Tag: anti-LGBTQ

Posted on

Anti-LGBT Congressman (And Wife) Indicted On Campaign Finance Violations, Wire Fraud & More

Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter

 Virulently anti-LGBTQ Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter was indicted Tuesday, along with his wife Margaret, on charges of misusing campaign funds to the tune of $250,000.

Charges also included filing false campaign finance records to the Federal Election Commission.

CNN has the details:

The charges of wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy were the culmination of a Department of Justice investigation that has stretched for more than a year, during which the Republican congressman from California has maintained his innocence.

Republican Party leaders had long worried that with a potential indictment looming, Hunter’s traditionally safe district which makes up much of eastern San Diego County could be at risk of Democratic takeover in November’s midterm election.

The CNN report goes on to share that the congressman and his wife overdrew their bank accounts over 1,100 times in a 7 year period.

Investigators found the Hunters took several lavish family vacations including “a 2015 family vacation in Italy over Thanksgiving totaling more than $14,000; an April vacation in Hawaii costing $6,500; and a $3,700 trip to Las Vegas and Boise in July 2015.”

There were also big-ticket “campaign expenditures” like a $2,000 trip for a family member to attend a Pittsburgh Steelers football game in 2010.

Hunter allegedly insisted his wife be paid $116,000 from 2010 to 2017 as a “campaign consultant.”

According to The Washington Examiner, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has now stripped Hunter of his committee assignments.

“The charges against Rep. Hunter are deeply serious,” Ryan said. “The Ethics Committee deferred its investigation at the request of the Justice Department.”

“Now that he has been indicted, Rep. Hunter will be removed from his committee assignments pending the resolution of this matter,” Ryan added.

While Hunter represents a solidly Republican district, his Democratic opponent, Campa-Najjar, has been out-fundraising the Republican, reporting more than $1 million in campaign donations. Campa-Najjar has just over $200,000 in cash-on-hand while Hunter has over $350,000.

The California congressman has been viciously anti-LGBTQ for years and was one of the most strident voices against the repeal of DADT in 2011 and strongly supported the hideous Defense of Marriage Act.

Hunter was the second member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump for president. The first was Rep. Chris Collins (R) of New York.

Both now face prison time.

Posted on

Colorado: Anti-LGBTQ Baker Refuses To Sell Trans Woman A Cake

Anti-LGBTQ Colorado baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop has filed a new lawsuit against Gov. John Hickenlooper and Colorado Civil Rights Commission officials alleging “religious persecution” over his refusal to bake a cake for a transgender individual.
Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop

Anti-LGBTQ Colorado baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop has filed a new lawsuit against Gov. John Hickenlooper and Colorado Civil Rights Commission officials alleging “religious persecution” over his refusal to bake a cake for a transgender individual.

According to The Denver Post, Phillips’ lawsuit states the commission found the baker violated the state’s LGBT protection laws this past June when he declined to bake a pink and blue cake for trans woman Autumn Scardina of Arvada who was celebrating her seventh year of gender transition. Phillips claims the cake would have amounted to endorsement of messages of sex and gender identity that conflict with his deeply held religious beliefs.

Upon being rebuffed, Scardina filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission which ultimately determined Phillips had discriminated against Scardina based on her gender identity which violates the state’s public accommodation laws.

“The woman on the phone did not object to my request for a birthday cake until I told her I was celebrating my transition from male to female,” Scardina wrote in her complaint, according to ThinkProgress. “I believe that other people who request birthday cakes get to select the color and theme of the cake.”

In a June 28 letter, the commission informed Phillips he was in violation of state laws and to find a way to reach an amicable resolution with Scardina.

According to the lawsuit, Phillips is seeking not only restitution for legal fees but $100,000 from the director of the civil rights commission in “punitive damages.”
Phillips gained national attention in 2012 when he refused to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple.

In June this year, his case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which found the Colorado Civil Rights Commission may have been prejudiced against Phillips in doubting the sincerity of his religious claims and asked the commission to review the decision. The high court specifically noted at the time that the ruling was specific to this case only and not a broad pronouncement in support for LGBTQ discrimination.

In a press release, attorney Kristen Waggoner of the anti-LGBTQ law group Alliance Defending Freedom who is representing Phillips said, “The state of Colorado is ignoring the message of the U.S. Supreme Court by continuing to single out Jack for punishment and to exhibit hostility toward his religious beliefs.”

“Even though Jack serves all customers and simply declines to create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events in violation of his deeply held beliefs, the government is intent on destroying him — something the Supreme Court has already told it not to do,” she added. “Neither Jack nor any other creative professionals should be targeted by the government for living consistently with their religious beliefs.”

Posted on

Teen Refugee Denied Asylum For Not Being ‘Gay’ Enough

A gay 18-year-old Afghan refugee has been denied asylum in Austria because officials determined he wasn’t ‘gay’ enough to be gay.
(stock image via Pixabay)

A gay 18-year-old Afghan refugee has been denied asylum in Austria because officials determined he wasn’t ‘gay’ enough to be gay.

Scared for his safety in Afghanistan, the young man originally applied for asylum based on the fact that he’s part of the persecuted Hazara minority in his home country. He later appealed citing his sexual orientation, which in his home country is illegal due to Sharia Law and can be prosecuted resulting in a possible death penalty. He told advocates that he was initially afraid to come out.

But the immigration officials wrote in their report, “The way you walk, act and dress does not show even in the slightest that you could be homosexual.”

Also, the official noted that the young man had been involved in fights at the refugee center where he was being temporarily housed. The official decided that his “potential for aggression” undermined the Afghan’s claims since that “wouldn’t be expected from a homosexual.”

Additionally, the young man’s preference to spend time alone caused the official to wonder, “Aren’t homosexuals rather social?”

When asked at what age he realized he was gay, the Afghan told the case worker he came to that determination at the age of 12. But again, he was rebuffed by the official who said that was “rather early” since “there is no public sexual stimulation through fashion and advertisement” in Afghanistan.

Even when the teenager admitted to kissing men, the official decided it wasn’t true since the young man would have been beaten for such behavior.

Ultimately, the Austrian government rejected the 18-year-old’s application for asylum.

According to reports, the Afghan says he will appeal.

(h/t DW.com)

Posted on

Anti-LGBTQ Arkansas Pastor Busted – Again – On Child Sex Crimes

In today’s ‘good Christian’ news…

Timothy Lee Reddin, a 67-year-old pastor at Turner Street Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, loves to get riled up and shriek about the evils of homosexuality from the pulpit.

You know what’s coming now, right?

Reddin was arrested on August 3 after chatting up what he believed was a 14-year-old boy on a ‘dating site.’

Reddin’s problem is the young boy was in reality an undercover cop posing as a teen in a sting operation.

Reddin setup a ‘meeting’ with the teen for sex. But when he showed up at the meeting spot, he was met by officers.

KARK-4 reports:

“Lee” described himself in his profile as a 62-year-old white male, 6’1″, 215 pounds and married. The profile description said, “I just wanna have fun…I like younger guys. But hell, at my age that’s just about everybody! Discreet, intelligent, witty, professional guy. Love to meet new friends. Especially naked ones,” according to the affidavit.

Married for almost 50 years with 4 grown children and 7 grandchildren, Reddin was booked in his local jail where he was charged with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.

But wait – there’s more!

Reddin was busted and convicted in 2000 for possession of child pornography eventually spending 27 months in prison and registering as a sex offender after being released.

(h/t Queerty)

Posted on

Sean Spicer’s New Book Shows Trump Support For LGBTQs Was A “Sham”

The new book from former White House press secretary Sean Spicer details how Donald Trump's inclusion of a pro-LGBTQ statment at the Republican National Convention was merely payback to buy a delegate's vote
Donald Trump

As Donald Trump accepted the nomination as the Republican candidate for president in 2016 at the Republican National Convention, he surprised many by including LGBTQ Americans in his speech.

In a halting, awkward cadence which made clear he had never uttered the phrase “L-G-B-T-Q” in his life, Trump promised to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.”

Now, in his new book The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer shares how Team Trump was focused on a step-by-step plan to woo anti-Trump delegates – the “Never Trumpers” – who had signed a petition prior to the Republican convention.

People.com, which obtained a copy of Spicer’s book in advance of it’s release, shares the details of how the Trump campaign dismantled the “Never Trumpers” and added that one sentence to Trump’s speech as what People calls “nothing more than empty payback for a political favor.”

Spicer recalls the process saying, “[Trump campaign chairman Paul] Manafort and his lieutenants went one by one down the list of people who had signed the petition and persuaded them to remove their signatures.”

Manafort and his cohorts apparently used all kinds of methods to pick off their targets which Spicer describes as “alternating between carrot and stick and sometimes bat, even, at one point, conveniently making the convention’s parliamentarian unavailable to keep the opposition from formally submitting their petition.”

Finally, there was one last delegate left to convert to Trump Land – Washington, D.C. delegate Robert Sinners. Sinners, it seems, wanted the Trumpster to support LGBT rights.

Senior Trump communications advisor Jason Miller, who would later resign from Team Trump over a sordid sex scandal, was sent to do the deal.

Via People:

“Jason assured Sinners that Trump would be the most ‘inclusive’ candidate the Republican Party ever had,” Spicer writes.

“This is your moment, Robert,” Miller told Sinners, according to the book. “You can deliver this.”

Sinners then reportedly signed “a form that officially removed his name from the petition,” and the deal was done.

“Jason told Sinners Donald Trump’s acceptance speech would acknowledge the LGBT[Q] community, which no other Republican acceptance speech had done,” Spicer writes. “And it did.”

And so it came to be that in July 2016 at the Republican National Convention, speaking about the 49 victims of the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Donald Trump said, “As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.”

He would go on to say at campaign rallies that he would be “much better for the gays” than Hillary Clinton.

He even tweeted about his loyalty to our community.

Of course, the sad facts are Trump has been the worst president in modern history in terms of LGBTQ rights.

The Trump administration has, among many things, announced policies that would kick 1,200 HIV+ military service members out just because of their HIV status; deny transgender Americans the ability to serve in the military; has failed to acknowledge Pride Month two years in a row; reversed course on Obama-era guidance that protected transgender people in the workplace; and shown support for anti-gay baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cake Shop which discriminated against a gay couple seeking a cake for their wedding celebration.

According to The Hill, the ACLU has called Trump “the most anti-LGBT administration in at least a generation.”

Watch below as People recaps Donald Trump’s faux ‘support’ for the LGBTQ community.

Posted on

House Committee Approves Anti-LGBTQ Adoption Language

Rep. Robert Aderholt of Alabama

The GOP-led House Appropriations Committee has passed an amendment which would allow taxpayer-funded adoption agencies to deny LGBTQ families the ability to adopt a child based on religious objection.

By a vote of 29-23, the committee approved the amendment to a government funding bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The amendment would allow child welfare agencies to discriminate against prospective parents, including same-sex couples, based on the agency’s religious beliefs.

U.S. Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.) was the lone Republican to oppose the amendment. All Democrats on the committee voted against the language.

From Chris Johnson at The Washington Blade:

The amendment, introduced by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), would bar the federal government and state or localities from denying funds to adoption agencies that have “declined or will decline to provide, facilitate or refer for a child welfare service that conflicts with, or under circumstances that conflict with, the provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs of convictions.”

The measure would empower the secretary of health and human services to withhold 15 percent of federal government funds from state and localities if they penalize adoption agencies for acting on their religious beliefs in terms of child placement.

The amendment mirrors new laws in several states allowing taxpayer-funded adoption agencies to deny placement into homes, including LGBT households, over religious objections. Currently, nine states – Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma and Kansas – have adopted similar policies.

In a statement to The Washington Blade, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union, Ian Thompson, denounced the amendment on the basis it would anti-LGBT discrimination.

“The ACLU strongly opposes the amendment because it essentially privileges the religious and moral beliefs of providers over the best interest of children who are in their care,” said Thompson.

Thankfully, there’s a strong possibility the amendment won’t survive the legislative process. The corresponding Senate committee has already approved its version of the bill without the anti-LGBTQ amendment. This means the two bills will have to be hashed out in conference between the two chambers and experts feel the amendment would most likely be stripped out.

The Democratic National Committee’s LGBTQ Media Director Lucas Acosta issued this statement:

“House Republicans are pandering to their far-right base at the expense of LGBTQ people and children in need of a home. Rather than focusing on empowering families or uniting children with their parents, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee voted to give child welfare agencies a license to discriminate against qualified potential parents.

“Across the country, LGBTQ candidates are running for office and taking a stand against the Trump-GOP agenda, which seeks to roll back the progress we have made. In November, voters will stand together in the face of this bigotry and hate and elect Democrats up and down the ticket.”

Posted on

Hawaii: State Supreme Court Refuses To Review Ruling Against Anti-LGBTQ B&B Owner

A B&B owner who refuses to rent a room to a lesbian couple asked the Hawaii state Supreme Court to review the ruling against her. The court said 'no' leaving the lower courts decision in place.

In 2007, Diane Cervelli and Taeko Bufford of Long Beach, California, traveled to the Aloha state to visit a friend who had just given birth.

The child apparently was having some health issues at the time, so the couple decided to seek accommodations nearby. The closest option was The Aloha Bed & Breakfast.

But when the couple called Phyllis Young, owner of The Aloha B&B in Honolulu’s Hawaii Kai area, Young told the couple same-sex relationships are “detestable” and “defile our land.”

Hawaii’s public accommodation law specifically bans establishments that provide lodging to transient guests from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, race, color, ancestry, religion, disability and sex —including gender identity or expression.

Later that year, Cervilli and Bufford filed a complaint with Hawaii’s Civil Rights Commission.

Although Young asserted she had the right to discriminate since her business was in her home, the commission determined Young had openly discriminated against the couple.

Cervilli and Bufford consequently filed a lawsuit against Young in 2011.

In 2013, a Hawaii First Circuit Court judge ruled that Young had violated the state’s public accommodation laws and ordered her to stop discriminating.

Young appealed the decision and in February of this year, the Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court ruling.

In a last ditch effort, the B&B owner asked the state’s Supreme Court to review the case. The high court declined to do so today, and effectively affirming the lower court ruling that Young had discriminated.

Earlier this year, Bufford told QVoiceNews, “I can’t tell you how much it hurt to be essentially told, ‘we don’t do business with your kind.’ It still stings to this day.”

“We thought the days when business owners would say ‘We’re open to the public – but not to you’ was a thing of the past,” she added. “You don’t have to change your beliefs,” she said, “but you do have to follow the law just as everyone else does.”

Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Peter Renn hailed the decision saying in a statement:

“In letting the existing decision stand, Hawai‘i today joined a long line of states across the country that understand how pernicious and damaging a religious license to discriminate would be.”

“In fact, since the U.S. Supreme Court’s narrow ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop in early June, three state courts – in Arizona, Oregon and now Hawai`i – have either ruled against or refused to review rulings against business owners who have claimed religious justifications to discriminate.”

Posted on

Two Teens Get Slap On The Wrist After Choking A Student Into “Apologizing” For Being Gay

Will Mayrick (image via Facebook)

Two teens in the UK, who choked a student during a Tube ride in London until he “apologized” for being gay, have basically walked out of court with a slap on the wrist.

Will Mayrick, 20, says he feared for his life after two attackers grabbed him in a headlock, squeezing the breathe out of him, during an evening out with four of his friends.

The photography student today said the hideous ordeal might never have happened if the teenage perpetrators had undergone LGBT education classes at school.

Mayrick told the press that the Government needs to make LGBT studies a requirement. “It’s clear that there needs to be a better support network in schools,” he told the Evening Standard.

In the end, both attackers (aged 16 and 17) were given 12-month referral orders and each ordered to pay fines of about $27 for “victim surcharge” and $200 for “compensation.”

After the sentencing, Mayrick withheld judgement of his assailants saying, “They were so young, and I can’t help but think that if they had had some sort LGBT education then the attack might never have happened.”

According to a recent study by Stonewall, 55% of secondary school teachers and 42% of primary school teachers say they don’t stand up to homophobic language every time they hear it.

Additionally, 86% of secondary school teachers and 45% of primary school teachers polled said students in their schools had experienced homophobic bullying.

Posted on

Kansas & Oklahoma Legislatures Approve Anti-LGBTQ Adoption Bills

We were looking good there, America.

Four months into 2018 and no new anti-LGBTQ legislation on the state level. Until this week.

Both Oklahoma and Kansas have passed bills that will allow faith-based adoption and foster care services to legally discriminate against LGBT folks while using public funds.

In Oklahoma, the House approved the measure by a vote of 56-21 on Thursday this week after the state Senate had previously voted to advance the bill.

Kansas followed just hours later as the Senate approved the bill 24-15 at 1:51 a.m. Friday after the House passed it Thursday night, 63-58.

The legislation had been sitting for weeks before lawmakers revived and passed it in a matter of hours.

Both bills now head to their respective governors’ desks to be signed into law.

More from The Advocate:

The bills could allow discrimination against many types of prospective parents who offend an agency’s religious beliefs — single parents, divorced and remarried parents, interfaith couples, and more, in addition to LGBT individuals and same-sex couples, Winterhof pointed out. But Oklahoma Senate Majority Leader Greg Treat, who authored his state’s legislation, mentioned that when agencies express objections to certain placements, they often cite opposition to same-sex marriage, the Family Equality Council noted.

Opponents of both states’ measures said the legislation would make the already-overloaded child welfare system even more so by making fewer people eligible to become foster or adoptive parents. But supporters said the religious protections would encourage more faith-based agencies to work with the states.

Texas, Alabama, South Dakota, Virginia, and Michigan have similar laws in place, NBC reports. Michigan’s is being challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union.

What’s truly sad is this reduces the number of possible adoptive homes for children who really need loving parents.

Bigotry at the expense of children.

Posted on

John Oliver’s Book About Mike Pence’s Gay Bunny Hits #1 On Amazon

John Oliver, host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, did a deep dive last night on Vice President Mike Pence’s terrible record on LGBTQ rights.

About the only thing Oliver could find to like about the veep is his pet rabbit, Marlo Bundo.

Bundo is so popular that the vice president’s daughter, Charlotte Pence, wrote a book about the bunny which was illustrated by second lady (and watercolor artist) Karen Pence.

The publisher says the tome “gives young readers a bunny’s-eye view of the special duties of the vice president.”

In order to spotlight the LGBTQ rights Pence so virulently opposes, Oliver trolled Pence with a parody book, A Day in The Life of Marlon Bundo, wherein a bow tie wearing Marlon meets and falls in love with another gay bunny but runs into obstacles when they try and marry.

Overnight Oliver’s became an Amazon #1 bestseller:

Oliver’s parody book was penned by Last Week Tonight contributor Jill Twiss and illustrated by EG Keller.

The proceeds will go to The Trevor Project, which supports LGBTQ youth, and AIDS United, which works to end the AIDS epidemic in the United States.

“Please buy it for your children; buy it for any child you know, or just buy it because you know it will annoy Mike Pence,” says Oliver. “You’d be doing a nice thing, in a really dick-ish way. And isn’t that the dream, at the end of the day?”

You can watch the segment below. The section on Bundo begins around the 14:10 mark.