Conservative Mouthpiece Milo Yiannopoulos Admits He’s Sexually Attracted To Trump

photo cr: Mike Allen, yiannopoulos.net

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NC’s Bathroom Bill Violates Civil Rights Act According To DOJ Letter

North Carolina’s anti-LGBT House Bill 2 — which the state’s own attorney general, Democrat Roy Cooper, has called a “national embarrassment” — is one step closer to being overturned. The Charlotte Observer reports that the Justice Department has sent a letter to the North Carolina governor Pat McCrory notifying him that the law violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act. State officials must stop enforcing the law by Monday, or else risk losing millions in federal education funding.

According to the letter, HB2 — which not only dictates that North Carolina citizens must use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender assigned to them at birth, but also strikes down local LGBT non-discrimination ordinances throughout the state — is “in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 0f 1964…

“Title VII prohibits an employer from discriminating against an individual on the basis of sex and from otherwise resisting the full enjoyment of Title VII rights…

“Federal courts and administrative agencies have applied Title VII to discrimination against transgender individuals based on sex, including gender identity….

“Access to sex-segregated restrooms and other workplace facilities consistent with gender identity is a term, condition or privilege of employment. Denying such access to transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different from the gender assigned at birth, while affording it to similarly situated non-transgender employees, violates Title VII …

“HB 2…is facially discriminatory against transgender employees on the basis of sex because it treats transgender employees, whose gender identity does not match their biological sex, as defined by HB2, differently from similarly situated non transgender employees…”

A federal lawsuit has already been filed against HB2. Cooper has refused to defend the law in court, and corporations and celebrities alike have come out against the law in recent weeks.

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Prom Royalty, Chest Hair, May the 4th, Janet Jackson, Merrick Garland, Stonewall Westeros: NEWS

TENNESSEE. Gay couple crowned prom king and queen: “To the two girls — Lindsey Creel and Brie Grimes, seniors who have been dating for three years — winning prom king and queen was not about the titles, but about helping others and raising awareness about LGBTQ issues.”

MANSCAPING. NYT declares that chest hair is back in: “An unkempt body is a perhaps unforeseen corollary of the lumberjack look that has long since peaked in certain Brooklyn circles. Even the brand 2(x)ist, known for its sleekly textured models, has opted to show its underwear on the hairy frame of Nyle DiMarco, a recent winner of ‘America’s Next Top Model.’”

SCOTUS. Fearing general election defeat, conservative site RedState urges Senate Republicans to consider President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland: “Republicans must know that there is absolutely no chance that we will win the White House in 2016 now. They must also know that we are likely to lose the Senate as well. So the choices, essentially, are to confirm Garland and have another bite at the apple in a decade, or watch as President Clinton nominates someone who is radically more leftist and 10-15 years younger, and we are in no position to stop it.”

MUSIC. New Justin Timberlake song “Can’t Fight The Feeling” reportedly dropping this Friday. 

CANADA. Montreal clinic that performs gender reassignment surgeries destroyed in arson attack: “The news spread quickly among members of the transgender community in Montreal and across Canada. Some are concerned that the fire will exacerbate the already lengthy waiting periods for gender reassignment surgery at the clinic. There is also speculation as to whether the clinic was targeted because it offers GRS.”

GAME OF THRONES. Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell) agrees that Westeros needs a gay rights revolution.

IDAHO. City of Coeur d’Alene settles lawsuit with anti-gay marriage venue The Hitching Post over LGBT rights ordinance: “The Coeur d’Alene Press reports (bit.ly/1SJw7jN ) that Coeur d’Alene agreed Friday to pay the Hitching Post $1,000 but not to change its non-discrimination ordinance. The city attorney says the city hopes the settlement will save taxpayers’ money. The city’s ordinance makes it illegal to discriminate because of sexual orientation but includes an exception for religious organizations.”

TEXAS. Is a conservative state lawmaker suggesting that guns are the solution to transgender people needing to pee? 

ANNOUNCEMENTS. Janet Jackson reveals she is pregnant. 

STAR WARS DAY. May the fourth be with you.

READ. Alaska Thunderfun (formerly Thunderf*ck) has a new book establishing her own mythology: “Crash-landing on earth, the newly named Alaska Thunderfun is immediately captured by military men eager to exploit her body’s out-of-this-world special powers. But Alaska doesn’t give up without a fight, and soon finds herself on a wild ride to the fabled Hollywood she’s read about in her home planet’s school books, a journey that will introduce her to a lesbian truck driver, an androgynous fashion model, and America’s glamorous, garish 1980s pop culture.”

GOP. Some Republicans are declaring #ImWithHer, but not as many as you might think (or hope).

PHILANTHROPY. Orlando Bloom visits the Ukraine on behalf of UNICEF and looks adorable while doing so. 

CENSORSHIP. Minnesota school finds out it has been banning emails to students that include the word “gay” after ACLU brings it to their attention: “That’s when Greenway Principal Jeff Britten first learned there might be a problem with his school’s email security filter. He dug into the software and discovered that someone had indeed manually added ‘gay’ to a list of prohibited words. He says he has no idea who might have done that, when, or why, except that preteen kids sometimes use the word ‘gay’ as an insult synonymous with “stupid,” and it might have been an issue at one point.”

HUMP DAY HOTTIE. Amoila Jamil Cesar.

The post Prom Royalty, Chest Hair, May the 4th, Janet Jackson, Merrick Garland, Stonewall Westeros: NEWS appeared first on Towleroad.

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N.C. Gov Thinks He Could Lose Job, Blames PC Culture for HB 2 Hate

For Pat McCrory — North Carolina’s Republican governor and proud proponent of its beleaguered anti-LGBT law — it’s starting to sink in that he may lose his job.

www.advocate.com/politicians/2016/5/04/nc-gov-thinks-he-could-lose-job-blames-pc-culture-hb-2-hate

Justice Department: North Carolina's HB 2 Violates Federal Law

The department is calling on Gov. Pat McCrory and other state officials to cease enforcing the anti-LGBT law.

www.advocate.com/politics/2016/5/04/justice-department-north-carolinas-hb-2-violates-federal-law

‘Captain America: Civil War’ Directors Open To LGBT Superheroes

Any comic book fan will tell you that the sprawling multiverse that is Marvel Comics includes a ton of queer superheroes. But so far none of those characters have made it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Now, Captain America: Civil War directors Joe and Anthony Russo say the ball is in their court when it comes to including LGBT superheroes in future films. “It’s incumbent upon us as storytellers who are making mass-appeal movies to…diversify as much as possible,” said Joe Russo in an interview with Collider. Meanwhile, Anthony suggested that the massive success of the blockbuster franchise could give the filmmakers the leeway to include queer characters without affecting their appeal in less LGBT-friendly markets like China and Russia.

Of course, many of Marvel’s most popular and prominent gay heroes are tied up in the X-Men franchise, which is owned by 20th Century Fox. (Gay director Bryan Singer has included characters like Iceman and Colossus, who were later revealed to be gay in the comics, but oddly has avoided any mention of Mystique’s long established bi-sexuality.) But Marvel Studios presumably still owns the film rights to Young Avengers and long-time couple Wiccan and Hulkling. And with Spider-Man and Black Panther appearing in Captain America: Civil War, that opens up the possibility of future appearances by Ultimate Spider-Woman (a lesbian Peter Parker clone from the same universe as Samuel L. Jackson’s version of Nick Fury) and the Dora Milaje (Black Panther’s all-female bodyguards, two of whom were revealed to be lesbians in writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’s run on the series).

Though the Russo bros. stopped short of promising to include any specific queer characters, it’s definitely encouraging that they’re open and enthusiastic about the idea of a more diverse super squad. Which other LGBT heroes would you like to see in Marvel movies?

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NEW MUSIC: Christine and the Queens, Emmy the Great, Pity Sex

This week in New Music: infectious low key crossover French pop from Christine and the Queens, Emmy the Great toys with her name by ditching the love and Michigan’s Pity Sex trash around with indie rock post-relationship blues on White Hot Moon.

Christine and the Queens – Chaleur Humaine

Recording as Christine and the Queens (above), Héloïse Letissier is a massive mainstream success in her native France. The original French version of Chaleur Humaine, on which this release is based, has spent close to two years on the French top 40.

French pop music is often difficult because – rightly so and as with everything else – most French artists refuse to tone down the essential Gallicness of their work. There has been a few crossover musicians over the years. Vanessa Paradis. Desireless. Em….Melanie Laurent?

What Letissier has to her advantage – which for some reason didn’t transfer into success for Laurent – is that she remains quintessentially French while riding the wave of the recent downtempo electronica/Europop explosion.

That the album includes a collaboration with Perfume Genius says a lot. The songs here are beautifully constructed, wispy pop gems with hats tipped to R&B and hip hop.

Probably the most accessible song on the album is the beautiful, breathy and somewhat bonkers Tilted. Couple with a mesmerizing live performance, that song alone should drive Letissier to the kind of mainstream success that has eluded many of her European contemporaries.

Emmy the Great – Second Love

Emma-Lee Moss, aka the frankly wonderful Emmy the Great, has spent the intervening years since her last album proper in 2011 traveling the world and writing as a music journalist.

While PJ Harvey traveled the world and wrote about what she saw, Moss would appear to have used the time to take a good, long look at herself. What she has come up with is a set of impeccable, sparse pop songs not so much about lost loves than the possibility of finding someone at some point in the future and on her own terms. It is in fact all on her own terms and when she’s not concerned with love etc., she turns her often brilliant lyrics to the stuff that gets in the way (“We thought that weight loss was survival, We thought that Vogue was French for Bible”).

Naming herself Emmy the Great was apparently a joke befitting a fringe alt folk singer songwriter. Ditching that sound somewhat for a touch of electronic experimentation, Second Love opens up a new world for Moss and, if she’s not careful, possibly greatness.

Pity Sex – White Hot Moon

How to get some attention for your not-EMO band: come up with an eye catching name.

How to turn the initial rush into something long term: back it up with a fuzzy beauty that is EMO enough but with enough of a hint of indie rock to suggest it may well be for grown ups.

Check – The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die.

Check – Pity Sex.

What you need to know – boy/girl harmonies, feedback, indie rock posturing, shoegaze introspective enough to act as a soundtrack to your next post-pity sex downer (possibly, I wouldn’t know).

“I’ll never say I loved you because you know I still do”, we’re told. “You are my fondest memories, you are the earth beneath my feet” apparently. Relationships are hard they’re saying. Pity sex is inevitable they think. And then it’s all over….

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Justice Dept. Says HB2 Violates Civil Rights Act; Gives Pat McCrory Monday Deadline…

Governor Pat McCrory must notify the Department of Justice by Monday that the state “will not comply with or implement HB2” or it risks violating the Civil Rights Act and losing hundreds of millions in federal funding, the Charlotte Observer reports:

The letter says HB2, which pre-empted Charlotte’s anti-discrimination ordinance, violates Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination in education based on sex, and Title VII, which bars employers from discriminating.

If that determination is upheld, North Carolina could lose millions in federal school funding. During the current school year, state public schools received $861 million in federal funding.

In the letter, Vanita Gupta, principal deputy assistant attorney general, said, “”…The Department of Justice has determined that, as a result of compliance with and implementation of NC House Bill2, both you and the state of NC are in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 0f 1964…

“Title VII prohibits an employer from discriminating against an individual on the basis of sex and from otherwise resisting the full enjoyment of Title VII rights….Federal courts and administrative agencies have applied Title VII to discrimination against transgender individuals based on sex, including gender identity….

The letter gives McCrory a deadline: “Please advise the department, therefore, no later than the close of business on May 9, 2016, whether you will remedy these violations of Title VII including by confirming that the state will not comply with or implement HB2.”

According to the paper, the NC Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina have also been notified they’re in violation of Title IX by implementing the law.

Here’s the letter.

RELATED: Beyoncé Comes Out Against North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT ‘Bathroom Bill’

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