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Hunky Brian Sims Banned From Facebook For Reporting Homophobic Troll

Pennsylvania lawmaker Brian Sims was banned from his own Facebook account after reporting a troll calling him 'faggot' online
Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims  (image via Facebook)

I love that woofy, gay Pennsylvania state legislator Brian Sims does not back down from trolls and haters.

So, last week when a woman who appeared to be named “Jill Freb” sent him a message on social media reading, “You get out, f*gg*t,” Sims didn’t pause to share the comment with his followers.

Sims wrote, “Anyone know my new friend Jill?” He posted a pic of the comment and asked his peeps to report the comment to the powers that be at Facebook

But then, is a strange reversal, Sims himself was blocked from posting on his own account for sharing Kreb’s homophobic comment.

“Last night, I got back from the governor’s swearing-in ceremony,” Sims told Metro Weekly. “I went to put up some information about the swearing-in and a trans candidate who’s announcing a campaign today, and I got a notification that, because of that specific post with her telling me to “get out” and calling me a “faggot” — not even the other posts associated with it — I had been blocked from all my accounts, both public and personal.”

Eventually, Sims got his Facebook account reinstated, admittedly because he happens to know some folks there.

But Sims wasn’t done with the issue.

“I have dozens of connections to Facebook and had to use all of them to fix this,” he wrote. “What happens to the person who doesn’t know anyone there?”

He went on to say he never received any “explanation from Facebook Diversity, Government and Politics on Facebook or Facebook HQ” about the lockdown.

Eventually, Facebook responded to MetroWeekly with a statement regarding the ‘mistake.’

“We allow people to share messages they receive even hateful ones,” wrote the Facebook spokesman. “Removing this post was a mistake in misunderstanding that it was discussing a message Representative Sims had himself experienced. The post does not violate our Community Standards and has been restored and Representative Sims is no longer in a feature block.”

But Sims still has concerns for the free speech of those who may not have his connections or position.

“This isn’t just about getting my Facebook page turned back on,” said Sims. “This either needs to continue or start a conversation about what Facebook is doing, authentically, substantively, to make sure they’re not culling legitimate speech and not endorsing, supporting, or lifting up illegitimate speech — whether it’s hate speech or fake accounts.”

Keep fighting, Brian. We think you’re awesome.

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Rudy Giuliani: I Never Said There Was No Collusion Between Trump Campaign And Russia

In a stunning reversal, Donald Trump's legal eagle Rudy Giuliani told CNN's Chris Cuomo last night that he never said there was "no collusion" between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian agents.

I think this is what we call “moving the goalposts.”

In a stunning reversal, Donald Trump’s legal eagle Rudy Giuliani told CNN’s Chris Cuomo last night that he never said there was “no collusion” between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian agents.

From The Washington Post:

President Trump’s legal spokesman Rudolph W. Giuliani on Wednesday night appeared to grant the possibility that members of Trump’s campaign did, in fact, collude with the Russians during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

And in the process, he contradicted dozens of previous denials that both the Trump team (and Trump himself) have offered.

“I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign,” Giuliani told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, before getting cut off.

“Yes, you have,” Cuomo said.

Giuliani shot back: “I have not. I said ‘the president of the United States.’”

Now, perhaps Giuliani never said the exact words “no one from the Trump campaign ever communicated with Russian interlopers,” but that has been the clear message from Donald Trump regarding his team and the alleged Russian interference during the 2016 presidential race.

“No collusion” has been the Trumpster’s mantra over and over again.

This is first time anyone connected to Trump has opened the door to the idea that someone associated with Trump colluded with Russian forces without his knowledge.

The Washington Post breaks down the many evolving positions like this:

1. November 2016: No communications, period

2. February 2017: There were no communications, “to the best of our knowledge”

3. March 2017: There were communications, but no planned meetings with Russians

4. July 8, 2017: There was a planned meeting at Trump Tower, but it was “primarily” about adoption and not the campaign

5. July 9, 2017: The meeting was planned to discuss the campaign, but the information exchanged wasn’t “meaningful”

6. December 2017: Collusion isn’t even a crime

7. May 16, 2018: Even if meaningful information were obtained, it wasn’t used

8. May 19, 2018: There was a *second* planned meeting about foreign help in the election, but nothing came of it either

9. July 16, 2018: Trump couldn’t collude, because Trump didn’t even know Putin

10. July 30, 2018: Collusion isn’t a crime, and Trump wasn’t physically at the Trump Tower meeting

11. January 16, 2019: Trump didn’t collude, but no guarantees on others in the campaign

It’s like quicksand – the more Team Trump fights, the worse off they are.

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Alaska: Organization Sues To Deny Shelter To Trans Women In Freezing Temperatues

Virulently anti-LGBTQ legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, is representing a ‘Christian’ women’s shelter that is suing to deny transgender women shelter from the freezing winter cold.
(image via Depositphotos)

Virulently anti-LGBTQ legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, is representing a ‘Christian’ women’s shelter that is suing to deny transgender women shelter from the freezing winter cold.

The conservative law firm, which represented Colorado baker Jack Phillips in his fight to deny services to gay people, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the ironically named Downtown Hope Center against the city of Anchorage, Alaska, to deny services to transgender women.

The issue arises from an incident that occurred in January 2018, when a transgender woman was turned away from the shelter, according to local news station KTUU.

Downtown Hope Center says the woman, identified in court papers as “Jessie Doe,” was denied shelter because she was allegedly inebriated. The shelter claims she was put into a taxi and sent to a hospital for treatment for a cut on her forehead.

But the same woman showed up the next day and again was turned away.

The average temperature in Anchorage at night during January is 9 degrees.

In September 2015, the Anchorage Assembly passed AO-09, a city ordinance which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

The ordinance added protections to Anchorage’s equal rights laws for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people in housing, employment and public accommodations and includes exemptions for religious groups and those with ministerial duties.

In a press release, ADF asserts the ordinance exempts homeless shelters like the Hope Center. ADF attorney Ryan Tucker told U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason that the homeless women in the shelter would “rather sleep in the woods” than spend a night in a shelter with a transgender woman.

In a further slap to trans women, the ADF also says that because many of the women at the shelter have been battered or sexually abused by men, they shouldn’t have to sleep in proximity to ‘men.’ ADF calls the idea of trans women sleeping in the shelter ‘dangerous.’

But the Southern Poverty Law Center disagrees.

“There is simply no evidence that transgender people are more of a threat to anyone whether that be in bathrooms, locker rooms or homeless shelters,” David Dinielli, Deputy Legal Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told KTUU. “In fact we know transgender people are among the most, if not the most likely to be targeted for abuse, sexual abuse and physical abuse.”

It’s worth noting that the Hope Center receives some of its operating funds from public tax payer monies via a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The ADF, which has represented so-called ‘religious freedoms’ lawsuits in more than a dozen states, has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group which works to push trans people “back into the shadows.”

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New Poll: 57% ‘Definitely Will Not Vote’ For Donald Trump In 2020

Donald Trump

More bad news today for Donald Trump as a new poll from PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist shows 57% say they will ‘Definitely not’ vote for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

On the other end of the spectrum, only 30% said they will ‘definitely’ vote for Trump.

According to Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, “The president has had his base and not much else.”

Trump’s approval rating shows exactly that as 39% of those polled approve of the job he’s doing versus 53% who disapprove. This has been pretty much the average for the two years Trump has been in the White House.

When it comes to possible Democratic candidates, it’s very early to get a decent read but 76% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents said they had a favorable view of former Vice-President Joe Biden.

Sen. Bernie Sanders garnered 57% favorable approval, and 53% see Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a positive light.

When it comes to the current government shutdown, 54% of respondents said they blame Trump, while 31% blamed congressional Democrats.

Full results of the new poll can be found here.

Click over to NPR for additional insight into how folks are viewing the 2020 presidential race.

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Michael Cohen Admits He Paid Tech Firm To Rig Online Polls For Trump

Michael Cohen

There’s a new revelation in the ever-unraveling saga of twists and turns behind the scenes of the 2016 Trump campaign today.

The Wall Street Journal (a conservative newspaper I’ll point out) is reporting that the Trump campaign paid a small IT company to rig online polling on websites like Drudge and CNBC in Trump’s favor.

And the company was paid by none other than Trump’s former ‘fixer,’ Michael Cohen.

The tech guy was, apparently, John Gauger, chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia, where Trump supporter Jerry Falwell Jr. is president.

The WSJ‘s story is behind a firewall, but check this from CNN:

According to the paper, Cohen paid John Gauger, the owner of RedFinch Solutions LLC, between $12,000 and $13,000 for activities related to Trump’s campaign, including “trying unsuccessfully to manipulate two online polls in Mr. Trump’s favor” and creating a Twitter account called “@WomenForCohen” that “praised (Cohen’s) looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting” Trump’s candidacy.

In making the claim, Gauger told the paper he wasn’t fully paid for the work, though the Journal said Cohen was reimbursed $50,000 — the amount the two originally agreed on for Gauger’s services — by the Trump Organization. Gauger, according to the paper, also received a boxing glove “worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter” along with the cash payment.

The payment to Gauger was mentioned by prosecutors in Cohen’s charging documents.

https://twitter.com/MichaelCohen212/status/1085900900835778560

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Music Video: Virtual Choir Rocks RENT’s ‘Seasons Of Love’

In advance of the upcoming Fox TV broadcast of Jonathan Larson's Tony-winning Rent, Fox invited fans from around the world to contribute their voices to a new music video of Rent's second act opener, “Seasons of Love."

You hear those first chords and you know the song.

In advance of the upcoming Fox TV broadcast of Jonathan Larson’s Tony-winning Rent, Fox invited fans from around the world to contribute their voices to a new music video of Rent’s second act opener, “Seasons of Love.”

The resulting ‘virtual choir’ is an amazing metaphor for the universal message of the song.

Tune in January 27 for the live production on Fox TX starring Vanessa Hudgens, Brandon Victor Dixon, Jordan Fisher, RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Valentina, and more.

Tony Nominee Keala Settle, who you know as “the bearded lady” in The Greatest Showman singing “This Is Me,” gets the honors of singing the final solo of “Seasons of Love” in the TV presentation.

Loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème, the musical tells the story of a group of young artists struggling to survive in New York City’s East Village in the early 1990s under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.

The show features two romantic couples – one gay, one straight – living with HIV.

The original Broadway production was nominated for 10 Tony Awards (winning four), 10 Drama Desk Awards (winning six) and was honored with the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Watch the new video below.

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University Employee Arrested For Recording Men Indulging In ‘Self-Love’ In Public Bathroom

(stock photo via Depositphotos) 

Next time you use a public bathroom, you might want to check to see how much privacy you really have.

An employee of Oregon State University has been accused of recording unsuspecting men who were indulging in a bit of ‘self-love’ in a public bathroom stall.

According to the Albany Democrat-Herald, Andres Lazaro Lopez was arraigned this past Monday on a felony count of first-degree invasion of privacy and two misdemeanor counts of second-degree invasion of privacy.

The incident apparently took place in a sixth floor men’s room at a university library last May.

Lopez allegedly utilized a pencil-sized hole in a bathroom stall wall to record the men masturbating with his phone.

After being reported to the Oregon State Police, a search warrant was obtained to seize and search Lopez’s phone last August.

Lt. Craig Flierl, the commander of the OSU division of the Oregon State Police, told the Democrat-Herald that the peek holes had been repaired.

“The university didn’t waste any time in preventing that from happening again,” said Flierl.

Lopez pleaded not guilty during his arraignment this week and his lawyer, Joshua E. Hunking, claims his client’s actions may have been ‘misinterpreted.’

In fact, Hunking appeared to assert that the incidents were ‘consensual.’

“Cruising has sprung up as one way that gay men can engage in consensual sex interactions while attempting to avoid social and criminal judgement for those innately human acts,” Hunking told the Democrat-Herald in an email.

“I encourage the general public to reserve judgment in this case as we work toward a resolution.”

Lopez is scheduled to return to court on February 11.

(h/t Albany Democrat-Herald)

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News Round-Up: January 16, 2019

• InstaHunk Danny 'Tree Man' Jones acknowledges the challenges of trying to post 'engaging' content even when it's freezing outside.
(image via Instagram/DannyJones)

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk Danny ‘Tree Man’ Jones acknowledges the challenges of trying to post ‘engaging’ content even when it’s freezing outside.

• Vanity Fair reports that Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, “hates” his job and expects the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to be “horrific” for Trump.

• New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has announced she will run for president in 2020. Gillibrand has been an LGBTQ ally for years fighting for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” opposing Trump’s transgender military ban, and pushing for federal LGBTQ protections.

• On the flip side, 2020 presidential hopeful Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii began her candidacy with an apology tour saying she’s really, really sorry for her long history of homophobia. #ByeFelicia

• Popular animated series Family Guy has announced the show will be ‘phasing out’ gay jokes.

• Chuck Holton, NRA-TV host, told viewers, “Men were meant to be dangerous” in response to the new Gillette ad I reported on yesterday that calls on men to ‘step up’ as role models for young males.

• Sweet video from INTO – “Old Gays Look Back At Their Younger Selves.”

“You look like a real jock.”
“Do I? I was pretty queer.”

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Gus Kenworthy & More Clap Back At Toxic Masculinity Trolls Over Gillette Ad

Speaking to Variety, woofy out Olympian Gus Kenworthy shares that he thought more athletes would follow him out of the closet when he famously came out in 2015 via ESPN Magazine:
Gus Kenworthy

After Gillette unveiled its latest ad meant to inspire men to step up as better role models for young boys regarding how to treat women and other men, some far-right loons decided being told to “be the best a man can be” was too tall an order.

Click here to see the video on my original post on the ad.

It’s not unusual for Proctor & Gamble, Gillette’s parent company to advocate on social issues.

Last year, P&G won an Emmy Award for “The Talk,” an ad that featured African-American parents discussing racism with their children.

And other companies have found success wading into social issues.

Last year, Nike put former NLF quarterback Colin Kaepernick front and center for the 30th anniversary of their “Just Do It” campaign. The ad spot was targeted at Nike’s prime demographic – younger customers who tend to believe in social justice.

The gamble paid off. While there were some early grumbles on social media, Nike’s CEO, Mark Parker, shared with analysts in September, “We’ve seen record engagement with the brand as part of the campaign.”

Even Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, Bernice King, gave the new Gillette ad a thumbs-up.

“This commercial isn’t anti-male,” tweeted the civil rights advocate. “It’s pro-humanity. And it demonstrates that character can step up to change conditions.”

However, some men, who apparently don’t like to be told to stop assaulting women or bullying gay men, are now proposing a boycott of the men’s product company.

And then there’s self-important UK TV personality Piers Morgan, who has his own history of homophobic and transphobic snark.

Morgan claims he spends “$1000s” on Gillette products each year, and his takeaway from the ad was that Gillette “wants every man to take one of their razors & cut off his testicles.” What the hell…?

It seems to me that if you are a man who treats women and other men with respect, there’s really nothing to get upset about, is there?

In any case, lots of level-headed, clear-minded folks have clapped back at the fragile snowflakes.

Out Olympian Gus Kenworthy had a perfectly direct response to the triggered trolls, tweeting, “To anyone who was offended by the Gillette ad that simply implored me not to sexually assault or harass women: f*ck you!”

Bravo, Gus! And there were many, many more who weighed in on the absurdity of the criticism.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Asks Trump To Postpone State Of The Union Address

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has asked Donald Trump to postpone his State of the Union address to Congress until the Trump Shutdown is solved.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has asked Donald Trump to postpone his State of the Union address to Congress until the Trump Shutdown is solved.

Politico reporter Rachel Bade says Democrats are not of a mind to give Trump a platform to blame them in a national address for a situation he created.

Pelosi reportedly asked that perhaps Trump could deliver his SOTU to Congress in writing.

Can you imagine? He can barely author a tweet.