Posts

Posted on

Trump Claims Trans Soldiers ‘Take Massive Amounts Of Drugs’

Donald Trump, currently on a three-day state visit to the UK, defended his ban on transgender soldiers in the U.S. military by lying about the ‘massive’ cost of hormone treatment.

Trump sat down with his old pal and former winner of Celebrity Apprentice, Piers Morgan, on iTV’s Good Morning Britainto chat for an hour on a range of subjects.

While mentioning the president’s recent tweet acknowledging Pride Month, Morgan wondered how the same Donald Trump could also support the new military policy that went into effect April 12 that bans anyone who is openly transgender or has transitioned from joining the military.

Only service members who were already enlisted, and diagnosed with gender dysphoria prior to the new policy, may serve in the military openly as their gender identity.

“They take massive amounts of drugs, they have to, and you’re not allowed to take drugs, you’re in the military, you take an aspirin,” defended Trump. “And they have to after the operation, they have to, they have no choice.”

The president, who famously avoided serving in the military himself, went on to claim that taking hormone treatment would “break rules and regulations.”

He also complained about “massive amounts of people” enlisting and then transitioning during their service in order to get free surgical procedures.

“Massive amounts of people going in and then asking for the operation, and the operation is $200,000, $250,000, and they have to take large amounts of drugs for that for whatever reason, large amounts, and you can’t do that,” explained the president.

However, Trump’s statement about the costs for transgender medical care is patently false.

According to MilitaryTimes, the Pentagon spent $8 million on transgender health care since 2016. That figure represents a tiny fraction of the military’s $50 billion health care budget.

And while Trump finds $8 million for trans soldiers’ healthcare to be untenable, he doesn’t seem to mind the $84.2 million the defense department spent in one year on erectile dysfunction medications.

When Morgan mentioned this fact, the Trumpster claimed he didn’t know that.

“It is what it is,” Trump replied.

Morgan tried to point out that many trans military members have been honored with medals for valor and achievement, but Trump didn’t care.

“I’m proud of them, I think that’s great,” said Trump, brushing the comment aside. “But you have to have a standard, and you have to stick by that standard, and we have a great military and I want to keep it that way.”

Posted on

Trump Pretends UK Protesters Showed Up To Support Him

You can barely see any protesters, huh?

Donald Trump, once again living in his own private reality, told his followers he “kept hearing” about “massive” rallies protesting his visit to London, but claims everyone was there to support him.

#liar

Check out his tweet followed by video footage of the protests:

Posted on

Senate Republicans Are NOT Happy About Trump’s Mexican Tariffs

Donald Trump 

Senate Republicans appear to be on a collision course with their own president over Donald Trump’s announced plans to place big ticket tariffs on imports from Mexico.

Via The New York Times:

Republican senators sent the White House a sharp message on Tuesday, warning that they were almost uniformly opposed to President Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on Mexican imports, just hours after the president said lawmakers would be “foolish” to try to stop him.

“I want you to take a message back” to the White House, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, told the lawyers, according to people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Cruz warned that “you didn’t hear a single yes” from the Republican conference. He called the proposed tariffs a $30 billion tax increase on Texans.

Texas would be hit the hardest by the proposed tariffs on Mexican products, followed by Michigan, California, Illinois and Ohio, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

A 25 percent tariff would threaten $26.75 billion of Texas imports. “We’re holding a gun to our own heads,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called the tariffs “a distraction:”

Posted on

Podcast: Taylor Swift, Joe Biden, Homophobes Of The South & Pride Month Begins

In this week's podcast: • An Alabama mayor catches heat for calling for ‘killing out’ the gays • A Tennessee prosecutor says he doesn’t prosecute domestic violence among same-sex couples because ‘it’s not really marriage’ • Taylor Swift calls for passing The Equality Act, which Joe Biden says he would make a top priority • And YouTube Originals produced a new documentary exploring Pride Month across the country, 'State of Pride' All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

In this week’s podcast:

• An Alabama mayor catches heat for calling for ‘killing out’ the gays

• A Tennessee prosecutor says he doesn’t prosecute domestic violence among same-sex couples because ‘it’s not really marriage’

• Taylor Swift calls for passing The Equality Act, which Joe Biden says he would make a top priority as president

• And YouTube Originals produced a new documentary exploring LGBTQ Pride across the country, ‘State of Pride’

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

Click here to sign Taylor Swift’s petition in support of The Equality Act: www.change.org/p/support-the-equality-act

Posted on

Pride Music: Matt Alber “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”

Out singer Matt Alber covers the Whitney Houston classic "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"

Part of what the LGBTQ community has had to do over the decades was co-opt popular music for ourselves when it wasn’t possible for an artist to be open about who they really were.

I’ve loved this gorgeous, poignant cover version of Whitney Houston’s mega hit, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” by popular out singer Matt Alber for years.

Alber’s brilliant reimagining of the tune reflects a universal feeling many young LGBTQs have experienced forever. Let’s face it – how many of us thought we’d never find someone to dance with?

The lyrics really are front and center in this thoughtful take on the song.

From the single release notes: “I grew up listening to Whitney on my Sony Walkman cassette player while wandering my apartment complex in St. Louis. No one knew I was gay, and I spent a lot of time alone singing along to Whitney, and this song in particular.”

“It’s lonely growing up as a teen in the closet and Whitney helped me express the deeply hidden desires of my heart– I wanted to dance with somebody who loved me.”

A portion of the proceeds from the single benefit Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco, an organization directly meeting the needs of homeless LGBTQ youth in the bay area.

Learn more at: www.larkinstreetyouth.org

You can buy the single at iTunes or CDbaby.com

Posted on

News Round-Up: June 4, 2019

InstaHunk Anthony Bowens

Some news items you might have missed:

• Today’s InstaHunk lead photo was not even hard to decide. Thanks to out pro-wrestler Anthony Bowens for the awesome inspiration. Caption:

“Happy Pride everyone! Let’s spread the love and focus on things that bring us together as human beings rather than our differences. Let’s remember those that have paved the way for us to live openly and freely. Let’s continue fighting for those who have yet to have that freedom and provide hope that they will soon love in a world where they can. How will you celebrate pride?”

• A homophobic prosecutor in Tennessee (do I even need to continue?) says he doesn’t prosecute domestic violence cases involving same-sex couples because bigot.

• Actor Kevin Spacey appeared in court on Monday in Nantucket for a pretrial hearing where he is accused of groping a male teenager in 2016. Spacey’s lawyers say the teen’s mother deleted text messages from his phone (that could help prove Spacey’s innocence) before turning it over to authorities.

• A UK teenager mowed a giant penis shape in the field along the Stansted Airport flight path as a welcome to Donald Trump as he landed for a state visit to London early Monday morning.

• A Florida man is facing a manslaughter charge after deputies say he accidentally shot and killed a woman during an act of foreplay with his handgun. The man told police he and the woman were using the loaded weapon for ‘sexual excitement.’ #smh #straightpeople

• Donald Trump’s campaign held a rally in El Paso, Texas, in February but has refused to pay bills from the city to the tune of more than $470,000. The Trump campaign, using an old Trump tactic, says the city of El Paso is ‘overcharging.’

• The city of Boston, one of the most pro-LGBTQ cities in America, may have agreed to issue a permit for a ‘Straight Pride Parade.’ #IsntThatEveryDay?

And SmashMouth takes it for the win:

Posted on

Check Out The Gorgeous New Digital Monument ‘Stonewall Forever’

Today, with generous support from Google, New York’s LGBT Community Center is launching Stonewall Forever, a digital extension of the Stonewall Monument.

In 2016, President Barack Obama ordered 7.7 acres of Christopher Street in New York City to be designated as the Stonewall Monument, the first-ever national monument dedicated to the LGBTQ movement.

Today, with generous support from Google, New York’s LGBT Community Center is launching Stonewall Forever, a digital extension of the Stonewall Monument.

“Stonewall is such a big moment in our history,” Glennda Testone, executive director of New York’s LGBT Community Center, told USA Today. “It is what created the modern day civil rights movement; it’s a symbol for LGBTQ equality around the globe.”

And now LGBTQ people all over the world will be able to experience Stonewall Forever, either on a desktop, mobile or augmented reality app.

Google calls the digital project “a living monument to Pride, connecting diverse voices from the Stonewall era to the millions of voices in today’s LGBTQ+ community.”

William Floyd, head of external affairs for Google, shared with USA Today that “the idea was born out of a question: How do you tell the story of Stonewall in such a way that not only illuminates what happened in history, but it speaks to the activism and a movement going on right now?”

In addition to perusing archived materials like letters, photos, or oral histories, visitors can upload their own memories or experiences inspired by the Stonewall riots to the digital monument.

LGBTQ activist Larry Pfeil calls Stonewall Forever “a dazzling, three-dimension, 360 experience welcoming visitors into an audio-visual collection of individual stories erupting into a virtual rainbow of unity. It’s simply awe inspiring, both for the historical legacy it preserves but its brilliant design and presentation.”

In conjunction with the launch of the digital monument, a new documentary directed by Ro Haber, also titled Stonewall Forever, is being released today as well.

Make sure you visit the remarkable Stonewall Forever digital monument by clicking here.

Posted on

White House Ordered Former Aides To Defy Congressional Subpoenas

Politico is reporting that the Trump White House instructed two former aides to defy subpoenas issued by a Congressional committee seeking documents related to possible obstruction of justice by Donald Trump.
Donald Trump

Politico is reporting that the Trump White House instructed two former aides to defy subpoenas issued by a Congressional committee seeking documents related to possible obstruction of justice by Donald Trump.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly told the Judiciary Committee that the two former West Wingers were directed not to comply with the subpoenas because they “do not have the legal right to disclose the White House records to third parties.”

The tactic didn’t work, it seems.

From Politico:

But one of those aides, Hope Hicks, a longtime Trump confidant who served as White House communications director, has turned over some documents to the House Judiciary Committee regarding her service on Trump’s presidential campaign, according to Jerry Nadler, the panel’s chairman.

He hailed the document production as a show of “good faith” and indicated that the committee will continue to negotiate with Hicks — as well as former White House deputy counsel Annie Donaldson — for the next few weeks as they attempt to arrange public testimony pursuant to the committee’s subpoenas.

Posted on

YouTube Documentary ‘State Of Pride’ Explores Pride Festivals Across The US

Raymond Braun in ‘State of Pride’

Fifty years after the Stonewall uprising, Oscar-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and YouTube personality Raymond Braun travel to diverse communities for an unflinching look at LGBTQ Pride, from the perspective of a younger generation for whom it still has personal urgency.

The results of their efforts is the new YouTube Originals documentary, State of Pride, which explores Pride festivals across the United States, and asks attendees what these events mean to them today?

(images via Michael Fullem/Rogers & Cowen)

Braun makes a point of chatting with some of the younger festival-goers who may be unaware of what “Stonewall” really was and what it meant to our history.

The creators made sure that they visited not only the big city celebrations like in San Francisco, but also smaller, younger events like those in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where organizers are still building their celebrations.

State of Pride is now streaming on YouTube here.

Official poster for ‘State of Pride’ from YouTube Originals

Posted on

Alabama Mayor Under Fire For Call To ‘Kill Out’ LGBTQs

In a Facebook post, Mayor Mark Chambers of Carbon Hill, Alabama, complained about LGBTQ people then told a commenters "the only way to change it would be to kill the problem out."
Mayor Mark Chambers is under fire for social media posts calling for ‘killing out’ LGBTQs

An Alabama mayor is facing criticism after posting controversial comments to his Facebook page.

Carbon Hill Mayor Mark Chambers wrote on his Facebook page in all capital letters:

“We live in a society where homosexuals lecture us on morals, transvestites lecture us on human biology, baby killers lecture us on human rights and socialists lecture us on economics.”

Chambers’ constituents responded to the post, but one response from a Facebook friend got the mayor’s attention.

“By giving the minority more rights than the majority,” wrote the supporter. “I hate to think of the country my grandkids will live in unless somehow we change and I think that will take a revolution.”

Having singled ‘homosexuals’ and ‘transvestites’ as the issue, Chambers wrote back, “The only way to change it would be to kill the problem out. I know it’s bad to say but without killing them out there’s no way to fix it.”

“To kill the problem out.”

“Without killing them out there’s no way to fix it.”

Chambers’ original statement on Facebook which was quickly deleted

Local news affiliate WBRC contacted the mayor to clarify the social media statements.

Initially, the mayor denied posting the comments telling WBRC reporter Brittany Dionne, “I don’t think I posted that, I think that’s somebody else’s post.”

Dionne pointed out she was on the correct Facebook page noting photos of his family and birthday greetings, and asked if someone might be using his identity on Facebook.

Chambers replied with a meek “I don’t know.” When Dionne asked to meet in person, the mayor hung up.

Chambers did call back a few minutes later wherein he admitted to writing the post but argued it was being “taken out of context.”

“I never said anything about killing out gays or anything like that,” he told WBRC. Chambers explained that his comments were in reference to what might happen in a “revolution.”

“If it comes to a revolution in this country, both sides of these people will be killed out,” he said.

During the second call, Chambers also claimed that immigrants were taking over the country and called them “ungrateful.”

The mayor added that the post was meant to be a private message and didn’t intend for the public to see it.

He complained that he didn’t realize his Facebook page was available to the public, and shortly after the call with Dionne, his page went to private status.

You can watch the full report from Brittany Dionne at WBRC’s website here.

Chambers was elected mayor of Carbon Hill, population 2,000, in 2014.

(source: WBRC)