Dharun Ravi's Conviction Overturned in Tyler Clementi Case

Ravi’s prosecution under a bias-crime law that has now changed tainted the rest of his trial, an appeals court says. The charge involved webcam spying on Clementi, his gay roommate, who killed himself shortly afterward.

www.advocate.com/crime/2016/9/09/dharun-ravis-conviction-overturned-tyler-clementi-case

Last Words With Drag Race's Ginger Minj

The RuPaul’s All Stars Drag Race star discussed her elimination, Hillary Clinton, Phi Phi O’Hara, and the dangers of drag.

www.advocate.com/television/2016/9/09/last-words-drag-races-ginger-minj

Donald Trump Wants To Turn The Religious Right Loose On You

Religious right leaders have been quick to embrace Donald Trump, despite his violation of every moral principle they purport to love. Now Trump has returned the favor. In a speech today at the Values Voter Summit , a jamboree for the religious right, Trump made it clear that he will give antigay evangelicals carte blanche if he’s elected president.

Trump started at a low point and went down from there. Trump began by expressing his appreciation for one of the right’s premier homophobes, Tony Perkins. “I wanted to thank our host, Tony Perkins, for his years of leadership,” Trump cooed about the head of the Family Research Council, a hate group. As if that wasn’t enough, Trump also did a shout out to another homophobe (and fellow Putin lover) Franklin Graham.

Then Trump promised the religious right basically anything it wanted, in his signature syntax. “A Trump administration, our Christian heritage will be cherished, protected, defended, like you’ve never seen before,” he told the cheering crowd. “Believe me. I believe it. And you believe it. And you know it. You know it.”

That includes some important sops to the religious right. One is the appointment of judges who will uphold antigay bigotry under the guise of religious liberty.

“I have pledged to appoint judges who uphold the Constitution, to protect your religious liberty, and apply the law as written,” Trump said. “We reject judges who rewrite the Constitution to impose their own person views on 300 million-plus Americans.”

The other issue that will cheer antigay forces is Trump’s pledge to allow religious institutions to get involved in politics without losing their tax-exempt status. That’s a policy that is rarely enforced (obviously, given his audience), but that could have an outsized impact on local ballot initiatives.

Of course, the thudding irony is that Trump’s familiarity with matters of faith is about as deep as his foreign policy expertise. But that didn’t matter to his audience, who enthusiastically embraced his muddled ideas.

Just as a reminder of the contrast between the two parties: tomorrow Tim Kaine will be speaking at the Human Rights Campaign’s national dinner. 

In July , Donald Trump promised to protect the LGBTQ community from “the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideologies.” Maybe. But he clearly won’t do anything to protect us from hateful domestic ones.

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Kenny Chesney, Louie Gohmert, Miss America, Gay Lobby, Pietro Boselli, Phyllis Schlafly: HOT LINKS

BRIDGET JONES. Renee Zellweger says rumors about ex-husband Kenny Chesney being gay made her sad: “It made me sad that somehow people were using that as a way to be cruel and calling someone gay as a pejorative, which has fateful consequences.”

WE’RE ALL A LITTLE LOONEY. Southwest flight attendant slays with Looney Toones impressions as plane prepares for touchdown.

ZEN MASTER. Pietro Boselli gets motivational poster-y on Instagram: “Against the current is the way forward.”

DUMPSTER FIRE. Media says media holds Hillary Clinton to a higher standard than Donald Trump. 

WOOF. Bradley Cooper sports a full and bushy beard and side-pec while out for a run.

FOX NEWS. Commentator Todd Starnes tells Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit that Republicans need to support anti-gay hate groups: “In recent days we have seen Christian Americans hauled into court and thrown into jail, bullied and slandered by those who preached tolerance and diversity. It has become open season on gun-toting Bible-clingers in America.”

CONSPIRACY THEORIES. Anti-gay Rep. Louie Gohmert says Hillary Clinton is “mentally impaired”: “You don’t make fun of people who are impaired, have special needs. And whether you like it or not, Hillary Clinton has made clear she is mentally impaired,” Gohmert said. “I get the impression that in law school and along the way she’s been very, very smart but i don’t know maybe it was the concussion, the fall back that she did. Or who knows, they won’t tell us what’s really going on with her.”

MEXICO. Marriage equality has generated unprecedented backlash south of the border: “A coalition called the National Front for the Family is organizing a protest Saturday in cities throughout the country, including one in Guadalajara that organizers claim could attract as many as 100,000 people. A follow-up march is planned to converge in Mexico City on Sept. 24. In protests held last weekend, including one in Mexico City under the banner of “For Life and Family,” organizers delivered a petition reportedly signed by 300,000 people calling on Congress to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.”

THERE SHE IS. Missouri woman becomes first openly lesbian contestant in the Miss America pageant: “In this way, the 23-year-old from Missouri is being heralded as a trailblazer in the constellation of pageants, upending the notion that contestants are exploited in an old-fashioned, heterosexual-dominated forum that dictates how women should look, and what, or how little, they should wear.”

COME ON, PRETTY MAMA. Aruba allows same-sex couples to register unions: “Parliament voted 11-5 with four abstentions late Thursday to amend civil code regulations related to marriage to cover same-sex unions. Those articles include such things as the right to a spouse’s pension in case of death or to make emergency medical decisions. Supporters say the new law falls short of their goal of legal same-sex marriage but is still a victory.”

PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY. Trump praises anti-gay right-wing activist, will attend her funeral: “Phyllis fought very hard to the very end for a free and prosperous America. She understood that to be truly united as a country, we can’t simply turn to government or politicians. Phyllis endorsed me at a time when it was not necessarily the thing to do, even the popular thing to do, and I will never forget that that had a great, great impact,” Trump added. “I look forward to being with her family tomorrow.”

CATHOLICS. Pope Benedict says his biggest accomplishment as Pontiff was breaking up the so-called ‘gay lobby’ within the Vatican: “Indeed a group was pointed out to me, in the meantime we have dissolved it.”

FRIDAY FLESH. Model Karl Henriksen.

The post Kenny Chesney, Louie Gohmert, Miss America, Gay Lobby, Pietro Boselli, Phyllis Schlafly: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad.

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60 Seconds of Scandalous Southern Decadence (Video)

www.advocate.com/video/2016/9/09/60-seconds-scandalous-southern-decadence-video

LGBT Tweeters Tear Apart Trump, Lauer, Johnson's Aleppo Gaffe

LGBT wits on Twitter had much to say about this interesting week in politics.

www.advocate.com/comedy/2016/9/09/lgbt-tweeters-tear-apart-trump-lauer-johnsons-aleppo-gaffe

Chelsea Manning Begins Hunger Strike to Protest Prison Treatment

Chelsea Manning has reached a breaking point with what she calls bullying and mistreatment at the hands of military officials, and has started to refuse food. 

www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/9/09/chelsea-manning-begins-hunger-strike-protest-prison-treatment