The Funk and Flash of David Vassalli (Photos)

www.advocate.com/photography/2017/1/26/funk-and-flash-david-vassalli-photos

This Week in The Resistance: The Fight For Women

The future is female.

www.advocate.com/politics/2017/1/26/week-resistance-fight-women

「俺を襲うなよ」発言はセクハラ　国家公務員のルール改定
国家公務員の就労ルールを定める人事院は１月から、規則の運用通知を改め、「性的指向と性自認」をからかったり、いじめの対象にしたりする言動をセクハラと明記した。

もっと見る: ライフスタイル, Lifestyle, Lgbt, Japan-Lgbt, 国家公務員, セクハラ, 性自認 セクハラ, 性的指向, Japan News

www.huffingtonpost.jp/2017/01/25/sexual-harrasment_n_14409228.html

Mad Driver in Australian Road Rampage Described As Raging Homophobe (Video)

Dimitrious “Jimmy” Gargasoulas, 26, stabbed his gay brother in a fight over his sexuality, and hours later crashed his car into a crowd, killing 5 people including two children. Fifteen were injured.

www.advocate.com/world/2017/1/25/mad-driver-australian-road-rampage-described-raging-homophobe-video

It’s happening: Major LGBT march on Washington set for D.C. Pride weekend

Drawing inspiration from last weekend’s Women’s March on Washington, a gay activist in New York City has announced plans for the National Pride March, a “mass” LGBT protest at the nation’s capital on June 11.

David Bruinooge, 42, of Brooklyn, N.Y., announced the plan on Facebook and created an event page for those interested in keeping up with the progress of the protest.

“We urge all supporters, friends, and family to descend on DC for the Pride 2017 weekend (June 8-11th) to make sure our voices are heard,” part of the post reads.

The march will coincide with Capital Pride, D.C.’s annual pride celebration, and organizers hope to draw big numbers to send a clear message to Washington’s powered elite that LGBTQ rights are not to be threatened.

Related: Press Secretary has no idea whether Trump will roll back LGBT protections

“I was watching the events [of the Women’s March] unfold on TV and I was very proud and inspired by all the women, the strong women in our country who were kind of taking this to the street and getting their voices heard,” Bruinooge told the Washington Blade. “And in the back of my mind as an openly gay man I thought the gay community should be doing something like this to follow up on the momentum,” he added.

Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, has been in touch with Bruinooge and is expected to work to bring the march into the fold of official Capital Pride events.

Related: Report: Trump closes down White House Office of AIDS Policy

Bos has already made one smart call, urging Bruinooge to change the name of the event, originally “Gays on the Mall,” to the inclusive “National Pride March.”

“This will be an ALL-inclusive and peaceful event,” reads the announcement on Facebook.

We will be following this story as it develops, and if the fates allow, you’ll know where to find us on June 11.

The last major LGBT protest in D.C. was the National Equality March in 2009, which called for full equality for LGBTQ people in all matters of civil law, in all 50 states. At that time, only five states had legal same-sex marriage. It drew participants in the hundreds of thousands.

www.queerty.com/happening-major-lgbt-march-washington-set-d-c-pride-weekend-20170125?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Will Trump Use Bogus Voter Fraud Investigation to Push Voter Suppression Nationwide?

Donald Trump will use his bogus voter fraud claims to launch an investigation that will then be used to justify voter suppression, say political leaders and journalists, including John Bussey from the Wall Street Journal and Ari Berman of The Nation.

1. Trump’s lie that millions voted illegally in 2016 is prelude to massive voter suppression by GOP t.co/Y7TUmy7zMX pic.twitter.com/ogp7TmJ9RX

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 24, 2017

The great political crisis we face is not voter fraud, which barely exists. It’s voter suppression and the denial of voting rights.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 25, 2017

FOX News anchor Shep Smith made note of it in a newscast today calling out Trump’s blatant lies about fraud:

“John Bussey from the Wall Street Journal suggests that the big picture is here, start an investigation, find some incidents here, there, and yon of voter fraud, get people whipped up, and then put in rules to suppress the vote across the country, a pattern that we’ve seen in state after state over the past four or five years.”

Watch:

And check out the interview Trump did with ABC News anchor David Muir, in which Muir questions Trump about his claims, and the Pew report that Trump holds up as evidence.

When presented with the fact that the Pew report Trump is holding up so far has been “debunked,” that Muir called its author who told him that “they found no evidence of voter fraud,” Trump then attacks the author in an attempt to discredit:

“Really? Then why did he write the report? Excuse me? Then why did he write the report? According to Pew report, then he’s — then he’s groveling again. You know, I always talk about the reporters, they grovel when they wanna write something that you wanna hear but not necessarily millions of people wanna hear or have to hear.”

President Trump to launch investigation into alleged voter fraud: “I want the voting process to be legitimate.” t.co/zjjJ6vMqXU pic.twitter.com/Spb3a9ScQf

— ABC News (@ABC) January 25, 2017

Trump then says they’ll be pursuing an investigation into people registered who are “dead, illegal and two states, and some cases maybe three states.”

Incidentally, both Trump’s senior advisor Steve Bannon and his daughter Tiffany Trump are registered to vote in two states.

The post Will Trump Use Bogus Voter Fraud Investigation to Push Voter Suppression Nationwide? appeared first on Towleroad.

Will Trump Use Bogus Voter Fraud Investigation to Push Voter Suppression Nationwide?

Why Is Peter Thiel a Citizen of New Zealand?

The gay billionnaire and Trump supporter may consider the island nation an escape hatch in case of political or natural disasters.

www.advocate.com/people/2017/1/25/why-peter-thiel-citizen-new-zealand

Being president is really messing up Donald Trump’s TV watching

This just in: Donald Trump is adapting quickly to being POTUS. For the most part, things are going OK, though he’s not happy about how how much the job is cutting into his TV time. Also, he would like to take a vacation soon.

The New York Times got a behind-the-scenes peek at Mr. Trump’s daily life in the White House and it’s about as fascinatingly boring as you might imagine.

Related: Donald Trump just issued a press release boasting about how great he is; internet begs to differ

Here are a few facts we learned about Donald’s day-to-day routine:

• He wakes up every morning before 6 a.m. and watches TV for several hours. First, he watches it upstairs in the residence, which he describes as “very elegant,” then he goes downstairs to the dining room in the West Wing and continues watching it there there while he reads the paper.
• His morning TV-watching continues for approximately three hours, until 9 a.m. when his daily briefings start, which the Times says is a challenge because it “significantly curtails his television time.”
• In the evenings, he retreats back upstairs to the residence where he continues watching more television late into the night while munching on Lay’s potato chips and tweeting from an unsecured Android phone.
• He sleeps in the White House master bedroom, which he praises for its “pure elegance and room size,” as well as its history. “There’s something very special when you know that Abraham Lincoln slept there,” he says.

Related: Activists climb crane near The White House to deliver not-so-subtle message to the masses

Other facts glimpsed from the article include:

• Donald Trump doesn’t read books.
• He is impressed by the scale of the White House, which is the only property he has ever slept in that is more famous than his own.
• He and his staffers are so in awe of the Oval Office that sometimes they just stare at it. “I’ve had people come in; they walk in here and they just want to stare for a long period of time,” he says.
• He claims the White House phones are “the most beautiful phones I’ve ever used in my life.” They are also “the world’s most secure,” so he doesn’t have to worry about anyone listening in on his calls, which apparently he finds very reassuring.
• He doesn’t mind spending all day and night inside the building because, as the Times puts it, “Mr. Trump can go for days without breathing in fresh outside air.”

As for his family, Donald says Melania and Barron are back in New York recouping from last weekend’s exhausting inaugural festivities. They’ll return to Washington, D.C. for the weekend. The family is already planning a vacation. They’re eyeing a getaway to Mar-a-Lago the first weekend in February, just two weeks after Donald started his new job.

Remember when he said Hillary Clinton didn’t have the “stamina” to be President?

Related: Trapped in a glided cage: Does Melania Trump deserve our sympathy?

www.queerty.com/president-really-messing-donald-trumps-tv-watching-20170125?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Student Director Rips School District’s Cowardly Parents After Play is Cancelled Over Gay Character: VIDEO

A high school in Fresno, California has denied claims that a student production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit was cancelled because the play features a gay character.

The play includes a lesbian postal clerk who turns a woman against her husband.

According to the Fresno Bee, Buchanan High student Jared Serpa (right), who directed the play, has claimed that school administrators shut down the production because an audience member said it could force parents to have uncomfortable conversations with their children.

Plays with gay characters isn’t the only thing that makes Clovis Unified uncomfortable…#bringbacknoexitt.co/tuioOM5XUZ

— The Fresnan (@thefresnan) January 24, 2017

This obviously has to do with CUSD catering to homophobic ideology and rhetoric. We realize Buchanan’s a good school. Please dig deeper

— Nicholas Crespin (@CrespinNicholas) January 21, 2017

In a video posted on Twitter, Serpa said:

“No. That just shows how cowardice the parent is for not talking to their child about reality and telling them that the world that they live in isn’t perfectly heterosexual like they want it to be.

“Talk with your children about reality. Don’t put them in this bubble and darkness…because you couldn’t find the courage to talk to your own child about the fact that people are different.”

Watch:

a main point… pic.twitter.com/8Eb7Jf5jrC

— Jared Serpa (@shortclayton) January 21, 2017

A petition on Change.org states:

“The reason we were given for the cancellation was something along the lines of there’s a lesbian character and some parents may have to explain to their child that some women love other women. That our audience doesn’t approve of homosexuality, and we should be playing to our audience.”

However, Clovis Unified School District spokesperson Kelly Avants said that the production was pulled because of sexual themes and other mature content.

RELATED: High School Principal Asks Transgender Girl: ‘Do You Have Your Boy Genitals?’ – VIDEO

“We own the fact that it should never have even been approved as a senior production in the first place. Being a K-12 institution, the expectation of our drama programs is that every production they do is to be age-appropriate content,” said Avants.

She added that the district has “done multiple other shows at the high school level that includes lesbian, gay or questioning characters. We would never think that that was reason to cancel a play, and certainly not after the play’s already going.”

The petition has been signed by close to 3,500 people.

A crowdfunding campaign to allow students to host the play off campus has raised more than $1,000.

The Fresno Art Museum has offered to stage the play in its Bonner Auditorium. However, no decision has yet been made on that offer.

(Jared Serpa image via Twitter)

The post Student Director Rips School District’s Cowardly Parents After Play is Cancelled Over Gay Character: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Student Director Rips School District’s Cowardly Parents After Play is Cancelled Over Gay Character: VIDEO