Daily Dose: Stir crazy? Try running a ‘Marathon’

Welcome to Queerty’s latest entry in our Queerantined: Daily Dose series. Every day as long as the COVID-19 pandemic has us under quarantine, we’ll release a suggested bit of gloriously queer entertainment designed to keep you from getting stir crazy in the house. Each weekend, we will also suggest a bingable title to keep you extra busy.

The Hidden Treasure: Brittany Runs A Marathon

This comedy from gay writer-director Paul Downs Colazzio fetched an 8-figure sum at Sundance 2019 before flopping last summer in theatres. It’s an injustice: Brittany Runs A Marathon is one of the best comedies of the year. Based on a true story, the story centers on the title woman, played actress Jillian Bell in a breakout performance. Brittany lives hard-partying, directionless life of drinking, sex and being overweight. When her doctor orders her to slim down, she forms a group of running buddies with her neighbor Catherine (Michela Watkins) and gay friend Seth (Micah Stock). As she prepares for the New York City Marathon, Brittany undergoes a life transformation, as well as a physical one, setting career goals for herself, and even wading into dating. Trite as the premise might sound, Colazzio’s witty dialogue and an excellent lead performance by Bell keep Brittany alive. More importantly, the movie sneaks up on viewers in a similar vein to Bridesmaids, seducing the audience with raunchy humor before stabbing with moving sincerity. It’s the best kind of comedy for our times: one which entertains, and leaves viewers feeling good about life.

Streams exclusively on Amazon.

www.queerty.com/daily-dose-stir-crazy-try-running-marathon-20200401?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Franklin Graham’s anti-LGBTQ history undermines his NYC tent hospital

www.glaad.org/blog/franklin-grahams-anti-lgbtq-history-undermines-his-nyc-tent-hospital

20 LGBTQ Ugandans Arrested for Allegedly Flouting Social Distancing

Police say the arrestees were violating social distancing orders, but an activist says they were targeted for their identity.

www.advocate.com/world/2020/4/01/20-lgbtq-ugandans-arrested-allegedly-flouting-social-distancing

Lawyer who called judge a “fat f*g” swears he’s “not a bigot” because he has a gay cousin

A lawyer from Colorado insists he’s “not a bigot” despite calling a judge an antigay slur. Instead, he says, he’s “simply not politically correct.”

Robert Abrams just had his law license suspended and has been ordered to participate in sensitivity training after calling a judge a “gay fat f*g” in an email to two of his clients.

According to court documents, Abrams made the homophobic and fatphobic remarks about Judge Phillip Douglass in an email to a couple he was representing in a construction contract lawsuit.

“The judge hates me,” he wrote. “It happens, it’s not the first time. I probably remind him of someone who beat him up [when he] was a fat kid and now that he’s a big fat judge he gets even w/ the bullies. Maybe he just hates Jews, who knows?”

“While I was getting your case dismissed… I was getting yelled at by Fatso. The judge is a gay, fat, f*g, now it’s out there.”

Related: Ohio judge apologizes for calling gay people “savages” who deserve to die of AIDS

This week, Abrams was issued the three-month suspension after disciplinary judge William Lucero determined he had violated Colorado’s Rules of Professional Conduct.

The suspension was stayed, however, pending the completion of an 18-month probationary period, in which the lawyer must enroll in an ethics school and do eight hours of cultural awareness and sensitivity training.

When asked about his use of the antigay slur, Abrams said he is “simply not a politically correct individual, and will never be politically correct.”

“That’s how the bullies talked to the weaklings when I grew up,” he explained. Then he tried arguing that the word “f*g” describes a “sissy” not a “sex preference.”

Abrams also denied having any “bias against homosexuals,” going so far as to ask his gay cousin to testify about their “warm familial relationship” and citing his work representing a gay bar in Denver one time.

“I’m not a bigot,” he declared.

In his ruling, Lucero wrote that Abrams is free to speak however he wants “in his private life,” but when he’s representing clients he “must put aside the schoolyard code of conduct and adhere to professional standards.”

“[L]awyers’ words and deeds reflect on the values and ideals of today’s legal profession,” Lucero continued. “Lawyers are also officers of the court, so their conduct signals to clients the quality of justice and the measure of fairness that can be expected from the legal system as a whole.”

Abrams says he plans to appeal Lucero’s ruling, calling it “just obnoxiously political correctness.”

Related: Homophobic Lawyer Who Cyberbullied A Gay College Student Loses Again

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George Takei, Kelly Loeffler, Pete Buttigieg, Kara Swisher, ‘Vogue’, Orville Peck, Florida, Dem Convention: HOT LINKS

FLORIDA. Governor DeSantis orders statewide 30-day stay-at-home order: ‘Under the order, the governor is requiring “all Floridians to limit movements and interactions outside their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities.” The order goes into effect Thursday night at midnight.’

JOE BIDEN. Democratic National Convention may be different this year: “We ought to be able to do what we were able to do in the middle of the Civil War all the way through to World War II — have Democratic and Republican conventions and primaries and elections and still have public safety.”

KELLY LOEFFLER. Senator dumped $19 million in stocks ahead of coronavirus disclosures: “The largest transactions — and the most politically problematic — involve $18.7 million in sales of Intercontinental Exchange stock in three separate deals dated Feb. 26 and March 11. Loeffler is a former executive with ICE, and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the CEO of the company, which owns the New York Stock Exchange among other financial marketplaces.”

MARCH TOWARD DESTRUCTION. Trump rolling back fuel efficiency standards which were U.S. government’s strongest attempt to combat the climate crisis.

FRIVOLITY AMID CRISIS. Ansel Elgort’s bulge got him trending on Twitter.

CENSUS DAY PSA. Pete and Chasten Buttigieg.

DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN U.S. 2019 pandemic warning went unheeded by White House: “The 2019 study warned otherwise — specifically urging Americans not to conflate the risks of a typical flu and a pandemic. The existence of that warning undermines administration officials’ contentions in recent weeks that no one could have seen the virus damaging the economy as it has. The study was requested by the National Security Council, according to two people familiar with the matter.”

KARA SWISHER. FOX’s fake news contagion: “Thankfully, Mom had not gone as far as claiming the coronavirus is a plot to hurt President Trump — a theory pushed by some at Fox News heavily at first. While she has been alternately appalled and amused by the president, and often takes his side, she is not enough of a superfan to think that he is any kind of victim here. So, she kept going out with friends to restaurants and shopping and generally living her life as it always had been.”

RUSSIA. Putin working remotely after exposure to infected doctor…

CLOSED. Japan bans entry from 49 additional countries: “Japan’s Prime Minister says Japan has banned entry from 49 more countries, including the U.S., Canada, all of China, South Korea and seven Southeast Asian countries.”

BROUGHT IT IN. 28 University of Texas students test positive after partying on spring break in Mexico.

JAIL LOCKDOWN. Federal inmates will be kept in cells for at least two weeks: “In an effort to tamp down the COVID-19 infection rate across the nation’s corrections system, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced on Tuesday that starting Wednesday, inmates in all of its institutions across the country will be kept in their assigned cells or quarters, effectively putting them in lockdown.”

BOSTON GLOBE. Donald Trump has blood on his hands: “Rather than making the expected federal effort to mobilize rapidly to distribute needed gowns, masks, and ventilators to ill-equipped hospitals and to the doctors and nurses around the country who are left unprotected treating a burgeoning number of patients, the administration has instead been caught outbidding individual states (including Massachusetts) trying to purchase medical supplies. It has dragged its heels on invoking the Defense Production Act to get scarce, sorely needed ventilators and masks into production so that they can be distributed to hospitals nationwide as they hit their peaks in the cycle of the epidemic. It has left governors and mayors in the lurch, begging for help. The months the administration wasted with prevarication about the threat and its subsequent missteps will amount to exponentially more COVID-19 cases than were necessary. In other words, the president has blood on his hands.”

TORCH BEARER OF THE DAY. George Takei. “I am honored beyond belief to have been selected to be the final torchbearer who will light the Olympic Flame in Tokyo in 2021!

View this post on Instagram

Friends! I’ve been sitting on some big news for quite some time now. Unfortunately, given the current global situation, I haven’t been given the clear to announce it until now. I am honored beyond belief to have been selected to be the final torchbearer who will light the Olympic Flame in Tokyo in 2021! This will be such a unique moment, before the eyes of a billion people, lighting the torch as a symbol of hope for the future in 2021 in Tokyo. As a life-long runner, I’m especially grateful to have been chosen, and hope to do everyone in the US of A proud!

A post shared by George Takei (@georgehtakei) on Apr 1, 2020 at 4:59am PDT

ZOO VISIT OF THE DAY. The Shedd Aquarium penguins visit the Beluga whales.

(ARCHIVED) LIVESTREAM OF THE DAY. Orville Peck. (starts at 5:35)

RETRO PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY. Madonna “Vogue” from the Blond Ambition Tour.

PIC SWAP OF THE DAY. Matt & Dan.

HUMP DAY HOTTIE. Matias Tchomikian.

View this post on Instagram

Día20. Matías Tchomikián. 28años. 81kg. 1,82m. – “Nadie dijo que te quedes quieto, ni en silencio, sólo te pidieron que te quedes en casa. – A veces pienso cuándo será que todo esto termine. Pero a la vez decido no pensar más porque una parte de mi se aterra de sólo sentir qué podemos mantenernos meses así. Nunca pensé. Nunca imaginé. Siempre descreí. Esto solo sucedía en películas y hoy me siento parte de una. Una de esas en las que salís del cine con un nudo en la garganta. – Hay algo positivo en todo. Nada es oscuro a propósito. Y cuanto más oscuro, más brillante es cualquier luz por pequeña que sea.- Por momentos me despierto y me olvido de lo que pasa. Desayuno. Me visto. Como si fuera a salir a trabajar. Pero no. Hoy me quedo en casa. Hoy, mañana, ayer, lunes, domingo o martes. Da igual. – Resistir. Sé que debemos, sé que podemos y sé que lo vamos a hacer de la mejor manera. Sé que estamos dando lo mejor que tenemos, o podemos, para esquivar un balazo que tira a un mundo abajo. – Si, yo sé que al principio este texto te sonaba un poco trágico. Pero no lo es. No es más que un relato de lo que todos estamos viviendo para hacerte ver el pequeño costo que tiene ser solidario por un tiempo. – Hoy podemos salvarnos. Y hablo de salvarnos de forma literal, salvarte vos, salvar a otros. A cuántos héroes envidiaste alguna vez por tener el poder de hacerlo y hoy que lo tenés en tus manos estás titubeando. – Pensalo.” -Matías Tchomikián

A post shared by Matias Tchomikian (@matiastchomikian) on Apr 1, 2020 at 9:05am PDT

The post George Takei, Kelly Loeffler, Pete Buttigieg, Kara Swisher, ‘Vogue’, Orville Peck, Florida, Dem Convention: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

George Takei, Kelly Loeffler, Pete Buttigieg, Kara Swisher, ‘Vogue’, Orville Peck, Florida, Dem Convention: HOT LINKS

Kathy Kozachenko Proved It in ’74—America Will Embrace Out Candidates

On the eve of National Out to Win Day, Victory Fund CEO Annise Parker urges all LGBTQ people to consider running for office. 

www.advocate.com/commentary/2020/4/01/kathy-kozachenko-proved-it-74-america-will-embrace-out-candidates

The FDA would rather let people die from coronavirus than take blood from gay men

The FDA just cleared the way for hospitals to begin using blood plasma to treat patients with coronavirus. Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and who now carry the antibody for the virus are being encouraged to donate blood to help others.

There’s just one caveat.

Sexually active gay and bisexual men need not bother donating.

The FDA says it’s upholding its 12-month restriction on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, despite a nationwide blood shortage and a letter signed by 17 Democratic senators urging the agency to revisit its discriminatory deferral policy.

“As such, it is imperative that we move away from discriminatory donor deferral policies that prohibit many healthy individuals from contributing much-needed blood and blood products,” the letter states.

Related: Five Reasons Why Homophobia Is The Only Possible Reason The FDA Won’t Change Its Ban On Gay Blood Donors

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis called for the “antiquated ban” to be “immediately lifted.”

“The FDA cannot let an outdated and discriminatory ban on blood donations from gay and bi men get in the way of potentially life-saving treatment for the country’s painful current health crisis,” she says.

“Gay and bi men who have recovered from COVID-19 and want to donate plasma, or who want to help contribute to a nationwide shortage of blood, are banned from doing so as a result of the FDA. Continuing to enforce this antiquated policy is dangerous, irresponsible, and flies in the face of recommendations from medical experts.”

A spokesperson for the FDA says the agency “is aware there has been a significant reduction in blood and plasma donations around the country” and that its “working with the blood banking and source plasma industries” to find a solution.

It’s still not lifting the restriction though. Meanwhile, the U.S. coronavirus death toll just surpassed 4,000 today.

Related: The FDA said he couldn’t give blood because he’s gay… so he donated a kidney in protest

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