Adam Rippon on His Relationship With Food and Working Out
On The Advocate‘s LGBTQ&A podcast, the out Olympic medalist discusses how his body changed now that he’s not training six hours a day.
www.advocate.com/sports/2019/6/04/adam-rippon-his-relationship-food-and-working-out
Dallas Police Ask FBI for Assistance After String of Homicides Targeting Black Transgender Women
The Dallas Police Department is investigating a string of homicides involving black transgender women and has asked the FBI for assistance after the body of Chynal Lindsey was pulled from a lake on Saturday night.
The Guardian reports: ‘The Dallas police department has multiple open investigations into attacks on transgender women in addition to the deaths of Lindsey, 26, and [Muhlaysia] Booker, 23, whose body was discovered on the morning of 18 May. In April a woman was repeatedly stabbed and left for dead, police said, but survived; a 29-year woman, Brittany White, was fatally shot in a vehicle in October last year; and a victim’s remains were discovered in a field in July 2017, in an incident police classified as an unexplained death. The decomposed body of Shade Schuler was found in a field in July 2015. The case remains unsolved. Asked if the string of deaths could be the work of a serial killer, Hall said: “Right now we don’t have the evidence to substantiate that.”’
The post Dallas Police Ask FBI for Assistance After String of Homicides Targeting Black Transgender Women appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Dallas Police Ask FBI for Assistance After String of Homicides Targeting Black Transgender Women
HRC Mourns Chynal Lindsey, the Third Black Trans Woman Killed in Dallas in the Past Year
HRC is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Chynal Lindsey, 26, a Black transgender woman found dead in Dallas on June 1.
Lindsey’s body was found in White Rock Lake with “obvious signs of homicidal violence,” according to Dallas Police. No further details are available at this time, and the Dallas Police Department has reached out to federal law enforcement to aid in the investigation.
Friends, family and community members took to social media to share their shock at her death, describing her as “smiling” and “a person I had never seen mad.”
Lindsey’s death is the eighth known case of deadly violence against the transgender community in 2019 — and she is the third Black transgender woman killed in Dallas in the past year.
“I and the Texas trans community still haven’t had time to regroup after laying Muhlaysia Booker to rest,” said transgender advocate Monica Roberts. “[A] mere 24 hours after Dallas Pride happens, we are now having to say the name of another of our trans siblings gone far too soon in her young life.”
Muhlaysia Booker was fatally shot on May 18. Just a month prior, Booker had been viciously attacked in what Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings described as “mob violence.” And last year, the Dallas community mourned the death of Brittany White, who was found fatally shot.
Police say there is no evidence at this time that these three deaths are linked.
“We see this phenomenon far too often, that violence will bubble up in a specific area or state each year,” said HRC National Press Secretary Sarah McBride, who characterized the attacks in Dallas as part of a larger nationwide trend. “There are concerns around contagion or a copycat effect each time a community witnesses a significant number of cases of anti-transgender violence.”
Last year, advocates tracked the deaths of at least 26 transgender people, the majority of whom were Black transgender women.
In November, ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance, HRC Foundation released “A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in America in 2018,” a heartbreaking report honoring the trans people killed and detailing the contributing and motivating factors that lead to this tragic violence.
It is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, and that the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia conspire to deprive them of necessities to live and thrive.
This epidemic of violence that disproportionately targets transgender people of color — particularly Black transgender women — must cease.
To learn more about HRC’s transgender justice work, visit hrc.org/Transgender. For more information about how to support Texas’ trans community, check out the Transgender Education Network of Texas.
Alabama Mayor Calls for Killing LGBTQ People in Facebook Post
Carbon Hill Mayor Mark Chambers tried to deny the post was his but finally admitted it.
www.advocate.com/politics/2019/6/04/alabama-mayor-calls-killing-lgbtq-people-facebook-post
City orders two-year study on rainbow crosswalks after people complain about feeling unsafe
The city of Moncton, New Brunswick says it is waiting for the results of a national report looking into the safety of rainbow crosswalks.
City spokesperson Isabelle LeBlanc says officials have ordered the study from the Transportation Association of Canada and must carefully review the results before they can allow any more pedestrian walkways to be painted purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.
This all comes after the city already began painting some of its crosswalks to show support for the LGBTQ community in 2017, but abandoned the project in 2018 after people expressed “safety concerns.”
Erica Andersen, a spokesperson for the Transportation Association of Canada, said that “additional research” still needed to be conducted on “non-standard colors and designs.”
Yahoo! News reports:
She said that in April a group looking into “decorative crosswalk pavement markings” found there was insufficient data to reach a conclusion. Andersen said she expects a new research project will be proposed this fall to look at “impacts on driver perception/recognition … levels of driver or pedestrian distraction, effects on recognition by automated vehicles/driver assistance systems, and more.”
Anderson believes the results from that study “would likely be available sometime in 2021.”
But members of the Moncton area LGBTQ community aren’t buying it.
“There aren’t any other municipalities in our experience that have regressed on their practice of painting rainbow crosswalks,” Charles MacDougall, a co-ordinator with River of Pride, said this week.
“It’s a large bureaucratic process that is far too complicated for our liking. We feel this is extremely disappointing, even a little annoying.”
Meanwhile, LeBlanc insists the city has no ill will towards LGBTQ people and says it still intends to show its support for the community.
“Forty rainbow banners were produced last year to line up along Main Street,” she notes. “That initiative is continuing this year and likely for the next few as well.”
LeBlanc added the banners will go up shortly after July 7 and will remain until late August.
Because blocks and blocks of rainbow banners flapping in the wind are so much less distracting than a rainbow crosswalk.
Related: The Rainbow Flag Is Too Gay For West Hollywood’s City Hall
‘Tales of the City,’ ‘Big Little Lies’ and Everything You Don’t Want to Miss on TV This Week
Check out our weekly guide to TV this week, and make sure you’re catching the big premieres, crucial episodes and the stuff you won’t admit you watch when no one’s looking.
As if modern life isn’t scary enough, Netflix’s tech-savvy take on The Twilight Zone returns with more bone-chilling episodes Wednesday. Miley Cyrus makes an appearance in the latest batch of spooky stories that will make you want to chuck your phone out the window (or think twice about that next Grindr date).
As if modern life isn’t scary enough, there’s a new season of Handmaid’s Tale beginning Wednesday on Hulu. As our nation inches ever closer to Atwood’s nightmare, maybe seeing June (Elisabeth Moss) take down Gilead will be cathartic.
Netflix is bringing back the seminal queer classic series Tales of the City Friday. It’s every bit as sweet and magical (and full of intrigue!) as its predecessors, but the newest spate of episodes introduces a younger generation exploring sexuality and identity. Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney are back and as amazing as ever, while Looking‘s Murray Bartlett joins the cast as Michael “Mouse” Tolliver. Ellen Page, Michelle Buteau and nonbinary actor Garcia contribute memorable performances to the stunning ensemble. The writing staff for the reboot is entirely LGBTQ, which definitely informs the series’ takes on intergenerational queer communities.
The best part about catching A Star Is Born premiering on HBO Saturday at 8 p/m. Eastern is that no one can stop you from singing along in full voice.
Dern. Kravitz. Witherspoon. Woodley. Kidman. Streep. Big Little Lies is back Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern.
What are you watching this week on TV?
The post ‘Tales of the City,’ ‘Big Little Lies’ and Everything You Don’t Want to Miss on TV This Week appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
‘Tales of the City,’ ‘Big Little Lies’ and Everything You Don’t Want to Miss on TV This Week
HRC Supports Important D.C. Decriminalization Legislation
Today, HRC announced its support for the Community Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2019, legislation introduced in the D.C. Council that would eliminate criminal prohibitions and penalties for consensual sex work and establish a task force to recommend further improvements to public safety, health and human rights. The legislation, which also maintains the prohibitions on coercion and trafficking, is sponsored by Councilmember David Grasso.
“No person should be put at risk of abuse or fear violence simply for trying to survive,” said Sarah Warbelow, HRC’s Legal Director “This legislation would enhance public health and safety, while also reforming laws that disproportionately punish people of color, transgender people and those living at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. HRC supports Councilmember Grasso’s important legislation — and we thank Councilmember Grasso and DC activists for their leadership on this critical issue.”
The Community Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2019 is supported by many public health and civil and human rights organizations, including HIPS, ACLU DC, GLAA, Collective Action for Safe Spaces, D.C. Rape Crisis Center, Amara Legal Center, National Center for Trans Equality, Whitman Walker Health, Casa Ruby, Best Practices Policy Project, SWOP-USA, Black Youth Project (BYP) 100, Black Lives Matter DMV, No Justice No Pride, D.C. Center for the LGBT Community, Bread for the City, Network for Victims Recovery DC, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Ultraviolet, Center for Health and Gender Equity, and URGE.
HRC also recognizes the important work and leadership of Laya Monarez, a community activist and HRC staff member, who has been at the forefront of the fight for the decriminalization of sex work in D.C.
Eighty percent of street-based sex workers reported violence, according to one report. Nearly nine in ten transgender people engaging in sex work or suspected of engaging in sex work reported being harassed, attacked, sexually assaulted or mistreated in some other way by police, according to the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey. Out of those who were working in the underground economy at the time they took the survey, nearly 41% were physically attacked in the previous year and over one-third were sexually assaulted in that same time.
In many instances, the criminalization of sex work can exacerbate the epidemic of violence targeting the transgender community, particularly transgender women of color. Since 2013, at least 144 transgender people have been killed. These tragic figures underscore the urgent need to decriminalize sex work, bringing workers out of the shadows and closer to critical services and protections.
#weSEAlove: Lonness Galenna
Supergirl’s Nicole Maines Is the Trans Hero the World Needs
Trans actress Nicole Maines is seeking justice on Supergirl.
www.advocate.com/television/2019/5/30/nicole-maines-here-save-us-all
Lawmaker caught on tape laughing about killing gays says he’s the victim of a “social media lynching”
Things aren’t looking so good for Republican Florida state Rep. Mike Hill, and his desperation is starting to show.
Over the weekend, audio of Hill making the homophobic comments during a forum held by the group Women for Responsible Legislation leaked online.
In the recording, the 61-year-old lawmaker is heard saying being gay is a choice and therefore unworthy of protections in the Civil Rights Act, like those for race and gender.
“My fundamental problem with that is someone’s sexual orientation or ‘proclivity’ to want to do something…that is your business,” he says. “And it’s a choice. You say ‘I was born that way.’ Fine. Nobody’s forcing you to engage in that relationship, even if you were born that way.”
“What you do is a behavior and a choice that you have, as opposed to you can’t help your sex, your race, your nationality.”
When a man in the crowd calls for legislation to fulfill the Biblical “prescription” to put gay people to death, Hill laughs then quips: “I wonder how that would go over.”
Hill’s comments have been denounced by both Democrats and Republicans alike.
Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva and House Rules Chairman Chris Sprowls, who are both Republicans, released a joint statement this week denouncing their colleague.
“Such callous indifference to an outrageous question is unacceptable, runs contrary to our founding principles, and in no way reflects the beliefs of the Republican caucus in the Florida House.”
While they stopped short of calling on Hill to resign, Oliva did say he “owes his colleagues an apology and he owes the Republican caucus a better example of political courage.”
Meanwhile, more than 75 people gathered in downtown Pensacola yesterday evening to stage a protest over Hill’s remarks, waving signs calling on Hill to resign and chanting, “The murder of gays is no laughing matter!”
Leading the march was Rodney Jones, president of the NAACP Pensacola branch, who told the crowd, “We all live together as human beings, and for an individual to think that it is funny that one individual within our community is executed or killed is ignorant themselves.”
“And they have no place in leadership. They have no right to be there because he feels that way about one person who lives in my community, he feels the same way about me.”
Meanwhile, Hill continues to dig in his heels, accusing those against him of a conducing “social media lynching” against him.
Your social media lynching is despicable. I never laughed at a joke about killing gays, and you know it. Your trash media has a history of attacking me. t.co/IMM5ghNwe3
— Mike Hill (@MikeHillfl) June 1, 2019
He followed that up with another tweet this morning that included a link to an article on the right-wing propaganda site American Thinker about how the “LGBT lobby” has “manufactured outrage” in an effort to bring down Florida’s only two Black republican legislators.
— Mike Hill (@MikeHillfl) June 4, 2019
Then yesterday, Hill hit his local media circuit, appearing on two different Pensacola radio stations to call the whole situation “absurd” and to claim the recording of him laughing about killing gay people had been “taken out of context.”
Audio of Hill’s full homophobic remarks continues to circulate around the internet. You can listen for yourself here.
As we stated yesterday, it sure doesn’t sound like he was taken at all out of context.
Related: Leaked audio: GOP Rep laughs about executing queers after explaining being gay is a choice
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