WATCH: Utah high school football players burn Pride flag while saying “All gays die!”

Two football playing students from Utah’s Kearns High School have been suspended for sharing a video of them giggling and burning a rainbow flag while saying “All gays die!” Police are also investigating.

The video was first posted on Snapchat by a 15-year-old incoming freshman and it was shared by another current student.

Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley told ABC News, “We want to make sure every student who walks through our doors feels safe and secure in the environment that they’re in. Looking at the video, whether if it was intended as a joke or as a serious and broad threat against LGBTQ individuals, it’s still a reprehensible act. We need to condemn hatred and bigotry wherever we see it.”

Related: Students Welcomed Back To School With Burned Pride Flag And A Note: “F*gs Get AIDS More Often”

He added that while it’s unclear what discipline the students will face, penalties could range from suspension to mandatory community service. Other community members have called for the football program to be cancelled, but that’s unlikely considering that only two team members were implicated and football generates lots of money for both individual schools and school districts.

The school district also said they’ve contacted LGBTQ community leaders to suggest future empathy exercises and educational opportunities so hateful little meat-heads won’t do something stupid like this ever again. (Though the district spokesperson didn’t use those exact words.)

Matt Rickards, head coach of the Kearns High School team told Salt Lake City Fox affiliate KSTU, “There’s no place for that in our program at all, and it won’t be tolerated. It’s potentially a hate crime, so it sickens me.”

He added, “We have one rule in our program and that is not to embarrass yourself, your family or your team and, obviously, that rule was broken. So, there’s got to be consequences for that.”

Here’s a video which shows footage of the burning flag:

Burning Pride flags seems to have become a recent trend among antigay haters. Earlier this month, a vandal burned a rainbow flag outside of New York City’s only black-owned gay bar; in May, someone burned a rainbow flag outside of a Philadelphia boutique; and in April, someone burned a straight couple’s rainbow flag in Charleston, South Carolina.

What these haters don’t realize that burning our flag only makes our community even louder and more united in the face of hate, whether that hate comes from dumb high schoolers, random vandals or spiteful bigots.

www.queerty.com/watch-utah-high-school-football-players-burn-pride-flag-saying-gays-die-20190619?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

‘Queer Eye’ Renewed for Seasons 4 and 5, and the Fab 5 Will Be Headed Somewhere New

Queer Eye has been renewed by Netflix for a fourth and fifth season. The fourth season will debut on July 19 with eight new heroes and again take place in Kansas City. For the show’s fifth season, which starts production on June 24 and will debut in 2020, they’ll be headed to Philadelphia.

View this post on Instagram

Have you missed us? (We missed you too. ) We’re back in Kansas City for Season 4, July 19.

A post shared by Queer Eye (@queereye) on Jun 18, 2019 at 9:30am PDT

The post ‘Queer Eye’ Renewed for Seasons 4 and 5, and the Fab 5 Will Be Headed Somewhere New appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

‘Queer Eye’ Renewed for Seasons 4 and 5, and the Fab 5 Will Be Headed Somewhere New

#AM_Equality Tipsheet: June 19, 2019

AS TRUMP LAUNCHES 2020 CAMPAIGN, HRC VOWS TO TURN OUT THE VOTE AND END THE TRUMP-PENCE ASSAULT ON LGBTQ PROGRESS: “Since Donald Trump and Mike Pence took office 29 months ago, LGBTQ people have been under constant attack by an administration that is hell-bent on ripping away our progress,” said HRC President Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin). “But time and again, HRC’s grassroots army of more than 3 million strong has fought back, putting up roadblocks on this administration’s path of destruction and discrimination. In the months ahead, we will continue to turn resistance into action by making major investments to turn out the more than 10 million eligible LGBTQ voters in this country and millions more allies to ensure we defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and elect a pro-equality president who will fight for the rights of all Americans.” More from HRC.

• For the full list of Trump-Pence’s attacks on LGBTQ people, visit hrc.org/Trump.
• Despite standing two miles and a 10-minute drive away from the site of the Pulse nightclub shooting, Donald Trump refused to even mention the 49 LGBTQ lives, most Latinx, taken by senseless gun violence. This omission comes less than one week after Orlando, the LGBTQ community, the Latinx community and the world marked the third year since Pulse without any substantive action on gun reform. More from HRC.

Tonight, Donald Trump will announce his 2020 re-election bid.

Here’s a reminder that since Trump & Pence took office 2+ years ago, LGBTQ people have been under constant attack by an administration hell-bent on ripping away our progress. #TrumpRallyOrlando t.co/OfJFGJgf3O

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) June 18, 2019

HRC RESPONDS TO NEWS THAT TONY PERKINS HAS BEEN APPOINTED TO HEAD THE U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: “Tony Perkins has devoted his career to limiting the legal rights of LGBTQ people,” said David Stacy, HRC Director of Government Affairs (@david_stacy). “In his America, LGBTQ people would be forced to hide who they are or face criminal sanction, and their relationships would be outlawed and undermined. Once again, the Trump-Pence Administration has taken a non-partisan commitment to religious freedom around the world and turned it into another weapon in their anti-LGBTQ crusade.” More from Metro Weekly.

WHAT WE’RE READING WEDNESDAY — AN OPEN LETTER TO BISEXUAL PEOPLE THIS PRIDE MONTH: Read the letter from HRC.

Too often, bisexual people are excluded from LGBTQ spaces, and often invisible to each other—all things that can make going to your first #pride feel incredibly daunting.

But you’re not alone and #pridemonth is for you too. ������ t.co/SE4S9jklnB

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) June 16, 2019

HOUSE VOTES TO PASS AMENDMENT DEFUNDING TRANS TROOP BAN: The appropriations amendment, offered by Reps. Jackie Speier (D-CA) (@RepSpeier) and Anthony Brown (D-MD) (@RepAnthonyBrown), would prevent further implementation of Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military by eliminating funding for it. Said Sarah McBride, HRC National Press Secretary (@SarahEMcBride). “The Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops goes against medical experts, military leadership, budget analysts, 70% of the American people, and the U.S. House, who passed a resolution in March condemning Trump’s attacks on transgender service members.” More from CBS News.

THE NY TIMES INTERVIEWS DR. DEMETRE DASKALAKIS ON HIS EFFORTS TO COMBAT SOCIAL STIGMA AROUND HIV & AIDS: Read Sam Dubin’s full interview with Daskalakis (@DrDemetre), deputy commissioner for the Division of Disease Control of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, here.

WORKPLACES CONTINUE TO IMPROVE FOR LGBTQ EMPLOYEES: HRC Foundation’s Beck Bailey (@TheBeckBailey), Director, Workplace Equality Program, on how workplaces have improved, and the work still to be done: “Companies do need to work on their overall culture, education, engagement around bias and unconscious bias and how it comes up at work and observing how they may inadvertently be sending messages to people that they should stay in the closet,” he says. Read more from NBC.

UPDATE — AUTHOR NICHOLAS SPARKS APOLOGIZES FOR PAST ANTI-LGBTQ COMMENTS & EMAILS THAT REVEAL HE REFUSED TO ALLOW LGBTQ STUDENT CLUB AT SCHOOL HE FOUNDED: Read more from The New York Times.

PRIDE MONTH ROUNDUP

NEW YORK CITY’S ICONIC “GAY STREET” AND “CHRISTOPHER STREET” RENAMED “ACCEPTANCE STREET” TO MARK PRIDE MONTH: More from ABC.

THE DAILY BEAST’S TIM TEEMAN (@TimTeeman) CHATS WITH DAVID MIXNER (@DavidMixner) ABOUT THE STATE OF LGBTQ RIGHTS IN THE U.S.: Read the interview here.

CALIFORNIA FLIES THE LGBTQ PRIDE FLAG ON ITS CAPITOL BUILDING FOR THE FIRST TIME: More from The Hill.

GLOBAL EQUALITY NEWS

ORGANIZERS OF TBILISI PRIDE IN GEORGIA SAY THE EVENT WILL GO AHEAD DESPITE THREATS: More from Agenda.GE.

NEW TESTIMONY REVEALS MISSING RUSSIAN MAN MAY HAVE BEEN DETAINED DURING PERSECUTIONS AGAINST LGBTQ CHECHENS: Eyewitness Maksim Lapunov claims he and the man who is currently missing, Andrei Kobyshev, were held in the same facility for two weeks. More from Radio Free Europe.

PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA, DR. MAHATHIR MOHAMAD, REITERATES ASSERTION THAT THE COUNTRY WILL NOT RECOGNIZE MARRIAGE EQUALITY: More from Gay Star News.

READING RAINBOW – Bookmark now to read on your lunch break!

CNN’s Fayemi Shakur (@7fayemi) profiles Zanele Muholi’s (@ZMuholi) work photographing Black LGBTQ South Africans; NYTimes readers share their experiences with binding; We Rate Dogs celebrates Pride Month

WOW. I guess people like our little guy Bodie! He’s napping rn, but says TY very much @dog_rates! He wants to be friends with all y’all and he loves you very much. He can’t get treatos through internets so if you wanna give treats to @HRC or @TrevorProject he says that’d be good. t.co/OY10F9vji9

— Alex Hayden DiLalla (@AlexDiLalla) June 18, 2019

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-june-19-2019?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Todrick Hall Recalls Being an Openly Gay Male Cheerleader in High School, Reveals How Taylor Swift’s ‘You Need to Calm Down’ Came Together: WATCH

Todrick Hall sat down for a lengthy interview with Access Hollywood about how Taylor Swift’s “You Need To Calm Down” video came together and how his career as a multi-talent dancer, choreographer, and singer happened..

“It felt like we were just two friends brainstorming who we were going to put on a skit with, which happens to me often,” said Todrick of collaborating on the video, which calls out anti-LGBTQ haters.

WATCH THIS: Taylor Swift’s ‘You Need To Calm Down’ Video Lights Up a Trailer Park with 21+ LGBTQ Icons: WATCH

Added Todrick: “I’m friends with everybody who was in this video so this was the most fun, and Taylor said this as well, ‘this is the most fun I’ve ever had on any set in any video in my entire career.’ In fact, the people from her team were like, ‘Todrick, can you get Taylor to come back to our trailer for hair and makeup’ because she didn’t want to leave the drag queens. She was hanging out in the room with the drag queens all day.”

Todrick also talked about Swift’s recent LGBTQ activism: “I have never seen her so excited as she is when she’s posting things and seeing her fans go and vote and retweet and sign these petitions…I do think there was a point years ago when this [political activism] would have been scary for her.”

Of the “Happy Meal moment” when Swift and Katy Perry got together, Todrick added: “I thought it was a great idea … all of her albums it really represents what she’s going through at that time. I’m so able they’re able to bury the hatchet. I know it was very important for them for it to be real if they were going to do it on camera.”

WATCH THIS TOO: Todrick’s ‘Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels’ Has More Fierce Men Dancing in Stilettos Than You’ve Ever Seen: WATCH

Todrick also talked about his days as a contestant on American Idol, and his earlier days as a male cheerleader in high school: “I remember getting out of my mom’s car and inhaling really big and being like, ‘this is going to be a really scary thing for you because people are going to make fun of you, people are going to judge you’ and having to be brave enough to walk into school and have people look at me and be the only male cheerleader. And I was an openly gay black man at 14 years old and it was not a cool thing to do at that time. I’m just so grateful that the world is progressing.”

The post Todrick Hall Recalls Being an Openly Gay Male Cheerleader in High School, Reveals How Taylor Swift’s ‘You Need to Calm Down’ Came Together: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Todrick Hall Recalls Being an Openly Gay Male Cheerleader in High School, Reveals How Taylor Swift’s ‘You Need to Calm Down’ Came Together: WATCH

American Gods’ Devery Jacobs Is a Queer Indigenous TV Star

Jacobs’s acting is magnificent, meditative, and thoroughly Mohawk.

www.advocate.com/exclusives/2019/6/18/american-gods-devery-jacobs-queer-indigenous-tv-star

Lesbian Jolie Justus Loses Kansas City Mayoral Race

Justus lost to fellow City Council member Quinton Lucas in a race where her sexual orientation was a nonissue.

www.advocate.com/politics/2019/6/18/lesbian-jolie-justus-loses-kansas-city-mayoral-race