LGBTQ news and entertainment
Burt Ward as Robin with Batman co-star Adam West (promo photo)
FDA is advising consumers not to purchase or use nitrite “poppers” which can result in serious adverse health effects, including death. These products are marketed as nail polish removers but are being ingested or inhaled for recreational use. https://t.co/5Qkd0wleuc pic.twitter.com/9PgY3KTA02
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) June 24, 2021
QAnon/GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (screen capture)
6. No one cares about the Delta Variant or any other variant.
They are over covid & there is no amount of fear based screaming from the media that will ever force Americans to shut down again.
Forced masks and vaccines will cause Dems to lose big.
All voters are over covid.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) July 6, 2021
99% of the current Covid deaths are people that are unvaccinated. The Delta variant is very real and you saying otherwise is dangerous and irresponsible. It’s no coincidence that the vast majority of cases are currently in Red states.
— Nogbad the Bad (@Bad_Nogbad_Bad) July 6, 2021
The 5 states w/ the lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccination, according to the CDC, are:
Mississippi – 29.9% fully vaccinated
Alabama – 32.9% fully vaccinated
Arkansas – 34.5% fully vaccinated
Louisiana – 35.3% fully vaccinated
Wyoming – 35.4% fully vaccinated— Iris Osman (@irisosman3) July 6, 2021
Dear Marjorie: I'm a voter, & I'm not over COVID. Speak for yourself plz.
COVID is not over the GOP, either. I guess you haven't noticed the Delta spikes in low-vaccinated red states, but why should you care abt your constituents now… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/LH9XXZgis2
— Tehuti (@tehuti88) July 6, 2021
The Delta variant just infected my Republican dad. Even if you don't care, I do.
— Frank Wears A Mask (@Headfullofnigh1) July 6, 2021
your disrespect to the people who have lost their lives and loved ones due to the ignorance towards covid that you keep promoting, is disgusting and doesnt surprise me https://t.co/9gtixWeoyT
— lemon_squares🍋 (@vintageautumnal) July 6, 2021
Sorry. Not true. I’m a voter & I’m NOT “over COVID”. I’m fully vaccinated. If I would have gotten COVID, I’d be dead. May I suggest you take Microbiology 101. Educate yourself. And I still wear my mask as I want to protect kids under 12 and those with compromised immune systems.
— Lisa & Leo the Lion (@universeiscool5) July 6, 2021
“No one cares about the Delta Variant or any other variant.”
That’s almost Tombstone worthy …
— Doug (@groundyourstand) July 6, 2021
99% of the current Covid deaths are people that are unvaccinated. The Delta variant is very real and you saying otherwise is dangerous and irresponsible. It’s no coincidence that the vast majority of cases are currently in Red states.
— Nogbad the Bad (@Bad_Nogbad_Bad) July 6, 2021
But covids not done with us.
— The Jenster (@jjackso47500133) July 6, 2021
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ3SQ1UjkFA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday weekend as the U.S. celebrates its birth. Checking in with some of our favorite Instagram accounts, we begin with Las Vegas entertainer Davide Zongoli (above) who sent his July 4th greetings from the desert. Next, David Torres shared the spirit of the Independence Day in his own unique way: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CQ6RQeXAWS0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Hunter Harden shared his favorite red, white and blue outfit: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ5Vu_BteIK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Writer in Red spent Friday night freeing the fur: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ1NK4yhmM-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Fitness guy Ramses Principe is “living not wishing” at the Éteka Slow Beach in Colombia: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ4ZPdGDn-S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Max Emerson got pumped up on his new patio: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQwJgAhlB1i/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Nyle DiMarco did what he does best: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ3zkxLsl5R/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Matthew Camp was being a #hornylittledevil. By the way, when visiting Camp’s Instagram account, make sure you read the hashtags… 😉 https://www.instagram.com/p/CQrNNQ9p7A6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Thanks to Instinct writer Corey Andrew for this live clip of Spiderman in action in NYC: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ4023JhKOj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Antonio (aka fitnesspapi_) struck a pose: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ6lqp3JTqV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Ignacio Pérez Rey got all kissy face with blogger Pepê Oliveira: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ58GWHHgH4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Jett Hallum hung up his gas station uniform: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQtshwVsoHC/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Steve_in_LA with his guy Tobi is a definite smile-maker: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ1W39yB9oh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link If you haven’t been to Palace South Beach – what are you waiting for? https://www.instagram.com/reel/CQ3j7RTJfWj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Wishing everyone a fun and frolicsome 4th of July as the country recognizes the birth of our nation. We’ve come a ways from last July 4th, when travel was way down and gatherings were – at least supposed to be – kept within our pandemic bubbles. This year, thanks to COVID vaccines, holiday celebrations can be safer and larger. Here’s some stats on how far we’ve come: • According to the CDC, 67% of U.S. adults have gotten at least one vaccine dose. Among Americans 12 and older, 64% have gotten at least one shot. • According to the results of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index a year ago versus today in regard to how folks feel about returning to pre-coronavirus lives:
June 26-29, 2020: Large to moderate risk – 70%, Small to no risk – 29%
June 25-28, 2021: Large to moderate risk – 28%, Small to no risk – 72%
• AAA projected holiday travel this weekend will be almost back to pre-pandemic levels — just 2.5% lower than in 2019. • An expected 43.6 million Americans will drive to their destinations, the highest on record for this holiday and 5% more than the previous record set in 2019. • And air travel is definitely bouncing back – TSA reports it screened more people on July 1 and 2 than it did on those dates in 2019! Have an awesome holiday and make sure you tune in for PBS’ A Capitol Fourth tonight! 
I’ll be holding down the fort at my backyard today 🙂
Sgt. David Shelby (screen capture)
When James Burch and several activists began filming a sheriff’s deputy during a confrontation on the Alameda County courthouse steps in Oakland, Calif., this week, the officer caught the group by surprise. He pulled out his phone and started blaring Taylor Swift’s 2014 hit single “Blank Space.”
Confused, Burch asked: “Are we having a dance party?”
After he and the other activists pressed the officer about what he was doing, the deputy — identified by local media as Sgt. David Shelby — said, “You can record all you want, I just know it can’t be posted on YouTube.”
He was referring to YouTube’s automated copyright system, which detects and removes unauthorized protected material — such as a popular song — from being uploaded to the Internet.
Things didn’t quite go according to the officer’s plan as the clip has amassed over more than 848,000 views on Twitter at this writing. Plus, a version did indeed make its way to YouTube that has garnered more than 573,000 views so far. I saw the original tweet when it happened and wondered, “What is it the officer didn’t want recorded?” He didn’t seem to be doing anything wrong, so…why the digital confrontation? He made himself look shady when it’s not clear he was. #fail “The officer was trying to be a little smart, and it kind of backfired,” Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County sheriff’s office, told the Washington Post. “Instead of censoring it, it made it go viral.” According to Kelly, Shelby still works for the sheriff’s department but the issue has been referred to internal affairs for review. While there’s no policy prohibiting an officer from doing what Shelby did in the video, “there is a code of conduct on how we should carry ourselves in public,” Kelly said. The spokesman added that the sheriff’s office does not “condone” the deputy’s behavior. “This is not a good look for law enforcement,” Kelly said. There is a “serious lesson learned here.”
Eduardo Leite of Brazil (image via Facebook)Eduardo Leite, governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and a 2022 presidential hopeful, has come out as gay.
Leite, who hopes to challenge his country’s virulently anti-LGBTQ leader, President Jair Bolsonaro, in next year’s election, came out during an interview with Brazil’s top broadcaster, TV Globo.
“I’m gay — and I’m a governor who is gay rather than a gay governor,” Leite shared with viewers. “Just as Obama in the United States wasn’t a Black president, but a president who was Black. And I’m proud of this.”
Leite, a member of the center-right Brazilian Social Democratic Party (SDB), went on to say he has nothing to hide and wished that sexual orientation was a “non-issue” in Brazil.
The 36-year-old’s announcement was met with much support from the worlds of Brazilian politics and LGBTQ activism.
The Guardian reports Toni Reis, a longtime advocate of LGBTQ rights in the South American country, wrote on social media, “You’ve made history.”
“I know the pain the prison of the closet represents, particularly in a conservative environment like politics,” tweeted Fabiano Contarato, Brazil’s first openly gay senator elected in 2018. “Everyone must find the right moment for this gesture. Be happy and follow your great work: life will be lighter!”
Leite responded to the public show of support on Twitter writing, “The countless messages of care and support I am receiving make me absolutely safe. Love will conquer hate! Thank you very very much everyone!”
Amid the positive responses, however, were some who noted that Leite eventually came to publicly support Bolsonaro in his 2018 presidential campaign on the eve of the election although he disagreed with Bolsonaro on several policies including the treatment of minorities.
At the time, Leite called his decision a “democratic gesture.”
According to The Guardian, Jean Wyllys, the first out member of Brazil’s congress to fight for LGBT+ rights, noted that Leite has yet to disavow his previous support for Bolsonaro.
“This chap had many opportunities to defend the LGBT community and he didn’t,” said Wyllys. “On the contrary … he was a Bolsonarista until yesterday – and he’s probably still one today, because at no point has he retracted his support for Bolsonaro.”
“So I don’t celebrate this,” added Wyllys. “I’m not part of this team of people who are commemorating this chap coming out of the closet as if it was some great accomplishment for Brazil’s LGBT+ community.”
(screen capture via YouTube)
They flaunted their participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol on social media and then, apparently realizing they were in legal trouble, rushed to delete evidence of it, authorities say. Now their attempts to cover up their role in the deadly siege are likely to come back to haunt them in court.
An Associated Press review of court records has found that at least 49 defendants are accused of trying to erase incriminating photos, videos and texts from phones or social media accounts documenting their conduct as a pro-Donald Trump mob stormed Congress and briefly interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
Experts say the efforts to scrub the social media accounts reveal a desperate willingness to manipulate evidence once these people realized they were in hot water. And, they say, it can serve as powerful proof of people’s consciousness of guilt and can make it harder to negotiate plea deals and seek leniency at sentencing.
Funny how that works… Did they really think they’d get their anti-American jollies done and not have anything happen to them??? More than a dozen Capitol rioters have already pleaded guilty, out of more than 510 defendants. And prosecutors are filing new cases at a steady clip.
Tyler Posey (via Instagram)
USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson won’t be allowed to run in the Olympic 100-meter race due to a one-month ban for a positive marijuana test, but she could compete in relays pic.twitter.com/UpqEguoT2f
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 2, 2021
(stock image via Depositphotos)The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by anti-LGBTQ florist Barronelle Stutzman of Washington state who refused to sell flowers to a same-sex couple for their wedding.
Stutzman’s petition is listed on Friday’s orders list indicating the high court had denied certiorari, or refused to take up the case. No reason was given although the orders note that Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, and Justice Gorsuch would have granted the petition to hear the case. In the Supreme Court, at least four justices have to agree to take up a case.
The decision means the ruling by the Washington Supreme Court will stand.
The sad story began in 2013 when Rob Ingersoll and Curt Freed, longtime customers of Arlene’s Flowers owned by Stutzman, approached the florist for flowers for their dream wedding. Stutzman refused claiming doing so would violate her religious beliefs.
In 2017, the case had made its way up to the Washington state high court which ruled Stutzman had violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws which prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people in public accommodations. The florist was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.
Stutzman appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 wherein SCOTUS vacated the lower court’s decision and asked the Washington court to review the case in light of a narrow ruling in the case of Jack Phillips, owner of the Colorado bakery Masterpiece Cakeshop.
A year later, in June 2019, the Washington Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision finding there had been no animosity involved against Stutzman in the original ruling.
Today’s decision is the end of the road in terms of legal options for Stutzman.
The Supreme Court is once again effectively saying that non-discrimination laws protecting LGBTQ people can stand.
Now we need them across the country, and in every walk of life. That's why we need the #EqualityActNow. https://t.co/1wFKTbDjbc
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) July 2, 2021
Alphonso David, president of Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement, “The Supreme Court has once again said that critical nondiscrimination laws protecting LGBTQ people are legally enforceable and has set a strong and definitive precedent.”
Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for the virulently anti-LGBTQ legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, called the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case “tragic.”
So ends the saga of Barronelle Stutzman, who the hate group ADF has been fundraising off for the better part of a decade.
She lost before *and* after Masterpiece Cakeshop in the lower courts. LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections aren't going to be totally overturned this week. https://t.co/y8pLVIyYHl
— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) July 2, 2021
This is the third high profile LGBTQ-related case addressed by the Supreme Court.
In June, SCOTUS issued a unanimous but very narrow ruling in favor of Catholic Social Services (CSS) in Philadelphia which had refused to certify same-sex couples who applied to become foster parents.
The ruling was not the broad ‘license to discriminate’ anti-LGBTQ advocates had hoped for. Instead, the justices found in favor of CSS because the city hadn’t applied its own policy of exemptions uniformly. The decision only applies to CSS and its contract with Philadelphia.
And earlier this week, SCOTUS also rejected to hear an appeal by a Virginia school board seeking ban transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity. That decision sets precedent regarding restroom discrimination in schools in at least five states.
SCOTUS Declines To Hear Challenge To Trans Bathroom Rights https://t.co/fQ3JmnV18N #LGBTQrights #GavinGrimm pic.twitter.com/b3xWUFipWw
— The Randy Report (@randyslovacek) June 28, 2021
The Labor Department reports employers added a better-than-expected 850,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in June. Additionally: • Average hourly earnings have risen 3.6% from a year ago, which continues the trend of the past two months. • U.S. consumer confidence rose to 127.3 – a 16-month high. • The stock market continues strong as the S&P 500 closed out the first half of the year at a record high of 4,297.50. • The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that the economy was on track to recover all the jobs lost in the pandemic by the middle of next year.
850K new jobs. Big number. Good news.https://t.co/qbRPkwHYse
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 2, 2021
850,000 new jobs, more than a third of which were in leisure and hospitality. Wages are up.
So it turns out that you can find workers, you just have to pay a better wage than in the past because wages of low-wage workers are going up. — Betsey Stevenson (@BetseyStevenson) July 2, 2021
If we were to continue at the pace of the last 3 months, we would return to Feb 2020’s level in June 2022 and to the pre-pandemic trend in Sept 2023. pic.twitter.com/4opGboffV4
— Aaron Sojourner (@aaronsojourner) July 2, 2021