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** Daily Newsletter: JANUARY 20, 2026
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** In today’s newsletter:
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SCOTT YENOR: The Rise and Fall of Gay Activism ([link removed])
JAMES R. WOOD: Desecration in Minnesota ([link removed])
CARMEL RICHARDSON: Is Trump Playing the Long Game on Abortion? ([link removed])
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** The Rise and Fall of Gay Activism ([link removed])
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** Scott Yenor
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From the February issue: Before the push for gay rights that culminated in the legalization of gay marriage in 2015, there was a first wave that was much raunchier and more radical. Scott Yenor tracks the failed first attempt at normalizing gayness, which “highlighted the plain fact that an active homosexual life diverges from bourgeois values.” Then he charts the “just like us” rebrand of the 1990s that eventually made gay pride “the great symbol of American freedom.”
For further reading: Stephen Adubato argued in June that the gay rights movement was so successful that “We Are All Gay Now ([link removed]) .” He writes plainly about the aspects of the homosexual lifestyle that the second wave of gay rights activists sought to suppress from public view, and how heterosexuals are starting to mirror them.
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** Desecration in Minnesota and the Ecclesiology of Public Worship ([link removed])
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** James R. Wood
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Over the weekend, anti-ICE protestors disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, prompting a barrage of backlash appealing to the FACE Act, which prohibits interfering with the right to worship. James Wood writes that this and other legal arguments against the protest “concede a central liberal assumption: that Christian worship is a private affair.”
For further reading: Daniel Strand wrote about the fraud allegations in the Minnesota Somali community that led to the ICE crackdown and unrest last week in “The Banality of Minnesota Fraud ([link removed]) .”
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** Is Trump Playing the Long Game on Abortion? ([link removed])
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** Carmel Richardson
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Last week, the Trump administration quietly restored federal funding to Planned Parenthood. It appeared a betrayal of his pro-life base, but Carmel Richardson dug into the circumstances and found them more complicated than a simple surrender on the abortion issue—it involves a court battle the administration was almost certain to lose, a series of HHS laws, and preventing a worse alternative. In short, Trump might be playing the long game when it comes to rolling back abortion.
For further reading: Carmel notes that the abortion issue was much less motivating than expected in the 2024 elections. She wrote about “How Abortion Lost Its Cool ([link removed]) ” in last May’s issue.
Upcoming Events
* February 1, 2026: Second Annual Neuhaus Lecture at the New College of Florida: “Recovering the University’s Soul” ft. Bishop Robert Barron | Sarasota, FL. Register here ([link removed])
* February 3, 2026: Second Annual Angelicum Aquinas Lecture: “A Conversation with the Theologian of the Papal Household” ft. Fr. Wojciech Giertych, O.P. | New York, NY. Register here ([link removed]) .
* March 5, 2026: Annual D.C. Lecture: “Our Crisis is Metaphysical” ft. Mary Harrington | Washington, D.C. Details coming soon.
Until next time,
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VIRGINIA AABRAM
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Newsletter Editor
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