Mayor stands firm despite backlash after he mocked androgynous lesbian 'creature'



A Long Island mayor is standing firm despite calls for his resignation after he ridiculed a local activist online.

The Sag Harbor Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Tuesday to formally request that Tom Gardella resign as mayor of his Long Island village. Gardella said he would participate in social media and anti-harassment training but that he wouldn't think of resigning.

'Church man. He's a Christian.'

"I will not resign from the office of mayor," said Gardella, reported the Sag Harbor Express. "That is not going to happen. You have me confused with somebody else. I’m not the guy that runs from a crisis. I’m the guy that runs into it."

While the board members provided other justifications for Gardella's ouster, their ire centers on a comment the mayor left on an Instagram post last month.

Animal rights activist Rebecca Chavez shared a video on March 6 in which she grooves to a song with a dog in her lap while her masculine lesbian lover dances in the background.

Gardella — a Sag Harbor resident for over 30 years who runs a plumbing company, served as chief of the local fire department, and served in military intelligence during the Cold War — reportedly commented, "What's that thing in the background? A guy? A girl? Some creature?"

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ENGIN GUNEYSU/AFP/Getty Images

Chavez wasted no time tracking down Gardella and making a stink, noting in a video, "Church man. He's a Christian. And a mayor?!"

Chavez's characterization of Gardella as a "church man" may be the result of her superficial reading of an event posting advertising a talk the mayor gave at "The Church," a creative center on Long Island.

The Texas-based lesbian, committed to giving a "Master Class in pettiness and accountability," stated, "I would expect an elected official and Christian man like yourself to behave better."

Chavez then directed her followers to "send him a few emails to remind him that his behavior is unbecoming of a public servant."

Deputy Mayor Edward Haye noted during a village board meeting last month, "We were made aware on March 9, yesterday, of a social media comment attributed to Mayor Gardella that disparaged members of the LGBT community."

"Sag Harbor has long prided itself being a welcoming and a tolerant village, and those values deeply matter to us both as members of the village board and as residents," continued Haye. "While the comment appears to have been made on a personal social media account, it has understandably caused concern and hurt within our community."

Gardella apologized, but that evidently wasn't enough for the activist.

"They always make an apology after the fact. So for me, his apology is not genuine," Chavez told News 12 Westchester, revealing an apparent confusion about how apologies work.

The mayor's thin-skinned peers had the village launch an investigation into his comment.

The investigation culminated in a report that accused the mayor of violating the village government's social media policy and anti-harassment policy and claimed that his 12-word comment was "disruptive to operations, negatively impacted members of the community, and created the false impression that village leadership does not support or tolerate diversity," reported the Express.

On the basis of the report, the board voted to censure the mayor.

"I’m not going to resign as mayor of this village," Gardella, who was first elected in 2023, reiterated on Tuesday. "I would also say that I never sought to be mayor of this village. The residents of this village came to me and asked me to lead them. And I hope I can lead us out of this mess and at some point be able to work together with the board."

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'Non-binary' fired after hanging 'trans' flag at Yosemite sues Trump administration



A probationary wildlife biologist for Yosemite National Park who identifies as "non-binary" covered the side of El Capitan with a gargantuan trans-activist flag last year to protest the Trump administration's reality-affirming policies regarding gender.

Shannon Joslin, a female resident of El Portal, California, found out the hard way that actions have consequences — and was fired.

'Demonstrating without a permit outside of designated First Amendment areas detracts from the visitor experience.'

The LGBT activist filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, demanding her job back and claiming that the Department of the Interior violated her First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

The protest

Joslin and several other climbers rigged a 55'x35' trans activist flag roughly one-third of the way up El Capitan on May 20, 2025, where it flapped for hours.

According to her complaint, Joslin came up with the idea to rig a flag on El Capitan as a "statement in support of trans people," then worked over the course of multiple weeks with other activists to "stake out the technical logistics of fixing a sizable flag to the rock face."

In the corresponding press release where she boasted about the protest, Joslin indicated that those responsible were "social workers, public servants, parents, and neighbors."

She told Climbing.com, "Calling congressmen and writing representatives feels like yelling into the void. We have this f**king microphone that is El Cap."

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El Capitan. Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Wyn Riley, a drag queen who goes by "Pattie Gonia," was among the supporters of the protest. In a May 22, 2025, propaganda video featuring several clips of Joslin securing the flag, Riley said, "The Trump administration and transphobes would love to have you believe that being trans is unnatural."

"Call it a protest; call it a celebration," continued Riley. "We are bringing elevation to liberation."

The complaint alleges that Joslin was off-duty "at all times during the preparation for and placement and display of the trans pride flag."

The fallout

Documents show that Joslin received a notice of termination in late July indicating that she was out of a job effective Aug. 12, 2025.

The letter provided a reminder that the purpose of the two-year trial period that started for Joslin on Sept. 10, 2023, is to "determine whether newly appointed Federal employees are suitable for successful service in the areas of conduct and performance."

"During your trial period, you have failed to demonstrate acceptable conduct," continued the letter. "Specifically, on or about May 20, 2025, you participated in a small group demonstration in an area outside the designated protest and demonstration area without permit as required by 36 CFR 2.51 and thus circumvented rules applicable to all park visitors."

Neither the Department of the Interior nor the National Park Service would comment on the specifics of the relevant personnel actions.

However, they both shared a statement with Blaze News noting, "We take the protection of the park's resources and the experience of our visitors very seriously and will not tolerate violations of laws and regulations that impact those resources and experiences."

"Yosemite National Park was designated by Congress to highlight the beautiful natural and cultural features of the area," continued the statement. "No matter the cause, demonstrating without a permit outside of designated First Amendment areas detracts from the visitor experience and the protection of the park. To safeguard the protection of visitors, visitor experiences, and park resources, many demonstrations require a permit."

The lawsuit

Joslin's lawsuit, in which she is referred to with plural pronouns, complains about Trump's rebuff of gender ideology and reality-affirming policies; claims that Joslin has faced "medical, financial, personal, and professional harm" as the result of her termination; and alleges that the decision to fire her violated the "First Amendment by selectively targeting for retaliation specific forms of expression based on content and viewpoint."

The lawsuit — which lists the NPS, the Interior Department, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Attorney General Pam Bondi as defendants — also alleges that the National Park Service used a press release regarding the stunt from Joslin's protest group against her, suggesting that doing so was a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974.

The "non-binary" activist not only wants her old job back but damages and a declaratory judgment that "Defendants' collection and use of information about Dr. Joslin's protected First Amendment activity was unlawful."

Joanna Citron Day, one of Joslin’s attorneys, said in a release, "If Dr. Joslin had hung a flag the administration liked, they would be working at Yosemite today."

Regardless of the colors, Yosemite National Park maintains its prohibition for "any person or group to hang or otherwise affix to any natural or cultural feature, or display so as to cover any natural or cultural feature, any banner, flag, or sign larger than fifteen square feet (e.g., 5 feet x 3 feet)."

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'Rogue' Biden judge ignores biological truth, blocks Trump's common-sense passport policy



Gender ideologues' narrative about sex, identity, and the supposed benefits of medical transvestism has collapsed in recent years under the weight of comprehensive scientific studies. Polling shows the American public also majoritively rejects their core claims and policy aims.

With science and public opinion largely against them, gender ideologues now appear to be primarily fighting their war against common sense in the courts, where they are, for the most part, losing. Meddlesome U.S. district court judges are, however, doing their part to delay the final defeat of gender ideology, at least where the law and federal policy are concerned.

'Gender ideology is internally inconsistent.'

A day before the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Tennessee's ban on sex-change genital mutilations and sterilizing puberty blockers for minors, a Biden judge blocked the Trump administration from requiring passports to accurately reflect the holders' sex.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to Blaze News, "This is yet another attempt by a rogue judge to thwart President Trump's agenda and push radical gender ideology that defies biological truth."

"There are only two genders, there is no such thing as gender 'X,' and the president was given a mandate by the American people to restore common sense to the federal government," added Kelly.

RELATED: Trump claims another scalp in war on gender ideology: Children's Hospital LA to shutter child sex-change center

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order rejecting gender ideology and instructing the government to recognize only two sexes, male and female.

"'Gender ideology' replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true," Trump said in his order.

The president noted further that "gender ideology is internally inconsistent, in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body."

The president directed his secretaries of state and homeland security to ensure that government-issued identification documents, including passports and visas, were reality-affirming — as they had been until 2021, when the Biden administration began allowing people to choose their own sex marker as well as a third marker, "X," instead of an "M" or an "F" marker.

RELATED: The culture war isn’t a distraction — it’s the main front

Blaze Media Illustration

Several transvestites joined the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Covington & Burling LLP in a lawsuit over the passport policy earlier this year.

U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick granted them a preliminary injunction in April preventing the State Department's enforcement of Trump's Executive Order 14168 while the lawsuit played out — but only as it applied to six of the plaintiffs.

Kobick suggested that the plaintiffs' inability to extend their self-deception to their federal documents would make them more "likely to experience worsened gender dysphoria, anxiety, and psychological distress, and they will face a greater risk of experiencing harassment and violence."

The Massachusetts-based Biden judge expanded her injunction on Wednesday after the plaintiffs amended their complaint and moved to apply the preliminary injunction to other potentially affected gender-benders whom they wanted broadly to be certified as a class.

Adopting the language of gender ideologues, Kobick granted the plaintiffs class certification, meaning that the lawsuit can now apply to "people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to them under the Passport Policy and/or who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria," people who simply want their passport to indicate the wrong sex, and "all people who currently want, or in the future will want, a U.S. passport and wish to use an 'X' sex designation."

'The government has failed to meet this standard.'

"Even assuming a preliminary injunction inflicts some constitutional harm on the Executive Branch, such harm is the consequence of the State Department's adoption of a Passport Policy that likely violates the constitutional rights of thousands of Americans," wrote Kobick.

RELATED: Behind the rainbow curtain: Who is funding the trans agenda targeting kids?

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

"The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny," added the Biden judge. "That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard."

Li Nowlin-Sohl, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU's LGBTQ and HIV Project, called the ruling "a historic win in the fight against this administration's efforts to drive transgender people out of public life. The State Department’s policy is a baseless barrier for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans and denies them the dignity we all deserve."

When asked about the ruling, a State Department spokesperson told Blaze News that as a general matter, officials "do not comment on pending or ongoing litigation."

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'Gender identity crap': Colorado Dems kill debate on bill threatening custody of reality-affirming parents



Democrats in the Colorado legislature invoked House Rule 16 on Sunday to avoid debate ahead of a vote on a controversial new bill that would effectively classify "misgendering" and "deadnaming" as child abuse. The bill is now headed to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it is likely to pass.

Republican state Rep. Jarvis Caldwell, among those "robbed" of the opportunity to speak on behalf of their constituents with regard to House Bill 1312, noted in a video shared to X, "I believe they did this to silence us because they know how much negative attention this has been getting nationwide."

'If your child is confused about their gender identity, and you don't affirm that confusion, that delusion, then you are guilty.'

When Caldwell raised the matter of whether non-LGBT parent groups were consulted during a committee meeting last week, Democratic state Rep. Yara Zokaie said, "A well-stakeholdered bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups," reported Fox News Digital.

"We don't ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion," the radical added, securing applause from her fellow travelers.

"House Bill 1312 says that if your child is confused about their gender identity, and you don't affirm that confusion, that delusion, then you are guilty of child abuse and you can lose custody of your children," said Caldwell.

Blaze News previously reported that the Democratic legislation would classify "deadnaming or misgendering" as a form of "coercive control" that courts must consider when making child custody decisions.

"Misgendering" means using an individual's reality-based pronouns — "he" and "him" in reference to a boy, "she" and "her" in reference to a girl. "Deadnaming" is the practice of calling transvestites by their original names — for example, Brian for Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone or Tim for U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.).

'Help good candidates unseat these radical people.'

Under the legislation that passed the Colorado House Sunday in a party-line vote, "deadnaming and misgendering" would be both defined as discriminatory acts in the "Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act" and prohibited in most private businesses. Under the bill, local schools would not only be required to honor students' "chosen names" for any reason but would also be prohibited from enforcing sex-based dress codes.

"I wanted to say it is not me, it is not my constituents, it is not the people from my side of the aisle who are pushing this gender identity crap on the kids of Colorado. They are," continued Caldwell. "What they want to do with this bill is say that if they confuse your children and you don't affirm that confusion, they will take your child from you."

Caldwell implored his fellow Coloradans to reach out to their state senators as well as to their radical governor, Jared Polis, to let their opposition to the legislation be known. He noted elsewhere that to prevent the furtherance of this sort of cultural imperialism and erosion of parental rights, it will be essential to "help good candidates unseat these radical people."

'A cure for "deadnaming" isn't an emergency justifying late-bill status.'

The editorial board of the Denver Gazette blasted the Democratic bill on Sunday, stating, "This late-night concoction turns hyper-sensitivity into a crime and meddles in matters best left to common courtesy, families, and local school boards."

"Colorado lawmakers and courts have better things to do than police pronouns and dress codes. Our state's cratored [sic] roads need their attention," continued the board. "Our soaring crime and housing shortage cry for solutions. A cure for 'deadnaming' isn't an emergency justifying late-bill status."

In addition to indicating that the Democratic legislation would likely force its transvestite dress code mandate on religious elementary schools, the editorial board noted that the bill's "26 pages of jargon don't distinguish intent. Anyone making an accidental slip would break the law."

"This isn't about safety or civil rights," continued the board. "This is the far-left majority — much of it handpicked and appointed by Colorado's Democratic machine — dictating how people talk and bring up children."

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'No brainer': Utah becomes first state to ban rainbow flags in both schools and government buildings



LGBT activists' cultural imperialism may have reached its zenith during the Biden years when their "Progress Pride" flag was prominently displayed on the White House with American flags relegated to a secondary status on either side.

Now, with the country under different leadership, conservatives flexing more muscle legislatively, and key narratives crumbling, non-straight activists appear to be losing ground as signaled by legislation advanced in Utah and Idaho last week.

Months after the Trump administration announced that "only the United States of America flag is authorized to be flown or displayed at U.S. facilities, both domestic and abroad," Utah Republicans successfully passed legislation on Thursday banning the rainbow flag as well as other activist flags from all government buildings and schools.

Utah state Rep. Trevor Lee's (R) House Bill 77 prohibits state entities and employees from displaying a flag in or on the grounds of government property with a number of exceptions including Old Glory; an official Utah state flag; a historic version of the American or state flag; a municipal flag; a U.S. military flag; the National League of Families POW/MIA flag; a country flag; a tribal flag; an official university or public school flag; and an Olympic flag.

It appears that the only ways to lawfully get a rainbow flag into the classroom is to have it grafted onto an exempted flag, to accept the $500 fine for each day of noncompliance, to overturn the law, or to depict the flag by means other than an actual flag, such as on a lapel pin or a sticker, which activist groups routinely distribute to students.

The bill became law on Thursday without Republican Gov. Spencer Cox's signature.

"This was a no brainer bill to run," wrote Lee. "Tax payer funded entities shouldn't be promoting political agendas. This is a massive win for Utah."

'All this bill does is add more fuel to the fire.'

Cox, who vetoed six bills this year, indicated that he did not similarly veto HB 77 because Republicans would override him in the Utah House of Representatives, where they outnumber Democrats 61-14.

While acknowledging that the law "is neutral on the types of flags in question" — highlighting that MAGA flags are now similarly prohibited in schools and government buildings — Cox suggested that the ban was insufficient to eliminate "culture-war symbols in a place that should be apolitical," namely public schools.

"By simply requiring the removal of flags only, there is little preventing countless other displays — posters, signs, drawings, furniture — from entering the classroom," Cox wrote in a letter to state lawmakers, where he emphasized his love for the so-called LGBTQ community. "Furthermore, the bill is overly prescriptive on flags themselves. To those legislators who supported this bill, I'm sure it will not fix what you are trying to fix."

After suggesting that a better regulatory route for Republicans to depoliticize the classroom is the Utah State Board of Education, Cox claimed that "the bill goes too far when applied to local governments."

"All this bill does is add more fuel to the fire, and I suspect it will only ratchet up the creative use of political symbolism (for example: lighting used in place of flags)," added the governor.

'Fly flags that unite and don't divide.'

LGBT activists outside the state government similarly bemoaned the enactment of the flag law.

The Salt Lake City-based Utah Pride Center thanked Cox in a statement Friday, noting, "While we understand the complex political reality that this bill would likely have been passed regardless of the governor's decision, we are deeply saddened to see it move forward into law."

Troy Williams and Marina Lowe, the executive and policy directors of Equality Utah, said in a release that HB77 "sets a dangerous precedent."

Enraging a similar variety of activist, Idaho legislators passed legislation last week prohibiting government entities from flying flags besides the American flag and a handful of official flags, including those representing American military branches and government entities.

House Bill 96 passed the state House in landslide votes and now requires the signature of Republican Gov. Brad Little. Little signed a similar bill into law on March 19, which prohibits the display of unauthorized flags and banners that "promote political, religious, or ideological viewpoints" on public school property.

"The ultimate goal is for us to fly flags that unite and don't divide," said Idaho state Sen. Ben Toews (R), reported the Idaho Statesman.

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