• InstaHunk Dan Tai asks, “Do you count your macros?” I don’t even know what that means (I’m sure it’s important) because calves, biceps, deltoids, face…
• Desperate Housewives/Ugly Betty star Vanessa Williams has been tapped for a lead role in Happy Accident, ABC’s family comedy pilot from the writers of Modern Family. #Yay!
• Congressional Republicans aren’t fond of Donald Trump’s idea to declare a ‘national emergency’ in order to get his beloved wall, but they’ve signaled they won’t put up a stink if he does.
• Reutersreports that The Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion cut tax package appeared to have no major impact on businesses’ capital investment or hiring plans.
• A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows 56% of registered voters will “definitely” not vote for Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
• And speaking of the 2020 election, Sen. Kamala Harris of California broke records Monday night when her televised town hall became the most viewed event of its kind in cable news history with 1.957 million views. The event drew the most viewers of any cable-news, single-candidate town hall.
• Out singer/songwriter Sam Smith and former Fifth Harmony member Normani release their sensual, moody music video for their hit duet, “Dancing with a Stranger.”
Alone in a lavish mansion, both artists are attempting to get over former lovers. I like the song; not sure about Normani’s dancing in the middle there, but I guess it’s in the title so someone had to dance…?
Sen. Kamala Harris announces her 2020 presidential candidacy
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California (D) announced today she will seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
Harris chose to embrace the symbolism of announcing her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
A former prosecutor and California Attorney General, she has been in the Senate since January 2017.
The 54-year-old told viewers of Good Morning America, where she made the big announcement, “My entire career has been focused on keeping people safe. It is probably one of the things that motivates me more than anything else.”
I find Harris to be smart, articulate, and experienced. I don’t think there’s a question she’s qualified. I look forward to seeing her at the early debates and hear what she has to say in regard to what a Harris administration would look like.
As attorney general in California, she refused to defend Proposition 8, the state’s hideous ban on same-sex marriage. She also refused to certify a “Kill the Gays” ballot initiative that would have instituted the death penalty for homosexuality.
When the Supreme Court finally made marriage equality the law of the land in 2015, Harris officiated the wedding of Prop 8 plaintiffs Sandy Stier and Kris Perry.
Upon joining the Senate, she co-sponsored the Equality Act, legislation that seeks to bar anti-LGBT discrimination under federal law.
Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California told the Los Angeles Blade, “We’ve known her since she was the DA in San Francisco, and then of course, when she as attorney general was more engaged than any attorney general has been with us in the LGBTQ community.”
There was a blemish on her LGBTQ record when in 2015, while Attorney General of California, she signed off on some briefs that sought to withhold gender confirmation surgery for transgender prison inmates that had been prescribed while serving out their sentences.
Today, at Howard University, she told the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson, “It was an office with a lot of people who would do the work on a daily basis, and do I wish that sometimes they would have personally consulted me before they wrote the things that they wrote?” Harris said. “Yes, I do.”
“But the bottom line is the buck stops with me, and I take full responsibility for what my office did,” Harris said.
Harris went on to say she helped coordinate an agreement with the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation to set up a process where transgender inmates could obtain transition-related care, including gender reassignment surgery.
Several of Harris’ Senate colleagues will be in the hunt for the Democratic nomination as well.
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have both formed exploratory committees.
Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are also eyeing the race.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Long days of confirmation hearings by the Senate judiciary committee questioning Donald Trump’s latest nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, have yielded no answers on where the candidate stands on marriage equality.
“My question is very specific,” she stated. “Can you comment on your personal opinion on whether Obergefell was correctly decided. It’s a yes or no. Please.”
Rather than address that question, Kavanaugh deflected to the recent SCOTUS decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd, v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
“Justice Kennedy wrote, ‘The days of discriminating against gay and lesbian Americans or treating gay and lesbian Americans as inferior in dignity and worth are over,’” Kavanaugh replied.
The problem is that case wasn’t about same-sex marriage per se, but about LGBT discrimination.
“That is the precedent of the Supreme Court agreed with by…” Kavanaugh began, a response he’s used throughout the proceedings to avoid a direct answer.
Harris wasn’t having it. “Sir, I’m asking your opinion,” she made clear. “You’re the nominee right now so it is probative of your ability to serve on the highest court in our land.”
“So I’m asking you a very specific question – either you’re willing to answer or not,” framing the back and forth. “And if you’re not willing to answer it, we can move on. Do you believe Obergefell was correctly decided?”
“Each of the justices have declined as a matter of judicial independence,” Kavanaugh demurred.
“So you will not answer that question?” Harris declared and moved on to another subject.
I asked Brett Kavanaugh a very specific question: does he believe the case that made marriage equality the law of the land was correctly decided?
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) tried in his own way to get clarity on the judge’s position on the legality of same-sex marriage.
“Would it be wrong to fire a gay person?” Booker asked Kavanuagh.
“In my workplace, I hire people because of their talents and abilities,” Kavanaugh said, steering away from any legal perspective.
Booker moved to a different tact asking, “For someone to fire someone just because they’re gay… do they have a legal right to fire someone just because they’re gay in your opinion?”
Kavanaugh declined to answer that question directly citing ongoing litigation that he might have to rule on.
Growing frustrated, Booker stated the concern directly to the nominee: “There are a lot of folks who have concerns that if you get on the court, folks who are married right now really have a fear that they will not be able to continue those marital bonds.
“We still have a country where, if you post your Facebook pictures up of your marriage to someone of the same sex, we still have a majority of the states where if that employer of yours finds out that you’ve got a gay marriage and that you’re gay, in the majority of America states, you can fire somebody because they’re gay,” stated Booker.
And Booker’s right. Currently, there’s no federal law protecting LGBTQ people from workplace discrimination.
The CEO of GLAAD, Sarah Kate Ellis, tweeted this statement deriding Kavanaugh’s vague, non-answers to Harris and Booker on these questions of vital concern to LGBTQ Americans.
Judge Kavanaugh refuses to answer simple questions on the dignity of LGBTQ Americans and is unfit to serve on the Supreme Court.
With the world watching, Kavanaugh refused to tell LGBTQ Americans that we deserve equal protections under the law and Congress should take action before appointing him to a lifetime position where he will no doubt work to undermine our basic rights to liberty and justice.
Two Democratic Senators – Kamala Harris of California and Tom Carper of Delaware – have introduced new legislation that would require the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure the approximately 10 million LGBTQ Americans are properly counted for and represented in the Census data efforts.
The Census Equality Act would require the Census Bureau to begin the process of adding questions related to sexual orientation and gender identity to the decennial census by 2030 and the American Community Survey (ACS) by 2020.
Via press release:
LGTBQ communities face many challenges related to this undercounting, chief among them underrepresentation, lack of resources, and discrimination. Despite the fact that millions of Americans identify as LGBTQ, only an estimated .1% of elected officials are LGBTQ. LGBTQ undercounting in the Decennial Census and the ACS result in an inadequate distribution of resources and social services including Medicaid, Section 8 housing vouchers, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“The spirit of the census is that no one should go uncounted and no one should be invisible,” said Senator Harris. “We must expand data collections efforts to ensure the LGBTQ community is not only seen, but fully accounted for in terms of government resources provided. This information can also provide us with better tools to enforce civil rights protections for a community that is too often discriminated against.”
LGBTQ advocates have long argued that federal and local governments can’t help LGBTQ folks if they don’t know we’re out here.
NPR reports “the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the 2020 census questionnaires will include new relationship categories differentiating between ‘same-sex’ and ‘opposite-sex’ couples. That change, some demographers say, could produce the most comprehensive national data yet on same-sex couples.”
The Constitution requires every person living in the U.S. to take part in the census.
The bill has the support of the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the ACLU, People for the American Way and many more civil rights organizations.
• Check out the Russian/American “cultural” exchange (above) between InstaHunk bfs Alex (Russia) and Brett (U.S.)
• Asked about the now empty Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS after the Trump administration fired the council members, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tossed off a vague “We’ll keep you posted.”
• Superstar Ricky Martin got a bit “cheeky” promoting his latest concert dates in Las Vegas at The Park Theater.
A post shared by Ricky (@ricky_martin) on Jan 4, 2018 at 10:13am PST
• This is a big deal – Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris have been appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Previously, only 1 African American had ever served on this body during its 201-year history.
• LGBT fans of Star Trek: Discovery were left heartbroken after the most recent episode.
• Hunky Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds was recently asked on Twitter which Hollywood “Chris” does he think is the hottest – Pratt, Hemsworth or Evans? Using ice cream as a metaphor, Reynolds got a bit cheeky. He also threw in a Chris Pine shout out as well.
And of course, some Pine nuts generously sprinkled on top.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has asked California courts to squash the recently filed “Kill The Gays” referendum initiative.
Via press release:
“As Attorney General of California, it is my sworn duty to uphold the California and United States Constitutions and to protect the rights of all Californians.
“This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society.
“Today, I am filing an action for declaratory relief with the Court seeking judicial authorization for relief from the duty to prepare and issue the title and summary for the ‘Sodomite Suppression Act.’
If the Court does not grant this relief, my office will be forced to issue a title and summary for a proposal that seeks to legalize discrimination and vigilantism.”
A California lawyer recently proposed a ballot initiative to legalize the execution of gay and lesbian people in the state via bullet to the head. Due to state laws, the attorney general could be compelled to write a title and summary for the initiative for signature gathering.
A Southern California lawyer has filed a proposal that would put a “kill the gays” initiative before voters, and Attorney General Kamala Harris most likely can’t stop the process from advancing to the signature gathering stage.
Attorney Matthew G. McLaughlin filed the proposed measure last month, asking voters to criminalize homosexuality in the state and impose a death penalty sentence.
In his filing, which McLaughlin titles “Sodomite Suppression Act,” he seeks to have written into law that “any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.”
Harris is now tasked with having to write a title and summary for the proposal.
More than 3,800 people signed a petition to State Bar President Craig Holden asking that McLaughlin lose his law license for advocating to “legalize the murder” of gays and lesbians.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article15394181.html#storylink=cpy
