Don't Eat it, Taylor
Boric Acid Suppositories Go in Your Vagina
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s strictest anti-gay laws last week despite cries from Western governments, human rights groups, and even Ted Cruz who called the law “horrific & wrong.” (We know things are really bad when we all agree with Ted.) Same-sex behavior was already illegal in Uganda—as it is in 30 African nations—but this new law ups the penalties to life in prison and, in some cases, death.
Under the new law, attempting to have same-sex relations can lead to 10 years in prison, and engaging in gay sex carries a life sentence. The law also defines “aggravated homosexuality” as same-sex relations involving HIV-positive people, children, or other vulnerable people. Anyone convicted of attempted “aggravated homosexuality” can be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison, and those who are convicted of actually doing it can be sentenced to death.
When the bill was initially passed by the parliament, it included language that suggested even identifying as LGBTQ+ would be illegal. Under international pressure, lawmakers revised that language but left in all of the punishments for behavior.
Uganda is religiously conservative, but a lot of its anti-gay rhetoric was born in the USA. OpenDemocracy, an independent news site in the UK, released a report in 2020 that found that over 20 American religious organizations had spent $54 million advocating against LGBTQ rights, safe abortion, access to contraceptives, and comprehensive sex education in Africa since 2007. Nearly half of that was spent in Uganda, and some of it was spent promoting the concept of ex-gays and conversion therapy. (This concept has lost steam here since most of its founders/supporters admitted—sometimes after being caught—that that they were still very gay.)
The rest of the rhetoric in Uganda is also uniquely American. In 2014, Frank Mugisha, director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a leading LGBTQ rights organization, pointed out that arguments about the “gay agenda” or fears of “recruiting people to homosexuality” were not part of the country’s dialogue until 2009 when U.S. evangelical pastor Scott Lively and a group of American showed up to spew hate. In his speeches, Lively called homosexuality a “disease” that was being imported from the West and warned Ugandans that it could infect their children.
Lively is admittedly on the fringe of the conservative anti-gay movement here in the United States, as he first gained notice in the 1990s with his theories that Hitler and the Nazis were all gay, and it was their shared sexual orientation that caused them to kill six million Jews and bomb the shit out of Europe (or something like that). Yet he was still able to find an audience abroad and spread his dangerous ideas.
As Mugisha put it, “Ugandans have been radicalized into hatred for LGBTQ persons.” Fatma Karume, a Tanzanian activist, added that governments in Africa are looking for scapegoats to draw attention away from the economic crises in the area. She told the Agence France-Presse, “They want to use this minority group to distract people.”
In a month of festivals, parades, and rainbow everything, it would be easy to pretend that this is far more extreme than anything that could happen here at home, but it’s not. Anti-gay forces here are looking for scapegoats and relying on rhetoric that dehumanizes LGBTQ+ people by calling them “groomers” and “pedophiles.” GOP lawmakers across the country have no substantive policies to offer their constituents except hatred of others, so they’ve outlawed drag queens, pulled books, and silenced teachers all in the name of saving the children.
There have been over 530 anti-trans bills introduced this year, and 18 states now ban gender-affirming care for trans youth and some even for adults. Just like the 20 groups who spent millions in Africa, these state laws are based on a multi-million dollar behind-the-scenes campaign spearheaded by groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the Liberty Counsel, and the American Principles Project.
Let’s not forget that there are criminal penalties involved in many of these hate-filled laws. Alabama's new law makes it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for anyone to “engage in or cause” a transgender minor to receive gender affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgical intervention. Arkansas’s law means that public librarians, school librarians, and teachers face up to six years in prison or a $10,000 fine if they distribute obscene or harmful texts (the book kind, not the unwanted digital picture of their junk kind). Tennessee’s drag ban considers a first offense (of wearing a dress and glitter eyeshadow when you also have a penis) a misdemeanor, but all subsequent offenses (possibly those that add feather boas) would be felonies.
The constitutionality of many of these laws is being challenged, and some are on at least temporary hold. The drag queen law was just struck down by a U.S. District Judge who ruled on Friday that the law was “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad” and that it encouraged “discriminatory enforcement.” But there’s a long way and a lot of Trump-appointed judges for these rulings to go through before they stick, and we can’t rely on this Supreme Court to be on the side of any minority. When they threw women under the bus last year by overturning Roe vs. Wade, Clarence Thomas applauded and warned that Lawrence v. Texas—the case that said states couldn’t criminalize homosexual behavior—could be next.
There are many LGBTQ+ advocates and organizers who know far better than I do how to fight this, but I wanted to use this opportunity—the overlapping of Pride Month and the worst anti-gay law in the world—to remind us all to stay vigilant. Now is not the time to fall back on the old that-would-never-happen-here security blanket. It is happening here.
Bye Bye Bible; Utah Parent Gets the Good Book Banned
In addition to going after real porn (and turning off Pornhub in the process), the Utah legislature passed a law that made it easier to declare books pornography and remove them from schools. Under the new law, books like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe have been thrown out. In March, a parent in the Davis School District decided that there was another well-known book not fit for school library shelves: the Bible. Yes, that bible. The King James version.
The parent argued that the good book contained “incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide.” Their complaint went on to say, “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”
It’s a good point. Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227 specifically defines a “description or depiction of illicit sex or sexual immorality" as anything that shows:
(i) human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal;
(ii) acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse, or sodomy;
(iii) fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals or pubic region; or (iv) fondling or other erotic touching of the human buttock or female breast
I admit that I haven’t read most of the Bible, but even I know all of that stuff is in there. A quick Google search suggests that in Genesis 16, Abraham sleeps with his slave, Hagar, to try to get her pregnant instead of his wife Sarah. In Genesis 19 the men of Sodom attempt to gang rape Lot’s male guests but Lot offers up his virgin daughters instead. Then, Lot’s own daughters get him drunk and sleep with him. It sounds like a real page turner.
The committee charged with reviewing books apparently agreed that this met the law’s criteria for being excluded from elementary schools and middle schools but voted to keep the book on the shelf in high schools. Davis is the state's second largest public school system in the state with nearly 74,000 students and 95 schools, but it didn’t have a lot of copies of the Bible to begin with. A spokesperson said it was being removed from six or eight libraries in the district right away though few students might notice since school is out until mid-August.
In truth, the parent who filed the grievance didn’t really care how many schools had copies of the Old or New Testaments or if they stayed on the shelf. Their goal was to expose the law as a farce. The complaint said: "I thank the Utah Legislature and Utah Parents United for making this bad faith process so much easier and way more efficient. Now we can all ban books and you don’t even need to read them or be accurate about it. Heck, you don’t even need to see the book!"
The committee’s decision is being challenged by another district parent who is arguing that it is appropriate for students of all ages. That challenge is going to be heard at a public meeting where hypocrisy will undoubtedly run rampant as opponents explain why incest and rape in the Bible is different than incest and rape in award-winning modern literature.
They say turnaround is fair play, and this one was fun to watch, but I would much rather have the Bible on the shelf next to Tony Morrison, Maia Kobabe, Juno Dawson, and Sherman Alexi (all authors on 2022’s most banned list) than have kids lose access to any books.
The fabulous thing about books is that there are so many to choose from, no one needs to read something they don’t have an interest in or think is inappropriate. That doesn’t give them license to prevent others from reading it, however. I have no plans to read the Bible, but if that’s what you want, “gey guzenteheit” or “go in good health” as my Bubbie would say. (And I’m pretty sure she read the Bible, the Old Testament at least.)
Don’t Eat it Taylor: Boric Acid Suppositories Go in Your Vagina
A few weeks ago, we discussed the tablet inside a pregnancy test and debunked a TikToker named Tyler’s theory that this was a secret stash of Emergency Contraception. Today, we have to give a TikToker (who is sadly not named Taylor) similar “don’t eat it” advice about boric acid suppositories meant for the vagina—though in fairness, having eaten it and been forced to throw it up, she may have learned that lesson.
The young woman who goes by the handle @notburnttoasthehe isn’t hawking boric acid suppositories on TikTok (though many others are), but she did take it and offers a cautionary tale to her followers about reading directions carefully. Apparently, four days into treating herself with boric acid (presumably for a yeast infection), a friend saw her swallow one of the “capsules” and warned her that she was putting it in the wrong hole.
Boric acid suppositories are marketed as a treatment for yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis (BV), but they are not meant to be taken orally. Instead, suppositories are designed to be inserted into the vagina, rectum, or urethra (which is the very small where pee comes out, so, ouch). They are usually made out of glycerin or some other ingredient that melts at body temperature, releasing the active ingredient/medication which can then be absorbed into the body. In this case, @notburnttoasthehe was supposed to put the capsule-shaped suppository into her vagina.
Whether this works to solve a yeast infection is questionable at best. Your vagina is its own delicately balanced microbiome. A yeast infection represents an overgrowth of fungus that is already there, and BV is an overgrowth of some of the naturally occurring bacteria. Antifungals, some of which also come as suppositories, tend to be the treatment of choice for yeast while BV is often treated with antimicrobials or antibiotics (which we all know can in turn cause a yeast infection, ugh the vicious cycle).
Boric acid suppositories are being marketed as a “more natural” alternative to these treatments. Users are told to insert a suppository into their vagina every night for two weeks. Those who have recurrent infections are told to use the suppositories twice a week for six months after initial treatment. There is some research to suggest that they work as well as or almost as well as other treatments for yeast infections, but there is very little research on this as a BV treatment.
Still, this treatment has never been approved by the FDA, and most experts don’t recommend it. Boric acid is a caustic chemical that can be irritating to skin, and the skin in the vagina is super delicate. The risks include itching and burning of the vaginal skin and kidney issues if too much of the chemical is absorbed.
I’m gonna stick with good old-fashioned Diflucan, but if you choose the boric acid route, please know that this chemical is never ingestible. It’s a poison used as an insecticide. In fact, my first experience with it was when my Bubbie (she keeps popping up this week) handed me a little vial of powder and told me to sprinkle it all around the edge of the small, ant-ridden cabin I was sharing with friends. It was brilliant at first—for weeks, we didn’t see a single ant—but it must have suddenly lost its potency because we came home one day and the floor was covered by so many ants it looked like it was moving. Decades later, I cannot get that image out of my head.
After learning of her mistake, @notburnttoasthehe explained that she called her sister who is, and I quote, a “medical whatever.” Her sister suggested she force herself to throw up because boric acid is actually poison. She ended up being fine but posted to warn everyone else not eat it.
That is an important public service announcement that many medical whatevers have not thought to make. Thank you not-Taylor.