Author: Randy Slovacek

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News Round-Up: February 26, 2021

Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons

Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons
Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons (photo via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • KTNV: Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds (above) is donating his childhood home in Las Vegas to help LGBTQ youth. Reynolds’ home will serve as Nevada’s first-ever Encircle Resource Center which helps more than 70,000 kids and their families each year. • Instinct Magazine: Benjamin Davis has been charged with capital murder in the death of a man Harris County deputies said he targeted for robbery. His tool? The gay dating app Grindr. • Kenneth-in-the-212: Check out the weekly round-up of the what’s what in LGBTQ publications like Wilson Lai (below) covering DNA Magazine.
Cover of DNA Magazine
(image via DNA Magazine)
• Reuters: The U.S. Justice Department has charged more than 300 people with taking part in the deadly storming of the Capitol by former President Donald Trump’s supporters, and at least 280 have been arrested. • The Advocate: A worker at KFC was fired for screaming ‘f*cking queers’ at a gay couple picking up food via the drive-through window. • Stonewall Gazette: The short film, The Dirt Between My Fingers, follows an unlikely friendship when two boys meet under strange circumstances. A coming (out) of age short film about first love.

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Fairness For All Act ‘Worse Than Nothing’ Due To Religious Exemptions

The U.S. Capitol building

The U.S. Capitol building

Republican Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah has introduced legislation that he calls a counter proposal to the Equality Act which was passed in the House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 224-206.

Like the Equality Act, Stewart says his bill, titled the Fairness For All Act (FFAA), would expand existing federal laws regarding anti-LGBTQ discrimination – but with some HUGE differences.

• Under the FFAA, faith-based adoption agencies would continue to receive federal funds but could refuse to place children with potential LGBTQ parents under the guise of ‘religious freedoms.’

• Similarly, religious schools would be allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

• Additionally, while the Equality Act clearly states transgender people would have access to bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, the FFAA is vague on the issue.

• The FFAA would include an exemption that would allow businesses to refuse to serve LGBTQ people if they have fewer than 15 employees.

• While the Equality Act specifies the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) could not be used as a legal defense in court against cases of anti-LGBTQ discrimination, the FFAA would allow religious beliefs to justify discriminatory actions.

In other words, what’s the point?

“It is hard to really love our neighbors when we are fighting with them over whose rights are more important,” said Rep. Stewart in a statement. “This country can accommodate both civil liberties for LGBT individuals & religious freedom.”

Stewart’s bill has 21 Republican co-sponsors but no Democrats signed on to the legislation even though Stewart initially indicated the bill would have bipartisan support.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), the sponsor of the Equality Act, told the Washington Blade that the FFAA would “very clearly be worse than nothing.”

“For the first time in our history, it would actually put in federal statute provisions that permit discrimination against the LGBTQ community,” Cicilline told the Blade. “It would be a tremendous step backward, which is why it’s not supported by any major LGBT organization, all of the major LGBT organizations support the Equality Act.”

“The Stewart bill is a tremendous step backward in our fight for full equality,” added Cicilline.

(source: Washington Blade)

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Lawsuit Against Kathy Griffin By Covington Catholic Students Dismissed

Comedian Kathy Griffin

Comedian Kathy Griffin
Comedian Kathy Griffin
A lawsuit filed against comedian Kathy Griffin by a group of students from Covington Catholic in Kentucky has been dismissed (again) by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. I’m sure you remember the sad tale of the Covington students who were involved in a standoff with a group of Native Americans in Washington D.C. on January 18, 2019. Video footage of student Nick Sandmann, wearing a red MAGA hat standing face to face with Native American elder Nathan Phillips, went viral as the young student was viewed by many as being disrespectful to the Native American elder. Sandmann later said he was trying to “defuse” the situation by standing still and “remaining calm.” In the aftermath, Sandmann and his family sought to cash in on what they believed was his victimhood in the situation calling out media outlets for defaming and vilifying him. Sandmann sued and eventually settled with CNN and the Washington Post. The group of students in this case alleged harm by Griffin when she tweeted, “Names please, and stories from people who can identify them and vouch for their identity. Thank you.” “Maybe you should let this fine Catholic school know how you feel about their students (sic) behavior toward the Vietnam veteran, Native American #NathanPhillips,” she said in a follow-up tweet. But the Cincinnati Enquirer reports the 6th U.S. Circuit Court ruled on Tuesday that Covington Catholic students cannot bring harassment claims against Griffin.

U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman had granted a request from Griffin to dismiss the case but the students appealed that decision to the 6th Circuit. Bertelsman also dismissed the students’ defamation and harassment lawsuits against CNN, the Washington Post and NBC. A three-judge panel at the 6th Circuit upheld Bertelsman’s ruling saying the ‘Kentucky longarm statute’ being cited in the cases had no jurisdiction regarding Griffin since she hadn’t “committed any act ‘in [the] Commonwealth’ of Kentucky.” Circuit Judge Julia Gibbons wrote in the decision, “To satisfy that provision of the longarm statute, the ’cause of action must arise from defendant’s activities’ in Kentucky.” Additionally, the panel found, “there is no evidence that the defendants posted the tweets hoping to reach Kentucky specifically as opposed to their Twitter followers generally.” And….done. (h/t to TRR reader Rusty)

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FDA: Pfizer Vaccine May Be Stored In Conventional Freezers

Vials of COVID-19 vaccine

Vials of COVID-19 vaccine The FDA has announced the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine may be safely stored in conventional freezers which could help with the distribution and handling of the vaccine.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it is allowing undiluted frozen vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to be transported and stored at conventional temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers for a period of up to two weeks.

This reflects an alternative to the preferred storage of the undiluted vials in an ultra-low temperature freezer between -80ºC to -60ºC (-112ºF to -76ºF). The change is being reflected in updates to the Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers Administering Vaccine (Vaccination Providers).

“Pfizer submitted data to the FDA to support this alternative temperature for transportation and storage. This alternative temperature for transportation and storage of the undiluted vials is significant and allows the vials to be transported and stored under more flexible conditions. The alternative temperature for transportation and storage will help ease the burden of procuring ultra-low cold storage equipment for vaccination sites and should help to get vaccine to more sites,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

In related news, a new study from the UK indicates a single dose of Pfizer’s vaccine cuts the number of asymptomatic infections and could significantly reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.

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Biden Nominates 3 To Postal Service Board Of Governors

USPS delivery truck

USPS delivery truck I don’t know about you, but my mail delivery is still sloooooooooow, and the amount of mail I get has dropped off by a lot. This has all happened under the guidance of the new-ish postmaster general Louis DeJoy, a longtime big-dollar donor to the Republican Party and Donald Trump. DeJoy has had a turbulent time in his position with cutting overtime for postal workers and promising slower delivery and higher prices. But that might change as President Biden moves to fill three empty seats on the Postal Service’s governing board. The board is the only mechanism with the power to replace DeJoy. From the Washington Post:

President Biden named two Democrats and a voting rights advocate to fill three of the four openings on the Postal Service’s governing board, according to three people briefed on the discussions and later confirmed by the White House: Ron Stroman, the Postal Service’s recently retired deputy postmaster general; Amber McReynolds, the chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute; and Anton Hajjar, the former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union.

If all three win Senate confirmation, the nine-member board would be made up of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans with McReynolds, whose organization is a darling of left-leaning groups, as the lone independent.

The new slate would create a Democratic advantage and potentially the votes to oust DeJoy, whose summer overhaul led to precipitous service declines that snarled up untold numbers of Americans’ bills, prescriptions and paychecks.

Postal workers have expressed concern during DeJoy’s tenure that he will cut jobs or out-source them to private companies. With that in mind, they have called for his removal. The USPS employs a high percentage of Black and female workers. Plus, a large number of military veterans find good jobs with the postal service.

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News Round-Up: February 25, 2021

Some news items you might have missed: • Throwback Thursday: Thinking about days of dachshunds filling the house (above) . Not sad, just glad it happened.  • Instinct Magazine: Heavily armed police attempted to arrest a gay couple for kissing on a public beach in Tulum, Mexico, until a crowd gathered shouting down the officers’ actions. • Buzzfeed: Seventeen straight guys shared their same-sex hook-up encounters which ran the gamut from meh to hilarious. • Paramount Plus: The Real World Homecoming: New York, a multi-episode docu-series starring all seven of the original housemates from the classic MTV show, will debut on March 4. Running for 25 years on MTV before moving to Facebook Watch in 2019, the series helped launch the reality show genre. Word is the new series is being shot in that same NYC loft apartment.

• Axios: 41% of Republicans say they don’t plan to get a coronavirus vaccination if it’s available to them while 70% of Democrats and a plurality of independents (47%) say they do plan to get vaccinated. • The Hill: As the second impeachment trial failed to convict Donald Trump, two House Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would reform the Former Presidents Act of 1958 by stripping past presidents convicted of a felony of their $219,200 annual pension, office space and a budget to pay for staff. • The Advocate: Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) put up a transgender Pride flag in a show of support for her daughter. Her congressional ‘neighbor,’ the hideous Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene R-GA) then trolled her with a sign reading “There are only two genders: male and female. Trust the science.” Oddly, Facebook removed Newman’s post calling her pro-trans remarks ‘hate speech.’

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Lady Gaga Offers $500K For Stolen Bulldogs

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga (image via Instagram)
International pop star Lady Gaga is offering a $500,000 reward in hopes of retrieving her two French bulldogs stolen from her dog-walker Wednesday evening. From NBC News:

The sources said the pop star “is offering half-a-million dollars to anyone who has her 2 dogs, no questions asked. Anyone who has the dogs can use this email — KojiandGustav@gmail.com — to retrieve the reward.”

According to Los Angeles police, the victim was walking the dogs when an unknown male shot him about 9:40 p.m. local time in the 1500 block of North Sierra Bonita Avenue. The dog walker was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, police said.

He was “recovering well,” according to the sources close to Gaga.

Authorities are searching for the shooter, who they said used a semiautomatic gun and sped from the scene in a white vehicle.

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Equality Act Passes In House Of Representatives 224-206

As expected, the Equality Act, which would amend current federal laws to outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ people, passed in the House of Representatives today. With 3 Republicans voting with all Democrats, the vote was 224-206. Today’s Republican votes were Reps. Tom Reed (NY), John Katko (NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA). Conservatives argue the Equality Act would interfere with their right to discriminate against LGBTQ people based on ‘religious liberty.’ Half of LGBTQ people in the U.S. live in the 29 states that lack comprehensive, statewide protections. As a result, discrimination is still commonplace – and legal. Currently, a person can be denied housing because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in 27 states; denied access to education in 31 states; and the right to serve on a jury in 41 states. The legislation was previously approved in the House in 2019. On May 17, 2019, the vote (236-173) carried with 8 Republicans voting in favor of the bill and no Democrats opposing. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell never allowed a vote on the bill in the Senate. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis: “The House passage of The Equality Act is a victory for all Americans and for our country’s core values of equal treatment under law. This landmark civil rights law secures those protections for every LGBTQ person, to live without fear of discrimination. An overwhelming majority of Americans already support laws protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination, including Americans of all faiths. We are now calling on Senate leaders to come together to finish the work for what is right and just for all Americans. Any Senator against The Equality Act is not only complicit with LGBTQ discrimination, but grossly out of touch with the bill’s widespread, bipartisan public support. It is time to move together to ensure LGBTQ people have the chance to belong, to participate and to succeed in all areas of American life.” Kierra Johnson, Executive Director, National LGBTQ Task Force: “We applaud the House vote on the Equality Act, and but we now look to the Senate and begin in earnest what should be a bipartisan effort to protect LGBTQ people. This is what we know: LGBTQ people in 29 states are not protected by anti-discrimination laws. This patchwork of equality is indefensible – the Equality Act must be passed by the Senate so all LGBTQ Americans will be protected from discrimination. It could not be more clear: current civil rights laws leave LGBTQ people, women, people of color and people of faith vulnerable to discrimination. The Equality Act can right this wrong and take the country one step closer to living its promise of ‘liberty and justice for all’ and truly mean it.” David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition: “We applaud the House for supporting this bill once again, as it did in 2019, and urge the Senate to follow suit. As Black History Month concludes, we implore Senators to vote in favor of the Equality Act like their lives depend on it, as ours do.”

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Rand Paul Goes Transphobic During Senate Hearing

Left to right - Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Pennsylvania Surgeon General Dr. Rachel Levine

Left to right - Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Pennsylvania Surgeon General Dr. Rachel Levine
L-R Sen. Rand Paul, Dr. Rachel Levine (screen captures)
During a joint hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held today to confirm Surgeon General Nominee Dr. Vivek Murphy and Dr. Levine, most questions were focused on the issue of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) – who is also a self-certified ophthalmologist – came prepared with an unhinged transphobic rant which seemed to catch everyone by surprise including Dr. Levine, who is transgender. Levine, currently the Secretary of Health for Pennsylvania, is President Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of health. The position oversees the department’s key public health offices, several presidential and secretarial advisory committees, 10 regional health offices across the nation, the Office of the Surgeon General, and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. In addition to being the Keystone State’s Health Secretary, Levine has amassed a lengthy resume in the field of health care which includes being a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine. It’s worth noting that Levine has been confirmed three times by the Republican-controlled state Senate of Pennsylvania. “Genital mutilation has been condemned by the WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund,” said Paul reading from a prepared statement. He continued stating that such medical procedures are “nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children.” The senator seemed to be conflating bottom surgery with castration and female circumcision, which is performed on children in some countries around the world. Minors being treated for gender dysphoria almost never have bottom surgery. Instead, they are given puberty blockers which allows trans youth time to consider, weigh and explore who they are before teen hormones can permanently change their bodies. Paul attacked the use of such puberty blockers citing the American College of Pediatricians. That might have sounded like a legit reference except the organization has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for promoting anti-LGBTQ bias. The name is intended to be misleading as it is often confused with the American Pediatric Association, the actual recognized organization of pediatric physicians. That group advises parents of trans kids to “listen, respect and support their child’s self-expressed identity.” Levine showed admirable composure during Paul’s lengthy tirade. “Transgender medicine is a very complex, and nuanced field,” Levine said. “And if confirmed to the as assistant Secretary of Health, I would certainly be pleased to come to your office and talk with you and your staff about the standards of care and the complexity of this field.” For the record, Dr. Levine never endorsed the idea of government overriding the involvement of parents being involved in their children’s health care issues. Sen. Patty Murray, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, clapped back at Paul asking him to treat nominees before the committee with respect. “It is really critical to me that our nominees be treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications and the work ahead of us, rather than ideological and harmful misrepresentations like those who heard from Sen. Paul earlier,” Murray said. Today’s hearing marked the first time an openly transgender person has sat for Senate confirmation for a presidential appointment.

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New Ad Encourages Questions About Vaccines And Where To Find Answers

A new campaign from The Ad Council encourages people to ask questions about vaccinating against the coronavirus and where to get answers

A new campaign from The Ad Council encourages people to ask questions about vaccinating against the coronavirus and where to get answers
(image via The Ad Council)
A new $500 million ad campaign via The Ad Council focuses not only questions people may have about getting vaccinated for the coronavirus, but where to find answers. The message of the campaign, which will slowly shift as different groups become eligible, underscores that having questions is good because it’s normal to be cautious when something new comes along. And – answers are available. The ads will direct folks to getvaccineanswers.org with the slug line, “It’s up to you,” not to get vaccinated but to be informed.