The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down orders that allow Donald Trump’s ban of transgender military service members to go into effect immediately while appeals work their way through the lower courts, according to The New York Times. The high court issued a brief, unsigned order this morning saying SCOTUS had lifted the injunctions that, until now, blocked the anti-trans policy. The vote was 5-4 with Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagen dissenting. This morning’s orders stay the injunctions initially issued by Federal District Court judges in Washington State (Trump v. Karnoski) and California (Trump v Stockman), both in the Ninth Circuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had previously vacated a third injunction on January 4.
SCOTUS 5-4 grants Trump Administration request to permit Administration’s transgender military service ban to take effect, while appeals are heard in lower courts.
For the time being, current trans soldiers will not be booted out immediately. The policy, as tweaked by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, allows transgender service members who are already serving openly to continue to do so and to receive transition-related care. In July of 2017, President Trump surprised American military leaders and the world when he announced his plan to ban trans military service members after “consultation with my Generals and military experts” due to the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members. At the time of Trump’s announcement, Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland (pictured above) told Air Force News, “I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military.” “You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life,” he added. The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement saying there is ‘no medically valid reason’ for banning transgender people from serving in the United States military, but all four service chiefs (Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force) have testified they’ve seen no negative effects from transgender military personnel serving the country they love. According to a 2016 RAND Corporation study, there are an estimated 1,320 to 6,630 transgender individuals out of the 1.3 million service members on active duty. From The New York Times: The policy, announced on Twitter by President Trump and refined by the defense secretary at the time, Jim Mattis, generally prohibits people identifying with a gender different from their biological sex from military service. It makes exceptions for several hundred transgender people already serving openly and for those willing to serve “in their biological sex.”
Tracee Ellis Ross and Kumail Nanjiani announced the nominations for the 91st Academy Awards, and Roma and The Favourite head up the pack with 10 nods each.
A Star is Born snagged 8 nominations and Black Panther received 7 noms.
Black Panther is the first super-hero movie to receive a Best Picture nod.
And should Roma win, it would be the first film to be named Best Picture with zero ticket sales since Netflix doesn’t release its films in a traditional manner.
Bohemian Rhapsody got some love from the Academy too. The Freddie Mercury biopic was nominated for Best Picture, while Rami Malek was nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of the Queen lead singer.
As expected, Lady Gaga got her nods for Best Original Song and Best Actress for A Star is Born,
I’m not happy that Bradley Cooper was snubbed in the Best Director category.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the biopic of lesbian biographer Lee Israel, played in the film by Melissa McCarthy, got 3 nominations.
McCarthy received a Best Actress nod, Richard E. Grant scored a nomination for Supporting Actor, and the film’s third nod was for Adapted Screenplay.
The Favourite is the big winner for LGBT-themed films scoring the most nominations, with 10 in total. All three female leads – Olivia Coleman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz – all received nominations.
More than half of this year’s Best Picture nominees – The Favourite, Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, Green Book, and Vice – this year are LGBTQ-inclusive.
Other LGBT-related nominations include Mahershala Ali Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the openly gay pianist Dr. Don Shirley in Green Book.
Troye Sivan will have to be happy with his Golden Globe nod for his song “Revelation” from Boy Erased, as he was left out of the Best Original Song category. Look for Gaga’s “Shallow” to be the front runner in this category.
Check out the full list of nominees below and tune in for
The 91st Academy Awards air on ABC , Sunday, February 24.
Best Picture Black Panther BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book Roma A Star Is Born Vice
Best Actor Christian Bale (Vice) Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate) Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) Viggo Mortensen (Green Book)
Best Actress Yalitza Aparicio (Roma) Glenn Close (The Wife) Olivia Colman (The Favourite) Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born) Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Best Supporting Actor Mahershala Ali (Green Book) Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman) Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born) Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) Sam Rockwell (Vice)
Best Supporting Actress Amy Adams (Vice) Marina de Tavira (Roma) Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) Emma Stone (The Favourite) Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)
Best Directing Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman) Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite) Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) Adam McKay (Vice)
Best Adapted Screenplay The Ballad of Buster Scruggs BlacKkKlansman Can You Ever Forgive Me? If Beale Street Could Talk A Star Is Born
Best Original Screenplay The Favourite First Reformed Green Book Roma Vice
Best Animated Film Incredibles 2 Isle of Dogs Mira! Ralph Breaks the Internet Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Cinematography Cold War The Favourite Never Look Away Roma A Star Is Born
Best Costume Design The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Black Panther The Favourite Mary Poppins Returns Mary Queen of Scots
Best Documentary Feature Free Solo Hale County This Morning, This Evening Minding the Gap Of Fathers and Sons RBG
Best Documentary Short Subject Black Sheep End Game Lifeboat A Night at the Garden Period. End of Sentence
Best Film Editing BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book Vice
Best Foreign-Language Film Capernaum Cold War Never Look Away Roma Shoplifters
Best Makeup and Hairstyling Border Mary Queen of Scots Vice
Best Original Score Black Panther BlacKkKlansman If Beale Street Could Talk Isle of Dogs Mary Poppins Returns
Best Original Song “All the Stars” (Black Panther) “I’ll Fight” (RBG) “The Place Where Lost Things Go” (Mary Poppins Returns) “Shallow” (A Star Is Born) “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)
Best Production Design Black Panther The Favourite First Man Mary Poppins Returns Roma
Best Animated Short Film Animal Behaviour Bao Late Afternoon One Small Step Weekends
Best Live-Action Short Film Detainment Fauve Marguerite Mother Skin
Best Sound Editing Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man A Quiet Place Roma
Best Sound Mixing Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man Roma A Star Is Born
Best Visual Effects Avengers: Infinity War Christopher Robin First Man Ready Player One Solo: A Star Wars Story
• In case you ever wonder why folks like to visit Madrid, Spain… Meet InstaHunk Diego Lozano 🙂
• Lady Gaga called out Vice President Mike Pence during her Las Vegas concert this weekend: “Mike Pence, who thinks it’s acceptable that his wife works at a school that bans LGBTQ — you’re wrong … You say we should not discriminate against Christianity. You are the worst representation of what it means to be a Christian.”
• There was some serious lip-lock action on the premiere of The CW’s new reboot of Roswell last week.
The series follows three young aliens who live in secret in a small New Mexico town. It turns out one, Michael (played by Michael Vlamis) is bisexual, and got down smooching his former bf, Alex (Tyler Blackburn) at the end of the episode.
• The new book, Team of Vipers, by former Trump aide Cliff Sims looks to be quite the read. It’s been described as, “Not a sycophantic portrayal of the president nor a blistering account written to settle scores.”
• Bloomberg: The U.K. Labour Party is calling for a vote in Parliament that could pave the way to a second referendum, raising the possibility that Brexit could be reversed.
• Variety: The CW has released the first look at transgender actress Nicole Maines, playing a superhero named “Dreamer” on the January 27 episode of DC Comic’s Supergirl.
Maines plays the first ever transgender superhero on television in an episode that explores the source of Dreamer’s powers. Maines will appear again in a later episode airing Feb. 17.
Sen. Kamala Harris announces her 2020 presidential candidacy
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California (D) announced today she will seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
Harris chose to embrace the symbolism of announcing her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
A former prosecutor and California Attorney General, she has been in the Senate since January 2017.
The 54-year-old told viewers of Good Morning America, where she made the big announcement, “My entire career has been focused on keeping people safe. It is probably one of the things that motivates me more than anything else.”
I find Harris to be smart, articulate, and experienced. I don’t think there’s a question she’s qualified. I look forward to seeing her at the early debates and hear what she has to say in regard to what a Harris administration would look like.
As attorney general in California, she refused to defend Proposition 8, the state’s hideous ban on same-sex marriage. She also refused to certify a “Kill the Gays” ballot initiative that would have instituted the death penalty for homosexuality.
When the Supreme Court finally made marriage equality the law of the land in 2015, Harris officiated the wedding of Prop 8 plaintiffs Sandy Stier and Kris Perry.
Upon joining the Senate, she co-sponsored the Equality Act, legislation that seeks to bar anti-LGBT discrimination under federal law.
Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California told the Los Angeles Blade, “We’ve known her since she was the DA in San Francisco, and then of course, when she as attorney general was more engaged than any attorney general has been with us in the LGBTQ community.”
There was a blemish on her LGBTQ record when in 2015, while Attorney General of California, she signed off on some briefs that sought to withhold gender confirmation surgery for transgender prison inmates that had been prescribed while serving out their sentences.
Today, at Howard University, she told the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson, “It was an office with a lot of people who would do the work on a daily basis, and do I wish that sometimes they would have personally consulted me before they wrote the things that they wrote?” Harris said. “Yes, I do.”
“But the bottom line is the buck stops with me, and I take full responsibility for what my office did,” Harris said.
Harris went on to say she helped coordinate an agreement with the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation to set up a process where transgender inmates could obtain transition-related care, including gender reassignment surgery.
Several of Harris’ Senate colleagues will be in the hunt for the Democratic nomination as well.
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have both formed exploratory committees.
Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are also eyeing the race.
A gay couple was attacked in an apparent hate crime early Saturday morning in Austin, Texas.
Tristan Perry and Spencer Deehring were walking to their car around 2:45am after celebrating a friend’s birthday at Rain nightclub in downtown Austin.
The couple passed a man on the street who called them a homophobic slur. They told local news station KXAN they believe it was because they had been holding hands.
Deehring says he responded to the slur by saying something along the lines of “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.”
At that point, Deehring says the man called out to his group of friends who were previously unseen. The mob began to follow the couple as they headed to their car.
The group began “yelling every expletive you can think of,” says Deehring, who told them, “I don’t have anything more to say to you guys, we’re just going home, leave us alone.”
And that’s when Perry was punched in the face suffering a broken nose and falling to the ground. While down, another in the group kicked Perry in the back of his head.
Deehring attempted to defend his boyfriend by tackling the men, but was knocked unconscious after being punched by members of the mob.
A bystander walking by may have saved their lives as the attackers fled upon being seen. The bystander called 911 and waited with the men until police and an ambulance arrived. Both men were hospitalized.
Perry was treated for a cut on the back of his head, a broken nose, chipped teeth, and multiple bruises. He continues to experience memory lapses.
Deehring suffered several lacerations, bruises to the back of his neck and head, and swelling to his jaw and mouth.
The president of the Austin chapter of PFLAG, Anna Nguyen, told KXAN that while she has seen violence targeting LGBTQ people in Austin in the past, “It feels as if lately the frequency has ratched up quite a bit.”
“I think Austin as a community needs to step up its game and prove it’s one of the most LGBTQIA-friendly cities in the country by deed, and not just by words,” she added.
Statistics released last November by the FBI show an increase of LGBT-related hate crimes in Texas when comparing data from 2016 to 2017.
The couple has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help defray the medical costs.
On the GoFundMe page, after explaining the attack that landed them in the hospital, they write:
Today I ask for your help with the burden we have been given of medical expenses related to this experience. Both of us were transported in an ambulance and given emergency trauma care at a local hospital. Due to this we expect our bills to exceed the thousands of dollars due to receiving comprehensive radiological care. And we ask for your love and support during our difficult time. Any help you can give is immensely appreciated. Always spread love and positivity. End hate.
They also shared their story on Facebook wanting people to realize attacks like this can happen to anyone.
Additionally, as a result of sharing the news of the attack, Deehring came out to his family and loved ones.
Grateful for the support they’ve received since the attack, the couple say they have a message for others.
“Spread love, end all this hatred, end all this closed-mindedness always watch your surroundings, always be aware of your surroundings, don’t walk alone,” says Perry.
And Deehring adds, “Be aware of your surroundings, but don’t change who you are as a person, don’t ever change who you are as a person and don’t be afraid to go out there and explore the world, just as you are.”
Mary Walsh (L) & Bev Nance (R) (image via Mary Walsh)
A Missouri lesbian couple was told they couldn’t buy a unit in a retirement community because they’re married.
The women took their case to court, filing a lawsuit alleging sex discrimination.
They lost.
Beverly Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, have been in a committed relationship for 40 years, and married for ten.
In 2016, the couple visited and applied to move into the Friendship Village Sunset Hills community – doesn’t that sound lovely? – a retirement community near St. Louis.
They were qualified tenants and they even put down a $2,000 deposit.
But a week after putting down the deposit, a representative of Friendship Village called to inquire about the nature of the women’s relationship.
When Walsh informed the rep that they were married, they were told they couldn’t move into Friendship Village because it has a policy that “defined marriage as between a man and a woman” and as “marriage is understood in the Bible.”
The FHA bans discrimination on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.”
“Mary and Bev were denied housing for one reason and one reason only – because they were married to each other rather than to men,” said National Center for Lesbian Rights Senior Staff Attorney Julie Wilensky in a statement. “This is exactly the type of sex discrimination the Fair Housing Act prohibits.”
But U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton didn’t see it that way and dismissed their case this week, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“The Court finds the claims boil down to those of discrimination based on sexual orientation rather than sex alone,” wrote Judge Hamilton. “The Eighth Circuit has squarely held that ‘Title VII does not prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.’”
In the state of Missouri, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is legal. There are no statewide protections for LGBTQ people in the Show Me state.
The couple’s lawyers told reporters, “We disagree with the court’s decision, and our clients are considering next steps.”
A television host in Egypt has been fined $167 and sentenced to a year of hard labor for the crime of interviewing a gay man.
According to the BBC, Mohamed al-Ghiety interviewed a gay man in 2018 about his life as a sex worker. In the interview, the man (who was not identified) says he has regrets about being gay and working as a prostitute.
A lawyer, Samir Sabry, sued the TV host for appearing to promote possible monetary gains from “practicing” homosexuality. Sabry apparently has a history of targeting celebrities via lawsuits.
Ghiety, who ironically has history of homophobic comments, will also be under police surveillance for a year after his prison sentence.
Homosexuality is not specifically illegal in Egypt, but police often arrest folks suspected of being LGBTQ by using a 1961 law banning prostitution which criminalizes ‘habitual debauchery.’
At the time of the interview, the top governing organization for media – the Supreme Council for Media Regulation – banned the channel from airing for two weeks due to ‘professional violations.’
The media council has prohibited LGBTQs from being shown on television in the conservative country since an incident at a Cairo rock concert in 2017, where a rainbow Pride flag was waved in a rare exhibition of gay pride.
(image via Facebook/Egypt Rainbow)
At the time, the BBCwrote, “The raising of rainbow flags at the concert by the Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila – whose lead singer is openly gay – on 22 September was a rare public show of support for the LGBT community in the conservative Muslim country.”
As a result of the images going viral, 32 men and a woman were detained by authorities. The BBC reported that five of those men had anal examination carried out on them.
For a bail bond of 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($58US), Ghiety could appeal his verdict and remain free while he awaits the outcome of the appeal.
Nick Sandmann (L) says he was silently praying in this moment to diffuse a tense situation between different groups of protestors at the Lincoln Memorial
The student from Covington Catholic High School who has found himself in the national spotlight thanks to the incident at the Lincoln Memorial last week has issued a statement, via his publicist, about his role in the episode.
He begins by identifying himself as Nick Sandmann.
In Mr. Sandmann’s statement, which was released by a public relations firm, he said he remained “motionless and calm” in an effort to defuse the situation.
“I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a group of adults was trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a larger conflict,” he said.
“I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation,” he said. “I am a faithful Christian and practicing Catholic, and I always try to live up to the ideals my faith teaches me — to remain respectful of others, and to take no action that would lead to conflict or violence.
“I harbor no ill will for this person,” he continued. “I respect this person’s right to protest and engage in free speech activities, and I support his chanting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial any day of the week. I believe he should re-think his tactics of invading the personal space of others, but that is his choice to make.”
As I’ve previously written, I’ve watched all the video footage there seems to be about this sad episode.
I haven’t seen anything yet that disputes Nathan Phillip’s perspective on the story.
Phillips freely admits he approached both groups – in an effort to diffuse a tense situation. It is documented in his words and on the longer videos.
Mr. Sandmann says in his statement that Phillips ‘waded into the crowd which parted for him.’ He goes on to say he didn’t see anyone attempt to block the elder’s way.
Except Mr. Sandmann, who was the only student who chose to stand and not allow Phillips to pass.
Here is video of the moment Phillips encounters Sandmann.
#NathanPhillips said he was trying to diffuse a tense moment between the #CovingtonBoys & BHI, as this video shows. He drummed his way in between the 2 groups to de-escalate, then headed to top of the stairs where his friends were. #NickSandmann is only one to stand in his way. pic.twitter.com/z6bwNH3BF3
Also, at the :27 mark, you can see Sandmann laughing and smiling. He doesn’t look like he views the situation as threatening.
As you can see, Mr. Phillips was surrounded by the Covington students, not the other way around.
Mr. Sandmann says, “I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand.”
Perhaps he was praying. It’s very possible that the above image from the moment in question is what prayer looks like.
Sandmann says he ‘did smile at one point’ during the incident. He actually is smiling (smirking?) for well over a minute. A minute is a long time.
I don’t have all the answers but I do have a few questions still:
What is it that people are actually upset about – on both sides?
That the Native American approached the teen and sang his song so close to the boy?
Or that the boy seems disrespectful by standing so close and staring at Mr. Phillips?
Why didn’t the boy simply step out of the way?
In almost every culture I know of, men standing within close proximity to another male, staring them down and ‘standing their ground’ is confrontational in nature. Regardless of who stepped up to who, at any moment Mr. Sandmann could have stepped away.
I’ve seen young leaders ‘step up’ in situations. In my experience, they turn to their friends and say, “Guys, let’s go” and exit the scene. This did not happen here.
Sandmann says he “motioned to my classmate and tried to get him to stop engaging with the protestor.” I don’t see any video of Sandmann motioning to anyone to stop. Anyone who has that footage, please send it to me and I’ll post it here.
Sandmann says a student turned to one of the teacher chaperones and asked “for permission to begin school chants to counter the hateful things being shouted” at his group.
So there was a chaperone there. Why didn’t the chaperones intercede? Why was Mr. Sandmann left in this position?
The Washington Post reports this from two witnesses – a lawyer and a photojournalist”
To Jessica Travis, a Florida attorney who was at the memorial with her mother, the students looked out of control.
“The kids really went into a mob mentality, honestly,” she said, adding that she didn’t see any chaperones trying to control the situation. She said she heard one student tell the Hebrew Israelites to “drink the Trump water.”
Jon Stegenga, a photojournalist who drove to Washington on Friday from South Carolina to cover the Indigenous Peoples March, recalled hearing students say “build the wall” and “Trump 2020.” He said it was about that time that Phillips intervened.
A few things:
• The statement was released by a PR office. My husband is a publicist with experience in crisis management. I’ve been ‘behind the scenes’ of a few instances where an incident needed explaining.
• The language used in the statement is clearly drafted by adults and lawyers, not the teen.
• Reading the statement and noting the time frame between the incident, escalation of outrage, and the eventual issuance of the statement, time was taken and each word was weighed. I don’t fault that.
• You’ll note that the statement refers to Phillips repeatedly as ‘the protestor.’ Subtle, but it’s there for a reason. These are PR people who know what they’re doing.
• Some of the students were doing a “Tomahawk chop” and dancing, as the video shows. I view this as mocking. I don’t see another ‘perspective’ on that. Feel free to share in the comments how that could be viewed as “living up to the ideals of faith.”
Also, Sandmann says he has only seen respect for “all races and cultures” at Covington Catholic High School.
In truth, the school has a history of issues with race.
One incident showed several school students in blackface standing near a black player from another school.
And then there’s this gay Covington student’s account of the treatment he experienced there:
Since cov cath is currently being EXPOSED, I would like to share my personal experience with the students and the school itself.— Mac Duckworth (@macduckworth) January 19, 2019
Click through that tweet for the full thread.
I will offer this ‘gut’ response based on my experience and everything I’ve read and seen about this: I feel like the statement is crafted to fit the video footage available for people to see.
And, of course, to shine the best light on Mr. Sandmann.
According to his statement, he is not responsible for anything here. At no point does he express any regret for anything.
It seems to me he might have said something like, “I’m sorry this has become a national story – that was never my intention.”
Or he could have said, “Looking at the video, I see it might have been better if I had just stepped away.”
We all make mistakes – including me, god knows.
I go back to, though, what exactly are we upset about? I’m not sure everyone is on the same page about WHAT the outrage is over.
Sandmann does say he has received threats regarding physical harm, and even death. I do not support or encourage that in any way, shape or form. Threats of violence are not any answer.
Also, I do see that the Black Hebrew Israelites behavior appears aggressive towards the teens. I don’t condone the BHI behavior in the video.
Here’s Mr. Sandmann’s full statement issued by his publicist. Click the images to enlarge.
Just in: Statement of Nick Sandmann, Covington Catholic High School junior, about the event at the Lincoln Memorial: pic.twitter.com/PkuMh2cVZM
