Happy Tuesday,

👎🏼 To probably no one's surprise, Speaker Mike Johnson has a long history with the very, very anti-LGBTQ+ group called the Family Research Council. A new report examines his friendship with the organization's leader. It's just another example of Johnson's anti-queer past that continues to inform his anti-queer present. Read about the report here.

🍼 A conservative author is railing against something called "neonatal queer theory." As my colleague Tracy E. Gilchrist said, “I thought neonatal queer theory was reading Judith Butler aloud while pregnant.” 🤣

✨ Several LGBTQ+ groups have announced new leadership. Kris Hayashi joined the LGBTQ Task Force where he'll be director of its advocacy and action department. And former Advocate journalist Michael O’Loughlin is now the executive director of Outreach, a Catholic ministry for out people of faith. ✨

In other news:

• A woman in Russia gets jail time for — get this — rainbow mushroom frog earrings. I kid you not.
• California's U.S. Senate hopefuls spoke at a forum on LGBTQ+ rights.
• Arthur Ashe, the tennis champ, died of an AIDS-related illness on this day in 1993. It also happens to be Ronald Reagan's birthday — a president who ignored the HIV/AIDS epidemic for years.

Alex Cooper