LGBTQ news and entertainment
JoeMyGod reports that the Eiffel Tower has been illuminated in rainbow colors as a sign of solidarity with Orlando’s LGBT victims.
Additionally, the American flag is being projected onto a giant glowing balloon hanging from the middle level.
A GoFundMe campaign setup by Equality Florida has raised over $1.7 million in less than a day to help the victims of the devastating Orlando shooting at Pulse Nightclub.
The campaign continues on. Click here to donate.
The city of Orlando is slowly releasing the names of the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting.
Forty-nine people were killed by shooter Omar Mateen early Sunday morning.
Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old
Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old
Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 years old
Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old
Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old
Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 years old
Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old
Kimberly Morris, 37 years old
Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 years old
Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old
Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old
Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 years old
Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25 years old
Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old
Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50 years old
Amanda Alvear, 25 years old
Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old
Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old
Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old
Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old
Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old
Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 years old
Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26 years old
Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 years old
Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old
Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 years old
Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old
Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old
Cory James Connell, 21 years old
Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37 years old
Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old
Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old
Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25 years old
Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 years old
Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 years old
Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 years old
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| Pastor Steven Anderson |
Today in “good Christian” news: virulently anti-LGBT Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, drops these bon mots celebrating the violent shooting deaths in Orlando over the weekend.
“A Muslim terrorist went into a gay bar and shot ’em up. There’s 50 sodomites, homosexuals, that have been killed; and another 50 some-odd injured,” says Anderson in this YouTube video he posted yesterday.
“The good news is there’s 50 less pedophiles in the world. Because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and pedophiles.”
“[those who were killed] were going to die of AIDS and syphilis and whatever else. They were all gonna die early anyway. Because homosexuals have a 20 year shorter lifespan than normal people anyway.”
Anderson then added, “At least they’re off the streets. I’m just trying to look at the bright side.”
The “good pastor” goes on to moan that the bad news is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the country will be used to take away folks’ guns, and become an attack on preachers “telling the truth” about dirty homo perverts.
I shit you not.
UPDATE: Apparently, YouTube removed the idiot’s video for violating Hate Speech regulations.
Out journalist Owen Jones stormed off a Sky News broadcast after the show’s hosts attempted to downplay the nature of the Orlando nightclub shooting as an attack on gay people.
From The Telegraph:
The 31-year-old said he could not understand why the massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida that left at least 50 people dead was not being described as “the worst atrocity committed against LGBT people in the western world for generations”.
He clashed with Sky News Press Preview host Mark Longhurst and co-guest Julia Hartley-Brewer over the gunman’s motives and whether or not the deadliest mass shooting in US history should be called a homophobic attack, rather than a religiously-motivated assault.
After several minutes of noticeable on-air tension on Sunday night, an exasperated Jones took off his microphone and walked off the set, saying: “I’m going home.”
There were several similar moments like this yesterday with elected officials like Florida Gov. Rick Scott who, in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, could not bring himself to say the shooting in Orlando was focused on LGBTs.
#SMH
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| Saddique Mateen |
The father of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen has given the public mixed signals about his son over the past 24 hours.
On one hand, Seddique Mateen told reporters that he believed his son had been set off by seeing two men kiss a few months ago.
He then reversed course saying, “I don’t know what caused him to shoot last night.”
“He was well behaved. His appearance was perfect,” he said. “I didn’t see any sign of worrying or being upset or nervous.”
But in a Facebook video posted yesterday, the elder Mateen expressed his own sense of homophobia saying his son shouldn’t have killed gay people because, “God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality. This is not for the servants.”
He did express regret for his son’s deadly actions saying, “I am deeply saddened and announce this to the people of America.”
“I wish I did know. If I did know I would have stopped him.”
Via press release:
HRC President HRC President Chad Griffin was joined by other civil rights leaders outside the Human Rights Campaign’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to respond to the horrific massacre at a Florida LGBTQ nightclub.
“While today is a day of mourning in the wake of this tragedy, I say to LGBTQ people living in every corner in this country and around this globe: Continue to be bold, be loved, and be proud,” Griffin said.
“There are mothers and fathers, spouses and partners, siblings and friends who aren’t thinking about any of that. They’re simply wishing they had just one more moment to say I love you. During this, their darkest hour, we as a nation must be their strength. We must be their comfort. And we must promise that the memory of those they lost will never, ever fade,” Griffin said.
Griffin was joined by Mara Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality; Janet Murguía; President and CEO, National Council of La Raza; Cornell Brooks, President, NAACP; Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Executive Director, National Black Justice Coalition; Judith Lichtman, of the National Partnership for Women & Families and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Brenda Abdelall of Muslim Advocates; Jorge Amaro, of the National LGBTQ Task Force; and María Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino.
If you can't wrap your head around a bar or club as a sanctuary, you've probably never been afraid to hold someone's hand in public.— Jeramey Kraatz (@jerameykraatz) June 12, 2016