Tag: lgbt

Seattle-area police go all hands on deck to find car that left skid marks on Pride crosswalk

A driver in a white Toyota Sequoia was caught on camera doing “burnouts” on the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag located at the entrance of Marina Park at Kirkland Avenue and Lakeshore Plaza in Kirkland, Washington, on June 20.

Police released a video of the incident and are looking for the people responsible for crimes of reckless driving and malicious mischief. According to the Kirkland Police Department, the incident took place around 11:40 pm, and there were at least two people inside the vehicle at the time. 

The flag crosswalk was unveiled earlier this month in a ceremony on June 2 in the first of several events the city planned to celebrate Pride month. 

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Michigan residents could be charged with a felony, face up to five years in prison and get a $10,000 fine for using the wrong pronouns under ‘unconstitutional’ new bill

Michigan‘s House of Representatives has passed a hate speech bill, known as HB 4474, which criminalizes causing someone to feel threatened by words, including the misusing of their pronouns, with the possibility of a hefty fine or even jail time.

The bill introduces hate crime penalties for causing someone to ‘feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened,’ with ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity or expression’ included as protected classes. 

Offenders could face up to five years in prison for such a felony offense or a $10,000 fine.

It is part of a continues effort by Democrats in the state to advance a pro-LGBTQ+ agenda in their first months in power. 

The proposed legislation aims to replace the existing Ethnic Intimidation Act and extends protection against intimidation.

Critics argue that the bill poses a threat to First Amendment rights and lacks clarity in defining ‘harassment’, leaving it open to subjective interpretation. 

The bill reads as follows: ‘Intimidate’ means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened.’

If passed, penalties would be based on how the supposed victim and court ‘feel’ about a particular matter. 

What constitutes as being deemed ‘intimidation and harassment’ would be up to the interpretation of the listener and a local prosecutor.

Critics argue that the legislation could infringe on free speech rights and undermine the principles of due process. 

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Supreme Court rules businesses can refuse service to LGBTQ+ customers

Businesses can refuse to serve same-sex couples if doing so would violate the owners’ religious beliefs, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

Why it matters: The court has significantly expanded LGBTQ rights over the past several years, but is now carving out some exceptions.

Driving the news: The case concerns Lorie Smith, a Colorado web designer who wanted to create and sell wedding websites, but not to same-sex couples.

  • Colorado’s civil rights law prohibited her, or any business that serves the general public, from turning away customers because of their sexual orientation. She said complying with that law would force her to espouse views she does not agree with.
  • “The artwork that I create is speech,” Smith told Colorado Public Radio in December, adding that, “those messages must be consistent with my convictions.”

The big picture: The conservative-majority Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Smith, saying she has a First Amendment right to refuse to design custom wedding websites for same-sex couples.

  • “The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. Colorado cannot deny that promise consistent with the First Amendment,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote.

Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

  • “The opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our Republic strong,” Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion.

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NBC News DEFENDS ‘we’re coming for your children’ chant at NYC drag march, arguing it’s ‘been used for years at Pride events’

The Drag March in Manhattan’s East Village featured topless women and plenty of drag performers chanting “We’re coming for your children.” A clip from Timcast of the event, the chanting, and the festivities went viral on social media, infuriating many who value childhood innocence. In response, NBC defended the chant, saying that it was just for fun, and is a way for LGBTQIA+ people to “own” the slurs that have been leveled against them.

“We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children,” they sang to each other.

NBC asserted that the drag marchers were saying “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re not going shopping,” and that it’s only “one voice that is louder than the crowd” who said, “We’re coming for your children.” They quote the drag march organizer, Brian Griffin, who said that they chanted obscene things to basically own the slurs. 

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HATE HOAX: Man who claimed to be victim of San Diego gay bashing that left him with burns actually was the perpetrator of beating of pregnant woman, police say

It has been revealed that a gay man who claimed to have been beaten and set on fire by a group of homophobes actually sustained his injuries while attacking a pregnant woman.

Scott Rowin, 39, originally alleged that he had been “gay bashed” while walking in his San Diego neighborhood, a story that was parroted by the media and local Antifa networks. CCTV footage, however, showed that he was torched by the expecting mother as she defended herself from his violent actions, which landed her in the hospital with injuries.

According to the San Diego Police Department, the incident took place on June 12 on the 900 block of 6th Avenue around 10:40 pm. Officers responded to numerous 911 calls reporting a man beating up a pregnant woman, however when they arrived, he had already fled the scene, ABC 10 reported.

Just under two hours later, a man called 911 reporting that he had been set on fire, and it was quickly determined that he was the suspect wanted for the aforementioned beating, and that she had burned him.

In the days since the attack, investigators have tracked down CCTV footage revealing the “initial physical assault by the man on the pregnant woman and the subsequent use of fire as a weapon by the pregnant woman on the man.” The man was identified as Rowin.

“This is a complex investigation, and detectives are examining all aspects and allegations,” the SDPD said. 

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Nation’s First Elected Transgender State Rep. Arrested On Child Porn Charges: Police

A former New Hampshire state representative and the nation’s first transgender-identifying state lawmaker was arrested by police this week and charged for allegedly distributing child pornography. 

Stacie Marie Laughton, a Democrat who previously resigned twice from the New Hampshire state house, is now facing four counts of distributing sexually explicit images of children. Laughton was born Barry Charles Laughton, Jr. 

Nashua Police Department public information officer Sgt. John Cinelli said that police were called to respond to a juvenile incident on Tuesday and were then told that the former lawmaker had been distributing explicit images. On Thursday, police searched Laughton’s house and arrested him. 

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Boston First Responders Horrified to Find Four Children at Transgender-Drag Party with a Dead Body and Drugs and Sex Toys Scattered Throughout the Home

In a disturbing incident, four children were discovered in a squalid apartment filled with “alcohol, drugs, sex toys” and a deceased man, as reported by first responders and city officials.

Boston Fire Department first responders were called to a public housing complex for a man in cardiac arrest on Saturday morning.

What they found was horrifying! The crew found themselves confronting far more than a routine medical emergency.

“This is sickening,” City Councilor Michael Flaherty said. “I was informed by people at the scene that there were drugs, alcohol, sex toys all around the apartment as well as a dead body on the floor.”

The apartment was described as being in “extremely unsanitary conditions,” with approximately six adults present, all appearing to be male.

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Police are ‘assessing’ video of Laurence Fox burning ‘LGBTQ+’ bunting in his garden while actor says he ‘hopes officers pay me a visit’ following Father’s Day stunt

The Met Police are assessing the video of Laurence Fox burning LGBTQ+ bunting in his back garden.

Fox, who is preparing to compete for Boris Johnson‘s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, used a lighter at his home to set the display on fire on Father’s Day.

An outraged Twitter user claimed to have reported the video to police as a ‘hate crime‘, which Fox has slammed as being ‘arbitrary nonsense’.

The actor-turned-political activist added: ‘Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reporting me.’

Fox had previously said the flag in his video – which is the Progress Pride version created in 2018 – ‘is nothing to do with the original Pride flag which was to represent hard-fought-for gay and lesbian rights, which everybody would support.’

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NASA Blocks Replies To Its ‘Pride Month’ Tweet

Generally, the posts of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at Twitter are open for replies. But, that is not the case for NASA’s June 2 tweet regarding “Pride Month.”

When the United States government agency shares an impressive photograph or video, such as video of a spacewalk in a June 9 tweet, the ability of Twitter users to post replies below the tweet is left open. As would be expected, most of the 150 replies as of June 12 to that spacewalk tweet are positive. Score for NASA public relations.

Compare this with a tweet from NASA a week earlier — on June 2 — regarding “Pride Month.” Above a photo of the “Progress Pride Flag” flying alongside the flags of the US and, it appears, NASA, that tweet states:

There’s space for everyone this #PrideMonth, and we’re celebrating the LGBTQI+ employees who help us reach for the stars, examine humanity’s place in the universe, and study our home planet: go.nasa.gov/3C9ncnU

The only reply to this tweet is from NASA itself on the same day. That reply states:

The diversity of our NASA team is what brings different perspectives to our missions, and we celebrate and share their stories. To protect our people from personal attacks, we have decided to limit comments on this post.

Replies to this second June 2 tweet are also barred.

Hmmm. What’s the deal with a US government agency selectively blocking the public from commenting on its actions because those comments may be harsh or critical? Shouldn’t free speech be valued and respected by the US government? Isn’t a government trying to silence speech critical of itself and its agents incompatible with respect for liberty?

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Prominent Trans Activist Sentenced To LIFE In Prison For Murder Of California Family

A prominent trans activist has been sentenced for the 2016 triple homicide of a California lesbian couple and their son. Dana Rivers, born David Chester Warfield, has been handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

“It is a horrible thing to sentence someone to die in prison, and I don’t take that lightly,” Judge Scott Patton said during the court hearing held today. “But this is the most depraved crime I ever handled in the criminal justice system in 33 years. Frankly, you deserve to spend the rest of your life in prison.”

The sentencing comes months after Rivers, 68, had been found guilty of the murders in November of last year. Rivers was denied a motion for a new trial, though his attorney had attempted to argue prosecutorial misconduct. Judge Patton dismissed the issues raised, labeling them “trivial” and “frankly quite ridiculous,” while noting that the evidence for Rivers’ guilt was “overwhelming.”

Rivers’ crimes date back to November 11 of 2016, when police were called in response to the sound of gunshots being fired outside the home of Wright and Reed in Oakland, California. When authorities arrived, they found Rivers covered in blood and gasoline and fleeing from the house, which had been set ablaze.

When discovered by police, Rivers had been heading towards his black Harley Davidson motorcycle, which was parked outside of the home with the keys left in the ignition. When police searched the Harley, which Rivers affectionately referred to as “Barbie,” they found blood on the bike and a bloody knife in its saddlebag.

A further search of Rivers’ person revealed that he was in possession of a bloody screwdriver, a knife, brass knuckles, bullets, pepper spray and Benny Diambu-Wright’s iPod, according to court documents.

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