Yawar Charlie isn’t kidding. He and husband Jason were among the 33 couples who got married in a very public ceremony featuring Madonna — as well as Queen Latifah, Macklemore, and Mary Lambert — during the 2014 Grammy Awards, broadcast to an estimated 150 million people worldwide. It was a very public coming out for Charlie, who stood out by wearing the traditional garb of a Pakistani Muslim man.
“My mom called and said, ‘Well, everybody knows now,'” Charlie recalls. “It was very touching and heartwarming to get phone calls and emails from people all over the world — from Saudi Arabia to Qatar to Iran.” Many of these strangers conveyed a similar message: Charlie’s wedding “was inspirational to watch, and especially to see someone in traditional clothing.”
Charlie, who grew up in San Francisco as part of “a very strict Muslim” immigrant family, was further encouraged by the largely positive reactions of his broader family and community. “When Jason and I had what I call our friends and family wedding, several months after the Grammys, there was a section of my family that didn’t attend,” he says. “It was very simple, and I realized why they weren’t there and I didn’t make a big deal about it. I said, ‘You know what? I’d rather focus on who is here.’ Again, I wore traditional clothing. We had the traditional aspect to it because I felt that I deserved the same as anybody else getting married in my culture.”
Charlie is returning to the public spotlight of television, this time as a member of the cast of Listing Impossible. The new CNBC weekly reality show centers on a team of top-selling realtors in Los Angeles attempting to sell languishing luxury properties. “A lot of real estate shows are drama-oriented or scripted reality,” Charlie says. “This show is not that. This is about business, and it really truly is an organic unfolding of the process.”
With the show, Charlie becomes the first openly gay South Asian season regular on CNBC. It’s the chance to once again be a positive LGBTQ role model that motivates him most about the show.
“It’s important to see reflections of diversity succeed in a luxury market where you don’t necessarily see that representation on TV,” he says. “I really want to show that someone from the LGBTQ community can be a success in business, in a competitive field, in a major city, and still be their authentic self and still be visible. I think that is the biggest gift that I’ve been given by being on the show.”
Robert Davis pleaded guilty earlier this week to the murder of gay journalist Josh Kruger. He has been sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors claim Davis entered the 39-year-old Kruger's home in Philadelphia's Point Breeze neighborhood last October and shot him seven times before fleeing.
Kruger managed to call for help before stumbling outside his house and collapsing on the sidewalk. He was taken by police to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Earlier this year, Davis waived his right to a preliminary hearing and indicated that he intended to plead guilty to charges related to Kruger's death, as well as to charges of aggravated assault and illegal gun possession for an unrelated incident in which he fired a gun at someone at a SEPTA train platform last September. No one was injured in that incident.
A Missouri Republican seeking the secretary of state's office is leaning into a provocative campaign video designed to portray her as "tough" while trying to simultaneously troll liberals and court conservative voters ahead of her party's primary election on August 6.
Valentina Gomez, a 24-year-old real estate investor, was most recently seen in a campaign video running through St. Louis's Soulard District, a predominantly LGBTQ neighborhood.
In the video, Gomez, wearing a bulletproof Kevlar vest, says, "In America, you can be anything you want. So don't be weak and gay. Stay fucking hard."
A man has been convicted by a San Francisco jury for assaulting and robbing a man he lured to a motel using the gay hookup app Grindr.
Ronald Anthony Silveria, 27, of Fremont, California, was found guilty of first-degree robbery, false imprisonment by violence or menace, identity theft, misdemeanor assault, and false imprisonment.
He potentially faces up to 12 years in prison and will be sentenced on May 22, reports San Francisco CW affiliate KRON4.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins lauded the jury's verdict.
"The jury's verdict holds Mr. Silveria accountable for his despicable crimes," Jenkins said. "My office will always stand with victims of crime and work to ensure there are consequences for criminal behavior."
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