeMasi
4 min read
LGBTQ+
The NYT Claims “Sensitivity” and “Respect” While Doing the Exact Opposite
Hi, again! In lieu of missing last week’s newsletter, I’ll be releasing one this
week and one next week, following which I’ll resume the usual biweekly schedule.
Most of this week’s newsletter is going to be dedicated to discussing the New
York Times and their continuous anti-trans reporting. I, too, wish I would talk
about something...
by Liana DeMasi
6 min read
LGBTQ+
The GOP Debate Served as an Alarming State of the Union
Eight of the hopeful Republican Presidential candidates took the debate Capital Journal) for the first time last night. The ninth, Donald Trump,
refused to attend, likely because he needed his beauty rest before he turned
himself in to Fulton County Jail in Atlanta today.
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WE ARE A...
by Liana DeMasi
5 min read
LGBTQ+
Misinformation, History, and Death by Hate Crime
What will it take to protect our community?
As I sit and write this newsletter, I’m thinking of O’Shae Sibley, a Black queer
man who was stabbed to death in NYC last week while voguing with his friends. A
17-year-old, whose lawyer has described him as a “good Christian himself in and has been charged with murder as a hate crime and...
by Liana DeMasi
5 min read
LGBTQ+
Whose America is it, Anyway?
Land of the oppressed, home of the marginalized. Is that how it goes?
Last week, I was having lunch with my father, and we were talking about
politics. This isn’t always an easy conversation between the two of us, but
we’ve done a lot of collective work to be able to have difficult, necessary
discussions. I said, “If DeSantis wins, my...
by Liana DeMasi
4 min read
LGBTQ+
SCOTUS, DeSantis, and Existential Dread
The SCOTUS decided to end Pride Month exactly as expected and DeSantis is
getting weirder by the minute, but I promise there’s joy amidst all this mess.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every once in a while—or, in this-day-in age, often—you get a push notification
for a news story that’s...
by Liana DeMasi
4 min read
LGBTQ+
Reflecting and Looking Ahead as Pride Month Comes to a Close
As Pride (colloquially known as “June”) comes to an end, those in the LGBTQ+
community are likely resting from a month-long celebration, but those same
people are also taking stock in the weeks and months ahead.
Throughout the year, for those of us who live in blue cities and states, we
might be able to spot some rainbow flags still up...
by Liana DeMasi
6 min read
LGBTQ+
Pride 101: Centering Joy Amidst Atrocity
Happy Pride, folks! This month is about visibility, joy, love, community, and
fierce devotion to our truths and livelihoods. We owe this annual celebration to
Black trans women, to queer people of color, to a long list of fallen LGBTQ+
siblings and ancestors who spearheaded our path to freedom.
And yet, in the year 2023, this month is...
by Liana DeMasi
4 min read
LGBTQ+
Happy Pride From OptOut!
Hi, y’all.
I’m back a week early for a brief newsletter to kick off Pride Month! So first,
Happy Pride!!! We’re officially in the season of “move, I’m gay!,” speed racing
whilst holding an iced coffee, glitter that lasts ‘til Christmas, and being as
loud and as proud as we’re due (or as we’re safe to be).
This Pride is loaded with...
by Liana DeMasi
2 min read
LGBTQ+
Don’t Say DeSantis
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his 2024 bid for presidency yesterday during
a botched livestream on Elon Musk’s Twitter (the once-beloved app that is now
the social media equivalent of Tesla’s self-driving cars).
There are a few aspects of this event that are alarming. The first might seem
unrelated, but Musk was recently a guest on
by Liana DeMasi
6 min read
LGBTQ+
‘Saying the Quiet Part Loud’: The GOP Is Telling Us Exactly What It Means
Hi, y’all.
The title of this week’s newsletter is borrowed from Mike Figueredo of The
Humanist Report. In his from May
6, he takes a look at a clip of Florida State Rep. Jeff Holcomb trying to
explain that the United States isn’t as homophobic as “terrorist groups” that
throw gay people off of buildings. While that kind of a metaphor is...
by Liana DeMasi
5 min read
LGBTQ+
The GOP’s Genocidal Plans Against the Trans Community
Hi, y’all.
It’s been a while, but I’m glad to be back writing another LGBTQ+ biweekly
newsletter. Although “glad” feels like a strange word to use in this context,
especially considering the current state of affairs. But this newsletter reminds
me of community, of purpose, and of the profound power in facing facts, rather
than burying...
by Liana DeMasi
4 min read
LGBTQ+
🏳️⚧️ PODCAST: Imara Jones on the Anti-Trans Hate Machine
Last week I sat down with TransLash creator Imara Jones to talk
about the current, highly calculated disinformation campaign against trans
people, what these laws and this political landscape mean for the LGBTQ+
community, and the need to move potential allies to action. As it was Trans Day
of Visibility last Friday—and the launch of...
by Liana DeMasi
1 min read
LGBTQ+
The GOP’s Terrifying Obsession With Erasing LGBTQ+ People
A few years ago, a cisgender, heterosexual, white man told me that people have
never had as many rights as we do right now. The use of “we” here is more
hopeful than it is accurate. While we are a collective we, citizens of the
Earth, individuals living in the U.S., etc., we are certainly not treated as
such. Instead, the vast majority of
by Liana DeMasi
11 min read
LGBTQ+
Notes from an Authoritarian State
I was chatting with an OptOut Member (sign up on our Discord channel
(which remains one of the many benefits of independent media: proximity to
readers), and he asked me, “How is this legal?” We were discussing the many
bills banning gender-affirming care that have been introduced and passed across
the nation.
To appropriately and...
by Liana DeMasi
9 min read
LGBTQ+
The NYT Refuses to Part With Transphobia, and More Notes on Hypocrisy
Writing this newsletter every two weeks as a queer person is an exercise in
patience. As a journalist, my relationship with my gender is something that I
often disregard. As a person, I am both tethered to and divided from this
multi-tiered part of myself. I am inseparable from “woman,” but that doesn’t
exactly feel like the right...
by Liana DeMasi
10 min read
LGBTQ+
Black History Month 🏳️🌈 One Hell of a Performance 🏳️⚧️ Trump’s Pledge
It’s Black History Month, and since this is the LGBTQ+ newsletter, we’ll be
giving recognition to the Black queer and trans people who have been at the
forefront of LGBTQ+ rights and movements throughout history. We might readily be
able to call on Marsha P. Johnson, James Baldwin, or Angela Davis. Or perhaps we
think of June Jordan,...
by Liana DeMasi
8 min read
LGBTQ+
Corporate Media Are Making Life Worse For Trans Kids
My name is Liana DeMasi, and I’m the LGBTQ+ editor here at OptOut. You might
have caught Tom Scocca’s latest in piece takes an insightful and comprehensive look at the pervasive anti-trans
rhetoric being pushed out by corporate and legacy media.
From The New York Times to The Atlantic and Reuters, Scocca examines the
reporting in...
by Liana DeMasi
1 min read
LGBTQ+
Maybe He’s Born With [The Propensity to Lie Through His Teeth]...Maybe it’s George Santos
I was at a concert last weekend at an old laundromat-turned-apartment/art studio
in Bushwick, Brooklyn (which feels like a redundant clarification), where I
spotted a frayed, discolored yet oddly preserved copy of the NYT from the day
Reagan was shot. The attempted assassination occurred in Reagan’s first year as
president, 1981, and the...
by Liana DeMasi
9 min read
LGBTQ+
Kicking Off the New Year With…Much of the Same LGBTQ+ News
Hey, folks! Happy New Year! OptOut LGBTQ+ is finally back in full swing after a
holiday break, and we have a lot to look forward to this year in our program—and
a lot of work cut out for us in the way of LGBTQ+ news production, activism, and
allyship.
Maybe we can add this kind of work to our list of resolutions, a New Year’s
tradition...
by Liana DeMasi
11 min read
LGBTQ+
Another Two Weeks Plagued by Violent Extremism—Or, On Being LGBTQ+
This is the newsletter of OptOut LGBTQ+, a program of the OptOut Media
Foundation led by Liana DeMasi. OptOut maintains a free news aggregation app for
exclusively independent media that's available for Find out more about the app at an OptOut I was compiling some of the most important LGBTQ+ news over the last two
weeks, I couldn’t help...
by Liana DeMasi
11 min read
LGBTQ+
Maybe She’s Born With it…Maybe it’s the Crippling Weight of Living in an Anti-LGBTQ Hellscape
This is the newsletter of OptOut LGBTQ+, a program of the OptOut Media
Foundation led by Liana DeMasi. OptOut maintains a free news aggregation app for
exclusively independent media that's available for Find out more about the app at an OptOut me again. I’m back after a brief hiatus for Thanksgiving/National Day of
Mourning. I don’t want...
by Liana DeMasi
9 min read
Newsletter
Another Transphobic NYT Article • The Predictable Crypto Scandal • Labor Strikes Back
This is the newsletter of OptOut, a free news aggregation app for exclusively
independent media that's available for Find out more about the app at Over Profit. The OptOut Media Foundation recently launched its
end-of-year fundraising We need to raise
$50,000 in individual contributions by the end of 2022 so we can continue
advocating for
by Liana DeMasi
8 min read
LGBTQ+
Maybe She’s Born With It…Maybe It’s the Crippling Weight of Living in an Anti-LGBTQ Hellscape
This is the newsletter of OptOut LGBTQ+, a program of the OptOut Media
Foundation led by Liana DeMasi. OptOut maintains a free news aggregation app for
exclusively independent media that's available for Find out more about the app at there, and welcome to our very first LGBTQ+ newsletter! I’m Liana DeMasi,
OptOut’s LGBTQ+ editor.
Here’s...
by Liana DeMasi
7 min read
LGBTQ+
🗳️ Election Preview ✊ Fighting Conversion Therapy 🎃 Scary Movies!
This is the newsletter of OptOut, a free news aggregation app for exclusively
independent media that's available for Find out more about the app at depends on your support to run our free app, send this newsletter, and a
lot more. We've raised over $7,000 since we announced our end-of-year
fundraising goal, but we have a long way to go....
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Independent LGBTQ+ Media Are Essential For Our Basic Rights
This is the newsletter of OptOut, a free news aggregation app for exclusively
independent media that's available for Apple and Android devices. Find out more
about the app at again, y’all. For those of you who haven’t caught my biweekly LGBTQ+ section
in our newsletter, I’m Liana DeMasi, the LGBTQ+ editor here at OptOut. Our
year-end...
by Liana DeMasi
6 min read
Newsletter
Scientology's Secret Immigrant Workforce • Anti-Trans Witch Hunts • Brazil on Fire
This is the newsletter of OptOut, a free news aggregation app for exclusively
independent media that's available for Apple and Android devices. Find out more
about the app at Over Profit. The OptOut Media Foundation launched its end-of-year
fundraising campaign week. We need to raise $50,000 in individual contributions by the end of
2022...
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