• Instinct Magazine: A Michigan bodybuilder named Logan Barnhart (above) has been charged in connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots on several counts including assaulting a police officer. He was eventually tracked down thanks to his thirst pics on Instagram. Continue reading “News Round-Up: August 18, 2021”
• Out singer/songwriter Clinton John’s new single “Cry” taps into those frustrating times when you realize you’re really not over that lost love. Link to download “Cry.”
InstaHunk Dan Tai enjoys a Texas sunset (image via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed:
• InstaHunks: Randy Report favorite Dan Tai (above) is doing a photoshoot with Box Menswear in my native state of Texas – and I’m not there! Dan shares this pic saying no filter was used, it was just the gorgeous Texas sunset (and hottie model).
• KIT212: Kenneth rounds up the what’s what in gay magazines across the country.
• Outsports: Two-time Olympic champion Kerron Clement came out publicly today at a Nike event celebrating a new rainbow-inspired track and field at Los Angeles City College. He told Outsports, “I was tired of loving in the dark and being in the dark by myself.”
• Fox News: With Shep Smith’s departure at the conservative news outlet, Chris Wallace is one of the few journalists there trying to be sane. Check out his response to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for calling the current impeachment effort against President Trump “unconstitutional:”
“I am a little surprised at Speaker [@newtgingrich], who I greatly respect. This is the exact opposite of unconstitutional.”
• Newsweek: It took much less time for a majority of Americans to signal their support for impeaching Donald Trump than it did Richard Nixon.
• NewNowNext: Homosexuality is already punishable by up to seven years in prison in Uganda, and the government is now trying to resurrect its ‘kill the gays’ law instituting the death penalty for anyone engaged in same-sex sexual activity, as well as punishing anyone found advocating for LGBTQ people.
• INTO: In an earlier post, I shared my own coming out story. Now check out the ‘Old Gays’ from INTO as they talk on their own coming out. “If I would’ve told anyone I was gay… that would be the end of me.”
• Big congrats to my buddies, The Chippendales, for their big win this weekend as The Best of Las Vegas’ “Best Male Revue” and “Best Bachelorette Party.” If you’ve visited me in Vegas, you’ve probably gone to Chippendales with me at least once 🙂 #GoodTimes
• If you watched the Donald Trump 60 Minutes interview last night, you saw this painting actually hangs in the White House. By artist Andy Thomas, the image portrays a gathering of Republican presidents in one place. #goodgod
• The New York Police Department announced Monday that it has enough evidence to charge nine members of the right-wing group Proud Boys and three protesters with various counts of rioting, assault and attempted assault that took place last Friday.
• Regular readers of The Randy Report know I’m a huuuuge fan of Coldplay. And now there’s a new documentary film headed our way titled, A Head Full of Dreams.
The film, shot over 20 years of Coldplay history will stream on Amazon Prime Video starting November 16. For more info, click here.
Calling the law a “Christmas gift” for the country, Ugandan legislators are set to pass a new version of the country’s recently struck down anti-gay law:
Drafters of a revised anti-gay law want parliament to pass it in time to be a “Christmas gift” for Ugandans, a lawmaker said on Friday, after a controversial earlier version was quashed because of legal technicalities.
Legislation passed by parliament almost a year ago, which would have punished gay sex with long prison terms, provoked a storm of international protest and led some donor countries to withhold aid. A constitutional court overturned the law in August.
Abdu Latif Ssebagala, a member of a parliamentary committee formed in September to draft a new version, said it had finished the bill and was ready to present it to parliament for debate.
In August, President Yoweri Museveni said he wanted the law amended to remove penalties for consenting adults. Ssebagala said however the new version still punished gay sex among consenting adults.
In October the president wrote in a newspaper that re-introducing the law risked triggering a trade boycott by the West.
Although his country’s anti-gay law was struck down earlier this year on a technicality, President Yoweri Museveni is concerned that Uganda might suffer a trade boycott should the laws be reintroduced.
In a commentary on Friday in the state-run New Vision daily, Museveni said he was not worried by the aid cuts that followed the initial law, but warned of a trade boycott by companies in the West.
He said re-issuing the anti-gay law would likely antagonize consumers in the West, risking access to a rich export market. “To carelessly and needlessly open unnecessary wars with useful customers is irresponsible to say the least,” he wrote.
Homosexuality remains taboo in Uganda and many socially conservative African societies where some religious groups have branded it a corrupting Western import.
The original passage of the anti-gay law was celebrated with a rally in the city center against homosexuals, which Museveni attended and where he was thanked for signing the bill by religious leaders from various denominations.
Donors, who finance about 20 percent of Uganda’s annual budget, lauded its annulment, and some have resumed lending.
The U.S. described the court’s decision as “an important step in the right direction for human rights” in Uganda.
The overturn of the anti-gay law came just days before a visit by the Ugandan President to the US for a summit with other African leaders. Rumors abound that it was Museveni himself who worked behind the scenes to bring down the law to avoid an unpleasant reception here.
Gay Star News reports that the Ugandan Tourism Board met with the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) over concerns that, for some strange reason, Uganda is somehow perceived as “anti-gay” in Western Europe and America.
Gee, I wonder what why that might be? Possibly the “Kill The Gays” law that was passed and signed into law?
The Ugandan Tourism Board (UTB) recently met with the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) to try to restore the country’s reputation among both gay and straight tourists.
John Tanzella, president and CEO of IGLTA, told the SoSoGay website that the board felt Western media had portrayed Uganda in a particularly negative light since the country passed a law that would punish gay sex with life imprisonment in December last year.
The law was struck down last month.
Tanzella said, ‘The delegation said that gay people are welcome.
‘They were very concerned about the perception of Uganda in Western Europe and North America, and claimed that the backlash caught them by surprise.
‘No-one thought it would pass. The delegates all pointed out that they have friends and family who are gay.’
The UTB maintains that the people of Uganda are “very hospitable, friendly, warm and loving.”
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is asking lawmakers to slow down as they work to re-legislate a controversial anti-gay law that was invalidated earlier this month.
Museveni, who held a meeting Monday with lawmakers from his party, urged parliamentarians “not to cause chaos” by quickly reintroducing the bill, according to Medard Bitekyerezo, a lawmaker who strongly supports the anti-gay measure.
He said Museveni formed a committee, to be chaired by Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, to look into the concerns of rights activists who challenged the constitutionality of the law.
The government-controlled New Vision newspaper reported Tuesday that Museveni warned lawmakers that the bill could hurt the country’s economic development. Museveni asked the parliamentarians to debate the law “without any emotional feelings,” the paper reported.
More than 200 members of the Ugandan Parliament have lined up to reinstate the bill.
It (the Constitutional Court) ruled that the bill was passed by MPs in December without the requisite quorum and was therefore illegal.
Homosexual acts were already illegal, but the new law allowed for life imprisonment for “aggravated homosexuality” and banned the “promotion of homosexuality”.
Earlier drafts of the anti-homosexuality act made it a crime not to report gay people – which would have made it impossible to live as openly gay – but this clause was removed.
The law, which was signed by President Yoweri Museveni in February, toughened up existing laws.
Lesbians were covered for the first time and those found living in a same-sex marriage could have been sentenced to life imprisonment.