Every Republican in the Texas Senate Voted to Attack Marriage Equality
The GOP-backed bill would allow county clerks like Kim Davis to deny marriage licenses to gay couples.
www.advocate.com/politics/2017/4/12/every-republican-texas-senate-voted-attack-marriage-equality
Easter at the White House has been ruined thanks to Melania Trump. Sad!
For nearly 140 years, the annual Easter Egg Roll has been the biggest single public event held at the White House… Until now.
Autodraw, Melania Trump, Car Seat Headrest, Janet Jackson, Shrimp, Steve Bannon, Cher, United: HOT LINKS
LIBEL. Daily Mail settles with Melania Trump for $3 million: “President Donald Trump’s wife, 46, had sued the publisher of the Daily Mail in Britain and also filed a $150 million (120 million pound) lawsuit against it in New York, claiming the article had cost her millions of dollars in potential business. A person familiar with the situation said the settlement was worth less than $3 million, including legal costs and damages.”
PRENUP DREAMS. Janet Jackson got her money and got out.
STEVE BANNON. Is he on the chopping block? “I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump said. “I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve. I’m my own strategist and it wasn’t like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary.”
JEFF SESSIONS. Congress will fund Trump’s Mexican wall: “I know he’s going to battle for that, and I believe he will get funding for the wall. I can’t imagine Congress to deny him that.”
AG Sessions: “The most important thing for us is to send a message to the world that the border is not open.” #Hannity pic.twitter.com/gphY4gtyOJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 12, 2017
RACHEL MADDOW. A “Russian connection” around every corner: “The Intercept conducted a quantitative study of all 28 TRMS episodes in the six-week period between February 20 and March 31. Russia-focused segments accounted for 53 percent of these broadcasts. That figure is conservative, excluding segments where Russia was discussed, but was not the overarching topic.”
CHER. Causing a commotion dining out in West Hollywood.
GERMANY. Country will overturn convictions of gay men prosecuted after war: “Gay men convicted between 1949 and 1969 who are still alive are expected to be given financial compensation for the suffering they endured under the legislation, known as Paragraph 175, which forbade sexual relations between men. The law was first introduced in the 19th century, before being made stricter in 1935 during the Nazi era and subsequently kept on the statute books by West Germany, whose authorities avidly implemented it.”
THE FRIENDLY SKIES? The 19 best new United Airlines slogans created by Twitter.
OSCAR MUNOZ. United CEO won’t resign. “An online petition calling for Munoz to step down as CEO had more than 45,000 signatures on Wednesday morning, but he told ABC that he had no plans to resign over the incident.”
WATCH: EXCLUSIVE: “This will never happen again on a United Airlines flight.” One-on-one with United CEO: t.co/O8mEgtlCia pic.twitter.com/TUPchOCNFU
— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 12, 2017
BROOKLYN. Teens yell anti-gay slurs and throw brick at gay couple. “They shoved us and started spitting at us calling us faggot. That’s when one of them picked up the brick.”
SYNALPHEUS PINKFLOYDII. Loud shrimp species named for Pink Floyd.
COVER OF THE DAY. Car Seat Headrest covers The Smiths’ “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”.
AUTODRAW. Google wants to help you draw.
HUMP DAY HOTTIE. Jazz Brooklyn.
The post Autodraw, Melania Trump, Car Seat Headrest, Janet Jackson, Shrimp, Steve Bannon, Cher, United: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad.
HRC Calls on AL Senate to Reject Bill Allowing Anti-LGBTQ Discrimination by Child Welfare Agencies
HRC called out the Alabama Senate Health Committee for advancing the anti-LGBTQ bill H.B. 24, and renewed its call for the full Senate to reject this proposal when it comes up for a floor vote. The bill was voted out of committee by a vote of 7-1.
The bill, deceptively titled the “Child Placing Agency Inclusion Act,” would enshrine discrimination into Alabama law by allowing state-licensed adoption and foster care agencies to reject qualified prospective LGBTQ adoptive or foster parents based on the agency’s religious beliefs. The measure has already passed the Alabama House.
“H.B. 24 stigmatizes LGBTQ people while harming the children in Alabama’s child welfare system,” said Eva Kendrick, HRC Alabama state director. “This bill is a solution in search of a problem, and the consequences it may bring — such as political and economic fallout similar to what we’ve witnessed in North Carolina after it passed anti-LGBTQ legislation — are potentially disastrous for the state. Alabama has a chance at a fresh start after more than a year of political scandals; it should not create a new, unnecessary scandal by targeting LGBTQ people. HRC calls on the full Senate to reject this proposal.”
H.B. 24 would allow state-licensed child-placing agencies to disregard the best interest of children, and turn away qualified Alabamians seeking to care for a child in need — including LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents, married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other parents to whom the agency has a religious objection. The measure would even allow agencies to refuse to place foster children with members of their own extended families — a practice often considered to be in the best interest of the child. A qualified, loving LGBTQ grandparent, for example, could be deemed unsuitable under the proposed law.
Research consistently shows that LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in the foster care system, as many have been rejected by their families of origin because of their LGBTQ status, and are especially vulnerable to discrimination and mistreatment while in foster care. H.B. 24 would only exacerbate the challenges faced by LGBTQ young people.
In 2014, HRC launched Project One America, an initiative geared towards advancing social, institutional and legal equality in Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi. HRC Alabama continues to work to advance equality for LGBTQ Alabamians who have no statewide protections in housing, workplace, or public accommodations; or legal state recognition for their relationships and families. Through HRC Alabama, we are working toward a future of fairness every day—changing hearts, minds and laws toward achieving full equality.
We Have Many Enemies. Janelle Monáe Is Not One of Them
Some objected to Moonlight star’s proposal of a sex strike for women’s rights, chiding it as heteronormative. Writer Erica M. Pope heartily disagrees, saying Monáe should be commended for using her platform to criticize the patriarchy.
www.advocate.com/commentary/2017/4/12/we-have-many-enemies-janelle-monae-not-one-them
Painful: Interviewer slaps the sunglasses right off Nicole Richie’s face
It happened right after she answered the question: “What’s the greatest news you’ve heard all week?”
This New Cocktail Bar Will Donate 100% of Profits to Causes Under Attack by Trump
An army of bartending heavyweights shakes up a revolution at New York City’s Coup Benjamin Sklar Sother Teague, Maxwell Green, and Ravi DeRossi of Coup in NYC. President Donald Trump is famously known to shun booze altogether, but that’s not the only reason you won’t see 45 having a drink at this New York City cocktail…
The post This New Cocktail Bar Will Donate 100% of Profits to Causes Under Attack by Trump appeared first on Towleroad.
This New Cocktail Bar Will Donate 100% of Profits to Causes Under Attack by Trump
Orlando Bloom breaks his silence on THOSE paddleboarding pictures
“Note to self: You’re never free.”
Oklahoma LGBT Kids Left Traumatized After State Capitol Staff Warned ‘Cross-Dressers Are In the Building’
Oklahoma students are reported to have been traumatized during a visit to the state House of Representatives after the Page Program Supervisor sent an email to staff warning of “cross-dressers in the building.”
The Page Program is for high school students who are interested in serving in the House to help elected officials.
Oklahomans for Equality, Planned Parenthood and a number of HIV/AIDS advocacy groups were visiting the Capitol as part of an education advocacy day.
Prior to the visit, Page Program Supervisor Karen Kipgen sent a Capitol-wide email reading:
“As per [House Speaker Charles McCall’s] office, Pages are being allowed access to the ladies restroom across from 401, for today. Again, there are cross-dressers in the building.”
Oklahoma House staffer Karen Kipgen emails warning about ‘cross-dressers’ in Capitol t.co/W858nIw5pp
— SM Kennison (@skennison) April 10, 2017
Speaking to Raw Story, Toby Jenkins, Oklahomans for Equality’s executive director said “I’m with about 70 traumatized students right now.”
He went on to explain that he and the students went to McCall’s office with questions about the email. McCall refused to meet with them but claimed that the email did not come from the Speaker’s office and that they’re investigating its origin.
The Gayly Oklahoman reports that Jenkins said that the group had “several transgender and gender non-conforming kids” who had been “using the bathrooms they are comfortable with.”
#OklahomaHouse it’s because of people like #KarenKipgen that people in the LGBTQIA community R fearful…#CharlesMcCall #KarenNeedsToResign
— JinxieB73 (@JinxieB73) April 11, 2017
He told the students to continue using the bathroom they’d been using all day despite Kipgen’s email.
“These are public bathrooms, paid for by public tax dollars,” he said. “We won’t leave today without understanding this is the people’s house. This is the kind of thing these kids deal with in the halls of school not the halls of the Capitol.”
It was reported that several representatives “literally ran” when they saw the group of students coming.
Referring to Oklahoma Republican state Rep. Ralph Shorty, who was caught with an underage boy, Jenkins suggested: “They shouldn’t be afraid of us. We should be afraid of them.”
@GovMaryFallin
I wonder if a warning was issued when this guy was in the building?
Karen Kipgen needs to go, NOW. #OKleg pic.twitter.com/hmgvjzLioj— Glenister (@Glorious_Din) April 10, 2017
Raw Story continues:
Raw Story reached out to the Speaker’s office and a spokesman echoed Jenkins’ comment that the email did not come from the Speaker’s office, despite Kipgen’s claim it was his directive. According to him, Kipgen came to the Speaker’s office to ask if the Pages could use the restroom across from 401 and the Speaker’s office allowed that. There was no information about the LGBT and HIV/AIDS advocacy groups in her request.
Following the student visit, people started posting comments to a meme on Kipgen’s Facebook page .
The meme read:
“I don’t care if you’re black, white, straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, rich or poor. If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Simple as that.”
“So what is it those LGBT students did that wasn’t nice to you?” one person asked.
Another wrote:
“My daughter took pride in wearing a very nice, professional suit today to meet with everyone at the Capitol. Your words, reducing her down to a cross-dresser, are appalling. I demand you apologize to my kid.”
Kipgen has since deleted her Facebook account and has refused to comment.
(Image via Wikipedia)
The post Oklahoma LGBT Kids Left Traumatized After State Capitol Staff Warned ‘Cross-Dressers Are In the Building’ appeared first on Towleroad.
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