Shinjiro Atae (image via Instagram)Some news items you might have missed:
• New York Times: Japanese pop star Shinjiro Atae came out as gay at a fan event Wednesday night. Such an announcement is extremely unusual in conservative Japan, the only G7 country that has not legalized same-sex unions.
• The Daily Beast: Chechen pop star Zelimkhan Bakaev (right in pic below), disappeared in 2017. We now have reports that Ramzan Kadyrov (left in pic), head of the Chechen Republic, was so offended he had taken a photo with the singer he later discovered was gay that he personally ordered him tortured and murdered.
L-R Ramzan Kadyrov, Zelimkhan Bakaev (via Instagram)• Star Observer: A transgender teenager has taken his life after he being bullied at school for using he/him pronouns. Onyx John, 13, passed away on July 16, 2023, in Beaudesert, Queensland.
• Pink News: Looking back on the many ways late pop star Sinéad O’Connor was a tremendous LGBTQ ally.
All the ways late queer icon Sinéad O'Connor proved she was a fearless LGBTQ+ ally. 🏳️🌈https://t.co/5zj2KJ6eyj
— PinkNews (@PinkNews) July 27, 2023
• WFTV9: The oversight board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to manage the land area where Disney World is located is now defunding police overtime in order to pay for DeSantis’s lawsuits against Disney.
• The Guardian: Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson says he’s “not a racist,” but if he was “being racist is not a crime.”
Tucker Carlson says ‘being racist is not a crime’ but if he was he would ‘just say so’ https://t.co/4Hzm1FO4an
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) July 27, 2023