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Laverne Cox Books New ABC Pilot, “The Trustee”

Openly trans actress and activist Laverne Cox’ CBS series Doubt may have been cancelled after only two weeks, but she’s already on to her next leading TV gig.

Cox has been cast as co-lead in new ABC pilot, The Trustee, a female buddy police series.

From Variety:

[Cox] will play Amanda Jones, a larger-than-life ex-con finishing out her prison sentence doing menial tasks for the police department. Co-lead Meaghan Rath plays her counterpart, Eliza Radley, a driven but stubborn detective who finds unlikely help from Amanda.

Cox and Rath are joined by Michael Cudlitz of “The Walking Dead,” who will play Captain Timothy Waits, a wry and sardonic police captain who has learned to appreciate Eliza’s unorthodox policing methods.

As regular Randy Report readers know, Cox is the first transgender actress of color to star in a network television series. She has been honored with an Emmy nomination for her work on Netflix’ Orange Is the New Black, and a Daytime Emmy as producer of The T Word.

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News Round-Up: March 7, 2017

George Michael

Some news stories you might have missed:

• According to the coroner’s newly released report, pop music icon George Michael died of natural causes, which will really irritate the tabloids who were surely hoping for something more salacious.

• ABC’s 20/20 will air a report on the harmful effects of “conversion” or “ex-gay therapy” this Friday  at 10 p.m. Eastern. Click here for an advance look.

• It turns out former Trump campaign spokesperson and serial liar Katrina Pierson’s bitching got her booted out of a White House gig. #NoOneIsSurprised

• Anderson Cooper couldn’t take the Trump Twitter Chronicles anymore, so he has the prez on “mute.”

• The Justice Department, under President Trump, seems to be preparing to u-turn on federal opposition to North Carolina’s anti-LGBT “bathroom law,” HB2.

• The Will & Grace gang is all back together and working on the upcoming 10 show season reboot of the hit sitcom. Check out the four stars below, clearly happy to be #reunited&itfeelssogood

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Trump Blames Obama For Released Gitmo Prisoners That Bush Released

Score another mistake for Tweeter-In-Chief, President Trump.

Shortly after this morning’s “Fox & Friends” tweeted a story about how at least 122 former Guantanamo prisoners have engaged in terrorism after their release, Trump fired off a tweet blaming President Obama:

“122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!”

But an Intelligence Community report on re-engaged detainees shows that Bush allowed nearly all of those releases. From the New York Daily News:

According to a report on re-engagement through July 2016, 122 of the 693 former detainees who were transferred out of Gitmo went back to terrorism. Bush oversaw the release of 532 detainees, and 113 of them — more than one-fifth — were confirmed to have re-engaged, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Obama released 161 detainees, and only nine were confirmed to have returned to terrorism.

So – 113 detainees released by George W. Bush returned to terrorism, 9 released by Obama.

Much too quick on the Twitter finger there, Chief Cheeto.

It must be so much easier to be the big boss in your own company where people get fired for pointing out facts. Right, Mr. Trump?

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Here’s The Bullet Points On The New Republican Healthcare Plan

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Everyone is talking about the newly released Republican plan to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.

Here’s the bullet points you should know about how this will change healthcare legislation:

• The Individual Mandate would be gone, as would the Employer Mandate. No more penalty paid for not having healthcare. No requirement of large businesses to provide health insurance for employees.

However, while there would be no individual penalty for not having healthcare (which would have gone to fund public hospitals, etc…), insurance companies will be allowed to tack on a 30% surcharge to restart your insurance should you let it lapse.

Instead of paying a penalty into a system that would fund public health services, you would pay a fine to a private company. Sound better to you?

• The A.C.A. premium subsidies would be replaced by tax credits for individuals making $75K or less ($150K for households). Folks under 30 would get tax credits of $2,000, with the amount going up to $4,000 for those over 60.

But, these are tax credits, so you have to pay for your insurance out of pocket first, then utilize the credits later when you pay taxes. If you are lower income wage earner, you may not make enough money to pay for health insurance out of pocket on a monthly basis.

• The plan would lift the limits for tax-free Health Savings Accounts. However, if you are lower-income earner, you may not have any money after your monthly bills to put into an HSA. This may be something that could help wealthier Americans, but those on a tight budget would probably not see much benefit here.

• The proposed plan would defund Planned Parenthood, removing a vital source of healthcare for millions of Americans.

• The proposed plan would prevent Americans from using their tax credits to pay for any health insurance plan that includes abortion. So, if you take the tax credits, any abortion procedures would have to be paid out of pocket, not by your health insurance.

• The proposed plan would allow insurance companies to charge older Americans up to 5 times as much as younger. Currently, Obamacare limits the difference to only 3 times the cost of younger Americans.

Three popular components of Obamacare will remain:

• No denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions

• No lifetime coverage caps

• Young people will be able to remain on their parents’ health plans until age 26

Thoughts? Leave your comments below.

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Laverne Cox: “It’s Not About Bathrooms”

Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court decided to vacate the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on trans high school student Gavin Grimm’s case, and then kick it back for reconsideration at the 4th, actress/trans activist Laverne Cox shared a powerful essay with InStyle about her views on the current state of the rights of transgender folks.

Just a bit from the personal essay:

Over 30 percent of trans people report not eating or drinking so they can avoid going to public bathrooms. Sixty-percent of us have avoided using a public restroom out of fear of being harassed or assaulted. Even when I’m in liberal cities like LA or New York, I would rather not use public bathrooms. But if you leave your house, you have no choice.

But don’t be fooled: These bathroom laws aren’t really about bathrooms. When the current administration rescinded the guidelines for how transgender students should be treated in schools, they made it all about bathrooms. But the Obama-era guidelines also included pronoun and name preferences for these young people as well. These are important components of how trans kids should be treated in school, but all that is lost when we sensationalize this issue. It’s not about bathrooms. It’s about the humanity of trans people, about us having the right to exist in a public space.

There’s more at the link, and I really encourage you to read it.

Today needs to be just a speed bump, not a stop sign.

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Justin Timberlake To LGBT Youth: “Being Different Means You Make The Difference”

Accepting his trophy at the IHeartRadio Awards last night for Song of the Year, “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” pop star Justin Timberlake had a message of inclusion for his young LGBT fans:

“I wrote this song because I wanted it to be about inclusion, about being together. I guess I want to take this opportunity and speak to young people right now cause there’s a lot of you looking at me.

“If you are black, or you are brown, or you are gay, or you are lesbian, or you are trans, or maybe you’re just a sissy singing boy from Tennessee. Anyone who has treated you unkindly, it’s only because they are afraid or they have been taught to be afraid of how important you are.

“Because being different means you make the difference. So, f**k ‘em.”

Watch below:

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George Stephanopoulos Shuts Down Trump Spokesperson On “Wire Tap” Lies

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared on both Good Morning America and The Today Show this morning in an attempt to bolster President Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that President Obama ordered a wire tap on Trump Tower phones during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Clearly Sanders was proud of herself (or a White House staffer) who seemed to come up with her folksy line about walking on water since she repeated the same dialogue on both shows.

“The media loves to create this false narrative against the current president but is so quick to dismiss anything under the past administration. If the president walked across the Potomac, the media would report that he couldn’t swim.”

During the GMA appearance, George Stephanopoulos tried to stay to the facts asking Huckabee Sanders if Trump accepts FBI Director James Comey’s public denial that the wiretap happened. With a straight face, Huckabee Sanders replied, “You know, I don’t think that he does.”

Several times during the segment, Huckabee Sanders would attempt to draw a false equivalence between Trump’s assertion of wiretapping, and the alleged connections between Trump and Russian officials. Stephanopoulos wasn’t having it.

More than once, TV viewers heard Stephanopoulos stop Huckabee Sanders with, “I’ve got to stop you. That is simply not true … Not a single one of those articles backs it up. So what is the president’s evidence?”

Huckabee Sanders eventually turned back to her clearly rehearsed line about Trump walking across the Potomac, looking quite pleased with herself.

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High School Wrestling Champ Mack Beggs On Challenges Of Being Transgender

Mack Beggs, a 17-year-old transgender high school wrestler in Texas who is transitioning to male, talks with ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” about the challenges he has faced in his controversial run to a girls’ wrestling state title.

For all the folks who have accused Beggs of “cheating” because he is on testosterone, the high schooler acknowledges he told his doctor he only wants to take the smallest dose he can and still transition. By staying under a 6 to 1 ratio with his testosterone, the state of Texas technically doesn’t view his medications as “steroids.”

Beggs also shares some of his darker moments like in 7th grade when he was referred to as “fag” or “it” in school.

I think Beggs is terrifically mature and thoughtful here. Very good interview for folks to see when it comes to the realities of trans youth.