A West Virginia pastor says his food bank has been left without supplies after he refused assistance connected to organizations that support LGBTQ+ people.

Pastor Alvin Christian runs God’s Store House Food Bank in Bluefield, a small city near the border between West Virginia and Virginia.

The organization opened its local location in 2023 and quickly became a significant source of help for families experiencing food insecurity.

Local television station WVVA reported during its first year that between 500 and 800 families could attend a distribution on a busy day (LGBTQ Nation).

The food bank previously described itself as a judgment-free service that would not turn anyone away.

A recently posted video revealed that its cupboards, warehouse and freezers were now empty.

Christian acknowledged in the since-deleted Facebook Live broadcast that the shortage was connected to decisions he had made about potential food suppliers.

He said he had contacted organizations and asked whether they were connected to or partnered with LGBTQ+ causes.

After receiving confirmation that some supported LGBTQ+ people, Christian said he refused to accept their food.

He specifically referred to Feeding America, the nationwide nonprofit network that connects food banks, donors and community organizations.

Christian said he would not participate in what he called the “gay rights movement” and described LGBTQ+ inclusion as an “abomination against God.”

He presented the refusal as a religious stand he was prepared to maintain regardless of its cost.

The immediate cost, however, is being carried by people who depend upon the food bank rather than by the pastor alone.

Christian said the organization had nothing available to distribute while he searched for a supplier that met his religious requirements.

He asked supporters to pray that another source of food would become available.

At the same time, Christian insisted that he would not personally discriminate against an LGBTQ+ person seeking assistance.

He said he would love, pray for and give food to anyone who came to him.

That assurance contains an obvious contradiction when the same opposition to LGBTQ+ inclusion has helped leave the food bank without anything to give.

Christian later posted another video saying the situation had been misunderstood.

In that explanation, he claimed the food bank was not rejecting donated supplies but refusing to purchase food from organizations that might use the money to support LGBTQ+ groups.

That revised explanation does not match the way Feeding America describes its hunger-relief network.

Feeding America is a nonprofit organization that works through a nationwide network of member food banks, food pantries and meal programs.

It receives food through donations, retailers, manufacturers, farmers and other partnerships before distributing assistance across the country.

The organization does not operate as an ordinary commercial supplier selling groceries to local charities for profit.

Christian’s original video also repeatedly described rejecting food because of the organizations’ LGBTQ+ connections rather than avoiding a purchase.

The available reporting does not establish precisely which offers were made, what quantities were available or whether Feeding America directly offered supplies to God’s Store House.

Feeding America had not publicly responded to LGBTQ Nation’s request for comment when its report was published.

The pastor’s own explanation nevertheless confirms that support for LGBTQ+ people was central to his decision.

The controversy is particularly troubling because LGBTQ+ people themselves experience disproportionately high levels of poverty and food insecurity.

Research has found that many LGBTQ+ people are also reluctant to approach faith-based charities because they fear judgment, harassment or rejection.

Many religious food banks provide welcoming and essential assistance without attaching conditions to identity or belief.

Actions like Christian’s risk reinforcing the fear that religious aid may come with an ideological test.

The story also illustrates the difference between personal religious conviction and responsibility for a public-facing charitable service.

Christian is entitled to his theological beliefs and to express opposition to LGBTQ+ rights.

But a food bank exists to collect resources and transfer them to people who need help.

Rejecting safe food because someone involved supports gay or transgender people does nothing to reduce hunger or protect Christian doctrine.

It turns donated groceries into symbols within a political conflict they were meant to bypass.

A box of cereal does not endorse marriage equality, and a can of vegetables does not carry a gender identity.

The families arriving at God’s Store House are unlikely to care whether the person who donated their dinner attended Pride or supported an LGBTQ+ colleague.

They care whether there is enough food to take home.

Christian has said he hopes faith will lead him to a new source of supplies.

That may eventually happen, and the food bank could reopen its distributions.

Until then, its empty shelves demonstrate the practical consequences of placing religious purity above cooperation.

The pastor may consider the refusal his sacrifice, but the people leaving without groceries are the ones being asked to pay for it.

📷 AI

🎬 Prefer video? Subscribe to B-Gay on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@BGaycom

Andy Cohen briefly moved Watch What Happens Live away from celebrity gossip and reality television to deliver an unusually serious defence of Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The openly gay host selected Fauci for his “Mazel of the Day” following a contentious appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Fauci had been subpoenaed by Republican committee chair Rand Paul to answer questions about his management of the COVID-19 pandemic and previous testimony concerning federally funded coronavirus research.

The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times during the approximately three-hour hearing.

Fauci said he followed his attorney’s advice because he believed Paul was attempting to create a path toward prosecuting him.

Paul and other Republican senators accuse Fauci of misleading Congress and the public about the origins of COVID-19 and research involving bat coronaviruses in China.

Fauci has consistently denied lying about those subjects.

Democratic senators described the proceeding as a politically motivated attempt to entrap a retired public servant.

More than 150 infectious-disease specialists and other scientists also signed a public letter rejecting the accusations against Fauci as unsupported.

Paul announced that the committee would vote the following week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt for refusing to answer its questions.

A committee referral would not itself amount to a criminal charge or conviction.

It would have to clear additional political and legal stages before the Justice Department could seek a prosecution.

Legal experts have also said that any case would raise unresolved questions about Fauci’s Fifth Amendment rights and the scope of the pardon President Joe Biden issued before leaving office in 2025.

Cohen did not attempt to resolve those complicated legal arguments during his late-night monologue.

Instead, he condemned what he saw as Republican senators using the hearing to humiliate and threaten an 85-year-old scientist.

Cohen said Fauci had spent the day being “grilled, berated and sworn at” over crimes that Republicans wanted the public to believe he had committed.

He then shifted attention away from the partisan conflict surrounding COVID-19 and toward the public-health career that preceded it.

Fauci joined the National Institutes of Health in 1968 and became director of NIAID in 1984.

He remained in that position for 38 years and advised seven American presidents on infectious diseases and public-health emergencies.

His work during the HIV/AIDS epidemic is particularly significant for LGBTQ+ audiences.

Fauci began studying the emerging illness shortly after the first cases among gay men were reported in 1981.

He conducted research that helped expand scientific understanding of HIV and later played a major role in changing how experimental treatments were developed and made available.

That history was not free from conflict or legitimate criticism.

During the epidemic’s devastating early years, activists accused federal health agencies of moving too slowly while gay men and others with AIDS were dying in enormous numbers.

ACT UP protested at the National Institutes of Health, while writer and activist Larry Kramer publicly attacked Fauci in exceptionally harsh terms.

Fauci eventually invited activists into discussions about clinical research and listened as they demanded a greater role for patients in decisions affecting their lives.

That evolving relationship helped change federal treatment research and the broader relationship between medical institutions and patient advocates.

Kramer and Fauci eventually became friends despite their years of confrontation.

Kramer later described Fauci as the only true and great hero among government officials responding to AIDS.

Cohen referenced that remarkable reversal while explaining why he believed Fauci deserved gratitude rather than abuse.

He also highlighted Fauci’s contribution to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Fauci was one of the principal architects of PEPFAR, which President George W. Bush launched in 2003 to expand HIV prevention and treatment internationally.

The United States government credits the program with saving approximately 26 million lives and enabling millions of babies to be born without HIV.

That record does not require viewers to believe that Fauci made no mistakes during COVID-19 or that questions about pandemic decisions should never be asked.

It does provide necessary context when politicians describe his entire career as one long exercise in dishonesty and abuse.

Cohen’s intervention was notable because direct political commentary remains relatively unusual on Watch What Happens Live.

The program is built around celebrity interviews, cocktails, games and the elaborate universe of Bravo reality television.

Cohen generally reserves more serious monologues for subjects that intersect strongly with his experiences as a gay man, a father or a New Yorker.

Fauci’s AIDS legacy placed this story directly within that territory.

Cohen argued that the United States faces urgent problems requiring serious leadership and that attacking science has become both dangerous and deeply unserious.

He ended by suggesting that politicians may resent doctors and scientists because those professions sometimes achieve something elected leaders repeatedly fail to accomplish.

They fix things.

For LGBTQ+ viewers who remember AIDS or live with the consequences of that history, Cohen’s message was simpler still: do not erase the people who eventually listened, changed and helped save lives.

📷 @bravowwhl

🎬 Prefer video? Subscribe to B-Gay on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@BGaycom

Gay adult performer Drake Von has reportedly been arrested for the third time since the beginning of June.

The latest incident occurred in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

Von, whose legal name is Dawson Bacon, was booked into the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys jail.

TMZ reports that he was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor possession of a substance similar to toluene.

Toluene is a colourless solvent that can be highly toxic when inhaled and may cause dizziness and other serious effects.

Police told TMZ that officers responded to a call concerning two men allegedly using narcotics on the street.

Von was taken into custody when officers arrived.

The second man was not arrested.

Jail records reportedly show that Von was released on Wednesday on his own recognizance.

That means he was released without posting bail after agreeing to return for future court proceedings.

No conviction has resulted from the new arrest.

Von had not publicly commented on the latest allegations when TMZ published its report.

The arrest adds to a series of serious legal incidents involving the performer during the previous two months.

Von was arrested in Las Vegas in early June following an alleged domestic-violence incident involving his female partner.

Police alleged that an argument escalated into physical violence.

According to reports describing the police account, Von allegedly grabbed the woman by the throat, forced her to the ground and restricted her breathing.

The woman reportedly told officers that she could not breathe and believed she briefly lost consciousness.

Police also documented injuries they said were consistent with her account.

Von was charged with domestic battery by strangulation and coercion constituting domestic violence with threat or use of physical force, both felonies.

He was additionally charged with misdemeanor domestic battery.

Von was later released after posting a bond of more than $25,000.

He has denied the domestic-violence allegations.

Von told TMZ that the claims were false and said the case would eventually be dismissed.

He also described the incident as a misunderstanding and a publicity stunt.

Those statements represent Von’s position rather than the findings of a court.

The criminal charges remain allegations unless and until prosecutors establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Later in June, Von was arrested again following a vehicle collision in Las Vegas.

He was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor driving under the influence.

Police said his Tesla collided with another vehicle after pulling out of a parking area.

Those involved in the crash were reportedly taken to hospital.

A witness allegedly told officers that Von appeared slumped over the steering wheel before the collision.

When police later spoke with him at the hospital, officers said his eyes appeared glossy.

Von denied drinking alcohol or using marijuana or illegal drugs before driving.

A police report obtained by TMZ said officers found 13 nitrous-oxide tanks inside the Tesla.

The reported items included several large tanks, smaller containers, balloons and rubber bands.

Von allegedly told officers that he had previously used nitrous oxide but not during the month of the crash.

Police obtained a warrant for a blood sample after he declined to provide one voluntarily.

Authorities also requested testing for inhalants.

No publicly reported conviction has resulted from that DUI arrest.

The Los Angeles case is separate from both the domestic-violence prosecution and the DUI matter in Nevada.

Each incident will be handled according to its own evidence, charges and court process.

It would therefore be inaccurate to combine the three arrests into a single finding of guilt.

What can be said is that three arrests within such a brief period form a deeply concerning pattern around a 23-year-old performer with a large online audience.

Von has worked in gay adult entertainment since he was 18 and has received multiple GayVN Award nominations.

He won two fan-voted categories at the 2024 awards and has built a following through adult films and social media.

His latest arrest is likely to intensify attention on both the unresolved criminal allegations and his public response to them.

For now, Von has been arrested and released, not convicted in the new Los Angeles case.

The legal proceedings surrounding all three incidents remain more important than the jokes generated by his increasingly familiar booking history.

📷 @drakevonx

🎬 Prefer video? Subscribe to B-Gay on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@BGaycom