Category: Uncategorized

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Homophobic Swordsman Arrested After Nearly Severing Man’s Hand In Attack

San Francisco police have arrested a man accused of slashing and nearly severing the hand of a gay man at a roller rink on March 29.
Leor Bergland arrested for attempted murder with a sword (mugshot via SF Police)

San Francisco police have arrested a man accused of slashing and nearly severing the hand of a gay man at a roller rink on March 29.

The alleged attack happened about 9:50pm outside the Church of 8 Wheels roller rink.

The accused, 30-year-old Leor Bergland, was reportedly hanging around the roller rink with a sword tucked in the back of his pants and wearing a red flannel shirt and red MAGA hat, the preferred head gear of Donald Trump supporters.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports the victim, 27-year-old Gabriel Gaucin, passed Bergland on the street and swatted the MAGA hat off his head.

Prosecutors wrote in court papers that Bergland “suddenly reached back, as if to punch the victim, but instead quickly brought his hand down, hold what the victim thought was an umbrella or nightstick.”

Instead, it was a sword which partially severed Gaucin’s hand. The victim was treated at San Francisco General Hospital where he had to undergo emergency hand surgery.

The owner of the roller rink, David Miles Jr., told NBC News that Bergland was “mostly yelling anti-gay rhetoric.”

Police tracked Bergland down after matching fingerprints on a beer bottle and the MAGA hat left at the crime scene with a sword found by a security guard two days later. The weapon, wrapped in a red flannel shirt, had a matching fingerprint on it.

MAGA hat left behind by Bergland (image via 

The MAGA hat is notable in reporting the story because hate crimes have surged since Donald Trump took office. The FBI has reported that hate crimes had their biggest increase since 9/11 in 2017.

And, as Miles reported, Bergland used anti-gay slurs during the attack.

Bergland told the arresting officers he was home at the time of the assault and challenged them saying, “What do you have on me? Nothing, cause I didn’t do it.”

He was charged with attempted murder, mayhem, and assault with a deadly weapon.

The Chronicle reports Bergland was “defiant” during his first appearance in court.

He didn’t enter a plea, but argued with Deputy Public Defender Eric Quandt, saying, “Why are you telling me to be quiet? You just basically implied that I did it.”

Judge Donna Little set his bail at $250,000.

A spokesman for the district attorney’s office told the Chronicle, “No one has a right to strike someone with a sword because their hat was knocked off their head.”

But Quandt pointed out in court that Bergland didn’t instigate the incident.

“What the reports seem to suggest is that this defendant reacted to being either attacked, or a hat thrown off his head, or something along those lines,” said Quandt.

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Parody: Merry Murderesses Of Westeros “Game Of Thrones (Cellblock) Tango”

With the premiere of the eighth and final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones set for April 14, uber-talented Allison Lane and creative partner Chris Ritter serve up this delightful parody of Chicago the Musical’s “Cellblock Tango.”

Only here, we are celebrating the merry murderesses of Westeros!

Watch Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Lady Olenna Tyrell, Sansa Stark, Brienne of Tarth, & Cersei Lannister explain why all those men “Had It Comin”!

I’ve previously shared Allison’s work here, here, here and here.

Hit the play button below. Happy Saturday!

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Mayor Pete’s Husband Could Be His Secret Weapon

As South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg continues to rise in the polls, his husband Chasten is finding popularity of his own.

As South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg continues to rise in the polls, his husband Chasten is finding popularity of his own.

Check this report from CNN’s Kate Bennett.

And, did you know they have a Twitter account for the Buttigieg dogs??? #supercute

And, I’ll just throw this in while I’m here.

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Pennsylvania Wedding Venue Refuses To Host Same-Sex Weddings

Steven Dinnocenti, a retired educator who has attended Star Barn events in the past, recently shared on his social mediahis outrage upon discovering the venue has a ‘no same-gender weddings’ policy.
(image via Depositphotos)

Another day, another wedding vendor refusing to serve same-sex couples.

This time, it’s Star Barn Village, located near Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

Steven Dinnocenti, a retired educator who has attended Star Barn events in the past, recently shared on his social mediahis outrage upon discovering the venue has a ‘no same-gender weddings’ policy.

“Never again will I step on (their) grounds,” wrote the openly gay married man.

“What one does not know is the blatant discrimination they have towards the LGBTQ community and other individuals that they have written in their Core Values statement,” added Dinnocenti.

He also posted a link to Star Barn’s ‘Core Values’ statement which reads, in part, “We provide marriage-related services as ordained by God’s Word, the Holy Bible, that are consistent with the written truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”

At this writing, Dinnocenti’s Facebook post has been shared over 360 times and garnered over 560 comments.

PennLive spoke with the owner of the venue, David Abel, who says he “does not tolerate discrimination against anyone, not in his business or in a public setting.”

“No persons will be discriminated against,” he insisted to PennLive. “However, we ask people to respect that we have core tenants in our faith and our beliefs and we cannot participate in any event that would be in contradiction to those core tenants – one of them being marriage, which has been biblically based for thousands of years as being between a man and a woman.”

He also asserts that religious freedoms are one of the principles under which the United States was founded. “It was also founded as one nation under God not over God,” he said.

(photo via Depositphotos)
But Dinnocenti told PennLive he flips that script. “The bottom line is go back to the Constitution,” he says. “The Bible should not be dictating the rule of the land.”

It’s important to note that Pennsylvania does not have any LGBTQ protections on the books. So, it would seem Mr. Abel is legally allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples.

This highlights, yet again, the need for The Equality Act to be passed in Congress and signed into law. The federal legislation would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and erase any confusion about refusing services to people based only on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

For now, however, PennLive does point out that another wedding venue, Riverdale Manor and Thyme and Seasons Catering in nearby Lancaster, has seen its same-sex wedding business thrive since marriage equality became the law of the land in 2015.

Maureen Raezer, owner and president of the venue, told PennLive she subscribes to “the principles of inclusive economics.”

In fact, Raezer says she’s stopped doing business with vendors who don’t appreciate her inclusive wedding industry approach.

“I think they see it as they are somehow condoning gay marriage by participating in it,” Raezer said. “I‘m not sure how selling somebody a wedding cake does that. If I sold cookies to someone, why would I care what their sexual orientation was?”

She also believes that diversity is the future of economics. For her, a business model of excluding people “financially makes no sense.”

(h/t PennLive)

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News Round-Up: April 5, 2019

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk Dan Tai (above) believes you should “go hard or go home.” #legs #thighs #calves #everything #woof

• Colorado’s state Assembly has approved HB 1129, which will protect LGBTQ youth from so-called ‘conversion therapy.’ Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly gay man elected governor, will sign the bill into law. Colorado will become the 16th state plus the District of Columbia to prohibit the harmful practice.

• Failed politician and talk show host Mike Huckabee says LGBTQ people are the “greatest threat to the moral fiber of America.”

• University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health scientists report in EBioMedicine that they’ve developed an all-in-one immunotherapy approach that not only kicks HIV out of hiding in the immune system, but also kills it.

• Donald Trump is celebrating the election of homophobe Brian Hagedorn to the Wisconsin state Supreme Court. Hagedorn infamously wrote some years ago that being gay leads to bestiality, and recognition of LGBTQ pride events creates a “hostile working environment” for Christians. But, Trump is thrilled with the news.

• LGBTQ ally Cyndi Lauper & YouTube Todrick Hall have been announced to perform at the opening ceremonies of New York Pride this year. Whoopi Goldberg will host the event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on 26 June.

• Click here if you want to hear former The View co-host moan and whine about being scolded by Barbra Walters back in 2006. It pretty much confirms what I always thought about the former reality show contestant.

• Out recording artist Gia Woods drops her latest single, “Keep On Coming,” complete with a moody music video set in a shadowy bedroom.

Woods says the seductive song is about “Someone’s body that ‘keeps coming’ — meaning I’ve never met this person, but for some reason, I’m supposed to know them. I feel like somehow life relentlessly finds a way to make paths keep crossing. This is the realization whether or not you want to meet the person, it’s inevitable.”

Her breakout single, “Only A Girl,” has garnered over 10 million views on YouTube. I recently wrote about her track, “Jump The Fence,” here.

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New Mexico Becomes 14th State To Pledge Electoral Votes To Winner Of Popular Vote

New Mexico has become the 14th state to join a campaign pledging to award its electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in future presidential elections if enough states sign on.

New Mexico has become the 14th state to join a campaign pledging to award its electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in future presidential elections if enough states sign on.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is a response to Hillary Clinton’s winning the popular vote of the 2016 presidential election but denied the White House by the Electoral College.

Clinton won the popular vote by over 3 million votes, but Trump took the prize with 306 electoral votes versus Hillary’s 232.

So far, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state and the District of Columbia have all joined the movement.

According to CNN, “states would not shift their vote allocations until their combined electoral votes equal 270, enough to decide a presidential election.”

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Chicago Is Suing Jussie Smollett For $130K Investigation

Just when we thought the whole Jussie Smollett debacle was done and done, the city of Chicago has announced it may file a lawsuit in an attempt to recoup expenses for the cost of investigating his alleged late-night attack.
Jussie Smollett

Just when we thought the whole Jussie Smollett debacle was done and done, the city of Chicago has announced it may file a lawsuit in an attempt to recoup expenses for the cost of investigating his alleged late-night attack.

In late January, Smollett filed a police report alleging he was assaulted by two masked men who beat him, poured an unknown liquid over his head and put a noose around his neck – all while reportedly shouting homophobic and racist slurs.

As reported here on The Randy Report, the investigation eventually turned to Smollett, and he was charged with 16 counts of filing a false police report.

Last week, the charges were abruptly dropped.

Two days later, the city sent the Empire actor a bill for $130,000 for expenses related to the police investigation.

Smollett apparently has no interest in paying the bill.

Via Variety:

“Mr. Smollett has refused to reimburse the City of Chicago for the cost of police overtime spent investigating his false police report on Jan. 29, 2019,” the city said. “The Law Department is now drafting a civil complaint that will be filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County… The Law Department will file the suit in the near future. As part of this legal action, the Law Department will pursue the full measure of damages allowed under the ordinance.”

Smollett maintains he is innocent.

“It is the Mayor and the Police Chief who owe Jussie an apology — for dragging an innocent man’s character through the mud,” his lawyer has previously told the press. “Jussie has paid enough.”

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Rowan University Students Dance To Drown Out Anti-LGBTQ Hate Speech

The students at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, were not having it when demonstrators showed up on their campus holding anti-LGBTQ, anti-women and anti-Muslim signs.
Dancing to drown out the hate at Rowan University (screen capture)

The students at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, were not having it when demonstrators showed up on their campus holding anti-LGBTQ, anti-women and anti-Muslim signs.

According to the university’s online newspaper, The Whit, one of the signed held high read, “Warning: homos, whores, porno freaks…Muslims, drunks…obey Jesus or hellfire.”

Charming.

At the time, a social media post went out among students which claimed the demonstrators make their appearances on college campuses around the country in an attempt to make money.

The social media message implored the students not to engage:

“Dude so just so you know the thing happening is this group of guys who travel across the country to public college campuses and yell controversial things with the signs that they have, they do this to make money by hoping that students will get riled up and physically attack them, and then they can sue the students or even the school. They can also make money if the campus police or Glassboro police kick them off the campus; because this is censorship of freedom of speech of the first amendment, they can sue the school for a lot of [$$$]. They are con artists and scammers, don’t give them the time of day and spread this message.”

Note: There hasn’t been any evidence that confirms the anti-LGBTQ demonstrators were looking to have their appearance escalate to violence for financial gain.

It wasn’t long before hundreds of students showed up with their own signs and Pride flags forming their own, largely peaceful, protest.

One student, Elijah Olumakin, brought a speaker and music to try and distract from the demonstrators.

“I felt as though, to protest the poisonous words they’re trying to infect our minds with, we need to infect the heart with positive messages,” Olumakin told The Whit. “Whether you’re black, white, Spanish, Indian, broke, poor, gay, straight or non-binary, you love good music.”

The music led to dancing, and pretty soon the students turned the incident into a big party drowning out the hate speech.

Student government president Rbrey Singleton got on the mic at one point to congratulate the students for standing up to hate speech.

“I am so proud of everybody – we are stronger together,” Singleton told his peers. “We came out here, we stood up to hate. We’re going to keep turning our backs to hate.”

Later, in a message to the university community via email, Singleton praised the students writing, “You continue to amaze me every day by your strength and resilience.”

“We’ve been standing in the face of hate today, and many in our community have been standing against hate their entire lives,” he continued. “Let’s be bigger and turn our backs on hate. If we don’t give prejudice and bigotry our attention or power, it WILL leave. Let’s continue to spread love, inclusivity and pride everywhere we go, on and off campus.”

Rowan University President Ali Houshmand issued a statement emphasizing that, while freedom of expression is allowed at all times, hate speech has no place on campus.

“Rowan is obligated as a public institution to allow freedom of expression, but we do not endorse or condone hate speech in any form,” wrote Houshmand. “Rowan University is committed to providing a safe and inclusive environment for all members of the community and rejects the abhorrent sentiments expressed by the protesters.”

According to the local ABC News affiliate, two students were arrested for throwing soda at the haters.

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Trailer: FX Mini-Series ‘FOSSE/VERDON’

Fosse/Verdon will tell the story of these two brilliant, complicated individuals – the love they shared, the art they created, and the price they paid in the pursuit of greatness.
Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams in ‘Fosse/Verdon’

Bob Fosse – visionary filmmaker and one of theater’s most influential choreographers and directors.

Gwen Verdon – the greatest Broadway dancer of all time.

Fosse/Verdon will tell the story of these two brilliant, complicated individuals – the love they shared, the art they created, and the price they paid in the pursuit of greatness.

The good news for Broadway fans is dancers/choreographers who really understand Fosse-style are in the mix making sure the iconic Fosse/Verdon dance style is captured accurately.

From DanceNetwork:

Because Fosse’s dance style is so specific, it took a team of people from choreographers Andy Blakenbuehler and Susan Misner to The Verdon Fosse Legacy, run by Verdon and Fosse’s daughter, Nicole Fosse, to make sure that the movement was accurate. The Verdon Fosse Legacy’s mission “is to promote, preserve, and protect the artistic and intellectual property of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.”

Broadway dancer and teacher Mary Ann Lamb was brought in by Andy Blakenbhuehler, who did the first few episodes of Fosse/Verdon and left to choreograph the movie,Cats, during production. Her job was to coach actor Sam Rockwell, who plays Bob Fosse in the series.

“I was brought in to get Sam Rockwell familiar with the steps. He’s a natural dancer. It was a joy,” shared Lamb. “Then I stayed on the project to assist Susan Misner, who took over for Andy Blakenbuehler. I worked with Sam and Michelle Williams, both are brilliantly talented dancers and singers — they’re triple threats.”

In the new sneak peak trailer for the mini-series, stars Sam Rockwell, Michelle Williams, director Thomas Kail (Hamilton) and more offer behind the scenes scoop on the highly anticipated new series!

Premieres April 9 on FX.

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Celine Hits The Road (With The Help Of Some Vegas Drag Queens)

Celine Dion (screen capture)

Living in Las Vegas, I’ve grown accustomed to pop superstar Celine Dion being Sin City’s longest-running resident diva.

A New Day, her first residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which ran from March 2003 to December 2007, is the most successful residency of all time grossing over $385 million. The 717 performances were attended by nearly 3 million people.

She took a break, but came back to Caesars Palace for a second residency, titled Celine, in March 2011.

That production will end on June 8, 2019, as she departs for her first North American tour in over a decade to support her upcoming new album, Courage.

To announce the news of the Courage World Tour, the 51-year-old singer enlisted some help from other Las Vegas ‘divas’ for a video.

In the clip, Celine is heading out of Sin City in a sixteen-wheeler with an Elvis impersonator marrying a couple, along with a senior still clicking away at a slot machine.

But when the big-rig truck breaks down, thankfully “Tina,” “Diana,” “Barbara” and a Celine queen look-a-like show up right in the nick of time.

Celine and her band climb into the queens’ vehicle, and the international recording artist is soon serenaded all the way to Los Angeles with a medley of her hits.

The video is cute, it’s kitschy, and a fitting ‘so long’ to Vegas.

The new album, Courage, is expected to drop sometime in November.

The Courage World Tour will launch on September 18 in Quebec City, and will play in over 50 cities through April 2020.

Click here for tour info, and you check out Celine and the queens below.