John Lewis, Saudi Arabia, Barack Obama, Sara Gilbert, Ahlmalik Williams, Sea Lions, Zac Efron: HOT LINKS

John Lewis, Saudi Arabia, Barack Obama, Sara Gilbert, Ahlmalik Williams, Sea Lions, Zac Efron: HOT LINKS

HORSES IN THE BACK. Obama’s 2019 favorite songs list includes Lil Nas X, Lizzo, Frank Ocean, and more…

2020. Pete Buttigieg criticizes Biden over Iraq war vote: “This is an example of why years in Washington is not always the same thing as judgment. He supported the worst foreign policy decision made by the United States in my lifetime, which was the decision to invade Iraq.” ALSO. Buttigieg poised to win Iowa caucuses?

MAJOR FLOP. The astonishing amount of $$ CATS is on track to lose.

JOHN LEWIS. Congressman and civil rights icon to undergo treatment for Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

UKRAINE. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to visit amid impeachment. “As the Senate weighs options for a trial, Pompeo will depart Thursday on a five-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia. Ukraine will be the first stop on the trip, the State Department said Monday.”

SEPARATIONS. Sara Gilbert and Linda Perry split after more than five years of marriage.

AHLMALIK WILLIAMS. Madonna’s new boyfriend joined the family in London.

ZAC EFRON. Actor rushed to the hospital in life or death medical emergency in Papua New Guinea.

AUSTRALIA. Thousands of koalas feared dead in wildfires: “The mid-northern coast of New South Wales was home to up to 28,000 koalas, but wildfires have significantly reduced their population in recent months. Koalas are native to Australia and are one of the country’s most beloved animals, but they’ve been under threat due to a loss of habitat.”

VIGILANCE REQUIRED. 20 of the most dangerous countries for LGBT travelers.

EASYJET. European airline directs flight attendants to drop “ladies and gentlemen” from in-flight announcements and adopt more inclusive language.

SAUDI ARABIA. Hundreds arrested for public indecency: ‘Saudi Arabia has arrested more than 200 people for violating “public decency” – including by wearing immodest clothing – and “harassment“, police said, in the first such crackdown since the ultra-conservative kingdom began easing social norms. Some 120 men and women have been arrested over the past week for offending public morals, including wearing “inappropriate clothes“, Riyadh police said in a series of statements on Twitter since Tuesday.’

OVERSIZE LOAD OF THE DAY. Sea lions in Olympia, Washington.

MONDAY MUSCLE. Thara.

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John Lewis, Saudi Arabia, Barack Obama, Sara Gilbert, Ahlmalik Williams, Sea Lions, Zac Efron: HOT LINKS

Gay Couple Ejected from Bar in Puerto Rico Because Two Men Were Dancing Together: WATCH

Gay Couple Ejected from Bar in Puerto Rico Because Two Men Were Dancing Together: WATCH

A gay couple visiting Orocovis, Puerto Rico were stunned when they were kicked out of a restaurant after one of the men began dancing with a straight male friend of the family. The couple, Trey May and Luis Santiago Rivera posted videos to social media shot during the incident at Gyros Orocovis.

Said May in a video posted to social media: “So this place is very homophobic. Just got kicked out for dancing with someone who wasn’t even my boyfriend. So if you’re ever in this area in Puerto Rico, please, do not go. These people are very homophobic.”

FULL VIDEO OF WHAT HAPPENED pic.twitter.com/0WHRxsMZ2T

— TM (@treymay_) December 30, 2019

CBS This Morning reporter David Begnaud posted about the incident on Twitter after talking to the couple and the restaurant.

Wrote Begnaud: “I reached out to Gyros, via Facebook, to ask if the patrons’ account is true. They responded: ‘Greetings, everything was a misunderstanding, nobody threw them away, they were only asked to go outside since they had also lit an electronic cigarette, those who quickly……get frustrated are you and quickly defame what is not. That’s all I say, I just ask you not to continue commenting on something that is not real. Goodnight.’”

“…get frustrated are you and quickly defame what is not. That’s all I say, I just ask you not to continue commenting on something that is not real. Goodnight.”

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) December 30, 2019

Begnaud added: “Luis Santiago-Rivera confirms that someone in their group was using an e-cigarette, but says they had been at the bar for more than an hour, when they were told to stop dancing, and that no one ever told them to go outside or leave for using an e-cigarette. Luis Santiago-Rivera alleges homophobic slurs were directed at them by the employee who told them to stop dancing. About the incident, the gay couple tells me they were embarrassed in front of their family, who was with them at the bar. They left feeling discriminated against and humiliated.”

The restaurant published an apology on its Facebook page.

It wrote: “To all our customers, LGBT community and customers affected
Our intention has never been the offending of any person. All customers who have had the opportunity to visit us know first hand how is the deal we give day by day. We apologize greatly to the customers affected today and we express that we are open to dialogue with them in specific. Our intention is to give a good service to all alike. To the whole community, we had never had misunderstandings with any member. The doors are open to receive and treat them as we all deserve. If they give us the opportunity we will prove it. To the boys who felt offended apologies. If you communicate with us we can give them personally.”

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Gay Couple Ejected from Bar in Puerto Rico Because Two Men Were Dancing Together: WATCH

Openly gay Kameny runs for D.C. Delegate: 1971

Openly gay Kameny runs for D.C. Delegate: 1971

Washington Area Spark posted a photo:

Openly gay Kameny runs for D.C. Delegate: 1971

Franklin E. Kameny is shown in a March 19, 1971 photograph while campaigning as an openly gay man for Washington, D.C.’s non-voting congressional delegate.

Kameny used his candidacy for D.C. Delegate to raise the issue of discrimination against what we now call LGBTQ people.

The election winner, Walter Fauntroy, drew 65,000 votes. Kameny came in fourth with 1,800 votes.

Kameny was fired from his job at the Army Map Service in 1957 after he was arrested in Lafayette Park—then a gay male cruising location. The Civil Service fired him as a “sexual pervert.”

Kameny unlike others who hid their heads in shame, fought the dismissal. He lost, but went on to become one of the founders of the Mattachine Society in Washington, D.C.—an early gay rights group.

He brought a militancy to the nascent gay rights movement in the years before the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion.

Kameny, together with others, organized picket lines at the White House, Civil Service Commission and Pentagon in 1965.

Kameny was one of the leaders among those who campaigned to overturn the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a “sickness.”

He and other advocates succeeded in 1973 when the trustees of the APA removed the designation. Dissident psychiatrists petitioned the issue to the membership but the trustees’ decision was upheld 20,000-3,800—a resounding victory for Kameny and the other advocates.

Kameny died in 2011.

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmHCoVvx

The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.

Openly gay Kameny runs for D.C. Delegate: 1971