Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Names and faces

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Katy Perry said she “prayed the gay away” during her “unconsciou­s adolescenc­e.” The 32-yearold singer opened up about her sexuality and praised the gay community while receiving an award from the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday in Los Angeles. Perry was born into a fundamenta­list Christian family but said she was curious about sexuality and knew it wasn’t a blackand-white issue. She referred to one of her biggest hits in telling the group “I kissed a girl and I liked it.” She added that she also “did more than that.” She said she “prayed the gay away” at Christian camps but later met people outside of her “bubble.” She said that without people in her life from the gay, bisexual, transgende­r and queer community, she’d be “half of the person I am today.”

She’s a wide-eyed little Muppet with a big smile, blazing red hair and bright green eyes who has made it to Sesame Street. Her name is Julia and she has autism. Julia was first introduced in 2015, playing alongside Elmo and Abby Cadabby, as part of an online-only Digital Storybook story called “Sesame Street and Autism: See the Amazing in All Children.” Come April, young viewers will be seeing more of Julia when she makes her transition to the live-action fold of the long-running children’s show, as revealed in a segment Sunday on 60 Minutes. Julia’s puppeteer Stacey Gordon said her son has autism. “Had my son’s friends been exposed to his behaviors through something that they had seen on TV before they experience­d them in the classroom, they might not have been frightened.” she told 60 Minutes. “They would have known that he plays in a different way, and that that’s OK.”

Kim Kardashian West said she “mentally prepped” herself to be raped while being held at gunpoint during a Paris jewelry heist last year. Kardashian West discussed the robbery on Sunday night’s episode of the E! channel’s Keeping Up with the Kardashian­s. She said two robbers wearing police uniforms entered her hotel room last October. One of the robbers duct-taped her mouth while she was in bed, grabbed her legs and pulled her toward him. She said she wasn’t raped but had a gun held to her head.

 ??  ?? Julia
Julia
 ??  ?? Perry
Perry
 ??  ?? West
West

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