This Gay Week 30: Policy, Pride, and Repression

Karel Bouley is a history-making LGBTQ broadcaster, entertainer, author, singer, and activist. With his late partner Andrew Howard, he became part of the first openly gay radio talk-show duo on a major-market U.S. station when “Karel and Andrew” joined KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles in 1998. After Howard’s death, Bouley pursued a landmark California wrongful-death case that helped affirm domestic partners’ legal standing to sue retroactively. Karel rose to prominence on KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles and KGO AM 810 in San Francisco, later expanding his work through Free Speech TV, Karel.com, YouTube, and The Karel Cast podcast. His career spans journalism and commentary, including work associated with HuffPost, The Advocate, Billboard, CNN, MSNBC, and LGBTQ entertainment media. He has also released dance music, authored books including You Cannot Say That! and Shouting at Windmills, and remains active as a voting member of NARAS/The Recording Academy, GALECA, and SAG-AFTRA. Karel now lives and creates in Las Vegas. Interview conducted July 22nd into early 23rd, in Kyiv local time.

In this interview, Karel Bouley and Scott Douglas Jacobsen examine escalating threats to LGBTQ rights across the United States, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Senegal, Indonesia, and beyond. They discuss anti-LGBTQ funding riders, stalled partnership laws, Pride restrictions, political repression, hate crimes, HIV service cuts, media warnings, and religious extremism. Their conversation connects domestic policy choices with global consequences while emphasizing resistance, legal protections, public solidarity, and the human cost of institutionalized discrimination during a volatile year.

Karel Bouley: It is that time again. It is This Gay Week with Karel and Scott Jacobsen. What is going on this week? From severed pig heads to pigs in Congress, we are talking about that and much more. Do not go anywhere. It is The Karel Show. I am Karel. Happy Thursday, July 23.

It is time for This Gay Week with Scott Jacobsen, who is joining us live from Kyiv, Ukraine, where he has other things to worry about than gay issues, but he is still taking the time to do this. He sent me some stories. We will start with one from me that he may not know about because it is U.S.-based, and I am not finished with it yet. I have been talking about it all week, and I am going to continue. Here is Scott. Hello, Scott! ello and welcome from Ukraine. Slava Ukraini! Slava Ukraini!

Bouley: At least you are well enough to be here with us, which is exciting. Let us start This Gay Week with a story. I know it concerns the United States, but it has international implications.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed the National Security and Department of State appropriations bill for fiscal year 2027. The House bill included six provisions criticized by the Congressional Equality Caucus and LGBTQ rights organizations as anti-LGBTQ riders. It now faces consideration in the Senate, where senators may remove or revise those provisions. Any differences between the House and Senate versions would have to be reconciled before the legislation could become law.

What are those riders? I am going to tell you and Scott so we can discuss them.

First, there is a prohibition on displaying Pride flags at State Department facilities.

Second, there are restrictions on diplomatic positions. The bill would prevent funds for diplomatic programs from supporting special envoys, representatives, or coordinators whose positions have not been expressly authorized by Congress. This appears aimed partly at positions such as the Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons.

Third, another provision reinforces executive orders restricting diversity-focused hiring and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. It also reinforces the administration’s removal of nondiscrimination protections for federal contractors, including LGBTQ workers employed by State Department contractors.

Fourth, the bill would prohibit funding for organizations that provide or recommend gender-affirming health care or that engage in activities the bill characterizes as promoting “transgenderism,” including recognizing transgender identity as valid.

Fifth, it reinforces two restrictions on foreign assistance that critics have called the Trans Global Gag Rule and the DEI Global Gag Rule. These policies could deny U.S. foreign assistance to organizations that recognize transgender identities, advocate for transgender nondiscrimination protections, or conduct certain programs addressing racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ discrimination, and other forms of inequality abroad.

Sixth, another provision would restrict the federal government’s ability to revoke grants or discipline employees or contractors for certain forms of LGBTQ discrimination, potentially shielding discriminatory conduct from federal consequences.

Bouley: These provisions are not law yet. The Senate must consider its version of the appropriations legislation. The House and Senate would then need to resolve any differences before a final bill could be sent to the president.

Scott, let us start with this because it is global. These restrictions would not override European Union law, the European Convention on Human Rights, British law, or the United Nations Charter. They could make some organizations in Europe and elsewhere ineligible for U.S. foreign assistance if their programs conflict with the conditions imposed by the bill.

The United States would still be able to conduct diplomacy and do business with the United Kingdom, European Union member states, and members of the United Nations. The immediate effect would concern the use of designated federal funds, not a general prohibition on relations with countries that recognize LGBTQ rights.

These six riders are appalling to me. More importantly, what message do they send to the rest of the world? This is what we say every week. Right now, the United States is helping set an international tone that can encourage hostility toward LGBTQ people.

We are number 12 in Sierra Leone for the podcast. As we talk about Senegal and other African nations, we are number 12 in Sierra Leone. Probably because the 14 fags who live there were the only people who could hear it. When we come back, I want to…

I am here with Scott Jacobsen of The Good Men Project and Rabble, among many other publications. He is very busy in Ukraine right now doing human rights stories, which he will catch us up on at the end. How do you see this playing out?

Jacobsen: Suppose the Senate were to pass this. There are three ways the United States tends to influence world affairs regarding LGBT people. One is internal political turmoil. That sets the tone for what you are seeing. Two is policy and financing changes that affect the globe. Three is direct funding cuts based on the ideological positions of conservative religious groups, which then affect places such as Ghana and Uganda.

The European Union and the United Nations are not going to change their charters because of this law. Smaller countries, including African nations and others, might. They will say, “We cannot recognize gay people because then we cannot do business with the United States.”

This is exactly what I spoke about when we discussed Senegal. Until the United States says that, to do business with us, you must recognize these people, the situation will not improve. Now it is going in the opposite direction.

It is saying, “If you recognize these people, we will not do business with you.” That will give places in Africa and the Middle East more incentive to harm gay people by taking away their rights and recognition because there is money in it. They may think, “Now we can do business with the Trump administration. If we get rid of DEI, we can do business with Trump.”

Not particularly an idiot, probably among the more coherent members of the current administration. His current framing includes recently hosting a major conference on combating what they are calling far-left terrorism and saying it has been underemphasized.

Bouley: Hunter Biden was on with Don Lemon. Don Lemon asked Hunter Biden, who no longer gives two fucks about anything, “Why do you think Republicans are so anti-gay?” He said, “It is no secret there is a closeted gay cabal in Washington, D.C. I have been there with my father for my entire life. I am speaking firsthand. I am not spreading gossip.”

He said, “Inside the Republican Party, there is this closeted gay cabal of self-hating gays who make this legislation and do these kinds of things because they are so self-loathing.”

When Don Lemon said, “Give us names,” Hunter said, “I am not going to do that.” Don Lemon kept pushing him, saying, “Come on, give us names.” He said, “No, I am not going to do that. What do you want me to say? That Marco Rubio is gay? I do not know that he is.”

Then he gave all these names. He said that Mike Johnson is gay, but he gave the names of people around whom rumours have circulated. The one he confirmed was Lindsey Graham. He said, “Of course Lindsey Graham is gay. We all knew he was gay. It was not a secret.” Yet he wrote this anti-gay legislation.

He said, “Why would these people come out?” You mentioned Marco Rubio. He suggested that an openly gay secretary of state might not be accepted by Russia, China, or other countries. Even if Marco Rubio were gay, he would never come out because it would harm his position. They are going to be meeting Russian representatives, including Foreign Minister Lavrov, tomorrow about your little war going on there.

Let us switch to Ukraine. You were telling me a story before we started. I do not want to say I laughed because you were shocked at the cruelty and absurdity. I thought, “You are new to gay news, are you not?”

In Ukraine, there was an incident in which someone who was gay or supported gay people had pig heads brought to their doorstep. This is from PinkNews. Sorry, Meduza. Some of the pig heads were dumped at a Kyiv beauty salon, G.Bar, over its public support of LGBTQ people.

I have to ask this because I have been gay a long time, and I have experienced and witnessed many hate crimes. In America, we do not use pig heads, perhaps because people eat them.

Is a pig head derogatory? Why pig heads?

Jacobsen: That has been documented as ill-treatment. I do not know whether it would be labelled torture, but Muslim captives in some conflicts have been fed pork as a form of abuse.

Bouley: At Abu Ghraib, we terrorized Muslims with pork, pig heads, pig blood, and all of that. I wondered whether the salon owner might have been Muslim.

Jacobsen: That is interesting. It would be a reasonable speculation.

Bouley: Is this anti-gay violence typical for Kyiv?

Jacobsen: I have encountered individuals who openly harbour homophobic views.

Bouley: More than in Canada?

Jacobsen: I would say more than in Canada. Canada has a large Ukrainian population, perhaps three percent.

Bouley: Now your goods are 50 percent more expensive for us because Trump is angry about your smoke. Did you see that?

Jacobsen: No. We helped with the largest fires you had, and now we are being punished.

Bouley: You have large fires, so we charge you 50 percent more for your goods. We have large fires, and you help us. That explains the difference between governments and the tone of the people, does it not?

First, if you reach these people, I would love to talk to them. Bring them on and have them join our segment. Second, extend to them, from this American fag, encouragement to stay strong, not let this ridiculousness affect them, and render those pigs’ heads into tacos or something.

Scott, we do not speak off air, although we should. We do not because you are busy, there is a time difference, and so on. This week, I have had trouble on my show and in life. I have had a rough week.

I was at the park with friends when I engaged a MAGA supporter. They did not want to deal with it, so they walked away instead of supporting me. That hurt. I was speaking to this MAGA supporter, trying to explain why he was an asshole. I knew how my friends felt, but instead of supporting me, they left.

There have also been other developments concerning gay rights. These five riders were added to this bill, and no one in the news is making a major issue of it.

This is one of the few shows discussing it. The HRC posted about it. GLAAD posted about it. That was all. When you searched for gay news, you probably did not see this story about the five riders in this funding bill, which has already passed the House and is waiting in the Senate.

It has been rough because I have another gay friend who says, “I do not pay attention to any of that. You pay too much attention to it. You need a husband to take your mind off it.”

I thought, “No, apathy is not the answer.” I do not want to borrow the phrase from the movie, “Resistance is futile,” but it almost appears that, in the United States, they are going to get their way.

They are coming for same-sex marriage. A pastor who prayed at the Pentagon at the invitation of Pete Hegseth, because he is Hegseth’s pastor, gave an interview yesterday or two days ago.

He said gay people should be removed from society and that the punishment for gay sex should be execution.

Jacobsen: He has also argued against women having the right to vote. He does not believe in full democracy.

Bouley: Yes. In the same interview, he said women should not vote.

I would dismiss this as fringe, but this man has the ear of the secretary of defence and is praying at the Pentagon.

This is not merely hyperbole. This is not an idiot ranting in his own church. He has the ear of policymakers.

I saw another article from Newsweek or Time saying there is an alarming trend in the United States. We are using the same language as Vladimir Putin in anti-gay legislation to criminalize homosexuality.

We are using the same terminology Putin uses, which could lead to criminalization. I believe that is where they are going. They want to criminalize being gay in the United States.

Jacobsen: They do not care about professional bodies. The ICD and DSM removed homosexuality as a so-called disorder decades ago. They do not care. It is not even an issue for them. They do not care about experts.

Bouley: I do not want to call it a rough week. This week, I feel as though they are winning. They do. In Ukraine, you have had some progress, since you are there so much, but also some regression. Human rights organizations reported no significant legislative changes for LGBTQ rights in Ukraine during early 2026. Obviously, we are in the middle of a war. They reported two court victories, protected Pride events, stalled partnership legislation, and 26 documented cases involving homophobia or transphobia, including six classified as hate crimes.

Jacobsen: I checked the symbolism of the pig’s head. It can be used to desecrate holy sites and inflict social degradation, so that was probably the meaning at the salon. It is also sometimes used in antisemitic hate speech.

Jacobsen: Yes.

Bouley: Ukraine won in court but suffered a setback in Parliament. The setback was that nothing happened for gay people in Parliament. There was no progress.

Jacobsen: There are some nuances. In Parliament, there are many hated politicians. There is widespread hatred of Putin, the Kremlin, and many Ukrainian politicians. That is a strong sentiment in Ukraine. Socially, more people are orienting toward new standards and values.

Bouley: They are fighting over semantics. They are fighting over the term “family member.” More than 20,000 proposed amendments were submitted to the bill in Ukraine. Its vote at second reading is expected no earlier than autumn 2026 because they must review all 20,000 proposed amendments.

The new civil code would replace the current Family Code and could nullify civil partnerships. In that civil code, they are arguing over what “family member” means.

They have not made a decision yet, but there have been two key judicial victories. On February 25 or 26, the Supreme Court of Ukraine rejected an appeal by the anti-gay organization All Together. Is that not strange? Their name is All Together, but they are an anti-gay organization.

The organization sought to overturn rulings by the Desnianskyi District Court and Kyiv Court of Appeal that recognized de facto family relationships between same-sex partners. There were also Kharkiv District Administrative Court rulings ordering a military recruitment centre in Kharkiv to remove from military registration a person who had legally changed their gender from male to female.

Your Pride March, which you did not attend, had about 5,000 people. It was the largest in Kyiv’s history. There were some victories.

Jacobsen: Social opinion is far ahead of legislation.

Bouley: That is always the way, is it not? People move faster than legislatures.

A story from Metro Weekly interested you. We might see it differently. Many people see this story as a victory. I see it as, “Are you kidding?”

A man received seven years for shooting and partially paralyzing his gay neighbour. The shooter looks as queer as can be. Perhaps that was part of the dispute: “Hey, are you gay?” This happened in Florida, where no gay person should live.

A Jacksonville man who shot his gay neighbour, leaving him partially paralyzed, has been sentenced. That is the good news. The bad news is that he received seven years, so he will probably be out in three.

Tyler Getchell, 30, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted manslaughter for shooting 24-year-old Kyle McFarlane during a dispute over alleged trespassing. “You are on my lawn!”

He was initially charged with attempted murder, but they knocked it down. They requested a downward departure, or a less severe sentence, arguing that he had no prior felony convictions because somehow that makes it better, had served five years in the U.S. Navy because I guess that is an excuse to shoot a queer, expressed remorse for the shooting because he got caught, and remained at the scene instead of fleeing.

Responding on Facebook to a comment questioning the length of Getchell’s sentence, they said that Getchell could serve additional time if he fails to pay restitution for the medical expenses stemming from the shooting. Since he is broke as fuck, he will probably be in jail because you do not look like him and not be broke. It is too bad. He is quite hot.

“Man Gets Seven Years for Shooting and Paralyzing LGBTQ Neighbour.” That is the article. You sent it over. I love his dog. By the looks of it, it looks like a giant emu.

Great, the guy got prosecuted, and great, the guy got jail time. But seven years? Why was this not a hate crime? He said it was for trespassing, but come on. Did the fact that the victim was gay not play into it? Of course it did. In their infinite wisdom, they decided not to treat it as a hate crime.

In Romania, when you are done looking for Dracula, a Romanian city has held out against authorizing the Pride March. The western city of Oradea has again said no to a Pride parade for the fourth consecutive year, adding to concerns about backsliding on gay rights in the EU member country.

As a member of the EU, Romania has to obey certain rules, but allowing Pride parades is not one of them. They do not have to allow Pride. They cannot discriminate, jail people, or whatever, but they do not have to let them march.

You were saying that in Ukraine you want to become more like the EU in terms of LGBTQ rights. Romania is in the EU, yet they are not allowing a Pride march.

I do not even know how we tell the lesbians from the gay men in Romania. Do they not all have mustaches? Romanian women tend to have facial hair, and they are anti-gay. Have you seen a Romanian woman?

Romania’s western city of Oradea is about 250 kilometres from Budapest, Hungary, but the two cities are very far apart. The only thing uniting them is that they did not allow Pride marches, which is sad. Hungary’s capital did host a Pride event this year. Romania still did not.

Hungary has moved forward. Romania has not. I guess, on the grand scale of things, that is how it goes. One weight gets put on this side. The scale tips toward the good because Hungary allowed the Pride parade. Then you have the weight on this side: Romania did not. The scale evens out again.

I do not know how many gay people are in Romania, but I hope they get a parade sooner rather than later. They have tried for four years. There were 115 proposed routes. One hundred and fifteen proposed routes for the parade, and Romania said no to every one.

They said the routes were unavailable because they overlapped with other authorized events. One hundred and fifty different routes, and not one. They said, “We will go through the sewers.” The response was no.

Jacobsen: I have been on many committees. I do not know why you would need more than five or ten proposals.

Bouley: One hundred and fifty. They even proposed routes outside the city. They proposed routes outside the city centre.

They said, “If you will not let us have it downtown, we will hold it in this suburb.” The answer was still no. It is unfair to the point of openly acknowledging the bigotry.

Under Romanian law, local authorities cannot ban a public march. Their role is to identify practical solutions to ensure that events can take place safely. They have not formally banned the march. They did not say, “You cannot have your Pride march.” They simply rejected every proposed route.

Talk about a technicality. “We are not against it, and we are not saying no. We are saying it is unfeasible because we rejected 150 routes.”

Jacobsen: There will still be an unauthorized march through the city. Last year, it was attended by several hundred people, mostly young people. There were some scuffles, but the police did not escalate the situation.

Bouley: They imposed fines totalling about 3,900 euros on organizations that participated in the march, but they did not arrest any of its leaders.

Jacobsen: That is a substantial amount of money.

Bouley: Four thousand euros in Romania. That is a castle. Dr. Jim’s castle.

They are obviously not completely opposed to it if they allowed the unauthorized march to happen and merely fined people. They did not attack them. They just made it inconvenient.

Jacobsen: Here in the United States, another development is going largely unreported, except by the left. Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump, and Marco Rubio have all said they want to investigate and prosecute left-wing groups as domestic terrorists and as organizations undermining the security of the United States.

This is a global movement, based on a conference involving more than 60 countries.

Bouley: A regional human rights organization has expressed grave concern in the Philippines over Indonesia’s classification of the alleged dissemination of gay culture as a non-military threat. It said the move could legitimize discrimination and state repression against gay people.

In a statement issued Wednesday, ASEAN SOGIE Caucus questioned the basis on which the Indonesian government, particularly President Prabowo Subianto, classified the alleged dissemination of gay culture as a threat to national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security.

This is the same language being used in the United States. If you do not think gay organizations will be grouped with left-leaning organizations and designated as enemies of the state, you are fooling yourself. It is already happening in the Philippines.

Jacobsen: In democratic societies, they need to propose these measures and move them through formal institutions. In theocratic and autocratic societies, the mechanisms are already in place. In democratic systems, they need an imprimatur of legitimacy. This is one way they create it.

Bouley: LGBTQ people are not threats to national security. They are members of families and faith communities. They are students, workers, and service providers who keep communities alive,” said Rian Silveiro, executive director of the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus.

Why the fuck, in 2026, do we have to remind people that gay people are not a threat to national security? I cannot tell you how many gay people have served over the years in the Army, the Navy, the Marines, and other branches.

What is the difference between a gay Marine and a straight Marine? A 12-pack of beer and a shot of Jack Daniel’s.

As we said with these five riders in the United States, it is not just about us. When the United States adopts global gag orders, eliminates DEI, and talks about prosecuting the left, it gives countries such as the Philippines and others in Asia permission to do the same. When they are challenged, they can say, “Look, the United States is doing it.”

Jacobsen: To clarify, it is ASEAN. It is a large association of Asian countries and organizations.

Bouley: Oh, ASEAN. SOGIE would refer to sexual orientation and gender identity. We bicker like a married couple, but we are not.

I love this next story because it happens so often in the United States. Look at Kristi Noem’s husband with his big balloon titties, and yet she is so anti-gay.

As we are topping the charts in Sierra Leone, the daughter of a Senegalese anti-LGBTQ advocate has been arrested. Guess what for? I thought you would like this one.

Jacobsen: Lesbianism, and drug offences.

Bouley: If you are a lesbian, you have to do drugs. It is extra stress, especially in many of these countries.

Senegalese police have arrested the daughter of a prominent anti-gay advocate, Mame Mactar Guèye, on drug and lesbianism charges.

Fatou Binatou Guèye, known as Rose, was charged in the High Court of Dakar on Monday, along with her boyfriend and two others. All face charges of drug possession and drug trafficking.

The alleged evidence did not suggest a major drug trafficking operation.

The alleged evidence supporting the lesbianism charge consisted of erotic videos police found on Rose Guèye’s phone, which she said she had downloaded out of curiosity.

A couple of things. They could have belonged to her boyfriend, because straight men love lesbian pornography. That is the first point. Second, curiosity? She is a grown woman. She knows what lesbians do. The same thing your boyfriend does, just with less facial hair.

Jacobsen: Unless they are from Romania.

Bouley: In recent months, an anti-gay panic has swept Senegal, leading to hundreds of arrests. That is terrible. People act as though the United States is not moving in this direction. It is.

In Senegal, authorities have arrested hundreds of people and enacted a law doubling the penalties for same-sex intimacy.

Jacobsen: There are also dozens of medium- to high-profile pastors and priests who deliver increasingly extreme homilies about what they would like to do.

Bouley: Do we have to go back to Hunter Biden talking about the alleged cabal of closeted gay Republicans?

Look, when I am in West Hollywood, I do not use Grindr to hook up. I open the app sometimes just to see which gay people are around me. If I am in Ireland, I wonder, “Who are the gay people around here?”

It gives you a photo layout. In West Hollywood, home to the gays, Grindr never crashes. In San Francisco’s Castro district, Grindr never crashes. At the Republican National Convention, Grindr crashes. At large religious conventions, Grindr crashes. Why? Because so many people are trying to use it at once.

Rose’s father, Mame Mactar Guèye, is the vice-president of Senegal’s powerful anti-LGBTQ Islamist group Jamra. He has been a prominent advocate of the wave of anti-gay repression. He did not change his position after learning of his daughter’s arrest.

He called on the justice system to show exemplary severity, including toward his own daughter. He will not be receiving the Father of the Year award.

Jacobsen: That is extreme.

Bouley: Yes.

Jacobsen: Extreme rhetoric usually requires doubling down more than anything else.

Bouley: Ukraine’s neighbour, Poland, has a president who vetoed a bill that would recognize same-sex couples. That is odd because Poland is a member of the European Union and is supposed to recognize them.

The bill would have created cohabitation contracts, granting some legal recognition to same-sex couples regarding medical information, property rights, and funerals.

Jacobsen: It would have been the equivalent of domestic partnership rights.

Bouley: I had to sue for one of those rights. When we had domestic partnerships rather than marriage, they did not include the right to sue for wrongful death. I had to fix that after seven years and a trip to the state Supreme Court.

The bills were part of reforms promised when Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office in 2023. These included measures concerning LGBTQ rights and abortion rights. The ruling coalition in Parliament is considered liberal and pro-European, yet they still did not pass the bill. That is not encouraging.

Jacobsen: No.

Bouley: Gay rights groups in Poland said, “Today’s veto of the bill shows that even the absolute minimum of rights this bill was intended to provide is too much for this president.”

You have to wonder because it does not affect the president. It affects nobody else.

Former equality minister and New Left member of Parliament Katarzyna Kotula said Nawrocki had turned his back on two million people living in informal relationships.

Earlier this year, a gay couple who travelled to Berlin to marry won the right in court to have their marriage recognized in Poland under EU law.

If you marry outside Poland and return, your marriage is recognized. If you live in Poland with your partner and want legal rights, you do not get them.

Jacobsen: That is an incongruity in the law. It is an incongruity created for the convenience of cultural sentiment.

Bouley: That is a polite way of saying he wants votes.

Jacobsen: He is doing this to please conservative voters. There are substantial numbers of Catholics.

Bouley: I heard this next story this week. I used to write for Metro Weekly in Washington, D.C. I was worried when I first heard it, but after reading the story, I thought, “Good, he was not inside the bar.”

This nutjob went to a gay dive bar, which is one of the most enjoyable places in the world. Gay dive bars are fun. Any dive bar can be fun, and gay people are usually a hit in straight dive bars.

Many gay people are afraid to enter straight dive bars. I have gone into many, and trust me, I was a hit. I usually found someone to go home with.

Staff and customers took cover inside Sharkey’s after an armed man opened fire from the parking lot.

This happened in Asheville, North Carolina, where my friend Bruce Steele, the former editor of The Advocate, lives with his husband, Chris.

Police shot and killed the man after he opened fire. Why do I have to say “allegedly”? He had the gun, and there were bullet holes in the wall. He opened fire on a gay bar from its parking lot.

Why did he shoot at the bar? Because he had been kicked out.

The venue markets itself as a gay dive bar featuring drag, karaoke, DJs, and cheap booze. My kind of place.

The bar said in a statement that the individual, whose behaviour had caused concern, was asked to leave during the early morning hours. He was later seen with a gun in the parking lot.

When staff and customers became aware of the armed man, they locked the doors, called 911, and followed the dispatcher’s instructions. They moved everyone away from the windows and onto the bar floor. Gunshots were then fired outside.

Can you imagine being at a club at 1:30 in the morning and suddenly being told, “Everyone, lie on the floor”? This is ridiculous.

Asheville police officers arrived and returned fire, striking the man, who later died from his injuries. In accordance with protocol, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation will investigate the shooting.

Sharkey’s confirmed that no staff members or customers were harmed. The bar reopened for regular business on Wednesday afternoon.

There is no word on whether the man was gay. He was at a gay dive bar, acting erratically and strangely even by gay-bar standards. You have to be acting pretty fucking weird to be thrown out of a gay bar.

He was thrown out, got a gun, and started shooting at the building.

This story is an important reminder of the need for quick action. I applaud the Asheville police.

Weeks ago, on the anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge fire, we discussed a similar case. A patron at the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans was thrown out for disruptive behaviour. He returned, locked the door at the bottom of the stairs, and set the place on fire. One of the largest massacres in gay history followed.

This could have been much worse. We applaud the Asheville police for responding and the bar’s staff for taking quick, decisive action. I know it was unpleasant to make everyone lie on the floor, but I am glad nobody died.

This is what happened at the UpStairs Lounge, except the attacker used fire instead of a gun. Both incidents involved disgruntled patrons who were thrown out and then became violent.

Jacobsen: This is not unique to gay bars. Many people are removed from bars and then return to cause trouble. That is why bars have bouncers and security.

Bouley: This may sound strange, but bars in the Castro are using facial-recognition technology, and gay patrons are upset about it.

When you enter a bar, they scan your identification and face, as at an airport. They retain that information for 30 days. Other bars use the same system.

If you are thrown out for behaviour like this, you are entered into the system. When another bar scans your face, staff will not let you in. You are not merely banned from one bar. You are banned from all participating bars.

When I hear stories like this, I am not convinced that technology would help. Has this man behaved this way at other bars? Is he simply unstable? Was this a one-time incident? I do not know.

I do know that no gay person was harmed, and I have no problem with an armed attacker being killed. Bravo to Sharkey’s, bravo to the Asheville police, and thank God it did not end like the UpStairs Lounge.

You may have seen this story. It was announced yesterday or Wednesday that, under Donald Trump, 1,700 HIV organizations around the world were shuttered. Someone may have told you about this.

Jacobsen: This is significant.

Bouley: People are going to die because they will lose access to medication, testing, and related services. These deaths will be directly caused by Donald Trump. I first thought the number was 170, but I checked again. It was 1,700 AIDS organizations.

Jacobsen: That is the key point. It is not 1,700 people. It is 1,700 organizations serving people.

Bouley: Let us say each organization serves only 100 people. That is still 170,000 people, and we know many of these organizations serve far more.

I lived through AIDS. I am a pandemic survivor. I am still HIV-negative. You do not have to have sex to contract the virus.

I am holding up, Scott. We will finish this topic when we return, along with another story released today by the United States Federal Communications Commission that you may not believe.

We are back with Scott and Karel on This Gay Week. Today is Thursday, July 23. Yesterday, Wednesday, July 22, reports said Donald Trump asked the FCC to place a warning label on any program containing LGBTQ content or non-binary gender ideology.

He wants a warning label before any program featuring gay people.

Jacobsen: This is perfect because I loved George Carlin’s routines about the FCC. Three minutes into July 23, it is now my birthday.

Bouley: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday!

That was the song performed for Nelson Mandela on his birthday.

They want to add a warning. We interviewed Tipper Gore when she was involved with the Parents Music Resource Center, the group that wanted warning labels on records because of lyrical content. I told her I had no problem with that, especially for some rap records, because a child who wants to buy one will buy it anyway.

We already have a rating system. If he wants programs with gay content rated PG-13, he can do that. Requiring a special gay warning is absurd, although it would make it easier for me to find shows to watch. I would watch every program with the gay warning.

Jacobsen: That is the funny part. Religious institutions support book bans. For me, that simply identifies which books I should read.

Bouley: In the United States, when Donald Trump announced his anti-LGBTQ book ban last year, sales of every banned book increased by 500 percent. People wanted to read them.

We will finish with this. In Lima, Ohio, a hotbed of gayness, a billboard appeared saying, “No child has zero dads” and “No child has zero moms.” The words “zero dads” and “zero moms” were printed in rainbow colours. The message was that gay people cannot be parents.

A gay rights organization has decided to sue the city. They are likely to lose because the organization that placed the billboard has a right to do so under freedom of speech.

Jacobsen: I understand your point. They have that right.

Bouley: If you do not like it, place another billboard across from it supporting gay parents.

I am Karel. Be who you want to be, as long as you do not hurt anybody.

Hopefully Scott will be back next week. I say hopefully because bombs are falling, so we do not know whether his internet connection will be reliable.

Scott, thank you. Stay safe.

—

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is a Writer and Editor for The Good Men Project with more than 2,000 publications on the platform. He is the Founder and Publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343; 978-1-0673505) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN, 0018-7399; Online: ISSN, 2163-3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), Humanist Perspectives (ISSN: 1719-6337), A Further Inquiry (SubStack), Vocal, Medium, The New Enlightenment Project, The Washington Outsider, rabble.ca, and other media. His bibliography index can be found via the Jacobsen Bank at In-Sight Publishing comprised of more than 10,000 articles, interviews, and republications, in more than 200 outlets. He has served in national and international leadership roles within humanist and media organizations, held several academic, media, and research institution fellowships, and currently serves on numerous international boards. He is a member in good standing in numerous media organizations, including the Canadian Association of Journalists, PEN Canada (CRA: 88916 2541 RR0001), and Reporters Without Borders (SIREN: 343 684 221/SIRET: 343 684 221 00041/EIN: 20-0708028), and others.