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Pornhub “Extremely Interested” In Acquiring Tumblr

Online pornography giant Pornhub is “extremely interested” in buying the micro-blogging site Tumblr, reports Buzzfeed.

Online pornography giant Pornhub is “extremely interested” in buying the micro-blogging site Tumblr, reports Buzzfeed.

The blogging platform, which became a refuge for adult content, banned NSFW posts late last year after child pornography accidentally slipped through the site’s scanning software.

That led to Apple removing the app from its App Store.

Tumblr’s traffic has dropped an estimated 30 percent since the policy change.

But earlier this week, Verizon (which owns Tumblr) announced it was openly looking for a buyer for the blogging platform.

Pornhub Vice President Corey Price told Buzzfeed via email that should the transaction take place, Pornhub would restore Tumblr’s NSFW content.

“Tumblr was a safe haven for those who wanted to explore and express their sexuality, adult entertainment aficionados included,” Price wrote to BuzzFeed. “We’ve long been dismayed that such measures were taken to eradicate erotic communities on the platform, leaving many individuals without an asylum through which they could comfortably peruse adult content.”

“There are obvious synergies between the two brands and value Pornhub could derive from Tumblr,” he added.

“We’re extremely interested in acquiring the platform and are very much looking forward to one day restoring it to its former glory with NSFW content.”

Back in December, as the nudity ban took effect, Pornhub was openly trying to woo former Tumblr users to its own platform.

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Trump Administration Allows Health Care Workers To Deny Treatment Due To Religious Beliefs

Under the guise of "conscience rights," the Trump Administration has officially granted doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers the right to deny care to people.
Donald Trump

Under the guise of “conscience rights,” the Trump Administration has officially granted doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers the right to deny care to people.

In a speech on Thursday, Donald Trump announced, “Today, we finalized new protections of conscience rights for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, students and faith-based charities.”

The new regulation, confirmed by the Department of Health and Human Services, allows providers to cite personal religious beliefs as justification to refuse a broad range of services.

Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, said in a statement, “This rule allows anyone from a doctor to a receptionist to entities like hospitals and pharmacies to deny a patient critical — and sometimes lifesaving — care.”

Critics say the new regulation could put LGBTQ people at risk, such as those seeking HIV treatment or gender-confirmation procedures.

The Human Rights Campaign denounced the news as well.

“The Trump-Pence administration’s latest attack threatens LGBTQ people by permitting medical providers to deny critical care based on personal beliefs,” said David Stacy, government affairs director at the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.

“The administration’s decision puts LGBTQ people at greater risk of being denied necessary and appropriate health care solely based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” he added. “Everyone deserves access to medically necessary care and should never be turned away because of who they are or who they love.”

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera quickly announced he had filed a lawsuit in an attempt to invalidate the new federal regulation.

Herrera said in a press release that, if allowed to take effect, the rule would reduce access to health care, particularly for women, LGBTQ people, and other vulnerable populations.

“At its core, this rule is about denying people medical care,” said Herrera. “This administration is willing to sacrifice patients’ health and lives — particularly those of women and members of the LGBTQ community, and low-income families — to score right-wing political points. It’s reprehensible.”

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New Study Confirms (Again) Undetectable HIV Viral Load Can’t Be Transmitted

(stock photo via Depositphotos)

A new medical study in Europe adds to the growing body of evidence that people on antiretroviral HIV medications with an undetectable viral load cannot transmit the virus to sexual partners.

The eight year study of almost 1,000 gay male serodiscordant couples (one partner HIV positive, one partner HIV negative) found no cases of HIV transmission. None of the couples used condoms during sex.

Alison Rodger, a professor at University College London who helped lead the study, said in a statement, “Our findings provide conclusive evidence for gay men that the risk of HIV transmission with suppressive ART (antiretroviral treatment) is zero.”

The summary of the study read, in part, “Our findings support the message of the U=U (undetectable equals untransmittable) campaign, and the benefits of early testing and treatment for HIV.”

The focus of the study, which followed participants from July 2010 to September 2017, was to assess the risk of HIV transmission between serodiscordant gay male couples who do not use condoms.

The report, published in the medical journal The Lancet, did show 15 men (of the 972 couples who took part in the research) became HIV+ during the 8 year study. But genetic testing revealed their infections were due to HIV strains from other sexual partners.

An earlier phase of the study followed serodiscordant heterosexual couples, which also showed no transmission of the HIV virus between partners.

Reuters reports that since the worldwide epidemic began in the early 1980s, over 77 million people have become HIV+, and nearly half (35.4 million) have died from resulting AIDS.

Thanks to the success of antiretroviral treatment, the annual number of deaths from AIDS has been falling. But, medical professionals are concerned that the rate of new infections has remained high with nearly 1.8 million new diagnoses each year.

(Source: Lancet, Reuters)

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Madonna’s “I Rise” Is An Empowering Anthem For Pride

Madonna drops the second single, “I Rise,” from her upcoming album, Madame X.

Acknowledging the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, the Queen of Pop dedicates the song to “all marginalized people who feel they don’t have the opportunity to speak their mind.”

In a statement, Madonna says the positive message of the track “encourages all individuals to be who they are, to speak their minds and to love themselves.”

The new track begins with a sample of openly bisexual high school student Emma Gonzales’s famous quote at a rally shortly after the deadly mass shooting at her school in Parkland, Florida.

“They say us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works. We call BS!”

The single’s release comes just a day before Madge will be honored with the Advocate for Change Award at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on May 4. Madonna is the second person and first woman to ever receive this recognition, which is awarded to a person who changed the game for LGBTQ people around the world through their work.

“I Rise” follows the release of “Medellín,” Madonna’s collaboration with Latin pop star Maluma.

Before the album’s release on June 14, Madonna has announced three more tracks will drop: “Crave” on May 10, dance track “Future” on May 17, and “Dark Ballet” on June 7.

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US Economy Adds 263,000 Jobs In April

The Labor Department reports that 263,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in April, making for a record 103 straight months of positive job growth.

With those jobs factored in, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent, the lowest since 1969.

The official unemployment rate has been at or below 4 percent for more than a year.

Additionally, average hourly earnings rose 3.2 percent in the past year.

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News Round-Up: May 2, 2019

• InstaHunk JW says, "Be thankful for the hard times - they can only make you stronger."

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk JW says, “Be thankful for the hard times – they can only make you stronger.”

• Jake Bain, the Indiana State football player who came out while still in high school, has announced he will “step away from football and focus on academics.”

• In anticipation of the upcoming Rocketman, chronicling the life of music superstar Elton John, the producers have released an official music video of the title song sung by film’s star, Taron Egerton. The musical fantasy biopic lands in US theaters May 31.

• Out producer/director Greg Berlanti (Love, Simon; Riverdale; Supergirl) says the most egregious example of anti-LGBTQ bias he’s seen in Hollywood was “gay executives and gay casting people who were the least likely to let me cast an actor they knew was gay in a straight part. These were the individuals who knew how important it would be.”

• Far-right loons like Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopolous have been banned from Facebook and Instagram (finally) in an effort to reduce hate speech.

• When Channing Tatum loses, we all win. The ‘Magic Mike’ star lost a game of Jenga, and so he had to post a photo of girlfriend Jessie J’s choosing. She has good taste.

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Equality Act Approved By House Judiciary Committee Along Party Line Vote 22-10

The Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, has been approved by the House Judiciary Committee.

Although the legislation had been introduced in the House twice before, this is the first time Democrats have been able to see the bill move out of committee and on to the full House.

Even though recent polling shows nearly seven in ten (69%) of Americans support the measure, the vote was a straight party-line affair. All 22 Democrats on the committee voted yes, while all 10 Republicans voted no.

Should The Equality Act be passed into law, it would prohibit LGBTQ-based discrimination in areas like housing, employment, public accommodations and more on a nationwide level.

Currently, you can be fired from your job in 30 states for being gay.

In addition to the strong support by Democratic lawmakers, The Equality Act has been endorsed by 165 major businesses and 288 statewide and national organizations.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in his opening statement, ‘It is time that the federal government recognizes that discrimination in any form is wrong and that we should move forward with these common-sense protections that simply build on existing statutes.’

The measure now heads to a vote by the full House, which could happen as soon as next week.

With 240 co-sponsors in the House, and strenuous support by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the legislation is expected to easily pass.

However, the odds don’t look so good for the bill in the Republican-led Senate where Senate Leader Mitch McConnell probably won’t even allow the legislation to come up for a vote.

And, while Donald Trump campaigned saying he would be ‘better for the gays’ than Hillary Clinton, since he took office his administration has waged a war against LGBTQ rights. His evangelical base would probably rise up were he to sign the bill into law.

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Dan Reynolds Uses Billboard Music Awards Speech To Call For Ending Conversion Therapy

Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons at 2019 Billboard Music Awards

During last night’s Billboard Music Awards telecast from Las Vegas, Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds used the band’s acceptance speech time for winning Top Rock Artists to call for a nationwide ban on so-called conversion therapy.

“I just want to take this moment to say that there are still 34 states that don’t have laws banning conversion therapy,” said Reynolds backed by his band mates Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee, and Daniel Platzman. “On top of that, 58 percent of our LGBTQ population live in those states. This can change, but it’s going to take all of us talking to our state legislature, pushing forward laws to protect our LGBTQ youth.”

“And lastly, we have seen with conversion therapy that our LGBTQ youth have double the rate of depression, triple the rate of suicide after conversion therapy,” he added. “It’s not working and needs to change.”

Major medical organizations like the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all denounced ‘conversion therapy’ which treats being gay as a mental illness.

Also known as ‘ex-gay therapy,’ the practice has been shown to lead to depression, decreased self-esteem, substance abuse, anxiety and, in some cases, suicidal behavior.

Currently, 16 states plus Washington D.C. have banned the harmful practice on minors.

Reynolds, a longtime LGBTQ ally, has spent years standing up for the community. Growing up Mormon in Utah, he saw close friends struggle to resolve being gay with their families and faith.

Reynolds does a lot more than make speeches at award shows, though.

He teamed up with former Mormon rocker Tyler Glenn to create the annual music festival LOVELOUD which aims to raise money for LGBTQ charities and organizations like The Trevor Project and the Tegan and Sara Foundation.

He also helped produce the documentary Believer, which explores how the Mormon Church treats its LGBTQ members.

Last month, Reynolds took to Twitter calling for religious leaders to help stop the practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy.

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Pelosi On Barr: “He Lied To Congress – If Anybody Else Did That It Would Be Considered A Crime”

During testimony to Congress last month, Attorney General William Barr was directly asked by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) if he was aware of any concerns/frustrations Special Counsel Robert Mueller or his team had regarding Barr’s now-infamous four page ‘summary’ of Mueller’s two year investigation.

At the time, Barr told Crist, “No, I don’t.”

But this week, news of a letter from Mueller to Barr expressing frustrations that Barr’s summary mischaracterized the investigation’s context and substance now puts Barr’s denial in a new perspective.

He had received the letter from Mueller and had a phone call with the Special Counsel about the summary. So, he lied to Congress when he said he didn’t know of any concerns on Mueller’s part.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was asked today how she felt about the statements by Barr.

Pelosi didn’t hold back. “He lied to Congress – if anyone else did that it would be considered a crime.”

Yesterday, Rep. Adam Schiff echoed the same sentiments.