LGBTQ news and entertainment
(screen capture via Channel 8 San Diego)
According to Newsweek, “The man reportedly refused to take off his hood after being confronted by others at the store until he went to go pay for his items at the checkout.” Several social media users noted that Santee has a sad, sordid history regarding white supremacists which caused the city to be nicknamed, “Klantee.” See the report from Channel 8 San Diego below.
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| Me and the Brun |
Some news items you might have missed:
• As National Pet Day winds down, here’s to the best dog I ever worked for (and loved more than anyone else on this planet ever never ever never), Bruno the wonder dog! (You’ll notice, clearly, I was the pet and Bruno was the master, right?)
• The cast of the hit FX series, Pose, have been named as Grand Marshals of New York City Pride.
• The latest Monmouth University poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden, who hasn’t officially entered the race, as the first choice of roughly a quarter of likely Iowa caucus-goers (27%). He’s followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with 16% and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, in third place with 9%.
• In related news – a new poll out of New Hampshire shows Pete Buttigieg in 3rd place there as well. The results put Biden at 23%, Sanders at 16% and Buttigieg at 11%.
• Disney will develop the hit movie, Love, Simon, into a series for Disney+, the mouse house’s streaming platform.
• Michael Avenatti, who became famous as porn star Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, has been indicted on 36 charges of tax dodging, perjury, theft from clients.
• A white South Carolina man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Thursday for attempting to hire the Ku Klux Klan to kill his black neighbor. I kid you not…
• Recording artist Lizzo will releases her new album, “CUZ I LOVE YOU” on April 19th. Check out her recent appearance on NBC’s Today Show singing lead single, “Juice.”
What a charismatic talent, and I love her positive/body positive message. Hit play.
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| Rodiney Santiago |
Some news items you might have missed:
• One of my fave InstaHunks, Rodiney Santiago, is currently chronicling his journey through Italian islands where I was just two weeks ago! You have to click over and check out his gorgeous vacay pics. #MyTimingWasOff
• Pro-football player and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez reportedly came out to his lawyer before committing suicide in 2015.
• Vermont Democratic gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist, the first trans candidate for govnernor of a major party, is receiving death threats.
• A self-identified Ku Klux Klan leader in Maryland has been sentenced to four years in prison for firing a gun into a crowd at the 2017 Nazi rally in Charlottesville.
• Craig Zadan, the prolific out producer who brought musicals like The Sound of Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, Gypsy and Cinderella back to television died unexpectedly at the age of 69 due to complications from shoulder surgery. His arious productions earned six Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, 17 Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, a Grammy Award, six GLAAD Awards, four NAACP Image Awards and two Tony Awards.
Annie, The Music Man, Promises, Hairspray… Craig, you were there with me from the beginning. This is a true loss not only for me, but for the world. Rest in peace, sweetheart. pic.twitter.com/tl2rEtMNBM— Kristin Chenoweth (@KChenoweth) August 22, 2018
I am shocked and saddened to hear of Craig Zadan’s passing. We collaborated on several projects…and he was always a joy to work with. His kindness and his creativity will surely be missed.— Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) August 22, 2018
So much is going on in all our lives, but I do want to note the death yesterday of a wonderful man and a great friend, Craig Zadan, who was utterly devoted to restoring the American musical to its rightful place in our hearts. Thank you, Craig…— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) August 22, 2018
I am shocked and saddened to hear of Craig Zadan’s passing.
He was a tireless supporter of so many … including myself. He brought joy to countless people. He will be incredibly missed. Sending love and thoughts to his family and friends.— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) August 22, 2018
Craig Zadan, together with Neil Meron, made a career and a LIFE of bringing musical theater into homes and to people everywhere, how do you begin to express gratitude for such a wondrous thing #RIPCraigZadan— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) August 22, 2018
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James Schneider, an openly gay man currently running for city council in Cape Coral, recently received a threatening note that appears to be from a local division of the Ku Klux Klan.
The note was apparently left on the front door of Schneider’s home last weekend.
The text of the note reads, “We know where you live, faggot… We are going to win… Quit now. When you girls least expect it, we will be here for a nice visit.”
Schneider admits the threat scared him, but he has no intention of quitting the race.
“I was spooked by it immediately. It really shakes you to the core,” said Schneider.
Posting the image to his Facebook page, he wrote, “They got their opportunity to scare us, but not quitting this election. I am the qualified candidate, not the popular one.”
Schneider told his Facebook followers he “almost quit” after the threats but will now “stay in the campaign.”
“We are shaken but not beaten,” the post reads. “Thank you so much for those who have huddled around us at this time. We live in a messed up country.”
An Alabama chapter of the Ku Klux Klan allowed a BBC news crew to follow their activities to explore and better understand racist attitudes in the U.S. following the murders of 9 church-goers by a white supremacist in Charleston.
From Alternet:
As Klan members assemble 3,000 fliers to deliver to a predominately black neighborhood, the BBC interviewer notices a photograph of Adolf Hitler on the wall.
“Adolf Hitler, he was one of the smartest men there ever was,” a Klan member explains. “The so-called concentration camps like Auschwitz and so forth, they say they were death camps. But these death camps, they gave the so-called people that were being killed cigarettes, there was coffee, there was a movie theater, a library, even a swimming pool in Auschwitz.”
“And if you’re going to sit there and kill all these people then how come all these things would be in there?” he continues. “It’s more like a summer camp.”
“Sorry,” the stunned interviewer interrupts. “You’re telling me Auschwitz was like a summer camp?”
“Well, they had a swimming pool, a movie theater and everything else,” the Klan member insists. “You know, you don’t see in prisons today any kind of swimming pool being in the middle of the prison hall.”
“So what do you think the Jews were doing in Auschwitz?” the interviewer asks.
“Swimming,” the white supremacist replies. “And working. Because they didn’t want to do any work, and what Hitler was trying to do was he was trying to teach them to work, trying to rehabilitate them, if you will.”
“Where did you hear this?” the dumbfounded interviewer wonders.
“It’s all history,” the Klan member says.
Although the BBC interviewer continues to press, Klan members eventually tire of the subject and head out to distribute their fliers.
“In Britain, inciting racial hatred carries a possible sentence of seven years in prison,” the narrator explains to the British audience. “Here in the U.S., the First Amendment guarantees free speech. Even for blatant racism.”
“More than a million prisoners died at Auschwitz,” the narrator adds. “The vast majority of them were Jewish.”
Watch the clip from BBC 3 below. Warning: the clip makes frequent use of offensive racial slurs.
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| Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke |
Here’s a dubious distinction for you.
Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke praised GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump on his radio show last week, saying Trump is “the best of the lot” currently running for prez.
Duke is a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana unsuccessfully.
Some of his comments about Donald Trump:
“I praise the fact that he’s come out on the immigration issue. That he’s an entrepreneur and he has a good sense of what people want to hear what they want to buy.”
“And I think he realizes that his path to popularity toward power in the Republican Party is talking about the immigration issue. And he has really said some incredibly great things recently. So whatever his motivation, I don’t give a damn. I really like the fact that he’s speaking out on this greatest immediate threat to the American people.”
“I’ve said from the beginning I think his campaign is good in the sense that it’s bringing these issues to a discussion which we have to have in America. And he’s continuing to move the envelope further and I think he understands the real sentiment of America.”
“So although we can’t trust him to do what he says, the other Republican candidates won’t even say what he says,” he opined. “So he’s certainly the best of the lot. And he’s certainly somebody that we should get behind in terms, ya know, raising the image of this thing.”
You can listen to Duke’s remarks below.
Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner surely didn’t imagine he would begin the next Congress in this manner.
First, Republican Congressman Michael Grimm of Staten Island pleads guilty to felony tax evasion.
And now another GOP House member is in the middle of a racial controversy literally days before the Republican party is to take control of both chambers of Congress.
The incoming House Majority Whip, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has acknowledged that he spoke at a meeting of “white nationalist leaders” (read that “white supremacists”) while serving as a state legislator in 2002.
The 48-year-old Scalise, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post earlier this year, confirmed through an adviser that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization.
That organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
As JoeMyGod points out, it should surprise no one that Scalise was the lead author of Louisiana’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.