UPDATE: Just hours after announcing a deadlock on certifying the election results in Wayne County, the Board of Canvassers reversed itself and certified the results by unanimous vote.
After a huge public outcry when Republican election board members refused to certify results from Detroit, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers has now reversed itself and certified its results. https://t.co/bzI7CKefh3
The four-member Board of Canvassers in Wayne County, Michigan, deadlocked along party lines on certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election today. Wayne County includes Detroit and its surrounding areas – can everyone hear the dog whistle? From the New York Times:
The Wayne County Board of Canvassers was deadlocked on Tuesday on certifying results in the county, which voted for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. by a margin of nearly 323,000 votes.
The two Republicans on the board said they had voted against certifying the results because many precincts in the county were out of balance by a few votes. Monica Palmer, one of the Republicans, suggested that the board would certify the county’s results without the totals from Detroit, where Mr. Biden won with 94 percent support.
The election results now move to Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers, which will complete the work that the Wayne County board could not finish. The state board also has a 2-2 Republican-Democratic split.
In a statement posted on Twitter on Tuesday night, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of Michigan said the Board of State Canvassers would be responsible for certifying the Wayne County results if the county board’s decision held.
The Board of State Canvassers meets on November 23. Team Trump has been hoping that the decision would fall to the Republican-controlled Michigan state legislature to choose their own electors to vote in the electoral college. But the Republican state Senate leader, Mike Shirkey, told the press today that Biden won Michigan and the legislature won’t interfere — “That’s not going to happen.”
Michigan’s Bureau of Elections stands ready to fulfill its duty to complete the canvas for Wayne County, address any clerical errors and improve the quality of the canvass overall. Importantly, this is not an indication that any votes were improperly cast or tabulated.
April Anderson of Good Cakes and Bakes (images via Instagram) Last month, the LGBTQ-owned bakery Good Cakes and Bakes, located in Detroit, Michigan, received an online order for a special Pride cake. Seeing the word ‘PRIDE’ in capital letters in the order’s message, co-owner April Anderson (who’s baked cakes for Oprah Winfrey and appeared on The Today Show) initially thought it was for a six-layer, red velvet rainbow-themed cake which had been offered in June.
But then Anderson read the full message the anonymous customer wanted to be written on the top of the cake: “I am ordering this cake to celebrate and have PRIDE in true Christian marriage. I’d like you to write on the cake, in icing, ‘Homosexual acts are gravely evil. (Catholic Catechism 2357)'” The cake was paid for in advance ($40) and included a $10 tip. Anderson, who is openly lesbian and married, showed the order to her wife, Michelle, who was just as stunned. “Why would somebody order this from us?,” Anderson said to the Detroit Free Press. “They know our bakery. It’s not like it’s a secret. It says it on our about page and social media pages and very clear that this bakery is owned by two lesbian women.” Anderson shared the story of the hateful order with a friend who utilized reverse phone lookup services on the internet. Within an hour, the customer was identified as David Gordon, according to Pridesource. Gordon apparently works for a nearby alt-right religious organization named the Church Militant. But don’t be fooled by the name – the group isn’t a ‘church’ but an extreme-right 501(c)(3) owned by St. Michael’s Media. Gordon’s Twitter profile lists him as “a copyeditor @Church Militant, Lawyer, theology MA, author, sportsman, family man.” David Gordon (via Twitter) Sensing a set-up regarding some kind of reverse discrimination, religious freedoms, and free speech, Anderson decided to call Gordon’s bluff and prepare the cake, but without the icing message. The bakery’s website clearly states custom cakes have to be ordered either in person or over the phone. Pridesource spoke to attorney Jay Kaplan, of the ACLU of Michigan’s LGBT Project, who said under Michigan’s public accommodation laws “the bakery had to provide” the cake that was requested. However, under the doctrine of ‘compelled speech,’ the business couldn’t be forced to create a message that goes against their moral compass or religious beliefs. While this sounds vaguely familiar in comparison to the case of homophobic baker Jack Phillips of Colorado, who fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to not have to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, there’s an important difference here. RELATED: SCOTUS RULES 7-2 IN FAVOR OF ANTI-GAY BAKER Phillips didn’t argue over messaging on a cake – he refused to make a cake for the gay couple because it was intended for a same-sex wedding celebration. The couple never asked for a specific message to be inscribed on the requested cake. Phillips eventually prevailed at the Supreme Court but not on the issue of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Instead, the high court found the Colorado Civil Rights Commission appeared to have lacked “the religious neutrality that the Constitution requires” when considering the case against Phillip’s Masterpiece Cakeshop and sent the case back for review. In the end, Anderson did bake the cake with the requested rainbow theme on schedule – but sans icing message. She also included a note for Gordon explaining “what our bakery stands for, and who we are.” “We feel the only ‘grave evil’ is the judgment that good Christians, like yourself, impose on folks that don’t meet their vision of what God wants them to be,” the letter said. “We stand against hate; we will always fight for peace, justice, and inclusion,” she added. She closed her note with, “We wish you PRIDE, rainbows, fairy dust and a good GAY!” Gordon reportedly called the bakery the day before the scheduled pickup to confirm the order and was told, “Oh, yeah, we’re making the cake.” Word got out on pro-LGBTQ social media about the cake order and a group decided to organize a peaceful rally in front of Good Cakes and Bakes at the time Gordon was to pick up his special cake. Of course, Gordon was a no-show. Cowards always are.
“I think he was trolling us and he wanted me not to make the cake so that he would have an argument about us being discriminatory against him for not making a cake,” Anderson told Pridesource. Five days later, Gordon phoned the bakery regarding the cake and was told it had been discarded. Anderson told him she would be happy to make another cake but he would need to order the replacement in person or over the phone for any special message to be Contacted for comment by the Detroit Free Press, Gordon said in a Twitter message the bakery “never had any intention of serving me and making me the custom red velvet cake that I duly requested and paid for.” Wrong – the bakery made your cake, dude. You didn’t show up even after confirming the order. He also claims he was “denied the services I requested at a place of public accommodation on the basis of the content of my beliefs.” Michael Voris, founder and president of St. Michael’s Media / Church Militant, said in a statement emailed to the Free Press: “The incident was an action taken independently of the apostolate by an individual employee; Church Militant had no prior knowledge of it. The employee has been spoken to and has apologized for unnecessarily involving his fellow workers in a private endeavor.” But wait – there’s more! The postscript to this little tale is a local resident, Oscar Renautt, who launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for signs to be legally posted near the Church Militant offices. “I figured we need to do something to spread the awareness because our community should know one of our own was attacked this way,” Renautt told Pridesource. “But we are not ‘militant’ like these guys are. We are not militant as Church Militant. Our message is peaceful.” The campaign quickly surpassed its goal and plans to order lawn signs that read “We are not Militant!” in order to deliver a peaceful message of equality. The balance of donations will be given to Corktown Health Center, the LGBTQ health center where Anderson’s wife works. (source: Detroit Free Press,Pridesource)
A Detroit man has been arrested in the assault and murder of two gay men.
According to DetroitNews.com, Demetris Nelson used the gay dating app, Grindr, to find and contact his victims.
Demetris Nelson, 26, was charged Friday in 36th District Court in Detroit with several crimes, including first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder and assault with intent to rob while armed and felony firearm possession, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
If convicted, he faces up to life in prison for the murder charge.
A magistrate ordered him held without bail and scheduled a probable cause hearing for July 26 and a preliminary examination into the case for Aug. 2.
Police say Nelson shot and killed Brian Anderson, 31, and shot and critically wounded Malcom Drake, 26, both of Detroit, last Saturday during an attempted robbery.
Prosecutors allege he shot them because they are gay and used a social networking app to locate the two victims.
A viral video of a man shouting slurs and pointing a gun at another man he believed was gay as he exited a convenience store on Detroit’s west side has sparked outrage and is being investigated by police, an official confirmed Wednesday.
“We are aware of it,” said Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody. “It was sent to us and we have opened up an investigation on behalf of the victim, although the victim did not come forward. We are investigating it. Obviously, it’s very troubling that anyone would feel comfortable enough to point a weapon at anyone and post it on social media for everyone to see and attacking and singling out a person … regardless of how they identify is outrageous.”
The 32-second video was initially posted at 8:16 p.m. Tuesday and shows a man sitting in a car at the Brightmoor Liquor store, at 22002 Lyndon St., uttering gay slurs. When the second man walks out of the convenience store, the man in the car shouts “Yo” at him to get his attention. The man ignores him initially, but as he passes the window of the car, the man in the car points a gun at him at the 22-second mark of the video while saying, “Take those pants off, bro. What the f–k you on?”
Cortney Bogorad, while having dinner at restaurant chain Fishbone’s Rhythm City Cafe in Detroit, was making use of the bathroom facilities when she heard yelling outside the door. A voice, that turned out to be a security guard, was demanding that “whatever man is in the restroom needs to come out now.” Being a woman, Bogorad ignored him.
The guard allegedly entered the bathroom yelling, “This is a woman’s bathroom, if you are a man, come out!” and pulled Bogorad by the arms out of the stall when she opened its door. She said he then pushed her up against the wall, saying “boys aren’t allowed in this restroom,” according to the Detroit Free Press.
“He was much bigger than me, at least three times my size,” Bogorad told WXYZ. In her lawsuit, she explained that she and a friend informed the man repeatedly that she was a woman, and offered to show her legal identification stating that she was female, but the guard refused to see it, instead shouting inches from her face, “Get out of the women’s restroom!”
According to Bogorad, the guard then pushed her out of the bathroom where she saw a person she thought might be a restaurant manager. When Bogorad tried to explain to the man that she was a woman and show him her ID, she said he, too, ignored her efforts to prove her identity.
The guard allegedly then took his security badge, and holding it just inches from Bogorad’s face, yelled that he was a security guard.
When Bogorad pushed the badge away, that’s when she said the guard picked her up “against my will” by the shirt and bra. He then “aggressively” pushed her to the restaurant’s front door, exposing her “upper torso” to other customers, and threw her out of the resturant onto the street outside, causing physical injuries, Bogorad said.
Her lawsuit, filed at Wayne County Circuit Court on June 10, is seeking $25,000 for physical and emotional damages, battery, and gross negligence.
“This could have happened to anybody,” Bogorad told WXYZ. “There’s lots of females out there who look like boys, but at the end of the day we’re not.” She added that she is suing in hopes that the same humiliating experience never happens again to another customer at a Fishbone’s.
Fishbone’s has declined to publicly comment on Bogorad’s allegations.
Many states have attempted to pass “bathroom bills” that could lead to many more situations just like this in an attempt to police gender specific bathrooms.
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UPDATE: Just hours after announcing a deadlock on certifying the election results in Wayne County, the Board of Canvassers reversed itself and certified the results by unanimous vote. 
