George Takei Denies Claims of Sexual Assault by Former Model

Actor George Takei today denied sexual assault allegations made by Scott Brunton, a former model who says Takei took advantage of him in 1981.

Brunton claims he fell unconscious at Takei’s apartment after having a couple drinks and when he woke up his pants were around his ankles, Takei was groping him and trying to get his underwear off, according to The Hollywood Reporter:

The two men went back to the actor’s condo for a drink the same night. “We have the drink and he asks if I would like another,” Brunton recalls. “And I said sure. So, I have the second one, and then all of a sudden, I begin feeling very disoriented and dizzy, and I thought I was going to pass out. I said I need to sit down and he said sit over here and he had the giant yellow beanbag chair. So I sat down in that and leaned my head back and I must have passed out.”

“The next thing I remember I was coming to and he had my pants down around my ankles and he was groping my crotch and trying to get my underwear off and feeling me up at the same time, trying to get his hands down my underwear,” Brunton says. “I came to and said, ‘What are you doing?!’ I said, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ He goes, ‘You need to relax. I am just trying to make you comfortable. Get comfortable.’ And I said, ‘No. I don’t want to do this.’ And I pushed him off and he said, ‘OK, fine.’ And I said I am going to go and he said, ‘If you feel you must. You’re in no condition to drive.’ I said, ‘I don’t care I want to go.’ So I managed to get my pants up and compose myself and I was just shocked. I walked out and went to my car until I felt well enough to drive home, and that was that.”

THR spoke to four longtime friends of Brunton — Norah Roadman, Rob Donovan, Stephen Blackshear and Jan Steward — who said that he had confided in them about the Takei encounter years ago.

Takei denied the incident took place in a series of tweets on Saturday.

Friends,

I’m writing to respond to the accusations made by Scott R. Bruton. I want to assure you all that I am as shocked and bewildered at these claims as you must feel reading them. The events he describes back in the 1980s simply did not occur, and I do not know why he has claimed them now. I have wracked my brain to ask if I remember Mr. Brunton, and I cannot say I do. But I do take these claims very seriously, and I wanted to provide my response thoughtfully and not out of the moment. Right now it is a he said / he said situation, over alleged events nearly 40 years ago. But those that know me understand that non-consensual acts are so antithetical to my values and my practices, the very idea that someone would accuse me of this is quite personally painful. Brad, who is 100 percent beside me on this, as my life partner of more than 30 years and now my husband, stands fully by my side. I cannot tell you how vital it has been to have his unwavering support and love in these difficult times. Thanks to many of you for all the kind words and trust. It means so much to us.

Yours in gratitude,

George

Friends,

I’m writing to respond to the accusations made by Scott R. Bruton. I want to assure you all that I am as shocked and bewildered at these claims as you must feel reading them. /1

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) November 11, 2017

The events he describes back in the 1980s simply did not occur, and I do not know why he has claimed them now. I have wracked my brain to ask if I remember Mr. Brunton, and I cannot say I do. /2

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) November 11, 2017

But I do take these claims very seriously, and I wanted to provide my response thoughtfully and not out of the moment. /3

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) November 11, 2017

Right now it is a he said / he said situation, over alleged events nearly 40 years ago. But those that know me understand that non-consensual acts are so antithetical to my values and my practices, the very idea that someone would accuse me of this is quite personally painful. /4

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) November 11, 2017

Thanks to many of you for all the kind words and trust. It means so much to us.

Yours in gratitude,

George /end

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) November 11, 2017

The post George Takei Denies Claims of Sexual Assault by Former Model appeared first on Towleroad.

George Takei Denies Claims of Sexual Assault by Former Model

‘Arrow’ Producer Suspended; 19 Men and Women Allege Harassment

Warner Bros. Television Group is investigating a string of accusations against Andrew Kreisberg.

www.advocate.com/crime/2017/11/11/arrow-producer-suspended-19-men-and-women-allege-harassment

Ricky Martin’s lazy day, Aaron Carter’s transformation, & Cheyenne Parker’s pizza
Instagram + studs = Instastuds

www.queerty.com/ricky-martins-lazy-day-aaron-carters-transformation-cheyenne-parkers-pizza-20171111?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Paramedics Battling To Help ‘Extremely Unwell’ Patient Left Note Slamming Their Parking
Paramedics treating a critically-ill patient who needed blue-lighting to hospital were astounded to find a note on their ambulance slamming them for blocking someone’s driveway.

Emergency service workers from the West Midlands Ambulance Service had rushed to reports of an “extremely ill” man who was vomiting blood on Friday night.

But when they returned to their rig, they discovered an angry message slamming their parking.

“You may be saving lives but don’t park your van in a stupid place and block my drive,” the scribbled note read.

Paramedic Tasha Starkey tweeted an image of the note which, according to the Coventry Telegraph, was left under the windscreen wiper in Small Heath, Birmingham at around 4.30pm.

“Crew alerted an extremely poorly patient to hospital… minimal on scene time, arrived at hospital to find this note,” Starkey wrote.

“This patient was TIME CRITICAL,” she added.

Crew alerted an extremely poorly patient to hospital… minimal on scene time, arrived at hospital to find this note… this patient was TIME-CRITCAL. ??? @OFFICIALWMAS pic.twitter.com/uGGAC2TUpI — Tasha Starkey (@WMASTStarkey) November 10, 2017
The image was then shared by the West Midlands Ambulance Service on Facebook, who wrote: “Sometimes we just don’t know quite what to say.

“This was left on one of [the] ambulances today: ’You might be saving lives but don’t park your van in a stupid place and block my drive.′

“At the time, the crew were helping a man who was extremely unwell after vomiting a lot of blood,” the post continued.

“They assessed his condition and immediately look him on blue lights to hospital where he was in a critical condition.

“Our staff will always try and park considerately, but sometimes, there just isn’t time. #sorry #patientscomefirst.”

The note triggered a wave of angry responses on social media, with many reminding the author that they would not be upset about a blocked driveway if paramedics were saving them or their family.

“I would not wish harm to anyone, but if this person ever needs an ambulance, let’s hope it doesn’t have to park half a mile down the road so as not to block someone’s drive,” one person tweeted.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again all these morons need to go out on shift with Ambulance Services, Police and Fire staff to see how these amazing people work so hard to save people’s lives or take dangerous individuals off the roads. They would see the other side.

November 10, 2017
Because I’m sure they were there for hours and the chap HAD to go out at the exact time the ambulance was there, worse thing is that the patient was one of his neighbours at a guess

November 10, 2017

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/paramedics-parking-note_uk_5a073a87e4b0e37d2f37c206

There’s a new honey ad featuring “three bears.” Is this the best commercial ever?
They’re back… and bearishly handsome.

www.queerty.com/theres-new-honey-ad-featuring-three-bears-best-commercial-ever-20171111?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

ABA Gives ‘Qualified’ Rating to Trump Judge Pick Who sees Transgender Kids as Part of ‘Satan’s Plan’

WASHINGTON — The American Bar Association has issued a “qualified” rating to Jeff Mateer, the nominee for a lifetime federal judgeship in Texas who has described transgender children as part of “Satan’s plan.” That’s the ABA’s second-highest rating. At least two and as many as five lawyers on the ABA’s 15-member screening committee voted to declare…

The post ABA Gives ‘Qualified’ Rating to Trump Judge Pick Who sees Transgender Kids as Part of ‘Satan’s Plan’ appeared first on Towleroad.

ABA Gives ‘Qualified’ Rating to Trump Judge Pick Who sees Transgender Kids as Part of ‘Satan’s Plan’

Giles Coren’s Excruciatingly Cruel Article Reads As Resistance To The Changing Conversation Around Sexual Harassment
To me, Giles Coren’s excruciatingly cruel article about his “fat bastard” four-year-old son reads as cis-male resistance to the changing conversation around harassment.

No one’s paying for journalism anymore, so, like many, Giles Coren needs to supplement his income as a talented food writer by trolling for clicks. And that’s what he did when he wrote this. So far, so predictable.

God, the article’s horrible. Eye-wateringly, excruciatingly cruel, and written without the consent of its subject/target – his four-year-old son. A tiny, totally healthy-looking boy, who in a couple of years will be old enough to read and understand the hurtful bile publically written about him for lols by the man who’s supposed to protect him. It’s common knowledge that being fat-shamed by a parent is a risk factor in developing an eating disorder – like binge-eating for the comfort you’re not getting from a loving parent who puts your feelings before their own ego.

I know it was satire. I know his supporters will huff “but it was a JOKE”. And predictably, Giles tries to legitimise bullying his child by evoking the cost of obesity to the NHS. Now, NHS budgets are complex and under-reported-on, and we’re deliberately misinformed about them so that our government can quietly dismantle the universal healthcare that makes our NHS the envy of the world. So to see it used as lazy rhetoric from someone to try and justify his own shoddy parenting properly boils my piss.

Fat people do cost the NHS a ton of money. But so do “alcoholic and crackheads”, which Giles cheerfully says he wouldn’t mind his son being (he also wouldn’t mind Sam being LBGTQI he adds generously, casually aligning that community with addiction and mental illness. Right on, Giles). A&E isn’t hammered every weekend by people who’ve eaten too much cake. It’s not even chronic alcoholics and addicts. It’s binge drinkers who have societal permission to deliberately, knowingly poison themselves, putting themselves in immediate, urgent danger. Where’s your hot take on that, Giles? The UK currently has an epidemic of steroid use from young men with poor body image (I wonder how many of them were called “chubby f*ckers” by their Dads?). I want Giles Coren to walk into a Swansea nightclub full of angry ‘Roiders, tap on a bicep as big as his own head and try his line there. “Excuse me lads, but have you thought about the impact your drink and drug-taking has on the NHS?”.

There are many obvious problems with what Giles said about his son. But what struck me is what he said about his daughter.

“My daughter I am less worried about…there are uses for a fat woman. She can be kind of cosy.”

Urgh. URGH. “Uses” for a fat female body. From any man, this is gross. From the man who wrote about cutting a “c*nt” into the family sofa to masturbate into, it’s worse (yeah, that happened when he was thirteen. But Giles wrote about his addiction to masturbating in gag-inducing detail just last year). And when that same man to make horrible, leering, wink-wink-fnarr-fnarr allusions to the “uses” for the future fat female adult body of HIS OWN DAUGHTER, it doesn’t read like satire. It’s just…sleazy.

I don’t need Giles to clarify what “uses” he’s referring to. But his ambiguousness here is interesting, considering that this month he called for Kate Leaver to expand on exactly what she meant when she tweeted that Rupert Myers “forced himself” on her. After Myers was sacked, Giles wrote an article entitled “A couple of xx’s could end my glorious career”.

The article about his addiction to masturbating included a line about being relieved that his Mum and sister didn’t say anything about finding evidence that he’d ejaculated into the sofa because “the never do, do they?”. No, Giles. Women never DID. But now we are.

Yesterday’s article was written and published at a time when cis-men’s entitlement to others’ bodies is finally being confronted. It’s a telling response from Coren and Esquire to the day’s changing attitude. It reads as a pushback:

“What? Women don’t want to be sexually harassed anymore? Pfft. I’m gonna make an uncomfortable reference to the future “uses” of my infant daughter’s body. Take THAT snowflakes!”.

At worst, it’s a symptom of cis-men’s resistance to the tide of change that we’ve seen in the last month. At best, it’s more nonsense from another interchangeable professional contrarian – today he tweeted about “breaking Twitter” with a ground-breaking article about…snowflakes. What an edgelord.

Giles, be a better Dad to your son. As your career continues to dwindle you’ll have more time to take an active role in what he eats and how he moves. And FFS, stop being an utter creep.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/michelle-thomas/giles-coren-article_b_18529584.html