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The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Why are you so damn gay?': the public policing of Karl-Anthony Towns' joy
The first time I danced was with my father. I plucked my bare feet onto his work boots, to my mother's distress, and let his rubber soles guide me into a groove. Hand in hand, we spun through the kitchen as Al Green's Love and Happiness christened my rhythm's baptism. The second time I danced was with myself – and it would be my last. I wrapped my arms around the fleshy part of my waist as Seal's Kiss from a Rose played from the Batman Forever CD in my stereo. Alone in my room, I was OK with the mirror seeing every part of me. I danced like Shirley Temple with Buddy Ebsen. Like my father guided me. The only thing that could have broken my rhythm did. My stepmother filled the doorway, barefoot except for a roach she had stepped on. 'Why are you so damn gay?' That question didn't land as curiosity. It landed as a sentence – as instruction. From that moment on, joy had to pass inspection before it could be expressed. A decade later, in a different home and a different neighborhood, I stood over a sink, washing someone else's blood off my hands – still shaking from having fought my way out of being jumped. I wasn't just cleaning up. I was trying to scrub away any lingering doubt about my masculinity. This essay is about what happens when boys who move freely are taught to fear their own rhythm – and what it means when grown men like Karl-Anthony Towns are mocked for keeping theirs. Confusion, softness and the urge to question societal norms are beaten out of all of us – but especially out of young boys of color in dangerous neighborhoods. It's as if the praxis of masculinity demands violence as the antidote to vulnerability. Even laughter had rules. You couldn't let it be too high-pitched. Too quick. You learned to clap shoulders, not hold hands. I didn't immediately reconcile my behavior with its double, but I spent my adolescence trying to prove my stepmom wrong. Since moving from Minnesota to New York, expectations for former No 1 draft pick Karl-Anthony Towns have increased on all fronts. In New York, the world's largest media market, scrutiny moves faster than any headline – amplified by the virality of social media. Towns is discovering what happens when softness is punished, when queerness is projected, and when public figures become unwilling avatars in culture wars over masculinity. The term 'zesty', a softened descendant of homophobic slang, became Towns' shadow. It trailed him through every three-point play, podcast outtake and postgame moment. He became the target for people eager to mock what they couldn't define. In Hilton Als's The Women, he recalls being called an 'auntie man' – a Barbadian phrase for a queer man, used with equal parts derision and familiarity. For Als, the term was both burden and lens – a way to understand how femininity in male bodies disturbs cultural norms. Towns, in his gestures and tones, touched that nerve – not by coming out, but by refusing to contort himself into the rigid, humorless frame of what a man in sports is supposed to be. Towns is far from alone. Figures like Tyler, the Creator, Russell Westbrook and Odell Beckham Jr have also been queer-coded and mocked online – not for coming out, but for expressing aesthetic freedom that unsettles traditional expectations of Black masculinity. Reading Als, I realized I wasn't just haunted by my stepmother's question. I was haunted by the idea that my joy, softness and rhythm might be interpreted the same way – that to some, my way of moving through the world would always be 'off'. Homophobia today isn't what it was in the 1990s, when the idea of a gay NBA player sparked outrage. American culture has shifted. Most people – not just millennials – know someone who is openly gay. Even baby boomers often count LGBTQ+ individuals among their friends or family. This broader familiarity has normalized queerness – but mostly white, heteronormative queerness. During his presidency, Donald Trump welcomed 'Gays for Trump', revealing how sexuality has become more complicated in modern politics, so long as it's white and votes red. But in sports, John Amaechi and Jason Collins remain punchlines. Dwight Howard was the most recent NBA player to be publicly dissected for his queer preferences. His situation involved layers of moral, legal and consensual complexity, but the cultural judgment echoed the same old anxieties. Towns is ostensibly straight. He's in a public relationship with Jordyn Woods. But his moments of effeminacy have gone viral on TikTok, trickling down through Twitter and into Facebook echo chambers. Many cite his Dominican heritage – not as a direct link to queerness, but to the flamboyance, rhythm and emotional expressiveness embedded in that culture. And if he were gay or bi or queer, what exactly would that change? KAT is still a dawg. It's ironic that this ridicule came during the best season of his career. He averaged 24.7 points and a career-high 13.5 rebounds while leading the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference finals appearance in 25 years. He delivered signature performances, including back-to-back 40-point games and a playoff triple-double. His offensive dominance marked a personal and franchise turning point. But it wasn't enough. The online ridicule intensified, crystallizing into what became known as 'Zesty Karl-Anthony Towns', or Zesty KAT – a meme that painted the Knicks star as flamboyant or queer-coded based on voice, gesture and posture. The term resurfaced in 2024 after viral TikTok compilations dissected clips from his postgame interviews and on-court expressions, reigniting during the 2025 playoffs. One of the most viral examples came from X user @Zazamyodor, who quote-tweeted a clip of Towns softly saying 'for sure' with the caption, 'That 'for sure' was nasty work.' The post earned over 46,000 likes and helped cement 'zesty' as shorthand for mocking his style, despite his career peak. I still haven't danced like I did that first time, or even the second. But I think about it often: what it meant to be light on my feet, unburdened, joyful without explanation. What Karl-Anthony Towns is enduring isn't just a meme cycle. It's the same sentence I heard in my doorway, repackaged for likes and algorithm reach: 'Why are you so damn gay?' Not a question, an accusation. In this world, to be joyful in your body, to be expressive without apology, is still treated like defiance. Towns may not need to dance like I did. But every time he celebrates a three-pointer with flair, every time he speaks in a tone too tender for a seven-footer, he keeps the rhythm going for those of us who had ours interrupted.
The Guardian
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘It's really theft': the Republican plan to redraw Texas maps – and grab more power
A plan for Texas to redraw its congressional districts and gain five additional Republican seats barrels through flimsy legal arguments and political norms like a rough-stock rodeo bronco through a broken chute. But the fiddly process of drawing the maps to Republicans' advantage for 2026 may require more finesse than cowboy politics can produce. 'It is more than redistricting. It's really theft,' said Democratic representative Al Green, whose Houston-area congressional district is likely to be one targeted by Republicans in a redrawn map. 'It's the kind of election theft that you use when you realize that you can't win playing with the hand that you've been dealt. So, you decide that you'll just rearrange the cards so that they favor you.' The attempted power grab comes at a time when the state legislature is meant to be focused on the floods that killed more than 130 people just two weeks ago. Texas has 38 congressional districts, and Republicans hold 25 of those districts today. All but one of those districts has a white voting majority. And every one of those districts was won by double digits. While Republicans hold two-thirds of the seats, they only won about 58% of congressional voters last year. In 2018, the midterm of Donald Trump's first term in office and a Democratic wave election year, Texas Republicans barely cleared 50% statewide, and lost two of those seats. In 2022, after a harsh gerrymander that voting rights groups challenged in court, Republicans reclaimed those seats. Texas is the only state that explicitly permits more than one redistricting in between decennial censuses. But even accounting for that, the strategy exploits the end of pre-clearance requirements for new maps under the Voting Rights Act that the US supreme court eliminated in the Shelby county v Holder decision in 2013. 'They are willing to enact, frankly, illegal, racially discriminatory maps, even while their current maps are in court,' said Sam Gostomski, executive director of the Texas Democratic party. 'They know if they just cheat, they can break the law … They can just do this every couple of years and kick the ball down the road, because every time they draw new districts, those cases have to be litigated, and that takes time, right?' The party opposing the president historically gains seats in Congress in off-year elections. Facing a likely repeat of 2018, the White House is looking for options in Texas to limit the damage. 'I think we get five,' Trump said of Texas earlier this week. 'And there could be some other states. We're going to get another three or four or five in addition. Texas would be the biggest one. And that'll be five … Just a very simple redrawing. We pick up five seats, but we have a couple of other states where we'll pick up seats also.' Texas governor Greg Abbott shoehorned mid-cycle redistricting into a special session of the Texas legislature that begins Monday, ostensibly to address disaster relief after deadly flooding near Austin. It's not at all clear if a proposed map will be presented even by the time of the first public hearing on redistricting on 24 July, said state representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, a Democrat from San Antonio and a member of the Texas house's redistricting committee. 'No maps have been seen,' she said. 'No doubt, we believe those maps have been drawn already, but we haven't seen them.' The redistricting is not politics born of Texas, Gostomski said. Republicans there are not eager to campaign in more competitive districts. They're less keen to resist a Trump demand. 'The Republican congressional delegation and Governor Abbott bent the knee before they even saw the maps,' Gostomski said. 'They don't know what these maps are going to be and have already agreed to redraw whatever lines the White House wants them to.' Democrats in Texas are livid. Gostomski said he had spent some days after the flooding near Austin with people from church and former classmates digging out cars and doing whatever could be done to help. 'On a very personal level, I felt it in the pit in my stomach when all of a sudden, 24 hours later, I come back to my job, and 24 hours after that, now the governor has made it political,' he said. 'And that should not be the conversation right now.' A redistricting fight hijacks a session which should be devoted to disaster recovery, Gervin-Hawkins said. 'We should be focusing on those families, how we can support them, how we can help them, how we can recover from the bodies that are missing. Yet, we're trying to redistrict a map, cut out people's rights to vote … I think it's just an atrocity, and I think our leadership should be ashamed of what they've done.' A gerrymandered, off-year Texas redistricting that increases Republicans' congressional delegation to 79% in a year when their share of the vote is likely to decrease? It would require redrawing maps for a state that already has an F rating on the Princeton redistricting report card to one of the most unfair maps in American history. 'In order to get the five seats that Donald Trump is telling the media and telling the Republican congressional delegation that they want, they're going to have to take risks,' Gostomski said. 'They're going to make some of these Republican seats a lot less safe, especially in what we expect to be a big swing year in the midterms.' Houston and its surrounding area is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the country and at about eight million people it is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Harris County at the center has about 4.8 million residents, about three quarters of whom are nonwhite, with a Hispanic plurality. Eleven members of Congress represent voters in the metro Houston area. Seven are Republicans. For seats around Houston, Republican mapmakers would carve the city up like a pie, splitting up a core thick with Democratic voters with long, thin wedges, radiating outward into the Republican suburbs and rural counties surrounding them. Green's south Houston ninth district is vulnerable to this strategy, as is Lizzie Fletcher's seventh district, Sylvia Garcia's 29th district and Sylvester Turner's 18th district. All are in safe Democratic seats. Other districts near Dallas and along the southern Texas border may also see changes. Democrats Vincente Gonzales and Henry Cuellar are both in districts that are close to evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Between them is Republican Monica De La Cruz, whose 15th district is rated as a +7 Republican lean by the Cook Partisan Voting Index. In most states, that would be a lock. In Texas, facing a wave election year, it presents a challenge for mapmakers angling to catch Democratic lawmakers nearby. Shaving Republican districts of conservative voters to capture Democratic districts makes presumptions that may not hold about how suburban voters and Latino swing voters might behave in future elections, said Mike Doyle, chairman of the Harris county Democratic party in Houston. 'It also makes assumptions about turnout,' he said. 'They work incredibly hard to make it difficult to vote here in the state, and so our voting is some of the lowest in the nation.' But in a wave election year, Democratic anger at Trump and the reaction of rural voters to the economy and suburban swing voters to partisan excesses may change the electoral math. 'There are certainly some districts where you know, with the right candidate, right resources, we could easily turn some of these quote 'red' seats into Democrats,' he said. There's little Democrats can do legislatively; Republicans control both chambers of the Texas state legislature. But they might succeed … fugitively. They can run for it, and deny Republicans a quorum. At least two-thirds of the 150-member Texas house and 31-member senate must be present to conduct legislative business. Sixty-two Texas house members are Democrats, as are 11 state senators. One state senate seat is vacant. Texas Democrats last fled the state four years ago when attempting to derail legislation that attacked voting rights. While within Texas, a fugitive lawmaker during a session is subject to arrest by Texas rangers and being hauled back to the capitol in Austin. But if they make it across the border to a friendly state, Texas cannot compel them to return. The attorney general can prevail upon the federal government to issue an arrest warrant, however, and they are subject to $500 daily fines. Opponents of redistricting launched a website, which accuses the Republican majority of using the flooding for partisan gain and is raising money. 'We're preparing our members to use every tool available – including breaking quorum if necessary – to force Abbott to focus on flood relief instead of Trump's power grab,' the site states. And legislators are definitely thinking about it. 'I think we need to leave all tools on the table,' Gervin-Hawkins said. 'But I think anybody knows that it's very difficult to do a quorum break when you talk about families, jobs and everything like that. That's difficult. But we're leaving everything on the table to really just see what works best. Our goal is, no doubt, to save democracy. Our goal is to make sure our people are protected.'
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Aretha Franklin hits notes that bring me to shivering tears of ecstasy': Mick Hucknall's honest playlist
The first single I bought One of the first albums I bought was Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones; the first single was The Last Time. I was about 11 when my dad bought me my first record player, and I wore it out by listening to it so much. The first song I fell in love with My first love was an unrequited crush. I heard Let's Stay Together by Al Green on the radio, went out and bought it, and played it over and over to heal the pain of teenage rejection. The song that changed my life I Want to Hold Your Hand by the Beatles was the first song I remember performing. It was when I was about six, with a band at a wedding. I've since been told that I was singing even younger than that. A friend of ours was a landlady in a pub, and she used to stand me up on the bar when I was about three and have me sing to customers. Those Beatles double LPs, the red and the blue, 1962-66 and 1967-70, were among the first albums I bought when I was a kid. The song that is my karaoke go-to Papa Don't Take No Mess by James Brown, who is probably the most influential figure in the history of recorded music. The first gig we did as Simply Red, right after we signed our contract, was opening for him at Hammersmith Odeon. I remember him watching from the side of the stage with curlers in. The song I inexplicably know every lyric to Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two) by British songwriter Harry Dacre from 1892. I'm enamoured with some of the old songs. The melody just glues in your head and the lyric is beautifully visual. The song I can no longer listen to Mother by John Lennon. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is a stark masterpiece. This song is a little too close to the mark. The song that I secretly like, but tell everyone I hate 24 hours from Tulsa by Gene Pitney. The recording is tinny, even for the 60s. His nasal approach to the voice exacerbates that. However, that has its own charm too. It's an excellent song. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion The song that makes me cry There are moments in Mary, Don't You Weep by Aretha Franklin where the first lady of soul hits notes that bring me to shivering tears of ecstasy. A monumental performance. The song that gets me up in the morning Ravi Shankar has been my alarm clock for a few years. I've got his entire catalogue on shuffle and that's the first thing I hear every morning to get me ready to face the day. Simply Red tour Ireland and the UK from 23 September.
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Aretha Franklin hits notes that bring me to shivering tears of ecstasy': Mick Hucknall's honest playlist
The first single I bought One of the first albums I bought was Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones; the first single was The Last Time. I was about 11 when my dad bought me my first record player, and I wore it out by listening to it so much. The first song I fell in love with My first love was an unrequited crush. I heard Let's Stay Together by Al Green on the radio, went out and bought it, and played it over and over to heal the pain of teenage rejection. The song that changed my life I Want to Hold Your Hand by the Beatles was the first song I remember performing. It was when I was about six, with a band at a wedding. I've since been told that I was singing even younger than that. A friend of ours was a landlady in a pub, and she used to stand me up on the bar when I was about three and have me sing to customers. Those Beatles double LPs, the red and the blue, 1962-66 and 1967-70, were among the first albums I bought when I was a kid. The song that is my karaoke go-to Papa Don't Take No Mess by James Brown, who is probably the most influential figure in the history of recorded music. The first gig we did as Simply Red, right after we signed our contract, was opening for him at Hammersmith Odeon. I remember him watching from the side of the stage with curlers in. The song I inexplicably know every lyric to Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two) by British songwriter Harry Dacre from 1892. I'm enamoured with some of the old songs. The melody just glues in your head and the lyric is beautifully visual. The song I can no longer listen to Mother by John Lennon. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is a stark masterpiece. This song is a little too close to the mark. The song that I secretly like, but tell everyone I hate 24 hours from Tulsa by Gene Pitney. The recording is tinny, even for the 60s. His nasal approach to the voice exacerbates that. However, that has its own charm too. It's an excellent song. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion The song that makes me cry There are moments in Mary, Don't You Weep by Aretha Franklin where the first lady of soul hits notes that bring me to shivering tears of ecstasy. A monumental performance. The song that gets me up in the morning Ravi Shankar has been my alarm clock for a few years. I've got his entire catalogue on shuffle and that's the first thing I hear every morning to get me ready to face the day. Simply Red tour Ireland and the UK from 23 September.
Fox News
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Democrat congressman dragged for ‘weird' TikTok ‘aura farming' trend video
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., got in on TikTok's "aura farming" trend, posting a clip of himself dancing solo in the congressional subway, captioned "omw to hold this administration accountable."In the short clip, Subramanyam appears on the House subway wearing sunglasses, striking poses and waving his arms before locking in on the camera. Subramanyam's "aura farming" appears to have backfired, with some commenters calling it out as tone-deaf, hypocritical and "cringe." Left-leaning viewers frustrated with perceived inaction from Democrats under President Donald Trump took aim at the VA-10 congressman in the comment section. One of the top-liked comments asked flatly, "By doing nothing…?" Another read, "Representatives have got to stop doing this. Actually do something."THE REVOLUTION WILL BE LIVESTREAMED: HOW ZOHRAN MAMDANI WON THE NYC PRIMARY ONLINE Many commenters linked the post to Subramanyam's past voting record, including his controversial decision against his party just weeks ago not to move forward with a House impeachment resolution against Trump. On June 24, 2025, Subramanyam voted to table (i.e., block) a resolution to impeach President Trump over "high crimes and misdemeanors." The resolution was introduced by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, but was halted by a wide House majority. Several comments mocked the tone and delivery of the video. One read, "-1000 aura," while another said, "Our taxpayer money hard at work…" Another commenter wrote, "So what exactly are you on your way to do? Because so far democrats have not really done anything at all."A top comment simply read, "This feels weird idk."FAR-LEFT LAWMAKER BREAKS SILENCE AFTER UNEARTHED SOCIAL MEDIA POST IGNITES FIRESTORM One lengthy reply said, "Not trying to be disrespectful. But? Less of this sh--. More fire on the floor please. I get wanting to do outreach. But this? Isn't the action an average American needs from their representatives right now. We're approaching no taxation without representation territory here. Do better." Another suggested, "Introduce a new amendment for every one performative TikTok a Congress person posts they have to cosign 3 bills that work to limit the power of money in politics." Subramanyam, a former tech advisor in the Obama White House and the first South Asian elected to Virginia's General Assembly, has gained a reputation as a more moderate Democrat. He won Virginia's 10th District in 2024 and often plays up his immigrant roots in political messaging. The "aura farming" trend, popular among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, refers to pulling off effortless, cool gestures usually while standing still. It took off after a now-viral video of 11-year-old Indonesian boy Rayyan Arkan Dikha danced stone-faced and confident while wearing sunglasses aboard a racing "aura farming" clips on TikTok are soundtracked to "Young Black & Rich" by Melly Mike, which includes the lyric "I ain't even gon' get mad, I'm young, black and rich."CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPFox News Digital reached out to Subramanyam's office and TikTok for comment.
