Author: Randy Slovacek

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Houston Man Attacked/Beaten Walking Home From Bar

Christopher Bradford

A gay man was violently beaten by a group of attackers as he walked home from a bar in the Montrose area of Houston.

Seconds before the brutal beating, Christopher Bradford says he remembers hearing footsteps running behind him.

From ABC13:

“Someone grabbed me from behind (and) threw me to the ground,” Bradford said. “I was getting punched, kicked, and then, belt buckles we’re flying at me.”

Bradford said the attacker used the buckle end of a belt to hit him while he was down.

“Got me across the side of my head and I got four metal staples. They hit me with a rock in the forehead,” he said.

Bradford said many people were around, but no one helped. He was on the phone with a friend when the beating started and that friend drove up, scaring the attackers off.

“There was blood everywhere. It was in my eyes. I couldn’t see,” he said.

He believed the attackers targeted him because he’s gay.

“I kept asking why. I was like, ‘What did I do? Why are you hitting me?'”

Caleb Tout (mugshot)

The suspect, Caleb Tout, 19, was later arrested. He reportedly told officers he was drinking and beat Bradford because he was looking for someone else who allegedly exposed themselves to Tout’s girlfriend.

“You really don’t know the intention behind it. One of them was laughing. They were getting amusement out of this,” Bradford said.

Bradford says coming out of this incident, he’s learned a lesson he’ll never forget.

“I will never walk home alone. That’s never going to happen again,” he said.

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NY State: Town Clerk Denies Gay Couple Marriage License

Sherrie Eriksen (image via Facebook)

Sherrie Eriksen, a town clerk in Root, New York, this week denied a marriage license to a gay couple based on her religious beliefs. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says he is investigating.

Dylan Toften, one of the men seeking the license wrote on his Facebook: “Town of Root clerk is a bigot!!!! Refused to do our marriage license. She said make an appointment to have her deputy do it… do your job.”

The Daily Gazette spoke with Town Attorney Robert Subik who said:

“Sherrie didn’t process the two men’s marriage license application because they failed to make an appointment with her, as everyone is required by her office to do. She has a religious objection and has referred the matter to her deputy clerk, who has no such objection and will issue the license when they make an appointment. The clerks are both part-time and don’t man the office Monday through Friday. Of course, the two men are free to go to another jurisdiction to obtain their license.”

Gov. Cuomo has asked that an investigation be launched to look into the matter.

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Florida Press ‘Outs’ 13 Men Arrested In Back Room Raid

Last week, police in Hollywood, Florida, raided an adult book store and arrested 13 men who were having consensual sex in a private back room.

Undercover police officers went to the trouble of paying $25 to enter the private back rooms at the Pleasure Emporium. Finding men engaging in oral sex and masturbation, 13 men were arrested.

In the aftermath of the arrests, news outlets reported on the incident revealing the names, ages and mugshots of the men to the public.

From The Miami New Times:

Abbie Cuellar, a lawyer for one of the 13 men, told New Times her client has already been fired from his job in the medical field after his arrest at Pleasure Emporium.

Even worse, her client fled Cuba 20 years ago after being persecuted there for being gay. Since moving to the States, he had not come out to his co-workers. Cueller said the arrest — and the local media’s lurid coverage — outed her client and has pushed him into depression. New Times is not naming Cuellar’s client because of the harm the arrest has already done.

“He was persecuted in Cuba because of his sexuality,” Cuellar says. “He was thrown out of his home and thrown out of school because he was gay. He fled as a result and thought America was going to be this beacon of ‘freedom.’ He now basically has lost everything he has worked for… He is horribly suicidal.”

In a statement, a Hollywood police spokesman defended last week’s raid, calling the locked, private rooms that you have to pay to get into at Pleasure Emporium a “public space.”

As LGBTQNation points out, “indecent exposure in Florida has to occur in a public place or somewhere that can be viewed from a public place.”

Anyone who drives all the way to the Pleasure Emporium, enters the adult bookstore, and purchases a $25 ticket for the backroom could hardly be “worried” that other people would have sex around them.

“Clearly, this was a private setting within a private setting — you would have to pay to get into it,” Cuellar says. “It’s not in a residential neighborhood. There’s no danger a kid would ever walk past, even. The fact that they’ve been made out to be these sexual deviants, I feel like I’m back in the 1960s! I don’t understand the point of this arrest other than smearing and humiliating these men.”

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WH Press Secretary Dodges Question On The Press Being “The Enemy Of The People”

At a White House press briefing, CNN’s Jim Acosta repeatedly asked White House press secretary Sarah Sanders to say the press isn’t the enemy of the American people. She didn’t.

“I’m tired of this. It is not right,” Acosta said afterward, expressing frustration after days of tense anti-press rhetoric. “It is not fair. It is not just. It is un-American to come out here and call the press the enemy of the people. And Ivanka Trump knows that. I don’t know why her father doesn’t.”

WH

Acosta followed up with his thoughts later on CNN:

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New Music: Robyn “Missing U”

Robyn

Swedish popstar Robyn is pop music royalty when it comes to making contemporary electronic synth pop. And the princess of EMD  just dropped her first single, “Missing U,” from her upcoming album.

The upbeat, synth-heavy track explores the yearning for someone who’s gone.

The Swedish-born artist said of the new track: “‘Missing U’ is a song about this trippy thing that happens when people disappear, it’s like they become even more clear and you see them everywhere.”

Written and recorded in Paris and Stockholm, the track re-teams Robyn with collaborators Joseph Mount (Metronomy) Klas Åhlund (Charli XCX, Madonna).

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Special Counsel Again Requests To Interview Trump On Obstruction Of Justice

Donald Trump

According to ABC News, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested to interview Donald Trump regarding issues pertaining to obstruction of justice.

ABC News reports:

According to sources, the president learned within the last day that the special counsel will limit the scope of questioning and would like to ask questions both orally and written for the President to respond to.

According to sources familiar with the President’s reaction Wednesday morning, that was the genesis for his early morning tweet storm. Negotiations over a potential presidential interview have gone on for months, through several different iterations of the Trump legal team.

You’ll note Trump now says Manafort “worked for me for a very short time.”

When he won the election, he hailed Manafort’s great work.

Here’s the Twitter rant referenced in the ABC News report.

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Appeals Court Rules Against Trump’s Withholding of Federal Funds For Sanctuary Cities

Donald Trump

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Donald Trump’s executive order to withhold funds from so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ to be unconstitutional.

The ruling notes that federal funds can only be withheld by Congressional authorization.

Via Politico:

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that federal funding could be withheld only with congressional authorization. The appeals court also noted that the U.S. District Court went too far by blocking the policy nationwide, and sent back the case for “reconsideration and further findings.”

“We conclude that, under the principle of Separation of Powers and in consideration of the Spending Clause, which vests exclusive power to Congress to impose conditions on federal grants, the Executive Branch may not refuse to disperse the federal grants in question without congressional authorization,” a three-member panel of the 9th Circuit said in its 2-to-1 ruling.

Trump signed an executive order in January 2017 that dealt with interior immigration enforcement. The 9th Circuit on Wednesday ruled against a provision that limited funding to jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement — also known as sanctuary cities.

The executive order focused on a federal statute that prohibits federal, state and local officials from restricting the sharing of information related to an individual’s immigration or citizenship status. While the appeals court didn’t rule on that statute, U.S.C. 1373, a Chicago-based federal judge in late July found it unconstitutional in separate lawsuit over withholding of federal grants over immigration enforcement. That ruling was limited to the city of Chicago, the plaintiff in the case.

The Justice Department issued a statement Wednesday condemning the ruling as a “victory for criminal aliens in California” and said the department will continue to be committed to “keeping criminal aliens off the streets.”

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UPDATED: Rejected By Parents, Homeless Gay Teen Becomes Co-Valedictorian

Seth Owen

UPDATE: Since the LGBTQ media covered Seth’s story, the GoFundMe campaign has raised over $111,000 to help Seth in his college journey at Georgetown University. #HappyDance!

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Just about everyone’s senior year of high school is fraught with stress, obstacles and challenges.

But its safe to say most teens don’t have the year Seth Owen just faced.

In the middle of his sophomore year in Jacksonville, Florida, his father decided to take an unapproved dive into his son’s cell phone, and in doing so realized Owen was gay.

His “Christian” parents gave him an ultimatum: submit to so-called “conversion therapy” counseling and attend their anti-LGBTQ church or leave the house.

Speaking to News4Jax, Owen explained, “They made it clear the intention was to make me straight.”

While he continued to live with his parents, Seth found reasons to stay away from home. From after-school programs to swimming, Owen says he felt like he was “doing something good with the struggle instead of doing something damaging.”

When he finally put his foot down about the anti-LGBTQ church, he was forced to move out this past February with no financial or emotional support from his parents.

“I was really, really upset,” Owen shares. “It was extremely hurtful to know that I was walking out that door not knowing what lay ahead and feeling I don’t know how to explain it, it was devastating, absolutely devastating.”

Sleeping on friends couches and holding down jobs to support himself, Owen did what seems almost impossible: he maintained a 4.16 GPA becoming the co-valedictorian of First Coast High School’s class of 2018.

Owen had already been accepted to Georgetown University receiving a $50,000 scholarship. But, the remaining $27,000 of the $77,000 annual tuition was to be covered by his parents.

With no support in sight from his parents, one of Owen’s teachers created a crowd funding campaign to help the 18-year old. (Please hit the link and donate even a small amount).

“I don’t think thank you is good enough,” Owen says. “Of course I am extremely grateful, but I think thank you doesn’t say it. Now it’s time to pay it forward.”

With an inspiring attitude, Owen says he plans to become a defense attorney for neglected teens who find themselves in situations like his.

Watch the report from News4Jax below.

UPDATE: A Georgetown University spokesperson reached out after I published this report with this statement:

“Georgetown University admits and enrolls students without regard to their financial circumstances and is committed to meeting the demonstrated financial need of eligible students through a combination of aid programs that include grants, scholarships, employment and loans from federal, state, private, and University resources. While we cannot comment on any individual case, we work closely with students whose financial circumstances change after admission to modify financial aid assistance and ensure they can still enroll regardless of their ability to pay.”