Some ask why I often write about the felon in the White House. It’s because we should never stop highlighting his outrageousness, how he is destroying our country, and creating havoc in the world. His gaffes are often venal, and in most cases just his way of insulting someone. Recently it’s again obvious he either has dementia, or is just plain dumb. Clearly, he is being manipulated by some corrupt aides and personally motivated by vindictiveness. He asked the president of Liberia how his English is so good, apparently not knowing that English is the language of Liberia. 

He was asked who stopped the shipments of weapons to Ukraine, didn’t know, or remember. Then appears to forget, or doesn’t know, only two countries actually came to final tariff deals with the U.S. He went to Iowa to tout his disgusting bill and used the term “Shylock,” the name of the Jewish character in the “Merchant of Venice,” clearly used today as an anti-Semitic slur, and lied saying he never heard of it that way. Then he said Putin was a hero in World War II, when he wasn’t born until after the war ended. Now he thinks we should change the Department of Defense back to Department of War. He often forgets where he is in speeches. 

This is the man who occupies the most powerful office in the world. He is an embarrassment to the nation. He uses the presidency to get back at his perceived enemies, doing it openly. He is a grifter, enriching himself using the power that comes with being president of the United States. Others are helping, or excusing him. House Speaker Johnson was asked about the president taking grift, and said contrary to his attacks on Biden, who he said did it secretly, what Trump is doing is OK, since he is doing it publicly. Yes, he is doing it publicly, taking a jet from Qatar and cutting deals to build hotels in the Middle East. He said he wants to build a resort in Gaza after removing all the Palestinians. While enriching himself and his friends, in the process he is screwing the American people. 

Trump is making policy based on personal interests. Like framing his threat to slap a bruising 50 percent tariff on Brazil as a quest for justice for his friend and ally, far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. Then he upped the ante based on a recent BRICS meeting, one of Trump’s top foreign policy targets, a coalition of emerging economies that includes founding members Brazil, Russia, India, and China, as well as South Africa and six other countries that have joined the group in recent years. They are stronger based on the felon’s policies. 

I keep writing about this felon because he is always doing something outrageous. The MAGA Republicans in Congress keep supporting him, willingly screwing their constituents. The MAGA Log Cabin Republicans, supporting Trump, recently honored four MAGA members of Congress, all of whom are opposed to the Equality Act. One, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), when asked by her constituents why she supported taking away their Medicaid, said “It doesn’t matter you will die anyway.” That is the attitude of the felon in the White House and all his MAGA supporters. 

I am not blind to the fact that there has always been racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia, in our society. But for many years we worked hard to ensure those feelings couldn’t be voiced in the public square. If someone did voice them, they were called out for it. Then during Trump’s first term, from the day he came down that escalator to announce his candidacy and called out people in derogatory terms, he gave others tacit permission to do the same. If he could do it, then why couldn’t they? And things only got worse from there. 

Trump took hold of the Republican Party and rational Republicans simply dropped like flies afraid to criticize him. It became clear nearly 35% of the Republican Party became a Trump cult, and no Republican could win without their votes. So today, the Republican Party supports a sick, old, lying felon, a racist, homophobe, misogynist, found liable for sexual assault, whose closest allies produced Project 2025, the blueprint for destroying democracy. 

So that is why I will always write about him, and urge others to do the same. We must all speak out every day, until we rid ourselves of this despot in our midst.

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

D.C. police are investigating an incident in which a 43-year-old transgender woman says she was attacked and assaulted by three men around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, June 29, as she was riding her battery powered scooter near the Lincoln Memorial.

District resident Cayla Calhoun, a popular bartender and sommelier at the D.C. restaurant Annabelle, told the Washington Blade she is struggling to recall the details and possible multiple locations of the attack due to the severe head injuries she has suffered.

A police report says Calhoun was found lying on a curb at the intersection of 19^th Street and Constitution Avenue around 6 a.m. on June 29.

A GoFundMe appeal posted by her friend Ellen Vaughn, which reports Calhoun was found semiconscious at that time and taken to George Washington University Hospital, says her injuries include two concussions, multiple broken ribs, seven cranial fractures, and a fractured elbow. 

The police report says Calhoun called for an ambulance at the 19^th and Constitution Avenue location and told the emergency medical technicians who arrived at the scene that her injuries were caused by her falling off of her skateboard multiple times. 

The police report says three days later, on July 3, while at the hospital, Calhoun told police “that she now remembered being assaulted by three males at 19^th and I Street, N.W.,“about three quarters of a mile from where the ambulance technicians found her on Constitution Avenue.

Calhoun told the Blade she believes her memory was faulty at the time she first spoke with the ambulance technicians and police due to her head injuries. She said she is now beginning to recall that the three male attackers, whom she describes as white males, first approached her as she was riding her scooter near the Reflecting Pool close to the Lincoln Memorial.

She said the incident occurred while she was taking her routine after-work scooter ride  shortly after she completed her bartending shift at Annabelle at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 28. She said her sometimes daily after-work scooter ride, which she took on the night of the attack, involves traveling along a bike path on the Rock Creek Parkway past the Kennedy Center to the Lincoln Memorial.

From the Lincoln Memorial she rides along the Reflecting Pool toward the Washington Monument, around which she circles before starting her ride home, heading north on 15^th Street to her residence at 15^th and R Street, N.W.

She said that on the night of the attack she now recalls passing three men who were also on scooters somewhere near the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool. 

“As I passed them, they yelled faggot and pedophile at me,” she told the Blade. “I was pulling onto the area there by the reflecting pond. And I figured I would ride right away.” 

As best she recalls, the men followed her “and pushed me off my scooter and continued to yell slurs.” She said she recalls trying to ride away from the men and that her interaction with them may have continued in other nearby locations. But due to her head injuries she said she does not recall being assaulted by the attackers, although the multiple injuries to her head and body convinced her they had to have struck her in some way multiple times.

 “I have a space where I can see myself in that moment thinking to myself this is not good,” she said. “Somebody is making fun of you. You need to go as fast as you can and you need to find people. And that’s the last thought that I remember happening until the hospital.”

The D.C. police report lists the incident as an Aggravated Assault and identifies the weapon as “hands/feet.” The report lists the suspected motive as “Hate-Bias” based on the victim’s “Gender identity — anti-transgender/transsexual.”

A D.C. police spokesperson said the case remains under active investigation and that anyone with information about the case should contact police at 202-727-9099.

The attack against Johnson took place six days before another D.C. transgender woman, Dream Johnson, 28, was shot to death around 12:30 a.m. on July 5 in front of an apartment building at 2013 Benning Rd., N.E., according to a D.C. police report.

Police have yet to identify a motive in that case. But one of Johnson’s family members, her aunt, has said she learned through someone who spoke to a witness to the shooting that three men had approached Johnson while she was walking along Benning Road and one of them called her a derogatory name before one of them shot her multiple times.

Police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder. Anyone with information about this case is being asked to contact Homicide Detective Natasha Kennedy, the lead investigator, at 202-380-6198.  

Local transgender rights advocate Earline Budd said close to 100 people turned out for a candlelight vigil held in Johnson’s honor on Saturday, July 12, at D.C.’s River Terrace Park. Among those who spoke at the vigil were Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.  

Further details about the Cayla Calhoun case can be accessed through her friend’s GoFundMe appeal.

The 2025 Primetime Emmy nominations were announced, and a few of this year’s key frontrunners have particularly resonated with the LGBTQ+ community during a politically turbulent year.

Coming off Season 3’s win for outstanding comedy series, Hacks Season 4 was nominated for 14 awards, with Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Julianne Nicholson, and Robby Hoffman being recognized for their performances. Since the show premiered in 2021, each season has explored the comedy and entertainment industry through the lens of generational differences between queer writer Ava (Einbinder) and the old-school Deborah (Smart).

While Smart has won outstanding lead actress in a comedy series for all three seasons, this year could be the chance for Einbinder, who identifies as bisexual, to finally take home a prize of her own in supporting actress. And if Season 4 nabs the outstanding comedy series crown yet again, it’ll be another huge moment for bisexual representation. But it will have to fend off the industry satire The Studio, which received a staggering 23 nominations for its breakout first season.

Another one of this year’s most high-profile contenders, The Last of Us, received 16 nominations for its second season, including non-binary actor Bella Ramsey, lead actor Pedro Pascal, and supporting/guest actors Kaitlyn Dever, Jeffrey Wright, Joe Pantoliano, and Catherine O’Hara.

Notably, though, Season 2 has been hit by much more backlash, much of which has been fueled by homophobic anger at the love story between Ellie (Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced). Merced, who identifies as queer, was widely praised for her turn as Dina, but was not nominated for supporting actress. And while Season 1 received 24 nominations, Season 2 lost out on a few, bringing The Last of Us down a notch in its overall standing.

There were other snubs as well. Mid-Century Modern, the gay sitcom starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham, and Linda Lavin, did not see any of its actors nominated. It also missed out on the Best Comedy Series category, for which it was considered a contender, although it did still receive four below-the-line nominations.

However, other openly queer actors were nominated, even for roles or shows not explicitly exploring queer issues or characters. Those include Colman Domingo for The Four Seasons, Cynthia Erivo for Poker Face, Michael Urie for Shrinking, Cooper Koch for Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story, and Bowen Yang for Saturday Night Live.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the Emmys without RuPaul, who became the most-nominated reality host in Emmys history after landing his 10th nomination for RuPaul’s Drag Race. He’s also nominated alongside Alan Cumming of The Traitors fame. And in the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction special category, the critically acclaimed Will & Harper and Pee-wee as Himself were nominated, and are both considered strong contenders to win.

TV fans can find out which of their favorite queer actors or shows take home top prizes on Sunday, Sept. 14, with Nate Bargatze hosting the 77th annual awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.