Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
In this episode of The Randy Report podcast:
• The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and I take a look at the impact of Roe reversal for LGBTQs. Continue reading “Podcast: Impact Of Roe Reversal For LGBTQs, Marriage In Switzerland + Oscar The Gay Dog”
Samuel Luiz (image via Facebook)A fourth suspect has been arrested and charged in the murder of Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old gay man in Spain.
In a Twitter statement, the Policía Nacional announced the arrest of a man aged between 20 and 25. In addition to murder, he is charged with allegedly stealing the victim’s mobile phone.
This comes after 3 A Coruña residents were arrested in connection with the death of Luiz on Wednesday. The deadly assault was perpetrated by more than a dozen people near a nightclub in the Galician city.
The fourth suspect is apparently friends with the initial suspects, according La Vanguardia, a Spanish-speaking newspaper.
None of the suspects knew the victim prior to the attack according to reports.
The incident began when Luiz reportedly stepped out of the nightclub to video chat with a friend. The attacker apparently believed Luiz was recording him and demanded he stop – “Either stop recording or I’ll kill you, f*g,” yelled one of the attackers.
After initially beating Luiz for a couple of minutes, the attacker left the scene but quickly returned with a mob of friends who all joined in kicking and beating Luiz.
Surveillance footage captured the assault which stretched out for several blocks along the street until Luiz collapsed and passed out.
Media reports say the video clips show the group continued to cheer the attack on as they continued to kick and beat him.
Luiz died just hours later on Saturday at the A Coruña Hospital. A spokesman for the police told the press, “They showed him no mercy.”
Samuel Luiz (image via Facebook)Protests have spread across the globe following the brutal murder of a young gay man in Spain at the hands of an anti-gay mob on July 3.
Via The Guardian:
Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, was out with friends in the Galician city of A Coruña in the early hours of Saturday when an argument started outside a nightclub.
His friends told El Mundo that Luiz had stepped out of the club to make a video call when two passersby accused him of trying to film them on his phone. Luiz explained he was talking to a friend by video, but he was allegedly attacked by one of the passersby and left with a badly bruised face.
Five minutes later, the assailant allegedly returned with 12 others who beat Luiz unconscious. He was taken to hospital, where he died later on Saturday morning.
On Saturday 24 year old Samuel Luiz Muniz, was murdered in the Spanish city La Coruna, after being attacked in the street at 3am by a mob of 13 men- it is alleged they brutally beat him whilst they shouted “Fucking F*ggot”💔#JusticiaPorSamuel 🏳️🌈pic.twitter.com/J5u16GuWDa
— Aamer Anwar🎗✊🏽#BlackLivesMatter (@AamerAnwar) July 6, 2021
Luiz’s friend, Vanessa, who he was video messaging with, was a virtual witness to the assault. “All we could hear were blows,” she told the media.
This evening, Spain’s Policía Nacional announced three people between the ages of 20 and 25 had been arrested as “the alleged perpetrators of the violence assault that ended Samuel Luiz’s life.” The police statement went on to say more arrests could follow.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted his condolences to Luiz’s family calling the assault “a savage and ruthless act.”
Tweet by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (translation by Twitter)More from Reuters:
People took to the streets of Spain’s biggest cities on Monday evening to express their anger at the death of a man in a suspected homophobic attack at the weekend.
Crowds filled a central Madrid square and activists marched down a major street in Barcelona, chanting slogans and waving placards and rainbow-coloured flags.
Interior Ministry data shows 278 hate crimes related to sexual orientation or gender identity were reported in Spain in 2019, an 8.6% increase on the previous year. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights warns only a fraction of hate crimes are reported to the police.
Protests in Spain over the death of Samuel Luiz (screen capture)
(image via the US embassy in Russia)Some news items you might have missed:
• The Gaily Grind: The U.S. embassy in Russia (above), along with the British and Canadian embassies, hoisted rainbow Pride flags on their buildings in Moscow, defying the country’s “gay propaganda” law signed by Vladimir Putin in 2013.
• Kenneth-in-the-212: Former gay porn guy Paul Wagner is reportedly attempting a comeback on OnlyFans. More at the link.
• New York Post: Reps for Donald Trump approached the social media platform Parler in January with an offer to have the then-president move his social media presence to the platform in exchange for 40 percent of the company’s gross revenues and a promise to “ban anyone who spoke negatively about him.” The owners said ‘no.’
• CBS News: Champlain Towers South was reportedly facing $15M in repairs before it collapsed on June 24. A 2018 engineering report warned of damage to the concrete, and a contractor gave multiple photos to the Miami Herald showing evidence of corrosion and cracks in the building just days before the collapse.
• Edge Media: The Spanish Cabinet on Tuesday passed a draft bill on LGBTI rights that will seek parliamentary approval to allow transgender people over 16 to freely change their gender and name without doctors or witnesses intervening in the process.
• Vogue Magazine: First Lady Dr. Jill Biden covers the August issue of Vogue Magazine. Annie Leibovitz snapped the gorgeous cover image and Jonathan Van Meter wrote the article titled, “A First Lady For All Of Us.”
.@flotus @drbiden stars on the cover of our August issue! Read the full profile: https://t.co/nxKE4csnjT pic.twitter.com/gopBPIxCff
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) June 29, 2021
Guillermo Flores, dancer/choreographer and member of Drag Race Espana’s Pit CrewSome news items you might have missed:
• OUT: Police in Brazil announced the arrests of three suspects in the brutal murder of gay activist teacher, Professor Lindolfo Kosmaski. The body of the 25-year-old was found bullet-ridden in a burned car on the side of a highway in the municipality of São João do Triunfo on April 30.
• CNN: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a controversial bathroom bill into law Friday that will deny transgender students access to the bathroom and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. Lee also signed a transgender sports bill into law in March that requires students to prove their sex at birth in order to play middle and high school sports.
• Instinct Magazine: For the inaugural season of Drag Race España, the Pit Crew has been supersized with twelve brand new members. That’s Pit Crew member Guillermo Flores up top. #woof
• BosGuy: The longtime Boston-based blogger reminds us in his weekly ‘Men In Kilts’ feature that wool kilts can be itchy. His ‘Monday Morning Mancandy‘ is worth a peek as well.
• Huffpost: Universal Pictures is postponing the international distribution of Promising Young Woman amid outrage that male actors were hired to dub Laverne Cox’s voice in European editions of the movie.
• Mediaite: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed this week that a Democrat-backed bill would “automatically register” millions of illegal immigrants to vote. CNN fact checker Daniel Dale wasn’t having it, bluntly responding to a video clip of Cruz by saying, “None of what you just heard is correct.” Here’s the fact check:
CNN fact checker Daniel Dale rips apart Ted Cruz’s lies about automatic voter registration. pic.twitter.com/K1ZOT6IUcp
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) May 17, 2021
Leaders in Europe are facing the possibility of new lockdowns as cases of COVID-19 have begun to surge again.
The New York Times reports:
In France, President Emmanuel Macron warned on Friday that the authorities were doing “everything to avoid a new lockdown.” A day later, the country reported over 7,300 new virus cases, its highest daily tally since March 31 and a number that sent its seven-day average to a new record of 4,668.
As Germany faces its own more modest resurgence, Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week that managing the pandemic would become more challenging in the fall and winter, as the colder weather drives people back indoors. “We will have to live with this virus for a long time to come,” she said.
The sobering comments from Ms. Merkel and Mr. Macron come as European countries brace for — or even appear to be entering — a second wave of infections. Nowhere on the continent is the threat more alarming than in Spain, where the Times database shows that the seven-day average has passed 7,600.
Tourists in Sitges, Spain during summer 2019Spain will end its current quarantining of international tourists at the end of June allowing the country to take advantage of some of the summer tourism season.
From the Washington Post:
The move comes after Italy and Greece — which vie for Mediterranean tourism — announced they will welcome foreign travelers starting June 1.
Spain is the second most visited country in the world, behind France. In 2019, some 83.7 million international tourists spent over $100.54 billion. Tourism accounts for nearly 13 percent of Spain’s gross domestic product and an estimated 12.7 percent of the country’s jobs.
Spain has moved to relax one of Europe’s strictest nationwide lockdowns, slowly easing measures by region. The daily dose of new infections has slowed to 0.1 percent, with 235,772 confirmed coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with 28,752 deaths.
(image via Instagram)Some news items you might have missed:
• InstaHunks: Gorgeous photo of the moon over Turkey from Instagram user mostafa.rok (above). Follow him here. #AnyoneSeeAMoon?
• The Advocate: Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips is being sued (again) after refusing to bake a birthday cake for a transgender woman.
• Washington Examiner: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced Thursday that Ohio will begin to reopen some of its businesses on May 1. The governor has a stay-at-home order in place until May 1 and opted not to extend it as he begins to roll out his plan for relaxing some of the social distancing guidelines.
• Gallup Polling: As Donald Trump works to contain the damage from the novel coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., the rally in support he enjoyed as the nation entered a virtual lockdown has faded. His job approval rating, now 43%, has slipped six percentage points since mid-March when he earned 49% approval, which tied his personal best.
(graphic via Gallup)• OUT: Illustrator Tommy Taylor has transformed Disney Princes into the quarantined gays we know and love.
• Newsweek: According to survey averages from Real Clear Politics, Biden is ahead of Trump in half a dozen states critical to the Electoral College map this November: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
• Twitter: I am not mad at Spain’s army uniforms for members of its elite La Legión, and neither is the internet.
Spain is deploying its army to help manage their coronavirus outbreak and not to be insensitive at an anxiety-inducing time but uh… I think I speak for all New Yorkers when I say, Spain, hi, can you deploy some of that in our direction? We will comply with your orders. pic.twitter.com/LyxIPsGu3g
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) March 22, 2020
Thought you might like to see the errr. “detailing” on the back too! 😉 pic.twitter.com/Glw3VTrImx
— LeRoiEstMort (@Le_Roi_Est_Mort) March 23, 2020
(stock photo)Eight men were arrested on Friday, March 20, while hosting a sex party in Barcelona, Spain, which has been in lockdown due to the ongoing coronavirus threat.
Since March 14, residents are being asked to leave home only for essential reasons including going to work, medical appointments or to buy food.
EL PAÍS, one of the largest Spanish language news outlets in the world, reports police received a tip from someone who said they were invited to the gathering.
According to reports, the hosts had extended the party invitation to 20-30 men.
After receiving information regarding the time and place of the party, plain-clothes police officers arrived at the apartment located in a central area of Barcelona, which had been rented for one week.
The Mossos d’Esquadra officers were allowed to enter the residence after identifying themselves where they found various party drugs including cocaine, crystal meth, speed, and “liquid ecstasy” (GHB).
One of the attendees was coughing and underwent testing for the coronavirus. The test results were negative for COVID-19.
All 8 of the men were arrested for possession of narcotic substances.
While an overwhelming majority of LGBTQ people are heeding the advice of medical professionals to self-isolate and stay at home as much as possible, a new survey by Queer Voices Heard found 28 percent would still go on dates, and 16 percent of respondents would still engage in hook-ups.
To state the obvious: a cocaine-fueled orgy is not a great idea during the current health threat. As the New York City Health Department recently recommended, “You are your safest sex partner.” The next safest person is someone you live with.
Coronavirus update:
– Death toll has risen to 2,696, with 514 victims last 24 hours
– More than 5,000 of Spain’s health workers have been infected with the coronavirus
– Andalusia considering converting exhibition centers into “large hospitals” if needed https://t.co/GJenKkeIoc— El País English Edition (@elpaisinenglish) March 24, 2020
EL PAÍS reports that, to date, the death toll regarding COVID-19 infections in Spain has risen to 2,696, with 514 victims in the past 24 hours. The number of infections is nearing 40,000.
In related news, organizers of the annual Gay Pride parade in Madrid announced on Tuesday that the event will be postponed until the “health and safety conditions are suitable.”
Since 1978, the Gay Pride event has been held in the country’s capital on the first weekend of July drawing nearly one million attendees and generating more than €100 million for the Madrid region, according to regional authorities.
L-R Alberto Gestoso, Alex Lebron TorrentWith much of the world staying at home and/or practicing ‘social distancing,’ folks are finding ways to not only remain upbeat but in touch with their communities.
A viral video from Spain (over 9.3 million views on Facebook in just two days) demonstrates the power music has to bring people together.
Facebook user Pedrito Miguel shared the clip featuring out musician Alberto Gestoso playing the Céline Dion hit, “My Heart Will Go On,” on his piano out on his balcony in the Sagrada Familia neighborhood of Barcelona this past Sunday.
As he plays for his neighbors, saxophone player Alexander Lebron Torrent joins in for the impromptu concert.
In the video, you can see Gestoso’s neighbors leaning on their balconies taking in the open-air serenade.
“This made me cry with emotion,” wrote Miguel. “The video is from Barcelona, which is in Quarantine like the rest of Spain. Courage and strength to all.”
Gestoso shared a post on his Instagram regarding the afternoon’s musical moment writing, “Thanks to all of you who are staying at home for the good of all,”
He also encouraged others “who are going through everything” to think of others because “this is everyone’s responsibility.”
The original video appears to have been recorded by his boyfriend, Roman Santana, who shared the clip on his Instagram which has been viewed over 1.4 million times.
Saxophonist Alex Lebron Torrent shared the moment from his perspective as well.
If you’ve been to Barcelona (easily one of my favorite cities in Europe), you know exactly where this is with the world-famous Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in the background.
Check out a few posts from the two musician’s Instagram accounts. Definitely worth perusing.