Helmut Muller Estrada (center) honored for defending gay couple in homophobic attack after Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade
When Dmitry Logunov and Rene Chalarca were attacked by four men after the Miami Beach Pride Parade earlier this month, a good samaritan named Helmut Muller Estrada jumped in to defend the gay couple.
His actions helped to contain the incident even though he found himself with his own hospital-level injuries requiring stitches to his head.
At the time, Estrada told CBS Miami: “To step up for those guys, I thought it was the right thing to do. I try my best. On sex and religion, I hope they get along someday.”
On Wednesday, the City of Miami Beach honored Estrada with a Miami Beach medallion.
Speaking at the ceremony, Commissioner Michael Gongora cited Estrada for “for acts of heroism, bravery and significant contributions to our city.”
The four men who attacked Chalarca and Logunov turned themselves in to police and face possible felony assault charges.
Watch the report from the local CBS affiliate in Miami below:
Gay gossip guy Perez Hilton felt the need to respond to criticism after making homophobic comments that he made last week.
The 40-year-old blogger shared on his podcast last week that he wouldn’t be enrolling his 5-year-old son, Mario, in dance classes because most young boys who dance “end up being gay.” If he had his way, he’d prefer if his son was straight.
“I don’t think that’s a homophobic thing to say,” added Hilton, who’s said for years he was born gay. “Just like I don’t think it’s a homophobic thing to say that a disproportionate amount of male [actors] on Broadway are gay. There are more gay men drawn to that profession… That’s just a fact.”
“I think dance class might help make your son gay. Even though I believe I was born gay, I can reconcile having said that.”
Perez also asserts that he would go back and choose to be straight if he could.
“As a gay man, I’m not ashamed to be gay… but if I could go back in time and, when I was 18, be given a choice, I would have chosen then to be heterosexual… Being a gay man [around the world] is still a harder road to travel on.”
Perez did make a point to say he’d support Mario regardless of his sexuality: “If my son turns out to be gay, or if he’s already gay but not able to articulate that yet because he’s only 5, I will love my son unconditionally and support him. If my son is transgender, I will love him and support him unconditionally.”
I don’t think there’s any logical route where you can say you’re born gay and then turn around and believe dance classes can make you gay.
That makes as much sense as thinking eating Mexican food will help you learn Spanish.
I think you see a lot of gay men in the arts because they’re just drawn to that world. And I know plenty of straight men who are dancers and actors on Broadway.
Perez needs to “reconcile” a bit more of his own internalized homophobia. This is definitely not a message young LGBTs or their parents need to hear.
USA Today is reporting that former LSU running back Derrius Guice was asked by one team at the NFL Scouting Combine about his sexuality, and another actually suggested his mother was a prostitute.
‘’It was pretty crazy,” Guice said in an interview on the SiriusXM NFL show Late Hits. “Some people are really trying to get in your head and test your reaction. … I go in one room, and a team will ask me do I like men, just to see my reaction. I go in another room, they’ll try to bring up one of my family members or something and tell me, ‘Hey, I heard your mom sells herself. How do you feel about that?’ “
NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in an email to USA TODAY Sports Thursday that the league is “looking into the matter.”
“A question such as that is completely inappropriate and wholly contrary to league workplace policies,” McCarthy said. “The NFL and its clubs are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees in a manner that is consistent with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, state and federal laws and the CBA.
Guice is predicted to be a first round draft pick.
This isn’t the first time this has happened at the NFL Combine. In 2016, a coach from the Atlanta Falcons asked cornerback Eli Apple a similar question.
NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith said in an interview he has the solution to this problem.
“Find out what team did it and ban them from the Combine,” Smith said. “The question is inappropriate. Questions along these lines are always inappropriate.”
WTH is this?! What does who’s in your bed have to do with what you can do on the field?! https://t.co/vQCTrNFThX
It is 2018 and an NFL team asked Derrius Guice if he is gay. Teams that engage in blatant homophobia (and potential violations of labor laws) should be named and sanctioned. A finger wag just doesn’t cut it This time, @NFLhttps://t.co/qaqbxMi2aM
John Moody, the Fox News Channel executive who penned a divisive op-ed decrying the diversity of the U.S. Olympic team has resigned.
In February, Moody wrote, in part, “Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger.’ It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to ‘Darker, Gayer, Different.’ If your goal is to win medals, that won’t work.”
“Complaining that every team isn’t a rainbow of political correctness defeats the purpose of sports, which is competition,” he continued. “At the Olympic level, not everyone is a winner. Not everyone gets a little plastic trophy to take home.”
Moody went on to assert that the diversity of the U.S. Olympic team, which fielded the most Asian-American and African-American athletes ever assembled for a U.S. Winter Olympic team as well as our first two openly gay Winter Olympians, was merely a publicity stunt.
Fox News removed the op-ed and issued a statement saying the essay “does not reflect the views or values” of Fox News.
LGBT advocacy groups – including the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights – all immediately denounced the essay
“The executive vice president of Fox News targeted some of our nation’s top athletes with vicious anti-LGBTQ and biased rhetoric at what should be the proudest moment of their lives,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD.
She continued: “These athletes are at the Olympics because they already won by qualifying to represent the United States on the world’s stage; and they did so despite facing discrimination from places like Fox News throughout their careers. Moody should not only apologize to the athletes and fans for this disgraceful post, but Fox News should open their site for diverse athletes to share their own personal stories and perspectives.”
Human Rights Campaign senior national press secretary Stephen Peters said the column is “the antithesis of what the Olympics are all about and an affront to the values of hard work and perseverance that Americans share.” He added, “The U.S.O.C. does not have quotas for its Olympic delegation, and to suggest that race, sexuality, or gender orientation are the reasons these incredible athletes made the cut is insulting, repugnant and dismissive of a lifetime of hard work.”
Catherine Sakimura, deputy director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the column’s “racist and homophobic sentiment demeans our U.S. Olympic athletes, who should be celebrated as they represent our country.”
Jurors in the case of Isauro Aguirre, found guilty of first-degree murder of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez, have recommended the death penalty for the 37-year-old man.
Aguirre was convicted of first-degree murder on November 15. According to prosecutors, Aguirre hated the boy because he suspected he was gay.
Jurors on Wednesday voted for the death penalty for a man convicted of fatally torturing his girlfriend’s young son — a savage slaying that led to sweeping reform within Los Angeles County’s child-welfare system.
The verdict ended a murder trial in which jurors heard and saw disturbing evidence about how 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez suffered repeated abuse at the hands of Isauro Aguirre, 37, who stared ahead expressionless as he heard the pronouncement.
When paramedics arrived at the boy’s Palmdale home on May 22, 2013, Gabriel was unconscious and had a cracked skull, broken ribs, burned and bruised skin, missing teeth and BB pellets lodged in his groin. He died two days later after being removed from life support.
During closing arguments in the penalty phase of Aguirre’s trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami told jurors that in the months leading up to the boy’s death, the defendant had reveled in his brutalization, forcing Gabriel to eat cat feces and his own vomit. The boy slept in a small cabinet, the prosecutor said, with his ankles handcuffed, his hands bound and his mouth gagged with a sock.
The White House posted a photo taken during this week’s NATO summit of the spouses of the attending world leaders.
The LGBT community was quick to hail the inclusion of the First Gentleman of Luxembourg, Gauthier Destenay, who married the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, two years ago.
And yet, for some unknown reason, Mr. Destenay was the only spouse to be omitted in the caption by the White House.
There are ten people in the photo, only nine included in the caption.
Oh, but they did list Melania twice, so, yeah…
Now, can you think of a reason that could explain why he would the only one excluded?
Remember, Donald Trump told the LGBTQ community during the campaign that he would be “much better for the gays” than Hillary.
According to the Miami Herald, police have identified and arrested a North Carolina man accused of a homophobic hate crime in Key West, Florida.
The Key West Police Department said Brandon Ray Davis, 30, was taken into custody by the Onslow County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office on an “extraditable warrant” for felony aggravated battery stemming from the Feb. 23 incident. Davis lives in Richlands, N.C.
He is accused of using a deadly weapon — his scooter — to nearly run down two men on bicycles while deluging them with homophobic comments. Since it’s classified as a hate crime, if Davis is convicted, he could face enhanced penalties.
Kevin Seymour and Kevin Price told police that about 1 a.m. on Feb. 23, they were riding bicycles in the 700 block of Duval when they saw a man swerving on a rented scooter. Seymour says he shouted to warn the scooter rider, identified by police as Davis, that he almost hit a car. Davis yelled, “You guys are a couple of fags,” “I bet you faggots voted for that bitch Hillary” and “You live in Trump country now,” police say.
When Seymour threatened to call police, Davis allegedly told him, “If you do that, I’ll cut you up.”
At one point, the scooter rider struck the rear tire of Seymour’s bike, knocking him to the ground. Seymour and Price got the scooter tag number before he fled. The scooter was rented from A and M Rentals. It was found parked near the Southernmost Point.
Police say they identified Davis in part through the scooter rental agency, where Davis left a copy of his driver’s license so he could rent it. Working with North Carolina law enforcement, detectives obtained a photo of Davis. In a photo lineup, Seymour, Price and another witness said it was Davis in the photo, police said.
You have to admit Davis sounds like an idiot. Did he really think he couldn’t be tracked down when he was on a RENTED scooter?
• The Daily Beast reporter Nico Hines, who authored the homophobic Grindr report from the Rio Olympics, has had credentials revoked and sent home to London.
After an enormous uproar over The Daily Beast publishing a sleazy, unscrupulous article wherein a “reporter” fired up Grindr down at the Rio Olympics and attempted to schedule “dates” for what ended up being a mocking, homophobic and condescending result, the editors posted this message to readers announcing the article has now been removed.
Today, The Daily Beast took an unprecedented but necessary step: We are removing an article from our site, “The Other Olympic Sport In Rio: Swiping.”
The Daily Beast does not do this lightly. As shared in our editor’s note earlier today, we initially thought swift removal of any identifying characteristics and better clarification of our intent was the adequate way to address this. Our initial reaction was that the entire removal of the piece was not necessary. We were wrong. We’re sorry. And we apologize to the athletes who may have been inadvertently compromised by our story.
Today we did not uphold a deep set of The Daily Beast’s values. These values—which include standing up to bullies and bigots, and specifically being a proudly, steadfastly supportive voice for LGBT people all over the world—are core to our commitment to journalism and to our commitment to serving our readers.
As a newsroom, we succeed together and we fail together, and this was a failure on The Daily Beast as a whole, not a single individual. The article was not intended to do harm or degrade members of the LGBT community, but intent doesn’t matter, impact does. Our hope is that removing an article that is in conflict with both our values and what we aspire to as journalists will demonstrate how seriously we take our error.
We were wrong. We will do better.
The author of the piece, Nico Hines, has remained silent throughout the entire debacle.
