Hundreds of Nation’s Top Companies Urge Supreme Court to Strike Down Same-Sex Marriage Bans
Powerful Amicus Brief Asserts State Same-Sex Marriage Bans Are Discriminatory, Bad for Business
HRC.org
Daily Archives: March 5, 2015
Did Malik Yoba Out His Empire Co-Star Jussie Smollett Or Didn’t He?
Did Malik Yoba Out His Empire Co-Star Jussie Smollett Or Didn’t He?
Actor Jussie Smollett (pictured left) plays the gay middle-child in the Lyon family on Fox’s new show Empire, and has been deliberate in avoiding questions about his own sexuality in the media. But one of his fellow actors, Malik Yoba, may have outed him.
Jussie has taken the Kevin Spacey approach, essentially saying his personal life isn’t up for grabs. In an interview with Sway last month, he said:
“No, (fans shouldn’t assume I’m gay), but it’s also fair, and I don’t see a problem with that and I don’t really care. … This is not a gay black show. This is a show about human experiences. … I’m not willing to confirm or deny anything. I live my life. If someone is looking for a box to put me in, that’s not going to happen. I live my life, and if you really want to know about me, just watch, because I don’t hide anything. I just don’t choose to talk about my personal life.”
But in a recent Q&A, Yoba was asked about the success of the series and its impact, and specifically brought up the gay representation on the show. He said:
“I think that our show represents a huge opportunity to stay in the culture beyond entertainment value and there’s an intrinsic nature of you have the gay factor, right? So, obviously, Lee (Daniels, co-creator) is gay. That was an important storyline for him. I think it’s important for people to see themselves. Even within the Black community. But if you aren’t really, really taking it off of screen and making it live in the community in a significant way … like I know Jussie, he is gay, and he’s very committed to issues around the LGBT community. He and I have a very close relationship.”
Many on social media were upset that Yoba apparently outed his costar.
Here’s some of that reaction:
Hey Malik Yoba! One doesn’t out people. Period. even to say, that he/she was my LOVER, is indelicate, impolite… t.co/zFpQxOScJB
— Dee Dixon (@PDeeDixon) March 3, 2015
.@MalikYoba it is a form of violence to publicly out someone, especially in an pro-monolithic industry.
— the III. ? (@GeekNStereo) March 3, 2015
Malik Yoba done put Jussie Smollet’s business in the streets. That’s not nice! — ?????? (@callmedollar) March 2, 2015
Now in a statement to USA Today via his publicist, Malik is backpedaling, saying he was misquoted:
“I was misquoted in the article. My reference to Jussie was only about his character and storyline on Empire.”
Believable?
Dan Tracer
Georgia Senate Committee Passes Anti-LGBT 'License to Discriminate' Bill
Georgia Senate Committee Passes Anti-LGBT 'License to Discriminate' Bill
The Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee has moved forward with an anti-LGBT “license to discriminate” bill, Atlanta’s WABE reports:
On Monday, a Senate committee made changes to the bill. Supporters say it’s now closer to a federal act that passed Congress in 1993 and was signed by President Bill Clinton. Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, is sponsoring the bill.
“I’m very pleased we were able to come to an agreement that protects the religious liberty for each and every Georgian,” says Mckoon (right), “while sending a clear message that none of us are trying to use this as a vehicle to be a license to discriminate.”
Supporters say the new bill makes it clear it doesn’t apply to private companies but only to government. Gay rights activists say the legislation is better than what was originally proposed, but they’re still concerned.
“This language is still not something that we’re going to be able to support,” Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, says. “We do feel that it still opens the door for action, for individuals and companies to continue to discriminate against people.”
The bill now moves to the full Senate, which is controlled 38-18 by Republicans.
Georgia’s push to further enshrine anti-LGBT discrimination into law has faced opposition from an unlikely source recently: Mike Bowers. Bowers was the former Georgia Attorney General who defended the state’s sodomy law in the landmark Supreme Court case Bowers v. Hardwick. Last month, he spoke out against such proposals as an “excuse to practice invidious discrimination.”
Kyler Geoffroy
ekrem about lgbt db
ekrem about lgbt db
LGBT for Deaf-Blind.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOKMK-m7yDg&feature=youtube_gdata
Sweet Rainbow Candy
In Wake Of Ben Carson Comments, Don Lemon Asks CNN Panel If Being Gay Is A Choice
In Wake Of Ben Carson Comments, Don Lemon Asks CNN Panel If Being Gay Is A Choice
“Can you choose to be gay?” CNN’s Don Lemon posed the question to his guests, Ben Ferguson, Sally Kohn and HuffPost Live host Marc Lamont Hill, over and over again Wednesday night.
The discussion was sparked by comments Ben Carson made to CNN’s Chris Cuomo earlier that day, suggesting that homosexuality is a choice because people “go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay.” The comments quickly caused a furor and the presidential hopeful was forced to issue a public apology.
While Kohn and Hill both offered counter arguments to Carson’s incendiary remarks, Ferguson chose to back them up, insisting that a person’s sexual orientation is, indeed, a matter of will.
“I think people choose to do different things every day, including if they choose to be gay or bisexual or transgendered [sic] or whatever it may be,” he said. “There are a lot of people that choose different things. I don’t think that’s some shocking new revelation.”
Lemon pressed Ferguson further, asking if he himself could, in fact, choose to be gay.
“I’m not gay, that’s pretty obvious. I’m heterosexual,” Ferguson said, to which Hill shot back: “It’s not obvious.”
Kohn offered perhaps the most sound response to Carson’s views, however, stating that whether a person can choose to be gay is not truly the issue, it’s that conservative’s use the veil of choice to advance an anti-gay agenda.
“What Dr. Carson is referring to is an argument that comes out of a right wing anti-gay mentality, that if you choose to be gay you can therefore, and should therefore, choose not to be gay,” she said. “And the fact that sexual identity is a fungible choice is an argument for denying equal rights and fair treatment.”
“So the choice thing isn’t the issue here,” she continued. “The issue is why don’t we treat people equally regardless of their identity, however they come to it.”
H/T Mediaite
Fatboy Slim confirmed for Brighton Pride
Fatboy Slim confirmed for Brighton Pride
Dance music icon just one of the huge names performing at festival
jamiet
www.gaystarnews.com/article/fatboy-slim-confirmed-brighton-pride050315
New Album from Equality Rockers “Bayside” to Benefit HRC
New Album from Equality Rockers “Bayside” to Benefit HRC
American punk rockers Bayside previously voiced their support for marriage equality as part of HRC’s Equality Rocks campaign.
HRC.org
Neil Patrick Harris Says His Soul Wouldn’t Survive Hosting The Oscars Again
Neil Patrick Harris Says His Soul Wouldn’t Survive Hosting The Oscars Again
“I don’t know that my family nor my soul could take it. It’s a beast. It was fun to check off the list, but for the amount of time spent and the understandable opinionated response, I don’t know that it’s a delightful balance to do every year or even again.”I didn’t keep up with it obsessively, but it was interesting to see just what people thought landed and didn’t. It’s so difficult for one who’s simply watching the show to realize just how much time and concession and compromise and explanation has gone into almost every single thing. Every joke. Wording of joke. Placement of joke. Canceling of joke. Embellishment for just one line. And I’m not saying that to defend everything I said as if it was the absolute best choice, but it’s also an award show, and you’re powering through 14 acts filled with 20 plus awards. So my job was to try and keep things as light and specific to this year’s set of films as possible. And if people are critical of that, it’s a big giant platform, so I would assume that they would be… I was glad we got through it, and I thought that those in the audience at the Dolby [Theatre] seemed to be enjoying themselves more as the show went on, when I was told that the opposite would be true. I was told that as the room fills, with you know it’s four-fifths of the room didn’t win, and you get further into the award giving they get less enthusiastic and less excited. And I felt while we were doing it that people were enjoying themselves more and more, so for that I’m happy.”
— Neil Patrick Harris discussing his recent hosting stint on the 87th Annual Academy Awards in an interview with HuffPo
Jeremy Kinser
What It's Like To Come Out To Your Mother As A Gay, Poly Purveyor of Adult Entertainment: VIDEO
What It's Like To Come Out To Your Mother As A Gay, Poly Purveyor of Adult Entertainment: VIDEO
Coming out to your family can be a daunting challenge no matter who you are, how you identify, or how personally secure you are with your sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. That being said coming out is easier for some than others. Coming out as gay is one thing, but imagine coming out as the gay, poly creative director of one of the adult entertainment industry’s most valuable production houses?
“I’d been seeing various therapists prior to [coming out to my mother,]” Cockyboys co-owner Benny Morecock recounts in an interview with I’m From Driftwood. “And I knew that she kept telling the therapists to tell me to come out to her, but I just wasn’t buying it.”
Morecock continues:
“So one time we were having this huge fight–yelling at each other from across the apartment, and at one point she just screams at me ‘are you gay?’ And then I’m like ‘yeah, I’m gay.’
And then all of a sudden the conversation takes a complete 360 and she starts telling me that she’s completely fine with it and then goes into stories about her experimenting with lesbian relationships in college which…you know. Going from one moment where we’re screaming at each other to the next moment where I’m getting way too much information about my mom’s experimenting with sexuality, you know, was very unexpected.”
Morecock goes on to share how he eventually revisited the coming out process with his mother two other times (for owning Cockyboys and being in a polyamorous relationship).
Listen to his coming out story in full AFTER THE JUMP…
Charles Pulliam-Moore
