Mike Huckabee Pledges to Fight ‘Dred Scott’ Gay Marriage Ruling With Civil Disobedience: VIDEO

Mike Huckabee, speaking with Fox News pundit and fellow sack of mud Todd Starnes last week, once again hinted that civil disobedience may be the appropriate response to a pro-equality Supreme Court ruling on marriage.

Said the 2016 contender on Fox Nation’s The Dispatch:

“The question comes do we have civil disobedience or do we have biblical disobedience? And for many of us civil disobedience, when we believe civil government is acting outside nature and nature’s god, outside of the bounds of the law, outside of the bounds of the Constitution, we believe it’s the right and moral thing to do. Now yes I understand that’s a very controversial thing to say. But Todd, what if no one had acted in disobedience to the Dred Scott decision of 1857? What if the entire country had capitulated to judicial tyranny and we just said that because the Supreme Court said in 1857 said that a black person wasn’t fully human? Suppose we had accepted that, suppose Abraham Lincoln, our president, had accepted that, would that have been the right course of action?”

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Kyler Geoffroy

Mike Huckabee Pledges to Fight ‘Dred Scott’ Gay Marriage Ruling With Civil Disobedience: VIDEO

Esurance Backs Gay Marriage With 'Equal Dreams' Commercial And Social Campaign
Esurance is kicking off LGBT Pride Week with an all-inclusive commercial and social media campaign.

The auto insurance provider is releasing a video, #EqualDreams, in which children and gay teen guests at a June 13 same-sex wedding are asked to describe their own dream weddings. The responses are both inspiring and adorable.

“At my wedding day, all my friends and family and my doggies and my friends’ and family’s doggies and my cousin’s doggies…will be there, and it’s gonna be the best day of my life,” one tot proclaims. Another adds: “If my husband doesn’t like the cake, he will buy his own cake.”

The clip, which is being released ahead of what officials hope is a victory for same-sex marriage at the U.S. Supreme Court this month, takes a more bittersweet turn when one of the two brides getting hitched that day speaks about her own experience growing up.

Esurance Chief Marketing Officer Alan Gellman told The Huffington Post in an email that his company, which has supported LGBT Pride events since 2005, created the clip “to show, in an emotionally compelling way, our belief that all dreams should be equal.”

He added, “It’s not just a belief. As a modern company, we act on that belief through our products and insurance offerings.”

— 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/2015/06/22/esurance-equal-dreams-campaign_n_7637246.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

NOM’s Crazy Marriage Pledge Is Doomed To Fail

We’re down to the last few days before the Supreme Court rules on marriage. In the mean time, the National Organization for Marriage is asking all of the GOP presidential candidates to sign an anti-equality pledge. Let’s take a look at just how crazy this pledge gets.

There are a couple reasons NOM’s pledge is nuts. Look at what they’re asking all of the candidates to agree to. First, they want candidates to support a constitutional amendment to ban marriage nationwide. This will never happen. George Bush called for an amendment back in 2004 and that went nowhere. Since then, public support for marriage equality has gone from 35 percent to 55 percent — if they couldn’t get any momentum behind an amendment then, they’ll never get politicians to spend political capital on it now.

But they don’t stop there. NOM also wants candidates to “work to overturn any Supreme Court decision” in favor of the freedom to marry. That just isn’t how things work. Presidents don’t get to overturn Supreme Court decisions. NOM wants the president to only nominate judges who will uphold marriage bans, but at this point, legal consensus so strongly supports marriage equality that supporting marriage bans is a sign that person isn’t qualified to be a judge.

Third, they want the candidates to reverse all the recent new policies that recognize same-sex spouses. That would mean returning to the days of kicking spouses out of hospitals, denying health care, deporting bi-national couples, removing gay couples from the census, denying funeral leave when a spouse dies, separating family members in emergency shelters — this is how it used to be until just a few years ago. And sure, a president could take us back to that. But they’d look pretty monstrous.

Fourth, NOM wants the candidates to weaken civil rights laws, creating loopholes to let companies and citizens to discriminate if they cite a religious justification. That could actually happen — and it already has in some states — so it’s a huge concern. And fifth, they want the Department of Justice to investigate harassment against people who oppose marriage equality. Sure, gays and lesbians are harassed every day, fired, kicked out of their homes and schools, separated from their families … but NOM gets a little criticism and suddenly they want a federal investigation.

If a candidate signs this crazy pledge, it means one of two things. Either they have no intention of keeping their word, or they know they have no chance of being elected so they might as well make promises they know they can’t keep. NOM issued a similar pledge in 2012, and most of the candidates signed it. We’ll see if the same thing happens this time. After all — NOM may not even exist by the time the election rolls around.

matt baume

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GLAAD’s First-Ever Mini Doc Is a Sobering Reminder of the Struggles of LGBT Southerners: VIDEO

The deep-rooted conservatism and religiosity of the South oftentimes presents the LGBT community with unique challenges (and opportunities) on the road towards greater visibility and equality.

In GLAAD’s first-ever mini documentary, State of Change – South Carolina, LGBTs and their allies in the Palmetto State discuss the changing social climate in the state, the growing push for a “reconciling” approach to LGBT issues among Christians, and the struggles that remain on the table.

Also featured in the doc – Latta Police chief Crystal Moore, who was fired for being lesbian by the town’s homophobic mayor last year and subsequently reinstated by a public vote. 

The 20 minute film debuted as part of GLAAD’s Southern Stories Summer Tour that took place last week and featured the advocacy organization traveling across the Deep South sharing stories of LGBT Southerners and their allies.

Watch the doc below:

The post GLAAD’s First-Ever Mini Doc Is a Sobering Reminder of the Struggles of LGBT Southerners: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Kyler Geoffroy

GLAAD’s First-Ever Mini Doc Is a Sobering Reminder of the Struggles of LGBT Southerners: VIDEO

Billy Graham's Grandson Resigns Ministry After Affair

Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of the late Billy Graham, is the fourth Florida megachurch pastor to resign after admitting to an affair.

read more

Bil Browning

www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2015/06/22/billy-grahams-grandson-resigns-ministry-after-affair

Hear Janet Jackson's First New Song In Seven Years, 'No Sleeep'
Janet Jackson announced her upcoming album earlier this year, and now she’s dropped a brand new song.

“No Sleeep” is the latest single from Jackson and her first new song in seven years. The last studio album the six-time Grammy winner released was 2008’s “Discipline,” followed by her compilation “Icon: Number Ones” released in 2010.

Jackson unveiled her new song on Twitter Monday, following the announcement of her new “Unbreakable” world tour last month. In May, the singer revealed news of her upcoming untitled album in a special video to her fans.

I dedicate this to My Love. t.co/FgQQtuKMPN #NoSL333P #ConversationsInACafe

— Janet Jackson (@JanetJackson) June 22, 2015

— 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/2015/06/22/janet-jackson-no-sleeep_n_7636306.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Smallest Country In The World Passes Same-Sex Marriage, Still Waiting For Gay People

Pop the bubbly! Same-sex couples living on The Pitcairn Island in the Pacific Ocean are finally able to obtain a legal wedding license.

Well, as soon as they show up.

Of the 48 people who inhabit the island (yes, 48), none are gay couples-in-waiting. Sounds like a place we’d hate to be trapped on.

The “country,” the last remaining British Overseas Territory in the Pacific, actually passed the law last month, but due to a problem with its official website, wasn’t able to share the good news. When you only have 48 people, what are the odds one of them is an IT guy?

The Deputy Governor of Pitcairn, Kevin Lynch says the change came at the behest of British authorities, and was approved by the island’s local council.

Residents celebrated by going on with life as usual, whatever that is when you live on a tiny secluded island.

Dan Tracer

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Celebrate LGBT Pride Month with History Channel’s ‘How We Got Gay’ Documentary: VIDEO

The History Channel recently aired a timely documentary How We Got Gay  focusing on the crucial milestones of the gay rights movement – from the birth of the sexual revolution to the devastation of the AIDS crisis to the fight for equal marriage rights today.

Watch the whole documentary, below:

The post Celebrate LGBT Pride Month with History Channel’s ‘How We Got Gay’ Documentary: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Anthony Costello

Celebrate LGBT Pride Month with History Channel’s ‘How We Got Gay’ Documentary: VIDEO