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Janet Jackson: LGBTs Are An All-Embracing Community That Has Always Inspired Me

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(image via Instagram)

Speaking to Billboard, Janet Jackson shares how the LGBTQ community has inspired her work:

It’s a loving, all-embracing community that has always inspired me.

I don’t often listen to my own work, but when I go back to [1997’s] Velvet Rope, I put on “Together Again” and remember the friends I lost to AIDS.

It was important to me to honor them not mournfully but joyously in a celebratory song. Their spirit did so much to bolster mine.

Sometimes when people talk about Velvet Rope, they call it my edgiest or sexiest record. Yet the heart of the record is not about sex at all. It’s about how, in defiance of death, we will all be “together again.”

It’s an anthem to undying love.

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Trump Twitter Rant: “I Hereby Demand…”

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Clearly whoever was supposed to supervise Donald Trump today was napping on-duty as the Cheeto-In-Chief went on an unhinged roller-coaster ride of a Twitter rant today.

Even by Trumpian standards, this was pretty much off-the-charts.

The rant was probably sparked by this report in the New York Times today about yet another meeting Don Trump Jr. took with foreign agents who wanted to help elect Trump.

Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.

The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.

Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president.

As we all know by now, it’s illegal for a political campaign to accept help or support from a foreign country.

Below, you can see Trump rages and attempts to deflect with call to investigate Hillary (again?).

It’s interesting that the Trumpster is suddenly worried about the cost of government spending describing the Special Counsel’s investigation as “soon to be $20,000,000. He doesn’t seem to have a problem spending over $3 million a trip to go play golf at Mar-A-Lago…?

The Donald also tries to assert that “no collusion” has been found when in truth, no one knows what Robert Mueller’s investigation has found yet.

Special Counsel’s don’t turn in quarterly or monthly reports. No one but Mueller and his team know what they have in evidence. And you can be sure they wouldn’t be continuing if there wasn’t a reason to do so.

However, if you repeat it often enough, weak-minded people will start to believe you. Like a bad used-car salesman…

What’s really rich is his final tweet (see below) where he states “I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes.”

He “hereby demands???”

FBI agents spoke to Trump campaign advisers George Papadopoulos and Carter Page about their communications with Russian actors. You know – that’s what the FBI does when they have evidence of treasonous activity.

Check out the meltdown below.

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These Rainbow Pride Flags Can Stop A Bullet

In a new video from Fondation Émergence, a gun is fired at 193 rainbow Pride flags – one for every country in the world.

Together, the flags can stop a bullet – just as when citizens of the world stand together we can stop LGBTQ violence and discrimination through the power of our togetherness.

From the video:

LGBT people around the world are still the targets of prejudice and violence.

What if we all took a stand against it?

We created this flag to show the world that together we can stop violence.

It’s made out of 193 Pride flags – one for every country in the world.

The video was created in observance of this year’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

The Pride Shield exhibit will be available to different cities in the hopes of sparking a conversation about LGBTQ violence and discrimination around the world.

Get involved at PrideShield.com.

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Guess Which “Star Wars” Character Is Pansexual?

Donald Glover as “Lando Calrissian”

In the trailer for the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story, the character of “Lando Calrissian” (played by Donald Glover) seems all friendly and flirty with just about everyone he encounters.

In one scene, Calrissian calls Han Solo “baby;” in another clip he says with a smile, “Everything you’ve heard about me is true.”

In the film, his female droid L3-37 shares, “I’m sure you noticed that Lando has feelings for me.”

You may recall Billy Dee Williams brought a similar winking sexuality to the character in Episodes V and VI of the Star Wars saga.

With that in mind, Bill Bradley of the Huffington Post asked the father/son screenwriting team of Solo – Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan – in a recent interview if Lando is, indeed, pansexual.

“I would say yes,” Jonathan says. “He doesn’t make any hard and fast rules.”

“There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s (portrayal of Lando’s) sexuality,” he continued. “I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie. I think it’s time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity ― sort of the spectrum of sexuality – that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of.”

While the writers may imply that Lando is sexually fluid, folks who have previewed the film say there’s nothing explicit to that point in the film.

Some of you may be wondering “What’s the difference between pansexual and bisexual?” Pansexuals are attracted to all gender identities (or are attracted regardless of gender identities) and bisexuals are attracted to more than one gender identity (but not all).

In the more than 4 decades of Star Wars films, LGBTQ fans have yet to see actual representation in the sci-fi films. It seems that as vast as the universe may be, there are only heterosexuals out in space.

Some Star Wars fans were hoping for more from Laura Dern’s character in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo.

Last fall there was talk that an official tie-in novel, Leia: Princess of Alderaan released in September 2017, revealed Holdo to be the Star Wars universe’s first queer character.

In the book, Holdo mentions in a conversation about sex with Leia that she enjoys “a pair of pretty dark eyes.”

“A pair of pretty dark eyes.” Then Amilyn thought about that for a moment. “Or more than a pair, if you’re into Grans. Or Aqualish, or Talz. Or even —”

“That’s all right!” Leia said through laughter. “It’s just humanoid males for me.”

“Really? That feels so limiting.”

But, eventually LGBTQ Star Wars fans were disappointed again as there was nothing in The Last Jedi that shed any light on Holdo’s romantic life.

Hollywood has been doing this forever it seems.

Audiences were teased in the lead up to the release of last year’s Beauty and the Beast that there would be an “exclusively gay moment” for one of the film’s characters.

In the end, though, all LGBTQ audiences got were vague references to an unrequited crush on Gaston by Le Fou, and a fleeting, momentary shot of Le Fou dancing at the end of the film with a man.

Back in 2007, CNN reported that J.K. Rowling always thought of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore as gay, a point that isn’t explained nor explored at all in the book.

Is it time for Hollywood to stop with the queer baiting LGBTQ audiences?

Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters May 25.

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This Was Not Your Average Royal Wedding

The new Duke and Duchess of Sussex

And they’re married!

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wed today in a gorgeous ceremony that brought royal glamour into the 21st century.

In a nod to Markle’s biracial background, the service featured a thoroughly American sermon served up with some gospel singing. This was not your average royal wedding.

And that’s a good thing.

Attending the nuptials were celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, George and Amal Clooney, and tennis star Serena Williams.

Congrats to the happy couple!

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Today’s Cover Of The New York Daily News

Headline of the NY Daily News today reads, "With yesterday's Texas massacre, there have now been more students or teachers killed by guns in U.S. schools than active-duty military deaths in 2018."

The headline of today’s New York Daily News reads, “With yesterday’s Texas massacre, there have now been more students or teachers killed by guns in U.S. schools than active-duty military deaths in 2018. No headline can do this justice.”

From the accompanying article:

The frontlines of American warfare are now in America’s classrooms.

More people have been murdered in schools so far this year than have been killed while serving in the U.S. military, according to depressing statistics.

Accounting for the 10 people shot to death at a Houston-area high school Friday, 31 people — an overwhelming majority of whom were students — have been killed at schools since Jan. 1, according to data compiled by the Washington Post. Twenty-nine U.S. service members have been killed in the same timeframe, including both combat and noncombat deaths, according to the Pentagon.

Previous years, the numbers have typically been inverted, with service member casualties outnumbering student deaths by at least double, statistics show.

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News Round-Up: May 18, 2018

(image via Instagram/Andrew Serkin)

Some news items you might have missed:

• I know its Friday, folks, but the rules are you have to finish your chores (above) before you get to have fun…

• Land Rover took back their sponsored car from rugby star Israel Folau over his anti-LGBT comments saying gay people will go to hell if they don’t “repent of their sins and turn to God.”

• Bill Gates shared with a crowd at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation meeting that Donald Trump twice asked him if there was a difference between HIV and HPV. “He wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV,” Gates said of Trump. “So I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other.”

• Alabama’s only openly gay state legislator, State Rep. Patricia Todd, has had a job offer rescinded from an LGBT non-profit after she publicly announcing Republican Gov. Kay Ivey is a closeted lesbian.

• This “straight” prison guard was found guilty of repeatedly having sex with 3 prisoners and now faces up to 125 years in jail himself.

• The Peace Corps is removing gay men from the organization who test positive for HIV.

• Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer has signed anti-LGBT adoption legislation making his state the latest to enact a “religious freedom” law enabling taxpayer-funded agencies to deny placement into LGBT homes.

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer
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Out Music: Matt Zarley Feels The Pull Of Sara Bareilles’ “Gravity”

Matt Zarley

Out singer/songwriter Matt Zarley drops his new music video for “Gravity” and we have the exclusive premiere.

The track comes from Zarley’s latest album titled, The Estrogen Sessions, which honors of the female pop divas most influential in his career.

About recording “Gravity:”

This is one of my all-time favorite songs and it was the first song I actually recorded for the album.

Fast forward eight or so months later, I go back to revisit the song, listen to it, make any little changes that I needed to, but I wasn’t able to access the files. The hard drive was corrupted. So I had to re-sing the song. I was not that upset because I love this song so much, so I was game for it.

At the end of the session I went to save the files and my computer froze. Well, I felt pretty confident that the session was going to be saved. I was wrong the entire session was gone.

I was so livid that I decided to re-record the song then and there. It was 2 AM.

In the end it actually turned out better than before, so all ends well.

About the music video:

“Originally we had planned out a whole narrative to drive the music video but after shooting the loft footage, I decided for a more minimal approach and let the song itself tell the story. The song has always had an ethereal quality to it…very haunting. I wanted that to take the focus.”

Stripped down and primarily acoustic, Zarley’s production work on the project showcases the strength of the songwriting and his own effortless vocals.

“As I began to arrange these tunes, I made a conscience decision to strip the songs down and reinterpret them with all live music, nothing programmed – real piano, organ, guitar, drums, bass and strings,” says Zarley.

The entire album is imminently listenable. The emotional landscape is soulful and wide, with each track showcasing Zarley’s rich, fluid voice. He shifts from plaintive, affecting intimacy to expansive vocal brawn with equal ease.

Check out more from the album here and you can get the first look at “Gravity” below.