'Lil Nas X reveals cover of upcoming September album' & other Wed midday news briefs

Lil Nas X's 'Montero' will be out on Sept. 17.

Lil Nas X Just Revealed the Stunning (& Nude) Montero Cover Art - I'll Lil Na X major props for promotion.

These 10 religious universities earn high marks for LGBTQ inclusivity - Ten strikes against the false belief that religion and the LGBTQ identity don't ever overlap.

Efforts to evacuate LGBTQ Afghans to continue after US troop withdrawal - Good! 

These Portraits of (Literal) Gay Daddies Will Brighten Your Day - Lord knows we need as much of that as possible.

Teacher facing ridiculous backlash, investigation for joke about her class pledging allegiance to Pride flag

Earlier this week, I posted a news brief about a ridiculous controversy regarding a teacher who joked about students pledging allegiance to the Pride flag. Since that time, unfortunately, the controversy has gotten worse:

From The Advocate:

A Southern California teacher is facing backlash online and removal from her classroom after posting a video on TikTok in which she appears to joke about suggesting that her students pledge allegiance to the Pride flag.

 (Kristen) Pitzen tells her story in the video, laughing throughout. 

 “During third period, we have announcements and they do the Pledge of Allegiance. I always tell my class, stand if you feel like it, don’t stand if you feel like it, say the words if you want, you don’t have to say the words So, my class decided to stand but not say the words. Totally fine,” she said. Pitzen then explained that there actually isn’t an American flag in the classroom because she took it down during the pandemic since it made her “uncomfortable.” When a student commented to Pitzen that it was weird they were pledging allegiance without an actual flag, she jokingly suggested they pledge to the flag they did have in the classroom.

As The Advocate pointed in the article, THAT was the story. No student pledged allegiance to the Pride flag.  Pitzen merely made a joke. But because of some right-wing post on Twitter, she got attacked

This post below:

Teacher mocks the American Flag and suggests to students they can say the Pledge of Allegiance to the pride flag: pic.twitter.com/1QTS5xjPln

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) August 27, 2021

According to Out magazine:

Conservative backlash was quick and fierce, with even out, former director of national intelligence Richard Grenell posting his disgust to Twitter. After questioning why parents would let their children be taught by "someone they don’t know," he went on to write he’d like to "talk to people who think this is good." . . . Another person posted to Facebook, saying that Pitzen "is an absolute disgrace to teachers" and warned the teacher to keep her own "views and political stances out of the classroom." 

Pitzen has now been removed as a teacher while the district is investigating the situation. Also, The Advocate said, she has deleted all of her social media accounts.

The irony is that at pretty much the same time, the Supreme Court of Virginia upheld a ruling by a lower court which reinstated a high school gym teacher after he was suspended for saying that he would not refer to trans students by their preferred pronouns. The lower court found that the school violated his free speech rights. 

This is probably the single most inane controversy happening thus yet in 2021  An idiotic conservative twitter posts a video making accusations and assertions which no one in their right mind would take seriously except for a bunch of homophobic kooks and the occasional Log Cabin Republican kiss ass. Because of that, what looks an affirming teacher has to deal with possible removal from her professional while dodging vulgarities uttered by fools who have nothing better to do in order to deal with their possible inner turmoil of sexual orientation  

If only certain people used their common sense and intellect with as much fervor as they pretend to be patriotic Americans. 

''Straight Pride' rally ends in bear spray and fistfights' & other Tue midday news briefs

“Straight Pride” rally ends in bear spray & fistfights - Good Lord! Seems to me that we need more LGBTQ prides and less straight prides. The worst that could happen at an LGBTQ pride is some bad dancing by drunk gay guys.

'American Idol' alum David Archuleta says God told him to come out publicly - I think he may be right about this.

Robyn Lambird becomes first out trans athlete to earn a medal in Paralympics history - Congratulations Robyn! 

Medical Schools Lack Proper Data to Address LGBTQ Health Disparities - It's way past time that this gets addressed.

Carrie Prejean is back and she's trying to 'save' America from mask mandates just like she 'saved' it from gay marriage

Carrie Prejean

Guess who is back?

Woman wearing a “MAMA” tshirt at the Encinitas school board meeting says her “cubs” will refuse to wear masks this week. “We’re done asking you for permission. The pandemic is over. We are declaring our freedom.”Then she says she and her friends are running for school board. pic.twitter.com/Q5yoLqvLwP

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 30, 2021

That's Carrie Prejean (now Carrie Prejean Boller) as one of the annoying wannabe activists undermining the country's fight against the COVID pandemic:

 Prejean . . . took the spotlight once again, this time as an anti-mask extremist who declared her intention to run for school board after she attacked Encinitas school board officials, while declaring the pandemic is now "over." (The pandemic is nowhere near over.) 

 "My name is Carrie Boller, you see my shirt it says 'mama,' and I'm a mama bear and I know there's a lot of mama bears here tonight," she declared, seeming to echo Sarah Palin. "No one's gonna mess with our cubs. I'm a resident of Encinitas, born and raised San Diegan, and tonight I'm simply here to tell you to unmask our children, we're done begging."

 "In fact, we're done asking for permission. We are going to be unmasking our children today. The pandemic is over, the parents are done. We're done asking you, public servants, for permission. We are done, you can all wear your masks in fact you can wear two masks and three masks, you can wear gloves you can have plexiglass. You can do whatever you need to do to keep you safe, but we the parents believe we have a choice for our children, and I don't know who you think you are, that you think that you have more of a say than us the parents and our doctors. I don't know who any of you think you are. I really don't. It ends today, we are declaring our freedom, tonight. We do not consent to the lies, fear-mongering, and abuse – you all know it's abuse," she claimed, apparently referring to mask mandates.

I see Carrie is as loudmouth and clueless as she was in 2009 when she came on the scene. For the benefit of those who are not aware, Ms. Boller is a former Miss California who got into a huge controversy over marriage equality during the Miss America Pageant. One of the judges, celebrity gossip Perez Hilton, asked her about the subject and she proceeded to speak against it.

That should have been the entire situation, but no. Hilton proceeded to later attack her online for her answer. This faux pas allowed the religious right to portray Miss Carrie as an innocent Christian who was being attacked by "radical homosexuals" for "merely speaking about her faith." True story - they even painted her as a modern day Queen Esther after the Biblical Jewish queen who saved her people from genocide.

But then came part two of Ms. Carrie's 15 minutes of fame. As quickly as she rose as the newest religious right star, she plummeted back to Earth. Hard. If one wanted to pinpoint why she lost purity points, there were so many issues which comes to mind. It could have been those half naked pictures of her, her breast implants, the sex tape, and her wannabe-diva behavior. Needless to say, the religious right disowned her as quickly as they anointed her. 

So now here she is over 10 years later hoping to grab some fame by trying to echo tired Sarah Palin lines. It's actually "mama grizzlies," Miss Carrie.  If you're going to struggle for relevancy, your verbal plagiarizing should at the very least be accurate.

'Conservatives freak out over video of teacher joking about kids pledging allegiance to Pride flag' & other Mon midday news briefs

Conservatives freak out over video of teacher suggesting kids pledge allegiance to Pride flag - With them scaring people about vaccines and critical race theory, it would seem that the pickings regarding us are getting mighty slim. 

BYU will investigate after man defaces chalk art in support of LGBTQ students and yells slur - Stupid people. Everywhere. 

These Are the Nation's Most LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges, Universities - Write these down.

‘Anti-LGBT ideology zones’ are being enacted in Polish towns - Oh come on, Poland!!!

Video - How to completely OWN one of those 'ex-gay' groups

When you think of all of the mess LGBTQ people have had to deal with from those false and annoying 'ex-gay' groups over the decades, it's a wonder if the above scene from the television series Shameless ever took place in real life. Let's face it though, verbally owning the leader of an ex-gay group in a battle of religious verses, pulling a "you're out of shape. I'll kick your ass" speech on a supporter of the group, and then publicly leading a procession of LGBTQ people (however small) out of the group has probably been a dream for many of us.

Something to watch when you want to feel like a badass queen. Not me though. I'm the Super Queen.

'32 fall shows, movies for LGBTQ views including Madonna' & other Fri midday news briefs

32 Fall Shows, Movies for LGBTQ+ Viewers: Madonna, Murder, Matt Bomer - Fall sounds like fun. 

Half of Americans say they’d avoid an HIV-positive doctor - Still more education to do out there. 

Indian-American gay couples find new forms of union amid stigma - There is not one LGBTQ community. We are mult-national and multi-cultural. 

Harris meets with LGBTQ activists in Vietnam - VP Harris gets a lot of unfair comments thrown at her. I think she is a good ally.

Lil Nas X, Noted Power Bottom, Announces Album Release, Teases Song - Uh oh. Batten down the hatches. That young man has turned the rap world upside down and I am so here for it.