The White House said on Monday it wasn’t behind a Defense Department decision to cancel drag events at US military bases. Late last week, DoD announced that drag events, which have been performed at US military installations for decades, wouldn’t continue because they aren’t a “suitable use” of military resources. The Pentagon said in a statement that “certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in nonfederal capacity.” Biden administration press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday at a press conference that the White House supports LGBTQ+ members of the military. “The Biden-Harris administration will celebrate LGBTQI plus service members’ contributions with pride across federal agencies, including at the Department of Defense,” she said. The Pentagon decision has already led to the cancellation of at least one planned drag show, a family-friendly event at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada featuring performer Coco Montrese, a former contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race. The base has hosted drag events in 2021 and 2022, planned by the facility’s Pride committee. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Monday on CNN canceling the events was the “absolute right thing to do” and said drag events “were never part of DOD policy to begin with and they’re certainly not funded by federal funds.” Capitol Hill Republicans questioned Mr Milley and other military leaders in March at a House Armed Services Committee hearing in March, and have since raised inquiries about potential funds going to such events. US military members have performed in drag at bases since at least World War I, including during the famed USO shows of WWII, according to the New York Times “Ensuring our ranks reflect the diversity of the American people is essential to morale and cohesion,” the Modern Military Association of America, a nonprofit representing LGBTQ+ servicemembers, told the paper. “It affects recruiting and retention of service members who do not feel welcome due to their sexual and gender identities.” Across the country, Republican-led legislatures have passed laws targeting drag shows, and drag events have been the subject of armed threats, part of a wider wave of GOP attacks on LGBTQ+ people. Read More David Furnish hits out at Ron DeSantis for ‘diabolically anti-Christian’ policies against LGBTQ+ people The Independent Pride List 2023: The LGBT+ people making change happen Tennessee drag ban is struck down by federal judge: ‘Unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad’

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A mother has been defended after she explained why she called her daughter’s father “creepy” over the name he gave to his newborn child. In a recent post shared to the popular “Am I the A**hole?” Reddit forum, the woman – who goes by the username u/Aggressive_Buy4075 – asked if she was in the wrong for criticising the name choice. She started off her post by providing context about the situation, explaining that she got pregnant with her now 10-year-old daughter after “a drunken hook-up with a friend in her mid twenties”. While noting that the pregnancy wasn’t “the most glamorous or flattering truth,” she and her friend still “decided to keep the child and co-parent”. She also acknowledged that she and her pal were “never a couple” and “didn’t want to be one either”. The woman continued her post by explaining that when her friend and his longtime girlfriend were expecting baby, she’d “been supportive to them both” as much as possible, “without crossing any lines”. She then explained how she wanted her 10-year-old to get to know her soon-to-be half-sibling. “I’ve encouraged my daughter to help out whenever she’s staying with them during the pregnancy and to behave. I’ve also made it clear that I want the children to have a close relationship, despite having different mothers,” she wrote. “I’ve even said that if they were comfortable with it, on nights I have my daughter [and] if they ever want time alone, I’ll babysit once they have the baby. So my daughter can spend time with her sibling.” She added that while she “thought everything was great” and was excited for her “daughter to have a sibling,” that ultimately changed when her friend and his partner had their baby - and she learned the newborn’s name. “They’d named [her] using my daughter’s name,” the Reddit user continued. “[My friend’s girlfriend] didn’t seem to have any issue with this when she introduced the baby bold as brass. My friend seemed uncomfortable and wouldn’t look at me directly. I asked them what they were playing at, at which point my friend’s father said he’d take my daughter down to the cafeteria to get something to eat and left with her.” The Reddit poster noted that during the conversation, her friend told her to “calm down and not overreact”, while “his girlfriend told [her] she didn’t see the issue and it was a pretty name”. She continued to explain how she still asked the couple why they chose a name that was the same as her daughter’s. “I asked them if they’d named the baby for my daughter, trying to understand the logic here, but his girlfriend said that no it was just a pretty name she liked,” she continued. “I then asked if they planned to use a nickname or a middle name when addressing her on a daily basis and her response was that she didn’t see a need for that.” She went on to detail how she criticised the couple for their baby name choice, specifying that she told them it was a “creepy” decision to use the name. “I told them they were being ridiculous and that they couldn’t do this, I then told his girlfriend that I found this frankly creepy and told my friend he was being spineless if he was happy to go along with this,” she continued. While her friend claimed to her that their daughter “could use a nickname or something,” the woman shut that idea down by asking: “Why was it more reasonable for a girl who has used that name for a decade, to [be shamed] for her name, compared to a baby who had no concept of what a name was?” She concluded her post by noting that her friend’s girlfriend call her a “b****” for talking to her like that, after “she just gave birth”. The woman added that the new mother “asked the nurses to remove [her], saying that [the Reddit poster] was being disruptive”. “Maybe my temper is running a little too hot though and I was too harsh on her when she just gave birth. It’s just so f***ing weird,” the woman continued. She later made an edit to her post, reiterating that, although it wasn’t her decision to name the newborn, her daughter’s name shouldn’t have been an option. “I know that what they want to name their child is their choice, they could have called her Dinosaur for all I care but this is one name that should be off limits or adjusted, they even have the same surname as they have the same father,” she wrote. She claimed that she questioned her friend’s girlfriend’s intentions in the situation, adding: “Something about it just felt malicious and deliberate, as if she’s trying to replace my daughter and for them both to spring it on us like that at the first meeting? No, that was weird.” The Reddit post has since amassed more than 23,800 upvotes. In the comments, readers went on to defend the woman and question the couple for using the same name as her daughter. They also described what potential issues could arise when two half-siblings have the same first and last name. “From the outside it sure reads like she wants to replace her partner’s affection for his first daughter with his new baby. Of course it’s creepy,” one wrote, while another added: “And the suggestion that the 10 year old should use a nickname? Wow. Talk about audacity.” “Imagine two girls, same name, same city, possibly close enough to attend the same high school eventually, same parent. Imagine one has a warrant, or something that comes up on a background check for employment,” a third wrote. “Or can call and access accounts that just need an ID with the name on it and don’t verify SSN or biometrics.” Other people continued to claim that the couple’s name choice was “manipulative”, while encouraging the original poster to take legal action against her daughter’s father. “Worse than creepy. Calculated and manipulative. She wants to get rid of OP and choose the nuclear option by attacking her daughter,” one user claimed. “While no name can be claimed, this is a move full of hate and spite,” another wrote. “I would tell your daughter’s father that you will be going for full custody of your daughter and taking him for child support because you can no longer trust him to do the right thing by your daughter, how can you trust that he wouldn’t allow his gf to treat your daughter poorly based on this behaviour.” The Independent has contacted u/Aggressive_Buy4075 for comment. Read More Barbie? Ken? Venezuela?: Why baby names won’t be boring for much longer Adele says she wants to have a baby with boyfriend Rich Paul ‘soon’ TikTok theory on why there are so many girls named Bella at Bama Rush goes viral Khloe Kardashian officially changes son Tatum’s last name Grandmother and grandson who had sepsis at same time ‘lucky to be alive’ Cancer-hit dad who planned own funeral outlives three-week prognosis

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 23, 2023--

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With Wimbledon starting next week, Stan Wawrinka is excited about returning to London’s iconic championships. “It’s really a different tournament with the history, also the fact that we play on grass courts. The courts are amazing, the atmosphere is great,” he says on a video call from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Today, the Swiss player is taking a break from his gruelling training schedule to visit SW19 as part of his long-running partnership with Evian. “It’s always special for us players to go practise or to play matches on small courts as well, because you have so many fans coming and the atmosphere is always going to be special,” he continues, saying his most memorable Wimbledon match was against a certain Swiss opponent. “I played one quarter final against Roger [Federer] on Centre Court – it’s always special to play Roger, to play him here was something really nice.” Ahead of the famous championships, the 38-year-old has been training in Monaco, before heading back to London this week. So, how does the three-time Grand Slam winner balance the physical and psychological aspects of preparing for high-profile events? “It’s all a big puzzle,” says Wawrinka, who was born near Lausanne to a German father and Swiss mother. “As a tennis player, you have the fitness side and you have the mental part – you have everything that you need to do to be ready.” Plus, there’s the challenge of having to deal with defeats: “Tennis is a tough sport in the way that you end up almost every week losing. You need to accept [that you will] lose and try to learn and take something positive from it.” How does the former world number three cope with not winning? “I try to refocus on myself, try to also think about everything I’ve been doing in practice… you can lose against a better player. If you know you’re doing the right things, then you can only be positive about it.” Stan the Man (as he’s known to fans) isn’t fazed by comparisons to Federer – whom he’s beaten on just three of the 26 times they’ve competed on court. “I always look for the positive of the situation and I’ve been lucky enough that when I arrived [on the circuit] I was a little bit younger than him – he was already at the top,” says Wawrinka, who is three years younger than his record-breaking countryman. “For me, it was a chance to have Roger in the same country… I had the chance to practise with him and he became a friend.” The pair were victorious at the Davis Cup in 2014 and at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, taking gold in the men’s doubles. “The Olympics are something that any athlete in any sport dreams about, to play individually, but [playing] doubles and to feel like a team it was super special,” Wawrinka recalls. How does training for doubles matches compare to singles? “It’s more the mental part. You need to know your partner, talk with him a lot about the tactics, but more about what’s going to happen. “Communication is really important on the court, but also off the court. For us, it was quite easy to play together because we are such close friends.” Seen as a late bloomer in terms of tennis, Wawrinka admits it was a struggle waiting to achieve his inaugural Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2014. “For me, the most challenging part was to find the confidence in myself and in my game. I only won my first Grand Slam at 29 years old, it took me a while to really find that confidence.” Suffering setbacks throughout his career due to knee, elbow and foot injuries, Wawrinka’s ranking has yo-yoed in the past few years, but he returned to the world top 100 in February. “It was tough to be back at 37 years old after more than a year out for another two surgeries,” he says. “It was not easy, but for me, it’s about the passion. I love what I’m doing, I enjoy the process… it was, of course, so special to be back again in the top 100.” Off the court, he unwinds by spending time with daughter Alexia, 13, whom he shares with ex-wife Ilham Vuilloud, a Swiss TV presenter: “I’m traveling a lot so I don’t have that much time to be with her, so I’m trying to enjoy that.” Having grown up on his parents’ biodynamic farm, the tennis champ has inherited the green-fingered gene, growing fruit and veg in his garden back home in Switzerland. “I have tomatoes, courgettes, I have many fruits. I think it’s just different when you have your own garden than when you go buy it at the shop directly.” Reducing his impact on the environment is also a priority for the Evian global brand ambassador, which is why he’s pleased the water brand is introducing refillable bottles for players at Wimbledon for the first time this year. “It’s important for us, the players, [because] we’re traveling a lot – this new bottle is going to be great,” Wawrinka says. Two years away from 40 and with 16 career titles and 550 career wins under his belt, he’s not planning on hanging up his racket any time soon. “I’m still hoping to play a few more years on tour. It’s, of course, not easy, but I’m passionate about it. I want to enjoy it as much as I can,” Wawrinka says. “The time I will stop there will be no way back, so I need to really push and try to be as good as I can.” Evian, official water of the Championships, together with Wimbledon have launched a new refillable solution to hydrate players on court during this year’s tournament. Discover more at www.evian.com. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Hacks for saving money on school uniforms King Charles and Queen Camilla surprise spa guests in bathrobes at eco-village Nearly 1.5m 18 and under referred for mental health support in 2022 – charity

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