Must-See LGBT TV 5/15-21: 'Faking It' series finale, 'Undercover Boss' visits Hamburger Mary's, 'Grey's' season finale and more!

www.glaad.org/blog/must-see-lgbt-tv-515-21-faking-it-series-finale-undercover-boss-visits-hamburger-marys-greys

Nevada Democratic Convention, Harvey Milk Blvd., Hyundai, Yellowstone, Eurovision, Laverne Cox: NEWS

DEM PRIMARY. Nevada Democratic Convention ends early because hotel security could not longer handle the event: “‘At approximately 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night, the director of security for the Paris Las Vegas Hotel informed the state party and representatives from both presidential campaigns that the property could no longer provide the necessary security under conditions made unruly and unpredictable. Paris Las Vegas Hotel security requested a prompt conclusion to the event,’  the Nevada State Democratic Party said in a statement.”

Real Clear Politics has this to say about what went down Saturday: “Adryenn Ashley posted several live videos (below) from inside the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, where arcane secondary rounds of the delegate selection process of Nevada’s Democratic caucus erupted into chaos Saturday night. Bernie Sanders supporters demanded 64 rejected pro-Sanders delegates listed in a ‘minority report‘ prepared by their campaign be allowed to participate in selecting delegates for the national convention. DNC leaders refused to reconsider their decision not to allow this, adjourned, and fled the building amid a chorus of boos; leaving hotel security and local police officers to handle the angry Sanders supporters.”

I FOUGHT THE LAW. Kit Harrington reveals that he used a Game of Thrones spoiler to get out of a speeding ticket. 

HATE STATE. Texas GOP adds two anti-trans bathroom planks to its party platform and doubles down on pro-conversion therapy language: “The first anti-trans plank appears in a section of the 2016 Texas GOP platform called, ‘Strengthening Families, Protecting Life, and Promoting Health: Celebrating Traditional Marriage.’ […]The other anti-trans bathroom plank is under ‘Educating Our Children: Local Control and Transparency of Curriculum and Funding: Governance.’ […] The Texas GOP is somehow getting credit in the media for softening language in its infamous pro-‘reparative therapy’ plank. But a review of the entire document shows this credit is hardly deserved. In fact, the Texas GOP’s platform appears to be more anti-LGBT than ever — and that’s saying something.”

EXPECTO PATRONUM. JK Rowling hand writes a tattoo for a fan who shares mental health struggles.

.@AlwaysJLover I love that you’re working to heal and protect yourself. You deserve this. I hope it helps. pic.twitter.com/T2nDG3z2MJ

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 11, 2016

EUROVISION. Ukraine wins the Eurovision song contest with song that is thought to blast Russia for Crimean annexation:
“The country scored 534 points with its song 1944, about the deportation of Crimean Tartars under Josef Stalin. Australia finished second with 511 points, while Russia – which was the favourite going into the competition – was third with 491 points…Jamala is the first Crimean Tartar to perform at the contest and her song caused controversy because of alleged political overtones. It references the year when Stalin deported almost all of the Tartar ethnic group from its native region of Crimea in what was then the Soviet Union. The song has angered Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, as tension between the two countries grew.:

SAN FRANCISCO. One of the city’s last gay adult movie theaters, The Tea Room Theatre, is closing today: “The theater’s one of the last gay businesses in the Tenderloin district, which was once home to many gay bars and bathhouses and served as the city’s gay hub, long before the Castro earned that distinction. Steve Angeles, who’s worked at the theater for several years, said Monday that he didn’t know many of the details of the situation, but ‘the company doesn’t make any money,’ and ‘the rent is very expensive.’”

TRANS RIGHTS. Transgender people in Canada are getting new human rights protections this week: “The change would grant federal protections to prevent eviction, discrimination, and violence against transgender and non-gender binary Canadians. Asked directly about the changes, a spokesperson for Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould told VICE News that Tuesday — May 17, International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia — would be ‘a very big day.’”

TECH. Hyundai unveils wearable exoskeleton: “The suit is only a prototype, but the photos and projected uses are pretty cool. The company said the suit could help factory workers carry heavy items, help soldiers move quickly in their full gear, and may assist people with disabilities to become more mobile. One photo shows a man wearing a partial suit that helps him move his legs up a flight of stairs.”

YELLOWSTONE. Two tourists put a bison calf in the back of their SUV because they were worried it was too cold: “Law enforcement rangers were called and the father-and-son tourists, who were from another country, were ticketed. Heusevelet says the rangers followed the pair back to where they had picked up the bison, and the animal was released. Yellowstone visitors are not allowed to approach wildlife and are to stay at least 25 yards away from large animals, according to the National Park Service website.”

UTAH. Hundreds turn out for dedication of ‘Harvey Milk Boulevard’ in Salt Lake City: “‘I am here today because of people like Harvey,’ said Jackie Biskupski, who in January became the city’s first openly gay mayor. ‘He was a hero of mine, somebody I looked up to, who inspired me years after he was gone.’”

TELEVISION. Laverne Cox reportedly cast in new CBS series Doubt, becoming the first transgender actor to play a transgender main character on broadcast TV: “The Orange Is the New Black star, 31, was part of both the show’s original pilot, which was not picked up last season, and the re-ordered second pilot, which replaced the two original leads with Katherine Heigl and Steven Pasquale. Doubt, which is produced by Grey’s Anatomy’s Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, features Heigl as a “smart, chic, successful defense lawyer at a boutique firm [who] starts to fall for her charismatic client, who may or may not be guilty of a brutal crime,” according to Deadline.”

MUSIC. Video for Brandon Skeie’s “So Bad.”

SUNDAY STUD.

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VIDEO: Bebe Rexha performs at the #glaadawards in New York

www.glaad.org/blog/video-bebe-rexha-performs-glaadawards-new-york

VIDEO: Cosmopolitan accepts award for Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage at #glaadawards

www.glaad.org/blog/video-cosmopolitan-accepts-award-outstanding-magazine-overall-coverage-glaadawards

When Beer, Burgers, and Drag Queens Go on the DL

The twin owners of the gay-friendly Hamburger Mary’s chain are the stars of this Sunday’s Undercover Boss. They tell us about the experience, which included donning drag and slinging beef.

www.advocate.com/business/2016/5/15/when-beer-burgers-and-drag-queens-go-dl

Bible-Bearing Christian Mom Goes on Anti-LGBT Tirade at Target: ‘Are You Gonna Let the Devil Rape Your Children?’ – WATCH

A bible-waving Christian mom took her family into Target on Mother’s Day to protest the company’s trans-inclusive bathroom policy which allows customers to use bathrooms in accordance with their gender identity.

Video of the incident shows the woman leading a cortege of her kin through an as-yet unspecified Target store, denouncing the wickedness of Target’s new policy, blasting perverted and predatory men who go into women’s bathrooms, and decrying the homosexual agenda.

Via Raw Story:

“Attention Target customers,” she yelled. “Do not be deceived, Target would have you believe with their Mother’s Day displays that they love mothers and children. This is a deception. This is not love, and they’ve proven it by opening their bathrooms to perverted men. I’m a mother of 12 and I’m very disgusted by this wicked practice.” […]

“Mothers get your children out of this store,” the woman yelled. “Mothers have enough decency to get out of this store, it’s a dangerous place… What Target has done is very hateful. It’s hateful towards families. It’s hateful towards mothers. It’s hateful towards children… Are you gonna let the devil rape your children?”

The woman warned people against “bowing to the homosexual perverted agenda.” At the end of the video, Target employees can be seen escorting the mother and her brood out of the store. While you can’t hear what they say, one Target employee seems to be relishing in the absurdity of these bigots.

via GIPHY

As they exit, a man who appears to be the woman’s husband shouts back into the store, “The destruction of God is coming on this nation….AND Target!”

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Bible-bearing anti-LGBT Christians have decided to wave the Bible around in Target stores to protest the retailer’s new policy.

PREVIOUSLY – Bible-Bearing Anti-LGBT ‘Christians’ are Entering Target Stores and Terrorizing Customers: WATCH

Other videos of protests have also emerged, including one of an actual man dressed as a woman going into a Target bathroom to make a point about “crazy guys who will dress up like me to spy on you while you go to the bathroom.” Never mind that he and other anti-LGBT ‘Christians’ seem to be the only ones doing this.

A third video that appears to have been recorded on Mother’s Day shows a man targeting 3 different Target stores for his bigoted ‘protest.’ At one of the stores he shouts, “Target hates you and your children. A bunch of pedophiles and perverts.” At a different store, he says he was confronted by a “tranny” who he called “a walking identity crisis.”

[h/t JMG]

The post Bible-Bearing Christian Mom Goes on Anti-LGBT Tirade at Target: ‘Are You Gonna Let the Devil Rape Your Children?’ – WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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Bangladesh Police Arrest Suspect In Horrific Murder of Trailblazing Gay Rights Activist

Police in Bangladesh have arrested a suspect they believe was one of the killers responsible for brutally murdering Xulhaz Mannan, a prominent gay rights activist and editor of his country’s first LGBT magazine.

As previously reported, Mannan was hacked to death on April 25 by a group of 6 machete-wielding Islamic militants. Mannan’s friend, Mahbub Tonoy, a theater activist, was also killed in the attack

The AP reports:

Police identified the suspect as Shariful Islam Shihab, a former member of the banned Islamic group Harkatul Jihad. They said he joined another militant group, Ansarullah Bangla Team, in mid-2015.

Shihab, 37, was arrested in the southwestern district of Kushtia, Munirul Islam, head of a newly formed police counterterrorism unit, told a news conference. He did not give any further details. […]

Islam said that Shihab allegedly killed Xulhaz Mannan, who worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, because he was a gay rights activist and promoted the gay community’s cause through a magazine as an editor.

He said Shihab told police during questioning that he took part in stabbing to death Mannan and his friend as ordered by his group’s high command. There was no independent confirmation of the police officer’s claim.

Gay-rights activists’ murders: Bangladesh makes arrest t.co/z5yMZT5MJy pic.twitter.com/2qznRIb3oq

— AJE News (@AJENews) May 15, 2016

DW.com adds:

Police spokesman Maruf Hossain Sorder told the AFP news agency that the 37-year-old man was a member of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, an outfit that has been blamed for a series of similar murders of intellectuals, writers and religious minorities. Several members of the team were convicted last year over the 2013 murder of atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.

The man, named as Shariful Islam Sihab, has denied carrying out the murders, but reportedly owned one of two guns used in the killings, according to police. They said he had admitted supplying arms for use in the attacks.

Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for the murder of Manna and Tonnoy because they were, in the organization’s words, working to “promote homosexuality.” Police, meanwhile, suggest the plot may have been more home-grown than orchestrated by a larger terrorist network.

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Mural of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin Kissing Goes Viral – VIDEO

A graffiti mural in Lithuania showing presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin kissing has gone viral.

NBC News reports:

Artist Mindaugas Bonanu depicted the two locking lips in the artwork featured on the side of a barbecue restaurant in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Next to the painting is the phrase “Make everything great again,” a play on Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Restaurant owner Dominykas Čečkauskas said the provocative painting is “predicting that if Russia and the USA would ever make out, it would happen in the Baltic states … with tongues or with tanks.” […]

Čečkauskas said the art will remain on the wall of his restaurant for the next several months and that passersby have reacted positively. Many people have taken selfies with it in the background or have staged a similar smooch in front of the image.

The painting hearkens back to the famous 1979 “Socialist Fraternal Kiss” between Russian secretary Leonid Brezhnev and German politician Erich Honecker [seen below in a mural on the Berlin wall]. A kiss on the mouth between Socialist leaders was not unusual then, but a photo capturing Brezhnev’s and Honecker’s enthusiastic kiss and embrace circulated around the world.

RELATED: Donald Trump Announces Vladimir Putin as 2016 Running Mate: VIDEO

The mural of Putin and Trump makes light of praiseworthy comments each has made about the other. In December of last year, Putin called Trump “a very bright and talented man.” Trump reciprocated the warm words by calling a Putin an actual “leader” (as opposed to Barack Obama).

Watch a news report on the mural, below.

[Top photo via Twitter]

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Bi Women Are More Likely To Be Depressed Than Lesbian Or Straight Women, Study Finds

Two prominent bi activists help explain the unique challenges bi women experience in society.

The post Bi Women Are More Likely To Be Depressed Than Lesbian Or Straight Women, Study Finds appeared first on ThinkProgress.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/05/15/3777875/bisexual-mental-health/