(via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaFunny: My buddy Greg Chase shared the above meme about Cinco de Mayo. And I love tacos, I love margaritas and I even like Corona Beer. Dang coronavirus… • Buzzfeed News: LGBT parents are suffering homophobic and transphobic abuse from their own children during the lockdown, a charity has revealed — while young LGBT people are being thrown out onto the street by parents who discover their child’s sexuality or gender identity. • Washington Blade: The DC Eagle, the District’s oldest continuously operating gay bar that first opened in 1971, informed its employees Monday night in an online meeting that it was going out of business after learning the building it rented was sold and it would have to move out by September. • NowThis News: Every time I see these video clips all I can think is, “Imagine what would have happened if the protesters getting in the police officers’ faces had been people of color?” As one person on Twitter wrote, “And just like that, blue lives didn’t matter anymore.” Here are just some of the shocking moments from anti-lockdown protests happening across the U.S.
• The Friendly Atheist: Ohio State Rep. Nino Vitale says he doesn’t want to wear a face mask during the coronavirus health threat because God doesn’t wear one either. “This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles. One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.” • Vanity Fair: According to sources, an investor group aligned with Donald Trump Jr. and the Dallas-based Hicks family has acquired a major stake in One America News Network, the fledgling conservative cable-news channel that has been reliably pro-Trump. • Outsports: Dennis Del Valle, a pro volleyball player from Puerto Rico now playing in Switzerland, said it was time to tell the world he is gay. The website 24 Hours reports Del Valle is the first member of a major Swiss men’s team in any sport to come out as gay.
Canadian Idol winner Theo Tams (press photo)***Re-upping this post as it didn’t seem to post correctly last night*** Some news items you might have missed: • OutSports: Brock Weston, a 25-year-old college hockey player from Marion University in Font du Lac, Wisconsin, came out to his hockey team and was surprised by the reaction. “People I thought would disown me or become even more cruel were among the first to voice their acceptance.” • NBC News: A top Health and Human Services official who said he was transferred from his post for pushing back on “efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections” felt pressured to rush access to chloroquine treatments for coronavirus after President Donald Trump had a conversation about it with a mega-rich donor • Out Music: Canadian singer/songwriter and pianist Theo Tams (above) drops his new video “The Last Song” which features the Canadian Idol winner as a character chameleon of sorts, all in the name of self-love and care. “The song represents the moment you realize your own self-worth,” says Tams. “It’s about recognizing you are enough and letting go of the past. Finally.”
• NY Times: The Trump administration is considering cutting back on sharing intelligence with partner countries that criminalize homosexuality as part of a push by the acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, to prod those nations to change their laws. • OUT: On April 26, the Schitt’s Creek cast will join other Canadian celebrities in a commercial-free 90-minute special to support front-line workers fighting the global pandemic. Titled Stronger Together, Tous Ensembles, the display will feature musical artists like Michael Buble and Justin Bieber, as well as Cirque Du Soleil and Avril Lavigne. • SiriusXM: Host Jess Cagle speaks to Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes, and Debra Messing about the pride they feel over their “goofy sitcom” and its cultural impact. The final episode of the series airs tonight at 9 pm ET on NBC. The finale is followed by a retrospective, “A Will & Graceful Goodbye,” at 9:30 p.m.
Dan Tai (via Instagram) Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Woofy Dan Tai (above) asks, “So, you ever just have those days when you’re super productive? It was one of them! How was your day?” How about you, readers? Amid all this self-isolation, do you feel like you’re getting some of those tasks you’ve put off accomplished? • Outsports: Denis Finnegan is a champion. A national champion. And he’s been a national champion 10 times over. That’s some real dominance. Few people in the world, in any sport, can claim that many titles over a decade. Finnegan also happens to be gay. • CBS News: As unemployment claims surge, Starbucks CEO and President Kevin Johnson announced this week his commitment to pay all workers in the U.S. and Canada for the next 30 days, regardless of whether they come into work or the stores they work at temporarily close. • Song of the Day: For some reason, this song by Barbra Streisand, released in 1981, has been “coming in and out” of my mind as we all self-quarantine. Gorgeous vocals and it reminds we’ll all be back in each other’s lives in real person soon. Please take a moment to hit play and chill.
• People: In his new book, The Bachelor star Colton Underwood revealed that he questioned his sexuality through his teen years, after relentless bullying from teammates. Underwood says he remembers searching online “Am I gay?” as far back as Elementary School. • BBC: The Prince of Wales has tested positive for coronavirus, Clarence House has confirmed. Prince Charles, 71, is displaying mild symptoms “but otherwise remains in good health.” • Hollywood Reporter: In 2018 and 2019, booking Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was a top priority for producers at Fox News. So much so that one Fox News producer sought to reassure Devos’ press secretary that host Maria Bartiromo would go easy on the Secretary if she sat for an interview, which she did six days later. “Ps remember any question she doesn’t feel comfortable answering — she can choose to not answer and pivot the topic. This will be an easy interview and enjoyable.” • Gaily Grind: President Trump used his daily White House coronavirus briefing on Wednesday to rail against the press and Democrats, arguing that the main reason they oppose his idea to potentially reopen businesses by Easter is that they want the economy to fail to hurt his reelection prospects. #srsly Check out the exchange with CBS News journalist Paula Reid below.
“I think it’s very clear that there are people in profession that write fake news. You do” — asked about public health experts saying his push to reopen the country by Easter is a bad idea, Trump goes on the attack against a reporter pic.twitter.com/R04DBCuQxT
In this week’s podcast: • A new study shows having an older brother could increase the odds of being gay • Canadian Idol alum Gary Beals comes out and a drops new single, “Me for Me” • Virtual dance parties online help to alleviate stress during the ongoing health crisis. LInk – www.instagram.com/mkik808/ • Talking about the coronavirus pandemic, certain risk factors for LGBTQ people in particular, and where dating apps fall in all this. GLMA provides a directory for welcoming providers here: www.glma.org/index.cfm?fuseacti…iewPage&PageID=939 The Human Rights Campaign has a list of LGBTQ-friendly medical centers and hospitals here: www.hrc.org/hei/search All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
In my latest episode of The Randy Report podcast, I chat with Abigail Saguy – Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at UCLA – who’s written a fascinating new book, Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are. The new book details the evolution and history of how and why LGBTQ people “come out.” Saguy’s new book offers background and details from the earliest of gay movements and chronicles how we got from there to here. Over time, though, other marginalized groups – like fat acceptance activists, the #MeToo movement, undocumented immigrants – have adopted a similar dynamic of “coming out” in their efforts to resist stigma and bring about social change. Saguy and her collaborators offer an engaging exploration into how being ‘different’ has led to a universal movement for visibility and acceptance. Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are is available at most online booksellers. You can check it out on Amazon here. Hit the play button below 🙂
Aaron Schock (image via Instagram) Disgraced former Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock has finally told the world the worst kept secret in the world. In a lengthy personal essay posted on his Instagram account as well as his personal website, the Republicans – who famously voted against LGBTQ interests while in the House of Representatives – tells the world, “I am gay.” After “working through a list of people” who he wanted to tell first hand over the past year including family members, he says >he’s ready to make a public statement. “The fact that I am gay is just one of those things in my life in need of explicit affirmation, to remove any doubt and to finally validate who I am as a person,” writes Schock. “In many ways, I regret the time wasted in not having done so sooner.”
In his essay, he reveals how denial and mistakes led to even deeper denial and greater mistakes. He goes on to share “his story” which began in the rural Midwest and a family “centered in faith and its particular traditions.” It was in church life – “Memorizing Bible verses, going to church camp, attending services at least twice a week” – that Schock says he “thrived.” He chronicles his path through high school where he realized his “goal-focused personality” helped him to “force [his] thoughts in other directions” when he felt “drawn in the direction of [his] natural orientation.” After holding several local public offices, he says his arrival in Washington in 2009 as the youngest member of Congress was a heady experience as he received “a lot of attention,” which he admits he enjoyed. But soon he was aware of “speculation” he feels occurred because he was single, how he dressed, and his “preoccupation with physical fitness.” Soon after, he says “Untruthful stories were written” by the news media. Referencing the scandal that revolved around his office in Washington being redecorated in the style of a hit television show, Shock shares he wondered why “the news media would run with an utterly false story about me and a show I’dnever even heard of, and still haven’t seen, Downton Abbey.” Along the way, he takes swipes at the “woke” media calling reports about him “another way, albeit sophisticated, to be teased about being gay.” He explains his work in Congress included being responsive to the interests of his Illinois constituents. “Perhaps correctly, perhaps not, I assumed that revealing myself as their gay congressman would not go over well. I put my ambition over the truth, which not only hurt me but others as well.” He adds, “I also, in retrospect, realize that I was just looking for more excuses to buy time and avoid being the person I’ve always been.” Schock details the investigation that led to his resignation from Congress, during which he planned to come out to his family, but felt it would be best to wait until the legal wrangling was done. Once the charges of improper use of campaign funds were dropped in exchange for repaying $68,000 to his congressional campaign fund and $42,000 to the IRS, he again planned to come out to family. But first, he attended the Coachella Festival last year and photos of him with assorted men reached his mother before he did. When he spoke to her, she (and the rest of his family) reportedly did not take the news of his sexuality well. “Pictures online made clear what I was en route to tell my mother in person.She told me to turn around and go back to LA. I wasn’t welcome at home for Easter.” Like many LGBTQ people who go through a similar reaction from family members, Schock holds out hope his family will eventually come around. He goes on to justify his anti-LGBTQ positions and votes (he opposed same-sex marriage, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) by pointing to political leaders at the time. “In 2008, as a Republican running in a conservative district, I took the same position on gay marriage held by my party’s nominee, John McCain,” writes the 38-year-old. “That position against marriage equality, though, was also then held by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as well.” While he’s correct about that timeline, what Schock misses there is McCain, Obama and Clinton weren’t secretly gay voting against their own interests. And, by the way, what about the 12 years since then? Also, Obama and Clinton never proposed or voted for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. And in 2010, as Obama was working to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Schock voted against the repeal. In fact, Schock’s record on LGBTQ issues was so anti-LGBTQ the Human Rights Campaign gave him a rating of zero. The former congressman says if he were still in office he would support LGBTQ issues “in every way” he could. He also hopes that sharing his story will “help shine a light for young people, raised the way I was, looking for a path out of darkness and shame.”
In closing his essay, he says family members still suggest so-called “conversion therapy” to him. But at a recent wedding, his mother did inquire as to whether he was seeing someone and if so, she is interested in meeting him. LGBTQ media has covered Schock’s story for quite some time over the past few years mainly because he is ‘one of us’ but wielded his position in a manner that didn’t help but hurt the LGBTQ community. In his post, he never apologizes for those political calculations. His lack of remorse is rather stunning. Imagine the mental Jui-Jitsu that compels you to run for Congress and advocate for conservative anti-LGBTQ legislation while having sex on the DL and then expecting sympathy and understanding. I wish he hadn’t been raised by narrow-minded people who taught him to hate or doubt himself. It’s worth noting that he finally comes out as a 38-year-old rich white guy living in Los Angeles. How brave. That said, I celebrate that Schock has come to a place in his life that he can live his truth out loud. I realize everyone comes to this in their own time. I do wish his essay wasn’t so layered with self-pity. But, in the end, we can all only be who we are. LGBTQ folks on social media responded:
Gay Twitter on Aaron Schock coming out in a nine screen essay on Instagram and STILL not apologizing for voting against LGBT rights: pic.twitter.com/Qn7ZIUrvVK
Aaron Schock wrote a long post about him coming out as gay and how worried he was telling his family and friends and whatever, but failed to even apologize to the LGBTQ community for the hatred he displayed towards us for MANY years. So he can fuck all the way off 🤷🏻♂️
I feel zero pity for a man who had no issue going to music festival and hooking up with guys in public. Then waits a year to come out and ask for pity.
Reminder that if prosecutors hadn’t completely botched the case, Aaron Schock would likely be in prison for using your taxpayer money to pay for massages and Katy Perry tickets. https://t.co/h7vs0fiZPF
— Michelangelo Signorile (@MSignorile) March 5, 2020
Disgraced, anti-LGBTQ former congressman Aaron Schock finally admits what everyone already knew: He is gay.
Frankly, his lack of remorse for the harmful hypocrisy of consistently voting against other gay men when he was a Republican in Congress is giving me #ToxicSchockSyndrome. pic.twitter.com/ySmUwy3ZqE
Everyone deserves to come out as their authentic self on their own terms. However, Aaron Schock's statement fails to acknowledge the years of hurt that his votes against hate crimes protections, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and more caused LGBTQ Americans.
Fmr GOP Rep. Aaron Schock wrote a Harry Potter length post coming out as gay and still did not apologize for his awful anti-LGBTQ record pic.twitter.com/Uf8U8zTaDG
L-R Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Zachary Ro, Pete Buttigieg Addressing supporters at a rally in Aurora, Colorado, on Saturday night, Pete Buttigieg got a question from a 9-year-old boy in Aurora, Colorado, asking for advice on coming out as gay. “Thank you for being so brave,” said Zachary Ro in a question read by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. “Would you help me tell the world I am gay too? I want to be brave like you.” “Well, I don’t think you need a lot of advice from me on bravery,” said Buttigieg as the crowd roared its approval. “You seem pretty strong. It took me a long time to figure out how to tell even my best friend that I was gay let alone to go out there and tell the world. To see you willing to come to terms with who you are in a room full of a thousand people, thousands of people you’ve never met, that’s really something.” Amid the cheers for Ro, Mayor Pete did offer a couple of thoughts to young Zachary. “The first thing is that it won’t always be easy, but that’s OK because you know who you are,” shared the 38-year-old candidate. “And that’s really important because when you know who you are, you have a center of gravity that can hold you together when all kinds of chaos is happening around you.” “The second thing I want you to know is that you’ll never know who’s taking their lead from you, who’s watching you and deciding that they can be a little braver because you have been brave.” “When I was trying to figure out who I was, I was afraid that who I was might mean that I could never make a difference, and what wound up happening instead is it’s a huge part of the difference I get to make,” added Buttigieg. “I never could have seen that coming, and you’ll never know whose life you might be affecting right now just by standing here. There’s a lot of power in that.” Buttigieg closed the moment with the one thing every young LGBTQ kid needs to hear: “The last thing I want you to know is that even if I can’t promise it’s going to be easy, I’m going to promise that I’m going to be rooting for you.” The 9-year-old also gave Mayor Pete with a friendship bracelet, which the candidate proudly put on. #BravoPeteButtigieg
Powerful moment (better audio): 9 year old Zachary Ro of Lone Tree asks @PeteButtigieg how he can be brave and tell people he is gay too pic.twitter.com/1aUbYM8cDM
Zachary said he didn’t come to the event planning to ask the question. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing written down on a piece of paper and handed to volunteers collecting questions as he entered the rally Saturday night. Griswold told the Colorado Sun Zachary’s came up randomly. She was pulling questions gathered in a bowl and didn’t know whose questions she was grabbing. Afterwards, a reporter asked young Ro why he sought out Mayor Pete’s advice. “I feel inspired by seeing Pete being openly gay and running for president at the same time, and someday I want to be like him,” said young Zachary. “I feel like he gave me some really good advice.”
I caught up with 9 year old Zachary after he was brought on stage and asked @PeteButtigieg his question. His dad told me off camera he was proud of his son. pic.twitter.com/CsO60aQiUh
In this week’s podcast: • Mayor Pete Buttigieg had a historic night at the Iowa Caucuses • Voters in Switzerland overwhelmingly approved protections for LGBTQ people • Virginia becomes the first state in the South to approve statewide LGBTQ protections • A beloved morning talk show host in the UK came out as gay • A star of the Netflix docuseries ‘Cheer’ is getting ready to climb to the top of the human pyramid All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report Hit the play button below to listen, and if you enjoy catching up on LGBTQ news in a quick podcast, please share this with your friends 🙂
In this week’s podcast: • A Kentucky high school is being sued for outing a queer teen • Professional ice hockey player Zach Sullivan comes out • The Human Rights Campaign issues its annual States Equality Index • Freeform channel previews upcoming gay romantic comedy for Valentine’s Day “The Thing About Harry” • Billy Porter is taking a stroll down Sesame Street • LGBTQs and their allies score at the 2020 Grammy Awards All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
Zach Sullivan (center) with Manchester Storm teammates (image via Twitter) Professional ice hockey player Zach Sullivan of the Manchester Storm came out as bisexual this weekend. As the Elite Ice Hockey League held its first official Pride weekend promoting diversity and inclusivity in the sport, Sullivan took to his social media to share his message.
“I have battled with mental health problems over this issue and with the support, understanding and acceptance from my family, friends and teammates, I finally feel ready to say: I’m bisexual,” wrote the 25-year-old athlete. He added he has “never been more proud to wear a jersey before, especially one that celebrates all gender identities and sexualities.” The responses on social media were overwhelmingly positive. Not only from his fans, but his team, the Elite Ice Hockey League, and more. Ryan Finnerty, head coach for the Manchester Storm, tweeted his support writing, “His strength and courage will inspire the youth of tomorrow.”
We are all extremely proud of you, Zach! You're a role model for so many people, young and old, in the sporting world. Someone knowing they can be themselves is a true testament to everything our club and sport stand for.#WeAreStorm | #Manchester | #Pridehttps://t.co/x4UuWXzo7M
Sullivan told the BBC’s Radio Manchester that while his sport is hyper-masculine he realized he had “quite the opportunity with it being the first-ever EIHL Pride weekend.” He also shared his hope that if he can come out “maybe it will help someone who is going through the same problem, going through the same situation.” Congrats, Zach, on living out loud!
'It's taken me a long time, but I'm now at a position in my life where I am comfortable with who I am.'@Mcr_Storm's @ZachSully11 talks he decision to come out as bisexual and why he hopes he can be an inspiration to others.
