LGBTQ news and entertainment
Some news items for your Sunday reading:
• Queerty: Andrew Christian has officially shut down his fashion brand after more than 20 years of outfitting gay men in bold briefs from coast-to-coast and around the world.
• Gay Times: François Arnaud says he and his Heated Rivalry co-star Robbie G.K. shot about ‘two days of sex scenes’ that aren’t in episode 3: “Maybe they’re saving it.” Continue reading “Andrew Christian Officially Closed + ‘Heated Rivalry’ Sex Scenes + More”
Donald Trump declared on Saturday that he will issue an executive order to require voter ID from every voter for “every single vote.” Continue reading “Trump Promises Executive Order On Voter ID”
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Texas’ Voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act.
From the Dallas Morning News:
In an unanimous decision, a three-judge panel ruled that the controversial and Republican-backed measure violated Section 2 of the landmark civil rights law.
The law has been part of a complicated legal battle for years. But the victory was narrow win for opponents of the law.
The judges also rejected a previous judge’s ruling that the law was passed with the intent to discriminate. The Fifth Circuit sent that portion of the lawsuit back to a U.S. district court.
The court wrote that, if the lower court finds in its review of the case that the voter ID Law only violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, it should find a solution that can still reduce the risk of in-person voter fraud and satisfy the legislative intent of the voter ID law.
Expect the proponents to request full court review or head straight to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that Texas can use its controversial new voter identification law for the upcoming November election.
Opponents of the law maintain that with no real examples of voter fraud, the law is actually framed to suppress voter turnout in Democratic districts.
From Talking Points Memo:
A majority of the justices rejected an emergency request from the Justice Department and civil rights groups to prohibit the state from requiring voters to produce certain forms of photo identification in order to cast ballots. Three justices dissented.
The law was struck down by a federal judge last week, but a federal appeals court had put that ruling on hold. The judge found that roughly 600,000 voters, many of them black or Latino, could be turned away at the polls because they lack acceptable identification. Early voting in Texas begins Monday.
“The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters,” Ginsburg wrote in dissent.
The law sets out seven forms of approved ID — a list that includes concealed handgun licenses but not college student IDs, which are accepted in other states with similar measures.
This weekend, Pennsylvania Republican House Leader Mike Turzai (R-PA) finally admitted what so many have speculated: Voter identification efforts are meant to suppress Democratic votes in this year’s election.
At the Republican State Committee meeting, Turzai took the stage and let slip the truth about why Republicans are so insistent on voter identification efforts — it will win Romney the election, he said:
“We are focused on making sure that we meet our obligations that we’ve talked about for years,” said Turzai in a speech to committee members Saturday. He mentioned the law among a laundry list of accomplishments made by the GOP-run legislature.
“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
Voter identification efforts disproportionately affect low-income voters of color, a typically Democratic demographic. Despite insistence by Republicans that the efforts are needed to prevent misconduct on election day, voter fraud is less likely than being hit by lighting.
(via ThinkProgress)