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Gavin Grimm came out as a transgender male six years ago to his classmates at Gloucester High School in Virginia. The Gloucester County School Board retaliated by prohibiting students “with gender identity issues” from using the same common restrooms as other boys and girls.

Instead, Grimm was forced to use an “alternative appropriate private facility.”

Grimm was excluded from using the restroom that confirmed his gender even after undergoing hormone therapy which “altered his bone and muscle structure, deepened his voice, and caused him to grow facial hair.” He also obtained a Virginia state I.D. card and birth certificate that listed his legal sex as male.

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To top it off, the school refused to designate him as a male on his transcripts after he graduated. As a result, whenever Gavin was required to provide a transcript to colleges or potential employers, he had to provide one that misidentified him as “female.”

via Wikimedia Commons

Grimm filed a lawsuit against the school district in 2015 when he was a sophomore claiming that that school’s policy violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. Grimm was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the lawsuit.

The ACLU announced on August 26 that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in favor of Gavin on all his claims and it was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

The case was sent to the Supreme Court, but it declined to review it in June, upholding the lower court ruling. Grimm was awarded $1.3 million in the lawsuit but the entire sum, minus $1, is going toward legal fees paid for by the ACLU.

BREAKING: After seven years of fighting and following the Supreme Court’s decision not to review his many victories… https://t.co/FDWXIgcmRz

— ACLU (@ACLU)
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“It’s absolutely vindication,” Grimm told Insider. “The court found that what they did was wrong and it was discrimination and it was not going to go without consequence, and I think that’s fantastic.”

The decision is a huge win for the LGBTQ community and it will also act as a deterrent for future anti-trans legislation.

“We are glad that this long litigation is finally over and that Gavin has been fully vindicated by the courts, but it should not have taken over six years of expensive litigation to get to this point,” Josh Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement.

“After a year in which state legislatures have introduced an unprecedented number of bills targeting trans youth, we hope that the fee award will give other school boards and lawmakers pause before they use discrimination to score political points,” he continued.

Grimm hopes that the decision will slow the tide of anti-trans legislation cropping up all over the country.

“Their hatred and discrimination is struck down in court over and over again,” he said of lawmakers pushing anti-trans bills. “I hope that they look at this and know that their time is coming to an end.”

Now that Kanye West’s Donda is finally released — whether he approved the final version or not — the armchair critics are emerging with their hot takes in hand. Whether it’s to declare the record awful, worship at the altar of Ye, or refuse to engage with the text, a whole spectrum of responses has emerged, as usual, to the latest Yeezy project. But one thoughtful, long-time Kanye fan has a fairly measured response, and ideas for how to make the record better.

On this morning’s episode of The Breakfast Club, DJ Envy noted that he won’t be listening to the album at all because of Ye’s recent flirtation with supporting the MAGA among us, but Charlamagne Tha God came through with some pretty good, honest insight. “Upon first listen, it was lackluster for me,” he said Charlamagne. “I like the joint with Westwide and Kanye, I like ‘Jesus Lord’ with the LOX and Jay Electronica…. I think if he just scaled the project down, to like 12-13 records, it could be a great album.”

The idea of scaling the project down is likely something plenty of people at the label had in mind, too, and would likely do a lot for its reception. The sheer volume is a dealbreaker, as Charlamagne notes: “But it’s an hour and 48 minutes long, so like Kanye West it can be very exhausting,” he said, noting the music itself sounds older, too. “28 songs with all the part twos, an hour and 48 minutes, it’s too long and it drags to me. And the music sounds kinda dated, man.”

So maybe, Kanye, release an edited version to win fans like Charlamagne back? Check out the full discussion above.

Ted Lasso‘s second season has sparked all kinds of internet discourse over its pacing, direction and just generally whether it’s OK for a show to have nice people doing nice things for each other as the general plot. Some of that talk has been in jest, but the conversations have been fairly consistent in recent days to say the least. But the latest episode of the Apple TV smash hit has some wondering if it’s actually revealed something even more interesting: an unreleased iPhone.

Apple is notorious about its secrecy when it comes to new technology, so the revelation would be a surprise. But a recent scene where Lasso, Keeley, his boss and another character were all eating lunch featured an Apple phone that appeared to lack the latest product’s signature notch. You can see two images of it below.

Apple is certainly known for its product placement in its TV shows, as anyone who watched the first season of The Morning Show can attest. But Lasso, a show where a fake soccer team plays against real soccer teams and was filmed amid a pandemic, makes use of a good amount of CGI to make the show somewhat realistic-looking. So this may just be, well, a fake phone that wasn’t an exact model of a real Apple device. Or a computer-created device that simply doesn’t include all the quirks of the real deal.

Also, given how big a deal Apple makes out of new phone reveals, intentionally sneaking it into a show with little fanfare seems counterintuitive when it comes to marketing. Consider, also, that the phones traditionally get announced in the fall and Lasso‘s second season rollout technically saw it get pushed back a bit when it did not drop Season 2’s first three episodes all at once, as expected during its writing and filming.

In other words, is this a new iPhone reveal? Maybe! But it’s not like we’re getting specs of this bad boy until it’s on a slide above a very sleek stage, so perhaps it’s safe to assume this is a prop problem and not some kind of corporate espionage.

New Orleans and numerous other towns and cities along the gulf coast of Louisiana and Mississippi were devastated this weekend by Hurricane Ida, as the Category 4 storm ripped through the area causing flooding, physical destruction of homes and property, and widespread power outages.

As the storm passed and moved inland, the initial rescue efforts began in the areas that were hit the hardest, like LaPlace, Louisiana, as first responders and citizen groups like the Cajun Navy went out to try and rescue those trapped in their homes from rising floodwaters. In the coming days and weeks, a more full understanding of the devastation the region has faced from the storm will become clearer, but what is known right now is there is lots of work to do and many people who will be in need of significant assistance in rebuilding and recovering from another major hurricane.

On Monday, the New Orleans Pelicans and Saints released a statement offering support for the community and those who have been most effected by the storm, while also launching the Gulf Coast Renewal Fund, which will be seeded first by a $1 million donation from Pelicans and Saints owner Gayle Benson.

We want to do everything within our power to assist those who have been impacted by the storm and have activated our Gulf Coast Renewal Fund, with Gayle Benson making an initial donation of $1 million to support our community throughout Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Those wishing to donate can do so by going to Pelicans.com/hurricaneida. More details on the fund and other initiatives will be provided in the coming days.

The GCRF will allocate funds to local organizations working in the community to help with disaster relief, and they promise more information and details will come soon. The statement also says that the Saints and Pelicans physical facilities, including the Caesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center, sustained only “superficial” damage and the teams have offered up the facilities for any governmental relief efforts, with the Pelicans practice facility being used by FEMA for staging purposes.

Of the various ways to speak the English language, the Scottish dialects are some of the most fascinating to listen to. I’m apparently not alone in this thinking, as TikTok has exploded with Scottish people simply sharing Scottish things with their Scottish brogue and collecting fans hand over fist.

As an American, I don’t always understand what these TikTokers are saying, which is probably why some of them specialize in translating Scottish slang terms into non-Scottish English. But even when there’s no issue understanding, there’s something part-funny, part-sexy about the Scottish accent that gets me every time. If I could pay James McAvoy to read me a bedtime story every night, I would.

In fact, McAvoy shared a bit about his accent in this clip with Stephen Colbert, which was the first time I’d seen a Scot explain that the word “burglary” trips them up.

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James McAvoy Plays Stephen Colbert’s Lightning Round

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Apparently, it’s not just him. There’s a well-known phrase, “purple burglar alarm,” that is notoriously difficult for some Scots to say without tripping over their tongue. And watching some of them try is delightfully entertaining.

Some Scots can’t say “purple burglar alarm”

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It’s literally a tongue twister.

Funny Scotsman Trying To Say ” Purple Burglar Alarm “

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It’s even funny without the “purple.”

Burgalar Alarm

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“Aw, bullocks.”

Purple burglar alarm

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Purple burglar alarm !

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This poor guy can’t even get past “purple.” (Language warning, if you’ve got the wee ones around.)

Funny Scottish man can’t say purple burglar alarm

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The only thing better than a Scot being unable to say “purple burglar alarm” is a Scot who is able to say it because somehow it still sounds like they’re drowning.

Nothing but love for you, Scots! Thanks for the giggles, and please don’t ever stop talking.

There’s definitely no bad blood between Lil Nas X and skating pro Tony Hawk, in case you were concerned. The “Montero” rapper recently shared a few Instagram photos and a TikTok where the two are holding up Hawk’s Liquid Death Mountain Water board and taking turns riding it. “That’s how you skateboard,” Nas says at the end, with the joke clearly being that Hawk was the one doing the heavy lifting.

This comes a week after Lil Nas X called out the double-standards surrounding his infamous “Satan Shoes” compared to Hawk’s limited-edition “Liquid Death” skateboard, which is made with paint that contains Hawk’s actual blood. (As a reminder, the sneakers were also made with real human blood, and, in addition to a public outcry, the rapper actually ended up getting sued by Nike. Not so much with Hawk’s skateboard, however.)

“Now that tony hawk has released skateboards with his blood painted on them, and there was no public outrage, are y’all ready to admit y’all were never actually upset over the blood in the shoes? and maybe u were mad for some other reason?” the “Industry Baby” rapper tweeted last week.

Earlier in the day, Lil Nas X shared his Montero parody of Drake’s meme-fied Certified Lover Boy album art. It’s basically the exact same look, except all the female heads have been replaced with male ones. You know, rather like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior.

Never change, Lil Nas X.

For anyone that logs on to Twitch on September 1, they might be surprised to find it much less active than usual. That is intentional because streamers from all over will be boycotting Twitch for “A Day Off Twitch” in support of marginalized streamers that are facing growing harassment on the platform. A trend called “hate raids” have been increasing across Twitch where waves of people are being sent to active streams and harassing them with hateful messages.

For anyone in need of a refresher, a raid on Twitch is when someone has wrapped up their stream they will send their audience of viewers to a different stream. It’s a way the streaming community supports one another by spreading the wealth. To let the streamer know they are being raided it is usually accompanied by a wave of messages, in their chat, related to the stream everyone is coming from. These hate raids however are not about showing support for one another. It’s targeted harassment and the trend is, unfortunately, becoming more common.

Twitch’s response to the hate raids have so far been to encourage their community to not do this and to request that users report anyone taking part in this. They have said they’re working on a fix, but the response has been slow and many streamers feel that their voices have been going unheard as the hate raids continue.

While it may sound like Twitch is responding to something that is only just now happening, these hate raids have actually been increasing since summertime. One of the first people to call out the hate raids was a streamer named “RekItRaven.” She posted a clip on Twitter of her receiving a string of targeted harassment in her chat. When she did it went viral with others speaking up about how they’ve been receiving similar messages in their streams. Via Waypoint.

“Each account of hate was disgusting and it has become more and more prevalent,” Raven told Waypoint, “so I decided to speak up and so many others did as well.”

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“I think [hate raids] are a fairly large issue especially right now,” Lucia told Waypoint. “It’s a sign that there is a huge uptick in unchecked harassment which is becoming a norm of the platform’s culture.”

With Twitch not responding in a way that streamers find adequate, they are choosing to use their platform in a way to be proactive. While hate raids may be the most recent trend, Twitch is a platform that has been seeing increased harassment on it over the years, especially for streamers who are not straight white men. This boycott on September 1 will be the Twitch community’s response to that increased harassment as they hope to encourage change on the platform and get a stronger response from Twitch.

Unwittingly, Trippie Redd became involved with one of the longest cold wars in hip-hop — the one that continually flares up between Drake and Kanye. With Kanye gearing up to released his ever-evolving Donda project (which he now claims was put out without his approval), and Drake’s long-awaited Certified Lover Boy finally on the horizon, these two have reason to be going at each other again as they vie for the top spot in the genre. Meanwhile, Trippie was just stoked to release his latest album, Trip At Knight with a Drake feature on it.

When the song in question, “Betrayal,” dropped with Drizzy rapping: “All these fools I’m beefin’ that I barely know / Forty-five, forty-four (Burned out), let it go,” he raps, which probably references Kanye’s age of 44, though his other GOOD Music rival, Pusha T, is also 44 years old. “Ye ain’t changin’ shi*t for me, it’s set in stone / Rollin’ stones, heavy stones (PinkGrillz) / Precious stone, let me make my presence known.”

Trippie, however, was completely in the dark as to the significance of the bars. “I thought he was talking about a strap or something, forty-five, forty-four,” he told 92.3 Real in an interview. “I didn’t know what he was talking about. It is what it is.”

At this point, R&B revivalist Summer Walker generates as many headlines for her drama-laced interactions with former beau London Holmes (better known as London on da Track) as she does for her admittedly heartfelt, relatable, commercially successful music. Today, she trended on Twitter after a series of posts on Instagram venting about the former couple’s relationship and current misadventures in co-parenting their newborn baby, including text posts deriding him on her private account @galactawhore and her a nearly eight-minute video on her main account.

In Story on her secondary account, she told fans, “London calling & dm’ing everyone around me cause he BLOCKED talking bout ‘if you care about summer get that n**** away from her.’ So if anything happens to me it was him. Ghetto baby daddy from hell. I be minding my business & NEVER call him unless it’s about the well being of my child. Smh crazy mf. & “that n****” has been raising your child since 2 months cause you ain’t sh*t and wouldn’t help me. You need to stop threating people & tell him thank you, f*ckin weirdo.”

In a later post, she called London “a pathological liar” and “narcissist,” accusing him of gaslighting her and again warning him to stay away from her. She also took on London’s other partners, calling them out for pursuing fights and friction in the face of her attempts to make peace. She broke down the situation in the lengthy video she placed on her own page.

For their part, London and the other women have refuted her claims, with London blaming Summer’s outburst on her “mental health” not being “where it need to be.” His other children’s mothers also dropped their own comments.

It’s beginning to look like the only way to fix this is getting Jada Smith on the phone and all four of these people onto the Red Table Talk. In the meantime, fans are convinced that all the extracurricular drama bodes well for the next album, giving the singer plenty of mess to address with her bluntly honest lyrics.

At this point, there’s no argument about the situation in Afghanistan being a disaster. Yet there’s a lot of finger pointing going on. President Biden has pointed towards the Trump administration’s dealmaking for “peace” that ultimately wasn’t honored. An amped-up Don Jr. can’t stop gloating about the Fall of Kabul on Biden’s watch (and receiving comeuppance). And Don Jr. has claimed that his dad would swoop in like Batman and save everyone, which hasn’t happened, although Blackwater founder Erik Prince has been called “an absolute POS” for charging people $6500 for a ride out of town.

On the die-hard MAGA front, the blame keeps on flying after a U.S. drone strike with fallout, and reports that the Taliban is placing “kill” squads to go after U.S. allies. On that note, Scott Baio, who definitely has “Chachi” in his Twitter bio, tweeted a Fox News headline and tweeted at a handful of celebrity leftists to ask, “Where are you now?” One of those names happened to be 1980s pop sensation Richard Marx, to whom Baio declared, “his is your guy! Where are you now? I’m praying for our military that was killed and those left behind because of your guy. P.S. Trump has nothing to do with this.”

Well, Richard Marx responded. He didn’t defend Biden’s (pretty clearly botched) withdrawal tactics, but he did point out that this is a 20-year war, and no one single U.S. president is to blame. “The shitshow in Afghanistan has lots of multi-administration blame to go around,” Marx tweeted. “When your racist draft-dodging hero was calling our own military servicemen and women ‘losers and suckers’ where the f*ck were you? You disingenuous [redacted] little twerp.”

Baio was all too happy to fire back while addressing Richard as “Dick Marx.” Oh boy. He also retweeted a “sh*tshow” insult.

Marx wasn’t here for it, and he answered the question about what he’s been doing lately: “I’ve been tending to a family tragedy.” Then he added, “Be grateful all you have on your plate right now is tweeting Fox propaganda to people you’ve never met.” Fair enough.