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Madonna Speaks Out For Britney: ‘A Violation Of Human Rights’

Madonna speaks out on behalf of Britney Spears via Instagram
Madonna speaks out for Britney Spears via Instagram
Madonna (image via Instagram/Madonna)

Joining the #FreeBritney movement, Madonna speaks out for Britney Spears and her ongoing battle to end her conservatorship.

Last month, the Queen of Pop dropped a one hashtag remark – #diditfirst – about Lil Nas X’s scintillating BET Awards performance (complete with male-on-male lip-lock) referencing her own same-sex smooch with Spears at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards that became its own pop culture moment.

But some folks got a bit twisted that Madge didn’t take the time to make a statement of support for Spears and her current situation.

Well, now she has.

In her Instagram Stories last night, Madonna – wearing a Britney Spears t-shirt – penned a passionate plea demanding, “Give this woman her life back – Slavery was abolished so long ago!”

“Death to the greedy patriarchy that has been doing this to women for centuries,” Madonna added. “This is a violation of human rights!”

She closed the missive telling Spears, “Britney we coming to get you out of jail!”

(image via Instagram/Madonna)

Madonna is just the latest in a cavalcade of stars speaking out in support of Spears. Previous celebs raising their voices for Britney include Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Cher, former boyfriend Justin Timberlake and more.

Britney’s situation made headlines last month when a judge denied her request to remove her father as the conservator of her estate, according to NBC News.

Under the current terms of the conservatorship, Spears has alleged that she has been overworked without breaks, is forced to use birth control to prevent her from having more children, and is being medicated with lithium. The 39-year-old says all of those decisions were made by her father, Jamie Spears.

Her father denies the allegations and has said he only has his daughter’s “best interests at heart.”

In related Madonna news, the pop star recently told her fans the film of her ‘Madame X’ tour will be released on Paramount+ in October.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRCpjbpBJGI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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Zaila Avant-Garde Wins Nat’l Spelling Bee Becoming 1st African American Champ

Zaila Avant-garde wins the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee

Zaila Avant-garde wins the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee
Zaila Avant-garde (image via Scripps National Spelling Bee)
A jubilant Zaila Avant-garde won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, becoming the bee’s first African American champion in its 96-year history. The 14-year-old from New Orleans is also the first winner of the competition from Lousiana. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden was in the house to cheer the finalists on.

From the Washington Post:

Avant-garde spelled “murraya” correctly to win the competition, after conquering words such as “retene,” “ancistroid” and “depreter” over multiple rounds. Upon her win, Avant-garde, who is also a talented basketball player with three Guinness World Records in dribbling, jumped up and down and let out an excited shout as confetti rained down on the stage.

The teen said Friday that “it felt really good to be a winner” after she had been practicing for two years. Avant-garde, who had finished tied for 370th place in the 2019 competition, credited the win to her tutors and “a bit of luck.” She told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she hopes her historic win will inspire other young Black people in the United States to excel at spelling.

Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from San Francisco, and Bhavana Madini, a 13-year-old from New York City, came in second and third place, respectively. Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who won the bee in 1998, was the competition’s first Black champion.

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Talking With LGBTQ Activist Aaron Baldwin On Pride Month, Pinkwashing & More

LGBTQ activist & Pride 365 Champion Aaron Baldwin

LGBTQ activist & Pride 365 Champion Aaron Baldwin
LGBTQ activist & Pride 365 Champion Aaron Baldwin
In this episode of The Randy Report podcast I’m talking with LGBTQ activist Aaron Baldwin about corporate support during Pride Month, pinkwashing (what is it?), how to best connect with our straight allies and more. Aaron is a recognized LGBTQ activist who has led campaigns against LGBTQ workplace discrimination involving large corporations including Cirque du Soleil, Target and Rockstar Energy Drinks. He’s also been an advocate for affordable access to HIV medications, marriage equality and environmental justice, and taken a significant role in the HIV/AIDS movement confronting HIV discrimination in the workplace. Plus, he helped launch the first firm to offer life insurance to the positive community and served as the expert witness in the landmark HIV prevention discrimination case, GLAD v. Mutual of Omaha. Today, Aaron is affiliated with Pride 365 – which works with businesses to bring an end to pinkwashing and to improve inclusivity in society and the workplace. But I’ll let Aaron explain how and why all of that is important. Read more about Aaron Baldwin here, and find info about Pride 365 here.

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News Round-Up: July 8, 2021

Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud (image via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • Instinct Magazine: Swedish couple Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud (above) will be representing the Netherlands at the Olympics in dressage – a type of horse riding that tests the teamwork and power of a rider with their horse. Together they won a team bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships, and each have an Olympic medal: silver for Minderhoud in 2008 and bronze for Gal in 2012. • The Gaily Grind: Caitlyn Jenner, whose net worth is estimated to be roughly $100 million, wants to deal with California’s population of more than 60,000 homeless people by moving them to “big open fields.” • The Guardian: Organizers of the Miss Mexico 2021 pageant pushed ahead in spite of a Covid-19 outbreak that infected almost half the contestants. At least 15 of the 32 contestants in the pageant tested positive for coronavirus as well as a pageant staff member.

• Washington Post: Michael Avenatti — who made headlines representing an adult-film actress who claimed an affair with Donald Trump before he was president — was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Thursday, after being convicted for trying to extort Nike Inc. He faced up to 11 years in jail. • Pink News: A New Jersey appeal court has upheld a massive $3.5 million fine against a conversion therapy practice, which was shut down after former patients alleged widespread abuse. • CNN: Researchers estimate that there would have been about 279,000 additional deaths due to Covid-19 — about 46% more than there were — and as many as 1.25 million additional hospitalizations if there had been no vaccinations. • ABC News: Pfizer will seek U.S. authorization for a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine. Data from the company’s booster study suggests people’s antibody levels jump five- to 10-fold after a third dose.

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Out Music: Zola Simone ‘Iridescent’

The new single from Zola Simone 'Iridescent'

The new single from Zola Simone 'Iridescent' The latest single from Boston-based indie artist Zola Simone, “Iridescent,” captures the 360 degrees of emotion that can flood young love and the wistful, lighter-than-air feeling when vulnerability gives way to ineffable passion. The music video echoes the ebb and flow of the indie guitar track as Simone allows herself to daydream about a love that might (or might not) come to fruition. “There are some shots which we did on super 8 which are supposed to show my (the main character’s) idealistic daydreams of what their relationship could be,” says Simone. “Lots of yearning. Guess that’s part of my brand now!”

(screen capture from ‘Iridescent’)
The 18-year-old owes her initial interest in music to her parents. After writing her first real song at the age of 12, Simone has only been improving her style and writing abilities. As an LGBTQ+ woman, she is no stranger to judgment overcoming her struggles with anxiety and bullying through her music. Having built a fan-base in the New England area, she’s already sold out her first concert as a headliner at The Burren in Somerville, MA.

Zola Simone’s upcoming album, Now You See Me, set to drop later this year, has been teased as being a genre-hopping compilation of songs that maintain a fine line of diverse cohesion. Follow Simone on her journey via Instagram here. “Iridescent” is available to download/stream on all major digital platforms.

Zola Simone (image via TrendPR)

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Legal Pundits On Trump Lawsuit: ‘The Trap He Created For Himself’

Donald Trump
On Wednesday, Donald Trump sued Twitter, Facebook and Google for banning him from certain websites, claiming they violated his First Amendment rights. According to the Washington Post, the suits allege “that the companies violated Trump’s First Amendment rights in suspending his accounts and argues that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which is owned by Google, no longer should be considered private companies but ‘a state actor’ whose actions are constrained by First Amendment restrictions on government limitations on free speech.” Legal experts were quick to point out the U.S. Constitution is clear that the First Amendment constrains only government actions, not those of private companies. The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Bolding is mine. You’ll also notice nowhere in the Constitution is it stated there is a constitutional right to Facebook. Or Twitter. Or YouTube. In an interview with Bill O’Reilly, Trump was told he would have to give a deposition for the legal action to which the Donald said he’d love to talk about the lawsuit, the election and any little thing. But legal pundits say the lawsuit lays its own trap for Trump as he would have to answer many, many, many questions under oath. Keith Olbermann tweeted, “This is the dumbest thing Trump has ever done. It’s wonderful. I remind you from personal experience that when you sue somebody you have to give a multi-day deposition on anything relevant to the topic…in this case, like your role inspiring the 1/6 Coup.”

Former White House counsel John Dean retweeted adding, “This should be a nationally televised deposition…. Please schedule it next week. Don’t move to dismiss, which would be the normal move. Make him deal with the trap he created for himself. He will lose on the merits!”

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Ohio Doctors Can Now Refuse To Treat LGBTQ Patients On ‘Religious’ Grounds

Stock image of a highway sign as you enter Ohio

Stock image of a highway sign as you enter Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) of Ohio has signed a bill that allows medical providers to refuse care to LGBTQ patients if they have an objection based on “religious” grounds. The new language was apparently buried in last-minute amendments to the state’s two-year budget bill, which DeWine signed into law on June 30. Governor DeWine had the opportunity to line-item veto the language while signing the rest of the budget into law and refused to do so. The new law allows any medical provider – from doctors and nurses to researchers, lab techs and insurance companies – “the freedom to decline to perform, participate in, or pay for any health care service which violates the practitioner’s, institution’s, or payer’s conscience as informed by the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.” Local advocates warn this rule legalizes discrimination against LGBTQ patients as well as members of other marginalized groups like drug addicts or people living with HIV or sexually transmitted diseases.

Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David in a statement, “Today governor DeWine enshrined LGBTQ discrimination into law, threatening the medical well being of more than 380,000 LGBTQ people in Ohio, one of the largest LGBTQ populations anywhere in the country.” “Medical practitioners in Ohio can deny care or coverage for basic, medically-necessary, and potentially life-saving care to LGBTQ people simply because of who they are,” added David. DeWine insisted the conscience clause will change very little, and claimed that no one in Ohio will be discriminated against. “This simply puts in statute what the practice has been anyways,” he said. “Let’s say the doctor is against abortion, the doctor is not doing abortion. If there’s other things that maybe a doctor has a conscience problem with, it gets worked out, somebody else does those things.” Dr. Todd Kepler, southwest medical director of Equitas Health, a nonprofit health care system serving LGBTQ patients in the Midwest, told Cincinnati ABC News affiliate WCPO the ”widely broad” language in the new rule will exacerbate existing barriers to care for many marginalized groups, like drug addicts, people living with HIV, and the LGBT+ community. “Say I happen to be a gay patient and I wanted to see a provider in my town, and there weren’t really any other providers in town,” said Kepler. “But they find that morally unacceptable, they could turn me away.” “And the language is so broad that that could even be done at an institutional level. So, if you have a hospital that perhaps has an affiliation with a religious institution, and again, that happens to be the only institution in town, theoretically they could turn that patient away for health care.”

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Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 4 Million Worldwide

The coronavirus death toll has now surpassed 4 million
(graphic via NY Times)

The coronavirus death toll has now surpassed over 4 million world wide even as the more contagious Delta variant continues to spread.

From the New York Times:

The world’s known coronavirus death toll passed four million on Thursday, a loss roughly equivalent to the population of Los Angeles, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

It took nine months for the virus to claim one million lives, and the pace has quickened since then. The second million were lost in three and a half months, the third in three months, and the fourth in about two and a half months. The number of daily reported deaths has declined recently.

Those are officially reported figures, which are widely believed to undercount pandemic-related deaths.

Read the full report here. As the Delta variant continues to spread, vaccinations in the U.S. are seeing a clear decline. Health officials say 99% of the recent coronavirus death toll involves unvaccinated people. More from CBS News:

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Spain: 4th Suspect Arrested In Brutal Murder Of Samuel Luiz

Samuel Luiz (image via Facebook)

Samuel Luiz (image via Facebook)
Samuel Luiz (image via Facebook)
A fourth suspect has been arrested and charged in the murder of Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old gay man in Spain. In a Twitter statement, the Policía Nacional announced the arrest of a man aged between 20 and 25. In addition to murder, he is charged with allegedly stealing the victim’s mobile phone. This comes after 3 A Coruña residents were arrested in connection with the death of Luiz on Wednesday. The deadly assault was perpetrated by more than a dozen people near a nightclub in the Galician city. The fourth suspect is apparently friends with the initial suspects, according La Vanguardia, a Spanish-speaking newspaper. None of the suspects knew the victim prior to the attack according to reports. The incident began when Luiz reportedly stepped out of the nightclub to video chat with a friend. The attacker apparently believed Luiz was recording him and demanded he stop – “Either stop recording or I’ll kill you, f*g,” yelled one of the attackers. After initially beating Luiz for a couple of minutes, the attacker left the scene but quickly returned with a mob of friends who all joined in kicking and beating Luiz. Surveillance footage captured the assault which stretched out for several blocks along the street until Luiz collapsed and passed out. Media reports say the video clips show the group continued to cheer the attack on as they continued to kick and beat him. Luiz died just hours later on Saturday at the A Coruña Hospital. A spokesman for the police told the press, “They showed him no mercy.”

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Tokyo Olympics Cancels Spectators Amid COVID Surge

Logo for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo

Logo for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo There will be no spectators in the stands at the Summer Olympics after a surge of COVID-19 led Japan to declare a state of emergency. Via Axios:

It’s another huge blow to the spectacle and finances of the delayed and scaled-back Olympics, just two weeks ahead of the opening ceremony.

Organizers had planned to allow venues to be filled up to 50% capacity, with a maximum of 10,000 Japanese spectators and no overseas fans. A surge in COVID-19 cases and the low rate of vaccinations forced them to reconsider.

Tokyo’s fourth coronavirus state of emergency will run from this Monday, July 12 until Aug. 22, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. Bars and restaurants will be requested to suspend alcohol sales under the measures.

According to ESPN, Tokyo reported 920 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday – the highest total since 1,010 were reported on May 13. The Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo are schedueld to begin on July 23.