LGBTQ news and entertainment
It’s been a busy morning, and I’ve been seeing lots of reports about the So You Think You Can Dance All-Stars and Top 8 dancers killing it last night with a piece by choreographer Mark Kanemura set to “Call Me Mother” from RuPaul’s recent album, American.
And everyone was right – pretty epic.
No politics here, just way tight dancing and ography. #slayy
Watch below.
In Australia, the ironically named “Coalition for Marriage” – the group actually OPPOSES marriage for same-sex couples – has released and aired the first ad in the ‘No’ campaign against legalizing same-sex marriage.
Using often-told lies to inflame opposition, the actors in the :30 clip look intensely concerned as they spout lines like, “School told my son he could wear a dress next year if he felt like it” and “When same-sex marriage passes as law overseas, this type of program becomes widespread and compulsory.”
Of course, no one “compels” a young boy to wear a dress to school when marriage equality becomes the law of the land.
And the upcoming mail-in survey (costing the country over $122 million) is about marriage equality, not about what will be taught in schools.
But folks were warned that this kind of hostile and offensive rhetoric would be teed up by the haters as Australia prepares to vote via mail on whether the country should embrace same-sex marriage.
Recent polls show majority support (57%) for allowing gays and lesbians to marry, but who knows what the haters have lined up next?
You can watch the fearmongering below.
Good news in Illinois as the state’s governor has just signed two bills into law that will help LGBTs find greater equality in the Prairie State.
The first bill removes the option of a “gay panic” defense in murder cases. Utilized in several LGBT murders in recent years (Matthew Shepard, Brandon Teena, Marco McMillan), “gay panic” defenses have allowed defendants accused of killing homosexuals to legally claim they had a legitimate fear for their safety because the victim had made a pass at them.
The defense has been criticized by many for implicitly condoning that LGBTs are a threat to society.
Illinois is the second state in the U.S. to ban the defense. California is the only other state to pass similar legislation.
The second bill makes it easier for transgender people to amend their birth certificates to reflect their correct gender identity.
Until now, trans folks had to submit sworn affidavits from their physicians confirming they had performed gender confirmation surgery.
Under the new law, trans individuals are only required to provide a note from licensed medical professionals documenting the fact that they are receiving “clinically appropriate” treatment as they transition.
I remember when I saw the photo of Donald Trump wearing that silly red hat during his Hurricane Harvey teleconference wondering, “Why is he wearing that hat?”
Now we know.
The Trumpster is coming under fire for promoting a $40 campaign hat on sale at his website while tending to Hurricane Harvey.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has raised questions as well as Trump’s former head of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), Walter Shaub.
Wearing a stupid hat: WH photos show Trump sitting alone at Camp David while Pence runs hurricane Situation Room https://t.co/f1a2LhhBeW pic.twitter.com/sRprRpt2jg— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) August 28, 2017
Image #1: Picture of President Trump in a red hat, distributed by the White House
Image #2: Your chance to buy the red hat from his campaign pic.twitter.com/hehsMRYcyw— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) August 28, 2017
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! (Pounds head against desk, breaks desk, pounds head against floor) NO!! The Presidency is not your profit center!!— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) August 29, 2017
The Montrose Center, Houston’s LGBTQ counseling and community center serving more than 35,000 LGBT clients with its programs, is hoping to raise $100,000 to provide food and housing, particularly for the many homeless LGBT youth who use its resources.
From the campaign:
The LGBTQ Disaster Relief Fund will be used to help individuals and families begin to rebuild their lives through counseling, case management, direct assistance with shelf stable food, furniture, housing and more. The Center’s dedicated case management team is on call to help homeless youth, seniors, people living with HIV, hate crime survivors, and those devastated by the storm.
While the Montrose Center will focus primarily on empowering the LGBTQ community to rebuild after the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey, we serve all people in need regardless of their sexuality.
Vogue Italia features same-sex couples engaging in some lip lock for their September issue.
Real-life couple Edoardo Velicskov and Pablo Rousson on one cover, Lily Aldridge and Vittoria Ceretti on another.
Photo credit for the cover shots goes to Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
The old phrase “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” comes to mind here.
One of Donald Trump’s earliest supporters in Congress, Rep. Duncan Hunter, one of Donald Trump’s first allies in Congress, used colorful language in touting the president as their champion at a Riverside County Young Republicans meeting in a Murrieta sports bar.
“He’s just like he is on TV,” Hunter, R-Alpine, told the group. “He’s an asshole, but he’s our asshole.”
According to the San Diego Union Tribune, Hunter’s chief of staff did not respond to emails for comment. His voice mailbox was filled and could not accept more messages.
I can’t imagine why…
During a press conference with the president of Finland, Donald Trump was asked if he considers Russia to be a security threat.
His answer: “Well, I consider many countries as a security threat.”
He. Just. Can’t. Say. It.
Q: Do you consider Russia a security threat?Trump: “Well, I consider many countries as a security threat.” (via CBS) pic.twitter.com/4WOK1KfhQC
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 28, 2017
During the same press conference, Trump was asked why he pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio during Hurricane Harvey.
“I assumed the ratings would be higher,” he replied.
For a year, Donald Trump has repeatedly denied having “nothing to do with Russia.”
Here’s just one sample of his denials:
Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017
But it turns out the Trumpster actually signed a “letter of intent” to build a “Trump Tower Moscow” four months into his presidential campaign.
From ABC News:
The involvement of then-candidate Trump in a proposed Russian development deal contradicts repeated statements Trump made during the campaign, including telling ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos that his business had “no relationship to Russia whatsoever.”
The disclosure from Cohen, who has described himself as Trump’s personal lawyer, came as Cohen’s attorney gave congressional investigators scores of documents and emails from the campaign, including several pertaining to the Moscow development idea.
“Certain documents in the production reference a proposal for ‘Trump Tower Moscow,’ which contemplated a private real estate development in Russia,” Cohen’s statement says. “The decision to pursue the proposal initially, and later to abandon it, was unrelated to the Donald J. Trump for President Campaign.”
In a separate statement texted to ABC News, Cohen added that “the Trump Moscow proposal was simply one of many development opportunities that the Trump Organization considered and ultimately rejected.”
Cohen specifically says in his statement that Trump was told three times about the Moscow proposal.
“To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Trump was never in contact with anyone about this proposal other than me on three occasions, including signing a non-binding letter of intent in 2015,” his statement says.
Also found in the emails was a message from Trump associate Felix Sater to Cohen boasting of his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Sater wrote in an email. “Buddy, our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
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Taking a trip on the way-back machine, we find this tweet from Cohen last December that doesn’t seem to have aged well:
FBI acknowledges no link between @realDonaldTrump and #Russia. Propaganda being put out by @HillaryClinton campaign. https://t.co/OzbnYET1bI— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) November 1, 2016
