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How the NCAA Failed the LGBT Community in North Carolina and Houston

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National Collegiate Athletic Association Officials Neglected to Issue Statements in Support of Gay Rights Before Houston Repealed HERO, N.C. Passed Hateful Anti-LGBT Law

The NCAA needs to get its head in the game on LGBT rights. 

First, an NCAA official declined a request to issue a statement in support of an Equal Rights Ordinance in Houston, which will host this weekend’s men’s Final Four, before voters repealed the law in November, The Washington Post reports. Then, the NCAA failed to speak out against North Carolina’s hateful new anti-LGBT law before it passed, according to OutSports’ Cyd Zeigler. 

Zeigler calls the NCAA’s statements against the North Carolina law after it passed “utter bullshit,” and alleges that the organization shares responsibility for the law. 

“While the NCAA national office hosts discussions about LGBT athletes and creates manuals on intersectionality, there has been no real weight behind the supportive words,” Zeigler writes. “The NCAA is now trying to put some false post-mortem pressure on the state to reconsider what it’s done, but the fact that the association has not previously made anti-LGBT laws a deal-breaker for hosting postseason events is a complete failure that demonstrates the weaknesses of the NCAA’s structure and backbone.”

After Indiana passed its anti-LGBT religious freedom law last year, the NCAA spoke out against it, prompting lawmakers to pass an emergency “fix.” However, even though North Carolina is arguably just as much of a mecca for college basketball as Indiana, the NCAA didn’t lift a finger to stop the House Bill 2 from passing earlier this month.  

Also last year, the chairman of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, J. Kent “Kenny” Friedman, approached NCAA Vice President Oliver Luck about making a statement in support of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, the WaPo reports. 

Friedman claims Luck’s response was  “something along the lines of he was sure the NCAA would be very concerned about it, but that they do not take an official position on anything before the fact.” 

However, the NCAA is disputing Friedman’s account, saying it was not contacted directly by city officials. 

“Houston officials did not approach the NCAA about the equal rights ordinance,” the NCAA said. “Oliver Luck was asked at a meeting last year about whether the NCAA would move the Final Four from Houston and he replied that there were no such discussions. The NCAA has been very firm on its commitment to the fair treatment of individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

I was among the journalists who contacted the NCAA last year about HERO, but got no response. 

The pro-HERO campaign has been heavily criticized for failing to effectively respond to the transgender bathroom myth, but it’s also strange that supporters of the ordinance couldn’t get Mayor Annise Parker to make a direct, public appeal to the NCAA for help. 

Then again, such an appeal shouldn’t really be be necessary for the NCAA to speak out. 

Zeigler notes that LGBT advocates recently asked the NCAA to kick out schools that have requested Title IX exemptions that allow them to discriminate against LGBT student-athletes. However, the NCAA’s head of diversity and inclusion responded in a letter by referring to the organization’s “diverse membership,” stressing the importance of “preserving individual institutional values,” and blaming Title IX exemptions on the federal government. 

“Discriminatory practices are not part of diversity,” Zeigler writes. “That the NCAA’s head of diversity would claim otherwise speaks encyclopedic volumes about where the institution truly stands on protecting LGBT people: on the sidelines.”

 

 

 Image via Wikimedia

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Trump Unleashes Unhinged Early Morning Tirade Targeting Enemies and Allies

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President Donald Trump kicked off Thursday with an early morning tirade attacking a wide range of enemies and allies, from Democrats to Republicans, and from NATO to Iran.

The president, who has blocked bipartisan legislation to get TSA workers paid as lines at the nation’s airports loop out the doors and into basements, is under pressure to fix it before lawmakers themselves are expected to head home for a two-week spring break.

But the president appears intent on placing blame on Congress, and again called for the termination of the filibuster.

“When is ‘enough, enough’ for our Republican Senators,” Trump asked at 6:51 a.m. “There comes a time when you must do what should have been done a long time ago, and something which the Lunatic Democrats will do on day one, if they ever get the chance. TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and get our airports, and everything else, moving again. Also, add the complete, all five items, SAVE AMERICA ACT items. Go for the Gold!!!”

Minutes earlier he had posted a link to an article that called for a change to the “broken” Senate’s rules.

READ MORE: The GOP’s Secret Weapon? A ‘Known Unknown’ That Could Swing the Midterms: Columnist

“TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!” he declared in a clarion call at 6:59 a.m.

At 7:22 a.m. he targeted Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer:

“Chuck Schumer, a desperate, crippled politician, who has lost control of the Radical Left Democrats, will make a deal now because he thinks that if he doesn’t, Republicans will TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, something which they should do whether he makes a deal or not!!!”

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly said he opposes ending the filibuster, and has noted there are not enough votes to do so.

Even earlier Thursday morning, Trump was focused on Iran and NATO.

At 6:16 a.m., he wrote “NATO NATIONS HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP WITH THE LUNATIC NATION, NOW MILITARILY DECIMATED, OF IRAN. THE U.S.A. NEEDS NOTHING FROM NATO, BUT ‘NEVER FORGET’ THIS VERY IMPORTANT POINT IN TIME!”

Minutes later, at 6:39 a.m., he threatened Iran:

“The Iranian negotiators are very different and ‘strange.’ They are ‘begging’ us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state that they are only ‘looking at our proposal.’ WRONG!!! They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!”

Independent foreign policy and security analyst Jimmy Rushton responded to Trump’s early morning remark, writing: “This sort of hyper-belligerent weakness is unique to Trump; constantly throwing around bellicose threats whilst at the same time transparently desperate for the Iranians to agree to end hostilities.”

READ MORE: ‘Big Embarrassment’: Trump Team Mocked After Admitting Lack of Evidence Against Fed Chair

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

 

 

 

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The GOP’s Secret Weapon? A ‘Known Unknown’ That Could Swing the Midterms: Columnist

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Some political experts are predicting a sweeping “blue wave” this November, with Democrats poised to reclaim the House — and possibly even the Senate — as Americans grapple with soaring grocery and gas prices, while the Commander in Chief pours billions into what critics call a war of choice in Iran.

But the GOP has what could amount to a secret weapon, a great “known unknown,” that could help dash Democrats’ dreams, according to Henry Olsen, who writes in a Washington Post opinion piece, “there remains an X factor in the race: Trump’s $300 million in campaign cash.”

He calls it a possible “game changer,” especially given just how little cash Democrats have by comparison.

That $300 million belongs to a Trump supporting Super PAC controlled by close allies of President Donald Trump. And it’s not just $300 million. Olsen suggests that with continued fundraising, MAGA Inc., the Trump Super PAC, could be sitting on even more cash.

“Add to that the successes of the Republican National Committee, which had over $109 million on hand at the end of February. That’s so much that in the most recent reporting period, the committee earned over $7 million simply from interest and dividends alone, only a few million less than the Democratic National Committee raised in total during that time.”

READ MORE: ‘Big Embarrassment’: Trump Team Mocked After Admitting Lack of Evidence Against Fed Chair

He says it’s possible Team Trump could have half a billion dollars in total at its disposal by the November election.

Is it a “game changer”?

Olsen writes, “this is the thing we know we don’t know, to borrow a useful category from former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The big question is how much all that money matters given today’s polarized politics, because the winners in November aren’t going to be based on dollars raised but votes cast.”

One option for all that money could be for Trump to use “his cash haul to go big, define his achievements and contrast them with the Democrats via a major, partisan-focused advertising campaign? Essentially: ‘Vote Republican.'”

For that strategy to work, Olsen writes, Trump would need to do two things.

First, “he’d have to place well-crafted, coordinated ads in the largest media markets in targeted states and districts. That would be expensive even with sophisticated analytics helping to target the spots.”

And second, Trump would have to exhibit “unusual personal discipline.”

“His campaign speeches would need to hew to the themes in the ads so that his earned media would support the paid media message,” says Olsen. “He was able to do that in 2024, but his impulsive side seems to have returned in force since he took the oath of office. All that money would be wasted if Trump were giving the media a different story to dissect on a daily basis.”

READ MORE: ‘Doing This for You’: White House Mocked Over ‘Ridiculous’ Pitch to Young Voters

 

Image via Reuters 

 

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‘Doing This for You’: White House Mocked Over ‘Ridiculous’ Pitch to Young Voters

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The White House is facing sharp criticism over its latest message to young voters who cast a ballot for President Donald Trump based on specific campaign promises.

Journalist Gabe Fleischer told White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday that in his reporting, he speaks a lot to young voters, “many of whom voted for President Trump for the first time in 2024, who were hoping to have no more wars and to have lower prices.”

“Now, with a war taking place, and with gas prices going up, I’m curious what President Trump’s message would be to those voters who kind of swung into his coalition in 2024, but maybe don’t feel the administration’s going as they’d expected.”

Leavitt did not pause before saying to those young voters, “President Trump is doing this for you.”

“He’s doing this for young people, so that we are no longer threatened by a rogue terrorist regime in the Middle East that seeks to kill the brave men and women who serve in our country in the Middle East, many of them young people themselves, young men and women who serve this country honorably in uniform and have been threatened, killed, and maimed by the rogue Iranian terrorist regime for 47 years,” she said.

READ MORE: ‘Big Embarrassment’: Trump Team Mocked After Admitting Lack of Evidence Against Fed Chair

Leavitt added that, “President Trump finally had the courage to step up and do what’s right for our national security, our homeland security.”

She called the spiking price of gas a “temporary short-term fluctuation,” which, “the president has said, once these combat operations are over, this administration is going to continue to unleash American energy dominance.”

Leavitt also referred to Trump’s war in Iran as a “short term combat operation,” and promised gas prices are “gonna go right back down when this is over.”

Some experts predict gas prices will not return to pre-war levels until at least the end of 2027.

Critics slammed the press secretary’s statements.

“She’s lying. It’s all they have left at this point. Lies,” said former Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh.

“The best thing you can do for young people is not send them to die in a stupid war,” commented U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a former Marine who served in the Iraq War.

“Trump is sending young Americans to die in a pointless, unnecessary war for you. He’s doing this to help young people. Ridiculous,” remarked Navy veteran Jared Ryan Sears, who writes at The Progressive Capitalist.

READ MORE: ‘Trump’s Intern’ Fetterman Under Fire — ‘Needs to Go’ Say Critics

 

Image via Reuters

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