Trump Admin Urges Supreme Court to Approve Anti-Trans Discrimination
The administration laid out the argument in a brief filed Friday in a case the court will hear October 8.
Daily Archives: August 16, 2019
HRC Condemns Trump-Pence Efforts to Abandon Protections for Transgender Employees
HRC Condemns Trump-Pence Efforts to Abandon Protections for Transgender Employees
HRC condemned the Department of Justice’s brief submitted this afternoon arguing that transgender people are not protected by Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination. This brief was submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case EEOC v. Harris Funeral Homes.
“The Trump-Pence administration’s filing today is both legally and morally unjustifiable,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “Their argument is un-American, anti-business, and flies in the face of decades of federal case law, including established Supreme Court precedent. There can be no justification for such a narrow interpretation of the term ‘sex.’ Our community will not be silent, and we will not be erased.”
This July, in this case and two related filings, HRC, Lambda Legal, Out & Equal, Out Leadership, and Freedom for All Americans submitted a “friend of the court” brief signed by over 200 major corporations arguing that LGBTQ people should be understood to be protected under Title VII. The landmark brief had more corporate signers than any previous business brief in an LGBTQ non-discrimination case.
For more information on the development of federal law on regarding the term “sex” please see HRC’s sex discrimination report.
Log Cabin’s Trump Endorsement Proves They Are Morally Bankrupt Racists
Log Cabin’s Trump Endorsement Proves They Are Morally Bankrupt Racists
The Muslim bans, the Nazi defenses, the concentration camps, the attacks on trans people — how can anyone who isn’t a bigot endorse that?
WATCH: What happens when a married gay couple takes on Hollywood?
WATCH: What happens when a married gay couple takes on Hollywood?
Anyone yearning for more Queer Eye-type style need look no further: Netflix just dropped the trailer for its newest reality series, Styling Hollywood. It debuts on the streaming service August 30.
Styling Hollywood follows celebrity stylist Jason Bolden and his husband Adair Curtis, an interior designer, as they try to maintain their marriage and a thriving business. Along with their close-knit group of talented employees, the couples bring their style touch–which they dub “Black Girl Magic”–to major Hollywood celebs like Taraji P. Henson and Gabrielle Union.
Related: Say Hi To The Gays Who Run Hollywood
From Hollywood’s biggest red carpets, to the most delicate and tender moments of a marriage, Styling Hollywood examines a creative relationship taken to the extreme.
Styling Hollywood streams exclusively on Netflix August 30.
A Cyberattack Could Wreak Destruction Comparable to a Nuclear Weapon
A Cyberattack Could Wreak Destruction Comparable to a Nuclear Weapon
People around the world may be worried about nuclear tensions rising, but I think they’re missing the fact that a major cyberattack could be just as damaging – and hackers are already laying the groundwork.
With the U.S. and Russia pulling out of a key nuclear weapons pact – and beginning to develop new nuclear weapons – plus Iran tensions and North Korea again test-launching missiles, the global threat to civilization is high. Some fear a new nuclear arms race.
That threat is serious – but another could be as serious, and is less visible to the public. So far, most of the well-known hacking incidents, even those with foreign government backing, have done little more than steal data. Unfortunately, there are signs that hackers have placed malicious software inside U.S. power and water systems, where it’s lying in wait, ready to be triggered. The U.S. military has also reportedly penetrated the computers that control Russian electrical systems.
Many intrusions already
As someone who studies cybersecurity and information warfare, I’m concerned that a cyberattack with widespread impact, an intrusion in one area that spreads to others or a combination of lots of smaller attacks, could cause significant damage, including mass injury and death rivaling the death toll of a nuclear weapon.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, which would vaporize people within 100 feet and kill almost everyone within a half-mile, the death toll from most cyberattacks would be slower. People might die from a lack of food, power or gas for heat or from car crashes resulting from a corrupted traffic light system. This could happen over a wide area, resulting in mass injury and even deaths.
This might sound alarmist, but look at what has been happening in recent years, in the U.S. and around the world.
In early 2016, hackers took control of a U.S. treatment plant for drinking water, and changed the chemical mixture used to purify the water. If changes had been made – and gone unnoticed – this could have led to poisonings, an unusable water supply and a lack of water.
In 2016 and 2017, hackers shut down major sections of the power grid in Ukraine. This attack was milder than it could have been, as no equipment was destroyed during it, despite the ability to do so. Officials think it was designed to send a message. In 2018, unknown cybercriminals gained access throughout the United Kingdom’s electricity system; in 2019 a similar incursion may have penetrated the U.S. grid.
In August 2017, a Saudi Arabian petrochemical plant was hit by hackers who tried to blow up equipment by taking control of the same types of electronics used in industrial facilities of all kinds throughout the world. Just a few months later, hackers shut down monitoring systems for oil and gas pipelines across the U.S. This primarily caused logistical problems – but it showed how an insecure contractor’s systems could potentially cause problems for primary ones.
The FBI has even warned that hackers are targeting nuclear facilities. A compromised nuclear facility could result in the discharge of radioactive material, chemicals or even possibly a reactor meltdown. A cyberattack could cause an event similar to the incident in Chernobyl. That explosion, caused by inadvertent error, resulted in 50 deaths and evacuation of 120,000 and has left parts of the region uninhabitable for thousands of years into the future.
Mutual assured destruction
My concern is not intended to downplay the devastating and immediate effects of a nuclear attack. Rather, it’s to point out that some of the international protections against nuclear conflicts don’t exist for cyberattacks. For instance, the idea of “mutual assured destruction” suggests that no country should launch a nuclear weapon at another nuclear-armed nation: The launch would likely be detected, and the target nation would launch its own weapons in response, destroying both nations.
Cyberattackers have fewer inhibitions. For one thing, it’s much easier to disguise the source of a digital incursion than it is to hide where a missile blasted off from. Further, cyberwarfare can start small, targeting even a single phone or laptop. Larger attacks might target businesses, such as banks or hotels, or a government agency. But those aren’t enough to escalate a conflict to the nuclear scale.
Nuclear grade cyberattacks
There are three basic scenarios for how a nuclear grade cyberattack might develop. It could start modestly, with one country’s intelligence service stealing, deleting or compromising another nation’s military data. Successive rounds of retaliation could expand the scope of the attacks and the severity of the damage to civilian life.
In another situation, a nation or a terrorist organization could unleash a massively destructive cyberattack – targeting several electricity utilities, water treatment facilities or industrial plants at once, or in combination with each other to compound the damage.
Perhaps the most concerning possibility, though, is that it might happen by mistake. On several occasions, human and mechanical errors very nearly destroyed the world during the Cold War; something analogous could happen in the software and hardware of the digital realm.
Jeremy Straub
Defending against disaster
Just as there is no way to completely protect against a nuclear attack, there are only ways to make devastating cyberattacks less likely.
The first is that governments, businesses and regular people need to secure their systems to prevent outside intruders from finding their way in, and then exploiting their connections and access to dive deeper.
Critical systems, like those at public utilities, transportation companies and firms that use hazardous chemicals, need to be much more secure. One analysis found that only about one-fifth of companies that use computers to control industrial machinery in the U.S. even monitor their equipment to detect potential attacks – and that in 40% of the attacks they did catch, the intruder had been accessing the system for more than a year. Another survey found that nearly three-quarters of energy companies had experienced some sort of network intrusion in the previous year.
But all those systems can’t be protected without skilled cybersecurity staffs to handle the work. At present, nearly a quarter of all cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. are vacant, with more positions opening up than there are people to fill them. One recruiter has expressed concern that even some of the jobs that are filled are held by people who aren’t qualified to do them. The solution is more training and education, to teach people the skills they need to do cybersecurity work, and to keep existing workers up to date on the latest threats and defense strategies.
If the world is to hold off major cyberattacks – including some with the potential to be as damaging as a nuclear strike – it will be up to each person, each company, each government agency to work on its own and together to secure the vital systems on which people’s lives depend.
Jeremy Straub, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The post A Cyberattack Could Wreak Destruction Comparable to a Nuclear Weapon appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
A Cyberattack Could Wreak Destruction Comparable to a Nuclear Weapon
Southpaw
Southpaw
Owen J Fitzpatrick posted a photo:
The city centre during Dublin Pride 2019
O’Connell Street – Dublin – Ireland
‘Kissing Walls’ stars on how to handle the awkward side of gay sex
‘Kissing Walls’ stars on how to handle the awkward side of gay sex
Zak Payne and Nathan Tenebaum have the pesonalities of born performers, and the rapport of dear friends.
The pair giggle and banter, Tenebaum speaking in his soft British accent, Payne in flat Arizona tone. Their real-life relationship closely mirrors that of their characters, James and Cameron, in the new season of their web series, Kissing Walls. The season just landed on YouTube and OpenTV.
Kissing Walls follows the lives of two gay men of color living in Chicago. James (played by Payne) aspires to write professionally. Cameron (played by Tenebaum) wants life on the wicked stage. Season 2 of the show finds the pair confronting the perils of career aspiration and dating in Chicago’s gay scene, touching on insecurities surrounding age, sex, race, and even polyamory. Amid the chaos, however, is a love story of a different kind–that of two best friends steadying each other as they take on the world. It’s a dynamic so many queer people can relate to.
Nervous but giddy, Payne and Tenebaum granted Queerty a few minutes to discuss the very funny new season.
So Zak, what’s the inception of this series?
ZP: I was really interested in contributing to the media landscape, specifically with queer stories. It came about in that way. I was really inspired by series that were coming out at the time. Web series like High Maintainance, and The Outs, Broad City, Awkward Black Girl–there were possibilities for independent television. Nathan was the first person I contacted. We’d met in Arizona and worked together on a few productions: Rent, Hairspray. I’d seen him in everything I’d done, and he was blowing up in Arizona theatre.
I started writing. We did a Kickstarter and realized I wasn’t going to get the money I thought I could. The script was originally much longer and had an ensemble cast. Once that wasn’t an option, we started thinking more intimate. I always wanted to do a series that was more real, to show queer characters of color…
NT: In a non-apologetic way.
ZP: Yeah.
NT: We had to introduce someone to something that we consider our everyday sense of life. I always feel like gay characters have to be introduced or hand-held through a story as a friend to someone who is more palatable to the sensitivities of what people want to see on TV. We didn’t want to do that. We wanted to present what we are: human beings.
Well said. So, Nathaniel, Zak mentioned you were working in Arizona. Did you relocate for the show?
NT: Well, correct me if I’m wrong Zak, but I had gotten to a point in Arizona where I was like this is dull, I can’t stand it any longer. I was like we should go somewhere. We should go to Chicago! And then I totally aborted the plan because my theatre career in Arizona took off.
ZP: Chicago was definitely not on my radar. I thought I would go to LA, I was done with Arizona. Then we went with a friend group to Chicago, and I totally saw myself living here. I was still going to Arizona University, but I decided to finish classes online.
NT: But in answer to your question, each time we did a shoot I did relocate. And I did turn down gigs to do this.
Did you have apprehensions about doing a web series?
NT: The funny thing is Zak was just gushing about stuff I’ve done. But Zak, during the time we did Rent, Zak made an entire feature-length documentary about the process. And it was compelling. It’s really spectacular. To make a long story short, I didn’t have any apprehension whatsoever.
I’m glad you mention Chicago. Chicago is very prominent this season, with some beautiful photography. What is it about Chicago that lends itself to this story, and that makes it unique for gay male dating?
ZP: I think I’d lived in Chicago about a year before I decided I was going to get going with making something. I contacted Nathan.
NT: What was conceived [prior to moving] was that it was going to be for him and I.
ZP: Yeah. I had come from Arizona, a very conservative state. It’s a completely different culture coming to Chicago. There are so many little pockets of the queer community. I think the largest is Boystown [in Wriglyville]. That drew me in, and was exciting. In Arizona, the biggest event would be Pride. In Chicago, there’s something for everyone in the community, which excited me. I never feel like I don’t belong. I’ve always felt very welcome here.
And for you Nathan?
NT: For me, I don’t look at it necessarily through a queer lens. It’s more when I got to Chicago, it was an immediate sense of being in a cozy pocket. Everything was accessible, easy to get to. The city itself really immediately transports you to this really comfortable feeling. The appeal of that is something I always look for when I’m ingesting media: I’m looking for a feeling to feel like I can settle down, to take a moment. Chicago, as soon as I set foot in it, I exhaled. So when Zak mentioned we would shoot in Chicago, I was like this is a feeling that will translate.
You touch on a lot of major dating issues this season: open relationships, racism, ageism, meeting guys on apps and the like, and how friendship can help keep you anchored in the midst of all that pressure and moral dilemma. Is that reflective of your own relationship?
ZK: That became such an important element of the show as we were developing, and especially between production of Season 1 and Season 2. [We realized] that’s where the magic is in the series, within our friendship. So that was something we had to have amplified more in Season 2. Especially in the romantic comedy genre that I was really attracted to, the friendships more than the boy-girl relationships. I liked the friend scenes.
The other thing that I love about your approach to that is how the insecurity of the characters doesn’t absolve them. How much of that is based on your real insecurity?
NT: The insecurities playing out on screen are my current anxieties. They always say write what you know, so Zak and I chatted about it, and I really opened up for him. During Season 2 I had just gotten out of a five-year relationship which had just ended six days before we started shooting.
Oh wow.
NT: So everything was very raw, very fresh, very new. Zak asked me if it was ok to tap into, and I said yes. So there is no separation for me.
ZP: From the very beginning we were very ever really wanted to make up drama. I can just talk day-to-day about what’s going on in my life, and I’ll have five friends who are like “Me too!” And I was like why are we making up these scenarios? I can just go through any day-to-day life and just find the drama in it. That, from day one, was what we were really tapping into.
NT: In those moments drawing a direct parallel from our real lives…people sometimes struggle with writing to make sure it’s authentic and very real. We eliminate having to ask ourselves that question when we are doing a translation from our actual lives. It will always be real. The performances will always have a grounded base in the stories that we’re telling. They’re lived experiences.
Does that make the show a greater challenge for you as actors—going back to confront your own pain?
NT: Yeah. Absolutely.
[Laughter]
NT: In Season 2, there is a scene where Benjamin comes over to meet James, and they immediately start f*cking. It’s rough, because I was just coming off of a relationship, and my ex and Peter were like similar heights and hairstyles. It was all very oh my God it’s happening again!
[Laughter]
NT: Zak was so sweet about it. He pulled me aside and asked “How are you feeling? Do you need to take a moment? Tell me what you need to get through this moment.” He was really accommodating which allowed me to feel safe and really jump into those moments. I felt I had a responsibility as an actor. If I was seeing a situation that was so traumatic for me being replayed, I would want that situation to be authentic. I want to feel its something I can relate to and not something thrown out there for drama. Something I can directly relate to.
ZP: I think that was something from the scale we’re at. We didn’t have a lot of interference from a major studio telling us “Tone this down, bring this up.” It was very much just a stage for discovery. It’s like, I’m not Shakespeare. If you have something better to say, say it. We have rehearsal to figure out what worked and what didn’t. There was always this striving for something authentic and real. We never wanted a series that felt very Hollywood. We’re able to make something different, so why not?
Talking to you both now, it’s obvious this is a very fulfilling creative experience for you.
ZP: It’s a privilege.
It’s also ironic. Creative frustration also plays a huge role this season.
ZP: Yes.
Does reliving these feelings help you find a certain catharsis?
ZP: I think I’m living in that right now, this week, now that it’s out. Looking at the last two years of post-production and editing, I’m still very much connected to these characters and their artistic shortcomings and anxieties. I think only now, having it out, and hearing people say “This is really good” am I like this is cool.
NT: It feels good, because I’m always having this internal conflict of are we straying away from what’s really happening? Did we sensationalize it? Then something will happen and it’s like no, this is as weird as our life has been. And I mean weird in the best possible way: unexpected, kismet, just really exciting. And I do think there’s catharsis that comes through that. I love fruit punch in any way, shape or form. Doing the series and being reminded that we are living these lives we portray feels like a fountain of fruit punch in the house. I’m creating content for something that I know will be authentic. That is cathartic. I don’t know many artists that arrive at that on their first go. It’s an unbelievable privilege.
The show isn’t afraid to address sex, and, shall we say, some of the logistical issues associated with gay sex. But it doesn’t dwell on that, and it never feels like softcore porn. That’s a trap many web series fall into. How do you strike a balance of a frank approach without being exploitative?
ZP: We always have the story first. With the writing process, I was never like this is where I put in the sexy scene. It was always these are the characters, this is the drama. If we’re going to show these characters than we need to show their sex lives. I always go back to the romantic comedy genre and the gay best friend trope. They’re usually sexless characters. If our whole thesis is taking those characters and putting them at the forefront of the romantic comedy, then they should be having as much sex as their straight, white counterparts in the genre.
NT: And if you do put two white ingenues in a film, and you’re 40 minutes into the film and there isn’t a love interest story starting, people would riot. Why have beautiful attractive people in this movie for 50 minutes? Where’s the tension? People don’t do that when it’s two dudes, because it’s like people don’t want to say that. It’s unbelievable. And the easiest way to make those scenes to come across real, when you really break it down, what takes a concept from being completely hyperbolic and unreal is the fact that there are eyes and ears that can relate to it. That’s what takes a moment from being fanciful to realistic. When you get people that can relate to it, it becomes real and it’s immediately appealing.
ZP: You know, the whole big sh*t in the bed fiasco [one character this season loses bowel control during sex]…[could have been] this whole big thing. And I have seen a few things like that. But [as a gay man] you have these situations, and things go awry, and you just have to glaze over them like an adult. We show that with the series. So it just ends up being, rather than this traumatic scene, it’s like oh, it’s actually totally fine.
NT: And loving. Those moments happen. We want to inspire people to not leave their house to go on their first gay date terrified of sh*tting on someone. It happens.
[Laughter]
I encourage douching.
NT: For sure.
Now let me ask you both: as queer men of color…I think all queer people recognize there is a double standard in the way gay sex is portrayed on screen versus the way straight sex is portrayed. Do you see there as being a double standard in the way sex is treated with the white ingenues you mentioned versus people of color?
NT: I definitely think there has been a situation like that. If we’re taking it back to the trope of slavery, we were just around to be studs. We were just seen as a means to get someone else off. That trope carries itself down. Yes, it’s been watered down over hundreds of years, but it’s hypersexualized for people of color. It’s an easier sip into romance for characters if they are just not black men or men of color. This is what Zak has done so beautifully: he really created this world where romance can exist outside stereotypes. What if you drop two people of color into When Harry Met Sally? What happens then? And why not?
That’s a good working relationship. Has appearing in a web series opened more doors for the two of you to find work as actors?
ZP: It’s starting. Season 2 has been out a week, so it’s still in its infancy. But just doing Season 1 I was of the mindset that if we can just make something we can get on to the next thing. And I think that’s exactly what happened in finding our producer for Season 2. He was able to see the possibilities. Now, with Season 2 out, I wan to anticipate another big leap. There’s so much more we can do with Season 3.
What about for you as an actor, Nathan? Have you had more offers?
NT: No. But this is my first on-film project ever. I’m predominantly a stage actor. That’s where my career began. But doing this project has definitely inspired me something within me too. I’m hoping to jump in a little bit more.
What are your hopes for Season 3?
NT: We’re working on it.
ZP: We’re definitely working out it. We have quite a few ideas, and want to dive into half-hour episodes. That will take quite a few resources, and that’s the road we’re on now. I have a date in my head, so I’m like we shoot on this date. And the last two times it worked, so I’m hoping it will be the case again.
Kissing Walls is available on YouTube and OpenTV. All photos courtesy of Jon Wes and ‘Kissing Walls.’
Greenland, Dave Salmoni, Miley Cyrus, Justin Carroll, Ghislaine Maxwell, Pete Buttigieg, Rashida Tlaib: HOT LINKS
Greenland, Dave Salmoni, Miley Cyrus, Justin Carroll, Ghislaine Maxwell, Pete Buttigieg, Rashida Tlaib: HOT LINKS
GREENLAND. Trump wants to buy Greenland from Denmark. Denmark says it’s not for sale: “Talk of a Greenland purchase was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that the notion had been laughed off by some advisers as a joke but was taken more seriously by others in the White House.”
PAUL KRUGMAN. Trumpanomics is a flop: “Neither I nor anyone else is predicting a replay of the 2008 crisis. It’s not even clear whether we’re heading for recession. But the bond market is telling us that the smart money has become very gloomy about the economy’s prospects.”
BH90210. Here’s what Tori Spelling, Jennie Garth and the others are getting paid for the reboot.
IN-N-OUT. Jeffrey Epstein “recruiter” Ghislaine Maxwell spotted at L.A. burger joint.
RASHIDA TLAIB. Congresswoman cancels visit to Israel after ban easement: ‘Israel’s interior ministry announced Friday that it would allow Tlaib to enter the country as a private citizen to visit her aging grandmother, after it banned her and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from going on a political trip amid pressure from President Trump. In a statement Friday morning, Tlaib said that she “decided to not travel to Palestine and Israel at this time. Visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions meant to humiliate me would break my grandmother’s heart.”‘
IOWA. Buttigieg plays catch-up up to rivals: “The 37-year-old mayor has yet to snag a single in-state endorsement in Iowa, and while his campaign has 57 staffers on the ground, it expanded to that number only recently. It’s a sharp contrast to other top Democratic candidates, who made investments in Iowa last winter to try to identify supporters and build a foundation for 2020, knowing the results here will shape the rest of the fight for the Democratic nomination.”
TEXAS. Homophobe Allen West launches bid for GOP Chair.
NORTHERN IRELAND. Asher’s Gay cake case going before European Court of Human Rights: ‘The owners of Ashers bakery in Belfast won a Supreme Court appeal last year over a claim that they had discriminated against a customer by refusing to make a cake iced with a pro gay marriage message. Now that ruling is to be challenged, on the basis that it “failed to give appropriate weight” to the human rights of Gareth Lee, who first brought legal action.’
RUSSIA. Gay couple had to flee for caring for their adopted children: ‘The revelation that Vaganov and his partner, Evgeny Erofeyev, have been raising their adopted sons together for nearly a decade put them squarely in the crosshairs of the Russian authorities. Since then, the couple have had to flee the country with their two sons, accused of breaking Russia’s infamous “gay propaganda law” simply by letting their children know that they are married.’
GOOGLE PLAY. App store accused by Hornet of anti-gay bias: “A popular gay social network has accused Google of discrimination after its app was removed from Google’s Play store several times without warning. Hornet said Google often employed moderators in Malaysia, where same-sex relationships are illegal, to vet apps.”
ON THE RAG. This week on the gay magazines.
JAPAN. Taron Egerton is still rocketing with Elton John.
NEW YORK. Upstate candidate smeared with fake flyers: ‘Justin Carroll, 37, of Clinton, N.Y., says he learned of the flyers another candidate for office in the town of about 4,300 people had forwarded it to him. The crudely-made flyer features the word “Pride” at the top in rainbow letters, and purports to be a letter sent to Democratic voters, telling them to “join our Democratic team” of candidates for office and touting the fact that Carroll would be the first LGBTQ Town Justice if elected this November.’
TRAILER OF THE DAY. Zeroville starring James Franco.
NEW TUNE OF THE DAY. Miley Cyrus break-up track “Slide Away”.
WILD ANIMALS OF THE DAY. With Dave Salmoni.
FRIDAY FLASH. Mauro Gama.
The post Greenland, Dave Salmoni, Miley Cyrus, Justin Carroll, Ghislaine Maxwell, Pete Buttigieg, Rashida Tlaib: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
Elizabeth Smart’s Dad Comes Out as Gay, Leaves Mormon Church
Elizabeth Smart’s Dad Comes Out as Gay, Leaves Mormon Church
Ed Smart said he “numbered among” the “victims of ridicule, shunning, rejection and outright humiliation” of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
www.advocate.com/people/2019/8/16/elizabeth-smarts-dad-comes-out-gay-leaves-mormon-church
WATCH: ‘Drag Race’ star Brooke Lynn Hytes’ triumphant return to Toronto
WATCH: ‘Drag Race’ star Brooke Lynn Hytes’ triumphant return to Toronto
She’s baaaaack!
