Internet Wading: Pride in June

June was a surprisingly sparse month for Internet Wading, mostly because I just didn’t copy the links to sites that should have been included. Oops. Nevertheless, things demand to be shared, so on with the linkage.

June is LGBT Pride month, of course, and there was, um, interesting stuff this month. First, as I absolutely expected, Don failed to issue a presidential proclamation of LGBT Pride Month, as President Obama always did. Considering he slighted Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day and basically ignored Ramadan, this can be no surprise whatsoever. But, hey! At least Don found time to proclaim June and National Homeowners Month!

Writing in the Boston Globe, Renee Graham wonders, “Is LGBT Pride up to Trump’s challenge?” I’d say the jury’s out on that. There was also pushback: Don was slammed for not proclaiming Pride Month, and his daughter was slammed for a self-serving Tweet (runs in the family?). And, while support for marriage equality reached new highs in the USA, questions remained: “Are LGBTQ Rights Safe Under Trump?”

The thoroughly dreadful far-right christianist activist turned one of Don’s minions, Betsy DeVos, picked THIS month to declare that, “Discrimination on basis of sexual orientation 'unsettled' law". A leopard cannot change her spots. But Betsy’s boss one-upped her! Don decided Pride Month was a great time to praise the anti-LGBT bigots in the professional anti-gay industry who use every waking moment to make life worse for LGBT people.

Is it any wonder that Don’s deluded LGBT supporters may possibly have been excluded from Pride Parades? Well, writing for Newsweek, one rightwinger is outraged that LGBT pride parade committees should stand on principle. Cry me a river, then build a bridge and get over it. And no, it’s not even remotely similar to St. Patrick’s Day parade controversies.

Oh hell, Pride is all about celebrating and having a great time, and all this shade from Republicans is ruining the mood. Let’s leave all that unpleasantness behind for a little while, thanks to Time Out New York’s “The 50 best gay songs to celebrate Gay Pride” (most of which I'd concur with), which even includes a Spotify playlist at the very end. I’m sure that must be wonderful for Americans: Only three tracks avoid the rejection notice: “This track is currently not available in New Zealand. If you have the file on your computer you can import it.” Story of life outside the good ol’ U. S. of A.

Oh well, back to reading: Roger Green answers my question on “The intrinsic value of blogging”. I agree with him.

On to “Ancient Rome’s System of Roads Visualized in the Style of Modern Subway Maps”. Because you know you want to see ancient data in modern terms. I do.

And the weirdest story of the month: “Exploding cream dispenser kills French fitness blogger”. That’s certainly not the way I’d want to go—unless there was a cherry on top of my head, because the irony would be funny to me.

And finally, this week the NZ Electoral Commission started sending out packs confirming voter registration, and the commercial at the top of this post has been running in heavy rotation this week. The actual election is in September.

That’s it for this month. Maybe in July I’ll actually remember to copy the links.