Barry And Honey Sherman Were Murdered, Police Announce
Canadian pharmaceutical billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife Honey’s deaths were murder, Canadian police announced on Friday, but no one has been charged in their deaths.

“Through the six weeks of work review we have sufficient evidence to describe this as a double homicide investigation,” Detective Sergeant Susan Gomes told reporters at a press conference Friday afternoon, according to Global News.

A post-mortem examination found the Shermans died of “ligature neck compression”, the website reported.

The couple, one of the country’s wealthiest, were found dead in their mansion on December 16 after police responded to a medical call from their home around midday.

“The circumstances of their death appear suspicious and we are treating it that way,” Constable David Hopkinson said at the time.

Homicide detectives later told reporters gathered outside the home that there were no signs of forced entry.

Their neighbours, business associates and some of Canada’s most powerful politicians said they were saddened by the deaths.

“Our condolences to their family & friends, and to everyone touched by their vision & spirit,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said in statement he was “shocked and heartbroken” to learn of the deaths, noting that the couple had made extensive contributions to the city.

“Toronto Police are investigating, and I hope that investigation will be able to provide answers for all of us who are mourning this tremendous loss,” Tory said.

The Shermans recently listed their home for sale for nearly C$7 million (£4.1 million). A real estate agent discovered the bodies in the basement while preparing for an open house, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported, citing a relative.

Sherman, 75, founded privately held Apotex in 1974, growing it by introducing large numbers of low-cost generic drugs that took market share from branded pharmaceuticals. He stepped down as chief executive in 2012 but remained executive chairman.

Forbes has estimated Sherman’s fortune at $3.2 billion.

Apotex is the world’s No. 7 generic drugmaker with 11,000 employees and annual sales of more than C$2 billion in more than 45 countries, according to its website.

The couple was known for their philanthropy, giving tens of millions of dollars to hospitals, universities and Jewish organizations, CBC reported.

“They were extremely successful in business, but also very, very giving people,” former Ontario Premier Bob Rae told CBC. “It’s going to be a very, very big loss.”

The Globe and Mail reported in February that Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd was investigating a complaint about a 2015 political fundraiser that Trudeau had attended.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/honey-and-barry-sherman_uk_5a6b6f26e4b01fbbefb17bdf

Virginia Senate Passes Bipartisan Legislation to Protect LGBTQ People from Discrimination

Today, HRC and Equality Virginia — the state’s leading LGBT advocacy group — hailed the Virginia Senate’s passage of two crucially important bills that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in housing and public employment. SB 423 would update Virginia’s Fair Housing Law to include non-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. SB 202 would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in public employment, codifying into law protections that currently exist for state employees by way of executive order, and extending explicit protections to local government employees, including employees of school districts.

“Today, the Virginia Senate stood up for fairness and equality by voting to make the commonwealth a more welcoming and inclusive place for all Virginians, including LGBTQ people,” said Marty Rouse, HRC National Field Director.  “It’s essential for the future of Virginia that the newly elected House of Delegates move swiftly to ensure these long-overdue protections are passed and sent to Governor Northam to be signed into law. These are basic non-discrimination protections that LGBTQ Virginians need and deserve.”  

“Both parties came together today to pass non-discrimination protections consistent with the views of a majority of Virginians who believe gay and transgender people should be able to work and live free from discrimination,” said James Parrish, Executive Director for Equality Virginia. “We are hopeful that with a new Speaker, and many new pro-equality members, that these bills will pass in the House of Delegates, where they have stopped short of protecting LGBT Virginians in the past.”

The commonwealth is one of thirty-one states that currently lacks basic non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The HRC Foundation and the Equality Federation Institute designated Virginia as a “High Priority to Achieve Basic Equality” in the organization’s 2017 State Equality Index.

This past November, both HRC and Equality Virginia worked aggressively in the commonwealth to ensure pro-equality candidates were victorious at the ballot box. The organizations’ investments in key get-out-the-vote efforts targeting equality voters proved successful when Virginia voters rejected the politics of hate and fear by electing pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot.

www.hrc.org/blog/va-senate-passes-bipartisan-legislation-to-protect-lgbtq-people-from-discri?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Former NFL star Esera Tuaolo explains why he hopes his first ever Super Bowl Inclusion Party will change the game for LGBTQ acceptance in professional sports

www.glaad.org/blog/esera-tuaolo-explains-why-he-hopes-his-first-ever-super-bowl-inclusion-party-will-change-game-lgbtq-professional-sports

TV is getting its first-ever series about a deaf gay man played by a sexy deaf gay actor
“It’s crazy that we’re the first show that was written and created by deaf people. And it’s 2018,” Josh Feldman says.

www.queerty.com/tv-getting-first-ever-series-deaf-gay-man-played-sexy-deaf-gay-actor-20180126?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Grindr Not Liable for Man Who Sent 400 Sex-Seeking Men to His Ex-Boyfriend’s Home: Judge

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Grindr brought by Matthew Herrick, whose ex-boyfriend posted fake profiles of him on the gay hookup app using names like “Raw Pig Bottom,” “Muscle daddy” and “Gang Bang Now!”.

The fake profiles resulted in at least 400 hundred men coming to Herrick’s home looking for sex, according to the lawsuit.

Courthouse News reports:

The gist of his 14 claims was that Grindr was defectively designed and manufactured because it has no built-in safety features; that it misled Herrick into believing that it could protect him from impersonating profiles; and that it wrongfully refused to search for and remove the impersonations, Caproni wrote.

Unfortunately for Herrick, the judge concluded, “while the creation of the impersonating profiles may be sufficiently extreme and outrageous, Grindr did not create the profiles.”

She agreed with Grindr that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 “immunizes Grindr for content created by others.”

Herrick sued Grindr a year ago, claiming it ignored his 50 requests to remove fake profiles set up by his abusive ex-boyfriend, which caused hundreds of men showed up at his home or work expecting “fetishistic sex, bondage, role playing, and rape fantasies.”

He said Grindr did not use “proven and common image recognition or duplicate-detection software,” which could have protected him.

The post Grindr Not Liable for Man Who Sent 400 Sex-Seeking Men to His Ex-Boyfriend’s Home: Judge appeared first on Towleroad.

Grindr Not Liable for Man Who Sent 400 Sex-Seeking Men to His Ex-Boyfriend’s Home: Judge

Semperopernball im Live-Stream: Ballnacht 2018 online sehen

www.huffingtonpost.de/entry/semperopernball-im-live-stream-ballnacht-2018-online-sehen_de_5a6b5af1e4b0ddb658c5fc17

Men (Still) Behaving Badly

They just don’t get it, do they?

‘One longstanding attendee said it was “a boys’ night out” and compared it to “a rugby club dinner”.’

‘These are not underage girls. They are all over 18 … They all know it’s a bit racy.’

‘The girls were told to wear short skirts and sexy underwear and sign a non-disclosure agreement. Where on earth did they think they would be working, a vicar’s tea party?’

And more, much more, in the same vein following the Financial Times story on Wednesday about a men-only charity dinner at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

So let us try to imagine what goes on inside the head of a man who thinks there is absolutely nothing wrong with telling a young woman whom he has never met before and who is a paid worker at a dinner he is attending that he wants her to ‘rip off her knickers and dance on a table.’

This same man presumably thinks it is perfectly acceptable that, in the words of the FT’s report: ‘Many of the hostesses were subjected to groping, lewd comments and repeated requests to join diners in bedrooms …’

I am trying to imagine the life this man has led. Perhaps he went to a boys-only school, where as an adolescent, he got into the habit of making smutty jokes about girls and boasting about his (fictional) sexual exploits.

He played in boys-only sports matches, followed by booze-fuelled, boys-only after-match parties. If he went on to university, perhaps he joined a men-only drinking club, at which adolescent behaviour was not only accepted, but expected.

Perhaps now that he is middle-aged, he has a teenage daughter of his own. What would he say if she were to be subjected to the sort of behaviour he indulged in at the Presidents Club dinner? Oh, but she wouldn’t be, would she, because she would never do the sort of job for which the young women at the Dorchester were being paid the princely sum of £150, would she?

Look back at one of those comments I quoted earlier. ‘The girls were told to wear short skirts and sexy underwear …’ In other words, they knew perfectly well what they were being paid for: to be groped, fondled, and propositioned.

Er, no, actually, they weren’t. Just as actresses in Victorian England weren’t prostitutes, nor are hostesses in 2018. Women who dress to be attractive to men, whether on instruction or otherwise, are as entitled as everyone else to be treated with respect.

Two simple words are the key to the non-mystery of why some men insist on behaving boorishly: money and power. (‘Presidents Club’: interesting name, don’t you think? Exactly what did these men think they were Presidents of, I wonder?)

The men at that now notorious dinner would have us believe that they were there for no other reason than to give some of their wealth to charity. What could possibly be more deserving of our praise and admiration?

I am (just about) prepared to accept that for some of them, it went no further than that, although I confess I fail to understand why it requires a men-only, black-tie dinner at the Dorchester to donate to good causes. Most of us manage it a good deal less ostentatiously.

But for others, the dinner surely provided a wonderful excuse to feel entitled: ‘Look at me, I’m giving away some of my money ― so surely I deserve some fun in return?’

They were there (all right, some of them were there) because they knew that they would be out of sight of their mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters and daughters ― free to indulge in the sort of adolescent behaviour which had become second nature to them. The charity bit was no more than a figleaf with which to hide their guilty consciences.

They were, in their own eyes, at least, men who had made a success of their lives. They had amassed enough money to buy them the right to behave however they liked, especially towards younger, less wealthy women. It is only one remove from the medieval droit de seigneur, which supposedly entitled feudal lords to have sex with the brides of their vassals.

So how about someone trying to teach adolescent boys how to behave appropriately towards their female fellow-humans? How about those much-mocked PSHE (personal, sex and health education) lessons involving something more than slipping a condom onto a banana?

Some schools are trying ― one day a year, perhaps, devoted to relationships ― but they plainly need to do more. Too many men, of all ages, still don’t get it. Ill-educated adolescent males are still growing up into ill-educated adult males.

Yes, they can behave as badly as they like in the privacy of their own homes, as long as they harm no one else. If they want to sit in front of the TV getting pissed with their mates, shouting rude remarks at every attractive young woman who appears on screen, by all means, let them go ahead.

But here is the message they need to hear, loud and clear: No, you can’t do it in the workplace, or at a charity dinner. You can’t assault, grope, harass or intimidate anyone. It doesn’t matter how they are dressed, or how much you’re giving to charity. It doesn’t matter if you’re a hot-shot film producer or merely a Loadsamoney property developer.

I can even boil the message down to two words: Grow. Up.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/presidents-club_uk_5a6aef77e4b006be66080ed1

HRC Response to Donald Trump’s Speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos

Today, HRC released the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s speech this morning at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“At the World Economic Forum, Donald Trump once again stood on the world stage to proclaim ‘America First,’ but his policies and rhetoric make it clear what he really means is ‘Trump First.’ His reckless policies trample over the rights of LGBTQ people, women, Muslims, refugees, people of color, and marginalized communities,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs. “Speaking before the world’s leaders, Trump again refused to condemn the ongoing crackdown against LGBTQ people in Egypt, Chechnya, and elsewhere around the world. We are in desperate need of a president who will use his global platform to stand up for human rights and LGBTQ people. Lives depend on it.”

In his speech, Trump claimed he wants a world in which every child can grow up free from fear, yet his administration rescinded guidance that protected transgender students — the very children who face disproportionately high rates of bullying and violence. He touted his tax scam that directly undermines millions of Americans access to health care and threatens the longevity of programs critical to the LGBTQ community. He reminded the world that he wants to break immigrant families apart and enact racist immigration systems, ending the policies that have truly made America great.

Over the past year, the world has witnessed a rising tide of attacks and state-sponsored persecution of LGBTQ people in countries around the globe, from Chechnya to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tanzania, Azerbaijan, and Egypt. HRC and partner organizations have repeatedly called on high-level leaders in the Trump administration to condemn the human rights abuses. So far, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have remained deafeningly silent.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-responds-to-donald-trumps-speech-at-world-economic-forum-in-davos?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Tops And Bottoms: Nice Girls Finish First On ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ [PREMIERE RECAP]

In today’s turbulent times, each season of RuPaul’s Drag Race feels more and more vital. Having Ru, Michelle and the gals back on my screen feels like a fresh spring day after a long winter. It’s like food. It’s like mana. It’s like electrolytes.

After a rocky first season, All Stars found its footing in season two, and the third installment has been even more hotly anticipated. We’ve gagged over the queens. We’ve gasped over the judges. Now it’s time to get our whole entire lives to the new season.

So let’s not waste a moment more. Bring back out gurls!

The first to arrive is Trixie Mattel, a unique queen whose post-Drag Race career skyrocketed thanks to a rabid fanbase and a hit webseries-turned-TV show with fellow season 7 queen, Katya. She skates in on her bright pink Barbie skates, tosses off some self-deprecating humor and is basically perfect.

Next up is Milk, strutting in wearing a denim Pinocchio get up. According to Ru’s mantra, Milk is ALL SET to love somebody else, because she sure do love herself. Since season six, Milk’s been a big hit (mostly out of drag), doing some high-fashion modeling and becoming one of Tumblr’s favorite #zaddys. We know she can serve avant-garde fashión, but she shouldn’t be so cocky until she can prove she’s got a better Snatch in her than Julia Child.

Chi Chi DeVayne is back to tell us she’s got her drag together, and yet here she is in a yellow bathing suit covered in trash bags and a Family Dollar plastic New Year’s top hat. Someone put her back in, I don’t think she’s quite done yet.

Thorgy’s next and seems to be serving more of the same Dr. Jekyll delight alongside her Mr. Hide insecurity and fixations. Morgan McMichaels comes in basically shouting from the rafters that she intends to be this season’s villain, while Aja takes the opposite approach, claiming seeing herself on television was humbling.

Then comes BenDeLaCreme, crackling with electricity. Here’s a queen that breathes joy and character into everything she does. Yes, it’s always very “Ben,” but I’d rather see her do DeLa than some of these other queens pantomiming reality TV tropes or executing complex choreo to their own flaccid EDM tracks. More on that in a bit.

Kennedy Davenport teleports in from the planet Glamtron, wearing head-to-toe mirrors and some sort of alien, Tree of Life high-ponytail that defies gravity, logic, reason and moral authority. It’s a statement, for sure.

Finally, there’s a box. You know who’s in the box. It’s Shangela. Halleloo.

There isn’t a lot of time for the girls to gab, because with drag quorum achieved, Ru appears with one more surprise entrant: Season one winner, Bebe Zahara Benet. Mother has officially arrived. Cameroooooooon!

Now that the gang’s all here, officially, Ru explains that All Stars rules are in effect. That means the top two will be lip syncing and the winner gets not only a $10,000 tip, but also the ability to send home one of the bottom two girls. It’s such a clever spin on the standard practice of lip syncing for your life, and I’m so glad they brought it back for All Stars 3.

Things keep clicking along quickly with the first mini-challenge: Reading. For a bunch of All Stars, it was a bit of a letdown. Aside from strong performances from Ben, Trixie and Milk, the rest of the lot fell mostly flat. Most weren’t even jokes, really. “Where ya been?” Kennedy asks Ben. Aja describes Trixie as a “Lisa Frank Serial Killer,” much to Mattel’s delight. Bebe just tells Ru that Thorgy looks homeless. Some of the girls would have been better off just rattling off yo momma jokes they Googled on the flight over.

Ben rightfully gets the win after dishing out devastating reads with actual structure and punchlines and unexpected turns.

This week’s challenge is one of my favorites: A variety show. I love these kinds of open-ended challenges where (ideally) the queens can just do whatever they do best. No terrible Lucian Piane tracks, no Todrick Hall choreo.

The results are largely positive. We’ll get into the individual performances in our rankings below, but BenDeLaCreme’s twisted burlesque routine wins rave reviews from the judges, as does Aja’s stunt-filled dance routine. Less fortunate are Morgan McMichaels — who gives us a watered-down lip sync to her own god-awful track — and Chi Chi. Ms. DeVayne’s crimes have more to do with poor shoes and wig choices than her high-stepping baton twirling, but it’s all pretty amateur.

Morgan and Chi Chi plead their cases to Ben and Aja, but the more important conversation revolves around how the girls plan on making these decisions moving forward. You may recall last All Stars started by agreeing to choose whom they eliminate based on the judges’ critiques. That all fell apart rather spectacularly.

The group seems to reach even less of a consensus here, but what’s notable is Morgan’s insistence that she will eliminate her strongest competition even if they’re not deserving of the chop. She may as well have ended that statement with “And now I’ll show myself out … “

While the ladies chat, Ru has guest judge Vanessa Hudgens lip sync against Pork Chop. No, not her, an actual pork chop. It’s a dumb gag that I absolutely love, and I truly hope they do this every week (imagine the guest judges battling a pearl, a peppermint, kim chi, a raven … ).

The lip sync between Ben and Aja is an instant classic to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” Aja, sort of predictably, chooses to go the video ho route, while Ben, also sort of predictably, makes it comedy. Both slay in their own way, but Ben wins this round, sending Morgan packing … for now.

So where does that leave our rankings? As a reminder, each week we’ll list the queens in order of their likelihood to snatch the crown based on this week’s challenge, lewks, history of slaying and, of course, my own personal biases. This isn’t science, darling, it’s drag! Disagree? Leave your rankings in the comments.

1. Right out the gate, BenDeLaCreme is my pick to win it all. I adored her during her season six run, and I still do now. She’s quick-witted, she’s got a point of view, she can perform, she looks great. Her weakness is that it’s all a little schticky, but based on her first mini, maxi and lip sync wins, something tells me the judges’ schtick tolerance may be higher this time around.

2. It’d be foolish to expect Trixie Mattel to go home any time soon. They’ve got to keep her around for her confessional interviews alone. Like Ben, she’s a clever gurl with a very distinct persona, but it feels a little fresher than DeLa. Whereas Ben is incredibly calculating, Trixie seems less afraid to take wilder swings, like her tender talent showcase tonight. That gives her the potential to lap Ben, but also opens her up for a risk to fall flat.

3. Your threshold for Shangela may vary, but there’s no denying the growth she’s displayed. I would happily go to my gay little grave never hearing “Halleloo” or an allusion to Shangela’s box ever again, but, her dogged branding aside, she sparkles on screen. She’s a high-energy performer that’s a joy to watch with so much charm and likability. Her performance tonight wasn’t groundbreaking (though it almost literally was when she forcibly slammed her body into the actual ground), but it was well-executed.

4. Based on tonight alone, Aja might rank higher. She clearly came to slay, and she arrived much savvier than her first spin on Drag Race. I’m rooting for you, Aja (we’re all rooting for you!), but I’m not sure I’m ready to put her in the top 3 just yet. We already knew she could dance a house down, but I’m still waiting to see what else she’s got.

5. If this was Dancing With the All Stars, Kennedy would be the clear favorite. Nobody kicks, flips and splits like Kennedy. For me, her outfits are hit and miss, ranging from wild and wacky to dated and tacky. I also think her attitude could be an issue, especially if we face upcoming group or paired challenges.

6. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Bebe at work, and it was a very different game back then. It’s hard to gauge how she’ll stack up now. Based on her season one performance (great!), runway performance (good!) and reads (OK!), I put her somewhere in the middle of the pack. I LOVE how she incorporates her cultural background into her performances, because it keeps them unique. It put her performance in a whole other category from the other girls’ dancing to a track.

7. So, speaking of personal biases, Milk’s entire presence really rubbed me the wrong way tonight. Her reads were certainly some of the better ones in the mini challenge, and, although I didn’t love her runway performance, it was fine. It was kind of dumb and really basic, but she committed to the bit fully and gave us a little something different (even if there was truly very little talent necessary to pull it off). I think Milk is very, very good at one specific thing (fashion!), but there’s a lot more at play here. My gut tells me her smug self-satisfaction might blind her to that.

8. On paper, I love everything about Thorgy’s performance tonight. The violin was a unique touch, but the whole thing felt disjointed. I wanted the performance to build to more of a crowd-rousing crescendo, but it just didn’t get there. It never felt like it got out of first gear. Unlike Aja, it’s not as obvious if Thorgy learned anything from her first time on the show, and that concerns me.

9. I wouldn’t have guessed Chi Chi would’ve lasted as long as she did in her season, so maybe she’ll surprise me again here. However, her performance tonight was so obviously ill-conceived, I’m not sure she deserved to stay in the first place. No pads, no heels and that Duane Reade wig? No, ma’am. She needs to step up or step out.

10. Oh, Morgan. Clearly she thought if she asserted herself as the villain it would guarantee some Phi Phi O’Hara-sized screentime. Morgan’s reads weren’t great (that Black and Decker jab owes residuals to Jujubee’s brilliant grill read in season two), and that “song” was awful. I mean, most drag queen songs are terrible, just generally, but this one in particular was some sub-Real Housewives mess. Countess Luann wouldn’t even touch that track. However, in the end, it was her strategy, not her performance, that really sunk her.

What did you think of the premiere episode?

The post Tops And Bottoms: Nice Girls Finish First On ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ [PREMIERE RECAP] appeared first on Towleroad.

Tops And Bottoms: Nice Girls Finish First On ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ [PREMIERE RECAP]

Die Abtrünnigen: Warum rechte Politiker zum Islam konvertieren

www.huffingtonpost.de/entry/die-abtrunnigen-warum-rechte-politiker-zum-islam-konvertieren_de_5a6b1374e4b0ddb658c580e6