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Pro-LGBTQ ‘Friends Of The Court’ Briefs Being Filed By Diverse Sectors In Advance Of Title VII Arguments At SCOTUS

U.S. Supreme Court

In advance of the upcoming oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court regarding whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, many sectors of America are urging SCOTUS to rule in favor of LGBTQ people.

A group of 36 former federal government officials who served during the Obama administration has filed a 43-page ‘friend of the court’ brief calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold LGBTQ rights.

Additionally, over 34 prominent LGBTQ-friendly Republicans, led by former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, have offered their own amicus brief which aims to ‘resonate’ with the conservative members of the high court on the issue.

Advocacy groups Family Equality, The Trevor Project, and PFLAG National submitted an their own amicus brief in support of queer employees in the critically-important LGBTQ employment discrimination cases that will be considered by SCOTUS in the 2019-2020 term.

And big business has weighed in as well with over 206 major corporations (including Apple, Amazon, American Airlines, Bank of America, Ben & Jerry’s, Coca-Cola, Domino’s Pizza, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nike, Starbucks, Viacom, Walt Disney and Xerox) signing on to their own brief in support of LGBTQ protections.

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Funnyman Michael Henry Chats Up Meatball In Latest Episode Of ‘Nailed’

From Henry: "I had the Pleasure of interviewing my dear friend Meatball. She over shared with me her issues with intimacy, her money problems, and trauma from her childhood then I said to her, you know were filming right? I can't use this. "Then she switched gears and talked about fisting for 20 min."
Meatball

Funnyman Michael Henry shares his latest episode of Nailed, featuring Meatball.

From Henry: “I had the Pleasure of interviewing my dear friend Meatball. She over shared with me her issues with intimacy, her money problems, and trauma from her childhood then I said to her, you know were filming right? I can’t use this.

“Then she switched gears and talked about fisting for 20 min.”

Meatball has a terrific ‘smile through the confusion/non-judgey’ look about her for much of the segment.

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Swampity Swamp Swamp: ‘Donated’ Fireworks From Company That Lobbied White House On Tariffs

President Donald Trump's Fourth of July celebration will feature $750,000 of donated fireworks from an Ohio retailer who has lobbied the White House against expanded tariffs on Chinese imports.
Donald Trump

When someone does you a favor, it is appropriate to send a gift, I guess.

From ABC News:

President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July celebration will feature $750,000 of donated fireworks from an Ohio retailer who has lobbied the White House against expanded tariffs on Chinese imports.

And last week, the same day the donation was announced, the company — Phantom Fireworks of Youngstown, Ohio — got what it wanted: Trump decided to hold off on his threatened $300 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, which include fireworks.

“This is another example of how private companies attempt use their money to influence the government by stroking the president’s ego,” said Jordan Libowitz with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

Newsweek reports the owners of Phantom Fireworks, the largest consumer fireworks retailer in the country, are registered Democrats but voted in the 2016 Ohio Republican primary.

That said, they got their reprieve from tariffs, and are now donating to Trump’s ego rally.

You do the math.

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Magnitude 6.6 Earthquake In Southern California

If you want to know what a 6.6 earthquake feels like, I’m in Las Vegas where I felt the entire house shake back and forth for over 30 seconds.

The earthquake’s epicenter was in Ridgecrest, California, over 200 miles away.

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An Independence Day Celebration For All Americans Tonight On PBS

While the Defense Department scrambles to make Donald Trump's 'ego rally' come to fruition, I want to make sure you all know that the REAL 4th of July celebration - A Capitol Fourth - is still happening across Washington D.C. tonight at 8/7c on PBS.

While the Defense Department scrambles to make Donald Trump’s ‘ego rally’ come to fruition, I want to make sure you all know that the REAL 4th of July celebration – A Capitol Fourth – is still happening across Washington D.C. tonight at 8/7c on PBS.

Live from the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, the annual concert celebrating America’s birthday pays special tribute to American military heroes and their families. Among the performers this year are Colbie Caillat, Carole King, Keala Settle, and Vanessa Williams. Hosted by John Stamos, the show also features the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jack Everly, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” and the U.S. Army Herald Trumpets. The finale includes fireworks and Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” complete with cannon fire.

Click here for more info and to confirm air times in your area.

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News Round-Up: July 3, 2019

• InstaHunk Jeff Ferreira calls the setting for this photo (above) "perfectly perfect." No wonder he looks so natural there ;)
InstaHunk Jeff Ferreira

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunk Jeff Ferreira calls the setting for this photo (above) “perfectly perfect.” No wonder he looks so natural there 😉

• ABC News: According to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, nearly 5 million people took part in this past weekend’s World Pride festivities.

• New York Times: It was 38 years ago today that a mysterious disease was reported to be targeting gay men in San Francisco and New York City. And so began a pandemic that the Reagan and Bush administrations would choose, in large part, to ignore.

• Washington Post: Tennessee has quietly enacted a new law that bars ministers ordained online from solemnizing weddings in the state. As of July 1, only priests, rabbis, ministers, people designated through a temple or church, and public officials can perform weddings. Many LGBT folks have their weddings officiated by family members or friends since many religious or elected officials won’t perform the ceremony, especially in deep red states.

• Page Six: Anderson Cooper (youngest child of now-deceased Gloria Vanderbilt) will inherit almost all of his mother’s estate. In 2014, Cooper told Howard Stern he didn’t expect to inherit anything.

• Tweet of the Day: White contractor shows up to the job of black homeowner with a racist Confederate flag on the back of his truck. Hit play to see what happened next.

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Oscar-Winning Producer Working On Pete Buttigieg Documentary

A film production company is currently shooting a documentary that will chronicle the presidential campaign of openly gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg

A film production company is currently shooting a documentary that will chronicle the presidential campaign of openly gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.

The production company, Story Syndicate, was founded by veteran filmmakers Dan Cogan (Oscar winner for Icarus) and Liz Garbus (Oscar-nominated for What Happened, Miss Simone?).

According to Axios, the independently funded film will document Mayor Pete’s “rise to national attention.”

Film crews have been seen filming at Buttigieg campaign events as well as at last week’s first Democratic presidential debates in Miami.

Buttigieg isn’t the first millennial politician to get the indie film treatment, though.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the focus of the campaign trail doc Knock Down the House, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke was the subject of HBO’s Running with Beto.

Documentaries have been useful tools for younger politicians to be a part of creating their own narrative. The Ocasio-Cortez and O’Rourke projects helped establish the candidates with younger voters as the films landed at platforms that appeal to those demographics.

The Buttigieg project hasn’t been picked up by a distributor or streaming service as of yet, according to Axios, as the film’s future is “contingent on the outcome of Buttigieg’s campaign.”

That said, it’s easy to imagine the narrative taking several directions.

As the first openly gay presidential candidate to be a serious contender, that story alone could warrant documenting.

If he were to clinch the nomination, he’d be the youngest Democratic presidential nominee in history.

Or, there’s been much talk of him being considered as a running mate for other Democratic candidates. Lots of chatter about a Kamala Harris/Pete Buttigieg ticket going on…
All of these could make for a compelling documentary.

But, there’s a long road ahead in this election cycle, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

(source: Axios)

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Judge Ruled Teen Accused Of Rape Deserved Leniency Because Good Grades & Family

(stock photo via Depositphotos)

Easily one of the most disturbing things I’ve read in a long time.

From the New York Times:

The 16-year-old girl was visibly intoxicated, her speech slurred, when a drunk 16-year-old boy sexually assaulted her in a dark basement during an alcohol-fueled pajama party in New Jersey, prosecutors said.

The boy filmed himself penetrating her from behind, her torso exposed, her head hanging down, prosecutors said. He later shared the cellphone video among friends, investigators said, and sent a text that said, “When your first time having sex was rape.”

But a family court judge said it wasn’t rape. Instead, he wondered aloud if it was sexual assault, defining rape as something reserved for an attack at gunpoint by strangers.

He also said the young man came from a good family, attended an excellent school, had terrific grades and was an Eagle scout. Prosecutors, the judge said, should have explained to the girl and her family that pressing charges would destroy the boy’s life.

So he denied prosecutors’ motion to try the 16-year-old as an adult. “He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college,” Judge James Troiano of Superior Court said last year in a two-hour decision while sitting in Monmouth County.

In New Jersey, juveniles as young as 15-years-old can be tried as adults in serious crimes. Troiano has been accused of showing bias towards teenagers from privileged homes.

The good news is an appeals court has issued a sharp rebuke of Judge Troiano’s decision and clears a path for moving the case from family court to a grand jury where the teen will be tried as an adult.

According to prosecutors, during the alleged assault a group of boys slapped the girl’s buttocks so hard she still had a mark on her hip the next day. And after the assault, the girl was found vomiting on the floor of the basement.

The Monmouth County prosecutor’s office argued that the case belongs in adult criminal court in part because the boy’s actions were “sophisticated and predatory.”

The prosecutors described the act of recording the cellphone video while committing the assault was “a deliberate act of debasement,” adding that it was “calculated and cruel.”

In his decision last summer, Troiano said the boy’s actions were not “sophisticated,” and called the boy’s text messages as “just a 16-year-old kid saying stupid crap to his friends.”

The appellate court disagreed and warned Troiano that he appeared to have “decided the case for himself.”

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Study Looks At Differences In LGB & Straight Home Buyers

Couple looking for first home (stock photo)

As some readers may know, I’m a licensed Realtor here in Las Vegas.

So I was interested to see the  first-ever Profile of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Buyers and Sellers released by the National Association of Realtors.

Crunching the numbers from four years of data, the report shows some definite differences in how LGB folks feel about, and approach, homeownership compared to heterosexuals.

When it comes to first-time buyers:

• 58% of bisexual homebuyers surveyed indicated they were purchasing their first home

• 36% of gay and lesbian buyers said the purchase was their first

• 32% of heterosexuals indicated it was their first trip to the real estate rodeo

Bisexuals were the youngest homebuyers, stepping up to the plate at median age 36-years-old, but with the lowest median income of $62,400.

Gay and lesbian buyers were the oldest demo at a median age of 45-years-old, but a much higher median income of $92,900.

Heterosexuals tend to buy around age 44 and with a median income of $91,200.

Bisexuals leaned towards smaller homes (median square footage of 1,840) and showed a preference for small towns (22%).

Gays and lesbians were more likely to buy in large cities or urban centers (28%) and chose larger homes (median square footage of 1,900).

The straight crowd liked bigger and newer homes (median square footage of 2,060) with a majority (53%) preferring the suburbs.

The report utilized data from 22,521 respondents. Of those, 3 percent identified as gay or lesbian, while 1 percent indicated being bisexual.

Check out the info-graphic below. And for more detail, click over to the National Association of Realtors.

And if anyone ever has any questions about real estate, while I can’t list or sell homes outside of Nevada, I can offer professional advice on buying and/or selling your home. Reach out to me via my Real Estate Facebook page here.

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Tweet Of The Day: Rochester Red Wings

Professional Minor League Baseball team, the Rochester Red Wings, held their first-ever Pride Night Tuesday night.

By all accounts, it was a big success.

Almost 10,000 fans in the stands, gorgeous weather and the 3rd largest crowd this season.

Even though the Red Wings lost in the 9th inning, everyone felt like a winner.

But back in May, one Red Wings fan trolled the Pride Night announcement, with a prediction: “I’m betting this will be the lowest attended game of the summer.”

At the time, the Red Wings clapped back advising the troll to not bet too much dough on that bet.

You know I love me a sassy pro-LGBTQ Twitter account 🙂

And once the tickets were counted, and a good time was had by all, the Red Wings didn’t forget their little Twitter friend.

Which brings me to my favorite tweet of the day:

Here’s more from the grand night of baseball: