Welcome to the weekly LGBTQ Nation News Quiz. We’ve kept you up-to-date on politics, current events, and news from the LGBTQ+ community all week. Now, this is your chance to look back on what happened.
We’ll be testing your knowledge with a series of questions taken from our headlines this past week. Try the quiz without looking up the answers or open another tab and use our search function to find the answers. (We won’t tell.)
See how well you followed the LGBTQ+ news!
LGBTQ Nation Weekly News Quiz for the week of July 31, 2023
Musician and LGBTQ+ ally Lizzo was accused of which of the following by her former dancers?
All of these
Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez accused Lizzo of various misconduct, including “thinly veiled” allusions to Davis’s weight, pressuring Davis to touch a nude nightclub performer, and "proselytizing" to dancers about her own Christian beliefs despite dancers' protests.
On Thursday, Lizzo publicly called the accusations “sensationalized stories” and said she never body-shamed anyone. She also said that she expected “hard work and high standards” from her dancers but that she never wanted to make anyone feel uncomfortable or undervalued.
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo is going to be the first out LGBTQ+ person to lead the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Who is she replacing?
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Last August, Fauci announced that he would be stepping down from his role as director of NIAID after 38 years of leading the federal agency. Fauci led the government’s response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and then the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, having served under seven U.S. presidents.
Dr. Marrazzo has conducted research on HIV/AIDS, gonnorrhea, and STIs among queer women. She is currently the head of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Division of Infectious Diseases.
Which recently released film is rumored to have included an out queer character before the studio got too nervous?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Conspiracy theories abound over claims that Paramount is trying to cover up the fact that the character of Splinter, a mutant rat, was supposed to be gay in the new film. A reviewer believes a romantic moment with another mutant was supposed to depict same-sex love, but the studio decided last minute to change the second mutant into a woman.
Most states' bans on gender-affirming care have been halted by federal judges, but a judge allowed such laws to be enforced in which two states?
Kentucky and Tennessee
Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided this week that Kentucky's gender-affirming ban could go into effect, saying that the medical consensus around the benefits of gender-affirming care for transgender people is "surely relevant" but "not dispositive."
Sutton issued a similar opinion last month for Tennessee's gender-affirming care ban, saying that the state legislature is better equipped to regulate "new medical treatments" than courts, even though the treatments in question have been around for a while and are accepted as the standard of care for trans youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
The new indictment against former President Donald Trump lists lawyer John Eastman as one of his co-conspirators in trying to overturn the 2020 election. What anti-LGBTQ+ group did Eastman once work for?
The National Organization for Marriage
Eastman served as chairman of the board for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group that opposes same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ civil rights.
Eastman became NOM’s board chairman in 2011. He has called homosexuality an indicator of “barbarism,” same-sex marriage “evil” and “despotic,” and claimed that the LGBTQ+ equality movement promotes pedophilia.
Who became the latest 2024 Republican presidential candidate to promise to ban trans people from openly serving in the military last weekend?
Mike Pence
Pence - who is believed to be the architect behind Donald Trump's transgender military ban - told reporters this past week that "having transgender personnel, I believe, erodes unit cohesion in a very unique way." He claimed, without evidence, that recruitment has been adversely affected since trans people were allowed to serve openly in the military since near the beginning of President Joe Biden's term.
Pence never served in the military himself.
Caitlyn Jenner called out a major Republican politician for their transphobia this week and faced backlash from hundreds of conservatives on Twitter. Who did she call out?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Jenner called out DeSantis for defending his wildly anti-LGBTQ+ campaign ad that brags that he passed legislation "that literally threatens trans existence." She asked him which bathroom she should use in Florida, a reference to the state's recently passed bathroom bill.
Many of her followers responded by calling her a man, and she later seemed apologetic for even asking.
“Hey folks… I see this has caused quite the stir,” she wrote. “I was ASKING which one the governor wanted me to use. I am not definitively stating I need to use the women’s. Your responses are loud and clear!"
Which coffee chain made conservatives angry this week for including a trans person in a mural on one of its vans?
Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee – the largest coffee chain in the U.K. – is standing by its decision to be inclusive, despite the fact that #boycottcostacoffee began trending on Twitter after a photo of the mural was posted.
Anti-trans conservatives accused the chain of supporting “mutilation," but the brand reaffirmed its commitment to celebrating gender diversity with this statement: “At Costa Coffee, we celebrate the diversity of our customers, team members, and partners. We want everyone that interacts with us to experience the inclusive environment that we create, to encourage people to feel welcomed, free and unashamedly proud to be themselves. The mural, in its entirety, showcases and celebrates inclusivity.”
A federal judge recently blocked a state's law that would criminally charge booksellers and librarians who provide LGBTQ+-inclusive materials to children. Which state's law was blocked?
Arkansas
The law was signed by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R). It was challenged in court by a coalition of several public libraries, the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Central Arkansas Library System, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The judge's decision called the law a form of censorship, a violation of Constitutional rights, and a law that wrongly maligns librarians.
A pair of gay dads won their case against Italy's ruling party after it used a photo of their family on a flyer to denigrate what?
Surrogacy
In 2014, an emotional photo went viral that captured the moment Frank Nelson and BJ Barone met their newborn son, Milo.
Two years later, the Brothers of Italy party (Fratelli d’Italia) - Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party - used the photo in an anti-surrogacy campaign. The ad declares: “He can never say Mom. The rights that need to be defended are those of the child.”
The Brothers of Italy party has been ordered to pay the equivalent of $10,000 U.S. to the Canadian couple.
