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National Coming Out Day: How to support your LGBTQ+ loved ones, co-workers, self

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day, was created in 1988 by Jean O’Leary and Dr. Robert Eichberg as a way for people to express positivity around their sexual and gender identities.Since then, the world has changed, with a February poll by Gallup suggesting that 20% of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ+. But coming out can still be a nerve-wracking experience.GLAAD rapid response coordinator Jacob Reyes said while online resources exist, one of the best ways to prepare can be through talking to someone who is already out publicly."That is something I really treasure, because we get to live this queer life openly despite the setbacks of today, because of the people from yesterday," Reyes said. "We should continue to look to the people who came before us, whether it is through media consumption or just talking to an LGBTQ+ elder. That is something that I think would be would be the most important just to understand the struggle and understand the opportunities that lay before you a...

Game on! University of Texas opens Esports Arena on campus

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The University of Texas at Austin just unveiled the new Alienware Longhorn Esports Arena on campus.UT students and staff were on hand for the ribbon cutting that took place in the Texas Union.The 3,400 square feet interactive esports space offers wall-to-wall gaming equipment with 43 gaming stations for students. There's an additional area for people to watch students game. Esports is a form of competition using video games, with players competing individually or in teams. The Alienware Longhorn Esports Lounge will provide a hands-on esports experience for the Longhorn gaming community and host team competitions.UT Austin and Dell Technologies worked together on the space. A UT Austin spokesperson said the opening of the arena is part of the University’s strategy to be a world class technology hub.Founded in 2010, Longhorn Gaming is the largest esports student-sponsored organization on campus with around 3,750 followers, including students, faculty members, alumni a...

Violent content posted on social media of conflict in Israel, how to talk to your kids

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. Crisis counselors are available 24/7.AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Videos circulating online of the horrors in Israel and Gaza are easily accessible online right now, and will likely continue to dominate media platforms as the war plays out. It could get even worse as Hamas has threatened to record and broadcast executions of hostages brought from Israel into Gaza, as reported by Nexstar's partner at The Hill. As the conflict in Israel continues, Dr. Kyler Shumway, president and chief clinical officer at Deep Eddy Psychotherapy, warns that there's a fine balance in how much media you consume: staying plugged in enough to be informed, but protecting your mental health too. "If you notice that you're not sleeping very well, if you are overwhelmed, distracted at work, if you're having a hard time doing the things that you enjoy, those are all good signs that maybe you're plugged ...

‘I think we look pretty good’: Timberwolves feel continuity is already showing itself

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

For the first time in a while, there were no seismic offseason changes for the Timberwolves.The slated starters are the same as the ones at the end of last season. The top three reserves are back, as well.There are a couple of fresh faces who could crack the rotation in Shake Milton and Troy Brown Jr., but in terms of NBA personnel, Minnesota is a near mirror to who it was a season ago.Finally.Consistency and familiarity are often traits synonymous with championship-caliber teams. Certainly, those characteristics don’t guarantee success, but a team with players and coaches who know and understand one another start the season ahead of teams with higher levels of turnover.That was clear in Minnesota’s two preseason games in Abu Dhabi, where the Timberwolves looked far more connected and structured than their opponent, the Dallas Mavericks.“Can you see it from watching us? It’s going well,” Timberwolves forward Kyle Anderson said. “It’s not something we talk about or notice, but just w...

St. Paul City Council to revisit citywide rezoning on Oct. 18

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

The St. Paul City Council will revisit a sweeping proposal to allow duplexes, and denser development, in every residential zoning district in the city on Oct. 18 following a “friendly amendment” introduced Wednesday by Council Member Rebecca Noecker.The amendment increases maximum height limits in newly-proposed H1 residential and RL large lot zoning districts from 33 feet to 35 feet.Noecker said she’d been contacted by developers of modular housing who said the higher limit would better accommodate three-story structures. The amendment was approved 5-2, with Council President Amy Brendmoen and Council Member Chris Tolbert opposed on the grounds that it would trigger a procedural delay in approval of the overall package, which had been scheduled to be voted upon Wednesday.Brendmoen said further changes are likely down the line. The proposal calls for allowing up to six units of housing on lots within an eighth of a mile of transit corridors and designated neighborh...

In surprising move, Twins activate Byron Buxton as injury replacement for Alex Kirilloff

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

Byron Buxton is back.The Twins added Buxton to the active roster ahead of Wednesday night’s win-or-go-home Game 4 of the American League Division Series as an injury replacement for Alex Kirilloff, who is dealing with a shoulder issue that sidelined him earlier in the year for more than a month.“He still shows up ready to give it everything he can possibly give every day,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Buxton. “And he’s put himself in a position where we can activate him, where I probably would have said that was very unlikely, if you asked me at some point in the recent past. It’s through his work. It’s through his hard work.”Buxton went on the injured list originally with a hamstring strain in early August but suffered a setback with his knee that forced the Twins to shut down his rehab assignment in early September. He has been trying to work his way back since then.Baldelli said Buxton has not run much but he has run enough for them to feel comfort...

Review: Bob Dylan jukebox musical ‘Girl from the North Country’ is a grim dud

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

Conor McPherson’s Bob Dylan jukebox musical “Girl from the North Country” opened its North American tour Tuesday night at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis with a thud.Still, it arrived with some pomp and circumstance. Gov. Tim Walz was on hand to introduce the show and proclaim it “Girl from the North Country Broadway Musical Week” in Minnesota. The musical takes place in Great Depression-era Duluth, where Dylan was born. And Dylan himself once owned the Orpheum, before the city of Minneapolis bought it in 1988.To be sure, there are aspects of the production worth admiring. Its often creative staging offers some visual delights, and the cast excels at singing songs familiar to Dylan fans around the world. Beyond that, however, it’s puzzling that the pandemic-interrupted Broadway run earned such rave reviews.Ben Biggers, Sharaé Moultrie, Jennifer Blood and John Schiappa in “Girl From The North Country,” the Tony Award-winning musical which runs thro...

Bret Stephens: The anti-Israel left needs to take a hard look at itself

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

On Saturday morning in southern Israel, Hamas murdered hundreds of people at a music festival and kidnapped others at gunpoint to serve as human shields in the Gaza Strip. On Sunday afternoon in New York City’s midtown Manhattan, a speaker at a rally of pro-Palestinian and left-wing groups celebrated that atrocity — one of thousands suffered by Israelis over the past few days, which we later learned included the killing of babies and toddlers.“As you might have seen, there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters,” a speaker said. “But I’m sure they’re doing very fine despite what The New York Post says.” He was met with cheers.I went to see the rally for myself: Would there be even perfunctory condemnation of Hamas’ methods? A brief nod of sympathy to Israel’s anguish? Some banal nod to the cause of peace and nonviolence? Not that I heard. What I saw was ...

Other voices: Biden wants to build a big, beautiful wall

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

It took nearly three years, but reality has finally intruded upon the Biden administration’s border fantasies. Thank two Republican governors for the long overdue wake-up call.Last week, the White House announced that it plans to suspend nearly two dozen laws and regulations to hasten construction of additional barriers on our southern border. This is a reversal of epic proportions.When President Joe Biden entered office in January 2021, one of his first actions was to rescind a Trump-era executive order that promoted the former president’s vision of a “big, beautiful wall” to slow illegal entries into the United States. Mr. Biden and most Democrats had vociferously opposed such efforts. “Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution,” he said.It turns out, however, that neither is advancing a de facto open borders policy that serves as a magnet and encourages immigrants to illegally enter the Unite...

Francis Wilkinson: Supreme Court loses no matter how it rules on gun case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:33:20 GMT

The conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court will have to choose between depravity and farce this term. It’s an awkward situation, with a high probability of disgrace either way, but they can’t say they didn’t ask for it.Veteran court analysts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern wrote that this term’s court docket is “an explosive brew of lawless fury aimed at the heart of modern American governance.” Fury certainly defines the case of United States v. Zackey Rahimi. The case is from the MAGA-dominated 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. In its ruling, the court said authorities had no right to deprive Zackey Rahimi of his firearms on the grounds that he was under a domestic violence restraining order after having violently assaulted his girlfriend.In 2019, Rahimi, of Arlington, Texas, threw his girlfriend to the ground before dragging her to his car, where he slammed her head against the dashboard.He late...