LGBTQ news and entertainment
WWE wrestler Lars Sullivan back in his RandyBlue days and today (images via Wikipedia)
Mitch looks awfully familiar lmao pic.twitter.com/QVwoYoYeuK
— Niko Exxtra (@NikoExxtra) December 29, 2019
Steve_in_la (via Instagram)
• Politico: Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who launched the bureau’s Russia probe in 2016 and was fired two years later for sending text messages critical of Donald Trump, has alleged in a new court filing challenging his dismissal that the FBI and Justice Department violated his rights to free speech and privacy. • Gallup: Barack Obama and Donald Trump tied this year as the most admired man. It is Obama’s 12th time in the top spot versus the first for Trump. Michelle Obama is the most admired woman for the second year in a row. • NewNowNext: After returning to the West End production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, drag star Bianca Del Rio was not having a woman in the audience who filmed the first act of the musical on her phone, which was noticed by the cast of the show, including Bianca. “Dear blonde bitch with glasses, Thanks for distracting the ENTIRE CAST and SEVERAL PEOPLE AROUND YOU as you filmed during all of ACT ONE with your phone in your hand. This is not a concert, theme park or even a cruise ship… it’s THE THEATRE! RESPECT IT!”
Dear blonde bitch with glasses, Thanks for distracting the ENTIRE CAST and SEVERAL PEOPLE AROUND YOU as you filmed during all of ACT ONE with your phone in your hand. This is not a concert, theme park or even a cruise ship…… it’s THE THEATRE! RESPECT IT ! @JamieMusical 🙄
— Bianca Del Rio (@TheBiancaDelRio) December 29, 2019
A 60-year-old gay man was violently beaten to death on Christmas Eve defending his partner from a gang of robbers who left the scene of the crime having stolen a single dollar. Juan Fresnada and his 29-year-old partner Byron Caceres were leaving a McDonald’s restaurant in the Bronx near 1:30 a.m. when a man approached the couple demanding money. Friends of the couple told NBC New York, “The guys just told them ‘Give me the money, give me the money.’ He was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’” The couple reportedly tried to avoid the conflict by heading into a nearby deli, but the perpetrator followed them, and things quickly escalated. “My husband tried to defend me,” Caceres told the New York Daily News. “The guy had his fist ready like he was ready to attack me. My husband said, ‘Don’t you get close to him.’” Two other men joined the first and began to beat the couple. Defen defending his partner, Fresnada told Caceres to run to safety. According to Caceres, the assault lasted between 10 and 15 minutes as the robbers beat Fresnada relentlessly before smashing a steel trash can on his head leaving him in the middle of East 165th Street with severe injuries to his legs and head.
When Caceres returned, he doesn’t own a cell phone and couldn’t call the police, his partner was bleeding and breathing heavily. The younger man attempted CPR but a bystander said that might not be a good idea since Fresnada was breathing so heavily. According to NBC New York, throughout the ordeal, no one stopped to help the couple. Eventually, an ambulance arrived to take the older man to a nearby hospital where he was treated for a fractured skull which led to swelling in his brain and blood pooling in the back of his skull. The younger man refused treatment and is expected to fully recover. Fresnada remained hooked up to a ventilator and unresponsive until he died from his extensive injuries on Friday, December 27. Caceres says he doesn’t believe the attack was a hate crime as he doesn’t remember hearing any homophobic slurs during the assault. The two men met in 2015 through a program for low-income gay men and have been inseparable since. The police have released this montage of surveillance footage of the men. Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
(source: NBC New York, New York Daily News)
Rep. John Lewis (image via House.gov)
Lewis, 79, said he was diagnosed following a routine medical visit with subsequent tests that reconfirmed the diagnosis. The long-time Georgia congressman will undergo treatment for the cancer.
“I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” Lewis, who in March 1965 joined forces with Martin Luther King Jr. to lead a voting rights march out out Selma, Alabama, said in a statement.
He continued later: “While I am clear-eyed about the prognosis, doctors have told me that recent medical advances have made this type of cancer treatable in many cases, that treatment options are no longer as debilitating as they once were, and that I have a fighting chance.”
Pancreatic cancer was the third-leading cause of death from cancer in the United States in 2018, after lung and colorectal cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.
John Lewis stood up for civil rights by taking part in sit-ins when he was just 20. He was beaten during the Freedom Rides when he was 21. He was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington at 23, and had his skull fractured in Selma during Bloody Sunday at the age of 25. John Lewis doesn’t back down from a fight. #fuckcancer
After studying the 150 countries that had the most international tourists, travel bloggers at Asher & Lyric ranked the worst countries for LGBTQ travelers. Among the factors considered were laws regarding same-sex relations, propaganda/morality laws, worker protections & protections against discrimination and more. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and 7th most populous in the world, has the dubious distinction of taking the top spot on the list. Here are the top five most dangerous countries for LGBTQ travelers:
5. Tanzania – homosexuality can be punished by 30 years to life in prison; ‘indecent behavior’ in regard to homosexuality can result in 5 years in prison
4. Saudi Arabia – homosexual acts can be punished by the death penalty, 100 lashes or banishment for a year; gender expression is illegal
3. Yemen – homosexuality among men can result in 100 lashes, a year in prison if unmarried or stoning to death if married; women caught in same-sex relations can receive 100 lashes and/or 3 years in prison
2. Qatar – homosexual acts can result in 1-3 years in prison, flogging and/or the death penalty
1. Nigeria – homosexuality receives up to 14 years in prison or the death penalty; the mere discussion of LGBTQ rights is illegal
The bloggers note that “certain cities, tourist areas or resorts can sometimes be LGBTQ+ friendly even when the laws of the country as a whole are very anti-LGBTQ+. In all cases, do your research.” Check out the full list here.
A stranger burst into a rabbi’s home in New York state and stabbed five people as they were celebrating Hanukkah. From the New York Times:
An intruder with a large knife burst into the home of a Hasidic rabbi in a New York suburb on Saturday night, stabbing and wounding five people just as they were gathering to light candles for Hanukkah, officials and a witness said.
It was a terrifying scene, the officials and witness reported, saying that the violence occurred at about 10 p.m. as numerous people were celebrating Hanukkah at the home of the rabbi, Chaim Rottenberg, in Monsey, which is in an area with a large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, visiting the rabbi’s home on Sunday morning, called the attack an “act of domestic terrorism.”
The New York Police Department said a suspect had been arrested in Harlem and was turned over to the authorities in Rockland County, which is northwest of New York City and where the attack took place.
The horrifying rise of antisemitism is tearing apart the fabric of our communities and the soul of this nation. We've got to stand together as a country and fight these flames of hatred.
My deepest sympathies are with the victims, their families, and the Jewish community. https://t.co/fcUUwN8rE6
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 29, 2019
I’m sending my prayers to the families and the community affected by last night’s horrific attack on a rabbi’s home in Monsey.
We must all stand shoulder to shoulder to fight anti-Semitism and demand that our elected leaders do the same.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 29, 2019
My prayers are with the victims of these horrific acts of anti-Semitism and hate. This cannot be tolerated.
On the morning of the last night of Hanukkah, let us all rededicate ourselves to ensuring that light beats back darkness. Never again. https://t.co/AscnNJbjOx
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) December 29, 2019
I'm heartsick for the victims of this horrific attack. This is unfortunately just the latest of a series of anti-Semitic attacks in New York and New Jersey. We must fight anti-Semitism and make clear that hateful bigotry has no place in our society. https://t.co/MjlL1gkovV
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 29, 2019
Donald Trump took to Twitter today to rant about the issue of homelessness in America. Well, not exactly. The Trumpster tweeted specifically about the homelessness problem in two very blue states: California and New York. Trump wrote, “California and New York must do something about their TREMENDOUS Homeless problems. They are setting records! If their Governors can’t handle the situation, which they should be able to do very easily, they must call and ‘politely’ ask for help. Would be so easy with competence!” 
It’s worth noting, however, that a Rockefeller Institute of Government study this year found that New York’s residents and businesses consistently send more revenue to the Federal government than any other state, and the state continues to contribute more in taxes than the state receives back in federal spending. And residents of California pay one of the highest rates of federal taxes per capita in the country. As president, states shouldn’t have to beg or “politely” ask for help. That’s what the federal government is there for, and what they pay taxes for. And in the case of these two states, a LOT of taxes. Trump forgets that he’s not a king whose ring should be kissed. He’s an employee of the people of the United States. The Donald’s real issue here isn’t worrying about the homeless (which he’d rather just not see), but the fact that California and New York have governors who won’t bow down to him. Later in the day, Trump took another swipe at New York tweeting, “So sad to see that New York City and State are falling apart. All they want to do is investigate to make me hate them even more than I should. Governor Cuomo has lost control, and lost his mind. Very bad for the homeless and all!” 
(photo: Maurício Mascaro/Pexels)
There were 41 mass killings — defined as four or more killed, excluding the perpetrator. (33 were shootings.)
James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, believes it’s partially a byproduct of an “angry and frustrated time” that we are living in: “This seems to be the age of mass shootings.”
Most of the mass killings barely became national news, failing to resonate among the general public because they didn’t spill into public places like massacres in El Paso and Odessa, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Jersey City, New Jersey.
Research going back to the 1970s shows no other year with as many mass slayings. The second-most killings in a year prior to 2019 was 38 in 2006.
The 211 people killed in this year’s cases is eclipsed by the 224 victims killed in 2017 — when Vegas had the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Donald Trump
“We find that tariff increases enacted in 2018 are associated with relative reductions in manufacturing employment and relative increases in producer prices,” the report by Fed economists Aaron Flaaen and Justin Pierce reads.
MarketWatch first reported the study, noting that 10 primary industries were hit by retaliatory tariffs and higher prices, including producers of magnetic and optical media, leather goods, aluminum sheet, iron and steel, motor vehicles, household appliances, sawmills, audio and video equipment, pesticide, and computer equipment.
In September of this year, U.S. consumers and businesses paid a record $7.1 billion in tariffs.
As a reminder:
Trump announced steel tariffs on 3/1/18 – US Steel stock price was $45.39/share on 3/2/18.
Today, US Steel stock price is $11.82/share. Steel workers are losing jobs.
A decrease of 74% – tired of all this winning yet?#TrumpTariffs #TrumpTradeWar#LoserTrump
— Jeff – Blue Tsunami in 2020 (@NewJeffCT) December 23, 2019
Minimum wage Employees are doing a little better but self employed farmers still going bankrupt at fastest rates since Great Depression thanks to Trump tariffs:( pic.twitter.com/g86DmmsDGe
— Donnie Dumb-Brat (@DonnieDumbBrat) December 27, 2019
Olivia Newton-John (image via Facebook)
Olivia in front of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Australia