LGBTQ news and entertainment
Michael and I getting our Pride on at Las Vegas Pride this year
We intentionally made a Facebook ad with false claims and submitted it to Facebook’s ad platform to see if it’d be approved. It got approved quickly and the ad is now running on Facebook. Take a look: pic.twitter.com/7NQyThWHgO
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 12, 2019
All tea, no shade! Some of the most famous drag queens in the world are taking over the Las Vegas Strip when RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! hits the stage at Flamingo Las Vegas in early 2020. From the creative team behind the Emmy Award-winning series RuPaul’s Drag Race, RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! will be the most sickening eleganza extravaganza in Las Vegas herstory. The revue is everything you love about the TV show and then some. “RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! is an immersive, interactive thrill-ride for everyone who loves to laugh, dance and sing-along when a fabulous drag queen shakes her padded ass on stage,” said RuPaul. Each live performance is packed with outrageous comedy, eye-popping fashions, over-the-top singing and dancing, heartwarming moments, plus twists and turns that will leave the audience “gagging” for more. The atmosphere of the show is interactive and encourages audience members’ participation, as if they were attending a live episode of the world-famous competition. Directed by RuPaul and award-winning choreographer and filmmaker Jamal Sims (Aladdin, Step Up, When The Beat Drops), RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! is produced by World of Wonder, the creative team behind RuPaul’s Drag Race, with Voss Events. The show will feature RuPaul’s hit songs from the past 11 seasons of Drag Race, plus original show-stopping numbers created especially for this residency. Seven queens will be featured in each show from a rotating cast of Aquaria, Asia O’Hara, Coco Montrese, Derrick Barry, Eureka O’Hara, India Ferrah, Kahanna Montrese, Kameron Michaels, Kim Chi, Naomi Smalls, Shannel and Yvie Oddly. Presale tickets will be available starting Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. PT at rupaulsdragracelive.com, and fans can sign up for access beginning today. WOW and Voss Events subscribers will also receive presale access by email. Caesars Rewards members, Caesars Entertainment’s loyalty program, as well as Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers will also have access to a presale beginning Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 10 a.m. PT. RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! will perform Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 9:30 p.m. starting in January 2020. Tickets starting at $49, plus applicable tax and fees, go on sale to the public beginning Friday, Sept. 13 at 10 a.m. PT. For more information and a complete show schedule, please visit ticketmaster.com/dragracevegas. (via press release)
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| Conor Climo (screen capture) |
Twenty-three-year-old Conor Climo has been arrested and accused of plotting to firebomb a Las Vegas synagogue or a bar catering to LGTBQ customers, officials said Friday.
According to the criminal complaint, Climo was communicating with individuals who identified with a white supremacist extremist organization using the National Socialist Movement to promote their ideology.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe on Friday ordered Climo to remain in federal custody pending an Aug. 23 court appearance on a federal firearms charge.
From NBC Los Angeles:
Court documents say Climo communicated by encrypted internet chat with people identified as white supremacists, and told an FBI informant in recent weeks that he was scouting places to attack.
Investigators serving a warrant at his home found hand-drawn schematics and component parts of a destructive device, according to the criminal complaint, including flammable liquids, oxidizing agents and circuit boards. They also confiscated an AR-15 assault-style weapon and a bolt-action rifle.
The charge against Climo accuses him of possessing an unregistered firearm in the form of the component parts of a destructive device.
“Climo would regularly use derogatory racial, anti-Semitic and homosexual slurs,” the U.S. attorney’s office statement said. “He discussed attacking a Las Vegas synagogue and making Molotov Cocktails and improvised explosive devices, and he also discussed conducting surveillance on a bar he believed catered to the LGBTQ community.”
Back in 2016, local news station KTNV-TV reported on Climo, 20-years-old at the time, “patrolling” his neighborhood wearing battle gear and carrying an assault rifle and survival knife.
“I’ll pretty much stay within constitutional bounds when I’d doing this,” he told KTNV.
“Pretty much stay within constitutional bounds???”
He also said he would be looking for ‘suspicious activity,’ which he defined as “people outside when they’re not supposed to be…”
Think on that one.
That was MY neighborhood he was patrolling. In the reports from 2016 (below), he admits he has no formal training in ‘policing’ anything.
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| Rodiney Santiago (via Instagram) |
Some news items you might have missed:
• InstaHunks: Show of hands – who would love to be in Bora Bora right now with Rodiney Santiago? #MeMePickMe #ClothesAreSexyToo
• Las Vegas: Wendell Melton, charged with killing his 17-year-old son, Giovanni Melton, for being gay, has been released on $200,000 bail and placed on house arrest as he awaits trial.
• Twitter: Footage from a Tuscon City Council meeting Tuesday night has led to a man’s response to pro-Trumpers protesting a sanctuary city measure on the November ballot going viral as #GreenShirtGuy thanks to his uncontrollable laughter.
Scene inside a Tucson City Council Meeting. Officials voted to put a “Sanctuary City” measure on the November ballot pic.twitter.com/mEh4PNj0Wo— Nick VinZant (@NickVinZant) August 7, 2019
• CNN: White House officials rejected efforts by the Department of Homeland Security for more than a year to make combating domestic terror threats, such as those from white supremacists, a greater priority.
• NY Daily News: The 23-year-old founder of Students for Trump, John Lambert, pleaded guilty Tuesday to creating a website for a fake law firm pretending to be a graduate of NYU Law School and 15 years of experience in corporate and patent law. He proceeded to scam ‘clients’ of more than $46,000. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
• Out Music: Jesus goes to Pride in this new music video, “Macy,” from queer recording artist AMO.
Drawing inspiration from songwriters like Amy Winehouse, Tracy Chapman, and Kurt Cobain, AMO blends elements of pop, rock, soul, country, and blues.
The music video for ‘MACY’ was inspired by AMO’s time as a member of the Mormon Church. AMO wanted to create a sympathetic portrait of a queer Christ figure attending a PRIDE parade along with up-and-coming artists as members of the 12 apostles.
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| Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas |
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots credited with inspiring the modern LGBTQ rights movement, the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas was the target of an apparent arson attempt.
Jason Dinant, a reporter for local ABC affiliate KTNV, reports employees showed up to work this morning to find someone someone had started a fire outside the building.
Surveillance cameras captured video of a man trying to rip down a Stonewall banner. Failing in that attempt, the video shows him setting fire to a palm tree nearest the building.
KTNV reports a propane tank was found near the tree.
“As we enter the final week of Pride Month, the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall and major celebrations take place this weekend in New York, San Francisco, and around the world, this attempted arson and hate crime against our community reinforce the need for LGBTQ+ Pride events,” read the statement. “Our equality, rights, and our lives remain at risk.”
The post went on to say “this vengeful act reminds us to be alert, be safe, and if you see something, say something.”
“To everyone around the world attending Pride events this weekend, let this be a reminder of why you are celebrating and why our fight for equality continues,” concluded the post.
The Center’s executive director, John Waldron, told KTNVthat the organization had received “an alarming voicemail this week from a person upset about rainbow flags flying with American flags.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration rejected requests from U.S. embassies around the world to fly rainbow flags alongside American flags during Pride Month, but there’s currently no clear evidence that guidance might have played inspired these actions.
Las Vegas police, arson investigators and the FBI are investigating the arson attempt.
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| Opening night of ‘Potted Potter’ in Las Vegas |
Some news items you might have missed:
• I attended the opening night of the hit two-man play Potted Potter at Ballys Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas last night. The show, which parodies all 7 books of the Harry Potter series in 70 minutes, has been running for years in the UK. The original stars opened the show here and I was thrilled to take my uber-handsome god son, Josh, to the performance.
• During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, John Cena talked about getting ‘accidental boners’ during wrestling matches.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) somehow ‘straight-washed’ his proclamation observing the 3rd anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. DeSantis blamed the missing mention of the LGBTQ community on staffers. It was later added to the proclamation.
• A mother in South Carolina was arrested after walking into an elementary school and confronting her son’s bullies.
• The Australian man accused of killing 51 worshippers at two mosques in New Zealand in March pleaded not guilty to all charges in a court on Friday.
• The 20 Democratic presidential candidates who qualified for the first Dem debates have been announced:
BREAKING: DNC announces the names of the candidates who will appear in the first Democratic Debates on June 26 & 27 from Miami. @chucktodd: “After months of campaigning and polling, the stage is now set.” pic.twitter.com/fQbafzHr26— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 13, 2019
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| Mayor Pete Buttigieg addresses 14th annual Las Vegas HRC gala |
Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg delivered the keynote address last night at the annual gala Human Rights Campaign dinner in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 37-year-old from South Bend, Indiana, used the speech to address what some have viewed as a possible vulnerability as he competes for the Democratic nomination for president, and that’s being a white male from the Midwest when many in his party feel a woman or person of color would best represent today’s Democratic Party.
Buttigieg spoke of his own experiences as a gay man in a predominantly straight society. But he also pushed back on the idea that people of different marginalized groups share in “equivalencies” in how they have experienced discrimination.
“I may be part of the LGBTQ community, but being a gay man doesn’t even tell me what it’s like to be a trans woman of color in that same community, let alone an undocumented mother of four or a disabled veteran or a displaced autoworker,” he told the audience assembled at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.
Mayor Pete warned of a “crisis of belonging in this country,” saying that “so-called identity politics” that underscore how one person hasn’t walked in another’s shoes only exacerbates our differences.
“Something that is true,” acknowledged the Harvard and Oxford grad. “But, it doesn’t get us very far.”
The mayor noted that identity politics often serve to divide folks who have more in common than less.
Addressing “divisive lines of thinking” present in today’s American politics, Buttigieg spoke of being told “to choose between supporting an auto worker and a trans woman of color, without stopping to think about the fact that sometimes the auto worker is a trans woman of color, and she definitely needs all the security she can get.”
“The wall I worry about most isn’t the president’s fantasy wall on the Mexican border that will never get built anyway,” he said, referencing Donald Trump’s infamous border wall. “What I worry about are the very real walls being put up between us as we get divided and carved up.”
“And what every gay person has in common with every excluded person of every kind is knowing what it’s like to see a wall,” he continued. “I am ready to use my story, my energy, my alliances, and yes, my privilege, to throw myself into tearing down those walls.”
“Each of us has a story that can either separate us, or connect us to those around us,” he added. “Yes, I am gay, and I am the son of an immigrant, and an Army brat, and I’m a husband, and I am a musician, and I’m an Episcopalian. And I’m a Democrat.”
Along the way, the mayor also touched on a wide range of progressive policy positions, including cybersecurity, gerrymandering, LGBTQ rights, reproductive health, labor unions, climate change, and big money in politics.
“We can’t let this election be about the president,” he said. “Because if Americans see us spend all our time talking about him, they’ll be left with the question: ‘Who is talking about us?’”
Buttigieg urged Democrats to start talking not only about their policies, but the values behind those policies.
“It’s time for us to get comfortable once again talking about values … like freedom,” he said. “We have allowed conservatives to monopolize the language of freedom. But we know that freedom isn’t just about freedom from, it’s about freedom to. Not just freedom from regulation, but freedom to live a life of your choosing.”
The HRC appearance capped a west coast campaign swing that included fund-raisers at the home of Gwyneth Paltrow, and another at The Abbey, a popular West Hollywood gay bar.
Watch Buttigieg’s full speech at the 14th annual Human Rights Campaign dinner in Las Vegas below.
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| Jersey Shore star Vinny G takes center stage at Chippendales (all photos: Denise Truscello) |
Jersey Shore star Vinny Guadagnino packed the house in Las Vegas last night as he begins his five week stint as Celebrity Guest Host with the iconic men of Chippendales at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.
Before the show, Vinny took to the red carpet to ‘strike a pose’ with the Chipps and give a taste of what’s to come.
Vinny unfortunately suffered a severe sprained ankle earlier in the week, but he took to the stage in a surprise appearance on Thursday night to let the crowd know he wasn’t letting that get in the way of putting on a show for the audience.
“Now, you may notice I’m walking with a little ‘gangster lean’ cause I went a little too hard beating up the beat last night, but it’s ok,” he told the crowd. “I’m still here to party with you guys.”
“And, my hands still work, so you know what that means…” he added as he slowly unzipped his hoodie to reveal his “Keto Guido” abs.
Guadagnino is the latest in a line of guest stars at Chippendales which has included international super-model Tyson Beckford, America’s Next Top Model & Dancing with the Stars champ Nyle DiMarco, 90210 & Sharknado star Ian Ziering, and Joey Lawrence, among others.
Vinny Guadagnino joins the Chippendales through May 26, 2019 (Friday through Sunday performances) at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.
The box office reports that tickets are seriously going quick, so click your tix quick and get down to see Vinny G and the men of Chippendales.
Check out some video footage from Vinny G’s opening night at Chippendales.
The Human Rights Campaign has announced that Pete Buttigieg, a trailblazer who made history in launching his presidential campaign, will speak at the HRC Las Vegas Dinner on Saturday, May 11.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the first openly gay candidate to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Mayor Pete Buttigieg is changing hearts and minds across America in his trailblazing campaign to be the Democratic Party’s first out nominee for President of the United States,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “As a visible and outspoken advocate for LGBTQ equality, Mayor Pete has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to our community and we are honored to welcome him to our Las Vegas Dinner.”
Set to take place at Caesars Palace, the 2019 HRC Las Vegas Dinner brings together HRC’s most active members and supporters in the Las Vegas area to raise crucial funds in the fight for LGBTQ equality.
Yes, we’re talking my city. I will, of course, be attending.
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| Celine Dion (screen capture) |
Living in Las Vegas, I’ve grown accustomed to pop superstar Celine Dion being Sin City’s longest-running resident diva.
A New Day, her first residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which ran from March 2003 to December 2007, is the most successful residency of all time grossing over $385 million. The 717 performances were attended by nearly 3 million people.
She took a break, but came back to Caesars Palace for a second residency, titled Celine, in March 2011.
That production will end on June 8, 2019, as she departs for her first North American tour in over a decade to support her upcoming new album, Courage.
To announce the news of the Courage World Tour, the 51-year-old singer enlisted some help from other Las Vegas ‘divas’ for a video.
In the clip, Celine is heading out of Sin City in a sixteen-wheeler with an Elvis impersonator marrying a couple, along with a senior still clicking away at a slot machine.
But when the big-rig truck breaks down, thankfully “Tina,” “Diana,” “Barbara” and a Celine queen look-a-like show up right in the nick of time.
Celine and her band climb into the queens’ vehicle, and the international recording artist is soon serenaded all the way to Los Angeles with a medley of her hits.
The video is cute, it’s kitschy, and a fitting ‘so long’ to Vegas.
The new album, Courage, is expected to drop sometime in November.
The Courage World Tour will launch on September 18 in Quebec City, and will play in over 50 cities through April 2020.
Click here for tour info, and you check out Celine and the queens below.