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There is something you need to know because it is of overwhelming importance to America’s survival as a constitutional democratic republic: The Biden administration is moving inexorably to making it a crime to oppose Biden and the Democrat party’s policies. Attorney General Merrick Garland is organizing a massive task force to hunt those illusory “White supremacists,” who just happen to be Trump supporters. Moreover, the federal charging documents against many of those being held for trespassing in Congress reveal that some of the people most active in planning January 6 and encouraging others to act were FBI agents or informants. In other words, it was a set-up.

It’s hard if not impossible these days to find anyone who hasn’t heard the term “fake news.” But as I was mulling over this fairly new tag, I thought that, in fact, fake stuff has been around for quite a long time. Think about it - we have fake jewelry, fake meat, fake grass, fake Christmas trees, and even fake “people” riding in the passenger seats of cars driving in carpool lanes. Strange sight, I’m sure!

My brother learned to swim when he was five, in a big pool with lots of other kids splashing for attention. The instructor was a teen-ager, probably, but she would have seemed like an adult. After the lessons, he started seeing her everywhere. Pointing out the car window: there she is! Holding up a photo in the local newspaper: it’s her!

White historians once taught that Reconstruction and equal legal rights and voting rights for Black people corrupted democracy. Textbooks ignored the Tulsa race massacre and others like it. Few historians write like that anymore. We include all sides of the American story and examine racism and injustice as evolving systems of power as well as manifestations of individual prejudice.

There’s plenty to celebrate this June, as some Pride events will happen in person and inclusive spaces such as lesbian bars are once again opening up. But many in the LGBTQ community, and especially young people and teens, have faced added risks during the pandemic. The full fallout isn’t yet clear, since data on COVID-19 and its consequences in LGBTQ people are scarce, but that may change with the announcement of a new collaboration between five LGBTQ-focused health centers spread across the nation.