2019 Oscar Nominees Speak to The Advocate About Telling LGBTQ Stories
www.advocate.com/film/2019/2/21/2019-oscar-nominees-speak-advocate-about-telling-lgbtq-stories
Daily Archives: February 21, 2019
Jussie Smollett’s texts read aloud in court and they look very bad
Jussie Smollett’s texts read aloud in court and they look very bad
Smoking gun?
Wendy Williams, Jason Reitman, Giant Tortoise Believed Extinct For A 100 Years Found, Jussie Smollett’s Begun Losing Parts, and More: HOT LINKS
Wendy Williams, Jason Reitman, Giant Tortoise Believed Extinct For A 100 Years Found, Jussie Smollett’s Begun Losing Parts, and More: HOT LINKS
THE BACKLASH HAS BEGUN The revelations that Jussie Smollet orchestrated the “hate crime” perpetrated by him is having more than a legal backlash. Studios and projects are dropping him left and right including TNT’s upcoming episode of Drop The Mic featuring Smollett.
YOUR DAILY DOSE OF ART Jurassic Aftermath by Erik Shoemaker.
DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK Wendy Williams is coming back! The superstar TV Host has been AWOL for two months over rumored health woes but as a statement from her producers masterfully puts it: “Wendy Williams is an incredible talent with the most unique voice in daytime… We can’t wait to welcome her back to her iconic purple chair on the set of her show … We so appreciate all of the guest hosts and panelists who filled in for Wendy during this time. These people are, and always will be, true family to the show. And we want to thank all of the loyal and supportive fans who have been with us for 10 years now.”
WHO YOU GONNA CALL? Original Ghostbuster director Ivan Reitman’s son apparently. “The last thing that Sony wants with the upcoming Ghostbusters sequel, slated for summer 2020, is to repeat what happened with Paul Feig’s doomed 2016 reboot. Not saying anything about the quality of the film, as each film fan is entitled to their own opinion (unjustly biased or not), but Sony’s last attempt to bring the Ghostbusters franchise back was met with some serious backlash from a vocal group of fans. And apparently, the studio learned a lesson from that, and has hired the 1984 film’s original director’s son Jason Reitman to bring the franchise back to a place where fans will be happy,” said Celebitchy.
NO MORE DICK DC Comics finally did it. They’ve modernized the original Batman sidekick Robin’s (now Nightwing) secret identity from Dick Grayson to (wait for it)… Ric… sigh. Hopefully, like most things comic book related, this will last one reboot cycle, via Comic Book Resources (CBR).
NATIVISM IN THE Unite States started long before Trump. The Nation has a great essay, “How the Failure of Our Foreign Wars Fueled Nativist Fanaticism,” in the March 9th issue. “For nearly two centuries, US politicians have channeled extremism outward. But the frontier is gone, the empire is faltering, and the chickens are coming home to roost.”
“Every president from Reagan onward has raised the ethical stakes, insisting that what they called ‘internationalism’—be it murderous wars in impoverished Third World countries or corporate trade treaties—was a moral necessity. But the disillusionment generated by Bush’s war on terrorism, the velocity with which events revealed the whole operation to be a sham, was extraordinary—as was the dissonance. The war, especially that portion of it allegedly intended to bring democracy to Iraq, was said to mark a new era of national purpose. And yet a coordinated campaign of deceit, carried out with the complicity of reporters working for the country’s most respected news sources, had to be waged to ensure public support. The toppling of Saddam Hussein was predicted to be a ‘cakewalk,’ and US soldiers, according to Vice President Dick Cheney, would ‘be greeted as liberators.’ But Cheney still insisted that he needed to put in place a global network of secret torture sites in order to win the War on Terror,” the essay begins. Read the full article here.
MORMONS SWILL STAND BY and allow Utah to ban gay conversion therapy. Please give us a moment to reassess the Church of Latter Day Saints.
“The Mormon church won’t stand in the way of a proposal to ban gay conversion therapy for minors in its home base of Utah, leaders said Wednesday, a position that advocates heralded as a milestone in the conservative state. ‘We are grateful that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognizes the harms of conversion therapy and has denounced the practice,’ Troy Williams with the group Equality Utah said,” according to NBC.
EVOLUTION WINS A species of giant tortoise believed to have been extinct for more than 100 years has been discovered on the Galapagos island of Fernandina, according to Ecuador’s government reports CNN.
THOSE EYES Happy Thursday!
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Celebrating Black-led Prides This Black History Month
Celebrating Black-led Prides This Black History Month
Melba Mathurin knew it was important that LGBTQ Virgin Islanders were safe to celebrate who they are. That’s why she co-founded Liberty Place, the first LGBTQ organization in the Virgin Islands, in 2011.
“It took passion, commitment, education, and collaboration to effect a cultural shift in support of LGBTQ rights in the Virgin Island community, but with patience and determination, it can be done,” said Mathurin, the senior manager of HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools program.
In 2015, Mathurin was among those who organized the first Virgin Islands Pride.
“When I organized the first celebration of Pride in St. Croix, it was groundbreaking. Nothing like this had ever been done, so we were treading on new territory and wanted to ensure everyone’s safety,” she said. “We had an incredible turnout with lots of allies. I will always recall how happy and celebratory everyone was. People commented on how free and supported they felt.”
For Black History Month, Mathurin is emphasizing the importance of Afro-Caribbean LGBTQ people and Affinity Prides, which celebrate the visibility of underrepresented communities. Affinity Prides are especially important because they lift up LGBTQ people who live at the intersection of marginalized communities and often face harassment, discrimination, stigma and violence just because of who they are.
“Historically Afro-Caribbean LGBTQ persons have always had integral roles in their community… But their contributions are hidden because they cannot bring their whole self or full expression to the table,” Mathurin said. “As we celebrate Black History Month, it is essential for me to acknowledge LGBTQ Afro-Caribbean persons who have transformed their communities and challenged the status quo.”
These challenges aren’t lost on HRC Global Innovator Hazel Mokgathi, a transgender woman who worked with the African Women for Sexual Health and Gender Justice to organize the first-ever transgender Pride event in Botswana in October 2018. To Mokgathi, trans pride in Botswana meant reclaiming being Black and transgender.
“I think in general our trans Pride here had an essence of deep reclamation of Blackness with queerness and Blackness with transness,” Mokgathi said. “We are an African country with majority African descent, but for the first time on that day of the Pride, what it meant to be African and trans was unpacked, re-understood, reset and reclaimed in a country that refuses to acknowledge the mere existence Botswana transpersons.”
To Malik Brown, the visibility of Black LGBTQ Prides is important, given the lack of representation in pop culture.
“As a Black, gay man in America, I don’t see myself in the media, in ad campaigns or in the nightlife scene as much as my white counterparts,” said Brown, the LGBTQ affairs coordinator at the Atlanta mayor’s Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and a member of HRC’s National Board of Governors.
That’s why Brown organized Atlanta’s first Pride kickoff for Mayor Keisha Bottoms’ office, and took the lead on organizing Atlanta Black Pride.
“Every Pride celebration is important, but Black Pride is particularly special. I think any marginalized group deserves a safe space to celebrate their truth,” he said.
As Brown reflects on this, he reiterates that Black History Month is a celebration of the remarkable and often unrecognized contributions Black change agents have made to society.
This Black History Month, we recognize the barriers — including how racism intersects with sexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and more — that remain and lift up the voices of Black and LGBTQ advocates challenging systems of power and oppression everyday. We deepen our commitment to those in our community who are still too often at its margins as we work to move equality forward in the U.S. and globally.
“If our stories are not written, shared and celebrated, they will be forgotten,” Mathurin said.
Dorm Life
Trump on reports he’s not as anti-LGBTQ as thought: ‘I don’t know which reports you’re talking about’
Trump on reports he’s not as anti-LGBTQ as thought: ‘I don’t know which reports you’re talking about’
Richard Grenell
Just days after the president half-heartedly teased a supposed plan to eradicate HIV over the next decade, this week came the news of a plan to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Once again, the words sounded good on the surface – especially on the global conversation. Criminal sanctions against homosexuality are still an all-too-present reality around the globe, and ending this nightmarish truth should be a decidedly nonpartisan effort.
But sadly, just as the HIV eradication plan seemed to put recruitment of applause at the State of the Union before a clear and workable roadmap, the Trump Administration’s reported plan to eliminate punishments against homosexuality seem to be another instance of a reasonable goal without a team capable of advancing it.
First came the news report: Richard Grenell, the out gay man who serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany (and who is a rumored candidate for open U.S. Ambassador for the United Nations role), is to work with European activists to coordinate a plan to decriminalize homosexuality across the globe. The narrowly focused campaign, reportedly sparked by the execution of a gay man in Iran, is to involve U.S. Embassies across Europe, as well as the State Department here at home. Again, all makes sense on the surface.
But let’s stop here and talk about the aforementioned State Department. Even though one would think that department would want to build on the goodwill news reports and provide more details, the department spokesperson met the news of the day by completely and utterly downplaying it as status quo. Check out this exchange that Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino had with a reporter on the very day the news broke:
QUESTION: LGBT issues.
MR PALLADINO: LGBT issues.
QUESTION: Yeah. Apparently there’s this new push by the State Department to try to get other countries to decriminalize homosexuality. Can you talk about where that is right now and what exactly is this initiative?
MR PALLADINO: I believe you’re referring to a strategy meeting that MSNBC was reporting on out of Germany, and that was in advance of a strategy meeting that Ambassador Grenell and his staff at Embassy Berlin had today with 11 activists from different countries in Europe. It’s – this really is not a big policy departure. This is longstanding and it’s bipartisan.
QUESTION: So this – would you characterize this as some new initiative or something, or is it just a continuation or an intensification of efforts that the State Department does?MR PALLADINO: I would say that this is a good opportunity to listen and to discuss ideas about how the United States can advance decriminalization of homosexuality around the world, and that’s been our policy.
QUESTION: Okay, thanks.
Okay, so he’s right about this not really being news. Secretary Hillary Clinton famously used her time at the helm of the State Department to declare that “[LGBTQ] rights are human rights.” The Obama Administration was clear on these goals. And yes, there is a degree of bipartisan support for this common sense idea.
And Palladino is also right that the Trump State Department has done absolutely nothing to intensify this push. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has an intensely anti-LGBTQ record himself, has not made any priority toward furthering the welfare of LGBTQ people. Predecessor Rex Tillerson, despite being viewed as somewhat personally supportive of LGBTQ rights, also never made any waves in this regard. Instead, the administration has turned a blind eye to very real LGBTQ rights abuses in places like Chechnya, despite the outcry from activists.
But even stranger than the downplaying is how complacent the spokesperson seems when fielding the question. Considering this was big news of the day that had direct concerns and implications for his department, one would think this would have been front and center on his mind when heading into that day’s press briefing. Yet it doesn’t seem to have been on his mind at all. He seems caught off guard by the question.
Which brings us to the President himself. On Wednesday afternoon, just a day after this news broke and conservatives began trumpeting it as “proof” that this anti-LGBTQ administration isn’t really anti-LGBTQ, a reporter asked the Commander in Chief to speak to this supposed priority. This is how that exchange played out:
Q Mr. President, on your push to decriminalize homosexuality, are you doing that? And why?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it?
Q Your push to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know which report you’re talking about. We have many reports.
Anybody else?
“I don’t know which report you’re talking about.”
Honestly, do these folks talk to each other?
If the State Dept. spokesperson was dismissive, then the President is simply clueless. Stunningly, stupefyingly clueless. Not only does he not have the capacity or desire to speak to the matter, but he doesn’t even know what the reporter is asking. This is news that was reported in multiple mainstream outlets, yet the President of the United States doesn’t seem to have even the slightest knowledge of it.
If he himself isn’t intellectually curious enough to discover it on his own, you’d at least think his advisors would want the President to be in front of it so that he could take a victory lap here. Since the high profile reports pointed to something with broad support, we’d expect the President to use this as an opportunity to appeal to more mainstream voters. His own son has been using it as “proof” that his father’s not anti-LGBTQ. It’s an easy lift, since there is nothing for anyone to really prove at this early point. The President could have just used this as a free pass to enjoy some of the most favorable press he has received in a long time.
But he doesn’t even know about it. Let me repeat that slowly: He. Doesn’t. Even. Know. About. It.
It’s offensive enough to be told that this administration, which continually caters to our most extreme opponents and that continues to fight against LGBTQ rights in all branches of government, is supposedly now concerned about LGBTQ welfare. But to have this unearned praise met with such stunning lack of concern by the administration? That is just beyond. It’s like he can’t even be bothered to care.
Which, of course, is just another reason why LGBTQ Americans must continue to care about this, an administration that is so aggressive in fights against us—yet so dismissive in fights to protect us.
—
Jeremy Hooper is a writer, activist, and father in New York, NY.
February 21, 2019
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#AM_Equality Tipsheet: February 21, 2019
#AM_Equality Tipsheet: February 21, 2019
TRUMP-PENCE ADMIN OFFICIAL CLAIMS THEY’LL SEEK END TO CRIMINALIZATION OF SAME-SEX SEXUAL RELATIONS? WE HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS: HRC Global Director Ty Cobb (@tywesleycobb) lays them out in a sit-down with MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson), where he outlined Trump-Pence’s dismal record on equality.
Staying silent on the campaign of violence against LGBTQ people in Chechnya
Turning away LGBTQ asylum seekers fleeing persecution and violence
Supporting anti-LGBTQ candidates at home
Oh, and *minor detail* — Trump said yesterday he knows nothing about this purported “effort”. Read more in Towleroad.
On @MSNBC, @HRC Global Director @tywesleycobb outlines Trump & Pence’s dismal record on equality:
❌ Remain silent on a campaign of violence against LGBTQ people in Chechnya
❌ Turn away LGBTQ asylum seekers fleeing persecution & violence
❌ Support anti-LGBTQ candidates at home pic.twitter.com/DbdAr7AGZx— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) February 20, 2019
“FAR TOO MANY AMERICAN WORKERS ARE FORCED TO MAKE A HARROWING CHOICE BETWEEN THEIR JOBS AND THE WELL-BEING OF THEIR LOVED ONES”: Ellen Kahn, HRC Foundation director of children, youth and family programs, writes in The Hill about the need for the FAMILY Act, introduced last week by Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. It would ensure that employees have access to 12 weeks of partial income when taking medical and family leave. “It’s long past time for Congress to bring family and medical leave policies into the 21st century — and on par with every other developed country in the world,” Kahn writes. Read the full piece in The Hill.
Passing the #FAMILYAct would be a critical step forward in American health policy & provide a lifeline for families in need, including #LGBTQ families.
With these protections, families will be able to focus on what matters most — the people we love. ��❤️ t.co/Omd4AyOg0Y
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) February 20, 2019
THANKFUL THURSDAY — ANNUAL JAZZ & FRIENDS SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY READINGS COMING NEXT WEEK: On February 28th, teachers, parents and allies across the country will join in support of transgender and non-binary youth for this incredible event, sponsored by HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools and the National Education Association (NEA). Books to be read include I Am Jazz by transgender trailblazer and former HRC Youth Ambassador Jazz Jennings; Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love; and They She He Me: Free to Be! by Maya and Matthew Smith-Gonzalez. More from HRC.
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS ANNOUNCES IT WILL NOT OPPOSE LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS TO PROTECT YOUTH FROM DANGEROUS “CONVERSION THERAPY”: More from The Associated Press.
DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE — UPCOMING FILM ‘LUPE’ TELLS STORY OF TRANSGENDER IMMIGRANT: More from Deadline.
LITTLE CAESARS FIRES EMPLOYEE WHO ENTERED “GAY” IN NAME SECTION OF RECEIPT WHEN SERVING LGBTQ CUSTOMER: Rosman Harris and Marcus Robertson, who are cousins, allege that the customers in line before and after them were asked for their names, but they were not. More from Yahoo.
GLOBAL EQUALITY NEWS
MEXICAN SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN NUEVO LEON’S BAN ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY: With this decision, 14 of the country’s 31 states have marriage equality. More from HuffPost.
LA CORTE SUPREMA MEXICANA ELIMINA LA PROHIBICIÓN DE MATRIMONIO IGUALITARIO EN NUEVO LEÓN: Con esta decisión, 14 de 31 estados del país contarán con matrimonio igualitario. Más de DesastreMX.
FRIDAY — KENYAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT TO DECIDE ON CASE THAT COULD OVERTURN COLONIAL-ERA LAW CRIMINALIZING SAME-SEX RELATIONS: More from Voice of America.
TAIWAN TO UNVEIL MARRIAGE EQUALITY LEGISLATION: More from Reuters.
Have news? Send us your news and tips at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to #AM_Equality and follow @HRC for all the latest news. Thanks for reading!
www.hrc.org/blog/am-equality-tipsheet-february-21-2019?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
boooom12
Chicago Police Discuss Arrest of Jussie Smollett: LIVE VIDEO
Chicago Police Discuss Arrest of Jussie Smollett: LIVE VIDEO
Chicago Police are set to hold a press conference on the arrest of Jussie Smollett. Smollett turned himself in to police at approximately 5 am Thursday morning and is facing a Class 4 felony charge (punishable for up to 3 yrs in prison) for disorderly conduct in falsifying a police report. A bond hearing is scheduled for 1:30 pm in Cook County Criminal Court.
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said “‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.”
Johnson said that Smollett staged the attack because he was “dissatisfied with his salary.”
Added Johnson: “Bogus police reports cause real harm. They do harm to every legitimate victim who’s in need of support by police.”
Follow all our Jussie Smollett coverage HERE.
The post Chicago Police Discuss Arrest of Jussie Smollett: LIVE VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Chicago Police Discuss Motive, Investigation, and Arrest of Jussie Smollett Staged Hate Crime: WATCH
