TLC Scholarship Fund

05/21/2026

Cher met her first gay men at 9 years old, walked into her living room, and thought: "Where have they been hiding these guys?" She turns 80 today, and she's spent the last seven decades answering that question by making sure we were never hidden again.

In 1979, she brought drag queens onto her Las Vegas stage when no mainstream star would touch q***r culture. She played a le***an in Silkwood when Hollywood barely acknowledged we existed. She fought publicly for her son Chaz when he came out as transgender, admitting it scared her at first but showing up fiercely anyway.

When critics attacked Chaz on Dancing with the Stars, Cher told them on national television that she had no "magic words" to soothe their fear of her child.

When the LGBTQ community kept showing up for her through every career reinvention, she told us simply: "You guys never left me."

80 years of fearlessness. Happy birthday to the only icon who earned the title by actually showing up for us - every single time.

05/21/2026

"The White House, asked about the prospect of payments to rioters convicted of violent offenses and why the fund totals exactly $1.776 billion, referred questions to the Justice Department. The department did not respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

For former prosecutors and investigators who built cases against the rioters, the figure reads as a deliberate signal.

“So many of them use the rhetoric of the American Revolution to justify their actions,” said Tim Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney who was chief investigative counsel for the House Jan. 6 committee. “It’s an alternate universe that there would be any credible claim that they are entitled to damages.”"

The fund is open to people convicted of attacking the Capitol, including those who assaulted police. Its dollar figure echoes the rioters’ rallying cry.