The top national and world news since last issue you should know

It’s hard to hold your nose and type but this item from Bravo Network about “The Real Housewives of Miami” may be relevant. RHOM is back after eight years and is sporting a Sapphic vibe. An out lesbian housewife, Julia Lemigova, will appear in the show. Lemigova is a former Russian beauty queen and is married to pro-tennis player Martina Navratilova. She is not a glitz, glamour, and Botox beauty like her costars and doesn’t even live in Miami. She runs a small farm outside of Miami where, instead of feeding jealousy and resentments, she feeds chickens and goats. She will join a cast of buffed-up and beautified returning stars from the show eight years ago.

A swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania women’s team continued to smash swimming competition this season. Lia Thomas won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:41.93 at the Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio, breaking the school’s all-time mark and establishing the best time in the nation this season, according to the university. She also won the 1,650 freestyle by more than 38 seconds in 15:59.71 to set another university record. It’s the first season Thomas has competed in swimming meets as a woman. Thomas competed on the men’s team for two full seasons prior to this year. Thomas, who’s competing as a senior after the Ivy League canceled the previous season due to the pandemic, added: “Being trans has not affected my ability to do this sport, and being able to continue is very rewarding.”

The demise of CNN host Chris Cuomo because of revelations of help he gave his brother — resigned New York Gov. Andrew — during the governor’s sexual harassment scandal is a short-term gain for anchor Anderson Cooper. “Cuomo Prime Time” was on in the 9 p.m. slot Monday through Friday, following “Anderson Cooper 360.” Cooper’s broadcast will be expanded, at least temporarily, to cover the Cuomo slot. Another gay man, Don Lemon, will still follow gay darling Cooper’s expanded show. The change may not help CNN’s flagging ratings as Cuomo was ranked 24 in the ratings and the one-hour Cooper show is number 25.

Another nail in the coffin of “gay bar culture” comes with the closing of “Swinging Richards” gay male strip club in Atlanta. The club has operated in Atlanta with spinoffs in other cities for 30 years.

“Swinging Richards” was a fully nude strip club that was open to all, but catered to gay men. COVID administered the coup de grace to the gaybar business after online dating took much of the cruise business away from bars since 2000. In 2011, Swinging Richards expanded to Miami, first locating in North Miami Beach then moving to Pompano Beach. An off-shoot, called “Johnsons,” opened in Wilton Manors, Florida in 2017. A documentary, “All Male, All Nude,” was released in 2017.

It doesn’t pay to be creative, especially if you are a Methodist minister. The Rev. Craig Duke has been a Methodist minister for 30 years, advocating LGBT inclusion in the church along the way. There has recently been a schism in the Methodist Church USA with an LGBT-supporting faction going its own way. The Rev. Duke’s pastoral duties have been terminated in Indiana after he showed his support for LGBT parishioners by appearing in drag alongside prominent drag queens in the HBO reality series “We’re Here.” He performed in a dress, high-heeled boots, a pink wig, and heavy makeup. He did it, he said, in support of his daughter, who identifies as pansexual. Some congregants took exception to his surprise appearance and moved for his dismissal. One email said, “Satan must be pleased with the discord.”

The letter of dismissal said Duke’s actions had “polarized” the congregation, but none of those actions constituted formal violations of UMC’s Book of Discipline, the legal code for Methodist clergy.

A lawsuit by former Minnesota middle school principal Mary Kay Thomas, says she was removed from her position for displaying an LGBTQ+ Pride flag. She refused to remove the flag from a display of 30 flags of marginalized populations including indigenous tribal flags and an autism flag. Her suit claims the district attempted to get her to quit by removing her as middle-school principal, assigning her to a demeaning ‘special projects’ position, and putting her on a humiliating year-long performance improvement plan.

Danielle Neuschwanger, a candidate running in next year’s Colorado gubernatorial Republican primary, made bizarre and false claims about the current governor, Jared Polis. In a speech in rural Colorado, she claimed Polis is not really gay, was once married to a woman whom he abused, sexually assaulted a female colleague and Polis is not his real name. The governor hasn’t responded, but there’s no public record of him ever

being married until his recent marriage to Marlon Reis this year. He did legally drop his father’s last name and has gone by his mother’s maiden name since 2000. The assault charge is complicated, but he is listed as the victim on police reports. Neuschwanger also claims Polis is California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s cousin, which he is not. Someone has OD’d on Q-Anon.

Though the U.S. census does not ask questions about LGBT status, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey flogs some info out of the raw data surveys. Human Rights Campaign says the survey reveals that “at least 20 million people in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+.” Out of the country’s 340 million people, that’s less than the Kinsey statistic which posited 10 percent of the population were gay, lesbian, or bisexual. It’s more than the 4.4 percent number HRC has used in the past. California and Texas had the largest number of LGBTQ+ residents with 2.6 million and 1.7 million respectively. Two percent of the 20 million said their sexual orientation was not gay, lesbian, bisexual, or straight. That number could include those who identify as pansexual, asexual, or other designation.

As if there weren’t enough blank profiles on Grindr, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority says the dating app shared profile data to advertisers without the informed consent of users. GDPR fined the APP owners 6.5 million euros (about US$7 million). Grindr’s reselling of user data is not spelled out in the very well-read terms and conditions document and so data on a user’s sexual proclivity has been sold to advertisers without the user’s consent. The Norwegian Consumer Council busted Grindr, claiming the app shared GPS location, IP address, advertising ID, age, gender, and the fact that the user was on Grindr. There was no mention in the complaint of preferred pronouns or if “the door is unlocked” and the user was “ass up.” The GDPR found this practice particularly intrusive because data about a person’s sexual orientation constitutes special category data receiving enhanced protection.

Chile approved a landmark law allowing same-sex marriage in the historically Catholic country. The legislation, overwhelmingly approved by parliament, also enables gay couples to adopt children. President Sebastián Piñera vowed to push the legislation through parliament during his annual State of the Union address in June this year. It has been criticized by members of his conservative coalition. Chile’s LGBT community has long pushed for the law, which has been stalled by Congress since 2017. —MA