8 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | NEWS
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Mayor Pete, it’s not enough
Canadian PM cruises Vancouver gay bar
The Advocate published a “Dear Mayor Pete” letter to Pete Buttigieg beseeching him to be a little gayer. Banging on about the Stonewall uprising 50 years ago, Carson Jones (son of Alabama Senator Doug Jones and an out gay person), wants Mayor Pete to do more than introduce and embrace his husband at campaign events, speak to the Victory fund about the travails of “coming” out, and discussing on national TV his struggle being gay in the uber macho US Army. Jones said Mayor Pete let him and “the community down” in the debates by answering the questions in a rational, calm, funny and some would say eloquent manner. Jones wants the mayor to “fight” identity politics by emphasizing his identity as a gay man.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started Pride week in Vancouver, BC by popping into popular, crowded gay bar, Fountainhead Pub, for a beer and to shake hands. He mingled and posed for selfies with the happy-hour crowd. He is reputed to be the first Canadian PM to patronize a gay bar, though his father Pierre was a wellknown pub crawler, haunting discos in NYC while visiting the UN as then Canadian PM, in the 1960s and 70s.
Grindr ok’d to go public Looks like you won’t have to worry about the ChiComs fishing your Grindr profile for much longer. Grindr’s Chinese owners said it would revive plans for an initial public offering since a U.S. national security panel dropped its opposition to the plan. It was
thought CFIUS opposed the sale because it meant the company would have to house its data in China and would be left open to cyber-pilfering by the Chinese government. The company said it will pursue either an IPO or a sale, and cease to be a Chinese company. Grindr says users should not see any change in the company’s operations.
First gay candidate for leader in Islamic majority country A Tunisian attorney and founder of a gay advocacy group has announced his candidacy for the presidency of that Islam dominated country. Mounir Baatour practices in the country’s highest court and is a leader of a fringe political party. In a tradition apparently based on Mormonism, it is legal to be a homo in Tunisia, but participation in homosexual sex is grounds
Fall Bulb and Native Plant Sale Red Butte Garden Courtyard September 27 & 28
In the Garden
redbuttegarden.org/fall-plant-sale
Issue 303 | AUGUST 22, 2019
for imprisonment. Baatour has served 20 years in jail for sodomy. His presidential bid is a long shot as only seven percent of Tunisians approve homosexuality — the lowest approval in all of North Africa’s Islamic countries.
Wash DC park stings 26 In a counterpoint to the celebration of 50 years after the NYPD caused a riot by harassing gay men, the US National Park Service has started running stings in Washington DC’s Meridian Hill Park. Officers pose as willing consensual sex partners then bust men who take them up on their entrapment. Twenty-six men have been arrested. A defense attorney for some of the men decry the police tactics and suggests a racial aspect as the park is called Malcom X park by locals and attracts African-American park goers. Q
