News Round-Up: August 5, 2020

Some news items you might have missed: • Instagram: Lance Bass’s hubby, Michael Turchin (above), shares the lovely view from Grand Teton National Park. The mountains, trees, and lake look nice, too. 🙂 • The Advocate: Amid the results of Tuesday night primaries, Marko Liias, a gay man, appears to have advanced to the general election for lieutenant governor in Washington State. Transgender woman Stephanie Byers was unopposed in her primary for a state representative post in Kansas and is likely to become the state’s first trans legislator. And openly gay Jon Hoadley won a U.S. House nomination in Michigan and, if elected in November, will be the first out member of the state’s congressional delegation. • EW: Disney is developing an adaptation of the musical Once on This Island. Set in the Caribbean’s French Antilles, the tuner tells the story of a peasant girl named Ti Moune who falls in love with an aristocrat. I raved about the recent revival which deservedly took home the 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

• Out: If there wasn’t enough nonsense going on, it looks like the Straight Pride folks in Modesto, California, are gearing up for a return. You know, the celebration of cisgender, hetero white men whose organizers once called themselves a “totally peaceful racist group?” • LGBTQ Nation: A violent mob attack on two young gay men at the Joffa Port has shaken Israel as shocking video circulates of a lone man coming to their rescue while hundreds watched and did nothing to help. • CNN: A new ad from the Trump campaign deceptively alters a photo of former Vice President Joe Biden campaigning outdoors in Iowa to make it seem as if Biden is “hiding” in his Delaware basement. The ad also uses two other images in misleading ways: one of Biden at an Iowa house party and one of Biden praying at a Delaware church. • The Daily Beast: Trump campaign senior advisor Mercedes Schlapp Schlapp attempted to defend Donald Trump’s whiplash-inducing hypocrisy, attempting to not only make the distinction between absentee and mail-in voting but also trying to justify why some states’ mail vote is “safe and secure” while others are not. CNN’s Brianna Keilar finally had enough telling Schlapp she was “sowing doubt” and fear into the minds of voters. “This is just pointless, okay,” Keilar exploded. “This is pointless. I get it, you’re just saying a bunch of crap! Okay. You’re saying a bunch of crap.”

CNN’s Brianna Keilar to Trump campaign advisor Mercedes Schlapp on mail-in-voting: “This is just pointless, okay. This is pointless. I get it, you’re just saying a bunch of crap. Okay. You’re saying a bunch of crap.” pic.twitter.com/vhD4ftJsWM

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 4, 2020