LGBTQ news and entertainment
Ok, so a LOT of wild news happening today that needs to be covered.
But, for a minute, sit back and watch as the world’s oldest living gorilla, enjoys his birthday cake as he turns 61 at the Berlin Zoo.
Happy birthday, Fatou!
The oldest living gorilla enjoys a birthday cake as he turns 61 years old at the Berlin Zoo, where he was raised from a two-year-old baby. Happy birthday, Fatou! https://t.co/d2TNuSwsKC pic.twitter.com/2jkX5Tdal8— ABC News (@ABC) April 13, 2018
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| Madonna (image via Instagram) |
Speaking to The Cut, Madonna addressed her frustrations with the issue of ageism and wonders aloud why dating younger people is primarily the domain of men, not women.
It’s an outdated, patriarchal idea that a woman has to stop being fun, curious, adventurous, beautiful, or sexy past the age of 40. It’s ridiculous. Why should only men be allowed to be adventurous, sexual, curious, and get to have all the fun until the day they leave this earth? Why should that only be the domain of men? How do we fight this? By standing up to men and by standing up to social mores or standards that say we cannot. The more women that do it, it will just be a matter of time.
In the beginning of my career, I got so much flak for using sexuality as part of my creativity and was called a sexual provocateur. Now, all the challenges that I had to face 20 years ago seem ludicrous. What I am going through now is ageism, with people putting me down or giving me a hard time because I date younger men or do things that are considered to be only the domain of younger women. I mean, who made those rules? Who says? I’m going to keep fighting it. Ten to 20 years from now, it’s going to be normal. People are going to shut up.
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| James Comey |
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll indicates more Americans trust former FBI Director James Comey to tell the truth than President Trump.
The survey, conducted from April 8-11, showed that 48% of respondents find Comey “more believable” than Trump, who only garnered 32% support for truth-telling.
The poll comes as Comey’s upcoming book, A Higher Loyalty, is scheduled to hit book stores on Tuesday.
Trump famously fired Comey from the FBI after becoming frustrated over the investigation into possible collusion with Russian actors in interfering with the 2016 presidential election.
Almost half of those polled (47%) indicated disapproval of Trump’s decision to fire Comey, compared to only 33% who said they approve.
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| Donald Trump |
As excerpts from former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming book A Higher Loyalty are hitting the media, the predictable Trump Twitter rant we’ve all expected has arrived.
And it’s everything you would expect from the Trumpster.
Of course, Trump labels Comey a “LEAKER & LIAR” but along the way Trump also accuses Comey of leaking classified information (not true) and that he lied to Congress (again, a big nope).
Trump really gets into the school yard dirt with a good old “untruthful slime ball” tag and proclaims it was a “great honor” to fire Comey from the FBI.
Ah, Donald, you really rose to the occasion here.
James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH. He is a weak and…..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018
….untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018
It’s worth noting that on the same day Trump issued his blistering “liar/leaker” attack on Comey, Trump actually pardoned a convicted liar/leaker, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s aide, Scooter Libby.
Of course, folks in the Twitterverse had some choice reactions:
Yet another instance of Donald Trump proving he’s utterly incapable of being presidential. Stop with the name calling. Stop with the bullying. And stop with your Hillary Clinton obsession. You’re not being paid to tweet. Do your job! https://t.co/YiEbbybX62— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) April 13, 2018
This is about as personally cornered as Trump has been since “Access Hollywood” weekend— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 13, 2018
Only @realDonaldTrump could whine like a child about @Comey on a day where he pardons a felonious leaker. https://t.co/HuwTpFuKag— Montel Williams (@Montel_Williams) April 13, 2018
.@realDonaldTrump attacking @Comey , calling him an “untruthful slime ball” isn’t fighting back or standing tough. It is a failure to uphold the prestige of the Presidency and show restraint in the face of criticism. Reality TV stars may thrive on one-liners, but Presidents don’t— Rep. Ted Deutch (@RepTedDeutch) April 13, 2018
Hours after slamming Comey for lying and leaking, Trump just officially pardoned Scooter Libby for lying and leaking. pic.twitter.com/3gsvgdBPW5— David Mack (@davidmackau) April 13, 2018
President Trump tweets today that Comey “leaked CLASSIFIED information.” There is no support for that claim, as we wrote once before. https://t.co/qp5Vc3CO2F— FactCheck.org (@factcheckdotorg) April 13, 2018
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| Tom Daley (L) with diving partner Dan Goodfellow (R) |
After winning his 4th Commonwealth Games gold medal (with synchronized 10 platform diving partner Dan Goodfellow) on the Gold Coast in Australia where marriage equality recently became legal, Tom Daley called for more Commonwealth countries to repeal anti-homosexuality laws.
Of the 53 countries included in the Commonwealth, homosexuality is illegal in 70% of those nations.
From The BBC:
Homosexuality remains illegal in 70% of the 53 Commonwealth countries.
“Coming to the Gold Coast and being able to live as an openly gay man is really important,” said Daley, 23.
“You want to feel comfortable in who you are when you are standing on that diving board, and for 37 Commonwealth countries that are here participating that is not the case.”
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Daley added: “I feel extremely lucky to compete openly as who I am, not worry about ramifications. But for lots of people living in those countries it is not the case.
“We have to talk about these things and shine a light on them in order to get change.”
Daley is married to Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black and expecting their first child this summer.
🥇G O L D 🥇
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🏳️🌈 37 of the competing nations criminalise being LGBT+. I feel so lucky to be able to be openly who I am without worry. I hope one day every athlete from every nation in the commonwealth will be free to compete openly as who they are too! 🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/ry4GPiZhdB— Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994) April 13, 2018
ABC revealed the full cast of the upcoming “all-athletes” edition of Dancing with the Stars this morning on Good Morning America.
We knew Olympic bronze medalist Adam Rippon was going to be part of the season (looking forward to his antics), but the surprise this morning is that woofy Chris Mazdzer of the U.S. Olympic luge team will be cha-cha-ing his way into living rooms in the next few weeks.
Please, oh please, oh please let Mazdzer dance shirtless. Oh please, oh please…
Here’s the full cast list for DWTS “All-Athletes” edition:
• Adam Rippon (Olympic figure skater) with Jenna Johnson
• Arike Ogunbowale (Women’s basketball player) with Gleb Savchenko
• Chris Mazdzer (Olympic luger) with Witney Carson
• Jamie Anderson (professional snowboarder) with Artem Chigvintsev
• Jennie Finch Daigle (Olympic softball player) with Keo Motsepe
• Johnny Damon (Former MLB star) with Emma Slater
• Josh Norman (NFL star) with Sharna Burgess
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Former NBA star) with Lindsay Arnold
• Mirai Nagasu (Olympic figure skater) with Alan Bersten
• Tonya Harding (Former Olympic figure skater) with Sasha Farber
In case you needed reminding why I’m excited about Chris Mazdzer’s participation… 🙂
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| Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti |
Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti just announced during an interview with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace that he has been told Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen intends to “plead the 5th amendment against self incrimination” and “will seek an emergency stay” against the defamation lawsuit.
You’ll recall that in September of 2016, during the presidential campaign, Trump told a crowd in Iowa, “The mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”
Wonder if Trump considers his personal lawyer “the mob?”
Watch Avenatti’s news on MSNBC below.
JUST IN: Stormy Daniels’ attorney @MichaelAvenatti says Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen will “plead the 5th amendment against self incrimination” and he “will seek an emergency stay” against the defamation lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/a0qmLEldZV— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 12, 2018
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| Donald Trump |
More news on the Trump “silencing” front as multiple sources are now reporting that a former doorman for Trump World Tower was apparently paid $30,000 in the late 80s to stay quiet about rumors that Donald Trump had a relationship with a former housekeeper.
The rumors, first reported by Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker, allege the relationship produced a child.
Late in 2015, a former Trump Tower doorman named Dino Sajudin met with a reporter from American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
A few weeks earlier, Sajudin had signed a contract with A.M.I., agreeing to become a source and to accept thirty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to information he had been told: that Donald Trump, who had launched his Presidential campaign five months earlier, may have fathered a child with a former employee in the late nineteen-eighties.
Sajudin declined to comment for this story. However, six current and former A.M.I. employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared legal retaliation by the company, said that Sajudin had told A.M.I. the names of the alleged mistress and child.
The New Yorker says it has no evidence that Trump fathered a child by the woman.
The payment to Sajudin would mark the third payment meant to silence embarrassing information about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, taking into account allegations from former Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels.
Sajudin says he passed a lie detector test regarding the rumors at the time of the transaction claiming high-level Trump employees, including Trump’s head of security, Matthew Calamari, had shared the story with him.
A.M.I. acknowledged the payment to Sajudin through company-owned sister website Radar Online today.
As the reports have dominated much of today’s news, Sajudin issued a statement to CNN today which read:
“Today I awoke to learn that a confidential agreement I had with AMI [The National Enquirer] with regard to a story about President Trump had been leaked to the press. I can confirm that while working at Trump World Tower, I was instructed not to criticize President Trump’s former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with President Trump which produced a child.”
While sources at A.M.I. say they didn’t have much confidence in the allegations, they found it unusual that the company would write a $30,000 check for a “catch and kill” story.
Once source told The New Yorker, “It’s unheard of to give a guy who calls A.M.I.’s tip line big bucks for information he is passing on secondhand. We didn’t pay thousands of dollars for non-stories, let alone tens of thousands. It was a highly curious and questionable situation.”
All of this is of interest when viewed through the lens of the recent raid of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s office where FBI agents searched and seized info pertaining to “hush money” payments.
Not so much about the payoff itself by A.M.I., but the attempt to coverup the story in order to help Trump during the election.
Make sure you take a few minutes to enjoy this super-sweet short film depicting the romance of two young guys in NYC – one hearing, one deaf.
Directed by Broadway’s Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Newsies) and composer Adam Wachter, their award-winning new film Sign which spent a year being honored on the film festival circuit.
Along the way, the short picked up awards like Best Short at the Sidewalk Film Festival, the Youth Jury Award at the Iris Prize Festival, and Best Men’s Short at OUT on Film Atlanta.
From Andrew and Adam:
Using only silent vignettes, a musical score and American Sign Language, SIGN tells the story of the relationship between Ben, a hearing man, and Aaron, who is deaf.
We were inspired to portray an under-explored human experience with the help and collaboration of our talented Deaf friends in the New York theatre community, combining Andrew’s passion for visual imagery with Adam’s love of musical storytelling.
The film was shot in a four-day marathon session in multiple locations across New York City, on a set staffed by actors, ASL interpreters, Deaf consultants and many passionate hearing and Deaf volunteers.
Sensitive and artful, the short film (starring John McGinty and Preston Sadleir) plays out effortlessly with no dialogue needed.
Bravo to the creators. This made me smile.
I missed the initial release of the film, so kudos to TheOUTFront for bringing the short to my attention 🙂
Watch below.
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| Donald Trump |
Donald Trump backtracked today on his previous Twitter rant threatening Russia and Syria with a missile strike saying that an airstrike wasn’t necessarily imminent.
“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place,” Trump tweeted this morning. “Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS.”
Trump curiously asked for praise from Americans for doing his job: “Where is our ’Thank you America?’”
Trump yesterday:
Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018
Trump today:
Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2018