1. Pentagon spokesperson Dana White has confirmed that Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis this week will recommend to President Trump allowing transgender troops to serve in the U.S. military despite his previous calls for a ban. While Mattis had set a deadline to meet with the President by Wednesday, White told reporters, “This is a complex issue, and the secretary is taking his time to consider the information he’s been given.”
2. Bruce Minor, a GOP candidate for Illinois state representative, is under fire from fellow Republicans amid claims that he asked African-American attorney general candidate Erika Harold whether she was a “lesbo” and also used a racial slur in a conversation with her.
3. The Washington Post explores five myths about domestic violence, revealing the disturbing statistic that for gay men, “the lifetime prevalence of severe physical violence by an intimate partner (e.g., hit with fist or something hard, slammed against something, or beaten)” is 16.4 percent.
4. Rosie O’Donnell has already sold out of her first dozen pieces of signed, handmade anti-Trump prints on Etsy, vowing to match money earned and donate it to “anti-Trump candidates and causes.” The out comedian and “SMILF” star says she will keep creating and selling the original pieces until Trump is out of office.
5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: The coming-of-age film “Every Day,” which challenges gender roles, opens in theaters today, and the cast and openly gay director, Michael Sucsy, remind LGBTQ youth to hold on because it gets better.