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Morning Wood
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Song of the Day: 'Goose Snow Cone' by Aimee Mann
Listen to the first single off "Mental Illness" and see tour dates for my favorite singer/songwriter who has been performing the same song for 25 years HERE.
Hush Hush: I've loved her from the START.
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A Variety of Reasons to Be Despondent
Harvey Milk said you gotta give them hope, but I must confess this motley crew isn't instilling much in me, nor is news that a new poll finds that Republican men think it's a better time to be a woman than a man. Even this Variety cover is being protested for violating the "flag code" because, you know, liberals are all unpatriotic. (Please kill me.)
When will straight white men ever catch a break?
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Meet Long Island's Noah Rubin
At 5 feet 7(, 8 or 10) inches, depending where you look, Noah Rubin isn't likely to reach his goal of being the number one player in the world. But he's awfully cute to watch.
(KIT212 favorite Robby Ginepri is coaching him now!
From his ATP bio:
> Started playing tennis at age 1 when his father introduced him to the game
> Father, Eric, is a banker as well as his coach; mother, Melanie, is a school teacher; sister, Jessie, is a social media coordinator
> Favourite tournament is the US Open
> Idols growing up include Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt
> Played college tennis at Wake Forest University in 2015
> Hobbies include football (soccer) and photography
> Fan of the ice hockey New York Islanders and basketball New York Knicks
> Goal is to become World No. 1
> Best memory in tennis so far is winning junior Wimbledon in 2014 (first American champion since Donald Young in 2007)
> Father, Eric, is a banker as well as his coach; mother, Melanie, is a school teacher; sister, Jessie, is a social media coordinator
> Favourite tournament is the US Open
> Idols growing up include Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt
> Played college tennis at Wake Forest University in 2015
> Hobbies include football (soccer) and photography
> Fan of the ice hockey New York Islanders and basketball New York Knicks
> Goal is to become World No. 1
> Best memory in tennis so far is winning junior Wimbledon in 2014 (first American champion since Donald Young in 2007)
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Page 1 Roundup (01/19)
There were so many stories about the Aaron Rodgers' family feud I just assumed none of it was true. Apparently I was wrong.
How sad is it that federal prosecutors feel they need to rush to to close their Eric Garner chokehold probe before Trump's sworn in and the landscape of right and wrong is irrevocably altered?
2016 was Earth's hottest year on record, but does anyone in charge care?
What Gives Money Its Distinctive Smell? One Chemist Tried to Find Out / Read HERE.
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Adventures in Toxic Masculinity
Being a man is hard, people -- just look at today's headlines. If your masculinity is challenged in any way whatsoever ...
-- even in a dream -- you must retaliate or else you're a "pussy."
This is why our incoming president feels he must reply to every hint of criticism, Because he's a "real" man. You wouldn't want to be in Seoul -- or Seattle -- when Kim Jong-un looks at Trump the wrong way.
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Cameron Harris Is the Shameless King of Fake News
God this makes me furious. This piece of shit made a killing smearing Hillary Clinton with fake news stories that helped Donald Trump win and what was his "punishment"? A friendly profile in The New York Times. I really don't know what to say anymore, am I in the wrong business, the business of not being a horrible human being? Please at least tell me his parents are horribly ashamed of him ... give me something.
Later, he would tell gullible readers “NYPD Looking to Press Charges Against Bill Clinton for Underage Sex Ring,” “Protesters Beat Homeless Veteran to Death in Philadelphia” and “Hillary Clinton Files for Divorce in New York Courts.” Eight of his stories would merit explicit debunking by Snopes.com, the myth-busting site, but none would top the performance of the ballot box fantasy.
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Bangkok Says 'Oh, Phuket,' Will Hold First Gay Pride in 11 Years
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Should Dating Apps Display Warnings About Rape, Murder and Child Abuse?
One British lawmaker thinks they should, but I'd say there are bigger threats right there on the surface. Read HERE.
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Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange Channel Bette Davis and Joan Crawford
I will forever hate Susan Sarandon for her stance on Hillary Clinton. But this photo does kind of soften the blow! Seen HERE.
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'When We Rise' Examaines LGBT Movement to Date
Although I think a crucial chapter is about to be written -- where we're fighting for rights we have and do not intend to give up rather than aspirational rights -- I'm still very much looking forward to Dustin Lance Black's "When We Rise," which chronicles the entire gay-rights movement. Hear what the Academy Award winner has to say about it and more HERE.
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Former GOP House Speaker Wants Hush Money Back From Wrestler He Sexually Abused
This one couldn't wait till Wrestle Wednesday.
Just when you thought Republicans couldn't stoop any lower, the longest-serving speaker of the House drops this bombshell -- from a prison cell -- trying to recoup the money he paid a high-school wrestler he molested to keep quiet about abusing him when he was his coach. (Kudos to the guy for suing for the remainder of the hush money -- he wasn't the one who spilled the beans, so he deserved it!)
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has asked a Kendall County judge to not only reject a sexual abuse victim's breach-of-contract lawsuit, but also to make the man pay back the $1.7 million in secret hush-money payments.
In response to the lawsuit and in his counterclaim, made public Thursday and signed by Hastert, he denied that the oral pact is akin to a valid and enforceable contract and, if so, it would be the plaintiff who breached it when he spoke to federal authorities. Hastert also is seeking "reasonable expenses, attorneys' fees, and costs."
The lawsuit was filed in April by a now middle-age married man whom Hastert coached decades ago at Yorkville High School.
The man, known as Individual A in the federal case against Hastert, said Hastert had agreed in 2010 to pay him $3.5 million if he didn't disclose publicly that Hastert inappropriately touched him in the 1970s, when Individual A was 14, during a wrestling trip while the two stayed overnight in a hotel room. The boy at the time was not yet in high school, but Hastert was close friends with his parents.
The boy went on to become a standout student-athlete in high school. He later suffered panic attacks, unemployment, bouts of depression and psychiatric treatment, according to his lawsuit.
Hastert paid the former wrestler $1.7 million over 41/2 years through 2014, but he stopped making payments that December after the FBI questioned him in his Plano home about the large bank withdrawals. Hastert is serving a 15-month federal prison sentence in Rochester, Minn., for illegally structuring the bank withdrawals to avoid reporting requirements. In his lawsuit, Individual A seeks the remaining $1.8 million.
At his April sentencing hearing, Hastert admitted to inappropriate conduct with the man and some of his former student-athletes before going into politics in the 1980s. In his response this week to the lawsuit, regarding the sexual abuse allegations, Hastert said he had "insufficient information with which to admit or deny the allegations."
Read the full story HERE.
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Morning Wood
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Song of the Day: 'Dictator' by the Clash
For the first time in my life I am embarrassed to be an American. God help us all.
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On the Rag, Vol. 442
A weekly look at what's making news in the gay mags:
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GT (London): Get the scoop on this Tom Daley shirtless man sandwich HERE.
Get Out!: Get to know Terk Lewis, songwriter, producer, rapper, model and ballerina, HERE.
The Gay U.K.: Am I the only one completely baffled that Austin "The A List" Armcost is a big reality star in Britain? See his leg tattoos HERE.
Metro Weekly pens an open letter from the LGBT community to our new "president." Read HERE.
QX (London): I'll click on anything with a photo of the Human League.
MetroSource: How to lose 10 pounds. Read HERE.
Gloss (SF): Meet 10 Bay Area people worth watching HERE.
Lavender (Twin Cities): Get your romantic dining ideas HERE.
Echo (Phoenix): Trans cyclist's path leads to El Tour de Tucson Victory / Read HERE.
Q Salt Lake's Love and Dating issue is online NOW.
Flame (Detroit): Is that you, Natalie Cole? / Online edition HERE.
Out in Jersey: Philly drag legend Martha Graham Cracker to perform with Opera Philadelphia / Read HERE.
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Page 1 Roundup (01/20)
A dark day in U.S. history.
Please eat more steaks, Mr. "President."
The fall of Novak Djokovic warranted a Page 1 refer in the paper of record.
Would you believe I've never had a McFlurry?
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Donald Trump Is Sworn in as 45th President, Promising ‘Only America First’
What kind of country puts ONLY itself first? I told my sister to sit my nephew and niece down today to explain to them that if you demean and sexually assault women, make fun of the disabled, lie, refuse to follow the rules, belittle immigrants and people of different religions and have your daddy give you millions of dollars then they too can rise to the highest office in the land. I never thought I could be ashamed to be an American ... until now.
Damian and our friend Greg went to the oldest gay bar in New York City last night to toast Barack Obama, the president who finally recognized us -- and all Americans -- as equal. Something tells me I will be spending a lot more time there in the next few years. #neverforget
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Watch Ellen DeGeneres and 25 other celebrities send a big thank-you to President Obama HERE!
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Trump Shuts Down White House Office of National AIDS Policy: Source
Well, that didn't take long. The attack on the LGBT community is already under way. Towleroad notes that the White House LGBT page -- whitehouse.gov/lgbt -- has been erased. Also scrubbed are pages dedicated to climate change, civil rights and health care. (They've been archived HERE.) While this may just be standard transition stuff, I'm not convinced given that lots of other pages do take you to up-to-date Trump administration policies. Even more disturbing to me is that a source in the HIV/AIDS research community tells me Trump has already closed the Office of National AIDS Policy, whose page has also been disabled. Revisionist LGBT activists should note the office was formed in 1993 -- during the Clinton administration at the height of the plague -- to coordinate government efforts to reduce the number of HIV infections in the United States. Amy Lansky was director during the last year of the Obama administration, but tweeted a goodbye from the entire staff on Jan. 4. I've had no luck getting anyone on the record to confirm what I've been told, but Lansky's Twitter page seems to corroborate the dire news.
UPDATE: Lansky wrote to say: "I have no information on what the Trump administration may or may not do with regards to ONAP."
I would be thrilled to be misinformed about this. But something tells me ONAP is more likely to be replaced with the Office of Conversion Therapy than being restaffed to continue the work it's been doing for decades. Contact me if you know more HERE.
How is this making America great again?
From HERE.
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The Beginning of the End?
In his latest video, Matt Baume tackles the myriad ways Trump could destroy Obama's LGBT progress. Watch HERE.
The motion to rehear urged the court to reject the “ideology of the sexual revolution” embraced by federal judges who found a constitutional right to gay marriage, overturned Texas abortion regulations and struck down a Mississippi law that would have allowed individuals and businesses to refuse service to same-sex couples based on religious objections to gay marriage.Wow. Full story HERE.
There's no going back. (From HERE.)
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Pryor Offense
No, we're not exaggerating. William Pryor, the Alabama judge found guilty of racist gerrymandering, is said to be Trump's top pick for the Supreme Court. Read HERE.
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