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Award-Winning Chef & Traveller Anthony Bourdain Dead At 61

Chef and traveler Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN’s Parts Unknown, has passed away after being found unresponsive in his hotel room in France by friend and fellow chef Eric Ripert.

The chef, story-teller and award-winning TV host was 61.

According to several reports, the cause of death is an apparent suicide.

Boudain and Ripert were in France filming an episode for the popular CNN series.

CNN issued this statement:

It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain. His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller. His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time.

Bourdain was author of numerous celebrated books and winner of almost every food award in existence. He was held in high regard within the food industry and admired by fans who appreciated his raw and real exploration of uncharted areas of the world.

After nine seasons of his Emmy Award-winning No Reservations on The Travel Channel, Boudain launched his wildly successful Parts Unknown in 2012.

In 2013, Peabody Award judges honored Bourdain and Parts Unknown for “expanding our palates and horizons in equal measure.”

An ally to the LGBTQ community, he teamed up with the Human Rights Campaign in 2014 for the push for marriage equality.

In 2011, after New York recognized marriage equality, the Brown Coffee Company in San Antonio, Texas, tweeted: “No human law can ever legitimize what natural law precludes #SorryFolks #NotEqual #WhyBother #ChasingAfterTheWind #SelfEvident.”

Bourdain simple but direct response: “Dear Brown Coffee: God called. He said you suck.”

I’ve often shared with folks that the best way for the world to learn to understand each other is to travel. The sharing of food with people in other places becomes an instant connection, and we move closer from there.

Just as having visibility for the LGBTQ community makes us that much more relatable, travel opens our minds and hearts to understanding the hows and whys of others.

And that is exactly what Anthony Bourdain helped us do.

RIP Anthony Bourdain.

Please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 if you are having thoughts of suicide.

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News Round-Up: June 7, 2018

(image via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• I know, I know – It’s Thursday and shirting is hard…

• The story of the secret love affair between two of the most popular leading men of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins, is heading to the big screen thanks to Zachary Quinto and J.J. Abrams.

• A Southern California mother has been sentenced to life in prison and her boyfriend was sentenced to death for the killing of an 8-year-old boy who prosecutors say was punished because the couple believed he was gay. #Good

• A new poll by Quinnipiac University shows a majority of Americans – 58% – don’t find football players taking a knee during the national anthem to be ‘unpatriotic.’

• Porn star and Donald Trump paramour Stormy Daniels is launching a new perfume and it’s name is… TRUTH.

• Season 2 of Netflix’s Queer Eye lands June 15. The Fab Five have a whole new crop of men to makeover — and a woman!

“We’re doing a lady,” says Bobby. “I haven’t done a lady in years,” responds apparent bisexual legend Antoni. Check out the new trailer below!

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Arizona Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Against Anti-Gay Print Shop

(images screen captured from Brush & Nib promotional video)

In the first court case since the ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court this week regarding an anti-gay baker in Colorado, the Arizona Court of Appeals has rejected the argument that businesses can discriminate against a customer based on their sexual orientation.

In 2013, the Phoenix City Council added sexual orientation and gender identity to an already existing non-discrimination ordinance making it illegal to discriminate in the areas of housing, employment, and public accommodations.

A small printing business in Phoenix, Brush & Nib Studio, which designs and prints wedding invitations, asked a judge to override the city’s ordinance to allow them to legally discriminate against LGBTs.

It’s important to note that NO gay couple had asked Brush & Nib for wedding services.

A three-judge panel today handed down an unanimous ruling citing several federal court rulings from across the nation which upheld laws similar to Arizona’s public accommodation laws.

In the ruling, Judge Lawrence Winthrop wrote, “In light of these cases and consistent with the United States Supreme Court’s decisions, we recognize that allowing appellants based on sexual orientation would constitute grave and continuing harm.”

One of the court rulings referenced in today’s decision is the one involving the Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple.

But the ruling from SCOTUS only concluded that the baker had not gotten a fair hearing before the Colorado Civil Rights Board. The high court never addressed the question of whether his religious beliefs allowed him to legally discriminate against same-sex couples.

Back in May 2016, blogger JoeMyGod noted that when the Phoenix lawsuit was filed the company didn’t appear to have a physical address, and the artists’ social media accounts were only months old, making it credible that the company might have been created just to file the lawsuit and challenge the city’s ordinance.

The video below, titled “Getting to Know the Artists of Brush & Nib,” was uploaded to YouTube just days before the lawsuit was filed, and the comments section is closed.

In the video, the two artists make a point to say their teaming up was a “God thing,” “beautiful things just come from God,” and how “special” they view their work on wedding invitations.

Interestingly, the video is listed as “Unlisted.”

Now, why would a business have a “getting to know” video be “unlisted” on YouTube?

Isn’t that weird?

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Sexy PSA: “Don’t Hate The Player Or The Game”

Check out this sexy new PSA from medsEXPERT Pharmacy based in Toronto, Canada.

Featuring a handsome young urbanite named “Bradley,” the short vid follows his adventures before and after picking up his prescription for PrEP.

Taken on a regular basis, PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis), also marketed as under medication name Truvada, can reduce the risk of HIV infection by over 90%.

It certainly seems to set Bradley free.

Produced by Bulldog Productions and featuring Sofi Tukker’s “Awoo,” busy-boy Bradley’s social calendar gets turbo-charged once he’s in the PrEP swing of things.

“There is still a lot of stigma out there around the sex gay men have, it’s not always easy to find friendly or knowledgeable doctors and healthcare providers for LGBTQ+ folks,” Micheal Fanous, the owner and pharmacist at medsEXPERT told INMagazine. “Through this campaign, medsEXPERT wants to acknowledge the sex that men have and for all of us to be proud of who we are.”

The video ends with this message: “Don’t hate the player or the game itself. Take pride in your health!”

Oh – “And never apologize for who you are.” #duh

For more info about PrEP, click over to the Centers for Disease Control site.

Watch the sexy video below.

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Tennessee Hardware Store Puts Up Sign “No Gays Allowed”

In response to the recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Colorado baker who refused to sell a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding in 2012, a Tennessee hardware store put up a sign which read, “No Gays Allowed.”

From USA Today:

Jeff Amyx, who owns Amyx Hardware & Roofing Supplies in Grainger County, Tennessee., about an hour outside of Knoxville, added the “No Gays Allowed” sign on Monday, because gay and lesbian couples are against his religion.

Amyx, who is also a baptist minister, said he realized Monday morning that LGBT people are not afraid to stand for what they believe in. He said it showed him that Christian people should be brave enough to stand for what they believe in.

“They gladly stand for what they believe in, why can’t I? They believe their way is right, I believe it’s wrong. But yet I’m going to take more persecution than them because I’m standing for what I believe in,” Amyx said.

On Tuesday, Amyx removed the “No Gays allowed” sign and replaced it with a sign that says: “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone who would violate our rights of freedom of speech & freedom of religion.”

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Crossfit Fires Executive After Anti-LGBT Tweets

Former employee Russell Berger was fired on Wednesday for attacking the LGBTQ community for celebrating Pride Month
Russell Berger

Earlier this week, the management of a Crossfit gym in Indianapolis cancelled an LGBT-themed workout via an email sent to members. The email explained that the event was cancelled because “the owners of the gym value health and wellness, and they believe that this event does not.”

From the email:

“Our underlying goal for the staff and members at CrossFit Infiltrate and our other gyms CrossFit White River and University Ave CrossFit, is total health and well-being for the individual and the community. Total health involves the body, the emotions, relationships, and the spirit. At the foundational detractor from health, as we believe God sets the parameters for, is pride. We believe that true health forever can only be found within humility, not pride. Humility is seeing oneself as they truly are, and as God truly defines them to be. As a business we will choose to deploy our resources towards those efforts and causes that line up with our own values and beliefs.”

Russell Berger, “Chief Knowledge Officer” for CrossFit, attacked the LGBTQ community saying all expressions of “pride” are sin in a series of tweets which have now been deleted.

One of the tweets read, “As someone who personally believes celebrating “pride” is a sin, I’d like to personally encourage #CrossFitInfiltrate for standing by their convictions and refusing to host an @indypride workout. The intolerance of the LGBTQ ideology toward any alternative views is mind-blowing.”

CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman placed Berger on unpaid leave shortly after that tweet.

He then before fired him Wednesday evening. In an interview, Glassman called Berger a “zealot” who needed to “shut the fuck up.”

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Trump Twitter Rant: “13 Angry Democrats (Plus)”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump on Thursday railed yet again today on Twitter regarding special counsel Robert Mueller’s team saying the investigations have shown bias against him.

None of that has been proven. This is called deflection. And those folks who are too weak or lazy to actually read real news believe it.

Trump called for a list of the group’s “many conflicts of interest” to be publicized. Mueller himself is a life-long Republican. He also revived his calls for “the server” which folks guess refers to Hillary Clinton’s email server that was turned over to authorities years ago.

Trump continues to push the theory that the FBI implanted a spy in his campaign even though Republican lawmakers who saw classified material on the FBI informant said they did not see evidence to support Trump’s claims.

But here’s the best tweet today about Donald Trump and his veep, Mike Pence:

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AT&T Announces $1 Million Donation To The Trevor Project And More For Pride 2018

AT&T announces huge donation to The Trevor Project

As the country celebrates Pride Month, LGBT ally AT&T has announced a $1 million donation to The Trevor Project, the nation’s leading organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth.

These funds will help modernize and transform The Trevor Project’s suicide prevention capabilities and help them serve up to four times more LGBTQ youth through their digital platforms than previously possible.

This means more LGBTQ youth experiencing a crisis will be able to reach trained and caring crisis counselors.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth aged 10 – 24, and LGBTQ youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to their heterosexual peers.

In addition to the huge donation, the single largest in the 20-year history of The Trevor Project, AT&T will also donate more than $675,000 worth of AT&T products and services as well as technology & connectivity expertise. Plus, AT&T will also actively recruit employee volunteers to further support the life-saving work of The Trevor Project.

AT&T has a long history of supporting the LGBTQ community stretching back to 1975, when the communications giant was one of the very first American companies to prohibit discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation.

In 1998, the company adopted one of the very first domestic partner benefits programs for LGBTQ employees. And in 2006, AT&T was a leader once again as one of the first companies to offer transgender-inclusive health care benefits.

Also, look for the exclusive premiere of Alone In The Game, the AT&T original feature-length documentary which follows a group of athletes and sports figures from the biggest stages in American sports, including the NFL, NBA, MLS, and NCAA, among others, to explore the ongoing struggles LGBTQ athletes are facing at the professional, collegiate and Olympic levels.

You can catch Alone In The Game on June 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT exclusively on AT&T AUDIENCE Network – DIRECTV ch. 239 and AT&T U-verse ch. 1114 and via streaming services on DIRECTV NOW, DIRECTV, and AT&T U-verse apps. DIRECTTV is a subsidiary of AT&T.

And, beginning June 1, DIRECTV and DIRECTV NOW customers can find the “Celebrate Pride” carousel across all their devices featuring some of the best and brightest LGBTQ TV shows and films available! From the new Ryan Murphy series “Pose” for FX to fan favorites on-demand like VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and FOX’s “Empire.”” and classics like NBC’s “Will & Grace” and Showtime’s “The Real L Word.”

Beyond Pride Month, on July 28 in Salt Lake City, there’s the second annual LOVELOUD Festival founded by Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds and powered by AT&T.

LOVELOUD is designed to ignite the relevant and vital conversation of what it means to unconditionally love, understand, accept, and support LGBTQ+ youth in our communities.

See the message below from Dan Reynolds about the LOVELOUD Festival:

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Years After Defending His Two Moms, Zach Wahls Wins Nomination For State Senate

Zach Wahls

It was just days after I launched The Randy Report that 19-year-old Zach Wahls of Iowa stood up in front of state lawmakers to introduce his two mothers as he argued for marriage equality in his state.

It was one of the most moving speeches I’d ever seen.

“I’m not really so different from any of your children. My family really isn’t so different from yours. After all, your family doesn’t derive its sense of worth from being told by the state, ‘You’re married—congratulations!’ No, the sense of family comes from the commitment we make to each other, to work through the hard times so we can enjoy the good ones; it comes from the love that binds us. That’s what makes a family.”

Speaking to legislators about the importance of marriage equality to his family, Zach was beyond poised and focused. Here’s the speech:

The Advocate called it “the most popular political video of 2011.”

In 2012, the handsome 20-year-old Wahls released his book, My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family.

Last night, now-26-year-old Zach won his primary in Iowa as he runs to become a state senator in Iowa’s District 37. The woofy Wahls garnered 60% of the vote in his race.

Wahls moves on to the November election to fill the seat vacated by Democratic Sen. Bob Dvorsky, who announced his retirement after more than 30 years in the Iowa legislature.

If Wahls wins the seat, he will be one of the youngest people to ever serve in the state Senate.