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News Round-Up: August 3, 2018

Dan Welden

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk Dan Welden (above) is giving you some #FlexFriday

• Launched in response to the recent ruling on the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case, Yelp has added a new ‘Open to All’ category/filter which aims to help protect consumers from discrimination.

• Apple, led by openly-gay CEO Tim Cook, has become the first private-sector company to be valued at over $1 trillion. Don’t tell me the gays can’t compete…

• After rescuing the adorable Beemo in South Korea, hottie Gus Kenworthy adopted another rescue from SK:

The day Matt and I visited the horrifying dog meat farm in South Korea we witnessed a mother dog giving birth to a litter of pups. The people at @hsiglobal told us that had they not been there filming my visit nobody would’ve seen the pups immediately and they likely would’ve died in the brutal cold. Luckily though I saw them and they were rushed inside and saved. A few weeks later when all 90 of the dogs on that farm (including Beemo) were flown to North America that mother and her newborn litter were the only ones that stayed behind because the pups were too young to travel. After Beemo passed away I was feeling completely empty and I reached back out to the Humane Society International to find out what happened to that litter. I found out that they were still in Korea and I began getting photo and video updates on them as I waited for another farm closure and an opportunity for them to be brought to the States. That finally happened and four days ago I picked this little girl up in DC. She’s a 5-month-old Jindo/ Lab mix and we named her Birdie (because birds were one of Beemo’s favorite things in the world). Nothing in the world could ever replace Beemo or the love that we felt and still feel for her but Birdie has already stolen a new place in our hearts and we’re excited to be dog dads again. A HUGE thank you goes out to @hsiglobal for bringing our new baby home and for all they do for animals in need around the world (follow them and support their cause). Also an immense amount of gratitude goes to @awlaarlington for taking care of Birdie in DC until I could fly there to pick her up! I am going to continue Beemo’s Instagram with pupdates on Birdie. I was nervous that would seem disrespectful to Beemo’s memory but I actually LOVE the idea that both of my beautiful little girls will share the page. Also, a huge part of the reason I started Beemo’s page in the first place was to continue promoting animal rescue and raise awareness for the dog meat trade and since the page already has a following I thought it’d be more impactful to keep it going rather than start all over again. Follow along! @b_pups #DogsAreFriendsNotFood #AdoptDontShop 👨‍👨‍👧🐥🐶🐾❤️ 🇺🇸
A post shared by gus kenworthy (@guskenworthy) on Aug 2, 2018 at 7:33pm PDT

• Despite assurances from the intelligence community that Russia is continuing to meddle in our elections, U.S. Senators on Wednesday rejected a Democratic proposal by a vote of 50-47 to provide funds to states with more election security funding ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Sixty votes were needed to include the proposal in the appropriations legislation under Senate rules.

• Former Marine and Army National Guardsmen Brandon Ketchum, 33, committed suicide after being denied admittance to a VA facility in Iowa City, despite telling doctors that he was having “serious mental issues.” Ketchum had been struggling with PTSD and substance abuse after returning home from his three tours overseas.

• And let’s close out this round-up with shining a light on this hideous woman who attempted to call ICE and have a mother deported for breast feeding. I love the woman recording telling the bigot to “Go back to Europe. That’s where you’re from.” #TrumpNation

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Sequel To Indie Gay Flick “Trick” In The Works

(image via kenneth-in-the-212)

Kenneth-in-the-212 reports that a sequel to the oh-so-NYC-centric gay romance Trick has a sequel in the works just in time for its 20th anniversary.

I remember seeing the original Trick starring Christian Campbell and J.P. Pitoc in 1999 as two gay men who meet one night in Chelsea and set off in search of a place to get intimate.

The indie flick also featured memorable performances by Tori Spelling, Steve Hayes and Miss Coco Peru.

I’d love to see this happen 🙂

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Trans People Say They Experience Discrimination At LoveLoud Music Event

Bobbee Trans Mooremon (image via Facebook)

It seems that, although the LoveLoud LGBTQ benefit concert in Utah raised $1 million for LGBTQ youth charities, some transgender people found the experience not quite as welcoming as they’d been promised.

Bobbee Trans Mooremon, a board member at Queer Meals in Provo, spoke out about discriminatory treatment at the event including having difficulty finding gender-neutral bathrooms.

Via FOX13:

The confrontation was at Rice Eccles Stadium in an area reserved for charities and supporters affiliated with LoveLoud.

Bobbee says the man was not threatening but it still created an unsafe situation. “There’s always a fear no matter what bathroom I go in I’m going to get yelled at or beat up. Which one do I want?” said Bobbee.

After conferring with other members of Queer Meals, the organization decided to pack up and leave early. So did Provo Pride.”

LoveLoud issued this statement on Facebook:

“We were saddened to hear that a few of our LGBTQ+ community members faced discrimination at last night’s festival. We have a zero-tolerance policy toward any behavior that makes anyone feel unsafe or unwelcome.

“As an organization dedicated to creating safe and affirming events for our LGBTQ+ friends and families, our staff, volunteers, and charity partners were asked to participate in an LGBTQ+ cultural competency training.

“We are committed to learning from our mistakes and will continuously work to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people in our community and beyond.

“If you would like to share your experience so that we know where we excelled and where we have room to grow, please send feedback to info@loveloudfest.com. We love you. We stand with you.”

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Trump Lies Again About Keeping The Queen Of England Waiting

Donald Trump lies about being late to meet the Queen of England

 At last night’s rally for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, the Trumpster claimed that the ‘fake news’ erroneously reported he had been 12 minutes late for his meeting with Queen Elizabeth, despite the fact that news cameras captured the monarch waiting for the president to arrive.

“I landed and I’m on the ground and I’m waiting with the king’s and the queen’s guards. I’m waiting. I was about 15 minutes early and I’m waiting with my wife and that’s fine. Hey, it’s the queen, right? We can wait. But I’m a little early.

“So I then go up and meet the queen and she is fantastic. We then go up and we have tea. And I didn’t know this it was supposed to last for 15 minutes but it lasted for like an hour because we got along. We got along!

“So here’s the story by the fake news. ‘The president was 15 minutes late for the Queen!’ Wrong.”

Here’s what the world saw:

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Omarosa: Trump’s “Mental Decline Could Not Be Denied”

Omarosa Manigault-Newman (image via screen grab)

In her new tell-all memoir, The Apprentice reality celeb Omarosa Manigault-Newman appears to insinuate that Donald Trump’s mental capacity is in rapid decline.

From The Daily Mail:

In an exclusive excerpt obtained by DailyMail.com, Omarosa, 44, who first met Trump when she appeared on The Apprentice and later became an assistant to the president, tells of the dread she felt while watching Trump’s interview with Lester Holt last May.

‘While watching the interview I realized that something real and serious was going on in Donald’s brain. His mental decline could not be denied,’ she writes in Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.

‘Many didn’t notice it as keenly as I did because I knew him way back when. They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff.

‘But I knew something wasn’t right.’

‘For the Lester Holt interview, I watched it on a small TV in the upper press room (the lower press room was built on top of the old swimming pool and turned into the briefing room) by the press secretary’s office,’ she writes.

‘Throughout this erratic and contradictory interview, I kept thinking, ‘Oh no! Oh no! This is bad!

‘Donald rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next.

‘Hope [Hicks, then communications director] had gone over the briefing with him a dozen times hitting the key point that he had fired Comey based on the recommendation by the DOJ which the vice president and other surrogates had been reinforcing for days.’

But when questioned by Holt, the president contradicted previous reports about how the senior law-enforcement officer was dispatched from his office.

Trump also said that he had been planning to fire Comey, apparently contradicting initial reports from the White House that it was a recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that spurred Comey’s ouster.

It’s important to note that Omarosa was dramatically fired from her position as Director of African-American Outreach and escorted off the White House premises on December 13, 2017 following reports of an altercation with Chief of Staff John Kelly.

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Houston Man Attacked/Beaten Walking Home From Bar

Christopher Bradford

A gay man was violently beaten by a group of attackers as he walked home from a bar in the Montrose area of Houston.

Seconds before the brutal beating, Christopher Bradford says he remembers hearing footsteps running behind him.

From ABC13:

“Someone grabbed me from behind (and) threw me to the ground,” Bradford said. “I was getting punched, kicked, and then, belt buckles we’re flying at me.”

Bradford said the attacker used the buckle end of a belt to hit him while he was down.

“Got me across the side of my head and I got four metal staples. They hit me with a rock in the forehead,” he said.

Bradford said many people were around, but no one helped. He was on the phone with a friend when the beating started and that friend drove up, scaring the attackers off.

“There was blood everywhere. It was in my eyes. I couldn’t see,” he said.

He believed the attackers targeted him because he’s gay.

“I kept asking why. I was like, ‘What did I do? Why are you hitting me?'”

Caleb Tout (mugshot)

The suspect, Caleb Tout, 19, was later arrested. He reportedly told officers he was drinking and beat Bradford because he was looking for someone else who allegedly exposed themselves to Tout’s girlfriend.

“You really don’t know the intention behind it. One of them was laughing. They were getting amusement out of this,” Bradford said.

Bradford says coming out of this incident, he’s learned a lesson he’ll never forget.

“I will never walk home alone. That’s never going to happen again,” he said.

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NY State: Town Clerk Denies Gay Couple Marriage License

Sherrie Eriksen (image via Facebook)

Sherrie Eriksen, a town clerk in Root, New York, this week denied a marriage license to a gay couple based on her religious beliefs. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says he is investigating.

Dylan Toften, one of the men seeking the license wrote on his Facebook: “Town of Root clerk is a bigot!!!! Refused to do our marriage license. She said make an appointment to have her deputy do it… do your job.”

The Daily Gazette spoke with Town Attorney Robert Subik who said:

“Sherrie didn’t process the two men’s marriage license application because they failed to make an appointment with her, as everyone is required by her office to do. She has a religious objection and has referred the matter to her deputy clerk, who has no such objection and will issue the license when they make an appointment. The clerks are both part-time and don’t man the office Monday through Friday. Of course, the two men are free to go to another jurisdiction to obtain their license.”

Gov. Cuomo has asked that an investigation be launched to look into the matter.

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Florida Press ‘Outs’ 13 Men Arrested In Back Room Raid

Last week, police in Hollywood, Florida, raided an adult book store and arrested 13 men who were having consensual sex in a private back room.

Undercover police officers went to the trouble of paying $25 to enter the private back rooms at the Pleasure Emporium. Finding men engaging in oral sex and masturbation, 13 men were arrested.

In the aftermath of the arrests, news outlets reported on the incident revealing the names, ages and mugshots of the men to the public.

From The Miami New Times:

Abbie Cuellar, a lawyer for one of the 13 men, told New Times her client has already been fired from his job in the medical field after his arrest at Pleasure Emporium.

Even worse, her client fled Cuba 20 years ago after being persecuted there for being gay. Since moving to the States, he had not come out to his co-workers. Cueller said the arrest — and the local media’s lurid coverage — outed her client and has pushed him into depression. New Times is not naming Cuellar’s client because of the harm the arrest has already done.

“He was persecuted in Cuba because of his sexuality,” Cuellar says. “He was thrown out of his home and thrown out of school because he was gay. He fled as a result and thought America was going to be this beacon of ‘freedom.’ He now basically has lost everything he has worked for… He is horribly suicidal.”

In a statement, a Hollywood police spokesman defended last week’s raid, calling the locked, private rooms that you have to pay to get into at Pleasure Emporium a “public space.”

As LGBTQNation points out, “indecent exposure in Florida has to occur in a public place or somewhere that can be viewed from a public place.”

Anyone who drives all the way to the Pleasure Emporium, enters the adult bookstore, and purchases a $25 ticket for the backroom could hardly be “worried” that other people would have sex around them.

“Clearly, this was a private setting within a private setting — you would have to pay to get into it,” Cuellar says. “It’s not in a residential neighborhood. There’s no danger a kid would ever walk past, even. The fact that they’ve been made out to be these sexual deviants, I feel like I’m back in the 1960s! I don’t understand the point of this arrest other than smearing and humiliating these men.”

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WH Press Secretary Dodges Question On The Press Being “The Enemy Of The People”

At a White House press briefing, CNN’s Jim Acosta repeatedly asked White House press secretary Sarah Sanders to say the press isn’t the enemy of the American people. She didn’t.

“I’m tired of this. It is not right,” Acosta said afterward, expressing frustration after days of tense anti-press rhetoric. “It is not fair. It is not just. It is un-American to come out here and call the press the enemy of the people. And Ivanka Trump knows that. I don’t know why her father doesn’t.”

WH

Acosta followed up with his thoughts later on CNN: