Orlando.

Photo by Alberto Lammers

ORLANDO—Javie White typically dances Saturday nights at Pulse in Orlando. But this weekend, he gave up his dancing shift to bartend at another nearby club. So the young go-go dancer wasn’t on his box next to Pulse’s entrance when a gunman came in and opened fire.

“I’ve been crying home alone for seven hours,” he says.

[…]

“Orlando is the most tightly-knit gay community I’ve ever been in. We are here to support each other and we are not afraid,” he says.

He hugs a friend, Tyler Block, who is barely holding together. Block found out only an hour ago one of his closest friends was killed. She had a 2-year-old son.

“For someone to come into my home and murder my family, it’s beyond anything you will ever feel,” Block says, trembling and eyes full of tears.

[…]

“I cried all day. I’m done crying. I’m ready to be myself again,” Adonis said. “I’m trying to be my funny, catty self for the kids.”

Moving forward, she knows that safety will be a priority among those left behind.

“Everything’s up in the air. (The police) don’t want us to do things that put us all together,” she said. “But no one is going to break us. No one is going to break this community.”

Full Story.

Lin-Manuel Miranda accepts the award for best original score for “Hamilton” at the Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre on Sunday, June 12, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

“Hate will never win,” host James Corden said at the opening of this year’s Tony Awards at the Beacon Theater in New York City. “Theater is a place where every race, creed, sexuality and gender is equal, is embraced and is loved.” Those attending the ceremony, which was dedicated to the victims of the Orlando mass shooting, wore silver ribbons in solidarity.

Upon winning for Best Original Score, Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda performed a sonnet he wrote as tribute to his wife and victims of Orlando.

There’s a video at the link.

Will Orlando Attacks Bring Congress to its Senses on Gun Control? Don’t Count On It.

youtube.

Gay, Bisexual Blood Donations Still Restricted After Orlando Massacre.

Sky news Orlando.

A highly-regarded journalist stormed off the set of a live television segment when the host and guest refused to recognize the Orlando shooting as an attack on LGBT people.

Owen Jones, a gay Guardian columnist and the author of The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It, appeared on the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sky News on Sunday with the show’s host, Mark Longhurst, and guest Julia Hartley-Brewer. In the group’s discussion about the Orlando tragedy, Jones continually called the event a “homophobic hate crime” and “an intentional attack on LGBT people.” Longhurst and Hartley-Brewer disagreed, calling it a crime against humanity instead.

Full Story Here.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

I was angry. Hell, I was fucking pissed.

Initially, an immense sadness washed over me at the news of the Orlando mass shooting, the deadliest in American history. A sadness that I wasn’t surprised that this happened, a helpless, hopeless sadness for the dozens of people lost due to hate and ignorance. But the sadness was quickly replaced by anger.

Anger that this type of violence, to this degree, only happens in this country, and happens far too often, but still nothing is done about it. Once I realized that in America it’s okay for 20 children, ages six and seven, to die in the middle of the day at an elementary school, I knew that a couple dozen faggots dead in an Orlando nightclub would never and could never move the needle on gun control.

Full Column Here.

Adele Dedicates Antwerp Concert to Orlando Victims.

Republican Erasure of LGBTQ People.

Marco Rubio wants to share his prayers, but not his civil rights, with LGBTQ people.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republicans have quick enough off the mark to offer up assorted prayers in the wake of the Orlando massacre, but they are being very careful not to acknowledge that these were and are LGBTQ people. The fact that a majority of them were people of colour is notably absent as well.

Marco Rubio tweeted: “Our prayers are with those injured and killed early this morning in horrifying act of terror in Orlando.”

Rubio is a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage and would like to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling affirming gay people’s constitutional right to wed. Worse, when Rubio served as Florida’s House majority leader, the state’s foster care system was in a crisis: Due to a severe lack of foster parents, children were essentially being imprisoned in inhumane conditions. One possible solution would be to lift Florida’s ban on allowing gay people to foster children. Rubio rejected the idea. “Some of these kids are the most disadvantaged in the state,” he explained. “They shouldn’t be forced to be part of a social experiment.”

Then there’s Mike Huckabee, who tweeted: “Please join Janet and me in praying for the victims of the Orlando attack and their families.”

But if it were up to Huckabee, gay people would not be legally permitted to start their own families. Huckabee staunchly opposes same-sex marriage, civil unions, and gay adoption. […] At various points in his career, Huckabee has also said that AIDS patients should be quarantined; that homosexuality is a “lifestyle” similar to drinking alcohol; and that legalizing same-sex marriage is analogous to legalizing incest and drug use. When the Supreme Court invalidated a federal same-sex marriage ban, Huckabee tweeted: “Jesus wept.”

There are many more examples of aggressively anti-gay politicians tweeting about the Pulse shooting, but one common thread ties them together: None of them mention that the shooting targeted, or even involved, the LGBTQ community. Indeed, not a single congressional Republican who tweeted about the shooting mentioned LGBTQ people. That stands in stark contrast to President Barack Obama’s clear assertion that “shooter targeted a nightclub” where “lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people … came together to be with friends, to dance, sing, and live,” and “to raise awareness and speak their minds and advocate for their civil rights.”

Republicans’ silence is actually quite apt. As a party, after all, the GOP has spent decades attempting to degrade sexual minorities and even drive them out of public life. It is altogether fitting, then, that conservative politicians are erasing LGBTQ people from their own tragedy. The gesture of support, I suppose, is basically benevolent. But let’s be clear about this: The 50 victims of Orlando’s LGBTQ nightclub massacre died as full and equal citizens under the law in spite of the Republican party’s best efforts to relegate them to second-class citizenship.

Full Article at Slate.

And the hate flows on…

Vigil in Santiago, Chile.

In the midst of an outpouring of solidarity, love, and shared grief around the world over the loss of so many lives in Orlando, Florida, there runs a river of poisonous hate through the United States. Images and hate-filled tweets will be behind the fold, because no one should have to see those unless they choose to do so. First up, and I know this will surprise no one at all, the Westboro clan had to jump right in, with an attempt to be as crass and disgusting as possible. I’d say they succeeded, but what makes me sick is the sense of glee they give off. Second is the story of a Florida Imam who offered condolences and praise for emergency workers was met with a great deal of bigotry and hate.

Trigger Warning: extreme hate, bigotry, and sheer ugliness behind the fold.

[Read more…]

LGBT Movement Is Like Taliban, ‘Jeopardizes Freedom’

North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop.

The Charlotte Business Journal received 152 emails of Rep. Dan Bishop, the architect of North Carolina’s HB 2.

The architect of the state’s controversial law to stop cities from extending non-discrimination protection to gay and transgender people insists no amount of protests and pressure could convince him to back down or soften his stance. And, when that architect — Rep. Dan Bishop — isn’t debating the merits of the law known as House Bill 2 with constituents and critics, he is championing and celebrating those who support the measure.

“I don’t fear man. I fear God. So I won’t be backing down,” Bishop (R-Mecklenburg) stated in a message he sent to a Charlotte man who implored the lawmaker not to allow persistent opposition to the law to lead to concessions.

[…]

In the same email, Bishop described the pressure from critics as “brutal” and added, “I stepped in front of the train quite deliberately, but the beating is every bit as bad as I expected, and then some. I need the Lord’s help and your prayers.”

[…]

Bishop and fellow Republican lawmaker Rucho took umbrage when Charlotte real estate broker Rob Cochran criticized them as well as McCrory, Senate President Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore for passing HB 2.

[…]

Bishop and Rucho, in separate emails, rejected Cochran’s concerns.

“It is time for the business community to stand up and grow a back bone for what is a common sense bill,” Rucho responded.

“Stop being intimidated and extorted by the political correct police because there is no telling where this ends and the damage to our state and country. The large corporations are more concerned about offending the left wing extremists, their reputation and profits then (sic) they are about the rights of millions of woman (sic) and children. I have spent my entire elected career being a strong business advocate but after hearing the weak kneed moaning of business community, I think Bernie Sanders’s anti business philosophy has merit and your greed is despicable.”

Added Bishop: “Business skittishness is entirely the result of false media reports and activist grip on big corporations.”

[…]

A thank-you from a constituent instructed Bishop and his allies not to “cave in to the Politically Correct Taliban! Y’all should have all of the sane states to coordinate and pass these bills on the same day so one state does not have to stand up to these pompous asses alone.”

In reply, Bishop wrote, “I LOVE that idea. Taliban. Love that too. Not giving up. Ever.” A separate exchange with another supporter included a declaration by the lawmaker that “the LGBT movement jeopardizes freedom.”

Charlotte Business Journal has the full story.

Securing A Position With Bigotry: The Notpology.

Ali Jimenez-Hopper said of her Democratic opponent, “She brings up that she is half black and she uses that as a strength. She brings up that she is in support of LGBT and that lifestyle and puts out pictures on Twitter of her and her wife.” Credit: screenshot.

Remember Ms. Jimenez-Hopper, who secured a position with open bigotry against her opponent? She’s back, with a sparkly notpology, blaming the democrats because they always twist the words of good republicans to look like bigotry. It just couldn’t have been anything she said, no.

Jimenez-Hopper claimed her comments were somehow misconstrued. For that she blamed Democrats.

“Unlike my opponent, I am new to the political process and sometimes say things in a way that can be twisted around and out of context by the Democrats,” Jimenez-Hopper said. “I apologize to anyone I offended by my comments. As a Hispanic American, it is my hope that voters in Apple Valley judge both of us by where we stand on the issues, and not simply by the color of our skin or who we are married to.”

Oh my. Ms. Jimenez-Hopper jumped all over her opponent Erin Maye Quade for bringing up that she’s half black, saying she used it as a strength, and somehow that was very wrong. Apparently it’s perfectly okay for her to bring up being a Hispanic American. Oh, the mealy-mouthed hypocrisy. You can always count on republicans for some things, and that’s one of them.

The allegation Maye Quade is somehow guilty of the sin of identity politics for not concealing her identity was echoed by other Republicans in her district.

So people should not take Ms. Maye Quade’s being biracial or lesbian into account when voting? Well, SD57 Republicans, I have terrible news for you all. I do take such things into account when considering candidates. Being mixed race myself, I’m much more likely to vote for someone who is an Indigenous person, as well as democrat. As someone who is also under the queer nation umbrella, that matters to me too. A candidate who is also under that umbrella is more likely to be active in issues which I’m concerned with. That’s how this whole voting thing works. That’s why bigots vote for assholes who say things like “identity politics”. So surprising you haven’t figured this out, being in politics. :eyeroll:

ThinkProgress has the full story.

Charles Barkley: Move the NBA All-Star Game If HB 2 Isn’t Repealed.

Charles Barkley. Credit: Shutterstock.

Charles Barkley believes the NBA needs to help put a end to North Carolina’s House Bill 2 — even if it means taking the All-Star Game with it.

The former basketball player and current analyst for Inside the NBA appeared on The Dan Patrick Show Wednesday, where Barkley reiterated his belief that the game should be moved from Charlotte, where it is set to be held next at the city’s Allstate Arena next February.

“I told my boss, I don’t want to act like I’m jumping on a sword,” Barkley said, “but I’ve talked to Adam Silver, we need to move the All-Star Game.”

“I hope they don’t put me in a situation where I have to boycott the All-Star Game,” he added.

[…]

“As a black person, I’m against any form of discrimination,” Barkley told CNN in April. “Against whites, Hispanics, gays, lesbians, however you want to phrase it. … We can figure out [where to play instead]. I know Atlanta wants to host it.”

Doing so would have a huge economic impact on North Carolina. The NBA All-Star Weekend is projected to bring in $100 million in revenue at a time when the Tar Heel State remains plagued by boycotts. Since the bill’s passage, over 160 companies have condemned HB 2, while PayPal and Deutsche Bank cancelled planned expansions in the state.

North Carolina could lose up to $5 billion in revenue every year the bill isn’t repealed, according to UCLA’s Williams Institute.

That’s why Adam Silver, the commissioner for the National Basketball Association, believes that the league can work with North Carolina and Gov. Pat McCrory to put an end to the discriminatory legislation. In an April interview, Silver stated his belief that “the best role for the league to play here is through constructive engagement towards change … behind closed doors.”

I’m getting tired of this “behind closed doors” business. It’s a big thing with Trump, and here it is again. “Oh, we’re going to do things, we’ll announce that all over, but it’s none of your business, it will be behind closed doors. I am not okay with this. The way I see it, this is simply allowing open bigots a way to keep on applying their bigotry on the QT, or allowing open bigots a graceful way out of now embarrassing and costly bigotry. I am not at all okay with allowing McCrory a face-saving exit on HB 2, and I don’t think he’d take it anyway.

Silver, who has said that he will wait until the end of summer to make a decision on whether to move the All-Star Game, stated that he believes change will come.

I don’t. Perhaps Silver has the clout to force a change. I suppose we’ll see.

Via The Advocate.

Campaign for USA.

CREDIT: YouTube/Screenshot

It just never stops. There are always more willfully ignorant, evil-minded bigots out there, just salivating at the opportunity to cause harm.

The Conservative Republicans of Texas, which has already been named a hate group for its rhetoric, has launched what it’s calling “Campaign for USA” — modeled after their “Campaign for Houston.” It uses the same ad from the Houston campaign, which shows a little girl being stalked by a man in a bathroom, but the spot now targets Target for the retail giant’s inclusive bathroom policy.

[…]

The Campaign for USA website claims that by allowing guests to use restrooms and changing facilities that match their gender identity, “This means that any man can say he feels like a woman and use the women’s bathroom or dressing room at Target. Just because a man feels like and thinks he is a women [sic], does not make him a woman, any more than thinking he is a dog, would make him a dog, even if he walked on all fours and barked.” The site then links to an article about pup play, a kink found in the gay community that has nothing to do with gender identity.

“The whole concept of ‘transgender’ of course is absurd and irrational,” the site insists. “Those who practice this behavior or enable it have adopted perverted thinking.”

In case the Campaign’s perspective is not clear, the site continues to drive home the point:

The term transgender is a euphemism, a weaker alternative, for the term pervert, in order to make the behavior seem more acceptable. Men who dress up like women and want to use women’s bathrooms, showers and locker rooms are sexual deviants and perverts. The LGBT homosexual political movement wants to force society, under the penalty of law, to accept, affirm as normal, and celebrate the perverted homosexual lifestyle and the deviant behavior of men who claim to be women. The goal of the LGBT is to destroy all Biblical moral absolutes and create sexual anarchy in society. The LGBT political movement wants it mandated that this wicked lifestyle be taught to children in school, starting in Kindergarten, and that children be encouraged to experiment with homosexual and transvestite behavior. The goal is to break down the children’s consciences, so that they can more easily be recruited into the homosexual lifestyle.

It proceeds to start citing Bible verses, promising that rather than “affirm and celebrate homosexual behavior and other forms of sexual perversion,” they will “proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” to the LGBT community “so that they may be saved from the penalty of their sin and walk in the light of God’s word.”

[…]

The anti-Target ad will nevertheless run across Texas for three months, costing the Campaign $2 million. Jared Woodfill, president of the campaign, promised, “We’re not going to let this go. We’re going to continue to fight this battle until Target changes their policy or goes out of business.” That could be a very long time.

Full story at ThinkProgress.

NC’s Latest Play.

Louis Round Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Photo: Ildar Sagdejev, via Wikimedia).

RALEIGH, N.C. – In court documents filed yesterday, North Carolina and the University of North Carolina system argued that the state’s law banning transgender people from public restrooms matching their gender identity should remain in effect while a legal challenge proceeds in federal court. The law, House Bill 2, also removes legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and others.

[…]

The individuals and ACLU members are represented by the ACLU of North Carolina, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and the law firm of Jenner and Block.

The groups released the following statement today in response to yesterday’s motions:

“After rushing to enact HB2 in a span of hours, the government is now asking the court for six months to study its own law, so it can figure out what to say in its defense, all while transgender people suffer. By arguing that HB2 should remain in effect, Gov. McCrory, legislative leadership, and UNC are continuing to defend a law that specifically targets transgender people who just want to be able to use public facilities safely and securely like everyone else. Every defendant opposes efforts to block HB2’s discriminatory provisions from remaining in effect while this case moves forward. In so doing, all of the defendants are continuing to inflict daily harm on the transgender North Carolinians we represent and to defy federal court rulings that conclude that federal law forbids discrimination against transgender people.”

Via Common Dreams and Metro Weekly.

A Win for Transgender Prisoners.

Shiloh Quine. CREDIT: Kristin Schreier Lyseggen.

A federal judge in California ruled on Thursday that state prisons must allow transgender inmates greater access to commissary items that are consistent with their gender identity. The ruling stems from a settlement reached in August 2015 that mandates the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations (CDCR) to pay for a transgender inmate’s sex reassignment surgery.

[…]

The case was first brought forward by 56-year-old Shiloh Quine, a transgender woman currently being held at Mule Creek State Prison, a men’s prison southeast of Sacramento. Represented by the Transgender Law Center in Oakland, CA, her case was first brought forward after she was denied sex reassignment surgery in addition to clothing and other items that were only available to inmates in women’s prisons due to California state prison policy.

[…]

Ilona Turner, legal director at the Transgender Law Center, said in a statement that transgender women should not be denied items that other women in CDCR facilities can access. “We are pleased that the court recognizes the importance of having access to clothing and personal items that reflect a person’s gender, and that denying items because someone is transgender is discrimination,” she said.

Kent Scheidegger said the ruling was ridiculous. He serves as the legal director at the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a nonprofit law organization that advocates for the “swift and certain punishment” of criminals on behalf of their victims rights of crime victims, in addition to promoting use of the death penalty.

Well, nice to know uStates will never be short of people happy to swing a bloodthirsty cudgel whenever the opportunity arises. Jesus Fucking Wept.

ThinkProgress has the full story.

The Cowardly KKK on Trans Rights.

In the town of Lithia Springs, Georgia, the KKK decided to take a stance on Trans rights. They executed this oh so brave act by littering random houses in a quiet suburb with these fliers. Fliers which state “These freaks are jeopardizing the safety of bathrooms all across the nation“. Sweet of them to be so terribly concerned about the safety of public lavs all over the nation. I had no idea they were under threat. Perhaps there’s a secret mildew attack brewing or something. Oh, wait, there’s something tacked on about women and children. Ah, this is only concerned with the safety of womens’ and childrens’ lavs. (Again, kids have their own?) As for that “Our women and children“, I offer every single one of you moronic, bigoted assholes a profound Fuck You. Women do not belong to you, or anyone else. Children certainly do not belong to you, or anyone else. They are people, not possessions.

Apparently, this is their idea of a recruiting poster, hoping they’ll get all kinds of new moronic, bigoted assholes to sign up, after all, the safety of America’s bathrooms are at stake! In a display of utterly brilliant planning, they simply littered their little recruitment ads at random, with absolutely no thought as to where they might land, and only about a dozen (that are known about) were littered. Not the greatest effort.

“I wanted it on record, in case something happens to my children,” said Tenisha Bell. Bell immediately called the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office as soon as she read the flyer left on her front lawn. “I couldn’t believe this hatred, this racism left in my front yard,” she said.

The flier is from the KKK. News reports show the same flier was left in neighborhoods in Alabama and Mississippi in recent weeks.

[…]

“My ancestors were hung from trees,” she said. “This is not acceptable. This hurts. Just like they have problems with transgender, I have problems with the KKK.”

Full story here.

Suited.

Credit: Benedict Evans.

Tailors Rae Tutera and Daniel Friedman show off their suits for transgender clients in a new documentary, Suited.

The Girls creator and star produced an HBO documentary chronicling the rise of the duo’s store, Bindle & Keep. Directed by Jason Benjamin, the film premieres June 20.

The film follows the stories of clients, many of whom are transgender, as they come into the shop to find a perfect outfit.

“They all have fascinating lives and do really interesting things. Their gender and their gender presentation is just really the tip of the iceberg of who they are,” said Dunham in an interview with W magazine.

For their Sundance premiere, the entire crew, including Dunham, wore suits made by the Brooklyn company.

“I just felt strong and beautiful and powerful, which was really cool and unexpected,” said Dunham.

Via Out. Bindle & Keep.

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LGBT Movement Is Like Taliban, ‘Jeopardizes Freedom’

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Charles Barkley: Move the NBA All-Star Game If HB 2 Isn’t Repealed.

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Campaign for USA.

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NC’s Latest Play.

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Suited.

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