OAKLAND PARK, Fla. – A Broward County couple is being fined by a homeowner’s association for displaying a small gay pride flag in their home’s front yard.
Bob Plominski and Mike Ferrari say they were issued a citation telling them to take down the flag or pay a $50 daily fine. The Eastland Cove HOA in Oakland Park sent the violation notice on June 5 after receiving a complaint.
The South Florida couple says they had displayed the flag before and posted political signs with no problems.
The HOA board says their rules restrict residents to only display United States or military flags.
“Are they going to get away with murder? That’s the concern.”
Lauren Rodriguez gives her son Greyson a congratulatory hug after he accepted his high school diploma at a commencement ceremony in early June. The 17-year-old graduated a year early after bullying prompted him to switch into an online school. Sadie Brown
This article was produced through the NPR NextGen/Texas Observer Print Scholars program, a new collaboration designed to offer mentorship and hands-on training to student journalists and recent graduates interested in a career in investigative journalism.
For Greyson’s safety, identifying details, locations, and recent photos of his face have been intentionally left out of this story.
The lull between spring and fall semester was short-lived at the Rodriguez house. Lauren Rodriguez, a 37-year-old social worker, was busy managing a list of things that need to get done before her teenage son, Greyson Rodriguez, can start college in the fall. But before orientation and moving Greyson more than 1,000 miles away to begin his undergraduate career, the Rodriguez family needed to get through high school graduation.
Several boxes of supplies cluttered the dining room table, ready to be shipped to the school. Rodriguez checked on Greyson for the second time, warning the sleeping teen that he had a student advising appointment beginning in a few minutes. Greyson emerged, sluggish and silent, to sit on an oversized brown loveseat and stare at his phone. The neediest of their three dogs, Daisy, hopped into his lap to demand attention.
“He can be lazy sometimes, because that’s all teenagers,” Rodriguez says of Greyson. “But when he wants something, he’s very driven.”
Greyson has had to be driven. He graduated a year early to escape Texas, which he has mockingly nicknamed “the great state of hate.” Indeed, Texas is one of the most dangerous states in the country for a teen like Greyson.
At 13, Greyson came out as trans. He and his family faced abuse, cruelty, death threats, and aggression. “While I never read them, I know that during the summer I got death threats when I was 13 from people in my neighborhood who were sending me mail telling me to kill myself and they wanted me to die,” Greyson says. He was forced to switch to an online school and the family eventually moved to the more progressive Austin area to get away from their conservative hometown. Texas ranks second in the U.S. in number of cases of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people since 2013, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Since he came out, both he and his mother have become advocates for LGBTQ Texans, especially trans youth. In March, Lauren Rodriguez testified in front of the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence in support of House Bill 73, which would have banned the use of the “gay/trans panic” defense. The panic defense, often cited by defendants in cases of violence directed at gay or trans people, argues that after an individual discovered someone was gay or trans, they panicked and assaulted or killed them.
“Currently in the state of Texas, a criminal penalty for a defendants’ violence, including murder, can be lessened or eliminated if the perpetrator claims that the victim’s gender identity or sexual orientation triggered a mental breakdown that resulted in their loss of self control and subsequent assault,” state Representative Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat who filed HB 73, said during the public hearing.
In more than 100 criminal cases between 1970 and 2020 where defendants attempted to use the “gay/trans panic” defense, the highest concentration of cases took place in Texas, according to W. Carsten Andresen a professor at St. Edwards University in Austin and an expert on the topic.
But the 87th Texas Legislature failed to pass HB 73, signaling to LGBTQ Texans like Greyson Rodriguez and his family that the “gay/trans panic” defense is still an acceptable excuse for violence against vulnerable Texans. The bill was brought to a vote and rejected in the House committee, while the Senate companion never got a hearing. Despite the defense’s conflict with federal hate crime laws and a 2013 resolution from the American Bar Association calling for states to ban it, so far only 15 states and D.C. have passed legislation banning the use of the “gay/trans panic” defense, with bills proposed in Texas and 10 other states.
*
In 2018, James Miller, a 69-year-old Austin man, was sentenced to six months in jail plus 10 years probation for stabbing his neighbor Daniel Spencer to death. Instead of a murder or manslaughter charge, Miller was convicted of the lesser offense of criminally negligent homicide after claiming that Spencer had made sexual advances and that he acted in self-defense. However, prosecutors called the self-defense claim “ludicrous,” saying Miller didn’t have “so much as a scratch on him.” LGBTQ rights advocates and experts like Andresen point to the light sentence in this case as an example of the “gay/trans panic” defense at work.
“‘Are they going to get away with murder?’ That’s the concern,” Greyson says. “It’s not a matter of if it’ll stop or to lower the rates that we’re being killed. It’s, if we do die at least justice is being served properly.”
During the public hearing, 11 people, including Rodriguez, testified in support of banning the defense and submitted a total of 15 pages of written statements supporting the bill. In contrast, only a lobbyist from Texas Values Action, a conservative think tank and evangelical Christian organization, testified against HB 73.
“I think it’s not good public policy to include definitions of sexual orientation or gender identity because it forces us to determine what a person perceives,” said Jonathan Covey, the Texas Values Action lobbyist. “You easily run into issues of constitutional vagueness when you use this terminology.”
In 2009, the federal definition of a hate crime was expanded to include crimes motivated by gender identity and sexual orientation in federal cases, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. While Texas’s hate crime statute includes crimes motivated by sexual orientation, it does not include crimes motivated by gender identity.
During the public hearing on HB 73, Covey also said that his organization opposed the bill due to free speech concerns. “It’s typically a bad public policy to ban offensive speech,” Covey said. “Open discussion even in a courtroom is better than allowing supposed bias to fester in a type of subconscious realm.”
“This is not a free speech bill,” state Representative Ann Johnson replied. “We are talking about the criminal context where it’s assaultive conduct. Right? So it’s not a speech.”
“I understand that,” Covey said.
Johnson continued: “For example if a 16-year-old has sex with a 32-year-old, we would not allow the 32-year old to say, ‘but she consented.’ We have made a policy decision that there is no consent, correct?”
“I think I’m following what you’re saying,” Covey said. But, “we don’t create laws that hinge on someone’s perception of how much they weigh or create laws that hinge on someone’s perception of how tall they are.”
Greyson Rodriguez poses with his maternal grandparents, who flew into Texas to attend his graduation. Sadie Brown
Rodriguez says that this failure to support and affirm gay, trans, and gender diverse Texans at the state level exacerbates safety concerns for Greyson. “My son has to live in fear of someone finding out he is trans and hurting him,” Rodriguez said during her testimony.
In nearly every social situation, Greyson has to consider how someone would react to him coming out as trans. At his first job as a host in a restaurant, Greyson says he “tested the waters” to gauge his coworkers’ acceptance of him by mentioning his long-time boyfriend; he didn’t tell them he was trans.
Rodriguez and her son have strict rules around dating, specifically about coming out to potential partners. Because LGBTQ people are at a much greater risk of intimate partner violence, Rodriguez and Greyson have agreed that the first few dates with a new person will always be in public and that Greyson will only come out if he decides it’s safe and wants to pursue a relationship. He says that conversation is also about mutual respect.
“If I think I want to have a relationship with you and you think you want to have a relationship with me, I still want that to be built on everything being out in the open,” he says. “Not built on your assumptions on what you think is going on, only for that to be thrown out the window and you having a crisis or not understanding what to do with this information.”
*
On a humid day in early June, Greyson accepts his high school diploma during a socially distanced, in-person commencement ceremony. He’s difficult to spot in his emerald cap and gown with a black mask covering nearly his entire face.
When his name is called, Greyson walks out onto the stage to shake hands with administrators, as his mother, father, and grandparents cheer from a section near the front of the room. Then he disappears again into the first few rows of seats filled with other teens leaving high school behind.
Greyson also plans to leave behind his activism, at least for a while. “Passing isn’t the goal,” Rodriguez says, but both she and Greyson describe the importance of his identity outside of being trans, and safety concerns around his visibility.
“There’s some people who think every single person on the planet has a right to know,” Greyson says. “In my opinion it would be great if everyone had the ability to know and it wasn’t a threat. But the less random people who freaking know, the less risk there is.”
Greyson will start college in the fall, 1,200 miles away from his home and parents because he says he isn’t safe in “the great state of hate.” Inspired by the affirming care he has received from his medical team, Rodriguez says that he plans on studying nursing. Lauren had hoped that a bill banning the “gay/trans panic” defense would bring some peace of mind that would allow her family to remain close.
“If we pass this bill, my son may be able to feel safe enough to return to Texas and live as his authentic self,” Rodriguez said during her testimony. “And I would have my son closer to me.”
This program is made possible by gifts from Roxanne Elder in memory of her mother, journalist and journalism teacher Virginia Stephenson Elder, Vincent LoVoi in honor of Jim Marston and Annette LoVoi, and other generous donors.
ZURICH (AP) — Mexico’s soccer team will play two home games in empty stadiums as part of a FIFA punishment on Friday for fans chanting anti-gay slurs at an Olympic qualifying tournament.
FIFA said the Mexican Football Association must also pay a 60,000 Swiss francs ($65,000) fine.
Mexican fans persist in aiming the chant at opposing teams’ goalkeepers despite regular FIFA fines and efforts by the FA to curb the insults.
The latest incidents were during games against the United States and Dominican Republic in March at the qualifying tournament for the Tokyo Olympics that Mexico hosted in Guadalajara.
Mexico’s next two official home games are World Cup qualifiers against Jamaica in September and Canada in October.
FIFA said its disciplinary committee also opened a case against Mexico for the same chants at a friendly against Iceland last month in Arlington, Texas.
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) reintroduced their bipartisan legislation, the Jury Access for Capable Citizens and Equality in Service Selection (ACCESS)Act, which would prevent discrimination against LGBT citizens during the federal jury selection process. The bipartisan bill would prohibit discrimination against jurors in federal courts on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Discrimination has no place in our justice system. Every citizen – regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity – should be able to fulfill their civic duty and serve as jurors,” said Shaheen. “It’s a stain on our judicial system that federal law doesn’t protect LGBT jurors from discrimination. I’m committed to righting this wrong and ensuring our judicial process is free from prejudice so our nation can fulfill the values it espouses.”
“Serving on a jury is a fundamental right and obligation that no individuals should be prohibited from fulfilling based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Collins. “I have long worked to fight discrimination, and I am proud to join this effort to help eliminate bias from our judicial system.”
Prior to the start of a trial, potential jurors come to the courtroom and the judge and attorneys begin a process to select who will sit on the jury and determine the facts of a case. The purpose is to arrive at a jury panel that will be fair and impartial. This process involves asking the jurors questions about themselves and their experiences to discern whether they might harbor prejudices or hold strong opinions that would prevent an objective evaluation of the facts.
The United States Code currently prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin and economic status. However, there is no federal prohibition on discriminating against jurors based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Only eleven states prohibit exclusion from jury service in state court based on sexual orientation and just eight protect against discrimination based on gender identity. The Jury ACCESS Act would amend federal statute to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” meaning that striking jurors on that basis would be prohibited under federal law for the first time.
Cosponsors of the bill include U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Patty Murray (D-WA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).
MTV, the cable channel that usually devotes its programming to the latest trends in popular music, got more serious for Jewish American Heritage Month. The channel, owned by the same company as Paramount Pictures and the CBS television network, aired a documentary during the heritage month of May that can still be viewed about hate in America and what a group of young Jews is doing about it.
The hour-long documentary, titled “With One Voice: Fighting Hatred Together,” was aimed at reminding the mostly youthful viewers of the channel of the consequences of all forms of hatred, but specially the hatred that was directed at Jews by Nazi Germany.
Laurie Segall, CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent, hosts the MTV program.
Laurie Segall, who hosted the program and is also a correspondent on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” reminded MTV’s young audience that one young person in 10 claimed they had never heard the word Holocaust. Those that had, Segall pointed out, knew little more.
“Two thirds of young people have no idea how many Jews died in the Holocaust. Almost half couldn’t name a single concentration camp. Seventeen percent said it was acceptable to hold neo-Nazi views. Time and time again historians and survivors have urged us to never forget that we’re in danger of doing just that.”
That is why the local office of the ADL has accelerated its programs in schools across the country and in Atlanta, where the Southeast region of the organization is headquartered.
Heading the office here is Allison Padilla-Goodman, vice president of ADL Southern division. She pointed out that one of the group’s most important programs is found in thousands of schools across the country. The ADL’s No Place for Hate campaign can be found in 250 schools in the Southeast, including the Atlanta-Fulton County School system and Newton County schools in the metropolitan area.
“The No Place for Hate program is an educational framework that really guides schools on increasing dialogue and discussion around diversity and identity, whether it be anti-Semitism in Judaism or race or gender or sexual orientation or whatever it might be.”
It is that broader framework that the MTV program explores as it follows four young Jewish community activists in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Minneapolis and Miami. Significantly, they are all racially diverse and several either are gay or lesbians actively working on gender rights issues.
In fact, host Segall recorded her remarks standing in front of the Torah ark of Beth Chayim Chadashim, the Los Angeles synagogue that in 1972 became what it claims is the first congregation founded by and for the LGBTQ+ community.
She described it as “a physical embodiment of the longstanding Jewish tradition of creating safe intersectional spaces for marginalized groups.”
Gen Slosberg is a young Asian-American Jewish activist in Los Angeles.
For Gen Slosberg, an Asian American Jew living in Los Angeles, seeing what she describes as the “deep seated hatred of Jews” in this country is what motivated her to create LUNAR, The Jewish-Asian Film Project. It’s a Los Angeles-based film production group affiliated with Be’chol Lashon, the online community of globaljews.org.
Yet despite her deep commitment to that work, she mentioned that it still took her some time to react when she learned that six Asian women had been murdered in Atlanta in March.
“I couldn’t bring myself to do anything. Then finally, I just cried. I couldn’t stop crying. And I knew I had to be with my people, Asian-American Jews. I got to work organizing a healing Shabbat for Asian American Jews. I called up all the major leaders in the Jewish community who are Asian-Americans and asked will you give a d’var Torah, would you come do a prayer, would you come speak to the community? We need you, all of us. We need each other because if we have each other, we will get through this.”
As the narrator, Segall pointed out “our best weapon against hate is connection, compassion and common ground.”
ADL’s Allison Padilla-Goodman works with school districts in the Southeast to educate young people about anti-Semitism.
According to Padilla-Goodman, the ADL is working to do just that by harnessing the power of social media to target young people. It opened the Center For Technology and Society in California’s Silicon Valley and launched a campaign to Stop Hate for Profit with a coalition of social media providers and others. The ADL has been particularly active in recent weeks to stop online platforms that have incited hate during the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas extremists in Gaza.
“We were just seeing anti-Semitism surge on social media, and many platforms are not responding appropriately and regulating the hatred. And we know that young people have more access and reliance and are growing up with social media being part of their day to day. And so, you know, we need 21st century solutions to 21st century problems.”
“With One Voice” is now available in the U.S. on MTV.com, MTV apps and MTV VOD. MTV Canada, MTV Australia and MTV Israel will also be airing the program later this summer.
The National Assembly of Hungary adoptedBill Number T/16365 on Tuesday, effectively banning sexual orientation and gender identity related discourse in schools.
The new law, which bans discussions relating to the LGBTQIA+ community, contains various other provisions that put in place stronger measures against acts of pedophilia and sexual crimes against children–all the provisions forming part of the narrative of protecting children.
The new law amends various statutes, the primary one being Act XXXI of 1997 on the Protection of Children and the Administration of Guardianship. Section 1 of the new law, which makes an amendment to the 1997 Act, prohibits the act of making available to a person below 18 years of age any content which disseminates an understanding of gender that deviates from sex assigned at birth or which promotes and displays homosexuality.
In a similar spirit, section 3 of the new law amends Act XLVIII of 2008 on the Basic Requirements and Certain Restrictions of Commercial Advertising Activities and prohibits advertising in a way which makes available to a person below 18 years of age content relating to one’s self-identity being different from one’s sex assigned at birth, gender reassignment or homosexuality, with the aim of protecting children in their sexual development.
Various rights organizations have opposed the new law for being discriminatory, violating free speech and stigmatizing the LGBTQIA+ community. They have urged the President of Hungary Janos Ader to veto the bill and send it back to the National Assembly for review.
Neela Ghoshal, the Associate LGBT Rights Director at Human Rights Watchstated, “Hungary’s ruling party is cynically deploying a ‘protection of children’ narrative to trample on rights and try to render LGBT people invisible. Children do not need to be protected from exposure to diversity. On the contrary, LGBT children and families need protection from discrimination and violence.”
A Florida man has been slapped with felony charges for leaving tire tracks across an intersection painted in the rainbow colors of the LGBT pride movement. LGBT activists cheered the police for throwing the book at the suspect.
Alexander Jerich, 20, turned himself in to police in Delray Beach, Florida, on Thursday. Jerich was seen on Monday allegedly pulling onto the intersection in a pickup truck and spinning his rear tires for around 15 seconds, leaving black streaks across the rainbow stripes and sending clouds of smoke into the air.
WATCH: A man was arrested after he was caught on camera doing what appeared to be an intentional “burnout” with his vehicle over the LGBTQ pride crosswalk in Delray Beach, causing significant damage to the streetscape painting. Read more: https://t.co/yuBY86LOXRpic.twitter.com/PrmKmOJjKS
Jerich was taken to Palm Beach County Jail. Local media reported that he was charged with criminal mischief over $1,000, reckless driving, and evidence of prejudice, the latter of which elevated the charges against him from misdemeanor to felony.
Local LGBT activists piled on Jerich. The Palm Beach County Human Rights Council told local media that they “requested the charges include defacing a memorial – a recently enacted law which would require this crime to be treated as a felony. If convicted of this offense, the perpetrator would be responsible for reimbursing the City of Delray Beach for the cost of repairing the damages in addition to the severe penalties for committing a felony.”
Ironically, Jerich may be charged under Florida’s ‘Combating Public Disorder Law,’ which makes it a third-degree felony if someone “willfully and maliciously defaces, injures, or otherwise damages by any means a memorial or historic property.” The law was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in April, and cheered by conservatives who opposed leftist rioters’ destruction of statues and memorials during nationwide ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests.
Palm Beach rights group founder Rand Hoch told WPTV that while the law may have been passed to protect Confederate war memorials, the LGBT intersection meets the law’s requirements for protection.
In some parts of North America, LGBT crosswalks and intersections are treated almost as sacred symbols. When a motorist pulled off a little too quickly over a rainbow-painted crosswalk in Vancouver, Canada, last summer, police treated the incident as a “hate gesture” and launched a manhunt for the driver. It’s unclear whether the driver left tire tracks behind him intentionally, but either way, critics ridiculed the police and those responsible for placing murals on the street. “Hear me out on this… maybe don’t put symbols of Pride where it’ll be run over hundreds of times per day,” one commenter quipped at the time.
Jerich’s burnout certainly appeared to be deliberate, but he wouldn’t be the first disgruntled citizen to take his anger out on a piece of woke street art. When New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio had giant ‘Black Lives Matter’ lettering painted onto Fifth Avenue last year, police officers had to be assigned to protect the mural around the clock, after vandals repeatedly spilled paint over it. As officers complained about being ordered to “babysit paint,” shootings and homicides in the city soared to alarming heights.
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California’s reopening this week has many organizations coming together for the first time since March of last year. The Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus, a mainstay in our area’s LGBTQ+ and performing arts communities, is singing as a group once again after a year-and-three-month-long hiatus. Thirty fully vaccinated members of the 80-member chorus said they were grateful to gather for a practice Thursday night.”It’s magical when we all sing and we are expressing ourselves and you kind of hit this great chord,” said member Joe Engle. “It’s an amazing feeling.”Early in the pandemic, SGMC realized it couldn’t hold productive practice sessions over video call with members all having different internet speeds and acoustics in their homes.The group, however, remained committed to staying connected.”Instead of having an actual rehearsal, we would just get together and watch either a movie, and now it’s morphed into just kind of Thursday chats,” said SGMC board of directors vice president Chris Huber of the group’s every-other-Thursday online group video call/movie nights.Those video meetups were a lifeline for members accustomed to gathering for practices every Thursday and Sunday for many years with a group that they consider a family.”It was instrumentally huge for them,” said Huber. “It gave them an opportunity to still connect and check in with people.”The supportive community was particularly meaningful for Engle, who was hit hard by the virus. Engle got COVID-19 last June.He credits his fellow SGMC members with helping him get through a week-long stay in the ICU and the months of recovery he endured — hooked up to oxygen.”Sitting in there in the hospital bed trying to sing something, trying to get something out of my voice.” Engle explained. “Nothing would happen.”In that challenging time, he said, SGMC members supported him and checked in with him each step of the way.According to SGMC members, that’s what their organization is all about, which makes them all the more thankful to now be joining their voices, shoulder to shoulder, in the same space.”I have many, many brothers, sisters in this group that I will know, and love, and be a part of their lives forever,” said Huber. “Coming back, for me, it’s really been kind of a rejoining of that family again.”SGMC is looking forward to resuming its season later this summer.They plan to start holding their two major shows a year — one around the holidays, another in the spring.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
California’s reopening this week has many organizations coming together for the first time since March of last year.
The Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus, a mainstay in our area’s LGBTQ+ and performing arts communities, is singing as a group once again after a year-and-three-month-long hiatus.
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Thirty fully vaccinated members of the 80-member chorus said they were grateful to gather for a practice Thursday night.
“It’s magical when we all sing and we are expressing ourselves and you kind of hit this great chord,” said member Joe Engle. “It’s an amazing feeling.”
Early in the pandemic, SGMC realized it couldn’t hold productive practice sessions over video call with members all having different internet speeds and acoustics in their homes.
The group, however, remained committed to staying connected.
“Instead of having an actual rehearsal, we would just get together and watch either a movie, and now it’s morphed into just kind of Thursday chats,” said SGMC board of directors vice president Chris Huber of the group’s every-other-Thursday online group video call/movie nights.
Those video meetups were a lifeline for members accustomed to gathering for practices every Thursday and Sunday for many years with a group that they consider a family.
“It was instrumentally huge for them,” said Huber. “It gave them an opportunity to still connect and check in with people.”
The supportive community was particularly meaningful for Engle, who was hit hard by the virus.
Engle got COVID-19 last June.
He credits his fellow SGMC members with helping him get through a week-long stay in the ICU and the months of recovery he endured — hooked up to oxygen.
“Sitting in there in the hospital bed trying to sing something, trying to get something out of my voice.” Engle explained. “Nothing would happen.”
In that challenging time, he said, SGMC members supported him and checked in with him each step of the way.
According to SGMC members, that’s what their organization is all about, which makes them all the more thankful to now be joining their voices, shoulder to shoulder, in the same space.
“I have many, many brothers, sisters in this group that I will know, and love, and be a part of their lives forever,” said Huber. “Coming back, for me, it’s really been kind of a rejoining of that family again.”
SGMC is looking forward to resuming its season later this summer.
They plan to start holding their two major shows a year — one around the holidays, another in the spring.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A socially conservative Mexican political party is threatening legal action Friday after someone hacked the Solidarity Encounter Party’s Twitter account and posted the gay pride banner and the slogan “Love is Love.”
The party, whose slogan is “For Life And The Family,” is linked to evangelical churches and opposes gay marriage and abortion.
To rub it in, the tweets included hashtags for two states, Baja California and Sinaloa, that recently passed laws approving same-sex marriage.
The party said late Thursday it has recovered control of the account, which now appears without the tweets from earlier this week.
It called the tweets “a lack of respect for our institution” and vowed “we will continue with legal action against whoever hacked our social media.”
Twitter users, however, loved the now-missing tweets, giving them over 4,000 retweets and 22,000 “likes.”
The party, known by its initials as PES, is in a tough spot: in most parts of Mexico it did not reach the cutoff of 3% of the vote in the June 7 elections, meaning it will lose its registration and government funding.
Adding to those woes were reports that the hacking — which also replaced the party’s purple emblem with a rainbow-colored one — occurred because the group had not paid the person who manages its social media accounts.
The party seemed to acknowledge that, but denied it was to blame.
“We repeat that the alleged debt owed to the Community Manager is not the fault of the PES, but rather of the contractor, with whom there is no debt,” the party said.
UPDATE 1:30 P.M. PST: It turns out Liza Koshy and Jenna Willis aren’t dating at all! According to JustJared, the pair are actually just best friends, and Jenna is also her personal trainer.
After Twitter promptly freaked out over the news, the YouTuber took to Insta to edit the caption of her original post, writing:
“how about my officiant? flower girl? usher? the ridic hot bridesmaid that effortlessly shows up the bride? regardless, you know you’ll be there. check your inbox for the paperless e-vite to my non-existent wedding.”
Sorry folks, but we guess this was all just a misunderstanding!
——————————
Adorable!
On Thursday, Liza Koshy uploaded a celebratory birthday post for fitness trainer Jenna Willis — her new girlfriend!! Sharing a series of photos from their time traveling, singing karaoke, and posing for stunning couple’s pics, the YouTuber captioned the precious post:
“happy belated birthday baby • i can’t wait to see you at the end of the aisle one day… i just have no idea which role you’ll play”
OMG!!! So clearly they’re serious, right?! Ch-ch-check out the Instagram (below)!
Many fans were SHOCKED by the apparent coming out — though it should be noted that the actress has yet to address rumors of her sexuality. But with a b-day post gushing about future wedding plans, it’s pretty easy to connect the dots.
This is the Work It star’s most public relationship since her dramatic split from David Dobrik, which had the whole internet in tears! The pair dated from 2015 to 2018, breaking up months before announcing the news to their loyal followers. Luckily, this time around, the starlet has the world crying happy tears!
Followers have been freaking out ever since the post dropped on social media, gushing on Twitter:
“LIZA KOSHY HAS A GF?!?????? what an UPGRADE good for her good for her”
“WAIT I JUST FOHND OUT THAT LIZA KOSHY HAS A GF AND THEYRE SO CUTE LOOK AT THEM”
“liza koshy part of the alphabet mafia… omg my 12 year old self is screaming”
“LIZA KOSHY IS WLW??? GREAT DAY FOR THE RAINBOW COMMUNITY”
“Liza Koshy having a gf was not on my 2021 bingo card but I will gladly take it”
“Liza Koshy posting about her partner right after David Dobrik returns to YouTube [is] ICONIC”
One fan even did some serious sleuthing to discover that the Liza on Demand star attended a Pride parade in 2014, so while her sexuality may not be totally known by her diehards yet (and it’s up to the producer if she ever wants to get into the specifics of her love life), she’s clearly been celebrating love of all kinds for a long time now!
Was digging deeper into Liza Koshy apparently having a girlfriend and I just found this post from 2014??? pic.twitter.com/QVmMMgBwYO
AH-mazing! If this all looks like what it looks like, we’re so happy for Liza! This pair couldn’t look happier together!! Reactions, Perezcious readers?! Are you shipping these two? Sound OFF in the comments (below)!
UPDATE 1:30 P.M. PST: It turns out Liza Koshy and Jenna Willis aren’t dating at all! According to JustJared, the pair are actually just best friends, and Jenna is also her personal trainer.
After Twitter promptly freaked out over the news, the YouTuber took to Insta to edit the caption of her original post, writing:
“how about my officiant? flower girl? usher? the ridic hot bridesmaid that effortlessly shows up the bride? regardless, you know you’ll be there. check your inbox for the paperless e-vite to my non-existent wedding.”
Sorry folks, but we guess this was all just a misunderstanding!
——————————
Adorable!
On Thursday, Liza Koshy uploaded a celebratory birthday post for fitness trainer Jenna Willis — her new girlfriend!! Sharing a series of photos from their time traveling, singing karaoke, and posing for stunning couple’s pics, the YouTuber captioned the precious post:
“happy belated birthday baby • i can’t wait to see you at the end of the aisle one day… i just have no idea which role you’ll play”
OMG!!! So clearly they’re serious, right?! Ch-ch-check out the Instagram (below)!
Many fans were SHOCKED by the apparent coming out — though it should be noted that the actress has yet to address rumors of her sexuality. But with a b-day post gushing about future wedding plans, it’s pretty easy to connect the dots.
This is the Work It star’s most public relationship since her dramatic split from David Dobrik, which had the whole internet in tears! The pair dated from 2015 to 2018, breaking up months before announcing the news to their loyal followers. Luckily, this time around, the starlet has the world crying happy tears!
Followers have been freaking out ever since the post dropped on social media, gushing on Twitter:
“LIZA KOSHY HAS A GF?!?????? what an UPGRADE good for her good for her”
“WAIT I JUST FOHND OUT THAT LIZA KOSHY HAS A GF AND THEYRE SO CUTE LOOK AT THEM”
“liza koshy part of the alphabet mafia… omg my 12 year old self is screaming”
“LIZA KOSHY IS WLW??? GREAT DAY FOR THE RAINBOW COMMUNITY”
“Liza Koshy having a gf was not on my 2021 bingo card but I will gladly take it”
“Liza Koshy posting about her partner right after David Dobrik returns to YouTube [is] ICONIC”
One fan even did some serious sleuthing to discover that the Liza on Demand star attended a Pride parade in 2014, so while her sexuality may not be totally known by her diehards yet (and it’s up to the producer if she ever wants to get into the specifics of her love life), she’s clearly been celebrating love of all kinds for a long time now!
Was digging deeper into Liza Koshy apparently having a girlfriend and I just found this post from 2014??? pic.twitter.com/QVmMMgBwYO
AH-mazing! If this all looks like what it looks like, we’re so happy for Liza! This pair couldn’t look happier together!! Reactions, Perezcious readers?! Are you shipping these two? Sound OFF in the comments (below)!
Several homophobic “straight pride” posters were recently placed throughout Waterford City, sparking outrage among the local LGBT community.
Images of the posters first circulated on social media at the beginning of the week and feature an image of a heterosexual couple alongside a “straight pride” caption, which claims that “it’s natural, it’s worked for thousands of years, and you can make babies.”
Twitter user Michelle Byrne, who highlighted the issue on social media, told Extra.ie that the posters were “all around town” and “all along the Quay”.
“They were A4 sized posters, printed quality, all over the inner city. People are getting in touch to say they’ve seen them, but we think we have most of them down now,” Byrne told Extra.ie.
Homophobic hate on show in Waterford City again tonight – covered the place in ‘straight pride’ posters. This follows the burning of a Pride flag and the cutting down of the replacement Pride flag in just over a week. #Pridepic.twitter.com/OMQdQBhhn0
The incident comes just days after flags celebrating pride were cut down and burned outside the offices of Waterford City & County Council.
The flags were set alight on June 6 just two days after they were raised. They were cut down again last Saturday after the council had replaced them.
Mayor of Waterford Cllr Damien Geoghegan described the burning of Pride flags as a “despicable act” and said that the matter had been reported to An Garda Síochána.
People often ask “Why does Pride take place?” Here’s why— Someone lowered the Pride Flags overnight & burned them. The majority of Waterford people will be disgusted by this act. I won’t be deterred and it’s my intention to replace those flags. Waterford is a warm/inclusive place pic.twitter.com/yZzeFiEwnj
— Mayor Damien Geoghegan (@damiengeoghegan) June 7, 2021
Geoghegan said that the council would be raising more Pride flags throughout the city in the coming days.
A man in his 40s has been arrested in connection with the burning of Pride flags outside the Menapia building on the Mall on June 6.
Moninne Griffith, the chief executive of BeLong to Youth Services, told the Sunday Times that the burning of Pride flags and the appearance of “straight pride” posters was causing distress for the local LGBT community.
“We work with a support group in Waterford where a lot of the young people were involved in getting the pride flag up, so this is really upsetting for them to see. Even though it is just a handful of people, or maybe one person doing this, it creates a chilling effect for many young people who already struggle to come out,” Griffith told the Times.
Paul Fagan, chief executive of LGBT Ireland, said that he hoped the recent homophobic incidents would increase public support for the LGBT community.
“What we want to see now is people coming out in support of the LGBT community — buying Pride flags and hanging them outside homes so that LGBT people know the majority support them,” Fagan told the Times.
Fagan said that the majority of Irish people did not support the straight pride posters or the burning of Pride flags but said that there had been an increase in far-right ideologies recently. He urged people to take action and keep fighting for progress.
READING, Pa. | The LGBT Center of Greater Reading is hosting a vaccination clinic Friday afternoon in Centre Park, according to officials.
The vaccine clinic will be set up from 4 p.m. – 8 p.m., according to the Center’s press release. This clinic is open to everyone, it said.
The Center says it has partnered with the Latino Connection, who will be providing the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Anyone may register via the website OR can choose to simply, “walk-in”.
In addition to the vaccine, food vendor Devour Catering, DJ Evelyn and the following community organizations will be on hand with resources and information, the Center stated.
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