‘Criminal Minds’ Team Sued For Unchecked Male Sexual Harassment

Over a dozen male ex-staffers allege they were fired for speaking out against years of harassment by a former director of photography. 

www.advocate.com/television/2020/5/27/criminal-minds-team-sued-unchecked-male-sexual-harassment

Human Rights Campaign Endorses Rep. Dina Titus

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization announced the endorsement of Rep. Dina Titus for reelection. 

Last year, the U.S. House passed the Equality Act, historic and crucial federal legislation that would finally guarantee explicit, permanent protections for LGBTQ people under our nation’s existing civil rights laws. But rather than giving LGBTQ people a fair shot, Sen. McConnell has blocked the bill from coming up for a vote. Reelecting a pro-equality House will be absolutely crucial to not only pass the Equality Act, but ensure access to quality, affordable health care is protected, common-sense gun safety legislation can be considered and voting rights can be advanced.

“Last year, Rep. Dina Titus, and the pro-equality majority made history – passing federal protections for LGBTQ People for the first time. However, anti-equality leaders in the White House have refused to move the bill and left the rights of millions of LGBTQ Americans stranded,” said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “We must ensure we maintain the pro-equality House majority and reelecting a true-ally like Rep. Dina Titus is absolutely crucial to that. The Human Rights Campaign is proud to endorse Rep. Titus and will work around the clock to ensure she is reelected this November.”

Rep. Dina Titus has been an ally to the LGBTQ community and has worked closely with HRC’s members and supporters in Nevada.  She has earned perfect 100% scores during her tenure and is a cosponsor of, and voted for, the Equality Act. Titus is also the lead sponsor of the GLOBE Act, which outlines a vision for U.S. leadership in the protection of LGBTQ rights around the world. She is a member of the House LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus.

In the closing weeks of the 2018 election, HRC had 11 staff on the ground organizing Equality Voters in  Nevada. In the midterm elections, HRC members and supporters completed over 1,822 volunteer shifts. In the final four days of GOTV alone, our staff and volunteers knocked on over 8,509 doors. HRC hosted over 360 volunteer events and 10 Equality Action Academy trainings to give HRC members and supporters the tools they need to take action locally in legislative advocacy and in support of pro-equality candidates.

In the 2018 midterms, HRC helped register more than 32,000 voters and recruited more than 4,200 volunteers, who worked over 8,500 shifts and clocked more than 30,000 volunteer hours. In the critical final four days of the campaign, HRC staff and volunteers in get-out-the-vote efforts alone knocked on more than 80,000 doors, and held 36,400 conversations with voters at their doors and by phone on behalf of our endorsed candidates. HRC’s unprecedented grassroots mobilization worked to recruit volunteers, mobilize constituents, register voters and grow the organization’s grassroots army in an all-out effort to pull the emergency brake on the hateful anti-LGBTQ agenda of the Trump-Pence administration and elect a Congress that would hold them accountable. In 2020, our engagement and mobilization efforts will only deepen.  HRC will have at least 45 full-time staff in seven priority states and an additional 20 staff focused on a second tier of states and districts.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-endorses-rep-dina-titus?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Study: Seeing LGBTQ+ People in Ads, Media Makes Viewers More Accepting

A new survey from GLAAD and Procter & Gamble underscores the importance of visibility.

www.advocate.com/media/2020/5/27/study-seeing-lgbtq-people-ads-media-makes-viewers-more-accepting

Daily Dose: A thrilling adventure with an underrated queer hero

Welcome to Queerty’s latest entry in our series, Queerantined: Daily Dose. Every weekday 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 binge-able title to keep you extra engaged.

The White Knuckle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

No, not the bloated American David Fincher-directed remake. The real The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo came out in 2009, produced in Sweden, where the novel is set, and where author Steig Larson spent his life. Noomi Rapace stars as Lisbeth Salander, a bisexual tech genius who crosses paths with the journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist). The pair stumble onto a decades-old child abduction with connections to a reclusive millionaire, Nazis and a serial killer. Thus begins a mystery-thriller as the pair attempt to track the missing girl and wander into the killer’s web.

So how is this version better than the American version? First, everything feels real. The movie doesn’t use special effects to create snowy landscapes or menacing forests. It uses real locations that add verisimilitude to what happens on screen. Second, Noomi Rapace gives one of the best performances of the decade as the wild Lisbeth, conveying all the pain, intelligence, lust, and obsession of the woman. Third, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo scares the daylights out of us. Understand, this isn’t a movie that relies on monsters jumping out of the bushes yelling “Boo” to make the audience jump. Rather, the film constructs a violent, dangerous world as tormented as its characters.

Most important of all, for our purposes, the movie treats Lisbeth’s bisexuality with a matter-of-fact frankness. This isn’t a woman who hasn’t met the right man, or who sleeps with women to impress men either. She loves women as much as men and celebrates her own queerness, making her exactly the kind of queeroine we want to see in a film. That the film is this good makes us love her all the more.

Streams on Amazon, VUDU, iTunes, YouTube and Tubi.

www.queerty.com/daily-dose-thrilling-adventure-underrated-queer-hero-20200527?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29