Los Angeles Galaxy and USA midfielder Sebastian Lletget has been suspended two matches and fined for using a homophobic slur on Instagram this month, Major League Soccer said Friday.
Lletget will also be required to attend diversity, equity and inclusion training through Athlete Ally, the league said.
Lletget had apologized after drawing criticism for the post, which was contained in a video he posted on his Instagram account.
Lletget used the Spanish-language slur as he clapped teammate Julian Araujo on the back of the neck at a Galaxy training session before the season started.
“I messed up and I’m trying to take full responsibility for it,” Lletget said. “I said a word that shouldn’t have been said. And although there’s been a lot of discussion and debate about the meaning of the word because of different dialects in Spanish and cultures, the truth is it’s a harmful word and it shouldn’t have been said.”
Calling the incident “a moment of pure stupidity”, Lletget, who has played for the Galaxy since 2015 and most recently appeared for the United States in two friendlies in March, said he hoped he could rectify it.
“MLS acknowledges and appreciates Lletget’s prompt apology and the accountability he has taken for his actions,” MLS said in announcing the punishment.
His suspension means he will miss the Galaxy’s next two matches, against the New York Red Bulls on Sunday and against the Seattle Sounders on May 2.
At its spring event earlier this week, Apple made the unexpected and bold move of unveiling its new iMac in a kaleidoscopic array of colors. From the start of the event, color played a key role, with CEO Tim Cook kicking off the presentation in front of a large rainbow sculpture.
Apple’s embrace of the rainbow motif brings to mind Cook’s and the wider company’s support of the LGBTQ community, but its appearance on Tuesday served as an early wink at a message that hits closer to home. Or, if Apple has its way, closer to your home office.
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“We wanted it to feel light and optimistic, while instantly brightening up any space,” Mac Product Marketing Manager Colleen Novielli said during Tuesday’s event, briefly touching on the color decision. A move toward bringing more vibrant hues into the physical spaces we occupy is a trend that can be seen among interior designers right now, according to some leading figures in the field.
“Crisp, clear colors are continuing to grow in popularity, with yellows, light blues/turquoises, and greens being used to brighten up spaces and put a smile on your face,” Timothy Corrigan, an LA-based interior designer to royalty and Hollywood stars, said in an email. “This is especially true during these challenging times, as we continue to spend more time at home and on our computers.”
The colorful new Macs are a reflection of the broader change our work lives have undergone during this past year of coronavirus lockdowns. With more people working from home, often bringing equipment that once belonged in an office setting into their houses, it makes sense that Apple would move away from a uniform and utilitarian color scheme.
The new iMac in yellow could add warmth to your home.
Apple
The new iMacs also break away from more than 20 years of colorless desktop computers from Apple, where white and silver have dominated the Mac color palette. And they’re a far cry from those brightly colored original iMacs, which gained pop culture icon status and are still strongly associated with ’90s aesthetics.
Colorful hues are making a comeback in a big way.
The new interiors status symbol?
The pandemic-related working-from-home trend isn’t going away anytime soon, meaning that an iMac is as likely to live at a residential property as a commercial one. Apple understands this and appears to have purposefully avoided making a machine that would look staid or industrial among the soft furnishings and personal knickknacks of the average home.
There’s no halfway house of tasteful neutrals here, though. Apple has gone big and bold with juicily saturated primary colors, especially on the rear of the Mac (the front is frosted in a lighter, pastel hue to help with focus). These aren’t necessarily the trendy tones that’ll blend in with your favorite shade of Farrow & Ball. “I love that bright yellow,” interior designer and color expert Maria Killiam said over email, “but no one is decorating with that color.”
Perhaps that’s the point. Apple hasn’t made something that’ll blend in. Rather, the Mac will draw the eye and be a statement piece, an objet d’art. It’s a rejection of the kind of thinking that’s informed the design of TVs that can be disguised as mirrors or have rollable screens that can scroll away into unobtrusive sideboards.
It’s never really been Apple’s way to treat technology as something unsightly that should be hidden from view lest it be a blight on surrounding aesthetics. It’s long rejected the view that technology is inherently ugly, instead using forward-thinking design to turn its products into status symbols. With the new iMac, it’s dialing up this strategy even as it reaches back to its roots.
“The original iMac introduced a radical design and vibrant colored plastics which changed the way consumers thought about a desktop PC,” said CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood. “Apple is clearly hoping to achieve the same impact with the new iMac, offering a range of colors that make it attractive enough to put anywhere in a home or workplace — almost verging on being a technology fashion statement.”
The broad color palette is also reflective of Apple’s aspiration for the Mac to be more than just a work device, said Wood. “The vision is clearly for the iMac to look perfectly in place not only on a desk, but in a kitchen, lounge, bedroom or elsewhere,” he said.
The new iMac is designed to look good in any room in your house.
Apple
Death to minimalism, ode to joy
This move toward bolder colors — Apple also released an eye-popping purple iPhone 12 — stands in contrast to the past 20 years, during which the company has focused on one dominant design trend: minimalism.
Over the last few years, the company has snuck more color into its products (iPhones in particular), but from Steve Jobs‘ black mock turtlenecks to the dazzling whiteness and clean lines of every Apple Store worldwide, its dedication to minimalism remains clear. But due to what’s going on in the wider world right now, the aesthetic isn’t resonating as strongly as it once did.
In an article for the Atlantic last October, journalist Spencer Kornhaber wrote that the pandemic has made a mockery of minimalism, calling out “the vexingly featureless iPhone” as a classic example of how “austerity” has been the dominant design force on popular culture. Some have attempted to pronounce minimalism dead over the past few years, although the notion hasn’t necessarily taken. But by comparing minimalism to the “aesthetics of quarantine,” Kornhaber’s argument that sparse and sterile aren’t serving us at this moment in time will ring true for many.
How often have people, while locked inside over the past year with only their personal belongings surrounding them for entertainment and comfort, wished they’d Marie Kondoed their homes a little less brutally? Have they looked around at their sleek, white, blank-canvas walls and longed for a little spark of joy that comes from an injection of color?
As it happens, “joy” was at the top of Architectural Digest’s 2021 list of design trend predictions. In defining what it actually meant by joy, the publication said we should look out for design that “celebrates life and unapologetically screams happiness” with “outspoken color combos.”
Apple clearly gets that people are seeking to bring more color into their homes right now, making decisions based on how those colors make them feel. “We created colors that bring a sense of joy to any space,” Novielli said during the event earlier this week announcing the new Macs.
With many of our homes loaded up with tech (formerly referred to as office equipment) that is black, white or silver at best, the new iMacs provide a welcome contrast. The company has made design decisions with this product that are at odds with what the rest of the technology world is doing, but that’s hardly unusual.
Apple has a long history of trendsetting, and this could well be its way of calling time on monochromatic minimalism as we know it. That’s not to suggest the company is about to go the other way and embrace messy maximalism, but at a time when people are reaching for rainbows in search of hope and joy, Apple has been the first to step up and show itself happy to oblige.
iMac throwback: Apple’s candy-colored history, from 1999 to 2021
We’ve added some great new titles at New Ulm Public Library in the past few months. Here are a few I’ve enjoyed.
Nora, Wes, and Iris are hostages in a bank robbery. The two robbers are searching for keys to the bank’s safe deposit boxes. The robbers are violent and unmasked, which worries Nora. But what the criminals don’t know is that “Nora” is a secret identity. Nora has been a lot of girls. A lot of girls who have seen much worse. A lot of girls who have had to build survival skills. And Nora isn’t going to give up until her friends are safe, no matter how bad things get. “The Girls I’ve Been” by Tess Sharpe is a fast-paced story of how a girl can emerge from the ashes of a violent and traumatic past to become a dangerous and resilient young woman. Sharpe is great at building tension and complex characters. This young adult book contains depictions of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Recently divorced Finlay Donovan is struggling to finish writing her next romantic suspense novel while juggling two young children and a household. When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her next novel over lunch with her agent, she is mistaken for a contract killer by a woman at the next table and inadvertently accepts a job to dispose of the woman’s abusive husband. Finlay is horrified by the idea, but can’t stop herself from investigating the husband’s misdeeds, leading her into a much more complex and dangerous situation than she originally expected. “Finlay Donovan Is Killing It” by Elle Cosimano was a suspenseful and funny romp and I look forward to more books featuring these characters!
Mab, Osla, and Beth are eager to do their part for the British war effort during WWII. They end up rooming together and working as code breakers at Bletchley Park, a secretive estate outside of London where Britain’s finest work non-stop to decode German military communications. The three quickly become close and their bond seems unbreakable until one of them betrays her friends. The betrayal changes one of their lives irretrievably and the betrayer disappears. Four years later, the remaining two women suddenly receive a message that throws all they thought they knew into question. They must unravel the mystery of what happened to their friend and break one final code. “The Rose Code” was another great example of Kate Quinn’s ability to create characters who feel real. You’ll be rooting for these characters to repair their friendship and overcome the odds.
Sloane, Grace, and Ardie have worked together for years in the Truviv Inc. legal department. They’ve helped each other navigate office politics and keep each other’s secrets. Their boss, Ames, seems poised to take over as CEO. But there are whispers about Ames, and when his name appears on an anonymously-sourced list of Bad Men, none of the women in the office are surprised. So when Ames begins to pay special attention to Katherine, the newest lawyer in their department, the women decide to take action to protect her. But none of them will leave Truviv unscathed. This was a complex look at the ways that power and harassment collide in the workplace. I am still thinking about the very last secret revealed in Chandler Baker’s “Whisper Network” and what it meant for those involved.
Gabrielle Korn became editor in chief of Nylon magazine at the age of 28, ushering in a new age for the magazine and becoming a respected voice on topics from gay rights to body positivity. Her success hid a darker truth: Korn was struggling with anorexia and body image issues of her own. Her relationship to her body was deeply complicated by her close work with the fashion industry and the impossible beauty standards it upholds. I appreciated Korn’s candid recounting of her experiences in her memoir, “Everybody Else Is Perfect: How I Survived Hypocrisy, Beauty, Clicks, and Likes.” Although it has become common knowledge that the fashion industry contributes to body dysmorphia, I had no idea just how deeply it has manipulated the ideals of the body positivity movement.
If you’d like to request any of these books, visit www.newulmlibrary.org and click on Library Catalog or give us a call at 507-359-8331. We’d be happy to place these or any other books on hold for you.
I’m writing today in response to the many anti-trans letters that have been printed recently. I know I should have done this long ago, but frankly, I’m not too excited about opening myself up to the attacks that I know people get for letters like this, but as a Christian I just can’t sit back any more and let the message from the “Christian perspective” be one of judgement and hostility. The basic arguments I see in these letters are: 1) It’s against God’s will and therefore 2) Christians should fight against being trans in general, and finally 3) it will have some impact on religious freedom.
First, the claim that this is against God’s will implies that being trans is a choice. If you choose to ignore the science that tells us that there’s more to gender than the XY we were taught in 4th grade, then please take a minute and think about it. If someone offered you the opportunity to spend the rest of your life as the opposite gender, would you? Would you go through hormone therapy, surgeries, and face the mental anguish of being judged and bullied by perfect strangers? Would you choose to constantly explain yourself and possibly lose the love of friends and family members? Especially as a teenager, when everything is already crappy? And for what benefit? To get to play on the girls’ soccer team in high school? That seems like a really high price to pay for not much benefit. There’s just no way on God’s green earth that this is a choice.
Second, the claim that Christians should fight against trans people is terribly un-Christlike. And yes, as I stated previously, I am a Christian. I am a member of the LCMS church and have run youth groups and taught Sunday School for the past 20 years. Christ told us clearly and repeatedly to love our neighbors, to treat people the way we want to be treated, & to be kind and welcoming. If Jesus wanted us to be perfect and point out others’ sins, then hanging out with tax collectors, prostitutes, etc, was a strange example to set.
Finally, the claim that this would force religious institutions to lose control of things like hiring is one we’ve heard before. In 2012 – 2013 in the battle over legalizing same-sex marriage, we were told that churches would be forced to perform gay marriages, hire all the gays, etc. Did that happen? Of course not. So why would we believe that allowing people to get hormone therapy would all of a sudden fill churches with trans Sunday School teachers that you can do nothing about? Don’t worry. It won’t.
So I recommend you follow Christ’s example and love one another. Or at the very least, follow my mom’s advice and MYOB. Throw that enthusiasm for a fight into a real problem.
Heather Gay, Jen Shah, and Whitney Rose | Chad Kirkland/Bravo
Is Jen Shah still friends with Heather Gay and Whitney Rose?
Shah didn’t leave things well with Gay and Rose following the premiere season of RHOSLC. Although they all talked about their differences, when the reunion came around, there was still animosity between them. Following the reports that Shah was charged with fraud and is awaiting trial, fans expected the cast to drift.
That is why when Gay went Live on Instagram, they were pleasantly surprised to see Shah in a car alongside Rose. The ladies were seemingly filming a scene for the second season of the Bravo series as the car looked equipped with cameras on the window.
The broadcast was short, unfortunately, as there were issues with the connection. Video of the broadcast was paused and cut as the ladies cheered to the Bring It On classic, “Brr, it’s cold in here, there must be snowflakes in the atmosphere.”
Shah also shared the moment on her Instagram Stories posing for a photo with her co-stars.
“Forget bad weather, how about a tropical typhoon?” she captioned.
Jen Shah calls out her ‘friends’
Shah’s reappearance with her RHOSLC co-stars was a huge surprise as days ago she was calling out “friends.” The Bravo star had posted a series of messages on her Instagram account talking about the meaning of true friendship.
“True friends will be by your side through it all,” read the graphic she shared.
In addition, she added more text at the bottom of the graphic saying, ““Thank you to those of you who that have shown my family and I real friendship, unconditional love & true loyalty during this difficult time. Thank you for not judging me and not believing everything you read online. I asked Allah to show me who my real friends are and he has. Allah Akbar.”
The reality TV personality had been relatively silent on social media up until that point. She has been sharing messages of support from her fans that started the “Free Jen” movement. Shah has seemingly read the posts dedicated to her and appreciates the people that believe in her innocence.
“Thank you for being loyal, believing in me, and not believing the hype,” Shah wrote in reply to her fan. “This journey has showed [sic] me who my true friends are. All my love.”
Jen Shah could face a long time in jail if found guilty
Shah’s trial is scheduled to start in October and there’s no word as to what will happen to her. However, if found guilty of the charges she is being accused of, Shah could face a long time in jail.
The Bravo star is “charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing through which they victimized 10 or more persons over the age of 55, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.”
Bravo has yet to announce when RHOSLC Season 2 would air.
Voting is now underway in Virginia’s biggest Democratic primary ever.
Between now and June 8 — welcome back to the new era of early voting — Democrats will choose between five candidates for governor, six candidates for lieutenant governor and two candidates for attorney general.
For comparison purposes, the biggest primary field for a gubernatorial primary, in either party, was four candidates in the 1949 Democratic field. It wasn’t that long ago that Democratic candidates for governor were winning their nomination by acclamation because there were no other candidates.
The big field this year reflects several trends. First, politics are less hierarchical. No longer are candidates waiting to be tapped by the party establishment. In many ways, there is no party establishment. There are Democrats who are more moderate or more traditional than others, but there is no group of party insiders sitting around constructing a ticket the way they once did. Second, this extraordinarily large field represents how valuable the Democratic nomination is perceived to be. No Republican has won a statewide election since 2009. Democrats have won every presidential election in the state since 2008. Democrats now don’t simply hope to win a statewide election; they expect to win. Whether that’s really so we’ll see in November but that’s the mindset of Democrats so if you think the party nomination is tantamount to election, why wouldn’t you seek that nomination?
There are perhaps as many ironies to this year’s Democratic primary as there are candidates. Here’s the biggest one: This is easily the most diverse field of candidates Virginia Democrats have ever seen. Of the five candidates for governor, three are Black and two of those are Black women. The six candidates for lieutenant governor include two Black men, two women (one whose parents were Salvadoran and Irish-Lebanese) and one (Roanoke’s Sam Rasoul) who is the son of Palestinian immigrants. The only white male candidate running for the nomination is gay. In the attorney general’s race, one is white and one is Black, both men.
Yet for all that diversity, Virginia Democrats could well wind up nominating a ticket of three white men. Indeed, it’s likely that at least two of the three winners will be. In the governor’s race, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe is clearly the front-runner by all the conventional measures — endorsements, fundraising, polls. It’s unclear whether he can reach 50%, although that doesn’t matter in Virginia’s system where only a plurality is necessary to win — no Georgia-style runoffs here. There are simply too many other candidates splitting the vote. A two-way race with McAuliffe would have very different dynamics.
Another irony: If you view McAuliffe as part of “the establishment” (whatever that means) and early voting as a progressive innovation — both fair assessments — then here’s a case where early voting actually helps “the establishment” candidate. If there were only one-day voting, there’d be time for some of the other candidates to drop out and rally around a single challenger to McAuliffe. Now there’s not. The Democratic voters who want to stop McAuliffe will somehow have to organize amongst themselves to decide who has the best chance to defeat him. That’s not impossible, especially in the social media era, just difficult.
More irony: Stacey Abrams became a rock star among Democrats during her unsuccessful campaign for governor in Georgia. Only two states (Virginia and Massachusetts) have ever elected a Black governor and none have ever elected a Black woman. This year’s Democratic field in Virginia includes not one but two Black women — state Sen. Jennifer McClellan of Richmond and former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy of Prince William County. If one of them won the nomination, she’d have a better chance of becoming the nation’s first Black female governor than Abrams ever did in Georgia; given Virginia’s electoral history, she’d start as the favorite. And yet many of the state’s best-known Black and female politicians — from House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn to veteran state Sen. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth — have endorsed McAuliffe. It turns out that the Democratic interest in diversity does have some limits.
Likewise, Attorney General Mark Herring has to be rated the favorite over Del. Jay Jones as he seeks renomination for a third term. The question is how much of one? Herring has been at the forefront of just about everything Democrats would want. We’ve lost track of how many lawsuits he filed against the Trump administration. Will Democrats conclude that was nice, but not enough, especially if they have a chance to elect the state’s first Black attorney general? Or will Democrats nominate McAuliffe and Herring — just as they did in 2013? In that case, their only opportunity for any diversity becomes the lieutenant governor’s race. Ironically (there’s that word again), any of the candidates the party nominates for that office would qualify as diverse — even the men. Two of the male candidates would count as firsts in other ways: Mark would be the first openly gay candidate nominated for statewide office. Rasoul would be the first Muslim candidate nominated for statewide office. Likewise, one of the women would be a first as well — Hala Ayala would be the first statewide candidate with Hispanic heritage. Here’s another question the primary will answer: With such a crowded field, how few voters will it take to win? The current record for a low-vote winner is Leslie Byrne, who won the 2005 Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor with 32.9% of the vote (and then lost the general election).
The first televised debate between the candidates for governor earlier this month was not exactly an inspiring affair. It focused more on pleasing — or, in McAuliffe’s case, placating — liberal activists than it did laying out any kind of grand agenda for the state. That’s disappointing, but not surprising. We don’t exactly see the Republican candidates for governor (one of them will get nominated in a convention May 8) rolling out big thoughts, either. The question looming over this Democratic primary is just how much the party has changed. Its voluble activist base certainly seems further to the left then before, which would seem to make McAuliffe vulnerable. On the other hand, we thought that about Democrats in 2020 and Joe Biden won Virginia’s Democratic primary with 53.3% of the vote.
We’ll find out June 8 what Virginia Democrats are thinking now.
BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s capital Bangkok has ordered the closure of public venues and sports premises, city official said on Saturday after the country reported a record daily rise in coronavirus cases and deaths amid a third wave of infections. The closures, effective from Monday until May 9, apply to venues including public parks, gyms, swimming pools, meeting halls, internet shops, daycares centres, sports fields, museums and libraries, said Pongsakorn Kwanmuang, a Bangkok Metropolitan Administration spokesman.
SAN ANTONIO — A rain soaked afternoon delayed some field events into the night, but Victoria East and West qualified a number of runners into the finals at the Region IV-5A meet at Heroes Stadium in San Antonio.
Victoria West’s Connor Williams goes into Saturday as the favorite in the 400-meter dash after coming in first in the prelims with a time of 49.96. The time is a personal best for Williams, and he was the only runner to run under 50 seconds in the 400 at the meet.
For the West girls, Dailynn Zarate qualified for finals in the 400-meter dash, coming in sixth overall with a time of 1 minute, 0.23 seconds. Zarate also finished tied for tenth in the triple jump with a distance of 34 feet.
East’s C’Niaha Randle qualified for finals in both the 100- and 200-meter dash. The freshman came in fourth overall in the 200 with a time of 26.34 seconds and came in eighth in the 100, finishing with a time of 12.78 seconds.
East’s Logan Garis qualified in the 100-meter dash, finishing with the eighth best time at 11.02 seconds. Evan Brown also made it to the finals in both the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, finishing eighth and fifth with times of 15.57 and 40.44 respectively.
The West girls relays qualified for finals in the 1600-meter relay, coming in fourth with a time of 4 minutes, 5.5 seconds, and the 400-meter relay, coming in seventh with a time of 50.78 seconds.
The West boys qualified in the 800-meter relay with a time of 1 minute, 32.5 seconds but came up short in the 400-meter relay, finishing 11th while East finished 13th in the event.
“We have confirmed that the doses received from the United States a number of weeks ago are not, have not been subjected to the challenges that have come up currently in the Baltimore plant,” Mr. Trudeau said at a news conference. “There is absolutely no danger of that for Canadians.”
In Mexico, a senior government official said AstraZeneca had provided documentation indicating that the doses had passed quality tests and were not affected by issues at the Emergent factory. “We are sure that the product that was applied to Mexican people was a safe, quality product,” Mexico’s coronavirus czar, Hugo López-Gatell, said at a briefing on Friday night.
The Biden administration’s acknowledgment that it had been unaware of the discarding of the lots of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which The New York Times reported occurred between October and January, underscores concerns about the government’s oversight of a key contractor in the federal response to the pandemic. U.S. officials bet on Emergent to manufacture both the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines even as a series of audits identified serious quality shortcomings at the plant.
The F.D.A. has still not cleared the Emergent plant to release doses of either vaccine in the United States and has not indicated when, or whether, it will do so. While AstraZeneca’s vaccine is not authorized for use in the United States, tens of millions of doses of it have been sitting idly at manufacturing plants.
The White House said last month that the federal government, which committed last year to buying 300 million doses from AstraZeneca, intended to “loan” 2.5 million doses to Mexico and 1.5 million doses to Canada. U.S. officials say the two countries were eager for the doses and have since expressed interest in getting more, especially because of a recent drop in supplies from India, another major supplier of vaccine.
Canadian officials, however, said on Friday that the nation’s own regulators were reviewing the recent F.D.A. report on its inspection of the Baltimore facility, which “will inform whether additional measures are required to ensure the safety of future supply.”
Emergent is a longtime government contractor that has virtually cornered a lucrative market in federal spending on biodefense. The Times reported last month that sales of its anthrax vaccines to the Strategic National Stockpile accounted for nearly half of the stockpile’s half-billion-dollar annual budget throughout most of the last decade, leaving the federal government with less money to buy supplies needed in a pandemic.
There are growing concerns about the health impacts of wildfire smoke as California faces larger and more devastating blazes. NBC News’ Steve Patterson goes inside Stanford’s Allergy & Asthma Lab, where researchers are testing firefighters for exposure and their gear for toxins.
Multimedia artist Carl Hopgood wants to memorialize WeHo’s gay hotspots of yore that were casualties of the coronavirus pandemic — The Standard Hotel, Micky’s, Gold Coast, etc. — and he wants you to help pay for it.
What does he have in mind?
A “multimedia public art sculpture combining sound and neon” affixed to the facade of the former Circus of Books (now Chi Chi LaRue’s) on Santa Monica Blvd.
“The names of the iconic gay places we lost will be created in glowing neon lights seemingly falling from the sky from white neon clouds,” Hopgood says.
And what’s the price tag? $100,000.
Hopgood is currently soliciting donations on a Kickstarter page. He has received nearly $3,000 toward his goal with six days left in the fundraiser.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses a welcome ceremony after arriving at the State Department in Washington, D.C., January 27, 2021. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will allow U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide to fly the LGBTQ pride flag on the same pole as the American flag, according to a new report.
Blinken’s directive, first reported by Foreign Policy, comes after the Trump administration denied requests from embassies to display the rainbow flag on the same pole as the U.S. flag during LGBTQ pride month in June.
The policy shift allows the flag to be flown before May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, through the end of June, according to the New York Times.
In a confidential cable to diplomatic posts authorizing the policy shift, Blinken said each mission will not be required to display the flag, according to the Times, and leaders will be given the authority to “determine that such a display is appropriate in light of local conditions.”
Under the Trump administration, some embassies displayed the pride flag separately from the U.S. flag, including in South Korea, where the rainbow flag was featured on a building façade. However, it was ultimately removed.
In 2019, then-Vice President Mike Pence told NBC News that the administration’s policy aimed to create unity.
“As the president said on the night we were elected, we’re proud to be able to serve every American,” Pence said. “We both feel that way very passionately, but when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.”
Pence noted that the Trump administration had “put no restrictions” on the pride flag flying elsewhere at U.S. embassies.
Meanwhile, Biden’s State Department told the New York Postin a statement that the president “believes that America’s strength is found in its diversity. America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive.”
“Recognizing that each country context is different, U.S. embassies and consulates develop individual plans to raise awareness of violence, human rights abuses, and discrimination targeting LGBTQI+ persons, including appropriate exterior displays,” the statement added.
Above: In this Jan. 18, 2020, file photo Caitlyn Jenner speaks at the 4th Women’s March in Los Angeles.
Though Caitlyn Jenner is one of the most famous transgender people in America, the announcement of her candidacy for California governor was greeted hostilely by one of the state’s largest LGBTQ-rights groups and by many trans activists around the country.
“Make no mistake: we can’t wait to elect a #trans governor of California,” tweeted the group, Equality California. “But @Caitlyn_Jenner spent years telling the #LGBTQ+ community to trust Donald Trump. We saw how that turned out. Now she wants us to trust her? Hard pass.”
Jenner – the former Olympic gold medalist and reality TV personality — is a Republican and supported Trump in 2016. She later criticized his administration for some discriminatory actions against transgender people, but has failed to convince many trans-rights advocates that she is a major asset to their cause.
“Caitlyn Jenner is a deeply unqualified hack who doesn’t care about anyone but herself,” tweeted trans activist Charlotte Clymer. “Her views are terrible. She is a horrible candidate.”
Jennifer Finney Boylan, a transgender writer and professor at Barnard College, appeared on multiple episodes of Jenner’s TV show, “I Am Cait” and considers her a friend. But she’s not an admirer of Jenner’s politics.
“I wish her well personally,” Boylan said via email. “But I can’t see how the conservative policies she is likely to embrace will help Californians.”
Wyatt Ronan of the Human Rights Campaign, a major national LGBTQ-rights organization, said Jenner “is not the leader California needs.”
“Her support of Donald Trump, the most virulent and vocal anti-LGBTQ president in American history, and her decision to hire Trump’s inner circle for her campaign are just two examples why,” he said.
David Badash, editor of an LGBTQ-oriented news and opinion site called The New Civil Rights Movement, noted that Jenner’s campaign website outlined no policy positions and offered two options to those visiting the site: “Shop” and “Donate.”
Badash questioned why Jenner would run as a Republican at a time when GOP legislators in more than 20 states have been pushing bills aimed at curtailing transgender youths’ ability to play school sports and receive gender-affirming medical care.
Some activists found reason to welcome Jenner’s announcement, saying it was further evidence that transgender Americans are running for office more frequently.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen of the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund noted that in the 2020 election, Sarah McBride of Maryland became the first openly trans person elected to a state Senate seat and Stephanie Byers of Kansas became the first openly trans Native American elected to a state legislature.
In Vermont, Christine Hallquist won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2018, but lost the general election to incumbent Republican Phil Scott.
“Voters want leaders who will deliver results for their communities, no matter who they are,” Heng-Lehtinen said.
Attorney Sasha Buchert, co-director of the Transgender Rights Project at the LGBTQ-rights group Lambda Legal, said when the public sees transgender people in public life it “serves to expand public awareness of the reality and diversity of trans lives.”
“It matters to us what policies candidates support — and what their track record might be — on a full range of issues, not just trans rights and inclusion,” Buchert added. “That is the lens one should always use in evaluating any candidate, including Caitlyn Jenner.”
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Kehlani has come out as a lesbian in a new TikTok, saying that she is “gay, gay, gay” but adding that her recent discovery came as no surprise to close family and friends.
The artist joked that the closet was “fucking glass” and that her family all knew she was in there before she did. Their response to the big emotional coming out moment was just, “We know, duh.”
Kehlani officially comes out as a lesbian in new TikTok. 🏳️🌈 https://t.co/P1R8KJK34c
But actually, some fans were surprised. Kehlani had said that she was a lesbian on Instagram Live earlier this month (“You wanna know what’s new about me? I finally know I’m a lesbian!” the artist told followers who tuned in), but most people seemed to take it as a joke at the time.
So consider this TikTok your confirmation. Everyone’s supporting Kehlani for speaking her truth, and she tweeted her thanks to “those who see me & love me” earlier today.
Kehlani was previously in a relationship with with guitarist Javie Young-White, with whom she has a two-year-old daughter. For PAPER’s 2018 Pride issue, she spoke about rejecting labels and embracing fluidity:
“People either expect me to be a quote-unquote dyke or femme, and it’s weird to me. Especially when queer people do it to each other, because I think when you truly understand the humanness of queerness, there are no rules to this shit.”
A mob of people near a British train station this past Saturday night shouted homophobic slurs at a gay man before they attacked him, leaving him with facial injuries.
Police have arrested two men in connection to the horrifying attack, a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old, but they are still asking for witnesses to come forward in the case.
The victim, who’s in his 20s, said that he went to a train station at 11 p.m. when a group of people started shouting anti-gay insults at him. Afraid, he walked to a bus stop to get away from them, but two men from the group followed him and beat him.
Police said that two men from Basingstoke have been arrested and are being held on possible charges of causing grievous bodily harm. They remain in custody.
They are asking anyone with information about the attack to call the police on 101, quoting 44210145908, or Crimestoppers at 0800 555 111.
