Methodist Minister Who Lost Job for Being Gay Gets Married
Michigan pastor Benjamin Hutchison married his partner, Monty, just days after being forced to resign his position.
Trudy Ring
www.advocate.com/religion/2015/07/20/methodist-minister-who-lost-job-being-gay-gets-married
Kentucky county clerk who won’t issue marriage licenses to gays tells judge she ‘sought God’ in making her decision
Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk testified in court Monday (20 July) about why she won’t issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Kim Davis testified that her refusal has to do with her Christian beliefs.
‘If I authorize it, I’m saying I agree with it. I can’t do that,’ she told US District Judge David L. Bunning.
Davis, who took office in January, said she had prayed and fasted over what to do after the Supreme Court ruling.
‘It wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment decision,’ the Courier-Journal reports Davis as saying. It was thought-out and I sought God on it.’
Davis came to national attention when she refused a same-sex couple a marriage license in a video that went viral. She came under fire when it was reported that she has been married four times, with some calling her hypocritical.
Rowan County is one of three counties in Kentucky that is attempting to keep same-gender couples from obtaining licenses. The US Supreme Court ruled last month that same-sex marriage is now legal nationwide.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action federal lawsuit against Davis on behalf of four couples who her office denied licenses – two heterosexual couples and two same-sex couples.
The lawsuit alleges Davis’ refusal is unconstitutional and seeks an injunction ordering Davis to begin issuing licenses.
Bunning is expected to issue his ruling the week of 11 August.
The post Kentucky county clerk who won’t issue marriage licenses to gays tells judge she ‘sought God’ in making her decision appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
Gay Austin Teen’s Horrific Murder Highlights Hidden Problem Of LGBT Domestic Violence – VIDEO
On Sunday, we told you about the horrific murder of Stephen Sylvester (above), an 18-year-old Austin resident who was allegedly beaten to death by his 20-year-old boyfriend.
Since then, new details have emerged in the case, including that Sylvester’s boyfriend, Bryan Canchola (right), was extremely intoxicated and angry that Sylvester had apparently cheated on him.
Also, Canchola allegedly continued to attack Sylvester even after he was bleeding profusely from the head and as their roommate was leaving with him for the hospital. And after Sylvester left the hospital without seeing a doctor and returned to the apartment, Canchola reportedly cleaned Sylvester’s body and changed his own clothes. Canchola even attempted to choke Sylvester’s Yorkshire Terrier during their fight.
The New York Daily News reports:
“I can’t imagine why somebody would try to hurt him or his dog,” Sylvester’s ex-boyfriend, Taylor Shirley, told the Daily News.
Sylvester and Canchola had not been dating long before Friday’s fatal assault, Shirley said.
“Stephen was a very big hearted and trusting person and so whenever he met people, he trusted them way too easily and I think this was just one of those things. He trusted the wrong person and it cost him his life,” Shirley added.
The report does not indicate how Sylvester checked in at the hospital, and a Seton Healthcare Family spokesman said Sunday he did not have any information about the incident.
It is also not clear from the police report how Sylvester left or whether hospital employees attempted to stop him. …
An autopsy showed that Sylvester had injuries common with strangulation, including a broken bone in his neck, and found he died from head trauma.
He made his way through life with more jazz and spunk than all of his sisters combined. His love for animals was undeniable as well as his will to help anyone and everyone. His love for life in general was greater than most.
“Most people talk about domestic violence from the heterosexual, man-beating-a-woman lens, and it’s really hard for a lot of people to think of men as victims in general, or to think of women as being capable of abusing, so I think that’s why the mainstream media usually doesn’t talk about the issue, and often the police or people who intervene don’t even know that what’s happening is domestic violence.
“Even in the LGBT community, for a while when marriage equality was trying to be passed, people didn’t want to talk about domestic violence, because the community largely was trying to just pretend they’re the same as straight people — ‘We just want to get married and be normal people’ — so that’s kind of prevented a lot of discussion around violence in same-sex relationships.”
If you or someone you know is the victim of same-sex domestic violence, contact the project’s hotline at 1-800-832-1901.
The post Gay Austin Teen’s Horrific Murder Highlights Hidden Problem Of LGBT Domestic Violence – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.
John Wright
Gay Austin Teen’s Horrific Murder Highlights Hidden Problem Of LGBT Domestic Violence – VIDEO
WATCH: Kelly Clarkson Makes Soulful Magic of Nick Jonas's 'Jealous'
‘I love this guy,’ Clarkson told a Radio City Music Hall crowd.
Gina Vivinetto
5 Ways Using Your Phone Less Can Improve Your Relationship (And How To Do It)
The time and attention some people devote to their phones is enough to make even the most patient partner jealous.
According to Pew Research Center, 67 percent of people with a cell phone check their phone without hearing a ring or feeling a vibration, 44 percent sleep next to their phone and 29 percent describe their phone as “something they can’t imagine living without.” How… romantic?
Our devices have become the “third party in the relationship,” according to Nancy Mramor, Ph.D., a media and health psychologist. The problem is: With all of this technology at our fingertips, she said, we lose a lot of intimacy with our partners.
We spoke to Mramor, psychologist Goal Auzeen Saedi, Ph.D., and Steve Brody, Ph.D., psychologist and author of Renew Your Marriage At Midlife to help spell out how your relationship will benefit from a little less screen time:
1. You’ll be more connected to your partner when the two of you are together.
Technology has been able to connect billions of people. But when it comes to deeper IRL connections, constantly connecting to our phones means disconnecting from the person sitting right beside us.
“A lot of connection is about facial expressions, vocal inflection, body language,” Saedi said. “If we’re looking down at a screen, we’re missing all of that critical information that tells us about what our partners are really feeling.”
Mramor added that multitasking on your phone while conversing with your partner doesn’t really cut it if you want to fully understand your partner — you can only listen deeply if you look away from your phone, make eye contact and focus your undivided attention on him or her. This, she said, will ultimately bring the two of you closer.
2. You might be able to stop fights before they happen.
As more and more communication happens over text messaging, Saedi said that misunderstandings in tone can happen easily, which can not only lead to fights but also cause them to escalate quickly.
“You may have read something as, ‘OK that person used the word whatever — that must mean that they’re angry,'” she said “But somebody else might say, ‘No! Whatever just means whatever.'”
The use of text messages to apologize or settle disagreements was associated with a lower relationship quality for women, according to a study of adults ages 18 to 25 at Brigham Young University.
“There’s a lot of context and richness that’s lost [in text messages and emails],” Brody said. “The words are a very small part of the communication. The tone is extremely important, and you miss that.”
3. You might just find a better work/life balance, which will put less stress on your relationship.
Mramor said, oftentimes, her clients’ device obsessions can be traced back to being overly involved with work. Responding to work emails 24/7, she said, means that a person can’t be present for their partner.
“The problem is that we’ve brought our inboxes with us everywhere we go,” Saedi said. “You might be with your partner in the middle of a beautiful date and then suddenly you get an angry text or email from your boss. If you hadn’t had your phone, that moment wouldn’t have been ruined.”
4. Your partner may feel more appreciated — without you having to spend money on gifts or fancy meals.
When you spend your entire dinner with your partner texting a friend or answering emails, you’re communicating that your partner is not as important as your device, said Mramor. She said it’s very easy for partners to internalize this brush off and think you’re trying to say: Gee, it’s nice that you’re here, but this is nicer. I’d rather take this message than talk with you.
Fortunately, Brody said that, more often than not, this isn’t what the device-using partner really wants to communicate — it’s just how their actions impact the other person. Simply keeping your phone out of sight (and out of earshot) can make your partner feel appreciated and heard.
“Especially in this day and age, when we’re often running in a million different directions at once, the time that we’re together tends to be rare,” Saedi said. “Those are really precious moments.”
5. You could open the door for a better sex life — or even just better sleep.
A big bedtime no-no, according to Brody, is bringing devices into the bedroom.
“It’s certainly going to kill foreplay,” he said. “And even if there wasn’t a sexual idea in mind for bedtime, it’s just nice to be in bed quietly together reading a book or something.”
As a rule, Saedi said she advices her clients to turn off phones, laptops and televisions one to two hours before bedtime.
— 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.
Twerk alert: Miley Cyrus is hosting this year’s MTV Video Music Awards
Miley Cyrus is heading back to MTV’s Video Music Awards – this time as the host.
The singer broke the news herself Monday (20 July) on social media: ‘F*** yeah VMAs!!!!!’
In the accompanying photos, Cyrus is dressed as an alien wearing a sandwich board which reads: ‘MTV WON’T LET ME PERFORM’ on one side and ‘SO I’M HOSTING THIS YEAR’S VMA’S’ on the other.
It was at the VMAs two years ago that Cyrus ditched her Disney Hannah Montana image for good when she famously twerked while dancing with Robin Thicke and a giant foam finger.
In the past year, she has made headlines for a break-up with former boyfriend Patrick Schwarzeneggar and for revealing that she has had romantic relationships with both men and women.
She has also formed Miley’s Happy Hippie organization which raises money to help homeless youth – a large percentage of whom are LGBTI.
The post Twerk alert: Miley Cyrus is hosting this year’s MTV Video Music Awards appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
www.gaystarnews.com/article/twerk-alert-miley-cyrus-is-hosting-this-years-mtv-video-music-awards/
Police Lieutenant Temporarily Disarmed After Publishing Nasty Antigay Letter
The First Amendment lets people say all kinds of wacky things, like Magic Mike XXL was a really great film.
Total lie, but who cares? First Amendment!
But this story out of Stockton, CA seems to cross all sorts of lines.
Lt. Toby Will, a veteran of 20 plus years in the department, wrote a letter-to-the-editor that was published by the Stockton Record in response to the landmark Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.
Except he didn’t sign it “Toby Will.”
Underneath his name was the very official looking title of “Lieutenant, Stockton Police Department, Modesto.”
And the substance of the letter would rightfully make any LGBT resident a bit fearful.
“When the highest office in the land publicly declares the legitimizing of homosexuality to be a great victory for the nation, you can be sure God is giving the nation over to its own destruction,” he wrote, referring to being gay as, “vile and sinful passions.”
Will was placed under administrative leave as the police department investigates and attempts to restore ties with the local LGBT community.
“I was very shocked,” said Renee Hall, president of the board for Pride Center. “I feel like if something like that gets out in the public from a pretty prominent person, then it gives folks the ability to act on those things.”
Thanks for watching this week’s episode of Americans Who Are Armed But Shouldn’t Be; be sure to tune in every Monday.
Dan Tracer
Texas AG Drops Lawsuit Seeking To Block Gay Workers From Caring For Sick Spouses
Earlier this year, we told you how bigoted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was trying to prevent gay workers from taking unpaid leave to care for their sick spouses.
It was a particularly heartless example of Paxton’s vigorous defense of the state’s same-sex marriage ban, but he somehow succeeded in convincing a federal judge to block the benefits that had been extended to gay couples by the Obama administration under the Family Medical and Leave Act.
However, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, Paxton has quietly conceded the FMLA lawsuit. Last Friday, Paxton and attorneys general from four other states who joined the case filed a voluntary dismissal.
The Texas Tribune reports:
The federal rule change applied to federal and state employees and private sector employees at workplaces with 50 or more employees. When the rule change was first made, only Texas couples who were legally married in other states would have been eligible for the benefits. …
Asked for comment on the dismissal, Cynthia Meyer, a spokeswoman for the AG’s office, said, “Our filing speaks for itself.” The state had spent at least $26,881 on the case, according to legal costs obtained from the AG’s office.
This is the second case related to same-sex marriage that Texas has dropped in light of the high court’s ruling. This month, Paxton’s office ended its defense of the state’s now-defunct ban on same-sex marriage.
As we’ve mentioned before, Paxton has continued to spew anti-gay rhetoric in the wake of the high court’s marriage ruling, even encouraging county clerks to defy it by refusing to issue licenses to same-sex couples. However, he has declined to put his own neck on the line, backing down from any possible legal fight.
Meanwhile, Paxton is facing possible indictment on first-degree felony charges for securities fraud, which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, later this month.
The post Texas AG Drops Lawsuit Seeking To Block Gay Workers From Caring For Sick Spouses appeared first on Towleroad.
John Wright
Texas AG Drops Lawsuit Seeking To Block Gay Workers From Caring For Sick Spouses
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