Sky Cale

Looking back at the anti-LGBTQ+ bills West Virginia Lawmakers put on the table last year.

November 30th, 2025

I released this article two years ago with my college and decided to bring it over to the website. I haven’t made any changes to it, except for minor grammatical adjustments.

So far in 2024, West Virginia has introduced twenty-nine bills targeting transgender minors and drag performances. All of the proposed bills fall into various categories, ranging from healthcare to education. In this article, I will focus on three bills proposed in West Virginia’s State Legislature and provide information on which state senators proposed them. Educating people about the existence of the LGBTQ+ community is not harmful, and no teacher is going out of their way to explain what people who are part of the community are doing in bed. Most of the education bills are claiming to “protect” children, targeting transgender and non-binary students, and not allowing students to use bathrooms they align with. Needless to say, the bills discussed today are mainly against transgender people, and they all have the common theme of being education-centered.

Starting this article we have HB3847, also known as “Relating to nondiscrimination at institutions of higher education,” which compared to all of the other bills on this list, is not the one that is the most concerning at least when it comes to public schools. This bill is to prohibit discrimination in the WV higher education institutes based on gender identity, sex, race, religion, and sexual orientation. This comes after a Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action for all universities and it ended race-conscious admissions for many universities. The weird thing about this bill these legislatures proposed is that they completely forgot to mention Fairmont State University in the bill. It only mentions Concord, Glenville, Marshall, Shepherd, West Liberty, and WVU. There was no mention of Fairmont State anywhere in the document for the bill. This bill wouldn’t require the colleges to have a diversity statement when it comes to their admissions and would require what they call diversity training. The people who sponsored this bill are Chris Pritt (R) and Mike Devault (R).

HB5036, also known as “Creating the Parents’ Bill of Rights,” is a bill that would allow parents to have the right to make decisions about virtually everything parents currently have the right to make decisions about. I don’t know why they are even proposing this, considering parents already have the right to make decisions for their children. The decisions parents will have the right to make for their children include education, medical care, and legal issues. From the outside, this bill doesn’t look too bad until you read further and realize it also gives parents the right to restrict their kids from learning anything about the LGBTQ+ community. I have to state again that no one is instructing kids about what the LGBTQ+ community does in bed. When it comes to suits the bill states, “A parent may bring suit against the state, any agency or locality thereof, any government official, or any person acting under color of law based on any violation of this article and seek appropriate relief, including, but not limited to, injunctive relief, monetary damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees, and court costs.” If a bill is passed against transgender healthcare for minors, this bill would not allow parents to have the right to get the healthcare their children may need. The sponsors of this bill are Scot Heckert (R), Kathie Crouse (R), Dave Foggin (R), Laura Kimble (R), Margitta Mazzocchi (R), and Todd Kirby (R).

B4806, also known as “Require bathroom use in schools based upon biological sex,” has a title that honestly explains itself. Still, it seeks to ban transgender and gender non-conforming students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity. It would not only ban bathroom usage, but also locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower room usage. According to the bill, there can be accommodations for students who refuse to do so, but we all know that most schools probably won’t attempt to meet these accommodations. The one thing I found unusual was that they had to specify that medical professionals or any trained first responders were allowed to enter the bathrooms. The people who sponsored this bill are Dave Foggin (R), Matthew Rohrbach (R), Scot Heckert (R), Larry Kump (R), Geno Chiarelli (R), Michael Hornby (R), Elias Coop-Gonzalez (R), Charles Sheedy (R), Bryan Ward (R), Laura Kimble (R), and Todd Longanacre (R).
The NHL’S History of Homophobia

June 28th, 2025

I released this article two years ago with my college and decided to bring it over to the website. I haven’t made any changes to it besides minor grammatical adjustments.

The NHL (National Hockey League) has a long history of being homophobic and not accepting of gay hockey players. Many of the gay hockey players were forced to stay in the closet out of fear of backlash from the league. They have passed anti-LGBTQ+ policies recently, like banning the wearing of Pride jerseys during the Pride Night they hosted. They did it out of fear for the Russian players because of Russia’s notorious stance against LGBTQ+ people and their rights. Many players also refused to wear them because of religious beliefs, so the committee decided to ban them altogether. The jerseys wouldn’t be worn during the actual games; they were only to be worn during the pre-game warmups. Another ban that occurred in October was the prohibition of the pride tape applied to hockey sticks. Some critics have called it the league’s own “Don’t Say Gay” policy. The ban on the Pride tape lasted two weeks. On October 24, 2023, the NHL reversed its decision to ban the tape. A member of the Arizona Coyotes, Travis Dermott, defied the ban by wrapping his stick in pride tape during a game he played. Other players had spoken out against the ban as well, including a Philadelphia Flyers forward, Scott Laughton. The NHL’s PR account had posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “After consultation with the NHL Players’ Association and the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, Players will now have the option to voluntarily represent social causes with their stick tape throughout the season.” They don’t know how Pride Nights in the NHL will continue with the new measures, but currently, there is no news about the one scheduled for October.

There has only ever been one active player that’s come out, and he is on a team in a state that’s one of the worst anti-LGBTQ+ states in the US. Luke Prokop became the NHL’s first active player to come out as gay. Prokop, a right-handed defenseman, was a 2020 draft pick for the Nashville Predators. He had come out through an Instagram post, stating, “Living an authentic life will allow me to bring my whole self to the rink and improve my chances of fulfilling my dreams.” He had also included in that post that he had hopes that his coming out would show the world that gay people are welcome in the hockey community. He was inspired during the COVID-19 pandemic to finally come out, as at the time, there were no openly out and active hockey players. Sean Henry, the President and CEO of the Nashville Predators had said, “is proud of Luke for the courage he is displaying in coming out today and we will support him unequivocally in the days, weeks, and years to come as he continues to develop as a prospect,” in response to Prokop coming out publicly. He had also received a great deal of support from his family, friends, and fellow NHL players after he came out.

On another lighter note, a retired NHL player is touring Canadian High Schools to speak to their hockey teams about acceptance. Brook McGillis is going on a tour called the “Culture Shift Tour.” The tour’s official website states that the tour aims to “’ humanize his experience of someone different than the norm and teach simple ways we can all create shifts so everyone can be themselves.’” McGillis came out in 2016, and he believes hockey players would actually be accepting of the community. He believes that “the language and behaviors — especially at younger ages — lead people to feel like they won’t be welcomed,” according to his interview with Outsports. He was the first openly gay semi-professional hockey player in Canada. Hockey leagues are not as welcoming as they should be, but they have room for improvement.
Editing Services Available Now!

April 29th, 2025

Hello all, happy spring, and I hope you’re enjoying some nice weather in the eastern US. I’m enjoying it, along with my plentiful amount of houseplants. I am making this post to announce that I now offer editing services for novellas, novels, and academic essays, along with a few other services along the lines of book formatting for indie authors. All the prices can be found on my new page going into more depth about it.

Given how the economy looks for many of us in the States, I want to make my editing services as affordable as possible. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me through WordPress or skyseditingservices@gmail.com.

Have a lovely day!
2024 Year in Review: What’s Next?

December 5th, 2024

Man, 2024 has been rough, strange, and elightening. I graduated from college and thought everything else would fall in line, a decent job, possibly a drivers license (yes, I’m almost 23 and I don’t have a license).

The job force for the 20s is humbling. Here I was–well promised getting a degree would get you a job. In reality, unless your in STEM or have other degrees that are needed for today’s workforce, good luck. I am aware of what I got myself into, I know my degree isn’t profitable unless I live in a state with massive publishing houses, or anywhere but West Virginia, I know what I’m paying for. 150 jobs later, and nothing. Which would be fine if I didn’t have 60k in student loan debt and almost 2k in credit card debt (curse covid). Why do beginner jobs want 3-5 years experience? Is my degree not enough? One thing I learned from this job market is expect the unexpceted. (seriously though, I’m not asking for much anymore, just a simple job writing, managing social media, hell, I’ll do math if needed). I hate begging but these same companies literally complain about no one wanting to work anymore. It’s insanity. I feel trapped in a never-ending-cycle of job applications, not hearing back, getting questioned by my parents about getting a job, and it repeats itself on the daily. I’m mentally exhausted.

I also can’t be the only one who’s slightly fearing 2025, given everything happening both in the US and outside of the US. May the gods be with us through it all.

This is a short post to end 2024, as I haven’t had the mental power to write anything else. I love writing but something about writing cover letters everyday, just to be ignored for months on end, drains you.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannaka, Bejewled Kwanza, and Happy New Years.
Crickets for the Transphobes

October 11th, 2024

Trans rights advocates released thousands of live crickets, and I mean, alive crickets during a “Gender-Critical Conference” in London, hosted by the LGB Alliance. This organization is known to be trans-exclusionary and doesn’t believe, per their website “We advocate for the prioritization of sex-based rights over gender ideology. ” On the outside, it seems like a good thing, but then you realize the organization aims to exclude transgender and gender-nonconforming folks from their advocacy. I can write an entire article on this “advocacy group” another day, but today I am focusing on what happened during their conference in London.

The LGB Alliance was holding its annual conference and had some notable anti-trans speakers including J.K. Rowling (why) and Jamie Reed. J.K Rowling was the opening for the event and was given applause after saying, “Lesbians don’t have penises.” As a lesbian (I’m also asexual but we will ignore this part for a second), I have no problem dating transwomen, they’re gorgeous. This also shames any lesbian who happens to be intersex and who still has male genitalia, if the doctors didn’t remove them without informing the parents. This is an entirely different can of worms, I will not be getting into. In response, Rowling went onto X and posted, “Did any of those releasing insects in an attempt to sabotage the @AllianceLGB conference have a split second of sanity in which they thought ‘Am I proving every critic of gender identity ideology right? Is trying to disrupt a meeting of gay people a tad homophobic?’” (J.K. Rowling on X: “Did any of those releasing insects in an attempt to sabotage the @AllianceLGB conference have a split second of sanity in which they thought ‘Am I in fact proving every critic of gender identity ideology right? Is trying to disrupt a meeting of gay people a tad homophobic?’” / X (twitter.com)

The crickets were released right before Jamie Reed went to speak and a journalist named, Michael Baggs released a video of the crickets in the conference room on X, writing, “Someone released a box of crickets in the LGB Alliance conference hall. Alexa play Despacito.” (Michael Baggs on X: “Someone released a box of crickets in the LGB Alliance conference hall. Alexa play Despacito https://t.co/lnCZRCTkey” / X (twitter.com)

I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall or one of the crickets released, to see everyone’s reactions when they realized the room had thousands of more visitors than they expected. The organization responsible for the crickets is known as “Trans Kids Deserve Better” a UK-based group aimed to protect trans kids from hatred and advocate for them. They posted a satirical video of one of their members in a cricket costume outside of the conference saying, “Our sources at the scene tell us that the talk by Jamie Reed on taking away trans healthcare was stopped by these brave bugs, with thousands of six-legged friends hopping about in protest.” (Check them out here). The group said six of them released six thousand crickets total into the conference room before Jamie’s talk.

We love our chirping allies. Honestly, don’t target our transgender friends and youth, and maybe the crickets wouldn’t need to get involved. So far, the LGB Alliance hasn’t responded, but I will update in the commentsnts when they do.
Good Gay News: The Return

September 16th, 2024

Hello, I started this little news segment while writing at my college, and I’ve decided to bring it back, this time on my own pacing, with more controversial topics. As the title suggests, it will be focusing on good news for the community around the globe! I want to spread some positivity, while the world focuses on all the negativity going on. Down below is the link to the original articles I’ve done for my school, I will not be publishing them here, as I’d love to bring traction to the schools website.

Sky Cale – The Columns (columnsfairmontstate.com)
The Columns Distribution Plan

September 16th, 2024

More Context About the Assignment:

This assignment was meant to be a way to come up with a way to make Fairmont States newspaper The Columns, more active on social media, and with the student body overall, as they lacked a proper social media manager at the time. We were also asked how to get the attention of the student body and staff outside of social media.

I think starting with getting the student’s attention through social media is a good first step for the newspaper when it comes to distribution. The students are the ones who read and share stuff about the newspaper, and they also are the ones who help write for it. Faculty and Staff can be on the back burner for the first part of the distribution plan. The best way to develop a voice for the newspaper is to have a student staff member of the paper run the account. Normally, you can tell who is running the account and if they are in the same age category as the audience they’re targeting. Students on average are between 18-23 and knowing this age demographic, the best platform to use for this launch is Instagram.

The content shared on Instagram can be the articles that the students are actively writing for the paper. I think a good first step would be doing a meet-the-staff post so students on campus can see who’s writing for them. Doing this about me section can help the students connect more with the student paper, and it could ease some student’s anxieties about the writers possibly not being actual students at the college reporting on issues. When it comes to sharing the articles, it is fairly simple to google photos that coincide with them or create photos to reuse using websites like Canva. You can share a small section of the article in the text part of the Instagram post and encourage people to check out the articles on the website. I think seeing snippets of articles could add to the shareability of the content itself. If you want people to share the post about the article, they need to be able to see some of it. Not everyone shares things based on only the title and sometimes require more to see if they want to share it with their friends who could be students at the college.

When it comes to targeting the staff of the college the Falcon flier is a good place to start (we can pretend that it is actually reliable) but using another social media platform to get the faculty and staff’s attention is a good idea. I’m thinking of Facebook considering I don’t know a lot of professors who have Instagram. You can post on Instagram and Facebook at the same time since a lot of their features are cross-platform, however, I think it’s a good idea to use a different approach on Facebook. Considering the faculty and staff are normally older, it may be a good idea to use a professional approach. Sharing the articles on Facebook, sharing posts about the writers, and sharing other information that may just pertain to staff can help attract them to the paper. Stating hey if you guys want something covered, please submit a pitch through our website so we can get it covered for you and also help engage staff and faculty. They will be more inclined to share something if what’s written is what they recommend.

Flyers with QR codes in all of the buildings around campus either linking to the website or to the social media pages help spread the news of the paper to everyone. Having mass emails sent out by the head of the department about the paper and what the paper does can also help get more writers involved which would mean more stories to post. There are TVs broadcasting things all over campus and it is one simple email away from getting them to share something about the columns on them. The Falcon Center, the Ruth-Anne Musick Library, and Turley would be great ones as they are frequently visited by students.

The launch was successful so what now? I think now it’s important to utilize the other features of Instagram that Facebook has in common, reels. Short-form video content brings in a wider audience and can even attract those not part of the campus community. Using reels to have the writers give a brief rundown of their articles or having a specific person run around campus and interview people on hot topics can help increase engagement on and off campus. Utilizing Facebook, you can begin to share the posts from the columns to the Fairmont Community page and allow the community to see what the students are covering. Want more engagement on the website? Host small giveaways of Falcon Dollars if people comment on the articles or on the Instagram and Facebook posts themselves. Just in case there are new writers on the team, a staff team Q&A video and ask for user-submitted questions for each of the staff members. You can make the videos long-form on YouTube or Instagram TV or utilize the stories feature so they can be shared on Facebook as well. One thing to remember is to push for people to submit story pitches either through the websites or you can use the Instagram questions feature to get some ideas. If you want to reach more students, reach out to the manager of the Fairmont State pages or the Humanities Department manager and see if you can work out small content-sharing deals. Having the columns shared on these platforms helps branch it out to students who possibly never knew it existed.
Crisis Management: Bud Light Edition

September 16th, 2024

What happened:

In April 2023, Anheuser-Busch, the founding company of Bug Light partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender TikTok star. She was promoting their “Easy to Carry Contest” which had a grand prize of $15,000. They had also sent her a small case of beer with her face on it for her first anniversary of transitioning. Bud Light had also released a proud version of their cans which contributed to conservatives boycotting the brand. Conservatives were enraged about this promotion, and it had the most backlash with them since the “progressive” commercials from Gillette and Nike. They had called for a boycott of the Budweiser brand and even had celebrities such as Kid Rock mad (he shot cases of Bud Light with a rifle). Many conservatives were destroying cases of Bud Light in stores, buying them and running them over with trucks, shooting the cases of beer, and overall refusing to buy the product. John Carrillo, a conservative pundit, misgendered Dylan and called her a “grown man who dresses like little girls,” and others implied she’s a sexual predator. A go-to for conservatives against members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

They Threw Dylan to the Wolves (Conservatives):

They did nothing to protect Dylan from their attacks and their response (above) does not address all of the hate and death threats Dylan was receiving from Conservatives. They made no response to Dylan getting all of the hate and as they said themselves, “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.” My issue with this statement is the fact that they knew their base was widely conservative and hated LGBTQ+ people. They knew this and should’ve seen this backlash happening before it happened. They needed to be more prepared when dealing with this situation considering it took them a while to respond. They only responded because they were losing sales on a beer that tasted disgusting. They didn’t issue anything telling people to stop harassing and sending threats to Dylan which sat wrong with a lot of LGBTQ+ Orgs. and the members of the community. They also placed two of their marketing executives on leave because of the backlash and the LGBTQ+ community was not happy about it. The Human Rights Organization told the company that it would lose its perfect Corporate Equality Index score. This prompted the company to make a $200,000 donation to the Communities of Color Initiative which is under the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. This is the bare minimum for the mental and potentially physical harm they caused to Dylan for not sticking up for her and issuing a terrible response.

The Evaluation of Budlight:

They handled this situation terribly and there are many things they could’ve done. We will start with the first thing being sticking up for Dylan when your entire customer base starts sending her death threats. Dylan was the most affected out of all of this considering she was sent death threats and terrible messages from them. The community itself was affected because the company not doing anything showed conservatives they could continually bully and harass them without repercussions. The crisis is severe for them only because they lost a lot of revenue because of the tantrum their main customer base threw. Honestly, why they decided to branch out with Dylan for this promotion is beyond me and it does sound like they’re just wanting brownie points with LGBTQ+ people. They may not have been aware of how bad the crisis would be, but they knew it would get them customers somewhere. The brand not only lost credibility with its customer base but a lot of gay bars have dropped them because of their lack of response. They were seen as an ally but lost it when they let their customers send death threats and threw Dylan out like a rag.

How They Should’ve Responded (No, Ukuleles are not present.):

Respond at least 24 hours after the backlash as the quicker the response, the better the public may take it.

One: Apologize for upsetting your fan base and also tell them to leave Dylan alone. They were the ones who contacted her for the promotion and they certainly knew what they were getting into.

Two: Apologize to Dylan directly as they left her alone without support. Apologize for allowing their customer base to send her death threats. She had left the internet for a short amount of time and Budlight did nothing.

Three: Say you’re committed to being inclusive and supportive of everyone. Don’t cave because of losing money from a conservative temper tantrum.

Posting the response on Twitter would most likely be their best bet as it’s where a lot of people go. The apology could look something like below. I do think it would be better if the CEO posted it directly and didn’t use “we.” Yes, the company did have Dylan do this promotion, but the CEO is the person behind the company and therefore should be the one apologizing and reaching out to Dylan privately. If they want to make a statement in video format as well, they can always contact a news channel, or post it on their website and share it on Twitter. They should and will not include any instruments in this apology. A phone call to Dylan should also be done to ensure that she’s mentally okay, the CEO or someone else in a higher position should do this. The CEO should be the one who apologizes to Dylan privately and publicly. I think it’s important for the CEO to sound like he genuinely means it and it means formal writing seen from PR. (Do not let PR write this apology, please.)

A Better Apology Sample:

As the CEO of the company, it is my responsibility to release this statement regarding what’s happened recently to one of our promoters, Dylan Mulvaney. I want to take accountability and apologize directly to Dylan. I am sorry for leaving you to defend yourself against the customer base of my company. I didn’t know how divisive this issue was and I do full-heartedly apologize for allowing the consumers to send, comment, and harass you.

To our customers, I am sorry for upsetting you with who is promoting our products. I do want to say that I and the company are committed to being inclusive to everyone. I don’t believe in discriminating against someone because they are different. Everyone can enjoy and drink a beer and it doesn’t have to be political. I ask you all to stop harassing Dylan and to continue enjoying your beer. If you don’t want to buy it then I’m sure the company will not miss your money.

I am sorry for upsetting everyone. I am sorry for subjecting Dylan to all of the harassment. I would never wish that on anyone, and I have learned from my mistakes. I will be reaching out to Dylan privately to apologize. Our beer is for everyone, and I will always stand by that.

Would this Apology Do Well?

Looking at the comments, retweets, quote tweets, and views of the post can help determine if this does well. I do think the majority of the comments will probably read like a toddler commented on them or look like: “woke trash,” “go woke, go broke,” and “I will never buy your beer again.” I will also leave out the cuss words because I have read comments that involve them, and I don’t feel like typing them. Overall, the response probably will be what everyone expects from their main consumer base.

I think they would still be continuing to boycott the company had they posted an apology similar to mine. I do think this would be appreciated by their general consumers who don’t care about who they partner with. The main person I think this would go over well with is Dylan, and I think she’d appreciate the CEO reaching out and apologizing. I would love to think that this post would go over well with the LGBTQ+ Community as a whole but there will always be skeptical people. We call their inclusivity “rainbow capitalism” they do it for money and nothing else. I do think a lot of the community would see the apology as a good thing, but I think they already tarnished their reputation by allowing the harassment to continue for more than a day.
Social Media Audits

September 16th, 2024

The point of this assignment was to audit social media we barely used. It was hard for me to choose some I don’t use, as I have experience with all of the main ones.

Instagram:

Type: Social Network

Audience: 59% of internet users 18-29 use Instagram and 33% of internet users 30-49 use Instagram.

Content: Photos and Videos. Instagram Stories (similar to Snapchat), Instagram Reels 15-60s videos in the same form as TikTok. Instagram Live features: go live for your followers and connect with the audience.

Engagement: Answer poll questions and reply to people’s Instagram stories. Comment on posts and videos, and a new recent edition allows polls on Instagram reels, allowing people to vote on the video and not through Instagram stories.

Brand Integration: Paid ads on the explore page, stories, and user feed. Live shows possibly show off products or show how one is taking action for a cause. Photo sharing makes it easy to share infographics for people to read and interact with.

Tumblr:

Type: Blogging platform and Social Network

Audience: Millennials and Gen Z are the main demographic, with 43% of US users being 18-24 years old and 33% of top users being 18-25.

Content: Share texts, photos, favorite quotes, links, chat, audio recordings, and videos with your followers. Go live on Tumblr and connect with your audience.

Engagement: Adding polls to your blog posts makes it easy for your audience to engage with your posts. Commenting, reblogging, and putting hashtags on the blogs help your blog post’s engagement grow with similar audiences.

Brand Integration: Get paid ads and put them on the side of the home page on Tumblr, go live to interact with your audience, and reblog other people’s posts to boost engagement.

TikTok:

Type: Short-form video-sharing service

Audience: 43% of TikTok’s global audience are 18-24.

Content: Sharing videos from 5 seconds to 10 minutes on the platform. Share yourself messing with tons of filters on it through the TikTok stories feature. Once you hit 1,000 followers, you can go live and possibly get seen on the Explore page.

Engagement: Create your filters and share them with others on the platform. Play games using other filters and put polls on your videos to drive up engagement.

Brand Integration: Create videos promoting your brand and your message. Get paid ads to appear on a user’s feed in their following and “for you” page. Sell something? Join the TikTok shop and sell your items. Remember, going live also helps boost engagement and shows the users who you are.

Starting with Instagram, it is the second most challenging platform to grow on. With the algorithm always being a complete mess and them no longer pushing pictures as much as they do with reels, it is hard. For my brand specifically, it would be the easiest to share infographics with my audience. They are easier to read and take less time to upload than Tumblr. The live feature is available immediately, making it more appealing as I could go live to discuss new news with my audience. The polls and Instagram stories are an excellent way to keep people connected with me and see what interests my audience on Tumblr, which is the most challenging platform to grow on compared to the rest. The algorithm favors certain people and hashtags; even then, you are lucky to get slightly noticed there. Being able to post blogs and set up a website is the most appealing thing about Tumblr, but I need to see myself going out of my way to use it. Lastly, TikTok is the most accessible platform to grow out of the bunch. The only downside to this platform is that you are limited to videos or photo slideshows. The photo slides never look good as it does not allow you to crop them to fit the entire phone screen within the app. Locking the live feature behind a certain number of followers (1000) does not help its case with me in the slightest. While it is straightforward to grow on, it has terrible moderation. Unlike the other two I’m comparing it to, it does not pledge to keep its users safe.