Metro Weekly

07/04/2025

Owen McIntire, a 19-year-old from Parkville, Missouri, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges after allegedly firebombing Teslas at a Kansas City dealership. The crime could carry up to 30 years in prison if the UMass Boston student is convicted.

McIntire’s case was elevated to the Justice Department’s national security division, which typically handles terrorism and espionage cases. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has called the incident “domestic terrorism.”

“Let me be extremely clear to anyone who still wants to firebomb a Tesla property: you will not evade us,” Bondi said following McIntire’s arrest in April. “You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. You will spend decades behind bars. It is not worth it.”

Owen McIntire is facing federal charges for allegedly targeting a Tesla dealership in protest of Elon Musk’s anti-trans politics.

07/04/2025

Happy 4th! Enjoy the new issue of Metro Weekly, featuring an essay by Paul T. Klein on the enduring LGBTQ legacy of Brokeback Mountain, a review of Jurassic World Rebirth by André Hereford, and a whole lotta news!
👉 https://magazine.metroweekly.com/books/rdqc/

07/04/2025

Two teenage girls were shot and another was stabbed during a chaotic brawl in Greenwich Village, a few blocks from the historic Stonewall Inn, after Sunday’s NYC Pride Parade ended.

According to police, a fight broke out between two groups of young people in Sheridan Square, near Christopher Park and the Stonewall National Monument, site of the 1969 uprising considered the seminal moment of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.

The altercation began around 10:15 p.m., when a 16-year-old girl from one group moved through the crowd in the square and pulled out a 9-millimeter gun, aiming it at a boy’s head in the opposing group. She missed, firing two shots, one of which struck a 17-year-old girl visiting from Bayonne, N.J., in the thigh.

Violence broke out near Stonewall after NYC Pride, leaving three teen girls injured. The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime.

07/04/2025

"America’s first female astronaut to be launched into space, Dr. Sally Ride withstood the pressures of being first, including untold amounts of ignorant, sexist hostility and public scrutiny. She understood the risks and responsibility that rested on her confident shoulders. And Sally, a new National Geographic documentary, recounts much of her experience in unflinching detail," writes critic André Hereford.

"Director Cristina Costantini (Science Fair) dives right into the whirlwind of press and public hoopla that accompanied the buildup to, then glowing success of Ride’s first launch in 1983, aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

"There’s Sally on Sesame Street, on talk shows, magazine covers, and every possible news broadcast, being interviewed by a who’s who of dearly departed TV icons, wondering when she plans to have babies. Asked about the relentless press coverage, while, of course, at a NASA press conference, Sally puts it plainly: “I think it’s too bad that our society isn’t further along, and this is such a big deal.”

"No doubt, it would have been an even bigger deal if anyone outside Sally’s closest circle of friends knew then that she was romantically partnered with a woman, scientist Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy. “We didn’t plan to hide anything,” O’Shaughnessy says in the film, the first major public platform to give voice to her truth about the nearly 30 years she and Sally spent together before Ride died in 2012 of pancreatic cancer."

National Geographic’s Sally Ride documentary tells the story of America’s first woman in space and the love she kept secret for decades.

06/29/2025

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, saving free PrEP and other preventive treatments, including screenings for cancer, heart disease, and sexually transmitted infections.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the task force was tasked with identifying which preventive services insurers could cover without passing additional costs to consumers. As a result, insurers began covering a wide range of screenings and treatments, including mammograms, colonoscopies, cancer screenings, heart disease prevention, STI testing, and mental health evaluations.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the task force members are “inferior officers,” meaning they are appointed by, and subordinate to, other government officials — in this case, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Under the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, inferior officers do not have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

The Supreme Court upheld free preventive care, rejecting a challenge that threatened coverage for STI testing, cancer screenings, and more.

06/29/2025

The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with a group of parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, ruling that the county’s public school system violated their religious freedom by refusing to let them opt their children out of lessons featuring LGBTQ-themed books.

In a 6-3 decision, the court’s conservative majority ruled that the government burdens parents’ religious freedom by refusing to let them opt out of lessons featuring books that conflict with their beliefs opposing homosexuality or the existence of LGBTQ people.

The case, known as Mahmoud v. Taylor, involves three families of elementary school students — one Muslim, one Catholic, and one Ukrainian Orthodox — who sued over the lack of an opt-out, arguing it infringed on their right to freely exercise their religion and direct their children’s religious upbringing.

The Supreme Court ruled that religious parents can opt out of LGBTQ-themed lessons, finding Montgomery County schools burdened their freedom.

06/29/2025

What’s more shocking in Rent Free — the chaotic choices or the $8,000 Brooklyn apartment?
This q***r indie comedy follows two broke best friends as they couch surf through Brooklyn and Austin, chasing gigs, dodging adulthood, and trying to live rent-free for a year.
It’s funny, a little sexy, and painfully relatable.

06/28/2025

Police in Bogor, Indonesia, say they arrested 75 people for attending what they called a “gay party” at a villa in the Puncak area on June 22.

According to Amnesty International, 74 of those arrested were men and one was a woman.

Teguh Kumura, head of the Bogor Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit, told the Jakarta Globe that a joint task force of Bogor and Megamendung police raided the villa after receiving public reports of “suspicious activity” at the gathering.

While the event was described as a “family gathering,” Kumura noted that all participants were male.

Police in Bogor, Indonesia, arrested 75 people at a private "gay party," sparking outrage from human rights and LGBTQ advocacy groups.

06/28/2025

If it’s Pride Month, it must be time for another conservative boycott — and this time, the target is Kroger, the grocery superstore chain, under fire for its LGBTQ-inclusive policies and Pride-themed merchandise.

One Million Moms, an offshoot of the anti-LGBTQ American Family Association, regularly campaigns against so-called “indecency” in TV, music, and film — including violence, profanity, and anything with sexual content. It also froths at the mouth over any positive depictions of LGBTQ people or same-sex couples in media.

In its latest petition, One Million Moms accuses Kroger of pushing a “woke and liberal agenda” by adopting LGBTQ-inclusive workplace policies and allegedly selling Pride-themed merchandise in stores.

One Million Moms urges a boycott of Kroger over its Pride Month support, accusing the grocer of pushing a “woke agenda.”

06/28/2025

Starting July 17, LGBTQ youth will no longer be able to press "3" on the 988 Lifeline.
Trump is cutting the crisis line that served 1.3M calls.
🚨 Read what’s happening in the latest issue: https://magazine.metroweekly.com/books/axws/
#988

06/28/2025

From Dupont Circle’s underground drag days to the quiet dignity of Congressional Cemetery, LGBTQ history is everywhere in D.C.
Our new cover story highlights 10 unforgettable q***r landmarks across the city — some famous, others unsung.
🌈 Read the full piece: https://magazine.metroweekly.com/books/axws/

06/28/2025

Thursday marked 10 years since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. Since then, the number of married same-sex couples in the U.S. has more than doubled — even as fears grow that the ruling could be overturned.

The Williams Institute estimates there are now about 823,000 married same-sex couples in the U.S., including 591,000 who have wed since the Obergefell decision.

Many of those couples are raising families, with an estimated 299,000 children under 18 growing up in households with married same-sex parents.

Married couples now make up 59% of all cohabitating same-sex couples in the U.S., up from 43% in 2014, the year before Obergefell. They’ve represented a majority since 2016, the first full year of nationwide marriage equality.

The number of married same-sex couples in the U.S. has more than doubled since the Obergefell decision, especially in Southern states.