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‘All American Boy’ Singer, Songwriter Steve Grand Is Turning Heads And Minds

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Guest author Sean Sala’s exclusive interview with singer-songwriter Steve Grand, whose “All American Boy” music video went viral this summer — turning heads, and minds.

It was a cool October night in San Diego as music fans began to pour into Urban Mo’s Bar & Grill. The red carpet was rolled out as fans eagerly awaited a new internet sensation by the name of Steve Grand — whose hit track “All American Boy” went viral in July.

Normally, internet sensations come and go shortly after their fifteen minutes of fame. Steve, however, has done something that truly is remarkable. For the longest time, music that appealed to the LGBT community, what some might call “gay music,” has been defined by the likes of modern pop divas like Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and many others. All of these artists typically use wild pop imagery and powerful voices that gay men have found solace in and reconciled their personal feelings with. Up to this point, we gay men have been defined by divas but we might have found a new course to be defined by, thanks to the bravery of a simple Illinois boy who honestly shared his story.

I have worked as an LGBT activist for almost three years, which is not a long time compared to many other activists. However, in this short amount of time, I initially gained national attention through my organizing of the Military March at the 2011 San Diego Pride Parade. Then that following year at the 2012 Uniformed Military March where we fought hard to allow the Pentagon to certify uniforms in an LGBT parade for the first time in history. I clearly remember the immense pressure put on me by this. It was a tough few years being in the public spotlight and it almost broke my commitment to the cause all together. I say all of this not to highlight myself — but to really compare this mixed pot of our civil rights.

Everyone plays a role, and the artist becomes woven into an activist. Whether he liked it or not, Steve Grand has been thrust into the national spotlight for his honesty and for taking a stand. Who would have known that when Steve sat down to write “All American Boy,” he actually was writing a new chapter in the artistic direction of the LGBT movement? We may have much different lots in life, but it takes a village as they say. It takes activists, parents, siblings, teachers and artists to see the LGBT equality movement come to fruition. Some would say Grand’s hit is just another song or that he is just a “pretty gay boy” — but what he did thorough his music was significant. For decades, art has defined the course of a people and the course of a nation. Pop culture shapes how the next generation defines the way they love and who they love. This is also why we frequently see the religious right raging against the LGBT cause.

They fear we will define the future. Steve Grand has pushed against the gender code stereotype in our society, and in the music industry where homophobia still dominates much of the charts. In “All American Boy” we see a handsome guy fall in love with his straight best friend. This friend defines the new generation in his acceptance of his friend, all on the backdrop of a rural country scene where that is “not supposed to happen.”  

 The video hasn’t been free of criticism though. Some have viewed the part of the video where Steve is rejected by his straight best friend as controversial, tagging this as just a “gay boy chasing a straight boy” like “gay boys do” — which could cast gay men in a negative light. The bigger picture shows something more positive. We all have had that story and have been there. For gay youth, high school and being a young adult without a proper education about the LGBT community can be so confusing to a student, through fear of rejection. Yet the image we see here indicated an amazing generational shift. Upon the kiss the moment of embarrassment commences yet the straight best friend tells him, “I love you anyway.” The “straight-bro” culture likes to pretend that these incidents do not happen, but they do.

Need I mention the many moments that the straight boy kissed back? We as gay men know those stories all too well. Yet in the end the straight best friend not only accepts him, but he affirms his commitment and love to his friend. This is a wonderful sign of the times. I searched for further clarification on how Steve feels about this particular criticism and his response was nothing but graceful and genuine. “When I made that video,” Steve told me, “I did not set out to make any statements about gay people other than what we share in common with our straight brothers and sisters — that sometimes you love someone you can’t have. I know that especially rings true for gay people who grow up in a heterosexual world.”

It is good to note as well that in Steve’s second premiere music video “Stay” he “gets the guy” and celebrates a gay relationship emotionally, physically and sexually. He portrays it in true Grand form: wholesome, genuine and with a hit musical style.

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I had a few moments to chat with Steve at his October 19 performance at Urban Mo’s. Here’s what he had to say:

Sala: Steve, I understand the first stop on your “All American Boy Tour” was San Diego for Indie-Fest. Is that correct?

Grand: That was the first place outside of Chicago, yeah.  (Grand’s home town.)

Sala: I saw Lady GaGa at the House of Blues in San Diego for the first time with a crowd of about seventy-five people before she achieved super-stardom. It seems San Diego has great luck in making people famous! Tell me though, you were at the GLSEN awards in LA performing in front of a lot of prominent activists last night. How does your music correlate with Spirit Day and anti-bullying?

Grand: Well I think it’s just exposure. Just showing kids another example of gay people just being like everybody else. I am an artist just like everyone else and I express myself in a way just like any other artist. So I think it’s a matter of showing kids you can be whoever you want to be and you can be your full self. That you can find people and an audience that embrace you and make a career from that. I hope to continue to prove that.

Sala: In 2013 there still is a lot of bullying going on. It’s a lot more acceptable to be gay now than it even was in the 1990’s and the early 2000’s. I know that even when you were growing up it was not the most acceptable thing. What do you feel like as an artist, you can do to raise awareness about bullying and being yourself besides the music?

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Grand: Besides the music… Well, I was at GLSEN last night to support that cause. It’s something I hold very near and dear to my heart. GLSEN is all about anti-bullying and LGBT youth. Being out there, being yourself first and foremost is the greatest thing any of us can do.

Sala: I’m glad you said “being yourself.” I’ve noticed that a lot of “gay” artists do the “gay” thing. The reason why you’ve received so much publicity is because you’ve showed a wholesome “country” love story. You portrayed something that is needed, something that changed culture – making images like that the “norm.” So I think that’s pretty impressive. You used art to portray the greatest message you can: that love is the most important thing. So, how do you feel to be performing here tonight?

Grand: I’m stoked to perform here. San Diego was good to me last time and also love the fact that there is a sold out crowd. I do love San Diego. I’ve been here a couple of times and it seems really chill, laid back and everyone seems really nice. I know I have a lot of #Grandfams here that I have connected with through Twitter and Facebook and a lot of them are excited to meet them.

Sala: Well the last big performance here at Urban Mo’s was when the top three contestants for Ru Paul’s Drag Race were here so you’re in good “shoes.”

Grand: (Laughing) Excellent!

Sala: Well it was very nice to meet you tonight and everyone is looking forward to your concert. Thank you for taking a stand for gay youth.

Grand: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Keep an eye out on Steve Grand and his artistic talent of uniting hearts and minds in music! He is one of the most prominent LGBT artists we have seen in some time! Keep it up Steve!  

 

A version of this article originally appeared at TalkHillcrest Images by Joem C. Bayawa. Used with permission.

 

_The Great Reconciliation__ Gays take on Ex-Gay Inc. on Our America with Lisa Ling - Google Drive-1Sean Sala is a national gay, social and sexual rights activist. He was the organizer of the 2011 Active Duty Military March in San Diego in which over 250 active duty Military marched in San Diego Pride while Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was still national law. He also was an organizer and liaison for the 2012 Active Duty Military March in which he pressured top Military brass resulting in the Pentagon issuing a historical first time blanket certification and approved the United States Military to wear their full uniforms for the first time in a pride parade in US history; where over 450 military personnel participated. He formally was on the national leadership committee of  Servicemembers United the nations largest LGBT military organization, where he participated in a White House Executive office meeting on Southern California and Gay Military issues. He has sparred in national news against anti-gay Republican Congressman opposed to Gay troops. He also advocated for troops battling PTSD to the San Diego City Council. He has been featured on the ‘Real World,’ MTV and sponsored internet casts on gay rights, local, national and international news and an official Library of Congress documentation on the DADT repeal movement for Story Corps. He is in progress of challenging the top ten Mega Churches in United States to denounce Uganda’s Parliament from executing gays. He was the chief organizer of the San Diego rally “Light the Way to Justice.” demanding the Supreme Court to rule for full federal marriage equality.  He is a popular blogger, columnist for San Diego Gay and Lesbian News and a featured guest writer for The New Civil Rights Movement. He has also been featured in “God and Gays,” an expose on gay reparative therapy with Lisa Ling. He also led a coalition to combat radical extremists from forcing a dangerous agenda on the LGBT community using the figure of Bradley Manning. He also has Co-formed the “Military Freedom Coalition” to challenge the Transgender ban in the Military. Recently he lead a coalition that called out the San Diego County Clerk who tried to stay Gay marriage state wide in a last ditch attempt to stop Gay Marriage in California.  He served in the United States Navy six years for Naval Intelligence, three combat tours and is an Iraq war Veteran – currently he is on staff for the St. Paul’s Foundation for Reconciliation, combating LGBT hatred spreading across the continent of Africa.” 

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News

‘Fascist to the Core’: Trump’s Top General Slams Ex-President as ‘Most Dangerous Person’

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General Mark Milley, one of then-President Donald Trump’s top generals who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the Republican presidential nominee is “fascist to the core” and there is no one in America who has ever posed more of a threat to the nation.

Milley, appointed by Trump in 2019, served as the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Armed Forces until his retirement last year. His remarks appear in Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book, “War,” The Independent reports.

After the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Gen. Milley requested a meeting with incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland, “to urge him to investigate domestic violent extremism and far-right militia movements.”

“According to Woodward, a senior Department of Justice lawyer said at the time that Milley’s sit-down with Garland might have been the first-ever meeting between a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the country’s top civilian law enforcement official. He writes that the general asked for the meeting because he was ‘deeply convinced’ that Trump remained ‘a danger to the country’ even though he had been forced from office after Biden’s election win.

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Later, in March of 2023, Milley spoke directly to Woodward, telling him that “no one has ever been as dangerous to this country” as the former president.

Milley had talked to Woodward about Trump for a previous book, “Peril,” but apparently his concerns had grown stronger since then.

“Do you realize, do you see what this man is?” Milley asked the veteran journalist. “He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country.”

“A fascist to the core,” the General declared.

The Guardian adds that Milley “fears being recalled to uniform and court-martialed should Trump defeat Kamala Harris next month and return to power.”

“He is a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do,” Milley recently “warned former colleagues,” Woodward writes. “He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him.”

Former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon, according to Woodward, has vowed to hold Milley “accountable.”

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In 2021, Woodward’s book “Peril” revealed Milley acted to ensure Trump could not misuse the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

“Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley took steps to prevent then-President Donald Trump from misusing the country’s nuclear arsenal during the last month of his presidency, according to a new book by The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Robert Costa obtained by NBC News,” the news organization had reported.

The book “recounted a phone conversation Milley had with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol, which Pelosi blamed on an ‘unhinged’ Trump. Pelosi said in January that she spoke to Milley about ‘preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.'”

“‘I can guarantee you, you can take it to the bank, that there’ll be, that the nuclear triggers are secure and we’re not going to do — we’re not going to allow anything crazy, illegal, immoral or unethical to happen,’ Milley told her, according to a transcript of the call obtained by the authors.”

“The president alone can order the use of nuclear weapons. But he doesn’t make the decision alone. One person can order it, several people have to launch it.”

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Elon Musk’s X Engaged in a ‘Pattern of Election Interference’ to Help Trump: Reports

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Billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who purchased the social media platform Twitter and renamed it X, is “all in” on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, The New York Times reports. X has “reportedly worked with Donald Trump’s campaign to censor material that could be harmful to the former president’s White House chances as part of a pattern of election interference that is unprecedented in U.S. history,” according to The Daily Beast.

Musk, The Times reports, “seen over the weekend jumping for joy alongside former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., is now talking to the Republican candidate multiple times a week.”

Video (below) shows Musk wore a black “Make America Great Again” cap with the words “Never Surrender” embroidered on the side and praising the ex-president’s actions during the attempted assassination.

The relationship between Musk and Trump “has proved significant in other ways. After a reporter’s publication of hacked Trump campaign information last month, the campaign connected with X to prevent the circulation of links to the material on the platform, according to two people with knowledge of the events. X eventually blocked links to the material and suspended the reporter’s account.”

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The reporter, Ken Klippenstein, whose work often focuses on national security issues, published the document because “it’s of keen public interest in an election season.”

Klippenstein last month called his ban “political,” and wrote: “It’s been widely reported that my suspension from X (Twitter) is only temporary. Those reports are false. My ban from X, the company says, is permanent.”

The New York Times’ Aric Toler writes: “Trump’s campaign worked with Musk/Twitter to implement a blanket ban on sharing the link to the Vance dossier.” NBC News’ Kevin Collier adds, “Per NYT, X’s crackdown on Ken Klippenstein and the Iran-hacked Vance doc came after the Trump campaign reached out. Well within each party’s right, but this is the exact same thing Musk, Trump, and the right threw a yearslong fit about over Hunter Biden.”

Journalist Steve Mullis notes, “It’s crazy that this is a single paragraph in the NYT’s Elon Musk story. Given that there were congressional hearings accusing Biden and Democrats of doing this sort of thing, this should be its own huge story.”

Musk, The Times adds, “has effectively moved his base of operations to Pennsylvania, the place that he has recently told confidants he believes is the linchpin to Mr. Trump’s re-election,” and “relentlessly promoted Mr. Trump’s candidacy to his 201 million followers on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter that he bought for $44 billion and has used to spread conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party and to insult its candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The Times’ article ends with this: “Online, Mr. Musk has painted a dark picture of what would happen if Mr. Trump lost, a circumstance that could hurt Mr. Musk personally. In an interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, he acknowledged ‘trashing Kamala nonstop’ and being all in for Mr. Trump.”

“If Mr. Trump loses, he joked, ‘how long do you think my prison sentence is going to be?'”

Democratic strategist Matt McDermott writes, “Doesn’t seem to be enough appreciation for the fact that it’s entirely reasonable to assume that Elon Musk is going all in on Trump because he’s worried about a federal probe into corporate corruption + election interference and knows Trump will shut down an investigation.”

The Times notes that Musk “is personally steering the actions of a super PAC that he has funded with tens of millions of dollars to turn out the vote for Mr. Trump, not just in Pennsylvania but across the country. He has even proposed taking a campaign bus tour across Pennsylvania and knocking on doors himself, in part to see how his money is being used.”

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The Times does not include news from August related to Musk’s super PAC, America PAC.

Attorney Jay Kuo alleged on Substack, “Elon Musk’s PAC Is Harvesting Voter Data.”

“The America PAC is using fraudulent techniques to obtain highly personal information from voters in swing states,” Kuo wrote, pointing to a CNBC “explosive report on how Elon Musk’s America PAC is defrauding voters through online ads. As the report explained, Musk’s Trump-aligned PAC is running a scheme that pretends to register people to vote. But in many cases, the PAC simply collects higher personal information from users that it can later use to retarget them.”

According to The Washington Post, some of Musk’s foreign backers in his $44 billion purchase of Twitter include Billionaire investor Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud ($2 billion) and The Qatar Investment Authority ($375 million). Buzzfeed News in 2022 referred to them as “countries that have historically restricted freedom of speech.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

“What’s even more telling is that America PAC only collects this personal information from users residing in swing states, such as Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina. For anyone else, it actually does assist them with registering to vote,” Kuo wrote. “It’s possible that America PAC simply ‘messed up’ badly by forgetting to actually redirect users in swing states to voter registration sites after scraping their personal information. In so doing, however, it has made it abundantly clear that it treats swing state users very differently than non-swing state ones. In exposing its own operations this way, it has raised a more troubling question: Is Musk involved in improper data harvesting and planning to improperly influence the election, just like we saw in 2016?”

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Trump Campaign an ‘Influence Operation’ Says Former State Dept. Official — Experts Agree

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A prominent former U.S. State Department official who worked to fight Russian disinformation has labeled the Trump presidential campaign an “influence operation,” with several experts echoing his assessment.

Richard Stengel, an NBC News/MSNBC analyst who spent seven years as TIME magazine managing editor and served as the chief executive of the National Constitution Center, on Thursday shared his evaluation.

“The Trump candidacy is not so much a political campaign as what intelligence services call an influence operation, a coordinated effort to use mis-and-disinformation to undermine democratic institutions and processes,” declared Stengel.

Stengel, who served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, is the author of the 2019 memoir, “Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About It.”

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Stengel’s comment received hundreds of thousands of views on social media, and garnered responses from experts.

“This is correct,” replied Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the well-known professor of history and an expert on fascism, authoritarians, propaganda, and democracy.

“True,” asserted Eric Chenoweth, Director of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe, adding, “it is correlated with Russian influence operations.”

“The Trump effort has the support of his BFF Putin, who has paid agents in the US as social ‘influencers’ to help promote Russia’s pro-Trump narrative,” noted former U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo, Greg Delawie.

Indeed, early last month the U.S. Dept. of Justice announced it had seized “32 internet domains used in Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns,” which “used these domains, among others, to covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine, bolstering pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections, including the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election.”

Days later, MSNBC’s Ja’han Jones reported, “MAGA influencers are scrambling after the DOJ’s Russia indictment,” and mentioned “an unsealed affidavit … alleging a Kremlin-backed agency had nearly 600 U.S.-based influencers in its sights as it waged an online-based election manipulation operation in the United States.”

The Washington Spectator’s Dave Troy, an investigative journalist and tech entrepreneur who has written extensively on Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, responded to Stengel’s post: “Yes. And this would have been a very cool thing for the Obama administration to say in 2015-2016.”

Dr. Joanne Freeman, a professor of American history and of American studies, replied to Stengel’s post with a simple “YUP.”

Stengel’s pronouncement wasn’t so much a revelation as a reminder.

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Earlier this week, David Corn, Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief and co-author of “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump,” penned an important piece titled: “Trump Is Running a Disinformation Campaign, Not a Political Campaign.”

“He’s not just lying. He’s creating an alternative reality,” Corn states. “His campaign is a full-fledged project to pervert how Americans view the nation and the world, an extensive propaganda campaign designed to fire up fears and intensify anxieties that Trump can then exploit to collect votes. And the political media world has yet to come to terms with the fact that Trump is heading a disinformation crusade more likely to be found in an authoritarian state than a vibrant democracy. This is unlike other presidential campaigns in modern American history—other than his own previous efforts.”

Even before Donald Trump left the White House in disgrace in January of 2021, experts were busy analyzing just how damaging his time on office then had been.

The day after the November 2020 election which Trump ultimately lost but falsely had declared victory, The Washington Post‘s Dan Balz wrote: “Trump has attacked democracy’s institutions, but never so blatantly as he did overnight.”

“For four years, President Trump has sought to undermine the institutions of a democratic society, but never so blatantly as in the early morning hours of Wednesday. His attempt to falsely claim victory and to subvert the election itself by calling for a halt to vote-counting represents the gravest of threats to the stability of the country,” Balz wrote. “A president who respected the Constitution would let things play out. But Trump has shown once again he cares not about the Constitution or the stability and well-being of the country or anything like that. He cares only about himself and retaining the powers he now holds. And so he cries “fraud” when there is no evidence whatsoever of any such thing.”

The Niskanen Center, a D.C. think tank, one week before the violent and deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection Trump allegedly incited, asked: “How Much Did Trump Undermine U.S. Democracy?

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