holy crap this is easily the best Tony Award speech of the entire night. hell yes to all of this
"This is dedicated to the beautiful tapestry of immigrant families who make this country really special. May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty. To the queer and trans communities that always will exist, no matter what people in power try to take away from them. To the people of Palestine who deserve to live a free life – a full life – without occupation. ... If there's one thing we can learn from vampires, it's that life is short, but that's its gift. Find beauty in the ephemeral and gratitude in what is not promised."
—Ali Louis Bourzgui, winning Featured Actor in a Musical for The Lost Boys
It's a good day to be a @cleguardians fan when you see our Silent Auction lineup! ⚾💙 Signed baseballs, game tickets and an exclusive batting practice?! Say less.
Head to https://t.co/mSxtkODE4m to place your bids!
Our Silent Auction ends at 2:30 p.m. this Thursday!
100 years ago today renown architect Antoni Gaudi was tragically struck by a tram while walking to church. Today his work adorns Barcelona and his legacy lives on in the current construction of his masterpiece Sagrada Famlia, the world’s longest running construction project.
On this day in 1958, music icon Prince was born. ☔️
This guitar is shaped like Prince’s famous “Love Symbol,” a glyph he created to express artistic freedom and identity. Fusing the astrological symbols for Mars and Venus, it reflects the blending of masculine and feminine elements that became central to his image and artistry.
The instrument echoes the opening lyrics of the musician’s “I Would Die 4 U” (1984): “I’m not a woman, I’m not a man / I am something that you’ll never understand.”
📣 Now open! See "Musical Bodies," the first major exhibition to explore the relationship between musical instruments and the body by bringing together over 130 instruments, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and more.
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🎸 "Symbol Guitar," Late 1990's-Early 2000's. Wood, metal, plastic. Collection of Tavis Smiley. Photo: Eileen Travell.
It’s that time of the year for my least favorite cultural tradition in our country — grown ass adults uttering this statement:
“LGBTQ people get an entire month but veterans don’t.”
I’m being generous in that sentence construction; it’s typically said with far less grace and humanity.
I’m a veteran. I’m a proud veteran.
I’m also queer and proudly so.
Every June, I celebrate Pride. Every November, I celebrate veterans.
Because veterans do, in fact, have an entire month. It’s November. It is every November. Every November is National Veterans and Military Families Month.
Have I sufficiently made clear the existence of a monthlong observance in honor of our nation’s veterans, particularly to folks who, apparently, are also not aware of the existence of Google?
We’re not done. We’re not close to being done.
Every April is Month of the Military Child.
Every May is National Military Appreciation Month and Month of the Military Caregiver.
We’re still not close to being done.
There are the military branch and component birthdays/observances: Army (June 14th), Army Reserve (April 23rd), Navy (Oct. 13th), Navy Reserve (March 3rd), Air Force (Sept. 18th) Air Force Reserve (April 14th), Marine Corps (Nov. 10th), Marine Corps Reserve (Aug. 29th), Coast Guard (Aug. 4th), Coast Guard Auxiliary (June 23rd), National Guard (Dec. 13th), and Civil Air Patrol (Dec. 1st).
There are the various days specifically honoring military families, caregivers, and surviving loved ones: Gold Star Spouses Day (April 5th), National Military Brats Day (April 30th), Military Spouse Appreciation Day (Friday before Mothers Day), Children of Fallen Patriots Day (May 13th), Gold Star Mother’s Day (last Sunday in September), National Day of the Deployed (Oct. 26th), and—because families carry the greatest burden here, I’ll include it in this section—National POW/MIA Recognition Day (third Friday in September).
Then there are are the days honoring those who earned specific military decorations: National Medal of Honor Day (March 25th), Silver Star Service Banner Day (May 1st), and National Purple Heart Day (Aug. 7th).
And also the days honoring specific groups of veterans and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice: K-9 Veterans Day (March 13th), National Vietnam War Veterans Day (March 29th), National Former POW Recognition Day (April 9th), V-E Day (May 8th), Women Veterans Day (June 12th), National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day (July 27th), National Buffalo Soldiers Day (July 28th), Agent Orange Awareness Day (Aug. 10th), Navajo Code Talkers Day (Aug. 14th), V-J Day (Sept. 2nd), and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (Dec. 7th).
Outside of those distinct categories, there are some others: Four Chaplins Day (Feb. 3rd), USO Birthday (Feb. 4th), National Salute to Veteran Patients (week of Feb. 12th), Seabee Birthday (March 5th), American Legion Birthday (March 15th), National Rosie the Riveter Day (March 21st), National Hire a Veteran Day (July 25th), Department of Defense Birthday (Aug. 10th), National Airborne Day (Aug. 16th), Veterans of Foreign Wars Day (Sept. 29th), and Wreaths Across America Day (Dec. 18th).
Oh, and Armed Forces Day (May 20th), which falls at the end of Armed Forces Week (which begins on May 13th).
I hope I didn’t miss any? Just kidding!
I did, in fact, intentionally exclude the Big Three, out of curiosity to see how many folks wouldn’t notice: Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Veterans Day (Nov. 11th), and, you know, Independence Day.
At least 120 days on the American calendar are dedicated to honoring our fallen service members, our military, our veterans, and their families.
That’s about a third of the full year.
I think that’s great. I think that’s necessary. Our military, our veterans, and their families deserve that recognition.
I also think that’s ironic given how much our military, our veterans, and their families are left behind in this country when it comes to health care, housing, education, and so many other areas which it seems Donald Trump and the Republican Party willfully ignore and/or intentionally worsen.
Trump and the GOP ignore the fact that we have Active Duty service members and their families who qualify for food stamps — and use them. Because they lack appropriate compensation.
They ignore that military families, for some strange goddamn reason, in the richest country in the world, have to pay partially out-of-pocket for childcare on military bases.
They ignore that there are six million military caregivers in our country—loved ones who directly care for veterans with service-connected disabilities—and struggle to provide necessary support that the VA should be entirely covering — but isn’t.
They ignore that that the VA is ludicrously under-resourced and struggling to provide necessary, lifesaving support for veterans and their families.
They ignore the personal, direct consequences of sending our military into stupid, unnecessary wars—the struggle and incalculable loss experienced by our troops being killed or severely wounded in these wars—because the lives and livelihoods of our service members and their families never rank on the list of priorities for Trump and the Republican Party.
They aggressively pursue a clear agenda—openly set by Trump and Hegseth—to purge officers from the top ranks of our military because they are not white men.
Need I remind on the long history of Trump denigrating our fallen service members?
It is clearly evident that Donald Trump is overseeing the most anti-military presidential administration in American history, and that doesn’t need more than a few moments of good faith reflection to consider. It’s obvious.
Our military, our veterans, and their families are thought by Trump and his cronies to be little more than props in service to his flaming narcissism.
Even their performative antics are openly shameless: “inviting” Active Duty service members to that UFC event being hosted on the White House lawn but refusing to pay for travel and lodging. Oh, and no family members. Oh, and don’t be overweight. Oh, and you have to wear your uniform.
Treated. Like. Props.
Maybe we need a National Lip Service to Military Appreciation Day, recognizing politicians and their supporters who only seem to care about our military, our veterans, and their families when they can their service can be cynically exploited as a cudgel against people that Trump and the GOP hate.
The past 18 months have seen members of the military and veterans who are women, Black, Latino, APPI, and LGBTQ broadly erased from any recognition by the Trump Administration and the Department of Defense specifically. Who doesn’t remember the government website purges touted by Trump and his cronies?
Last year, thousands of transgender service members and their families were kicked out, their lives uprooted, their service cruelly degraded, their characters slandered, all because of a senseless and bigoted policy created to placate anti-trans extremists, signed by a coward who avoided military service.
I’m proud of my service and grateful to all who have served and their families, and there’s plenty of time throughout the year to express that.
June is all for LGBTQ people, veterans and non-veterans alike.
Before you’re eager to offer a ridiculous comparison in recognition between veterans and LGBTQ Americans, I’d encourage at least a tiny bit of effort toward research and understanding regarding our military, our veterans, and their families.
It’s not difficult.
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Link to full essay available here for easier sharing: https://t.co/62nljAr06p
Ray’s Rock - Omaha Beach
On the morning of June 6, 1944, 23 year old Staff Sergeant Arnold “Ray” Lambert came ashore with the first wave of the 1st Infantry Division on the eastern side of Omaha Beach. At this small patch of concrete he saved nearly 20 lives:
The division came under intense fire from several German bunkers surrounding the entrance to the Colville Draw (one of two exits off Omaha Beach). Ray, a medic, immediately went to work.
He was shot in the arm. Moments later he was hit by shrapnel in the leg, but Ray kept pulling men to safety. He pulled nearly 20 wounded soldiers to cover behind this 8ft wide obstacle, treating each soldier before going out in search of others.
After several hours under fire, while pulling a wounded soldier from the ocean, he was struck by a landing craft. It dropped its ramp on top of him, breaking his back. He fell face down in the water, drowning. The craft backed up and nearby soldiers pulled an unconscious Ray to safety, eventually evacuating him off the beach.
Remarkably, Ray had already earned two Silver Stars and three Purple Hearts in Sicily and North Africa, prior to landing in France. But here in Normandy his war would end.
He awoke in a hospital back in England a day later. In the next bed over was his brother, who had also been wounded at Omaha.
When asked about his work on D-Day, Ray simply said, “I did what I was called to do.”
Ray Lambert passed in 2021 at 100 years old. He exemplified the best of American grit and why remembering this day is so important.