Latest news with #InstituteforStrategicDialogue
The Hill
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hill
Drag artist network Qommittee says it's here to stay, despite Trump, GOP
A year after launching, Qommittee, a national network of drag artists, says it's just getting started. The group's latest project, issued ahead of Pride, is a 43-page manual called the Drag Defense Handbook, documenting how drag performers, organizers and attorneys across the country have fought state bans and threats of violence and harassment — and won. The guidebook is divided into six sections: crisis response, digital security, First Amendment protections, violent threat response, defamation defense and mental health resources. 'There are drag artists in every single corner of the country, from big cities to small towns. Drag is everywhere, and many artists face terrible challenges like bomb threats and harassment,' said Julian Applebaum, a community organizer in Washington who was part of the team that put the handbook together. 'A common thing that we hear is that they feel like they're going through it alone and that they don't know where to turn or where to look for resources and support.' The document, he said, 'is made by and for the community, so that the next drag artist who gets threatened isn't starting from scratch to figure out how to defend themselves.' In 2023, advocacy organization GLAAD said it recorded more than 160 anti-LGBTQ protests and threats targeting drag events over the past year, including bomb threats and demonstrations led by members of extremist groups. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit researching extremism and disinformation, tracked more than 200 instances of anti-drag hate from 2022 to 2023, led by 'growing numbers' of individuals affiliated with white supremacist, parents' rights and Christian nationalist organizations. Freddie Hercury, a drag king in Buffalo, N.Y., and a peer support organizer with Qommittee (pronounced 'committee'), said they found the group last June after receiving a bomb threat on Facebook ahead of a performance in nearby Niagara Falls. 'I was really, like, unsure how to react to it, and I felt very much like I didn't want to overblow it,' Hercury said. 'Qommittee had just launched, and I had just recently seen their posts on Instagram, and I was like, you know, I'm just gonna give this a try. It couldn't hurt, and maybe they'll help me through this,' they said. 'And they were infinitely more helpful than I could have ever imagined they would be.' Organizers with the group, which has dozens of volunteers nationwide, called Hercury almost immediately. 'They were truly validating to me. Their main focus was really just making me feel like I was doing what I needed to do to be safe,' they said. After Qommittee members walked Hercury through their options, they reported the threat to the FBI, and their gig went off without a hitch. Now, they help other performers navigate similar situations. Jack King Goff, another peer support organizer and drag artist performing predominantly in the Seattle area, said they were harassed online and forced to leave their job as a high school English teacher last year after a student scrolled through more than 10 years of tagged photos on Goff's personal Instagram page and uploaded pictures of them in drag to a cyberbullying account. The photos caught the attention of a local Moms for Liberty chapter member and a conservative podcast host, and the widespread attention on their personal life gave way to death threats and targeted harassment, even from students, Goff said. The Washington state teachers' union eventually told Goff it couldn't guarantee their physical safety, and it may be time to reconsider their career. 'That really sucked,' Goff said in a recent interview. 'I doubt I'll ever be hired by a public school ever again because I'm too controversial as a candidate.' Now living with their parents in their native Los Angeles, Goff is working on developing their drag career. They're also volunteering with Qommittee, with whom they were in touch when the backlash against their drag king persona first started. 'The biggest part of it is helping people realize that they are not alone,' they said. 'And it's important that people know work is happening.' The current political climate around LGBTQ Americans, particularly transgender rights, makes that work all the more critical, Goff said. President Trump and administration officials have called trans and gender-nonconforming identities 'falsehoods' and equated them with deception and lies. During his first hours back in office, Trump signed an executive order proclaiming the U.S. recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and broadly restricting federal support for 'gender ideology.' He's also signed orders to bar transgender people from serving in the military, ban trans girls from competing in girls' sports, slash funding for LGBTQ health research and end federal support for gender-affirming care for minors, treatment the administration has described with inflammatory rhetoric such as 'castration' and 'mutilation.' He's also taken explicit aim at drag. In announcing his decision to take over the Kennedy Center in February, Trump wrote on Truth Social that drag performances at the cultural center, particularly those targeted at young audiences, 'will stop.' 'NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,' he wrote in another post announcing Ric Grenell as the institution's interim executive director. In February, two days after Trump said he would install himself as chair, a petition launched by Qommittee called on the Kennedy Center's donors to suspend funding and reroute support to 'banned or censored artists,' including drag performers. Roughly 55,000 people signed on, said Blaq Dynamite, a Washington-based drag king and Qommittee's president. 'That kind of response kind of tells us that we're going in the right direction,' he said. For Dynamite, living and performing in Trump's backyard is something he and other members of Washington's LGBTQ community are aware of daily. 'Hairs are definitely standing up a little more,' he said. 'We're definitely aware of the shadow that we work in, that we operate in.' 'Things that are going on in the White House are so sporadic that we just don't know what's going to happen week to week,' he added. 'But we, the queer community, especially the drag community, are prepared to do what we have to do.' Dynamite said his vision for Qommittee is to grow the organization 'organically' through mutual aid efforts that foster community building. 'I don't want this to seem commercial, you know, like a Sally Struthers kind of thing — 'for just five cents a day, you, too, can sponsor a drag queen,'' he said. 'I want this to be something that is steered by the people that it helps.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Russia-linked disinfo campaign stokes anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland before June 1 vote, investigation finds
Russia-aligned influence campaigns have intensified efforts to spread disinformation targeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland ahead of the country's presidential runoff election on June 1, according to a new investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). ISD found that Russia-aligned actors are amplifying anti-Ukrainian sentiment through coordinated campaigns across platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky, Facebook, and Telegram. These efforts include operations like "Operation Overload" and the pro-Kremlin network "Pravda/Portal Kombat," which use impersonation, AI-generated content, and coordinated amplification to push false narratives. One Operation Overload campaign claimed that Ukrainian refugees were preparing terrorist attacks targeting the Polish elections, garnering over 654,000 views and nearly 5,800 interactions on X. Another falsely accused Ukrainians of plotting attacks on politicians in neighboring countries. The investigation, published on May 30, highlighted that ChatGPT replicated misleading claims from the Pravda network, including accusations that Ukrainians were responsible for a rise in violent crime in Poland. A satirical video about refugees was manipulated by a pro-Kremlin influencer to portray Ukrainians as exploiting Poland's welfare system, sparking calls for deportations and online hate. The influencer's post alone received 161,500 views, 900 shares, and 380 comments, many of which were derogatory. ISD warns that immigration has become a key issue in the Polish election discourse, noting that both remaining presidential candidates have taken positions targeting Ukrainian refugees. Candidate Rafal Trzaskowski proposed halting child benefits for non-working refugees, while Karol Nawrocki suggested placing them last in line for public services. The investigation urges Polish authorities to remain vigilant against Russia-backed disinformation that fuels discrimination and societal division. ISD also calls on platforms to meet their obligations under the EU's Digital Services Act by clearly labeling AI-generated content and addressing systemic risks to electoral integrity. The European Commission is urged to expand enforcement of sanctions on Russian-linked aggregators and to coordinate with internet service providers to counter foreign information manipulation more effectively. Read also: Ukraine watches closely as Poland faces polarizing presidential run-off We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Drag is everywhere': Artist network Qommittee is sashaying to stay
A year after launching, Qommittee, a national network of drag artists, says it's just getting started. The group's latest project, issued ahead of Pride, is a 43-page manual called the Drag Defense Handbook, documenting how drag performers, organizers and attorneys across the country have fought state bans and threats of violence and harassment — and won. The guidebook is divided into six sections: crisis response, digital security, First Amendment protections, violent threat response, defamation defense and mental health resources. 'There are drag artists in every single corner of the country, from big cities to small towns. Drag is everywhere, and many artists face terrible challenges like bomb threats and harassment,' said Julian Applebaum, a community organizer in Washington who was part of the team that put the handbook together. 'A common thing that we hear is that they feel like they're going through it alone and that they don't know where to turn or where to look for resources and support.' The document, he said, 'is made by and for the community, so that the next drag artist who gets threatened isn't starting from scratch to figure out how to defend themselves.' In 2023, advocacy organization GLAAD said it recorded more than 160 anti-LGBTQ protests and threats targeting drag events over the past year, including bomb threats and demonstrations led by members of extremist groups. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit researching extremism and disinformation, tracked more than 200 instances of anti-drag hate from 2022 to 2023, led by 'growing numbers' of individuals affiliated with white supremacist, parents' rights and Christian nationalist organizations. Freddie Hercury, a drag king in Buffalo, N.Y., and a peer support organizer with Qommittee (pronounced 'committee'), said they found the group last June after receiving a bomb threat on Facebook ahead of a performance in nearby Niagara Falls. 'I was really, like, unsure how to react to it, and I felt very much like I didn't want to overblow it,' Hercury said. 'Qommittee had just launched, and I had just recently seen their posts on Instagram, and I was like, you know, I'm just gonna give this a try. It couldn't hurt, and maybe they'll help me through this,' they said. 'And they were infinitely more helpful than I could have ever imagined they would be.' Organizers with the group, which has dozens of volunteers nationwide, called Hercury almost immediately. 'They were truly validating to me. Their main focus was really just making me feel like I was doing what I needed to do to be safe,' they said. After Qommittee members walked Hercury through their options, they reported the threat to the FBI, and their gig went off without a hitch. Now, they help other performers navigate similar situations. Jack King Goff, another peer support organizer and drag artist performing predominantly in the Seattle area, said they were harassed online and forced to leave their job as a high school English teacher last year after a student scrolled through more than 10 years of tagged photos on Goff's personal Instagram page and uploaded pictures of them in drag to a cyberbullying account. The photos caught the attention of a local Moms for Liberty chapter member and a conservative podcast host, and the widespread attention on their personal life gave way to death threats and targeted harassment, even from students, Goff said. The Washington state teachers' union eventually told Goff it couldn't guarantee their physical safety, and it may be time to reconsider their career. 'That really sucked,' Goff said in a recent interview. 'I doubt I'll ever be hired by a public school ever again because I'm too controversial as a candidate.' Now living with their parents in their native Los Angeles, Goff is working on developing their drag career. They're also volunteering with Qommittee, with whom they were in touch when the backlash against their drag king persona first started. 'The biggest part of it is helping people realize that they are not alone,' they said. 'And it's important that people know work is happening.' The current political climate around LGBTQ Americans, particularly transgender rights, makes that work all the more critical, Goff said. President Trump and administration officials have called trans and gender-nonconforming identities 'falsehoods' and equated them with deception and lies. During his first hours back in office, Trump signed an executive order proclaiming the U.S. recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and broadly restricting federal support for 'gender ideology.' He's also signed orders to bar transgender people from serving in the military, ban trans girls from competing in girls' sports, slash funding for LGBTQ health research and end federal support for gender-affirming care for minors, treatment the administration has described with inflammatory rhetoric such as 'castration' and 'mutilation.' He's also taken explicit aim at drag. In announcing his decision to take over the Kennedy Center in February, Trump wrote on Truth Social that drag performances at the cultural center, particularly those targeted at young audiences, 'will stop.' 'NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,' he wrote in another post announcing Ric Grenell as the institution's interim executive director. In February, two days after Trump said he would install himself as chair, a petition launched by Qommittee called on the Kennedy Center's donors to suspend funding and reroute support to 'banned or censored artists,' including drag performers. Roughly 55,000 people signed on, said Blaq Dynamite, a Washington-based drag king and Qommittee's president. 'That kind of response kind of tells us that we're going in the right direction,' he said. For Dynamite, living and performing in Trump's backyard is something he and other members of Washington's LGBTQ community are aware of daily. 'Hairs are definitely standing up a little more,' he said. 'We're definitely aware of the shadow that we work in, that we operate in.' 'Things that are going on in the White House are so sporadic that we just don't know what's going to happen week to week,' he added. 'But we, the queer community, especially the drag community, are prepared to do what we have to do.' Dynamite said his vision for Qommittee is to grow the organization 'organically' through mutual aid efforts that foster community building. 'I don't want this to seem commercial, you know, like a Sally Struthers kind of thing — 'for just five cents a day, you, too, can sponsor a drag queen,'' he said. 'I want this to be something that is steered by the people that it helps.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hill
‘Drag is everywhere': Artist network Qommittee is sashaying to stay
A year after launching, Qommittee, a national network of drag artists, says it's just getting started. The group's latest project, issued ahead of Pride, is a 43-page manual called the Drag Defense Handbook, documenting how drag performers, organizers and attorneys across the country have fought state bans and threats of violence and harassment — and won. The guidebook is divided into six sections: crisis response, digital security, First Amendment protections, violent threat response, defamation defense and mental health resources. 'There are drag artists in every single corner of the country, from big cities to small towns. Drag is everywhere, and many artists face terrible challenges like bomb threats and harassment,' said Julian Applebaum, a community organizer in Washington who was part of the team that put the handbook together. 'A common thing that we hear is that they feel like they're going through it alone and that they don't know where to turn or where to look for resources and support.' The document, he said, 'is made by and for the community, so that the next drag artist who gets threatened isn't starting from scratch to figure out how to defend themselves.' In 2023, advocacy organization GLAAD said it recorded more than 160 anti-LGBTQ protests and threats targeting drag events over the past year, including bomb threats and demonstrations led by members of extremist groups. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit researching extremism and disinformation, tracked more than 200 instances of anti-drag hate from 2022 to 2023, led by 'growing numbers' of individuals affiliated with white supremacist, parents' rights and Christian nationalist organizations. Freddie Hercury, a drag king in Buffalo, N.Y., and a peer support organizer with Qommittee (pronounced 'committee'), said they found the group last June after receiving a bomb threat on Facebook ahead of a performance in nearby Niagara Falls. 'I was really, like, unsure how to react to it, and I felt very much like I didn't want to overblow it,' Hercury said. 'Qommittee had just launched, and I had just recently seen their posts on Instagram, and I was like, you know, I'm just gonna give this a try. It couldn't hurt, and maybe they'll help me through this,' they said. 'And they were infinitely more helpful than I could have ever imagined they would be.' Organizers with the group, which has dozens of volunteers nationwide, called Hercury almost immediately. 'They were truly validating to me. Their main focus was really just making me feel like I was doing what I needed to do to be safe,' they said. After Qommittee members walked Hercury through their options, they reported the threat to the FBI, and their gig went off without a hitch. Now, they help other performers navigate similar situations. Jack King Goff, another peer support organizer and drag artist performing predominantly in the Seattle area, said they were harassed online and forced to leave their job as a high school English teacher last year after a student scrolled through more than 10 years of tagged photos on Goff's personal Instagram page and uploaded pictures of them in drag to a cyberbullying account. The photos caught the attention of a local Moms for Liberty chapter member and a conservative podcast host, and the widespread attention on their personal life gave way to death threats and targeted harassment, even from students, Goff said. The Washington state teachers' union eventually told Goff it couldn't guarantee their physical safety, and it may be time to reconsider their career. 'That really sucked,' Goff said in a recent interview. 'I doubt I'll ever be hired by a public school ever again because I'm too controversial as a candidate.' Now living with their parents in their native Los Angeles, Goff is working on developing their drag career. They're also volunteering with Qommittee, with whom they were in touch when the backlash against their drag king persona first started. 'The biggest part of it is helping people realize that they are not alone,' they said. 'And it's important that people know work is happening.' The current political climate around LGBTQ Americans, particularly transgender rights, makes that work all the more critical, Goff said. President Trump and administration officials have called trans and gender-nonconforming identities 'falsehoods' and equated them with deception and lies. During his first hours back in office, Trump signed an executive order proclaiming the U.S. recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and broadly restricting federal support for 'gender ideology.' He's also signed orders to bar transgender people from serving in the military, ban trans girls from competing in girls' sports, slash funding for LGBTQ health research and end federal support for gender-affirming care for minors, treatment the administration has described with inflammatory rhetoric such as 'castration' and 'mutilation.' He's also taken explicit aim at drag. In announcing his decision to take over the Kennedy Center in February, Trump wrote on Truth Social that drag performances at the cultural center, particularly those targeted at young audiences, 'will stop.' 'NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,' he wrote in another post announcing Ric Grenell as the institution's interim executive director. In February, two days after Trump said he would install himself as chair, a petition launched by Qommittee called on the Kennedy Center's donors to suspend funding and reroute support to 'banned or censored artists,' including drag performers. Roughly 55,000 people signed on, said Blaq Dynamite, a Washington-based drag king and Qommittee's president. 'That kind of response kind of tells us that we're going in the right direction,' he said. For Dynamite, living and performing in Trump's backyard is something he and other members of Washington's LGBTQ community are aware of daily. 'Hairs are definitely standing up a little more,' he said. 'We're definitely aware of the shadow that we work in, that we operate in.' 'Things that are going on in the White House are so sporadic that we just don't know what's going to happen week to week,' he added. 'But we, the queer community, especially the drag community, are prepared to do what we have to do.' Dynamite said his vision for Qommittee is to grow the organization 'organically' through mutual aid efforts that foster community building. 'I don't want this to seem commercial, you know, like a Sally Struthers kind of thing — 'for just five cents a day, you, too, can sponsor a drag queen,'' he said. 'I want this to be something that is steered by the people that it helps.'
Express Tribune
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Toxic rise of 'looksmaxxing'
Hankering for a chiselled jawline, a male TikTok influencer strikes his cheekbones with a hammer — highlighting the rise of "looksmaxxing," an online trend pushing unproven and sometimes dangerous techniques to boost sexual appeal. Looksmaxxing influencers - part of an online ecosystem dubbed the "manosphere" — have surged in popularity across social media, capitalising on the insecurities of young men eager to boost their physical attractiveness to women. In posts across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, they promote pseudoscientific methods to achieve everything from pouty lips to chin extensions and almond-shaped "hunter eyes," often while monetising their popularity by endorsing a range of consumer products. In more extreme cases, these influencers advocate taking steroids, undergoing plastic surgery and even "leg-lengthening" procedures to become more attractive. While women may pay regular visits to aestheticians or buy new beauty products, spurring a global beauty retail market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the manosphere at times promotes a DIY approach that draws on the nearest toolbox. "Babe, what's taking you so long in the bathroom?" reads the caption flashing across a viral TikTok video of a man seen hitting his cheeks with the sharp edge of a hammer, in what he calls his "skincare routine." Underneath the video are dozens of comments warning that "bone smashing," also known as the hammer technique, was "dangerous" while others hailed it as a legitimate way to achieve an angular jawline. In other videos, British influencer Oscar Patel promoted "mewing," an unproven technique that involves pressing the tongue into the roof of the mouth for improving jaw and facial structure. Without offering evidence, he told his nearly 188,000 TikTok followers that such tricks would turn them into a "PSL god," an internet slang for exceptionally attractive men, short for Perfectly Symmetrical Looks. 'Toxic combination' In another video, US-based TikToker Dillon Latham misleadingly told his 1.7 million followers to whiten their teeth by applying hydrogen peroxide to their teeth with a Q tip. Some dentists warn that regularly using store-bought peroxide could damage tooth enamel and gums. The looksmaxxing trend is fuelling "an industry of influencers who promote 'perfect bodies and perfect faces', often to feather their own nest," Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told AFP. "Among men, this is mixed with the misogyny of the manosphere, which often blames women for male insecurities, creating a toxic combination," he added. Many looksmaxxing influencers appear to have a financial incentive, frequently leveraging their popularity to promote products ranging from skin cleansers to pheromone perfumes, and even Chinese knock-off watches. Looksmaxxing is rooted in "incel" — or involuntarily celibate - communities, an internet subculture rife with misogyny, with men tending to blame women and feminism for their romantic failings. "The incel ideology is being rebranded to looksmaxxing on TikTok," Anda Solea, a researcher at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Portsmouth, told AFP. In a study, Solea found that incel-inspired accounts on TikTok were circumventing a ban on hateful language with a focus on looksmaxxing and more palatable words about self-improvement. "There are a lot of pressures on men – we want to protect women from gender-based violence but we should also be careful about young men and boys," Solea said. 'Deeply damaging' Other related maxxing trends have also gained traction, including "gymmaxxing," which focuses on building muscle, and "moneymaxxing," which centres on improving financial status - all with the ultimate goal of increasing sexual desirability. Looksmaxxing influencers — many of whom idolise male models such as Australian Jordan Barrett and American Sean O'Pry — have amassed massive followings as algorithms propel their content to millions. These algorithms can lead to real-world harm, experts warn. The danger was dramatised in the recent Netflix hit Adolescence, which follows the case of a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a classmate after consuming misogynistic content online. The fictional crime drama references the popular but unfounded "80/20" theory that claims 80 per cent of women are attracted to 20 per cent of men. In a study last year, researchers at Dublin City University created fake accounts registered as teenage boys. They reported that their TikTok and YouTube feeds were "bombarded" with male supremacy and misogynistic content. "More widely, this does feed into toxic beauty standards which affect men as well as women," said Venkataramakrishnan, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. "The idea that if you don't look like a Hollywood star, you might as well give up trying for a relationship is deeply damaging." AFP
