• Mayor Pete Buttigieg did an interview with a country music radio show, but the radio network refused to air the interview. Link to Blair Garner’s interview here.
• Pop star Ricky Martin has joined hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans in protests calling for the resignation of the island territory’s governor
• Organizers of the upcoming Straight Pride Parade got more cease and desist letters after illegally insinuating major corporations were sponsors
• Oscar-winning queer-themed film, Moonlight, was named the best film of the 2010 decade by Indiewire.
All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.
An anonymous Twitter account, which claimed to be run by a champion athlete planning to come out soon, has bailed and deleted his account.
For weeks, the Twitter user told the world they were a gay English Football League player who had just come out their family. Subsequent tweets shared the progress of meetings with the player’s coaches and management.
“I’m a professional footballer, playing for a club in the @SkyBetChamp. I will be revealing my identity soon, but I am a proud gay man, hoping to break the mould. I am under the age of 23, and today I came out to my family. Soon, I will come out publicly. … Today I came out to my family. I have hid my sexuality for far too long. My family responded amazingly well, and other than a few close friends, they were the first to know.”
On July 15, the Twitter user wrote that he had come out to his football club and was planning on coming out to the world “prior to the start of the new season.”
“I am thinking of those involved in professional football who are similarly positioned,” the poster added. “My hope is that they can take comfort and hope from such disclosure and can feel suitably empowered to, if desirable, reach the same decision.”
The user had previously announced they would be publicly coming out tomorrow, July 24.
There’s no proof the person running the account was an actual athlete.
Earlier today, all the tweets on the account had disappeared and in their place were two tweets.
The first read, “I thought I was was stronger. I was wrong.”
The second added, “I’m not strong enough to do this.”
The tweets ended with, “This isn’t a hoax. I wouldn’t do that.”
”I will say that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence, but it does include other things as well,” Wray said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, referring to cases in fiscal 2019, which began Oct. 1.
The FBI is “aggressively” investigating domestic terrorism and hate crimes, Wray said, noting that the bureau is focused on investigating the violence, not the ideology motivating the attacks.
Wray distinguished between what he termed homegrown violent extremism, wording he said the FBI uses to refer to people in United States who are inspired by global jihadists, and domestic extremism, which Wray described as broader to include racially motivated extremists, anarchists and others.
The number of domestic terrorism arrests are on par with the amount international terrorism cases, according to Wray.
“In terms of number of arrests, we have through the third quarter of this fiscal year had about give or take 100 arrests on the international terrorism side, which includes the homegrown violent extremism,” Wray told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) at the hearing. “We’ve also had just about the same number — again, don’t quote me to the exact digit — on the domestic terrorism side.”
Wray also testified that Russian operatives are still trying to interfere with our elections.
Graham: “Are the Russians still trying to interfere in our election systems?”
FBI Director Wray: “The Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections through foreign influence.” Via CBS pic.twitter.com/favHfNtfAS
Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Billy Porter has come to be seen as almost larger than life when you consider his passionate performances in the acclaimed FX series, POSE, as well as his bold and unabashed fashion choices which have earned him the title of ‘Red Carpet Ninja.’
But in a recent interview with veteran journalist Katie Couric for her ‘In My Orbit’ video series, Porter offers candid, personal insights into how he came to view his talent and how it could save him during a difficult childhood.
Surrounded by several of the outfits he’s made famous at Christian Siriano’s The Curated NYC, Porter explains that it was ultimately his voice that helped him find acceptance within his own family.
“I understood that the talent that I have is not what everybody gets,” shared the Tony Award winner without ego.
“When I sang, the people around me behaved differently,” said Porter. “You know, my family wasn’t scared of my sissiness anymore when I sang. That was the one thing that kept them comforted – was when I could sing. So it became: ‘Well, just sing as loud as you can and as high as you can for as long as you can until you can get out.’”
“And I did,” added Porter.
Upon moving to New York City after training at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the leading theater schools in the country, Porter already knew his plan: “I would play my trump card, which was this crazy voice. And then once I got in, and started working, then an expansioncould happen and I could show the rest of myself.”
But that’s not what happened. Instead, Porter found himself pigeon-holed as the ‘sassy, Black, queeny, flamboyant clown.’
But then he saw Jeffrey Wright as “Belize” in the original Broadway cast of the ground-breaking Angels In America, and he suddenly saw a space for himself.
“For the first time, I saw a Black gay man who was not reviled and not just the comic relief,” shared Porter. “He was a human being, like a real human being.”
He would eventually play that role in the off-Broadway revival, but as he admits here, to shut down the ‘clown’ roles, he stopped working commercially for 13 years.
Then along came a little show named Kinky Boots. And a Tony Award for ‘Best Actor in a Musical.’
And then, Ryan Murphy and POSE, which Porter still seems to be wrapping his head around to this day.
“It blows my mind. There was no context to dream up a show like POSE; to dream up a character like ‘Pray Tell.’ There was no space for that,” he tells Couric. “That’s what Ryan Murphy and this situation has allowed for me to understand how to do – is dream the impossible. There are no limits.”
Bringing up his recent star turns on the awards show red carpets, Porter’s enthusiasm is evident.
“I’ve always loved the red carpet, I’ve always loved fashion,” gushes the vibrant actor. “I have always been a fashion person, and if you talk to anyone who’s known me for years, they’re like, ‘Duh!’”
I can attest the fashion love and the effusive personality we see in this interview is exactly the Billy Porter I’ve known since the early 1990s.
“In the quiet moments, I find the tears streaming down my face. The gratitude, the joy. Like, I lived long enough to see this day,” he admits quietly.
What’s next for Porter?
“I want to be Oprah. I want to be Beyonce. I want to be the one writing the checks. I want to be the one telling myself ‘Yes.’ That’s next.”
Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers in ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ (image via IMDB)
From a time when decency and empathy were still admired, check out the new trailer for the upcoming Fred Rogers biopic, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Inspired by an article penned by Tom Junod for Esquire (“Can You Say…Hero?”), two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks portrays Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) in a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Rogers and Junod.
The official longline reads: “After a jaded magazine writer (Emmy winner Matthew Rhys) is assigned a profile of Fred Rogers, he overcomes his skepticism, learning about empathy, kindness, and decency from America’s most beloved neighbor.”
Earlier this year, it came to light that Rogers referred to himself as sexually fluid.
According to Maxwell King’s 2018 biography of Rogers, The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, the TV host and puppeteer is quoted from a conversation with one of his friends, Dr. William Hirsch, regarding his own sexuality as saying, “Well, you know, I must be smack in the middle. Because I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive.”
Cesar Sayoc Jr. (photo: Broward Country Sheriff’s Dept)
After pleading guilty to 65 felony counts regarding sending bomb-like devices to prominent Democrats, the ‘MAGAbomber’ – Cesar Sayoc Jr. – faces life in prison.
Sayoc listed among his targets Hillary Clinton, former CIA Director Jonn Brennan, actor Robert DeNiro, ex-President Barack Obama, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), former Attorney General Eric Holder, Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California), hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer and CNN.
But his legal team says that he should receive no more than 10 years and one month in prison for sending what they call “hoax devices.”
Public defenders representing Sayoc, 57, note that the FBI released a report last week stating that the devices Sayoc sent to 13 targets “were not functional as bombs” and that no one was hurt. He sent what he thought were duds after months of suffering from “delusional” beliefs and using copious amounts of steroids, the attorneys argue.
“In Mr. Sayoc’s mind, he was sending a hoax device, and he had no true grasp of the severity of his crimes or the potential ramifications of his actions,” the attorneys wrote. Sayoc faces a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence and is scheduled to be sentenced by Manhattan federal court Judge Jed Rakoff on Aug. 5.
They also argue that Sayoc is an outsize fan of President Donald Trump — and that he “became increasingly obsessive, paranoid, and angry” in the months leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, believing that anti-Trump forces had vandalized a “decrepit and cramped” van he was living in at the time that was plastered with pro-Trump messages and images.
Sayoc’s attorneys also point to steroid use, alleged sexual abuse as a preteen and college panic attacks as mitigating circumstances that lead to his behavior.
Prosecutors say that even though the devices didn’t work properly, they did involve real explosives, shards of glass, and toxic chemicals.
At the time of his arrest, Sayoc was living in a white van covered with pro-Trump images and messages, and others attacking Trump’s critics — including ones that showed red crosshairs over Obama and Clinton.
The Trump administration is set to announce a new set of guidelines that would remove approximately 3.1 million people from receiving food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Those most affected would be low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities.
Currently, 43 U.S. states allow residents to automatically become eligible for food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, if they receive benefits from another federal program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, according to the USDA.
But the agency wants to require people who receive TANF benefits to pass a review of their income and assets to determine whether they are eligible for free food from SNAP, officials said.
If enacted, the rule would save the federal government about $2.5 billion a year by removing people from SNAP, according to the USDA.
President Trump has said that, given the current economy and low unemployment, many of those currently accessing SNAP don’t need it. Their removal could save nearly $15 billion a year.
There are currently about 36 million Americans, or about 12% of the total U.S. population, that received aid through the SNAP program. The average benefit per person is $121 a month.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith interviews Gov. Ricardo Rosselló
The protests against Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo A. Rosselló have now lasted for more than a week with an estimated 500,000 residents of the U.S. territory coming together to demand Rosselló’s resignation.
Hundreds of thousands of people swept through the capital of Puerto Rico on Monday, shutting down a major highway and paralyzing much of the city in the latest in a series of furious protests over the island’s embattled governor, Ricardo A. Rosselló.
The protest was one of the largest ever seen on the island, as Puerto Ricans streamed into the capital on buses — and some on planes from the mainland — in a spontaneous eruption of fury over the years of recession, mismanagement, natural disaster and corruption that have fueled a recent exodus.
Ignoring sporadic deluges, demonstrators launched impromptu line dances, paraded on horseback, banged pots and carried banners along several miles of highway, many shouting: “Ricky, renuncia, el pueblo te repudia!” — Ricky, resign, the people reject you.
Mr. Rosselló said on Sunday that he would step down from the leadership of his party and pledged not to run for re-election in 2020. But the governor, a 40-year-old former biomedical scientist and businessman, is growing increasingly isolated as a series of influential political leaders, some from his own party, have called on him to accede to public demands for an immediate resignation.
After years of mounting frustrations due to austerity measures and a slow moving recovery after Hurricane Maria, news of hundreds of mocking homophobic/sexist text messages between Rosselló and his advisors, appearing as a kind of ‘bro’ culture, appears to have been the tipping point.
International pop star Ricky Martin, who was a target of homophobic and sexist comments in the leaked text messages, has been helping to lead the protests for days now.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith spoke with the governor today and asked him who in Puerto Rico still supports him. The governor was pretty much at a loss to come up with a name.
• InstaHunks: Electric power went down for much of NYC Sunday night, but InstaHunk Jeff Ferreira is getting through the current heat wave. #sweat
• New Yorker: Former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, one of the early targets of the #MeToo movement, regrets resigning so quickly. “Oh yeah, absolutely.”
• NOLA: The Gretna Police Department has put Officer Charlie Rispoli on administrative leave following Rispoli’s Facebook comment last week that suggested a Democratic congresswoman should be shot. He commented on a story, clearly marked ‘Satire,’ that insinuated AOC had said, “We pay soldiers too much.”
• Friendly Atheist: Christian hate-preacher Steven “Death to the Gays” Anderson of Arizona’s (independent fundamentalist) Faithful Word Baptist Church says he’s now banned from entering Australia. There are now 33 countries that have banned Anderson.
• Talking Points Memo: Vice President Mike Pence will attend a $35,000 per couple fund-raising event in Colorado hosted at a private club owned by two gay men. #quislings
• Broadway: Pop music icon Barry Manilow heads back to Broadway for an exclusive limited engagement July 26 through August 17 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre (205 West 46th Street). For ticket information, click HERE.
‘Fanilows’ should expect a non-stop evening of Top 40 Hits from Manilow’s decades-long list of songs ranging from pop, to Broadway, Jazz, and adult contemporary.
