Thursday, February 16, 2017

Gov. Abbott: Texans “Don’t Care” About Boycott Threats Over Anti-LGBT Laws

"[To] try to dictate to the state of Texas what types of policies we’re going to pass... that’s unacceptable."
From: NewNowNext
 Texas Governor Greg Abbott has some harsh words for those who say they’ll boycott the state if it passes anti-LGBT legislation—namely, that Texans “don’t care.”


Gov. Abbott appeared on the Glenn Beck Program to discuss the backlash the Lone Star State’s received in response to a trio of discriminatory bills currently working through the state legislature.

SB6 would bar transgender women from using public women’s restrooms, HB 1362 would prohibit schools from allowing students of “more than one sex or gender” to use the same bathroom and SB 242 would require school employees to notify parents if their children were gay, bisexual or trans.

Earlier this week, the NFL condemned the proposed laws, warning Texas that if they were to pass, the league would consider barring the state from ever hosting the Super Bowl again. A few days later, over 140 artists and performers signed an open letter attacking the bills.

“The NFL is walking on thin ice right here… the NFL needs to concentrate on playing football and get the heck out of politics,” Abbott began.

“For some low-level NFL adviser to come out and say that they are going to micromanage and try to dictate to the state of Texas what types of policies we’re going to pass in our state, that’s unacceptable.”

“We don’t care what the NFL thinks and certainly what their political policies are because they are not a political arm of the state of Texas or the United States of America,” he concluded. “They need to learn their place in the United States, which is to govern football, not politics.”


Dish of the Day #86

And your favorite summer song
From: Deep Dish
In this special two-for-one post, I thought I would combine the results of my recent poll about favorite summer songs with the Dish of the Day, which will feature Beach Boys this week. They seem to go together, don't you think? As for your favorite summer song, the winner with 15% of the votes was the 1982 hit, "Vacation", by The Go-Go's. Here are the other tunes that received votes:

2nd Place (12%): "Summertime" (1966) by Billy Stewart 

3rd Place (10%): "Surfin' U.S.A." (1963) by The Beach Boys 

4th Place (7%): "Dancing in the Street" (1964) by Martha and the Vandellas, "Summer Nights" (1978) by John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John from the Grease soundtrack, "Beach Baby" (1974) by First Class, "Summer Breeze" (1972) by Seals & Crofts, "Theme from A Summer Place" (1960) by Percy Faith 

5th Place (5%): "Dancing in the Street" (1966) by The Mamas & the Papas, "So Nice (Summer Samba)" (1966) by Astrud Gilberto 

6th Place (2%): "Summer in the City" (1966) by The Lovin' Spoonful, "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave" (1963) by Martha and the Vandellas, "Groovin'" (1967) by The Young Rascals, "Grazing in the Grass" (1969) by The Friends of Distinction, "Rock the Boat" (1974) by Hues Corporation, "A Summer Song" (1964) by Chad & Jeremy, "Stoned Soul Picnic" (1968) by The 5th Dimension

Gay Man From Ghana Denied Asylum In Canada

From: Towleroad
A gay man from Ghana has been denied asylum in Canada because he had fake papers and so could not be identified.

The 29-year-old man said he left Ghana at the end of 2015 after being attacked by a group of men who stabbed him in the stomach. He alleges that his attackers left him lying in the dirt while they went to get shovels to bury him alive.

He left the country with the help of his boyfriend, traveling first to Ecuador then through Colombia and Central America to Mexico. A refugee claim in the U.S. last year was rejected so he made his way to Minneapolis and eventually across the Canadian border. He has been in Winnipeg waiting to find out if he’ll be allowed to stay in Canada since December 2016.

Pulse reports that after the decision was made last week, he said if he has to go back to Ghana he will be killed.

His lawyer Bashir Khan said:

“He has been accused by the member [of the board] to have had fraudulent identity documents and his identity is not clear.
That is entirely incorrect and we disagree.
He will not be at risk of deportation, but certainly he will live with the mental fear of how much longer, what’s going to happen in the end.”

Khan added: “He’s gay, he has his freedom to choose his sexual orientation in this country.”

Gay Couple Assaulted Outside Bar in Missoula, Montana

From: kenneth in the (212)
I've read about hundreds of these attacks yet a new one never ceases to send chills down my spine.
Can't imagine the terror of experiencing something like this,
with total strangers punching you and screaming homophobic slurs.
Read HERE.

Gay Afghan Refugee Charged With Assaulting Police Officer at D.C. Betsy DeVos Protest

From: Towleroad
A gay refugee from Afghanistan has been arrested for assault during a February 10 protest against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in Washington, D.C.

DeVos was physically blocked by protesters at the entrance to Jefferson Middle School Academy.

32-year-old Bilal A. Askaryar, who fled Afghanistan in 1990 fearing persecution and death from the Taliban, was charged with assaulting a police officer and failing to obey a lawful command of an officer.

The Washington Blade reports:

“[T]he defendant (Askaryar) along with several other protesters blocked the driveway to the parking lot of the school and blocked the path of Secretary of Education B. Devos’ vehicle,” a police affidavit in support of Askaryar’s arrest says.
“The defendant (Askaryar) and the other protesters got violent and started pushing and shoving the police officers on the scene,” the affidavit says. It says that Askaryar was caught on video pushing a police sergeant and a police officer.
Court records show Askaryar is scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court for a misdemeanor status hearing on March 17. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Askaryar has since become a U.S. citizen and has received a master’s of arts degree from American University’s School of International Service. In a column in the Blade last month, he criticized the controversial executive order seeking to temporarily ban refugees from seven mostly Muslim countries.

FURBALL NYC PRESIDENT’S WEEKEND KICK OFF

From: Bear World
 Furball NYC is back tomorrow with their President’s Weekend kick off! All hot daddies, cubs, pups and sexy bears will be there with music by Hex Hector and Jared Conner. 

Friday February 17, 2017

Stage 48, 605 W48th St 
11:00pm


$15 Early Bird Tickets available at: furballnyc.ticketleap.com/furballNYC021717
$20 @ door

Leather & Fetish Wear Encouraged!

DOOR:
 Roze Black + Carmine
Go-go bears
Cheap beer
Great music
500+ hot hairy guys….sweating it out on the dance-floor. 

HOSTS
Daddy Ersin
Damian Downer
Ryan Shea
Keith Kalb

GO GO Bears & Cubs!

'Feud: Bette and Joan': TV Review

Ryan Murphy's latest FX anthology will thrust stars Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, who play Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, respectively, into awards conversations for the next year.
From: The Hollywood Reporter
In his latest attempt to anthologize the totality of America's cultural history, Ryan Murphy has transitioned from the shared 1990s experience of the Trial of the Century to the Hollywood mythology of the 1960s. If People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story felt like unexpected terrain for Murphy to mine, FX's Feud: Bette and Joan is a perhaps more predictable fascination. The diva devotee's undeniable passion for the material, plus a cast of almost gratuitous distinction, helps cover for a narrative that's sometimes more juicy than weighty.

Opening with a Saul Bass-inspired credit sequence that still fills me with cinema-loving giddiness after more than a dozen viewings, Feud was extrapolated from Jaffe Cohen's and Michael Zam's script Best Actress by Murphy, with Tim Minear as his most frequent writing collaborator.

Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) has become unemployable due to Hollywood's ageism, misogyny and the myopia of an industry trying desperately to lure young viewers away from the vapid scourge of television. When she gets the script for a pulpy adaptation of the novel What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Crawford sees the opportunity for a comeback, but only if she can recruit fellow Oscar-winning titan-in-decline Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon). The two stars have never worked together, but they have a simmering rivalry that goes back decades. It's up to journeyman director Robert Aldrich (Alfred Molina) to keep them from killing each other, though a peaceful collaboration may not be in the best interests of headline-craving studio chief Jack Warner (Stanley Tucci) or notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Judy Davis), who is willing to take sides for whichever actress will give her the tawdriest scoops.

Set just five years from Bonnie and Clyde, this is Hollywood on the edge of a cliff, an industry desperately trying to hold onto its faded Golden Age glamour, and in Davis and Crawford, Murphy has the perfect ambassadors: former matinee idols scraping and clawing to remain desirable in a business that would prefer they be maternal or entirely invisible.

The combination of Davis and Crawford, both eternal camp icons, the production of a movie that is beloved as a camp classic and Murphy, no stranger to camp embrace, suggests only a piece of what Feud is going for. Surely there is humor in the largesse, but there's every bit as much sadness to what both women must go through to avoid sliding into the has-been abyss. Murphy and his leads have too much respect for these legends to let their conflicts become Dynasty-style cat fights, balancing the fun of behind-the-scenes shenanigans with the desperation the women were feeling, using individual episodes to focus on Davis and Crawford as mothers and wives or lovers, showing the power their femininity affords them and its limitations as they woo Aldrich and the camera's affections.

The show's own affections go back and forth between Davis and Crawford, and the five episodes sent to critics are a swinging pendulum of sympathies for their characters and awards sentiment for Sarandon and Lange, who will surely be butting heads for a year of trophy-striving. The first episode seems balanced toward Lange, whose exaggerated beauty regimens and lack of polite filter dominate, but just as I'd etched Lange's name on the hypothetical Emmy, Sarandon slipped in and, with the quiet yearning of those well-cast Bette Davis eyes, dominated the second episode. Lange's is the bigger performance, Sarandon's the more calculating. Murphy and the other directors, including Gwyneth Horder-Payton and Liza Johnson for the third and fourth episodes, respectively, aren't playing favorites.

Feud doesn't have a distracting "What show do you think you're in?" or "Why don't you look or sound anything like the real person?" performance like John Travolta or Cuba Gooding Jr. in People v. O.J. The cast, from the biggest of Oscar winners to a handful of lesser-knowns, is tremendous. Catherine Zeta-Jones delivers glamour from another era as Olivia de Havilland, while Kathy Bates is a cackling, dirt-spilling treat as Joan Blondell. Tucci noshes on scenery with vulgar abandon and Davis oozes cunning poison, and if they're overplaying Warner or Hopper, I have no idea. As perhaps the most developed of the male characters, Molina sometimes makes Aldrich seem like a button-pushing buffoon, but Feud finds empathy in his thwarted aspirations to be seen as more than just an artless hack.

Going down the cast list, praise is due to Kiernan Shipka, charmingly awkward as Davis' daughter, and Alison Wright, differently calculating as an assistant with greater aspirations. Also, watch out for veteran character comic Jackie Hoffman, stealing scenes with deadpan deviousness as Crawford's German maid and confidante Mamacita.

Thematically, Feud works almost as an eight-episode extension of the tremendous "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" episode of People v. O.J., exploring the machine that marginalizes women of a certain age and the challenges of fighting that machine and maintaining dignity, only occasionally letting that focus wander. Played with uncanny precision by Dominic Burgess, Baby Jane co-star Victor Buono lets Feud give a nod to the plight of closeted actors in Hollywood at that moment and also to smartly weave in Davis' treasured ties to the gay community.

"This isn't real life, this is Hollywood," Bette instructs Hopper and, indeed, if a strength of People v. O.J. was regularly finding ways to use a contained story to speak to nearly every facet of American life, Feud is often restricting itself to the trifling problems and precariousness of this pocket of privilege, not real life. You can even feel Murphy straining to figure out exactly how much story he has here. Baby Jane, which presents as the series' backbone, has already been released by the wheel-spinning fourth episode, drawn out because Murphy wanted to give the 1963 Oscars an episode of their own.

It happens that that episode, written and directed by Murphy, is a cinema nerd's delight, with cameo impressions — Gregory Peck! Patty Duke! David Lean! Sarah Paulson as Geraldine Page! — a killer extended one-shot (with a single masked cut) of Crawford navigating backstage at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and the rivalry's coup de grace, which I won't spoil for non-obsessives. With some awareness of what's left, an episode this good runs the risk of making the last three feel like a lot of postscript. We'll see.

How much knowledge is really required to enjoy Feud? None, but some background helps. You don't need to have seen What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? to understand what Aldrich, Crawford and Davis are up to, but familiarity helps you enjoy how accurate a lot of the reproductions are when it comes to the movie's sets and also to Sarandon's and Lange's performance nuances. Karina Longworth did a full series on Crawford in her fantastic You Must Remember This podcast, including a great episode on Baby Jane, and having that as context is invaluable if not essential. Even when you can tell that Longworth and the Feud writers did some of the same research and the actors have been presented with dry biographical monologues, Sarandon and Lange are canny enough to transcend a Wikipedia entry.

The nostalgia for a 50-year-old company town kerfuffle might not be as great as for a trial watched by millions every day for months and a lot of Feud is tailored for fanatics, for the sort of person who gets wonky joy from shifting aspect ratios and color saturation levels or can appreciate a good off-hand reference to Franchot Tone or already awaits the silver sparkle of Crawford's Oscar gown. Fortunately, production designer Judy Becker and Lou Eyrich's costumes flawless period evocation can be appreciated without a Ph.D. in film studies and the ample pleasures of watching four Oscar-winning actresses and a slew of other stars back stab, conspire and strive for excellence should make Feud: Bette and Joan another success for Ryan Murphy. I'm already eager to see what discord is on tap for the second season.


Ex National Guard Caleb Jerks Out A Huge Cumshot

Military man Caleb’s explosive cumshot!……
From: Guys Love Guys
 Active Duty says: We’re taking you back in time to get reacquainted with a recruit from the past. Caleb’s a sexy 5’8′, 150 lbs. little god who is sure to get your juices flowing.


 When I met Caleb he was in the National Guard, back in the very early days of the Iraq war. Caleb’s very into his jerk off session, talking to you, asking if you’d like to be there with him.


 At one point he starts playing with his ass and says, ‘You like my ass? No one’s ever touched it but me.’ You’re in for one hot ride with Caleb as he takes you on an exploration of his hot, cut, tight and toned little muscled bod and perfect ass, right up to his explosive cumshot.


 Then Caleb takes us to the shower where he continues his banter as he teases us and gets us all lathered up right along with him.



































Don't Buy Mike Pence's Innocent Act

From: Shakesville
The official explanation for why Donald Trump asked Michael Flynn to resign (or merely accepted his resignation, depending on who's telling the story) is that Flynn lied to Vice-President Mike Pence about his conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which is why Pence then went on television to state with certitude: 
"They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States' decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia."

Flynn's lie to Pence, which caused Pence's very public "misstatement," is now being cited as the reason underwriting the "erosion of trust" that prompted Trump to ask for Flynn's resignation.

Central to this story is the idea that Pence only made that claim because he'd been misled by Flynn. Pence's alleged innocence has been bolstered by stories, the source for which is Pence's spokesperson, about how Pence only found out he'd been misled when he read it in the Washington Post on February 9, even though "Trump was first informed about the Justice Department's concerns regarding Flynn on Jan. 26."

Indeed, this wholesale buy-in to Pence's incredible claim of innocence is contingent on believing a number of extraordinary things.

1. 
That Pence was wildly out of the loop.

Pence has emerged as one of the most powerful veeps in the nation's history. He has been acting as the liaison between the White House and the Republican Congressional Caucus to begin enacting a radical conservative agenda, staring with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

On January 26, the very day that Trump was informed about Flynn, Pence was profiled by USA Today as leading the charge on domestic policy: "Pence tells Congress to 'buckle up' and get ready to enact major change."

That is, quite simply, not a vice-president who's been pushed out and left in the dark.

2. 
That Pence made a definitive statement about a vital national security concern based only on Flynn's word.

What we are meant to believe is that Pence went on national television and made a definitive statement about whether Flynn discussed sanctions with a Russian official, based exclusively on Flynn's word and nothing else.

Not only that does that seem like a very foolish move for a seasoned politician who has been through his share of controversies, but it also requires us to believe that, before speaking on such an explosive topic on behalf of the administration, he didn't discuss his talking points with anyone else in the administration, except for one person who had reason to lie.

I've been writing about Pence for many years, and I can tell you that there a lot of deplorable things about him, but being stupid and reckless are not among them.

3. 
That Flynn lied even though, according to the Trump administration, he had nothing to lie about.

During the White House press briefing yesterday, Sean Spicer repeated over and over that Flynn's discussion about sanctions with Kislyak was not illegal. Flynn was asked for his resignation, Spicer insisted, not because he did anything wrong, but because of the "erosion of trust" after lying to Pence.

But: If Flynn hadn't done anything wrong on that call, then why would he lie about it to Pence in the first place? (The point is: Maybe he didn't.)

4.
That Pence hasn't been reading the news for months.

For us to believe that Pence was truly "in the dark" and completely innocent of any knowledge that Flynn had misled him, we also have to believe that Pence hasn't read a shred of news for months. Until he happened to pick up the WaPo on Feb. 9.

Reports of Flynn's ties to Russia have also been circulating for months. We are also meant to believe that Pence has entirely missed reports that Flynn has a long relationship with Putin, including interviews (example) in which Flynn boasts about his ties to Russia.

Either we have to believe Pence missed all of that, or believe that Pence knew it yet inexplicably took Flynn at his word when he said he had not spoken to Kislyak about sanctions.

5. 
That Pence hasn't used precisely this maneuver before.

While Governor of Indiana, Pence used the old "had no knowledge" chestnut to distance himself from scandal. And it was just as absurd then as it is now.

Perhaps most famously, Pence claimed, exactly as he is now, that he learned from the press about the proposal for a state-run and taxpayer-funded news (propaganda) outlet: "I frankly learned about the memo from press reports late Monday."

He made this incredible claim despite the fact that two employees had already been hired; that "a governance board of communications directors" had been established; that a draft story had already been circulated; and that Pence himself had tweeted about it.

And he claimed that he learned about it from the media, just as he is claiming now.

This is his go-to move to try to disassociate himself from troubling stories that go public via leaks. He feigns ignorance, because it's preferable to look like he's out of the loop than intractably corrupt.

Don't believe him for a second. And urge the corporate media to give Pence the scrutiny he deserves, instead of letting him get away with the wide-eyed innocent routine. Again.

Donald Trump, Who Loved Leaks When They Benefited Him, Now Attacks ‘Low-Life Leakers’

From: Towleroad
Donald Trump tried to point his finger away from the real problem — his administration’s treasonous ties to Russia — and focus it on the leakers (who are doing the U.S. a great service by leaking his deeds to the press).

Tweeted Trump: “Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize! … The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers! They will be caught!”


Will there be an investigation into Trump’s Russia ties? 

The NYT:

Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Pat Roberts favor a broader investigation. John Cornyn, the Senate majority whip, has also raised the possibility of an investigation by Senate committees with jurisdiction over the intelligence community.
The Democrats would obviously be on board — Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, has also called for the Senate Intelligence Committee to lead a bipartisan inquiry. The person who needs to make this happen is Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. Whatever form the committee takes, as Mr. Schumer said on Wednesday, all members must be granted equal access to “intelligence officials, transcripts and documents that they need to answer critical questions, and they must be permitted to make their findings public to the maximum extent possible.”
Admittedly, this is hoping for a lot from a Republican leadership whose natural inclination is to protect the president. This week, for instance, congressional Republicans closed off one avenue to forcing the release of Mr. Trump’s tax returns, which he has refused to divulge and which could help prove to Americans that he is not indebted to Russian financial entities.

Did Beyoncé Mop Her Grammys Look From Cher?

SNATCHED?!
From: NewNowNext
 During Sunday’s Grammys everyone was living for Beyoncé and her dazzling, shimmery dress that looked like it was meant for a queen (or an African goddess).


 But what if that queen was living legend Cher?


 The singer recently began her latest tour, Classic Cher, at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas on Feb 8.

During the show Cher wears various looks from her longtime designer Bob Mackie, but it’s her outfit she wears while singing “After All” that might have given fans déjà vu if they tuned in for the Grammys.



An observant fan called out Beyoncé on Facebook:


What do you think? Did Beyoncé snatch Cher’s look or was it just a queen coincidence?

Either way they both looked divine so let’s just celebrate that these two icons—who are 35 years apart in age!—can pull off such a spectacular look.

But if Queen Bey tries to copy one of these looks then we can start getting suspicious:



Darren Criss to Play Versace’s Killer Andrew Cunanan in ‘American Crime Story’

From: Towleroad
On Watch What Happens Live!, Andy Cohen asked creator Ryan Murphy about the theme for Season 7 of American Horror Story. And he’s found his scariest subject yet.

Said Murphy:

“The season that we begin shooting in June is going to be about the election that we just went through, so I think that will be interesting for a lot of people.”

And there just might be a Trump in it.

Watch:



Murphy also talked about purchasing a book about the Monica Lewinsky scandal for American Crime Story, and the upcoming season, which is about the Gianni Versace murder.

Murphy said he has cast Darren Criss to play Andrew Cunanan and Edgar Ramirez to play Versace:

Daddy's Girl

From: kenneth in the (212)
Isn't Ivanka a bit long in the tooth for Bring Your Daughter to Work Day?

Clinton Slams Flynn After Resignation

From: Politico
Hillary Clinton linked to a tweet from longtime Clinton staffer Philippe Reines
that criticized Flynn and Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn Jr. | Getty
After Michael Flynn resigned Monday night as national security adviser, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton blasted him for sharing fake news about her during the campaign.

Clinton linked on Tuesday to a tweet from longtime Clinton staffer Philippe Reines that criticized Flynn and Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn Jr. Both Flynns shared fake news stories perpetuating the fringe conspiracy theory “Pizzagate,” which falsely alleges that Comet Ping Pong, a pizza place in Washington, D.C., hosts a child sex slave ring connected to Clinton.

Reines tweeted “What goes around COMETS around” and linked to an ad for jobs at Domino's, “given your pizza obsession.”

Clinton linked to Reines’ tweet and wrote that “he has a point about the real consequences of fake news…”
Reines and Clinton were joined in criticizing Flynn by Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser for strategic communications under former President Barack Obama. Rhodes tweeted: "When campaign chairman and NSA both resign over Russia ties there is more. Manafort and Flynn had nothing in common except Russia and Trump."

Paul Manafort resigned as Donald Trump's campaign chairman in August after he was criticized for his past work lobbying for pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs.

In December, a North Carolina man was arrested after firing a gun inside Comet Ping Pong, although no one was injured. He told The New York Times he wanted to take a “closer look” at the restaurant because he felt his “heart breaking over the thought of innocent people suffering."

Flynn resigned Monday night after not disclosing to Vice President Mike Pence he had discussed removing sanctions during conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Canister Of Tear Gas Thrown Into Croatian Nightclub Hosting Gay Party

Activists call the incident the latest in an "escalation of hatred in public spaces" against LGBT people.
From: NewNowNext
 At least two people were injured in Croatia after a canister of tear gas was thrown into a club hosting a gay party. Police are investigating the attack on Zagreb’s Super Super Club Saturday night, when witnesses report club goers smashed windows and trampled each other to escape.


 On Facebook, Zagreb Pride, which hosts the country’s annual LGBT celebration, called for police “to carry out [a] fast and effective investigation and to identify and bring to justice those responsible for this awful physical assault.”

The organization said the incident was just the latest in an “escalation of hatred in public spaces” against LGBT Croatians by radical right-wingers.

Criticizing the government for failing to respond to “fascist outbursts,” Zagreb Pride called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Interior Minister Vlaho Orepić “to resolutely, loudly and clearly condemn this violent act directed against human rights of LGBTIQ people… and show that hatred and violence are not the values of our society.”


The association added that the LGBT community would “not surrender or step back in the fight for human rights… Hatred will never be able to defeat love!”

This year’s Zagreb Pride will be held June 10.

LGBT rights in Croatia have expanded in recent years, but homophobic and transphobic discrimination and violence is not uncommon, especially at Pride events.

Still, anti-discrimination and hate-crime laws both address sexual orientation, and in 2014, same-sex couples were granted status equivalent to heterosexual marriage, with the exception of adoption. (Gays and lesbians can register as “partner-guardians.”)

Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Julianne Moore Sign Open Letter Attacking Texas Bathroom Bills

"We all have to stand up, even if we’re not from Texas, or LGBTQ—we all have to say that this isn’t OK."
From: NewNowNext
 More than 140 artists and performers have signed an open letter attacking bathroom bills in Texas, including Lady Gaga, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Lawrence, Britney Spears, Sia and Laverne Cox.

Organized by Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff, the letter was sent to Texas legislators on Valentine’s Day, and indicates the signatories are “deeply troubled” by three anti-trans measures facing lawmakers.


 Introduced in the legislature in January, SB 6 would bar transgender women from using public women’s restrooms. (Lt. Governor Dan Patrick says trans men were left off the bill because “men can defend themselves.”)

Patrick, who has attempted to re-brand the bill as a “Women’s Privacy Act,” claims its purpose is to “stop sexual predators,” although no incidents of trans people committing crimes in bathrooms have been reported in Texas—or anywhere else. (A 2016 study did, however, indicate that 12% of trans people have been harassed, attacked or sexually assaulted in a public restroom.)

Another measure, HB 1362, would prohibit schools from allowing students of “more than one sex or gender” to use the same bathroom (though it doesn’t define either “sex” or “gender.” It would also prohibit cities and municipalities from enacting trans-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances, like the ones currently in Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. Republican state Rep. Matt Shaheen, filed the measure earlier this month, insisting cities don’t have the right “to tell people where to go to the bathroom.” (Ironically, he seems to be suggesting the state government does.)

And SB 242, introduced by Tea Party representative Konni Burton, would require school employees to notify parents if their children were gay, bisexual or trans—failure to do so would result in disciplinary action.


 “We all have to stand up, even if we’re not from Texas, or LGBTQ—we all have to say that this isn’t OK with us,” Antonoff told Billboard. “And I hope the level of talent on this list opens people’s eyes, and particularly that local legislators will realize how important this is—to the people living in Texas and to the people coming in and bringing a lot of money to the economy.”

Others who are joining the Texas Together campaign include Jimmy Kimmel, Janelle Monáe, Laura Jane Grace, Carrie Brownstein, George Takei, Tegan and Sara, Amy Schumer, Ariana Grande, Carly Rae Jepsen, Connie Britton, Cyndi Lauper, Emma Stone, Sara Bareilles, Sting, Talib Kweli, Zosia Mamet, and Whoopie Goldberg.

Read the letter below.