Top national and world news since last issue

BY CRAIG OGAN

Pete not gay or woke enough for some

Protesters interrupted a speech by a Democratic presidential candidate. Not uncommon, but what is uncommon is that it was a protest against then candidate Pete Buttigieg, who has now withdrawn from the presidential campaign, by Queers Against Pete who did not him because he opposed Medicare for All and free college tuition. They cited his record on race and policing policies while he was mayor of South Bend. They also opposed his “white, upper-middle class sensibility” which they believe doesn’t represent the LGBTQ community. “He just furthers white supremacy,” wrote a spokesperson. “We believe the LGBTQIA community deserves better than Pete.”

Surprise, Million Moms dis Billy Porter

The American Family Association sub-group, One Million Moms, is protesting Billy Porter’s Sesame Street appearance because PBS is using Porter to promote “its “LGBTQ agenda.” The one known member of One Million Moms writes, “PBS recently announced that Sesame Street will feature a drag queen activist wearing a gender-bender tuxedo gown in one of its episodes this year. PBS KIDS should stick to entertaining and providing family-friendly programming, instead of pushing an agenda.”

Porter’s common-sense response, “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Like, what about me singing with a penguin [on the show] has anything to do with what I’m doing in my bedroom?”

San Diego elections a gay affair

Gay candidate Todd Gloria won the most votes in mayoral primary in San Diego, finishing with 40.2 percent of the vote. The second-place candidate got 25.2 percent. The race is officially nonpartisan, but Gloria identifies as a Democrat. If he wins he replaces Kevin Faulconer, reputedly a Republican.

Schrock, non-shock Instagram outing

A former member of Congress who voted against pro-LGBT and for anti-LGBT legislation but was often seen partying with gay men at Coachella and Carnival in Brazil, posed shirtless in Men’s Fitness and decorated his office in the fashion of Downton Abby, but always denied he was gay recently announced he is gay on Instagram. Adam Schock resigned as a congress member from Illinois in 2015 for misuse of taxpayer funds. He came out on the recent post, “to remove any doubt and to finally validate who I am as a person.” Being out of the headlines since 2015 is the probable motive to reveal a yawn-worthy fact that everyone related to him, who knew him, saw him or read about him, knew anyway.

RIP, ‘Boys in the Band’ playwright

Mart Crowley has died at the age of 84. Crowley, author of the groundbreaking gay play, The Boys in the Band, depicted a gay birthday party that turns sour in the way only gay parties can. The play won a Tony and was made into a feature film by director,

William Friedkin. A Broadway revival with Jim Parsons and Zachary Quito premiered in 2018. Netflix has announced a movie version for 2021. The play debuted Off-Broadway in 1968 and broke ground as one of the first plays to give a depiction of middle-class, Manhattan gay life. Crowley worked in television as a writer and showrunner and wrote a sequel to Boys, titled, The Men from the Boys, in 2004.

Franklin Graham, so’s your old man

Evangelist Franklin Graham, son of the late Billy Graham, was hoping to take his Christian crusade to Great Britain, but his longtime criticism of LGBTQ civil rights progress fouled the footpath for him. British LGBTQ groups lobbied the large venues in England and Scotland he had booked to cancel the Graham rallies and they complied. Graham replied to charges that he is homophobic by charging groups against him are “truthophobic” or “free-speech-ophobic.” He says he will sue to get the signed contracts for the venues enforced. The venues have shown no willingness to go back on going back on contracts they made with Graham.

Gay intelligence

In a mark of progress from the days gay men were hounded out of the intelligence services, Richard Grenell has been appointed acting director of National Intelligence. The new job, a cabinet-level position, makes Grenell the highest serving openly gay man to hold federal office in United States history. He will keep his post as West German Ambassador and return to full time duties there after the recently nominated permanent DNI is confirmed by Congress. He has served in the U.N. and the White House-based National

Security Council. As ambassador, he was assigned to work on decriminalizing gay and lesbian relationships and organizations in countries where it was illegal. Recently he got the U.N. to condemn countries which still outlaw homosexuality. Critics abound: Tony Perkins, the head of the anti-LGBT hate group Family Research Council commented he feared Grenell will engage in LGBT activism as acting director. The former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Rufus Gilford, also a married, gay man called the appointment, “weird and dangerous.”

Gay PM loses job and it’s just politics

Leo Varadkar one of the highest-ranking openly gay elected officials in the world, has resigned as Ireland’s prime minister when his party lost its parliamentary majority. Varadkar introduced progressive measures to a conservative Ireland, including gay marriage. Most expect the new government, led by the more conservative Sinn Fein Party (which was once the political affiliate of the Irish Republican Army), will not change any of the social policies enjoying wide acceptance in Ireland. Varadkar brought his husband to the White House during the last two U.S. presidential administrations to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, a big holiday in the U.S.A., but apparently just another day to drink in Ireland.

Adoption discrimination to be heard

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case about Philadelphia ending its contract with a Catholic agency that rejects LGBTQ parents as adoption services candidates. The American Civil Liberties Union contends the Catholic Social Services’ case is legally baseless and conflicts with accepted child welfare standards.