#AM_Equality Tip Sheet: May 6, 2016

BREAKING: HRC AND EQUALITY NC CALL ON UNIVERSITY OF NC OFFICIALS TO DO THE RIGHT THING – REJECT HB2, COMPLY WITH FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAW: HRC and Equality NC sent a letter today to the chancellors and presidents of the University of North Carolina and North Carolina Community College systems urging them to protect the wellbeing of their students, and billions in federal funding, by complying with this week’s U.S. Department of Justice order to reverse implementation of the discriminatory HB2. “Tens of thousands of students, faculty, and college employees across North Carolina have been harmed by HB2,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “The Department of Justice has now affirmed HB2 violates the civil rights of those in the UNC community, and we therefore urge all public universities and colleges to reverse its implementation. This is not only the right thing to do, it is the law.” The DOJ told state officials, including UNC President Margaret Spellings, that they have until Monday to comply with federal law. Read the full letter here.

TRANSGENDER WOMAN SHARES HORRIFIC SUBWAY RIDE, HILLARY SHARES SUPPORT, SOLIDARITY: Pearl Love, a transgender woman living in New York City, was physically and verbally assaulted on the subway on April 28. The horrifying incident, which Pearl bravely captured on video and shared on Facebook earlier this week, was a chilling window into the consequences of ignorance, hate and transphobic rhetoric. Between notes from from friends and allies, one heartfelt message stuck out.

NOTORIOUS ANTI-LGBT GROUP TARGETS TRANSGENDER TEEN: The Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the most dangerous organizations working to prevent equality for LGBT people across the globe, has now set its sights on a transgender high school student in Illinois. The hate group that uses its broad reach to promote discriminatory legislation and foster anti-LGBT initiatives across the country and internationally, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education over its settlement with the student’s school district which allows her access to locker facilities consistent with her gender identity. Here’s our ever-expanding list of 10 shocking facts about the group. More from The Washington Post.

NC HOUSE SPEAKER TAKING HIS TIME: Despite ramming the bill through the Legislature in less than a day, House Speaker Tim Moore cavalierly said yesterday that state officials will let the Monday deadline to reverse implementation of HB2 “come and go.” The News & Observer calls Moore’s defiant position “nonsense,” and “a waste” wrought by the state’s bumbling GOP leadership, adding:, “Surely the speaker learned his high school civics better than this.” And The Charlotte Observer calls the choice on HB2 “obvious,” saying North Carolina “can obey federal law” or the state “can fight — and lose in so many ways.”

• Cracks in the facade? The Charlotte Observer is reporting that Moore may not be speaking for all GOP leaders. A spokesman for NC Gov. Pat McCrory tells the newspaper that governor does plan to have a response to the DOJ’s order by Monday’s deadline. He did not offer further details.
• Icing on the cake … Former talk show host Montel Williams sent a #lovewins #RepealHB2 cake to the NC’s House Majority Leader’s office yesterday. More from The News & Observer.

MEANWHILE IN ALABAMA: HRC Alabama and its supporters marked the end of Alabama’s 2016 legislative session in a celebratory mood. While seven anti-LGBT bills were introduced, not a single one passed the state legislature — including an awful measure that would have allowed state-based foster care and adoption agencies to reject qualified LGBT prospective parents based on the agency’s religious beliefs, and a mean-spirited anti-marriage equality resolution.

LGBT VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY REJECT TRUMP, SAY #IMWITHER: Given Hillary Clinton’s pro-equality history and Donald Trump’s dismal record with the LGBT community, a new poll showing LGBT voters favor Hillary over Trump by a whopping 4-1 margin comes as no surprise. More from The Washington Blade.

EAT MORE CHIKIN… NOT! NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is urging New Yorkers to boycott the Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain over its history of anti-LGBT stances. More from Towleroad.

DO NOT ENTER… New Jersey Democratic Sen. Raymond Lesniak wants to ban state-funded travel to states with anti-LGBT laws. More from NewJersey.com.

READING RAINBOW

PBS discusses how North Carolina’s discriminatory bill affects far more than just bathrooms… The Chicago Tribune highlights the story of a transgender prom queen… A 59-year-old transgender woman talks about how Target’s bathroom policy gives her hope in The Star Tribune…and ABC News breaks down the potential, devastating impact Tennessee’s new counseling law could have on LGBTQ youth…

Have news? Send us your news and tips at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to A.M. Equality and follow @HRC for all the latest news. Thanks for reading!

www.hrc.org/blog/am-equality-tip-sheet-may-6-2016?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Is Writing “Masc 4 Masc Only” In Your Online Profile Homophobic?

Each week online comedian, voice actor and chest hair model Sam Kalidi creates a comedic post for Queerty readers. This week he considers the possible homophobia in noting that you’re masculine in your online hookup profile and you’re seeking masculine only. He welcomes your hate mail. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and at your local glory hole.

The problem with gay guys who write “Masculine for Masculine Only” on Grindr. pic.twitter.com/MMx2z0zVxO

— Sam Kalidi (@samkalidi) May 4, 2016

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Rufus Wainwright Will Make the Strings of Your Heart Go ‘Zing!’ With This Judy Garland Tribute: WATCH

Rufus Wainwright is, not surprisingly, a devotee of one Ms. Judy Garland. And though it’s hard to believe, it’s been 10 years since Wainwright first recreated Judy’s iconic performance at Carnegie Hall. For the uninitiated, Garland’s performance in 1961 has been called “the greatest night in show business history.”

Wainwright is channeling Garland once more at Carnegie Hall on June 16 and 17. Giving the world a little preview of what he can do with Garland’s song book, Wainwright performed his own rendition of one of Judy’s big hits, “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart”, on The Tonight Show earlier this week. And it’s perfection.

Watch Rufus, below.

And you can watch Judy do it, here. The song was of course one of the numbers Garland performed during her Carnegie Hall performance

The post Rufus Wainwright Will Make the Strings of Your Heart Go ‘Zing!’ With This Judy Garland Tribute: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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Dave Franco Is A Gay Frat Bro in ‘Neighbors 2’ – VIDEO

Dave Franco’s character in the upcoming film Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising will be gay and engaged to another man (John Early, formerly of 30 Rock).

Franco’s character, Pete, was for all intents and purposes heterosexual in the original frat-bro comedy which saw him and fellow frat member Teddy (Zac Efron) wage battle against their new neighbors (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) who just wanted a little peace and quiet.

Yahoo! calls the news a “welcome” but “surprising twist for the sequel to the testosterone-fueled comedy.”

Just to be clear, gay male characters and stories by default have testosterone. They can even be (and often are) fueled by it.

More on the backstory from Yahoo!:

Director Nicholas Stoller first started thinking about evolving Pete’s sexuality in a future sequel while making the original Neighbors. He was particularly inspired by the climactic scene that found frat mastermind Teddy insisting that his bromantic sparring partner Pete flee the scene of a crime — a firework-ravaged party house — so that Teddy could take full responsibility. “I love you,” Pete wistfully tells Teddy before darting off.

“Clearly, we’re playing with the homoerotic tension there, and I was like, ‘He should just be gay,’” Stoller told us last month during a visit to his Hollywood edit bay. “Then in this one, it came up again. [Co-writer] Evan Goldberg brought it up, and he said, ‘I think he should be gay, and part of [his arc] should be the proposal.’ It was kind of all of us coming to the same conclusion.”

Said Franco of the “plot twist”:

 “I was so excited…Even though I’m not on screen for a significant amount of time, hopefully it will be very memorable. And of course I was excited to try something new with the character while still maintaining his essence.”

RELATED: Dave Franco Reflects on F**king Himself

Cinema Blend has more on Pete’s evolution:

During the press junket for the original Neighbors, Stoller was asked by a reporter why he had never included a gay character in previous movies. The director admitted that he had no good answer why he hadn’t, and so began to look for a way to do so.

Watch a report from Cinema Blend, below.

The post Dave Franco Is A Gay Frat Bro in ‘Neighbors 2’ – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

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North Carolina Bathroom Cop Training Video Leaks Online! – WATCH

Okay, not really.

But a new video from Funny or Die mocking North Carolina’s anti-LGBT bathroom bill, HB 2, underscores not only the ridiculousness of the law but also its danger.

In the ‘training video,’ bathroom cop Tammy Cox shows you how you can make sure that North Carolina’s public bathrooms remain a “safe and wholesome place.”

RELATED: North Carolina Just Released This Anti-Gay Tourism Commercial – WATCH

First she advises bathroom cops to require to see ID from anyone entering a state-run bathroom: “You are entering a state run pee-pee and poo-poo facility. May I see some form of gender registration or a Xerox copy of your genitals?”

But if they don’t have any ID on them, or they refuse, you’re going to have to take things a step further: “If a citizen is being invasive you’ll want to conduct a visual scan to make sure they’re not harboring any suspicious genitals on their person.”

And remember, no matter what other dangers might require your attention as an officer of the law, you are a bathroom cop and your duty is to protect the bathrooms of North Carolina from unwanted ding-dongs.

Watch, below.

[h/t NCRM]

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HRC Applauds New Campaign to Reduce Tobacco Use Among LGBTQ Young Adults

Post submitted by Marcos Garcia, Senior Manager, Health & Aging Program

This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched a new public education campaign that focuses on the nearly 40 percent of LGBTQ young adults between the ages of 18-24 who have stated that they smoke occasionally or “socially.”

Through targeted social media efforts, in-print advertising across 12 key metropolitan areas and partnering with influencers, the “This Free Life” campaign aims at reducing disease, disability and death related to tobacco use among LGBTQ young adults.

LGBTQ young adults are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as their non-LGBT young adult counterparts. HRC’s “Preventing Substance Abuse among LGBTQ Teens” issue brief found that LGBTQ youth also experiment with alcohol and other drugs occurs at twice the rate of their non-LGBTQ counterparts. Further advancing the need for the FDA’s campaign, HRC’s “Health Disparities among Bisexual People” issue brief noted that bisexual adults have elevated rates of smoking and alcohol use compared to their heterosexual counterparts.

“‘This Free Life’ is designed to challenge the perception that tobacco use is a necessary part of LGBT culture,” said Richard Wolitski, Ph.D., Acting Director, Office for HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy at Department of Health and Human Services. “The campaign shows LGBT young adults they can be the person they want to be and still live tobacco free.”

Additionally, the campaign’s tagline, “Freedom to be, tobacco free,” aims to capitalize on the process of accepting one’s LGBT identity and determination to live their lives freely.

HRC applauds the FDA for leading this campaign. For more information, please visit www.ThisFreeLife.gov

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-applauds-new-campaign-to-reduce-tobacco-use-among-lgbtq-young-adults?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Someone Has Been Perverting Old YA Novels By Giving Them Very Gay New Titles

Someone on the internet has been taking the covers of old YA paperbacks from the ’80s and ’90s and perverting them with weird, gay, and, at times, rather inappropriate new titles.

Related: PHOTOS: Sexy Men Reading Make Us Want To Bury Our Faces In Their Books

Tattoo Minion Eyes On The Head Of My Penis, Please, I Only Fucked Him A Little, and Rescue Us From Coachella, Gay Angel are just a few of the books “for sale” on Paperback Paradise’s official Instagram page, the world’s fictional “#1 used bookstore” located on the “edge of eternity.”

Related: Banned Book Week: 10 Books That Are Too Gay To Read!

Seriously, whoever’s behind this is a genius.

Scroll down to see your favorite YA paperbacks reinvented…

$6 #usedbooks

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Apr 24, 2016 at 5:35pm PDT

$5 #booksforsale

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Apr 20, 2016 at 9:48am PDT

$6 #booksforboys

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Apr 15, 2016 at 12:35pm PDT

$6 #boooks

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Apr 13, 2016 at 12:37pm PDT

$5 #books

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Apr 19, 2016 at 11:39am PDT

$1 #booksforsale

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Apr 6, 2016 at 1:57pm PDT

$7 #usedbooks

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Mar 31, 2016 at 10:38am PDT

$2 #books

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Mar 28, 2016 at 12:21pm PDT

$6 #books

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on Mar 25, 2016 at 8:09am PDT

$2 #books

A photo posted by @paperbackparadise on May 4, 2016 at 10:21am PDT

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Letter To Grace & Frankie From Hillary Rodham Clinton

Via email

Dear Grace & Frankie,

I just wanted to reach out and tell you how much I enjoyed your Netflix series Grace & Frankie.

As you know, I’m running hard to be your next president, and that means a lot of time on the road. Nothing takes the edge off a long day on the campaign trail like a bottle of Zin and a binge watch, and I just finished your Season 1 tonight, or should I say this morning. It’s nearly 3am!

And let me tell you, you both look great.

Grace: You are not 70! Who knew a diet of Martinis and Ativan could work such wonders. As a presidential candidate and a Methodist, I can’t formally endorse your level of abuse, but if I was a functioning alcoholic and drug addict, I’d want to be just like you.

And Frankie: You’re a septuagenarian after my own heart, with your yoga sounds and smudge sticks. They take me back to lazy afternoons with the Co-op girls at Wellesley, where quite a few women were after my own heart. I’ve never felt as centered since, though the Kegals help. Hat tip, Huma.

These coping strategies are just the kind of solutions I’m looking for to keep America great. Our nation faces enormous challenges in the 21st century, but, ladies, nothing like you’ve been through when your husbands left you, for each other!

Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Can you imagine?! Well of course you can, you went through it. Not in the glare of a thousand suns like I did with Bill, but that doesn’t diminish your pain.

And here’s the thing: No, you didn’t like each other all those years that your husbands were business partners and they were secretly, you know, doing it, but in the face of an existential crisis (a double divorce isn’t exactly ISIS, but still), you rose up together to meet the challenge, because that’s when Americans are at their best.

It’s a winning strategy. Well done!

It’s also the kind of storytelling I’ll need to get through the orange shitstorm they call Donald Trump this fall.

Make no mistake: Small Hands is going to unload on me like John Mayer on Taylor Swift’s face.

How did he get this far? The reality TV star turned the Republican primary into a reality competition, eliminating 16 opponents, just like on my old favorite, Survivor, week after week. And the ratings were huuuuuuge (Hey, Bernie).

So when it’s down to just me and him, I’ll need my own show that’s going to captivate America, and decapitate the Donald! (Ha!)

This year, the candidate with the best show wins.

I could turn to our old Arkansas friends Harry and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who did such a great job with Designing Women (I still know Dixie Carter’s “And that is the night that the lights went out in Georgia!” speech by heart). But they haven’t worked in a while and sitcoms are so 90’s, right?

I’m fighting for America’s future, and the future is streaming.

Streaming shows are all about well-rounded characters, not cardboard cut-outs with ridiculous nicknames.

So while Fuckface von Clownstick is racing to the bottom, I’ll be up here (my hand is high in the air), demonstrating strength, a great sense of humor and, yes: stamina! just like Grace & Frankie’s creator did with you.

Which is all a long way of saying: Girls, I need to borrow Marta Kauffman.

She’s written a captivating story, in this wonderful new genre, that you just don’t want to end. Sure, you’re not perfect. Nobody is. But you’re relatable.

I need to be relatable.

Remember when I cried in public and won New Hampshire? I need more of that, plus the strength and stamina part.

Marta has already called me a “powerhouse human being and a very loving person,” which is to say, just because I’m up here (my hand is in the air again) doesn’t mean I can’t kick this guy in the balls so hard that Melania farts.

Marta can work out the details.

Girls, I turn the big 7-0 next year, making me the oldest woman president ever. Plus, I’m running against someone who’s stupid unpredictable and probably downright dangerous. I need all the help I can get.

Can I deal you in?

Also: Did you know you’re Miley Cyrus’ favorite show? Check!

Best,

H

P.S. Just found out your Season 2 premieres Friday on Netflix, can’t wait! (Huma, pls confirm maximum allowable contributions.)

[If you are not already aware, or if you’re without a sense of humor, the preceding letter is satire.]

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Barry Diller, Krispy Kreme, Charlie Puth, First Class, Adam Lambert, Donald Trump, Friday Flesh: NEWS

PRESUMPTIVE GOP NOMINEE. Barry Diller says Donald Trump is evil: “Because anybody who attacks people in the manner that he attacks people — anybody who would do that, anybody who — if I have a disagreement with you or I think you don’t like me, I don’t have the right to find out the vulnerability that I think could make you miserable and that is just completely unfair. I don’t have that right. He has that as a natural state. I call that evil. That is evil.”

RNC CHAIR REINCE PRIEBUS. A third-party bid for president would hand election to Hillary: “‘The amount of time, energy, money, and also its a guarantee to elect Hillary Clinton. When people start to take a breath and let some of this calm down, people will understand not to let differences in choices’ jeopardize the party, Priebus said at a Politico breakfast event.”

KATRINA PIERSON. Trump surrogate says Paul Ryan isn’t fit to be House Speaker if he doesn’t support Trump:

MEANWHILE IN ALASKA. Sarah Palin spits out some word salad about Donald Trump.

ICELAND. Transgender man gives birth to baby girl: “I was well into the consultation and was living as a man but was about one or two months away from starting the hormone treatment when I found out I was pregnant. It would probably have been less likely for me to fall pregnant after that, but not impossible, so everybody’s saying I was meant to have her!”

MICHIGAN. Man who fled gay bashing in Mexico seeks relief from deportation: “About two weeks ago, Ramirez-Arano paid the $12,000 bond he needed to be released from the immigration detention center where he’d been held since February. WICIR helped raise that money. ‘It means a lot because there’s a lot of people that have no support at all,’ he said, with Adonis Flores translating. ‘It really was a miracle. Without any direct family here in the country, how was I going to be able to pay for that bond?’ He’s now back at his home in Ann Arbor, where he’s lived for nearly 12 years since illegally crossing the border from Mexico.”

NYC. Body found on Brooklyn beach had feet submerged in concrete block: “‘Cement shoes’ as they are known, have long been associated with organised crime and the Mafia, but mostly in fictional depictions. Several crime writers have said they believe this to be the first time they have actually been used in a murder.The victim, identified as Peter Martinez, 28, was a known gang member.”

SUMMER BODY ALERT. Krispy Kreme is about to release a Nutella-filled donut. They released an “accidental” memo about it.

Krispy Kreme ‘accidentally’ sent an internal memo to all their loyal customers revealing a Nutella Doughnut 😄🍩 pic.twitter.com/k4rBvc937h

— Superfly Marketing (@hiwearesuperfly) May 5, 2016

ILLINOIS. Northern Illinois University will revoke Dennis Hastert’s honorary degree: “Mr. Hastert’s recent felony conviction for fraudulent banking transactions, as well as the testimony about his participation in sexual abuse of children offered during sentencing proceedings, constitute incontrovertible evidence that he has acted in ways that do not reflect the values of the institution.”

CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS. Charlie Puth is thirsty:

LOS ANGELES. City should be more prepared than ever for major quake, experts say: “Southern California’s section of the San Andreas fault is “locked, loaded and ready to roll,” a leading earthquake scientist said Wednesday at the National Earthquake Conference in Long Beach. The San Andreas fault is one of California’s most dangerous, and is the state’s longest fault. Yet for Southern California, the last big earthquake to strike the southern San Andreas was in 1857, when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake ruptured an astonishing 185 miles between Monterey County and the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles.”

SPOKESFACES. Adam Lambert is the new face of Macy’s American Icon campaign:

AIR RAGE. First-class cabins piss off people in coach, says obvious study: “Researchers report that the simple presence of a first-class cabin on an airplane is correlated with an almost fourfold increase in the frequency of “air rage” incidents in economy class.  And when economy-class passengers are forced to pass through the luxurious first-class area on their way to the cramped economy seats, the rate of air rage incidents is more than seven times higher than if there are no first-class seats at all.”

FRIDAY FLESH. Jacob Sumana.

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