Don’t Be Dumb at Brunch: Kavanaugh’s Roommates Spill Tea While Gay Penguins Become Parents
Happy Sunday! It’s brunch time. Don’t be Dumb. This week we bring you stories about a new building erected in China, a pair of gay penguin parents, the endless Supreme Court hearings and Christians combatting hate. And of course, we have our Whack Job of the Week — see who it is below.
Here are the week’s 5 news stories that’ll keep you looking well-informed at brunch:
Penthouse Penis
Looking for a place to visit? Well, you may want to head to the Chinese province of Guangxi and visit Guangxi New Media Center, a skyscraper that looks exactly like…well, a penis (with balls and all). Even though it’s supposed to resemble the terraced rice paddies of the Chinese countryside, it ‘spurts’ fireworks from the top. No need to surf for porn, if you want your weekly fix — this is hilarious.
Kava-Nah?
If you’re breathing, then you know what went down this week regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. His accuser, Dr. Ford, testified of her alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh and she came across as honest, credible and trustworthy.
We’ll see how this all pans out as Kavanaugh denies the allegations. But what’s interesting is for all his nay-saying about excessive drinking, some friends that remember differently are coming out to set the record straight.
Kavanaugh’s Yale roommate James Roche says that even though he didn’t really socialize much, “I concluded that although Brett was normally reserved, he was a notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time, and that he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk.”
The Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to send his nomination to the full Senate. Retiring GOP Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona has asked for a one-week delay in the final vote so the FBI can investigate. More to come.…
Turn the Other Cheek
A church in St. Petersburg, Florida had its sign vandalized because the church is LGBTQ-affirming. How very “Golden Rule” right? Rather than retaliating or even trying to clean off the spray paint stating “gay pastor,” the church left the graffiti right where it is and next to it placed the message “Love always wins.” Now that is the Christian way.
Oh, they also made sure to add six hearts in the colors of the rainbow (in reference to the LGBTQ flag). Haters can hate and hide… but love will always triumph.
Parenting 101 – From the Penguins
As has been pointed out many times over the years, there is no evidence that LGBTQ parents are inferior to opposite sex couples. In fact, many professionals have said that kids do just as well, if not better, with LGBTQ parents because of the effort it takes for them to have children. But now a pair of gay penguin parents just might be proving that fact.
Two “gay” penguins at a zoo in Denmark “kidnapped” a chick from a straight penguin couple while the chick’s mom was bathing and its dad was ignoring it. Now, we’re not condoning the kidnapping, just pointing out that the gay penguins seemed concerned about the chick and took action by protectively standing with it at their feet.
When its mother began searching, she found her baby with the gay penguins and began cawing aggressively at them. The Denmark zoo gave the gay penguins their own egg to care for — it’ll undoubtedly hatch and grow up to be fabulous.
Whack Job of the Week: First Judicial District Judge Margie Enquist
We had to give this one some thought because, on its face, it might not seem too wacky.
In 2003, Denver-resident Dean LaFleur had a commitment ceremony with his then boyfriend. He was reluctant to do it, but figured it wouldn’t really matter seeing as same-sex marriage wasn’t legal in Colorado. But now, First Judicial District Judge Margie Enquist is saying that LaFleur’s Colorado commitment ceremony constituted a legally binding marriage.
LaFleur has since had to legally divorce his ex-boyfriend and is being forced to pay him four years of spousal support even though Colorado didn’t legalize same-sex marriage until 2014.
Now, before marriage equality was the law of the land, we maybe would’ve welcomed a judge saying we were “legally married.” But knowing how long the Federal government denied the over 1,000 rights associated with marriage to us, this ruling now seems like a slap in the face for all the hard work done on the marriage front. And, the federal government would in no way agree with this judge.
Love wins, yes, but it took a movement and a U.S. Supreme Court decision to make it happen. Saying that our committed relationships were marriages all along erases the real history of what we did and opens a Pandora’s box for more lawsuits from previously committed partners.
