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Published by OK Magazine mega Ivanka Trump has chosen to do what’s best for her family! A source recently spilled to a news outlet that the former First Daughter had chosen to stay quiet amid her father Donald Trump’s two indictments in order to protect her three kids: Arabella, 11, Joseph, 9, and Theodore, 6. mega “It has been a rough period for all of the Trump kids, but Ivanka has always been especially close to her father,” the source shared. “She loves him, her kids love him, and they are still a close family. But Ivanka does not want to be involved with the legal issues. She is removed from it and has adapted well to Miami. Her whole family loves it,” the insider insisted. While Ivanka is focused on their family, husband Jared Kushner continues to hone in on money-making opportunities in the major city. “Jared has lots of business going on in south Florida,” the source added. mega Prior to the ex-president’s 2020 loss, both Ivanka and Jared were top aides to her father while he was in the White House. The family-of-five now lives a much quieter life of leisure. Although she has not spoken about Donald’s current legal debacle, there is no love lost between the pair as she wished him a Happy Birthday on Wednesday, June 14. mega “Happy Birthday, Dad! You are an incredible father. Your love, energy and strength inspire me every day. Wishing you a year filled with the happiness you deserve,” she wrote on her Instagram Story about the 77-year-old. In November 2022, the blonde beauty began to lessen her involvement with her dad’s political affairs when she announced she would not be a part of the former reality TV star’s 2024 presidential campaign. Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for! “I love my father very much,” she said just moments following Donald’s campaign debut. “This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family.” “I do not plan to be involved in politics. While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena,” she added. People reported on the source’s comments. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jonathan Allen (Reuters) – Police in Minneapolis routinely use excessive force and discriminate against Black and Native American people, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday after a two-year investigation prompted by the police killing of George Floyd. The city has agreed to what will likely be years of federal oversight as it works to reform the Minneapolis Police Department, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the findings. The scathing 89-page report vindicated long-standing community complaints of rampant abuse by the police force that predated Floyd’s murder by white former police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes. “We found that the Minneapolis Police Department routinely uses excessive force, often when no force is necessary, including unjust deadly force and unreasonable use of Tasers,” Garland said at a press conference at the city’s federal courthouse. The report found that officers frequently violated residents’ constitutional rights. They used potentially deadly neck restraints, since banned by the city, and shot at people in situations where there was no immediate threat. Other findings included officers frequently failing to intervene when they saw colleagues using excessive force, discriminating against people with behavioral health disabilities and unconstitutionally retaliating against protesters and journalists. “We observed many MPD officers who did their difficult work with professionalism, courage and respect, but the patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible,” Garland said at the press conference with Mayor Jacob Frey and other city officials. Frey and other Minneapolis officials will negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department known as a consent decree in which a federal judge will oversee the city’s progress in reforming the police department. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched its investigation in April 2021 after Chauvin was convicted of murdering Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on the handcuffed man’s neck as he begged for his life before going limp. Floyd’s murder in May 2020, captured in a bystander’s cellphone video, sparked nationwide protests decrying police brutality and racism in the criminal justice system. In Minneapolis, protesters damaged property, including a police precinct house that was set ablaze. Many in Minneapolis complained Chauvin’s excessive use of force against Floyd was not an exceptional case, but rather a commonplace practice of the city’s police officers abusing the rights of Black residents. Garland said the investigation found that there were several incidents in which city police officers “were not held accountable for racist conduct” until there was a public outcry. Marcia Howard, a Minneapolis teacher and prominent civil rights activist, said the report was being cautiously welcomed by community members who have occupied the intersection where Floyd was killed, in what is now a years-long protest seeking an overhaul of the police. “It emphasizes what Black and Indigenous people have been saying for years, that we have lived under the yoke of a racist regime in the Minneapolis Police and they have gone unchecked with their egregious uses of force,” Howard said. Mayor Frey said he welcomed the Justice Department’s help in reforming the police department. “Our success will be defined by the people of Minneapolis feeling safe when interacting with police in our city,” he said. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, released a statement calling the report’s findings disturbing. He repeated his call for Congress to pass reforms “that increase public trust, combat racial discrimination and thereby strengthen public safety.” Negotiating the consent decree with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is expected to take several months, officials said. The department has negotiated similar federal oversight agreements in other cities, including Ferguson in Missouri, Baltimore and Cleveland. Chauvin, the former officer convicted on state charges for Floyd’s murder, later pleaded guilty to federal charges that he violated Floyd’s civil rights, and is serving a 21-year sentence in federal prison. Three other police officers involved in the arrest were also convicted on state and federal charges. (This story has been refiled to correct the spelling of Marcia Howard in paragraph 13) (Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York, editing by Deepa Babington and Jonathan Oatis) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Will Young is taking legal action against the “monsters” at his “very abusive” former school. The 44-year-old singer – who previously revealed he was left with PTSD because of the “appalling” experiences he had as a child – didn’t give specific details about the “big civil legal case” he is involved in against Horris Hill Prep school in Berkshire, but admitted the allegations centre around “physical abuse”. He told the Daily Mail newspaper’s Weekend magazine: “Singing has always been so personal to me, maybe it’s a vulnerability thing. “Singing has always been a little escape, since being at a very abusive boarding school, with whom I am now involved in a big civil legal case, with other people. That’s ongoing.” Asked if he can talk about the legal action, he said: “I think I can say I’m in legal proceedings concerning physical abuse, what the school knew about that and a particular person. “I was surrounded by monsters. When it does go to court you’ll know exactly what happened, but I can tell you what I saw, which was children being punched in the stomach, thrown down stairs, heads banged against radiators. “My brother was lifted up by his throat and shoved against a bookcase in the library by a teacher. This place was not normal.” The ‘Leave Right Now’ hitmaker found solace in music during his difficult school days. He said: “Singing was a refuge for me. We weren’t allowed music but I’d sneak in a Walkman and go into the woods and listen to music. It’s always been very important to me. You’ve got it wherever you are. I can sing anywhere. Maybe I feel that singing is just for me.” Will previously claimed staff at the school would throw children “against radiators”, watch them getting changed, and rip out the only phone they had to communicate with their guardians. He said: “We weren’t allowed to wear pants under our football shorts, so my d*** used to fall out of my football shorts when I got tackled. Less washing. “I saw kids being made to change on the football pitch because they had worn pants. Teachers looking at our penises in the shower, in the bath.’ “It was appalling. That’s why I’ve got PTSD. There was such a sense of injustice from things that I experienced and witnessed. I think I escaped – not that it didn’t damage me.” View the full article

Published by OK Magazine mega CNN broadcast journalist Chris Wallace claimed embattled former POTUS Donald Trump has “every reason to worry” about possibly receiving prison time in his late 70’s following his recent 37-count indictment, noting it could be effectively turn into a “life sentence” at his age. mega “You’d have to be crazy not to be worried. It’s — almost everyone, Republican and Democrat who has any kind of independence has said it’s a very strong indictment,” Wallace told told anchor Abby Phillip on a recent installment of CNN Tonight. “Now, an indictment is not proof,” he clarified. “And a lot of people who were indicted end up being found not guilty, but there’s every reason for him to worry. And as a man who just turned 77, you talk about a jail term, it could be a life sentence if it were to happen.” mega “But on the other hand, you know, Donald Trump has led a very different life than the rest of us,” Wallace continued. “He’s been involved in litigation for decades, not this kind, not a criminal case where he could actually face jail time, but, you know, this is a lot more in his wheelhouse than it is for the average person.” Wallace also marveled at Trump’s apparent ability to “keep on keeping on despite all of the incoming that he faces all the time.” mega “Yes, I mean, that is an interesting point,” Phillip replied. “I mean, you can love him or hate him, but that’s true. He has a very high tolerance for this kind of thing almost to a fault. In fact, maybe if his tolerance for this were a little bit lower, he would not have found himself in this situation.” Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for! AsOK! previously reported, Trump confirmed on Thursday, June 8, that he was set to be indicted in connection with his alleged mishandling of classified documents after federal investigators raided his Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022. The following week, on Tuesday, June 13, he was arraigned in a Miami, Fla., courthouse and pleaded “not guilty” to all charges. View the full article

Published by OK Magazine Now that Spotify has parted ways with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, company exec Bill Simmons is airing out his grievances against the couple. The Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetization of the company discussed his feelings on the situation during the Friday, June 16, episode of his own podcast. “I wish I was involved in the Meghan and Harry [leaving] Spotify negotiation. ‘The f****** grifters.’ That’s the podcast we should of launched with them,” he chuckled. “I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one o… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet An official from the anti-LGBTQ hate group American Family Associationpublicly attacked U.S. Senator Ted Cruz over the Texas Republican’s opposition to the “Kill the Gays” law in Uganda. Cruz, who is not pro-LGBTQ civil rights, called the legislation “horrific & wrong” in late May. “Any law criminalizing homosexuality or imposing the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’ is grotesque & an abomination. ALL civilized nations should join together in condemning this human rights abuse,” Cruz added. AFA’s Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs Jameson Taylor told attendees at the Nationa… Read More View the full article

Published by The Spun By Andrew Gould MLB has discreetly blocked teams from wearing Pride rainbows on their uniforms this season. On Thursday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred claimed he doesn’t want MLB members representing a marginalized community because he’s worried about the players’ safety. “We have told teams, in terms of actual uniforms, hats, bases that we don’t think putting logos on them is a good idea just because of the desire to protect players,” Manfred said, per Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post. Manfred also doesn’t want to make bigoted players “uncomfortable because of their personal views.” The de… Read More View the full article

Published by SI Swim By Cara O’Bleness The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. If you’re looking for a fun way to wear your pride on your sleeve, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community or a strong ally, there’s no better time than Pride Month to colorfully accent your wardrobe accordingly. The SI Swimsuit team has selected 15 must-have accessories for Pride Month, which you can find on our Amazon Storefront here, that are cute enough to rock all year long. Below, find a sh… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan on Friday passed a much-contested bill to promote understanding of the LGBT community amid criticism that the legislation provides no human rights guarantees and may tacitly encourage some forms of discrimination. Japan, the only Group of Seven (G7) nation with no legal protection for same-sex unions, had originally pledged to pass the law before hosting the G7 leaders’ summit from May 19 to 21. However, wrangling over the bill and its wording meant it was only submitted to parliament for consideration the day before the summit began. It passed the more powerful lower house on Tuesday even after some lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party broke rank with party directives and either were absent altogether or left while the voting took place. The initial draft stipulated that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity should “not be tolerated” but was changed to “there should be no unfair discrimination”, wording critics say tacitly allows bigotry. “Though the original bill was not especially meaningful, I thought it was better than nothing,” said Takeharu Kato, a lawyer and member of “Marriage for all Japan,” an activist group, prior to the bill’s passage. “But now I’ve begun to think it might be better to have nothing at all.” Japan has come under pressure from other G7 nations, especially the United States, to allow same-sex marriage. Economic leaders have said they fear Japan will not be able to remain internationally competitive without greater diversity, including representation for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Opinion polls show a vast majority of Japanese approve of same-sex marriage. Roughly 70% of the country now allows same-sex partnership agreements, although the partnership rights fall short of those guaranteed by marriage. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Hugh Hefner’s son Marston Hefner is doing OnlyFans – against his wife’s wishes. The 33-year-old heir to the Playboy fortune is expecting his first child with spouse Anna Lambropoulos, and he has started flogging subscriptions to his racy content on the adult site as extra “financial security” for his family – and to fund his Pokémon card obsession. His content includes “undressing myself slowly” and engaging in “butt plug play”, but most of it is Pokemon-themed. He told The New York Post’s Page Six column: “It is a long-term avenue for further financial security.” His late father – who passed away at the age of 91 on September 27, 2017 – made his millions from the X-rated Playboy magazine and brand and his mother, Kimberley Conrad, was a Playboy model. Marston – who is bisexual – said: “I believe that there’s nothing wrong with nudity or sexuality. “If people have sex and they make money from it, cool. If I end up doing it, cool.” Marston even insisted he wouldn’t mind if his wife wanted to have an open relationship or start her own OnlyFans account, though he claims she’s not “crazy” about him selling his kinky content. He added: “If she wanted to do an open relationship, we’ll talk about it. “If she wanted to do anything sexual, that’s a conversation that we have no matter what, and we are always having it.” Hef – who was married three times – was also survived by grown-up children Christie, 70, David, 67, and 31-year-old Cooper. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Rosie O’Donnell has a “weird relationship” with Ellen DeGeneres. The 61-year-old star fronted her own daytime chat show from 1996 until 2002 and – following a brief period where she was replaced by ‘Sabrina, the Teenage Witch’ actress Caroline Rhea – her slot was ultimately taken by fellow comedienne Ellen, 65, who fronted ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ between 2003 and 2022 but Rosie has recalled feeling as if there was no room to have two lesbian comics on screen at the time. She told The Hollywood Reporter: “It was a good relationship. We were friends. We supported each other. Which is why when she came on my show, I said, “Let me not have you standing there by yourself. Let’s get a joke in there.” And we sat down and came up with that, ‘Oh my God, I love Casey Kasem. Maybe I’m Lebanese.’ It became a big thing. “Then the episode aired, Time ran its ‘Yep, I’m Gay’ cover and everybody was asking me, “What do you think about Ellen?” It became a strange, ‘There can’t be two lesbians in this town,’ kind of a thing. “Then we each had success and went our separate ways.” Rosie went on to add that even though Ellen infamously said on TV that the pair of them were “not friends”, they are actually still in touch and Ellen has even apologised for her remarks. “She texted me a few weeks ago checking in, seeing how I’m doing, and I asked her how she’s surviving not being on TV. It’s a big transition. But we’ve had our weirdness in our relationship. I don’t know if it’s jealousy, competition or the fact that she said a mean thing about me once that really hurt my feelings. “She wrote, ‘I’m really sorry and I don’t remember that.’ I guess she saw me talk about it on Andy Cohen’s show. I remembered it so well, I had T-shirts printed and I gave them to my staff that said “I don’t know Rosie. We’re not friends.” I have a picture of her holding [my then-infant son] Parker. I know her mother. I could identify her brother without her in the room. I knew her for so many years. It just felt like I don’t trust this person to be in my world.” View the full article

Published by AlterNet On the far right, “woke” has become one of the most weaponized terms of 2023. The term has come to have an extremely negative connotation among MAGA Republicans and right-wing media elite — so negative that, according to Axios’ Javier E. David, anti-“wokeness” has collectively caused Target, Anheuser Busch and Kohl’s to suffer a “$28.7 billion loss in market value since the beginning of April.” “Woke” is not a new expression. The term emerged in the Black community as far back as the 1940s, and for decades, it had a very positive connotation — essentially meaning enlightened, well-informed and… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story Two purported Ku Klux Klan members allegedly terrorized a pro-LGBTQ rally in Kentucky, and one pulled a handgun on protesters — but law enforcement officers on the scene did not arrest them, according to local police documents obtained by Raw Story through an open records request. One of the men who pulled a KKK card from his wallet, identified in the police report as 44-year-old Kenneth W. Hutton, had recently worked for the city government in Corbin, Ky., a local official confirmed Thursday. “He quit about a month ago,” Corbin City Manager Marlon Sams told Raw Story on Thursday. The new info… Read More View the full article

Published by DPA After the death of one of one the most celebrated Western novelists, Cormac McCarthy, AI now appears set to usher in a new literary era. Scientists are heralding a “transformation of creativity” with AI tools that could upend how books, music and art is created. Jan Woitas/dpa The jury is out on whether artificial intelligence (AI) could make people extinct, and while some academics reckon it at least should not kill off art or writing or music, they do believe it may “fundamentally transform” human creativity. AI tools are capable of “high-quality artistic media for visual arts, concept art, music and literature, as well as for video and animation,” according to US academics writing in the journal Science. However tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney, already being used to write passages of novels and create realistic photos, are not likely to be “the harbinger of art’s demise.” Bot-generated books, paintings and songs would not mean an end to art, said Ziv Epstein of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Washington’s Aaron Hertzmann, but instead would be a “new medium with its own distinct affordances.” And while machine-learned art might sound like an oxymoron, it could end up “ultimately enabling new models of creative labour and reconfiguring the media ecosystem,” they believe. “The generative capabilities of these tools will fundamentally transform creative processes: how creators formulate ideas and put those ideas into production,” the researchers said. In turn this “transformation of creativity” would “disrupt many sectors of society” and would, as many industry analysts have predicted, result in people being laid off or even left without work. “As a suite of tools used by human creators, generative AI is positioned to upend many sectors of the creative industry and beyond—threatening existing jobs and labour models in the short term,” they said. Their journal article was published on June 15, two days after the death of Cormac McCarthy, author of “The Road” and “No Country For Old Men”, as well as “Blood Meridian”, which, though published in 1985, has in recent years been touted as the best US novel ever written. On June 13, the day McCarthy died, Paul McCartney said that AI tools were used to prise the late John Lennon’s voice out of demo tapes from the 1970s for inclusion in what would be a final Beatles single to be released in 2023. But could ChatGPT and similar tools go beyond the kind of work done with the late Lennon’s voice? Could they emulate McCarthy’s story-telling, his seamless and singular weaving of exhilarating lyricism and sublime menace? It seems unlikely, going by recent accounts – in publications from The Washington Post to Business Insider – of what the bots churn out when asked to come up with fiction. There was obvious lifting from real books, a concern previously raised by analysts reviewing how the bots come up with scientific or medical output. Meanwhile, reviewers listed “weak endings”, a “lack of a distinctive voice” and “inconsistencies” as among the defects of the AI-generated ‘literature’. It sounds like a long way off one of the late McCarthy’s more celebrated passages – the ‘coin toss’ scene in “No Country For Old Men”, the watch-through-your-fingers cinema version of which has been doing the rounds on the internet since the 89-year-old’s death. In words that could be used regarding some chatbot output, Anton Chigurh, the book’s nerveless, psychotic hit-man, sneers ominously at a hapless gas station operator, telling him: “You don’t know what you’re talking about, do you?” After the death of one of one the most celebrated Western novelists, Cormac McCarthy, AI now appears set to usher in a new literary era. Scientists are heralding a “transformation of creativity” with AI tools that could upend how books, music and art is created. Beowulf Sheehan/Penguin Random House/dpa View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Donald Trump Jr. was recently embroiled in a legal battle to keep his name out of court documents that reportedly contained offensive and racist emails, RadarOnline.com has learned. The court case reportedly involved Gentry Beach, a former classmate of Don Jr.’s at the University of Pennsylvania, who first sued his former employer, Touradji Capital Management, nearly 15 years ago. Mega According to the Wall Street Journal, the alleged emails between Don Jr. and Beach recently resurfaced after Beach’s years-long case against his former employer went to a retrial this year. Also startling was the outlet’s report that a number of the emails between Don Jr. and Beach allegedly contained offensive and racist remarks regarding the Jewish and Mexican communities. Mega “Tomorrow night we’re having Jews for dinner,” Beach wrote to the former first son in one alleged email. “That’s kosher, right?” “I hear the theme song of the Jeffersons playing in the background,” Don Jr. wrote in another email after referring to Upper Manhattan, where Beach had just moved at the time, to Harlem. Other emails from between 2005 and 2008 allegedly saw both Don Jr. and Beach complaining about immigrants coming over the border into the United States from Mexico. “Encourage the Mexicans to come to the US and give them another excuse to not learn English,” Donald Trump’s son wrote at the time. “When I have to speak to my grandchildren in Spanish, at least I know I will have you to thank.” Mega “We’re going to stop this wetback issue dead in its tracks,” Beach responded before suggesting he might send his son to the border with firearms to “take care” of the “immigration problem.” Touradji Capital Management, Beach’s former employer, reportedly used the alleged emails as part of their legal defense. Mega The capital management company argued that the emails showed evidence of Beach’s disloyalty to his former employer and that Beach exposed the company to reputational harm. “Many of these investors, such as pension funds and publicly traded corporations, are rigorously focused on the integrity of the investment professionals that manage their assets,” lawyers for Beach’s former employer wrote in January. Never miss a story — sign up for the RadarOnline.com newsletter to get your daily dose of dope. Daily. Breaking. Celebrity news. All free. Meanwhile, Beach’s lawyers sought to have Don Jr.’s name redacted from the court records. Beach’s lawyers reportedly suggested that the mention of Don Jr. in the documents only served to prejudice the jury pool for the retrial and increased the risk of reputational harm to plaintiffs to create settlement leverage. “The only legitimate purpose for peppering the record with references to the public figure’s name is to prejudice the jury pool for the retrial and to increase risk of reputational harm to Plaintiffs, perhaps to generate settlement leverage,” Beach’s lawyers wrote in a May filing. View the full article

Published by Orlando Sentinel Just four days after a federal judge ruled a Tennessee law restricting drag shows was unconstitutional, attorney Brice Timmons was in an Orlando, Florida, courtroom describing how a new Florida law was causing Hamburger Mary’s to censure its drag shows. Timmons, a civil rights attorney with Memphis-based Donati Law, represented the Friends of George’s theater company in the Tennessee case, fighting a law that prohibited “adult cabaret” from taking place on public property or where children could see it. U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker, appointed by President Donald Trump, ruled June 2 the Te… Read More View the full article

Published by Al-Araby The United Arab Emirates and several other Arab nations will not screen Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”, Vox Cinemas said on Thursday without explanation, amid debate online and among regional movie fans about the animated film’s treatment of transgender themes. The film, a sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”, was released on June 2 in the United States and was set for a June 22 release in the Gulf region. However, Vox, a subsidiary of retail conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim, said in response to a query via Facebook Messenger that the movie would not be… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story The city of Hamtramck in Michigan has banned Pride flags on public property after a contentious municipal meeting, Fox 2 reported. Councilmember Nayeem Choudhury said the decision was made in order to “respect the religious rights of our citizens.” As Fox News points out, almost the entirety of the Hamtramck City Council is Muslim, and approximately 40% of the city’s residents were born in foreign countries. The meeting took a turn when a woman wearing a clown nose took the podium to make a sarcastic speech. “Sure, many Hamtramck residents have fled countries where being gay is a death sentenc… Read More View the full article

Published by PsyPost Same-sex performativity, or public performances of sexuality between heterosexual women, is especially common in college settings, but why? A study published in Personal Relationships explores the motivations for engaging in this behavior. If you have ever been in a college setting, you have probably witnessed or heard about straight women kissing at parties or in bars. It is estimated that 20% to 33% of college women who identify as heterosexual have kissed another woman at a party. There are a myriad of factors that are thought to contribute to these instances, including hookup culture and t… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Kanishka Singh (Reuters) – A Montana man was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 years in prison for firing an assault rifle into a woman’s home and trying to rid a town of LGBTQ residents. John Howald, 46, of Basin, Montana, was convicted of the hate crime by a federal jury in February, the Justice Department said in a statement announcing the sentence handed down by Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Morris. After firing at the residence, he walked through Basin – a community of about 200 people – intending to target others he perceived as LGBTQ, it said. The town is about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Butte, Montana. Residents, who heard about Howald’s self-described anti-LGBTQ mission, were able to restrain him until law enforcement officers arrested him, the department said. “Howald set out to rid the town of all LGBTQI+ members by killing them,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Howald was armed with two assault rifles, a hunting rifle, two pistols and multiple high-capacity magazines that were taped together to speed reloading, the statement said. Howald’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. Earlier this month, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the United States, declared its first national state of emergency, citing the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ legislation in statehouses across the country. President Joe Biden has also warned about “ugly” attacks from “hysterical” people who are targeting LGBTQ Americans. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) View the full article

Published by Tribune News Service Dear Anna, I´m a queer/bisexual woman from the Deep South (aka Bible Belt), and I am finally accepting my sexuality and letting go of those feelings of shame/fear/denial/etc. In an effort to live honestly and avoid any problems (or so I thought), I have told my last two partners from Day 1 (literally) that I’m open to dating people of multiple genders. In the first scenario, I was dating a lesbian and I told her that I’m also attracted to and have dated men. She didn’t say much, but continued pursuing me and I noticed that she seemed interested in convincing me that I’m a truly a lesbian who w… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet Earlier this month a Burlington, Massachusetts middle school students’ group organized an approved LGBTQ+ pride celebration, but some students protested by tearing down pro-LGBTQ posters, wearing red, white and blue clothing and painting their faces, while some chanted, “my pronouns are USA.” “According to a letter to parents from Marshall Simonds Middle School Principal Cari Perchase, the incident took place during a school-approved spirit day celebrating Pride month on Friday, June 2. The spirit day was requested and sponsored by Spectrum Club — a student group for LGBTQ+ students and allies… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Magali Druscovich and Sheila Dang (Reuters) – To make sense of the unprecedented events of Jan. 6, 2021, Vitus “V” Spehar did what no traditional journalist would do – crawl under a desk and begin recording a video for TikTok. Like others who watched on TV as the storming of the U.S. Capitol unfolded, Spehar, who uses the pronoun they, felt the need to talk about it. However, “I didn’t want to make people think that I was an expert,” said Spehar, who filmed the TikTok video from their home in Rochester, New York. “So I thought, where’s a safe place to have a conversation?” Two years later, the “Under the Desk News” TikTok account attracts nearly 3 million followers, who appreciate Spehar’s gentler take on the news of the day. The show avoids true crime, while focusing on subjects in which people can take action. Spehar tries to end each video on a lighter note. Since the surge in popularity of the short-form video app at the start of the pandemic, people like Spehar have flocked to the platform to discuss, document and share what’s happening in the world. Many call themselves creators or influencers. They do not aspire to be traditional journalists. What unites these news creators is a desire to talk about their world in an authentic way. That has resonated with millions of young followers, the elusive but highly sought-after next generation of media consumers who are unlikely to watch cable news or read a newspaper. By shunning convention, these news creators are attempting to craft a new narrative for journalism at a time of blistering decline for a business in dire need of reinvention. Rather than regurgitate a rundown of daily headlines, some choose to connect with their audience directly in the comment section of videos, and others wear their viewpoints like a badge. Josh Helfgott, a TikTok user with 5.5 million followers, posts a recurring series of videos called “Gay News” discussing current events relevant to LGBTQ viewers. His inspiration for his account is his 13-year-old self, who felt isolated growing up as gay teen. “I want to inspire people or just make anyone feel less alone,” Helfgott said. His news videos, which routinely receive upward of 1 million views, have covered everything from U.S. President Joe Biden hosting a Pride celebration at the White House to the Human Rights Campaign declaring a state of emergency for LGBTQ Americans. “There are very few stories centered around LGBTQ issues that are heard by general society,” Helfgott said. Fighting feelings of helplessness and isolation has inspired other channels. Kristy Drutman launched climate change-focused “Brown Girl Green” and said she began posting on TikTok and Instagram because people of color are rarely represented in discussions about the environment. “I try to keep up with climate news and news that can give people hope,” she said. “I think about solutions.” One of Drutman’s TikTok videos explained how people can take advantage of tax credits to make energy-efficient updates to their homes, while another pointed to an international climate change report that showed it was not too late for nations to take steps to combat a heating planet. WHERE’S THE MONEY? Traditional news media are in deep crisis. For every exception, like the New York Times’ surging revenue for digital subscriptions, there are more horror stories of stagnating traffic and declining readers and viewers. So far this year, more than 1,900 jobs have been cut in the U.S. news industry, already surpassing the 1,808 jobs cut in all of 2022, according to a report from job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The one-time darlings of news in the social media age, like BuzzFeed News and Vice, have died or on life support. Meanwhile, TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform for news, according to a report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published on Tuesday. Twenty percent of 18-to-24-year-olds use TikTok to learn about current events, up 5 percentage points from last year, the report said. Lisa Remillard, a 20-year veteran of broadcast journalism who has been a TV anchor in Tallahassee, Florida, and San Diego, California, hopes to parlay this growth into a new business model that could help independent journalists earn a living on TikTok and other social media platforms. Remillard founded BEONDTV, a lifestyle and entertainment digital media company. Since 2020, she has also functioned as a one-person newsroom, filming videos to walk her 2.5 million TikTok followers through the biggest national news each day, such as the U.S. debt ceiling deal and the possibility of a TikTok ban in the United States due to the platform’s Chinese ownership. “In my deepest, darkest hopes and dreams, I wish that could be the result of all this hard work,” Remillard said, expressing her hope for a new business model for independent journalists. As Spehar’s “Under the Desk News” began to take off, the Los Angeles Times hired them for six months last year to be the face of the news organization’s TikTok account. The benefit was mutual: Spehar learned how journalism is produced, while the publisher benefited from Spehar’s TikTok skills. Spehar’s advice to journalists: build a following on TikTok that will pay for their reporting on subscription platforms like Substack, where some writers have carved out lucrative careers. “Pick the world that you want to show people and tell them exactly what stories you cover,” Spehar said. (Reporting and photography by Magali Druscovich; Writing by Sheila Dang; Editing by Kenneth Li and Matthew Lewis) View the full article

Published by The Seattle Times The billboards feature a menacing iceberg, sinking ship and an all-caps message: GONORRHEA ALERT! What do an iceberg and sinking ship have to do with a sexually transmitted disease? It’s not immediately clear, but the billboards on Boren Avenue and near the Space Needle likely caught your eye. And that’s the point. “There is a sense of desensitization when it comes to STIs (sexually transmitted infections), and billboards go a long way toward someone Googling something or scheduling something with a provider,” said Marcelino Alcorta, of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “There’s also value in as… Read More View the full article

Published by City AM By Elena Siniscalco British politics comes with its quirks and oddities, and one of them is the spat about the “Never kissed a Tory” motto. For some, it’s tribal politics; for others, it’s a fun joke. For Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales, it is probably the second option. When he decided to post a picture wearing a “Never kissed a Tory” badge to mark Pride, he likely didn’t think it was going to offend anyone. But it quickly backfired, with the Tory Shadow Minister for Equalities Altaf Hussain asking him to apologise. The motto is more than a decade old, and it was Labour (obviously… Read More View the full article