Daily Archives: May 7, 2020



You Might Like

Videos | Dating

Live Cams | Live Chats

 

NEWS

Netflix shoots down criticism it features too many gay characters

Netflix shoots down criticism it features too many gay characters

Jim Parsons as agent Henry Willson in Netlfix show, Hollywood
Jim Parsons as agent Henry Willson in Netlfix show, Hollywood (Photo: Netflix)

During this time of lockdown, more of us than ever before are turning to streaming services such as Netflix for entertainment. And thankfully, the streamer has plenty of LGBTQ-flavored characters amongst its shows and documentaries. In fact, a few too many for some people – prompting the perfect response from the media giant.

One Twitter user took to Twitter this week to post a meme complaining about the amount of LGBTQ representation on Netflix.

The meme from @AdamSB___ was a screenshot from animated show SpongeBob SquarePants. Patrick Star (labeled “Netflix”) is seen force-feeding a pumpkin (“an unnecessary gay character”) to Spongebob (“any new series”).

Every damn new series pic.twitter.com/zLJstwiThm

— Chilambo 💜 (@AdamSB___) May 5, 2020

That tweet has – disturbingly – had more than 117k likes and more than 30k retweets. It also brought out the homophobes to comment.

“They Promoting that Sh*t they want society to accept it and start Viewing it as normal as a way of life…” responded @Chinwike_LFC.

They Promoting that Sh*t they want society to accept it and start Viewing it as normal as a way of life… 👎🏽

— Chinwike (@Chinwike_LFC) May 5, 2020

Related: WATCH: Jeremy Pope, Jim Parsons & Jake Picking dish on the ‘Hollywood’ casting couch

Fortunately, when the tweet began to gain traction, many others came to the streamer’s defense.

“So straight characters are normal but gay characters are unnecessary?” countered @femmenart. “The whole point of representation is to normalize it because being gay is normal and so it isn’t unnecessary, its important and is no less ‘necessary’ than straight characters.”

so straight characters are normal but gay characters are unnecessary? the whole point of representation is to normalize it because being gay is normal and so it isn’t unnecessary, its important and is no less “necessary” than straight characters

— chelsea 🕊 (@femmenart) May 5, 2020

Personally I dislike all the unnecessary straight and cis people

— Disgusting hive of sin 💚🧪 puppyphobic (@T0YB0NNIE) May 5, 2020

Netflix itself has now chimed in. Its official Twitter account tweeted a response to the original tweet, saying, “Sorry you have yet to realize that every gay person is very necessary.”

sorry you have yet to realize that every gay person is very necessary t.co/xTOEcLWryc

— Netflix (@netflix) May 6, 2020

Its tweet has had over 360k likes and 60k retweets at the time of writing.

Related: Queer Eye renewed for season six at Netflix

Not wishing to be overlooked, even Prime Video, from Amazon, signaled its support for LGBTQ representation – responding to Netflix’s tweet with a gif of Spongebob and a rainbow.

pic.twitter.com/3l6AM7S6y1

— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) May 6, 2020

Others were quick to roll their eyes at the original poster’s tweet.

Oh, poor straight people and their lack of representation in the media, right? 🙃

— Rao (@RaonyPhillips) May 6, 2020

Some Netflix shows also responded.

🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈💕🌈

— The Most (@Most) May 6, 2020

As did Netflix social media accounts in other territories.

Oui.

— Netflix France (@NetflixFR) May 7, 2020

Whilst we’re all looking for show recommendations to pass the time, feel free to namecheck your favorite LGBTQ characters and Netflix shows in the comments below.

www.queerty.com/netflix-shoots-criticism-features-many-gay-characters-20200507?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

NEWS

Senator Richard Burr and His Brother-in-Law Dumped Stock on the Same Day. Then the Market Crashed.

Senator Richard Burr and His Brother-in-Law Dumped Stock on the Same Day. Then the Market Crashed.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Sen. Richard Burr was not the only member of his family to sell off a significant portion of his stock holdings in February, ahead of the market crash spurred by coronavirus fears. On the same day Burr sold, his brother-in-law also dumped tens of thousands of dollars worth of shares. The market fell by more than 30% in the subsequent month.

Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, who has a post on the National Mediation Board, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in six companies — including several that have been hit particularly hard in the market swoon and economic downturn.

A person who picked up Fauth’s phone on Wednesday hung up when asked if Fauth and Burr had discussed the sales in advance.

In 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Fauth to the three-person board of the National Mediation Board, a federal agency that facilitates labor-management relations within the nation’s railroad and airline industries. He was previously a lobbyist and president of his own transportation economic consulting firm, G.W. Fauth & Associates.

Burr came under scrutiny after ProPublica reported that he sold off a significant percentage of his stocks shortly before the market tanked, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions. As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the health committee, Burr had access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security and public health concerns.

Before his sell-off, Burr had assured the public that the federal government was well-prepared to handle the virus. In a Feb. 7 op-ed that he co-authored with another senator, he said “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.”

That month however, according to a recording obtained by NPR, Burr had given a VIP group at an exclusive social club a much more dire preview of the economic impact of the the coronavirus, warning it could curtail business travel, cause schools to be closed and result in the military mobilizing to compensate for overwhelmed hospitals.

The timing of Burr’s stock sales drew widespread outrage, allegations of insider trading, calls for his resignation and an FBI investigation.

Burr defended his actions, saying he relied solely on public information, including CNBC reports, to inform his trades and did not rely on information he obtained as a senator.

Fauth avoided between $37,000 and $118,000 in losses by selling off when he did, considering how steeply the companies’ shares fell in recent weeks, according to an analysis by Luke Brindle-Khym, a partner and general counsel of Manhattan-based investigative firm QRI. Brindle-Khym obtained Fauth’s financial disclosure from the Office of Government Ethics and shared it with ProPublica. Government forms only require that the value of stock trades be disclosed in ranges. After the February sales, the total value of Fauth’s individual stock holdings appears to be between $680,000 and $2 million.

Alice Fisher, Burr’s attorney, told ProPublica that “Sen. Burr participated in the stock market based on public information and he did not coordinate his decision to trade on Feb. 13 with Mr. Fauth.”

She did not respond to a question about whether Burr discussed anything he learned as a senator with Fauth or any other relatives.

A review of Fauth’s financial disclosure forms since 2017 show that he is not a frequent stock trader, but that he also had a major day of sales in August 2019.

On Feb. 13, Fauth or his spouse sold between $15,001 and $50,000 of Altria, the tobacco company; between $50,001 and $100,000 of snack food maker Mondelez International; and between $1,001 and $15,000 of home furnishings retailer Williams-Sonoma. He also sold stakes in several oil companies, which have been hit particularly hard, including between $15,001 and $50,000 of Chevron; between $1,001 and $15,000 of BP and between $15,001 and $50,000 of Royal Dutch Shell.

The finances of the Burrs and Fauths have intersected before. Federal Election Commission records show that Burr’s leadership PAC, Next Century Fund, has paid $120,348 since 2002 to his sister-in-law, Mary Fauth, Gerald’s wife, who serves as treasurer. The PAC has also paid $104,850 in rent and utilities over the same period to 116 S. Royal St. Partners, in which Gerald Fauth is a partner.

Do you have access to information about stock trading by Trump administration officials or members of Congress that should be public? Email [email protected] or reach him on Signal/WhatsApp at 213-271-7217. Here’s how to send tips and documents to ProPublica securely.

Update, May 6, 2020: This story was updated with new comment from Sen. Richard Burr’s attorney.

Filed under:

The post Senator Richard Burr and His Brother-in-Law Dumped Stock on the Same Day. Then the Market Crashed. appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.


Senator Richard Burr and His Brother-in-Law Dumped Stock on the Same Day. Then the Market Crashed.

NEWS

This Hunky Gay Weatherman Was Fired For Calling Out Insane Anti-Lockdown Protesters

This Hunky Gay Weatherman Was Fired For Calling Out Insane Anti-Lockdown Protesters

An openly gay Twin Cities weatherman broke his silence Tuesday after being fired last week for sharing a post that was critical of gun-toting, right-wing, anti-lockdown protesters in Minnesota. 

Sven Sundgaard, a 39-year-old St. Paul native, had worked at KARE-TV, the local NBC affiliate, for 14 years. Last month, he shared a post on his Facebook page from Minneapolis Rabbi Michael Adam Latz, who at one point referred to the anti-lockdown protesters as “white nationalist Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants.” (Sundgaard was raised Christian but converted to Judaism.)

The demonstrators had gathered outside Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s residence on April 17 to protest his coronavirus stay-at-home order, after President Donald Trump tweeted to “Liberate Minnesota.” One protester held a sign showing a a penciled-in Hitler mustache on an image of Walz, with “Fuhrer” written above it.

Guy waving the Christian, American, and a Trump flag in front on the Capitol while holding a rifle. @MPRnews pic.twitter.com/aGT9v4q9nl

— Evan Frost (@efrostee) May 2, 2020

Sundgaard’s post was later removed, but not before being picked up by the right-wing website Alpha News. And on Friday, KARE-TV announced on Facebook that “due to continued violations of KARE11’s news ethics and other policies, we have made the decision to part ways with Sven Sundgaard.”

On Tuesday, Sundgaard made his first public comments about his dismissal. 

“Many have asked me about KARE11’s post regarding my employment and separation from employment,” Sundgaard wrote on Facebook and Instagram. “Here’s what I have to say about that for now: I disagree with and dispute my former employers claims and I am considering my options at this time. Thank you again.”

According to TwinCities.com, Sundgaard is “a prolific and popular social media user and stands among the highest profile LGBT people in the Twin Cities.”

Writing for CityPages, the local alt-weekly, Mike Mullen reported that Sundgaard’s post “was met with a flood of support, as more than a thousand Facebook fans have commented offering condolences, encouragement, or criticism of the station’s decision.”

“Gee, you’d think someone who inspires that kind of loyalty in people might be… worth holding onto?” Mullen wrote. “Based on the facts as currently known … we’re strongly team Sven until proven otherwise.”

Ditto for us. And, for the record, we’d still be “team Sven” even if he weren’t a ripped daddy. But since he is, here are a few thirsty pics.

The post This Hunky Gay Weatherman Was Fired For Calling Out Insane Anti-Lockdown Protesters appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.


This Hunky Gay Weatherman Was Fired For Calling Out Insane Anti-Lockdown Protesters

You Might Like

Videos | Dating

Live Cams | Live Chats