Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia
Enjoy this pic of Miss Texas 1988 on this lovely International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia TIMOTHY KENNEY

Here we go again: If you haven’t caught on yet, this COVID-19 thing is not going away anytime soon. It looks like COVID-19 cases are on the rise once again in Western Washington. The Washington State Hospital Assocation said 200 people in Washington were hospitalized with COVID-19 last month. Now, 450 people are in the hospital with the virus.

Let’s put that into perspective: If you take a look at the King County dashboards, we are in much better shape than in the beginning of the year. Still, positive trend lines for cases, hospitalization, and deaths are never fun, especially for people with vulnerabilities. Things might also be worse than they seem, at least for mild cases. Dr. Pavitra Roychoudhury, an acting instructor in the University of Washington virology lab, said that one in five PCR tests that UW Medicine processes are coming back positive right now, but many people test at home and do not report if they are not hospitalized.

Would you look at that.
Would you look at that. Public Health — Seattle & King County

King County Jail is not publishing reports on inmate suicides in its facility on schedule even though a 2021 law requires them to file such reports within 120 days of unexpected deaths in jail custody.

Vague proposal flops: Parents and board members pushed back against a proposal for Seattle schools to start either 10 minutes earlier or later to accommodate ongoing transportation issues caused by a nationwide bus driver shortage. Now, the district will probably look to cut even more bus routes. It already did away with almost 100 out 600 total routes.

Why do parents think they own their children? Last night, Marysville School Board members pondered a particularly unhinged policy that would require students to acquire parental permission to join afterschool clubs. Basically, the board was okay with forcing LGBTQ kids to miss out on opportunities to build support networks by making them tell their parents about it, potentially outing them and putting them in danger. Bro, when I was 14, I was doing Secret Santa with the other queer kids who were afraid of their Republican parents. You can't stop this. This policy could also out gamers and other nerds who want to do things like Dungeons & Dragons club, which would be bad, too. Anyway, the homophobic (and perhaps anti-gamer) school board backed off after much public pushback.

All this on IDAHOBIT? Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia to those who celebrate – and you better celebrate.

1984: Today the Seattle City Council will vote on an ordinance that accepts the Seattle Police Department’s 2021 surveillance impact report and approves the use of the department's Audio Recording System.

Rich guy resigns because he potentially sucks tremendously: Yesterday, Clay Siegall, the cofounder and CEO of Seagan, Washington’s largest biotech firm, resigned in the wake of allegations of domestic violence. Siegall, the state’s highest paid CEO, won’t leave the company empty-handed. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he’ll receive a severance package that includes 1.5 times his annual salary and bonus. The Associated Press reported that salary to be around $16.5 million in 2020.

Get off your ass and piss in the milkshake. It seems like nobody wants to piss in the milkshake anymore: A manager at an Arby’s in Vancouver, Washington got accused of urinating in the restaurant's milkshake mix. If you had a milkshake from this Arby’s in the last year, the cops want to hear from you. This situation puts potential, unsuspected piss drinkers in a bit of a conundrum: Rat on him, or abolition for milkshake piss guy? Does jail make us safer from piss in the milkshake?

Don’t draw swastikas on people’s campaign signs: Someone defaced Washington State Representative April Berg's (D-44) campaign sign with anti-semitic graffiti. Fuck right off with that shit, you little freak.

TikTok famous: Eighth Generation, a Native-run art and lifestyle brand just hit over 1 million views on its TikTok account where it helps educate a following of nearly 30,000 about cultural appropriation and how to ethically purchase cultural art.

Wine, but make it sustainable: The wine snobs would have it one way and one way only for wine packaging for a very, very long time. Now, wineries are trying to adapt to more sustainable packing, Crosscut reported.

Flu vs. COVID-19: An Epic Showdown: If you ever wondered whether your symptoms are from the latest strain of the deadly COVID-19 virus or the regular, old deadly flu, here’s a new test that can help you test for both!

Yo, Starbucks and Amazon will pay the travel expenses for its U.S. employees to access abortion. Cool. Now let them unionize.

Also, did y’all see eyebrow icon Cara Delevinge being a little silly goof at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards? The girl is obsessed with Megan Thee Stallion and it got weird.

Also, I bought concert tickets yesterday, so I feel like I actually have a song to put at the end of this thing lol: Ethel Cain. You're welcome.