Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
Some news items you might have missed:
• The Advocate: Next year’s FIFA World Cup is set to take place in Qatar, but gay soccer player Josh Cavallo (above) is speaking out, saying he would not feel safe playing in a country where homosexuality is banned with punishments ranging from flogging and long prison terms to execution. Continue reading “News Round-Up: November 8, 2021”
Some news items you might have missed:
• Out: A new study says the true indicator of a person’s erect penis length might be as obvious as the nose on their face. Continue reading “News Round-Up: November 7, 2021”
When one launches their political career based on a biography that’s been proven to be full of lies, one would be prudent to not throw stones from within that proverbial glass house. Continue reading “Madison Cawthorn (Of All People) Attempts To Call Someone Out For Lying?”
Some news items you might have missed:
• The Advocate: Southwestern High School in Piasa, Illinois, held a flag-themed day, and one student brought a rainbow Pride flag. A fellow student told him to get rid of the flag, and when the first student asked why, another schoolmate began punching and beating him while trying to take the flag away. The accused attacker has been charged with aggravated battery. Continue reading “News Round-Up: October 5, 2021”
Some news stories you might have missed:
• PEOPLE: Willie Garson (above), who played the fashionable yet bashful Stanford Blatch on Sex and the City, has died at age 57 “following a short illness,” just weeks after filming scenes for the show’s reboot. Continue reading “News Round-Up: September 21, 2021”
Take a listen to this audio recording of Donald Trump rambling in an interview with reporters Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker – the two authors of the new book, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.
Anderson Cooper played a full uninterrupted five minutes of the recording on his CNN show. At one point, Leonig asked ‘the former guy’ what it was he expected when he urged his followers to march up to the U.S. Capitol building on January 6 which became an unruly, violent riot.
From Alternet:
“We want to understand what did you want when you said ‘go up there’?” Leonnig says in the recording, referring to Trump saying that he was going to march with the crowd to the Capitol.
“I would have said that you will show — not to go in, although they were ushered in by the police. I mean, in all fairness, the Capitol Police were ushering people in. The Capitol Police were very friendly, hugging and kissing — you don’t see that, but there’s plenty of tape on that too, the Capitol Police, that’s the way it is. I wanted — personally, what I wanted is what they wanted. They showed up. Just to show support. Because I happen to believe the election was rigged. At a level like nothing has ever been rigged before. There’s tremendous proof. There’s tremendous proof. Statistically, it wasn’t even possible that he won. I mean, things such as in Ohio, Iowa, there’s never been a loss.”
“Did you need better lawyers because they took it to court—?” asked Rucker.
“I needed better judges. The Supreme Court was afraid to take it, don’t forget,” said Trump.
Read more at Alternet.
Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City and personal lawyer for Donald Trump, has been suspended from practicing law by a New York appellate court after a review of his false and misleading statements made regarding the 2020 election.
From Axios:
A New York court ruled that Giuliani made “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump.”
“These false statements were made to improperly bolster respondent’s narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client,” the court wrote.
“We conclude that respondent’s conduct immediately threatens the public interest and warrants interim suspension from the practice of law, pending further proceedings before the Attorney Grievance Committee.”
The court examined a number of instances in which Giuliani made false statements about alleged election fraud in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan. Each were found to be in violation of various provisions of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct.
Giuliani is also facing multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuits from two voting-machine companies that were the target of baseless conspiracy theories from Giuliani as well as a criminal investigation by the Southern District of New York for his dealings with Ukraine.
BREAKING: Rudy Giuliani's law license has been suspended.
A disciplinary body says he made "demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump."https://t.co/6PfpsrAFeV
— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) June 24, 2021
Breaking News: Rudy Giuliani’s New York law license was suspended for making “false and misleading” statements about the 2020 election as Donald Trump’s lawyer. https://t.co/bm5t5A5nki
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 24, 2021
You cannot lie in a court of law and get away with it—not even if Trump has you on speed dial.
I petitioned the NY court to suspend Rudy Giuliani’s law license, and his disbarment is well-earned. His lies have caused serious harm to our democracy.
Don’t mess with Pennsylvania.
— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) June 24, 2021
New Yorker who can still practice law: @HillaryClinton
New Yorker who cannot practice law:
Rudy Giuliani— Travis Akers (@travisakers) June 24, 2021
Some news items you might have missed:
• NBC News: Lego is kicking off LGBTQ Pride month by releasing a special set, called “Everyone is Awesome,” that celebrates the diversity of its fans. This is the first time in Lego’s 72-year history that it is releasing an official LGBTQ Pride set.
• The Hill: Coronavirus vaccinations in Ohio jumped 28 percent in the days following the governor’s announcement of a lottery for residents who get the shots, state health officials said Thursday. Residents who have been vaccinated will be eligible for five drawings of $1 million each.
• Kenneth-in-the-212: Six foot seven doctoral candidate Aidyn asks if he’s “still a big boy” as this week’s ‘Mask4Masc’ feature. #woof
• New York Times: The Times editorial board penned an op-ed calling the decision by Pride organizers in NYC that police officers would not be allowed to march in the annual Pride parade until 2025 a ‘misstep.’ I agree.
• Right Wing Watch: QAnon Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) falsely claimed in an interview that Texas has not reported a single COVID-19 death since the state lifted all restrictions over two months ago. ACTUALLY, the Texas Department of State Health Services reports more than 3,400 people have died of COVID-19 since the state removed all restrictions two months ago.
• OUT: It seems folks who hadn’t seen (or didn’t know much about) the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen were under the impression it was about a gay high school student after the official trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation dropped yesterday. p.s. it’s not
so many people wikipedia-ing dear evan hansen today and so many people finding out it’s not a musical about a gay kid who broke his arm lol
— alex (@alex_abads) May 18, 2021
Donald Trump released a video message today admonishing “violence and vandalism” in regard to the invasion of the U.S. Capitol building last week.
“No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence,” says Trump in the clip. “No true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag.”
Oh, my sides…
The video came shortly after the House approved an article of impeachment against Trump by a vote of 232-197 making him the first president ever to be impeached twice.
Plus, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell began hinting he may vote to convict Trump.
This comes across as a preemptive legal defense against impeachment to me. Trust and believe, he did not write a word of this.
From the New York Times:
“I want to be very clear,” he continued. “I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week. Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement. Making America great again has always been about defending the rule of law” and supporting law enforcement officials.
As a candidate in 2016, Mr. Trump once encouraged rally attendees to physically attack protesters. But in the video on Wednesday, he said that “mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for. No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence.”
“If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement, you are attacking it, and you are attacking our country,” he said. “We cannot tolerate it.”
There was no mention of the people who died in the melee last week including one Capitol Police officer who was reportedly bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher.
Looking ahead to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, Trump added, “There must be no violence, no lawbreaking and no vandalism of any kind.”
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 13, 2021
Trump: “No true supporters of mine could ever endorse political violence.”
Also Trump: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
“I’d like to punch him in the face.”
“Any guy who can do a body slam, he’s my guy.”
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) January 13, 2021
TELEPROMPTER: “I did not endorse the violence.”
REALITY: “I sat & watched the violence play out on TV and I did nothing to stop it. Instead, I ignored all calls to intervene as I sat there, clapping my little doll-hands in giddy delight, because the violence was what I wanted.”
— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) January 13, 2021
More lies in Trump video. Says “no true supporters of mine could ever endorse political violence.” (These were his supporters of his at rally. He told them to come. He said he was with them as they marched to Capitol. Also he has stoked violence before calling press “enemy,” etc)
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 13, 2021
He said they were very special, he loved them…he watched it unfold on TV, all for his ego.
He chose to do nothing and allow terror to reign in hopes of stopping the count process.— Bonzai (@BonzaiO69) January 13, 2021
Trump, in his new video statement, said “no true supporter of mine could ever disrespect law enforcement.” Here’s video evidence of a Capitol security guard being beaten with a Trump flag pic.twitter.com/AwNQkgQ1dD
— John Kruzel (@johnkruzel) January 13, 2021
to the rioters: “I love you. You are very special”
— Bill Rubenstein (@wmr251) January 13, 2021
Donald Trump called for the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, to resign from office today because Kemp wouldn’t attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
After counting the ballots three times in the Peach State, the results show President-elect Joe Biden won the state by 12,000 votes.
Trump also tried to allege that some kind of conspiracy theory that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s brother works for China and somehow figures into the mix.
By the way, did I mention Brad Raffensperger doesn’t have a brother?
In related news, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports an audit of over 15,000 voter signatures from the election didn’t find a single fraudulent absentee ballot as Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed. The report by the Georgia secretary of state’s office released Tuesday.
From the AJC: “There were 10 absentee ballots that had been accepted but voter signatures didn’t match or signatures were missing, according to the report. But agents from the GBI and investigators with the secretary of state’s office contacted those voters and confirmed they had submitted those ballots.”
Hearings from Atlanta on the Georgia Election overturn now being broadcast. Check it out. @OANN @newsmax and many more. @BrianKempGA should resign from office. He is an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia, BIG! Also won the other Swing States.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
…The consent decree signed by the “Secretary”, with the consent of Kemp, is perhaps even more poorly negotiated than the deal that John Kerry made with Iran. Now it turns out that Brad R’s brother works for China, and they definitely don’t want “Trump”. So disgusting! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
NARRATOR: “Republican Brad Raffensperger doesn’t have a brother.”
REALITY: pic.twitter.com/cWzT0lRUvw
— Brian Sims (@BrianSimsPA) December 30, 2020
Read the Georgia Secretary of State’s report on the Cobb County signature audit that found one missing signature and one mistaken signature out of 15k. #gapol
Highlight: “no fraudulent absentee ballots were identified.” Story in the morning.
Report: https://t.co/eXyoNABU8b pic.twitter.com/vgwsPxKpYR
— stephen fowler covers Georgia's election! (@stphnfwlr) December 29, 2020