Category: News

Posted on

News Round-Up: July 21, 2020

L-R Billy Eichner, the late Paul Lynde (via Back2Stonewall)
Some news items you might have missed: • Back2Stonewall: Out actor-comedian Billy Eichner is set to play TV icon Paul Lynde in the upcoming biopic Man in the Box. While Lynde never officially “out,” his sexuality was well-known in front of and behind the camera throughout a run on television beginning in the ’50s up until his death in 1982. • KOMO: The cast and creators of the Emmy-nominated cult HBO classic The Comeback will reunite on July 21 as part of the Stars In the House daily live-streamed series. The show’s creator and star Lisa Kudrow will be on board to chat on the satirical reality show that followed one woman’s journey as a B-list sitcom actress trying to reclaim A-list status via reality TV. Hot hubby Michael and I loved the series – Kudrow was brilliant walking the fine line of reality/scripted TV. • ABC News: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed Tuesday morning that Senate Republicans plan to support another round of stimulus checks to Americans in their next coronavirus relief proposal. This time around, however, Republicans would like to lower the income threshold to qualify. The cap on payments in the first CARES bill was $99,000. • NPR: Teachers in Florida are suing the state to block an emergency order requiring schools to open next month with in-person instruction. They say, with the surge of coronavirus cases, the order violates a provision in Florida’s constitution requiring the state to ensure schools are operated safely. • BroBible: A teen employee at a Lowe’s store in Washington, Kyle Sales, was forced to change his tee-shirt reading “Black Panther Wakanda Forever” after a ‘Karen’ complained the shirt was racist. After the exchange, Sales went home and put a jersey over his Black Panther movie shirt. The next day, ‘Karen’ returned demanding to know how Sales was punished. • Boy Culture: Donald Trump, at his daily coronavirus presser, was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell — perhaps you’ve heard of her? The lady accused of running a child-sex ring for Jeffrey Epstein, who died on Trump’s watch? Yeah, he said — twice — “I wish her well.”

Posted on

GLAAD Reports On LGBTQ-Inclusivity In 2019 Movies

Paramount’s ‘Rocketman’ was one of the more prominent LGBTQ-inclusive movies of 2019
Last week, GLAAD released its 8th annual Studio Responsibility Index, tracking LGBTQ representation in major studio films in 2019. This report is essential for assessing the quality, quantity, and diversity of LGBTQ characters in films released annually and setting the path for representation moving forward. One of GLAAD’s most significant contributions to the media landscape is assessing LGBTQ representation, and holding major players accountable when there are efforts to erase the experience of LGBTQ people. The report is intended to serve as a road map toward increasing fair, accurate and inclusive LGBTQ representation in film. GLAAD found that of the 118 films released from the eight major studios tracked in 2019: • 22 (18.6%) included characters that were LGBTQ representing a slight increase from the previous year’s report (+0.4 percentage points) and the highest percentage of inclusive films found in the eight-year history of the report. • 56% appeared for less than three minutes of total screen time, with 21 of the 50 receiving less than one minute of screen time. Only nine films from the 8 major studios included an LGBTQ character who had more than ten minutes of screen time. • More bad news – there was a significant decrease in the racial diversity of LGBTQ characters in major films for the second year in a row. In 2019, just 34 percent (17) of LGBTQ characters were people of color. This is down from 42 percent in the previous report and from 57 percent in the year before that. • The report found zero transgender characters in major studio films, and only three movies included bisexual characters. In 2018, GLAAD issued a challenge to major studios asking for an increase to 20 percent representation by the end of 2021, and up that to 50 percent LGBTQ representation by the year ending 2024. GLAAD is extending that challenge to ensure that within the next two years, at least half of LGBTQ characters in major studio films are people of color. For more information how you can help GLAAD fight for more fair LGBTQ representation in the media, click here. (source: GLAAD)

Posted on

Cascade Has Folks ‘Doing It Every Night’ And One Million Moms Is Mad

(screen capture via Cascade)
Cascade dishwasher detergent has a cute, suggestive new commercial out titled, “Do It Every Night.” Of course, hate group One Million Moms (really just a few thousand) is mad about the spot calling it ‘repulsive.’ #srsly From OMM spokesperson Monica Cole:

Cascade is currently airing its sexually suggestive “Do It Every Night” television commercial during prime time.

“We do it every night,” an elderly couple tells the viewing audience. “Every night,” a middle-aged couple adds. “I live alone, but I still do it every night,” a young, single woman says with a smirk. Then the two couples continue: “Right after dinner,” and “Definitely after meatloaf.”

The commercial concludes with this voice-over: “Do it! Run your dishwasher every night with Cascade Platinum. A load with as few as eight dishes is all it takes to save water. An Energy Star Certified dishwasher uses less than four gallons per cycle, while a running sink uses that every two minutes. So, do it. Run your dishwasher every night with Cascade Platinum. The surprising way to save water.”

This vile commercial is airing during prime time when children are likely watching TV. When this type of commercial airs, it ruins family viewing time. Can you imagine what goes through the mind of a child when he sees this ad?

Cascade chose to air this commercial, knowing it would be controversial. We all know children repeat what they hear. There is nothing funny about kids saying, “We do it every night!” Cascade should be ashamed!

Cole closes her email begging people to sign her sad petition demanding Cascade pull the ad spot. I think it’s cute. Let me know if you think this is “vile” or “controversial.”

Posted on

Gay Racist Toad Shouts N-Word, Attacks Guy Recording His A**holery

Just grotesque… (screen capture via YouTube)
Here’s a sad example that there’s a jerk in just about every demographic. A video shared on social media shows a confrontation between a driver and a pedestrian escalate to violence after the driver realized he was captured on video calling a Black sanitation worker a “f*cking n****r.” The incident took place on New York City’s Upper East Side over the weekend. After shouting the racist slur, the driver noticed a pedestrian was recording the ugliness. “Are you recording me?” asked the driver. “Yeah,” says the pedestrian. “Why?” the driver asks. In a pretty spot-on assessment, the pedestrian replied, “Because you’re an asshole.” “I’m an asshole? Honey, look in the mirror, okay? The only person who is an asshole is you for recording,” says the racist driver. During the exchange, the motorist asked the pedestrian, “Are you gay, too?” “Too?” Oh god, he’s gay? Dang it… “No,” the pedestrian replies. “No, you’re not? Well, you look like it,” the driver snaps back. When the pedestrian shares he plans on uploading the video to the internet, the driver scoffs, “Okay, I’ll get fans, honey. That’s what I’ll do.” It’s at that point the driver exits his car and assaults the pedestrian. Along the way snatches the phone recording the incident and hurls it to the ground. The driver probably thought he’d solved his internet problem, except others nearby noticed the exchange and were recording as well.

The YouTube poster writes that prior to the beginning of the clip, the driver “was repeatedly shouting at a Black sanitation worker, yelling “you’re a n*****”. The noise was enough for several residents to come down to street level.” Folks in the Twitterverse were NOT having the hideous behavior.

Posted on

Chechen President Banned From U.S. Over Reports Of LGBTQ Torture

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov (screen capture via HBO Sports)
I expect the Trump administration will tout this as part of its “great record” on LGBTQ issues, but in the end, I’m not sure it actually DOES anything of consequence. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that Ramzan Kadyrov, president of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, has been banned from entering the U.S. under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2020. Section 7031(c) “requires the Secretary of State to bar from U.S. entry” foreign officials about whom the Secretary has credible information indicating that they have been involved, directly or indirectly, in “gross violation of human rights.” You’ll note the statute says “requires” so let’s not give Pompeo too much credit here. Today’s announcement also affects Kadyrov’s immediate family members. That said, it’s not clear Kadyrov or his family had any plans to visit the U.S. any time soon. Plus, Section 7031(c) will expire on September 30, 2020, unless Congress extends it by a continuing resolution or restated in a new law. A statement issued by the State Department says this action is being taken “due to Kadyrov’s involvement in gross violations of human rights in the Chechen Republic.” The Department says it has received extensive credible information that Kadyrov is responsible for numerous human rights violations including torture and extrajudicial killings. In 2018, the United States joined fifteen other nations in creating a fact-finding mission into “horrific reports of abuses against LGBTI persons” and others who were targeted by Kadyrov. The subsequent report found that “harassment and persecution, arbitrary or unlawful arrests or detentions, torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions” had taken place. The State Department says it is now concerned Kadyrov may be “using the excuse of the coronavirus pandemic to inflict further human rights abuses on the people of the Chechen Republic.” Kadyrov, who was appointed president of Chechnya in 2007 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly denied not only the allegations of torture and murder but that gay people even exist in his country. Human rights activists have been sounding the alarm for years that Kadyrov had launched a series of state-sponsored anti-gay purges across the highly conservative, traditional Muslim country. In May 2017, the Human Rights Watch shared one detainee’s description of the horrific treatment he’d been subjected to in an unofficial prison: “They electrocuted us, beat us with pipes, kicked us, and punched us, they made other inmates beat us, they called us names, spat in our faces.” The U.S. announced sanctions against Kadyrov in December 2017, including visa bans and asset freezes, under the 2012 Magnitsky Act. The BBC reported at the time that Kadyrov responded by “mocking the US move in an Instagram post in which he said ‘a sleepless night is waiting for me.'” He added he was “proud” to be “out of favor with the special services of the USA.” The new film Welcome to Chechnya, which debuted on HBO June 30, documents the horrific persecution of LGBTQ people in Chechnya.

Posted on

Texas Talker Throws More Shade At Hypocritical ‘Christians’

Texas talker Andrew Joseph Duffer throws shade at hypocritical 'Christians'

Texas talker Andrew Joseph Duffer throws shade at hypocritical 'Christians'
Andrew Joseph Duffer (screen capture)
He’s baaaaaaaack! Andrew Joseph Duffer went viral last month with his walk-and-talk video from his “country-bumpkin podunk town” in Northeast Texas “where hypocrisy, racism and homophobia run rampant.” In his new video, Duffer calls out the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ crowd with a couple of lessons from the Bible. “We already know a beer-belly bumpkin’s biblical paradise lies in Leviticus chapter 18 where it says ‘you will not lie with a man as you would a woman,'” begins Duffer. “Y’all sure to like to stop there, but if you’ll click your f**kingboots on over to chapter 19 you’ll see it says you shouldn’t cut your hair.” “If memory serves it wasn’t that long ago that you Trump-supporting Christians were protesting – during quarantine I might add – for your right to get a hair cut,” he adds. “Ain’t that interesting???” Duffer also notes that while there’s no mention of Jesus addressing homosexuality in the Bible, the issue of divorce is most definitely something Jesus had some thoughts on. And it’s pretty specific, too. In Matthew 5:31-32, Jesus says, “Anyone who divorces his wife causes her to commit adultery and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” With that in mind, what Duffer wants to know is – how many ‘Christian’ county clerks who opposed same-sex marriage refused to sign any divorce documents? Or marched in the streets against divorce? Says Duffer, “Talk about picking and choosing…” Related: Andrew Joseph Duffer “Keep your seatbelts fastened, we are reaching the turbulent part of the video!” The Texas talker also takes a swing through the topic of immigration wondering why some folks claim America is a ‘Christian’ nation “except when a person of color seeks refuge here? Why do ‘all lives matter’ until they’re Black? And why don’t we ‘love they neighbor?'” To the folks that tell people who don’t look like them to ‘go back to their country,’  Duffer suggests “If that’s what you want, you’re going to have to hop back into your Pilgrim panties and get the f*ck back on the Mayflower.” He also equates Christopher Columbus discovering America with the same sense that he “was a glitter-pissing, rainbow-sh*tting, gay-as-the-day-is-long homosexual. It was always there, everyone knew about it but me – just like America.” He sums up by pointing out, “You’re not really Christians – your lips and your lives don’t match, and you spend more time trying to play God than please God.” “Come on, y’all, we already know that Cher is immortal – what kind of country are we going to leave behind for her???” Annnnd, curtain. Love this guy 🙂

Posted on

Fox News Poll: Voters Trust Biden To Handle COVID-19 Over Trump Bigly

L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden
The latest polling from Fox News will not be putting a smile on Donald Trump’s face. The survey of 1,104 registered voters shows the coronavirus is the number one issue on the minds of voters and that factors in when asked who Americans want to see in charge of handling the COVID-19 threat. While 51 percent trust former Vice President Joe Biden to handle the pandemic, only 34 percent believe Trump has the stuff to end the health threat. Biden also leads on questions of traits needed to be an effective president like compassion (Biden 56% – Trump 36%), intelligence (Biden 51% – Trump 41%), and judgement (Biden 52% – Trump 40%). Even on the issue of ‘mental soundness,’ which the Trump campaign has tried to characterize Biden as being mentally deficient, the public sees Biden as more in control of his mental faculties than Trump (47% – 43% respectively). That said, with the 2016 presidential election still fresh in our minds, voters know anything can happen. When asked if Trump will be reelected the results were a tie – 45% each side with 10% answering ‘Unsure.’ It’s worth noting, however, that tie is bad news for Trump. Back in February, the Fox News poll found 56% believed Trump would score a second term while only 43% were non-believers. I’m not a ‘national poll’ fan, but since this data comes from Fox News, I will note when asked if the election were held today, 49% said they would cast their ballot for Joe Biden while only 41% would vote Trump. Even with the 3% margin of error that is not good news for the Donald.

Posted on

After Round Of Golf, Trump ‘Saddened’ By Passing Of John Lewis

Since the passing of Congressman John Lewis was announced, Donald Trump tweeted about 30 times without mentioning the civil rights icon. He then got up, and according to reports, played around of golf with his buddy, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Finally, this afternoon, after numerous other national leaders and all former presidents had issued public statements of condolences regarding Lewis’s death, Trump’s Twitter account shared a two-sentence tweet saying Trump and the First Lady are “saddened” by the congressman’s passing.

Posted on

Military Ban On Confederate Flags Effectively Bans Pride Flags As Well

(image via Depositphotos)
Defense Secretary Mark Esper issued new guidance on Thursday regarding flag displays on military installations effectively banning the display of Confederate flags without actually using the word ‘Confederate.’ In the unclassified memo, Esper writes, “The flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols.” Esper’s memo goes on to list the specific kinds of flags that will be allowed to be displayed in addition to the American flag: flags of the U.S. states, territories and the District of Columbia; military flags and those of U.S. allies. The new guidance applies to “public displays or depictions of flags by service members and civilian employees in all Department of Defense workplaces, common access areas, and public areas.” Those spaces include open-bay barracks, parking lots, schools, individual offices, and break rooms. According to reports, the new rules are meant to be an indirect approach to banning Confederate flags without raising the ire of Donald Trump, who has made appeasing racist groups a part of his reelection campaign. However, the new flag guidance also effectively prohibits the display of LGBTQ Pride flags since they aren’t listed among the approved list of flags. Pentagon spokesman Lisa Lawrence confirmed this on Friday in an official statement: “The memorandum does not authorize public display of unlisted flags in the Department of Defense.” While many political pundits say the point of the new guidance is to address Confederate flags, it’s well-known that displaying rainbow flags in military settings has irked some anti-LGBTQ conservatives. So, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine the prohibition of Pride flags isn’t intentional on some level. The Modern Military Association of America, the largest LGBTQ military and veteran advocacy group organization in the U.S. responded to the news by demanding Esper reconsider the effects of his vague language. “It’s absolutely outrageous that Defense Secretary Mark Esper would ban the Pride flag — the very symbol of inclusion and diversity,” wrote MMAA Interim Executive Director Jennifer Dane on the group’s official website. “In what universe is it ok to turn an opportunity to ban a racist symbol like the Confederate flag into an opportunity to ban the symbol of diversity? This decision sends an alarming message to LGBTQ service members, their families, and future recruits.” “The Pentagon must immediately reconsider and take swift and appropriate action to ensure the Pride flag and LGBTQ Pride Month observances are not threatened. If Secretary Esper refuses to reconsider, we call on Members of Congress to take action.” The anti-Trump group VoteVets also denounced the idea of equating the Confederate flag with the Pride flag in a statement on Twitter. “It is patently offensive that Mark Esper has, along with the Confederate flag, declared the Pride flag to be ‘divisive,’” Goodwin said. “The Pride flag celebrates the hard-fought rights of LGBTQ Americans, including many troops. To equate it with a symbol that represented a denial of human rights is disgusting and a slap in the face of those members of the community who serve, or seek to serve, in uniform.”

Posted on

Congressman John Lewis, Civil Rights Icon, Dead At 80

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)
Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), an icon in the fight for civil rights for decades, has died at the age of 80 after his battle with pancreatic cancer. I’m careful not to write “passed away,” because Lewis never merely “passed” anything in his storied life. The youngest of the Big Six civil rights activists, Lewis garnered national headlines after leading hundreds of protesters in the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. Knocked to the ground and beaten by Alabama state troopers, Lewis’s skull was fractured and images of the infamous moment were spread across the country, crystallizing the civil rights movement to such a degree the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed shortly thereafter. The civil rights lion was elected to Congress over 20 years later representing his district in Atlanta, Georgia.

And from the New York Times:

Mr. Lewis led demonstrations against racially segregated restrooms, hotels, restaurants, public parks and swimming pools, and he rose up against other indignities of second-class citizenship. At nearly every turn he was beaten, spat upon or burned with cigarettes. He was tormented by white mobs and absorbed body blows from law enforcement.

Mr. Lewis was arrested 40 times from 1960 to 1966. He was repeatedly beaten senseless by Southern policemen and freelance hoodlums. During the Freedom Rides in 1961, he was left unconscious in a pool of his own blood outside the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Montgomery, Ala., after he and others were attacked by hundreds of white people. He spent countless days and nights in county jails and 31 days in Mississippi’s notoriously brutal Parchman Penitentiary.

Lewis didn’t restrict his battles to civil rights for Black Americans. He was also an early ally of the LGBTQ movement. In 2003, he penned an op-ed for the Boston Globe arguing in favor of same-sex marriage long before others would come to embrace that call.

We are now at such a crossroads over same-sex couples’ freedom to marry. It is time to say forthrightly that the government’s exclusion of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters from civil marriage officially degrades them and their families. It denies them the basic human right to marry the person they love. It denies them numerous legal protections for their families.

This discrimination is wrong. We cannot keep turning our backs on gay and lesbian Americans. I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I’ve heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex couples. Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred, and intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry.

In the 1990s, he voted against the heinous ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ which defined marriage as only between a man and a woman, and he stood with the pro-LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign. He also voiced his opposition to Georgia’s prohibition on adoption by LGBTQ people. One of my favorite tributes was from Lewis’s friend and former UN ambassador, Andrew Young: “He didn’t convince you by his arguments. He convinced you by his life.” People much more eloquent than I offered their tributes to Lewis. Rest in power, John Lewis.