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Billy Porter Accepts GLAAD’s Vito Russo Award With Powerful Call To Action

Tony Award winner Billy Porter at the 28th Annual GLAAD Media Awards

In accepting GLAAD’s Vito Russo Award at the 28th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on May 6, my man Billy Porter preached to the people about being silenced, remembered those who fought for equality before us, and issued a powerful call to unite against forces that try to discriminate and divide people.

I’ve known the Tony Award winner (Kinky Boots) for almost 30 years, and this is prime “Billy.”

Get your war clothes on, people. Stay strong. Stay vigilant. Stay visible. Stay hopeful. Stay focused. Be brave. Be fierce.

Resist. Resist. Resist. Resist. Resist.

I recently interviewed him about his fantastic new album, Billy Porter Presents the Soul of Richard Rodgers, and halfway through the interview Billy connected the dots between his music and his activism. And we were off!

I, of course, could not have been more thrilled. Check out that interview on my podcast over on iTunes.

But for now, watch Billy go, go, go below.

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Daddyhunt PSAs Talk Healthy Dating Practices

Dating app Daddyhunt recently released a season 2 for it’s sexy, intergenerational dating web series, Daddyhunt: the Serial.

Furry, flirty fun between a young cub and his attraction for a sexy daddy.

And Daddyhunt isn’t stopping there.

In a partnership with Building Healthy Online Communities (BHOC), the dating app is producing a series of PSAs focusing on info for healthy dating practices: PrEP use, condom use, STD testing, HIV+ folks, and medications.

The first PSA in the series, “The Right Choice,” premiered online last month featuring four cast members from Daddyhunt: The Serial: Jim Newman, BJ Gruber, David M. Farrington & Michael Snipe Jr.

The spot talks on the rise of STDs, as well as options for protecting yourself.

The second clip titled “PrEP Is Effective” shows sexy cub cast member BJ Gruber discussing the pros of Truvada and it’s best practices.

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Study Shows Wisconsin’s New, Stricter Voter-ID Laws Suppressed 200,000 2016 Votes

Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election has been described as “death by a thousand cuts.”

Clinton herself has admitted mistakes on behalf of her campaign, but it’s also impossible to not point to FBI Director James Comey’s announcement reviving the issue of Hillary’s emails just 11 days before the election, plus the Wikileaks constant drip of DNC emails.

Add another component to her loss as The Nation shares the results of a study that shows Wisconsin’s new strict voter-ID laws caused a drop of 200,000 fewer votes than in 2012.

Trump won Wisconsin by 22,748 votes.

Those lost votes tended to skew more Democratic and more African-American.

According to the study, states that did not implement stricter voting-ID laws saw participation increase by 1.3%. The states that did add tougher ID restrictions saw 3.3% less voters at the polls.

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Randy Rainbow For Orbitz: “It’s A Great Big World”

Randy Rainbow stars in a gay-gay-gay new Orbitz ad, sharing the screen with Bianca del Rio and Miss Richfield 1981.

Along the way, there’s tap dancing, a half-naked gymnast, and Margaret Cho as your flight captain.

What more could you want from a commercial?

Totally fun, totally Randy Rainbow. Happy Tuesday!

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Iowa Congressman Rod Blum Walks Out Of Interview Over Prescreening Constituents For Town Hall Meeting

Rep. Rod Blum of Iowa

Someone’s a little touchy.

Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa) gets up and walks out of an interview with KCRG reporter Josh Scheinblum after being asked why he’s prescreening constituents who plan to attend his town hall that night. Blum’s staff was apparently checking IDs to ensure that only his constituents attended his town hall Monday night.

Even after prescreening, though, he ended up getting screamed at the crowd at his town hall.

It would seem the congressman came to the interview with a chip on his shoulder. Scheinblum told Talking Points Memo that the “kids as backdrop” wasn’t anything previously discussed for the interview. When the reporter asked Blum about it, the congressman apparently responded with something to the effect of, “Well, you know, all Republicans are evil, right?”

Blum represents a swing district that barely went for Trump in 2016 after supporting Obama in 2012, and now faces tough questions about his vote for Trumpcare.

Watch below as he leaves this interview just moments into the segment.

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Trump Tweets Meltdown After Strong Testimony By Sally Yates At Senate Hearing

After strong testimony by former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper today before a Senate committee today, President Trump issued a Twitter meltdown trying to assert there was only “old news” to report.

Untrue.

From Talking Points Memo:

Trump claimed that Clapper just “reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows.” He also said that Yates “made the fake media extremely unhappy” by saying “nothing but old news” in her testimony.

Yates made headlines by testifying that she warned the White House that Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn could be “compromised with respect to the Russians” as a result of his “underlying conduct.”

She also testified that some lawyers in her department were told not to inform her about Trump’s original executive order barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries until it was implemented.

Trump nevertheless insisted that the “fake media” was ignoring the real story “on surveillance,” though he did not offer any further details or evidence about that claim.

The title of today’s hearing was “Russian Interference in the 2016 United States Election,” not “My Trump Tower Phones Were Wiretapped.”

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News Round-Up: May 8, 2017

Some news items you might have missed:

• Pretty fair to say Ryan Kelsey of the Chippendales (above) is ready for summer. Me? #MoreWine

• The Trump campaign has deleted all references to the now-infamous press release stating Donald Trump’s call for the “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States.

• The Texas Senate will soon debate whether the state’s high school athletics organization should be able to disqualify a transgender athlete who is undergoing hormone replacement therapy.

• NPR has a First Listen to the yummy new Broadway cast recording of Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler.

• A Chechen fugitive reports that a gay 17 year-old was thrown off a 9th story balcony by his uncle in order to “wash the shame” from his family.

• Tom Holland, the newest actor to spin a web as “Spiderman,” pulls off a no-holds barred performance on Lip Sync Battle with full-on drag and dance to Rihanna’s “Umbrella.” Watch below.

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Caitlyn Jenner: I’m White, Rich And Privileged, And I’m Not Going To Apologize For It

Caitlyn Jenner

“Some of the criticism that my community has had is that I’m white, I’ve got money, I’m privileged and all that kind of stuff. I get that. OK? Can’t do much about being white. Kind of born that way. Privileged? Yeah. I’ve worked hard all my life. I’ve tried to be as smart as I can and yeah, I’ve been successful from that standpoint. And I’m not going to apologise for that. Not even close.”

– Caitlyn Jenner speaking to The Guardian

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Debra Messing Accepts GLAAD’s “Excellence In Media” Award Will A Call To Action

Debra Messing accepts GLAAD’s Excellence in Media Award

Accepting GLAAD’s Excellence in Media Award in New York City this past Saturday, honoree Debra Messing declared, “It’s time to make America gay again!”

The Excellence in Media Award is presented to media professionals who have made a significant difference in promoting LGTBQ acceptance.

During her remarks, Messing said, “Right now there is a very bad and very orange man in the White House. At least a few days a month.”

But it wasn’t just the president Messing had a message for. She also spoke directly to Ivanka Trump:

“It’s not enough to simply say that women’s issues are important to you. It’s time to do something. You can change the lives of millions of women and children just by telling your dad stories about real people who are suffering.

“Don’t let him separate immigrant mothers from their American-born children. Don’t let him take health care away from women who need it. Don’t allow him to make trans kids like Gavin [Grimm] fight in court for their basic human dignity.”

This fall, Messing and her original Will & Grace costars will return to NBC for a 12 episode reboot of the iconic sitcom.