Dan Tracer

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Gay Trumper Brandon Straka sentenced for role in Jan. 6 insurrection

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Brandon Straka, the 44-year-old New York-based hairstylist and Trump loyalist who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge for his role in the January 6 Capitol Insurrection, was finally sentenced on Monday.

Judge Dabny Friedrich, a Trump appointee, gave Straka no jail time but sentenced him to three months of house arrest, 36 months of probation, $5,500 in fines, and community service.

According to court documents, FBI officials identified Straka from a since-deleted video he posted to his own social media page in which he could be heard shouting “Go! Go!” to the other insurrectionists as they stormed inside the U.S. Capitol building.

Two days after he pleaded guilty, Straka emailed his mailing list asking them to send him money for his legal bills.

“Start posting positive things that you believe about me,” he wrote. “Push back against the one sided hate attacks that are happening right now. I still have nothing to say about my case, other than this- as it’s being widely (and likely INTENTIONALLY) misreported: I did NOT enter the Capitol building.”

Related: Gay Trump supporter throws epic hissy fit after being kicked off flight for refusing to wear a mask

“After being PERMANENTLY BANNED from PayPal, Venmo, and Stripe,” Straka added, “I have CUSTOM CREATED a support platform using a conservative friendly payment processor company.”

Officials were also able to tie Straka to the insurrection based on several since-deleted posts from his Twitter account, including:

  • “Patriots at the Capitol – HOLD. THE. LINE!!!!”
  • “I arrived at the Capitol a few hours ago as Patriots were storming from all sides. I was quite close to entering myself as police began tear-gassing us from the door. I inhaled tear gas & got it in my eyes. Patriots began exiting shortly after saying Congress had been cleared.”
  • “I’m completely confused. For 6-8 weeks everybody on the right has been saying ‘1776!’ & that if congress moves forward it will mean a revolution! So congress moves forward. Patriots storm the Capitol – now everybody is virtual signaling their embarrassment that this happened.”
  • “Also- be embarrassed & hide if you need to- but I was there. It was not Antifa at the Capitol. It was freedom loving Patriots who were DESPERATE to fight for the final hope of our Republic because literally nobody cares about them. Everyone else can denounce them. I will not.”
  • “Perhaps I missed the part where it was agreed this would be a revolution of ice cream cones & hair-braiding parties to take our government back from lying, cheating globally interested swamp parasites. My bad.”

Multiple other people sent the FBI videos that reportedly showed Straka at the Capitol building on January 6. In one of the clips, he allegedly tells the mob, “We’re going in!” In another, he allegedly orders them to attack a police officer, yelling, “Take the shield! Take it! Take it!”

Straka signed a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to provide agents with “copies of any social media accounts, postings, videos, or photos” and answer questions “regarding events in and around January 6, 2021.” In exchange, prosecutors sought a lighter sentence.

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It’s 2022 and these gay men are still on the sex offender registry for consensual sex

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A lawsuit filed last month revealed that at least 19 people are still required to register as sex offenders due to past convictions under South Carolina’s “buggery” law for having consensual gay sex.

The SC law, along with other states’ anti-sodomy laws, were made invalid in 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas’ anti-sodomy law was unconstitutional. While pardons were granted for those targeted by the laws, the convictions still require them to remain on the sex offenders list in South Carolina and two other states — Mississippi and Idaho.

The lawsuit was filed by one of the men, who was convicted, along with his partner, in 2001 under the “buggery” law. His pardon came in 2006, but his life continues to be plagued by his status as a registered sex offender.

Twice a year, he’s required to report to the sheriff’s office and give detailed information about his life — his address, employment status, vehicle information, fingerprints, palm prints, and every online account he uses. At one point, he was denied a professional license because of his sex offender status.

Attorney Matthew Strugar of Los Angeles and attorney Allen Chaney from the ACLU of South Carolina filed the lawsuit on the man’s behalf Dec. 22 in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina, making it a federal complaint.

“The registration obligations, sort of, take over your life,” Strugar told the Post and Courier.

Even if the man was to move, reciprocity laws would require him to register as a sex offender in nearly every other state.

The lawsuit seeks to remove the man’s name from the sex offender registry, and also to stop the state from requiring anyone else convicted of sodomy offenses from having to register as sex offenders.

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Antigay wedding photographer had a very bad day in court

A Christian wedding photographer who refused to work at same-sex weddings is going to have to do some career soul-searching after a federal court in New York dismissed her lawsuit.

Emilee Carpenter filed the suit in April after she was asked to photograph seven same-sex weddings, arguing that New York’s nondiscrimination laws forced her to betray her faith by snapping photos of happy, same-sex couples or else pay fines of up to $100k.

She claimed her First and 14th amendment rights were being violated.

“Just as the government cannot compel a lesbian baker to create a cake condemning same-sex marriage or an atheist playwright to wax positively about God, New York cannot force Emilee to convey messages she objects to,” the lawsuit argued.

U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. of Western New York said “the Court is not persuaded” as he dismissed Carpenter’s claims Monday.

“The crux of Plaintiff’s claims is that her photography is the product of her unique artistic style and vision. Thus, an exemption for Plaintiff’s unique, non-fungible services would necessarily undermine, not serve, the State’s purpose, as it would ‘relegate [same-sex couples] to an inferior market’ than that enjoyed by the public at large,” Geraci said.

Carpenter was defended by The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian nonprofit advocacy group “that has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia; and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“ADF also works to develop ‘religious liberty’ legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBTQ people on the basis of religion,” the group adds.

ADF has requested the case be brought before the Supreme Court.

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More People are Turning to Facebook Groups to Find Queer-friendly Housing

It’s no great surprise that cities and neighborhoods that boast significant LGBTQ populations tend to be the ones with the most gentrification. And while that’s great for local economies, it also means that many of the same queer folk who help make vibrant neighborhoods such attractive places to live are left priced out when rents inevitably tick ever more skyward.

Add to that the inherent historical challenges of finding queer-friendly housing, and securing a spot to rest your head can be an incredibly daunting task.

While panning for queer-friendly housing gold can still yield success on sites like Craigslist, more people are turning to a bevy Facebook groups across the nation to link up with potential like-minded roommates.

“Let’s keep our friends together in this beautiful city,” reads the tagline of Juanita’s List, a San Francisco group set up by local drag queen Juanita More.

Another group — Gay Area Housing — also connects queer and queer-friendly house hunters in the area.

With the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment clocking in at around $3500 a month in San Francisco, these groups are needed more than ever for the city to retain the identity that made it a mecca for queer people seeking community.

In New York, where the average rent for a one-bedroom will set you back around $3000, the Queer Housing New York City group has over 22,000 members.

Using one of these groups is easy — just request to join. Once you’ve been cleared by an admin (not as scary as it sounds), you’re free to post housing opportunities or respond to others’ posts to your heart’s content.

Here’s a handy list of some of the more popular groups operating on Facebook. Happy hunting!

Queer Housing New York City
Queer Housing Boston
Austin Queer/Trans Housing
NOLA Queer Housing
Queer Housing Philly
Portland Queer Housing
LA Queer and Transgender Housing
Seattle Queer Housing Exchange
Juanita’s List (SF/Bay Area)
Gay Area Housing (SF/Bay Area)

Source: CDC Canceled LGBTQ Youth Summit Because Trump Won the Election

 

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reportedly shelved plans for an upcoming LGBTQ youth summit, worried how President Trump and his administration would react to the event.

An anonymous source tells Talking Points Memo it was “supposed to be a big deal. They had a whole communications team on it, it was going to be on Facebook live. The intention was to plan a 5-year agenda.”

Internal department memos obtained by TPM reference a day’s worth of planned events, during which “national leaders” would convene at the CDC’s Roybal campus in Atlanta, GA “to address the health and well-being of LGBTQ youth.”

According to the source, initial planning for the event began last September, with weekly planning sessions held until the election in November.

Planning was abruptly halted and the event was indefinitely postponed following Trump’s win.

A list of potential partner organizations had already been drawn up, including the YMCA, Human Rights Campaign and The Matthew Shepard Foundation. The source claims event planners were waiting until after the election to send out any formal invites, hoping for a Hillary win:

From the very beginning, when we were talking about partner decisions, it was made very clear that no discussions were to leave CDC and that the invitations would be sent out to the big national nonprofits the day after the election.

It was never actually explicitly said by anyone that we’re canceling this because Donald Trump won the election.

But it’s not hard to do the math: the source says organizers were left confused and upset after the abrupt change in plan.

The whole reason that I went to work in the CDC was because I wanted to devote my career to impacting health outcomes for sexual and gender minority youth. So to have been part of the planning committee for the convening of the summit and to have it ripped out away for me or at least canceled because people in leadership thought it was going to be a bad idea…

Then the source reportedly trailed off, and we can understand why.

News of the canceled LGBTQ youth summit comes days after reports that a separate climate change and health conference was also scrapped to avoid a confrontation with the Trump administration.

That long-planned event was to be held next month, and no official explanation of why it was canceled was offered by the CDC.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services.