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online gambling ban WASHINGTON — Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of President Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son Hunter after earlier promising he would do no such thing, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That displeasure tracks with the bipartisan uproar in Washington that ignited over the president's about-face. The survey found that a relatively small share of Americans "strongly" or "somewhat" approve of the pardon, which came after the younger Biden was convicted on gun and tax charges. About half said they "strongly" or "somewhat" disapprove, and about 2 in 10 neither approve nor disapprove. The Democratic president said repeatedly that he would not use his pardon power for the benefit of his family, and the White House continued to insist, even after Republican Donald Trump's election win in November, that Biden's position had not changed — until it suddenly did. Hunter Biden leaves federal court Sept. 5 in Los Angeles after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. "I know it's not right to believe politicians as far as what they say compared to what they do, but he did explicitly say, 'I will not pardon my son,'" said Peter Prestia, a 59-year-old Republican from Woodland Park, New Jersey, just west of New York City, who said he strongly disagreed with the move. "So, it's just the fact that he went back on his word." In issuing a pardon Dec. 1, Biden argued that the Justice Department had presided over a "miscarriage of justice" in prosecuting his son. The president used some of the same kind of language that Trump does to describe the criminal cases against him and his other legal predicaments. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was a decision that Biden struggled with but came to shortly before he made the announcement, "because of how politically infected these cases were" as well as "what his political opponents were trying to do." The poll found that about 4 in 10 Democrats approve of the pardon, while about 3 in 10 disapprove and about one-quarter did not have an opinion or did not know enough to say. The vast majority of Republicans and about half of independents had a negative opinion. President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden walk Nov. 29 in downtown Nantucket Mass. For some, it was easy to see family taking priority over politics. "Do you have kids?" asked Robert Jenkins, a 63-year-old Democrat who runs a lumber yard and gas station in Gallipolis, Ohio. "You're gonna leave office and not pardon your kid? I mean, it's a no-brainer to me." But Prestia, who is semiretired from working for a digital marketing conglomerate, said Biden would have been better off not making promises. "He does have that right to pardon anybody he wants. But he just should have kept his mouth shut, and he did it because it was before the election, so it's just a bold-faced lie," Prestia said. Despite the unpopularity of his decision, the president's approval rating has not shifted meaningfully since before his party lost the White House to Trump. About 4 in 10 Americans "somewhat" or "strongly" approve of the way Biden is handling his job as president, which is about where his approval rating stood in AP-NORC polls since January 2022. Still, the pardon keeps creating political shock waves, with Republicans, and even some top Democrats, decrying it. Older adults are more likely than younger ones to approve of Biden's pardoning his son, according to the poll, though their support is not especially strong. About one-third of those ages 60 and older approve, compared with about 2 in 10 adults under 60. The age divide is driven partially by the fact that younger adults are more likely than older ones to say they neither approve nor disapprove of the pardon or that they do not know enough to say. President Joe Biden walks with his son Hunter Biden on July 26 as he heads toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. About 6 in 10 white adults disapprove of the pardon, compared with slightly less than half of Hispanic adults and about 3 in 10 Black adults. Relatively large shares of Black and Hispanic Americans — about 3 in 10 — were neutral, the poll found. "Don't say you're gonna do something and then fall back," said Trinell Champ, 43, a Democrat from Nederland, Texas, who works in the home health industry and said she disapproved of the pardon. "At the end of the day, all you have is your word." Champ, who is Black, voted for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump. "I just had my hopes up for her, but I wasn't 100% positive," she said. Champ also said she does not approve of Biden's handling of the presidency and thinks the country is on the wrong track. "While he was in office, I felt like I really didn't see a lot of changes," she said. "I just felt like everything just kind of stayed the same," Champ said. Overall, though, the pardon did not appear to be a driving factor in many Americans' assessment of Biden's job performance. The share of Black Americans who approve of the way he is handling his job as president did fall slightly since October, but it is hard to assess what role the pardon may have played. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) carries both of his sons, Joseph R. III, left, and Robert H., during an appearance at the Democratic state convention last summer, 1972. At center is his wife Neilia Biden, who was killed in an auto crash, Dec. 20, 1972. With them are Governor-elect Sherman W. Tribbitt and his wife, Jeanne. (AP Photo) Joseph Biden, the newly-elected Democratic Senator from Delaware, is shown in Washington, Dec. 12, 1972. (AP Photo/Henry Griffin) 1972 - Is first elected to the Senate at age 29, defeating Republican Senator J. Caleb Boggs. Wins re-election in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) kisses the cheek of an unidentified friend who offered consoling words after a memorial service in Wilmington, Del., Dec. 22, 1972, for Biden's wife Neilia, their 13-month-old daughter Naomi Christina, who perished in a car-truck crash. Biden's two sons were hospitalized with serious injuries. (AP Photo/Bill Ingraham) December 18, 1972 - While Christmas shopping, Biden's first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, and daughter, Naomi Biden, are killed in a car accident. His sons are badly injured, but survive. January 5, 1973 - Is sworn in as US senator of Delaware at son Beau Biden's bedside in the hospital. 1987-1995 - Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. June 9, 1987 - Enters the 1988 presidential race, but drops out three months later following reports of plagiarism and false claims about his academic record. February 1988 - Undergoes surgery to repair an aneurysm in an artery that supplies blood to the brain. In this Oct. 12, 1991 file photo Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., points angrily at Clarence Thomas during comments at the end of hearings on Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. looks on at right. (AP Photo/Greg Gibson, File) January 20, 1990 - Introduces a bill that becomes the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The act addresses sexual assault and domestic violence. It is signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. In this April 9, 1993, file photo Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. stands in front of a Danish armored personnel carrier at the UN-controlled Sarajevo Airport, making a statement about his trip to the besieged Bosnian capital. (AP Photo/Michael Stravato, File) Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, meets reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday, Oct. 16, 2003 to discuss the United Nations-Iraq vote. (AP Photo/Terry Ashe) Democratic presidential hopeful, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., presides over a hearing of the committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007 to discuss the remaining options in Iraq. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook) Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden D-Del., smiles during the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Presidential Forum Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007, in Waterloo, Iowa. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) January 31, 2007 - Files a statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission to run for president. August 1, 2007 - His memoir, "Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics," is published. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., speaks at a Caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Biden abandoned his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday after a poor showing in the state's caucuses. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) In this Jan. 3, 2008, file photo, Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., rests his head on the shoulder of his wife, Jill, as they stand in a hallway awaiting his introductions for a rally at the UAW Hall in Dubuque, Iowa on the day of the Iowa caucus in Dubuque, Iowa. (AP Photo/Mark Hirsch, File) August 23, 2008 - Is named the vice-presidential running mate of Barack Obama. In this Sept. 16, 2008 file photo, then Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. arrives by Amtrak in Wilmington, Del., (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) In this Oct. 2,2008 file photo, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., left, and Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin face off during the vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam, File) November 4, 2008 - Is elected vice president of the United States. January 20, 2009 - Is sworn in as vice president of the United States. February 7, 2009 - Delivers his first major speech as vice president at a security conference in Germany. September 1, 2010 - Presides over a ceremony in Iraq to formally mark the end of the US combat mission in Iraq. November 6, 2012 - Obama and Biden are reelected, defeating Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Vice President Joe Biden, with his wife Jill Biden, center, holding the Biden Family Bible, shakes hands with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor after taking the oath of office during an official ceremony at the Naval Observatory, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) October 2, 2014 - Speaking at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Biden tells attendees that ISIS has been inadvertently strengthened by actions taken by Turkey, the UAE and other Middle Eastern allies to help opposition groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. May 30, 2015 - Biden's eldest son, Beau Biden, passes away from brain cancer at age 46. October 21, 2015 - Says he will not seek the presidency, announcing that the window for a successful campaign "has closed." December 6, 2016 - Doesn't rule out running for president in 2020, saying "I'm not committing not to run. I'm not committing to anything. I learned a long time ago fate has a strange way of intervening." Vice President Joe Biden pauses between mock swearing in ceremonies in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, as the 115th Congress begins. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) January 12, 2017 - Obama surprises Biden by presenting him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, during a White House ceremony. February 1, 2017 - Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, launch the Biden Foundation, an organization that will work on seven issues: foreign policy; Biden's cancer initiative; community colleges and military families; protecting children; equality; ending violence against women; and strengthening the middle class. February 7, 2017 - Is named the Benjamin Franklin presidential practice professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he will lead the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. He will also serve as the founding chair of the University of Delaware's Biden Institute, the university announces. March 1, 2017 - Biden receives the Congressional Patriot Award from the Bipartisan Policy Center. He receives the honor in recognition of his work crafting bipartisan legislation with Republicans and Democrats. In this March 26, 2019, file photo, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Biden Courage Awards in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) April 25, 2019 - Announces he is running for president in a campaign video posted to social media. Hours later, the Biden Foundation board chair, Ted Kaufman, announces the immediate suspension of all the organization's operations. In this June 6, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the "I Will Vote" fundraising gala in Atlanta. Biden shifted to oppose longstanding restrictions on federal funding of abortion during his remarks. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File) Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden signs a copy of his book "Promise Me, Dad" at a campaign rally at Modern Woodmen Park, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary night election rally in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020 after winning the South Carolina primary. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary night election rally in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, after winning the South Carolina primary. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) August 20, 2020: Joe Biden accepts the Democratic nomination for president Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, with Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., raise their arms up as fireworks go off in the background during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del. Looking on are Jill Biden, far left, and Harris' husband Doug Emhoff, far right. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) President Donald Trump, left, and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, with moderator Chris Wallace, center, of Fox News during the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, and former President Barack Obama greet each other with an air elbow bump, at the conclusion of rally at Northwestern High School in Flint, Mich., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak at a rally at Belle Isle Casino in Detroit, Mich., Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020, which former President Barack Obama also attended. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) President-elect Joe Biden gestures on stage after speaking, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool) FILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, file photo, from left, Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Harris, President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, stand on stage together, in Wilmington, Del. The theme for Biden’s inauguration will be “America United." Unity is an issue that’s long been a central focus for Biden but one that’s taken on added weight in the wake of the violence at the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool, File) President-elect Joe Biden announces his climate and energy team nominees and appointees at The Queen Theater in Wilmington Del., Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Joe Biden speaks about his domestic agenda from the East Room of the White House in Washington on Oct. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) U.S. President Joe Biden, left, shakes hands with Pope Francis as they meet at the Vatican on Oct. 29, 2021. (Vatican Media via AP) President Joe Biden removes his face mask as he arrives in the East Room of the White House to speak about the evacuation of American citizens, their families, special immigrant visa applicants and vulnerable Afghans on Aug. 20, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) President Joe Biden holds the microphone to Chocolate, the national Thanksgiving turkey, during a pardoning ceremony Nov. 21, 2022, at the White House in Washington. President Joe Biden holds an Atlanta Braves jersey during an event celebrating the Major League Baseball 2021 World Series champion Atlanta Braves in the East Room of the White House on Sept. 26, 2022, in Washington. President Joe Biden receives his COVID-19 booster from a member of the White House medical unit during an event in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus on Oct. 25, 2022, in Washington. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive to give treats to trick-or-treaters on the South Lawn of the White House, on Halloween on Oct. 31, 2022, in Washington. U.S. President Joe Biden, left, talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during their bilateral meeting ahead of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on Nov. 14, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit meeting Nov. 14, 2022, in Bali, Indonesia. President Joe Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport on Oct. 18, 2023, in Tel Aviv. President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House on Oct. 19, 2023, in Washington, about the war in Israel and Ukraine. President Joe Biden arrives to speak at the Amtrak Bear Maintenance Facility on Nov. 6, 2023, in Bear, Del. President Joe Biden, accompanied by Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young, left, and Women's Alzheimer's Movement founder Maria Shriver, right, gives first lady Jill Biden a kiss after giving her the pen he used to sign a presidential memorandum that will establish the first-ever White House Initiative on Women's Health Research in the Oval Office of the White House on Nov. 13, 2023, in Washington. President Joe Biden pauses as he speaks to reporters in Nantucket, Mass. on Nov. 26, 2023, about hostages freed by Hamas in a third set of releases under a four-day cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy depart a news conference in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus on Dec. 12, 2023, in Washington. President Joe Biden speaks during a funeral service for retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the Washington National Cathedral on Dec. 19, 2023, in Washington. O'Connor, an Arizona native and the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court, died Dec. 1, 2023, at age 93. President Joe Biden arrives to deliver remarks on the economy on June 28, 2023, at the Old Post Office in Chicago. President Joe Biden, right, stands as an Army carry team moves the transfer case containing the remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Ga., at Dover Air Force Base, Del., on Feb. 2, 2024. Sanders was killed in a drone attack in Jordan on Jan. 28, 2024. President Joe Biden speaks during the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill on March 7, 2024, in Washington, as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Mike Johnson listen. Vice President Kamala Harris embraces President Joe Biden after a speech on health care in Raleigh, N.C., on March. 26, 2024. President Joe Biden greets Zion Schrode, 8 months, of Marin County, Calif., as he is held by his mother Erin Schrode during a Jewish American Heritage Month event, on May 20, 2024, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden walk in the Normandy American Cemetery following a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, on June 6, 2024, in Normandy. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event with former President Barack Obama moderated by Jimmy Kimmel at the Peacock Theater on June 15, 2024, in Los Angeles. First lady Jill Biden, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff view the Independence Day firework display over the National Mall from the balcony of the White House, on July 4, 2024, in Washington. President Joe Biden, right, and the Rev. Dr. J. Louis Felton pray at a church service at Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ on July 7, 2024, in Philadelphia. President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on July 14, 2024, about the assassination attempt of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden pauses as he speaks at the Biden campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., on Feb. 3, 2024. President Joe Biden walks on stage to speak during the NAACP national convention July 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. President Joe Biden walks between tombstones as he arrives to attend a mass at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del., on July 6, 2024. Cherelle Griner, wife of WNBA star Brittney Griner, speaks after President Joe Biden announced Brittney Griner's release in a prisoner swap with Russia on Dec. 8, 2022, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Also attending are Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and Vice President Kamala Harris. President Joe Biden shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House on Dec. 12, 2023, in Washington. Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, left, and CEO Clark Hunt, right, watch as President Joe Biden, center, puts on a Chiefs helmet during an event with the Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs on the South Lawn of the White House, on May 31, 2024, to celebrate their championship season and victory in Super Bowl LVIII. U.S. President Joe Biden, right, greets Pope Francis ahead of a working session on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Energy, Africa-Mediterranean, on day two of the 50th G7 summit at Borgo Egnazia, southern Italy, on June 14, 2024. President Joe Biden, right, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, left, participate in a presidential debate hosted by CNN on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. The poll of 1,251 adults was conducted Dec. 5-9, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.The leader Supriya Sule on Sunday said vowed to rebuild the party with renewed commitment. The NCP (SP), which won 10 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly election 2024, respects people's mandate and pledged to work towards a capable, inclusive and progressive state, Sule said. In a statement on X, the Supriya Sule promised to rebuild their party and said it would move forward with determination despite its dismal show. Her party and its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) collectively bagged only 46 of the state's 288 assembly seats. "We respect and humbly accept the verdict of the people in the assembly elections. This result is a moment for deep reflection and renewal. We will introspect, learn, and rebuild with honesty, hard work, and an unshakable commitment to the values we stand for," Sule stated in a social media post. She stressed that her party was committed to creating a capable, inclusive, and progressive Maharashtra. ¿Our vision of a capable, inclusive, and progressive Maharashtra remains unchanged. We reaffirm our pledge to fight for the rights, dignity, and self-respect of farmers, workers, women, youth, and every marginalised section of society,¿ Sule stated. Sule said that her party will continue to carry forward the ideals of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, and social reformers like Jyotiba Phule. "We are determined to carry forward the timeless ideals of Shiv-Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar with renewed energy and purpose," she wrote on X. Supriya Sule congratulated those who had won in the elections. "We hope you will serve Maharashtra with dedication and prioritise the welfare of every citizen," she said. The MP, the daughter of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, expressed gratitude to the voters, party workers, their MVA allies and the authorities for facilitating the elections. "A heartfelt thank you to all voters, the diligent workers and leaders of NCP (SP), our allies, the Election Commission, police, administration, media, and everyone who contributed to making this election a vibrant celebration of democracy," Sule added, according to the PTI. Sule said the party would remain focused on its goals and continue its efforts to serve the people of Maharashtra. "We remain steadfast. Our fight continues with humility, with courage, and with the hope of building a Maharashtra that fulfils the dreams of its people," she added, as per the PTI. Sharad Pawar suffered the worst-ever defeat in his political career in Maharashtra polls with the NCP faction led by him winning only 10 seats in the 288-member House. His MVA partners Congress and Sena (UBT) got 16 and 20 seats, respectively, the news agency reported. The ruling scored a massive victory with the BJP winning 132 seats, Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde emerging victorious in 57, and NCP headed by Ajit Pawar grabbing 41 seats. (with PTI inputs)

H alfway through their set, Muna address the elephant in the stadium. “We just wanted to acknowledge that someone very special is missing tonight,” says the indie-pop trio’s lead singer, Katie Gavin. It’s day one of All Things Go, an independent music festival that fans nicknamed Lesbopalooza due to its largely queer, female or non-binary line-up, including Chappell Roan . Except the day before she was scheduled to appear onstage at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York, Roan pulled out . “We love Chappell so much,” Gavin continues, as the young, eager audience, a quarter of whom have donned pink cowboy hats in homage to Roan’s song “Pink Pony Club,” quiet down to hear what this wise stateswoman of sapphic pop has to say. “You know, we started as a queer band in 2014, so we’ve really been given the time and the grace that we needed to be nourished as artists.” Gavin leans over to plug her acoustic guitar into her amplifier as she goes on: “We wish nothing but that times a million for her, so sing this one for Chappell.” And with that, the trio launches into a strummy, slowed-down cover of Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” and the audience does as Gavin has gently commanded them to do. They sing every word in unison. They sway together, too, gently rocking from side to side in the purple and pink light. Naomi McPherson, Muna’s primary producer and second guitarist alongside Josette Maskin, was stationed behind a synth earlier in the evening, but is now center stage, accompanying Gavin on lead vocals. From the looks of it, they are prepping to conquer Roan’s spine-tingling vocals on the song’s epic bridge. They plant one foot in front of the other and cup the microphone in their hands. “I told you sooo,” McPherson belts out to the gobsmacked audience. They hold the high note long, like a diva, as the crowd erupts. I look to my left and see two young women crying. No one, myself included, seemed to expect this young musician in camo pants to be able to belt like Patti LaBelle. That’s the thing about queer artists, though: They are always brushing up against, bursting through, or staring down other people’s expectations about who they are and how they should behave. Editor’s picks The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time In retrospect, Muna’s cover of “Good Luck, Babe!” at All Things Go was a remarkable thing to witness — and it stood in startlingly well for the highs, lows, and sheer chaos of the past year, when queer and non-binary acts like boygenius, Victoria Monét, Reneé Rapp, Towa Bird , Muna, Kehlani, Janelle Monáe, Billie Eilish, and Chappell Roan have dominated pop culture to such an all-encompassing extent that many in the media dubbed the moment a “ lesbian renaissance .” Start with the song: “Good Luck, Babe!” is quite possibly the only bop about compulsory heterosexuality to ever land within Billboard ’s Top Five. It was one of the leading contenders for 2024’s song of the summer , as clip after clip of Roan performing it on the festival circuit went viral, fueling the song’s momentum until it hit like a heatwave — scorching, inescapable, and all anyone could talk about. Second, there was the stark absence at Forest Hills of the song’s owner. Roan has been at the epicenter of this so-called renaissance, and her warp-speed transition from “ gaymous ” to famous has been bumpy , to say the least. In the course of a single summer, she went from living relatively anonymously to being stalked, harassed, and forcibly kissed by strangers, then subjected to multiple internet pile-ons for everything from her initial refusal to endorse a presidential candidate to attempting to set boundaries with her fans. None of these experiences are unique to LGBTQ+ artists, but together they highlight just how complex navigating mainstream success as a marginalized person can be. We want our queer pop stars whom we feel so seen by to see us, too. We want them to look and be just like us — even if that isn’t actually who they are. Finally, there was the Muna of it all. This is the band that arguably kicked off the whole sapphic pop, queer joy, whatever you want to call it movement a few years ago, when they released their feel-good hit single “Silk Chiffon” with Phoebe Bridgers. You could draw a straight — or not-so-straight — line connecting that song’s upbeat tempo and lyrics to Roan’s coy, queer flirtation in “Red Wine Supernova,” from Muna’s “she’s so soft like silk chiffon” to Roan’s “long hair, no bra, that’s my type.” In fact, McPherson even predicted in a since-deleted tweet from 2022 that “Silk Chiffon” would usher in an era of sapphic pop, much like the one we now appear to be living in. SO, HOW DOES IT feel to have predicted the future? “I was right,” says McPherson when we speak a few days before All Things Go. “You could call me Nostradamus. Naom-o-stradumus!” All jokes aside, they know they wouldn’t be here were it not for the queer artists who came before them. “We are standing on the shoulders of lesbian, queer, sapphic artists who’ve been doing this shit for so long,” McPherson says. Right again: Because as much as this overtly sapphic pop culture moment feels new to a large swath of young queer people, it’s happened before — in the Eighties and Nineties, when artists like Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman, k.d. lang, and the Indigo Girls dominated MTV, VH1, festival lineups, FM radio, and the Grammys. “As a music historian, the way I see what’s happening right now is just a continuation of what’s been happening for a long time,” says Kaleb Goldschmitt, an ethnomusicologist and popular music scholar at Wellesley College. They note that while some might argue that the previous moment wasn’t as mainstream as what we’re seeing now, that’s not actually true. “Tracy Chapman in 1989 was extremely dominant,” Goldschmitt says. At the height of her commercial success, Chapman performed on Saturday Night Live twice in just over a year (once in November 1988 and again in December 1989); her self-titled debut album went to Number One on the Billboard charts, and, over the years, her hit single “Fast Car” has transcended time and genre to become an American anthem. Just last year, the country artist Luke Combs returned “Fast Car” to the charts, when his cover climbed to Number Two on Billboard ’s Hot 100 and netted Chapman the Song of the Year prize at the 2023 Country Music Awards. “Melissa Etheridge really broke through,” too, says Goldschmitt, and not just among lesbians: “Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise loved her.” Three songs from Etheridge’s 1993 album Yes I Am landed in Billboard ’s Top 40; 1993 is also the year the lesbian singer k.d. lang appeared with the supermodel Cindy Crawford on the cover of Vanity Fair . “The lesbian was all over the culture,” says Goldschmitt. “It was very mainstream.” So then why does this moment feel so different? Partly it’s the music. Mainstream lesbian artists in the Nineties existed along a very narrow sonic spectrum, spanning from outlaw country to roots-rock, with little room in between. (Queen Latifah didn’t publicly acknowledge her sexuality until 2021, and Whitney Houston’s long-rumored relationship with friend and confidant Robyn Crawford wasn’t confirmed until several years after the artist’s death in 2012.) A much wider range of acts exist today, with everything from indie rock and folk to bubblegum pop, R&B/funk, and hip-hop represented. Still, when I pressed a few of my queer pals on the biggest difference between the two moments, no one brought up genre diversity. They talked about the vibes instead. Revisit the sapphic music of the Nineties today and you’ll encounter songs about queer love that wrestle with shame and insecurity, or, at best, are shrouded in mystery and metaphors, like lang’s “Constant Craving” and Indigo Girls’ “Strange Fire.” Even Etheridge had to speak through codes. Alyxandra Vesey, ​​a feminist popular music scholar at the University of Alabama, recalls how big a deal it was at the time that Etheridge’s breakthrough album was called Yes I Am. “But she also doesn’t get to say what the ‘am’ is,” says Vesey. Compare Etheridge’s careful omission to Rapp’s “Can a gay girl get an amen?” lyrics on “Not My Fault,” or Billie Eilish’s “I could eat that girl for lunch,” from her overtly sexual, sapphic hit single “Lunch,” and it’s like someone took a sledgehammer to the closet door. The vibe has shifted from caution to confidence, restraint to revelry. Now, queer pop stars get to say the previously unspoken part out loud. Even Etheridge is getting in on the fun. When a video of the artist mashing up her 1995 hit song “I Want to Come Over” with Roan’s wonderfully explicit “Red Wine Supernova” went viral over the summer, it was heralded by many as a full-circle moment for LGBTQ+ performers. “That song doesn’t exist without Etheridge, culturally,” Vesey explains, adding “But there’s just so much more specificity and delight in the specificity than we had access to 30 years ago.” To put it bluntly, the songs are hornier and happier now. And seeing young artists revel in their sexuality early on and without shame has been nothing short of transformative for Vesey and so many others who came of age in the era of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. As Goldschmitt says after I ask them to sum up their feelings on sapphic pop summer, “Boy, I wish I had something like that when I was young.” “To have something like that and have it be as fun,” they add, “would’ve been so important to my sense of who I was as a human.” IF ANY SONG acted as a primer for our current mainstream sapphic pop moment, it is Tegan and Sara ’s 2013 hit “Closer.” The synth-pop song by the Canadian duo played on repeat in between sets at All Things Go, as if to honor its legacy as the O.G. upbeat, gay pop song. And while “Closer” may be more demure than Billie Eilish’s “Lunch,” it is still, as Tegan Quin puts it when we talk over Zoom, “a super horny song!” I was 24 when “Closer” came out, and I can confirm that the lyrics “All I dream of lately/Is how to get you underneath me” made millennial lesbians feral the same way Towa Bird’s “Drain Me” sends younger queers into a hot-and-bothered tizzy today. Interestingly, though, while “Closer” introduced Tegan and Sara, who had previously operated in an indie/alt-rock lane, to a wider, more mainstream audience, it also solidified them as a queer band in ways they’d never felt labeled before. When they scored an early hit with “Walking With a Ghost” in 2004 they were just random successes on radio, Tegan Quin tells me. Nobody said it was a song for queer people — but they did with “Closer,” she recalls: “It was this very direct language.” The duo had a Billboard Hot 100 hit and a mainstream audience, but to the mostly straight masses, they were “queer icons.” When Tegan looks at this new explosion of lesbian and queer pop, she gets the sense that the battle over labels and who certain music is “for” may be over — a relic of the Obama years, like the individual mandate. She sees a mix of identities in the audience. “It’s people who are fed up with being forced the same shit. They want their pop star to be fucking weird and have an opinion,” she says, then adds, “It’s straight people, too, saying, ‘Why can’t I love queer music?’” I decided to test out Quin’s theory on a group of All Things Go attendees standing near the free piercing booth sponsored by Claire’s Accessories. Several of them tell me they are straight. No one has heard of “Closer,” but they all love Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp. A lesbian nearby overhears my conversation and flags me down. “I think it’s nice that queer music is in mainstream spaces enough that it’s not just queer music at this point,” she tells me. Her name is Jes Klass, and she loves “Closer.” She thinks it could’ve been an even bigger hit than it was. The thing is, Klass says, “The world wasn’t ready then. It is now.” Or as Tegan puts it: “It’s like the cicadas. The ground started to rumble and we popped out early. But now they’ve all come out, and there’s too many to hold them back.” AS MONUMENTAL AS “Closer” felt to some of us at the time, it doesn’t hold a candle to what is happening today with “Good Luck, Babe!” You had to be in the know to know about “Closer.” You simply have to exist to encounter “Good Luck, Babe!” “Closer” peaked at Number 90 on the Hot 100 . “Good Luck, Babe!” debuted on the chart toward the end of April at Number 77 . By the end of September, it had rocketed to Number Four . You don’t move 73 spots up the Hot 100 without the support of a whole bunch of straight people. Chappell Roan is no longer your favorite artist’s favorite artist. She’s your grandmother’s, or at least your aunt’s. “Good Luck, Babe!” was probably playing over the loudspeakers at your local physical therapist’s office at some point today. Kelly Clarkson is performing it on her morning show . Jimmy Fallon is singing along to it on his late night show . Your Spotify algorithm is actually cueing it up right now, even though it just played on your “For You” playlist . That sound you just heard? That’s the sound of millions of straight women collectively adding the lesbian anthem about the tragedy of becoming some guy’s wife to their bachelorette party playlists. Vesey credits the current commercial appeal of sapphic pop to two major political and cultural events that occured in the 2010s: the mainstreaming of queer people in historically heterosexual institutions like marriage, and the commercial ascent of Ru Paul’s Drag Race . “Those two things allowed for queer life to be legible and acceptable in a way that’s very powerful,” Vesey says. Maybe. Or maybe it’s what Towa Bird says to me when we chat in her trailer after her All Things Go performance: “The lesbian stars have aligned.” Whatever the reason, Dan Ferguson is here for it. The 34-year-old Australian, who’s one of the people I met by the piercing booth, is not a lesbian. He’s a cis hetero man. He presumably doesn’t know what it feels like to be eaten out in the passenger seat of a casual fling’s car or to have his heart broken by a woman who trades her queer partner in for a husband. And yet he finds Roan’s songs deeply relatable. “It’s like when you go through wanting someone that doesn’t want you back,” he says. “Or, you’re doing the extra effort, but they aren’t reciprocating.” To Dan Ferguson, heartbreak is heartbreak. Love is love. Still, Roan’s music, and “Good Luck, Babe!” specifically, hits different for the LGBTQ+ community. Goldschmitt has spoken with several queer therapists who say the song has been a major theme for many of their clients, which makes sense when you realize its scope. “Good Luck, Babe!” makes quick work of both parties in a doomed relationship — damning the one in denial to a lifetime of heterosexual misery while joyously restoring the bruised ex to the tune of “I told you so.” “We have too many trauma narratives in queer music,” Goldschmitt says. “It’s very vindicating to have somebody say, ‘Well, good luck with that.’” That experience of feeling seen isn’t exclusive to Roan’s songs, not by a long shot. Nearly every queer fan I speak to at All Things Go describes the same sensation about a variety of artists from the line-up. Referencing Towa Bird’s “Drain Me,” which the artist has described as an ode to lesbian sex , Jes Klass says, “There’s nothing subtle about it. It’s just out there, and it’s beautiful to hear music that speaks to the kind of relationships that I’ve been in.” A friend of Klass named Michelle Liga tells me she identifies as bisexual, but says things might have been different if she had grown up with the music that is coming out now: “I would be a full-on lesbian.” Her comment reminds me of something Bird said when I asked her about the way fans are reacting to this year’s sapphic pop moment: “I think they are looking inward and finding things out about themselves and seeing those in queer artists.” Seeing your inner queer life reflected back to you by an artist, especially for the first time, can be an intoxicating experience, and I spy evidence of this intoxication everywhere at All Things Go — in the hundreds of people dressed up like Chappell Roan, in the screams from the crowd when Reneé Rapp and Towa Bird kiss on stage, and in the young fan with tears in their eyes watching Julien Baker perform. I see it in an All Things Go Instagram video , too, when a member of the festival’s social team asks a couple what they would like to say to the indie artist Ethel Cain, and one of them coyly responds “We’re looking for a thiiird,” while the interviewer laughs. I see it in my own excitement when I scream like the baby gay that I no longer am after Lucy Dacus joins Muna on stage to perform “Silk Chiffon.” And I see it in the overwhelmed venue worker who, while serving me a Bud Light, searches for a word to describe the LGBTQ+ fans he has observed over the weekend. “Not quite militant,” he says, but something like that. Of course, he might be militant too if his community was in the midst of a political backlash that threatens to strip the rights away of its most vulnerable members. As THEM’s James Factora explained in a recent essay , “Facing tremendous challenges, and struggling to find meaning in the world, it’s easy to understand why many young queer people would see openly LGBTQ+ celebrities as quasi-religious figures.” Trying to build a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community — one that embraces fan enthusiasm while maintaining artist security — was top of mind for All Things Go’s organizers. Looking back, Carlie Webbert, All Things Go’s manager of partnerships & experiential tells me she is proud of the festival’s non-musical programming. There were multiple organizations like the Ally Coalition and Calling All Crows hosting onsite workshops that made space for LGBTQ+ people to find security and comfort. “It’s beautiful what is happening with our community,” Webert says. “But we have to de-platform it being all about the artists, because they aren’t the only ones that make it like this. We all do.” LET’S GET ONE thing straight: Celebrity worship is not unique to the queer community. Parasocial behavior is older than Beatlemania, and every artist from beloved indie acts like Mitski to Ms. Americana herself has had to deal with stalkers, harassment, and countless other unwanted advances from their stans. That said, throughout history, LGBTQ+ people have found special refuge in the stars who proudly accepted us — pauses to salute Cher — so it’s understandable that queer fan culture has intensified as the number of actual queer artists, not just allies, multiplied over the past few years. It’s been obvious to anyone paying attention, especially the artists. “Gay people are lethal,” declares Reneé Rapp, the delightfully uncensored lesbian pop star with a knack for yapping and a booming, Broadway-trained voice. She gathers her long blonde hair in both her hands and tosses it behind her shoulders like she’s in a Pantene Pro-V commercial. “It’s a very specific kind of intensity.” Rapp has just returned from a series of performances in Europe, and we’re talking over Zoom about the signs people hold up at her shows. It’s been a hot topic of conversation in the comments section of her fans’ TikTok videos . She’s seen everything from the standard, objectifying “Show me your tits” to the more original but equally vulgar and offensive “Reneé Rapp, give me a pap.” Like several other queer Gen Z artists, Rapp isn’t afraid to call out the handful of fans she says take things too far. Speaking about the “show me your tits” signs, Rapp goes off at a rapid clip: “You do realize that’s super weird, right? Like, that’s just harassment.” Her voice has the same sharp tone and slight Valley Girl intonation as the Mean Girl she famously played (“So you agree. You think you’re really pretty”), but whereas Regina George’s edge is buried underneath passive-aggressive comments that make you wonder what she thinks of you, Rapp’s is right there on the surface telling you you’re a clown. She speaks in long, obscenity-laced ribbons about how wonderful and intense the sapphic pop moment has been. On the one hand, it’s all she ever wanted. It’s her dream come true. She feels so lucky that she and her friends get to be at the forefront of culture when historically that hasn’t always been true for lesbians. She says it feels ten times bigger than her. Also, she just loves seeing straight people squirm: “They don’t know what to do! They’re all, like, having a panic attack,” Rapp says. It’s clear that she is just as thrilled as her fans are about mainstream queer culture. On the other hand, she didn’t get into this business to be harassed. Returning to the subject of the signs, Rapp says, “I wish that you could read that sign back from my point of view and understand how fucking weird and derogatory that is.” I listen and nod along as she continues thinking it through aloud: “But you won’t and you never will. But I don’t know. I have empathy that it’s really exciting. Frankly, it’s really fucking exciting for me, too. Now, does that mean I would ever verbally harass someone because I was so excited? No. And people love to do that shit.” Rapp’s reflection grows even more searing when she starts to unpack the strange combination of empathy and frustration she feels when the harassment comes specifically from gay women. There’s a part of her that gets it. She’d be “tweaking” too if she saw someone like DeJ Loaf when she was a kid. She also understands how unfair the tendency to hold LGBTQ+ people to a higher standard is, and how ridiculous it is that we have such comparatively low expectations for men. Still, she says, it cuts deeper when it comes from her community. “You’re just used to men being disappointing,” Rapp says. “I’m doubly disappointed if it’s a girl.” Being a queer person during the sapphic pop moment? Outstanding. Being one of the sapphic pop stars at its center? Evidently extremely complicated. For all her racing thoughts, Rapp summarizes her experience with an apt metaphor: “At the nucleus, it’s lit. All the other things around it are fucking crazy.” EVERY ARTIST I SPOKE TO for this article understands just how important representation is. Having a group like Tegan and Sara to look up to when they were kids mattered a great deal to Muna, so it means the world to them to be able to do it for kids today. “We’ve had two songs, ‘I Know a Place’ and ‘Silk Chiffon,’ that have been claimed by the queer community, and I’m absolutely addicted to that feeling,” Gavin says. “I want to do it again and again.” At the same time, the tension is real for queer artists who want to focus on their music, but find their identity constantly tied to their work. “It’s hard because our identity is so important to who we are and to our politics,” Maskin says — but having to constantly worry whether it will limit or define their success is exhausting. “It should just be about the fucking music,” she adds, “but with where we’re at with this conservative backlash, we aren’t given the opportunity to just be artists.” That’s because the kids today need their queer heroes more than ever, even if, as Bird tells me, it was never her intention to take on that role. Muna is hardly the only band to express hesitation about discussing their identity publicly. Several LGBTQ+ artists have said the topic is difficult to navigate for a variety of reasons. Some, like Eilish and Roan, are still exploring and coming to terms with various facets of their identity — a process that, Eilish wisely pointed out in this very publication , can take a lifetime. Roan made a similar point when she spoke to Rolling Stone in October, saying she still feels uncomfortable being gay sometimes. “I don’t get why this is such an issue for me,” Roan said. I do. Internalized homophobia casts a long shadow, and acceptance, much like queerness itself, is a spectrum. A lot of us spend our lives pinballing around that spectrum, making it difficult to describe our identity at any given moment. Most days I move through the world blissfully at peace with my lesbianism, but sometimes, like when I’m back in the South, my confidence collapses and shame creeps in. Typically, I feel at home within my community, but every so often I wonder if I’m an interloper, a “bad gay,” like Arthur Less . It’s hard enough to think and talk about your sexuality with yourself. It’s even more difficult to do with your loved ones, no matter how supportive they are. But talking about it with the public? Are you high? No wonder Sara Quin says the most stressful part of Tegan and Sara’s ”Closer”-era fame was how the media anointed them spokespeople for the queer community. She specifically remembers feeling bemused by the countless times they were asked to name their “favorite 20 Canadian LGBTQ+ artists”: “Who the fuck knows who’s even gay?” She laughs in exasperation. “You should see the music I listen to. I don’t even know if the people have faces, let alone what their sexuality is.” What is clear is that for many members of this generation of out and proud mainstream queer artists, visibility is both a blessing and a curse. Making matters more difficult is the lack of consensus among the lesbian and sapphic communities about what our relationship to mainstream culture should look like. Do we want our stars to assimilate or resist? Should they be radical or wholesome? Tops or bottoms? What about switches? Hopefully these questions taper off as the amount and diversity of mainstream queer artists increases, but we’re not there yet. As a result, new LGBTQ+ artists or media that break through often draw criticism for how they portray queerness. What makes one person feel seen, may harm another. None of this is the art or artist’s fault, but that doesn’t stop strangers on the internet from blaming them. Boygenius’ Lucy Dacus touched on this when she told Teen Vogue that “prejudice towards gay people comes from all sides, including gay people.” Her comment underscores the reality of identity policing, an experience that Rapp also knows a thing or two about. Reflecting on the “bisexual erasure” internet discourse sparked by her coming out as a lesbian back in January on Saturday Night Live , she fires back: “I really care about gay people, but I really don’t give a fuck what anybody thinks about me referring to myself as a lesbian at this time. I just don’t care.” But for every artist like Rapp, who unapologetically embraces the chaos of representation, there are just as many who’d rather not be labeled, precisely because of the scrutiny it invites — from both within and outside the LGBTQ+ community. “Identifiers can be cages or keys,” says Lizzy Plapinger, a multimedia artist, the former frontwoman of the indie-pop duo MS MR and a current curation and strategy advisor for All Things Go. As a queer woman, Goldsmith was just as delighted as the rest of us to experience the festival’s palpable sapphic vibes and safe-space environment. At the same time, she understands how things might feel different for the artists. She likens the experience of being labeled a “lesbian pop artist” to being referred to as a “female musician” as opposed to just a musician. “You don’t want to be painted as this one thing, because marketing-wise that closes off a world of audience,” Goldsmith says. The conversation is even more complicated for butch and transmasc individuals and people of color. Lauron Jockwig Kehrer, a musicology professor at Western Michigan University and author of Queer Voices in Hip Hop: Cultures, Communities, and Contemporary Performance , says that many queer artists of color resist labels that might limit them musically or personally — particularly terms like “lesbian” and “sapphic,” which are often coded as white . And for all the collective joy in the rise of artists like Roan and Rapp, you can’t escape the blinding whiteness of sapphic pop’s supposed golden era. Kehrer makes the point that this too is a continuation of the previous era when, with the exception of Tracy Chapman, all of the successful mainstream lesbian artists were white. “It’s complicated because yes, we’re having this moment of increased mainstream visibility, which is lovely,” Kehrer explains, “but we’re seeing the same patterns of white, traditionally attractive, largely femme gender presentation women getting more of the attention.” According to Kehrer, the barriers to major, zeitgeist-dominating success remain higher for artists like Janelle Monáe and Kehlani because Black queer genders are not always seen as marketable to an industry that thrives on replicating what’s already worked — read: white, cis, femme, and palatable. (Kehlani and Janelle Monáe both declined to comment for this story.) Towa Bird, who is Filipino and British, has experienced some of what Kehrer describes. “I do see the way that doors open for my white peers and the way they remain shut for people who look either like me or people who are not white.” Her observation is a stark reminder that the past year hasn’t changed everything for every artist equally. The roadblocks for queer people of color remain firmly in place. Unfortunately, the only ones who can do something about that are the gatekeepers, and as Rapp, blunt as always, points out, “The people at the top are still fucking cis white dudes. That didn’t magically change over the course of this last summer. Those bitches are still there.” Whether that shifts depends on where the sapphic pop moment goes from here. Rapp hopes that it “continues to filter through to other lesbian pop girlies who are not white who have been doing this shit before us.” Towa Bird isn’t anticipating regression. Sara Quin says there’s a good chance things will ebb and flow depending on the audience and cultural temperature. Tegan Quin thinks this year has created “an industry that understands that there is a huge audience for queer-leaning pop music.” Maybe mainstream artists will get queerer and butcher and more diverse. A gay girl can dream, can’t she? Or maybe sapphic pop’s golden era will sunset, and we will go back to mostly having straight white femme girlie pops at the top for a while. Nobody can predict the future, except Muna of course — and they say they sense a backlash coming. Gavin says she’s seen dialogue online debating if sapphic pop is overpopulated. McPherson knows of a few projects in the music industry and Hollywood that, they say, aren’t getting funded because people are wary of producing more queer storylines in Trump’s America. Maskin has a theory of her own: “Men are afraid everybody’s gonna just be fucking — which I feel like more and more of them are!” (A few weeks later, that idea feels like a sadly prescient commentary on the whiplash-inducing transition from sapphic pop summer to 2024’s election results.) Backlash or not, Muna are prepared to meet the moment. For them, success isn’t about staying in the spotlight but sustaining a career on their own terms. They want the rights to be able to live the lives they want and the financial security to create meaningful art, and they want that for “all the homies,” as Gavin puts it. That’s pretty much it. “The thing that I love so much about lesbians is that we’re good at community building,” Gavin says. She, McPherson, and Maskin have been around long enough to know that trends come and go, but community? Community lasts forever. So what does it matter if the mainstream structures that have begun to welcome us temporarily rescind our membership? As Sara Quin says, “We have always existed. We will always exist.” And the young queer fans will always have their music — even if they sometimes have to search harder to find it. It will be there for them.By SHAWN CHEN NEW YORK (AP) — It’s time for the holidays, which means robust family conversations and seemingly never-ending courses of food. But for the more tech-savvy among us, the journey home could also mean we’ll be called on to provide a backlog of tech support to parents, grandparents and other family members. And with generative AI being used to supercharge some major cyber scams this year, it’s also a good time to teach and not just fix. Here are some tips on how to manage your tech encounters this holiday season : Set devices up for automatic updates Whether it’s Windows , macOS , iOS or Android , simply keeping your operating system and apps up-to-date will help protect your family’s computers and devices against a surprising number of security threats, such as malware, viruses and exploits. Most operating systems, especially those for mobile devices and their app stores, typically have auto-updates turned on by default. Be sure to double-check the device to make sure it has enough storage space to carry out the update. (More on this below.) Keeping apps updated may also reduce the number of “Why isn’t this app working?” type of questions from your relatives. Freeing up storage space Chances are someone in your family is going to have a completely full mobile device. So full, in fact, that they can no longer update their phone or tablet without having to purge something first. There are many approaches to freeing up space. Here are a few you can easily take without having to triage data or apps. — Use the cloud to back up media: iPhone users can free up space occupied by songs and pictures by storing them on iCloud . Android users can use the Google Photos app to back up and store their photos on their user space. — Clear browsing data: Each major browser has an option to clear its data cache — cookies, search and download histories, autofill forms, site settings, sign-in data and so on. Over time, these bits take up a significant amount of storage space on mobile devices and home computers. So cleaning caches out periodically helps free up space and, in some cases, improves system performance. What’s my password? According to some admittedly unscientific studies, the average person has hundreds of passwords. That’s a lot to remember. So as you help your relatives reset some of theirs, you may be tempted to recycle some to keep things simple for them. But that’s one of the bad password habits that cybersecurity experts warn against. Instead, try introducing your forgetful family member to a password manager . They’re useful tools for simplifying and keeping track of logins. And if you want to impress a more tech-savvy cousin or auntie, you could suggest switching to a more secure digital authentication method: passkeys . Educate your loved ones about the latest scams As scammers find new ways to steal money and personal information, you and your family should be more vigilant about who to trust. Artificial intelligence and other technologies are giving bad actors craftier tools to work with online. Related Articles National News | The next census will gather more racial, ethnic information National News | As data centers proliferate, conflict with local communities follows National News | NASA’s stuck astronauts hit 6 months in space. Just 2 more to go National News | GivingTuesday estimates $3.6B was donated this year, an increase from 2023 National News | Digging resumes in the search for a woman in a Pennsylvania sinkhole A quick way to remember what to do when you think you’re getting scammed is to think about the three S’s, said Alissa Abdullah, also known as Dr. Jay, Mastercard’s deputy chief security officer “Stay suspicious, stop for a second (and think about it) and stay protected,” she said. Simply being aware of typical scams can help, experts say. Robocalls frequently target vulnerable individuals like seniors, people with disabilities, and people with debt. So-called romance scams target lonely and isolated individuals. Quiz scams target those who spend a lot of time on social media. Check our AP guide on the latest scams and what to do when you’re victimized. How fast is their WiFi? Home internet speeds are getting faster, so you want to make sure your family members are getting a high-speed connection if they’ve paid for one. Run a broadband speed test on your home network if they’re still rocking an aging modem and router.Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of Biden's pardon of his son Hunter, poll finds

Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of Biden's pardon of his son Hunter, poll finds

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Home Franchise Concepts' Leading Window Covering Brand Promotes and Expands Roles for Veteran Team Members to Drive Collaboration, Growth and Innovation IRVINE, Calif. , Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Budget Blinds, a leader in window coverings, today announced significant changes to its executive leadership team, positioning the company for continued success and industry disruption. Effective immediately, the brand has promoted Tracy Christman to Chief Operating Officer; and expanded roles for Amy Campbell to Vice President of Marketing, Product Design & Strategy; and Nicholas (Nick) Petropoulos as Director of Information Technologies. As part of Home Franchise Concepts' family of brands, these executive changes reflect the leading franchise platform's commitment to setting industry standards and laying the groundwork for building exponential future growth opportunities. Home Franchise Concepts, a subsidiary of JM Family Enterprises, places an emphasis on strategic leadership development to continue positioning its brands as industry front-runners. Budget Blinds' restructuring aligns with its strategic vision to become the most revered brand in the window coverings industry, while pursuing its primary objectives of operational excellence and innovative customer experience. "We're on the verge of transformational changes that will redefine Budget Blinds' presence in the industry," said Heather Nykolaychuk , President of Budget Blinds. "Earlier this year, we introduced a new business model for our franchisees to enhance brand reinvestment and elevated our strategic planning process to incorporate input from key stakeholders, including our franchisees, fostering greater buy-in and alignment to our long-range plan. As such, with their combined experience and expertise, we are confident that as Tracy, Amy and Nick take on their new or expanding roles, they will ignite our bold new direction, benefiting our associates, franchisees, vendor partners and customers." Additional details on Budget Blinds' leaders and their expanded roles are outlined below: These organizational changes, coupled with the brand's proactive engagement of key stakeholders, position Budget Blinds for improved performance and sustainable growth. The brand is confident that this new structure will foster collaboration and drive innovation, ensuring Budget Blinds remains the leader in window coverings while Home Franchise Concepts continues to reinvest in the brand for future growth. Budget Blinds looks forward to providing enhanced franchisee support, more efficient operations and the development of products and services that truly resonate with our consumers. "We strive to be regarded with deep respect and admiration by all who work and partner with us, through championing high-standards of child-safety, product quality and exceptional experiences rooted in trust and brand reputation," continued Nykolaychuk. "We're excited for the bright future we have ahead, and look forward to the lasting impact Tracy, Amy and Nick will bestow on the Budget Blinds legacy." With Budget Blinds contributing to the success of Home Franchise Concepts, the parent company plans to execute even more innovative strategies and remain ambitious in implementing new tactics to generate additional awareness and support for its family of brands. With new shifts in leadership, Home Franchise Concepts is focused on ongoing operational and technology improvements and is dedicated to enhancing the support for its family of brands. To learn more about Home Franchise Concepts and franchise development opportunities, visit homefranchiseconcepts.com . For more information specific to Budget Blinds, please visit budgetblinds.com . About Budget Blinds Budget Blinds ® is the largest window covering franchise in North America, offering custom blinds, shutters, shades, drapery, and more for residential and commercial consumers in more than 10,000 communities in the U.S. and Canada. Budget Blinds' over 900 business owners, and 1,500 locations, have dressed more than 25 million windows since the brand's founding in 1992. Budget Blinds is part of the Home Franchise Concepts family of home improvement goods and services brands. About Home Franchise Concepts Home Franchise Concepts® , is one of the world's largest franchising systems in the home improvement goods and services space, among the world's largest franchise businesses and a recognized leader in franchisee-franchisor relationships. Home Franchise Concepts' brands including AdvantaClean® , Aussie Pet Mobile®, Bath Tune-Up® , Budget Blinds® , Concrete Craft® , Kitchen Tune-Up®, Lightspeed RestorationTM , PremierGarage® , The Tailored Closet®, and Two Maids® are supported by more than 2,600 franchise territories in the U.S., and Canada . For information on franchise opportunities, please visit http://homefranchiseconcepts.com/ . About JM Family Enterprises JM Family Enterprises, Inc. was founded by automotive legend, Jim Moran in 1968. It is a privately held company with more than $20 billion in revenue and more than 5,000 associates. Rooted in automotive and united in its strong culture and core values, JM Family is in the business of helping other businesses succeed. As a long-term partner, it is invested in its companies, associates and its communities. Driven by exceptional performance, current subsidiaries are in the automotive, financial services, franchising and specialty distribution industries. Its family of companies includes: Southeast Toyota Distributors , JM&A Group , World Omni Financial Corp. (dba Southeast Toyota Finance ), JM Lexus , Home Franchise Concepts ®, Futura Title & Escrow and Rollease Acmeda . Interact with JM Family on Facebook , Instagram and LinkedIn . Contact: Margo Williams mwilliams@fish-consulting.com View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/budget-blinds-announces-strategic-changes-to-executive-leadership-team-302324283.html SOURCE Home Franchise ConceptsJackson scores 23, Purdue Fort Wayne beats Robert Morris 82-77

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Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of Biden's pardon of his son Hunter, poll finds