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Trump’s Openly Gay Nominee Confirmed As U.S. Ambassador To Germany

Richard Grenell during Senate confirmation hearing

By a vote of 56-42, openly gay nominee Richard Grenell has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Ambassador to Germany making him the most high-profile openly gay appointee in the Trump administration.

From Chris Johnson at The Washington Blade:

Grenell — who has faced Democratic opposition over mean tweets he made about the appearance of women and other comments downplaying the significance of Russia’s influence in the 2016 election — was confirmed by a largely party line vote of 56-42.

Among the Democrats who joined Republicans in voting to confirm Grenell were Sens. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Claire McCaskill (D-M0). All Republicans present voted for Grenell’s confirmation.

Both of the senators from Grenell’s home state of California — Sen. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein — voted “no” on his confirmation.

First nominated by President Trump in September, Grenell’s confirmation means an openly gay person high-profile seat in the administration and serve as U.S. envoy to the world’s fourth largest national economy.

Resistance to Grenell’s nomination came in part due to comments he made on Twitter years ago about the appearance of women, including Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Callista Gingrich and Rachel Maddow.

He has since deleted the comments online and apologized, but in the context of the #MeToo movement today the comments became a flashpoint anew.

Grenell famously resigned from the Mitt Romney presidential campaign in 2012 after only two weeks as a foreign policy adviser due to pressure from conservatives over his sexuality.

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Reporter Yashar Ali Raises $175K For Waffle House Hero

Journalist Yashar Ali has raised over $175,000 for Waffle House shooting hero James Shaw Jr. in less than two days via GoFundMe.

Ali says he was moved to help Shaw, who has a 4-year-old daughter, after Shaw’s selfless takedown of the Waffle House shooter in Nashville, and his fundraising efforts for the shooting victims.

From the campaign:

James Shaw Jr. put his life on the line when he took on the gunman who killed four people at a Nashville area Waffle House. Since that horrific shooting, he has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the victims and shown a level of humility that has inspired many of us.

I normally don’t get involved directly in these matters, but James’ grace has inspired me to start this page to give him the support I feel he deserves.

According to news reports, James has a four-year-old daughter. Perhaps this money can be used for her college fund or some other education related expense. But I’d be just as happy if James used some of this money to take his family on a nice vacation.

Funds will be transferred directly to James Shaw Jr. through GoFundMe.

James Shaw Jr. is now reportedly paying for all four of the funerals of the shooting victims out of the GoFundMe campaign money.

To date, Donald Trump has not acknowledged the heroic actions of Shaw during the shooting.

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Bill Cosby Found Guilty On 3 Counts Of Aggravated Indecent Assault

From CBS News:

The jury in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial has found the comedian guilty of sexually assaulting a former Temple University women’s basketball administrator at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004. Cosby was charged with three counts of felony indecent aggravated assault. He faces 10 years in prison on each count.

The jury at Cosby’s first trial deliberated for more than 52 hours over six days last year without reaching a verdict.

Jurors in this trial began deliberating Wednesday in Norristown, Pa. after prosecutors in closing arguments portrayed the 80-year-old former TV star as a serial predator who drugged and molested the woman, Andrea Constand, 14 years ago.

Five other women were called to the witness stand and testified the same thing had happened to them.

According to court records, the 3 assault charges were penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious, and penetration after administering an intoxicant.

After the verdict, Cosby apparently began cursing at the prosecutor in the courtroom.

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Rolling Stone: Janelle Monáe Comes Out As “Queer Black Woman”

In a new cover story interview for Rolling Stone, singer/actress Janelle Monáe comes out as “a queer black woman” and says she identifies as “pansexual.”

“Being a queer black woman in America,” she says, taking a breath as she comes out, “someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker.” She initially identified as bisexual, she clarifies, “but then later I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.’ I’m open to learning more about who I am.”

As many have noted, Monáe’s latest music videos for her new album Dirty Computer have been filled with sexual themes and imagery.

Here’s her most recent, “PYNK.”

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Fox News: Trump Admits Michael Cohen Repped Him In Stormy Daniels “Hush Money” Deal

Donald Trump admitted today during a call-in interview with Fox & Friends that his lawyer Michael Cohen did represent him in the $130,000 hush money deal to porn star Stormy Daniels
Donald Trump

From The Washington Post:

President Trump acknowledged Thursday for the first time that his longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen represented him in efforts to silence Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who has alleged a sexual encounter with Trump more than a decade ago.

Trump earlier this month denied any knowledge of the $130,000 payment to Daniels that was arranged by Cohen and is subject of a federal investigation, telling reporters: “I don’t know” about the payment or where Cohen got the money. And the White House repeatedly has insisted that Daniels’ allegations that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 were false.

But in an interview with Fox News on Thursday morning, Trump appeared to reveal that he had knowledge of Cohen’s payment to Daniels.

“Michael represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me,” Trump said. “And from what I’ve seen, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this.”

Daniels’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, weighed in a few minutes later on MSNBC and said that Trump had made a “hugely damaging admission.”

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Trump Lawyer Will Plead The Fifth In Stormy Daniels Case

Click image to enlarge

A court filing shows Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen will assert 5th amendment rights in all proceedings of the ongoing Stormy Daniels case.

You’ll recall in September of 2016 during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump told a campaign crowd in Iowa, “The mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

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Netflix Announces New 10-Episode Season Of “Tales Of The City”

Netflix has announced a new 10-episode season of the classic queer TV series, Tales of the City, based on the books by Armistead Maupin.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

The streaming giant on Tuesday confirmed the 10-episode sequel to the Showtime/PBS take on the LGBT-themed novel. Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis are confirmed to reprise their roles as Mary Ann Singleton and Anna Madrigal, respectively, from the original series. Barbara Garrick also will return as DeDe Halcyon Day.

The Netflix take also has enlisted Ellen Page, who will play Shawna. Lauren Morelli (Orange Is the New Black) has joined the production and will serve as writer and showrunner.

Based on the books by Maupin, Tales of the City follows Mary Ann (Linney), who returns home to San Francisco and is reunited with her daughter (Page) and ex-husband Brian 20 years after leaving them behind to pursue her career.

Fleeing the midlife crisis that her picture-perfect Connecticut life created, Mary Ann returns home to her chosen family and will quickly be drawn back into the orbit of Anna Madrigal (Dukakis) and the residents of 28 Barbary Lane.

Maupin is arguably one of the best-known gay authors in the world. His Tales of the City began as an ongoing serial in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper during the 1970s. The serial became a novel in 1978 and was followed by 8 sequels published over the past four decades.

Maupin’s novels led to three Tales of the City mini-series for Showtime/PBS starring Linney and Dukakis. Along the way, Tales of the City (1993), More Tales of the City (1998), and Further Tales of the City (2001) garnered a Peabody Award and multiple Emmy Award nominations.

The new 10-episode season is scheduled to begin filming later this year and will debut in 2019.

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PFLAG Rescinds Award To MSNBC’s Joy Reid Over Reports Of More Anti-LGBT Blog Posts

MSNBC host Joy Reid

MSNBC host Joy Reid says her now-defunct blog from years ago has been hacked and anti-LGBT content inserted into the archives.

From HuffPost:

A cybersecurity expert working with Reid said in a statement to HuffPost on Tuesday that he found evidence five months ago of “suspicious activity” and that the alleged hacking was the subject of an ongoing federal investigation.

Jonathan Nichols, identified as an independent security consultant by a representative of MSNBC, said the posts in question had been “entered with suspicious formatting and time stamps.”

Reid had previously apologized in December for writing homophobic blog posts after Twitter user @Jamie_Maz tweeted screenshots of them. In those posts ― written in 2007 for The Reid Report, a politics blog Reid kept during her years as a morning talk show host in Florida ― she repeatedly accused then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) of being a closeted gay man.

“As someone who is not a member of the LGBT community, I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm,” Reid wrote in her statement in December. “It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb.”

Last week, @Jamie_Maz shared new screenshots that allegedly feature dozens more anti-LGBTQ posts from Reid’s old blog, as Mediaite first reported on Monday. While the blog itself has been shut down for several years, the amateur sleuth allegedly accessed the posts via the Internet Archive, a nonprofit dedicated to building a massive digital library known as the Wayback Machine.

Some of the most damning posts claimed “most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing” and that “adult gay men tend to be attracted to very young, post-pubescent types.”

As a result of the newly discovered blog posts, PFLAG National — the nation’s first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, their families, and allies — has rescinded its Straight for Equality in Media award to Reid.

Reid has issued this statement about the alleged hacks:

In December I learned that an unknown, external party accessed and manipulated material from my now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, to include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to my personal beliefs and ideology.

I began working with a cyber-security expert who first identified the unauthorized activity, and we notified federal law enforcement officials of the breach. The manipulated material seems to be part of an effort to taint my character with false information by distorting a blog that ended a decade ago.

Now that the site has been compromised I can state unequivocally that it does not represent the original entries. I hope that whoever corrupted the site recognizes the pain they have caused, not just to me, but to my family and communities that I care deeply about: LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups.

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Matt Baume Explores Homophobia Via “The Simpsons”

Smart guy Matt Baume explores homophobia via a 1997 episode of The Simpsons with guest star John Waters. Homer Simpson just couldn't seem to figure out why he didn't like Waters. Until he did...

The Simpsons recently came under fire due to a controversy over the character of Apu. For years, Apu has been voiced by a non-Indian actor playing into what many feel are old, tired, and insulting stereotypes.

Ironically, The Simpsons has used the platform of its enormous viewership to combat harmful stereotypes for years.

One example: head back to 1997 when John Waters guested on the show and Homer couldn’t seem to figure out why he didn’t like Waters.

Smart-guy Matt Baume explains:

The 1997 episode of The Simpsons entitled “Homer’s Phobia” doesn’t just mark a turning point for queer characters on television — it’s a turning point for homophobia on television as well.

With an unlikely appearance by cult filmmaker John Waters, the episode features a groundbreaking depiction of intolerance, a crash course in camp, and a smarter conversation about queer Americans than on any other show at the time — all in a medium that was still thought of as only being for kids.

Watch the segment below.

For more insight into the current “Apu” issue, watch voice-over actor (and voice of “Apu”) Hank Azaria explain what’s up to Stephen Colbert below.