Author: Randy Slovacek

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Transphobic Lesbians Disrupt London Pride Parade

(image via Twitter)

This is just terrible. Not how our community should be acting.

According to Gay Star News, a group of transphobic lesbians commandeered the lead spot for the Pride Parade in London today, and handed out flyers protesting transgender folks.

A group of lesbian activists blocked the start of the Pride in London march today (7 July) in protest against transgender women. A group of eight women stormed the parade route without accreditation. Then five of them laid down on the road in front of the parade and draped a banner over them.

The banner read: ‘Transactivism erases lesbians’. They then blocked the parade route for about 10 minutes. One of the activists shouted out: ‘A man who says he’s a lesbian is a rapist.’

The group also had a banner that said ‘Lesbian = female homosexual’, as well as flyers with the organization ‘Get the L out’ as the headline.

PinkNews reports that at the end of the parade route, a confrontation erupted between the women and other LGBT attendees, angry that Pride had been led by a group seeking to exclude trans people.

One of the people involved in the confrontation told PinkNews, “They hate trans people, they hate sex workers … they are just as bad as bigots saying gay people go to hell. It’s disgusting, this is a problem with what Pride has become.”

The organizer of the parade, Pride In London, issued this statement:

“Every year, Pride is attended by hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrate that Pride still matters. Given the hot weather and in the interest of the safety for everyone attending today’s event, the parade group was allowed to move ahead.

“We do not condone their approach and message and hope the actions of a very small number people does not overshadow the messages of the 30,000 people marching today.”

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Contest: Win VIP Trip To LOVELOUD Music Festival Via AT&T Thanks Program

Download the AT&T Thanks app and enter to win a full paid VIP trip to the LOVELOUD Music Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah
Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds

Last month, I wrote about Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds’ annual music festival LOVELOUD which aims to raise money for LGBTQ charities and organizations like The Trevor Project and the Tegan and Sara Foundation.

This year the event takes place on July 28 featuring, in addition to Imagine Dragons, artists like Zedd, Grace Vanderwaal, Vagabon, and others  at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

“I think the LOVELOUD stage is the most important stage I will ever stand on,” the 30-year-old recently told Queerty. “The festival has helped facilitate vital conversation about what it means to truly love and accept our LGBTQ youth.”

AT&T has teamed up with Reynolds for the LOVELOUD festival as a sponsor.

A longtime LGBTQ ally, AT&T has generously donated $1 million this year to The Trevor Project, the nation’s leading organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth aged 10 – 24, and LGBTQ youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to their heterosexual peers.

In addition to the huge donation, the single largest in the 20-year history of The Trevor Project, AT&T will also donate more than $675,000 worth of AT&T products and services as well as technology & connectivity expertise.

For a chance to win a free VIP trip to the LOVELOUD festival including tickets, travel and accommodations, download the AT&T THANKS app and enter the sweepstakes on the app.

Plus, from July 11-16, 2018, AT&T THANKS will be running a Social LOVELOUD Giveaway Contest for 10 pairs of concert tickets to the show.

Customers are asked to share why they want to “Turn Up the Love” to enter for a chance to Win tickets to the LOVELOUD Festival.

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Trump Calls On Twitter To Delete New York Times & Washington Post As “Fake” Accounts

Donald Trump calls for Twitter to delete the accounts of the New York Times and the Washington Post for posting "fake news"
Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s Saturday morning tweet shared the news that Twitter is now suspending or deleting fake accounts at a much higher pace than ever before in an attempt to stave the flow of fake news.

For once, he actually tweeted something true. At least, the first sentence is true. Then he goes into his used-car salesman routine.

“Twitter is getting rid of fake accounts at a record pace. Will that include the Failing New York Times and propaganda machine for Amazon, the Washington Post, who constantly quote anonymous sources that, in my opinion, don’t exist – They will both be out of business in 7 years!” wrote the Trumpster.

Ironically, the tweet was clearly inspired by this story in the (ahem) Washington Post.

While Trump loves to say the ‘anonymous sources’ quoted by major newspapers and media outlets don’t really exist, the fact is the journalists at outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post love winning awards and being heralded for their work. And all it takes is one manufactured “quote” to ruin a lifetime of reputation.

No true journalist is going to commit professional suicide over Donald Trump. It’s just not going to happen.

People may make mistakes. And when it happens, we see outlets like the New York Times or the Washington Post print a retraction/correction.

Trump never admits, “Hey, I was wrong.”

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News Round-Up: July 6, 2018

InstaHunk Alex Abramov heads up this installment of The Randy Report's News Round-Up
(image via Instagram)

Some news stories you might have missed:

• InstaHunk Alex Abramov says, “The category is: Live. Work. Pose.”

• The New York Yankees are the only Major League Baseball team to not hold a Pride night this year.

• A barista at Starbucks has been fired for mocking a man who stutters. After stuttering on his name during his order, the barista replied, ‘Okay, S-s-s-sam.’ When he received his coffee, his name on the cup was written as ‘SSSAM.’

• Twitter is deleting over a million fake accounts a day – double the rate from last October.

• Scarlett Johansson cast herself in the role of a transgender man in the upcoming film, Rub & Tug, and folks are not happy about it.

• I’ve been meaning to post this really heartwarming viral video of four fathers attending Pride for the first time with their LGBTQ children.

Produced as an ad spot for Dublin Bus, its really beautiful seeing the kids faces upon hearing their dads were heading to Pride with them on a rainbow-colored bus. Watch the short spot below.

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Survey: 43% Of Gay People Would Be “Uncomfortable” Kissing Someone HIV+

A new survey shows 3 in 10 lesbian, gay or bisexual people (LGB) would ‘swipe left’ on a dating app to reject someone who is HIV positive even if those people are on effective treatment.

The research, conducted by YouGov for the UK-based Terrence Higgins Trust, showed 35% of respondents would reject someone who was openly HIV positive on dating apps like Tinder and Grindr.

Additionally, 31% admitted they didn’t know how they would react.

The deep dive into attitudes towards sex, relationships and HIV, reveals a disheartening level of bias caused in great part by a lack of understanding of HIV transmission.

Also from the survey:

• 43% said they would be uncomfortable kissing someone with HIV in spite of the fact that science has shown for decades HIV can’t be passed on through kissing

• 77% indicated they wouldn’t be comfortable having comdomless sex with someone HIV positive

• 55% said they don’t believe HIV positive people with undetectable viral loads can’t infect another person

The PARTNER study examined 58,000 instances of sex between an HIV positive person on effective treatment and a partner without HIV, and there were zero cases of HIV transmission.

Ian Green, chief executive at Terrence Higgins Trust, speaking to Pink News, said, “It’s truly devastating to hear that so many wouldn’t swipe right for or even kiss someone living with HIV who’s on effective treatment.

“We’ve known for three decades that HIV can’t be passed on through day-to-day contact and that includes kissing.”

Terrence Higgins Trust has launched their Can’t Pass It On campaign to promote the truth and science about HIV transmission and combat the stigma of HIV. The campaign gives people living with HIV a very easy way to inform and educate without having to get into specifics.

From the website: “By helping to spread the word and ensure that people know the facts about HIV and effective treatment, we hope to tackle stigma and remove the fear that often surrounds the virus.”

Here in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also agrees that undetectable = untransmittable.

Find out more about HIV transmission at www.tht.org.uk/cantpassiton

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Maine Governor Becomes 1st In Nation To Veto “Conversion Therapy” Bill

Maine Gov. Paul LePage

What a jackass.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed legislation that would have protected LGBTQ youth from the harmful practice of so-called “conversion therapy.”

In doing so, LePage becomes the first governor in the United States to veto such legislation.

The vetoed bill, LD 912, would have prohibited the advertising, offering or administering conversion therapy to individuals under 18 years of age in Maine as an unfair trade practice, penalizing mental health workers who engage in the practice with loss of their license.

Included in the bill was a carve-out for members of the clergy as long as they didn’t receive any monetary compensation.

LePage told state lawmakers in a statement he was concerned about the ‘religious liberty’ of parents to decide how and if their children are exposed to the dangerous practice.

This isn’t LePage’s first trip to the anti-LGBTQ rodeo.

In 2016, LePage famously left a profanities-laced voicemail message for a political opponent that included the use of the anti-gay slur “cocksucker.”

To date, 14 states – Connecticut, California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New York, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Washington, Maryland, Hawaii, New Hampshire – plus Washington, D.C. have enacted legislation to ban the widely discredited practice of “ex-gay” therapy.

Even in his own party, the Republican governor is woefully out of step.

GOP governors in New Jersey, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Maryland and New Hampshire have understood the dangers “conversion therapy” can have on young people.

Mainstream medical organizations including the American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all denounced the practice.

The Maine bill passed in the state House by 80-55 and in the Maine Senate 19-12 in a special legislative session last month.

LGBTQ advocacy organizations are calling for state lawmakers to override the governor’s veto.

Marty Rouse, HRC National Field Director, issued a statement which read, in part, “Governor LePage’s shameful decision to veto this life-saving legislation leaves Maine’s LGBTQ youth at risk of being subjected to a practice that amounts to nothing less than child abuse.”

“These crucial protections are supported by a bipartisan majority, and have been signed into law in a growing number of other states by both Democratic and Republican governors — including by the Republican governor in neighboring New Hampshire mere weeks ago.”

“With this inexcusable decision, Governor LePage has become the only governor in the nation to veto legislation protecting young people from this abuse, solidifying his place in history’s hall of shame.”

Janson Wu, executive director of GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders, called LePage’s veto a “heartless and dangerous action” that leaves LGBT lives at risk.

“Gov. LePage had an opportunity to protect Maine youth from these harms, and to ensure parents are not misled into subjecting their children to an unsafe and ineffective so-called ‘treatment,’” Wu said.

“Instead, the governor has sent a signal that the risk of hurting LGBTQ youth is acceptable.”

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New ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Reboot On The Way

It’s been 15 years since the last successful iteration of Charlie’s Angels, so Sony Pictures is thinking it’s time to call the angels back to action.

Last September, Deadline reported Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave, Black Panther) and Kristen Stewart (The Twilight Saga film franchise) were in preliminary talks for the film.

Sony has issued a statement saying casting is unconfirmed.

Elizabeth Banks is reportedly already signed on to direct and produce the film as well as take on the role of ‘Bosley.’ This would be the second film she’s helmed after directing Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015.

This week, PopSugar says Naomi Scott (Power Rangers), Stewart and Nyong’o are reportedly circling around the three leading roles.

The film has been slated for release June 7, 2019.

Lupita Nyong’o, Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott

Since the 1970s, audiences have shown an appetite for strong, gorgeous, badass women on dangerous missions.

It was in the fall of 1976 that ABC launched the original Charlie’s Angels series that eventually ran for 5 seasons. Starring Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, the show was an instant success.

Over the course of the following seasons, actresses Cheryl Ladd, Shelley Hack and Tanya Roberts replaced to varying degrees of success as Fawcett and Jackson departed.

Drew Barrymore spearheaded a successful reboot of the franchise as two feature films in 2000 and 2003, which also starred Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.

And in 2011, ABC revived the television series to tepid reviews, and canceled after only one season.

What do you think, readers? Is it time for a new incarnation of the iconic series?

Bonus: The website CharliesAngels.org has compiled a list of the ten gayest moments of the original series.

Some pretty stereotypical stuff – thankfully, gays have come a long way since those early years of TV ‘visibility.’

(photo credit: Gage Skidmore for Nyong’o and Stewart; Dominick D for Scott – CC license)

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Trump Lies About “Winning” Court Case Against ‘Democrat Crazies’

Donald Trump lied on Twitter again saying he "won" a lawsuit proving his campaign didn't collude with Russians on the 2016 presidential campaign. In reality, the case was dismissed for being in the wrong jurisdiction.
Donald Trump

Donald Trump took to Twitter today to, yet again, lie and contort facts.

In his post, the Trumpster seems to be gloating that he “Just won lawsuit filed by the DNC and a bunch of Democrat crazies trying to claim the Trump Campaign (and others), colluded with Russia.”

“They haven’t figured out that this was an excuse for them losing the election,” he added.

Now, there was a court case filed against Trump, but that’s about the only nugget of truth in his tweet.

The case was not brought by the Democratic National Committee but by two DNC donors and a former staffer.

The trio allege that Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russian agents and WikiLeaks to publish emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee.

Trump didn’t ‘win’ the case, it was dismissed by federal Judge Ellen Huvelle on the grounds that, in her opinion, the case belonged not in federal court but in New York state courts where alleged meetings between campaign staffers and Russian agents are said to have taken place.

The judge pointedly wrote that her ruling was “not based on a finding that there was no collusion between defendants and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.”

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NYC: Video Highlights From Encores’ “Songs For A New World”

I know my theater folks are going to go for this.

Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World recently returned to the New York City stage via the Encores! Off-Center production where performances ran through June 30.

Colin Donnell, Solea Pfeiffer, Mykal Kilgore, and a luminous Shoshana Bean make up the quartet of vocal superstars tasked with singing Brown’s song cycle, originally produced off-Broadway in 1995.

The central theme of the show underscores the idea that even when everything seems stable and certain, there is “one moment” that can upend and change anyone’s life.

The original off-Broadway cast featured now-Tony Award winner Billy Porter, as well as Broadway veterans Brooks Ashmanskas, Andréa Burns, and Jessica Molaskey.

The Encores production featured direction by Kate Whoriskey. You can check out samples from “Stars and the Moon,” “I’m Not Afraid of Anything,” “I’d Give It All for You,” and many more below.

Back in the 90s, this was THE show that all the young theater kids wanted to sing from.

I have to include at least one song from the show.

While Billy Porter, now currently starring in the FX series Pose, was in the original off-Broadway cast of the show, his record label didn’t allow him to participate in the original cast recording.

Years later, in his fantastic one-man-show At The Corner of Broadway and Soul at the Public Theater, Porter revived his performance of “King of the World.”

Thankfully, Porter released a recording of that concert in full. Singing from some form of prison, either literal or metaphorical, a man demands that he be freed and returned to his rightful place as a leader of men.

Listen below.

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Ohio Congressman Denies Turning Blind-Eye To Sex Abuse

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio

Rep. Jim Jordan, a powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, has been accused of turning a blind-eye to sex abuse during his tenure as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University.

In April, the university began an investigation into allegations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who served as the team doctor, sexually abused team members from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s.

Strauss died in 2005.

Jordan, who served as assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1986 to 1994, has publicly denied any knowledge of the abuse.

But his denials have been called out as lying by former members of the wrestling team.

Three former Ohio State wrestlers have come forward saying it was “common knowledge” that the doctor regularly showered with the athletes and touched them inappropriately during appointments. They say its impossible Jordan would not have known about the abuse. One player says he told Jordan about the abuse himself.

From NBC News:

Former head coach Russ Hellickson, Jordan’s mentor, said in a recent video — made by Mike DiSabato, a former wrestler — that Hellickson had told Strauss that he was being too “hands on” with students.

DiSabato, whose allegations against Strauss prompted Ohio State to open its investigation, called Jordan a “liar.”

“I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” DiSabato said. “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”

DiSabato said he reached out to Jordan this year, before going to the university, to tell Jordan that he planned to go public with his allegations. Jordan told him to “please leave me out of it,” DiSabato said. “He asked me not to get him involved.”

Another former wrestler, Dunyasha Yetts, told NBC News he informed Jordan himself about an awkward incident with the doctor in the mid-1990s.

“I remember I had a thumb injury and went into Strauss’ office and he started pulling down my wrestling shorts,” he said. “I’m like, what the f— are you doing? And I went out and told Russ and Jim what happened. I was not having it. They went in and talked to Strauss.”

According to Yetts, he and his teammates went to Jordan several times about Strauss.

“So it’s sad for me to hear that he’s denying knowing about Strauss,” he said. “I don’t know why he would, unless it’s a cover-up. Either you’re in on it, or you’re a liar.”

“Congressman Jordan never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State,” a spokesman for Jordan wrote in an email to NBC News.

After the NBC News story was published, Jordan’s rep added: “He has not been contacted by investigators about the matter but will assist them in any way they ask, because if what is alleged is true, the victims deserve a full investigation and justice.”

Another Ohio State wrestler, former UFC world champion Mark Coleman, has come forward telling the Wall Street Journal Jordan was aware of, but didn’t respond to, the allegations of sexual misconduct.

“There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State,” Coleman said in an interview Friday.

DiSabato, however, has forwarded to NBC News an email he sent Jordan on April 24 asking Jordan to “give your full attention to the information attached to this email.”

“We [are] watching you, “ wrote DiSabato. “You have the platform to cut through the double talk, placation and finger pointing.”

Jordan never responded.

Based on testimony from athletes in 15 varsity sports over the years, DiSabato estimates Strauss sexually assaulted and/or raped around 1,500/2,000 athletes at OSU from 1978 through 1998.

Jordan is a staunch ally of Donald Trump and is rumored to be a contender for Speaker of the House after Paul Ryan retires early next year.

Regarding the Ohio State scandal, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, “I believe him 100 percent.”