SICKOFITRADLZ: Big Freedia and the first Hollywood film to use the term "gay" as we know it today

That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Fatal Repulsion" and it went up earlier tonight.

At first blush, the mere idea of a Big Freedia gospel album sounds like musical Mad Libs. After all, Freedia is the queen of New Orleans bounce music, an ass-shaking, party-starting hip-hop dynamo; save for Sodom and Gomorrah, there's not a ton of booty popping in the Bible.

But like many LGBTQ+ Black artists raised in the American South, Freedia's musical awakening was far more parochial. "Growing up in the Black Baptist church here - in New Orleans especially - a lot of gay individuals are involved," the 47-year-old tells Billboard from her colorfully festooned New Orleans home, where she's hunkered down as a rainstorm approaches. "I started singing when I was a little kid. I was the choir director at my high school. I'm taking it back to my roots." She pauses for a half beat. "It's been on my heart heavy to do a gospel project. We're living in some crazy times."

After some 15 years as bounce music's standard-bearer - during which she starred in her own reality series (Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce on the cable channel Fuse from 2013 to 2017) and collaborated with artists from Beyoncé ("Formation") to Kesha ("Raising Hell") to Drake ("Nice for What") - Freedia set out to craft songs to liberate not merely the hips, but the spirit, too. She conceived her new project, Pressing Onward, to show the world "a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel."

Good for Big Freedia. New artist for me so that's one LGBTQIA+ artist I learned about this Pride month.

In the 1930s, the infamous Hays Code came to Hollywood, a conservative set of motion picture guidelines that outlawed American films from featuring anything deemed lewd, crude, explicit, or—of course—gay.

Unfortunately, this time of strict moral conservatism all but snuffed out what’s become known as the “pansy craze,” an era of increased LGBTQ+ representation in popular culture with a spotlight on drag artists and other overtly queer acts.

But even under the Hays Cods, the industry managed to find plenty of loopholes to keep the flames of the craze alive on film, using coded language and other signifiers to depict or reference gay characters without directly naming them as such.

You know, “confirmed bachelors.” Fellas who were “a bit funny,” or maybe “light in their loafers.’

To celebrate Pride Month, the cinema historians over at TCM have programmed an entire night of films from the ’30s that gleefully danced around the rules to bring a winking version queer representation to the screen at a time when it was illegal, with features like 1932’s Call Her Midnight (which has a whole musical number clearly set at a gay bar) to dynamic duo Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers’ The Gay Divorcee from 1934.

[. . .]

Though there is some debate, many scholars point to 1938’s Bringing Up Baby, the classic, fast-talking screwball comedy from Howard Hawks starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and… a leopard.

In the film, Grant plays paleontologist David Huxley who is looking for funding for his museum exhibit when he gets tangled up with Hepburn’s Susan Vance, an eccentric heiress who wants him all to herself. Through a wacky turn of events which finds David at Susan’s estate looking after her pet leopard Baby, she eventually hides his clothes in an effort to keep him from leaving.

With nothing to wear, he grabs Susan’s frilly robe, and that’s when there’s a buzz at the door—it’s Susan’s wealthy aunt Elizabeth Random (May Robson). Confused by his appearance, she asks a flustered David why he’s wearing the robe, to which he jokingly replies, “Because I went GAY all of a sudden!”

Now, you could interpret that line a few different ways, but in retrospect it feels like a strikingly modern use of the term (albeit slightly outdated in that it posits an otherwise straight man wouldn’t normally be caught wearing something so feminine).

Still, the censors—with their eyes on the Hays Code—didn’t catch it, nor would we expect them to; “gay” as in “homosexual” was just coded slang only heard among the community. Which begs the question: what queer snuck that line in their to begin with?

“My understanding is that by the time Bringing Up Baby came out, the word ‘gay’ was known in some circles to mean homosexual,” TCM’s Dave Karger says to IndieWire in the same piece. “And the story goes that Cary Grant ad-libbed that line. So, I would like to think that he that Cary Grant knew what he was saying when he allegedly came up with that line.”

Bringing Up Baby starred Cary Grant. I've lost patience with Dyan Cannon and daughter Jennifer. Cary was gay, the whole world now knows. It's stupid of the two women to pretend otherwise. Makes me wonder if Dyan is bi or a lesbian since she continues to lie. Various lovers and friends have discussed Cary being gay. I have no idea why they want to lie. Katharine Hepburn co-starred with Cary in the film. Hepburn was a lesbian. She sometimes slept with men but her primary attraction was women. Liz Smith cleared it up after Hepburn died when some were trying to play coy about Hepburn.

So the first filme -- as far as we know -- to use the term "gay" as we do today starred a gay man (Cary) nad a lesbian (Katharine).

Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Tuesday, June 24, 2025. The senators strike back and liberate The Kennedy Center, Chump claims credit for a cease-fire but apparently his self-brag didn't reach Israel, ICE agents continue to kidnap and beat up people on the streets of America, and much more.

Last night, Rachel Maddow reported, The Kennedy Center celebrated Pride last night thanks to

Senators Tammy Baldwin, Elizabeth Warren, Jacky Rosen, Brian Schatz and John Hickenlooper.

Senator John Hickenlooper's office issued the following:

Musical theater concert produced by acclaimed Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller, with music directed by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley

WASHINGTON – Tonight, U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper, Tammy Baldwin, Elizabeth Warren, Jacky Rosen, and Brian Schatz hosted a Pride celebration and musical performance titled “Love is Love”, which was produced by acclaimed Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller, at the Kennedy Center’s Justice Forum.

In the last years of the 20th century, and the early years of this century, gay marriage went from being vilified by some to being widely accepted. “Love is Love” is a celebration of the important role that Broadway, Hollywood, and other creative enterprises played in this dramatic transformation of the America we love.

The actors and other creative talent who created this show gave their time and creative energy to recognize and amplify this cultural transformation. The Kennedy Center, long an outpost and a beacon for equality in the arts, seemed the perfect venue.

The performance reminds us that our fight for equality – and for democracy – isn’t over. It’s happening right now, all around us.

“In our darkest hours, we must continue to seek out the light,” said Hickenlooper. “Tonight, we honor the role that the freedom of expression and the theatrical arts play in continuing to expand LGBTQ rights in America.”

“We have made incredible progress in our fight for true equality, but we cannot mistake progress for victory and we still have some big hills to climb. Look no further than the Trump Administration’s shameful attacks on the LGBTQ community and our right to live a life with dignity, respect, and free from discrimination. While this administration won’t say it, we will: To all LGBTQ members of our community, we see you, we respect you, and we are proud to celebrate you,” said Baldwin.

“As the Trump administration keeps up its hateful attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans, we’re meeting their bigotry with resilience and joy. Tonight, we’re celebrating that joy at the Kennedy Center with artists and stage workers for a special performance. I’ll never stop fighting to make sure every single person is free to live exactly who they are,” said Warren.

“The Trump Administration’s cruel and harmful attacks against the LGBTQ community are having dire consequences,” said Rosen. “Trump is not only actively targeting LGBTQ Americans with discriminatory policies, he’s seeking to erase LGBTQ history and culture. That’s why it’s more important than ever before to stand up and proudly celebrate the LGBTQ community.”

“Every attack on LGBTQ+ rights by the Trump administration is an attack on human rights, on freedom, and on every American’s right to equal protection under the law. We have come too far to go backward. Now is the time to stand up and fight back in every way we can – in the courts, at the ballot box, in peaceful protests, and with the arts,” said Schatz.

For a full list of the cast and crew, click HERE.

Photos from the event can be found HERE and attributable to the Office of U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper

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Good for the senators and for all the artists who took part. Discrimination isn't compatible with real democracy. DEADLINE notes that sour queen and Chump's token gay Richard Grenell had another one of hissy fits in public. We don't have time for that mama's drama and we won't quote him. He's a liar and we went over all of this when he was attacking Harvey Fierstein. Love is Love and love, the arts and freedom won last night.

"Hello I'm Stupid and I Shouldn't Have A Job." That's not the headline to Kinsey Crowley and Sudiksha Kochi latest garbage for USA TODAY but it should be. General studies majors. Remember that's all most journalists are -- glorified general studies majors. The dim bulbs type:

Immigration was a flashpoint going into the 2024 presidential election, and it remains President Donald Trump's strongest issue in a recent poll.

A NBC News Decision Desk Poll released June 15, conducted along with SurveyMonkey, found that 45% of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, while 55% disapprove. Those figures remain unchanged from an NBC News survey in April. (The survey was conducted among 19,410 adults nationwide between May 30 and June 10. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.)

According to the survey, 51% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of border security and immigration, while 49% disapprove, the exception to his negative overall rating.

I really hate stupid idiots who think they can address a topic but lack the training to do so. Chump's not winning on immigration in that poll. The results do not demonstrate that. You have 51% approval and 49% disapproval and the typists run with that. But that's not how the social sciences work. Let me repeat what I've said over and over for years now -- right here, for years. If you did not take a college research and methodology course, sit your tired ass down because you clearly don't know what you're talking about. 2.1%. That's the margin of error. Social sciences are not true sciences. The polling is not just the numbers for and against, it's also the margin of error. The true result of the poll that the two idiots are too stupid to be writing about? It's a tie. The results are within the margin of error.

That's not a win.

They then want to offer proof that he's 'winning' because they're apparently some zonked out on tigers blood Charlie Sheen wanna be:

Economist/YouGov poll: (June 13-16, 1,512 U.S. adult citizens, margin of error plus or minus 3.3%). Overall approval rating: 41% approve, 54% disapprove; Immigration issue approval rating: 44% approve, 52% disapprove. That's a new low, according to this pollster.

Morning Consult: (June 13-15, 2,207 registered voters, margin of error plus or minus two percentage points). Overall approval rating: 46% approve, 52% disapprove; Immigration approval rating: 51% approve, his best rating among the issues.

Fox News Poll with Beacon Research and Shaw & Co. Research: (June 13-16, 1,003 registered voters, margin of error plus or minus three percentage points.) Overall approval rating: 46% approve, 54% disapprove; Immigration approval rating: 46% approve, 53% disapprove. The poll also asked about border security, which received higher approval at 53% compared to 46% who disapproved.

The ECONOMIST-YOU GOV Poll (and I typed that correctly -- it's a joint poll requiring a "-" between the two organizations) shows disapproval and it's beyond the margin of error. The same is true of the FOX "NEWS" Poll. "His best rating among the issues!" they gush of the MORNING CONSULT Poll -- you know, the one they refuse to provide the number for disapproval.

You know what else the bad USA TODAY typist fail to provide regarding the MORNING CONSULT polling? This finding:

Voters are souring on Trump’s immigration, national security handling: Since the beginning of June, Trump’s net approval ratings on immigration and national security have been cut in half. Voters are still 7 percentage points more likely to approve than disapprove of his handling of immigration, but that’s down from a 12-point gap, and his 6-point net approval rating on national security is down from 13 points over the same time frame.

Per MORNING CONSULT, that's the main finding of their poll but somehow USA TODAY's typists miss that.

NJ ADVANCE MEDIA employs actual journalists which is how Lauren Sforza can report on the MORNING CONSULT poll that USA TODAY's typists so bungled:

The poll also found that Trump’s approval rating on immigration and national security has also dropped in recent days.

“Since the beginning of June, Trump’s net approval ratings on immigration and national security have been cut in half. Voters are still 7 percentage points more likely to approve than disapprove of his handling of immigration, but that’s down from a 12-point gap, and his 6-point net approval rating on national security is down from 13 points over the same time frame,” the analysis stated.

That's why you conduct polling: To find the trends. Reanna Smith (IRISH STAR) also covers polling and also does the work the USA typists are unable to.

The polls show that the trend is more and more people opposing Chump's immigration 'plan.'

Why is that?

Because of things like this.

And this.

As people see what's going on, they grow more and more repulsed. Masked persons are kidnapping people off the streets. Frequently, they push the suspected immigrant to the ground and then they -- plural ICE agents -- begin whaling on the unarmed immigrants.

As we see the thugs of ICE beat up one person after another, take actions that law enforcement is not allowed to, the country grows more repulsed.

Every day, this abuse happens. Every day people are abducted. During the abduction, they are often beaten. In what world is this law enforcement?

It's not.

And we've noted before that by using masks and not identifying themselves, they're at risk of a good Samaritan in an open carry state witnessing this abuse and trying to rescue the person being attacked.

We've noted Job Garcia a few times now. Isabel Keane (INDEPENDENT) reports:

A U.S. citizen who was violently arrested in a California ICE raid and detained for 24 hours said it was all worth it if an undocumented person was able to use that moment to flee.

Job Garcia, a 37-year-old PhD student at Claremont Graduate University, was arrested during an ICE raid last Thursday at a Home Depot in Hollywood, ABC 7 reported.

Video captured an ICE agent telling Garcia, who is a U.S. citizen, “You want to go to jail? Fine, you got it.”

Garcia recalled the horrifying moment he was placed into custody by the officer: “The pressure of like, the knee on my back, and his hand on my neck, I thought like ‘Is this it for me?’”

Footage of the violent arrest, which came as ICE agents detained about 30 people at the store, quickly went viral.

Job's not going to back down. Others aren't either. ICE's actions are unAmerican and illegal. At some point, that reality sinks in -- it even sinks in for ICE agents which is why I've noted that you can't buy back you soul and a lot of people working for ICE will have a future of drug abuse and/or suicide. You can't carry out these inhuman acts be left untouched. You know what you're doing is wrong. You know it's destroying lives and you're not going to be able to walk away from your actions in five or ten years nor are you going to be able to live with what you've done without the aid of drugs.

Each day, we see more and learn more and the number of people opposed to Chump's immigration abuse grows. That is the trend. USA TODAY typists can't or won't tell you that but that is what is happening.

Americans are watching with outrage as a secret police -- that's what ICE has become -- terrorizes people on the streets, beats them up and kidnaps them. That's not America and you must be a crazy USA TODAY typist if you believe this is no big deal.

Also a big deal? Getting rid of needed service members. Jonathan Edwards (WASHINGTON POST) reports:

U.S. Space Force Master Sgt. Sabrina Bruce didn’t know her life was about to change forever when she got into her car last month to head to the Pentagon and reenlist for another six years.

Bruce, 34, was excited to continue a career that had set her on a life-altering path. She’d enlisted in the Air Force in 2013 to escape her gender dysphoria, she said, referring to the medical term for the distress felt when one’s sex assigned at birth does not align with their gender. Instead, she found a culture that empowered her to come out as a transgender woman.

But just before Bruce began the drive to her reenlistment ceremony on May 6, she saw the news on her phone. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled the Trump administration could execute plans to bar her and thousands of other transgender service members from the armed forces. Despite her intent to keep serving, Bruce realized her military career doing top-secret cybersecurity work would probably be measured in weeks or months — not years.

“I was in shock,” she said, adding: “I was intending to serve out my time and keep working and keep contributing to the nation.”

Bruce started transitioning in 2017, seven months after the military lifted its ban prohibiting transgender troops from serving openly. Nine years after that ban ended, the same military is now kicking them out.

Active-duty transgender service members faced a June 6 deadline to self-report their gender dysphoria, which President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said is incompatible with military service. Trump called transgender identity a “falsehood” that does not comport with the “humility and selflessness required of a service member.” Advocates for transgender service members say expelling cyber experts like Bruce and others in highly specialized fields — pilots, nuclear engineers, intelligence analysts — will harm the military as leaders try to reverse a years-long trend of recruiting shortfalls.

The Washington Post spoke with 10 transgender troops as some wrestled with the decision to self-report by the deadline, others scrambled to find new jobs and all grieved the sudden, unwanted loss of a life built around military service. Each of them repudiated the Pentagon calling their de facto firings as “voluntary” separations after requiring them to report their gender dysphoria for the express purpose of casting them out.

“This is not voluntary separation. This is separation under duress. This is coercion,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Emily Shilling, a fighter pilot and president of SPARTA Pride, a nonprofit that advocates for transgender troops. She, like the other service members interviewed, spoke in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the military.

While the Chump administration works to run off qualified service members, they recruit uqnalified idiots to fill security positions. Joe DePaolo (MEDIAITE) reports:

Amid the threats of retribution from Iran following the U.S. military strike on three Iranian nuclear sites, critics have ramped up their scrutiny of the 22-year-old who was assigned to a major terrorism-prevention post by President Donald Trump.

In a Sunday morning post to X, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) called out Trump for appointing 22-year-old Thomas Fugate to a role at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in which he oversees the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) — a division of the agency which is tasked with terrorism prevention.

“As our nation girds for possible Iranian terrorist attacks, this is the person Trump put in charge of terrorism prevention,” Murphy wrote — referring to Fugate. “22 years old. Recent work experience: landscaping/grocery clerk. Never worked a day in counter-terrorism. But he’s a BIG Trump fan. So he got the job.”

A June 4 investigation from Pro Publica into Fugate’s background turned up a stunningly thin resume. Fugate got the job in May after William Braniff — an Army veteran with over two decades of national security experience — resigned in protest of cuts to CP3. Per his Linkedin page, Fugate said he spent several months performing “lawn care work around my neighborhood,” and also worked part time as a clerk at an H-E-B supermarket.

“Maybe he’s a wunderkind. Maybe he’s Doogie Howser and has everything at 21 years old, or whatever he is, to lead the office. But that’s not likely the case,” an counterterrorism researcher, who has worked with CP3 officials for years, told ProPublica. “It sounds like putting the intern in charge.”

In light of Iran’s threats, critics are calling out the president for giving a 22-year-old a key job which has now become even more important:

Meredith Kile (PEOPLE) noted yesterday:

Iran retaliated for recent U.S. military strikes on Monday, June 23, launching a missile strike against a military base in Qatar.

Iran's armed forces claimed a “powerful and destructive missile strike on the United States’ Al-Udeid military base in Qatar," NBC News reported.

Al-Udeid is the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. It is the forward headquarters for U.S. Central Command and is home to about 10,000 troops.

Explosions were reported near Doha, the capital city of Qatar, where the base is located and the U.S. Embassy issued a "shelter in place" warning to all citizens.

Matt Watts (EVENING STANDARD) adds:

Just before the explosions, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on social media platform X: "We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer."

The US confirmed the air base was targeted by a missile attack from Iran but added that casualties were reported.

Tehran said the attack in Qatar matched the number of bombs dropped by the US on Iran's nuclear sites over the weekend, signalling its likely desire to de-escalate.

Three Iranian officials told the New York Times they had forecast its strikes with Qatar in a bid to minimise casualties.

Donald Trump was also aware of the attack plans in advance, Western officials said.

The Ain al-Assad base housing US troops in western Iraq was also targeted, an Iraqi security source said, but Iran did not claim that attack, which could have been carried out by militias.

Masoud Pezeshkian wasn't the only one taking to social media. Matt Atherton and Falyn Stempler (IRISH STAR) report:

President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to deliver a rambling monologue in the wake of Iran's bombing of U.S. airbases in Qatar.

Rather than addressing the pressing international crisis, the U.S. leader chose to focus his attention on lambasting what he calls "sleazebags in the media" and "fake news."

He posted: "The sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it. Only the Fake News would say anything different in order to try and demean, as much as possible - And even they say they were 'pretty well destroyed!'

"Working especially hard on this falsehood is Allison Cooper of Fake News CNN, Dumb Brian L. Roberts, Chairman of 'Con'cast, Jonny Karl of ABC Fake News, and always, the Losers of, again, Concast's NBC Fake News. It never ends with the sleazebags in the Media, and that's why their Ratings are at an ALL TIME LOW - ZERO CREDIBILITY!".

Senile Chump has no idea who he is at war with. Can we get him into a home already?

He spent last night claiming a ceasefire was now in place and taking credit for it.

However . . .

Minutes ago, REUTERS reported, "Iranian and Israeli media reported new Israeli airstrikes on Iran on Tuesday, despite U.S. President Donald Trump having said Israel had called them off at his command to preserve an hours-old ceasefire. Two explosions were heard in the capital, the judiciary news outlet Mizan reported. Israeli army radio said Israel had struck an Iranian radar site near Tehran."

Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

JCT Report on 199A (PDF) | JCT Response on Millionaires Claiming 199A (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, released new data from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), a nonpartisan Congressional committee dedicated to analyzing tax legislation, revealing that the majority of the benefit from the 199A tax deduction goes to millionaires.

The 199A tax deduction was created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, with Congressional Republicans claiming it would support small business owners by allowing them to deduct up to 20 percent of their business’s qualified income from their personal income taxes.

JCT’s responses provided a breakdown, by income level, of who claims the 199A deduction, in addition to other key information about who the deduction benefits. Key findings include:

More than 50% of the benefit of the 199A deduction goes to millionaires.
The top 10% of taxpayers claimed 87% of the benefit of 199A, while the bottom 20% claimed no benefit whatsoever.
84% of the businesses through which individuals claimed the 199A deduction had no employees.
More than two-thirds of the 199A deduction goes to individuals above the deduction’s phase-out thresholds, demonstrating that the law’s guardrails to prevent wealthy individuals from taking the benefit are ineffective.
The proportion of 199A benefits claimed by millionaires increased over time from 2018 to 2022.

The House version of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” now under consideration by the Senate, includes an expansion of the 199A deduction from a 20 percent deduction to a 23 percent deduction.

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Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Meeting Of The Mini-Minds" went up last night. The following sites updated: