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Out Swimmer Removed From Training Group Admits To Drinking/Breaking Honor Code

Two-time NCAA champion Abrahm DeVine (image via Instagram)
Last week, two-time NCAA champion swimmer Abrahm DeVine shared a lengthy message on his Instagram addressing homophobia he said he experienced as an openly gay athlete at Stanford University. DeVine, who graduated from the university this year but is continuing to take classes, accused the Stanford Swim coaching staff of removing him from the Stanford swim team because of his sexuality. “There are surface level reasons I was kicked off the Stanford swim team, but I can tell you with certainty that it comes down to the fact that I am gay,” wrote DeVine.

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As many of you know, I’m an openly gay swimmer and I am the only one at my level. I want to use this post to call out some of the homophobia that I’ve experienced being an athlete, and encourage everyone to be thoughtful and intentional about changing some of the homophobic aspects of the athletic culture that exists today. While I have many specific examples of micro aggressions and outright aggressions that I’ve experienced, homophobia is ultimately much more than an accumulation of experiences. In fact, it is a denial of experience. While I feel like I’ve tried to convey this to many people, many of whom deny any possibility that they contribute it, I’ve started to ask myself: Why is it my job to educate coaches and athletes at the most resourceful university in the world? I cannot continue to try to engage people in this conversation when there is so much fragility to obscure my humanity and character, so much rhetoric to keep me silent. Everyone says they support me, and yet, for the millionth time, I am the only one speaking up. To my coaches who sport the pride flag on their desk, to the athletes who liked my pride photo on Instagram, I need you to wake up to what’s happening around you. How can you say you support me and my equality? How can you not see how Stanford Swim has treated me and used me over the last 4 years? Am I invisible? Plain and simple: there are surface level reasons I was kicked off the Stanford swim team, but I can tell you with certainty that it comes down to the fact that I am gay. This is a pattern. Homophobia is systematic, intelligently and masterfully designed to keep me silent and to push me out. I am a talented, successful, educated, proud, gay man: I am a threat to the culture that holds sports teams together. I want something to change, because I can’t take it anymore. My story is not unique. There are queer voices everywhere and all you have to do is listen. I am asking, begging for some sort of action. If you are reading this, this post is for you! Gay or straight, swimmer or not. None of us are exempt from homophobia. It is your civil duty to educate yourself. If you choose not to, it is at my expense.

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The coaching staff of Stanford Swim issued a statement refuting DeVine’s claims and added that the athlete wasn’t being allowed to train with the team “for reasons entirely unrelated to his sexuality.” I remember reading the story and at the time both the ‘surface reasons’ and the ‘reasons entirely unrelated’ comments stuck out as intentionally vague.

The Stanford Daily is now reporting DeVine’s “expulsion came after he drank at a Team USA swim meet instead of showing up to support his teammates who were competing, a violation of the National Team’s Honor Code.” The Daily also makes a point to clarify that DeVine wasn’t kicked off the swim team but was “barred from the University’s pro-training group after finishing his collegiate career.” DeVine told the Daily that while he stands by his Instagram post, he feels people focused on just one aspect of the essay and not his main point. “I think that I wrote this entire Instagram post where every sentence is very important, but the only one that people are really focusing on is me calling out Stanford, and that makes my message sound very aggressive and that I’m out for blood, when in reality that is not what I wanted at all,” DeVine said. “I’m here to just say this is a systemic issue.” DeVine says his message was meant to highlight what he feels is a homophobic environment on the Stanford team and to “call out” the homophobia he says he experienced. During his time on the Stanford swim team, DeVine recalls coaches attempting to motivate swimmers by appealing to “masculine stereotypes,” and when he tried to explain why he felt excluded from the team as a gay athlete, the coaching staff would “get defensive and unwilling to listen to him.” DeVine came out in an interview with Swimming World magazine in September of 2018. At the time, he told the magazine he felt his teammates and coaches “received the news warmly” and expressed regret that he had struggled with deciding to come out to them. “I remember that being a pretty emotional time, and just feeling my whole team wrap around me and feeling that love in a place where I hadn’t really felt it, that was definitely pretty special for me,” DeVine said. “Just seeing them kind of prove me wrong was definitely special, something I’ll never forget.”

(source: Stanford Daily, Swimming World)

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Turkey Begins Attack On Northern Syria

The New York Times reports:

Turkey launched a planned military operation in northeastern Syria on Wednesday aimed at flushing out a Syrian militia backed by the United States, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Erdogan said the operation aimed to “prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border,” but provided no other information about whether Turkish ground troops had entered Syria or how far in they would go.

A spokesman for the United States-backed militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said that Turkish warplanes had begun carrying out airstrikes.

Turkey’s long-planned move to root out United States-allied Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria accelerated rapidly after President Trump seemingly gave a green light in a call with Mr. Erdogan on Sunday. The operation has sparked fierce debates in Washington and could open a dangerous new front in Syria’s eight-year-old war.

Donald Trump tweeted that he wants the Middle East to take care of itself:

Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives underscored their opposition to Trump’s decision to move U.S. forces out of the area:

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News Round-Up: October 8, 2019

L-R Sean Hayes of Will & Grace and Olympian Gus Kenworthy (image via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • Will & Grace: Out Olympian Gus Kenworthy shared the pic above with W&G star Sean Hayes as he shares the news he shot an episode for the upcoming final season of the iconic sitcom. Congrats, Gus! • Washington Blade: 133 LGBTQ activists were arrested outside the U.S. Supreme Court building today as justices heard oral arguments regarding whether federal civil rights laws protect LGBTQ people in the workplace. • Politico: Since taking office, Donald Trump has continually suggested asking White House staffers to take lie detector tests. The Donald has ramped up the idea again as two whistleblowers have come forward with clear information about his phone call with the Ukrainian president. • Netflix: The Fab 5 jet off to Japan for a four-episode Queer Eye mini-season. Streaming giant Netflix premieres the bonus installments on November 1.

• KIT212: It’s Tennis Tuesday over at Kenneth’s place where he always finds the hottest tennis players to showcase. Last week’s specimen will be pretty hard to top… 🙂 • Washington Post: The Senate Intelligence Committee, a Republican-led panel that has been investigating foreign electoral interference for more than two and a half years, said in blunt language that Russians worked to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton while bolstering Republican Donald Trump — and made clear that fresh rounds of interference are likely ahead of the 2020 vote. • New Music: Halsey drops the music video (nearly a million views in 6 hours) for her single, “Graveyard,” which has already amassed over 65 million streams since its release. The music video, featuring Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney, begins in Halsey’s bedroom but evolves into a sweet same-sex romp at a carnival. Stereogum praised “Graveyard” as a “strong pop song about depression and co-dependence” and noted, “Halsey… can sing about stark internal stuff and still make the songs sound like they belong in an arena.”

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Hate Crime Victim Left With Broken Jaw & No Teeth After Assault

Cedrick Green (mugshot)
Cedrick Green of Racine, Wisconsin, has been arrested for a hate crime charge of battery – great bodily harm, plus two incidents of jumping bail. The Journal Times reports that the victim of the assault, which took place on July 29, told police he was attacked by three men who called him “gay” and “taunted him for his sexual orientation.” At one point in the assault, the victim was able to distance himself from the three men and ran to a nearby gas station for safety. The victim suffered injuries to his face, jaw, left arm and left knee. But the injuries to the victim’s jaw were so severe, according to the police complaint, “it required all of his teeth to be removed from his mouth.” Green, 23, was positively identified from a photo lineup by the victim. He is now being held on $10,000 bail and made his first appearance in court on Monday, October 7. He is scheduled to return to court on October 17. In addition to the hate crime battery charge, Green had previously been arrested on misdemeanor charges in an unrelated incident. He’d been released on bail with the condition that he not commit any more crimes. Green also has prior convictions for theft, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of THC and resisting an officer, according to the Journal Times. The two other assailants have not been identified at this time.

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Hillary Tweets ‘Don’t Tempt Me’ After Trump Dares Her To Run Again

Donald Trump attempted to drag Hillary Clinton back into the fray by suggesting she run again for president in 2020 – on the ‘condition’ that Clinton “explain all of her high crimes and misdemeanors.” But Hillary clapped back tweeting, “Don’t tempt me. Do your job.” #FTW

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Giuliani Refuses To Testify Unless Adam Schiff Is ‘Removed’ As Chairman

Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the press today he will not appear before Congressional committee's unless Democrat Adam Schiff is removed as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Rudy Giuliani (screen capture)
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Post today that he would not appear before the House Intelligence Committee unless Chairman Adam Schiff is removed from his position. Not. Gonna. Happen. From the Washington Post:

Giuliani said Tuesday that he would not testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee and that he “can’t imagine” that anyone from the Trump administration would appear before the panel led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) either.

“The position I’m stating is now the position of the administration,” Giuliani said in an interview in which he revealed that the administration has written a letter that will be released soon saying that Schiff’s committee is illegitimate.

“I wouldn’t testify in front of that committee until there is a vote of Congress and he [Schiff] is removed,” Giuliani said, referring to Republican calls for a full House vote on an impeachment inquiry and the removal of Schiff as the committee’s chairman.

That’s a little like saying, “I will play your team as long as LeBron does not play…” In related news, three House committee chairmen announced that they will issue a subpoena to compel testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, hours after learning he failed to appear for a deposition. Sondland was apparently ordered by the State Department not to appear. “We consider this interference to be obstruction of the impeachment inquiry,” the three committee chairmen said in a statement Tuesday. “We will be issuing a subpoena to Ambassador Sondland for both his testimony and documents.” Shortly before he was scheduled to appear before Congress, Trump blocked Sondland’s testimony calling the committee’s “a kangaroo court.” Although Sondland’s position does not involve Ukraine officially, recent reports of text messages indicate he was central to the conversations between the White House’s request to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and the newly-elected president of Ukraine.

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SCOTUS Hears Arguments On Whether Federal Civil Rights Laws Protect LGBTQs

(Photo: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States/Public Domain)
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday for three cases considering whether federal civil rights laws protect LGBTQ people in the workplace. Two of the cases (Zarda v. Altitude Express and Bostock v. Clayton County) involve the firing of gay men and question whether anti-gay discrimination is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The third case, EEOC v. Harris Funeral Homes, looks for resolution on whether anti-transgender discrimination is illegal under the law. The basic premise of the arguments hinges on whether discrimination based on “sex” – which Title VII prohibits – includes any discrimination involving sexual orientation. In other words, are employers allowed to discriminate against an employee based on the sex of the person they may date or marry? Conservative Justice Samuel Alito seemed to take the position that Congress in 1964 did not foresee covering sexual orientation or gender identity when passing Title VII. “You’re trying to change the meaning of ‘sex,’” said Alito according to the Associated Press. But Justice Elena Kagan suggested ‘sexual orientation’ is clearly a subset of sex discrimination in that a man who loves other men shouldn’t be treated differently by an employer than a woman who loves men. Here are the immediate reactions by some reporters who attended the oral arguments. Chris Johnson, of the Washington Blade, tweets that the ruling could come down, surprisingly, to Justice Neil Gorsuch who asked several questions “if sex is also in play” in cases regarding anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Johnson also notes that Chief Justice John Roberts, who has become something of the ‘moderate/swing vote’ on the court since the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, should not be counted on to rule in our favor.

Legal blogger Amy Howe, formerly of SCOTUS Blog, also came away thinking Gorsuch may be the swing vote.

And from Mark Joseph Stern at Slate:

Only 21 states, the District of Columbia, and two territories, Guam and Puerto Rico, have laws banning bias in the workplace based on both sexual orientation and gender identity.

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Ellen Defends Sharing A Laugh With George W. Bush

People got upset on Sunday when a photo of Ellen DeGeneres surfaced sharing some laughs with former President George W. Bush at this weekend’s Dallas Cowboys/Green Bay Packers football game. DeGeneres addressed criticisms that appeared on social media during the opening segment of her talk show on Tuesday. “Here’s the thing: I’m friends with George Bush,” she began, using the controversy to push for openness across social and political divides. “In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different and I think we’ve forgotten that that’s OK that we’re all different.” Here’s Ellen’s full statement:

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Poll: 58% Support Impeachment Inquiry Of Trump

According to a Washington Post-Schar School poll, a solid majority of Americans support the decision by House Democrats to begin an impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump. The breakdown of the survey shows: • 58% support the launch of the impeachment inquiry; 38% oppose the inquiry • 49% of those that support the inquiry also endorse removing Trump from office; 6% of those that support the inquiry are not in favor of removing Trump from office at this time • 56% disapprove of how House Republicans have handled the impeachment inquiry; 33% approve • 57% of Independents support the impeachment inquiry, and 49% of those believe Trump should be removed from office The Post notes that earlier Post-Schar School or Post-ABC News polls indicated the majority of Americans opposed the launch of an impeachment proceeding, with 37 percent to 41 percent saying they favored such a step.

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Lindsey Graham Invites Giuliani To Testify Before Senate Committee

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted an invitation to Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, an invitation to testify before his committee. In his Twitter invitation, Graham references “corruption in Ukraine and the many improprieties surrounding the firing of former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.” Giuliani alleges that when Joe Biden was vice president, he had a Shokin dismissed to stop an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company that Biden’s son Hunter was involved in between 2014 and 2018. Biden has dismissed the claims and no evidence to date has surfaced to support them. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) responded to Graham’s tweets with her own message, “Good. I have questions.”