S.F. Gay Men’s Chorus Mashes Up ‘True Colors’ and ‘Brave’ for Tribute

The chorus pulled together a gorgeous mash-up of Cyndi Lauper’s and Sara Bareilles’s songs to thank those on the front lines. 

www.advocate.com/music/2020/4/10/sf-gay-mens-chorus-mashes-true-colors-and-brave-tribute

Police arrest nine men in “pot for sex” Grindr sting operation, publish mugshots in newspaper

We’re in the middle of a global pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped police in North Georgia from using Grindr to conduct bogus sting operations on gay men.

Our friends at Project Q Atlanta report that the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office arrested nine men during a three-day sting operation last month, charging them with a string of misdemeanors and felonies, some without any merit whatsoever.

Police accused at least one of the men of offering drugs in exchange for sex to an undercover cop, though screenshots of the conversation included in the man’s arrest warrant don’t support the allegations at all.

Last month, Sgt. W. Dereck Johnson, using the Grindr screen name “Charlie[looking for]420″, initiated a conversation with the man online. Johnson asked if he had any pot. When the man said yes, Johnson asked, “U share?” The man said he would and the two arranged a meet-up.

“I want to get high and f*ck,” Johnson wrote.

“Nothing wrong with that,” the man replied.

When the man showed up at the designated meeting spot, police arrested him on misdemeanor charges of pandering, possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, and criminal attempt.

In his report, Johnson wrote, “[The suspect] did solicit SSGT D. Johnson to perform an act of prostitution in exchange for marijuana.” This, however, never happened. At no point during the conversation did the man offer pot in exchange for sex.

Related: Georgia sheriff busted for cruising for sex in a park during police sting operation

The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office also went after eight other men, between the ages of 23 and 50, over the course of three days in early March.

The arrests included a slew of random misdemeanor charges, including pandering, obstruction, and marijuana possession, as well as more serious felonies, ranging from criminal attempt to distribute marijuana and methamphetamine, to the use of a communication device to facilitate a felony.

The men’s names and mugshots were then leaked to a local newspaper, where they were then published for everyone to see. The newspaper made no mention of the sting operation, but it did include the names of each of the men’s employers.

When reached for comment, Dawson County Sheriff Jeff Johnson declined to say anything, but Greg Nevins, senior counsel at Lambda Lega’s Southern Regional Office in Atlanta, called the entire sting operation a “cataclysmic failure” on the part of law enforcement.

“It used to be that they would always say we have to stop these hookups in parks because our children are in parks,” Nevins told Project Q Atlanta. “Well now you’re on Grindr looking for a problem.”

He continued, “Where does the protect and serve baseline actually come into my this?Where is any appreciation for not over incarcerating people who aren’t doing anything harmful and looking out for situations where real harm is going on? It’s a cataclysmic failure.”

Related: City settles lawsuit over gay sex sting operations with six-figure payout to each victim

www.queerty.com/police-arrest-nine-men-pot-sex-grindr-sting-operation-publish-mugshots-newspaper-20200410?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Andrew Cuomo, Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Pink, Isaac Dunbar, ‘SNL,’ RuPaul, Lil Nas X, Selena Gomez, Charlie XCX: HOT LINKS

LUNATIC RAGES: Trump Spends Friday Morning Binging on Twitter, Posts 46 Tweets Calling Pelosi Evil, Bashing WHO and Mocking Biden

FLORIDA MAN: GOP Gov. DeSantis mulls reopening schools: Coronavirus ‘doesn’t seem to threaten’ kids

VOICE OF REASON: Cuomo: Economic reboot must account for second wave of coronavirus cases

AS IF: Democrats want to drop Joe Biden for Andrew Cuomo, poll finds

LONDON: Prime Minister Johnson up and walking in COVID-19 recovery as UK deaths near 9,000

POPCORN ALERT: Federal Court Says MGM Must Release Secret Trump ‘Apprentice’ Tapes

BRANCH COVIDIANS: Ammon Bundy And His Outlaw COVID Meet-Up Crew Are Hosting An Easter Potluck

ALL OVER AGAIN: For H.I.V. Survivors, a Feeling of Weary Déjà Vu. “Pandemics never hit fairly,” said David France, 60, the director of the 2012 Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague. “While we now have what appears on its face to be a more democratic plague that isn’t confined mostly to a despised population, it has still been most heavily concentrated in the major urban areas, which is blue America, in neighborhoods that are filled with people who are not rich and are often black or brown.”

MUST READ: A biker, a virus and a president: A motorcyclist has a message for Donald Trump. “In the fourth year of your presidency, you can’t blame the previous administration for your failures, nor can you blame your opponent in a long-past election. This one is unequivocally yours.”

WINTER’S LAST BLAST: Maine snowstorm leaves nearly 265,000 without power

COMIC RELIEF COMING: Working remotely, ‘Saturday Night Live’ to air new content this week

TRAILER OF THE DAY: ‘RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race’

DESPERATE TIMES: I’m a Lesbian. But Since the Lockdown, I’ve Been Sleeping With My Male Roommate.

HILARIOUSLY DEPRESSING (BUT ADORABLE): Lil Nas X celebrates his 21st birthday in quarantine with Elmo and a bitten-out slice of bread

View this post on Instagram

bringing in my 21st with my day 1

A post shared by Lil Nas X (@lilnasx) on Apr 8, 2020 at 8:28pm PDT

QUEER YOUTH: Inspirations: How Isaac Dunbar Celebrates Self-Love With His Major Label Debut, ‘Isaac’s Insects’

PLEASE DON’T LEAVE US: Pink on having Coronavirus: I woke up and couldn’t breathe

ON THE RAG: A weekly look at what’s making news in the gay magazines

NEW SONG OF THE DAY: Charli XCX Releases New Song ‘Forever’ From Self-Isolation Album

NEW VIDEO OF THE DAY: Selena Gomez, “Boyfriend”

FURLESS FRIDAY: NAOTO

View this post on Instagram

#bathtime #workout #fit #hotgay

A post shared by NAOTO (@naoto_7jp) on Mar 26, 2020 at 12:31am PDT

The post Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Andrew Cuomo, Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Pink, Isaac Dunbar, ‘SNL,’ RuPaul, Lil Nas X, Selena Gomez, Charlie XCX: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Andrew Cuomo, Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Pink, Isaac Dunbar, ‘SNL,’ RuPaul, Lil Nas X, Selena Gomez, Charlie XCX: HOT LINKS

Lesbian Couple in Custody Pleads ‘Don’t Let Us Die’

While in immigration custody, two women are pleading for their lives amid the current health crisis. 

www.advocate.com/news/2020/4/10/lesbian-couple-custody-pleads-dont-let-us-die

Antigay Rep. Matt Gaetz ripped to shreds on live TV for mocking coronavirus with gas mask

Antigay Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida had his ass handed to him yesterday (on Fox News, nonetheless!) for that spectacle he made at the nation’s capital last month when he wore a gas mask to mock the coronavirus hysteria during an emergency floor vote.

On March 4, Gaetz made a big show of wearing a gas mask during a floor vote for an emergency spending bill to combat the virus. Two days later, one of his constituents, a man in his 70s, died of COVID-19. Less than a week after that, Gaetz himself entered self-quarantine after potentially being exposed to the virus at CPAC.

Yesterday, 37-year-old Gaetz, who doesn’t believe in same-sex marriage and was once arrested for drunk driving, appeared on fellow homophobe Laura Ingraham’s show, where he was taken to task by Democratic strategist Chris Hahn.

During the heated exchange, Hahn criticized Gaetz for accusing Democrats of politicizing coronavirus after the stunt he staged with the gas mask. As the two agued, Hahn yelled, “I hope you lend [the mask] to your constituents so they can show up and vote, Matt!”

Related: Antigay lawmaker who ripped Hunter Biden for substance abuse… once got a DUI

Gaetz replied by foolishly accusing Democrats of voter suppression in Wisconsin because they tried to postpone the state’s primary, as many other states have been doing, to limit the potential spread of coronavirus.

As soon as Gaetz said this, Hahn responded, “Buddy, you shouldn’t be talking about people dying. Because people in your district saw you making fun of [the coronavirus] and took this less seriously and may have been infected as a result.”

“You are responsible,” Hahn raged. “You should be resigning from Congress, sir!”

Watch.

Related: Antigay lawmaker who mocked coronavirus self-quarantines after being exposed to the virus

www.queerty.com/antigay-rep-matt-gaetz-ripped-shreds-live-tv-mocking-coronavirus-gas-mask-20200410?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Franklin Graham Defends Anti-Gay Pledge for NYC Tent Hospital Workers: We Don’t Want Drunks or Drug Users Either

Evangelist Franklin Graham is defending a requirement that volunteers at a New York City tent hospital run by his charity adhere to an anti-LGBT pledge.

Samaritan’s Purse, which operates the hospital for coronavirus patients in Central Park, mandates that healthcare workers and others read and adhere to a statement of faith defining marriage as “exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female” and saying the unrighteous are sentenced to “everlasting punishment in hell.”

In an interview Thursday with the Charlotte Observer, Graham justified the requirement by comparing LGBT people to drunks, drug users and those who might use the tent hospital as an opportunity to “pick up girls.”

“All of our doctors and nurses and staff, (they’re) Christians,” Graham said. “We believe it’s very important that — as we serve people and help people — we do it in Jesus’ name. …

“Of course, I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” Graham added. “That’s part of who we are. So we have a long list of things we want people to understand and agree with before we take them to work with us. I don’t want a person who is going to be on the job and drinks; that’s not a good witness. I don’t want a person who’s going to be using drugs to be part of our team. I don’t want someone who’s going to be swearing to be part of our team. I don’t want someone who is trying to pick up girls, and using this as an opportunity to do those kinds of things.

“So, we try to screen the people that work with us,” he said. “And we want men and women who believe the way we do and have the same core values that we have.”

Graham also doubled down on his recent assertion on Fox News that the coronavirus pandemic is God’s punishment for sin.

“When God made man, he never intended for man to have disease,” Graham told the Observer. “And to have death. He put us in a perfect world. The climate was perfect. The conditions were perfect. The food to eat. But man rebelled against God. And the Bible is very clear that, as a result of this rebellion against God, we live in what we call ‘a fallen world.’ So we have cancer. We have the coronavirus. We have diabetes. We have all of the other problems we have as a society. We have murder, we have thefts. …

“But that wasn’t God’s intention,” Graham added. “That’s why God sent his son Jesus Christ to take our sins. And Christ died for our sins. That’s why we celebrate Easter.

“So I see the coronavirus, I see the wars of this world, I see the economic problems — I see all these other things — as just a result of the fallen world in which we live,” he said. “And that’s as a result of sin that came into the world and has infected the entire human race.”

Read the Observer‘s full story here.

The post Franklin Graham Defends Anti-Gay Pledge for NYC Tent Hospital Workers: We Don’t Want Drunks or Drug Users Either appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Franklin Graham Defends Anti-Gay Pledge for NYC Tent Hospital Workers: We Don’t Want Drunks or Drug Users Either