LGBTQ Breaking News Service

A gay former partner improperly lodged bogus sexual orientation and other job bias claims in court to “attract media attention” and must instead arbitrate under the agreement he signed when he was hired, Polsinelli PC told a federal court in Houston.

Trey Monsour also failed to mention the real reasons he was terminated, including mistreating female colleagues, the firm said Tuesday in asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to dismiss his March 30 lawsuit under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

The motion also seeks to compel Monsour to submit his claims to the American Arbitration Association.

Because Monsour “disregarded his obligations” under his employment contract, he should be required to reimburse the firm for its costs in bringing the motion, Polsinelli said.

Monsour alleges that Polsinelli’s push to increase diversity and inclusion was a smokescreen meant to help shed its image as a Midwestern, “good old boys” firm. That includes its recent creation of a chief diversity and inclusion officer position, he said.

The suit cited reports that in 2019, at least 72% of Polsinelli partners were White heterosexual males and 22% were White heterosexual females. Less than 2% of partners were LGBTQ community members, no more than 7% were members of other minority groups, and none were disabled, Monsour said.

But the firm said Monsour’s “salacious and untrue statements” are the real smokescreen.

Monsour failed to live up to his billing when he joined the firm in June 2017 as an equity partner, Polsinelli said.

He “patently misrepresented” the size of the book of business he would be bringing with him, generating business at a fraction of those levels and causing it to switch his status to income partner the following year, the firm said.

He also “caused a number of problems during his employment,” including underperforming and failing to collect from clients, the firm said.

It had to write off nearly 40% of Monsour’s time on one client matter during fiscal years 2019-2020 and 58% of his time across his entire book of business in fiscal year 2020, Polsinelli said.

But it was Monsour’s mistreatment of a female associate and a female shareholder “that tipped the scale” and caused the firm to fire him, the firm said.

It noted that Monsour “was both gay and 54 years old” when he was hired.

“Our client believes this filing is a transparent attempt by Polsinelli to deflect attention away from its treatment of members of the LGBTQ community by disparaging its former partner,” William A. Brewer III of Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors in Dallas told Bloomberg Law in an email Wednesday. “Not only are the statements regarding his performance false, but he treated colleagues with respect and courtesy at all times.”

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP represents Polsinelli.

The case is Monsour v. Polsinelli PC, S.D. Tex., No. 4:21-cv-01046, motion to dismiss, compel arbitration 4/27/21.

Kelly Tshibaka, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Alaska previously wrote articles in support of an organization that espoused gay conversion therapy, questioned the integrity of elections and described the “Twilight” books and movies as evil.

Many of the articles, blogs and posts by candidate Kelly Tshibaka have been deleted but some are available through archived internet pages, as first reported Tuesday by CNN.

Tshibaka said in an email to The Associated Press that the CNN article “is just proof that our campaign is gaining momentum, which has Lisa Murkowski and her allies scared to death.”

“Nothing frightens the DC political insiders more than the thought of a strong, independent Alaskan leader in their ranks,” she said.

Tshibaka formerly worked in several offices of inspector general in the U.S. government before becoming the commissioner of the Department of Administration in Alaska under Gov. Mike Dunleavy in 2019. She quit last month to enter the Senate race.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who has held the Senate seat since 2002, has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, which allows her to raise money. Murkowski, who reported having $1.3 million available as of March 31, has not formally announced whether she’s seeking re-election.

Murkowski filed the FEC statement, as a Republican, a week before state Republican party leaders censured her for voting to convict former President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial earlier this year. The party also said it did not want Murkowski to identify as a Republican in the 2022 election.

Messages sent to Murkowski’s press aides were not immediately returned to the AP.

Days after major news organizations, including the AP, declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election, Tshibaka posted on Instagram: “Eyewitness testimony of voting impropriety, fraud, tampering or oppression in states like PA, MI, GA, NV, and AZ constitutes ‘evidence.’”

In the November election, Alaska voters approved Proposition 2, an initiative that would do away with party-run primaries and send the top four vote-getters, regardless of political affiliation, to the general election.

General elections would then use a new ranked-choice voting system. Some see this as a boost for Murkowski, who in 2010 lost her party primary but went on to win the general election as a write-in candidate.

Tshibaka also tweeted about a Texas lawsuit challenging changes to election laws because of COVID-19, which was dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court because Texas did not have standing to sue. She said if Texas were to win, then Alaska’s election laws could also be challenged.

“Imagine what this could mean for Proposition 2 (where absentee ballots tipped votes in favor of the jungle primary) and for certain state Legislature races? Alaska can throw out all absentee ballots without a witness signature, for example,” she tweeted.

She told the AP on Tuesday that “allegations regarding voting integrity should be investigated and fully examined.”

When Tshibaka was at Harvard Law School, she wrote “The Right Side: Coming Out of Homosexuality,” for The Harvard Law Record, an independent newspaper at the law school, in December 2001.

“Today is National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day, a day dedicated to helping homosexuals overcome their sexual tendencies and move towards a healthy lifestyle,” she wrote in the article under her maiden name Kelly Hartline.

In the article she touts the work of Exodus International, a group that advocated gay conversion therapy. The group a decade later closed and apologized for the harm it did to the gay community.

“Homosexuals can come out of homosexuality because their preference is not biologically mandated.” Tshibaka wrote in 2001. “Unlike race or gender, homosexuality is a choice.”

She also later apologized to readers who were upset over the article, saying she did not intend to offend.

Tshibaka said she was assigned the article by an editor as a counterpoint piece. “I don’t hold that view today,” she told the AP.

When asked if same-sex marriage is settled law, she said: “I personally believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, but the Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is the law of the land.”

In blog posts, she said the “Twilight” vampire movies and books are “evil and we should not read or watch it.”

“Some say this book is harmless, that it promotes Christian values, and that it does not promote anything wicked at all,” she wrote. “But Satan does not usually look repulsive, horrific, and evil on the outside.”

She told the AP that children should read more, but the “Twilight” books don’t hold a candle to Dr. Seuss.

“I think Alaskans will care more about who will protect their gas and oil jobs than they do about young adult vampire fiction,” she said.

The state elections office says others who have registered for Senate include Dustin Darden with the Alaskan Independence Party, Huhnkie Lee, who is undeclared, and Republicans Samuel Little and Karl Speights.

Photo: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Jedi daddy Ewan McGregor has played gay characters before, most notably in Todd Haynes’s Velvet Goldmine in 1998 and opposite Jim Carrey in 2009’s I Love You Phillip Morris. But in a new cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, McGregor addressed the possible controversy surrounding writer-director Dan Minahan casting him as the title character in an upcoming biographical Netflix miniseries about the 1970s fashion designer Halston. McGregor identifies as straight, and Halston was an out gay man in the public eye whose contributions to queer culture — from his close friendship with Liza Minnelli to his designs that defined the look of the Studio 54 disco era — are inseparable from his story.

During the interview, THR quoted Billy Porter at a 2019 Actors Roundtable saying, “Straight men playing gay — everyone wants to give them an award.” McGregor responded, “If it had been a story about Halston’s sexuality more, then maybe it’s right that gay actors should play that role. But in this case — and I don’t want to sound like I’m worming out of this, because it’s something I did think a lot about — I suppose, ultimately, I felt like it was just one part of who he was.” Viewers can make up their own minds when Halston premieres on Netflix on May 14.

When Pixar first revealed the plot synopsis of its upcoming movie Luca — a tale of two sea-monster boys named Luca and Alberto, and an “unforgettable” summer on the Italian Rivera — many people quickly compared it to Call Me By Your Name, the 2017 gay romance that also took place during an unforgettable summer in Italy. The first trailer, where the two boys run around an idyllic seaside town, cemented that general vibe — though it also revealed a female character, one potentially there to make the boys jealous.

Still, online commenters hoped Luca would possibly be Pixar’s first queer love story for the theater. The studio has notoriously inserting blink-and-you’ll-miss-them LGBT characters who are easily edited out. But in 2020, Pixar released “Out” through its SparkShorts program, which centered around a gay couple. Eager for representation, many fans have clung to the possibility that Luca might give them openly gay main characters, and not just one-note side characters.

But those fans will have to wait, because Luca isn’t a queer love story. In fact, according to director Enrico Casarosa (who also helmed the Pixar short La Luna), Luca won’t be a love story at all — not a straight one, not a queer one, not one with love triangles or schoolyard crushes. Casarosa specifically wanted to focus on the intimate bonds of childhood friendship.

“I was really keen to talk about a friendship before girlfriends and boyfriends come in to complicate things,” he told Polygon during a press day in April.

Image: Pixar

According to Casarosa, the team considered what would happen once Giulia, the girl the boys meet on land, came into the picture, and how traditionally the story would veer toward romance. But they actively decided to set the story in a nebulous time of the characters’ lives, before they’re aware of romance, hormones, and other complicated entanglements.

“This was about their friendship in that pre-puberty world,” he laughs.

Luca follows young Luca and Alberto, two young sea monsters who turn into humans when out of the water, as they venture into the surface world for the first time after being cautioned how dangerous it is for their kind. Footage provided on the press day revealed a lushly animated Italian coastal town, one where the animators worked to break photorealism in order to capture a specific storybook-like feeling. After encountering a cocky Vespa owner, the boys want to buy a scooter of their own, and they team up with plucky Giulia to enter the town’s annual race. One hiccup? Giulia also happens to be the local fishmonger’s daughter.

The movie was specifically inspired by Casarosa’s own summers growing up, particularly the close friendship he had with his friend Alberto, whom he named the character after. Both the real Alberto and the character he inspired are big, bright, larger-than-life personalities who pushed their shy friends out of their shells.

“The type of friendship that is gonna push you into trouble,” says Casarosa. “Push you into change, push you into finding yourself.”

Image: Pixar

But at the same time, Casarosa says, while Alberto inspires Luca, Alberto also gets much-needed validation from Luca. Their bond isn’t romantic, but it’s still deeply emotional and transformative, and just as important as a first romance. All three of the kids at the core of Luca find something in one another at this pivotal moment of their lives, when they step out from the comfort of their family bubble for the first time.

“We wanted to make sure they see each other, they bring something to each other,” explains Casarosa. “They’re both lonely, there’s a loneliness at the heart of it that is filling a void in all these kids because they feel a little bit odd and lonely. Giulia is the same thing. We wanted to make sure there’s a little loneliness so there’s the space that gets filled with an important friendship.”

Luca will premiere on Disney Plus on June 18.

A harassment incident during a Marine Corps Birthday Ball pushed one pilot’s career into limbo, a decade after the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy ended. Meanwhile, Escondido Police have released the names of the man killed in last week’s police shooting and the officer who shot him. Plus, a new book tells the story of the mysterious death of 32-year old Rebecca Zahau at the Spreckels mansion in Coronado 10 years ago.

I have a cult fascination with the film Withnail and I. Okay, I love this film. But I am troubled by the perspective this film offers on homosexuality. It’s not what one would call a “modern perspective”. I believe the film’s portrayal of homosexuality can be seen as funny or alarming or a cultural reference point. I think it’s all three.

My son is gay, and with some introductory apologies, I want to tell him to watch the film. Apologies for “trial ballooning” something like this with you, Mr. Savage, and I know you are not the standard-issue gay, as if such a thing exists. But have you seen the film? And, if so, your thoughts?

– Friend Of Withnail

I’ve never seen the film but a quick Google search of “Withnail and I” and “homophobic” brings up nearly 100,000 results.

Apparently, one of the film’s main characters (Uncle Monty) is a “predatory homosexual” who makes an unwelcome series of advances on one of the male leads.

“Is the film homophobic? Yes, undoubtedly,” Philip Caveney writes at Bouquets & Brickbats. Richard Griffiths, the actor who plays Monty, “somehow manages to evoke genuine sympathy for a tragic character who is, more than anything else, lonely—but all the talk about buggery by force does make you feel rather uncomfortable.”

The film was released in 1987—which in no way excuses the homophobia, of course, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a popular film released in 1987 that wasn’t deeply homophobic, either by commission (the hateful portrayal of gay characters) or by omission (the complete absence of gay characters). Still, the film doesn’t portray homosexuality, FOW, it portrays an individual homosexual.

It was, doubtless, a damaging portrayal at the time, as there were so few other representations of gay characters on TV or in film back then. But viewed now—viewed at a time when there are more representations of gay people in film and television than ever before—it doesn’t have the power to do the same damage.

So go ahead and recommend the film to your son, FOW, with the appropriate qualifiers and apologies.

I have a quick question about bisexuality. What if one has a preference for dating straight individuals?

As a straight woman, I am only interested in dating straight men. Is that some kind of phobia? Or is it okay for that to be a preference? I’ve always wanted to ask someone this but I’m afraid of being thought of as having a phobia.

– Nervously Asking Dan Something

I think you’re fine, NADS, so long as you’ve taken a moment to think about why you are burdened with this “preference”. Our sexual attractions, orientations, and preferences are easily distorted and limited by prejudice.

If you reflect on what might be at the root of your “preference” for men who are straight (or for men who’ll tell you they are), NADS, you might be able to open yourself up to more partners. But a person can reflect day and night for decades and still feel the same way.

At the very least, though, we can all be thoughtful about our erotic and/or sexual biases, take responsibility for them, be considerate about how we express them, and—perhaps most importantly—do our best not to transit them.

I’m not into shame, but not finding a particular group of people attractive for whatever reason is something we can keep to ourselves—not just to avoid doing harm to people we aren’t attracted to but to avoid passing our erotic biases and limitations on to the next generation.

My wife and I (lesbian moms together) have been invited to her cousin’s wedding. And she’s marrying the son of a former Republican statewide official who, in the early 2000s, turned the power of his state against gays, especially gay parents. His son hasn’t renounced his views—in fact, he’s converted his fiancée, my cousin-in-law, to Trumpism.

If it’s relevant, they’re more country-club homophobes than rednecks; they want to be seen as mainstream and pleasant; and they now live in a very liberal city and hide their views so they’re not pariahs. Not sure how to handle—simply not responding? Citing his father’s views in the RSVP? Never going to any family function where they will be, ever?

I really don’t want my kid around these people, but also, I feel like maybe I should go to set an example. But then, wearing my best suit and tie to a Trump wedding deep in a red state makes me worried for my physical safety. What would you do?

– No name supplied

I would send my regrets along with a broken toaster and the wrong receipt.

I just got dumped in a pretty brutal and inconsiderate way by a guy I really liked. He didn’t want to tell me it was over he just pulled away and left me to figure it out on my own.

We were dating for a year and he even started dating someone else and didn’t bother to inform me but didn’t hide it from me either. I feel depressed and really sad because I still like him and I miss him and I don’t know what to do.

– Sad And Depressed Over New Ending

If he did that—if he broke up with you like that—you didn’t like him. Not really. You liked the idea of him you formed in your head. He gave you the outline of a decent guy and you filled that outline in with everything you hoped he was, i.e., a kind, loving, decent guy who was as into you as you were into him. Or, at the very least, SADONE, a guy who cared enough about your feelings to end things in a kind and considerate manner if it came to that.

You can and should feel sad about losing the guy you hoped he was, but don’t feel sad about losing the guy he turned out to be. Because that guy was an asshole.

I was just listening to the Savage Lovecast (Episode 750) and you were responding to a fella who was ejaculating sooner than he would like. I wanted to say that I, a female, had a male partner who always came twice.

Once was quick, and he played it cool and just owned that that was how he operated. We switched to a new condom and could go for much longer the second time! Own it, guys! No need for shame about your body’s functionality.

– Come And Come Again

It’s good advice for men who suffer from premature ejaculation (PE)—don’t try to stop that first orgasm and you’re likely to last longer as you build to a second—but that advice works better for younger men with shorter refractory periods.

The older a man gets, the longer his refractory period becomes; if your partner’s second orgasm took 12 to 24 hours to arrive, well, that’s a long time to wait, no condom or no new condom.

Older guys with premature ejaculation might want to try low-dose SSRIs, i.e., antidepressants; one of the side effects of SSRIs is delayed ejaculation, and studies have shown that they are a pretty effective treatment for PE.

I saw your response to DTFOMBNB, the gay man who wanted an emotionally intimate, sexless relationship and the freedom to seek casual sex elsewhere.

You mentioned asexuals and cucks as potential partners for the intimate-but-sexless-relationship part, Dan, but I wanted to mention another possibility: I’m a gay guy in my 50s, and I learned relatively late in life that I’m on the autism spectrum. Specifically, I have Asperger’s syndrome.

That diagnosis was part of what resulted from my first long-term cohabiting relationship, during which I found that I couldn’t manage intense emotional intimacy and physical intimacy at the same time. I loved my boyfriend and cherished a lot of what we shared. I loved conversations, cuddling, traveling, et cetera. But adding sexual intimacy on top of all that just felt overwhelming.

I can’t say that my experience reflects those of all people with autism, but to me what DTFOMBNB describes is similar to how I’ve envisioned any future relationship I might enter into. The bad news is that pretty much all of the relationship-oriented guys I’ve encountered on dating sites are looking for a relationship that combines emotional and sexual intimacy, so it’s not an easy ask. But there are definitely men like me out there looking for what DTFOMBNB wants.

– A Sexual Partnership Isn’t Essential

Considering how many people wind up in sexless relationships, ASPIE, it stands to reason that some significant percentage of the population wants a sexless relationship. But so long as people who want intimate-but-sexless relationships don’t feel comfortable asking for it—so long as guys like you and DTFOMBNB assume no one else could possibly want what you’re offering and so you don’t offer, e.g., you don’t put it out there on the dating apps—you’re going to have a hard time finding each other.

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Discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people costs Eastern European countries almost 2% a year in economic growth, a coalition of dozens of global companies promoting LGBT+ inclusion said on Tuesday (27 April).

Hungary, Poland, Romania and Ukraine are losing billions of dollars each year due to the lack of equal workplace rights for LGBT+ people and factors such as higher health costs related to HIV/AIDS and depression, said Open For Business (OFB).

They are also facing a “brain drain” of skilled workers and struggling to win foreign investment, found OFB, which is backed by tech giants Google and Microsoft, Barclays and Deutsche Bank, spirits group Diageo and accounting firms PWC, EY and KPMG.

“Countries that are more open (in terms of LGBT+ rights) are generally speaking financially and economically in a much better place,” the report’s lead author George Perlov told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Gay sex is legal in all four countries, but none allow same-sex marriage and LGBT+ people have faced physical attacks, which make it hard to live openly.

In Poland, about 100 municipalities have signed declarations saying they are free of “LGBT ideology”, leading the European Union (EU) last year to withhold funding

European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, who was behind the EU decision, said tackling discrimination against LGBT+ people would be beneficial economically, not just in terms of equality and fairness.

“It will also give companies that embrace it a competitive edge in attracting and retaining talent,” she said in a statement.

The report, which was part-funded by Google, also found a majority of local companies in the four countries backed LGBT+ equality and diversity in the workplace.