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News Round-Up: June 15, 2017

Some news items you might have missed:

• RuPaul stars as cover girl on Entertainment Weekly this week for the LGBTQ issue. Speaking of his 8 year hiatus from his glamorous alter-ego: “I thought, ‘Could it be that this is not meant for me?’ It was this horrible existence. One day, my friend Larry Tee called me and said, ‘Ru, what the f—k are you doing? You are a star. Get your ass back to New York and get your s—t together.’ And I did…I’m going to go back to New York and give those bitches exactly what they want from me.”

• The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to impose new sanctions on Russia while simultaneously blocking the president from lifting those penalties.

• Homocon journalist says gays only care about “pop music and going to the beach,” adding “they probably don’t know what the Second Amendment is.”

• The Washington Post has had record readership thanks in great part to exceptional reporting on the Trump administration.

• Queerty reviews the best day pool parties in Las Vegas. Who wants to get wet and wild?

• MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow covers Rolling Stone Magazine: “We have a mantra when it comes to this administration: ‘Don’t pay attention to what they say, focus on what they do.’ And that is very helpful, because it’s easier to cover a fast-moving story when you’re not distracted by whatever the White House denials are.”

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Podcast: A Tale Of Two Theatrical Adventures

Join me for “A Tale of Two Theatrical Adventures” as two longtime out actors have separate, but euphoric experiences with New York Theater on the same weekend.

I followed both simultaneously on social media as they shared the elation of their personal milestones, and the journeys made my Grinchy heart swell.

Up first, Stephen Blackwell.

As his 50th birthday approached, Stephen made the decision to venture forth on his own to the Big Bad Apple for the first time and see his first productions on the Great White Way.

We all know New York City can be expensive for visiting fans of Broadway. As he recounts his big adventure, Stephen also has tips that helped him save money along the way, including:

• The app TodayTix (and the website version todaytix.com) helped Stephen buy discounted tickets to Broadway shows in advance without standing in lines or worrying about what his choices would be.

• Instead of pricey hotels, Stephen stayed in an apartment blocks from the theater district and saved hundreds using AirBNB. If you haven’t tried the popular travel site, Stephen shares his experience.

• And don’t be afraid to reach out to friends you’ve made on social media. Stephen met up with someone he knew from Facebook, and that friend acted as a guide to what to do after an evening in the theater.

The other gentleman in this dual adventure, Ed Dixon, has enjoyed a long, successful career on Broadway, off-Broadway and beyond. He’s an actor, playwright, composer and author.

After more than four decades of great work, Ed was honored by the Drama Desk Awards for his latest project, Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose, on the same weekend Stephen was experiencing NY theater for the first time.

I interviewed Ed weeks before during the aftermath of his grand rave-review opening, but watching him share his big Drama Desk win on Facebook felt like I was there.

You can listen to my previous interview with Ed here.

At a time when it feels there’s so much doom, gloom and grousing on social media, I loved watching these stories play out in front of me in real time on the Book of Face.

Hit play below to listen to the two men’s simultaneous journeys.

Sometimes, it’s great to savor the good times 🙂

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Trump’s Flip-Flops On “Hoax” Unemployment Numbers

Last year, then-candidate Donald Trump called unemployment numbers “one of the biggest hoaxes in modern politics.”

Today, only five months into his presidency, she told the world “the unemployment rate is at a very, very low level.”

The “hoax” numbers are now magically real?

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Australian Prime Minister Mocks Trump’s “Winning, Winning, Winning” Schtick

This probably won’t do much to warm up the chilly relationship between President Trump and Australia’s Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

At a recent event down under, Turnbull’s off the record speech to journalists included mimicking Trump’s attacks on fake news, “winning,” and ties to Russia all done in the Donald’s now famous hyperbole.

From The Guardian:

In his speech to the Canberra press gallery’s Midwinter Ball, the Australian equivalent of the White House correspondents’ dinner, Turnbull says: “The Donald and I, we are winning and winning in the polls. We are winning so much, we are winning, we are winning like we have never won before. We are winning in the polls. We are, we are. Not the fake polls. Not the fake polls. They’re the ones we’re not winning in.

“We’re winning in the real polls.

“You know, the online polls. They are so easy to win. I know that. Did you know that? I kind of know that. They are so easy to win. I have this Russian guy.

“Believe me it’s true, it’s true.”

Speeches at the press gallery Midwinter Ball are intended to be light-hearted. For a decade, the speeches made at the dinner have been widely regarded as being off-the-record. However, the most senior press gallery journalist, Channel Nine’s Laurie Oakes, routinely refuses to attend the ball and has consistently said he is not bound by the off-the-record convention.

I do think that if the annual ball’s antics are agreed to be “off-the-record,” then Oakes is something of a dick to publish even if he didn’t attend.

Listen to Turnbull’s comments below.

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Trump Predictably Rants On News Of Obstruction Of Justice Inquiry

Today, in Trump Twitter Land, the Donald went on a rant regarding the news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into obstruction of justice by the prez.

MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell couldn’t leave that alone.

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Key West: No Jail Time For “You’re In Trump Country” Gay-Basher

Brandon Ray Davis

There will be no jail time for a North Carolina man who admitted to chasing and assaulting two gay men during a late night February incident in Key West, Florida.

Unbelievable. And people wonder why LGBTs protest.

From the Miami Herald:

Brandon Ray Davis, 30, admitted calling Kevin Paul Taylor and Kevin Seymour “faggots,” and yelling, “You’re in Trump country now!” on Feb. 23 on Duval Street in Key West and smashing his scooter into Seymour’s back bike tire.

“I landed on my feet, that was the luck of it,” Seymour said Wednesday, after the hearing in which Davis received four years probation, 75 hours of community service and was banned from tasting alcohol for two years.

Judge Wayne Miller said the injuries suffered — a flattened bicycle tire and a chain knocked off — weren’t enough to warrant a day in jail after Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne asked for 60 days behind bars.

Originally arrested for felony aggravated battery, Davis was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge Wednesday at the Monroe County Courthouse in Key West.

Taylor and Seymour watched Wednesday as Davis called his fiancée and two family friends to the front of the court to testify that whatever he did at about 1 a.m. Feb. 23 in Key West was completely out of character. Davis also has an openly gay friend, a professional his attorney noted, who wrote one of 30 letters of support.

Then Davis turned toward the two men he threatened in a drunken stupor four months ago, walked toward them from the court’s center and offered to embrace them.

“My heart goes out to you guys, every bit of it,” Davis said to Taylor and Seymour, who were seated in the front row behind the prosecutor’s table. “I’m asking you to come put your arms around me, take my hand.”

The two men were silent.

Davis followed the men for five blocks, taunting them and at one point promising, “If you call the cops I will cut that faggot body up,” and claiming he was a correctional officer.

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Washington Post: Special Counsel Mueller Looking At Possible Obstruction Of Justice By Trump

Robert Mueller

I’m guessing this is why Daniel Coats, current director of national intelligence, and Adm. Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, refused to answer so many questions last week when speaking to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Washington Post dropped a bombshell tonight reporting that the special counsel looking into Russian interference in last year’s election, Robert Mueller, is now looking into possible obstruction of justice by President Trump.

The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.

The move by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s own conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said.

Trump had received private assurances from former FBI Director James B. Comey starting in January that he was not personally under investigation. Officials say that changed shortly after Comey’s firing.

The WaPo piece goes on to detail an encounter between Coats and Trump, as well as phone calls between Trump, Coats and Rogers.

Coats was attending a briefing at the White House together with officials from several other government agencies. When the briefing ended, as The Post previously reported, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Coats told associates that Trump had asked him if he could intervene with Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn in its Russia probe, according to officials. Coats later told lawmakers that he never felt pressured to intervene.

A day or two after the March 22 meeting, Trump telephoned Coats and Rogers to separately ask them to issue public statements denying the existence of any evidence of coordination between his campaign and the Russian government.

Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the president’s requests, officials said.

And there’s documentation: recently departed National Security Agency Deputy Richard Ledgett penned an internal NSA memo documenting the president’s phone call with his boss, Adm. Mike Rogers, according to officials.

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News Round-Up: June 14, 2017

Tyson Beckford

Some news items you might have missed:

• International super model (and current celebrity host at Chippendales in Las Vegas) Tyson Beckford covers Vegas Magazine

• Fox News is dropping it’s woefully inaccurate slogan, “Fair & Balanced.” #AboutTime

• New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has broken the record for the worst approval rating (only 15% approval) for any governor in any state surveyed by Quinnipiac University in more than 20 years.

• Terrific article by Matt Baume about the emergence, history and evolution of Queer Proms over the past 20 years. #GreatRead

• Investigators have found evidence of attempted Russian cyber-hacking by in 39 states’ voting software and data.

• Check out Raúl Castillo, before his Looking role on HBO, in the short film 2012 Kiss Me where he played Kid Vargas, a boxer with a secret.

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Loving The Kiss Cam Action At LA Dodgers’ Pride Night

Over 8,000 fans attending the LA Dodgers Pride Night game last Friday – the most tickets ever sold by a Major League Baseball team for a single Pride Night.

The Dodgers have put much thought into making sure all LGBT Dodger fans feel embraced throughout the night, including:

• The always popular “Kiss Cam” featured several gay and lesbian couples smooching on the Jumbotron.

• The National Anthem was performed by Dot Marie Jones (of GLEE fame) along with the Gay Men’s Chorus and Trans Chorus of Los Angeles.

• LGBT peeps threw out the first pitch.

• There were Pride Night t-shirts created by the Dodgers for the event.

• Pride Night was announced during the game announcements, and signage all over the stadium made clear whose night it was.

Bonus: the home team won with the Dodgers besting the Cincinnati Reds 7-2.

By the way, the Reds don’t have any LGBT fan events like Pride Night, so boo on them. They lost twice that night.

Watch the Kiss Cam action below:

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Out Music: Halsey & Lauren Jauregui Perform “Strangers” On The Today Show

Is this the first time two openly bisexual artists have sung together using female pronouns on a major morning show?

This past Friday, Halsey & Lauren Jauregui of Fifth Harmony performed ‘Strangers’ on The Today Show.

The synth-driven uptempo is from Halsey’s sophomore album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom.

She doesn’t kiss me on the mouth anymore
‘Cause it’s more intimate, than she thinks we should get
She doesn’t look me in the eyes anymore
Too scared of what she’ll see, somebody holding me

During a recent interview on The Zach Sang Show, Halsey said she wanted “Strangers” to be believable.

“It needs to be real,” she said. “So I’m not going to put a girl on the song to sing who’s straight. I’m just not going to do it.”

Halsey’s song “Ghost” was one of my Top 5 songs by LGBT artists in 2016. You can check out “Ghost” on The Randy Report here.

Watch below.