'GOP candidate films herself harassing trans woman using the restroom, trying to fundraise from it' & other Fri midday news briefs

Jazmina Saavedra, who shall be known as 'a waste of space,' is trying to get to Congress by harassing trans women.

GOP House candidate live streams herself challenging transgender woman for using women's restroom - What kind of crap is this? I was reluctant to post something about this for fear it would scare my transgender sisters, but the story has gone viral. I just want my transgender sisters AND brothers to know that if an incident happened where I was on the scene, I would have YOUR back.

California Pro-Trump Candidate Is Fundraising Off Her Harassment Of A Transgender Woman - And she is trying to raise money off of it. There aren't enough words to express my anger over this.

CDC to roll back data collection on the health and well-being of LGBT people - THIS is dangerous to the LGBTQ community. It would eliminate a much needed resource to accurately gauge LGBTQ health and beat back anti-LGBTQ propaganda about our lives.

Religious right’s new battleground: Hurting kids to attack LGBT rights - They always have a nasty angle and they always lose. They are going to lose again.

GLAAD to Publish LGBTQ Children’s Book Series, Starting With ‘Prince & Knight’ (Exclusive) - Wonderful! I totally am for this.

Twitter explodes with anger over appointment of hate group leader Tony Perkins to religious freedom committee

Family Research Council's Tony Perkins

A lot of people on Twitter are NOT happy that Family Research Council's Tony Perkins was appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Needless to say, they are being very vocal with their disapproval.

Tony Perkins, who

-supported Uganda's "Kill the Gays" bill
-called pedophilia "a homosexual problem"
-claimed gay men "recruit" kids into homosexuality

just got appointed to an international commission that will make policy recs to Trump / Congress / etc https://t.co/bnUWr8OAXN

— Leanne Naramore (@LeanneNaramore) May 17, 2018

If you identify as #transgender “what’s to keep you from saying you’re an animal?” - Tony Perkins, president of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council and recent appointee to U.S. Commission on International Religious “Freedom”

They fight for you’re right to hate them pic.twitter.com/2fI5Z9sG0n

— Bryan Dawson (@BryanDawsonUSA) May 17, 2018

A lot of the #Exvangelical crowd has already said this, but I'll come in with my two cents.

Tony Perkins is not an exception. He's the rule. #EmptyThePews pic.twitter.com/0lfWrcYQHH

— Oppress South Park Fans (@LyanaRodriguez1) May 17, 2018

'Hate group leader Tony Perkins blistered in Daily Beast column' & other Thur midday news briefs

Trump Adviser Tony Perkins Just Got a Global License to Spread His Anti-LGBT Hate - One positive about members of the anti-LGBTQ industry getting more power under Trump is them also getting more attention. We tend to forget that a lot of folks don't know length of the venom they spew, so when mainstream publications focus on them, it is the first time many Americans are becoming knowledgeable about who they are. With that in mind, I wish more of them would get such blisteringly vicious introduction as FRC's Tony Perkins got in The Daily Beast yesterday. Brutal piece by Jay Michaelson, which makes for wonderful reading AND sharing.

Gay couple faces deportation after seeking immigration marriage waiver - OH HELL NO! 

Black Gay Men, We Must Treat Each Other Better - The first thing we need are conversations like this. Gay black men are face uniquely difficult struggles in terms of racism, homophobia (external and internal), and false ideas of masculinity in the black community. 

Beirut Pride Canceled After Organizer Is Detained By Authorities - The struggle is real and it is difficult. . . . 

Trans woman live-tweets her 86-year-old grandmother’s amazing response to her coming out - . . . but not impossible to win. It's always a blessing to see that those you love demonstrate how much they love you.

LGBTQ 'Conversion Therapy' Survivor: 'They Got Some Weird Joy Out of Torturing Children'

 This riveting video serves as a reason why we must fight to outlaw the fraudulent practice of "ex-gay" or conversion therapy (especially for children) and not allow the religious right to divert the argument with the false concept of "religious liberty" or "religious freedom." Your religion does not give you the right to harm anyone, especially children.

 Hat tip to the Human Rights Campaign.

'Trump nominates homophobic extremist Gary Bauer to religious freedom committee' & other Wed midday news briefs

Gary Bauer

Trump nominates homophobic former Family Research Council chief to board of ‘religious freedom’ crusaders - It's bad enough that Tony Perkins was nominated to serve on this committee. The situation has just become worse because Trump has nominated Gary Bauer. Perkins may be a rabid homophobe, but Bauer is something worse. He was the first president of the Family Research Council, and was pivotal in trafficking all sorts of anti-LGBTQ propaganda. Before then, he worked in the Reagan Administration. And if we are to believe the words of the late C. Everett Koop, the Surgeon General at the time, Bauer deliberately undermined his efforts to educate Reagan about the AIDS crisis when it was first breaking out because he felt that it was God's punishment and people should die because of it. 

Gary Bauer - the anti-gay talking head who undermined the fight against HIV/AIDS in the Reagan Administration - My 2014 post on what Bauer did in the early 80s. 

Republican religious extremist who sponsored anti-gay First Amendment Defense Act loses primary - Ha! Ha! Too bad, so sad (okay, not to sad.)

Malcolm Kenyatta Makes History With State House Primary Victory - By becoming the first openly gay candidate of color ever to win a state House primary in Pennsylvania!

Remember when religious freedom panel appointee Tony Perkins called gays 'pawns of the enemy,' i.e. Satan?

Tony Perkins, one of the most prominent anti-LGBTQ activists in the country and leader of the SPLC-designated hate group the Family Research Council, was just appointed by Sen. Mitch McConnell to serve on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Does it even matter what the committee is all about? It can't be positive if Perkins is on the committee. Now I could got into details about why the SPLC considers his organization a hate group and I could talk about the many times FRC and Perkins himself have deliberately relied on junk or cherry-picked science and outright lies to denigrate and smear the LGBTQ community.  But I will simply leave links to those moments.

Instead, I think the video below from 2011 of Perkins calling gays "pawns of the enemy," i.e. Satan is enough to show why putting this man on any religious committee is simply ridiculous.

'Trump's CDC pick once worked with group which claimed AIDS was 'God's judgement' against gays' & other Tue midday news briefs

Robert Redfield has some explaining to do.

Trump’s New CDC Director: AIDS Is ‘God’s Judgment’ Against Gays

Why Trump's new CDC director is an abysmal choice

 We need some type of clarification on Robert Redfield, Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control. He once worked with a group which claimed that AIDS was 'God's judgement' on gays.  Redfield also allegedly designed policies which harmed infected personnel in the military. We need to find out  what he now believes about HIV/AIDS and a multitude of other issues.  It has been CDC data which served as the steel wall against anti-LGBTQ industry junk science. I've used this data many times to refute anti-gay propaganda. So I am extremely bothered by anyone with a questionable background leading the group.

Lawmakers inquire about 'troubling' removal of SBA's LGBTQ resources - Don't let the Trump Administration get away with any attempt to erase the LGBTQ community. 

Fox contributor Pastor Robert Jeffress lies and claims people “manufactured” his bigoted comments - Fool, they got you on video and in writing. 

Cameroon police arrest 25 men for homosexuality because ‘Cameroon has laws to enforce’ - The struggle is universal.