News Round-Up: May 18, 2018

(image via Instagram/Andrew Serkin)

Some news items you might have missed:

• I know its Friday, folks, but the rules are you have to finish your chores (above) before you get to have fun...

• Land Rover took back their sponsored car from rugby star Israel Folau over his anti-LGBT comments saying gay people will go to hell if they don’t “repent of their sins and turn to God.”

• Bill Gates shared with a crowd at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation meeting that Donald Trump twice asked him if there was a difference between HIV and HPV. “He wanted to know if there was a difference between HIV and HPV,” Gates said of Trump. “So I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other.”

Exclusive footage obtained by All In... Bill Gates dishes on his meetings with Donald Trump. More tonight at 8PM ET. #inners pic.twitter.com/Zoehj1WTfk

— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) May 17, 2018

• Alabama’s only openly gay state legislator, State Rep. Patricia Todd, has had a job offer rescinded from an LGBT non-profit after she publicly announcing Republican Gov. Kay Ivey is a closeted lesbian.

• This "straight" prison guard was found guilty of repeatedly having sex with 3 prisoners and now faces up to 125 years in jail himself.

• The Peace Corps is removing gay men from the organization who test positive for HIV.

• Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer has signed anti-LGBT adoption legislation making his state the latest to enact a “religious freedom” law enabling taxpayer-funded agencies to deny placement into LGBT homes.

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer

Florida Researcher Awarded $6 Million From Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation For HIV/AIDS Vaccine

Professor Michael Farzan, a researcher working with The Scripps Research Institute at Florida Atlantic University, has been awarded nearly $6 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to further develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine over the next four years.

Via University Press:

“I’m grateful to the Gates Foundation for its strong support of our research and for its continued commitment to eradicating HIV/AIDS throughout the world,” Farzan said in the news release.

The vaccine causes muscle tissue to release proteins that attach to the virus and trick it into thinking it bonded to a human cell. It then floats through the bloodstream, harmless and unable to reproduce. After receiving the vaccine, lab animals were protected from the HIV infection for up to a year.

New Boys Scouts president Bill Gates would include openly gay Scoutmasters

Bill Gates, former Secretary of Defense and director of the CIA, is the newly elected president of the Boy Scouts of America.

In one of his first interviews as BSA president, Gates says he would have included openly gay adult Scoutmasters during the organizations debate on gay scouts. But now he says it would be too problematic to revisit the issue at this time.

Via Gay Star News:

‘I was prepared to go further than the decision that was made,’ Gates told the Associated Press the day after he was elected.

‘I would have supported having gay Scoutmasters, but at the same time, I fully accept the decision that was democratically arrived at by 1,500 volunteers from across the entire country.’

Gates went on to say he fears the contentious issue of gay scout leaders may cause bigger divisions within the BSA, and so he does not want to open up the gay debate again.

‘Given the strong feelings — the passion — involved on both sides of this matter, I believe strongly that to re-open the membership issue or try to take last year's decision to the next step would irreparably fracture and perhaps even provoke a formal, permanent split in this movement — with the high likelihood neither side would subsequently survive on its own’ he said.

During his time as Defense Secretary, Gates was instrumental in ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for US Armed Forces.

Bill Gates: Boy Scouts should drop gay scout ban

In an ABC News interview, Bill Gates was asked about what he learned in scouting. He was also asked if the scouts should allow openly gay members,

Q: Should the Boy Scouts of America rescind it's ban on gay members and leaders?

Bill Gates: Absolutely

Q: Why?

Bill Gates: It's 2013

And there you have it...

Washington: Bill Gates makes $500,000 donation to support marriage equality

Bill and Melinda Gates have donated $500,000 to support the approval of Referendum 74, the ballot measure that would put the state's legislatively-passed marriage equality law into effect, the AP reports:

The donation was announced Tuesday by Washington United for Marriage, which is working to approve Referendum 74. The donation was made on Oct. 15, but didn't publicly post online with the Public Disclosure Commission until Tuesday. Referendum 74 asks voters to either approve or reject the law allowing same-sex marriage that was passed by the Legislature earlier this year.

Bill Gates had made a $100,000 contribution to the campaign earlier this year.