Tony Award winner and Golden Globe nominee for the acclaimed FX series Pose, Billy Porter, slammed comedian Kevin Hart over past homophobic language in a new interview with Consequence of Sound.
Hart recently had to step down from hosting the upcoming Oscars after past tweets using homophobic slurs came to light.
Porter wasn’t having it.
“People think that words don’t matter. I’m going to get into this Kevin Hart thing for just a second. Because it’s not about you having a joke. That’s not what it’s about…
“I say to Kevin Hart, and I say to D.L. Hughley, I say to those people who think that they don’t need to apologize for shit and dig their heels in their toxic masculinity: But you want your rights! You want people to stop shooting your children in the back? But yet still, you turn around and oppress other people the same way you’re being oppressed.
On December 1, just 21 days ago, Randall Coffman moved into his new apartment in Clay County, located just outside of Jacksonville, Florida.
The apartment has its own entrance but is attached to the home of his landlord, Jackie Cooper.
A couple of weeks after moving in, Cooper saw Coffman and told him she didn’t want him inviting girls over late into the night.
Coffman informed his landlord that wouldn’t be a problem since he’s gay.
“I’ve been gay since I was born,” said Coffman according to First Coast News. “After that, the harassment for being gay started.”
The next day, Cooper approached her new tenant and told him he had to leave – because he’s gay.
Sensing trouble, Coffman recorded the conversation. Watch the report from First Coast News below.
“Listen to me now, you have to leave this place,” says Cooper in the video. “You didn’t tell me you’re gay until yesterday.”
“Why do I have to tell you I’m gay?,” asked Coffman. “I don’t have to tell you.”
Cooper responded, “You think I want homosexuals coming in and out of my place like that?”
Cooper denies the issue is Coffman being gay, even though she’s caught on video saying exactly that. She says Coffman failed to provide a copy of his driver’s license.
Even though Cooper’s position is discriminatory, the law is currently on her side.
Jacksonville’s 2017 Human Rights Ordinance protects LGBTQ tenants from housing discrimination, but Cooper’s Clay County home is located outside of the city limits.
Neither Cooper nor Coffman signed a lease making his arrangement a verbal month-to-month agreement. In such cases, a landlord can kick a tenant out with 15 days notice.
According to Coffman, Cooper gave him until the 27th to vacate the apartment, which is just shy of the 15-day rule.
But Coffman, currently looking for a new place to live, says he won’t put up a fight. He tells First Coast News he’s uncomfortable about returning to the property.
By a vote of 118-60, the National Council of Switzerland has amended its penal code to make homophobia and transphobia as illegal as racism.
Under the new ordinance, anyone who is found guilty of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity will face up to three years in prison.
The move to change the penal code was lead by National Councillor Mathias Reynard.
Upon passage of the new law, Reynard tweeted his celebration writing, “Victory! By 118 against 60 and 5 abstentions, the National Council accepts my parliamentary initiative against homophobia and Transphobia!
“A great success for human rights! Final response in December to the Council of States,” he added along with an LGBT Pride emoji and LGBT hashtag.
Gay Times Magazine reports Reynard told the press following the vote, “Homophobia is not an opinion. It’s a crime. One in five homosexuals attempted suicide, half before the age of 20. This victory sends a strong signal. I have already received hundreds of reactions.”
While Switzerland has allowed civil partnerships since 2007, the country is woefully behind the times in terms of most civil rights for LGBTQ people. There are no legal accommodations for same-sex couples when it comes to adoption, taxes, welfare or fertility.
Following this recent win, Reynard says that he plans on introducing marriage equality to Switzerland.
In a new video from Fondation Émergence, a gun is fired at 193 rainbow Pride flags – one for every country in the world.
Together, the flags can stop a bullet – just as when citizens of the world stand together we can stop LGBTQ violence and discrimination through the power of our togetherness.
From the video:
LGBT people around the world are still the targets of prejudice and violence.
What if we all took a stand against it?
We created this flag to show the world that together we can stop violence.
It’s made out of 193 Pride flags – one for every country in the world.
The video was created in observance of this year’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
The Pride Shield exhibit will be available to different cities in the hopes of sparking a conversation about LGBTQ violence and discrimination around the world.
Six weeks after the deadly bombing spree by 23-year-old Mark Conditt in Austin and San Antonio police are still searching for clues as to the motivation for his actions.
New evidence suggests it’s possible internalized homophobia may have played a part.
Conditt’s early life revolved around being home-schooled by his conservative Christian family. He attended church each week and took part in Christian youth groups.
But in 2012, Conditt penned an online essay while attending Austin Community College that virulently denounced homosexuality.
The blog post read, in part:
Homosexuality is not natural. Just look at the male and female bodies. They are obviously designed to couple. The natural design is apparent. It is not natural to couple male with male and female with female. It would be like trying to fit two screws together and to nuts together and then say, “See, it’s natural for them to go together.” In addition, political protection of a sexual practice is ludicrous. I do not believe it is proper to pass laws stating that homosexuals have ‘rights.’ What about pedophilia or bestiality? These are sexual practices. Should they also be protected by law? If homosexuality is protected by law, why not those as well?
It was around this time that Conditt also cut off a childhood friend, Sierra Jane Davis, whom he knew from the Pflugerville home-school community.
When she shared the news that she was transitioning, “He told me that he couldn’t support my decision to live this life,” said Davis.
But then there was a turning point for Conditt.
He ceased attending church, quit Christianity and announced he was an atheist.
It was that revelation that led police to discover he had used Grindr to exchange messages with men.
It’s not apparent if his family knew he was out.
When asked about the possibility, Davis says, “It’s not something we talked about, but I do know that it would have been difficult for him and his family.”
Currently there’s no proof that he was working with a terrorist or paramilitary organizations. Nor are there any white supremacist or racially-motivated clues to point to at this time.
• Happy, happy birthday to Nyle DiMarco! The DWTS/ANTM champ turns 29 today! The handsome model and actor is currently working as a producer on Broadway repping the revival of the hit play, Children of a Lesser God.
• Madonna served up fashion in a dramatic vein last night at the annual Met Gala where she sang “Like A Prayer,” “Hallelujah” and debuted a new song apparently titled, “Magic.” The theme for the evening was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.
• House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi says if there are Democratic House candidates who want to say they won’t support her as House Speaker, she’s fine with it. “I think if they have to do that to win the election, I’m all for it. Just win, baby.”
• Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned a Russian oligarch about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments funneled through his company to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, after the election. #RuhRoh #DidHeSayRussia?
• The new interim memorial for the victims and survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting was unveiled today in Orlando, Florida. This tribute will remain until a permanent memorial can be built.
Preview of the interim memorial at Pulse nightclub. It will be open to the public starting at 3pm. pic.twitter.com/RlPxGu8Mov
The Simpsons recently came under fire due to a controversy over the character of Apu. For years, Apu has been voiced by a non-Indian actor playing into what many feel are old, tired, and insulting stereotypes.
Ironically, The Simpsons has used the platform of its enormous viewership to combat harmful stereotypes for years.
One example: head back to 1997 when John Waters guested on the show and Homer couldn’t seem to figure out why he didn’t like Waters.
Smart-guy Matt Baume explains:
The 1997 episode of The Simpsons entitled “Homer’s Phobia” doesn’t just mark a turning point for queer characters on television — it’s a turning point for homophobia on television as well.
With an unlikely appearance by cult filmmaker John Waters, the episode features a groundbreaking depiction of intolerance, a crash course in camp, and a smarter conversation about queer Americans than on any other show at the time — all in a medium that was still thought of as only being for kids.
Watch the segment below.
For more insight into the current “Apu” issue, watch voice-over actor (and voice of “Apu”) Hank Azaria explain what’s up to Stephen Colbert below.
• The first Quinnipiac University poll for this year’s race for Sen. Ted Cruz’s seat in the U.S. Senate is in a statistical dead heat with Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas), his Democratic challenger, only 3 points behind Cruz 47%/44%. O’Rourke has raised $6.7 million compared to Cruz’s $3.2 million in campaign donations.
• Lobbyists at the anti-LGBT organizations the Heritage Foundation and Family Research Council were secretly involved in drafting the Trump administration’s policy banning transgender military service members. And now those same folks are hopping mad because their communications have been subpoenaed which could reveal to the world their hateful statements.
• Fraternity brothers at a joint-hosted Phi Gamma Delta and Kappa Sigma Xi-Lambda off-campus party last Friday broke the leg of a gay man in an alleged homophobic attack. Watch the report below.
In an apparent crackdown by China’s Communist Party to denounce any and everything to do with LGBT folks, the country’s microblogging platform Sina Weibo began deleting “homosexual” content even as protesters reacted with the hashtag #IAmGay.
Weibo said in a statement Friday it had begun a “clean-up campaign” to remove “illegal” content, including “manga and videos with pornographic implications, promoting violence or (related to) homosexuality”.
It is the latest sign in a crackdown by the ruling Communist Party to purge the Internet of any content deviating from its “core values of socialism” while stifling criticism of social norms and established policies.
The popular Twitter-like platform, which boasts 400 million active monthly users, said it was implementing China’s new cybersecurity law and had already removed some 56,240 items by Friday evening.
The announcement provoked a flood of reaction from stunned or outraged Chinese Internet users, with protesters rallying behind the hashtag “I am gay”.
By midday Saturday, it had been used by some 170,l000 Weibo users, before it was apparently banned by the platform.
“There can be no homosexuality under socialism? It is unbelievable that China progresses economically and militarily but returns to the feudal era in terms of ideas,” one angry commenter said.
China only decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, but conservative attitudes remain widespread.
#Gay#LGBT Yesterday，one of the biggest app in China，like the Twitter, instagram, named Weibo，issued a statment that prohibit every article, picture, comment，topic—every thing about homosexuality. How I am disappointed about our country… pic.twitter.com/MoLKHJoNRZ
The most meaningful hashtag I’ve seen around Chinese social media in a long time following announcement of ban on gay content: #IAMGAY#我是同性恋. Some say: “If this is not the time to speak out, then when will we?” https://t.co/CLMCHP4cWk
Many social media users in China protested with messages saying, “I am gay, not a pervert” following a Sina Weibo ban on gay-themed content https://t.co/LEyelq2KXX
BBC Scotland’s youth program The Social shares this spoken word poem illustrating the split-second choices LGBTs make every day when it comes to public displays of affection – even those as innocent as a good-bye kiss.
Twenty year-old Sean Lìonadh found himself in a state of “arresting helplessness” when a passer-by in Glasgow told him, “I’ve got nothing against gays, but do you have to do it in front of my kids?”
That “helplessness” eventually crystalized in his poetry and film-making becoming the short film, “Time For Love.”
I can admit that for years every one of the thoughts Sean addresses here has sped through my mind as a younger gay.
I’m not so afraid today, although lengthy hand-holding does put me on guard now and then. I’m not proud of that but it’s true.
Watch “Time For Love” below. This is how homophobia feels in 2018.
