Vandals Welcome Woman and Her Kids to Atlanta Neighborhood With Gay Slur: VIDEO

A woman in an Atlanta suburb has described how a gay slur on her car left her and her children frightened after having just moved into the neighborhood.

Kristi Logue and her children moved into their new house on Friday. On Sunday morning, Logue and her children awoke to the word “FAG” spray painted on her car and garage door.

Logue said:

“Me and my kids were leaving for church for Mother’s Day. My son was the first one out and he said, ‘Mommy, your car…’

“My kids were like, ‘Mommy what’s happening?’ My little girl starts crying and I’m just at a loss to figure who did it and why they would do it and it’s not me.

“I couldn’t believe it. Actually I was at a loss for words. I saw the car first, it was written in white across the hood, both sides of the car and the trunk. I mean and then I go to the garage door and I see it in black.”

According to WSB-TV, neighbors have since helped Logue to clean the profanity off the car. The garage door will have to be repainted.

RELATED: Andrew Shaw of Chicago Blackhawks Uses Disgusting Anti-Gay Slur at Referee, Twice: WATCH

She said that local police have been “awesome” and “assured that they are going to figure this out.”
Watch a news report on the crime, below.

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Here’s The Lawsuit Against A State Anti-LGBT Law You Aren’t Hearing About

“HB 1523 subjects same-sex married couples in Mississippi to a lifetime of potentially humiliating denials of ordinary assistance and places a badge of inferiority upon their marriages each time they celebrate one of the ordinary incidents of family life.”

The post Here’s The Lawsuit Against A State Anti-LGBT Law You Aren’t Hearing About appeared first on ThinkProgress.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/05/10/3776908/mississippi-lgbt-lawsuit/

Survey Says “False”: North Carolina Gov. McCrory Misleads Public by Touting Pre-HB2 Economic Survey

Yesterday, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory tweeted an economic survey done in January and February — before he caused half a billion in economic damage thru discriminatory HB2 law.

The tweet, which was pinned to the top of Gov. McCrory’s Twitter account, boasts a survey by CEOs ranking North Carolina as the third best state for businesses.

BREAKING: NC voted #3 best state for business by CEOs: t.co/KcyoH3s326 #ncpol #ncgov #ncga @Team_McCrory pic.twitter.com/O6gkomZU9l

— Pat McCrory (@PatMcCroryNC) May 9, 2016

But the survey was done before McCrory, Senate President Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore arranged to ram through discriminatory legislation in a costly 9-hour special session on March 23.

In fact, according to the editor-in-chief of Chief Executive magazine, which fielded the survey, responses were collected in January and February 2016. And since late March, North Carolina has suffered more than half a billion dollars in economic loss as conventions, concerts, and businesses like PayPal and Deutsche Bank have moved elsewhere, and tourism has declined. Additionally, more than 200 leading CEOs and major business leaders have signed onto HRC and Equality NC’s open letter urging McCrory and the state’s General Assembly to repeal HB2.

“HB 2 is not a bill that reflects the values of our companies, of our country, or even the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians,” they wrote. “We are disappointed in your decision to sign this discriminatory legislation into law. The business community, by and large, has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business. This is not a direction in which states move when they are seeking to provide successful, thriving hubs for business and economic development.”

“Discrimination is wrong, and we believe it has no place in North Carolina or anywhere in our country,” they concluded. “As companies that pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming to all, we strongly urge you and the leadership of North Carolina’s legislature to repeal this law in the upcoming legislative session.”

In touting a pre-HB2 survey, all McCrory has done is underscore how his reckless action has harmed the economy of North Carolina. 

Take action alongside these CEOs and tell McCrory and the General Assembly to repeal the state’s discriminatory anti-LGBT law.

www.hrc.org/blog/survey-says-false-north-carolina-gov.-mccrory-misleads-public-by-touting-pr?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Couple Mourns Loss Of Seven Beloved Pets Burned To Death In Alleged Fiery Hate Crime

The fire broke out in Brian Aldo Baldie and Ron Pelletier’s small house in Canaan, Maine on September 21. They weren’t home at the time, but their seven cats and dogs were, and they all perished in the blaze.

“Why would somebody break into somebody’s house, take a little bit of money, a little bit of jewelry and then set the house on fire with the animals in there?” 63-year-old Baldie tells the Portland Press Herald. “It doesn’t make any sense. It would have to be a hate crime.”

Related: Vandal Paints “Die F-g” On The Side Of Newlywed’s Jeep

Police ultimately determined the fire was arson. But they stopped short of saying it was a hate crime.

Last week, the couple’s former neighbor, Matthew Short of Canaan, was indicted on charges of arson, burglary and aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with the conflagration.

He told police he was upset because the men had stolen $150 from him, an allegation Baldie and Pelletier call “crazy.” They say they barely knew Short, and according to an acquaintance of Short’s, he “didn’t like the guys based on their sexuality.”

Related: Arson Suspected In Blaze That Destroyed Gay-Inclusive OH Church

But Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland maintains that “the sexual orientation of anyone involved has not been a focus of the investigation.”

Nearly eight months after losing everything, the couple is now living in a new apartment and are slowly rebuilding their animal family, adopting two new cats and a dog. Though nightmarish visions of their previous pets, terrified and yelping for help as they burned to death in a raging fire, still haunt them.

“(The fire) kind of put me somewhere else,”Pelletier explains. “I don’t trust anymore. I lock my doors.”

“When I hear a dog barking, I think of the dogs (that died in the fire),” he continues. “When I hear a fire engine, I think of that. It just puts stuff in my life that was never there before.”

Related: Massive Blaze Rips Through Fire Island Destroying Several Gay Landmarks

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Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s Powerful Takedown Of North Carolina Bathroom Law

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‘Go-Go Boy Interrupted’ Tries To Be a Gay Adult Film Star – WATCH

Well, it’s come to this. Your favorite boy on a box is giving adult entertainment the old college try in hopes of getting his go-go career back on track.

This week’s episode of gay web series Go-Go Boy Interrupted finds Danny a bit out of his depth on his first adult film shoot. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he may have misunderstood what he was getting himself into.

Will success as an adult film star catapult Danny back into the good graces of Ann Ziety (Drew Droege) and Club Pantherwarmth in time for Pride weekend?

Find out, below.

Catch up on season 2 of Go-Go Boy Interrupted HERE.

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Dan Savage: Stop Attacking Hillary for Not Supporting Marriage Equality Sooner – WATCH

Dan Savage appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night to talk about LGBTQ equality, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton.

He first talked about the at-times confusing and seemingly ever-expanding acronym [LGBTQ(IA etc.)] for the queer community, joking that pretty soon we’ll just be singing the alphabet song.

He then turned to the 2016 election. On why he’s worried about a Trump presidency and what that would mean for queer people: “He’s promised to put people on the Supreme Court who will overturn marriage equality and forcibly divorce me from my husband because that’s pro-marriage. So I don’t trust Trump in the long term.”

The contrast with Clinton, he says, could be not be starker: “Hillary Clinton is good on LGBT issues, she’s excellent on them.” When prompted about her evolution on LGBT rights, Savage says,

“She wasn’t always good on gay marriage, but neither was Barack Obama…When you go to somebody, go to a politician, and you say, ‘Please change your mind,’ when they change their mind, you don’t then spend the rest of their lives going, ‘F*ck you for not changing your mind sooner!’ You say, ‘Welcome to the right side of this issue, we’re glad to have you.’”

Watch, below.

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Rachel Maddow on the Alabama Drag Queen Driving Roy Moore Completely Nuts – WATCH

On Monday night, Rachel Maddow took a look at the almost complete collapse of state government in the state of Alabama.

As Maddow points out, all three branches of government — the executive, the judiciary and the legislature — are embroiled in scandal and legal trouble. The state’s governor Robert Bentley has been facing accusations of corruption surrounding his extramarital affair with one of his top aides; the state Speaker of the House is currently under indictment on corruption charges of his own; and the state Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roy Moore, has been suspended from his post for flouting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage.

PREVIOUSLY: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore Suspended, Faces Removal from Bench for Defying U.S. Marriage Laws

Perhaps the most delicious part of these scandals, however, is the role played by an Alabama drag queen named Ambrosia Starling. Starling has been “among the Alabamians leading the charge”, against Roy Moore. A fact that has incensed Moore.

Says Maddow:

The fact that a home-grown Alabama drag queen is among his most outspoken critics has apparently been driving Roy Moore nuts. After he got suspended from the bench on Friday night, Roy Moore couldn’t help himself. The judge put out an enraged statement, accusing the state’s judicial commission of “choosing to listen to people like Ambrosia Starling, a professed transvestite, and other gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals as well as organizations that support their agenda.”

Moore then went on to call Starling insane. To which Starling responded, “I’m crazy for democracy!”, adding of Moore, “Every bully always picks on the weakest kid in the room, and he thought that was going to be the drag queen. A lot of people make that mistake.”

“Alabama is falling apart,” Maddow says, and the jobs of Governor, Speaker of the House and Chief Justice might soon be vacant. “As far as I’m concerned,” she says, “Ambrosia Starling could have her pick of the three.”

Watch, below.

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Transgender Advocate Tina White Delivers Poignant Speech at HRC Atlanta Dinner

HRC member Tina White delivered a poignant and powerful speech at the 2016 HRC Atlanta Dinner on Saturday, April 30. In front of a crowd of nearly 1,200, she shared her struggles with living in the wrong body, her courageous decision to transition, and the acceptance of her family, friends and loved ones.

Throughout her speech, White spoke about the challenges that the transgender community faces. She also highlighted the importance of first loving oneself before searching for confirmation from others.

“To express and share our identity is not just a human right, it is a human necessity. I now have a self that I can give to the rest of the world,” White shared. “I’m not half the man that I used to be, but I am more than twice the person.”

Watch White’s inspiring message of living one’s truth below:

Coming out – whether it is as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or allied – is a deeply personal and arduous journey for every individual. Whether it’s for the first time ever or for the first time today, average people help advance equality just by sharing their stories. Check out HRC’s Coming Out resources for more information.

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