COVERING 2020: GLAAD Releases Second Tip Sheet for Journalists; Building Momentum for Constitutional Equality
GLAAD urges all 2020 candidates to support an expanded ERA that would explicitly protect women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities
GLAAD President & CEO: “…the issue of non-discrimination has a rightful place in this week’s debate and through the campaign trail.”
NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today announced its second in a series of tip sheets for journalists covering the 2020 election ahead of the second Democratic Primary Debates in Detroit, Michigan. The second tip sheet, Covering 2020: An Amendment for Constitutional Equality, highlights an idea to expand the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to include explicit protections for other marginalized communities – including people of color, the disabled, and LGBTQ Americans.
The New York Times spotlighted GLAAD’s support for an Amendment for Constitutional Equality last month on the 50thanniversary of the Stonewall Inn Riots and the start of the first presidential debates for the 2020 election cycle. During those debates, Democratic candidates like Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, and Elizabeth Warren called for policies to protect LGBTQ Americans, people of color, and women – including ratification of the original ERA. Legal and policy experts convened by theERA Coalition have crafted draft language – The Amendment for Constitutional Equality – that meets this imperative.
“LGBTQ issues were nearly invisible in the last Presidential election and now need to be front and center alongside issues impacting other marginalized communities,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “At a time when marginalized communities are under attack, the issue of non-discrimination has a rightful place in this week’s debate and through the campaign trail.”
Icona Pop, KamalaCare, Typewriter, Ariana Grande, Now Apocalypse, John Oliver, Fortnite, Gay Metropolis: HOT LINKS
KAMALACARE. Kamala Harris unveils health care plan: ‘Harris’ offering maintains her commitment to universal health coverage — demanded by her party’s base — while lowering the temperature among the guardians of Obamacare who fear that overreaching would wipe out their hard-fought gains. Kathleen Sebelius, who served as Health and Human Services secretary in the Obama administration and was consulted on Harris’ plan, blessed it as “a smart way to get to Medicare for All where all individuals and employers can transition smoothly into a system that covers everyone.”’
JOHN OLIVER. A ruthless takedown of British PM Boris Johnson. “Given that Britain’s new leader is a clownish figure with silly hair and a passing relationship with the truth, you may already be thinking of the person you’re almost always thinking about anyway.”
UBER AND LYFT. How 2020 candidates compare on ride-sharing services. “California Sen. Kamala Harris’s campaign handily outspent the rest of the pack, expensing 81 Uber and 73 Lyft rides in the first six months of 2019, totaling $8,835 and $5,873, respectively. Campaigns are averaging about $4,800 each on the apps, with the front-runners all spending near $10,000 for rides in the filing period.”
SURGE. Nearly half of House Democrats now support impeachment. ‘The four who issued their support on Sunday, all from Washington state, bring the total number of House Democrats who have publicly said they’d vote for an impeachment inquiry to 107 — 11 shy of a majority of the Democratic Caucus — with backers of an inquiry promising there are more waiting in the wings.’
GILROY. Garlic festival gunman IDed as Santino William Legan: ‘Santino Legan had an Instagram page with just three posts, including one post made days before the shooting and two posted on Sunday. The one most disturbing appears to have been posted shortly before the shooting. “Ayyy garlic festival time. Come get wasted on overpriced shit.”’
X. New Hampshire to allow ‘X’ as gender on driver’s licenses: ‘Gov. Chris Sununu allowed House Bill 669 to become law this week without his signature. It allows driver’s licenses or non-driver identification cards to be marked “M” for male, “F” for female or “X” for other.’
RUSSIA. Vladimir Putin critic hospitalized after being poisoned: ‘Navalny was taken by ambulance to the hospital early on Sunday morning from the jail with what authorities said was a “severe allergic reaction,” his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter. Initially, one of Navalny’s close colleagues suggested the cause was likely unsanitary conditions in the jail, but by the evening Navalny’s lawyer released a statement from his long-time doctor saying that his symptoms were the result of “an undefined chemical substance.”‘
NOW APOCALYPSE. It could have a second life, says Gregg Araki: “We are shopping for a new home since the show’s cheap, and with the most amazing cast and incredibly passionate fanbase. The fan reaction let me know that the people who watched it got it exactly as I hoped. The show really is a dream come true for me. I love it so much and am so proud of the work we all did together. And regardless of what happens, I’m happy knowing that it will live forever in the streaming/sharing cosmos. As far as our demo goes, we were told when we got greenlit that, in the wake of their successful app launch, Starz was planning on courting a new younger audience that doesn’t currently live on the channel. And that our show was going to be a part of that effort. Clearly, that’s all changed.”
DRAMA QUEEN. Michael Ausiello series headed to HBO. ‘The single-cameraDrama Queen is set in the 1980s and centers on a closeted, TV-obsessed teenager who copes with the harsh realities — and relative mundaneness — of life in small-town New Jersey by escaping to an alternate soap opera universe of his own creation.’
Of course Trump’s reelection campaign has hired that homophobic pageant queen
Pageant queen Kathy Zhu is sure making lemonade out of lemons.
Last week, Zhu was stripped of her Miss Michigan title after a series of vile tweets she wrote in 2017 and 2018 resurfaced. In response, Zhu hit the media circuit, where she claimed “coming out as conservative is harder than coming out as gay.”
Some of Zhu’s tweets included calling Adolf Hitler “very smart and a good public speaker,” attacking women who wear hijabs, and sharing bogus statistics suggesting Black people have lower IQs.
Oh, and then there was this clever little ditty she wrote: “Roses are red, violets are blue, how many genders?, only 2.”
With racist, homophonic, xenophobic, anti semitic tweets like that, it makes perfect sense that Zhu has been scooped up by Trump’s reelection team.
Over the weekend, the 20-year-old pageant queen joined the Women for Trump Coalition Advisory Board.
Team Trump welcomes Kathy Zhu to the Official #WomenforTrump Coalition Advisory Board! @PoliticalKathy is a patriot who has continued to stand for American values despite being stripped of her crown.
Speaking to a group of College Republicans student group last week, Zhu called Donald Trump her “role model” because he’s not afraid to spout his racist beliefs.
“I think that for me to stand here as an Asian-American, to come here and say, ‘I am a conservative, I support Trump,’ I guess the left finds it hysterical that I’m doing this,” Zhu said.
A Black Gay Man Now Has the Longest-Running #1 Hit in ‘Billboard Hot 100’ History
Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” just broke a major record, sitting at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for an unprecedented 17th week.
Writes Billboard: ‘”Road” bests the previous record of 16 weeks first achieved by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” in 1995-96, and later matched by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber in 2017.’
Lil Nas X (aka Montero Lamar Hill) came out as a gay man early in July. He later told the BBC: “I don’t want to just live my entire life, especially how I got to where I’m at, just not doing what I want to do. I’m also, I feel like, opening the doors for more people. … Because it’s not really accepted in either [the country or hip-hop communities].”
Must-See LGBTQ TV: ‘Jane the Virgin’ series finale and new season of ‘Dear White People’
Photo Credit: Netflix
Grab the remote, set your DVR or queue up your streaming service of choice! GLAAD is bringing you the highlights LGBTQ on TV this week. Check back every Sunday for up-to-date coverage in LGBTQ-inclusive programming on TV.
The series finale of The CW’s critically acclaimed Jane the Virgin airs this Wednesday. Over the course of its five seasons, the show has introduced several queer characters including major player Petra. In the two-hour finale, Jane and Rafael finally get ready for their big day, but Rafael’s desire to help Jane’s writing dream lands him in trouble. Xo and Rogelio must tell the family about their decision and not everyone takes it well. Meanwhile, Petra struggles with her emotions. Jane the Virgin: Wednesday, 8pm on the CW.
The third season of GLAAD Media Award-nominated comedy Dear White People returns to Netflix this Friday. The show, created by out filmmaker Justin Simien, provides a commentary on racism in 2019, set on a college campus. The third season will continue to feature gay character Lionel, as well as a roster of guest stars including trans actress Laverne Cox. Dear White People: Friday on Netflix.