Mystical Bewilderment

It’s the second Tuesday of Pride Month so it’s time again for three queer wins. As I keep saying Pride Month is about protest and fighting for our rights. So it’s important to celebrate as many of those fights as possible.

Starting in Florida, cause, DeSantis screwed up…

Orlando, Florida

Fri, April 24 - Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney, Monique Worrell was suspended back in 2023 because Governor Ron DeSantis didn’t like that she wouldn’t bow down to him.

In November 2024, she ran again, and won. And because of that she was the State Attorney in office when Florida removed the rainbow crosswalk outside the Pulse memorial and those who created a chalk crosswalk in its place were arrested.

This had never happened before, as she said in a press conference announcing the charges, or lack thereof, so it took quite a long time to come to a conclusion.

And after all the time and scrutiny in the world, she determined they would not be prosecuted.

I highly recommend watching the entire press conference (only 10 mins on 2x) and hear that her office put into proving the state wrong.

I think a lot of people, especially in Red states, question why voting matters if it’s near impossible to get a Dem at the top of the ticket. But this is why. People like Attorney Worrell have more power than you think, and it’s only because of her that these charges were dropped.

And, yeah, seeing people like her doing good work aboslutely makes me feel less Doomed!

Kansas

Fri, May 15 - District Court Judge, Carl Folsom ruled that the ban on gender affirming care does likely violate the state constitution and issued a temporary injunction.

Back in May 2025, ACLU and ACLU Kansas filed a lawsuit against the new law banning gender affirming care on behalf of two minors and their mothers.

The bill restricted state funds for gender affirming care and banned healthcare providers from providing it.

Folsom agreed that the bill will cause irreparable harm to these girls and issued a temporary injunction, saying:

They cannot wait until they turn 18 years old to resume their care without experiencing worsening gender dysphoria, negative physical side effects, and negative mental health consequences, including a more limited ability to participate in their education and social lives.

There’s still a long way to go, but this is an encouraging ruling that certainly makes me feel more hope.

Colorado

Mon, June 1 - We love malicious compliance. And when SCOTUS specified exactly why they reversed Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, the legislature went right back to work and created a new ban that fit perfectly within their parameters.

The new law removes the two year statute of limitations to sue a conversation therapy provider for malpractice. It also says that the state will not fund conversation therapy practices, that do try to open.

Given the issues SCOTUS gave for why they ruled against the original law, this should be able to survive scrutiny.

Rep Alex Valdez, one of the four prime sponors of this bill said:

This law is for all of the LGBTQ Coloradans who were told something about them that was wrong because of who they were or who they loved. With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling against Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, we are committed to offering survivors of this harmful practice the protections they deserve.

It’s not enough, but given the boundaries SCOTUS gave, it’s probably the best we can do for now. I’m so glad Colorado Dems didn’t give up and made sure to pass this quickly. That definitely gives me hope.

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And those are today’s stories. Remember, Pride Month is a month of protest, so let’s make sure to celebrate all those fighting for us every day!

If you made it to the end of this post comment 🏳️‍🌈 (Pride Flag)

And if you learned something comment what you learned and a ✏️ (pencil) because there is no chalk emoji

The Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday requiring frontier AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to have their safety practices audited by a third party. If signed into law, AI safety experts tell WIRED, it would be the nation’s leading check on the power of major AI companies.

The bill, SB 315, now heads to governor JB Pritzker’s desk. In a post on social media on Wednesday, Pritzker said he plans to sign the bill, citing a need to hold Big Tech accountable.

Since Congress has yet to pass any meaningful AI safety legislation, state lawmakers have happily stepped up in recent years to promote bills that show their constituents they’re keeping Silicon Valley in check. As AI tools become increasingly popular, and the companies behind them race toward massive IPOs, polls show that American voters are looking for more AI regulation.

As a result, safety advocates and tech companies have zeroed in on state legislatures as the primary battleground to hash out how these laws should look. OpenAI’s chief of global affairs, Chris Lehane, told WIRED last week that the company’s AI policy is now oriented around passing a series of similar state laws.

that conditioned response is considered a form of learned helplessness wherein the victim stops fighting back against what it believe to be the inevitable

but not everyone breaks under torture

The highly destructive wildfires that have battered the US and North America in recent years have significantly increased emissions and been linked to tens of thousands of premature deaths, but their impact on air quality is greater than previously known, according to new research.

A study published in Science on Thursday found that, since 2015, wildfires have reversed US progress toward ozone air quality standards, as the worsening pollution caused by wildfire smoke has undone years of efforts to reduce emissions. Ground-level ozone (O3) is created when pollutants from cars, refineries and industrial sources react with sunlight, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Wildfires also create their own massive ozone problem as they emit carbon monoxide and other gases that can contribute to the formation of ozone, and smoke, which can spread far beyond the source of a fire, can lead to increasing ozone hundreds of miles away.

“Despite regulated reductions in anthropogenic emissions of O3 precursors, observation stations indicate that policy-relevant surface O3 levels have plateaued,” Weizhi Deng and other authors wrote. In other words, despite emissions of the chemicals that create ozone pollution going down, the amount of ground-level ozone has stopped declining. The study links this plateau to wildfire emissions and finds that the rise in O3 emissions is correlated with premature deaths, some 318 each year since 2013.

Wildfires are worsening around the world with global heating leading to extreme blazes and causing billions of dollars in damage and catastrophic loss of life. Canada and the American west have seen particularly devastating fires in recent years.

Addressing the climate crisis, which has created conditions for more frequent and destructive wildfires, is an important step to reducing pollution.

“Mitigating climate change and implementing fire prevention measures can lead to improved standards in air quality and potentially bring large benefits to public health,” the study notes.

The findings add to a growing body of research that aims to shed light on the extent to which wildfires have affected the environment and people. Wildfire smoke contains PM2.5, microscopic particles that can embed themselves deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream. The pollutant has been linked to numerous health conditions and premature death.

A 2024 study found that more than 50,000 people in California died prematurely over a decade due to exposure to toxic particles in wildfire smoke.

The scammers on AO3 seem to be upping their game - now their comments may actually relate specifically to the story. Otherwise the comment follows the usual formula.

On top of this, this is a registered user, which means I can't simply mark the comment as spam. I'll have to manually file a report.