1. “We have too many important things to do when our men and women are out there fighting the enemy, the last thing we need to be doing is saying, ‘What would it be like if we introduced several transgender people into this platoon?’ Give me a break. Deal with the transgender thing somewhere else.” GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson used his words again at a veterans and military town hall in Iowa on Saturday. He also called for the return of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, asking why gay people “have to go around flaunting [their] sexuality.”
2. Incoming Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that he will issue an executive order protecting LGBT state employees from discrimination.
3. Bustle takes a look at queer-friendly streetwear brand Flavnt who plan on introducing swimwear for non-binary and transmasculine people.
4. Buzzfeed has 26 times trans people ruled in 2015.
5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: Jonathan Van Ness of “Gay of Thrones” fame now has a bi-monthly web series called “Gay of Everything.” Here’s the first one, “War & Stuff.”