While fears and the number of coronavirus cases keep growing, Donald Trump held a rally and Mike Pence – who the president put in charge of the government’s response – held a fundraiser. There are now 64 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States (over 85,000 worldwide) and the stock market lost over 3,500 points in one week, but Trump told his rally attendees that rising fears about the impending crisis is merely a ‘hoax’ brought by the Democrats. “Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” Trump said. “They have no clue, they can’t even count their votes in Iowa.” “This is their new hoax,” Trump continued, adding that attacking Trump’s response to the coronavirus is now the Democratic Party’s “single talking point.” Watch the brief report from Brian Williams below.
(image via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Woofy Joe Blizzard (above) thinks he looks ‘thick’ in this pic??? If only I were so ‘thick.’ Follow Joe on Instagram here. #beardgoals • New York Times: Stocks tumbled for a seventh consecutive day on Friday, with the S&P 500 index falling about 0.8 percent, bringing its loss for the week to more than 11 percent. It was the worst weekly decline for stocks since the 2008 financial crisis. • Washington Post: California has a second case of community transmission of the coronavirus, a 65-year-old resident of Santa Clara County who has no known history of travel to countries hit hard by the outbreak, people familiar with the case said Friday. There is also no apparent connection between the new patient and anyone else with the disease caused by the covid-19 virus. • KIT212: Kenneth rounds up the what’s what in local gay publications like Matt Spike on the cover of London’s QX Magazine (below). (via QX Magazine) • WDRB: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear defended a photograph of him posing with drag queens at a gay rights rally and accused a Republican lawmaker of using homophobic tactics by displaying the photo at a recent campaign rally while accusing Democrats of corrupting traditional values. Beshear, a Democrat, told reporters Thursday that he would pose for the photo again, saying he was practicing his faith to treat everyone with respect. • ABC News: A 19-year-old was taking a video of herself with a gun when she allegedly shot her 10-year-old nephew in the abdomen by accident, according to Texas authorities. Caitlyn Smith, 19, has been arrested and charged with serious bodily injury to a child — a second-degree felony. • New Music: Lady Gaga released “Stupid Love,” the first single off her highly anticipated sixth studio album. The single is accompanied by a music video that was shot entirely on an iPhone 11 Pro and directed by Daniel Askill. The not-so-good news: the music video is kinda silly, the costumes look like something out of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and the choreography is just so-so. The good news: Gaga is back in dance mode a la “Born This Way.” Her vocals are on point, the bop has serious bounce, and it’s all joy and love. This is one of those I’d rather listen to than watch 🙂
A new policy proposal from the Trump administration could affect a lot of LGBTQ Americans in terms of healthcare and their wallets. The Washington Blade reports the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a draft rule last month that would allow insurance companies to ignore ‘co-pay coupons’ for prescription drugs in regard to computing a patient’s out-of-pocket spending. In the past, insurance companies have allowed copay coupons (which reduce prices at checkout) to count towards a patient’s deductible and out-of-pocket limits. For instance, if you are a gay man who takes PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) as protection against HIV infection, you may be acquainted with Gilead’s Advancing Access co-pay coupon card which pays up to $7,200 annually towards your copay and/or deductible if you have health insurance. As many have found, when used to cover your PrEP prescription, within one or two months many patients find their deductible or out-of-pocket maximums have been met because the co-pay coupon counts towards those limits. From that point on, you might have low or zero out-of-pocket medical expenses. But if the proposed rule is adopted, insurance companies could block those coupon payments from being applied towards a patient’s deductible and out-of-pocket maximums – even though the insurance company isn’t having to pay. Why does an insurance company care where the funds come from as long as the bill gets paid??? In those cases, you would have to pay much more in regard to out-of-pocket spending before reaching your deductible. And it’s not just HIV medications in play here. The new policy could affect Americans with hepatitis B or C, who need daily medications to stay healthy in the case of hepatitis B, and for medications to cure hepatitis C which requires treatment for up to 12 weeks. Donald Trump has said in the past he wants to lower the cost of prescription drugs, but this certainly won’t do the trick. As the Blade notes, some patients with limited funds often skip a dose of medications here or there to stretch out the drugs they have. But studies have shown that missing just two days of HIV meds can increase an individual’s viral load. It’s not just HIV or hepatitis patients that could be affected. A study from the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science shows in 2017 69 percent of insured Americans did not fill their new prescriptions when they had to pay more than $250 out of pocket. Such non-adherence leads to tens of thousands of preventable deaths each year. In the end, while Trump may profess to want to help the American people with their healthcare costs, this new policy would only favor insurance companies. Here’s hoping the new policy proposal is rejected. (source: Washington Blade)
MAX (courtesy photo) MAX drops the music video to his new single, “Where Am I At,” in advance of his upcoming album, Colour Vision, due out May 22. The artist, dubbed ‘Young Pop God’ by GQ Magazine, doesn’t rely on visual trickery in the new video as he sings facing directly into the camera in one long take. “‘Where Am I At’ is about the moment you realize you will never hug, never talk with, never say I love you to someone that means everything to you,” says MAX. “The moment you know they’re truly gone and all that’s left of them is what you remember. I didn’t know who I was anymore knowing I’d never be able to see her again.” MAX’s intense, sensitive delivery paired with soaring vocals takes the artist into new emotional terrain compared to recent releases.
The new track is the follow up to MAX’s “Checklist” featuring Chromeo released last November. The bouncy pop bop (check out the colorful music video below) has accumulated millions of streams and charted at Top 40 radio. Released last April, MAX’s smash hit single “Love Me Less” featuring Quinn XCII reached No. 17 at Top 40 Pop Radio, has over 170 million streams worldwide and continues to grow. MAX has performed the song live on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The TODAY Show, and LIVE With Kelly and Ryan. MAX also announced the first leg of his North American tour with nearly a dozen dates so far and has surpassed over 1 billion total career streams.
Admit it – you knew this story was coming. From the New York Post:
Some American beer drinkers are avoiding Corona, the beer, amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak, according to a new survey. A surprising 38 percent of beer drinkers insisted that they would not, under any circumstances, buy Corona as the deadly virus spreads across the globe, according to the survey conducted by 5W Public Relations.
“There is no question that Corona beer is suffering because of the coronavirus,” Ronn Torossian, founder of 5WPR, said in a statement.
In fact, 14 percent of respondents who said they regularly consume Corona beer admitted in the survey they would not order the beverage in public. There was also some confusion as 16 percent of those surveyed said they were not sure whether the virus is related to Corona beer.
38% of Americans wouldn't buy Corona beer "under any circumstances" because of the coronavirus, according to a recent survey.
Just to be abundantly clear: There is no link between the virus and the beer. https://t.co/D8fL89Oe0E
(image via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Handsome Ignacio Pérez Rey (above) sums up France: “Nice is NICE!” Follow the world traveler on Instagram here. • LGBTQ Nation: A trans woman was shot at a gas station by a man shouting anti-trans epithets. But a judge ignored state law and ruled that it wasn’t a hate crime. • KWWL: The Iowa Democratic Party announced the results of the limited-scope recount requests from the Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders campaigns. The recount process resulted in no change to the National Delegate allocation. Pete Buttigieg has 14 national delegates, Sanders has 12. As a result of the recount, county-level delegate allocation changed in 19 precincts. • Out Music: Check out the new music video “Revival” from Broadway actor/singer Juwan Crawley (Aladdin). As a gay black man, Juwan started writing music as a response to the epidemic of police brutality towards and killings of innocent black Americans and has since used it as a platform for the values he holds dear. He continues to write music to express that which tethers us together: self-love, spirituality… and just f*cking fun.
• Gaily Grind: A disturbing cell phone video has been making the rounds on social media showing a Texas high school student viciously beating a transgender classmate. • Pew Research: About two-thirds of Americans (66%) feel worn out by the amount of news there is, while far fewer (32%) say they like the amount of news they are getting, according to a survey of more than 12,000 U.S. adults conducted in October and November of last year. • MSNBC: Democratic White House hopeful Mike Bloomberg tells Kasie Hunt in a new interview airing tomorrow morning on Morning Joe he intends to stay in the race “right to the bitter end.”
“I am going to stay right to the bitter end, as long as I have a chance,” @MikeBLoomberg tells @Kasie in an exclusive interview. “If Bernie Sanders were to get a majority, then of course not…you got to be in it to win it.”
Former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg (image via campaign) Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg issued an apology today after video clips of Bloomberg making transphobic remarks had come to light. One of the clips showed Bloomberg referring to transgender people as “he, she, or it” and “some guy in a dress” who could enter girls’ locker rooms at a forum at the Bermuda Business Development Agency in March of 2019. Another video showed the former mayor speaking at Oxford in 2016 describing transgender people as “some man wearing a dress.” The remarks were in reference to why he believed people in the Midwest would not push for greater rights for transgender individuals. Today, Bloomberg said in a statement (via The Advocate):
“Today, I spoke with leaders from the transgender community and have heard from elected officials like Mayor London Breed, and I understand that my words had caused hurt,” he said. (Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, is a cisgender woman but has a large trans constituency.)
“It was a poor attempt to describe how some who oppose transgender equality think about this issue — and those words do not reflect my unwavering support for equality for transgender Americans,” he continued. “I want to offer my sincerest apologies to the members of the transgender community.
“Given the ongoing violence that the trans community faces, including the recent killing of Alexa Ruiz in Puerto Rico, we need a president who will set the moral compass to ensure safety, respect and dignity for all trans people. As mayor, I signed a sweeping transgender civil rights bill and, as president, will promote policies that advance equality for transgender Americans who have been attacked by the Trump administration over the past three years.”
Since entering the race for the Democratic nomination for president, Bloomberg has yet to appear on a ballot in a Democratic primary or caucus. He will also not be on the ballot in the South Carolina primary Saturday, Bloomberg has focused his efforts and considerable cash on ballots next week on Super Tuesday, when voters in 14 states and one territory, along with Democrats living abroad, will vote in local primaries and caucuses. He currently is ranking third nationally in the RealClearPolitics average of polls.
Sadly, I remember all too well covering the story of young Gabriel Fernandez’s death – a horrifying case of an 8-year-old boy who was murdered by his own mother and her sadistic boyfriend. According to many reports at the time, he was tortured over and over because the boyfriend believed Gabriel to be gay. Not only were the duo prosecuted for their crimes, but charges were brought against four social workers who had checked on Gabriel over months and months but appeared to have done nothing to help Gabriel. “Looking away when you have the power to make a difference – that is true evil.” Witness an unflinching look at the case that put the system on trial. On Netflix now.
Stock markets around the world dropped for the sixth day in a row due to escalating fears that the coronavirus outbreak will affect economies across the globe. From the New York Times:
The S&P 500 fell 4.4 percent on Thursday, the worst single-day market slide for the market since August 2011. The index is on pace for its worst weekly performance since the 2008 financial crisis. Stocks in Europe and Asia were also hard hit on Thursday.
The sell-off came after public health officials in the United States and Germany said new patients in each country had no known connection to others with the illness, a development that could complicate efforts to track the virus. Cases of the virus have appeared in at least 47 countries.
The speed of the market slump has been stunning, with the S&P 500 falling more than 10 percent from its Feb. 19 high, a drop that Wall Street labels a correction to suggest the decline is more significant than a few days of downbeat trading.
The CDC has confirmed the first U.S. coronavirus case of ‘unknown origin.’ Donald Trump continues to deny the severity of the coronavirus threat.
Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape! @CDCgov…..
While fears and the number of coronavirus cases keep growing, Donald Trump held a rally and Mike Pence – who the president put in charge of the government’s response – held a fundraiser. There are now 64 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States (over 85,000 worldwide) and the stock market lost over 3,500 points in one week, but Trump told his rally attendees that rising fears about the impending crisis is merely a ‘hoax’ brought by the Democrats. “Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” Trump said. “They have no clue, they can’t even count their votes in Iowa.” “This is their new hoax,” Trump continued, adding that attacking Trump’s response to the coronavirus is now the Democratic Party’s “single talking point.” Watch the brief report from Brian Williams below. 
As the Blade notes, some patients with limited funds often skip a dose of medications here or there to stretch out the drugs they have. But studies have shown that 
