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Do Gay Liberals Really Hate Gay Conservatives — Enough To Gay Bash Them?

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Gay conservatives, like LOGO-TV’s Taylor Garrett of the reality show “A-List: Dallas,” along with GOProud co-founders Chris Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia have spent a great deal of time recently attacking gay liberals. Now, it appears, gay conservatives are themselves being attacked — physically — by gay liberals, according to stories they have reported to the media. But the question is being asked, do gay liberals really hate gay conservatives, and do they hate them enough to actually physically gay bash them?

“The Democrats want me to live on their plantation as their slave, because I’m a gay person… And I refuse to do that,” Taylor Garrett said, in an exclusive report he gave to Tucker Carlson’s “The Daily Caller.” Reporter Alex Pappas adds that Garrett “was punched to the ground and bloodied Friday night by someone vandalizing his car because he’s a gay conservative associated with commentator Ann Coulter,” and writes that Garrett “was attacked outside a birthday party in Dallas after finding a vandal scratching ‘F–k Coulter’ on the side of his car.”

This is the second time Garrett says he’s been the victim of an anti-conservative attack by a liberal.

Towleroad’s Brandon K. Thorp, in, “Gay TV Star Taylor Garrett Victim Of Anti-Republican Vandals. Again,” writes that “[a]lmost exactly one month ago, Garrett reported that a rock was thrown through one of his windows by vandals unknown, along with a note which read:

“Who the f*** do you think you are? You are not A-list. More like Z-list. You are nothing but a nelly twink trying to get attention by calling yourself a republican. You are nothing but an embarassment to the gay community. Watch your back you pathetic mother f***ing twink.”

Thorp notes that the “timbre of that message is not dissimilar to the one Garrett’s Friday assailant allegedly carved into his car, and adds, “After last month’s rock-throwing incident, it was widely speculated (including here at Towleroad) that Garrett had staged the vandalism to boost publicity for his show.”

Not everyone in the LGBT blogosphere is quite as delicate about Garrett’s assault reports.

Will Kohler at Back 2 Stonewall is quick to repeatedly state, “IF this is true, its a horrible thing. and of course we denounce it as anyone in their right mind should.  Physical violence should never be used against anyone. ” But Kohler also prods, “the question remains. Is Taylor Garrett and GOProud turning into ‘The Boy’s Who Call HomoCon Hate Crimes’?”

But this time once again there are many strange aspects to Garrett’s claim.

Garret claims that “”(he) went out to his car to get a birthday present that he left in it and a large man stood up and decked him in his left eye. Garrett fell to the ground. He also scraped up his body by falling into some glass that was next to his car”. But The Daily Caller claims that the pictures that they have, (and that they did not originally publish with the article) show “Garrett with a bloody ear and blood covering his white shirt.”

After initially reading about the “incident”  last night and Garrett’s claims, I checked  Garrett’s Twitter account as well as both Jimmy LaSalvia’s and Chris Barron’s of GOProud.  Garrett hadn’t tweeted in 24 hours, and LaSalvia and Barron had both only tweeted once about what had happened to Garrett and that was HOURS AFTER  The Daily Caller printed the story which is very unlike them.  And The Caller is also coincidentally where Chris Barron wrote an article called the “Gay Gestapo” just the day before whining about the intolerance of the “gay left.”

At this point who knows what to believe and I leave it up to you.

On Twitter, Kohler also writes, “Taylor Garrett of the A List: Dallas & #GOProud is this generations HomoCon version of Tawana Brawley.”

And London’s Daily Mail adds that “critics have claimed that Garrett staged the incident in an attempt to collect media attention.”

The Dallas Voice earlier this month profiled Jimmy LaSalvia, and his thoughts on the first Taylor Garrett incident:

As executive director of the national gay conservative (or “homocon”) group GOProud, LaSalvia said he’s grown accustomed to attacks from what he calls “the gay left.”

“The gay left is the most hateful, intolerant, disgusting group of people I’ve ever come across in my lifetime, and everything we do is criticized by them,” LaSalvia told Dallas Voice. “They hate gay conservatives more than anything in the world, and I don’t know why. It’s just a matter of time before violence like that happens.”

Coincidentally — or not, depending on who you believe — LaSalvia had lunch with Garrett in Los Angeles just prior to the rock-throwing incident being reported.

They were joined by conservative pundit Ann Coulter — who serves as honorary chair of GOProud’s Advisory Council — and Logo filmed the rendezvous for an upcoming episode of The A-List.

The timing led some in the gay blogosphere to suggest that LaSalvia put Garrett up to falsifying his report about the rock, which allegedly shattered a window at his apartment in the Dallas Design District — perhaps to generate hype prior to the premiere of the show.

Garrett is not the only gay conservative who says he’s been the victim of hate crime — from gays or straights. GOProud co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia himself in July said he was attacked in Washington, D.C. by a group of teens, one of whom yelled, “fucking faggot!”

“The attacker and a few of the others with him ‘puffed up their chests and were clearly ready to continue the attack’,” the Washington Blade reported LaSalvia told them. “But seconds later, the group fled the scene after he kept his hand inside his backpack, ‘allowing them to wonder if I was reaching for a gun’.”

LaSalvia used the incident to rail against hate crime legislation and gun regulation in the mainstream and LGBT press.

LaSalvia, and fellow GOProud co-founder Chris Barron have spent a lot of time in the mainstream and LGBT press also railing against gay liberals, and on social media sites like Twitter as well.

And while Chris Barron’s anti-gay-Left screeds on Twitter are frequent, for no apparent reason LaSalvia earlier this year lashed out at me, for no apparent reason, writing via Twitter, “the gay-left is the most hateful intolerant group in the country…it’s nothing new, just the way they are.”

Blogger Joe Jervis, aka Joe.My. God., has done an excellent job of documenting the GOProud group’s incessant attacks on the Left. Just search his blog for Chris Barron or Jimmy LaSalvia and you’ll see. Here one example from June 2, 2011:

“Let’s be honest, the left doesn’t hate me because I am mean or brash or too aggressive – the same label can be applied to many of my critics. No, the left hates me because I have the audacity to stand up to them. They hate me because I am a conservative who happens to be gay. They hate me because I won’t be bullied by them. They hate me because I have dared to wander off the liberal plantation, because I refuse to play the victim card, and because I have rejected their failed big government agenda. So if the left is looking for an apology for things I say on twitter or the things I write on my blog or for statements I make on TV, they won’t get one. Indeed, they can expect more of the same.” – GOProud chairman Chris Barron, writing on his personal blog.

Additionally, Towleroad quotes Chris Barron late last week, discussing the Brett Ratner Oscars issue:

“Instead of agreeing to be sent to GLAAD’s re-education camp, Ratner should have stood up to the gay Gestapo. He apologized for what he said, he admitted it was stupid, and agreeing to become the latest pawn in GLAAD’s never-ending ideological warfare is akin to negotiating with terrorists. Every time Ratner or another Hollywood idiot gives into GLAAD, they are simply encouraging GLAAD to continue its partisan jihad.”

And make no mistake. There are LGBT allies and supporters on the Right who are critical of the GOProud group as well.

Back in May, Pam Spalding of Pam’s House Blend posted a guest blog by Ron Hill of Republicans 4 Freedom. Hill writes a long screed against GOProud, which includes these comments:

GOProud seems to be in favor of everything conservative while also ignoring (or at least, strongly downplaying) anything related to human rights for GLBT Americans.

I also find GOProud’s support of Ann Coulter and Donald Trump disappointing, particularly when Ms. Coulter is part of the problem with her toxic rhetoric rather than being part of the solution. She contributes nothing to enlighten debate and apparently exist to throw verbal grenades to the cheers of her hyper-partisan readers.

Honorable ladies and honorable gentlemen should be able to disagree without being disagreeable – and this goes for gay activist on both the left and on the right.

GOProud’s criticism of liberal gay activist is both unnecessary and distasteful – it also makes it hard to focus on the real enemies of freedom. My quarrel is not with liberal activist who are also agitating for my freedom – and I will work with them if it will help secure freedom for all Americans.

But GOProud has not been behaving like civilized people. GOProud’s Chris Barron once tweeted “The Gay Left = The American Taliban. Hateful, angry and dumb as shit.” Chris Barron has also tweeted personal insults about fellow pro-gay rights conservatives Andrew Sullivan and Meghan McCain.

Chris Barron has become a serious liability to GOProud’s being accepted as a legitimate, credible, professional organization. It’s time for Mr. Barron to go. GOProud is in need of a serious reorganization. One simply cannot build coalitions when someone is tweeting personal attacks on our natural allies in the struggle for equality.

 

Lastly, one comment: Isn’t it a shame that two minorities, gay conservatives and gay liberals, can’t find common ground and work together on issues that affect both groups? Sadly, when one of those groups include GOProud, that seems impossible. Their initial, default conversation piece is always attacking the gay Left, as evidenced in this video. How long does it take Chris Barron to go after the gay Left, which has little to do with the topic at hand?

 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=mfXH1DovoHQ%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US

 

The Log Cabin Republicans have done a far better job of building coalitions.

So, does the gay Left, do gay Democrats and liberals and progressives, really hate gay conservatives, gay Republicans, and do they hate them enough to gay bash them? Perhaps that’s an answer for law enforcement officials to determine.

There certainly do appear, however, to be more attacks proudly hurled at the gay Left from the gay Right than from the gay Left at the gay Right.

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‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons

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The Trump administration reportedly has plans to scrape your private medical data from sources like your doctor, your pharmacy, your insurance company, the lab that processes your bloodwork, your smartwatch, and your fitness apps—to create a “registry” of people with autism.

“The National Institutes of Health is amassing private medical records from a number of federal and commercial databases to give to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new effort to study autism,” CBS News reported. “The new data will allow external researchers picked for Kennedy’s autism studies to study ‘comprehensive’ patient data with ‘broad coverage’ of the U.S. population for the first time, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said.”

CBS also adds that “a new disease registry is being launched to track Americans with autism, which will be integrated into the data. Advocacy groups and experts have called out Kennedy for describing autism as a ‘preventable disease,’ which they say is stigmatizing and unfounded.”

“By bringing the data into one place,” Bhattacharya “said it could give health agencies a window into ‘real-time health monitoring’ on Americans for studying other health problems too.”

“What we’re proposing is a transformative real-world data initiative, which aims to provide a robust and secure computational data platform for chronic disease and autism research,” he said.

READ MORE: Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment

Critics warn that a registry of people with autism poses great privacy and health risks, while others wonder about HIPAA violations—especially in light of what some say is Secretary Kennedy’s apparent bias against autism and people on the spectrum.

Last week, Secretary Kennedy’s remarks about children with autism drew intense fire.

“This is an individual tragedy,” Kennedy declared (video below). “Autism destroys families. And more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which our children. These are children who should not be, who should not be suffering like this. These are kids who, many of them, were fully functional, and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they’re two years old.”

“And these are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. And we have to recognize we are doing this to our children,” he alleged, to widespread criticism.

“How are they going to collect all this data without violating HIPAA laws and privacy protection?” Dr. Joel Shulkin asked, as The Daily Dot reported. “How are they going to de-identify all the data so that it cannot be misused against people who are involved in it? And what are they planning to do with that data once they finish their so-called study?”

ASAN, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, warned: “There is no indication that autistic people whose data is being taken would be afforded any say in whether their data is used or what it is used for. This raises significant moral, legal, and practical concerns. People have a right to decide what is done with data about their health. Unethical science is bad science.”

“Medical data can also easily be manipulated by unscrupulous researchers to create the appearance of causation where it does not exist,” ASAN added. “This has already happened this year with an anti-vaccine ‘study’ about autism that RFK Jr. approvingly cited during his confirmation hearing. The study, which was not published in a reputable scientific journal and did not go through peer review, used Medicaid data from Florida to show that children who had doctors visits to receive vaccinations were statistically more likely to also have doctors visits to receive care for autism.”

And the National Consumers League warns that “RFK Jr.’s autism study will pull private medical records, pharmacy data, insurance claims—even data from your fitness tracker—all under the banner of a flawed and stigmatizing narrative that autism is a ‘preventable disease.’ This kind of data grab raises serious questions about privacy, consent, and how personal health info could be misused in the name of speculative science.”

“RFK Jr.’s proposed national autism registry is straight-up dystopian,” declared Democratic strategist Chris D. Jackson. “Centralizing private medical data—from pharmacies, labs, fitness trackers, even veterans—and handing it to third parties? That’s not research. That’s surveillance. Let’s be clear: this echoes the darkest chapters of history, when regimes like Nazi Germany used medical registries to target and dehumanize vulnerable populations.”

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

“And calling autism a ‘preventable tragedy’? That’s not science—it’s dangerous, ableist propaganda. Autistic people deserve respect, not to be tracked, labeled, or erased.”

Dr. Kristin Lyerly, who hosts The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show, wrote: “I am very concerned about this effort for so many reasons, including health privacy and respect for people and families living with autism. This reeks of eugenics.”

“First RFK Jr says that people on the autism spectrum are useless eaters,” noted Yale Professor of History Timothy Snyder, an expert on authoritarianism. “And then he announces that the government is going to make a list of them, a ‘registry.'”

Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali, like many social media users, wrote: “Nazis did registries by the way.”

Fred Wellman, a West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School graduate, an Army veteran of 22 years who served four combat tours, and now a political consultant and the host of the podcast “On Democracy,” blasted the Trump administration:

“RFK Jr. wants to create a national registry of people with autism. The Admin wants to increase baby supply with a motherhood medal. Trump wants to deport US citizens to a third world gulag. They formed an Anti-Christian Bias Task Force to prosecute people for their speech. A White House advisor is floating arresting Americans for speaking in support of immigrants as terror supporters. Does this all sound familiar?”

Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic Instructor Alejandra Caraballo warned: “This won’t be limited to just autism. They’re building the panopticon to track anyone with any ‘undesirable’ illness. This is eugenics, full stop.”

Fred Guttenberg, an anti-gun violence activist who lost his daughter in the Parkland mass school shooting, wrote: “Help me understand how these lunatics who spent years fighting me on gun safety & used the idea of a government registry to create fear, now believe in a government registry to track people with autism. Everything they say is a lie, & everything they do is designed to hurt people.”

A user on the social media platform X posted this response:

 

“I’m autistic And when I heard RFK Jr. wants a government registry to track people like me using private medical records I didn’t think ‘safety’ I thought Nazi Germany A roundup’s of disabled people Because I know history And I know exactly what comes after the list is made This isn’t about health This is about control It’s about fear It’s about marking people People like me Neurodivergent people Different people Don’t dress it up as policy This is how roundups begin You want to stop autism discrimination? Start by not creating a fucking list.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

 

Image via Shutterstock

 

 

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Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment

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President Donald Trump announced he will be sitting for an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic who was erroneously included in a group chat about military strikes in Yemen and subsequently broke the SignalGate story.

Trump suggested he agreed to the interview with Goldberg and two other reporters because of the supposed title of the proposed article: “The Most Consequential President of this Century.” And while there have only been four presidents this century, including himself, Trump appeared happy to indulge the reporters in exchange for the compliment.

“Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on ‘Suckers and Losers’ and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat more ‘successful’ with,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

“Jeffrey is bringing with him Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, not exactly pro-Trump writers, either, to put it mildly! The story they are writing, they have told my representatives, will be entitled, ‘The Most Consequential President of this Century.’ I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful.’ Are they capable of writing a fair story on ‘TRUMP’? The way I look at it, what can be so bad – I WON!”

Despite Trump’s dismissals, the “suckers and losers” stories were well-documented, fact-based reporting, as was the SignalGate story.

Finance journalist James Surowiecki of Fast Company and The Atlantic, writes, “This may be my favorite Trump tweet ever – it’s him in a nutshell. He attacks Jeff Goldberg, and complains about The Atlantic. But of course he’s going to do the interview, because he can’t resist being the focus of attention, and being labeled ‘The Most Consequential President.'”

READ MORE: Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs

Yahoo Finance’s Jordan Weissmann adds, “Trump grudgingly admitting Goldberg was ‘somewhat more successful’ with SignalGate is one of the funniest ‘OK, you got us there’ moments I’ve ever seen.”

Earlier this month Goldberg, speaking about his SignalGate article and Trump, said: “I’m not going to be bullied, because there’s no end to the bullying if you agree to be bullied in the first place. If there are consequences to not bending, fine.”

“It beats selling your soul.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

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With seemingly near-daily revelations about U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s alleged—and potentially unlawfulleaks of classified or sensitive information, concerns over his leadership, judgment, and efforts to reshape the Department of Defense, pressure for his resignation or removal and even prosecution is rapidly intensifying.

Hegseth, confirmed by the narrowest of margins (51-50), is one of the youngest (44) Defense Secretaries, and had already been one of the most controversial. His Senate hearings were flooded with allegations and questions about sexual assault, use of alcohol, infidelities, position on women in combat, previous alleged poor leadership and financial mismanagement at several small nonprofits, and general lack of experience—sans his weekend gig as a Fox News host.

Hegseth’s repeated use of the insecure messaging app Signal on his cellphone, from which he reportedly shared sensitive and classified military strike secrets—in at least two separate instances, including one with his wife, brother, and personal attorney—alone, some say, should have led to his firing and prosecution.

“If a ‘regular’ clearance holder did this, almost assuredly they would lose their security clearance,” remarked national security attorney Mark Zaid, pointing to this NBC News report. “Given it is literally imminent military strike planning, not inconceivable prosecution would be on the table. In normal times. This ain’t that.”

READ MORE: Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs

More recent news that he directed to have Signal installed on his Defense Department computer, that he spent thousands in Pentagon funds to construct a “makeup room” for TV spots, that his security credentials, including personal cell phone number, email address and password, and WhatsApp account were posted on the dark web, and the “disarray” in his inner circle, have served to strengthen the calls for his firing, resignation, or prosecution—and continued downplaying by the Trump administration.

“President Donald Trump is unlikely to dismiss Hegseth and has spoken to him twice since The New York Times and CNN reported on the second Signal group on Sunday night,” CNN reported Wednesday. “In their first call, Trump said he had Hegseth’s back and voiced frustration at ‘leakers’ he said were trying to damage his administration, according to a person familiar with the conversation.”

CNN also reports that “Hegseth’s most trusted advisers are now his wife, his lawyer and his junior military aide, who may soon be appointed his new chief of staff, multiple people familiar with the matter said.” Hegseth’s wife is a former Fox News producer who is not a Pentagon employee. It is “unclear,” the news network reported separately, if she has a security clearance.

“The Pentagon is in ‘total chaos’ and Hegseth is unlikely to remain in his role, according to its former top spokesperson, who painted a scene of dysfunction, backstabbing and continuous missteps at the highest levels of DOD,” Politico Deputy Managing Editor of Global Security Dave Brown reported Sunday evening.

READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

“Chaos in the world’s most lethal fighting force is an open invitation to our enemies,” responded U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a, Iraq War veteran who served in the Marines for over a decade. “Amateur hour with Hegseth. Time to resign.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s denouncement of classified inform action leaking on Wednesday also served to invite anger, upset, and concern over Hegseth’s actions.

“Politicization of our intelligence and leaking classified information puts our nation’s security at risk and must end,” Gabbard, Trump controversial DNI wrote. “Those who leak classified information will be found and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Today, I referred two intelligence community LEAKS to the Department of Justice for criminal referral, with a third criminal referral on its way, which includes the recent illegal leak to the Washington Post. These deep-state criminals leaked classified information for partisan political purposes to undermine POTUS’ agenda. I look forward to working with @TheJusticeDept and @FBI to investigate, terminate and prosecute these criminals.”

The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, the renowned political scientist, commented to Gabbard: “I am looking forward to the time when you refer Pete Hegseth for criminal prosecution.”

Calls for Hegseth’s ouster—one way or another—have flooded social media this week.

“When the Secretary of Defense screws up,” commented U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA), servicemembers’ lives are on the line. Pete Hegseth has shown time and time again he screws up way too much to do this job. He must resign or be fired.”

“The first thing they make you do before going into a classified meeting is to remove your phone,” noted U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), an awarded former U.S. Air Force Colonel in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. “Why? Because phones can be hacked. (Eg look up Pegasus spyware). Hegseth using his personal phone multiple times to reveal combat operations is a dereliction of duty. He must resign.”

“Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent,” wrote U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH). “For our national security and the safety of our troops, Pete Hegseth must resign or be removed from his position.”

“Being the Secretary of Defense is serious business and it’s clear he’s not up to it. Hegseth needs to resign or be fired,” observed U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who served for 25 years in the U.S.Navy, including as a NASA astronaut who spent 54 days in space.

Awarded Iraq War veteran U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a West Point graduate who served as an Army Captain in the Military Intelligence Corps, urged President Trump to fire Hegseth.

“Will Donald Trump, who made his reputation for quote unquote firing people, actually fire this guy and make our country safe again and really support our troops?” Congressman Ryan asked. “That’s what every American should be asking.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

 

Image via Reuters

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