John Reid, the gay Republican nominee for Virginia lieutenant governor, has defended the right of his running mate, current Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, to oppose same-sex marriage — even though he personally disagrees with her on the issue.
Speaking on the conservative talk radio program The Wilkow Majority on SiriusXM, Reid said he and Earle-Sears are “willing to put aside our differences” to support policies they believe are best for Virginia. Host Andrew Wilkow then asked Reid to name an issue on which the two disagree.
“She’s not for gay marriage. She’s 100 percent against it,” Reid said. “You know, she’s from Jamaica, and her religious background tells her a very different narrative than my Episcopalian white-guy Virginia background. I understand!”
He added, “You know, at some point we’ll have to talk about this.”
Although Reid says he personally supports same-sex marriage, he told the Richmond-based Virginia Mercury in June that if elected and called upon to break a tie in the Virginia Senate, he would vote against a bill to approve a referendum allowing same-sex couples to marry.
He argued the proposed amendment “doesn’t provide protection for people who sincerely don’t agree with gay marriage.”
Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban — known as the Marshall-Newman Amendment — was rendered moot in 2014, when a federal judge struck it down as discriminatory and unconstitutional, a ruling later upheld by both an appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015. Still, as long as the amendment remains on the books, if the Supreme Court were ever to reverse its marriage equality ruling, the ban could once again take effect.
Earle-Sears has been vocal about her opposition to LGBTQ rights. Her campaign has focused much of its fire on Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, zeroing in on issues like transgender athletes and restroom access in schools. She has also long opposed same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, and nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ workers, including state employees.
As the Richmond Free Press reported last month, a 2004 candidate questionnaire from Earle-Sears’s unsuccessful run for Congress showed she answered “yes” when asked if she would vote to block same-sex couples from adopting children and oppose workplace protections for gay people. She also agreed with a statement asserting that homosexuality is an “immoral lifestyle choice.”
Reid, previously accused of reposting sexually explicit images on a Tumblr account matching his private Instagram handle, has remained a staunch defender of Earle-Sears — even after she briefly distanced herself when Gov. Glenn Youngkin urged him to drop out of the race over the controversy.
Reid denies any connection to the Tumblr account, which Democrats claim contained Nazi-themed pornography and violent sexual content, according to an investigation by American Journal News.
The candidate supports banning transgender athletes from female sports teams and restricting people to restrooms, locker rooms, and changing areas that match their sex assigned at birth. He also opposes allowing minors to access gender-affirming care, though he says transgender adults should “live their lives as they see fit — but not if they impose restrictions or obligations on others, or if any of their behavior sexualizes or grooms children,” according to his campaign website.
Two pharmacists are suing Walgreens and the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, alleging they were punished for refusing to dispense gender-affirming medications. They are seeking a religious exemption that would allow them to decline filling such prescriptions on moral grounds.
Minnesota law classifies it as unprofessional conduct for a pharmacist to refuse to dispense a valid prescription. Exceptions exist, but only for non-religious reasons, such as doubts about a drug's effectiveness.
State law also permits pharmacists to refuse prescriptions for abortion-inducing drugs. The plaintiffs argue the state should likewise clarify whether pharmacists can decline to dispense gender-affirming medications if doing so conflicts with their belief that gender is binary and fixed at birth, reports Minnesota Lawyer.
The Turning Point USA co-founder, who once declared Pride a “sin” and opposed LGBTQ rights, was killed during a campus event at Utah Valley University.
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed by an assassin's bullet during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
The 31-year-old was the co-founder of Turning Point USA, an organization advocating for conservative politics and education on high school and college campuses.
At the time of the shooting, Kirk, who appeared on campus as part of his "American Comeback Tour," was taking questions from people in the crowd while seated at a "Prove Me Wrong" table in the Sorensen Center courtyard on campus, according to The Associated Press.
Charlie Sheen is opening up about past sexual encounters with men in two upcoming projects -- his memoir The Book of Sheen, out September 9, and the Netflix documentary aka Charlie Sheen, premiering September 10. The Two and a Half Men star gets candid in both about his history of drug use, relationships, and sexual dalliances.
"I flipped the menu over," Sheen says in both the documentary and the book, according to PEOPLE. The actor has previously spoken about his sexual encounters with women during the height of his addiction struggles.
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