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Kamala Harris Calls Mayor Pete Buttigieg ‘A Bit Naïve’

L-R Sen. Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Mmm, I find this disconcerting. And not very constructive. Speaking at a breakfast event today, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) said South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg came off “a bit naïve” when he brought up the discrimination experienced by LGBTQ Americans as part of his response to a question about his difficulty attracting support from black voters at Wednesday’s Democratic debate. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Mayor Pete currently draws 0% of African Americans in South Carolina. From CBS News:

During a Black Women Power Breakfast hosted by Higher Heights, a national political organization for black women that endorsed Harris earlier this month, Harris said it was wrongheaded for Buttigieg to “compare our struggles.”

“Those of us who’ve been involved in Civil Rights for a long time we know that it is important that we not compare our struggles. It is not productive, it is not smart and strategically it works against what we need to do which is build a coalition,” Harris said Thursday. “We know that in our ongoing fight for civil rights if any one of us starts to differentiate ourselves in a certain way and in particular what he did on the stage, it’s just not productive. And I think it’s a bit naïve.”

Backstage after the debate, Harris told CNN, “I’m never going to engage or allow anyone to engage in comparing struggles. I think that is just misdirected.” “So we’re going to now say that my pain is worse than your pain?,” she continued. “We had 400 years of slavery in this country. We had years of lynching, which involved black men, in particular, being dragged from their homes and hung on a tree, often castrated.” During the fifth Democratic debate on Wednesday night, Mayor Pete agreed with Harris that the Democratic Party has sometimes ignored black women voters until elections roll around. He added that he looked forward to “connecting with black voters.” “While I do not have the experience of ever having been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country, turning on the news and seeing my own rights come up for debate,” Buttigieg shared in his response. He added, “Wearing this wedding ring in a way that couldn’t have happened two elections ago lets me know just how deep my obligation is to help those whose rights are on the line every day, even if they are nothing like me in their experience.” Watching the debate live, I didn’t see the exchange as “comparing” struggles as much as he seemed to be relating to them via his own experience to what marginalized communities feel. CBS News asked Buttigieg about Harris’ accusation Thursday, and the South Bend mayor pushed back saying, “there’s no equating those two experiences.” “What I do think is important is for each of us to reveal who we are and what motivates us and it’s important for voters to understand what makes me tick, what moves me and my sources of motivation and ensuring that I stand up for others,” Buttigieg told CBS News. “Last night I shared that some of my sources of motivation included my personal experience, my governing experience, and my personal faith.”

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Screening Of ‘Stonewall Outloud’ Celebrates History With A Homecoming

By Lawrence Pfeil, Jr. Over the last fifty years, the story of what took place at the Stonewall Inn in the sweltering early hours of June 28, 1969, has become more legend and lore than verifiable fact. The first recorded archival accounts by those who were there didn’t take place until twenty years later with the audio documentary, Remembering Stonewall. StoryCorps has preserved the vital historic accounts of those events and this year also launched an effort to record the stories of the LGBTQ Community through its app. Thirty years after the firsthand stories were recorded, filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato have brought them to life in Stonewall Outloud and home to the Stonewall Inn. Narrated by RuPaul, the film honors past with present and reminds us exactly how monumental those nights were, and our history is as a community. In a special screening at the legendary bar on Wednesday night, a capacity crowd was transfixed listening to the words of those who had paved the way for them as some of today’s most recognizable LGBTQ talent (Lance Bass, Daniel Franzese, Michael Turchin, Charlie Carver, Laith Ashley and more) channeled their spirit.

Lance Bass and Michael Turchin
Afterward, Michael Musto hosted a Q & A with Bailey and featured Stonewall veteran and Stonewall bartender, Fredd E. “Tree” Sequoia. In Stonewall Outloud, Tree is “played” by none other than Adam Rippon. If you think he’s sassy, pull up a barstool and have a chat with Tree. He has spent 51 years working at gay bars in the Village, has all the Tea (and spills it) and has no plans to retire. He said, “I plan on dropping dead behind the bar here. Then the owners will have to clean me up!” Stories are not just a community’s history; it is their pride. If we find time to listen to each other’s stories, we’d learn they are also our joy. You can watch Stonewall Outloud below.

  Lawrence Pfeil, Jr., is a freelance writer/playwright who has reviewed film and theatre, both on and off-Broadway, for media outlets including The Randy Report, the New York Blade, and Edge Publications.

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Homophobic Photographer Files Anti-LGBTQ Lawsuit ‘Just In Case’

A wedding photographer in Louisville, Kentucky, has filed a lawsuit challenging the city’s Fairness Ordinance saying it forces her to “use her artistic talents to promote same-sex wedding ceremonies.”

The photographer, Chelsey Nelson, asks in the lawsuit that the city not only stop enforcing the 20-year-old ordinance but also requests ‘compensatory damages.’ Continue reading “Homophobic Photographer Files Anti-LGBTQ Lawsuit ‘Just In Case’”

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Franklin Graham: I Spoke To Chick-Fil-A CEO And They Haven’t Changed

Chick-Fil-A

Fast-food chain Chick-fil-A recently announced a shift in its charitable donations clearly intended to stave protests by LGBTQ activists and allies who have brought much-unwanted attention to the restaurant’s support of anti-LGBTQ organizations like the Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. But homophobic evangelist Franklin Graham posted a message on his Facebook page saying he’s spoken to the company’s CEO who he claims promised: “they haven’t changed.”

“Has Chick-fil-A caved? Some are saying they’ve rolled over, that they’ve conceded to the LGBTQ protests because they released a statement about their charitable giving. They announced that in 2020 they’re giving to fight hunger and homelessness and support education. What’s wrong with that?

“I picked up the phone and called Dan Cathy. Dan was very clear that they have not bowed down to anyone’s demands, including the LGBTQ community. They will continue to support whoever they want to support. They haven’t changed who they are or what they believe. Chick-fil-A remains committed to Christian values. Dan Cathy assured me that this isn’t going to change. I hope all those who jumped to the wrong conclusion about them read this.

“In my opinion, the gay movement wouldn’t ever be happy with Chick-fil-A unless they were open on Sunday, gave all of their charitable donations to LGBTQ organizations, and flew the rainbow flag over their stores! Their hatred for Chick-fil-A is rooted in founder Truett Cathy’s strong stand for biblical ‘traditional’ values and his desire to honor God.

“No fast food chain does a better job. I went through the drive-thru at Chick-fil-A yesterday morning, and I thought I might get dinner there — but a whole lot of other people had the same idea! A Chick-fil-A sandwich with waffle fries sounds really good right now!” 

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Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu Indicted On Charges Of Bribery & Fraud

Benjamin Netanyahu (image via Flickr)
From the Washington Post:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was formally charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust on Thursday, making him the first Israeli premier to be indicted while in office and sending Israel’s already stalemated political system into further disarray.

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit capped almost three years of investigation and months of speculation by handing down a 63-page indictment against the country’s longest-serving prime minister and its center of political gravity for the last decade.

The cases against Netanyahu center on police allegations that the prime minister and his wife, Sara, accepted more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods in exchange for political favors and that Netanyahu interceded with regulators and lawmakers on behalf of two media companies in exchange for positive news stories.

Netanyahu has consistently denied all of the allegations calling the accusations and investigation a ‘witch hunt.’ Now, where have we heard that term before? Hmm… (image via Flickr/CC license)

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News Round-Up: November 20, 2019

Some news items you might have missed: • Instinct: A real-life gay couple (above) kissing in an Australian underwear ad got a lot of attention. Some called it “beautiful,” but others said the ad was “offensive.” • Washington Blade: The number of hate crime incidents targeting gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in the United States in 2018 increased by nearly 6 percent over the previous year and the number of anti-transgender hate crime incidents increased by 41 percent during that same period, according to the FBI’s newly released annual Hate Crime Statistics Report. • Newsweek: Donald Trump regularly struggles to “remember what he’s said or been told,” an anonymous senior government official writes in the newly-released book, A Warning. • The Sun: A United Airlines passenger refused to sit next to 16-year-old Taylor Richardson on a plane “because she was black.” • NBC News: Preparing to enroll their two-year-old in pre-school, two gay dads were asked: “Who is the mother?” • Rolling Stone: Michelle Obama, Lizzo and Lil Nas X all scored Grammy Award nominations today. • Gaily Grind: Acrobatic dancers Guillaume Paquin and Arthur Morel Van Hyfte received a standing ovation after performing a dance routine meant to combat homophobia on La France a Un Incroyable Talent (France’s Got Incredible Talent) last night. The dance routine is part of the CircusQueer project, which is described on social media as “a series of performance videos to address social issues and hopefully inspire a kinder world” and meant to address “gender identity, trans youth, and the conditioning of gender expectations.”

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Transgender Day Of Remembrance: 331 Trans People Murdered Over Past 12 Months

Today we observe Transgender Day of Remembrance, which began in 1999 as a way to honor Rita Hester, a trans woman murdered inside her Boston apartment in 1998. A vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester’s death and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. Observed every November 20, the day is meant to honor the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

A new report released by Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide, from its Trans Murder Monitoring research project, reveals the latest numbers in the worldwide epidemic of violence against trans people.

The new data shows 331 reported murders of trans and nonbinary people occurred between October 1, 2018, and September 30 of this year.

TMM updated its report with this statement: “The majority of the murders occurred in Brazil (130), Mexico (63), and the United States (30) adding up to a total of 3314 reported cases in 74 countries worldwide between 1st of January 2008 and 30th of September 2019.”

“In the United States, the majority of the trans people reported murdered are trans women of colour and/or Native American trans women (85%), and in France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, which are the countries to which most trans and gender-diverse people from Africa and Central and South America migrate, 65% of the reported murder victims were migrant trans women.”

I would add a tweet from the president or the Republicans, but there weren’t any.

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Third Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Anti-LGBTQ ‘Conscience Protection’ Rule

Trump walks past reporters with no comment

  A third federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration’s proposed change in regulations which would allow health care providers to deny care that offends ‘deeply held religious beliefs. Read that as legalizing discrimination against LGBTQ people. U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California ruled on Tuesday that the new Denial of Care rule is “not in accordance with law” by reason of conflict with underlying statutes. “When a rule is so saturated with error, as here, there is no point in trying to sever the problematic provisions,” wrote Alsup in his decision. “The whole rule must go.” Previously, Judge Paul Engelmayer of New York, and Judge Stanley Bastian of Spokane, Washington, also found the religious exemption rule announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would violate several federal laws. Alsup wrote in his ruling, “Under the new rule, to preview just one example, an ambulance driver would be free, on religious or moral grounds, to eject a patient en route to a hospital upon learning the patient needed an emergency abortion. Such harsh treatment would be blessed by the new rule.” The so-called ‘conscience protection’ rule would also expand the categories of workers who could choose to refuse to serve the public to include receptionists, accounting staff and emergency responders. Plus, the federal government would be allowed to cut funding to states and/or employers who might not respect the religious exemption to the degree sought by the Trump administration. Judge Alsup made note that there are already federal laws in place to provide for accommodating a health care provider’s religious or conscientious objections to some procedures like abortion. HHS announced the proposed rule change in May and was set to take effect this Friday. But Judge Engelmayer’s ruling in New York two weeks ago blocked the regulation. Jamie Gliksberg of Lambda Legal, which was one of the legal teams representing the plaintiffs, celebrated in a statement regarding the ruling: “That is now three judges in two weeks who have recognized the Denial of Care Rule for what it is, an egregious and unconstitutional attack on women, LGBT people and other vulnerable populations.” This doesn’t end the assault on LGBTQ people’s rights by the Trump administration, though. Earlier in November, HHS shared plans to allow faith-based adoption or foster care organizations who receive federal funds to decline to place children with LGBTQ families. Plus, the Trump administration is still working to remove parts of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits discrimination against transgender people. (source)

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Leading In Early Voting States, Buttigieg Can Expect Attacks At Dem Debate Tonight

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (image via Instagram)
As the Democratic presidential candidates take to the debate stage tonight, expect Mayor Pete Buttigieg to take some incoming fire after recent polls show him surging in two early voting states. Buttigieg is the first openly gay presidential candidate to take the lead in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The latest polling from Monmouth University for the upcoming Iowa caucus’ was first to show out Mayor Pete in the top spot. That poll showed the South Bend mayor ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden by 3 points and Sen. Elizabeth Warren for 4 points. Here are the results – the numbers in parenthesis represent standing when combining first and second place results: • Mayor Pete Buttigieg 22% (37) • Former Vice President Joe Biden 19% (29) • Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 18% (35) • Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 13% (25) • Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 5% (14) • Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) 3% (9) • Billionaire Tom Steyer 3% (6) • Entrepreneur Andrew Yang 3% (4) The latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll shows Mayor Pete Buttigieg has jumped 16 points since the Register’s last poll to land at the top of the Democratic presidential field. • Mayor Pete Buttigieg 25% • Sen. Elizabeth Warren 16% • Former Vice President Joe Biden 15% • Sen. Bernie Sanders 15% • Sen. Amy Klobuchar 6% And in New Hampshire, the Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll released last night shows Buttigieg opening up a ten point lead over his competitors with 25 percent support. Biden and Warren tied in second place with 15 percent, and Sanders drops to 9 percent support. Despite all that good news for Buttigieg and his campaign team, there have been some not-so-great bumps in the road. For one, video from a 2010 ‘Meet the Candidates Night’ during his attempt to become Indiana state treasurer has re-emerged on Twitter. The event was hosted by two Republican groups with connections to the Tea Party. In the video, Buttigieg says in his opening remarks: “There are some, especially in my party, who think that the Tea Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party. But there are many others who believe that the Tea Party is motivated by real concerns about the direction of our government and the responsiveness of our government to citizens. and above all, a frustration with business as usual. That is what motivated me to run.” He also notes, “We may come from often very different perspectives.” Some progressive Twitter warriors have called the remarks “disqualifying.” But there’s some backstory to this appearance. It seems Buttigieg’s opponent wouldn’t debate him, so Pete went to the ‘Meet the Candidates’ event as his only chance to share a stage with his opponent. And if you watch the video clip, he doesn’t say he embraces the Tea Party. He makes a point to say he “comes from a very different perspective” while admitting people from both parties share frustrations about government being run as “business as usual.” In fact, President Obama said something very similar just a short time later when he addressed an MTV/BET Town Hall. “I think there are a lot of people who are involved in the Tea Party who have very real and sincere concerns about spending that’s out of control or generally philosophically believe that the government should be less involved in certain aspects of American life rather than more involved,” said Obama. “And they have every right and obligation as citizens to be involved and engaged in this process.” The mayor’s campaign was also criticized for using a stock photo of Kenyan woman in materials released with his plan to address U.S. racism, “The Douglass Plan.” In any case, you can certainly expect one of the mayor’s opponents to bring up some of these nuggets tonight during the Democratic debate tonight hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post. The two-hour debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET.

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Ambassador Confirms ‘Clear Quid Pro Quo’ Sought By Trump

Ambassador Gordon Sondland (screen capture)
Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, testified today before Congress that he worked with Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine ‘at the express direction of the president’ to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. “I know that members of this committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’” Sondland said under oath. “With regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”

From the New York Times:

Mr. Sondland acknowledged that he told a senior Ukrainian official that to get Mr. Trump to release the frozen American security aid, the Kyiv government would likely have to publicly commit to investigating a debunked conspiracy theory involving Democrats in the 2016 election as well as Mr. Biden and his son’s ties to Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.

But the ambassador did not attribute that linkage to any explicit direction by Mr. Trump, instead saying he came to that conclusion on his own based on the fact that the money had been held up for so long.

“In the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of the aid,” Mr. Sondland said, “I later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 election and Burisma, as Mr. Giuliani had demanded.”

In true Trumpian form, Trump began to distance himself from Sondland upon hearing the ambassador’s testimony.

Last month, Trump referred to Sondland, who donated $1 million to the president’s inaugural fund $1, as “a really good man and great American.”

However, this morning the tune changed: “I don’t know him very well. I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. He seems like a nice guy though.”