Alabama’s Fork in the Road Moment: Enshrine Discrimination or Embrace LGBT Equality
Today, the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee advanced HB 56, a dangerous anti-LGBT bill that would allow probate judges and public officials to refuse to solemnize marriages on religious grounds.
HRC.org
How Many Actors Got Their TV Break As Trans Characters Going Full-Frontal? Jonny Beauchamp, That’s How Many.
You may not know who Jonny Beauchamp is, but you will soon. He’ll appear as Ray Castro in Roland Emmerich’s film Stonewall alongside Jeremy Irvine, Ron Perlman and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The film, about the NYC Stonewall riots, should be released sometime later this year.
But you can also catch the Puerto Rican actor from the Bronx in the newest episode of Penny Dreadful. He plays transgender prostitute Angelique, and fans of the show will be treated to a whole lot of Beauchamp’s front side — all of it, really.
Beauchamp spoke recently to TV Insider about getting the part, what makes Angelique tick and how he managed to get through filming the full-frontal scenes.
On the nudity:
“It was part of the contract I had to sign for the screen test. I didn’t know exactly what would be shown or how. I wanted to be cool and professional but, inside, I was dying. Nudity was my one big fear as an actor, the one thing I never really thought I would be able to do. In the theater, it’s a little different. But to go full frontal for my first big TV project was daunting. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t lose sleep over it.”
On how he got through it:
“[Show creator] John Logan was very comforting. He took me into his office and said, ‘You have to remember that this is not you. It’s the character who is naked. This show is all about shock factor and pushing the boundaries, and this is a really awesome opportunity for you to do that.’ That made me feel a lot better and much safer. And thank God I had to drop trou in front of Reeve Carney. He was my rock. He held my hand through the hold process. Well, not literally, but we were like mates in the same crazy situation. [Laughs] We’d look at each other and be, like, ‘What the hell are we doing?’”
On playing transgender before there was ‘transgender’:
“Today, we’re finally on the transgender frontier and everyone is starting to talk about it, but it wasn’t spoken of a hundred years ago. If you were transgender back then you were considered crazy or a sexual deviant. So the fact that Angelique holds herself with such pride and poise is amazing.”
Dan Tracer
Laramie, Wyoming Passes Comprehensive LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance: VIDEO
Laramie City Council, Wyoming has approved Laramie Order 1915 which will prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, employment and access to public facilities, the AP reports.
The council of the town where Matthew Shepard was murdered 17 years ago voted 7-2 in favor of the motion.
The Legislature had repeatedly rejected anti-discrimination bills, most recently early this year.
Jeran Artery, head of the group Wyoming Equality, said:
“What a day for Wyoming, and what a day for the city that became synonymous with Matthew Shepard’s murder to now step up and do this right thing. And I would really encourage other communities across the state to follow Laramie’s lead.”
Matthew Shepard’s mother Judy, who is active in a Denver foundation focusing on equality issues, said she was thrilled “that Laramie’s doing it, at the same time sort of saddened that the state of Wyoming can’t see fit to do that as well. Maybe the rest of Wyoming will understand this is about fellow human beings and not something that’s other than what they are.”
Openly gay Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie) (above) said:
“Know that, in Albany County, five of six of your senators and representatives not only supported that measure, but actively, vigorously supported that measure, and we will continue to do so. My hope is from tonight that we will do so using the leadership of Laramie”
Two councilors voted against the ordinance. Both Joe Vitale and Bryan Schuster said they were concerned the ordinance caused concerns about religious freedom.
Rep. Kendell Kroeker (R-Evansville), who voted against the anti-discrimination bill this year, said “the Matt Shepard case was a tragedy, but I don’t see how an anti-discrimination ordinance would have stopped somebody from committing that heinous crime.”
Watch a report, AFTER THE JUMP…
Jim Redmond
www.towleroad.com/2015/05/laramie-wyoming-passes-non-discrimination-ordinance-video.html
Kenyan Paper Shamed for Its 'Top Gays' List
Online commenters are rejecting the newspaper’s homophobic list, and coming out on the side of the LGBT activists outed.
Thom Senzee
www.advocate.com/politics/media/2015/05/14/kenyan-paper-shamed-its-top-gays-list
Dry Cleaner Trashes Gay Man’s Throw Pillow, Calls Him “Buggerer” And “Sodomite”
It all started with a torn throw pillow.
Byron Batista says he dropped off four decorative throw pillows to be professionally laundered at Rosali Cleaners in North Hollywood. When he returned a few days later, three of the pillows had been cleaned but the fourth was torn.
Naturally, Batista complained to the owner. That’s when things got ugly. According to Batista, the owner “blamed me and said I tore them apart all the while running around behind her counter, flipping me off and pretending to stick her finger in her backside.”
Related: Five Disgraced Business Owners Who Learned That Homophobia Just Doesn’t Sell
Batista wasted no time taking the woman to small claims court, where a judge ruled in his favor. The dry cleaner was ordered to pay $75 for damaging the throw pillow.
That should have been the end of things. But when Batista received his check, it was made out to “Byron ‘the buggerer’ Batista.” (In case you didn’t know, Buggerer is an 18th-century term for sodomite.)
“I went back to court and showed the judge,” Batista told Frontiers in an interview. “He sent her out another letter asking her for a cashiers check with the proper spelling.”
Here’s what he received:
And that’s when Batista decided to go to the press with his story.
He says he wants to “let our community know that they should not spend their money there.”
“People like her need to be exposed.”
Related: Business As Usual? How 8 Anti-Gay Companies Are Measuring Up
Graham Gremore
6 Questions On How Life Ball Fights Stigma
Gery Keszler, founder of one of the largest and most glamorous AIDS fundraising
events worldwide, on the ongoing mission to fight stigma.
Advocate Contributors
www.advocate.com/health/daily-dose/2015/05/14/6-questions-how-life-ball-fights-stigma
Laramie, Wyoming Passes Anti-Discrimination Measure To Protect Gays In Housing, The Workplace
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — When Matthew Shepard was beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead nearly 20 years ago, his murder became a rallying cry in the gay rights movement.
Other states adopted stricter laws against violence and discrimination, and Congress passed hate crimes legislation bearing Shepard’s name.
Yet in Wyoming, advocates have tried unsuccessfully for years statewide to pass protections for gays in housing and the workplace. They finally scored a victory Wednesday after trying a different approach: a local ordinance in the college town where Shepard was killed.
The Laramie City Council on Wednesday approved a local anti-discrimination ordinance. It voted 7-2 in favor of the measure that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, employment and access to public facilities such as restaurants.
“What a day for Wyoming, and what a day for the city that became synonymous with Matthew Shepard’s murder to now step up and do this right thing,” said Jeran Artery, head of the group Wyoming Equality, which has lobbied for anti-discrimination measures at the state Legislature.
“And I would really encourage other communities across the state to follow Laramie’s lead,” Artery said.
Local organizers focused their efforts on Laramie after the Legislature repeatedly rejected anti-discrimination bills, most recently early this year. The Laramie Nondiscrimination Task Force presented a draft ordinance to the City Council last summer.
Rep. Cathy Connolly, D-Laramie, is a lesbian and a professor in the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Wyoming. She has pushed legislation repeatedly to try to pass an anti-discrimination bill at the state level.
“I wasn’t going to get up and say anything tonight, but I decided I have to,” Connolly said at Wednesday’s meeting. “I’m so proud to be a resident of Wyoming tonight, and a member of this community.”
Laramie Mayor Dave Paulekas spoke in favor of the amendment before the council vote.
“To me, this is about treating people fairly, it’s about treating people the way I would want to be treated, the way we all expect to be treated,” Paulekas said. “And it’s nothing more than that, in my mind.”
Paulekas said that if Laramie wants to see economic development, it has to be aware that high-tech firms are going to look at how the city treats its citizens.
Councilors Joe Vitale and Bryan Shuster cast the only no-votes against the ordinance. Both said they were concerned that the ordinance would trample on city residents’ religious freedoms.
“Enactment of this ordinance will result in discrimination complaints filed against business owners who are simply trying to run their business consistent with their faith,” Vitale said. The council rejected his suggestion that it postpone action on the matter until next year to give the U.S. Supreme Court and the Wyoming Legislature more time to act on the issue.
Judy Shepard, Matt Shepard’s mother, is active in a Denver-based foundation that bears her son’s name and focuses on equality issues.
“I’m thrilled that Laramie’s doing it, at the same time sort of saddened that the state of Wyoming can’t see fit to do that as well,” Shepard told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., Wednesday before the council vote. “Maybe the rest of Wyoming will understand this is about fellow human beings and not something that’s other than what they are.”
Shepard said some people are still under the misconception that what happened to her son is typical of what happens in Wyoming.
“But I feel like if Wyoming had done more to open the door to acceptance, that kind of reputation would have disappeared very quickly,” said Shepard, herself a Wyoming resident. “Instead of taking advantage of the moment, they just sort of turned around and ran.”
Gov. Matt Mead, a Republican, last year went to court to defend Wyoming’s gay marriage ban before federal court rulings from other states blocked the state from further action.
And a handful of Wyoming lawmakers this spring filed a brief urging the nation’s highest court to reject same-sex marriage on the grounds that forcing states to accept it would violate other citizens’ free-speech rights.
Rep. Kendell Kroeker, R-Evansville, voted against the anti-discrimination bill this year and was among those who endorsed the U.S. Supreme Court brief.
“I suppose it’s their right as a city,” Kroeker said of Laramie’s proposal. But he noted such measures grant special privileges to one group over another — an idea he doesn’t support.
Asked about his thoughts on such an ordinance passing in the city where Shepard was killed, Kroeker said: “The Matt Shepard case was a tragedy, but I don’t see how an anti-discrimination ordinance would have stopped somebody from committing that heinous crime.”
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The Gays Are Preparing To Take Long Beach By Storm
‘Tis the season! Gay Pride season, that is.
The GayCities 2015 Pride Guides presented by AT&T are officially here. Check out what’s happening in your city this year, and see what’s going on in other cities you might visit all around the world.
Pride has already kicked off in Tampa, Miami, and Phoenix. Long Beach is next up. This weekend, men, women, and drag queens alike will gather along Shoreline Drive for the festivities, which will include performances by Salt N Pepa and Patti LaBelle. Then, of course, there will be the parade stepping off in Bixby Park on Sunday morning. This year’s Grand Marshals and honorees include Mayor Robert Garcia, Angela Madsen and Chiquis.
Check out these images from previous Long Beach Pride parades, and stay tuned for photos from this year’s celebration.
Check out all the great Long Beach events leading up to and around this weekend’s Long Beach Pride
Photo credits: Roger Howard, dustinpsmith
Graham Gremore
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