Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
Some news stories you might have missed:
• The Advocate: A man has been charged with threatening to destroy a Pride flag displayed at a shopping mall in Massachusetts. He said he would shoot down and burn the flag if it were not removed within three days. Continue reading “News: Record Number Of Anti-LGBTQ Bills + More”
In the latest episode of The Randy Report podcast: Florida lawmakers are trying to expand the state’s hideous “Don’t Say Gay” law. Plus… Continue reading “Podcast: New Movie ‘Chrissy Judy’ + Drag At CMT Music Awards + More”
Samuel Luiz (image via Facebook)A fourth suspect has been arrested and charged in the murder of Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old gay man in Spain.
In a Twitter statement, the Policía Nacional announced the arrest of a man aged between 20 and 25. In addition to murder, he is charged with allegedly stealing the victim’s mobile phone.
This comes after 3 A Coruña residents were arrested in connection with the death of Luiz on Wednesday. The deadly assault was perpetrated by more than a dozen people near a nightclub in the Galician city.
The fourth suspect is apparently friends with the initial suspects, according La Vanguardia, a Spanish-speaking newspaper.
None of the suspects knew the victim prior to the attack according to reports.
The incident began when Luiz reportedly stepped out of the nightclub to video chat with a friend. The attacker apparently believed Luiz was recording him and demanded he stop – “Either stop recording or I’ll kill you, f*g,” yelled one of the attackers.
After initially beating Luiz for a couple of minutes, the attacker left the scene but quickly returned with a mob of friends who all joined in kicking and beating Luiz.
Surveillance footage captured the assault which stretched out for several blocks along the street until Luiz collapsed and passed out.
Media reports say the video clips show the group continued to cheer the attack on as they continued to kick and beat him.
Luiz died just hours later on Saturday at the A Coruña Hospital. A spokesman for the police told the press, “They showed him no mercy.”
French police officers (image via Kevin.B/Wikimedia)The French newspaper l’Indépendant reports that a 52-year-old father drove 500 miles to confront and threaten his daughter who had called him earlier in the day to come out to him as a lesbian.
The young woman, whose name hasn’t been released, had been dating another woman and began the process of coming out to friends at college. But when she phoned her father on October 16 to share the news, he reportedly jumped in his car and drove – without stopping – from Strasbourg to Norbonne.
Upon arriving at her college campus, he found his daughter and began berating her and threatening to “cut her throat.”
Eventually, the police showed up and arrested the dad for making threats and harassment. The daughter, her girlfriend, and her mother filed charges.
The man was arraigned in Norbonne’s criminal court on Monday, October 19.
Chasten and Pete Buttigieg on the campaign trailSome news items you might have missed:
• Instagram: Pete Buttigieg, on the campaign trail, posts the above photo with hubby Chasten, with the caption “Happy Valentine’s Day to the one I love.” #swoon
• Advocate: Two gay men were shot this week in a drive-by attack in Miami, leaving one in critical condition, and they believe it happened because they were kissing — and a lesbian nearby was also injured.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A new poll released Thursday showed the former vice president Joe Biden with 32% of support in Georgia. Sen. Bernie Sanders and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg were both at 14%. The poll pegs Pete Buttigieg at just 5% of Georgia’s vote and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 4%. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar trails at 3%. Georgia’s primary is on March 24.
• Apple TV: Don’t forget the five-part docuseries Visible: Out on Television is now available on Apple’s streaming service. The series investigates the importance of TV as a medium that helped shaped the American conscience, and how the LGBTQ movement has shaped television.
• Bloomberg Law: Michael Avenatti, who became famous representing porn star Stormy Daniels, was convicted of trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc. and defrauding a client in the process. Jurors in Manhattan found Avenatti guilty of all three criminal counts. The verdict on Friday, following a two-week trial, could lead to a long prison sentence for the lawyer.
• CBS News: Donald Trump says he’s considering ending the standard protocol of having top administration officials listen to his calls with foreign leaders, following his conversation with Ukraine’s president, a call that culminated in his impeachment.
• KIT212: Kenneth rounds up the what’s what in gay rags this week including forever-hottie Robbie Williams covering this month’s Attitude Magazine (below).
• Boston 25 News: Drug Enforcement Agency officials raided the home of Dr. Keith Ablow, the embattled former celebrity psychiatrist caught in a series of sexual assault lawsuits. The famously anti-LGBTQ Ablow saw his medical license revoked last year after he was accused of engaging in inappropriate sexual activity with several patients and illegally distributing prescriptions to employees.
• Mediaite: Mike Bloomberg’s campaign openly mocked Donald Trump again over his comments on the coronavirus in which POTUS said, “Now the virus that we are talking about having to do, you know, lotta people think that goes away in April, with the heat,” by basically just splicing it with that famous Billy Madison “What you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things…” scene. #BloombergAintPlaying
— Team Bloomberg (@Mike2020) February 14, 2020
Four men in Washington state have been arrested for allegedly harassing and physically attacking a gay couple for holding hands at a food truck.
Pedro Mata Contreras, 36, Oscar Emestor Mata, 38, Ulises Missael Reyes-Mata, 24, and Jose Torres, 37, were charged with Felony Malicious Harassment. All four maintain their innocence.
Local CBS News affiliate KEPR reports eight witnesses told police the group of four men verbally harassed the gay couple early Sunday morning at a food truck in Pasco, using the word “fag.”
The incident escalated as the men reportedly punched one of the victims in the face. As he fell to the ground, the other men began to kick him repeatedly.
The victim, left bleeding on the ground as the men ran away, suffered bone fractures in his face and a concussion.
Witnesses were able to identify the four accused attackers.
The four men are scheduled to be arraigned on December 31.
(mugshots via Franklin County)(lead image via Depositphotos)
|
| Jussie Smollett (image via screen capture) |
Almost a week after Empire star Jussie Smollett was assaulted in Chicago by two men who used homophobic, racist slurs during the attack, the actor & singer showed up for his already scheduled concert at The Troubadour in Los Angeles last night.
As he took to the stage, his first public appearance since the attack, he told the crowd, “I had to be here tonight, y’all. I can’t let the motherf—ers win,” according to Variety.
“I have so many words on my heart,” Smollett told the sold-out crowd. “The most important thing I have to say is thank you so much and that I’m okay. I’m not fully healed yet, but I’m going to. And I’m gonna stand strong with y’all… l will always stand for love. I will never stand for anything other than that. Regardless of what anyone else says, I will only stand for love. And I hope that you all will stand with me. So now… let’s do it.”
Variety notes that the concert was sold-out before the attack in Chicago.
With a setlist that included songs like, “Freedom,” Conqueror,” and “Hurt People,” Smollett reportedly fought back tears as the evening took on a message of defiance and strength.
Near the end of the concert, the singer called out to two artists in attendance – out actor Wilson Cruz (Star Trek: Discovery) and Empire creator Lee Daniels: “I promised myself I was not gonna cry tonight. Someone in the crowd that I want to recognize: Wilson Cruz is someone I identified with growing up. I stand on the backs of so many people — of the Lee Daniels and the Wilson Cruz’s — and I pray to God I make you all proud.”
Before his final encore, he said there were a few points of fact that he wanted to clear up regarding reports of the attack.
“I was bruised but my ribs were not cracked; they were not broken,” he began. “I went to the doctor immediately – I was not hospitalized. Both my doctors in L.A. and Chicago cleared me to perform, but said to take care, obviously. And above all: I fought the f— back.”
And the crowd goes wild!
Since the racially motivated attack, @JussieSmollett hit the stage for his #SeanHealyPresentsJussieSmollett in LA with an emotional message. pic.twitter.com/MVBnKdq1pZ— Karen Civil (@KarenCivil) February 3, 2019
After the roar subsided, he finished the moment by joking, “I’m the gay Tupac! So now, we can do our encore.”
As he exited the stage, Smollett announced, “We are proud. We are gay.”
Wilson Cruz acknowledged Smollett on his Instagram.
HBO’s Vice News goes inside the prison in Chechnya where gay men were allegedly held, tortured and killed as part of the country’s “anti-gay purge.”
VICE News obtained exclusive access to the now-abandoned buildings where the local prison warden and his officers reportedly beat and tortured men they suspected of being gay. Human Rights Watch has confirmed that this site is at the center of their investigation into homophobic abuse in Chechnya.
Ayub Kataev, prison warden and head of the ministry of internal affairs, initially stuck to the official Chechen response: absolute denial, not only about abuse but even the existence of gay people. “We don’t think these people exist among us,” he told VICE News, accusing those who reported the story of seeking to destabilize Chechnya.
“My officers would not even want to touch such people, if they exist, let alone beating or torturing them.” Kataev continued, accusing both the victims and Human Rights Watch of lying. Kataev suggested that the men making claims of torture were doing so in order “to get asylum, to leave the country and obtain free foreign citizenship.”
At one point, Kataev lines up his officers and asks them, for the cameras, “Was there a single case when I told you to arrest some kind of gays? Have you even heard about them?”
It will not surprise you to learn they all obediently answer, “No.”
|
| Brandon Ray Davis |
There will be no jail time for a North Carolina man who admitted to chasing and assaulting two gay men during a late night February incident in Key West, Florida.
Unbelievable. And people wonder why LGBTs protest.
From the Miami Herald:
Brandon Ray Davis, 30, admitted calling Kevin Paul Taylor and Kevin Seymour “faggots,” and yelling, “You’re in Trump country now!” on Feb. 23 on Duval Street in Key West and smashing his scooter into Seymour’s back bike tire.
“I landed on my feet, that was the luck of it,” Seymour said Wednesday, after the hearing in which Davis received four years probation, 75 hours of community service and was banned from tasting alcohol for two years.
Judge Wayne Miller said the injuries suffered — a flattened bicycle tire and a chain knocked off — weren’t enough to warrant a day in jail after Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne asked for 60 days behind bars.
Originally arrested for felony aggravated battery, Davis was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge Wednesday at the Monroe County Courthouse in Key West.
Taylor and Seymour watched Wednesday as Davis called his fiancée and two family friends to the front of the court to testify that whatever he did at about 1 a.m. Feb. 23 in Key West was completely out of character. Davis also has an openly gay friend, a professional his attorney noted, who wrote one of 30 letters of support.
Then Davis turned toward the two men he threatened in a drunken stupor four months ago, walked toward them from the court’s center and offered to embrace them.
“My heart goes out to you guys, every bit of it,” Davis said to Taylor and Seymour, who were seated in the front row behind the prosecutor’s table. “I’m asking you to come put your arms around me, take my hand.”
The two men were silent.
Davis followed the men for five blocks, taunting them and at one point promising, “If you call the cops I will cut that faggot body up,” and claiming he was a correctional officer.
|
| Ramin Karimloo |
Some news items you may have missed:
• One item I forgot in my Tony Awards recap – I truly missed not seeing Ramin Karimloo and the cast of Broadway’s Anastasia perform. For the fans, don’t miss Ramin at BB Kings in NYC July 23 & 24.
• Four law firms turned down the opportunity to represent Donald Trump because he has a history of not listening to people he hires, and not paying his bill.
• A Malaysian teenager was savagely beaten and left brain-dead for being “effeminate.”
• The president’s job approval drops to 36% leaving him 23 points under water.
• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi believes President Donald Trump will “self-impeach.”
• If you held a Pride Parade at my house…
