Casper Smart & Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez and Casper Smart are FURIOUS over reports Casper was “caught” in a “gay sex club” and an exotic massage parlor … and now they’re threatening to sue … claiming the stories are pure BS.
TMZ has learned … the couple’s high-powered attorneys, Shawn Holley and Howard Weitzman, have teamed up and fired off letters to Star Magazine and In Touch … warning them the “reports” are “false, malicious and defamatory” and will cause “immense damage” to the couple’s careers and reputations.
The reports include photographs of Casper outside a XXX peep show in NYC back in July — Star claims the shop is a “well-known cruising spot for gay men looking for instant hookups.”
In Touch claims Casper was “caught” with an “exotic masseuse.”
In their letters, the lawyers have each demanded the mags print a full retraction … warning Smart and Lopez will “immediately file a lawsuit” if the magazines fail to do so.
from TMZ

You may have missed this story in the flock of news reports surrounding the ongoing Chick-fil-A controversy but Amtrak is taking a stand and marketing directly to the gay market when other companies are alienating themselves from the demographic.
“Ride with Pride” is the slogan Amtrak is using to promote gay family travel by rail this season. Two ads begin with the title “Priceless Family Moments are Now Affordable” and feature gay families traveling within a train car. One ad features a male parents and the other female.
The ad most recently follows Target’s attempt at marketing to gay couples and families using the slogan “Be Yourself, Together.” announcing their acceptance of gay couples into the company’s wedding registry.
Amtrak hopes that the ad will lure gay families and leisure seekers especially since children ages two through fifteen travel at 50% off.
from The Examiner

Jeana Terry

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MISSOURI – Three children from the same family are in juvenile custody after allegedly attacking a Missouri woman, and the victim believes she was targeted because she is gay.
The Southeast Missourian reports that Jeana Terry, 41, and her partner Lisa Lange were inside their home July 24 when a 16-year-old girl who lives nearby allegedly began shouting anti-gay slurs. The girl then allegedly gathered her 13-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother, went to Terry’s porch and pulled her outside when she came to the door, according to authorities.
“Once I was down, it was pure chaos,” Terry said, describing being repeatedly kicked and hit.
Lange called 911, then ran out to help free Terry from the fight.
“They were kicking, stomping and beating the hell out of her,” neighbor Mima Poole said.
Terry said she may need eye surgery and still suffers from bruising, nausea and dizziness.
The children’s mother told the newspaper that Terry and Lange started the fight.
“My oldest daughter was outside on her phone with a friend, and they (Terry and Lange) heard her say something about `gay,’” the mother said, “then they started yelling at her.”
The Associated Press is not identifying the mother so as not to identify the children, who remain in juvenile custody.
The mother said her daughter then went to her aunt’s house and told her younger brother about the incident. The two siblings returned together to the street in front of the house. She said the couple came outside and began arguing with the children.
The two younger children pleaded guilty to trespassing and second-degree assault at a juvenile hearing and will be released from custody soon, the mother said.
The 16-year-old could face assault and burglary charges, and perhaps be charged with a hate crime charge. It hasn’t been determined if she will be tried as an adult. Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Morley Swingle did respond to interview requests.
Terry and Lange said that perhaps they shouldn’t have responded verbally to the taunts, but they felt enough was enough.
“Before now we’d always just bite our tongue, but you can’t just brush it off forever. You can only take it for so long,” Terry said.
from The Associated Press
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Who would have guessed that a pretty unremarkable fried chicken sandwich would become a proxy in the battle over gay marriage?
Chicken sandwich lovers who oppose gay marriage have turned out in force to support Chick-fil-A, the restaurant chain whose chief executive has made headlines for his antipathy toward same-sex marriage. Photographs show long lines at outlets around the country.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee came up with the idea for today’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, moved by the calls of gay marriage supporters for a boycott after the company’s president, Dan Cathy, told a Christian publication recently that his company supports “the biblical definition of the family unit.”
As you might expect for an uproar that has its roots in a food business, the controversy has been many-pronged.
The Jim Henson Co. pulled out of a deal with the fast-food chain to create toys for its children’s meals. Liberal politicians declared that Chick-Fil-A was not welcome on their turf. The Human Rights Campaign said that “Chick-fil-A has an extensive history of discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, including funneling millions to organizations that actively work to deny rights to the LGBT community.” It urged supporters to tweet about the company’s “discriminatory history,” calling it “Chick-Filhate.”
The Huffington Post interviewed anonymous gay Chick-fil-A employees, who said they were upset that customers, believing they were supporting the chain, felt free to disparage homosexuality and gay marriage to them.
In Laguna Hills this morning, The Times’ Tiffany Hsu reported, about 70 young protesters gathered in front of a newly opened Chick-fil-A store and asked customers to go elsewhere for their meals.
Chick-fil-A Appreciation day is part of a boycott backlash that has taken hold among conservatives who oppose gay marriage. Some supporters also believe that a boycott amounts to an infringement on Cathy’s free-speech rights.
As the battle played out at the food counter Wednesday, it has also had a front in the virtual world, with both sides making their feelings known on Twitter.
One popular tweet, by @yoyoha, said: “Look forward to Chick-fil-A introducing their Only Some People are Allowed to Be Happy Meal.”
A tweet by @pastorLeBlanc said: “As I looked at my Chick-fil-A sandwich today, I thought, ‘This is the way God intended it!’ Same thing I think when I look at my marriage.”
Sarah Palin entered the fray when she tweeted a photo of herself with her husband at a Chick-fil-A near Houston, where she gave a speech Friday in support of tea party favorite Ted Cruz, who beat his establishment Republican rival, Lt Gov. David Dewhurst,  in Texas’U.S. Senate primary runoff Tuesday.
In an interview Tuesday night on Fox News, Palin defended Chick-fil-A and accused President Obama of coming out in favor of gay marriage for political reasons.
“The owner of the Chick-fil-A business had merely voiced his personal opinion about supporting traditional definition of marriage: one boy, one girl, falling in love, getting married,” Palin said. “And having voiced support for kind of that cornerstone of all civilization and all religions since the beginning of time, he [is] then basically getting crucified,” she said.
“I’m speaking up for him and his 1st Amendment rights and anybody else who would wish to express their not anti-gay people sentiment, but their support of traditional marriage, which President Obama and Joe Biden, they both supported the exact same thing until just a few months ago, when Obama had to flip-flop to shore up the homosexual voter base.”
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, has urged supporters of gay marriage to participate Friday in “Same-Sex Kiss Day” at Chick-fil-As, then post pictures on social media.
from The Los Angeles Times
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