Tag Archives: Kamala Harris



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Pete Buttigieg Fields Question About Outreach to Black Voters in Dem Debate: ‘I Do Have the Experience of Feeling Like a Stranger in My Country’ — WATCH

Pete Buttigieg Fields Question About Outreach to Black Voters in Dem Debate: ‘I Do Have the Experience of Feeling Like a Stranger in My Country’ — WATCH

Kamala Harris was asked at last night’s Democratic debate about her criticism of Pete Buttigieg’s outreach to black voters, and what prompted her to make the criticism.

Harris had said, earlier in the week, “The Democratic nominee has got to be someone who has the experience of connecting with all of who we are, as the diversity of the American people.”

Buttigieg’s campaign was criticized this week for using a stock photo in the rollout of his Douglass Plan for Black Americans. The photo was of a Kenyan woman and her child.

Replied Harris, in part: “I was asked a question that related to a stock photograph that his campaign published. But, listen, I think that it really speaks to a larger issue, and I’ll speak to the larger issue. I believe that the mayor has made apologies for that. The larger issue is that for too long I think candidates have taken for granted constituencies that have been the backbone of the Democratic Party and have overlooked those constituencies and have — you know, they show up when it’s, you know, close to election time and show up in a black church and want to get the vote, but just haven’t been there before. … And I’m running for president because I believe that we have to have leadership in this country who has worked with and have the experience of working with all folks. And we’ve got to re-create the Obama coalition to win. And that means about women, that’s people of color, that’s our LGBTQ community, that’s working people, that’s our labor unions. But that is how we are going to win this election, and I intend to win.”

Buttigieg responded: “My response is, I completely agree. And I welcome the challenge of connecting with black voters in America who don’t yet know me. And before I share what’s in my plans, let me talk about what’s in my heart and why this is so important. As mayor of a city that is racially diverse and largely low income, for eight years, I have lived and breathed the successes and struggles of a community where far too many people live with the consequences of racial inequity that has built-up over centuries but been compounded by policies and decisions from within living memory.”

“I care about this because my faith teaches me that salvation has to do with how I make myself useful to those who have been excluded, marginalized, and cast aside and oppressed in society,” Buttigieg added. “And I care about this because, while I do not have the experience of ever having been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country, turning on the news and seeing my own rights come up for debate, and seeing my rights expanded by a coalition of people like me and people not at all like me, working side by side, shoulder to shoulder, making it possible for me to be standing here. Wearing this wedding ring in a way that couldn’t have happened two elections ago lets me know just how deep my obligation is to help those whose rights are on the line every day, even if they are nothing like me in their experience.”

Kamala Harris, careful not to personally attack Pete Buttigieg over his lack of appeal with black voters, explained what she called “the larger issue” of candidates taking for granted constituencies that have been the backbone of the Democratic party t.co/EWaRlzzV3s pic.twitter.com/qiXzDNCXez

— POLITICO (@politico) November 21, 2019

Buttigieg’s response was well received, at least by black voters in this focus group:

.@PeteButtigieg improved his standing with every undecided voter in our @foxla focus group.

Several were moved by his comments about the African American community.

“What I heard from him is he’s willing to learn. He’s willing to listen.”

Many say he won #DemocraticDebate pic.twitter.com/chTZO1FbTL

— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) November 21, 2019

The post Pete Buttigieg Fields Question About Outreach to Black Voters in Dem Debate: ‘I Do Have the Experience of Feeling Like a Stranger in My Country’ — WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.


Pete Buttigieg Fields Question About Outreach to Black Voters in Dem Debate: ‘I Do Have the Experience of Feeling Like a Stranger in My Country’ — WATCH

MISC

Are Scruff’s New Photo Policies A Precursor To FOSTA/SESTA Legalized Censorship of LGBT Content?

Are Scruff’s New Photo Policies A Precursor To FOSTA/SESTA Legalized Censorship of LGBT Content?

In a statement this week Scruff CEO Eric Silverberg responded to criticisms that had been leveled at him from virtually every corner of the gay bloggersphere because of new restrictions on profile pics on the hook up app.

Out Magazine summed it up best: “The update is specific to profile photos (excluding private albums and photos exchanged in messages) and applies to all styles of apparel in which the crotch or groin area is highlighted or outlined. Pictures that violate these guidelines will be automatically converted into private album images and users will be prompted to select another profile photo. The initial alert was sent out Wednesday as Scruff had been contacted by app store distributors earlier this month with a warning, Scruff CEO Eric Silverberg tells Out in an email interview. Previously, certain photos in underwear and jockstraps were allowed.”

Sex columnist Alexander Cheves told Towleroad, “I predicted when Tumblr banned all adult content that hookup apps for queer men would go soon. They wouldn’t go immediately — first, they’ll change their image guidelines so that no lawmaker can accuse them of fostering sex trafficking.”

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER CHEVES HERE

When asked why Cheves said, “Because prosecutors like Kamala Harris and countless other left-leaning and self-described feminist celebrities refuse to see sex as something healthy and normal. If people are finding sex on the internet, or on an app, it must be wrong, they reason, and someone must be getting exploited or trafficked — never mind the countless people who exploit themselves for their own profit, and the people like me who like getting exploited and objectified, and all the people who consensually and happily meet and play online.”

Cheves thinks that, “lawmakers think all this is dangerous. And queer people, whose promiscuous sex lives still terrify them and always will, are automatic targets. Scruff’s new guidelines literally say “no men kissing” — on a gay app. I believe the intention for FOSTA/SESTA was to curb sex trafficking, but the lawmakers who passed it have no idea what sex trafficking is or how it happens and they refuse to listen to those who do. They refuse to listen to victims and the people (sex workers and service providers) who are put it harms way. Who cares if a bunch of fags lose their dating app?”

For those who don’t know, FOSTA-SESTA were bills President Trump signed into law that were intended to make it easier to cut down on illegal sex trafficking online. Both bills — the House bill known as FOSTA, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Senate bill, SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act — have been hailed by advocates as a victory for sex trafficking victims. However the broad language of the bill was criticized for being inherently problematic. Among other things the bill is most famously well known as the law that ended Craigslist’s hugely popular personals section.

Cheves was quick to add, “I know this was not Scruff’s choice. They would have gotten pulled from the App Store, and they exist solely as an app.”

“Porn bans are coming. It’s time to protest,” he concluded.

LA based psychiatrist Tim McCall told Towleroad “FOSTA/SESTA needs to be repealed. It was a badly written law to begin with, impractical to implement, and has the general effect of stifling freedom of speech and of association, particularly impacting sexual minorities, but it’s just generally a bad law. And it’s not just the left. It was crafted as a perfect storm of fundamentalists on left and right–like when the state mental hospitals were all shut down the 1970s and early 80s because the left felt that people with severe mental illnesses should be cared for in nicer, community-based organizations (that never materialized) and the right just wanted to stop paying for mental health services. FOSTA/SESTA was created by right-wing activists who want to shut down sex in general and LGBT sex in particular, combining with left-wing activists who see most sex as inherently exploitative; both cloaked the whole thing in “save the children” false colors and sold it to Congress.”

Britton Pentakill founder of the gay social network WooHim dot com said, “Having only gained approval for our WooHim app on iOS store last tonight, I can tell you that we went thru constant review rejections and had to moderate hundreds of thousands of photos to make sure underwear was not publicly visible. Android wasn’t as brutal. The law still protects private pictures… so… unlock 4 unlock? and media shouts just to approved friends are still permitted.”

“This isn’t lookin so good guys …” Is the message Amp Somers, host of Watts the Safeword, wrote on Twitter said Out: “hashtagged SESTA and FOSTA, legislation that legislators say was intended to crack down on internet sex traffickers but that has spurred a darkening “sex panic” across the internet causing censorship and erasure of spaces once thought to be sex-positive, queer sex havens.”

Craigslist. Backpage. Tumblr. Now even @scruffapp, a gay dating app you have to be of consenting age to use, is censoring how it’s users can post photos?

This isn’t lookin so good guys… #sesta #fosta pic.twitter.com/w8UjOUEjqX

— Amp (@Pup_Amp) January 24, 2019

Ultimately Silverberg told users, “Today most software is distributed via app stores, and consequently app content policies are a direct extension of app store content policies. Simply put, all gay and queer apps must enforce app store content policies or risk being removed from the app stores altogether, and this happened to SCRUFF earlier this year. Had this removal been permanent, it would have been devastating to our company and our community.”

He continued, “Moving forward, to comply with app store guidelines, the primary profile photo may not show jockstraps, underwear, or bikini-style swimwear. We have also clarified our policy by removing references to hugging and kissing – it is specifically sexually suggestive embraces that may not align with app store guidelines.”

 

The post Are Scruff’s New Photo Policies A Precursor To FOSTA/SESTA Legalized Censorship of LGBT Content? appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.


Are Scruff’s New Photo Policies a Dark Precursor To FOSTA/SESTA Legalized Censorship of LGBT Content?

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