Transgender Woman Murdered in Oklahoma City

Brooklyn BreYanna Stevenson, 31, was found dead Monday morning.

www.advocate.com/crime/2017/11/29/transgender-woman-murdered-oklahoma-city

GayVN Awards removes “Ethnic” category after accusations of racism
They issued a “heartfelt, unequivocal apology to anyone” offended by the category.

www.queerty.com/gayvn-awards-removes-ethnic-category-accusations-racism-20171129?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Garrison Keillor, Theresa May, Alexis Carrington, Ridley Scott, Portland, Katy Perry, Sandy Hot Tub: HOT LINKS

UNLEASHED. Something’s different with Trump lately, says Maggie Haberman. “I think the last couple of day’s tweets have been markedly accelerated in terms of seeming a little unmoored.”

THERESA MAY. British Prime Minister condemns Trump’s retweet of anti-Muslim videos: “Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions. They cause anxiety to law-abiding people. British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right, which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents – decency, tolerance and respect. It is wrong for the President to have done this.”

SOAP OPERA SIN. Who has signed on to play Alexis Carrington in the Dynasty reboot?

LIFE IN HELL. With the Trump’s White House Christmas decorations.

DISDAIN. Black WH reporter April Ryan not invited.

GARRISON KEILLOR. Fired for sexual misconduct. ‘“A Prairie Home Companion” creator Garrison Keillor announced Wednesday that he has been fired from Minnesota Public Radio amid allegations of inappropriate actions toward a co-worker, making him the second round-spectacled nerd from Minnesota to come under fire in recent weeks for workplace misconduct. Keillor hosted the wry Midwestern variety program from its debut in 1974 until 2016.’

DAVID SWEENEY. NPR Chief News Editor leaves after sexual harassment allegations: “David Sweeney is no longer on staff,” Chris Turpin, acting senior vice president of news, said in an email to staff.”This is a difficult time for our newsroom and I’m committed to supporting all of you as we move forward. I know you appreciate that there are some questions I cannot answer in keeping with our practice to not comment on personnel issues, but I will do my best to address those I can.”

RIDLEY SCOTT. On replacing Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World: ” I sat and thought about it and realized, we cannot. You can’t tolerate any kind of behavior like that. And it will affect the film. We cannot let one person’s action affect the good work of all these other people. It’s that simple.”

HATCH ACT. U.S. Office of Special Counsel opens file on Kellyanne Conway. “Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel last week alleging that Conway violated the Hatch Act, a decades-old law prohibiting federal employees from using their offices to campaign for or against political candidates.”

PORTLAND. Gay club The Embers Avenue to close abruptly after owner suffers stroke. “Unfortunately The Embers Avenue will be closing as of 2:30am on Friday morning. The main owner of our beloved club has had a massive stroke and we can no longer operate as a business”

HOMEWORK. Darren Criss announces new EP.

NORTH CAROLINA. PFLAG banned from local holiday parade: “The separate group was PFLAG, which includes parents of LGBTQ children. Donna Brown Odrosky, president of the group’s Salisbury-Rowan chapter, said the parade’s organizers objected to her members’ attire: rainbow-colored Mardi Gras beads, rainbow designs on their hats and black PFLAG shirts.”

WHOOPSIE DAISY OF THE DAY. When Katy Perry kicks a ball in your face.

MESMERIZING HOT TUB OF THE DAY. “Liquid” sand.

HUMP DAY HOTTIE. Michael Knin.

 

 

 

The post Garrison Keillor, Theresa May, Alexis Carrington, Ridley Scott, Portland, Katy Perry, Sandy Hot Tub: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad.

Garrison Keillor, Theresa May, Alexis Carrington, Ridley Scott, Portland, Katy Perry, Sandy Hot Tub: HOT LINKS

Jo Cox MP’s Widow Condemns Donald Trump’s Anti-Muslim ‘Britain First’ Tweets

The husband of the British MP murdered by a right-wing extremist has condemned Donald Trump for being a “purveyor of hate” after the US President shared anti-Muslim tweets from a notorious far-right group.

Brendan Cox, the widow of Jo Cox, joined the chorus of disapproval after Trump retweeted three inflammatory anti-Islam videos spread by Britain First figurehead Jayda Fransen.

The Labour MP was stabbed to death last year by Thomas Mair, who was heard to shout ‘Britain first’ while he attacked her.

Brendan Cox told the BBC: “If you look at Trump this isn’t a mistake, this is a strategy. He consistently does this.

“He’s retweeted people on the far-right in the US, he’s shared anti-Semitic memes in the past and his whole campaign was based on calling Mexicans rapists and saying he’d ban Muslims from the country.

“I think we have to recognise now that this is a president who is a purveyor of hate.”

Earlier, Cox wrote: “Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.”

Theresa May and the Archbishop of Canterbury are among many others to have criticised Trump for sharing with his 43 million Twitter followers three videos spread by Britain First’s deputy leader.

“Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tension,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

“They cause anxiety to law-abiding people. British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents: decency, tolerance and respect.”

Downing Street’s condemnation came as Trump’s press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended his actions.

“Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real. His goal is to promote strong border security and strong national security,” she said.

Labour’s Chuka Umunna renewed requests that Trump’s invitation to visit the UK next year be withdrawn. “I don’t think the president of the United States, a president that has not only promoted bigotry, misogyny and racism in his own country, I don’t think he is welcome here,” Umunna told Sky News.

“Somebody in his position, doing what he has done and said, not only in his own country but now getting involved in the debate here ― he is normalising hatred,” Umunna added.

The videos retweeted by Trump include footage of migrants allegedly assaulting a boy on crutches, clips of a boy allegedly thrown of a roof and a video claiming to show a Muslim destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary. None of the videos have been verified.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jo-cox-brendan-trump-britain-first_uk_5a1f0d72e4b017a311ec018b

With Less Than Two Weeks to Go, Roy Moore Surges Ahead in Poll

Despite sexual misconduct allegations, the homophobe has bounced back in the race.

www.advocate.com/politics/2017/11/29/less-two-weeks-go-roy-moore-surges-ahead-poll

Gay Twitter in a tizzy over David Pocock’s revealing post-workout share
“David Pocock can get it.”

www.queerty.com/gay-twitter-tizzy-david-pococks-revealing-post-workout-share-20171129?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Lesbian Couple Say They Were Raped, Beaten and Held in Basement for Four Days: VIDEO

A lesbian couple have alleged they were kidnapped, beaten and raped in the basement of a home in Indianapolis earlier this month.

In a probable cause affidavit filed on Monday, the women describe being beaten, tied up, pistol-whipped and locked in a basement without access to food and water. One of the women says she was raped.

Both women had bruises and cuts on their faces. One of them had a broken collarbone.

RELATED: Neighbor Recounts Rescue of Three Women Kidnapped for 10 Years in Cleveland Home: VIDEO

IndyStar reports:

The pair, who told police they are married, went to the house to do heroin, according to the affidavit, and arrived the early morning of Nov. 10.

One of the women asked to borrow a green Mustang from [Melissa] Richards [above], who is charged as a co-defendant in the case, according to online court records. The women said Richards became angry when the car wasn’t returned soon enough.

Richards told the woman she would be “keeping” her wife until the car was returned, the woman told police.

“Don’t make me take something else you love,” Richards told the woman, according to the affidavit. “I’m not playing with you.”

The other woman told police she was beaten and left in a “big closet” inside the home. At some point, she became aware of someone pulling her pants off.  Inside the closet, she says 32-year-old Kenneth A. Braswell raped her.

The first woman eventually returned to the home and was beaten alongside her wife, according to the affidavit.  

One of the women said she watched as the other was beaten “to the point that she ended up on the ground and I didn’t know if she was alive anymore.”

Both say they spent several days in the basement. They were only given food and water once but couldn’t eat due to the extent of their injuries.

One of the women overheard Nieves saying Richards had been instructed to give them a “hot shot” — a dose of heroin and chlorine — but did not, according to court documents. The women told police that Bell and Nieves put them in the green Mustang on Nov. 14 and said they were going to a south-side motel to sell heroin to someone else before taking them home.

One of the women told police she overheard Nieves talking about taking them to Bargersville to kill them and he knew someone there who would help them bury the bodies, according to the affidavit.

The women say that after the car blew a tire and pulled into a convenience store, they asked a clerk for help and locked themselves inside a restroom until police arrived.

During a search on the home on North Grant Avenue, police found a bloody towel, bloody sweatpants and a “large blood puddle” in the basement. In the Mustang they found two handguns, duct tape, a machete, a blanket and two cellphones.

Braswell faces eight counts, including rape, kidnapping, criminal confinement and battery while Richards faces six counts, including criminal confinement and battery. Two other men, Thomas J. Bell (26) and Jose Nieves (35), are scheduled to appear for a jury trial in January alongside Braswell.

Watch a report below.



The post Lesbian Couple Say They Were Raped, Beaten and Held in Basement for Four Days: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Lesbian Couple Say They Were Raped, Beaten and Held in Basement for Four Days: VIDEO

Who Is Jayda Fransen? The Notorious Islamophobe Whose Warnings About Islam Donald Trump Retweeted
Jayda Fransen was a notorious Islamophobe long before Donald Trump retweeted her warnings about Islam.

The 31-year-old was convicted of religiously aggravated assault for shouting at a woman in a hijab last year.

She told the woman Muslims cannot control their sexual urges, saying: “That’s why they are coming into my country raping women across the continent”.

Fransen has also advocated shooting Muslims and called for her opponents to be hanged.

On Wednesday, Trump retweeted her three inflammatory, unverified videos she posted to stir up hatred of Muslims, a common tactic of the far right, anti-Islam Britain First, of which Fransen is deputy leader.

The videos Trump retweeted are all in keeping with Britain First’s repeated claims

Britain First, a fringe group built around publicity stunts and social media, says that Islam is an irredeemable threat to Europe.

Trump’s action stunned Britain, with one MP calling Britain First “a fascist, racist, extremist hate group”.

For six years, the group has fought and failed to get this kind of publicity, as electoral success eluded it.

When Sadiq Khan became the first Muslim elected mayor of a major Western city last year, the Britain First candidate turned his back in protest.

Paul Golding, who is also the party’s leader, said he was protesting Islamic extremism.

It has carried out so-called “Christian Patrols” in areas with large Muslim populations, during which its members have scuffled with locals, often while repeating the myth that British cities have “no go zones”.

It has repeatedly held protests outside mosques and called Allah a “false prophet”.

Its founder Jim Dowson, a fundamentalist Christian, quit the party in 2014, saying its confrontations with Muslims were “counter-productive”.

Britain First claims to be defenders of “traditional British Christian values” and Golding has regularly invoked religious rhetoric to justify its actions.

It is often more akin to a militia than a party. Members have been pictured holding wooden “training” knives and wearing combat fatigues in the woods.

When Thomas Mair shot and stabbed MP Jo Cox to death, witnesses said the far right terrorist shouted “Britain first!”. The party said he was “categorically not a member” and denied any link.

The party is bigger on social media than at the ballot box

It has never come close to winning any elections (Golding polled just 1.2% when he stood for London mayor) but tries a build its following on sites like Facebook.

There, it publishes videos showing its leadership travelling to confront Muslims in public places and clips, like those Trump retweeted, that it claims show Muslims being violent.

It actually showed UK rapper, MoStack, defending himself with a broom as someone tried to attack him with a knife.

Its Facebook page has close to two million likes, more than any other UK party. Fransen’s personal page has 210,000.

But campaigners Hope Not Hate estimated Britain First has just 1,000 members.

Paul Golding’s attempts at notoriety 

Both Golding and Fransen have were both banned from entering Luton, a town outside London where they have often demonstrated.

Golding was released from jail in January, having broken a court order not to enter a mosque, and made a video saying his time behind bars made him “more bitter”.

In the alarming clip, he predicted a “day of reckoning” and threatened “journalists and politicians” who have committed “crimes against our nation”.

He said: “I can promise you, from the very depths of my being, you will all meet your miserable ends at the hands of the Britain First movement. Every last one of you.”

Inside Jayda Fransen’s Self Promotion Machine

Fransen, who was party leader during Golding’s stint in prison, was ecstatic to receive Trump’s attention, tweeting in block capitals: “GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN’S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA! OCS @JaydaBF @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/BiQfQkTra9 — Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) November 29, 2017
Fransen often styles herself a crusading heroine, signing off social media posts “OCS” – Onward Christian Soldiers – and calling herself a “soldier of Christ”.

She often protests outside mosques holding a white cross.

On the London campaign trail, Fransen admonished the party’s “pro-EU, Islamist-loving opponents” for “ruining our country”, saying: “We will not rest until every traitor is punished for their crimes against our country.

“And by punished, I mean good old fashioned British justice at the end of a rope!”

Her and the party’s social media channels churn out “Jayda’s Soapbox”, a series of videos where Fransen repeats far right shibboleths about immigration and the treacherous left.

A week after her November 2016 conviction for harassing a Muslim woman, she put out a video saying: “If the presence of armed police is required to protect an innocent Christian family against Muslims in Britain, then they should be permitted to turn their guns on those Muslims.”

Fransen was charged over a speech she gave in Belfast and is due in court again on December 14.

She and Golding are also being prosecuted for religiously aggravated harassment over leaflets and videos they distributed during a rape trial of four Muslim men.

Fransen, from south east London, has a grandfather who immigrated from the Netherlands, which is problematic given her party’s manifesto proposes paying people of foreign descent to leave.

When HuffPost UK tracked Britain First

In 2015, Fransen’s bodyguards threw HuffPost UK reporter Steven Hopkins out of the party’s conference, who pushed him down a flight of stairs.

“A pin-up girl of the far right, with a mane of purple-hair and tattoos creeping out of her short skirt, suit jacket and heels,” Hopkins wrote of her.

“She made younger members of her security-detail blush when she addressed them by name… Fransen hosted most of the conference and stepped in when Golding was challenged on the wording of policies.

“She has studied law. The crowd listened to her.”

Britain First’s claims and confrontations

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/who-is-jayda-fransen-britain-first_uk_5a1e9d2be4b0d724fed4e604

I’m participating in an HIV testing clinic on my campus. Here’s why you should too.

www.glaad.org/blog/im-participating-hiv-testing-clinic-my-campus-heres-why-you-should-too