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Published by Reuters By Laura Gottesdiener and Ricardo Arduengo LES CAYES, Haiti (Reuters) -Heavy rains overnight lashed thousands of people left homeless by a weekend earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 1,400, causing flooding and complicating relief efforts, even as the storm moved past the Caribbean country on Tuesday. The quake brought down tens of thousands of buildings in the poorest country in the Americas, which is still recovering from a temblor 11 years ago that killed over 200,000 people. By Tuesday morning, only a light rain was falling over Les Cayes, the southern coastal city that bore the brunt of the 7.2 magnitude quake after Tropical Storm Grace had unleashed torrential rains and floods in at least one region. At a tent city in Les Cayes containing many children and babies, over a hundred people scrambled to repair makeshift coverings made of wooden poles and tarps that were destroyed by Grace overnight. Some took cover under plastic sheets. Mathieu Jameson, deputy head of the committee formed by the tent city residents, said hundreds of people there were in urgent need of food shelter and medical care. “We don’t have a doctor. We don’t have food. Every morning more people are arriving. We have no bathroom, no place to sleep. We need food, we need more umbrellas,” said Jameson, adding the tent city was still waiting for government aid. Haiti’s latest natural disaster comes just over a month after Haiti was plunged into political turmoil by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7. Several major hospitals were severely damaged, hampering humanitarian efforts, as were the focal points of many shattered communities, such as churches and schools. “We have around 34 children hospitalized now, but we still need more help from pediatricians. SOS,” Marie Cherry, a doctor at the Les Cayes general hospital, said via text message. Doctors worked in makeshift tents outside of hospitals to save the lives of hundreds of injured, including young children and the elderly. Haitian authorities said on Monday that 1,419 deaths had been confirmed, with some 6,900 people injured. As hopes faded of finding significant numbers of survivors in the wreckage, the storm impeded rescuers in Les Cayes, about 150 km (90 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince. By early morning, Grace, which had been forecast to dump up to 15 inches (38 cm) of rain on some areas, was moving into Jamaica, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Rescue workers were digging alongside residents through the rubble on Monday evening in a bid to reach bodies, though few voiced hope of finding anyone alive. A smell of dust and decomposing bodies permeated the air. “We came from all over to help: from the north, from Port-au Prince, from everywhere,” said Maria Fleurant, a firefighter from northern Haiti. Emergency workers pulled a bloodstained pillow from the rubble, followed by the corpse of a 3-year-old boy who appeared to have died in his sleep during the earthquake. Shortly after, as the rain intensified, the workers left. RISING TOLL With about 37,312 houses destroyed by the quake, according to Haitian authorities, and many of those still unexcavated, the death toll is expected to rise. Vital Jaenkendy, who watched as a bulldozer shifted rubble from his collapsed apartment building, said eight residents had died and four were missing. Jaenkendy and others have been sleeping under a tarpaulin on a dirt road nearby, and were hunkering down for the rains. “When the storm comes, we’ll take shelter in car ports of the houses nearby, just until it passes, and then we’ll return to our place in the road,” he said. Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was sworn in less then a month ago after Moise’s assassination, vowed to disburse humanitarian aid better than in the wake of the 2010 quake. Though billions of dollars in aid money poured into Haiti after that quake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, many Haitians say they saw scant benefits from the uncoordinated efforts: government bodies remained weak, amid persistent shortages of food and basic goods. “The earthquake is a great misfortune that happens to us in the middle of the hurricane season,” Henry told reporters, adding that the government would not repeat “the same things” done in 2010. (Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener and Ricardo Arduengo in Les Cayes, Haiti;Additional reporting by Herbert Villarraga and Robenson Sanon in Les Cayes; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Clarence Fernandez and Giles Elgood) View the full article

Grindr by Race Grindr allows for anonymity in a way that other dating apps do not. Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty ImagesOn gay dating apps like Grindr, many users have profiles that contain phrases like “I don’t date Black men,” or that claim they are “not attracted to Latinos.” Other times they’ll list races acceptable to them: “White/Asian/Latino only.” This language is so pervasive on the app that websites such as Douchebags of Grindr and hashtags like #grindrwhileblack can be used to find countless examples of the abusive language that men use against people of color. Since 2015 I’ve been studying LGBTQ culture and gay life, and much of that time has been spent trying to untangle and understand the tensions and prejudices within gay culture. “This isn’t e-harmony, this is Grindr, get over it or block me.” One user on Grindr put emphasis on the appWhile social scientists have explored racism on online dating apps, most of this work has centered on highlighting the problem, a topic I’ve also written about. I’m seeking to move beyond simply describing the problem and to better understand why some gay men behave this way. From 2015 to 2019 I interviewed gay men from the Midwest and West Coast regions of the United States. Part of that fieldwork was focused on understanding the role Grindr plays in LGBTQ life. A slice of that project – which is currently under review with a top peer-reviewed social science journal – explores the way gay men rationalize their sexual racism and discrimination on Grindr. ‘It’s just a preference’ The gay men I connected with tended to make one of two justifications. The most common was to simply describe their behaviors as “preferences.” One participant I interviewed, when asked about why he stated his racial preferences, said, “I don’t know. I just don’t like Latinos or Black guys.” A Grindr profile used in the study specifies interest in certain races. Christopher T. Conner, CC BYThat user went on to explain that he had even purchased a paid version of the app that allowed him to filter out Latinos and Black men. His image of his ideal partner was so fixed that he would rather – as he put it – “be celibate” than be with a Black or Latino man. (During the 2020 #BLM protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, Grindr eliminated the ethnicity filter.) Sociologists have long been interested in the concept of preferences, whether they’re favorite foods or people we’re attracted to. Preferences may appear natural or inherent, but they’re actually shaped by larger structural forces – the media we consume, the people we know and the experiences we have. In my study, many of the respondents seemed to have never really thought twice about the source of their preferences. When confronted, they simply became defensive. “It was not my intent to cause distress,” another user explained. “My preference may offend others … [however,] I derive no satisfaction from being mean to others, unlike those who have problems with my preference.” The other way that I observed some gay men justifying their discrimination was by framing it in a way that put the emphasis back on the app. These users would say things like, “This isn’t e-harmony, this is Grindr, get over it or block me.” Since Grindr has a reputation as a hookup app, bluntness should be expected, according to users like this one – even when it veers into racism. Responses like these reinforce the idea of Grindr as a space where social niceties don’t matter and carnal desire reigns. Prejudices bubble to the surface While social media apps have dramatically altered the landscape of gay culture, the benefits from these technological tools can sometimes be difficult to see. Some scholars point to how these apps enable those living in rural areas to connect with one another, or how it gives those living in cities alternatives to LGBTQ spaces that are increasingly gentrified. In practice, however, these technologies often only reproduce, if not heighten, the same problems and issues facing the LGBTQ community. As scholars such as Theo Green have unpacked elsewehere, people of color who identify as queer experience a great deal of marginalization. This is true even for people of color who occupy some degree of celebrity within the LGBTQ world. Perhaps Grindr has become particularly fertile ground for cruelty because it allows anonymity in a way that other dating apps do not. Scruff, another gay dating app, requires users to reveal more of who they are. However, on Grindr people are allowed to be anonymous and faceless, reduced to images of their torsos or, in some cases, no images at all. The emerging sociology of the internet has found that, time and again, anonymity in online life brings out the worst human behaviors. Only when people are known do they become accountable for their actions, a finding that echoes Plato’s story of the Ring of Gyges, in which the philosopher wonders if a man who became invisible would then go on to commit heinous acts. At the very least, the benefits from these apps aren’t experienced universally. Grindr seems to recognize as much; in 2018, the app launched its “#KindrGrindr” campaign. But it’s difficult to know if the apps are the cause of such toxic environments, or if they’re a symptom of something that has always existed. [You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.] Christopher T. Conner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri-Columbia This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Grindr by race on Towleroad Grindr by race ‘We need food’: heavy rains lash Haiti quake survivors August 17, 2021 Read More ‘It’s just a preference’: How Some Gay Men Justify Sorting, Selecting on Grindr by Race. New Research August 17, 2021 Read More Lily Cole, Model and Actor in ‘Dr. Who’, ‘Star Wars’, Married to Kwame Ferreira, Says She is Definitely Queer August 16, 2021 Read More Court Rules Hobby Lobby Violated Law in Denying ‘Unquestionably Female’ Trans Employee Use of Women’s Bathroom August 16, 2021 Read More Stella McCartney Says Rock-and-Roll Parents Shared Clothes; Made Genderless (‘Unisex’) Fashion Real For Her August 16, 2021 Read More Taliban return to power as president and diplomats flee Kabul August 15, 2021 Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lily Cole has come out as queer. The 33-year-old model – who has five-year-old daughter Wylde with her entrepreneur husband Kwame Ferreira – spoke out about her sexuality in her new book ‘Who Cares Wins: How to Protect the Planet You Love’. Lily wrote: “Just as we do not choose the circumstances and ancestral patterns we are born into, none of us choose the cultural norms and laws we inherit. “Had my mixed-race daughter been born in a different country, she would have been a crime. “If I were living in another country today, my queerness would be a crime.” And Lily – who tied the knot with Ferreira in 2012 – went on to explain that she felt the need to “acknowledge” that she is not straight. Speaking about the word queer, she told The Sunday Times Style magazine: “I like that world because of its openness, because I think all those boundaries are quite rigid. “I have lots of friends who identify as bisexual, lesbian or whatever, who also identify as queer. I’ve always been quite private about my private life, consciously, and I want to continue to be, so I don’t feel the need to be explicit. At the same time I feel the need to acknowledge that I am not straight.” Lily was previously linked to Jude Law, David Gandy Bryan Ferry and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey before she fell for Ferreira. Lily Cole Actor on Towleroad Lily Cole, Model and Actor in ‘Dr. Who’, ‘Star Wars’, Married to Kwame Ferreira, Says She is Definitely Queer August 16, 2021 Read More Court Rules Hobby Lobby Violated Law in Denying ‘Unquestionably Female’ Trans Employee Use of Women’s Bathroom August 16, 2021 Read More Stella McCartney Says Rock-and-Roll Parents Shared Clothes; Made Genderless (‘Unisex’) Fashion Real For Her August 16, 2021 Read More Taliban return to power as president and diplomats flee Kabul August 15, 2021 Read More Thousands march in Bucharest Gay Pride Parade; Shadow of Planned Legislation That Will Chip At Rights Gained in 2001 August 15, 2021 Read More Cardi B and Lizzo Rumors All True. A Late Summer Bop Fantasia And 10 More Recently Dropped Trailers and Tunes: Watch Now August 14, 2021 Read More View the full article

Hobby LobbyA landmark ruling out of Illinois Friday finally put to bed attempts by national retailer Hobby Lobby to discriminate against an employee’s rights based on their gender identity, ending an 11-year fight that spawned from the simple act of using the bathroom. The Illinois Second District Appellate Court ruled in favor of transgender Hobby Lobby employee Meggan Sommerville, stating that Hobby Lobby violated the state’s anti-bias law by denying her from using the women’s restroom at her workplace. The ruling stated Sommerville is “unquestionably female” and should be permitted to use the bathroom that correlates to her gender identity. “They stuck to the law,” Sommerville, who has worked at Hobby Lobby for 23 years, told Forbes after the ruling came down. “This is a precedent setting case in Illinois, because the Human Rights Act has never been tested in this way in Illinois, and actually in the country.” Sommerville’s framing of the decision isn’t hyperbolic. Friday’s ruling marks the first instance of protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity that last year’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision guaranteed to federal employees extending to employees of private companies. “The court basically says this was not just transgender discrimination, it was sex discrimination, which is what federal courts have found,” said Jacob Meister, Sommerville’s attorney. “What this court said is, as a matter of Illinois law, Meggan’s sex is female. She not only has a female gender identity, but as a matter of Illinois law, her sex is female.” Sommerville stated that her treatment by Hobby Lobby, a company with a long history of proliferating anti-LGBTQ sentiments, impacted her health through her limiting fluid intake at work and heightened her fears of assault and/or mocking from men. “This decision will have national implications and start the process of courts around the country addressing the issue of bathroom access,” Meister told Bloomberg. Hobby Lobby justified its treatment of Sommerville by stating the company installed a “unisex bathroom” in Sommerville’s store and would allow Sommerville to use the women’s bathroom if she produced a birth certificate showing her to be female or proved that she underwent gender-affirming surgery. They also threw in the common adage that denying Sommerville access to the women’s restroom was meant to protect women. The court rejected Hobby Lobby’s arguments unanimously, saying that their practices had no support under the Illinois Human Rights Act. “Hobby Lobby’s argument that female status is somehow immutable is belied not only by the Act, but also by its own conduct,” read the filing. It further stated that Hobby Lobby’s “protecting women” argument “lacks support in either the record or logic.” “There is simply no evidence that Sommerville’s use of the women’s bathroom would pose a safety risk to other women,” the ruling read. “The presence of a transgender person in a bathroom poses no greater inherent risk to privacy or safety than that posed by anyone else who uses the bathroom” Sommerville’s previous $220,000 judgment for emotional distress and attorneys’ fees was upheld. Hobby Lobby hasn’t commented publicly on the ruling, but an appeal is likely to come with some form of religious freedom wrapped into its defense of its actions. The company was victorious in securing the same protections based on religious beliefs reserved for churches and individuals for for-profit corporations with the Supreme Court’s ruling on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby in 2014. According to Forbes, both Sommerville and Meister are committed to fight the company all the way to the Supreme Court, where Bostock v. Clayton County was decided. Hobby Lobby: Previously on Towleroad Court Rules Hobby Lobby Violated Law in Denying ‘Unquestionably Female’ Trans Employee Use of Women’s Bathroom Brian Bell August 16, 2021 Read More Canada Transgender Pastor Sues Former Church For Being Fired After Coming Out During Pride Month Sermon Brian Bell August 12, 2021 Read More Elliot Page Awarded for Prejudice-busting Work and Life On And Off Screen; Sheds Light on Dark Prejudices; Shares Unseen Prides and Joys Brian Bell August 11, 2021 Read More FOLLOWING UP: DaBaby Apology Gone From Instagram; First Trans Model for Vogue; Sr. Executives Leave Activision Blizzard: Brian Bell August 10, 2021 Read More Tennessee Trans Bathroom Bill Alleged to Violate Title IX. Human Rights Campaign Sues on behalf of the the affected children. Brian Bell August 4, 2021 Read More LGBTQ Olympics: Raven Sunders Challenges All; First Ever Trans Woman, Non Binary Athletes Compete. LGBTQ Medal Count Hits 20 Brian Bell August 3, 2021 Read More Photo courtesy of JJBers/Creative Commons View the full article

Stella McCartney also releases first Mylo collection with lab-made mushroom leather Published by BANG Showbiz English Stella McCartney’s parents introduced “genderless” fashion to her. The 49-year-old designer can recall her parents, Beatles icon Sir Paul McCartney and late photographer Linda McCartney, sharing their clothes when she was growing up and that idea of having sexless clothes never left and has always inspired her creations. In an interview with OK! magazine, she said: “Mum and dad would share a wardrobe. So I saw this kind of genderless relationship between clothing. I think I was just really drawn to that. “My earliest memories are of sitting in my mum and dad’s wardrobe and looking at all their clothes. I would watch films too, and I just knew that I wanted to do something that was creative. And, you know, I had parents that were in entertainment, so I would watch them work with costumes. But then we grew up on a farm, so it would be very contrasting worlds. “One minute it was bareback on a horse and the next minute it was thigh-high boots and rock ‘n’ roll! So I got this incredible insight into costumes and wardrobes.” Stella – who has just released her first-ever range made from Mylo, laboratory grown mushroom leather – says another major inspiration behind her designs is the psychology of clothes, how certain garments can make you “feel good” whereas other items can make you “feel bad”. She said: “As I got older, I knew fashion was my choice of career. I went to be an intern in Paris and I was just sold. But the thing that also made me really want to pursue it wasn’t the glamour. It was the psychological side to it, that what you wear is a reflection of who you are and how you feel. “Some things can make you feel good and other things can make you feel bad. I found that really fascinating.” Stella McCartney Genderless Fashion Stella McCartney Says Rock-and-Roll Parents Shared Clothes; Made Genderless (‘Unisex’) Fashion Real For Her August 16, 2021 Read More Taliban return to power as president and diplomats flee Kabul August 15, 2021 Read More Thousands march in Bucharest Gay Pride Parade; Shadow of Planned Legislation That Will Chip At Rights Gained in 2001 August 15, 2021 Read More Cardi B and Lizzo Rumors All True. A Late Summer Bop Fantasia And 10 More Recently Dropped Trailers and Tunes: Watch Now August 14, 2021 Read More Moderna HIV Vaccine Phase 1 Human Trials to Start as Early as Next Week. Hope to Build on mRNA Learnings August 13, 2021 Read More Cook at Applebee’s Complaint When Told to Ignore A Toxic Mix of Workplace Slurs and Confederate Paraphernalia Spurs Federal Lawsuit August 13, 2021 Read More View the full article

Eminem’s Child Published by BANG Showbiz English Eminem’s adopted child has come out as non-binary. The ‘Real Slim Shady’ hitmaker’s 19 year old has changed their name from Whitney to Stevie Laine and though the rapper – who adopted the teenager in 2005 when he reconciled with their biological mother, his ex-wife, Kim Scott – has yet to comment on the news, other members of the family have shown their support. In one post, they wrote out their pronouns, telling fans:”call me Stevie (they/she/he)” The social media post was liked by Stevie’s sister Hailie, who is Eminem and Kim’s biological child. Stevie also shared a video on TikTok of their transformation over the years, including recently cropping their hair short, along with the words: “Watch me become more comfortable with myself.” They added: “Forever growing and changing.” Stevie – who has wiped all old Instagram posts from their account since coming out – used hashtags including #genderfluid #bi and #nonbinary in several posts. The teenager’s new name was mentioned in an obituary for their grandmother Kathleen Sluck last month. It stated: “Kathleen was a exceptional mom to her two daughters; Kim and Dawn; and was overjoyed to become a grandmother to her grandchildren; Alaina, Adam, Hailie, Stevie, P.J., and Parker.” Stevie’s biological dad, Eric Hartter, died last year aged 40 after reportedly battling drug addiction. As well as Stevie and Hailie, 25, Eminem also has adopted daughter Alaina, whose mother was Kim’s late twin sister Dawn, who died from an overdose in 2016. A day after Kathy’s funeral, Kim was taken to hospital following a reported suicide attempt. Police attended her home in Michigan on 30 July after receiving reports of a suicidal person and allegedly found the 46 year old to be “combative” and had to be restrained. She was found with cuts on the back of her leg and was transported to hospital for medical and psychological evaluation before returning home to recover. Eminem Child Comes Out Previously on Towleroad Sinéad O’Connor’s open letter to Prince Harry August 19, 2021 Read More Police surround man with possible explosives near U.S. Capitol August 19, 2021 Read More Possible HIV Treatment OK’d To expand Phase 1 Human Trials After Stopping HIV in Lab; August 18, 2021 Read More Britney Spears Topless Photos Are Being Posted By the Singer Herself. She Says It’s Strong, Not Sleazy and Reveals Rationale August 18, 2021 Read More Buttigieg Baby On Board: Pete and Chasten ‘Overjoyed….Have Wanted to Grow Our Family’; Announce First Child August 17, 2021 Read More Andy Cohen Dates: Now, An Endgame “Are You Going To Be a Good Stepfather?’; Curious How His Exes Would Score Him… August 17, 2021 Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters KABUL (Reuters) -Taliban insurgents were returning to power in Kabul on Monday after a military advance across Afghanistan as U.S-led forces departed, and Western nations stepped up efforts to evacuate their citizens from the capital. President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as the Islamist militants entered the city, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed. A Taliban spokesman said the war is over and the Afghan people will soon learn what form the new regime will take. In Washington, opponents of President Joe Biden’s decision to end America’s longest war, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said the chaos was caused by a failure of leadership as more U.S. troops were deployed to help rescue U.S. civilians. Overnight, the focus was Kabul airport, where hundreds of desperate Afghans seeking to flee the country were waiting for flights, some dragging luggage across runways in the dark. A source at the airport said some scuffles broke out among people unable to get a place as departures were halted. Local television 1TV reported that multiple explosions were heard in the capital after dark, but the city was largely quiet during the day on Sunday. Aid group Emergency said 80 wounded people had been brought to its hospital in Kabul, which was at capacity, and that it was only admitting people with life-threatening injuries. It was not yet clear where Ghani was headed or how exactly power would be transferred following the Taliban’s lightning sweep https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/talibans-rapid-advance-across-afghanistan-2021-08-10 across Afghanistan. The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al Jazeera television that the group wants good relations with the international community. Al Jazeera earlier showed footage of what it said were Taliban commanders in the presidential palace with dozens of armed fighters. In a Facebook post, Ghani said he had left the country to avoid clashes with the Taliban that would endanger millions of residents of Kabul. He did not say where he was. Some local social media users in Kabul branded Ghani a coward for leaving them in chaos. American diplomats were flown by helicopter to the airport from their embassy in the fortified Wazir Akbar Khan district as Afghan forces https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taliban-surge-exposes-failure-us-efforts-build-afghan-army-2021-08-15, trained for years and equipped by the United States and others at a cost of billions of dollars, melted away. SHARIA Many Afghans fear the Taliban will return to past harsh practices in their imposition of sharia, or Islamic religious law. During their 1996-2001 rule, women could not work and punishments such as stoning, whipping and hanging were administered. The militants sought to project a more moderate face https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taliban-seek-present-moderate-face-they-take-control-afghanistan-2021-08-15, promising to respect women’s rights and protect both foreigners and Afghans. The Pentagon authorized another 1,000 troops to help evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghans who worked for them, a U.S. official said. A senior U.S. defense official told Reuters on Sunday evening in Washington that about 500 people, mostly Americans, had so far been evacuated, and that the number would rise to 5,000 a day when all planned U.S. forces are in Kabul. European nations, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, also said they were working to get citizens as well as some Afghan employees out of the country. Russia said it saw no need to evacuate its embassy for the time being. Turkey said its embassy would continue operations. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the Taliban and all other parties to exercise the utmost restraint, and expressed particular concern about the future of women and girls in Afghanistan. AMERICAN EVACUATION Asked if images of helicopters ferrying personnel were evocative of the United States’ departure from Vietnam in 1975, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News: “Let’s take a step back. This is manifestly not Saigon.” Biden has faced rising domestic criticism after sticking to a plan, initiated by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan by Aug. 31. In a statement on Sunday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell blamed Biden for what he called a “shameful failure of American leadership”. “Terrorists and major competitors like China are watching the embarrassment of a superpower laid low,” McConnell said. Also on Sunday, the Taliban captured the eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, giving them control of one of the main highways into landlocked Afghanistan. They also took the nearby Torkham border post with Pakistan, leaving Kabul airport the only way out of Afghanistan still in government hands. A video clip distributed by the Taliban showed people cheering and shouting: “Allahu Akbar” – God is greatest – as a convoy of pickup trucks entered Jalalabad with fighters brandishing machine guns and the white Taliban flag. (Reporting by Kabul and Washington bureaus; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne, Philippa Fletcher and Daniel Wallis; Editing by Frances Kerry, Timothy Heritage and Peter Cooney) View the full article

Published by Reuters BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Thousands of people joined an LGBTQ pride march in Bucharest on Saturday for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, ahead of planned legislation that would chip away at minority rights. Socially conservative Romania, which decriminalised homosexuality in 2001, still bars marriage and civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Lawmakers from two different parties – the junior ruling coalition ethnic Hungarian party UDMR and the opposition ultra-nationalist Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) – said they plan to introduce legislation to ban so-called gay propaganda in schools when parliament reconvenes in September. An estimated 8,000 people joined the march on Saturday, dancing and waving rainbow flags. Riot police fined the organisers for exceeding the number of participants allowed at civic protests. The organisers will challenge the fine. “We have a long way to go as a country until we come to accept everyone,” said Daria, 16, at her second pride parade. (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by David Holmes) View the full article

Lizzo Rumors and recent tunes and trailers: the latest lil Nas X, Billie Ellish, Bruno Mars, Megan Thee Stallion, Beyonce and JAY Z, Tiesto and Karol G, Elton and Dua Lipa get animated. Some top gay teases and trailers for Tv and movies. The Other Two; The White Lotus; American Crime Story Clinton; [This post contains video, click to play] Of all the songs of the summer, Is Rumors from Lizzo featuring Cardi B the all true Big Gay Song of the Really Strange and somewhat F’d Up Summer? Lizzo Rumors Cardi B and Lizzo Rumors All True. A Late Summer Bop Fantasia And 10 More Recently Dropped Trailers and Tunes: Watch Now August 14, 2021 Read More Moderna HIV Vaccine Phase 1 Human Trials to Start as Early as Next Week. Hope to Build on mRNA Learnings August 13, 2021 Read More Cook at Applebee’s Complaint When Told to Ignore A Toxic Mix of Workplace Slurs and Confederate Paraphernalia Spurs Federal Lawsuit August 13, 2021 Read More ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Season 6 Serves Up Hot Tots Casserole August 13, 2021 Read More Caitlyn Jenner California Homeless Visit in Venice Beach: Will Talk “About” but not “To” the Unhoused at Political Launch August 13, 2021 Read More Kabul evacuations — echoes of US exit from Saigon? August 13, 2021 Read More View the full article

Minnesota AIDS ProjectHuman Trials To Start With 56 participants. The Moderna HIV vaccine is set to enter human trials as early as next week, marking a monumental step in the treatment of one of the most devastating health crises worldwide. According to the National Institutes of Health’s clinical trials registry, the biotech company is prepping to test its mRNA-1644 and mRNA-1644v2-Core vaccines after both passed phase one testing earlier this year. The study will divide its 56 participants, all of which have not previously tested positive for HIV, into four groups that will be administered both or either vaccine in various combinations. Building the vaccine from an mRNA foundation differs from previous vaccine constructions and functionality, essentially providing instructions for cells to build immune responses through specific protein production. This process teaches the body how to defend itself on the cellular level rather than having human immune systems learn through combatting weakened forms of a virus. Earlier this year on Towleroad: HIV vaccine: Why Are We Incapable of Making a Shot for AIDS 37-years Later, When We Had Several for COVID-19 In a Few Months? Moderna HIV Vaccine Benefits From Covid mRNA Experience mRNA vaccines also respond better to variants of a virus – a fact that is vital and addressing HIV mutations that have emerged since the virus surfaced 40 years ago. “The mRNA platform makes it easy to develop vaccines against variants because it just requires an update to the coding sequences in the mRNA that code for the variant,” Dr. Rajesh Ghandi, HIV Medicine Association chair, told Verywell. Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is built of an mRNA base, has been a success in showing the aptitude of mRNA vaccines in building up immuno-response to the base strain of Covid-19 and its more dangerous variants. The trial is estimated to start on Aug. 19, 2021, though the timetable could alter depending on response to Moderna’s call for volunteers, though it is expected to begin before the end of the year. It is scheduled to wrap and deliver findings by May 1, 2023. 2021 has been a landmark year in the development of HIV vaccines. As Moderna prepares its human trials in the U.S., the University of Oxford launched trials of its HIVconsvX vaccine in Europe and multiple African nations, including Kenya and Tanzania, are testing the HIVconsvX vaccine as well. Moderna HIV: Previously on Towleroad Moderna HIV Vaccine Phase 1 Human Trials to Start as Early as Next Week. Hope to Build on mRNA Learnings Brian Bell August 13, 2021 Read More Covid Booster Shots Likely Offered Soon To People With Compromised Immune Systems — Fauci ; Priority Include People With HIV Towleroad August 5, 2021 Read More AIDS Groups Release Open Letter to DaBaby; Denver Cancels Festival He Was to Headline; IHeartRadio, Austin City Limits Also Drop; WednesDababy Update Brian Bell August 4, 2021 Read More Grounded by Festivals, DaBaby Apologizes; Blames Victims For Not Just Taking His Abuse While He Explained How Much Harder It is Being DaBaby Brian Bell August 2, 2021 Read More DaBaby Homophobia Week Spirals : Madonna, Questlove, Lovato Call Out Rapper. U.K. Festival Removes Him From Lineup Brian Bell July 30, 2021 Read More Rapper Dababy Delivers Homophobic, Anti-AIDS Interlude at Rolling Loud, Doubles Down on Comments; T.I. Comes to His Defense Brian Bell July 27, 2021 Read More Photo courtesy of Tony Webster/Creative Commons View the full article

Applebee’sApplebee’s Sued By EEOC for Sexual Orientation Discrimination Based on a complaint by a gay Black line cook at an Applebee’s franchise in Plant City, FL the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against the parent company of a Florida Applebee’s franchise location on Thursday alleging that it subjected an employee to “race and sexual orientation discrimination” to the point that he was forced to quit his job. The complaint alleges that the cook brought concerns about the workplace being “permeated with racial and homophobic slurs” and fellow employees wearing “Confederate flag paraphernalia” while working. The cook was told to “ignore” the discriminatory actions he experienced by management and saw his hours massively cut. He ultimately left his job due to the toxicity and loss of hours and income. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, claims Neighborhood Restaurant Partners Florida, LLC violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by allowing discrimination to continue unimpeded and retaliating against an employee who complained about being the subject of said discrimination. “When an employer learns about discrimination in the workplace, it must take prompt action designed to stop the behavior,” said EEOC Tampa Field Office director Evangeline Hawthorne. “All too often, however, we see employers making a bad situation worse by retaliating against the victim rather than taking steps to stop the harassment. The EEOC will hold employers accountable for their actions.” EEOC Regional Attorney Robert E. Weisberg compared the case against the owners of the restaurant to the historic Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County, which established protections against employment and workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. “While the EEOC recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Bostock decision, this case demonstrates that the work is not over. The EEOC will aggressively investigate, and, if necessary, prosecute employers that violate the rights of their LGBTQ employees,” said Weisberg. Thursday’s filing is the latest signal toward the heightened levels of workplace discrimination experienced by Black LGBTQ communities. According to a 2020 Center for American Progress report, 78% of Black LGBTQ individuals reported that discrimination against their identities affected their ability to be hired to some degree. 56% of Black LGBTQ people stated that similar discrimination impacted their ability to retain employment and 40% of respondents reported that the chance of experiencing discrimination influenced their decision on where to seek employment. The lawsuit marks the most recent instance of the EEOC taking Applebee’s franchise owners to task for workplace discrimination in recent years. A North Carolina Applebee’s franchisee paid a $75,000 settlement to the EEOC in 2018 after two sisters who worked at a South Carolina Applebee’s location owned by the franchisee reported being subjected to sexual comments and physical groping in view of management. A separate 2018 case in New York garnered a $100,000 settlement over allegations that an Applebee’s franchisee fired a transgender employee after she reported multiple co-workers for deliberately misgendering her and referring to her trans identity in “crude and derogatory” fashion. Applebee’s franchisees have seen legal issues arise out of allegations of improper retaliation to discriminatory actions beyond the scope of the EEOC as well. A former Applebee’s supervisor in New Jersey filed suit against her former employer in 2020 alleging she was unjustly fired after asking a patron who repeatedly made racist and Islamophobic statements to leave. She also claimed that management at the Middletown, N.J. location cultivated and participated in “a hostile work environment where racism and bigotry were commonplace.” Applebee’s: Previously on Towleroad ‘Frat Boy’ Culture at Activision Blizzard: Groping, Junk-Grab ‘Gay Chicken’ Game, ‘The Cosby Suite,’ Cited in California Suit. Employees Walk Out Brian Bell July 28, 2021 Read More New poll shows both Republicans and Democrats oppose demoralizing trans sports bills Brian Bell April 20, 2021 Read More HUD Begins Implementation of ‘Fair Housing Act’ to Prohibit Discrimination Against LGBTQ People Andy Towle February 11, 2021 Read More In Discrimination Complaint, Gay Black CBS News Reporter Says Network Execs Told Him to ‘Butch It Up’ and Stop ‘Queening Out’ Towleroad February 8, 2021 Read More Biden Signs ‘Most Substantive, Wide-Ranging’ LGBTQ Rights Executive Order in U.S. History Andy Towle January 21, 2021 Read More North Carolina Wedding Venue Tells Gay Couple to Find Somewhere Else to Get Married: WATCH Andy Towle December 23, 2020 Read More Photo courtesy of Mike Mozart from Funny YouTube, USA/Creative Commons View the full article

The Drag Tots visit RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.It just goes to show that not all the good episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars are the most eventful. The final stretch of the race is in sight, we just got to get up this last hill. But even in the absence of any true gags, the episode flexed some of my favorite Drag Race muscles. The main challenge is a full-body-ody-ody workout, testing the queens’ creative, sewing, acting and branding skills. There’s a mini-challenge that is low-key savage, and, of course, there’s Ru serving cross-platform synergy boots the house down, yas gawd. Queens struggle with time, Ru’s walkthrough rattles and the elimination vote is our tensest yet. Was it a perfect, or even GREAT episode? Nah. (That lip sync really ended the episode on a womp-womp.) The plus side is, down to the final five, it feels like we’ve got nothing but real contenders left. (Sorry, Pandora.) I could see any one of these gals taking the crown and feeling justified. But how do they feel about each other? That’s the conceit of this week’s mini-challenge. It’s a kind of Degrassi-style classroom set up for the ladies to vote each other for a set of superlatives. The trick is, you get a point if you vote with the popular girls. So, you’re playing the game on a couple levels. You want to be mindful of the message you send to potential allies and rivals, but you also want to think how the group will vote so you stay in the game (and potentially win a small cash prize.) Kylie is head of the class on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. It’s kept very fun and light, but some hard truths are revealed. Kylie snags all the most low-key flattering superlatives that basically just affirm that she is unquestionably hot and people can’t resist her. Trinity is voted most moody, a surprise to no one but TKB herself. Eureka bears the brunt of the harsher critiques, snatching the top title of messiest, shadiest, gassiest and most likely to go home next. The damage is done, and everyone is feeling a little rattled going into the next challenge. Ru intros the Drag Tots, an animated entry into the Drag Race Cinematic Universe starring several popular Drag Race alums. This week, the queens must create their own Drag Tots character, with name and backstory, design and create a costume from scratch that brings the character to life AND sell it all on the runway. In addition to all of that, the usual whims of Ru that are always coursing under the surface and made explicit. Ru wants to see subversion and wordplay and inspiration, but also, make it fun! My head’s spinning just trying to keep up. The result is a challenge that really pushes each queen creatively. Trinity originally comes in a little message-heavy and sincere, but Ru convinces her to loosen up and embrace Bugs Bunny’s irreverence. Her character, Furleasha, is a hot-pink pussycat by way of Burning Man, and I am living. As a catwalk coach (cute!), she still manages to incorporate an empowering element, and TKB fills the performance with physicality and bounce. Trinity K. Bonet on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. Ginger’s tot is the most ready for primetime. Already looking straight out of the Drag Tots world, Ginger comes in with a fully fleshed-out character based on a Southern belle who tempers her tart personality using the Parasol of Poise. It’s absolutely chocked full of wordplay and dynamism, and the lewk is polished perfection. No notes! The edit this week gives reason to worry about Ra’Jah, who immediately gets in her own head. Ru doesn’t help on the walkthrough. Ra’Jah presents “Queen See Me,” and Ru HATES the name. He’s got a point. It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, unlike Ru’s favorite word, “mexicatassen,” which is undeniably fun to say. Ra’Jah smartly takes Ru’s words to heart (much like last week’s Drag Race All Stars Snatch Game of Love), and she rebrands as “I See You Queen.” She spins a nice little story about how she gives people new perspective, and she reinforces the idea by covering her outfit in eyeballs, like something out of a Guillermo del Toro flick. She’s embracing her signature purple color, covering her hair, skin and clothes in various violet hues. I’ve come to understand Ra’Jah’s style a bit more. It’s sexy and slinky, but it’s also simple. Not in craft, mind you, (she constructs garments masterfully), but her lewks have an effortlessness about them that feels glamorous without the fussiness. Here it’s a purple, metallic, galactic fantasy head-to-toe, a disco dress over a catsuit. Everything works. And the piece de resistance, she has a line about being made fun for dancing off beat, suggesting to tell them they just can’t hear your song. Can I get an Amen? The judges eat it up, and she’s declared the winner. Coming out of the superlative mini-challenge, all eyes (even all I See You Queen’s) were on Eureka. Smartly flipping a negative into a positive (is there nothing Ru likes more?), Eureka incorporates all the negative attributes she was assigned into an evil queen character. It’s the right idea, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The narrative just never comes together for me, and the crassness does a disservice to the kind of excellent children’s programming that deftly wields humor even within the confines of appropriateness. Her act-out presentation of the character is also lacking (likely due in part to the shaky character definition.) The outfit, though, is a stunner. She whips together a knockout gown with massive cowl neck and a huge castle headpiece, all in a delicious royal blue, all-over sequin print. Mama. Eureka has nothing to be ashamed of tonight. Finally, we’ve got the obligatory “Will she finish in time?” storyline no design challenge would be complete without. This time, the focus is on Kylie, but it never feels like we’re truly in any real danger. Kylie herself reminds us, “I am a showgirl. I know how to rig up the gig.” (Which is now my new favorite mantra in times of stress!) She’s not lying! Despite sewing up to the last minute, the result is literally bewitching. Like a fashion-forward Margaret Hamilton, Kylie dons a black pointed hat and black sequin dress that casts a spell on the runway. The construction of the skirt gives the illusion of floating down the runway. There’s a beautiful little moment that deserves more praise when Kylie comes with a delightful little trick, rigging her broom to stand on its own on the stage. For a cherry on top, she has the most perfect bow on her back that gives the whole thing a 360 degree wow factor. Outside the obvious occult, there’s not much of a clear identity to Miss Behave. The lewk is great, but the character isn’t nearly as spellbinding. Down to the wire, with Ra’Jah as this week’s winner, all the other queens are up for elimination. Barring a savage swerve to takeout the biggest competition, Eureka and Trinity feel the most in the danger on this vote. We’re at the point in the season where the numbers don’t add up cleanly enough for objective analysis. Does a win cancel out a bottom performance? Do we factor in mini-challenges? Lip-sync wins? There’s no formula here. After a pot-stirring mini-challenge, a multidimension maxi and a high-stakes vote, I’m disappointed to say this week’s lip sync left A LOT to be desired. I don’t blame performers Ra’Jah and this week’s assassin Kameron Michaels, but rather the track. Look, I love Charli XCX like every other red-blooded, millennial homosexual, but “Boom Clap” is hardly a banger. The resulting lip sync feels below even the laziest local drag. There’s a lot of walking, pointing, etc. We get a glimpse of Kameron doing a cartwheel at one point, but it doesn’t feel in sync with the music and it’s a just a quick cutaway. Usually I’m watching these lip syncs fighting back the instinctual urge to throw my whole wallet at these queens. Not this week. Kameron wins, sure, whatever, and the queens vote to send Eureka home. But don’t mourn the elephant queen, my friends. Next week, finally, we see the game within a game, and perhaps Eureka will once again make a triumphant return, like a phoenix from the ashes. Where do we stand now? Ginger and Trinity have been neck-and-neck for weeks now, but after TKB’s sloppy Snatch and merely fine showing this week, Ginger has crept into the lead. Her character could be the star of her own show tomorrow, and, if there was a real Tara Belle doll available wearing that runway outfit, I would buy it! And I’m not even one of those people into dolls! Is there anything Ginger can’t do?She may be down, but she is in no way out. Trinity still has the crown within reach, but these haven’t been her best weeks. Still, Trin is light-years ahead of where we last left her in season six. I really hope she becomes as ubiquitous of Bianca and Alaska and Trixie. Hopefully, these are just her struggle weeks, so she can overcome this hurdle for an even more satisfying conclusion.It’s a great time for Ra’Jah to be peaking. What a savvy queen! She listens so well, and she knows exactly her strengths. I love the buoyant, disco boogie energy she brings to the stage. I wasn’t a big fan during her original season, but now I’m a full convert. I do worry her taste level may be a problem at some point. Can Ra’Jah bring finale-level DRAMA and ELEGANZA? We will see.A fourth-place spot for Kylie is in no way meant to imply she’s so much further from the crown. This is a very tight race still, and Kylie has defied all expectations across all categories this season. Even Snatch Game, which many (including myself) predicted would be her Achilles’ heel, was a smashing success. She keeps surprising, which makes her a thrill to watch.Eureka‘s languishing finally caught up with her. I had more faith in the judges’/producers’ love of Eureka to keep her around until the end, but I definitely can see how this was her time. With no wins, she was the obvious choice. The fact next week is already the eliminated queens’ potential chance for redemption, this may be a way for everyone to have their cake and eat it, too.What did you think of the episode? Catch up on our RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars coverage. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Gabriella Borter and Sharon Bernstein (Reuters) -The cities of San Francisco and New Orleans on Thursday ordered patrons to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations to enter restaurants, gyms and other venues, joining New York in a severe step designed to contain the fast-spreading Delta variant. The move by the two liberal cities came on the same day that school board members in Houston voted to support a mandate by the district superintendent to require students to wear masks in classrooms and on school buses. One Houston school board member, Judith Cruz, said she would also support requiring children to be vaccinated. That suggestion was not formally considered on Thursday. The Houston mask order sets up a potential clash between local officials and Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who has banned such mandates. As the start of the academic year coincides with a rise in COVID-19 infections linked to the Delta variant, schools have become the flashpoint in a national debate over the authority of state, federal and local governments to order masks and vaccines. The number of daily nationwide infections has doubled in the last two weeks, according to a Reuters tally, reaching a six-month peak. The average number of daily deaths has increased 85% in that same time span. In Virginia, where some school district officials have said they would not require students to wear masks, Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, issued an order on Thursday requiring them. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has threatened to withhold the salaries of school officials who require students to cover their faces, defying the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat. The White House is considering reimbursing Florida school officials if DeSantis, who is considered a possible presidential candidate in 2024, follows through with his threat. The Delta variant appears to be slowing the pace of a U.S. economic recovery after an upswing in the first half of 2021, according to Oxford Economics U.S. Recovery Tracker. ‘PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EXHAUSTION’ “Sharply deteriorating health conditions are the main reason why the South’s recovery is now losing momentum,” Oxford’s lead U.S. economist Oren Klachkin said. The worst of the U.S. COVID outbreak is concentrated in the South, including Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, where intensive care units have been stretched to capacity. Florida has asked Washington to send more ventilators to the state while at the same time flouting federal mask recommendations. “Our frontline health care heroes are finding themselves stretched thin and physical and mental exhaustion is taking its toll,” Florida Hospital Association President Mary Mayhew said in a statement on Tuesday. San Francisco’s new vaccine mandate for indoor businesses extends to employees as well as patrons. Employees of restaurants, gyms and other venues have until Oct. 13 to show proof of full vaccination, the order says. Proof of vaccination will also be required for attendees at indoor events of 1,000 people or more. San Francisco’s mandate, which begins Aug. 20, requires proof of full vaccination. The New York and New Orleans health orders require only one dose. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses several weeks apart. Johnson and Johnson has a one-dose vaccine. California, Illinois, Kentucky and New Jersey, all led by Democratic governors, have required masks in all schools. On Thursday, the National Education Association President Becky Pringle, who leads the largest teachers’ union in the country, said she supported vaccine mandates for teachers. Her statement followed a similar endorsement from the American Federation of Teachers’ president earlier this week. (Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Manas Mishra in Washington, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Peter Szekely and Dan Burns in New York and Dan Whitcomb in Los AngelesEditing by Lisa Shumaker and Raju Gopalakrishnan) /new Gym Vaccine Mandates Taliban return to power as president and diplomats flee Kabul August 15, 2021 Read More Thousands march in Bucharest Gay Pride Parade; Shadow of Planned Legislation That Will Chip At Rights Gained in 2001 August 15, 2021 Read More Cardi B and Lizzo Rumors All True. A Late Summer Bop Fantasia And 10 More Recently Dropped Trailers and Tunes: Watch Now August 14, 2021 Read More Moderna HIV Vaccine Phase 1 Human Trials to Start as Early as Next Week. Hope to Build on mRNA Learnings August 13, 2021 Read More Cook at Applebee’s Complaint When Told to Ignore A Toxic Mix of Workplace Slurs and Confederate Paraphernalia Spurs Federal Lawsuit August 13, 2021 Read More ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Season 6 Serves Up Hot Tots Casserole August 13, 2021 Read More View the full article

Published by AFP Caitlyn Jenner launched her campaign to become California governor on Thursday with walkabouts in Venice, a part of Los Angeles with lots of homeless people Los Angeles (AFP) – Olympic athlete, transgender reality TV star and now wannabe politician; Caitlyn Jenner kicked off her campaign to become California’s next governor on Thursday. It was a low-key and scrappy launch for the Republican, who is among a crowded field looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom. Jenner, a wealthy socialite and step-parent to Kim Kardashian, chose the Venice area of Los Angeles, where the tarp-covered tents of hundreds of homeless people line the streets, and drug deals take place in plain sight. “Today, we’re here about this homeless issue,” she told an assortment of journalists in the garden of an apartment building. “We have to solve this issue because it’s a very, very complicated issue….And it’s not going to be easy.” The solution, Jenner suggested, was not just to “throw money at it.” “We need boots on the ground,” she said. It was a phrase she repeated several times during the 30-minute stand-up, but not one that got fleshed out. During an earlier walkabout, wearing skinny jeans and a white polo shirt, she was variously cheered, harangued and gawked at by bemused passers-by. “I didn’t even know she was running for governor,” one twenty-something skater told reporters. Another man muttered darkly about there being a “dead body” a few streets away. Recall The 1976 Montreal Olympics gold medallist — as Bruce Jenner the decathlete — is trailing opponents in the September 14 vote, triggered after Newsom’s opponents collected enough signatures to try to recall him. Newsom, a suave and well-manicured former mayor of San Francisco, has governed California since 2019, mostly riding high in the polls. But his initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic — where some derided him as too quick to lock down, and others said he was too slow to reverse those lockdowns — finally gave opponents their in. Voters will be asked two questions next month: should Newsom be ejected, and who should replace him. The second question is only relevant if the first one passes. But in that case, whichever candidate garners the most votes — however small their percentage of the total — wins. While there have been dozens of attempts in the past, the only successful recall in California’s gubernatorial history brought cigar-chomping action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger to power. Team Newsom is campaigning solely on the first question, urging a “no” vote, and no big-name Democrats have put themselves forward for the second. (Newsom himself cannot be a candidate.) Jenner is one of a large handful of Republicans, and Republican-leaning, contenders, in a field led by conservative talkshow host Larry Elder. But despite her national profile, spanning cereal boxes in the 1970s to a role in “Keeping up with the Kardashians”, she has so far failed to sparkle, and began her campaign Thursday only after returning from a trip to Australia, where she said she had been fulfilling television commitments. Jenner deflected questions over whether her dalliance with politics was related to a reality TV show or a book deal, insisting she was motivated by a desire to fix the state she has lived in for 48 years. “If you don’t like what’s going on, not only in this state, but around the nation: stand up. “We have to break the cycle of what I call that political club that runs our state, runs our nation.” Trash On the streets of Venice, where flies swarmed around piles of trash, the media pack meandered with Jenner on a tour that appeared to have no real destination. It didn’t stop at the tent of 53-year-old Albert Martinez, who said he has lived rough in the town for more than 20 years. He worries not about the recall, but about keeping his diabetes medicine cool enough in the hot sun, and whether he will be able to find a bathroom. Not that she asked him as he sat in an old office chair outside his tent, but Jenner’s candidacy is irrelevant to Martinez. “We’re worried they are going to throw us out,” he said. Nor did she ask Colin McCabe, a 64-year-old Scot who has been in California since 1978 but became homeless a few years ago. “If you’re interested in solving problems, you should be over there (asking the police) if they have a court order” for moving on the homeless, he said, gesturing to an area he said had recently been cleared. But Jenner had already moved on. View the full article

Published by AFP US troops are being sent to evacuate embassy staff from Kabul as the Taliban press a lightning offensive that has seen much of the country fall from government hands Washington (AFP) – Thousands of American soldiers being sent to Afghanistan to evacuate embassy staff from Kabul as the Taliban push towards the city has revived painful US memories of the fall of Saigon. A photo that immortalized America’s defeat in Vietnam, showing evacuees boarding a helicopter on the roof of a building, spread fast on social networks after the United States announced the emergency deployment on Thursday. “The latest news of a further drawdown at our Embassy and a hasty deployment of military forces seem like preparations for the fall of Kabul,” leading Republican lawmaker Mitch McConnell said. “President (Joe) Biden’s decisions have us hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975.” Back in June, as the Taliban advance built momentum, Biden himself addressed the Saigon parallels — and dismissed them out of hand. “There’s going to be no circumstance where you’ll see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan,” he said. The same month — since when the Taliban’s lightning offensive has surprised many US military officials — the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Mark Milley also rejected comparisons to the desperate exit from Saigon. “I do not see that unfolding,” Milley said. “I may be wrong, who knows, you can’t predict the future, but I don’t see Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan. The Taliban just aren’t the North Vietnamese Army. It’s not that kind of situation.” ‘Not walking away’ To carry out the evacuation of American staff from its embassy in Kabul, 3,000 US troops will secure the airport, 1,000 will be sent to Qatar for technical and logistical support, while 3,500 to 4,000 will be positioned in Kuwait to deploy if needed. On Thursday, US officials scrambled to answer questions about the mission, with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declining to describe it as a NOE (Noncombatant Evacuation Operation). He indicated it had no name, and avoided talking about evacuations. The most famous “NOE” mission was Operation Frequent Wind, during which more than 7,000 Vietnamese civilians were evacuated from Saigon on April 29 and 30, 1975 by helicopter. Asked about the image of American diplomats departing under military protection and the inevitable comparisons with the fall of Saigon, Kirby tried to underline the differences. “We are not completely eliminating our diplomatic presence on the ground,” he said. “Nobody is abandoning Afghanistan, it’s not walking away from it. It’s doing the right thing at the right time to protect our people.” The Taliban on Friday claimed they had captured Afghanistan’s second city Kandahar, capping an eight-day blitz that has left only the capital and pockets of other territory in government hands. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jill Serjeant LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Jamie Spears has agreed to step down from his 13-year role as conservator of his daughter Britney’s estate, in what the pop star’s attorney on Thursday called a major victory. “We are pleased that Mr Spears and his lawyer have today conceded in a filing that he must be removed,” the singer’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart said in a statement. Spears, who has controlled much of his daughter’s affairs since she suffered a mental health breakdown in 2008, agreed to step aside in court documents filed on Thursday. The “Toxic” pop star has been seeking for months to remove her father from any say in her life. A court hearing to discuss the matter had been set for late September in Los Angeles. Rosengart called the decision by Jamie Spears “a major victory for Britney Spears and another step toward justice.” Thursday’s court document did not say when Jamie Spears would step down from his role in handling his daughter’s $60 million estate and said that he felt there were no grounds for immediately removing or suspending him. But it added: “Even as Mr Spears is the unremitting target of unjustified attacks, he does not believe that a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests.” “Mr Spears intends to work with the court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator,” the court filing added. Britney Spears, 39, remains under the care of professional Jodi Montgomery, who mangers her medical and personal affairs. The nature of the singer’s mental health issues have never been publicly revealed. Spears spoke out emotionally in June and July against the court-appointed conservatorship, calling it humiliating and abusive and accusing her father of ruining her life. Spears has not performed since 2018 and has said she will not return to the stage while her father retains control over her career. The singer, who posts frequently on social media, made no immediate reference on Thursday to her father’s decision to step aside. Thursday’s court document said Jamie Spears has always had his daughter’s best interests at heart and has not coerced her to do anything. “By her own admission, Ms Spears is strong and stands up for what she wants. Mr Spears has tried to do everything in his power to accommodate Ms Spears’ wishes, whether regarding her personal life, family, or career, while fulfilling his duties and obligations as conservator (and) protecting her from others seeking to take advantage of her,” the document said. (Reporting by Jill Serjeant;Editing by Dan Grebler and Stephen Coates) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Manas Mishra and Michael Erman (Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer Inc-BioNTech and Moderna Inc for people with compromised immune systems. The amended https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-additional-vaccine-dose-certain-immunocompromised emergency use authorization on Thursday paves the way for people who have had an organ transplant, or those with a similar level of weakened immune system, to get an extra dose of the same shot they have initially received. Mixing of mRNA vaccines is permitted for the third shot if their original vaccine is not available. Patients will not need a prescription or the sign off of a health care provider in order to prove they are immunocompromised and receive the additional dose, according to an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) speaking before a panel of advisers that will vote on the extra doses later on Friday. Patients can attest to their status themselves. “After a thorough review of the available data, the FDA determined that this small, vulnerable group may benefit from a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines,” Janet Woodcock, U.S. FDA’s acting commissioner, said in a tweet https://twitter.com/DrWoodcockFDA/status/1426019820445868033 on Thursday. “Others who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected & do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time.” The vulnerable group makes up less than 3% of U.S. adults, Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, had said before the authorization. The FDA’s decision does not apply to people who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the CDC said, because there is not enough data to support additional doses yet. “We think that at least this is a solution for the very large majority of immunocompromised individuals, and we believe that we’ll probably have a solution for the remainder in the not-too-distant future,” FDA official Peter Marks told the CDC panel. The FDA and the CDC are working to ensure that immunocompromised recipients of the J&J vaccine have optimal protection, the CDC said. Supporting the move to approve an additional shot, Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said it would be important for the CDC to provide clear recommendations about who should receive it. “Most clinicians are not going to know what an equivalent level of compromise is for solid organ transplant patients,” Offit said. “Hopefully the CDC will be more specific about that.” BOOSTERS FOR YOUNG, HEALTHY Scientists are still divided over the broad use of COVID-19 vaccine boosters among those without underlying problems as benefits of the boosters remain undetermined. Pfizer has previously said the efficacy of the vaccine it developed with partner BioNTech drops over time, citing a study that showed 84% effectiveness from a peak of 96% four months after a second dose. Moderna has also said it sees the eventual need for booster doses, especially since the Delta variant has caused “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people. Reports of infections among vaccinated people and concerns about diminishing protection have galvanized wealthy nations to distribute booster shots, even as many countries struggle to access first vaccine doses. The World Health Organization last week called for a moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine booster shots until at least the end of September. Still, Americans have already started getting additional shots, even before the FDA has authorized them. According to the CDC, more than 1.2 million people have already received one or more additional doses of a COVID-19 vaccine already. Wall Street analysts expect the authorization of a booster dose for a broad population to bolster profits of COVID-19 vaccine makers. Shares of Pfizer, Moderna and U.S.-listed shares of BioNTech rose between 1% and 2% in early trading. (Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Shinjini Ganguli and Aurora Ellis) View the full article

Rev. Junia JoplinA Canada transgender pastor is suing her former church for wrongful termination on the basis of discrimination after being fired shortly after coming out publicly as transgender last year. Rev. Junia Joplin was fired from her position as head pastor at Lorne Park Baptist Church in Mississauga, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, roughly one month after coming out as transgender while conducting a virtual sermon during Pride month 2020. She had served in her role at the church since 2014, years before she began socially transitioning. Though she didn’t come out until 2020, Joplin approached ministry at the church from an LGBTQ-inclusive perspective from day one. According to the filing, the church suspended her indefinitely from her job despite multiple members of the congregation and other Baptist organizations offering her support. The following month saw Joplin be subjected to multiple virtual town halls with members of Lorne Park Baptist Church in what she deemed an “unfair process” of asking prying personal questions and determining her future at the church. Joplin was subject to questions on topics ranging from her transition to how it might impact the church and its members. “Those were very much my first steps into social transition. That’s a hard place to be. I think just about any trans person will tell you that can feel frightening, feel vulnerable,” Joplin said in an interview with the CBC. “It’s a time when support is so essential and, unfortunately, for a lot of us we don’t get it in places like our workplace.” Those meetings ultimately resulting in the congregation voting to fire her in July 2020. The majority of those who voted in favor of ousting Joplin said they did so “fully or in part” out of adherence to a religious belief. The decision left Joplin feeling “isolated” from her own faith. “For that to happen within that context of a caring community – I think one of the toughest things for me was knowing that I’m going through one of the most consequential and difficult seasons that I’ll ever go through in my life and I’m pretty much isolated from my faith community, from the place that I would most naturally go to for support,” she said. Joplin’s lawsuit claims that her termination was a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code, which prohibits employment discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression. Members of Joplin’s former church argue that an exemption in the law that allows religious organizations to show preference in employment if candidates are of a “similar creed,” defined as one’s religious beliefs, negates Joplin’s claim. The pastor’s filing argues that such an exemption only applies when creed is an “occupational qualification.” “LPBC did not perform a close and careful examination of the nature and essential duties of lead pastor or demonstrate an honest, good faith, and sincere belief that Rev. Joplin lacked a qualification that was reasonably necessary in relation to those duties,” reads Joplin’s filing. The claim further argues that if the court does find that the exemption applies to Joplin’s case, then it should be deemed unconstitutional as it violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The charter prevents the unreasonable and unjustifiable limiting of “the right of equality.” According to the CBC, Joplin is seeking $200,000 Canadian in damages, but this fight is about much more than financial compensation. “I don’t want other people to go through that, I don’t want other queer people to connect to faith communities that don’t really welcome them unequivocally, without caveat or qualification,” Joplin said. Canada Trans: Previously on Towleroad Canada Transgender Pastor Sues Former Church For Being Fired After Coming Out During Pride Month Sermon Brian Bell August 12, 2021 Read More In Parts of Africa Gay Arrests, Inappropriate Probes, Detainment, Belief in ‘Demonic Spirit’, Murder Keep LGBTQ Lives At Risk Brian Bell June 9, 2021 Read More As Japan Olympics Begin, Local Groups Say Anti-Trans, Anti-Gay Remarks ‘Less-than-Equality’ Bill Violate Games’ Charter Brian Bell May 25, 2021 Read More Texas Democrat Revives Anti-Trans Sports Bill ‘as a Consequence’ of His Own Bill Being Blocked Brian Bell May 7, 2021 Read More Does JK Rowling Have A History Of Transphobic Tweets? Savas Abadsidis January 10, 2019 Read More Former Navy Sailor Stabbed Woman 119 Times After Discovering She Was Transgender Luis Damian Veron July 26, 2017 Read More Screenshot via YouTube View the full article