'Queer Chechens share terrifying stories of abuse, torture in new documentary' & other Fri midday news briefs

Queer Chechens Share Terrifying Accounts Of Abuse, Torture In New HBO Documentary - A sad but necessary documentary. 

An Innovative Neighborhood In Durham For LGBTQ Seniors Welcomes New Residents - Wonderful idea.

Arkansas LGBTQ shelter closes abruptly, leaving former residents struggling - Not everything is good news. Some of our folks are being left behind.

Over half of LGBTQ Europeans are not out about their identities, report finds - Wow!

Anything to protect Donald Trump - Watch how Fox News pundits minimize American lives lost to the coronavirus

 

 I personally think that Fox News on-the-air pundits are given a list of talking points every day that they must work in their segments and appearances. And the above video may prove that point. It's a montage of various Fox News pundits, personalities, and guests minimizing the deaths, particularly in America, caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As you watch the video, remember that about over 96,000 Americans who have died.  And as that death count grew, this "death is tragic, but . . ." junk is all that we got from Fox News.We know why they are doing this - to shield Donald Trump from blame for how his inept leadership led to many, if not all of these deaths. Apparently protecting him from the consequences of his piss poor actions is more important to these folks.

'Gay couple adopts foster son via Zoom' & other Thur midday news briefs

Gay couple adopts foster son via Zoom because they refused to wait any longer - Good for them! Congratulations to the new family!

A Man Shared A Shocking Photo Of What COVID-19 Did To Him After Six Weeks In A Hospital - Folks keep telling people that the coronavirus is no joke. 

 

Lawmakers urge Trump administration to collect data on LGBTQ COVID-19 patients - Yes they should.

Todrick Hall Hosts Virtual Prom Benefit to Fight LGBTQ+ Homelessness - Wonderful idea to do this.

Coronavirus Camp Classic 4 - Twelve moments with Beverly Leslie from 'Will and Grace'

With all that's going on in the country, even I need a break. And the video above is good way to do it. It features a campy duo from 'Will and Grace' who have wonderful chemistry. I'm not talking about Jack and Karen. I'm talking about Karen and her almost equally rich and not-so-in-the-closet  nemesis Beverly Leslie.

Beverly Leslie has to be the official breakout role for longtime actor Leslie Jordan. He's been everything from a rapping security officer in a failed television show to one of Jason Voorhees' victims in a Friday the 13th movie. Presently, he is a huge social media star because of his hilarious Instagram videos during the coronavirus lockdown.

And the success couldn't have happened to a better person.

'Religious exemptions are gutting civil rights protections, advocacy groups warn' & other Wed midday new briefs

Religious exemptions are gutting civil rights protections, advocacy groups warn - Deliberately, no doubt. And it's downright ugly how openly it's been happening.

Hungary’s parliament bans transgender people from legally changing their gender - This is awful and you just know some folks here are dreaming of doing this madness. 

Trump’s attack dogs turn on Blade reporter - How MAGAts weaponize Twitter.

LGBTQ magazine cover sparks debate over inclusion of controversial celebs - Don't get mad because some folks made the cover. Use the fact that they made the cover to speak on the situations.

FRC's Tony Perkins whines that Trump isn't getting enough credit for fighting COVID-19 pandemic

According to some conservatives, Trump hasn't been given enough credit for fighting COVID-19.

It hasn't been a full day yet since my post Monday night about religious right reluctance to criticize Trump over the COVID-19 pandemic and the Family Research Council proves the point I was making.

 From its president, Tony Perkins:

When the dust settles from the coronavirus -- months, maybe even years from now -- there will be a lot of storylines from the crisis that were never told. One of the biggest, history will show, is about this president. Like most leaders in his position, he'd never faced a tragedy of this magnitude. But unlike so many others, Donald Trump turned to America -- not government -- for answers. It worked, not that most of the country will hear about it. He solved the supply problem, the equipment problem, the ventilator problem. But it didn't matter. The haters in the media and Democratic Party would simply turn and harp on something else. "There is a new cardinal rule in journalism," NRO editor Rich Lowry warns, "never write anything favorable about the Trump administration's coronavirus response, even about its successes." Obviously, he points out, no one's response has been perfect. "But to read the press, there is basically nothing good that the Trump administration has done over the last three months."

So Perkins (and Lowry ) are upset that the press hasn't been covering up for Trump's incompetence during this pandemic. It's not enough that Perkins and Lowry are doing it. They seem to want the entire narrative of this situation to be that the media is exploiting it to harm Trump  and that makes him the actual victim. Not the over 90,000 deceased Americans, not the over one million infected, not the people out of work or the people whose lives have been generally devastated.

'Officers charged with brutal assault on trans woman' & other Tue midday news briefs

Officers charged with allegedly slamming transgender woman's face on ground - I DO NOT like posting items like this, but they are needed.

The ‘gender critical’ feminist movement is a cult that grooms, controls and abuses, according to a lesbian who managed to escape - WOW! This is one incredible article.

My faith instructs me to stand up for LGBTQ neighbors - A pastor stands for the LGBTQ community. Thank you. 

Roy Horn, Little Richard, and Life in the Half-Closet - NO way to live.

Religious right silence during pandemic proves they favor Donald Trump over integrity, common decency

Here's something we are missing in regards to the Trump Administration and the coronavirus - the voice of the evangelical conservative leaders, i.e. the religious right. 

Remember all of this:

 

As conspicuous as Trump's fumbling coronavirus response has been the absence/silence of religious right leaders.  Franklin Graham, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, James Dobson, and the rest have in the past had no problem bragging about their access to the White House, namedropping the policies they are supporting, or conveniently appearing in pictures with Trump while either in prayer or dramatic repose.

As America has been in chaos and the Trump Administration has been in even more chaos during this pandemic, why are they so silent?

'Will waivers help sink Trump's transgender military ban?' & other Mon midday news briefs

Will Waivers Help Sink Trump’s Transgender Military Ban? - This has not been getting that much attention, which I guess is good in a way. Still, it is very significant.

America will be a beacon of hope for LGBTQ rights again - by Joe Biden. Pay attention, folks. Who we vote for in this upcoming election will be the difference between moving forward and being pushed back.

Idaho Falls expands LGBTQ anti-discrimination ordinance - Wonderful! 

 News sites backtrack after 'deadnaming' transgender woman in obituary - It shouldn't be difficult to treat trans people with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Obama's devastatingly thrown shade during speech leaves Trump mentally punch-drunk

Saturday night, former president Barack Obama demonstrated why he is considered one of the best presidents of our time. 

 From Vox: 

 In his first major national address since the coronavirus pandemic began, former President Barack Obama delivered a commencement speech to graduates at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) Saturday. And much of his advice encouraging students to become leaders doubled as an indictment of the Trump administration’s management of the pandemic.

 “More than anything, this pandemic has fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Obama said in a video streamed online as part of the “Show Me Your Walk H.B.C.U. Edition” virtual commencement. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

 On the whole, Obama struck his signature tone of calm and measured optimism, and used the country’s current economic and public health crises as springboards for discussing his usual political themes, including the importance of community organizing and finding common ground outside of comfort zones. And he also emphasized the unique injustices faced by young black people like Ahmaud Arbery at a time when some political leaders are arguing that coronavirus is an equalizer of sorts.

Obama's speech and those specific words are significant in many ways. It reminded a lot of us what we gave up when Trump was elected - a calm, high intelligent, rationale leader who always optimistically put his country first  instead of the selfish, incompetent fool who now stains the Oval Office. Obama was also sending a message that he isn't the least bit worried about how Trump and his allies have been falsely portraying him as the mastermind of an illegal plot to under Trump's Administration. Lastly, it was a specific reminder to Trump that no matter what happens, how his poor response to the coronavirus led to the wrecking of our economy and the deaths of over 90,000 (and counting) Americans will never be forgotten.

Since Obama's comments Saturday night, Trump and his supporters have tried (and failed) to voice suitable comebacks. Fox News personalities accused Obama of being partisan and "not that articulate."

Trump himself has accused Obama of being a "grossly incompetent president" who oversaw a "corrupt administration."

As you can guess, Trump's statements became the subject of much mockery and derision.

Maria Bartiromo proves how Fox News is helping Trump to wreck America (in less than 2 minutes)

 

Why Donald Trump has survived thus far in spite of all of his miscues and mistakes is simple. And it's not totally due to his supporters. It's because he is the first president in the history of this country who has an entire "news" network working to overhype his successes and cushion his many falls. And that's when it's not amplifying his many lies and conspiracy theories. In the old days, we called it propaganda. Nowadays, people seem to be desensitized enough to call it news.

I am talking about the Fox News Network, unfortunately the number one news network in the country and shameless promotion agent of the Trump Administration. The network has never been the bastion of objectivity, but with Trump in office, its bias has skyrocketed to the outer limits. The video above features a 1:19 second summation of an interview that Fox News personality (she is not a journalist, no matter what she claims) Maria Bartiromo conducted recently with Trump. The video spotlights her questions and the tone of the interview. It's rather embarrassing to Bartiromo and one would think that if she had any integrity at all, she would quit the profession. Or at least lock herself in a windowless room where she can dump all of the money she is receiving from her Fox News contract while counting it with glazed eyes and drool running down her chin.

Bear in mind that in the backdrop of this, America is in the middle of an awful pandemic in which over one million are infected and over 85,000 have died. And fingers have accurately pointed to Trump's carelessness and incompetence leading us to this point. However, based upon what you will see above, Bartiromo gave Trump a respite from taking responsibility by conducting an interview with wafer thin substance, making sure to fawn over him and amplify his latest lie - ObamaGate.

And this does have an effect on his supporters. When things like what Bartiromo did gives them tacit encouragement to dive with Trump down the rabbit hole, they are difficult to bring back to terra firma. They have more incentive to engage in their reckless support instead of crucial and much needed self-examination about their values. But Bartiromo and definitely hardly anyone else at the Fox News Network cares. For them, from Bartiromo to Sean Hannity  to Tucker Carlson, etc, etc, it's not about truth. It's about power. And money.

 Lots and lots of money.

Related post:

Fox News' Maria Bartiromo is slammed for her friendly interview with Trump - Apparently Bartiromo did this before in 2018.

This is how Maria Bartiromo, who is on the “news side” at Fox, interviewed Donald Trump - and the recent monstrosity she called an interview

'Anti-gay rapper brags about hiring sex worker for his underage son and nephew' & other Thur midday news briefs

Boosie Badazz

Anti-gay rapper Boosie Badazz says he hired woman to sexually assault his 12 & 13-year-old sons - I have never heard this fool's music, but idiots like him are the ones who make things more difficult for gay black men like me.  Some seriously toxic shit!

Anti-LGBTQ Firm Tries to Disqualify Judge Because He Won’t Let It Misgender Trans Kids- Don't do it, judge. To hell with the hate groups.

LGBTQ Groups Are Trying to Sway Moms of Queer Kids to Vote Against Trump - It's a good idea. Trump's policies hurt LGBTQ people and especially our children. 

Court orders State Department to reconsider intersex passport application - There is good and bad news with this decision.

Wrong again, Franklin Graham. New York does not support your homophobia.

Franklin Graham makes a homophobic fool of himself (again).

Apparently still smarting from the recent controversy which saw his organization, Samaritan's Purse, having to dismantle its COVID 19 field hospital in New York, pastor and arch homophobe (which is the reason why he got into trouble) Franklin Graham attempted to repair his image in recent New York Times interview.

And made a complete lying ass of himself. According to The Advocate:

Graham struck back at his critics in an interview published Sunday in The New York Times. What LGBTQ and allied New Yorkers found most objectionable is Samaritan’s Purse’s requirement that employees and volunteers endorse a “statement of faith” laying out conservative Christian values, among them being that “marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.” It also includes a statement against abortion, a belief in the infallibility of the Bible, and the assertion that non-Christians will spend eternity in hell. 

. . .Graham also said the majority of city residents oppose marriage equality. “The vast majority of the people in the city believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said, “but the majority would also say that if two men want to live together, that’s their business, or two women want to live together, that’s their business.” That statement is demonstrably false. A 2017 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute showed 69 percent of respondents in New York State supporting marriage equality. It did not break out a percentage for New York City, but given the city’s large LGBTQ population and general liberalism, the percentage is most likely similar or even higher. In 2011, the state became the sixth in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage.

Keep talking, Graham. Since your shameless embrace of Trump, your reputation has been sinking like a stone in a river. Be advised that Trump is not going to stay in office forever and when the times comes that he thankfully leaves, you are going to have much to repair. And I don't think you will be successful.

Hat tip to @aksarbent

'New project collects pandemic stories from LGBT community' & other Wed midday news briefs

New Project Collects Pandemic Stories from LGBT Community - This is a wonderful idea.

Lawyer defending barber who refused to close for coronavirus has history of fighting LGBTQ rights - Ah yes. The sick linkage. 

Right-wingers lose their minds after Biden pledges to end violence against trans women - They need to get over it.

#ObamaGate - a pathetic hashtag for losers who hate Obama & want to distract from Trump's complicity in the deaths of 80,000 Americans. - My post from last night. Please read and share. 

 Transgender woman at center of blockbuster LGBTQ Supreme Court case dies - I hope part of her legacy is a SCOTUS victory.

#ObamaGate - a pathetic hashtag for losers who hate Obama & want to distract from Trump's complicity in the deaths of 80,000 Americans.

This tweet sent Obama haters into orgasmic ecstasy.

Last weekend, including Mother's Day, Twitter faced a huge barrage of posts coming from folks who despise former president Barack Obama and would like nothing more than to see him arrested, led away in handcuffs, and forever disgraced. 

Why?

I will let The Guardian begin the story:

On Friday, former US president Barack Obama expressed disquiet at the justice department dropping charges against Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in early 2017 for lying about conversations with the Russian ambassador. On a recording obtained by Yahoo News, Obama warned that the “rule of law is at risk”. He also described Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as “an absolute chaotic disaster”. 

This led to a huge campaign from bots, trolls, and supporters of Trump to flood Twitter with messages, memes, and factoids while using the hashtag #ObamaGate. They claimed that Obama illegally spied on Trump in order to undermine his presidency. The claim is an old conspiracy theory which has been repeatedly refuted. In any other era in this country, that would have been the end of the story. But this particular era is the one of amateur "researchers" and "journalists," i.e. people whose expertise consist solely of videotaping themselves spouting off-the-wall theories and posting said videos on Youtube. There is no such thing as solid refutation. Anything which conflicts with the conspiracy de jour is nothing more than another depth in the rabbit hole of wildly hatched and unproven theories.

And when it comes to Obama, negative conspiracy theories are numerous from people who swear up and down and probably even on their Bibles that their hatred of him has nothing to do with racism. They simply think of Obama as a Kenyan Muslim socialist communist anti-Christ Manchurian candidate who worked with the Deep State to fake his birth certificate and relied on his racial heritage to cheat his way into the White House while plotting to destroy America by apologizing for it while creating FEMA camps, sowing racial division, putting his feet up on the Oval Office desk, bowing in front of foreign leaders in submission right before he eats his hamburger with Grey Poupon really fast before he spills it on his tan suit.

Did I miss anything?

So this campaign, amplified by Donald Trump (see tweet below), actually trended on Twitter for two days.

And while Trump's tweet was surprisingly sedate, others weren't. They ran the gambit from ugly to downright nasty:

And some tweets just went way out there. This one below was a video with Obama's, Trump's and Barr's faces superimposed:

While this one below reiterated a debunked, but disgusting claim that Democrats were behind a ring of pedophiles masquerading as a pizza restaurant.

'Little Richard was a conflicted legend' & other Tue midday news briefs

Little Richard was anti-gay when he died, but his queer cultural influence overshadows us all - Little Richard was a talented but a sad, conflicted man. Though he rejected a better part of himself before his death, one cannot erase the impact his queerness had on the world.

Idaho governor appeals to Supreme Court to stop trans inmate's surgery - Oh give me a break. Is preventing the surgery a pressing need?

Montgomery County could make LGBTQ history with Tuesday Board of Education vote - Oh? I'm definitely all for this.

Advocates were mobilizing LGBTQ people everywhere for the 2020 census. Then the coronavirus pandemic erupted. - Now we have to get that momentum back.

'Losing My Civilians' - REM music video parody brutally mocks Trump's incompetence during COVID-19 pandemic

Satire is a weapon of the seemingly powerless against the excesses and abuses of the powerful.

From The Huffington Post:

A no-holds-barred music video parody of the 1991 R.E.M. hit “Losing My Religion” skewers Donald Trump’s approach to COVID-19 in a bit entitled “Losing My Civilians.” The blast — created and posted by British media site Politics Joe — uses some of the same memorable images from the original R.E.M video, but twisted into today’s dark times, with a winged Vice President Mike Pence and a faux-tormented Trump. The lyrics “I thought that I heard you laughing,” have been changed to “I thought that I heard you coughing.” The president “sings” in the spoof: “That’s me with corona.” He adds: “I don’t care if you get it. Oh no, I’ve said too much.”

Related post:

US coronavirus death toll passes 80,000 as states move to phased reopening

A new investigation reveals Trump ignored experts on Covid-19 for months

Whistleblower Alleges Trump Administration Ignored Dire COVID-19 Warnings 

'Councilwoman apologizes for calling gay New Jersey mayor a 'pedophile'' & other Fri midday news briefs

New Jersey Councilwoman Robin Vaughn

Councilwoman apologizes for calling gay New Jersey mayor 'pedophile' in profane rant - Cause you know you were wrong, girlfriend.

Exclusive: 47 lawmakers call for LGBTQ inclusion in U.S. int’l coronavirus efforts - It was 45 lawmakers when this story went to press. Hopefully the number will increase again by the time you are reading the article.

Black Gay Men and the Fear of Queeny Bottoms - There is nothing wrong with "queeny" gays. Period. 

 Minister Defends Germany's Limited Gay Therapy Ban - At the very least, it's a step in the right direction.

Video - Fox News deserves much blame for Trump's coronavirus response disaster

 

When history tells of how Donald Trump bungled the coronavirus pandemic response, please don't let it be that he alone takes all of the blame. There is enough blame for Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, and basically almost everyone employed in a high-profile position at Fox News. And I don't want history to be kind. I want it to be unyielding and unrelenting.  Too many people got infected and died for anyone involved in amplifying this disaster to stroll away smelling like a rose.

'Under lockdown, parents are discovering their children are LGBT and kicking them out on the street' & other Thur midday news briefs

Under lockckdown, Parents Are Discovering Their Children Are LGBT And Dumping Them On The Street - This is the coldest sh!t in the world. There is no excuse. 

Ellen, Gabrielle Union & Dwyane Wade’s chat about trans kids will leave you in tears - By contrast, giving LGBTQ children love and support is what all good parents are supposed to do.

Transgender people face discrimination, violence amid Latin American quarantines - Depressing as hell.

Nonreligious LGBTQ People Face Discrimination, Stigma - The negativity of how some people use their religious beliefs.