Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Megyn Kelly Asks Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick About Transgender Bathroom Rights: “Is This A Problem?”

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly interviewed virulently anti-LGBT Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick last night regarding his opposition to newly issued guidance on transgender students rights in public schools by the Education & Justice Departments.

Kelly attempted to move Patrick past his talking points towards answering her questions, rather than give him airtime for spouting dangerous lies and myths about alleged “transgender bathroom predators.” But Patrick continued to diminish the value of trans students by saying they make up a tiny part of the population.

At one point, Patrick mentioned his role in defeating Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance last year, saying the legislation would have “allowed men in ladies’ rooms”, but Kelly was quick to challenge him. “Allow men in ladies’ rooms or allow trans women in ladies’ rooms?” she asked.

Patrick quickly deflected, saying, “Megyn, you’re missing this.” But Megyn wasn’t having it. “I don’t think I’m missing anything,” she replied.

Watch below.

Posted on

Daily Dance: Jeremy Morse Can’t Stop Dancing

I wrote about Justin Timberlake’s new song “Can’t Stop The Feeling” last week, and I predicted it would be one of the big songs of the summer.

One week later and folks are living for the track as it continues to sit at #1 on iTunes every day.

Jeremy Morse posted this video on Facebook (19 million views!) where he writes: “I. Can. Not. Stop. Lis. Ten. Ing. To. This. Song. To. Day. Thanks Russell!”

Posted on

Anti-Transgender Activist Has No Answer When Asked What Bathroom Trans Folks Should Use

Last night, Travis Weber of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council and Professor Jennifer Finney Boylan of E! network’s “I am Cait” debated transgender bathroom rights in America on MSNBC’s “Hardball” with Chris Matthews.

Poor Travis was not prepared for the most basic question of transgender rights these days: If a transgender woman shouldn’t use the ladies room, what bathroom SHOULD they use?

The FRC spokesman was literally tongue-tied. Matthews, pointing out the obvious, said again and again, “You’re dodging the question.”

Excerpt from the transcript via Media Matters:

CHRIS MATTHEWS (HOST): Travis, tell Jenny what bathroom she should use.

TRAVIS WEBER: Well —

MATTHEWS: Which one should she use?

WEBER: Yeah, I mean I’m not sure, um —

MATTHEWS: Well just answer that question.

WEBER: I think people should be —

MATTHEWS: She said she would not be comfortable or not cause such problem if she walked into a men’s room. Should she walk into a men’s room?

WEBER: I think we can do things the way we’ve done them for decades, and people could use bathrooms according to biological sex with specific accommodation made for people who have a genuine issue. If we look at the North Carolina law, it made an accommodation. People are not happy with that, however. And now the Obama administration —

MATTHEWS: Let’s just talk about transgender people. What should a transgender person who identifies as a woman do? What bathroom should they go to? Just keep it simple.

WEBER: Yeah well there’s an issue of privacy concerns.

MATTHEWS: See no, you can’t answer the question, can you? What should they do?

WEBER: They can use the bathroom of their biological sex, except when there’s a genuine issue and an accommodation can be made.

Matthews did not let it go, though. He went back to Weber more than once,: “What should Jenny do if she was visiting North Carolina right now? Should she go to the men’s room? Should she? You’re dodging the toughest question, which is what do you want people to behave like?” He then asked, “Can you answer the question? Should Jenny go to the men’s room or the ladies room?”

Weber had nothing.

Again, Matthews asked the question Weber couldn’t answer: “It just seems odd to me that you’d want Jenny to show up in men’s room you go to. You think that would be appropriate? You think that would be appropriate? It’s a simple question, should Jenny go to your men’s room? Yes or no.” When Weber again did not answer the question, Matthews said, “See, you’re dodging this question.”

See, the haters can mock and belittle transgender folks when it’s through a press release or talking on Fox News, but when you have a transgender woman on air with you – who CLEARLY should not be using the men’s room – you got nothing. Just your moralistic fear and hate.

Professor Boylan, much to her credit, handled the segment without raising her voice or yelling. She was quite persuasive.

Posted on

What’s Donald Trump Hiding?

Over the years, Donald Trump has said he would release his tax returns when President Obama released his birth certificate. Obama did, Donald didn’t.

Trump said he would release his tax returns if he ran for president. He’s running. No tax returns.

Trump said he would definitely release his tax returns after his current tax audit. The IRS said there’s no reason he can’t release them now. Still no tax returns.

Hillary Clinton and a lot of Americans now have to wonder – “What’s Donald Trump hiding?”

Posted on

LA Pride Steps Back From Some Ticketing & Programming Changes

After pronounced vocal turmoil over proposed changes at LA Pride (changing the name to “LA Pride Music Festival” for a start), the producers of the event have decided to step back from some of the adjustments to the annual event’s programming and ticket pricing.

Via press release:

Dear LGBTQ Family,

We heard you and we are sorry.

As an LGBTQ community based nonprofit organization, Christopher Street West has strived to create an annual Pride celebration that brings our entire community, friends and allies together in celebration of the unique diversity that makes each of us a valued member of society. As a mostly new governing board our goal was to create the best LA PRIDE experience to date. As we endeavored to create such an event we have made a few missteps along the way that have left valued members of our community feeling left out or under appreciated. This was never our intention. We’ve heard your concerns and objections and we sincerely apologize.

Pride has a very different meaning for each individual, and everyone has a different way that they envision celebrating Pride. We fully respect that and strive to create a weekend that can offer something for everyone. Additionally, we had record crowds in 2015 and needed to make some adjustments to physically accommodate our growing audience. In the spirit of community, and as a result of many discussions with various community members, we have decided to make changes to this year’s LA PRIDE programming:

Free Friday:
CSW will return Friday night to a Free Friday experience for the community. Previously Friday night included free programming along with a ticketed experience. Friday night on the main stage will continue to be a celebration of women with an all-female lineup and the annual Dyke March. The Trans Social, a new Youth Dance and a Vogue Ball will also remain as a part of Friday’s programming. Several activations and new experiences will be eliminated as a result in order to balance the Friday night budget but the Festival will maintain its stellar list of scheduled performances including Krewella, Faith Evans, Da Brat and María José. Everyone is invited to stay and enjoy the all-female performers on our main stage, top DJ’s on our Hip Hop stage, and a Miami Nights theme on our Latin stage. We invite the entire community to join this free celebration.

Trans Social:
Trans Social will return to its previous time and location on the Library Lawn, formerly last year’s Latin Stage, between 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm.

Tickets:
Single Day General Admission Ticket pricing will be adjusted for Saturday and Sunday with advanced tickets on sale beginning Tuesday, May 17th for $25/day General Admission. Single Day General Admission Tickets for Saturday and Sunday purchased at the gate will be $30/day. We do still have the discounted weekend pass options for the many who like to celebrate all three days. We are still working with our partners on providing FREE tickets to community members including our Volunteer program which provides a free day General Admission pass for anyone who volunteers for a four hour period.

Please stay tuned for upcoming announcements from Parade highlights to Festival programming including entertainment and arts and cultural experiences coming to LA PRIDE.

As we begin planning for 2017’s LA PRIDE Festival and Parade, we look forward to engaging the entire community in planning next year’s celebration.

In Pride,

The Board of Directors, Christopher Street West

Some folks had raised concerns that some of the proposed changes, in part to attract a younger generation, included higher ticket prices and shifted focus from the “social visibility” aspect of Pride to a more “Coachella” type music festival.

(via press release)

Posted on

Donald Trump: My Tax Rate Is “None Of Your Business”

As everyone knows, every presidential candidate since 1976 has released their tax returns.

Earlier this year, Donald Trump promised to do so. Now, he’s decided he won’t.

Or, at least, it may not be before the general election in November.

From ABC News:

Joining “Good Morning America” this morning, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked Trump what his tax rate is, and Trump simply replied, “It’s none of your business.”

“You’ll see it when I release but I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible,” Trump said.

The billionaire also said he has no foreign bank accounts and emphasized he runs a “clean” business.

“I don’t have Swiss bank accounts,” he said. “I don’t have offshore accounts.”

Trump went to say that he doesn’t not believe that voters have a right to see his tax returns before they vote, but that he would gladly made them public once the audit is over.

Stephanopoulos asked Trump: “Yes or no, do you believe voters have a right to see your tax returns before they make a final decision?”

“I don’t think they do. But I do say this, I will really gladly give them,” Trump answered, adding he has no problem releasing him and he hopes it’s before the election.

Trump went on to divert to Hillary Clinton’s “Goldman Sachs speeches” that she hasn’t released. It goes without saying that every candidate since 1976 HASN’T released transcripts of their paid speeches when out of office.

It says a lot that Trump was willing to release his taxes to get a casino license, but the American public don’t deserve the same opportunity.

Posted on

Washington Post: Donald Trump Used To Pretend To Be His Own Publicist For Press

The Washington Post has posted a fascinating ego-based story today reporting that in his early years of media attention, Republican front-runner Donald Trump would phone reporters posing as his own “publicist” to get ink in the newspapers.

Accompanying the story is an audio recording that seems to be Trump calling a People Magazine reporter using the name “John Miller.”

In 1990, Trump testified in a court case that “I believe on occasion I used that name.” He did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

In a phone call to NBC’s “Today” program Friday morning, Trump denied that he was John Miller. “No, I don’t think it — I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time and it doesn’t sound like my voice at all,” he said. “I have many, many people that are trying to imitate my voice and then you can imagine that, and this sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams — doesn’t sound like me.” Later, he was more definitive: “It was not me on the phone. And it doesn’t sound like me on the phone, I will tell you that, and it was not me on the phone. And when was this? Twenty-five years ago?”

Trump has never been terribly adamant about denying that he often made calls to reporters posing as someone else. From his earliest years in business, he occasionally called reporters using the name “John Barron.”

Trump’s fascination with the name “Barron” persisted for decades. When he was seeing Maples while still married to Ivana, he sometimes used the code name “the Baron” when he left messages for her. In 2004, when Trump commissioned a dramatic TV series based on the life of a New York real estate mogul like him, his only request to the writer was to name the main character “Barron.” And when Trump and his third wife, Melania, had a son, they named him Barron.

[snip]

A few weeks later, when People ran a story about Trump and Maples getting engaged, Trump was quoted saying that the John Miller call was a “joke gone awry.”

The Washington Post piece goes on to list folks who listened to the recording and clearly recognized the voice as Donald Trump’s, including his former wife Marla Maples and longtime friend Cindy Adams. Plus, the story lists other reporters who recall getting calls from a “John Miller” about The Donald back in the day.

Listen below:

Posted on

17 School Districts Confirm “Conservative Horror Stories” Regarding Trans Bathroom Rights Are False

(map via GLSEN)

With today’s announcement by the federal Departments of Education and Justice on protections for transgender students, it’s important to debunk the often-told myth that transgender “bathroom rights” somehow leads to predators dressing as women to prey on female students in school bathrooms.

Media Matters took a comprehensive look into the matter:

Conservative media outlets have attacked transgender-inclusive non-discrimination policies in schools by claiming they create confusion, violate students’ privacy rights, and can be exploited by students who will pretend to be transgender in order to sneak into the restrooms for the opposite sex and behave inappropriately.

Media Matters Contacted Officials At The Largest School Districts In 12 States With Gender Identity Protections On The Books. Media Matters contacted school district officials in states with laws prohibiting discrimination in public schools on the basis of gender identity and asked whether they had experienced “any incidences of harassment or inappropriate behavior” as a result of “allowing transgender students to access facilities they’re comfortable with.” Media Matters specifically raised the oft-heard criticism that protecting transgender students will “result in confusion, harassment, or inappropriate behavior” such as “students pretending to be transgender to sneak into locker rooms or bathrooms.”

The responses from across the country were overwhelmingly the same: Seventeen school districts covering 600,000 students experienced no problems after implementing transgender protections.