Bobservations

A quick Carlos story …while we laugh and joke and have fun, we do have our arguments, and about once a year or so, we have a huge blow-up.

As in the fight we had a couple of weeks ago, over Carlos’ refusal to listen, and how, while at Walmart—where we shopped for ingredients for a cheesecake he was making for a party, and only because someone gave him a Walmart gift card—every time I found something he needed, and said:

Do you need this?

He’d say:

Huh?

Do.You.Need.This?

Every time; and so we got into an argument about that and it turned loud and foot-stomping, especially when he said to me:

I think because you don’t like Walmart [Sidenote: I hate Walmart] you deliberately lowered your voice.

And that’s when the top of my head blew off. On the upside, after getting it all out, we’re done with the fight; the good thing is neither one of us carries the anger longer than a few minutes. On a more fun side, I was telling that story to my Dad over the phone last week, and as we finished up, he said:

Give my best to your husband … when you can get his attention.

And that, my friends. Is where I get it from. Thanks Dad!

I first posted about Cyntoia Brown a few weeks back, but here’s a brief recap: Brown was convicted … as a teenager … of killing a man while she was a sex trafficking victim and sentenced to 51 years before being eligible for parole.

A lotta folks found this odd, since the same thing happens to white people and they get minimal, or no jail time … like Keeva Delaney, who murdered her husband during an argument and was given one year in jail, and nine years of probation. And Delaney will serve her sentence one month at a time for ten years so as not to ruin her life. Uh huh.

Well, there’s good news for Brown. Tennessee governor Bill Haslam has granted her a full commutation to parole and she will be eligible for release on August 7 after serving 15 years; she will remain on parole for 10 years.

It should be noted that Haslam is a Republican. Just sayin’.

The Fat Bastard, and his band of racist evangelicals, are all fired up about building a wall, but have absolutely no desire to fix our dangerously crumbling infrastructure.

Think on that.

A new bill, the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act ,cleared the US Senate last month in a rare unanimous vote. Under this new bill, lynchings will be charged as a federal hate crime.

Good news, though not for The Gays, if the Hate Group, the Liberty Counsel, gets its way. See, they are angry because a portion of the bill includes protections for the LGBT community, and Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver is lobbying Congressional lawmakers Representatives to have the LGBT language removed from the law:

“The old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can’t stop them from coming the rest of the way in. And this would be the first time that you would have in federal law mentioning gender identity and sexual orientation, as part of this anti-lynching bill.”

Staver has his homophobia all twisted because he sees this new law as a kind of “slippery slope” that could :::gasp:::: further LGBT anti-discrimination laws, which have long been blocked by the GOP in Congress.

So, he’d like to make it clear, that if

 a mob were to attack and murder anyone in the LGBTQ community simply because they are an LGBTQ person, that should not be included as a Hate Crime.

Mat Staver can fuck off.

I also posted about Sara Cunningham last month; she’s the mother of a gay son who announced on Facebook that she would stand in for any mother who refused to attend their sons’ or daughters’ weddings because of their sexual orientation.

Well, Cunningham’s story will be made into a film starring LGBTQ ally Jamie Lee Curtis who posted this photo and statement after meeting Cunningham:

“Spent the day with my doppelgänger, inspirational mama bear, leader, author and social activist, Sara Cunningham, whose program @freemomhugs offers support to LGBTQ members whose families don’t.  As we say…. stay tuned #hero #freemomhugs.”

Good; Cunningham’s story is one that needs to be told.

Good news out of Texas recently; seriously good news. In Harris County 17 women were sworn in as new judges; even better, they were 17 black women.

The times are a’changing, even in Texas.

Neal McDonough, actor, and blue-eyed hottie,  says his Catholicism, and his love for his wife Ruve, are the reason he won’t kiss a woman onscreen, even if it costs him jobs:

“I won’t kiss any other woman because these lips are meant for one woman.”

McDonough admitted his stance has lost him work in the past , including a role on ABC’s “Scoundrels’’ after he chose not to perform a sex scene with actress Virginia Madsen:

“I was [surprised], and it was a horrible situation for me. After that, I couldn’t get a job because everybody thought I was this religious zealot. I am very religious. I put God and family first, and me second. That’s what I live by. It was hard for a few years. “But I was not going to lose the fight. And it worked. My career has been phenomenal.”

Not all show’s have had an issue with McDonough’s unusual stance. When he was offered the role of Nicollette Sheridan’s husband on “Desperate Housewives’’ he told creator Marc Cherry he wouldn’t kiss her, and Cherry simply said he’d have to write better scenes for him then.

I have a couple of questions, though. Um, Neal, would you kiss a guy? And if you need to practice would you travel to Smallville? And, on a more serious note, if you won’t kiss another woman because it goes against your religious views, how come you have no problem being a drug dealer or murderer on screen? Just asking.

I love RuPaul’s Drag Race, I love the creativity and the art and the jokes and the rudeness and the tea and the shade of it all. But I guess there are times when even Ru thinks the show may go too far.

Case in point: during a recent episode of All-Stars. The runway challenge was a “Curves and Swerves” challenge. Manila Luzon chose to rock a quilted pink Louis XIV inspired ensemble, but it was not her first choice. Nope, her first option was a Tampon-inspired number, until it was vetoed by Ru Paul for being in “bad taste.”

You say bad taste, I say high-larious. Manila posted a photo of her in the outfit to Instagram, saying:

“Ru said my ORIGINAL Curves & Swerves Runway look was in “bad taste” and production told me to wear my back up. I was really looking forward to wearing this gown that I think celebrates a perfectly normal human experience! Many of my fans are young women who may feel pressured by society to be embarrassed by periods. It’s empowering to teach young women about their bodies, encourage them to celebrate them AND to question people who tell them not to! My goal with this look was to normalize menstruation by looking sick’ning even if I was on my period! Instead, I decided to wear the beautiful quilted dress you saw in the episode because it is not my show, it’s Ru’s. But because of Ru, I have my very own platform to speak for myself and show you all my interpretation! my Period Gown is by @theladyhyde”

When did Drag Race get so precious? That gown would have killed on the runway, in humor and styling and shock value.

Just sayin’, Ru,

Okay, so going back to the Golden Globes, I keep thinking about Timothee Chalamet and his glittering harness he wore. He was a little avantgarde hottie and, since I found out he was not a child, he can join my list of Hot Men, er, maybe Hot Much Younger Than Me Men.

And I will not hold it against him that he got to kiss My-Husband-In-My-Head, Armie Hammer, in Call Me By Your Name.

Carry on …

On the Other Hand, Cyntoia Brown, Sex-Trafficking Victim, Must Serve 51 Years Before Release

While Jacob Anderson rapes a woman and walks free, Cyntoia Brown, a Tennessee woman who was a victim of sex-trafficking, has been convicted … as a teenager … of shooting the man who pimped her out and must serve 51 years before she is eligible for release.

In case you didn’t get it, Cyntoia Brown is a black woman.

Brown was just 16-years-old in 2004 when she killed real estate agent Johnny Allen. Allen had solicited Brown for sex, taken her to his home and showed her his guns. Later in bed, Brown thought Allen was reaching for his gun to shoot her, so she grabbed a handgun from her purse and shot him first. She then stole the money from Allen’s wallet, took his guns and drove his truck to a Walmart.

At the time, Brown was a runaway, living with her 24-year-old boyfriend, a pimp known as “Kut Throat,” who raped her and forced her into prostitution. But teenager Cyntoia Brown was tried as an adult, convicted of first-degree murder, felony murder and aggravated robbery. She was sentenced to life in prison in 2006.

When her case received widespread attention, a documentary of her case was filmed; activists and celebrities tried to get her released.

But this week Tennessee’s Supreme Court said that, under the state’s law, defendants like Brown who were convicted of first-degree murder after July 1, 1995, can only be released from prison after serving at least 51 years of their sentences. 

After the Tennessee Supreme Court’s ruling made headlines, Brown’s advocates pointed out how white men and women who commit crimes are handed lighter sentences than people of color.

Like that of Keeva Delaney, who was twenty-three when she was convicted of killing her husband during an argument. Her sentence? One year in jail, and nine years of probation. Oh, but wait, it gets better. Delaney will serve her sentence one month at a time for ten years; yes, every June she must report to the jail and spend a month there, then take the next eleven months off before she goes back in for another thirty days.

And what about millionaire hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein? He was accused of trafficking minor girls and coercing them into sex acts in his mansion for at least six years. He got thirteen months.

A black woman, Cyntoia Brown, who was a sixteen-year-old girl forced into a life of prostitution as a child, killed a man and will spend 51 years in jail.

A White woman, Keeva Delaney, shot and killed her husband because maybe he was a little too friendly with another woman. She was given one year in jail, and the option of serving one month a year for ten years and living free the rest of the time.

A rich white man, Jeffrey Epstein, forced girls into sexual trafficking, and raped dozens of them in his own home. He’ll be jailed for thirteen months.

Ain’t that America.

Huffington Post