Law, Unwrapped: Ordinary Americans, Sentinel Confrontations
In Troy, Michigan, two women and their kids confronted the mayor at a city council meeting. Last summer, that mayor posted to Facebook – will people never learn? – that she wanted to tear up her “I Love New York†carrying bag now that “queers†can marry there.
In New Hampshire, Mitt Romney sat down next to a Vietnam vet, hoping to score a few easy points with some rote declaration of thanks for his service. He wasn’t expecting his sixty-something year old contemporary to come out to him, and then to directly ask him whether he supported the vet’s right to marry his partner. (He doesn’t.)
Somewhere in South Carolina, a Michele Bachmann book-signing stumbled into an awkward abyss when, at her urging, an eight-year-old boy leaned in to make himself heard and then told the clueless candidate that his mommy was “gay but she doesn’t need fixing.â€
And just yesterday, Newt Gingrich, whose recent statements on the judiciary conclusively disqualify him from the Presidency and possibly even for citizenship, answered a gay man’s question about how he planned to engage the gays if elected in a shocking way: by advising the guy to vote for Obama. (Gingrich is, unfortunately, headed for the worst flameout since Ed Muskie, thereby depriving me of countless hours of savoring a yummy stew of outrage and amusement. Is there anyone out there who still thinks he’s a bright guy?)
These confrontations wouldn’t have happened just a few years ago. They’re sentinel events, highlighting the increasingly undeniable point that it’s no longer possible to simply ignore us, or to try to achieve that same goal less directly by stuffing us back into the closet. We are everywhere, and even vets and book signings attended by kids aren’t safe for this kind of casual bigotry any more. Even those in force fields built of ideological extremism (Bachmann) or piles of privilege (Romney) are finding, to call up a Star Trek standby, that their shield strength is “way down, captain.â€
But things will stay ugly for awhile, because these cosseted politicos are always the last to know that their orthodoxy has been defeated. So in his risible “Strong“ video, Rick Perry wonders how gays can serve openly in the military while Christian children are – and here I’m paraphrasing – burned alive for even thinking about Christmas. In a recent email to the faithful, NOM President Brian Brown solicited contributions in an effort to keep same-sex marriage from “destroying†marriage (as he knows it.) Yet as the rhetoric on the far right becomes increasingly hysterical, it becomes ever-more marginalized. So for every “like†of Perry’s YouTube video, there are more than thirty “dislikes.†30 to 1! And the parodies of the video keep coming, in crazy proliferation. Not since NOM’s “Gathering Storm†has a wingnut video betrayed such a tin ear, or inspired such lip-licking from parodists. It’s really too easy.
That’s not to say that these videos don’t do harm, though. Like the escalating idiocy of people like Newt Gingrich, they don’t help the doomed candidates or causes, but they do enable and give comfort to those who defend bullying or, worse, the criminalization of gayness and the murder of LGBT people by repressive governments.
Am I building too shaky a bridge to bear this kind of weight? You might think so, but Rick Perry’s already crossed it. In response to the moving and eloquent speech on LGBT rights as human rights that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered in Geneva earlier this month, Rick Perry (who, as the Daily Show’s Jon Oliver memorably stated last week, has an Achilles Head) assailed the Obama Administration for “being out of touch with America’s values†and – yes! – “at war with people of faith in this country.†Listen to Clinton’s simple call for equality and justice — and basic public safety — for the world’s LGBT population and you’ll be astounded at Perry’s response. Given the content of her speech, Perry’s comments come something close to approval of violence and murder against us.
But when Perry, Gingrich, Bachmann and Rick Santorum (Remember him? Me neither.) collapse spectacularly, we’ll be one step closer to the end of barely veiled gay-bashing. It won’t come too soon.
Were he born 10,000 years ago, John Culhane would not have survived to adulthood; he has no useful, practical skills. He is a law professor who writes about various and sundry topics, including: disaster compensation; tort law; public health law; literature; science; sports; his own personal life (when he can bear the humanity); and, especially, LGBT rights and issues. He teaches at the Widener University School of Law and is a Senior Fellow at the Thomas Jefferson School of Population Health.
He is also a contributor to Slate Magazine, and writes his own eclectic blog. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter if you’re blessed with lots of time.
John Culhane lives in the Powelton Village area of Philadelphia with his partner David and their twin daughters, Courtnee and Alexa. Each month, he awaits the third Saturday evening for the neighborhood Wine Club gathering.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
