Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
Two tourists have been arrested in Hawaii after allegedly falsifying vaccination cards. The travelers face up to a year in prison and up to $5,000 in fines. Continue reading “Hawaii: Two Travelers Arrested For Fraudulent Vaccine Cards”
New anti-LGBTQ legislation proposed in Ghana has been described as “one of the most draconian and sweeping anti-gay laws proposed around the world.” A draft of the legislation proposes up to 10 years in prison for LGBTQ+ people in the West African nation. Continue reading “Lawmakers In Ghana Propose 10 Year Prison Sentences For LGBTQ People & Allies”
Paul Hodgkins, 38, is now the first insurrectionist convicted of a felony to be sentenced.
After pleading guilty last month to obstructing congressional proceedings on January 6 at the U.S. Capitol building, the Florida man was sentenced to 8 months in prison.
That falls well below the recommended sentencing guidelines of one to two years. Prosecutors had asked for 1.5 years.
But District Judge Randolph Moss chose to ignore that recommendation. Moss noted that, while Hodgkins contributed to a grave offense against democracy, he deserved some leniency because he pleaded guilty “exceptionally early,” wasn’t involved in violence and issued a “sincere” apology.
According to CNN, almost 550 rioters have been charged, and the Department of Justice says at least 230 of them have been charged with the same obstruction-of-Congress crime to which Hodgkins pleaded guilty.
!! ALERT: Judge has just sentenced Jan 6 defendant Paul Hodgkins to 8 months in prison
LESS than the 18 months prosecutors were seeking…
Judge cites lack of criminal record, lack of any leadership of mob on Jan 6, says Hodgkins statement to court as "sincere" pic.twitter.com/7Adgh3NoZM
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) July 19, 2021
Interesting to note the guideline was 15 – 21 months for Hodgkins
— Alex Rhoades (@Rhoades31) July 19, 2021
Defendant Hodgkins, “I came to DC to participate in an event for a president I love.”
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) July 19, 2021
Some news items you might have missed:
• Uncensored The Show: I hope everyone’s Hump Day was as fab as the woman above attending Uncensored the Show here in Las Vegas.
• Irish News: A gay rights group is planning a legal challenge to a ban on sex and condoms at Maghaberry all-male prison in Northern Ireland.
• NowThis News: Eric Adams has won New York City’s Democratic primary making him a near-guarantee to be the next mayor of the city.
• The Advocate: The Food and Drug Administration is warning gay men about potential adverse effects of poppers (aka alkyl nitrate). Typically inhaled and offering a short, intense high that often includes sexual arousal, using poppers may lead to severe headaches, dizziness, increase in body temperature, difficulty breathing, and/or extreme drops in blood pressure.
• LGBTQ Nation: A new study analyzed records for 83,000 adults being treated for HIV between 1999 and 2017 and compared them to a similar group of people without HIV. For those who started treatment from 2011 to 2017, the difference in early death rates for those with HIV has dropped to just 2.7%.
• Pink News: A gay son has shared a poignant tribute to his two adoptive gay dads, who both tragically died of AIDS just five days apart. “They never got a chance to see the men we are today but they cared for us very much and gave us a life that we wouldn’t have known otherwise. It’s incredible even now, after all these years, I can still feel what it felt like to be loved that much.”
Back in November, Shane Wayne Michael, 42, apparently became irate when he was asked to adjust his face mask to properly cover his nose and mouth at a eyewear store in Des Moines, Iowa.
Michael followed the victim out of the business and assaulted him.
From the Des Moines Register:
The victim told police that, as he walked to his car, Michael cornered him, began to assault him and took him to the ground. While on the ground, Michael began gouging the victim’s eye and kneed him in the genitals, according to the report, so the victim bit Michael to get him off of him.
The victim also said that Michael coughed in his face, spit on him and said “‘If I have it, you have it,'” according to the report.
Three witnesses identified Michael as the aggressor in the fight, according to the complaint. The victim suffered a swollen left eye, according to the complaint and court records.
In February, Michael was reportedly offered a plea deal which would have resulted in two years probation. Michael refused the offer saying he had merely defended himself. Instead, he chose to take his chances with a jury.
Because he was found guilty of assault causing bodily injury, the conviction comes with a mandatory 10 year prison sentence.
Just throwing this out there but… Michael COULD have just responded “sure” when asked to adjust his mask and none of this would have happened.
Or – he could have chosen to ignore the request altogether.
But Michael chose to become the aggressor. And there you have it.
From The Daily Beast:
The youngest rioter to be charged with the storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 had begged a judge let him to go home after being denied bond, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Bruno Joseph Cua, 18, is facing multiple charges including assaulting a federal officer, and has been in jail since Feb. 5. His parents drove him from Atlanta to D.C. for the so-called “Stop the Steal” rally.
Prosecutors say the teen shoved a cop and made it all the way to the Senate floor. Videos show him carrying a baton through the halls of the Capitol.
In a letter submitted to the judge on Thursday, Cua said he is “deeply remoursefull [sic] and regretful. After all, that’s what jail’s for, right? Teaching people a lesson?” He added, “I just want to go home to my Mom and Dad, I am truly sorry.”
Sorry. I have no sympathy. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Check out some of the screen captured tweets in the second tweet below. He was being tough guy then, he can summon some of that toughness now.
Bruno Joseph Cua, 18, is facing multiple charges including assaulting a federal officer, and has been in jail since Feb. 5. https://t.co/S76S03ixhn
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) March 6, 2021
🧵CAPITOL ARRESTS – PART 2
ARRESTED: Bruno Joseph Cua, 18, from Milton, GA is charged with ASSAULT against a federal officer: “This is the third time he’s [Trump] tweeted about it. This isn’t a joke, this is where & when we make our stand Fight for Trump” https://t.co/X1QYlz70FN pic.twitter.com/N27ZryJYHR
— Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) February 27, 2021
Regular readers may recall I reported on a 20-something white supremacist who had been “self-patrolling” my own Las Vegas neighborhood last year. He was arrested in August 2019 after telling an undercover FBI agent he planned to firebomb a Las Vegas gay bar or synagogue.
The young man, Conor Climo, has now been sentenced to two years in prison. Now 24-years-old, he will receive credit for time served since his arrest and will then be bound to home confinement for six months with electronic monitoring. Federal prosecutors had originally requested a 30-month prison sentence.
From Edge Media:
“I was truly wrong for all of this,” Climo said. “I even have come to really regret everything, everything that I was involved with.”
The judge gave Climo credit for the jail time he already has served since his August 2019 arrest and agreed to recommend that he serves his prison time in Louisiana, near grandparents whom he plans to live with after his release.
Defense attorney Paul Riddle said his client is grateful that FBI agents arrested him when they did because he knows that he was on a “very dark path.”
“But he’s not on that path anymore, and he’s the not same person that was arrested,” Riddle said.
The FBI said it began investigating Climo in April 2019 after learning of his encrypted internet chats with members of Feuerkrieg Division, an international offshoot of a U.S.-based neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen Division. Climo told FBI agents that he joined Feuerkrieg Division but left because he “became bored with the group and their inaction,” according to a court filing.
Climo pleaded guilty to a firearm charge after discussing his bombing plans with an FBI agent and informant. In searching his home, authorities found multiple rifles and bomb components.
For the “crime” of telling Twitter followers he believes LGBTQ people have rights and “should be able to practice them freely,” a Yemeni blogger has been sentenced by a Saudi court to 10 months in prison, a fine equal to $2,700 and eventual deportation.
Human Rights Watch reports that Mohamad al-Bokari, left Yemen in June 2019 after receiving death threats. He’d been living in Saudi Arabia as an undocumented migrant when he was arrested on April 8.
The 29-year-old was asked on Twitter for his views on same-sex relations and in a video, he answered, “Everyone has rights and should be able to practice them freely, including gay people.”
A spokesman for Riyadh’s police department issued a statement saying the video contained “sexual references” that “violate public order and morals.” He was charged with violating public morality by promoting homosexuality online, and “imitating women.”
Prior to his trial, al-Bokari was held in solitary confinement in a cell with no windows, air conditioning or proper ventilation. He was provided no legal counsel for his trial.
After his sentencing, he was placed in a cell with other prisoners who harassed and verbally abused him saying he “deserves the death penalty.”
Human Rights Watch says his health has declined since the trial as he suffers from a chronic heart condition. Tests were administered but he was discharged without learning the results. Doctors reportedly denied he has any heart condition and have refused him any medication.
Bokari was sentenced on July 20 and has 30 days to appeal.
While Saudi Arabia has no laws on the books regarding sexual orientation or gender identity, judges often reference uncodified Islamic law to punish people accused of having sexual relations outside marriage, including adultery, extramarital and homosexual sex, or other “immoral” acts.
It has been ranked as one of the ‘most dangerous’ countries in the world for LGBTQ people.
An OnlyFans performer has agreed to plead guilty to recording consensual sex with his ex-boyfriend and then uploading the four-minute clip to his account without consent.
Fabricio Da Silva Claudino, a former flight attendant for Emirates, reportedly filmed the episode without the boyfriend’s knowledge last year in July at their home in Marrickville, a suburb of Sydney, Australia.
ABC News in Australia reports that Claudino indicated he will plead guilty to 11 counts of recording and distributing without consent several explicit images and a video clip.
“The victim is clearly unaware of this activity being recorded and can be depicted in the recording as face down throughout,” read the police report entered into evidence.
“At one point the defendant positions the mobile phone towards a mirror where his face is depicted … at no stage, did the victim consent to the defendant taking this recording.”
Prior to posting the video, Claudino shared photos with the Australian boyfriend on the beach in Brazil with the caption, “Video coming up soon – stay tuned.”
The 31-year-old amateur porn performer also shared graphic images of the victim naked in promoting his OnlyFans account to his social media accounts. He reportedly had 30,000 Instagram followers and over 100,000 Twitter followers at the time.
According to ABC News, the men met in Brazil, fell in love, and continued their relationship in Sydney. But the romance came to an end within five months.
Claudino chose to remain in Australia after the affair and supported himself by modeling for life art classes as well as uploading content to his OnlyFans account.
The Australian boyfriend told ABC News in February he discovered the videos while Claudino was visiting a friend in Melbourne. Apparently, distinctive body tattoos made it evident it was him.
“I felt sick to the stomach when I recognized my body and then my face,” said the ex-boyfriend. “I didn’t know what to think, I couldn’t believe it.”
Australian Federal Police arrested Claudino at Sydney airport when he returned from Melbourne after being contacted by the ex calling the privacy breach ‘revenge porn.’
Additionally, Claudino pleaded guilty on Tuesday to 15 counts of obscene and indecent exposure between September 2019 and February 2020. He had filmed himself exposing his penis while standing on the balcony of his apartment in full view of a Sydney high school and public park.
He’s been held in Silverwater prison for the last five months having previously pleaded not guilty to the revenge porn charges.
Claudino is due to be sentenced in court next month.
Donald Trump’s longtime friend and ally, Roger Stone, has failed in his quest for a new trial after he was found guilty on seven felony counts including obstructing the congressional inquiry, lying to investigators under oath and trying to block the testimony of a witness whose account would have exposed his lies.
From the New York Times:
The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Roger J. Stone Jr. refused on Thursday to grant him a new trial, rejecting the defense’s argument of juror misconduct that President Trump has also repeatedly trumpeted.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court in Washington ordered Mr. Stone to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons as soon as he is notified to do so. She also released him and his lawyers from a gag order she imposed months ago.
The judge’s decision appears to end one of the most politically fraught federal criminal cases in recent years. In a last-ditch effort to keep their client out of prison, Mr. Stone’s lawyers had claimed that the jury forewoman had improperly concealed a bias against Mr. Stone, justifying a new trial.
The jury convicted Mr. Stone, 67, in November of seven felonies for an attempt to thwart a congressional inquiry that threatened his longtime friend Mr. Trump, and Judge Jackson sentenced him in February to 40 months in prison.
Additionally, CNN reports, “All 12 of Roger Stone’s jurors wrote in a series of powerful, anonymized statements this week that they feel harassed, afraid and do not want more information about them revealed to the public, especially after President Donald Trump and right-wing media criticized them for their conviction of the longtime Trump friend.”
Donald Trump is certain to pardon Stone. Mark my words.