Today marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote.
The culmination of decades of activism from women suffragettes, the amendment was originally passed by Congress on June 4, 1919. Just over a year later, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, securing its adoption.
This footage shows just a handful of the 8 million women who took to the polls a few months later, in November 1920, for a presidential election that saw Republican Warren G. Harding defeat Democrat James Cox.
In this week’s podcast from The Randy Report: • Longtime LGBTQ ally Sen. Kamala Harris is Joe Biden’s pick for running mate in the 2020 presidential election • Plus, Harris has named a proud Black lesbian political heavyweight as her chief of staff • A judge in Kentucky says a photographer can legally discriminate against LGBTQ people • Ricky Martin told OUT Magazine he once feared he’d never be a parent because of his sexuality, and now he’s a father of four 🙂 • Disney introduces its first bisexual character on ‘The Owl House’ • And the top 5 “Gayest States in the Country” All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
CNN’s John Berman notes that Donald Trump repeats the same statistics during White House press briefings even when the briefings are weeks apart. It’s especially interesting since Trump has often criticized former Vice President Joe Biden for reading from prepared remarks. But, as the panel here notes, repetition – while not always ‘truth’ – does work in politics.
A gay couple in Chicago went viral with their cheeky video clap back aimed at a thief who stole a Pride flag from their front porch.
Twitter user BowtieinChicago shared the video which mocks the banner bandit with sass galore.
“To the person who stole the Pride flag off our front porch, we’re so sorry a rainbow bruised your fragile ego,” begins the narration. “But, don’t worry – we have next-day Amazon Prime. You can keep taking our flag but you’ll never take our pride!”
During the clip, Pride flags literally run rampant as the boys show off a plethora of newly-acquired rainbows.
The duo warns the pennant pilferer to smile for the security cameras next time as they sign off with, “Love, the big ole homos who live here.”
— Daz James 🏳️🌈 : NHS Anaesthetic ODP & Nerd DM (@FoxCrewe) August 15, 2020
The pride flag got stolen from my Uni's pride center last year and they responded with a sign saying "To the person who stole our pride flag: we're still gay. Now we're just gay and angry."
This is perfection. It’s exactly what I needed to see today. Thanks for sharing your positive attitude and sense of humor. And your beret is my fav!! 💜💜🌈🌈
Randy Rainbow serves up a musical homage to Democratic vice-presidential pick Kamala Harris set to the title tune of the 1960 Tony Award-winning Lerner and Loewe musical, Camelot.
And though Trump calls her phony, mean and nastyThere’s no doubt she’s more qualified than heShe sold me when I saw her come for KavanaughFor no one makes a grown man cry like she canKamala!
(illustration of HIV cells) The Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to Phase One trials of a possible HIV cure known as AGT103-T. Plus Magazine reports:
It is made from blood cells and initiates a process that increases the body’s T cells, which fight HIV, and uses gene therapy to help those cells survive.
In preclinical studies in cell models, it has demonstrated “the ability to clear itself of HIV when challenged with the virus and HIV-infected human cells,” according to a press release from the company, based in Rockville, Md. American Gene Technologies researched the product in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, a federal government agency.
The Phase I trial will investigate the safety of AGT103-T and measure some factors that indicate whether it’s effective. It is expected to begin in September.
While antiretroviral drugs can control HIV to the point that it’s undetectable, they are not a cure for the virus.
Rush Limbaugh (screen capture) Folks are seeing Rush Limbaugh’s name trending on Twitter, and this is why. Sadly, I think I’m so used to Limbaugh’s grotesqueness that this doesn’t surprise me. Limbaugh, currently on his fourth wife and an admitted opioid addict, would be ill-advised to pretend some ‘moral high ground’ in regard to Harris. Media Matters reports on Limbaugh going on an unsavory rant last Friday pushing right-wing stories calling Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), the presumptive Democratic vice presidential candidate, a ‘hoe’ and a ‘mattress.’
“The NBA has fired a freelance photographer because he insulted Kamala Harris. His name is Bill Baptist. He posted an image that read ‘Joe and the Hoe.’ H-O-E. Now, what do you think that’s about, ‘Joe and the Hoe’?
[snip]
“Well, that takes me to the second story. ‘It’s no secret, but public knowledge that Kamala Harris slept her way up into California political life by being a very public escort and mattress for California Democrat kingmaker Willie Brown.’
“Now, some people read this story, ‘Mattress? Didn’t he mean mistress?’ No, I think they meant ‘mattress’ here.
“So we have two different stories here that are trading off the known fact that she was Willie Brown’s mattress, and that he has written about it, and that he has talked about how it propelled her — that he ended up being one of her mentors.”
Rush Limbaugh referred to Sen. Kamala Harris as a "ho" and "mattress" to millions of listeners, and somehow, GOP leaders who support him–including Trump, who awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom–will not be pressed about this.
Let’s be very clear, Rush Limbaugh is a racist, sexist, misogynistic, vulgar, evil, hateful, moronic, hideous, pile of shit whose been married 4 times and was gifted the Medal of Freedom by a rapist criminal predator. And some were wondering why I felt nothing when he got cancer.
(image via the original poster for the Broadway production of Carrie) Michael and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Saturday night’s edition of Stars in the House which brought together the creative team and actors from the 1988 Broadway musical Carrie. Adapted from the 1976 movie of the same name by Stephen King, the musical was first produced at Stratford-upon-Avon in England starring Linzi Hately as Carrie and Broadway veteran Barbara Cook as her mother, Margaret White. Directed by Terry Hands and choreographed by Debbie Allen, the cast also included Charlotte d’Amboise (Song & Dance), Gene Anthony Ray (Fame), R&B star Darlene Love, and Sally Ann Triplett. In order to achieve the effects of Carrie’s telekinetic powers, the production boasted an elaborate technical design in terms of sets and lights utilizing lasers. According to theater lore, Cook tendered her resignation on opening night when she was nearly decapitated by a set-piece. Betty Buckley and Linzi Hately in ‘Carrie’ (production photo) Tony Award winner Betty Buckley (who had played the gym teacher in the film) was summoned to save the show as it transferred to Broadway. But after 16 previews and 5 performances, the producers pulled out their money following mixed reviews despite packed houses and standing ovations each night. In a time before smartphones, little video footage exists of the Broadway production although, during last night’s streaming reunion, it was revealed cast member and soon-to-be Tony Award winner Scott Wise had planted an old-school video camera in the back of the audience before the audience was admitted in hopes of capturing footage. Apparently, Wise’s camera was able to capture Act One before the battery ran out of juice. Just to give you a peek into the power and sensitivity Buckley brought to the role, this is the haunting “When There’s No One.”
The show, capitalized at a then-enormous $8 million, was considered the most expensive flop in Broadway history. I was on the road performing in CATS at the time, but my bestie Carlye saw the closing night performance. According to her well-informed opinion, while much of the show proved problematic I’ve never forgotten her final assessment – that the scenes between Buckley and Hately were some of the most thrilling musical theater she’d ever experienced. Playbill put together a terrific recap of some of the existing footage along with interviews with cast members including Charlotte D’Amboise here. Here’s the full reunion show from last night hosted by SiriusXM’s Seth Rudetsky & James Wesley. The creative team of Lawrence D. Cohen, Michael Gore, and Dean Pitchford share the history of creating the book and score and are then joined about halfway through by Buckley, Hateley, D’Amboise, and Triplett. Over the past four months, the streaming series has brought theater fans the backstage stories they’ve longed for (for free!) while raising over $442,000 for The Actor’s Fund in donations.
L-R Edward Snowden, Donald Trump (images: publio domain) Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would consider issuing a presidential pardon to whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has remained in exile in Russia since disclosing highly classified information from the National Security Agency. After leaking the info to the Guardian in 2013, Snowden left the U.S. traveling to Hong Kong and then to Moscow in order to avoid being arrested. To some, Snowden is seen as a civil liberties hero, but to others, he is seen as a traitor for revealing secret intelligence documents. Back in 2014, Trump called Snowden a ‘spy’ tweeting, “A spy in the old days, when our country was respected and strong, would be executed.”
Q: "Do you want to give Edward Snowden a pardon and bring him back?"
Sen. Kamala HarrisNewsweek has offered a weak tea apology after publishing a racist op-ed by John Eastman meant to gin up birtherism against Kamala Harris, who was born in Oakland, California, in 1964 and fully eligible to run for and become vice president or president of the U.S. Instead of removing the op-ed, though, they left it intact with this disclaimer at the top of the webpage:
This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize. The essay, by John Eastman, was intended to explore a minority legal argument about the definition of who is a “natural-born citizen” in the United States. But to many readers, the essay inevitably conveyed the ugly message that Senator Kamala Harris, a woman of color and the child of immigrants, was somehow not truly American.
The op-ed was never intended to spark or to take part in the racist lie of Birtherism, the conspiracy theory aimed at delegitimizing Barack Obama, but we should have recognized the potential, even probability, that that could happen. Readers hold us accountable for all that we publish, as they should; we hold ourselves accountable, too. We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted and weaponized.
As we said in our earlier note, this essay was an attempt to examine a legal argument about the difference between “natural born” and “naturalized,” the latter being ineligible to hold the office of president. In the days since the op-ed was published, we saw that it was being shared in forums and social networks notorious for disinformation, conspiracy theories and racist hatred. All of us at Newsweek are horrified that this op-ed gave rise to a wave of vile Birtherism directed at Senator Harris. Many readers have demanded that we retract the essay, but we believe in being transparent and are therefore allowing it to remain online, with this note attached.
From NowThis News: 
