Advocate NL 7/2/26

Hello folks and Happy Thursday!Audience Editor Edgar Ramirez here, back in your inbox to assure you that, yes, a real person (me) spent some time putting together this newsletter. Why the assurance? Well, with AI all over the headlines nowadays, it's hard to trust what is real and what isn't.That's where some users find themselves with Goose, a new dating app marketed as an alternative to Grindr. An investigation by WIRED "found that many of the faces used to promote Goose were linked to low-usage accounts with abnormal follower-to-following ratios. Moreover, some appeared to be connected to Instagram accounts likely generated by artificial intelligence."The Advocate’s sibling publication, Out, previously reported that Goose was created by out gay model, actor, and beauty entrepreneur Derek Chadwick and pitched as a social-first, “anti-algorithm” alternative to Grindr, Sniffies, and other hookup-focused apps. Jacob Ogles (a real person) has the latest from the WIRED investigation.Another writer I can assure you is real and not AI: Jade Delgado, who put together this ranking of Madonna's 15 studio albums. Let the debate begin!A friendly reminder we won't be showing up in your inbox tomorrow, as we're taking off for the long Fourth of July holiday, but we hope you have a safe weekend, and we'll be back Monday!Is Goose, the Grindr alternative, using fake AI-generated dates to lure gay men?The Supreme Court’s trans sports ruling is about more than athleticsMadonna's 15 studio albums, lovingly and unapologetically rankedMaine refuses to comply with DOJ subpoena for trans prisoner’s confidential recordsDrag queen Suzie Toot says Ron DeSantis can be free: ‘Live your gay life’Marriage equality didn’t threaten America. It expanded freedomWhy are America's largest newspapers stigmatizing queer people?Trump education secretary threatens Kansas schools over trans student privacy policyMissing gay couple from Chicago found dead in mass grave outside of Mexico Cit