My first response when I saw this exchange between Katie Couric and Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, was a chilling shiver up my spine.
Zakharova stopped by Yahoo News to talk with Couric about President Trump, U.S. airstrikes in Syria, and fake news.
BUT – Couric turned to the horrific reports of gay men being detained and tortured in Chechnya, and things went south very quickly.
Zakharova was not of a mind to discuss and shut Couric down, explaining there was an “investigation.”
Dodge, dodge, dodge…
Katie Couric asked a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman about the torture and killing of gay men in Chechnya.
In case you didn’t think Finding Mr. Right’s Robert Sepulveda Jr. couldn’t get any douchey-er, check out this throwback to Genre Magazine when he was “Mr. Fort Lauderdale” in April 2006 or something.
Please note:
Do you have a nickname?
The Horse.
Does size matter?
Not many men are bigger than me, so I settle a lot…
In a post on his Facebook page, Franklin Graham denounced Democratic lawmakers for proposing a federal ban on so-called “ex-gay therapy.”
Along the way, reasserts that “homosexuality is an abomination,” and that gays are born “imperfect.”
“Now Democrats are proposing a bill to ban conversion therapy in the United States, saying that LGBTQ people were born perfect. Actually, they are very misled. We were all born imperfect, with sinful natures — yet loved by God who offers us forgiveness and wholeness through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
“Homosexuality is defined by God as sin, an abomination to Him. There’s one ‘conversion therapy’ that works for all sin, and that is asking Jesus Christ to come into our hearts. He can transform and heal our lives, making us new. The Bible tells us, ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come’ (2 Cor. 5:17).”
Congressman Ted Lieu introduced The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 this week.
“The bill is very simple. It says it is fraud if you treat someone for a condition that doesn’t exist and there’s no medical condition known as being gay.
“LGBTQ people were born perfect; there is nothing to treat them for. And by calling this what it should be, which is fraud, it would effectively shut down most of the organizations.”
“Ex-gay therapy,” also known as “reparative therapy” has been decried by dozens of medical professional organizations, and has been proved to harmful, akin to torture.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of her landmark “Yep, I’m Gay” coming-out episode on her 90s sitcom, Ellen Degeneres looked back with a little help from friends like Oprah Winfrey, Laura Dern and Michelle Obama on the Friday episode of her talk show.
Winfrey and Dern — both of whom guest starred in the iconic 1997 episode in which DeGeneres’ character came out as gay — stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week to reflect on the moment.
Though Obama couldn’t be there to mark the milestone with DeGeneres in person, the former first lady surprised her friend with an emotional video tribute that aired on her Friday show.
Titled “The Puppy Episode,” the famous moment aired April 30, 1997.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Ellen shared how emotional just saying the words “I’m gay” were for her in rehearsals.
AP: “Ellen” cast member Joely Fisher recalled that you held back from saying the line “I’m gay” in pre-taping rehearsals. Why?
DeGeneres: Because the first time we were blocking it and rehearsing it (the scene), I started to say it and I would tear up. And I realized how charged that sentence was because, you know, when you’re gay, the only time you say “I’m gay” is when you’re revealing it to someone, when you’re telling your parents or when you’re telling someone close to you. Because most people never have to say, “I’m straight.” …. So Laura (guest star Laura Dern) kept saying, “Just don’t say it,” because she saw how hard it was for me.
Still trying to frame his election as more than it was, President Trump pulled out an electoral map during an interview with the Washington Post and asked them to print the map on the paper’s front page in honor of his 100th day in office.
The Post’s White House Bureau Chief Philip Rucker on Friday said that Trump pulled out a copy of the map during an interview this week and asked for it to be included on the front page alongside the interview story.
“He brought out the map, he said, ‘Aren’t you impressed by this map?’ ” Rucker told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.
“He encouraged me to take it home to my colleagues at the Washington Post and try to run it on the front page of our newspaper. I think he was sort of playing there, but it speaks to the pride that he has in that map.” Trump has done a series interviews this week to mark his 100th day as president, which is Saturday.
On Friday, a Reuters reporter said Trump similarly interrupted an interview to show a map with the latest figures from the 2016 election.
It’s notable that even with Republican control of the House, Senate and White House, the Trump administration has no sizable legislative achievement. The best that can be said is that the Republicans have “kept the lights on.”
