in insane local news, the 26 year old director of a rocky horror production was arrested for sending threatening messages to himself in order to get the play shut down bc he didn’t want to deal with cast drama www.mynbc5.com/article/rock...

VT musical director of planned 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' created fake threats, police say

The director of a planned production of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" admitted to sending himself threatening texts that eventually got the play canceled out of safety concerns.

mynbc5.com

Great article from @oriion.bsky.social with @19thnews.org that honed in on the wider implications of the CDC "rerouting" funds away from community health groups to state governments.

Orion Rummler@oriion.bsky.social · yesterday

Your community may be losing federal funds to fight HIV. The government is rerouting millions from frontline HIV prevention groups to state health agencies — which, experts say, can't get resources to high-risk groups as effectively. Read our full story here: 19thnews.org/2026/08/hiv-...

there ya have it

THIS! - First-time Prides in Ohio saw their hometowns in a new kaleidoscope of colors this year. ‘We opened up a safe space for at least one person to attend.’ ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/07/31/f... #LGBTQ #Ohio #Pride #LGBTQPride #PrideMonth

First-time Prides in Ohio saw their hometowns in a new kaleidoscope of colors this year

‘We opened up a safe space for at least one person to attend.’

thebuckeyeflame.com

man it's so cool how Cleveland's "newspaper of record" is going all-in on AI. it's extra cool how their AI disclosure is so inconsistent and hidden behind meaningless terms, so the average reader can't even figure out how much AI is used!

Lima residents, council members speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ billboards on the street and in city hall on Monday. Around 40 people attended a rally to protest against the billboards attacking nontraditional parents. ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social.

Lima residents, council members speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ billboards on the street and in city hall

Around 40 people attended a rally to protest against the billboards attacking nontraditional parents.

thebuckeyeflame.com

Anti-LGBTQ+ billboards pop up in rural Ohio. Communities are immediately pushing back. ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/07/23/o...

Anti-LGBTQ+ billboards pop up in rural Ohio. Communities are immediately pushing back.

‘These billboards don’t just attack LGBTQ+ families, they erase every Ohio kid whose home doesn’t fit a narrow, manufactured mold.’

thebuckeyeflame.com

Ohio middle school teacher launches effort to protect LGBTQ+ public school students from harmful laws and policies. Honesty for Mahoning Valley Education wants to activate communities to help stop ‘efforts to dismantle public education.' ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social

Ohio middle school teacher launches effort to protect LGBTQ+ public school students from harmful laws and policies

Honesty for Mahoning Valley Education wants to activate communities to help stop "efforts to dismantle public education."

thebuckeyeflame.com

this isn't going to be the only story to come out of these depositions

The Buckeye Flame@thebuckeyeflame.com · 3w ago

INCREDIBLE READ: Depositions from Ohio teacher’s lawsuit against district shed light on how ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ poster was targeted. Ohio school board president’s hunt for LGBTQ+ ‘ideology’ possibly began with a tip from a pastor convicted of sex crimes involving minors.

Amy Acton adds LGBTQ+ equality language to campaign platform following anti-transgender controversy. "All Ohioans deserve to be treated fairly and equally under the law. As governor, I am committed to standing up against discrimination and ensuring that every Ohioan."

Amy Acton adds LGBTQ+ equality language to campaign platform following anti-transgender controversy

‘All Ohioans deserve to be treated fairly and equally under the law. As governor, I am committed to standing up against discrimination and ensuring that every Ohioan’

thebuckeyeflame.com

bill bagel

kim@kimmymonte.bsky.social · 3w ago

your baseball pitcher name is your grandfather’s first name and the last thing you bought i’ll go first mine’s Dominic Sandals

PROGRESS! - Lorain, Ohio unanimously passes resolution supporting LGBTQ+ civil rights. An LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination ordinance could be hot on the resolution’s heels. ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/07/09/l...

Lorain, Ohio unanimously passes resolution supporting LGBTQ+ civil rights

An LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination ordinance could be hot on the resolution’s heels.

thebuckeyeflame.com

important context for this discussion

The Buckeye Flame@thebuckeyeflame.com · 4w ago

⭐ NEW SO GAY PODCAST EPISODE! ⭐ This News is So Gay (7/8/26): Chronicling Hyperlocal Efforts to Protect LGBTQ+ Lives. Featuring: @bjodway.com (The Buckeye Flame) & @divyakrthk.bsky.social (@queerkentucky.bsky.social). thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/07/08/t...

Ohio factory supervisor Aaron Jones is running to unseat anti-LGBTQ+ legislator Gary Click. When asked about his LGBTQ+ platform, Jones said he’s ‘running for everyone’ ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/07/01/a...

Ohio factory supervisor Aaron Jones is running to unseat anti-LGBTQ+ legislator Gary Click. Here’s what he told us.

When asked about his LGBTQ+ platform, Jones said he’s ‘running for everyone.'

thebuckeyeflame.com

New Ohio LGBTQ+ org offers free gender-affirming clothing and community. The Rainbow Society of Medina County’s MoE’s Closet opened last January and has already helped its queer neighbors. ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social. thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/06/29/m...

New Ohio LGBTQ+ org offers free gender-affirming clothing and community

The Rainbow Society of Medina County's MoE's Closet opened last January and has already helped its queer neighbors.

thebuckeyeflame.com

People Make Games traveled to Michigan to meet Jerry Gretzinger, an 84-year-old man, who's spent most of his life working away on a single, giant map to an imaginary world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8N...

The Man Who's Spent a Lifetime Making One, Giant Map

YouTube video by People Make Games

youtube.com

SO NEEDED! - How one LGBTQ+ organization is rebranding to connect and support rural Prides across Ohio. SPARC wants rural Prides to have the resources and support of urban Prides. ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/06/12/s...

How one LGBTQ+ organization is rebranding to connect and support rural Prides across Ohio

Newark Ohio Pride Coalition rebranded to SPARC to help rural Prides get started and persist.

thebuckeyeflame.com

why does the mayor of cleveland have a substack

Minnesota has unfortunately been the site had some of the most consequential news events of the last year, and the journalists at the MN Star Tribune stepped up enormously, even taking home a Pulitzer. Now they're about to go through another painful round of cuts. www.startribune.com/minnesota-st...

Minnesota Star Tribune cuts jobs and pursues nonprofit ownership structure

The decision to cut 65 jobs underscores the news industry’s ongoing challenges.

startribune.com

danah boyd recently argued that social media (as we knew it) is mostly dead; what we have now is parasocial media: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... I agree. Networked social media is disappearing, replaced by a new logic/structure of content creator, creator-centered community, & algorithm.

Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media - danah boyd, 2026

When practitioners used the term “social media” to describe the internet tools that emerged in the mid-aughts, they were giving a name to the kinds of platforms...

journals.sagepub.com

So glad I got to write about nerd shit again! This TTRPG honestly sounds rad as hell and I LOVE the art

The Buckeye Flame@thebuckeyeflame.com · 2mo ago

Columbus game designer comes out while making new LGBTQ+ tabletop roleplaying game. "I’m finally planting a flag about who I am as a designer." ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/05/27/c...

I'm a journalist and at times an opinion writer so I get part of this message isn’t for me, but what I actually don’t like about Bluesky is that I can only get value out of it for work — a fraction of my offline friends/social scene (esp those in their 20s) are on here; they used to go on Twitter

John Rogers@johnrogers.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The reason certain people are still on Twitter or complain how this place isn’t Twitter is because for a brief amount of time Twitter allowed specialty journalists, opinion writers, pundits, etc a chance to feel somewhat famous, or that they actually had influence, and they miss that like heroin.

“A lot of people talk down on Jackson, and they don’t think that we have a lot going on here," Duling Hall Box Office Manager Haley McWhorter said. "For someone of her size to look at Jackson and view it as like a place that she could go and share her music, yeah, it was cool."

Phoebe Bridgers Surprises Jackson Fans With Pop-Up Show Using Only Analog Advertising

Music artist Phoebe Bridgers stopped in Jackson for a surprise concert at Duling Hall that she advertised using only posters to ensure local fans could attend.

buff.ly

I wrote about being inundated with AI writing at every turn, unwittingly turning my brain into the AI police, and how shitty AI writing is randomly showing up in my real life outside of the internet www.404media.co/your-ai-use-...

Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain

AI writing is impossible to avoid, is making everything sound the same, and is driving us crazy.

404media.co

Rural Ohio LGBTQ+ org to celebrate 5th annual Pride despite their lawmaker spearheading hate. Seneca Proud has brought together Seneca County’s queer community for five years and counting. ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/05/08/s...

Rural Ohio LGBTQ+ org to celebrate 5th annual Pride despite their lawmaker spearheading hate

Seneca Proud has brought together Seneca County’s queer community for five years and counting.

thebuckeyeflame.com

You know how sometimes you're really excited to *do* something and then forget to tell anyone? ✨I'm now the California Politics Editor for The Sacramento Bee.✨ Hear @thebuckeyeflame.com's @kenschneck.bsky.social say nice things before we geek out (and I talk baseball). pca.st/episode/51e8...

Uncovering Stories on Pride Flag Burnings, Mpox and Queer Crime Solving

Rainbow flags – they can fly proudly, but they apparently can get banned from coffee shops or burned to the ground. We’re covering the latest drama around rainbow flag displays this week. Also, Mpox…

pca.st

LOVE TO SEE IT! - After growing up there without a safe space, a trans man creates his rural Ohio county’s first Pride. The 24-year-old hopes to bring a sense of community to his home in Adams County. ✏️ @bjodway.com via @reportforamerica.bsky.social thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/05/05/a...

After growing up there without a safe space, a trans man creates his rural Ohio county’s first Pride

The 24-year-old hopes to bring a sense of community to his home in Adams County.

thebuckeyeflame.com

We are rapidly losing the outlets where new writers can learn to shape a voice, where they can cultivate skills beyond quick news hits and PR with the guidance and mentorship of strong editors and the benefit of a trusted name, and it’s such a loss for writers and readers alike.

i hope @chiitan.love enjoyed this week's This News is So Gay episode, much love chiitan