LGBTQ news and entertainment
In this week’s podcast: • A Grindr hookup in Michigan on Christmas Eve goes horribly wrong • Britain’s most prolific rapist is sentenced to life in prison • Grammy winner Sam Smith posts an inspiring shirtless photo on Instagram • A transgender actress gets the lead in the upcoming reboot of ‘Saved By The Bell’ • Recapping this year’s Golden Globe Awards All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
Alex Tilinca (image via Instagram)
Instahunks Justin and Nick
Jakk Fynn, a transmasculine Latinx pop artist dedicated to redefining masculinity, dropped his latest single this week, “Fire.” Unrequited love is the subject at hand in the pop/dance track. “Oftentimes, queer individuals don’t feel wholly accepted, seen or loved for who they are,” says the artist. “When romantic feelings are so infrequently returned, this can exacerbate an already deeply internalized identity struggle.” “Attraction and love are fairly involuntary,” adds Fynn. “Our central nervous system is a massive orchestration of electrical impulses that ‘fire.’” Jakk, a descendant of Mexican immigrants, is committed to using pop music’s power to uplift audiences and challenge toxic social narratives, especially for audiences who don’t often see themselves fairly and accurately represented in mainstream culture. His previous single, “Share the Seconds,” was released in 2018. 
The city of Portland, Oregon, is currently undertaking a whopping $195,000,000 renovation of the Portland Municipal Building and one of the steps being taken is to redesign all of the restrooms to be gender-neutral. One result is the removal of all urinals. Local NBC News affiliate KGW8 reports that Chief Administrative Officer Tom Rinehart sent an email to employees explaining, “We will continue to have gender-specific (male and female) multi-stall restrooms that are readily available to any employee that prefers to use one. But, there will be no urinals in any restroom in the building.” Rinehart added, “This will give us the flexibility we need for any future changes in signage.” The plan – when all work is completed – will result in: • The building’s 1st, 3rd, and 15th floors will have large multi-stall bathrooms that men and women will use together • The other floors will have separate men’s and women’s bathrooms • Every floor will have at least one gender-neutral bathroom Pat Dooris, the KGW8 reporter who covered the story, makes a point to include “Gender and bathroom use has been a big deal when it comes to those who are transgender or gender fluid.” Well, yeah, if you are transgender and want to use a bathroom without being accosted, I would say that’s a ‘big deal.’ UCLA’s Williams Institute says research shows 9 percent of transgender people have been attacked using a public facility. Dooris also includes an interview with conservative talk show host Lars Larson who is outraged over the changes. “I think it’s ridiculous,” Larson tells Dooris. “First of all, I know that it already makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Secondly, its gonna take up a lot more space and third- anyone whose ever been to any public event – have you seen the line at the ladies’ room? Do you see any line at the men’s room?” When Larson says “makes a lot of people uncomfortable,” what he’s referring to are trans people getting to use a public bathroom. Larson also threw in a half-hearted pitch for water conservation noting that urinals use less water. Because conservatives are such environmental warriors? While Larson seems fixated on the idea that men will suddenly have to cope with lines at the restrooms, studies have shown that gender-neutral bathrooms actually creates ‘potty parity’ as they equalize the average time men and women wait to use the facilities. Plus, society has shifted and evolved on ‘bathroom policy’ for decades. For instance, until the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, it was legal to segregate bathrooms by race. It was 1990 when laws were finally passed to ensure bathrooms were accessible for people with disabilities or who use wheelchairs. And let’s face it: if unisex bathrooms were fine for the folks in the late 1990s TV series Ally McBeal, why can’t we handle them today?
Doing a quick search of the interwebs, it seems the only folks who are upset about the new bathrooms at the Portland Building are far-right conservative websites looking for something to get upset about. What do you think, readers? As new construction and building renovations occur, are gender-neutral bathrooms a step forward? (source: KGW8)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Fitness guy Bremen Menelli (above) took a walk in the park. A very, very wet park… 🙂 • Instinct: Openly gay sports radio host Seth Dunlap has filed a discrimination lawsuit against his station WWL after the Twitter account for the station called him a “fag.” In the 15 days since the posting of the tweet, the station has reportedly not apologized to Dunlap nor has the employee who wrote the tweet been identified. WWL Radio is alleging that Dunlap sent the homophobic tweet himself in an attempt to extort $1.8 million from the station. • NY Daily News: A gay couple eating at a Queen restaurant say they were viciously attacked by a group of homophobic guests, and neither the restaurant employees nor the security guard moved to intervene. “We asked one of the security guys to do something about it but he said that the best we could do is to finish eating and leave.” • NFL.com: Pepsi, the NFL and Roc Nation has announced artists Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will perform for the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV halftime show on February 2, 2020 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL. Past headliners have included Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, and Madonna.
Two 👑 👑 First time together on stage…on the world’s biggest stage. Welcome @JLo and @shakira to #PepsiHalftime #SBLIV @RocNation @NFL pic.twitter.com/ks1p9FbMLB
— Pepsi (@pepsi) September 26, 2019
What do you do when you’ve already made history at the age of 34? You do it again. On December 8, 2018, Patricio Manuel became the first male transgender boxer to have a professional fight. When the 12-minute match was over, Manuel was named the winner over Mexican boxer Hugo Aguilar in a unanimous ruling from the judges. “I wouldn’t trade any of it,” Manuel told the Los Angeles Times after the win. “It was worth everything I went through to get to this point,” Today, Manuel makes history again as he has been chosen by Everlast (THE brand in boxing equipment since 1910) as one of the faces of the fitness brand’s global Be First campaign. Be First encourages people from all walks of life to carve out their own path to success. Previous world-class athletes who have been associated with Everlast include boxing icons like Sugar Ray Robinson, Jack Dempsey, and Canelo Álvarez. The campaign derives its title from the well-known boxing term ‘be first,’ which encourages boxers to set the pace of a boxing match forcing your opponent to follow your lead. 
Manuel certainly embodies that concept as part of Everlast’s “new crop of trailblazers.” Beginning his boxing career in the early 2000s as a female competitor prior to transitioning, Manuel was already a force in the boxing ring winning five national amateur championships. In 2012, Manuel took part in the Olympic trials but suffered a shoulder injury resulting in being eliminated from contention. During the recovery period, Manuel experienced depression as well which led to some soul searching and an epiphany. He realized that he was living a lie. “Once I realized that I was trans, I knew that I needed to live my life being seen as a man,” Manuel told CBNC. It would be a year, though, before he would begin to transition. Manuel had to wrap his head around the idea that in living his full, authentic life he might lose the sport he loved so much. Some of those fears were realized during his transition as he lost his coach, his gym, jobs and some friends. But the pushback just served to empower him that much more. 
His advice to people today is to know yourself, what it is you want in life, and how far you’ll go (or what you’ll give up) to achieve your dreams. “Regardless of what your goals are, whether you are trans, whether you are an athlete or not, our dreams have big costs to it, and it all requires risk for us to find that reward,” he told CNBC. “We only have one life to live,” explains Manuel. “As cliché as that sounds, I really try to live my life having the least amount of regrets as possible.” Watch Manuel share his journey in the video below from Everlast.
(all images courtesy of Everlast)
Michael and I visiting a church Portofino
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Can we talk about the massive thighs (above) of hottie Dan Tai? That represents a whole lotta leg days… #dang • ESPN: Out Olympian Gus Kenworthy pens a personal essay explaining how he landed his new role on American Horror Story: 1984, and how quickly he felt the LGBTQ community was quick to ‘cut him down.’ • Twitter: Looking fabulous at 50, Jennifer Lopez closed out the Versace Spring 2020 show in Milan in a reimagined version of her iconic 2000 Grammy dress. #YouBettaWalk
Jennifer Lopez just closed the Versace Spring 2020 show in Milan in a reimagined version of her iconic 2000 Grammy dress. pic.twitter.com/aoX2XFlHdz
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 20, 2019
The Trump administration has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a Michigan funeral home that fired a longtime employee for coming out as transgender and beginning her transition.
Aimee Stephens worked for Harris Funeral Homes for five years before she began to transition in 2012.
Saying she was “violating God’s commands,” fired Stephens two weeks later.
Stephens is suing the funeral home saying she experienced sex discrimination the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It is the Trump administration’s position that transgender people can be fired just for being trans.
More from Dominic Holden at Buzzfeed News:
The Justice Department’s brief on Friday contends the word refers to a person’s “biological sex” and, further, that transgender discrimination isn’t addressed by a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that found Title VII bans sex stereotyping.
“Title VII does not prohibit discrimination against transgender persons based on their transgender status,” says a filing by the Justice Department, adding, “It simply does not speak to discrimination because of an individual’s gender identity or a disconnect between an individual’s gender identity and the individual’s sex.”
The counterargument from LGBTQ advocates and several lower courts, however, is that the intent of lawmakers does not limit a law’s reach, but rather its meaning is defined by the statute’s plain text. They say anti-transgender discrimination can result from a person defying traditional sex stereotypes or because the person transitioned from one sex to another — and thus, it is inherently a type of sex discrimination.
The case at issue is one of three currently before the court about the rights of LGBTQ workers under Title VII — and the only one concerning a transgender worker.
The Trump administration maintains that when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was authored, the idea of transgender people wasn’t present in the “ordinary public meaning of ‘sex'” as biological sex.
But here’s the double-standard: if you can only apply laws as what people knew or understood at the time the were written, that would mean military assault-style weapons would not be protected under the 2nd Amendment because the Founding Fathers didn’t know such weapons would ever exist. And that’s just the beginning.
Stephens’ legal team maintains the plain text of Title VII addresses “sex” discrimination. And it’s impossible to consider her being transgender without taking into account the concept of her sex.
SCOTUS will hear oral arguments in the case on Oct. 8, along with two additional cases that address whether sexual orientation discrimination is protected by Title VII.