upworthy

dallas

A UPS driver on his phone.

It’s common to hear about a man who was well off while married but who, after a divorce, is financially struggling and blames his ex-wife and her lawyer for his lot in life. Abby Eckel, a popular content creator who discusses the inequities of domestic labor in relationships, asks why more men don’t get prenuptial agreements.

“Why aren't more men asking for prenups, or why aren't more men asking for postnups if they're under the belief that they will get taken for everything that they have in the event of a divorce?" she asked. “There's a 50% chance that you're gonna get a divorce. Why are you not asking for prenups and post-nups? I genuinely want to know what the reason is if you feel like you have so much to lose in the event of a divorce, why are you not protecting yourself?”

Why aren't men getting prenups?

@abbyeckel

I am genuinely asking. Why dont men ask for a prenuptial agreement before getting married? Lots of men have told me that there is no benefit to them in getting married, and that the risk is far greater in the event of a divorce. That they will be put into financial ruin in the event of a divorce, therefore getting married, simply isn’t worth it for them. So why aren’t more men asking for prenuptial agreements, or even post nuptial agreements, in order to protect themselves from said financial ruin? #divorce #marriage

The video caught the attention of J.R. Minton, a Dallas-area UPS driver and popular TikTok user with four kids and a stay-at-home wife who talks about family life. Minton flipped the script on Eckel’s question by revealing something that many men would have a hard time saying: most men aren’t successful until they get married and have the support of an amazing woman. Therefore, they didn't need a prenup when they got married.

“Men are more likely to be successful if they are married and women are more likely to be successful if they are single,” Minton said, before singing the praises of stay-at-home women.

Stay-at-home moms make a lot of sacrifices

“Whenever a child is born, a woman is typically the person that takes off time to take care of the child, and if there's a stay-at-home parent, most often it's going to be a mom. While some men like to say that that is a privilege for the woman, what it really is is a financial risk that the woman is taking, Minton said. “She is not furthering her career; she is dependent upon another person to be successful so that she can continue to take care of the children she's taking a financial risk for the sake of her family.”

On the other hand, because of the woman’s sacrifice, when she should be in the prime of her career, the man can thrive. He develops connections and skills and gets promotions, while she spends most of her time at home.

 stay at home mom, sahm, laundry, upset woman, pile of clothes A stay-at-home mom can't stand the laundry. via Canva/Photos

A lot of the women in the comments loved Minton’s honesty. “This man needs protection at all costs....his honesty is brutal to men,” one woman wrote. “My husband flat out says that he wouldn't have made it as far in his career as he has without me sacrificing what I have to stay home with our kids,” another added.

Minton wasn’t wrong when he said that men experience a much larger boost in income when they become married than women do. That has a lot to do with the pressures of childbearing that overwhelmingly fall on women. That’s probably why 85% of all married people say they've never signed a prenup, but 56% of those who’ve signed one had a previous marriage.

“So how come men don't want a prenup for their marriage?” Minton concludes his response to Eckel’s question. “Most men don't have very much before they get married. They become successful after the marriage.”

It takes guts to take on a song that was made famous by a powerhouse voice, and most people honestly shouldn't be that gutsy. You want to sing a Mariah Carey song? Good luck. Celine Dion? Rethink it. How about a Dolly Parton epic made even more famous by Whitney Houston? Oh, honey. Just no.

So the idea of a guy with a lone guitar smashing a rendition of "I Will Always Love You," complete with some of Whitney Houston's vocal stylings—especially a guy in a flannel shirt singing live on a small stage—just seems so unlikely. And yet that's exactly what Josh Weathers did in 2011 when he performed the song at Dallas's Kessler Theatre. With a capacity of 150 to 500, few people got to actually see this performance live, but thankfully the theater posted it on YouTube, where it's had more than 2.6 million views.

Weathers explains before singing the song that his mom had loved the movie soundtrack for "The Bodyguard," which included "I Will Always Love You." He said it was his mom's birthday that day, and though she was no longer here he wanted to sing it for her. And that he did, with simple beauty, power, and emotion.

Just watch:


Josh Weathers at The Kessler Theater in Dallas, Texaswww.youtube.com

Weathers has incredible control of his vocals in this song that's notoriously difficult to sing. And while the Whitney Houston version includes a sweeping orchestral arrangement behind it as it reaches the most powerful sections, Weathers only has his lone guitar. And it works. That chord change. That falsetto. Phew.

Here's to talented and skilled musicians constantly blowing us away.

via Twitter / Soraya

There is a strange right-wing logic that suggests when minorities fight for equal rights it's somehow a threat to the rights already held by those in the majority or who hold power.

Like when the Black Lives Matter movement started, many on the right claimed that fighting for black people to be treated equally somehow meant that other people's lives were not as valuable, leading to the short-lived All Lives Matter movement.

This same "oppressed majority" logic is behind the new Straight Pride movement which made headlines in August after its march through the streets of Boston.


Several dozen marchers walked the parade route carrying pro-Donald Trump messages such as "build the wall," "Trump nation" and "Blue Lives Matter." Which has little to do with being straight.

They were met by over 1,000 counter protesters who drowned them out.

 

"I am here to say, 'I am straight, hear me roar!'" said Mark Sahady, vice president of Super Happy Fun America, which put on the parade. "Whether you are straight and part of the oppressed majority, or here as an ally supporting us, we welcome you to the greatest parade in the history of the world!"

RELATED: A city council voted down a rainbow crosswalk. Now residents have painted 16 of them

Super Happy Fun America say it's "committed to creating spaces for people of all identities to embrace the vibrancy of the straight community."

A Straight Pride Parade planned in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, November 16, didn't fare as well. Only three supporters attended the event at Dallas City Hall. Super Happy Fun America said it would send supporters to the rally, and only two showed up.

via Facebook / Protecting Our Next Generations

The march was promoted by Protecting Our Next Generations (PONG), an anti-LGBT group who says they are "Strong conservative Christians who are standing up for our Biblical values."

At the rally, the group planned to discuss abortion, sex/human trafficking, drag-queen story times, and radical left-wing groups they say are "trying to shut down our businesses and churches."

Well, it wasn't much of a protest.

 

"The two [Super Happy Fun America] organizers were hilariously outnumbered by pro-LGBT & anti-fascist protesters - and about a dozen police," activist Soraya Colli tweeted.

RELATED: A director asked to see Jennifer Lopez's breasts. Her response says a lot about standing up for yourself.

They were later joined by a member of the white supremacist group, the Proud Boys.

"It would have been pathetic if it weren't so laughable — they really believe anti-fascists are out there throwing bricks and beating up Trump supporters, but instead it was LGBT allies with rubber chickens and cowbells to drown them out," Colli told the Advocate.

After the failure in Dallas, it appears as though the Straight Pride movement, much like the All Lives Matter crowd, is just a reactionary blip on the historical radar, soon to be forgotten.

The gay pride movement, which helped an entire population take massive steps toward equality, has been around for five decades.

However, groups like Straight Pride or All Lives Matter are short-lived because they aren't fighting for their rights, but trying to hold others down.

The National Rifle Association called for a boycott of a Dallas diner. It backfired spectacularly.

With the NRA coming to town for its annual meeting in May 2018, Dallas restaurant Ellen's printed a special message on the bottom of its receipts. It read:

"Thanks for visiting Ellen's! A portion of this week's proceeds will be donated to organizations dedicated to implementing reasonable and effective gun regulations. Welcome to Dallas!"

What a day this has been! We want to give some clarification to an issue that has caused quite a bit of confusion and...


Posted by Ellen's on Friday, May 4, 2018

After a bit of confusion over what the restaurant meant, they later added "that protect citizens' 2nd Amendment rights and also help reduce needless gun violence" to the end of the message. They published a Facebook post apologizing for confusion, but by then, it was too late.

The NRA had already published a tweet containing a copy of the original version of the receipt, urging its members to "steer clear" of the restaurant as well as to "#StandAndFight," calling on convention attendees to boycott.

Now, there's nothing wrong with boycotts. People are more than welcome to decide where they want to spend their money. It's just a little ironic given that the NRA's response to people calling for boycotts of NRA-affiliated companies was to call the ordeal a "a shameful display of political and civic cowardice."

In addition, NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch has regularly tweeted about how she doesn't believe in boycotts and wouldn't call for one, once writing, "I hate boycotts." Again, though, that's exactly what the group's "steer clear" message was encouraging: a boycott.

As soon as the NRA's tweet went up, Ellen's said it began receiving a flood of hateful calls and reviews from NRA supporters.

In a video for Now This News, Ellen's co-owner Joe Groves recalled the immediate aftermath of the NRA's tweet.

"We were being told that we were being shot up, to expect a bomb at any time, that they would be visiting but they don't want to be there when the explosion happens. Our staff has been harassed," he said.

Thankfully, no one followed through on the violent threats. Instead, NRA supporters apparently tried to mess with the restaurant's online booking system by filling it with fake reservations so it couldn't take actual reservations and leaving a bunch of one-star reviews on Facebook and Yelp. Boycotters also did the same to an unaffiliated Houston-area restaurant of the same name, causing the restaurant to decide to rebrand entirely.

NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch speaks at the group's annual meeting on May 4. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Luckily, this story has a happy ending for the Dallas restaurant and people who support reasonable gun safety regulations.

Thanks in part to the added publicity directed its way by the NRA's boycott, Ellen's had an extremely busy weekend, bringing in more money than usual. In the end, $15,000 was raised for charity, to be donated to gun safety group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

It's disturbing that the NRA sees the words "reasonable and effective" and immediately urges its members to "#StandAndFight," but it seems that's the world we live in.

As the convention came to an end, the restaurant updated its receipts one final time with a message we should all be able to get behind: "Love one another. Protect the vulnerable. Find common ground. Say 'yes' to peace."

As the NRA convention adjourns in Dallas and its attendees make their ways back home, we wish them all safe and easy...

Posted by Ellen's on Sunday, May 6, 2018