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Trump Administration Siphons HIV/AIDS Funds For More Child Detention Centers

As the public battle about family separations at the U.S. southern border rages on, reports show the Trump administration is taking money from HIV/AIDS programs to fund further separations.
Donald Trump

As the public battle about family separations at the U.S. southern border rages on, reports show the Trump administration is taking money from HIV/AIDS programs to fund further separations.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement is looking ahead at the possibility that 25,450 more beds for immigrant children could be needed by year’s end.

The office, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, was apparently surprised when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the new “zero tolerance” policy that families would be separated if caught crossing the border without authorization.

Under the policy, parents are imprisoned and children have been placed in cages that Sen. Jeff Merkley, who visited a facility, described as resembling “dog kennels.”

Now, in preparation for a new surge of family separations, the HHS is not only asking for supplemental funds, but according to news website Slate is also planning to reallocate money from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

The Ryan White CARE Act was introduced in 1990 by Sen. Ted Kennedy weeks after the death of its namesake Ohio teen, who had been infected with HIV via a blood transfusion to treat his hemophilia. The bill was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

According to the program’s website, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program “provides a comprehensive system of care that includes primary medical care and essential support services for people living with HIV who are uninsured or underinsured.”

Slate’s reporting indicates the process of transferring those HIV/AIDS funds has already begun.

This is just one more example of the Trump/Pence administration’s bias against the LGBTQ community which is massively impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Vice President MikePence famously pledged to siphon funding from the program in order to fund state-sponsored ‘gay cure’ therapy.

On his 2000 Congressional campaign website, Pence posted:

“Congress should support the reauthorization of the Ryan White Care Act only after completion of an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organisations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviours that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus.

“Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”

Additionally, HHS is moving $79 million from refugee resettlement programs. The loss of those funds will undercut medical assistance and social services for refugees in the United States.

(h/t Slate)

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Hawaii: State Supreme Court Refuses To Review Ruling Against Anti-LGBTQ B&B Owner

A B&B owner who refuses to rent a room to a lesbian couple asked the Hawaii state Supreme Court to review the ruling against her. The court said 'no' leaving the lower courts decision in place.

In 2007, Diane Cervelli and Taeko Bufford of Long Beach, California, traveled to the Aloha state to visit a friend who had just given birth.

The child apparently was having some health issues at the time, so the couple decided to seek accommodations nearby. The closest option was The Aloha Bed & Breakfast.

But when the couple called Phyllis Young, owner of The Aloha B&B in Honolulu’s Hawaii Kai area, Young told the couple same-sex relationships are “detestable” and “defile our land.”

Hawaii’s public accommodation law specifically bans establishments that provide lodging to transient guests from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, race, color, ancestry, religion, disability and sex —including gender identity or expression.

Later that year, Cervilli and Bufford filed a complaint with Hawaii’s Civil Rights Commission.

Although Young asserted she had the right to discriminate since her business was in her home, the commission determined Young had openly discriminated against the couple.

Cervilli and Bufford consequently filed a lawsuit against Young in 2011.

In 2013, a Hawaii First Circuit Court judge ruled that Young had violated the state’s public accommodation laws and ordered her to stop discriminating.

Young appealed the decision and in February of this year, the Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court ruling.

In a last ditch effort, the B&B owner asked the state’s Supreme Court to review the case. The high court declined to do so today, and effectively affirming the lower court ruling that Young had discriminated.

Earlier this year, Bufford told QVoiceNews, “I can’t tell you how much it hurt to be essentially told, ‘we don’t do business with your kind.’ It still stings to this day.”

“We thought the days when business owners would say ‘We’re open to the public – but not to you’ was a thing of the past,” she added. “You don’t have to change your beliefs,” she said, “but you do have to follow the law just as everyone else does.”

Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Peter Renn hailed the decision saying in a statement:

“In letting the existing decision stand, Hawai‘i today joined a long line of states across the country that understand how pernicious and damaging a religious license to discriminate would be.”

“In fact, since the U.S. Supreme Court’s narrow ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop in early June, three state courts – in Arizona, Oregon and now Hawai`i – have either ruled against or refused to review rulings against business owners who have claimed religious justifications to discriminate.”

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News Round-Up: July 10, 2018

Calum Von Moger

Some news items you might have missed:

• This selfie by InstaHunk Calum Von Moger (above) just about laid me out. #Woofylicious

• The Supreme Court of India is considering decriminalizing gay sex.

• A Kansas City radio station is throwing anti-LBGTQ Vice President Mike Pence a “sausage fest” as he visits their city. LOL…

• An 8th former Ohio State University wrestler has come forward saying Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan knew about the team doctor’s sexual abuse. The latest accuser says Jordan ‘snickered’ when he told him the physician “held my balls longer than normal.”

• The mother of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter was told by mental health counselors he shouldn’t have access to guns. She ignored them saying “If he wants to have a gun, he could have a gun.”

• Thailand’s lawmakers are putting the finishing touches to their civil partnerships bill.

• The Human Rights Campaign vigorously opposes Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh:

“This nominee was hand-picked by anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice groups in an explicit effort to undermine equality — and the prospect of a Justice Kavanaugh threatens to erode our nation’s civil rights laws, block transgender troops from bravely serving this nation and allow a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people in every aspect of American life.”

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Nut-Job Predicts Democrats Will Shoot Republicans To Suppress GOP Voter Turnout

Virulently anti-LGBTQ ‘citizen reporter’ and far-right nut job Rick Wiles told his TV audience today on the TruNews program that Democrats plan to begin killing Republicans in an effort to suppress GOP voter turnout in 2020.
Far-right Nutjob Rick Wiles

Virulently anti-LGBTQ ‘citizen reporter’ and far-right nut job Rick Wiles told his TV audience on the TruNews program that Democrats plan to begin killing Republicans in an effort to suppress GOP voter turnout in 2020.

I kid you not.

Declaring the Democratic Party a “terrorist organization,” Wiles called Democrats everything from “demonic” to “baby killers.”

“The Democrats are now stalking members of the Trump administration,” Wiles said. “My friends, I’m telling you there is a day coming, perhaps this year, they’re going to shoot members of the Cabinet, they’re going to shoot members of the House and Senate.”

“The Democrats have lost their minds, they’ve gone insane,” he added. “We have to put bodyguards around our elected officials to protect them from Democrats? At what point do you charge the Democratic Party with being a terrorist organization?”

“The Left has gone berserk. They’ve already crossed the line,” he railed. “They’ve already lost their senses – They’re willing to do anything and killing is the next thing that they’ll do.”

“Don’t forget the Democratic Party stated the first civil war,” said Wiles as he continued his rant. “The Democrats will start the second Civil War to protect abortion.”

“They’re fanatical baby killers. Anybody that would kill a baby would kill you. They want to kill babies, of course they’ll kill you. They’re crazy. They’re demonic.”

“Mark my words,” Wiles hissed. “They’re going to kill Republicans and by 2020, on election day, they’re going to kill Republican voters, they’re going to block Republicans from voting.”

Wiles has previously said ebola could “solve” America’s problem with gays; declared the Las Vegas mass shooting was carried out by a super secret gay nazi death squad; that the city of Houston was punished by God with Hurricane Harvey because they love LGBT sexual perversion; and that gay Nazis control America.

Watch the crazy loony-toons below.

(h/t Right Wing Watch)

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Donald Trump Issues Full Pardons For Convicted Oregon Arsonists

Steven Hammond (L) and Dwight Hammond Jr. (R)

You may recall the sad tale of Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond who, in 2012, were convicted in of arson.

The two men were sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 for setting fire to public land over a dispute regarding grazing rights for their cattle. The incident escalated giving rise to an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Today, the White House announced that Donald Trump has commuted the mens’ sentences calling them ‘devoted family men’ and ‘respected contributors to their local community.’

From the White House:

The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West. Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency.

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Viral Video: Racist Attacks Woman Wearing Puerto Rico Shirt As Cop Does Nothing

Drunk man accosts woman in Illinois

Trump Nation strikes again.

In a video that captured the attention of the Twitterverse this morning, a police officer stands by silent nothing as a woman setting up for a birthday party is harassed in a public park for wearing a shirt with the Puerto Rican flag.

The woman, Mia Irizarry, recorded the assault and posted it to her Facebook on June 14.

Accosting the woman, the harasser (who appears to be drunk) yells at the woman for wearing the shirt telling her, ‘You should be wearing the American flag.’

Throughout the ordeal the man gets in the woman’s face who even as she stays calm while recording the incident.

She calls out to a police officer seen in the background of the video who can clearly see what is happening. But the officer just wanders off.

“Officer, I feel highly uncomfortable. Can you please grab him? Please, officer,” she says. The man continues ranting, while the officer doesn’t acknowledge Mia Irizarry’s call for help.

Watch below the stunning video below.

You can watch the full 36 minute video on Facebook here. It is astonishing how the officer does nothing to aid the woman.

The harasser was eventually arrested & charged with assault & disorderly conduct.

The officer was identified as working for Forest Preserves of Cook County in Illinois.

CBS News correspondent David Begnaud shared the video this morning and it immediately went viral.

Begnaud followed up with a video report via Twitter confirming the man was eventually arrested for public intoxication and

The police officer who refused to intercede has been put on desk duty for now.

Begnaud reached out to the agency that employs the officer and received no response. But a half hour after his contact, the agency released this statement:

“All people are welcome in the Forest Preserves of Cook County and no one should feel unsafe while visiting our preserves. After the June 14 incident, we immediately launched an investigation pursuant to our personnel policies into the response of our officer. The investigation is ongoing and the officer involved has been assigned to desk duty pending the outcome. The intoxicated individual involved in the incident was arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct.”

As Begnaud notes in his video report, the agency didn’t address the issue with the public until the video took off on Twitter earlier today.

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Poll: Millennials Support LGBTQs But There’s One Surprise In The Results

New polling shows millennials support LGBTQ equality by solid majorities except one surprising result
(Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels)

A recent nationwide survey of 1,750 millennials (ages 18 to 34) found solid support for LGBTQ rights and protections, with one eyebrow raising piece of data.

Political science professor Cathy Cohen facilitates the bimonthly GenForward poll and focused the June survey on LGBT issues, titled Millennial Views on LGBT Issues: Race, Identity, and Morality.

Cohen shared her thoughts on the results in an essay with The Advocate.

To a great degree, the results were encouraging.

Of those polled, 14% identified as “something other than heterosexual.”

While a majority of respondents say they know someone who is gay, lesbian or bisexual, only 22% of millennials of color and 37% of white millennials say they know someone who is transgender.

As we’ve seen throughout the past few decades, its visibility that helps move LGBTQ rights and respect forward.

When it comes to LGBTQ equality, a majority of millennials either “strongly” or “somewhat” favor adoption by LGBTQ folks, legal protections to prevent discrimination in the workplace, allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military, increasing government spending on HIV/AIDS and accepting more LGBTQ immigrants from countries with hostile policies towards our community.

There was widespread support for reducing violent hate crime and LGBTQ bullying. However, according to the survey, 53% of African-American millennials and 50% of Latinx millennials feel the issues LGBTQ people face today are different than those promoted by mainstream LGBTQ organizations.

Contrast that to white (58%) and Asian-American (50%) millennials who say everyone benefits when mainstream LGBTQ organizations strive for human rights.

The one eyebrow raising piece of data emerged from the question, “Has homosexuality led to a deterioration of morality in this country?”

A majority disagreed with the statement, but a surprising 41% agreed.

Wait, what?

And – 21% of the LGBTQ respondents agreed as well.

So, one-in-five LGBTQ millennials believe their own sexuality is a negative when it comes to morality in the United States?

Is this self-loathing in action?

Cohen noted that that question was the only occurrence of the word “homosexuality” in the survey. She hypothesizes that the word itself is still a trigger in American culture as “something bad and deviant.”

She also wondered if “homosexuality” might hold a different meaning for millennials than LGBTQ which is used more and more in social media.

Cohen concludes by writing, “It should remind us of all the work that remains to be done and how little we should take for granted when it comes to educating young people about the reality of LGBTQ lives, especially the lives of young queers of color.”

Check out the full essay at The Advocate.

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Trump Nominates Judge Brett Kavanaugh To Succeed Justice Kennedy On Supreme Court

Ending wide-spread speculation, Donald Trump tonight nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit where he has served since 2006.

The 53-year-old was also a clerk for now-retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who he will possibly replace.

Watch the nomination announcement below.

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News Round-Up: July 9, 2018

(image via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk and biologist Daniel Kfir (above) is serving up one serious selfie to start the week. #woof

• A new study in Italy shows children of gay and lesbian couples showed fewer psychological problems than those of heterosexuals.

• Over the weekend, a straight teen who was ejected from the iconic Stonewall Inn in New York City bashed in the front window with a baseball bat. See? Straight parents… #asshole

• Donald Trump’s personal driver of 25 years is suing the president for 3,300 hours of unpaid overtime. The law suit is asking for $178,000. According to TMZ, the last time the driver got a raise, from $68K to $75K, he had to forfeit his healthcare insurance that was worth $18K. Once again, there’s the Trumpster screwing over the average guy.

• Australian actor Guy Pearce now regrets mentioning how ‘handsy’ Kevin Spacey got with him.

• In a recent episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix, Ellen DeGeneres shares candidly about coming out 20 years ago and the severe impact it had on her career.

You’ll recall when the comedienne came out in 1997, ABC cancelled her sitcom. It was a rough ride from there.

“When I lost the sitcom, I didn’t work for three years solid until I got the show, the talk show,” DeGeneres tells Seinfeld. “I was bitter and sad and angry. How did this change everything, just by me being honest and saying I’m gay? Why is this such a shock to people? Why is it such a big deal?”

You can catch the episode on Netflix now.