Sen. Kamala Harris suspends her presidential campaign Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has announced she is suspending her campaign for the Democratic nomination for president. In a statement posted to Medium, the junior senator from California gets down to brass tacks quickly: “My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue. I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.” “In good faith, I can’t tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that I have a path forward if I don’t believe I do,” she continues. “So, to you my supporters, it is with deep regret — but also with deep gratitude — that I am suspending my campaign today.”
It has been the honor of my life to be your candidate. We will keep up the fight. pic.twitter.com/RpZhx3PENl
Harris adds, however, that she will keep fighting for “what this campaign has been about. Justice for The People. All the people.” She goes on to list the many issues she made central to her candidacy including inadequate teacher pay, gun violence, unconstitutional state abortion laws, and speaking to the experiences of Black women and people of color. The senator closes her statement expressing gratitude to all of her supporters, friends, husband, and family, before adding: “And I want to be clear: although I am no longer running for President, I will do everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump and fight for the future of our country and the best of who we are.” Harris has been a longtime ally to the LGBTQ community going back to her days as Attorney General of California when she denounced her state’s Proposition 8 prior to its passage. She refused as AG to defend the homophobic law, which led to the Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that anti-LGBTQ groups seeking to defend the measure had no standing to do so. As a result, Proposition 8 was overturned. Harris also urged the California state legislature to ban the use of ‘gay panic’ or ‘trans panic’ legal defenses in crimes against LGBTQ people. As a senator, she supports the Equality Act and for allowing trans people equal access to public accommodations. In 2018, she introduced the Do No Harm Act which would prohibit the federal Religious Freedom From Restoration Act from being used against the LGBTQ community. She also introduced legislation to ensure that LGBTQ Americans were properly counted in the census. Key LGBTQ issues cited on her campaign site include:
Rollback the Trump/Pence hate agenda by reversing Trump’s actions to harm the LGBTQ+ community, including the transgender service ban and guidelines to protect students from discrimination and harassment.
Establish a Chief Advocate for LGBTQ+ affairs in the White House to ensure that LGBTQ+ Americans are represented in hiring and policy priorities across the government.
Fight for full equality for the LGBTQ+ community by passing the Equality Act and other laws to ensure that everyone is safe and supported at work, at school, and throughout their communities.
I like Harris a lot, and see a huge career in front of her. I think she instantly becomes a front-runner for Vice President, or Attorney General in the next (Democratic) administration. (source: Medium)
Donald Trump (image via public domain/White House) From the New York Times:
A federal appeals court said Tuesday that Deutsche Bank must turn over detailed documents about President Trump’s finances to two congressional committees, a ruling that is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court.
The decision was a victory for House Democrats as they investigate Mr. Trump and his businesses. It means that extensive information about Mr. Trump’s personal and business finances — which the president has spent years fighting to keep secret — has moved a step closer to becoming public.
Democratic-controlled congressional committees issued subpoenas to two banks — Deutsche Bank, long Mr. Trump’s biggest lender, and Capital One — this year for financial records related to the president, his companies and his family. Mr. Trump sued the banks to block them from complying.
Team Trump has seven days to appeal. Bet that they will.
Pop superstar Elton John shocked his audience on Sunday when he stopped mid-song to go on a curse-laden rant at two security guards “Hey, you two security guards with the girl. F— off. Bring her back here immediately,” he said. “Come on you c—s. Morons, you both are, morons. You don’t treat girls like that. Leave her alone, you turds.” After hearing some gasps from the audience for using the c-word, Elton John apologized. “I apologize for the ‘c-word,’ I just hate people being assaulted, especially women by security guards. I have a pet hate of security guards anyway.”
Speaking to the Australian morning show Sunrise, journalist Peter Ford came to the defense of the security guards and added some behind-the-scenes info:
“A patron was in an area where she was not ticketed to be. The security guards, acting on the instructions of Elton John’s own team, tried to get her out. Elton caught it out of the corner of his eye and decided, I think, to play to the crowd by going on this rant.
“These were two people doing their job. Imagine how demeaned they would have felt at being abused by Elton John on the stage and then to have thousands of people in the crowd cheer him on. I think it was an appalling thing to do. If he’s got an issue he should be taking it up with his team, and today he should offer some sort of apology to the guards.”
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Woofy Wes Dupree (above) answers the eternal Sondheimian question “Does anyone still wear a hat?” • The Atlantic: John McWhorter does a better job expressing what I tried to say last week about that Pete Buttigieg ‘Lying MF’ hit piece essay. • NY Post: A woman in Brazil was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stabbing her gay son to death after the hitmen she hired didn’t get it done. • Tweet of the Day: Paul Rudnick re-captions this photo from the White House in perfect form.
Melania’s unveiled this year’s WH Christmas decor. The theme is Soap Opera Star Striding Through An 80s Department Store Looking For A Restroom pic.twitter.com/Y9te7IheqE
• White House: For the third year in a row, Donald Trump did not mention LGBTQ people in his World AIDS Day proclamation. It goes without saying that, while not a ‘gay’ disease, HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects LGBTQ people. • The Hill: Donald Trump loves to nickname his political opponents and he’s decided the latest entrant in the Democratic primary will be called “Mini Mike Bloomberg.” For the record, Bloomberg is 5’8″ tall. • Esquire: Still handsome, confident and charming at 82, Billy Dee Williams comes out as gender fluid in a new interview. Williams returns to the role of ‘Lando Calrissian’ in the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. • Christmas Music: From the “required-listening” classic holiday album, Barbra Streisand – A Christmas Album (1967).
The Hill reports Mayor Pete Buttigieg is putting $2 million behind his first campaign ad buy in South Carolina in advance of the upcoming Democratic primary in February. As has been widely reported, while the mayor has surged in Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s struggled with attracting black voters, which explains the new ad in South Carolina where black voters make up 60+ percent of the Democratic voting base. Says Buttigieg in the ad: “In our White House, you won’t have to shake your head and ask yourself, ‘Whatever happened to ‘I was hungry and you fed me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’ When I say we’ve got to unify the American people it doesn’t mean pretending that we’re all the same. It means unifying around issues from wages and family leave to gun violence and immigration. The hope of an American experience defined not by exclusion but by belonging.” According to the RealClearPolitics average, former Vice PresidentJoe Biden has a strong lead in South Carolina, at 35.3 percent followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), at 16.3 percent, and Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-Vt.), at 12.8 percent. Buttigieg is in fourth place, at 6.5 percent.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a touching exchange about acceptance with a young LGBTQ voter during a campaign stop in Marion, Iowa. The Democratic White House hopeful was taking questions from the audience when a 17-year-old named Raelyn asked a question about acceptance. “I was wondering if there was ever a time in your life where somebody you really looked up to maybe didn’t accept you as much, and how you dealt with that?” asked the teen. Warren paused before answering, “Yeah – my mother and I had very different views of how to build a future.” “She wanted me to marry well, and I really tried, and it just didn’t work out,” continued the senator quietly as her voice broke. “And there came a day when I had to call her and say, this is over. I can’t make it work. And I heard the disappointment in her voice. I knew how she felt about it. But I also knew it was the right thing to do.” “And sometimes you just gotta do what’s right inside and hope that maybe the rest of the world will come around to it,” explained Warren. “And maybe they will and maybe they won’t. But the truth is, you’ve gotta take care of yourself first and do this.” Warren then walked over to the teen and the two hugged.
I was asked at a town hall “if there was ever a time in your life where somebody you really looked up to maybe didn’t accept you as much?” Here’s my answer: pic.twitter.com/ariYPwvWQr
Raelyn (she asked to not share her last name) told ABC News after the event that Warren’s “care for the LGBTQ Community” is what captured her attention in the first place because “it’s been a struggle with that, with people close to me.” “She gives me hope, which is not something that I’ve really had with other politicians, and I’ve followed politics for a while,” she added. Raelyn says she’s also following the campaigns of openly gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, it’s Warren’s ‘authenticity’ that draws the teen in. “I just think she actually cares about the people that she talks about,” explained Raelyn while waiting in Warren’s selfie line. “I know everybody always says, oh, they’re just politicians. They’re just saying things to get your vote, but I don’t think it’s like that with her. I think she actually genuinely cares about what she’s saying.” Raelyn shared with the Massachusetts senator she plans to be a precinct captain for her campaign during the upcoming Iowa caucuses. (source: ABC News)
With his Thanksgiving vacation, President Donald Trump’s golf hobby has now cost Americans an estimated $115 million in travel and security expenses ― the equivalent of 287 years of the presidential salary he frequently boasts about not taking.
Of that amount, many hundreds of thousands ― perhaps millions ― of dollars have gone into his own cash registers, as Secret Service agents, White House staff and other administration officials stay and eat at his hotels and golf courses.
“I love golf, but if I were in the White House, I don’t think I’d ever see Turnberry again. I don’t think I’d ever see Doral again. I don’t ever think I’d see anything. I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off.” – Donald Trump speaking at a February 2016 campaign rally (public domain image via White House/Flickr)
Shelley Morrison on ‘Will & Grace’ (screen capture) Shelley Morrison, who played Megan Mullally’s sassy housekeeper ‘Rosario’ on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, has died at 83. Variety reports the actress passed away at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to heart failure after a brief illness.
Rosario, who hailed from El Salvador, was originally written to appear in just one episode of the hit NBC series, but her dynamic with Megan Mullally’s Karen resonated so well with audiences that the character went on to appear in 68 episodes over eight seasons of the original series. According to co-creator Max Mutchnick, Morrison was asked to reprise her role for the revival of ‘Will & Grace,’ but had decided to retire from acting completely.
Before her turn on “Will & Grace,” Morrison was best known for playing Sister Sixto on “The Flying Nun” alongside Sally Field in the late ’60s and early ’70s. She also had extensive credits as a guest actress, including roles on “The Partridge Family,” “Three’s A Crowd,” “My Favorite Martian,” “Laredo,” “Gunsmoke” and “General Hospital.” All four stars of the hit sitcom paid tribute to Morrison on social media.
(photo: Henrik Ohsten/VildMedDans via Facebook) History was made in Denmark as the first same-sex team to compete on the country’s version of Dancing with the Stars took home the trophy over the weekend. Openly gay actor Jakob Fauerby and professional dancer Silas Holst consistently impressed the judges and the TV audience throughout the season.
The same-sex partnering was Fauerby’s idea and the show’s producers approved his request. Earlier in the season, the actor told the press he had a sense the series was looking to feature a same-sex team but probably didn’t know how to approach possible contestants with the request. “It’s difficult to ask someone ‘Hey do you want to be in the show, but do you want to be the LGBT representation of it?’” he said. “So, I think they just waited for someone to express the willingness to do it themselves.” Holst ended a five-year sabbatical from the show and returned to compete with Fauerby as the first same-sex dance duo in the show’s 16-year history. The dance competition, one of the most popular shows in Denmark, draws a huge audience each week. “We are a small country of only 5.6 million people, and every Friday more than a million people tune in to watch the show and many more watch it on-demand afterward,” Fauerby told the press. “There are very few shows that everyone sees, and this is one of them, so there are a lot of feelings connected to it.”
Celebrating the triumph, Fauerby shared the jubilation on his Instagram writing, “It’s totally crazy and absolutely amazing. Thank you so much to all of you for your wonderful messages and great support over the last 12 weeks.” Noting the impact of representation on television, he added, “I am so proud that my daughter, her big brother, and all other little boys and girls can go out into the world and love the way they want and dance with whomever they want.”
He also thanked his professional partner for not only being “the bravest man” but “getting me out into the deepest water – it was worth it!” Holst returned the praise thanking Fauerby for his courage to take the journey writing, “It will forever sit in my heart.”
There have been same-sex dance teams on various iterations of the reality competition around the world, but this is the first time they’ve taken home the gold. Italy’s version of the show featured a male duo last year where the team came in third at the season finale. There have also been same-sex teams in the Austrian and Israeli editions, and drag performer Courtney Act participated in the Australian series with a male partner.
In this week’s podcast: • A journalist wrote a scathing piece about Mayor Pete Buttigieg and the mayor called his critic to listen • NYC sees a significant drop in new HIV infections • A Palo Alto police brutality case reaches a settlement • The gay panic defense could be bye-bye in New Jersey • Kasey Musgraves has a new ‘tres gay’ Christmas special on Amazon Prime • Award-winning out singer Matt Zarley drops his take on the holiday classic, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” * Observing World AIDS Day this year Link to Mark King’s essay – Link to JoeMyGod’s essay
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