Hi all,

🦅 Happy Saturday! Well, that was one heck of a State of the Union (which our reporter Christopher Wiggins attended. The speech has been lauded as striking a pretty good tone for President Joe Biden who is currently running for his second term. Topics he discussed ranged from the climate crisis, Gaza, and health care costs to January 6 insurrectionists, Russia, and education. Biden also gave plenty of time to reproductive rights, urging Congress to act to protect abortion access. . 🇺🇲

What was missing? Queerness. The president did say he'd have the backs of transgender kids, but that sentence was it. With so many states attacking gender-affirming care and bathroom accessibility, this could have been a speech to call the country to action to protect LGBTQ+ young people

🙃 Alabama Sen. Katie Britt gave the official Republican response. Let's just say the internet hasn't been the kindest to the strange video. Some compared her to a robot or even to a person in a freshman acting class in college. Britt, who is the youngest senator, is super, super conservative, and has previously made anti-trans comments. Learn more about her and why she was chosen to give the response here.

❓Also, George Santos is running for Congress again. Yes, the same Santos that was also expelled from the body earlier this year. He made the announcement during the State of the Union. My colleague Ryan Adamczeski wrote about his new run, noting "he's definitely gay. No straight person would be that petty."

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 🌈

Onward and upward,

Alex Cooper