Vanity Fair Writer Reveals His Common Ground with Caitlyn Jenner

He’s the writer behind the cover photo of Caitlyn Jenner, and they share a common bond: a love of sports, and women’s clothing.

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Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/politics/media/2015/06/04/vanity-fair-writer-reveals-his-common-ground-caitlyn-jenner

Whoopi Goldberg Slams Duggars For Hypocrisy: 'You're Not Forgiving Of People Who Feel Differently Than You'
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar broke their silence this week about son Josh’s confessed sexual molestation of his sisters — and women of “The View” were having none of it.

Talk show co-host Whoopi Goldberg was the most full-throated in her rebuke of the “19 Kids And Counting” parents on Thursday, the morning after the Duggars had taken to Fox News’ “The Kelly File” to defend their son, who molested five girls when he was a teen, and their own handling of the situation.

“You brought God up, so it makes it OK to say this,” Goldberg said of the Duggar patriarch pleading for forgiveness for his oldest son. “You’re not forgiving of people. You’re not forgiving of people who feel differently than you.”

“Don’t bring up God … and talk about God forgiving people when you don’t have forgiveness in their own hearts,” Goldberg added.

The Duggars have a history of supporting anti-LGBT causes. Last fall, Michelle Duggar recorded a robocall to voters in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in which she protested a local anti-discrimination ordinance. As part of her argument, she linked transgender individuals to child predators.

“The View” co-host Nicole Wallace echoed Goldberg, saying the Duggar mother had acted hypocritically.

“When you say God will forgive my son who molested my daughters, if that’s your world view, if that’s how you got through it, OK,” Wallace said. “But you can’t say God can’t forgive a transgender person.”

“If God can forgive [Josh], then I hope other people can realize that God can forgive them,” Jim Bob Duggar had told “The Kelly File” host Megyn Kelly.

Duggar also argued that his son, now 27, was not a pedophile because he was also underage at the time of the molestations.

“It was a child preying on a child,” Duggar said of his son’s actions.

“There was so much grief in our hearts. I think, as parents, we felt, ‘We’re failures,'” Michelle Duggar said during the Kelly interview. “We’ve tried to raise our kids to do what’s right, to know what’s right, and yet one of our children made some really bad choices. And I think, as a parent, just — we were devastated.”

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www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/04/whoopi-goldberg-duggars_n_7515308.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

BREAKING: Marriage Equality Reaches Guam, Where America’s Day Begins

In a historic win, marriage equality has reached Guam following a decision by Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood at the U.S. District Court on Guam.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/breaking-marriage-equality-reaches-guam-where-americas-day-begins?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

5 Most Disappointing Things We Learned About HRC's 'White Men's Club'

A new internal diversity report reveals the Human Rights Campaign has a sexist work environment where only ‘gay, white, male’ employees advance into leadership positions.

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Yezmin Villarreal

www.advocate.com/human-rights-campaign-hrc/2015/06/04/5-most-disappointing-things-we-learned-about-hrcs-white-mens-cl

Critic Of Caitlyn Jenner's 'Bravery' Accidentally Teaches Himself A Lesson
A Facebook user who ridiculed Caitlyn Jenner in a popular post for lacking “real American courage, heroism, and bravery” by comparing her to World War Two soldiers taught himself an important lesson when he learned the real story behind the troops’ picture.

Many have hailed Jenner for her courage to publicly come out as transgender after a lifetime of struggle in hopes of helping others who grapple with their gender identity, there are plenty of haters spouting ignorance on social media. Luckily, there’s a chance for the naysayers to see the light.

Terry Coffey of Salem, Oregon was one of them tearing down Jenner. On Monday, he posted an uncredited photo of two soldiers on Facebook and proclaimed that these men, not Jenner, define bravery.

Coffey’s post quickly picked up steam and has been shared nearly 800,000 times. Hoping to offer the photographer credit on his popular post, he went in search of the shutterbug’s name and made a discovery that shook his concept of courage.

The men in the photo are actually toy figurines staged by Mark Hogancamp, who was beaten nearly to death in 2000 for dressing as a woman.

Coffey detailed his realization in a second, humbling post on Tuesday.

The “upcoming” documentary Coffey mentions was actually released in 2010 and is viewable on the Sundance Now Doc Club. You can watch the trailer below.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/04/caitlyn-jenner-soldier-photo_n_7515176.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Senate Votes to Extend Access to Veteran Spousal Benefits to Same-Sex Couples

Today, the U.S. Senate voted on extending access to critical veteran spousal benefits to all same-sex couples.  Eight Senate Republicans voted for the bill. 
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/senate-votes-to-extend-access-to-veteran-spousal-benefits-to-same-sex-coupl?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Christian Group Takes Out Antigay Ad On God’s Behalf, God Isn’t Having It

God may be smiling down on the state of Utah in the form of two “God Loves Gays” billboards, but over in Michigan things are a little less celebratory.

That’s because drivers heading north on US-131 into Grand Rapids are forced to come into close proximity with this other sort of billboard — the kind that tears people down instead of lifting them up. God just can’t get his message straight, can he?

The electronic sign switches between two versions showing either a black or latino man above the respective “born black” or “born Latino” labels next to a picture of a man’s face painted the colors of a rainbow and words that say “not born this way.” Get it? Because “rainbow” isn’t an ethnicity. And Gaga and what have you. Hats off, guys, you really nailed this one.

The billboard also says, “Homosexuality is a behavior. Not a civil right.”

The ad was paid for by a group called the Michigan Oak Initiative, and directs viewers to a website which asks them to sign onto a message to the Supreme Court that gay ain’t OK.

“If same-sex marriage is recognized by our government, that will criminalize Christianity because any Christian that speaks what’s in the Bible can be framed for hate speech,” the group’s director, Mark Gurley, said.

Sorry, drivers. You’re going to have to put up with that nonsense for another month. The billboard has been paid for through June.

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/NdrY843uT58/christian-group-takes-out-antigay-ad-on-gods-behalf-god-isnt-having-it-20150604

Where To Stay In Vegas Now: 9 Hot Hotels

Towleroad

www.towleroad.com/2015/06/where-to-stay-in-vegas-now-9-hot-hotels-.html

George Pataki Urges Respect As Mike Huckabee Defends Trans Fantasy

Mike Huckabee reportedly has gotten a lot more mileage from that ‘joke’ about wishing he were trans as a teenager, but one rival suggests his ‘mocking’ is out of line.

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Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/politics/2015/06/04/george-pataki-urges-respect-mike-huckabee-defends-trans-fantasy

Meet The Transgender Woman Who Wants To Represent Turkey's LGBT Community This Election
ISTANBUL — Twenty years ago, Deva Ozenen didn’t know if she’d ever find a way out of prostitution.

The young transgender woman couldn’t find a job, like many members of the LGBT community here who face daily discrimination and threats of violence. Sex work was the only way she could keep a roof over her head and food on the table.

“There wasn’t any option: hunger or prostitution,” she recalls, speaking to The WorldPost over Skype from her coastal city of Izmir.

Now, at 37, she’s making history by running for a seat in parliament. On June 7, for the first time ever, Turkey will have a transgender candidate on the ballot — in an election largely seen as a test of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s power.

Ozenen knows her odds of winning are slim in conservative Turkey, where Erdogan has recently made fiery speeches with a Quran in his hand, denouncing his opponents. But the fact that she’s in the fight means everything.

“If I’m elected, I will be the voice of the oppressed,” she said, defiantly. “There’s a long way to go. I just began the fight.”

She considers herself a survivor. She has survived angry mobs, abusive cops and clients who would pay for sex at night and throw rocks at her by day. Ozenen still faces attacks on the street, even while campaigning. Recently, an elderly woman attacked Ozenen when she heard the candidate’s deep voice.

But the hopeful activist and could-be parliamentarian looks to the future with hope.

“If I can enter parliament, if I win the election, then I will have the protection of the law,” she explained. “Then I will talk more bravely.”

Ozenen is running for the secular and recently formed Anatolia Party, founded just six months ago by a female politician named Emine Ülker Tarhan.

As both a transgender candidate and a political newbie, Ozenen knows she has a long, hard road ahead of her.

Her main goal is to push for real legislation that protects LGBT people from discrimination and outright violence. Turkey’s constitution currently does not even mention LGBT people.

Even when transgender men and women seek medical help or assistance from authorities, they are often mocked or turned away, Ozenen said, speaking from experience.

Employment is rare once men and women begin to transition, turning many in the community to work as prostitutes or “entertainers.”

“I had a lot of dreams when I was young,” she said. “But I hit the walls of reality when I grew up.”

“We cannot find a respectable job in Turkey,” she continued. “It’s impossible. When you go for an interview, you’re rejected at the first moment.”

This is Ozenen’s battle. She wants to put a face to her community’s struggle.

Members of Turkey’s LGBT community — as well as secular people, minority groups and women — have slammed the current government for being increasingly discriminatory and closed-minded.

Just this week at a political rally, Erdogan referred to gay people as “representatives of sedition,” Hurriyet Daily News reports. According to the president, homosexuality has no place in Turkey’s culture.

Ozenen considers herself lucky. Her family has always supported her, despite growing up in a culture that preached fear and shame. They’ve known and accepted her as female since she was 5 years old, she said.

That’s not the norm in Turkey, where honor killings are far from a thing of the past and transgender people are routinely killed because of their sexual identity.

Ozenen hopes to represent the entire LGBT community in this election. But she’s not the only one with her hat in the ring. Activist Baris Sulu, Turkey’s first openly gay candidate to run for parliament, will be on the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) ticket.

This election, his pro-Kurdish party has strived to broaden its voter base by catering to not only Kurds, both liberal and conservative, but also to leftists and minorities. If HDP wins enough seats in parliament, it could stop Erdogan from changing the constitution to grant himself sweeping powers.

While all eyes are on HDP this election, Sulu has his own uphill battle to fight.

“A couple of my friends participated the local elections,” he said. “It gave me hope and I declared my candidacy with the support of my family and partner.”

Burus had already made headlines, well before announcing his candidacy, when he tried — and failed — to apply for a marriage license with his partner, a gay transgender man still recognized as a women by the Turkish state.

In addition to fighting for LGBT education, health, employment and civil rights, Sulu says his “first goal is recognition, the legal way of saying that ‘we are here.’”

“After that,” he added, “hate crime laws and regulations.”

Sulu says he has hope. “Being able to be in the politics openly and able to speak up freely is a huge development,” he explained. “That’s why we can say it is getting better.”

For Ozenen, it’s a matter of life and death. She has seen too many friends hurt and killed to turn back now.

“In some countries, they’re fighting for the right to marry,” she said. “We don’t even have the right to live yet.”

“This is a war for freedom.”

Burak Sayin contributed reporting from Istanbul.

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www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/04/turkey-election-transgender_n_7508732.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices