Category: Uncategorized

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Hump Day: Warwick Rowers Are Back With 2018 Calendar Fundraiser

Perfect for Hump Day – the Warwick Rowers are back in fundraising mode for Sport Allies and awareness against Homophobia.

Since 2009, the Warwick Rowers calendar has achieved global recognition as a fundraising initiative and a public awareness campaign, delivering products to around 80 countries every year and reaching more than 140 countries through its viral messaging.

It has won a large number of awards for excellence, innovation and social impact, including twice being voted the UK Charity Calendar of the Year.

The men of Warwick name three goals for their fundraising activities:

• to promote positive, inclusive and respectful attitudes towards people of all genders and sexualities
• to fund the rowing programme at the University of Warwick, and particularly to make rowing more accessible to a wider number of students
• to fund the ongoing development of Sport Allies, a registered charity with a mission to promote sport, and particularly team sport, as an inclusive and supportive route to personal growth for everyone

Check out the promo video for the fund-raiser below, and head over to www.warwickrowers.org for more info.

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Former GLEE Star Mark Salling Agrees To Plead Guilty To Child Pornography Charges

Mark Calling agrees to plead guilty to child pornography charges
(image via Flickr – Kristin Dos Santos)

Former GLEE star Mark Salling is facing 48 to 84 months in prison after agreeing to plead guilty on charges of possession of child pornography.

From Billboard:

Under the plea deal, Salling will register as a sex offender and participate in counseling or psychiatric treatment.

Salling admitted to using the Internet over several months in 2015 to download thousands of images of child pornography. Investigators executed a search warrant on Dec. 26, 2015 and found about 25,000 still images and 600 videos of child pornography and 29,000 images of child erotica.

Salling will pay $50,000 to each victim seeking restitution and also agreed not to have any communication with any person under the age of 18 unless the legal guardian is present or has been notified of this conviction. (This doesn’t include waiters, cashiers or other vendors that he’d encounter in public.)

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 48 to 84 months imprisonment followed by 20 years of supervised release and a fine in an amount to be determined by the court.

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DEAR EVEN HANSEN’s Ben Platt Is An Adorable Twink On “Will & Grace”

Ben Platt on Will & Grace

Ben Platt, this year’s Tony Award winner for “Best Actor in a Musical” for his star turn in Dear Evan Hansen, makes for a perfectly adorable 23-year-old ADHD twink who finds himself attracted to Eric McCormack’s “Will” this week on Will & Grace.

Check out the hyper-flirt from Platt below.

Will & Grace airs Thursdays on NBC at 9PM ET.

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Tillerson Dodges On Calling Trump “Moron,” Trump Rants At Fake News Again

Trouble in Trump Land today as Donald Trump lambasted NBC News for reporting that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson threatened to resign this past summer when Donald Trump gave a highly politicized speech at the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree.

From NBC News:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid mounting policy disputes and clashes with the White House, according to senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time.

The tensions came to a head around the time President Donald Trump delivered a politicized speech in late July to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson once led, the officials said.

Just days earlier, Tillerson had openly disparaged the president, referring to him as a “moron,” after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet officials, according to three officials familiar with the incident.

In an unscheduled statement to reporters Wednesday morning, Tillerson directly addressed that version of events, saying, “I have never considered leaving this post.”

If you ask me, the secretary appears to be playing to an audience of one. And you know exactly who I mean.

After Tillerson’s comments, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle (who contributed to the report) told viewers that her source said not only did Tillerson call Trump a “moron,” he called Trump a “f*cking moron.”

You can watch Tillerson respond to reporters this morning where he clearly dodges the question of whether or not he actually called the president a “moron.”

Here’s how it played out on Twitter:

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Pro-Life Congressman Asked His Mistress To Get An Abortion

Rep. Tim Murphy

Well, well, well. It’s always so interesting when we come across hypocritical “pro-life” politicians who vote against pro-choice rights but seek remedies like abortion for their own life events.

In newly obtained documents, anti-abortion (and anti-LGBT) Rep. Tim Murphy asked his mistress to terminate a pregnancy this year even as he was putting out anti-abortion political positions.

From Slate:

According to documents obtained by the Post-Gazette, Shannon Edwards—a Pittsburgh woman exactly half Murphy’s age with whom he recently admitted to having an extramarital affair—texted Murphy in January about a possible pregnancy that turned out to be just a scare. “You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” she said, referring to a post from Murphy’s professional Facebook account that accused America of “discarding and disregarding the most vulnerable” for allowing abortions past 20 weeks’ gestation.

“I get what you say about my March for life messages,” Murphy responded. “I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”

Such a paragon of virtue.

In addition to opposing any pro-choice positions, Murphy voted against LGBT legislation like the the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

And what did he vote for? A constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

With  a 100% rating from the Family Research Council it’s not surprising to know he has a 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign.

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Billy Porter In Concert: Kinky Boots Medley – “Land of Lola/Sex Is In the Heel/Just Be”

Billy Porter performs a medley of songs from his Broadway hit show, Kinky Boots
Billy Porter in concert

I’ve known Tony Award winner Billy Porter since the early 90s when we both were beginning our careers in New York City theater. I’ve been proud of him every day for his unvarnished, raw passion and talent that he brings to bear on every project he takes on.

The phrase “force of nature” seems the perfect way to describe Billy and his art.

Billy shared this video today, a medley of songs from the Broadway hit musical Kinky Boots for which he won his Tony honor, performed this summer while touring in concert.

Via Facebook:

So as I’ve stated in the recent past, my return to Ms. Lola and The Boots That Are Kinky is about the gift of love. The gift of grace and acceptance that we are blessed to share with the world 8-times-a-week.

I had the pleasure of touring this summer with my new album Billy Porter Presents: The Soul Of Richard Rodgers. It was exhilarating and humbling to be reminded of a part of my ministry that I had buried. My music! My personal voice. Standing in front of my band, as ME, and spreading the message of unconditional love.

As many of you know I am VERY political. It’s all over me. It’s in everything that I do. Every choice I make. The only thing I’m interested in is telling the truth. Sometimes that goes well and sometimes some folk get their panties in a wad because I don’t ascribe to the “shut up and sing” silencing rhetoric that has permeated out culture as of late through the very vocal minority who think they are running shit.

My music is my life. I have been reborn. And I’ll will be on the front lines fighting for what I know is right till the end of time.

With that said, this post of the KINKY BOOTS MEDLEY is the first installment of many to come from the culmination of my summer concert tour. Spread the love! Resist y’all!

Earlier this year, I interviewed Billy about his latest album, Billy Porter presents The Music of Richard Rodgers, for my podcast. As always, he was an awesome interview: candid, authentic, unfiltered and fearless.

Watch Billy perform a medley of songs from Kinky Boots below, and you can listen to my interview with him here.

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If You Would Like To Help The Victims Of The Las Vegas Shooting

It’s very rare that I reach out and ask readers to consider donating to this or that charity or fund raiser.

But this recent shooting massacre in Las Vegas, my hometown, literally hits home.

I mentioned in another post, but for those who might be inclined to donate to help those affected by the hideous attack by Stephen Paddock on Sunday night, please consider this GoFundMe campaign.

The campaign has raised, at this writing, $3.7 million with a current goal of $4.5 million.

The money will go directly to help victims and victims families regarding hospital bills, funeral bills, flying in family members to take care of loved ones and more.

There were almost 600 people killed or injured, so even with $4.5 million divided by 600, that’s only $7,500 per victim to cope with hospital bills, travel costs for families and funeral costs.

Thank you for reading and considering anything to help folks here in my city.

#VegasStrong #Forward

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New Zealand Farmers Have A Hilarious Way To Explain What “Gay” Means

Check out the way cute video from Rainbow Youth, a non-profit supporting LGBT young people in New Zealand, which takes on the tiresome practice of calling anything weak, frustrating or disappointing “gay.”

When one of the farmers in the video accidentally drops his meat pie in the dirt, he proclaims the situation “gay.”

But his buddy steps in to explain that “gay” is not a substitution for something bad.

“Actually, Nigel, that’s not gay at all,” he says. “It’s deeply disappointing, but it’s not gay.”

The video was posted with this message: “We’re SUPER stoked to finally share with you our very first national ad campaign! We chose to address something small that contributes to much larger issues – homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.”

Watch the clip below.