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Twentysomething Hairless White Gay Men Who Have Time To Take Pilates 5 Days A Week

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Editor’s note:

J. Rudy Flesher is a Philadelphia based actor, blogger and college student. After a three-year detour working in health care he recently returned to The College of New Jersey to complete his B.A. in Women’s and Gender studies. He blogs (sporadically at the moment and daily when school is not in session) at The Pistol in Bed Thirteen.

A while back I invited Rudy to join The New Civil Rights Movement because I was quite impressed with his thoughts, his ideas, his background, his grasp of the issues affecting our community, and his work. Later, via Twitter, I wrote something like, “I am happy today knowing our community’s future is being created by people like Rudy.” I think you will be too. This is Rudy’s first post here.

I have been following the debate surrounding David’s decision to discontinue writing for Bilerico with interest as it has sparked debate here, and around the queer blogosphere. David’s argument hit home for me as I have chosen to stop following blogs precisely because they mixed scantily-clad gym bunnies in with their editorial and news reporting content, though perhaps for different reasons. I believe the images portrayed lack diversity, and therefore under-represent, misrepresent, alienate, and ghettoize many LGBTQ communities and their members.

First, why I stand with David on his decision to step down from Bilerico: My issue with the way they handle this content is that they style themselves as a queer think tank and the goal on their “about us” page is to “foster…conversations in order to strengthen us as individuals and as a community.” To my mind, that means the naked Mormon boys are simply, in corporate parlance, “off mission.” Porn is awesome, but if Judith Butler or Kate Bornstein popped up in the middle of a sex scene to offer a post-modern analysis of gender identity, it too would be “off mission,” and I’d be annoyed. It’s just out of place.

Now, on to my larger issues with this content. Queerty was the blog I chose to unsubscribe from. I consider myself a sex-positive feminist and do believe that our society has a long way to go in terms of maturely integrating sexuality into daily life in a way that is celebratory, healthy, and free of shame and stigma. However, the images portrayed on Queerty and, as far as I’ve observed, other mainstream LGBTQ blogs, including Bilerico, do not achieve this whatsoever.

Instead, these pictures say that, no matter how many letters we add to the LGBTQ alphabet soup, no matter how inclusive the other content becomes, that clearly, it is white, gay, men with single-digit body fat who matter. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Sure, the blogs are writing about lesbian issues, but there never seem to be any photos of hot dykes to oggle. The bodies of trans people certainly aren’t represented. Without a doubt, people of color, the hirsute, the disabled, those older than twenty-seven, and so on clearly need not apply. Men destabilizing gender roles — wearing makeup, “women’s” clothes, nail polish — well, we’ll watch them in drag shows, but Goddess forbid we celebrate their sexuality because then we would be radically dismantling a false gender binary which oppresses all of us. Gosh, who would want that?

Instead, these pictures constantly reinforce that only certain people matter, that they’re all men, and only certain kinds of men. If that’s your type, then by all means, oggle away! But put it on a blog called “Twenty-Something Hairless White Gay Men Who Have the Time to Take Pilates Five Days a Week.” Don’t run a blog that purports to represent a dynamic population and then only represent a historically-privileged demographic.

David is spot on when he notes that blogs offering this type of material as content use it as an easy way to get traffic, but I’d go a step further and say that the incredibly narrow spectrum of men represented in this material speaks to a whole lot of patriarchy and ugly “isms” that pervade our communities today. How quickly we forget history and fail to learn from it.

There was a feminist backlash against the “Lavender Menace” of lesbians, and then against transsexual women who were (and are) portrayed as invading women’s space. All variety of people who were gender rebels were at the forefront of queer liberation, and quickly thrown under the bus for those seen as less threatening to mainstream (read: white patriarchal) society. To turn this tide requires intense, critical introspection, both collectively and communally.

While both mainstream media and queer blogs seem content with appealing to the lowest common denominator (and ignoring the needs and desires of much of their audience), we must be willing to take a principled stand to buck this anti-intellectual trend and have intelligent discourse on the damage done to our communities when so many are excluded. As Judith Butler notes in the preface to the 1999 republication of her landmark “Gender Trouble,”

“…we underestimate the reading public, its capacity and desire for reading complicated and challenging texts, when the complication is not gratuitous, when the challenge is in the service of calling taken-for granted truths into question, when the taken for grantedness of those truths is, indeed, oppressive.”

I could not agree with her more. It is a time to be critical, compassionate, celebratory, and radical. It is time to love and value ourselves and each other.

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News

‘He Sued to Block Kids From Getting SNAP’: Trump Torched for Biblical Defense of Children

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10 hours ago

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November 13, 2025

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President Donald Trump came under fire on Thursday after using the Bible to call for protecting children during an event with First Lady Melania Trump.

The event, an executive order signing, was “aimed at expanding opportunities for education, career development, housing, and other resources for young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood,” according to the White House.

“The Bible tells us that one of the measures of any society is how it cares for vulnerable children and orphans,” President Trump told the assembled audience in the East Room of the White House.

“So important, it is so big in the Bible, so, as we make America great again, we are going to protect American children in foster care.”

READ MORE: ‘Concepts of a Plan’: White House and GOP Under Fire for Health Care Cost Crisis

Critics were quick to chastise the president, whose administration has been fighting all the way to the Supreme Court to block funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“You literally fought in court to strip families of food assistance,” declared California Governor Gavin Newsom.

“Your ICE agents pepper sprayed a baby last week,” charged House Homeland Security Committee Democrats.

“He sued to block kids from getting SNAP benefits just days ago,” wrote The Lincoln Project.

The Friendly Atheist’s Hemant Mehta posted a headline that read: “USAID cuts may lead to more than 14 million deaths globally, including 4.5 million children under 5 by 2030, researchers say.”

READ MORE: Trump Stumbles Over ‘God Bless America’ Lyrics at Veterans Day Ceremony

 

Image via Reuters 

 

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‘Concepts of a Plan’: White House and GOP Under Fire for Health Care Cost Crisis

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10 hours ago

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November 13, 2025

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It took congressional Democrats more than a year of work — plus several years of prior policy development — to create the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Now, Republicans are scrambling to fix it after passing President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which stripped away the subsidies that helped make buying insurance on the exchanges affordable.

And they have just weeks to make it happen, before the new premiums go into effect on January 1.

The House is back in session after Speaker Mike Johnson kept Republicans in their home districts for almost two months during the federal government shutdown. Now, Republicans and the Trump White House are starting to decide what, if anything, they will do to keep premiums — already published — from doubling or even tripling in certain cases.

“President Donald Trump’s Domestic Policy Council and senior health officials have been meeting privately for preliminary conversations on how to address the expiration of health insurance tax credits, according to a White House official and another person familiar with the talks,” Politico reported on Thursday. “Conversations about a White House alternative to Affordable Care Act subsidies, which will expire at year’s end, are in the ‘early ideation phase,’ said a third person familiar with the talks.”

READ MORE: Congressman Conway? Top Trump Critic Reportedly Eyeing House Bid

Capitol Hill is in a similar state.

Noting that “the clock is ticking,” NBC News reported that “Republicans, under pressure from Democrats after the government shutdown revived the health care clash, have not coalesced around legislation or even an abstract idea, and are only now starting serious discussions about putting proposals together.”

“As the party scrambles to craft an alternative, multiple Republicans are vying for Trump’s endorsement of ideas that could alleviate skyrocketing costs that are just around the corner,” NBC added.

Democrats want a three-year extension of Obamacare subsidies and tax credits, Speaker Johnson has said that is a nonstarter.

Some Republicans are starting to speak out.

READ MORE: ‘Out of Touch’: Eric Trump Blasted for $500 Million Bitcoin Brag

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), a former Democrat, “warned, ‘not only is it morally bankrupt, it’s political suicide’ for Republicans to let the subsidies expire without an alternative in place.”

U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) prefers a vehicle like health care saving accounts that he claimed will lower costs by driving up competition. President Trump appeared to favor that approach, when he attacked health insurance companies in a social media post earlier this week.

Some are warning that bypassing the Obamacare exchanges could damage or destroy them.

“A tweet is not a health care plan,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, told NBC. “If people could use these Trump health care dollars to buy insurance not regulated by the ACA, it would likely cause the ACA to collapse and upend protections for pre-existing conditions.”

Meanwhile, critics are blasting Republicans on Capitol Hill as well as the Trump administration for waiting so long before starting to try to create a plan.

Responding to the NBC News report, journalist Justin Baragona observed, “we’re still on ‘concepts of a plan’ here.”

“They’ve had 10+ years to work on this and have nothing,” wrote Laura Belin, a reporter for a progressive website. “Time to stop taking their supposed health care policy work seriously.”

“The White House is in ‘early ideation’ phase on ACA subsidies,” wrote The Bulwark’s Jonathan Cohn. “An issue already hitting millions of insurance buyers And that Democrats (not to mention analysts, journalists etc) have been saying needs attention for more than a year.”

Michigan Democratic State Senate Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, wrote: “After Republicans refused to extend ACA subsidies, 4 Michigan insurers are dropping out of the ACA marketplace altogether. That’s 200,000 Michiganders who just lost their plans. Others are just going to cancel their plans. Which means more uncompensated care. Which means *everyone’s* healthcare costs will be higher.”

READ MORE: Trump Stumbles Over ‘God Bless America’ Lyrics at Veterans Day Ceremony

 

Image via Reuters 

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Congressman Conway? Top Trump Critic Reportedly Eyeing House Bid

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13 hours ago

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November 13, 2025

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George Conway, the prominent attorney, Trump critic, and ex-husband of former Trump White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, may be considering a run for Congress.

According to a report at CNN and a post by New York Times congressional correspondent Annie Karni, Conway is eyeing a run for retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler’s New York district.

CNN reported that Conway, 62, is “actively considering running for Congress from New York City, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.”

Karni reported, “the Conway pitch being — what the House will need next year is an aggressive lawyer with an investigative background just going after Trump.”

READ MORE: Melania Trump to Appear With President as Epstein Files Take Center Stage

Conway is a former Republican who became an independent in 2018. He has a law degree from Yale, and successfully argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, obtaining a unanimous ruling. He is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project and currently co-hosts a podcast at The Bulwark.

Should Democrats retake the majority in the House of Representatives, it’s likely there will be numerous investigations into President Donald Trump and his administration — not to mention possible efforts to impeach the unpopular and controversial Commander in Chief.

Conway would have good company in a primary.

“Jack Schlossberg, former President John F. Kennedy’s grandson, entered the race this week,” CNN noted.

The Daily Beast adds that “much of the buzz around Conway stems from his personal life. While he and his 58-year-old ex-wife, Kellyanne, tried to make their marriage work amid his dramatic political realignment, the couple frequently made headlines. As Kellyanne served as senior counselor to Trump from 2017 to 2020, her husband routinely sounded off on her boss and advisers—including Stephen Miller, whom Kellyanne referred to as one of her ‘best friends’ in the current administration earlier this month.”

READ MORE: White House Eyes Major Blitz as GOP Voters Blame Trump for Failing Economy

 

Image by Presia Debauch via Flickr and a CC license

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