Freshly out TV star gets real about his cruising past
Now he’s living authentically.

www.queerty.com/freshly-tv-star-gets-real-cruising-past-20171206?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Giant Avocado, Cuba Attack, Amazon Prime, Jerusalem, Robbie Williams, Trophy Boy, Black Mirror: HOT LINKS

JERUSALEM. Despite worldwide condemnation, Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

COMPLACENCY. Obama invokes Nazi Germany in warning to Americans: “Mixed in with many softer comments, that was the somewhat jaw-dropping bottom line of Barack Obama last night as, in a Q&A session before the Economic Club of Chicago, the Chicagoan who used to be president dropped a bit of red meat to a hometown crowd that likely is a lot closer to him than the man whose name never was mentioned: President Donald Trump.”

TROPHY BOY. Norwegian footballer strips naked before sticking his dick in the Norwegian cup.

CUBA. Doctors find brain abnormalities in victims of mysterious attack: “It’s the most specific finding to date about physical damage, showing that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led to perceptible changes in their brains. The finding is also one of several factors fueling growing skepticism that some kind of sonic weapon was involved.”

MONTANA. Tragic story of a transgender student who struggled, then took her own life.

APCO. Egypt enlists pro-LGBTQ PR firm as it arrests and tortures gay people.

TODAY’S NTH NIGHTMARE. Trump’s ‘voter fraud’ commission.

VIEWING OPTIONS. Amazon Prime is now on Apple TV: ‘So far, the app has appeared in Apple TV search in the US and Canada, but not the UK, according to my Engadget colleagues there. The best way to find it, notes 9 to 5 Mac, is to search Amazon in the tvOS store, select Amazon Shopping then scroll down in the “more by this developer” section.

BLACK MIRROR SEASON 4. The trailer.

SAN FRANCISCO. Is the Castro getting less gay? “A community is woven together like a tapestry, and as you pull out the threads of it, the community becomes much more frayed,” Romesburg says. “I think of the Castro in that way. I feel like, as it becomes more of a global tourist destination and less of a community, it loses some of its heart and some of its soul.”

VISUAL PERCEPTION OF THE DAY. Can you hear the silent GIF below? Many can.

Does anyone in visual perception know why you can hear this gif? pic.twitter.com/mcT22Lzfkp

— Lisa DeBruine (@lisadebruine) December 2, 2017

AMPLE FRUIT OF THE DAY. This potentially world-record-breaking giant avocado.

MAGIC TRICK OF THE DAY. From Neil Patrick Harris.

COVER OF THE DAY. Robbie Williams “9 to 5”.

HUMP DAY HOTTIE. Jeffery Smith Jr.

The post Giant Avocado, Cuba Attack, Amazon Prime, Jerusalem, Robbie Williams, Trophy Boy, Black Mirror: HOT LINKS appeared first on Towleroad.

Giant Avocado, Cuba Attack, Amazon Prime, Jerusalem, Robbie Williams, Trophy Boy, Black Mirror: HOT LINKS

Anger As Dozens Of Grenfell Tower Families To Spend Christmas In Hotels
Grenfell Tower fire are set to spend Christmas in hotels, where campaigners claim children are forced to sleep on the floor and survivors have no access to hot meals. 

Almost six months on from the blaze that claimed 71 lives, 105 households are still living in hotels, council figures revealed today. 

With some survivors now claiming a lack of support from authorities means it feels as though they are being “penalised for being alive”, campaigners are demanding urgent action from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC).

“They need to start treating people with respect,” urged the director of campaign group Justice4Grenfell, Judy Bolton, at a protest outside the year’s final council meeting on Wednesday night. 

“They need to start treating people with dignity. And they need to take responsibility for the travesty they have caused.”

As calls of “no justice, no peace” rang out through the crowd, Bolton – who lost family members in the fire – continued: “Why are there children sleeping on floors in a hotel? Why are disabled people having to live in hotels? 

“They can’t use bathrooms?  They can’t put their children to bed, they can’t make a simple dinner.” 

According to Bolton, families living in hotels “still need feeding” in the same way they did in the days after the fire, “because they don’t get a hot meal there”.

She continued: “We’ve got Christmas coming up, and that means for those school holidays, and families as well, they will be isolated.” 

The calls come after it emerged that of the 209 households made homeless in the Grenfell Tower fire, 118 are still living in temporary accomodation. Of these families, 30 have children under the age of 18. 

Just 42 families have been moved into new permanent homes since June 14, while 49 are living in temporary residences. 

At tonight’s demonstration – where protestors waved placards demanding ‘Justice For Grenfell’ – Labour MP Kate Osamor told crowds that they must continue to “keep up the pressure” on authorities. 

“We must never ever forget those who lost their lives in vain, those survivors, those children who have lost their parents and loved ones,” she said. 

“We must stand together for them.” 

 Press Association, the woman told the meeting how her 66-year-old mother – who lived on the 23rd floor of the block of flats – had been shunned by mental health services and misled by housing officers.

“My mum is going to be 67 on Tuesday and she is still in a hotel – she has been in a hotel for six months,” the woman told the gathering.  

“She is a refugee who lost her home in Eritrea who came here, but the thing that has been most traumatic for us has been dealing with members of the RBKC team, being taken from pillar to post.”

She continued: “My mother was saying to me, because she has faced trauma previously in her life as a political prisoner, she has compared this experience to being tortured back home.

“If that is not mental health, I don’t know what is.”

She expressed hurt that both her and her mother were discharged from the mental health services for simply saying they were not ready for treatment, but asking to be checked up on.

Her voice breaking, she continued: “I remember two little girls of three and five who have perished, they were our next door neighbours.

“But by having survived we are feeling penalised for being alive, that is how it feels.”

One councillor said her experience was a “disgrace” and NHS staff in attendance said it was “unacceptable” the pair were discharged, adding they were “really sorry” about the failures.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/grenfell-tower-families-christma_uk_5a2808dee4b044d167267752

HRC Calls on Congress to Reject NRA Gun Bill

HRC urged Members of Congress to vote “no” on H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017. The bill, which has been identified as high priority legislation by the National Rifle Association (NRA), would allow people who are prohibited from getting a concealed carry permit in a state with strong gun laws to apply for a permit in a state with weaker laws. This includes convicted stalkers, domestic abusers, people convicted of violent crimes, and people with no training or experience firing a gun.

“Congress should be putting forward legislation that addresses the epidemic of gun violence not pandering to long-standing pet projects of the NRA,” said David Stacy, HRC Government Affairs Director. “States have taken the important step of passing common-sense gun policies in the face of inaction by Congress. This ill-conceived bill would undermine state laws and greatly weaken local law enforcement’s ability to serve their community. HRC is proud to join gun safety advocates in opposing this dangerous proposal.”

Last year, 49 people — most of them LGBTQ and Latinx — were killed in a mass shooting in Orlando. While this incident gained national attention, the LGBTQ community is consistently the target of bias-motivated violence, as evidenced by the FBI’s recent release of hate crimes statistics for 2016. The volatile combination of animosity towards the LGBTQ community and lack of strong laws to prevent gun violence exacerbates the dangers faced by LGBTQ people. Reasonable gun violence prevention measures are part of the solution to bias-motivated violence.

Following the tragedy in Orlando, HRC’s Board of Directors adopted a resolution recommended by HRC President Chad Griffin that addresses both the epidemic of hate that has fueled anti-LGBTQ-motivated murder, assault and discrimination as well as common-sense gun violence prevention policies that would help keep the LGBTQ community safe. The resolution established HRC’s organizational position that the safety of LGBTQ people in the United States requires the adoption of common-sense gun violence prevention measures, including limiting access to assault-style rifles, expanding background checks, and limiting the ability for suspected terrorists, and those with a history of domestic abuse to access guns.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-urges-congress-to-reject-nra-gun-bill-HR38?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Steve Grand shows off every angle of his jockstrap in sizzling Instagram story
Alert: Steve Grand seen cavorting around in nothing but a jockstrap and a smile.

www.queerty.com/steve-grand-shows-off-every-angle-jockstrap-sizzling-instagram-story-20171206?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

North Carolina Restaurant Fires Gay Server After Customer Leaves Homophobic Note on Receipt

A North Carolina restaurant fired a server for posting a customer receipt online that included a note complaining about him being gay.

On November 30, a customer at a Hickory Tavern franchise in Union City wrote: “Our gay waiter made me wanna throw up my food!”

RELATED: Upscale D.C. Restaurant Tells Gay Couple Two Men Can’t Share Dessert Because it ‘Doesn’t Go with the Ambiance’

“Ruined my experience tongt [sic],” the note added, “will not be back!”

Hickory Tavern patron Lucia Stetson wrote on Facebook:

“A sweet young man was fired from his server job at Hickory Tavern after sharing a bigoted note left by a customer. Let’s help him find a new job.”

The restaurant later offered the server his job back after learning he may not have understood the company’s confidentiality policy.

In a statement to the Charlotte Observer, the restaurant said:

“We strongly condemn the insults directed at one of our team members in remarks left by a patron on their credit card receipt.

“We value diversity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or for any other reason. We also value the privacy of our patrons, and posting of credit card receipts violates our confidentiality policy.”

The statement added the company strives to “strike the right balance between supporting our team members and protecting the private information of our guests.”

The post North Carolina Restaurant Fires Gay Server After Customer Leaves Homophobic Note on Receipt appeared first on Towleroad.

North Carolina Restaurant Fires Gay Server After Customer Leaves Homophobic Note on Receipt

Theresa May’s Cabinet Hasn’t Discussed What Kind Of Brexit It Wants, Philip Hammond Reveals

Theresa May’s Cabinet has not agreed what kind of Brexit it wants the UK to end up with, the Chancellor has revealed.

Philip Hammond let slip to MPs that the Tory government’s most senior ministers had yet to discuss, let alone approve, any “end state” plan for Brexit after 2019.

His remarks, which were seized on by critics as “beyond parody”, came on a day of fresh embarrassment for the Prime Minister as:

•  DUP leader Arlene Foster finally phoned May but failed to agree on a detailed Brexit plan

•  Irish PM Leo Varadkar told May that he would not budge over a draft plan for cross-border Ulster trade

•  David Davis admitted that his department had not conducted any formal assessments of the impact of Brexit on the economy

• Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg warned that her ‘red lines’ were looking ‘a bit pink’

• No10 had to slap down Hammond for suggesting the UK should pay its ‘divorce bill’ even before sorting a trade deal

More than 18 months after the EU referendum, it remains unclear whether the UK wants a ‘soft Brexit’ that will replicate current trade links or a ‘hard Brexit’ that would give it freedom to strike deals with other countries.

Hammond stunned MPs when he told the Treasury Select Committee that the Government had not yet discussed the precise kind of Brexit it wanted.

“The Cabinet has had general discussions about our Brexit negotiations, but we haven’t had a specific mandating of an end-state position,” he said.

The Chancellor said that even Cabinet sub-committees had not discussed the matter, arguing it would occur only after the UK had made “sufficient progress” in Brexit talks.

But Labour MP Alison McGovern, speaking for the pro-EU group Open Britain, hit out: “This is beyond parody. The government is flailing around trying to get agreement to move on to talks on the future UK-EU relationship.

“Yet they don’t even know what they want that relationship to be once they make that progress. They are breathtakingly dysfunctional.”

Downing Street said later that the Cabinet would discuss the “end state” at one of its meetings before the end of this year.

Brussels has spent months complaining that about the mixed messages from the UK government on Brexit and may now seize on the new admission as proof that its plans for a ‘trade and transition’ talks are still unformed.

Relations between No.10 and the Treasury were further strained when Hammond suggested to MPs that the UK should pay its £50bn divorce bill even if the UK left the EU without a trade deal.

The Chancellor told MPs it was “inconceivable” the UK would walk away from its pensions and other spending commitments to the EU.

“That’s not the kind of country we are and frankly it would not make us a credible partner in future international agreements,” he added.

Within an hour, a spokesman for the Prime Minister contradicted Hammond, saying: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and that applies to the financial settlement.”

May was already reeling from the collapse of a planned breakthrough on Brexit earlier this week, after her Democratic Unionist Party allies’ refused to sign off a draft deal on trade between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.

Downing Street had hoped May would be able to travel to Brussels for fresh talks later this week, but continuing unease among the DUP appeared to torpedo the plan.

Foster finally contacted the PM by phone on Wednesday, a day after she had been expected to ring to discuss the crisis.

The call was described as “constructive”, although No.10 refused to say if the pair would meet in coming days, adding their contacts were an ‘ongoing process’.

May insisted in Prime Minister’s Question Time that she had made “very good progress” in Brexit talks, but hinted that one way out of the impasse was to park detailed solutions for Northern Ireland until ‘Phase 2’ of the negotiations moved on to trade.

No.10 said after a phone call with Varadkar: “The Prime Minister said we are working hard to find a specific solution to the unique circumstances in Northern Ireland that respects the integrity of the UK, the  European Union and the Belfast Agreement.”

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/theresa-mays-cabinet-hasnt-discussed-what-kind-of-brexit-end-state-it-wants-philip-hammond-reveals_uk_5a2820c7e4b044d16726d2fe

HRC Joins Allies to Demand a Clean #DreamActNow

Today, HRC joins Dreamers from across the nation on Capitol Hill to demand that Congress pass a clean DREAM Act and protect thousands of dreamers and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.

“Thousands of lives are already at risk and if Congress fails to act, many more dreamers — including more than 75,000 LGBTQ dreamers — will also be forced to face the real and dangerous threat of deportation,” said Alejandro Avilés, HRC’s Director of Outreach and Engagement. “It is unacceptable to use these young people as political pawns and Congress must act this year to pass a clean DREAM Act and address this problem created by the Trump-Pence administration. Today and everyday, HRC is proud to join forces with United We Dream, Center for Community Change, SEIU and many others to stand with all Dreamers and calls on Congress to pass a clean DREAM Act.”

HRC President Chad Griffin said: “HRC continues to stand with more than 800,000 of our neighbors, friends, and family members whose livelihoods are being threatened by the Trump-Pence administration’s open assault on Dreamers and immigrants. In this country, we share a belief that a person’s circumstances at birth, or where their life takes them as a child, shouldn’t determine their ability to pursue the American dream. We urge Congress to protect these innocent Dreamers from the Trump-Pence administration’s heartless and cruel attacks.”

This year, the Trump-Pence administration announced the cruel decision to end DACA and created an arbitrary deadline for Congress to impose a legislative fix. The announcement is ending a five-year-old program that has allowed hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the U.S. as minors to stay in the only country they’ve ever known. Every day, more and more dreamers are having their DACA status expire.

This week, HRC joined with 127 LGBTQ and allied organizations in a letter calling on Congress to pass a clean Dream Act before the end of the year. The organizations made clear that Dreamers are a part of the American family and help make our communities vibrant.

Over 75,000 Dreamers identify as LGBTQ and over 36,000 of them have benefited from DACA. For these young people, the threat of deportation can hold an additional element of uncertainty, since they may be sent to countries with poor LGBTQ human rights records. For example, in El Salvador, transgender women have faced such a tremendous upsurge in violence that the United Nations called for an investigation into the situation.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-joins-our-allies-to-demand-a-clean-dream-act-now?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Watch this antigay GOP lawmaker go ballistic when colleague touches him
“I’m a heterosexual!” he shouts.

www.queerty.com/watch-antigay-gop-lawmaker-go-ballistic-colleague-touches-20171206?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29