James Lantz, a 64-year-old gay man with terminal cancer — known online as the “Angry Gay Grandpa” — has been ordered to pay $16,575 in damages and a $200 fine after gluing his hand to a railing in the Pennsylvania State Capitol last year to protest anti-transgender lawmakers. The Burlington, Vermont, resident was initially charged with two felonies — institutional vandalism and criminal mischief — along with a misdemeanor offense.
Lantz later accepted a plea deal in which prosecutors reduced the vandalism charge to a misdemeanor. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, agreed to pay restitution for damage to the railing and nearby seating in the State Senate’s visitors’ gallery, and will serve a year on probation, according to PennLive.
Speaking in court, Lantz told Dauphin County Judge William Tully, Lantz said he glued his hand to the railing in the Pennsylvania Senate chamber to protest lawmakers whom he believes have endangered transgender lives through anti-LGBTQ legislation.
“I felt that if the cycle could be interrupted by even by one voice, one story — we might save a life — here, or nationally,” Lantz said. “Time, I believed, was of the essence. I knew I had to act. I also knew my time was limited. I have stage 4 cancer.”
Lantz told Tully he is a documentary filmmaker concerned about the well-being of gay and trans youth, whom he said are being ignored by the media and broader culture.
“I remember what I endured as a closeted teen in the 1970s,” he said. “I don’t want to see another LGBTQ kid die by suicide. Our kids are suffering — physically, mentally and emotionally. And I did what I felt I had to do.”
Lantz said five transgender youths died by suicide in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, over an 18-month stretch between 2022 and 2024. He said he reached out to State Sen. Ryan Aument (R–East Hempfield Township) — who represents the county and has sponsored a slate of anti-LGBTQ legislation — to discuss the deaths, but the senator never responded.
On April 29, 2024, Lantz traveled to the State Capitol in Harrisburg to draw attention to his concerns. From the fourth-floor visitors’ gallery, he disrupted a Senate session for several minutes — shouting at Aument, throwing flyers onto the Senate floor, and gluing his hand to the railing.
“I just wanted to be heard peacefully,” Lantz said in court while entering his guilty plea.
Prosecutors with the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office, however, took issue with his protest.
“Our office disagrees that damaging property is a form of peaceful protest,” said Alisa Davidson, a prosecutor with the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office, in an interview with PennLive.
Davidson said the plea agreement was fair, as it recovered money spent on repairs. She submitted an itemized list of expenses tied to the damage Lantz allegedly caused: $3,775 to remove glue from the railing, $11,250 to replace carpet, and $1,550 to repair the railing’s wood trim. She said the costs were high because the chair, carpet, and railing were historic antiques, which inflated their value.
“Our main focus was getting back taxpayer dollars,” Davidson added.
Despite pleading guilty, Lantz objected to the restitution he was ordered to pay, arguing that the state seemed to value the cost of a historic chair more than the lives of five transgender youth.
Judge Tully also expressed skepticism about the high cost of repairs but said he was not qualified to appraise historical property and ultimately imposed the sentence and fine.
“You have a right to free speech,” he told Lantz. “But you can’t force people to listen.”
While Lantz accepted his guilty plea, Mark Clutterbuck — a Lancaster County resident whose 22-year-old son, Ashton, was one of the transgender youths Lantz referenced as having died by suicide — sat in the courtroom gallery in support. At a press conference after the hearing, Clutterbuck read aloud an op-ed Ashton had written and published on LancasterOnline months before his death.
“To politicians (and others who are) advocating and propagating hatred against the LGBTQ+ community, I implore you: Why are you so scared of us? Why do you hold so much hate?” Ashton had written in response to laws proposed by Republicans to restrict transgender rights or erase transgender visibility.
“Your actions cannot change who we are. The only thing you can change is your own attitude toward us,” he added. “Restricting access to gender-affirming care and other protections won’t make kids ‘less transgender.’ It will only exacerbate their emotional and mental distress. These laws do not protect children. They kill children.”
A fundamentalist church in Indianapolis is defending a June 29 sermon in which a lay preacher urged congregants to pray for LGBTQ people to die and suggested they kill themselves.
The remarks, delivered by Stephen Falco during a “Men’s Preaching Night” at Sure Foundation Baptist Church, included multiple homophobic slurs, biblical references, and rants against Pride Month, LGBTQ rights, and what he called “disgusting” and “evil” behavior, according to TheIndianapolis Star.
"Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate f****ts? Because they attack children," Falco ranted in the sermon, video of which was posted to Sure Foundation Baptist Church's YouTube channel. "They're coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools, in public places, and they're proud about it!
WorldPride participants share why Pride still matters, what issues drive them, and why visibility remains vital in today’s political climate.
By André Hereford, Ryan Leeds, and John Riley
June 21, 2025
WorldPride DC on Sunday, June 8, 2025 - Photo: Randy Shulman / Metro Weekly
Interviewed on Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8, 2025, at the WorldPride Street Festival, Parade, and March for Freedom.
Nic Ashe
Los Angeles, Ca.
Queer, He/Him
Why did you come to WorldPride?
I've been following WorldPride through the lens of Black queerness, namely with a focus on Christianity and religion. Early in my life, when I think about the first times that I was learning that queer may be a pejorative or that being gay was "not good," it was through my church upbringing. So I was very curious to find if there were examples in 2025 of those two oxymoronic opposing forces existing in harmony.
A Christian high school in California went out of its way to recruit a talented baseball player, and then rejected him because he has two gay dads.
Caleb Degala-Burnett, a recently graduated eighth grader from Union City, was invited to a high-level scouting event for the Class of 2029–2030, where 20 top prospects participated in a pro-style workout and game. According to statistical analysis, he had the fastest outfield throw in his class. The website Perfect Game rates him a "college prospect" and a potential pro draft pick "with development."
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