Next time you use a public bathroom, you might want to check to see how much privacy you really have.
An employee of Oregon State University has been accused of recording unsuspecting men who were indulging in a bit of ‘self-love’ in a public bathroom stall.
According to the Albany Democrat-Herald, Andres Lazaro Lopez was arraigned this past Monday on a felony count of first-degree invasion of privacy and two misdemeanor counts of second-degree invasion of privacy.
The incident apparently took place in a sixth floor men’s room at a university library last May.
Lopez allegedly utilized a pencil-sized hole in a bathroom stall wall to record the men masturbating with his phone.
After being reported to the Oregon State Police, a search warrant was obtained to seize and search Lopez’s phone last August.
Lt. Craig Flierl, the commander of the OSU division of the Oregon State Police, told the Democrat-Herald that the peek holes had been repaired.
“The university didn’t waste any time in preventing that from happening again,” said Flierl.
Lopez pleaded not guilty during his arraignment this week and his lawyer, Joshua E. Hunking, claims his client’s actions may have been ‘misinterpreted.’
In fact, Hunking appeared to assert that the incidents were ‘consensual.’
“Cruising has sprung up as one way that gay men can engage in consensual sex interactions while attempting to avoid social and criminal judgement for those innately human acts,” Hunking told the Democrat-Herald in an email.
“I encourage the general public to reserve judgment in this case as we work toward a resolution.”
Lopez is scheduled to return to court on February 11.
• InstaHunk Danny ‘Tree Man’ Jones acknowledges the challenges of trying to post ‘engaging’ content even when it’s freezing outside.
• Vanity Fairreports that Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, “hates” his job and expects the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to be “horrific” for Trump.
• New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has announced she will run for president in 2020. Gillibrand has been an LGBTQ ally for years fighting for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” opposing Trump’s transgender military ban, and pushing for federal LGBTQ protections.
Tonight I announced that I’m preparing to run for president, because I believe we’re all called to make a difference. I believe in right vs. wrong – that wrong wins when we do nothing. Now is our time to raise our voices and get off the sidelines. Join me: https://t.co/I1vp93u0wh
• On the flip side, 2020 presidential hopeful Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii began her candidacy with an apology tour saying she’s really, really sorry for her long history of homophobia. #ByeFelicia
• Chuck Holton, NRA-TV host, told viewers, “Men were meant to be dangerous” in response to the new Gillette ad I reported on yesterday that calls on men to ‘step up’ as role models for young males.
• Sweet video from INTO – “Old Gays Look Back At Their Younger Selves.”
“You look like a real jock.” “Do I? I was pretty queer.”
After Gillette unveiled its latest ad meant to inspire men to step up as better role models for young boys regarding how to treat women and other men, some far-right loons decided being told to “be the best a man can be” was too tall an order.
It’s not unusual for Proctor & Gamble, Gillette’s parent company to advocate on social issues.
Last year, P&G won an Emmy Award for “The Talk,” an ad that featured African-American parents discussing racism with their children.
And other companies have found success wading into social issues.
Last year, Nike put former NLF quarterback Colin Kaepernick front and center for the 30th anniversary of their “Just Do It” campaign. The ad spot was targeted at Nike’s prime demographic – younger customers who tend to believe in social justice.
The gamble paid off. While there were some early grumbles on social media, Nike’s CEO, Mark Parker, shared with analysts in September, “We’ve seen record engagement with the brand as part of the campaign.”
Even Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, Bernice King, gave the new Gillette ad a thumbs-up.
“This commercial isn’t anti-male,” tweeted the civil rights advocate. “It’s pro-humanity. And it demonstrates that character can step up to change conditions.”
However, some men, who apparently don’t like to be told to stop assaulting women or bullying gay men, are now proposing a boycott of the men’s product company.
And then there’s self-important UK TV personality Piers Morgan, who has his own history of homophobic and transphobic snark.
Morgan claims he spends “$1000s” on Gillette products each year, and his takeaway from the ad was that Gillette “wants every man to take one of their razors & cut off his testicles.” What the hell…?
I spend $1000s a year on @Gillette products. They need me, just as they need all their male customers they just threw under the PC bus. https://t.co/QryHSh0YEs
It seems to me that if you are a man who treats women and other men with respect, there’s really nothing to get upset about, is there?
In any case, lots of level-headed, clear-minded folks have clapped back at the fragile snowflakes.
Out Olympian Gus Kenworthy had a perfectly direct response to the triggered trolls, tweeting, “To anyone who was offended by the Gillette ad that simply implored me not to sexually assault or harass women: f*ck you!”
To anyone who was offended by the @Gillette ad that simply implored men not to sexually assault or harass women: fuck you!
I don’t understand where all the hate for the #GilletteAd is coming from? It’s just saying don’t be an asshole and treat EVERYONE with respect. Great job @Gillette
That Gillette ad doesn’t wage war on men, it simply challenges men not to bully, catcall, grope or assault anybody. How is that controversial? Interesting to see conservatives, who weaponized Al Franken and Harvey Weinstein for political purposes, feign outrage over this message.
I like how a small minority of people are getting mad at the Gillette ad and now want boycott them. I watched the ad and went about my day like most people. I don’t care what razor you shave them nutz with fam. If you hate the ad they are talking about you.#gilletteboycottpic.twitter.com/243N2IvPmH
Ok I heard this ad was shit, but it’s really not that bad. It’s literally just an ad telling scummy shit bags to stop being scummy shit bags, nothing overly feminist, not any real leftist propaganda
Politico reporter Rachel Bade says Democrats are not of a mind to give Trump a platform to blame them in a national address for a situation he created.
Pelosi reportedly asked that perhaps Trump could deliver his SOTU to Congress in writing.
Can you imagine? He can barely author a tweet.
BREAKING: @SpeakerPelosi just asked to postpone the SOTU until after the shutdown. Dems don’t want to give Trump a platform to blame them for a crisis they believe he caused.
This Pelosi move feels like classic Pelosi. Makes a public, formal request to the president to postpone SOTU. Tees it up politely. But really, she's not asking. She controls if or when SOTU happens. This is gonna drive Trump crazy. https://t.co/kL4vUciATQ— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) January 16, 2019
More Americans blame Donald Trump for current government shutdown
New polling from Morning Consult/Politico shows more Americans blame Donald Trump for the current shutdown of the federal government than the Democrats.
From the data culled from surveying 1,984 registered voters:
• 49% blame Donald Trump for the shutdown versus 33% who put the onus on Democrats
• 36% say Trump should declare a ‘national emergency’ to get his wall while a slight majority – 51% – would view that action as an abuse of power
• 47% say they will ‘definitely’ vote for someone other than Trump in the 2020 presidential election compared to just 23% who would ‘definitely’ vote for Trump
• Broken down by political party, 85% of Democrats and 48% of Independents say they would ‘definitely’ vote for someone other than Trump
• Only 54% of Republicans fall in the ‘definitely’ camp for Trump
A year and a half after over 100 gay men were detained and tortured, some killed, by a secret police force in Chechnya, a new wave of detainments has occurred reports the Russian LGBT Network.
Igor Kochetkov, program director for Russian LGBT Network, said in a statement “that it is impossible to name the precise number of victims.”
“However, we know that around 40 people were detained, both men and women,” said Kochetkov. “At least two people died as a result of tortures. We also know that the detentions are conducted by the law enforcement officers, and the victims are detained in Argun.”
“Persecution of men and women suspected of being gay never stopped,” added the LGBT activist. “It’s only that its scale has been changing.”
According to a social media post on January 10th, activists are urging LGBTQ Chechens to flee immediately. “We ask anyone still free to take this message seriously and leave the republic as soon as is possible,” the statement read.
Since 2017 Russian LGBT Network has helped to evacuate approximately 150 gay men out of Chechnya.
Reports of the anti-LGBTQ crackdown in Chechnya first came in December 2016.
Chechen authorities, most of whom are former military members who serve as Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov’s secret police force, reportedly detain suspected gay men under the pretense of drug charges.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov
Once detained, police search the men’s phones contacts for other suspects, using torture to get as much info as possible.
In the past, Kadyrov has vowed to kill all gay men.
Russian LGBT Network has reported that the torturers use “electrocution, beatings, starvation, dehydration, isolation, forced nudity, homophobic insults and misgendering” to punish detainees, confiscating their personal belongings and only allowing them to sleep three hours a day on cold concrete floors. The men are not allowed to bathe or use toilets and they receive no medical care.
The victims have no where to turn as filing a complaint could make them a target for future harassment and violence.
Women have been caught in the crackdown too, though they’re often left to their families be abused, imprisoned or killed.
The Russia LGBT Network has helped approximately 119 gay and bi men escape the purge and flee to Moscow, Canada Lithuania, France and Germany.
Russian newspaper Novaya Gazetareports least 27 people are believed to have died in the crackdown.
And as with the first reports of the gay purge, Chechen officials deny any and all allegations.
Ty Cobb, director of Human Rights Campaign Global, released the following statement regarding the resurgence in detainments:
“Nearly two years after reports first surfaced of anti-LGBTQ violence and killings in Chechnya, we are once again hearing disturbing accounts of state-sanctioned detentions and abuse.
“We have repeatedly called on the Trump-Pence White House to speak out and help bring an end to this persecution, but instead the White House has largely ignored the actions of the Russian-backed regime in Chechnya.
“Human rights violators in Chechnya must be held accountable and be brought to justice. Lives are hanging in the balance.”
After years and years of attempting to protect transgender New Yorkers, the New York state legislature has passed GENDA, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act.
The legislation explicitly bans discrimination in the state based on gender expression and gender identity. The bill won passage with a vote of 100-40 in the Assembly and 42-19 in the Senate.
Transgender and gender non-conforming people will now be protected in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodations.
“This is truly an historic day,” Eric Lesh, executive director of the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York, told The Daily Beast. “We are finally welcoming a fairer and more equal New York because of the bold and tireless leadership of trans and gender non-conforming New Yorkers.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, GENDA passed in the state Assembly 11 times over the years, but the GOP-controlled Senate would kill the bill. Only now that Democrats control the Senate has the legislation finally passed and will head to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk to be signed into law.
#BREAKING: The New York State Senate just passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or expression and adding protections for transgender NYers to the state’s Hate Crimes Law.
Additionally, a ban on so-called ‘conversion therapy’ passed in both chambers, making New York the 15th state to protect LGBTQ youth from the harmful practice.
The legislation passed in the state Assembly 134 to 3, and in the state Senate by a vote of 57-4.
“Today’s historic action in New York is the result of years of hard work and it is a vivid illustration of the importance of electing pro-equality lawmakers,” said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin in a statement.
“Due to the efforts of countless advocates and leaders, transgender New Yorkers will now be explicitly protected from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and LGBTQ youth will be protected from the dangerous, debunked practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy,'” he added. “This is a monumental day for fairness and equality across the Empire State.”
Major medical organizations like the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all denounced ‘conversion therapy’ which treats being gay as a mental illness.
So-called ‘ex-gay therapy’ has been shown to lead to depression, anxiety and, in some cases, suicide.
Those who disapprove of the job Trump is doing has risen to 59%.
According to CNBC political reporter John Harwood, Trump is the only president in the history of polling never to reach 50% approval in their first 2 years.
Additionally, Trump is the only president whose average approval for first 2 years (39%) was below 40%.
Harwood reports the averages for the Donald’s predecessors as: Barack Obama 52%, George W. Bush 70%, Bill Clinton 48%, George H.W. Bush 70%, Ronald Reagan 50%, and Jimmy Carter 54%.
House Republican leaders removed Representative Steve King of Iowa from the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees on Monday night as party officials scrambled to appear tough on racism and contain damage from comments Mr. King made to The New York Times questioning why white supremacy is considered offensive.
The punishment came on a day when Mr. King was denounced by an array of Republican leaders, though not President Trump. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, suggested Mr. King find “another line of work” and Senator Mitt Romney said he should quit. And the House Republicans, in an attempt to be proactive, stripped him of the committee seats in the face of multiple Democratic resolutions to censure Mr. King that are being introduced this week.
Those measures would force Republicans to take a stand on the House Democratic majority’s attempt to publicly reprimand one of their own.
Mr. King, who has been an ally of President Trump on the border wall and other issues, has a long history of making racist remarks and insults about immigrants, but has not drawn rebukes from Republican leaders until recently.
Tonight, Rep. Steve King was stripped of all his committee assignments for his embrace of white supremacy.
He will not serve on a single committee for the next 2 years of the 116th Congress.
Committee assignments are powerful. Members spend years working for their desired spot. https://t.co/WLkH2os8Pw
This AM, Kevin McCarthy stopped short of calling on Steve King to resign, as did Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley. “That’s up to Steve King,” McCarthy said.
Liz Cheney, however, said she agrees with McConnell: “I think he should find another line of work.”
My dear Carol Channing passed away this morning at the age of 97.
I celebrate this Broadway legend and my many years working with her.
What a gift.
Carol and Hello, Dolly! changed my life forever in 1994.
The experience gave me my first Broadway show; I met my husband of 24 years, Michael; supervising the national tour gave me the downpayment for my first home; and I have been lucky to stage almost a dozen major regional productions of the show passing on what I learned from Carol and our director, Lee Roy Reams.
Celebrate our fabulous Tony Award winning, Academy Award nominee (Thoroughly Modern Millie) Carol Channing today. She is, was, and always will be a national treasure.
I originally wrote some of this post years ago to celebrate her 90th birthday, but updated it with a couple more stories. Everyone always asks for the stories… 🙂
Back in 2010, I performed with her again (picture below) in the opening number of the Gypsy of the Year competition, which is a major charity event for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. She brought the house down as only she can.
The last time Carol and I danced together at the Gypsy of the Year event in 2010 Thank you, Bruce Glikas, for the photo 🙂
For those that don’t know, I spent two and a half incredible years performing with Carol in the last Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!. I eventually became the production supervisor, and she would ask me for notes – on how to perform the role of Dolly Levi!
As if I could tell her anything she didn’t already know.
Me with Carol at the 2010 Gypsy of the Year event on Broadway
A quick Carol story: when I was supervising Dolly on tour, one day we had a particularly long and dreadful travel day – two planes, a bus, a train and a donkey or two – to get to what Carol called “a soccer arena” where we would perform the show that night.
In the sound check Carol looked down and realized that the musician’s pit was 25 feet beneath us. This was the pit that I had to leap over every night in the middle of the Hello, Dolly! number. For the first time in 30 years of doing the show she decided this was dangerous.
After the sound check she came looking for me to ask if someone could put a net or something between the pit and the stage in case those of us who jumped over the pit happened to fall into it. At this point, I had 30 minutes before the performance and was taking a long shower to rid myself of the long travel day. This being a “soccer arena” the showers where open showers in a locker room.
Covered in soap and standing under the water I suddenly heard a very low baritone voice say “Randy”. I turned and there was Carol, in the open showers with me, smiling. She waited for me to turn and went into her concerns about the pit, a net and all sorts of other things as I stood there completely naked.
When she finished expressing her concerns I said, “Absolutely, Carol. But right now I’m soaking wet, taking a shower.”
She looked me up and down, smiled and said, “Oh! Yes, of course. (pause) Well, you know, we’re all just show folk,” and then turned and left me to finish my shower.
Nudity was nothing to this old pro who had changed costumes in the wings for decades.
For the Gypsy of the Year event in 2010, they asked many of the Dolly boys to come back and do the opening number with Carol as a tribute to her. As the number evolved, I ended up partnering with her much of the number.
While we were rehearsing for a few days, the producer of a documentary of Carol’s life asked us if we’d sit and talk about our time with her. About nine of us sat for about an hour and a half reminiscing and sharing.
I only had one particular story about Carol that I knew I wanted to share. As the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! was winding down, one of the male dancers in the show (who was very dear to me and to Carol) was dying of AIDS.
I was very grateful my brief story about Carol and Don Ives made it into the film, Larger Than Life.
Watch below.
RIP my dear, wonderful Carol. I am certain there is a standing ovation awaiting you as you enter immortality.
Freezing in the cold but loving life on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Having lunch floating down the San Antonio Riverwalk
Reunited at the Gypsy of the Year in 2010
The cover of Theater Week Magazine just after we opened the 1995 Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! A very young me on my knee on the left.
