Author: Randy Slovacek

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Donald Trump Issues Full Pardons For Convicted Oregon Arsonists

Steven Hammond (L) and Dwight Hammond Jr. (R)

You may recall the sad tale of Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond who, in 2012, were convicted in of arson.

The two men were sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 for setting fire to public land over a dispute regarding grazing rights for their cattle. The incident escalated giving rise to an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Today, the White House announced that Donald Trump has commuted the mens’ sentences calling them ‘devoted family men’ and ‘respected contributors to their local community.’

From the White House:

The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West. Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency.

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Viral Video: Racist Attacks Woman Wearing Puerto Rico Shirt As Cop Does Nothing

Drunk man accosts woman in Illinois

Trump Nation strikes again.

In a video that captured the attention of the Twitterverse this morning, a police officer stands by silent nothing as a woman setting up for a birthday party is harassed in a public park for wearing a shirt with the Puerto Rican flag.

The woman, Mia Irizarry, recorded the assault and posted it to her Facebook on June 14.

Accosting the woman, the harasser (who appears to be drunk) yells at the woman for wearing the shirt telling her, ‘You should be wearing the American flag.’

Throughout the ordeal the man gets in the woman’s face who even as she stays calm while recording the incident.

She calls out to a police officer seen in the background of the video who can clearly see what is happening. But the officer just wanders off.

“Officer, I feel highly uncomfortable. Can you please grab him? Please, officer,” she says. The man continues ranting, while the officer doesn’t acknowledge Mia Irizarry’s call for help.

Watch below the stunning video below.

You can watch the full 36 minute video on Facebook here. It is astonishing how the officer does nothing to aid the woman.

The harasser was eventually arrested & charged with assault & disorderly conduct.

The officer was identified as working for Forest Preserves of Cook County in Illinois.

CBS News correspondent David Begnaud shared the video this morning and it immediately went viral.

Begnaud followed up with a video report via Twitter confirming the man was eventually arrested for public intoxication and

The police officer who refused to intercede has been put on desk duty for now.

Begnaud reached out to the agency that employs the officer and received no response. But a half hour after his contact, the agency released this statement:

“All people are welcome in the Forest Preserves of Cook County and no one should feel unsafe while visiting our preserves. After the June 14 incident, we immediately launched an investigation pursuant to our personnel policies into the response of our officer. The investigation is ongoing and the officer involved has been assigned to desk duty pending the outcome. The intoxicated individual involved in the incident was arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct.”

As Begnaud notes in his video report, the agency didn’t address the issue with the public until the video took off on Twitter earlier today.

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Poll: Millennials Support LGBTQs But There’s One Surprise In The Results

New polling shows millennials support LGBTQ equality by solid majorities except one surprising result
(Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels)

A recent nationwide survey of 1,750 millennials (ages 18 to 34) found solid support for LGBTQ rights and protections, with one eyebrow raising piece of data.

Political science professor Cathy Cohen facilitates the bimonthly GenForward poll and focused the June survey on LGBT issues, titled Millennial Views on LGBT Issues: Race, Identity, and Morality.

Cohen shared her thoughts on the results in an essay with The Advocate.

To a great degree, the results were encouraging.

Of those polled, 14% identified as “something other than heterosexual.”

While a majority of respondents say they know someone who is gay, lesbian or bisexual, only 22% of millennials of color and 37% of white millennials say they know someone who is transgender.

As we’ve seen throughout the past few decades, its visibility that helps move LGBTQ rights and respect forward.

When it comes to LGBTQ equality, a majority of millennials either “strongly” or “somewhat” favor adoption by LGBTQ folks, legal protections to prevent discrimination in the workplace, allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military, increasing government spending on HIV/AIDS and accepting more LGBTQ immigrants from countries with hostile policies towards our community.

There was widespread support for reducing violent hate crime and LGBTQ bullying. However, according to the survey, 53% of African-American millennials and 50% of Latinx millennials feel the issues LGBTQ people face today are different than those promoted by mainstream LGBTQ organizations.

Contrast that to white (58%) and Asian-American (50%) millennials who say everyone benefits when mainstream LGBTQ organizations strive for human rights.

The one eyebrow raising piece of data emerged from the question, “Has homosexuality led to a deterioration of morality in this country?”

A majority disagreed with the statement, but a surprising 41% agreed.

Wait, what?

And – 21% of the LGBTQ respondents agreed as well.

So, one-in-five LGBTQ millennials believe their own sexuality is a negative when it comes to morality in the United States?

Is this self-loathing in action?

Cohen noted that that question was the only occurrence of the word “homosexuality” in the survey. She hypothesizes that the word itself is still a trigger in American culture as “something bad and deviant.”

She also wondered if “homosexuality” might hold a different meaning for millennials than LGBTQ which is used more and more in social media.

Cohen concludes by writing, “It should remind us of all the work that remains to be done and how little we should take for granted when it comes to educating young people about the reality of LGBTQ lives, especially the lives of young queers of color.”

Check out the full essay at The Advocate.

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Trump Nominates Judge Brett Kavanaugh To Succeed Justice Kennedy On Supreme Court

Ending wide-spread speculation, Donald Trump tonight nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit where he has served since 2006.

The 53-year-old was also a clerk for now-retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who he will possibly replace.

Watch the nomination announcement below.

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News Round-Up: July 9, 2018

(image via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk and biologist Daniel Kfir (above) is serving up one serious selfie to start the week. #woof

• A new study in Italy shows children of gay and lesbian couples showed fewer psychological problems than those of heterosexuals.

• Over the weekend, a straight teen who was ejected from the iconic Stonewall Inn in New York City bashed in the front window with a baseball bat. See? Straight parents… #asshole

• Donald Trump’s personal driver of 25 years is suing the president for 3,300 hours of unpaid overtime. The law suit is asking for $178,000. According to TMZ, the last time the driver got a raise, from $68K to $75K, he had to forfeit his healthcare insurance that was worth $18K. Once again, there’s the Trumpster screwing over the average guy.

• Australian actor Guy Pearce now regrets mentioning how ‘handsy’ Kevin Spacey got with him.

• In a recent episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix, Ellen DeGeneres shares candidly about coming out 20 years ago and the severe impact it had on her career.

You’ll recall when the comedienne came out in 1997, ABC cancelled her sitcom. It was a rough ride from there.

“When I lost the sitcom, I didn’t work for three years solid until I got the show, the talk show,” DeGeneres tells Seinfeld. “I was bitter and sad and angry. How did this change everything, just by me being honest and saying I’m gay? Why is this such a shock to people? Why is it such a big deal?”

You can catch the episode on Netflix now.

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LGBTQ Activists Put Pride Flag On Parade Hidden In Plain Sight – “The Hidden Flag”

LGBT activists are parading the banned rainbow flag around Russia during the World Cup by hiding the flag in plain sight

Since Russia has a ban on ‘gay propaganda’ – which would include even a simple rainbow flag – these LGBTQ activists have undertaken a subversive mission to share the colors of pride.

Calling themselves ‘The Hidden Flag,’ they are proudly parading our Pride colors around Russia in plain sight.

Clever, kids, clever 🙂

From the official website:

We have taken advantage of the fact the country is hosting the World Cup at the same time as Pride Month, to denounce their behaviour and take the rainbow flag to the streets of Russia.

Yes, in the plain light of day, in front of the Russian authorities, Russian society and the whole world, we wave the flag with pride.

How? In a way that no one would ever suspect. Football shirts.

Spain, The Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. Six countries. Six brave LGBT activists, that together, form the flag that toured around iconic sites in Russia, traveling to every corner to fight against a struggle that will never be silenced.

In a scary moment, one member of the group was detained at the airport as he was leaving Russia. But after 15 hours, he was allowed to continue home.

Mateo Fernandez told Gay Star News, “When we were doing it, I was scared shitless.”

But added, “It was completely worth it.”

Head over to the Hidden Flag website for lots more photos.

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Music Video: Sofi Tukker “Good Time Girl” Feat. Charlie Baker

Wow – busy day today and I was just thinking, we need some new music to groove to.

Sometimes, you ask, you get.

Sofi Tukker drops the music video for “Good Time Girl” today featuring Charlie Barker from the debut album Treehouse

“This is a really personal, tongue-in-cheek song about navigating this nebulous thing called a ‘casual relationship,'” the pair say about the track.

Come along, take a ride with the gang floating down the river on Charlie’s London houseboat. The track has a chill, ethereal quality but definitely bops.

“We really identify with the queer community because of how much it revolves about being yourself, especially when that means going against the grain,” the duo recently told Gay Times Magazine. “It is so joyous and uplifting – and so great for creating!”

I’ve previously written about the band here.

I agree. Check the bop below.

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Documentary: ‘Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood’

From the official synopsis:

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is the deliciously scandalous story of Scotty Bowers, a handsome ex-Marine who landed in Hollywood after World War II and became confidante, aide-de-camp and lover to many of Hollywood’s greatest male—and female—stars.

In the 1940s and ‘50s, Scotty ran a gas station in the shadow of the studio lots where he would connect his friends with actors and actresses who had to hide their true sexual identities for fear of police raids at gay bars, societal shunning and career suicide. An unsung Hollywood legend, Bowers would cater to the sexual appetites of celebrities—straight and gay–for decades.

The list of A-list celebrities Bowers attended to reads like a who’s who of golden age Hollywood. Rock Hudson, Cole Porter, Cary Grant, and Katharine Hepburn were among the stars Bowers reportedly catered to.

The documentary is based on the New York Times best-selling memoir Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars.

After having a successful run on the film festival circuit, the film opens in Los Angeles on July 27 and on August 3 in NYC.

Watch the trailer below.

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Former President Carter: Jesus Would Approve Of Gay Marriage

Former President Jimmy Carter
(photo credit: Commonwealth Club / CC license)

In a recent interview with HuffPost Live, former President Jimmy Carter shared he believes that Jesus would approve of same-sex marriage.

Promoting his book Faith: A Journey For All, Carter was asked by journalist Marc Lamont how his religious background aligns with the concept of marriage equality.

“That’s no problem with me,” he said. “I think everyone should have a right to get married regardless of their sex.”

The only conflict Carter says he holds regarding the issue would be if a church were forced to perform same-sex marriages which conflicted with that church’s teachings. This, of course, has never happened.

“But those two partners should be able to go to the local courthouse, or to a different church, and get married,” he added.

The 39th president did say abortion was a moral “problem” for him.

“I have a hard time believing that Jesus, for instance, would approve of abortions unless it was because of rape or incest or if the mother’s life was in danger.”

Carter admitted that while he has long held a conflict on the issue he ‘went along with that” because his “oath of office was to obey the Constitution and the laws of this country, as interpreted by the Supreme Court.”

Lamont pivoted back to the topic of marriage asking point-blank, “Would Jesus have approved of gay marriage?”

The 93-year-old didn’t hesitate in answering. “I believe he would,” Carter said. “I believe Jesus would. I don’t have any verse and scripture.”

“Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere, and was not damaging to anyone else,” he added. “And I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.”

A longtime ally, Carter campaigned on the idea that “homosexuals should not be singled out for discrimination.”

After winning election, in 1977 Carter became the first sitting president to invite LGBTQ advocates to the White House.

He also shared in 2010 that he feels the United States is ready for an openly gay president.