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News Round-Up: July 3, 2019

• InstaHunk Jeff Ferreira calls the setting for this photo (above) "perfectly perfect." No wonder he looks so natural there ;)
InstaHunk Jeff Ferreira

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk Jeff Ferreira calls the setting for this photo (above) “perfectly perfect.” No wonder he looks so natural there 😉

• ABC News: According to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, nearly 5 million people took part in this past weekend’s World Pride festivities.

• New York Times: It was 38 years ago today that a mysterious disease was reported to be targeting gay men in San Francisco and New York City. And so began a pandemic that the Reagan and Bush administrations would choose, in large part, to ignore.

• Washington Post: Tennessee has quietly enacted a new law that bars ministers ordained online from solemnizing weddings in the state. As of July 1, only priests, rabbis, ministers, people designated through a temple or church, and public officials can perform weddings. Many LGBT folks have their weddings officiated by family members or friends since many religious or elected officials won’t perform the ceremony, especially in deep red states.

• Page Six: Anderson Cooper (youngest child of now-deceased Gloria Vanderbilt) will inherit almost all of his mother’s estate. In 2014, Cooper told Howard Stern he didn’t expect to inherit anything.

• Tweet of the Day: White contractor shows up to the job of black homeowner with a racist Confederate flag on the back of his truck. Hit play to see what happened next.

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Oscar-Winning Producer Working On Pete Buttigieg Documentary

A film production company is currently shooting a documentary that will chronicle the presidential campaign of openly gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg

A film production company is currently shooting a documentary that will chronicle the presidential campaign of openly gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.

The production company, Story Syndicate, was founded by veteran filmmakers Dan Cogan (Oscar winner for Icarus) and Liz Garbus (Oscar-nominated for What Happened, Miss Simone?).

According to Axios, the independently funded film will document Mayor Pete’s “rise to national attention.”

Film crews have been seen filming at Buttigieg campaign events as well as at last week’s first Democratic presidential debates in Miami.

Buttigieg isn’t the first millennial politician to get the indie film treatment, though.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the focus of the campaign trail doc Knock Down the House, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke was the subject of HBO’s Running with Beto.

Documentaries have been useful tools for younger politicians to be a part of creating their own narrative. The Ocasio-Cortez and O’Rourke projects helped establish the candidates with younger voters as the films landed at platforms that appeal to those demographics.

The Buttigieg project hasn’t been picked up by a distributor or streaming service as of yet, according to Axios, as the film’s future is “contingent on the outcome of Buttigieg’s campaign.”

That said, it’s easy to imagine the narrative taking several directions.

As the first openly gay presidential candidate to be a serious contender, that story alone could warrant documenting.

If he were to clinch the nomination, he’d be the youngest Democratic presidential nominee in history.

Or, there’s been much talk of him being considered as a running mate for other Democratic candidates. Lots of chatter about a Kamala Harris/Pete Buttigieg ticket going on…
All of these could make for a compelling documentary.

But, there’s a long road ahead in this election cycle, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

(source: Axios)

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Judge Ruled Teen Accused Of Rape Deserved Leniency Because Good Grades & Family

(stock photo via Depositphotos)

Easily one of the most disturbing things I’ve read in a long time.

From the New York Times:

The 16-year-old girl was visibly intoxicated, her speech slurred, when a drunk 16-year-old boy sexually assaulted her in a dark basement during an alcohol-fueled pajama party in New Jersey, prosecutors said.

The boy filmed himself penetrating her from behind, her torso exposed, her head hanging down, prosecutors said. He later shared the cellphone video among friends, investigators said, and sent a text that said, “When your first time having sex was rape.”

But a family court judge said it wasn’t rape. Instead, he wondered aloud if it was sexual assault, defining rape as something reserved for an attack at gunpoint by strangers.

He also said the young man came from a good family, attended an excellent school, had terrific grades and was an Eagle scout. Prosecutors, the judge said, should have explained to the girl and her family that pressing charges would destroy the boy’s life.

So he denied prosecutors’ motion to try the 16-year-old as an adult. “He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college,” Judge James Troiano of Superior Court said last year in a two-hour decision while sitting in Monmouth County.

In New Jersey, juveniles as young as 15-years-old can be tried as adults in serious crimes. Troiano has been accused of showing bias towards teenagers from privileged homes.

The good news is an appeals court has issued a sharp rebuke of Judge Troiano’s decision and clears a path for moving the case from family court to a grand jury where the teen will be tried as an adult.

According to prosecutors, during the alleged assault a group of boys slapped the girl’s buttocks so hard she still had a mark on her hip the next day. And after the assault, the girl was found vomiting on the floor of the basement.

The Monmouth County prosecutor’s office argued that the case belongs in adult criminal court in part because the boy’s actions were “sophisticated and predatory.”

The prosecutors described the act of recording the cellphone video while committing the assault was “a deliberate act of debasement,” adding that it was “calculated and cruel.”

In his decision last summer, Troiano said the boy’s actions were not “sophisticated,” and called the boy’s text messages as “just a 16-year-old kid saying stupid crap to his friends.”

The appellate court disagreed and warned Troiano that he appeared to have “decided the case for himself.”

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Study Looks At Differences In LGB & Straight Home Buyers

Couple looking for first home (stock photo)

As some readers may know, I’m a licensed Realtor here in Las Vegas.

So I was interested to see the  first-ever Profile of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Buyers and Sellers released by the National Association of Realtors.

Crunching the numbers from four years of data, the report shows some definite differences in how LGB folks feel about, and approach, homeownership compared to heterosexuals.

When it comes to first-time buyers:

• 58% of bisexual homebuyers surveyed indicated they were purchasing their first home

• 36% of gay and lesbian buyers said the purchase was their first

• 32% of heterosexuals indicated it was their first trip to the real estate rodeo

Bisexuals were the youngest homebuyers, stepping up to the plate at median age 36-years-old, but with the lowest median income of $62,400.

Gay and lesbian buyers were the oldest demo at a median age of 45-years-old, but a much higher median income of $92,900.

Heterosexuals tend to buy around age 44 and with a median income of $91,200.

Bisexuals leaned towards smaller homes (median square footage of 1,840) and showed a preference for small towns (22%).

Gays and lesbians were more likely to buy in large cities or urban centers (28%) and chose larger homes (median square footage of 1,900).

The straight crowd liked bigger and newer homes (median square footage of 2,060) with a majority (53%) preferring the suburbs.

The report utilized data from 22,521 respondents. Of those, 3 percent identified as gay or lesbian, while 1 percent indicated being bisexual.

Check out the info-graphic below. And for more detail, click over to the National Association of Realtors.

And if anyone ever has any questions about real estate, while I can’t list or sell homes outside of Nevada, I can offer professional advice on buying and/or selling your home. Reach out to me via my Real Estate Facebook page here.

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Tweet Of The Day: Rochester Red Wings

Professional Minor League Baseball team, the Rochester Red Wings, held their first-ever Pride Night Tuesday night.

By all accounts, it was a big success.

Almost 10,000 fans in the stands, gorgeous weather and the 3rd largest crowd this season.

Even though the Red Wings lost in the 9th inning, everyone felt like a winner.

But back in May, one Red Wings fan trolled the Pride Night announcement, with a prediction: “I’m betting this will be the lowest attended game of the summer.”

At the time, the Red Wings clapped back advising the troll to not bet too much dough on that bet.

You know I love me a sassy pro-LGBTQ Twitter account 🙂

And once the tickets were counted, and a good time was had by all, the Red Wings didn’t forget their little Twitter friend.

Which brings me to my favorite tweet of the day:

Here’s more from the grand night of baseball:

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Trump Endorsement Ads Use Stock Video Footage Of Actors

Trump campaign is producing 'endorsement ads' for Donald Trump, but the people you see are just actors from stock video clips
This is not a Trump supporter (screen capture via iStockPhoto)

In an effort to boost Donald Trump’s standing with certain demographics (like women, Hispanics and younger voters), the Trump campaign has produced video endorsements now running on Facebook and Google.

One, for example, gives us “Tracey,” a young blond woman, walking down the beach, while a voiceover (which a viewer would assume is Tracey) says, “President Trump is doing a great job. I could not ask for a better president of the United States of American.”

But here’s the thing: “Tracey” is actually a stock video clip anyone can buy at iStockPhoto.com.

(click image to enlarge)

Anyone watching the campaign ad would assume “Tracey” is a real Trump supporter.

This is literally “fake news.”

There is a disclaimer on the campaign ad – “Actor portrayal. Actual testimonial” – but the disclaimer only shows for a brief period and is in a tiny font size.

There are additional videos featuring a young, bearded hipster and a Hispanic man.

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$2.5 Million From National Park Service Diverted To Trump July 4 Event

The Washington Post reports the National Park Service is moving almost $2.5 million, earmarked for improvements to parks across the country, to be used in accommodating Donald Trump's "Salute to America" event on July 4 in Washington, D.C.
Donald Trump

The Washington Post reports the National Park Service is moving almost $2.5 million, earmarked for improvements to parks across the country, to be used in accommodating Donald Trump’s July 4 campaign rally “Salute to America” event in Washington, D.C.

The diverted park fees represent just a fraction of the extra costs the government faces as a result of the event, which will include displays of military hardware, flyovers by an array of jets including Air Force One, the deployment of tanks on the Mall and an extended pyrotechnics show.

By comparison, according to former Park Service deputy director Denis P. Galvin, the entire Fourth of July celebration on the Mall typically costs the agency about $2 million.

Bolding is mine.

Trump tweeted today that the cost of his ‘ego rally’ will be “very little.”

The Donald says we already own the planes, pay the pilots and the airport is so close, the only real cost is the jet fuel.

Democratic lawmakers have objected to Trump’s ‘take-over’ of the annual Independence Day celebration saying he’s turning the event into a campaign rally.

The Republican National Committee has confirmed that it has received, and is handing out, VIP tickets to their donors and political appointees.

The Democratic National Committee has not received any tickets or passes of any kind.

According to the Post, Trump still owes the District of Columbia $7 million for his January 2017 inauguration.

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Video: Pride Flag Vandalized In DC Neighborhood

A man in Washington D.C. was caught on video walking into a resident’s front yard and ripping down a rainbow Pride flag, all while yelling homophobic slurs.

A man in Washington D.C. was caught on video walking into a resident’s front yard and ripping down a rainbow Pride flag, all while yelling homophobic slurs.

The 30-second security camera video shows the man walking down the sidewalk, seemingly talking to himself. In the clip’s audio, he can be heard shouting, “F*gg*t motherf**ker, you f*gg*t flag-flying motherf**ker.”

Clear as day, the man enters the yard, striding right up to the flag and snatching it from its mount.

Continuing to rant, the man attempts to destroy the flag slamming it on the ground before exiting the scene.

Twitter user @mjasonrhoades posted the clip to his account as well as the local D.C. community blog, Popville.

“This happened in broad daylight at our house on Independence at 17th St SE this morning while my wife was walking our dog,” wrote the Twitter user. “People like this should not be on our streets.”

The Washington Blade reports that D.C. police have seen the video but haven’t been able to contact the resident.

“We saw the Popville post as well and have attempted to make contact with and have the property owner make a report,” said D.C. Police Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees the department’s LGBT Liaison Unit. “They were encouraged to contact the LGBT Liaison Unit Duty Phone or call 911.”

“We stand ready to respond, investigate, and provide support,” added Parson.

Watch the report from the Washington NBC News affiliate below.

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New Polls Show Post-Debate Shakeup Among Democrats

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (L) and Kamala Harris (R)

New polling shows how the first Democratic presidential debates affected the early race.

The latest from Quinnipiac University polling shows former Vice President Joe Biden getting his lowest numbers to date dropping to 22 percent.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) jumped up to second place with 20 percent support.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren follows at 14 percent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is at 13 percent, and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg gets 4 percent. No other candidate garnered more than 3 percent.

The June 11 Quinnipiac University Poll showed Biden at 30 percent, Sanders at 19 percent, Warren with 15 percent, Buttigieg at 8 percent, and Harris with 7 percent.

And in Iowa, Elizabeth Warren has vaulted to the number one position in the new David Binder Research poll.

From IowaStartingLine:

Elizabeth Warren leads the pack in the Iowa Caucus, according to a new poll out this morning from David Binder Research, currently earning the support of 20% of likely Democratic caucus-goers.

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are both within the margin of error with Warren for first place, but they trail just slightly at 18% for Harris and 17% for Biden.

Bernie Sanders has fallen to fourth place in the polling, sitting at 12%, while Pete Buttigieg has 10% in the survey.

Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker round out the the field with 4% and 2%, respectively, while everyone else is at 1% or below.

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Mayor Pete To Lil Nas X: “Welcome To The Family”

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (L), Lil Nas X (R)

Democratic White House contender Pete Buttigieg gave Lil Nas X props for “standing in his truth” after the country-rap artist came out on the last day of Pride month.

“@LilNasX has gone from viral sensation to groundbreaking musician. As a fan, I’m thrilled and inspired to see him standing in his truth as a member of the LGBTQ community. Welcome to the family,” tweeted Mayor Pete.

It’s been a great week for the 20-year-old as his hit, “Old Town Road,” became only the 12th song in the history of Billboard’s Hot 100 to stay at number one for 13 weeks or longer.

And more celebs praised the artist on social media as well:

There were some haters as well, it seems, but Lil Nas X had no problem handling the trolls on social media.

A post shared by Lil Nas X (@lilnasx) on Jul 2, 2019 at 6:18am PDT